May Reading List

I'm not sure what I did with the month of May, but it apparently wasn't read.  A respectable yet somewhat anemic 10 books passed my eyeballs this month. June and July are shaping up to be fairly busy too, so my efforts in the next few months may be severely lacking.  I'm up to 56 books this year so far (I think? Not like I'm actually going to take the time to count right at this moment), so I'm on pace to hit 100 assuming I don't get too far behind in the next 2 months.  I have several yoga textbooks on my slate which are probably not edge of your seat page turners but are required reading before July.  I also have a GIANT fantasy sequel waiting on deck, and it's equally giant predecessor that I want to re-read to remind myself what is going on.  I'm not complaining when short books bolster my count, but when a 1000 page behemoth still only gets ranked as one I totally call unfair.

Anyway, here's what went down in May:


The Blinding Knife - Brent Weeks
The Troop - Nick Cutter
The Prince of Risk - Christopher Reich
The Expats - Chris Pavone
Ripper - Isabel Allende
Yes Mommy - Amy Sprenger*
Moving Day - Jonathan Stone
Tampa - Alissa Nutting
The Accident - Chris Pavone
Hollow City - Ransom Riggs


 April, March, February, January 






*I actually know her - we're friends, even! She's super funny, and her books are too.  Go buy them!

April In Books

April was a crackerjack month, with 12 books read. I'm thinking the secret to hitting my 100 book goal is more YA novels that are so super easy to read. But still totally count; it's not like I'm putting Pinkalicious on the list. But in the interest of perhaps a wee bit of personal growth, I am going to try and add in some non-fiction, mind-broadening selections. I have tons of parenting and other books on my to read list, but I never get to them because cheap thrillers  and dystopian YA are more fun. They also keep me up reading until 2 am, so from now on I'm going to only let myself read the non-fiction stuff in bed so I'll go to sleep at a reasonable hour. Which means I have to read the good stuff during the day, which of course means I have to cut back on other activities like cleaning. But hey, we all have to make sacrifices sometimes.

What I read in April:

'Til Death Do Us Part- Katie White

Vampire Academy- Richelle Mead 

Deadly Heat- Richard Castle

Once Upon A Lie- Maggie Barbieri

Frostbite- Richelle Mead

Shadow Kiss- Richelle Mead

Blood Promise- Richelle Mead

Sprit Bound- Richelle Mead

Last Sacrifice- Richelle Mead

Mickey Outside - David Lender

Fear Nothing- Lisa Gardner

The Black Prism- Brent Weeks

 

March, February, January 

March Reading

Let's do away with any pretense that I'm keeping up with my New Years resolutions, shall we? March was characterized by a complete abandonment of any attempts at self improvement, and I have the messy house and belly blubber to prove it.  But I'm still plugging away at my reading, so let's keep hope alive that I might get to check one thing off as accomplished this year.

Books I read in March:

Gone- Lisa Gardner

Say Goodbye- Lisa Gardner

Birdman- Mo Hayder

The Treatment- Mo Hayder

Ritual- Mo Hayder

Gone- Mo Hayder

Champion- Marie Lu

Serena- Ron Rash

This Is Where I Leave You- Jonathan Tropper

Frozen Heat- Richard Castle

February, January

February Reading List

I managed 12 books in this, the shortest month of the year, putting me at 23 so far and right on pace to swing 100 this year.  I'm sure my momentum is going to drop when I run up against the yoga texts I have to tackle for my teacher training, but I'm going to ride this binge as long as I can. Plus, I haven't read every single Lisa Gardner book yet, although by the end of the week, I will I have read every single one my library has.

What I read this month:

Days of Blood and Starlight - Laini Taylor

The Maze Runner - James Dashner

He's Gone - Deb Caletti

The Rosie Project - Graeme Simsion

The Husband's Secret - Liane Moriarty

Alone - Lisa Gardner

Hide - Lisa Gardner

The Neighbor - Lisa Gardner

Live to Tell - Lisa Gardner

Love You More - Lisa Gardner

Catch Me - Lisa Gardner

The Killing Hour - Lisa Gardner

 January

January Book Review

I managed to read 11 books this month, and so what if they were all chick lit and YA that took three seconds to read and therefore padded my average? I may not have achieved a single one of my other New Year's resolutions, but at least I've made a respectable beginning towards reading 100 books in 2014.

Books read in January:

Double Cross: the true story of the D-day spies - Ben Macintyre

The Republic of Thieves - Scott Lynch

The 5th Wave - Rick Yancey

 Unbreakable Bond - Gemma Halliday

White Girl Problems - Babe Walker

Queen of Babble - Meg Cabot

Matched - Ally Condie

Crossed - Ally Condie

Reached - Ally Condie

Daughter of Smoke & Bone - Taylor

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children - Ransom Riggs

The Counselor

I have long maintained that Ghost Rider is the worst movie, if not ever (I haven't seen every movie after all) then at least in recent history. I'm sure many people would argue that there are tons of worse films, and in terms of basic ineptitude they are no doubt right (straight to DVD anyone?). But I feel that in order to rank as actual WORST, you have to go beyond bad dialogue and plot and special effects (if relevant) and acting. You also have to factor in the talent of the people involved. Sure, Joe Suburbs who just graduated film school is going to crank out some fine schlock with his moms camcorder. But what did you expect? It is only when you have a truly acceptable roster of talent involved- and say what you will about his many horrible films, Nicholas Cage does actually have talent, if poor financial management and discretion in choosing roles- only then can you really manage to make a place holding worst film.

