Cynical Optimism

All of these are in no particular order.  As always, I can't limit myself to just 3 or 5 or 10 either so the numbers will be what they are. 

Books:
     New to me:  This category is specifically why I can't make myself rank this stuff.  Is Code Name Verity the best because it was so powerful? How about crying through the end of Ocean?  or laughing and crying during Looking for Alaska?  Should it go by how I felt when I read them or how much I've thought about them since?  See, it is way better just to list them! 
Mr. Penumbra's 24 Hour Bookstore by Robin SloanThe Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil GaimanSpeak by Laurie Halse AndersonLooking for Alaska by John GreenThe Housekeeper and the Professor by Yoko OgawaCode Name Verity by Elizabeth WeinThe Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick NessThe Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen ChboskyThe Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson
YA heavy I know but I read a bunch of YA this year for school. 

     Graphic Novels:
Saga, Volumes 1…

Unless I finish another book tomorrow (unlikely as I've been rereading the Sherlock Holmes stories on my new Kindle and am about 18% in) my totals for the year are as follows:


Total books read: 95

Library Books: 65
Non-fiction: 8
Audio: 27
Graphic Novel: 19
Non-Adult: 37  

So, I'm a bit disappointed in this number and my blogging for the year as a whole.  Looking back, I only posted three times in November!  and one was just for audio books!  Of what I read, a third of the books I listened to, about 20% were graphic novels, just under half were not adult books.  Those all really inflated my numbers.  I did have a lot of school work this year and that definitely hurt my reading.  I was reading so much I had to read, and so much non-fiction for school, and writing so much, that I wanted to totally get away from it in my downtime and played a lot of video games and watched TV.  My schedule is such that I'll be doing a lot of studying in the next three months so I don't expect t…

Since I'm not going to watch any more movies before tomorrow night...

After Earth:  It was ok.  Certainly nothing as bad as I thought from reviews and such.  The climate of the planet was ridiculous and definitely in there just to have a particular scene late in the movie.  The alien bad guy was also weird.  a 4. 

The Hobbit 2: can you both like and hate a movie at the same time?  that's how i'm feeling about the Hobbit films.  They seem to leave out a lot of the heart but add in a lot of spectacle.  Makes me want to watch the old Rankin and Bass movie.  Let's say a 5 because Smaug is fucking stellar.

Elysium: Another one I'm torn about.  I liked parts but disliked others.  let's say 5.

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty:  I didn't think this was one I was going to like as I'm not a big Ben Stiller fan.  We went on Christmas Day with B's family and it ended up being really good! a 6.

So we got back from Vermont this morning, which is kinda sad.  It's hard to live so far away from both sets of families.  

On the drive back, we finished a listen of Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card.  It is one we've both read before, me only once.  It was a multiple cast version put out for the 20th anniversary of the book publication.  It was nice to reread this after seeing the movie so recently as we were really able to see the differences and how much was left out of the film. 

I realized I hadn't posted any pictures of the trip!  Gotta fix that!

B and a friend when we went sledding
The sledding hill

Snowy trees

  Our Dog in the snow
Here's a video of the snow too!

We really had a great trip but even at close to 2 weeks it was too short.  Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas!

I've read very little P.D. James.  I've read Death Comes to Pemberly and Talking about Detective Fiction before.  I'm up in Vermont at the in-laws and picked up Unnatural Causes and tore through it in a day then read An Unsuitable Job for a Woman in two.  Both worth a look!

Unnatural Causes is the third Adam Dalgliesh mystery.  He is a Scotland Yard detective taking a holiday and visiting his aunt at the seaside after cracking a big murder case.  Then a body of a local resident with its hands cut off comes ashore in a canoe.  While it isn't Dalgliesh's case he becomes involved in the investigation.  There's a dramatic climax toward the end and, while i had suspicions about the killer I was happily surprised.  There are apparently a lot of adaptations of this series so I may have to watch a few.  a 6.

Unsuitable is the first Cordelia Gray book.  I really liked Cordelia but apparently there is only 1 more book featuring her. Cordelia is a very young woman who runs…

Ok, so I now listen to a bunch of audio books, ok?  If you promise not to tell my boss, I'll let you know that I can listen to audio books at work without screwing up what i'm working on.   Doctor Who heavy this month!

