I have made some solid progress this month, but some slowness occurred due to work and now vacation. But I am impressed with my reading selection as we reach the ninth month. I am keeping on top of everything. I have found some form of groove to actually watch movies now without getting agitated. I decided to put all huge novels at the end of the year. I want to complete my goal first before I read difficult and long literature like Infinite Jest and Midnight Children.
Busy this month. BASEketball was funnier than I thought it was going to be. Big Game had some moments that fell flat but it was enjoyable. Gravity was outshined by Interstellar to me. I found it hard to care about Sandra Bullock's character. The movie was gorgeous, she was just annoying compared to how calm George Clooney's character was. T&DvE was amazing, the kind of movie I want to see again with as many people as possible and make them watch it. Trainspotting was gorgeous, minus the one scene that had me gagging. I had to turn away, it was a little too much.
Finders Keepers was an interesting follow-up to Mr. Mercedes,
especially given the characters from the first books appearance so late into the story. The ending could have been better - shocker, right? - and the introduction of the supernatural into this well-grounded series actually was a bit of a letdown.
Also something I saw coming from the first book. Though I'm not sure if it was a poorly-hidden Chekhov's gun or if I just guessed really well since I've read so many of his books.
Dirty South - Ace Atkins - ★★½
Animal Farm - George Orwell - ★★★★
Who I Am- Pete Townshend - ★★★½
Sh*t My Dad Says - Justin Halpern - ★★★
Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk - Ben Fountain - ★★★½
Roll Me Up and Smoke Me When I Die - Willie Nelson - ★★½
Ten Years in the Tub - Nick Hornby - ★★★★
Movies
Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation - ★★★½
Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room - ★★★½
About Time - ★★½
Nightcrawler - ★★★★
27. Insurgent
28. Cinderella
29. Frozen
30. Terminator: Genisys
31. Winter's Bone
32. San Andreas
Books
25. Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
26. Augustus - John Williams
27. Fool's Quest - Robin Hobb
I'm getting even further behind on books. Not sure if I should read a load of YA, several novellas, or give up completely.
Film-wise, unsurprisingly Winter's Bone was the best of that lot. I was expecting it to be very good, but it was better than that, it was completely engrossing. Insurgent and Terminator Genisys weren't quite as bad as I was expecting. San Andreas, well. It was kindof grotesque.
The Matrix (1999) ★★☆☆☆
Argo (2012) ★★★★☆
Stoner is the best novel I've read this year so far. So beautifully written. I'm interested to read Augustus sometime this year, hopefully.
The Matrix was disappointing, I might have liked it in its time, but it didn't age well. The soundtrack is obnoxious.
Here are some shorter books (~100 - 250 pages) books I read last year. I wouldn't necessarily recommend them all (to anyone or to you in particular), but maybe you'll see something that jumps out at you. Much too early to give up!
The Gorgeous Nothings: Emily Dickinson's Envelope Poems, by Emily Dickinon; edited by Marta Werner and Jen Bervin
The Quiet American, by Graham Greene
Octopus! The Most Mysterious Creature in the Sea, by Katherine Harmon Courage
The Abortion Myth: Feminism, Morality, and the Hard Choices Women Make, by Leslie Cannold
The Essential Neruda: Selected Poems, by Pablo Neruda; edited by Mark Eisner
3500: An Autistic Boy's Ten-Year Romance with Snow White, by Ron Miles
The Gate, by Natsume Soseki (227)
American Heretics: Catholics, Jews, Muslims, and the History of Religious Intolerance, by Peter Gottschalk
Punishing Race: A Continuing American Dilemma, by Michael Tonry
Rimbaud: The Double Life of a Rebel, by Edmund White
Straight: The Surprisingly Short History Of Heterosexuality, by Hanne Blank
American Apartheid: Segregation and the Making of the Underclass, by Douglass S. Massey and Nancy A. Denton
Making the American Body: The Remarkable Saga of the Men and Women Whose Feats, Feuds, and Passions Shaped Fitness History, by Jonathan Black
How the Irish Became White, by Noel Ignatiev
Annihilation, by Jeff VanderMeer
The Second Chronicles of Amber, by Roger Zelazny
Marijuana Is Safer: So Why Are We Driving People to Drink?, by by Steve Fox, Paul Armentano, and Mason Tvert
Illuminations, by Arthur Rimbaud (trans. John Ashberry)
House of the Sleeping Beauties, by Yasunari Kawabata
The Skating Rink, by Roberto Bolaño
Victims as Offenders: The Paradox of Women's Violence in Relationships, by Susan L. Miller
The Sorrows of Young Werther / Novella, by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
The New Goddess: Transgender Women in the Twenty-First Century, by Gypsey Teague
Russian Conservatism and Its Critics: A Study in Political Culture, by Richard Pipes
A Choice of Shakespeare's Verse, by William Shakespeare (sel. by Ted Hughes)
When The Emperor Was Divine, by Julie Otsuka