And I think we have a new champion.

Enter, The Counselor. 

Brad Pitt. Michael Fassbender. Penelope Cruz. Javier Bardem. Ridley Scott. Cormac  McFreakinCarthy. Seriously. Not people you typically expect drivel from (you'll notice I didn't mention Cameron Diaz, who is also in this movie but maybe doesn't inspire quite as lofty expectations. Sorry, Cameron).  Honestly, after ending that sentence I just sat staring at the cursor blinking for five minutes because I don't even know what to say about this film.  It's not that it is bad (which it is), it's that it is so incomprehensibly bad I almost can't find words to explain it. 

The basic plot is fine: lawyer gets tangled up in illicit business and dragged down when everything goes wrong. Various duplicitous characters abound. At least, I think that's what it was about. Because literally not one word of dialogue explains what is happening in this movie. Half of the expansive monologues don't even seem to be related to the scene they are in. It is actually quite remarkable I have made such a disconnect between exposition and plot propulsion and actual reality and coherence. I think I would have followed the movie better if it had been in German. Or on mute. 

The closest thing I can think to relate it to is when Joey tried to write a recommendation letter for Monica and Chandler to adopt (on Friends, which I hope I didn't really need to tell you). His letter originally said "they are warm caring people with big hearts" but he used a thesaurus on every word and so ended up with "they are humid prepossessing homo sapiens with full size aortic pumps."  And yes, I did that from memory. 

The dialogue in this movie is similar, except with an element of self absorbed pretension thrown in. Multiple characters wax poetic on various "deep" topics in oblique and entirely nonsensical speeches. I would love to give you some examples, but the words were so insanely thrown together I couldn't remember a sentence I just heard well enough to recreate it, even as it was happening. I'm actually impressed Mr. McCarthy (in his very first original screenplay) managed to write 2 hours worth of dialogue and never once even hint at what was going on, much less offer a coherent thought. It's an accomplishment for sure, just not one I'd recommend paying to witness. 

The movie also features the most ridiculous, far fetched, unerotic sex scene probably ever (which, to be fair might have been the point), as well as an incredibly inventive, if gruesome death.  But boiled down the primary issue rests solely on the writer. If you could redub all the dialogue with relevant, coherent subject matter, you'd be left with only a sub par movie. As it stands it is a triumph of mind boggling confundity.  I would definitely recommend you see this film, if only to have a new bar against which to measure all future terrible movies. But don't pay for it in the theater, wait for it to come out on DVD. 

It won't be long.


The Counselor  R  2hr 57 minutes

New Fall Tv

My thoughts on the new fall programming I've seen so far:

The Blacklist: love it. James Spader is having the greatest time chewing scenery  and jerking around the FBI as a super villain who has mysteriously surrendered and started exposing other bad guys. The young woman playing the only agent he will talk to is also good- feisty and believable, but she has a really terrible hair stylist. Bonus for the mystery with her husband )is he a spy? Or being framed?). It's been fun so far, so  I'll definitely keep watching this one.

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D: pretty good. Campy crime fighting fun, this show is going to take a few weeks to find a rhythm most likely. Not really Joss Whedony enough for me yet, but hopefully that will prove as time goes by. I'd watch pretty much anything his name is on (as well as J.J. Abrams), so I'm sure I'll continue to watch this. 

Michael J Fox Show: I REALLY wanted this to be good. Not only because it is impossible not to like Michael J Fox, but because I like how they are attempting to take a character (and actor) with a severe disease and show that his life doesn't have to stop or even revolve around his condition. But omg it is SO NOT FUNNY. I watched one episode and I was practically cringing. I hope for everyone involved it gets better, but I won't be there to find out. 

The Crazy Ones: as gratitude for being Buffy, I'll give anything Sarah Michelle Gellar does a shot. Her show last year about the twins was crazy soapy fun. Unfortunately it was cancelled, and now she's in this sitcom, which based on one viewing seems pretty lame. Robin Williams is doing his regular robin Williams schtick, there weren't any really funny bits, and everything was just wrapped up so neatly in a now by the end. Obviously all shows take a few episodes to really get rolling so I'm not going to write this one off completely, but my hopes are very low at this point. 

Super Fun Night: again, just ok. I expected this show to be a lot funnier because of star Rebel Wilson, but she's doing an (incredibly nasal) American accent, and it turns out she's much funnier when she's Australian. Which seems kind of racist, but themselves the facts. That said, I really liked how they played the guy character- Rebel was trying to charm him and the office ultra competitive mean girl kept upstaging her, and he totally called her out on it every time. So I'll give it a few more chances to find a groove and maybe get me used to the accent. 

Those are the only new shows I've seen so far- there a couple of shows that start in November that I'm planning in checking out. If I remember correctly, which I rarely do. 

What are you watching?