Doctor Who: The Runaway Train by Oli Smith:  an 11 and Amy adventure.  This one takes place in the old west and the Doctor and Amy get a group of outlaws together to locate an alien bomb that is going to instantly change Earth's environment to match what the aliens need to live.  Got to listen to various versions of Matt Smith's American accent, all drawly and deep.  His "Amy" accent is not that great though.  Fun story, too short.  a 5.

Doctor Who: Dead Air by James Goss: rather creepy 10 story.  Chronologically, this story is supposed to be right before the episode "The End of Time".  It is a little different in that the Doctor speaks directly to the listener.  He's recording a tape, telling his story of how he followed a creatu…

When I read American Born Chinese, Andi recommended Boxers and Saints.  I've yet to pick up Saints but I read Boxers and really enjoyed it.  It is the story of the Boxer Rebellion (strangely, something I learned a little about this semester in my archives class) from the point of view of one of the rebel leaders. You certainly empathize with Bao.  I loved the anime-nod that the rebels become the incarnation of gods when they battle.  So so sad as well.  a 6.

I started Lemony Snicket's new series, All the Wrong Questions with the first book Who Could That Be at This Hour?  It is a series that takes place before the Series of Unfortunate Events.  Lemony Snicket is just a child in this one and is having his first case as an apprentice in the VFD.  It's a clever little book with all the children so much smarter than the adults.  There are a pair of cab driving brothers who work for tips about good books.  There's an ace young reported and even a femme fatale.  Essentially, if you liked the previous series then you'll probably like this one.  a 5.

I had a fabulous month of movie watching!  

Ender's Game: a great attempt at filming something unfilmable but one that looses a lot of the emotion of the book.  It hits the events but not necessarily the feelings.  still, really good.  a 6.

Gravity: Ok, overdose of feelings!  I cried at several points during the movie; not such a good idea when wearing contacts and trying to watch a 3-d movie!  Sandra Bullock should get another Oscar.  a 7.

This Is The End: How much you like this movie will be in direct proportion to how much you like Seth Rogan/James Franco and that crowd.  i felt it was fine with some bits that were clever and some that were just stupid.  Hermione kicks ass!  a 5.

Thor 2: WAAAAAY! better than the first movie.  Very pretty, very cool.  There are smart, strong, kick-ass women in this one who actually do stuff! plenty of snark from Loki and Darcy; more Loki would have upped it to a 7 but it's a 6.

Catching Fire:  another wow! Kinda the opposite of Ender's…

I read Rose Under Fire by Elizabeth Wein.   It was good, really good, but not quite as good as Code Name Verity. This book starts several months after Code Name Verity has ended.  An American pilot, Rose Justice, is working in Britain, flying planes back and forth to newly liberated France.  She gets captured and sent to a work camp but eventually escapes.  She survives to return to England and eventually becomes a reporter covering the Nuremberg trials.  None of this is spoilers as the book uses a frame story that Rose is writing about her experience after her escape.  It is a fine book but just doesn't have the amazingness of the previous one. Still very recommended, a 6.

Gorgeous cover!  I finished upJack Glass by Adam Roberts last night.  I really loved it!  It is a British Science Fiction award winner for best novel!  Right up front, our narrator tells us that Jack Glass is a Murderer and that the book is the story of 3 murders he committed.  They are How-Dunits and Why-Dunits.  There's a locked-room mystery, a prison escape, and a regular who dunit.  But the stories are all set in the future, in space and on Earth, with ships and tech and awesomeness!  I'm definitely not able to talk this book up as much as it is worth.  If you like classic mysteries with a twist, or science fiction stories with rival factions and politics, you will probably enjoy this book  a 6!

The Remains of the Day by Kashuo Ishiguro- giving up on Ishiguro i think.  He seems to specialize in unreliable narrators and sloooooooooow plots.  I kept wondering if the narrator, a butler, has Asperger's or was just an Oblivious Proper Englishman. a 4.

The Queen's Fool by Phillipa Gregory. interesting but a bit repetitive.  Like the main character but didn't like her choices at the end of the book.  I like Gregory's style in general though. a 5.


after having a crappy day at work, I downloaded two audiobooks to listen to while working

Doctor Who: The Last Voyage by Dan Abnett, read by David Tennant: an in-between or after companions story. strange things are afoot on the maiden voyage of a new spaceship!  a 5.

Doctor Who: The Resurrection Casket by Justin Richards, read by David Tennant: a Rose story. it was alright but not memorable.  I actually forgot I had finished it and went back to replay it.  it did have Space Pirates!  a 5.

anybody else suuuuuuuuper excited about…

Happy Halloween!