Steering the Craft: Exercises and Discussions on Story Writing for the Lone Navigator or the Mutinous Crew, by Ursula K. Le Guin
The Evolution Man: Or, How I Ate My Father, by Roy Lewis
Six Memos for the New Millennium, by Italo Calvino
CivilWarLand in Bad Decline, by George Saunders
Ideal and Actual in The Story of the Stone, by Dore Levy
There Once Lived a Girl Who Seduced Her Sister's Husband, and He Hanged Himself: Love Stories, by Ludmilla Petrushevskaya
Masters of the Planet, by Ian Tattersall
Beauty and Sadness, by Yasunari Kawabata
I Don't Know: In Praise of Admitting Ignorance (Except When You Shouldn't), by Leah Hager Cohen
Just One of The Guys? Transgender Men and the Persistence of Gender Inequality, by Kristen Schilt
Imagination and Meaning in Calvin and Hobbes, by Jamey Heit
Homophobic Bullying: Research and Theoretical Perspectives, by Ian Rivers
Chronicle of a Death Foretold, by Gabriel García Márquez
Transparent Things, by Vladimir Nabokov
The African by J.M.G. Le Clézio
Comedy in a Minor Key, by Hans Keilson
Hair Story: Untangling the Roots of Black Hair in America, by Ayana D. Byrd and Lori L. Tharps
Wolf in White Van, by John Darnielle
Inferno: An Anatomy of American Punishment, by Robert A. Ferguson
A Room of One's Own, by Virginia Woolf
Japanese Visual Culture: Explorations in the World of Manga and Anime, edited by Mark W. MacWilliams
Women, Race & Class, by Angela Y. Davis
Seven Bad Ideas: How Mainstream Economists Have Damaged America and the World by Jeff Madrick
The Waves, by Virginia Woolf
Family Life: A Novel, by Akhil Sharma
The Ice Dragon, by George R. R. Martin
Lysistrata, by Aristophanes
The Melancholy of Mechagirl, by Catherynne M. Valente
The highlight of the month for me was Make It Stick: The Science of Successful Learning by Peter Brown, etc. If anyone is interested in my breakdown of the book you can check out this thread I created here.
Here is Goodreads blurb:
To most of us, learning something "the hard way" implies wasted time and effort. Good teaching, we believe, should be creatively tailored to the different learning styles of students and should use strategies that make learning easier. Make It Stick turns fashionable ideas like these on their head. Drawing on recent discoveries in cognitive psychology and other disciplines, the authors offer concrete techniques for becoming more productive learners.
Memory plays a central role in our ability to carry out complex cognitive tasks, such as applying knowledge to problems never before encountered and drawing inferences from facts already known. New insights into how memory is encoded, consolidated, and later retrieved have led to a better understanding of how we learn. Grappling with the impediments that make learning challenging leads both to more complex mastery and better retention of what was learned.
Many common study habits and practice routines turn out to be counterproductive. Underlining and highlighting, rereading, cramming, and single-minded repetition of new skills create the illusion of mastery, but gains fade quickly. More complex and durable learning come from self-testing, introducing certain difficulties in practice, waiting to re-study new material until a little forgetting has set in, and interleaving the practice of one skill or topic with another. Speaking most urgently to students, teachers, trainers, and athletes, Make It Stick will appeal to all those interested in the challenge of lifelong learning and self-improvement. (less)
I would definitely recommend it for anyone who wants to actually remember what they have read a month after. It is something that I have always struggled with, and am finally doing something about.
Books:
As Easy As Falling Off the Face of the Earth - Lynne Rae Perkins - 3/5
I'll Give You the Sun - Jandy Nelson - 4/5
Tell Me Again How a Crush Should Feel - Sara Farizan - 3/5
The Emperor's Soul - Brandon Sanderson - 5/5
Movies:
First Period (2013) - 2/5
Kinky Boots (2005) - 4/5
Trainwreck (2015) - 4/5
Dead Silence (2007) - 4/5
Dirty Girl (2010) - 4/5
Tig (2015) - 4/5
Hector and the Search for Happiness (2014) - 4/5
Repo! The Genetic Opera (2008) - 3/5
Still Alice (2014) - 4/5
Begin Again (2013) - 4/5
The Brass Teapot (2012) - 5/5
I Know That Voice (2013) - 4/5
Welcome to Me (2014) - 3/5
Bernie (2011) - 5/5
Ex Machina (2015) - 4/5
Spy (2015) - 5/5
Went pretty hard on the movies this month. Woops.
Trainwreck, Tig, Begin Again, Bernie, and Spy were all standouts this time around. Begin Again was by the same director as Once, which I also watched for this challenge, and I was once again enthralled with his unique take on the musical. Trainwreck was a solid romantic comedy. Tig was a great biopic about Notaro and her struggles with cancer and illness while maintaining her sense of humor.
On the book front, The Emperor's Soul was a fun short romp that further proved to me that Sanderson works better with my reading taste when he's writing shorter stuff.
I'll Give You the Sun was interesting. A strange and dramatic writing style, fun characters, and a story told from different perspectives three years apart added up to a really unique experience overall.
