I Hope That Santa Will Leave Me a Daemon

Dear E. Lockhart,

PLEASE tell me that Frankie Landau-Banks will star in more than one book. I absolutely love her. She is a force, and I greatly admire her contrariness and excellent debate skills. I am so happy that she will be unleashed on the teenage population. Great work, yet again.

As planned, I got to re-read The Golden Compass in anticipation of seeing the movie. It reinforced for me what an incredible book this is and cemented its place in my personal canon. The movie, well, let's say it reminded me how much I wish I had a daemon, and also upped the cool factor on polar bears and Sam Elliott (like he could get any cooler). The actress who played Lyra was terrific. The ending was not. Sooo not. I can't decide whether I actually want the sequel to be produced.

As this will probably serve as my only entry for all of December and thus concluding 2007 for me, I'd like to go out on a positive note, which I will specifically address to Nerdfighters (being that it is the year of the Nerdfighter, after all): read Junot Diaz's breathtaking The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. Just do it! I dropped this book in the pool on my first day of vacation and I could not let a little thing like it turning into a waterlogged behemoth stop me from seeing it through to the end. What an achievement. What a loving dedication to nerds throughout history. It's my favorite read of the entire year, and probably a couple of years previous.

Happy Holidays! See you back on the front lines in 2008.

Written material © 2007 Dawn Emerman