World War Z-  Definitely had some problems with this one specifically because the source material was so great.  but because Brad Pitt is so pretty it gets a 4

Men in Black 3: funny, sweet in parts, not bad at all.  definitely better than part 2.  a 5. 

Upstream Color: ugh ugh ugh....random shots, worm weirdness, pigs?  definitely didn't like it at all.  a 2!

 Europa Report: Very cool Science fiction.  a found footage-type movie in space.  scary and claustrophobic but not because of human evil but because of the amazingness of exploration.  a 6. 

Because Europa Report involves space exploration, B says I should plug his Youtube channel where we have some videos up of us playing Kerbal Space Program.  28 minutes of pure excitement!  ;)  actually, it's just me messing around.  Enjoy!

I finished 3 books during the readathon last week and i really should write them up! 


The Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin. I heard at some point, that this book was "like Harry Potter".  It is, if Harry was significantly more arrogant, there was no Hermione, and the plot of all 7 books took up 200 pages.  It actually reminded me more of The Magicians by Lev Grossman, though I liked Wizard MUCH better.  I loved that the characters were not Caucasian and hated that women didn't learn magic.  overall, a 5.  


Blood and Chocolate by Annette Curtis Klause.  I have mixed feelings about this one.  I liked that the female lead, Vivian, was strong and self-willed and wanted to make her own decisions.  I disliked that, even with the above, the man had to save her. I have to read some things that don't tick me off due to the portrayal of women.  It definitely isn't a bad book, I just didn't like the turn at the end.  Since this one is about werewolves and murder it…

So here's what I made it to last night.

Pages: 353
read but not finished: 1 chapter of my Ed Psych texbook
books finished: The Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. LeGuin, Blood and Chocolate by Annette Curtis Klause, and The Unwritten Volume 7: The Wound.
Time I went to bed: about 2 am.
Homework finished: My Ed Psych questions, 2/3 of my archives project that's due Tuesday.  

I would have liked to have done a little better but I am glad i focused on things that I had partially read as it made me feel I was accomplishing something and making some good progress.  Maybe next time i will fix it so i have half a dozen half-finished books to work on! 

What I've read so far:

pages: 149 
what I've read from: 1 chapter of my Ed Psych texbook, part of the Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K.Le Guin.  
books finished: The Wizard of Earthsea.
Homework finished: My Ed Psych questions, 2/3 of my archives project that's due Tuesday. 

I am already sleepy!  I'm going to keep on a bit longer and work on Blood and Chocolate...hmmm, maybe some sugar would help?

What I've read so far:

pages: 29 (a single chapter of my Ed Psych textbook)

Bookish things i've done:
went to Southern festival of books, bought 4 books (3 for me, 1 gift), saw a panel on March: Book 1 where I heard Congressman John Lewis speak and one on Sherlock Holmes. Also ate an amazing Brie-Apricot crepe and had some great ice cream.  

Now I'm going to do some more homework!

I signed up for Dewey's Read-a-thon tomorrow but I already know I won't read the whole time or be up for the 24 hours.  The Southern Festival of Books is this weekend and I want to get out to that.  Also, I have a good bit of homework to do.  And I am completely off of caffeine for the moment which doesn't bode well for staying up past 1.  

So anyway, I'm going to do a bunch of reading related stuff tomorrow, even if not as much actual reading takes place as I would wish.  Here's my pool to choose from.



Don't worry, I don't intend to read those school books, just a few chapters.  I'm almost done with Blood and Chocolate and about halfway through The Wizard of Earthsea so hope to finish that one too.  If it goes anything like past read-a-thons, I'll start and finish a book that's not even on this list!

What will you be reading for the Read-a-thon?

Shallow Grave: 90's movie starring very young Ewan McGregor and Christopher Eccelston (9th Doctor).  It was not what I had expected (i had it confused with a different 90's movie called The Last Supper) but was really really good.  Three friends share an apartment and bring in a fourth roommate.  Fourth roommate immediately dies and when they go into his room they find a suitcase full of cash.  They decide to bury the body in the woods and keep the money for themselves.  This decision leads to many problems for the trio.  This was Danny Boyle's first movie and you can definitely draw a line from this to Trainspotting, both for the direction and Mcgregor's acting.  It is a really claustrophobic movie; B and I had assumed it had been adapted from a play because it could easily take place in just one set with like 6-8 actors but it was not a play originally.  anyway, a 6!

