“You’re a wizard, Harry.” As a bibliophile and a parent, you’re so eager for the day your kid is ready to read those words and enter the wizarding world of Harry Potter. But along with fanciful components like letter-delivering owls, chocolate frogs, a hidden train platform, and an enchanted Sorting Hat, come darker elements, like […]

By now just about everyone knows C.S. Lewis’s The Chronicles of Narnia has a lot of Christian themes; Lewis himself wasn’t exactly shy about his faith and its impact on his writing. Only people who read the books as kids, with no clue as to their background, are shocked to discover a magical lion who is […]

Picking a travel buddy is just as important as picking a roommate: you’re going to be stuck with them, probably one on one, for long periods of time, so you’d better make sure you choose someone you’re not going to regret. You’ve got to ask the big questions: will they be fun to be around? Do […]

The dirty secret of some fiction is that it’s less, well, fictional than we imagine. Behind every soaring flight of fancy, you’ll find grueling research, direct experience, and, sometimes, real human beings who inspired our favorite characters. While discovering that your favorite author isn’t above nicking from real life might be deflating, the tradeoff is realizing some of the most […]