Tag: Grief

Writing through loss, and books that came out of it or were built to help other people through theirs.

The Year of Firsts

September 30, 2026

Deanna Bennett's memoir of the first year after her husband Tom died, holiday by holiday, from the depths of sorrow to the start of a new life. A tribute and a review.

Woody Harrelson and Jesse Eisenberg stand together in a desert landscape with zombies visible in the background. TITLE

2000s

Zombieland (2009) rates 7 out of 10 on the rewatch scale. A road movie with four people, a list of survival rules rendered on screen, and Woody Harrelson looking for a Twinkie. It is very funny for eighty minutes and…

Frances McDormand sits in the driver's seat of a van, looking out the windshield with a contemplative expression.

2020s

Nomadland (2020) Review

September 10, 2026

Nomadland (2020) rates 7 out of 10 on the rewatch scale. Frances McDormand lives in a van among real people playing themselves, and the film is at its best whenever she is listening. What it will not do is name…

Chart showing MCU Phase 4 and Phase 5 project scores scattered between highs and lows with a gap in the middle.

2020s

The MCU Phase 4 and Beyond (2021-present) Review

September 10, 2026

The MCU from Phase 4 onward rates 4 out of 10 on the rewatch scale. Scoring every project I have seen puts Phase 4 at an average of 4.4 and Phase 5 at 2.67. The interesting part is not the…

Elizabeth Olsen and Paul Bettany as Wanda and Vision in a black and white 1950s-style sitcom scene from WandaVision.

2020s

WandaVision (2021) Review

September 10, 2026

WandaVision (2021) rates 6 out of 10 on the rewatch scale. Three episodes of genuine formal invention, three of increasingly conventional plot, and a finale that answers a question the audience had stopped wanting answered. The sitcom pastiche is the…

Riri Williams in her tech suit stands against a Chicago backdrop, glowing with blue circuitry. TITLE: Ironheart Character

2020s

Ironheart (2025) Review

September 10, 2026

Ironheart (2025) rates 1 out of 10 on the rewatch scale. The series that closed Phase 5, three years after its protagonist was installed in a film that had other business. A character handed a show on the strength of…

C.S. Lewis in his later years, seated and looking toward the camera with a contemplative expression.

Faith

C.S. Lewis Day: The Argument With Tolkien

September 9, 2026

Lewis was an Oxford medievalist who became an unlikely broadcaster, wrote seven children's books in seven years, and produced a book about grief so raw he published it under a false name. His thirty-year argument with Tolkien about worldbuilding is…

William Shatner in his 90s, likely in a space suit or shortly after his Blue Origin spaceflight in October 2021. TITLE

Character Development

William Shatner’s Birthday: March 22 and the Man Who Went Up

September 8, 2026

Picard got a holiday from a background prop. Kirk got nothing, so March 22 is the closest anchor available. The reason it is worth marking has little to do with Star Trek: at 90 Shatner became the oldest person to…

Grief

Behind the Book: Buttercup

August 13, 2026

I spent almost twenty years unable to write about my marriage to Claudia. The book only worked once I stopped telling it and let Buttercup, our cat, tell it instead.

SEE » Behind the Book series

A person holding an old photograph of someone they've lost, with soft natural light coming through a window. TITLE

Ghostwriting

Can a Ghostwriter Help Me Write About Losing My Spouse or Child?

August 2, 2026

A ghostwriter can help you write about losing a spouse or child, at your pace, with the person you lost at the center. Here's how grief memoirs are written, from someone who's lived it.

SEE » Ghostwriting series