Dredd: hmmm, an interesting reason (a drug that slows down your perception of time) to use bullet tim…

So, somewhere i read that the Avengers Assemble series of comics is a newbie-accessible version, recently released and tailored to movie fans by featuring, in the main, the movie characters.  When I saw that the subtitle of the second collection was "Science Bros" I so had to read them. Avengers Assemble collects issues 1-8 whileScience Broscollects 9-13 and the Annual.  


Avengers Assemble is definitely the better of the two books and feels, in some ways, like a sequel to the movie which was probably what the creators were going for.  


Science Bros wasn't bad but only the first half was "Tony and Bruce have an adventure" and actually they are competing for part of it, rather than cooperating.  not bad, but not what i wanted to read.   

Unfortunately, there just wasn't much to them.  I wanted them to be better, more story and character development, but mainly they were fights and explosions and such.  ah well.

I loved this play!  It may be blasphemy but Midsummer is not my favorite comedy of Shakespeare's (I prefer the grownupness of Much Ado) but this performance was absolutely amazing!   It was a modern setting with a few broad Southern accents and a good bit of crowd involvement. Shakespeare with cell phones and Instagramming?  Sign me up!  Puck was awesome, Hermia/Helena were great, Titania was fabulous and Bottom....was just too funny.  I had completely forgotten the "play-within-a-play" bit at the end and it was a joy to see.  These guys had me in tears, I was laughing so hard.  Well worth 3 times the $10 suggested donation.  

It plays through next Sunday (the 15th) so if you're in Nashville go see it!   

Picture from Nashville Shakespeare Fest.

Because I received Seven for a Secret by Lyndsay Faye free from Librarything, I figured I better read the first book, The Gods of Gotham.  I read her Holmes vs the Ripper story Dust and Shadow a few years ago and really liked it.  This one is a mystery set in New York City right when the NYPD was being formed.  Think Copper or Gangs of New York.  Timothy Wilde looses his life savings and his good looks in a fire, his brother ropes him into joining the newly created police force.  Early in his new job, which he's desperate to leave as soon as he can find something better, a little girl runs into him, covered in blood.  Turns out she's a child prostitute, which was more or less allowed back then, but has a tale of murder that Wilde can't walk away from.  

The novel was tense and moody but not depressing.  The mystery is good and twisty.  The setting is amazing; it seems really well researched.  The attitudes of just 160 years ago are so shocking in some ways and unfortunately…

I realized as I was posting my RIP that I had yet to post a tally of my reads for the year.  I usually get one up in June or July but it slipped my mind this summer.  So here's where I am at as of yesterday. 

Total: 73

Library Books: 50
Non-fiction: 8
Audio: 17
Graphic Novel: 15
Non-Adult: 32  

Other than RIP, I really don't remember what challenges I had been interested in doing but I do know I've failed them rather miserably...ah well, maybe next year!

Thoughts: wow, i've read more than I thought!  It's that non-adult category, and the two literature classes that required me to read those books, that pumped up my total.  I didn't even count the few dozen picture books I read, just actual chapter books and graphic novels.  So, if you're feeling bad about your reading number for the year, my suggestion is to pick up a dozen children's classics, take a weekend, and enjoy!

Taking the YA Lit class this summer is still having an effect on my reading!  Several people recommendedThe Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky so I ended up checking it out of the library.   It is the story of a high school freshman, Charlie, who has some problems and ends up making friends with two seniors, Sam and Patrick, who are step-siblings.  Charlie develops a crush on Sam (a girl) but she won't date him as he's too young (he turns 16 over the course of the book).  Teenagery stuff happens, there's a shocking reveal at the end that's been foreshadowed and *SPOILER ALERT* NOBODY DIES!!!

I thought this one was really beautiful.  Wonderfully written.  It is also the first thing i've read that is about my teenage time as Charlie was my age and the book is set in the early 90s.  So they talk like, and about the same things, my friends and I did then.  It was really nostalgic for me to read.  I felt so for Charlie and cried and laughed with him.  Highly…

The Wolverine: got suckered into buying expensive tickets. Apparently, Regal spiffed up one of their theaters, put in better seats and funky blue lights, and decided to charge a few extra dollars for it.  considering we had two different armrests fall apart at the regular theater when we saw Pacific Rim, I think the money would have been better spent amongst all the theaters.  When we picked the time and paid for tix it seemed off but I just went with it but when I realized the difference I was a little ticked.  Anyway, the movie.  Wolvie is a favorite of mine and and I have a bit of a crush on Hugh Jackman (though now i can reverse it and say it is because he looks a bit like my husband) and I was pleased with the movie.  a couple bits were a little weird (his relationship with the heiress) but overall I enjoyed it.  a 6.

