Books:
Y: The Last Man: Ring of Truth/Girl on Girl/Paper Dolls/Kimono Dragons/Motherland/Whys and Wherefores - Brian K.Vaughan: Finally finished this series off this month, and I have to say - awesome, awesome series. The ending didn’t really throw me off or leave me disappointed as much as left me wanting a few more answers than I got, but maybe that’s just me. Either way, I’m very glad I was able to track all of these down and get through them. Now to pick a new graphic novel series…
Living on the Black - John Feinstein: A parallel story about the 2007 seasons of Yankee pitcher Mike Mussina and Met pitcher Tom Glavine. A really interesting insider perspective of the two players - a little longer than I needed, but still a pretty decent read all things considered. If you like baseball, you’ll like this, I think.
Street Gang - Michael Davis: The history of Sesame Street! I couldn’t resist when I saw this on the shelf at the library, and I had almost purchased it for myself when I was at YBP, and it was a fun read. It spends a looooong time on the histories of the individuals before getting to the show itself, but it was very fascinating to read how the show was created and, really, how it was total lightning in a bottle in regards to its formation.
Little Pink House - Jeff Benedict: The story of what would become Kelo v. New London. Got me angry all over again, enough to sign up for two or three other organizations by the time I finished it up.
Quiverfull: Inside the Christian Patriarchy Movement - Kathryn Joyce: I’ve read a fair share of books on religion recently, and this is the only one that annoyed me. It was interesting enough, but the problem with this - and many religion books - is how it treats the subjects of the book as strange or different. Joyce is a feminist writer, so her complete disdain for women who don’t meet her standard of feminist thought comes across loud and clear in this book. Compared to, say, the decidedly left wing tilt of Rapture Ready that still looked upon the people he spoke with in respectful, questioning tones, this book was in a whole different realm. Say what you will about the so-called patriarchy movement or whatever, but I would really like to read a book about it from the outside that doesn’t see the whole thing as freaky, to be honest.
Good Book - David Plotz: Think of it as an annotated Old Testament by someone who had previously never paid much attention to the Bible. It had its moments, but it was otherwise somewhat lacking.
Warbreaker - Brandon Sanderson: Keeping in mind that this was the first fiction book I had read in nearly two months, this was great. Absolutely Sanderson’s weakest effort, which is better than 90% of anything I’m likely to read period this year, but this was an engaging and fun read. I believe this was his first novel he actually finished, and if so, it does kind of show, but I feel like I’m unnecessarily damning this book, because I really did like it.
The Yankee Years - Joe Torre/Tom Verducci: Let’s be clear - this book was not actually by Joe Torre, it was more a Verducci book with direct quotes from Torre, like a long-form interview. With that said, it was schadenfrudelicious seeing the Yankee dysfunction in print, let me tell you.
The Rocket That Fell to Earth: Roger Clemens and the Rage for Baseball Immortality - Jeff Pearlman: Did I mention schadenfrudelicious? It’s definitely a negative borderline hit piece on Clemens, but still a fun read for what it was.
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies - Jane Austen and Seth Graehme-Smith : So. On one hand, this book is executed perfectly - It’s Pride and Prejudice with zombies, and thus it is awesome. However, as awesome as it tended to be, it did get old quickly. With that said, while I appreciate Jane Austen, I’m not a big fanboy about her, either, so that may have to do more with the tiredness I got from the book. But that’s that - still a fun experience to be had.
It Was Never About the Babe - Jerry Gutlon: A somewhat factually challenged but still competent history on Red Sox mismanagement over the years. Not a lot of new stuff here for diehards, but still a good read.
Movies:
Doubt: I feel this way about a lot of movies like this - great cast, excellent acting…meh story. I don’t know if it simply works better as a stage play or what, but the only thing that kept me engaged were the 4 main characters. Kind of disappointing.
Fanboys: A movie that was ultimately better than it should have been, but worse than it had potential to be. Ann hated it, but maybe I’m more of a nerd or whatever, because I thought the story of a bunch of folks trying to break in and see Episode I was charming in whatever way. Plus, Shatner!
THX 1138: Sci-Fi art film FTW! I don’t even really know what to make of this. It was good, I guess? I don’t know. Seriously.
Bolt: Cute Disney movie about a dog who plays a superhero on TV but doesn’t know it’s fake. Then he gets lost, and yeah. I really enjoyed it - it was exactly the movie I wanted to see at that point, and it was typical Disney fare in a lot of ways, but still very cute.
The Hangover: Funniest movie I’ve seen since Role Models, and definitely worth seeing if you’re on the fence. The best part, of course, was Zach Galifiniakis, though. Absolutely amazing.
Away We Go: The reason I think I loved Garden State so much while other people - typically older than me - did not is because it really spoke to a certain time of my life and a certain attitude of my existence that I was experiencing. I haven’t watched Garden State in about 3 years at least, but I suspect it has held up for me for those reasons at the very least. Away we Go takes the best parts of Little Miss Sunshine (it’s a Quirky! Indie! Dramedy!) while having the “this time of your life” gut punch effect that Garden State had. I fear that this movie is going to have the type of backlash a lot of these types of Quirky! Indie! Dramedy! movies have, but it really doesn’t deserve it, because while Little Miss Sunshine’s characters were almost caricature-like, and while Garden State was very specifically about certain experiences, I thought that Burt and Verona (a beautiful name that I’d never think of on my own, and now can never use) were a very real and very authentically written couple - my favorite parts were the diversions into their own world with their own discussions and inside…everything that showed how they worked as a couple - something you’re always forced to assume in most films.
I honestly can’t rave about this movie enough. I could go on and on about the emotions it drove up in me, how it both made me optimistic and angry about my (and Ann & I’s) current situation, how it’s still affecting me more than 24 hours later. Any film, album, any piece of art that can create this sort of reaction has some value, I suppose. Make plans to see it this weekend, really.
Mirrored from The International House of Bacon. | 