Tag Archives: book

Personal Effects: Dark Art on Starz

To begin with, J.C. Hutchins is one of my favorite authors, so the news that his Personal Effects: Dark Art is developing into a TV show on Starz made me smiley all afternoon. The story woven there, and in the prequel Sword of Blood, captured my attention and imagination. I still look in the corners of dark rooms to make sure that there’s nothing crazy going on.

In the novel, the only element crazier than the patients is the circumstances that surround their admittance to The Brink. Other people have said it’s equal parts CSI and X-Files, and those people aren’t wrong. Zach Taylor, art therapist at The Brink, accepts the insane circumstances that surround his work, like an ancient cursed sword being the cause of one patient’s incarceration, and works to solve the mysteries of their lives so that they can live as normal a life as possible.

So the thought of getting to watch Zach Taylor follow other paths to solutions for other patients in The Brink sounds fantastic. With the great foundation Hutchins provides, the show should be one of my favorites.

Now to confirm I get the Starz network…

Discussing Special Topics in Calamity Physics with teenagers 1

Special Topics in Calamity PhysicsI facilitate a book club with the high school students at work. We started with Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell over their winter break. And we when finished it in Feb., I brought in several books for them to choose from for what we would read next. The consensus was Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessl.

The book is a fantastic first-person recounting of the narrator’s, Blue van Meer, senior year in high school on the U.S. east coast. It’s an interesting choice for the kids I work with, because there will be little common experience. Most of the students have lived their whole lives in the city and have little experience with life outside of Southern California or Mexico. Continue reading Discussing Special Topics in Calamity Physics with teenagers 1