Robot and Frank: a bittersweet movie that was both more and less sad than I thought it would be.  Frank is an older man who seems to be in his 70's.  His kids ar…

This challenge, hosted by Carl at Stainless Steel Droppings, is always so much fun, even when, like last year, I don't succeed.  Reading others' blogs and reviews for this challenge is almost as good as reading the books themselves!  This was also the very first challenge I joined waaaay back in 2007 when I started book blogging.  

As I am taking 3(!) classes this fall, I am going to play it safe and just commit to Peril the Second, reading 2 books.  I am sure I'll watch a few movies and accomplish The Peril on the Screen too!  

The Estella Society is hosting a group read of The Historian.  I actually started that one a few years ago and never finished, so perhaps I will join in on that read.  Here are a few options I have for another book:
Seven for a Secret by Lindsay Faye (a mystery and an ERC from Librarything.  I'm reading the first in the series right now but it doesn't count for RIP as I've been working on it a couple weeks)Handling the Undead by John Ajvi…

A YA Audiobook!  Bloody Jack: Being an Account of the Curious Adventures of Mary "Jacky" Faber, Ship's Boy by L.A. Meyer is the story of a young orphan girl who dresses as a boy and gets taken on as a ship's boy by the HMS Dolphin just prior to the Napoleonic Wars.  This works fine as long as she's a starving 12 year old but as she gets properly fed and grows a little the deception becomes more difficult for her to continue.  When she starts to have feelings for 

Parts were hilarious (Jacky sneaks off to a whorehouse while on shore leave to get the facts of life explained to her) and parts felt very familiar as I so enjoyed the Aubrey/Maturin series.  The whole thing is in first person though and at times I got really annoyed with Jacky's style of speech.  Bits drifted over into stream-of-consciousness freak-outs occasionally and were hard to listen to.  Imagine listening to the thoughts of someone having a panic attack.  That's the writer, not the reader,…

I finally finished Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson.  It's long but I enjoyed it.  It is about....a lot of things.  Cryptography and internet privacy/security, WW2, family, friendship, life and death, that sort of thing.  It was originally published in 1999 and parts feel very much from that time; the state of the art internet tech of the book is found on the cheapest smartphone today.  However, a LOT was incredibly current like the discussions about privacy, online currency, and preventing genocides.  It was action packed but the action was spaced between long sections of really intelligent people doing interesting things.  I wonder how many boxes of Cap'n Crunch this book is responsible for selling (at least one i can confirm) and how many people use Randy's classifications for people of men/dwarves/elves/wizards (i've adopted it)?  I can't say it is my favorite of his but worth the 45(!) hours i spent listening to it. It is not where I would recommend starti…

I read the second collection of the new Hawkeye comics!  Volume 2: Little Hits expands on the storylines started in the first collection, introduces some new characters and brings back some previous ones.  We get a few glimpses of the Avengers but mostly more of Hawkeye's life away from them.  I think the best issues in this book were the Hurricane Sandy one as well as Pizza Dog, a comic from the perspective of Clint's dog.  The art and colors are just gorgeous too.  I'm a Hawkeye fan!  a 6!

I admit, I picked this one up because I knew who the author was.  The Cuckoo's Calling is noirish mystery, which is definitely something I enjoy reading, but I don't think it would have popped up on my reading radar if Rowling hadn't been outed.  It makes total sense to me that she would write a mystery.  What is the Harry Potter series but one big mystery story, punctuated by various other mysteries spanning one or more books.  This book is a modern mystery with the private eye on the verge of bankruptcy, the investigation no one thinks he should take, the twist and turns.  I really liked this one, much much more than The Casual Vacancy, which I never finished.  I liked the detective, Cormoran Strike, and i really liked Robin, his temp secretary that stays with him through the book.  She's smart and competent and caring and just so good to read about, as opposed to the fast talking moll who has a crush on her boss.  The mystery is good, if not incredibly new, and the …

I consider myself an inhabitant of many different nerddoms.  While I don't quite reach "lunatic" level in any of them, I enjoy lots of things.  Star Wars is one, Shakespeare's plays are another.  When I read that someone had written Star Wars as a Shakespeare play, I knew one book I was definitely reading this summer!  I even got it pretty quickly from the library.

I liked it a lot.  There was a Chorus, which isn't usually a favorite of mine, but for this story there is just too much that needs explanation or narration.  The structure really works as a play and the author does a great job of translating the dialogue and action into iambic pentameter. 

Here's the bit where Vader and Obi-Wan meet in the Death Star:

Vader:       For certain, I have waited, Obi-Wan,
                 And now at last we meet together here:
                 Our destinies once and for all fulfill'd,
                 The circle of our lives is now complete--
                 A student w…

Wicked Girls by Stephanie Hemphill: a verse novel about the girls who accused the villagers in Salem of being witches.  Verse novels are weird!  They're made up of individual poems, from half a page to 3 pages long.  The poems together tell a story.  In the case of this book the poems are in the voices of three different girls.  For me, I liked it but it wasn't the type of thing you can just read a few pages of then put down, like you might with regular poetry.  I started it 3-4 times that way and had to keep going back and rereading it.  I finally read a big chunk and realized that was how to do it.  Reading large sections made following the action much easier.  I think I liked it but i probably need to read a few more. a 5. 







We also had to write a paper defending a challenged book.  I read The Chocolate War first and ended up writing my paper about it but I also read two others for some different options.  

The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier: a classic of YA lit that i never…

Django Unchained- disturbing.  good, but disturbing.  I'm usually ok with Tarantino violence but something was just too much this time.  I think i would have liked it a little better if there was more of his training and the movie had been split in two like Kill Bill.  still, a 6.

Much Ado About Nothing: Shakespeare, Whedon-style!  I liked it.  a lot. He threw in a new scene where Benedick and Beatrice hooked up pre-war, to explain their rancor.  Beatrice seems a little harpyish because of it; she becomes the scorned woman, which I didn't like so much.  It also makes the accusations against Hero a little weird: is it, or is it not, ok for women to have sex in this world?  Anyway, it did succeed in making me think, for a moment, that maybe they were going to change it to a tragedy.  Benedict, Beatrice, Leonato, and Don Pedro are so fabulous and really sell the anger/revenge aspects.  a 6.  

Oz the Great and Powerful: bleh.  absolutely the worst movie i've watched this year.  …

So here are a few graphic novels I've read recently.

Runaways Volume 1: Pride and Joy by Brian K. Vaughn and Adrian Alphona- unfortunately, my library does not have the second volume.  oh, they've got one labeled "volume 2" in the catelog but that is actually one from the second series.  so, after tearing through, and quite enjoying, this book, i picked up that one and read a massive spoiler on the 4th page. *grumpy*  Anyway, this book is about teens whose parents are evil supervillians, specifically what happens when the kids find out.  It kinda felt like daydreamy storyline I came up with as a teen.  It was interesting and fun. It is in the Marvel world so the characters refer to superheroes like the Avengers so it felt a little meta.  I'll pick up the next one if i can find it at McKay's.  a 5.  


Star Trek: The Next Generation/Doctor Who: Assimilation2 Volume 1 written by Scott & David Tipton with Tony Lee ; art by J. K. Woodward- The TNG crew team up w…

So i've been collecting titles, jotting down thoughts on books for future posts.  They are getting to be a bit long now so I am doing a couple group posts to clear out the drafts.  Here we go!

The Visconti House by Elsbeth Edgar- a middle grade book I read because someone recommended it in my children's lit class.  Laura lives in a creepy old mansion, The Visconti House, in Australia, where her parents have just made her move to.  They are artists and have fun artist friends but of course Laura just wants to be normal.  Why is it that kids in books are like this?  Anyway, she's an outsider because she's new and when Leon, an new boy, shows up, rather than befriend him Laura shuns him too.  They slowly become friends as they unravel the secrets of the Visconti House: who built it and why? A book that's not great, nor bad, but you might get annoyed at Laura.  She's completely unable to draw the parallel that her parents cool artist friends, that she really love…

Wow wow wow!

B and I met Neil Gaiman last night!  
The line to get in
B being patient in the line to get in
It was really great.  We didn't get there until about 5:30 so we had to sit up in the balcony. 

This balcony
The man himself. Yeah, I happened to be in "shiny bald guy" section
It was crazy warm/humid.  We had a thunderstorm during the event so he read from the portion in the book where the boy is running away from home during a thunderstorm.  There were definitely a few well-timed crashes of thunder that made me have goosebumps.  He did some Q & A which was pretty funny.  Someone actually asked if he and his wife were planning to have any kids.  His answer came down to "none of your business" which, having fielded that question myself from close family to practical strangers, made me want to cheer.  He also brought out Bela Fleck, who accompanied on banjo as he read a bit from Fortunately, The Milk.  B was so incredibly patient.  I definitely did not prep…

I've made my way through three relistens of books.  I've listened to these books over the last few months and am just now getting around to posting.  

The Mauritius Command by Patrick O'Brian- relisten, still great. Aubrey and Maturin are so great to read about. a 6.

I am Half Sick of Shadows by Alan Bradley- 2nd time reading, first time listening.  This is the Flavia Christmas book  I think I picked it up because I could not find anything to listen to.  still fun.  a 6.

The Two Towers by J.R.R. Tolkien- have read and listened to this one several times.  I always forget how much more the book covers than the movie.  a 7.

I finished Slam by Nick Hornby, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie and Monster by Walter Dean Myers. All are for my YA Lit class, Slam by my choice, the other two are assigned.  



so, what do i think about boy-based modern realism?  I think it's not so much for me.  And it shouldn't be. I loved Part-time Indian; it really touched me, was so good and so sad. I didn't like Monster; it was too ambiguous and I didn't like the movie screenplay structure.  Slam was in-between; the writing was great and I loved Sam but not much actually happens?  But I am practically the opposite of these novels target audience so it isn't surprising I didn't connect with them. I think a 14 year old boy would easily enjoy any of these books.  In fact, I have a nephew who's 13 tomorrow and I might pass Slam and Part-Time Indian on to him.  I didn't buy Monster so can't send it along. 

My ratings:
Slam:5
Monster: 5
Part-Time Indian: 7

So I listened to 3 Doctor Who audio... books? stories? adventures? Each was less than 3 hours on audio so that's not a book but I am not sure what the proper term is.  I didn't intend to listen to 3. See, what happened was I downloaded Pest Control from the library.  And David Tennant is just hypnotic. He narrates in his actual Scottish accent but then does the Doctor's voice for those bits.  He's got a whole bunch of accents in his pocket (his American sounds really angrgy!) and mimics his costars really well too.  So after I listened to one I went on audible and downloaded two more.  *sigh*

Pest Control-6.  I thought this one was the best and most like a real episode. It was almost like it was written as an episode and they realized they couldn't film it due to expense.  There's a war between humans and centaurs on some far off planet and the people keep turning into bugs and there's a giant robot hunting the bugs.  Doctor and Donna end up with the differe…

Beasts of the Southern Wild: 7!!  this movie was really really good.  It is about a little girl, told from her point of view, about living in the bayou in Louisiana with her father.  A hurricane comes through, flooding the place and changing their lives.  It's definitely magical realism, or more like what life is like to you when you're 5 and everything is magical.  Highly recommended but be prepared to cry; B and I both were at the end.   

Easy A: I had to watch a teen movie for my YA lit class and chose this because i like Emma Stone and my friend D recommended it.  it's quite clever and worth a watch.  a 6. 

The Heat:  I am not normally big on comedies but D had free passes to a preview showing.  It was the weirdest movie experience i've ever had; the theater wouldn't let anyone in with a cell phone and was actually wanding people to make sure you didn't take it in.  Once inside and waiting for the movie, it was the loudest I'd heard in a theater in year…

I managed to squeeze in a print book for adults!  Murder as a Fine Art by David Morrell is a detective story set in Victorian England. Thomas de Quincey was an English essayist. I believe i had to read a bit of his "Confessions of an English OpiumEater" in school.  He wrote a trio of essays called "On Murder Considered as one of the Fine Arts" describing a double set of murders in England.  The premise of this new novel is that someone becomes obsessed with de Quincey and the murders and goes on his own killing spree.  de Quincey, still a laudanum addict, becomes a suspect but ends up aiding the police due to his familiarity with the original cases, his trippy insights and lateral thinking.  His daughter and caretaker Emily is a fabulous woman as well and uses her own brilliant mind to help her father and the police.  

It's a pretty good book.  While the mystery itself is just ok, the characters are great. de Quincey and his daughter, the Scotland Yard Inspector…