31. A Dark Lure - Loreth Anne White - ★★★★★
32. Curves by Design - J.S. Scott - ★★★★★
33. The Box - Brian Harmon - ★★★★
34. The Season of Passage - Christopher Pike - ★★★★★
35. The In-Betweener - Ann Christy - ★★★
36. It - Stephen King - ★★★★★
Read some fantastic books this month. Started off with the thriller A Dark Lure. Very chilling and fast read. Brisk pacing with some very suspenseful scenes and a real feeling of dread. I also left my comfort zone and decided to read a couple of short romance/erotica too. They are pretty addicting. *blush*...
Then I jumped back into my Horror/Thriller kick with The Box. It was a cool little horror story that I picked last year and never got around to reading. I finally sat down and read it and was pleasantly surprised. The story took some unexpected and
erotic
turns.
My favorite book this month was The Season of Passage. This book was absolutely fantastic. I just recently learned of Christopher Pike, and apparently he usually writes YA novels. This was his try at Adult Horror/Science Fiction and it was amazing. This is one of the books I will most likely reread in the future. Will definitely be digging into his other books soon. It was also very scary and unnerving at times.
The In-Betweener was a book that had an interesting premise (zombie apocalypse brought on by disease curing nano-machines malfunctioning), which was subsequently ruined by the prose. It is written in present tense. I usually don't mind it... I liked the Hunger Games. But for this book, it just didn't gel too well at all. The pacing just crawls because the main character is constantly having long periods of thinking to herself which was driving me crazy. It was a short book, but I was afraid I wouldn't finish.
Had a nice palette cleanser after that book with the wonderful and epic Stephen King classic It. I thoroughly enjoyed the book and it also legit scared/disturbed me numerous times.
I slacked off on movies yet again but really enjoyed the two I watched. I really recommend documentary lovers check out Lost Soul. It was recommended to me from a YouTube video content creator (Comic Book Girl 19) who suggested it if you like hearing about movie studio disasters ala Fantastic Four. It covers the absolute insanity behind the production of the Island of Dr. Moreau.
Here are some shorter books (~100 - 250 pages) books I read last year. I wouldn't necessarily recommend them all (to anyone or to you in particular), but maybe you'll see something that jumps out at you. Much too early to give up!
Here are some shorter books (~100 - 250 pages) books I read last year. I wouldn't necessarily recommend them all (to anyone or to you in particular), but maybe you'll see something that jumps out at you. Much too early to give up!
Gosh! Thanks. What a great list. I've checked out about a third of them so far, I shall likely get the Tattersall (been meaning to) and the George Saunders (lots of love on GAF recently and you gave it 5 stars so). I've read Lysistrata, but Greek plays in general are a really good idea.
And yeah, it's probably too early to give up. I have to remind myself that before this challenge I was at a low point of iirc 17 books a year, and no way am I going back to that! You came close to that total in August alone lol.
Quoting my OP for the update. Reached the movie goal (been watching a lot of Netflix movies lately + theatre stuff). Slowed down on books, though. Listened to The Martian audio book after reading the book (audio version won an award, so wanted to double-dip there), so that might've been part of the slowdown. Looking to get back on the bandwagon and tear through some books coming up. Also am barely hanging onto my pace to finish 52 games in 2015, so have to devote significant time to that, too.
So looking forward to doing 2016 with hours in completed games instead of number of completed games. Want to play through Golden Sun, GS: Lost Age, Zelda: Oracle of Seasons/Ages (both ways and combined both ways), Fire Emblem GBA again, finish up Layton 6 and Layton vs. AA, and hopefully Xenoblade Chronicles will be out on Wii VC in the U.S. playable on the GamePad by then. That's like 450 hours of gaming in 8 games. No way I can do that this year and complete 16 games by the end of the year (and the books and real life). Therefore, really looking forward to doing the modified challenge for next year where I don't have to avoid those long games to reach the goal!
Quoting my OP for the update. Reached the movie goal (been watching a lot of Netflix movies lately + theatre stuff). Slowed down on books, though. Listened to The Martian audio book after reading the book (audio version won an award, so wanted to double-dip there), so that might've been part of the slowdown. Looking to get back on the bandwagon and tear through some books coming up. Also am barely hanging onto my pace to finish 52 games in 2015, so have to devote significant time to that, too.
So looking forward to doing 2016 with hours in completed games instead of number of completed games. Want to play through Golden Sun, GS: Lost Age, Zelda: Oracle of Seasons/Ages (both ways and combined both ways), Fire Emblem GBA again, finish up Layton 6 and Layton vs. AA, and hopefully Xenoblade Chronicles will be out on Wii VC in the U.S. playable on the GamePad by then. That's like 450 hours of gaming in 8 games. No way I can do that this year and complete 16 games by the end of the year (and the books and real life). Therefore, really looking forward to doing the modified challenge for next year where I don't have to avoid those long games to reach the goal!
I'll have updated numbers up to week 37 on Monday.
If you don't post numbers in the op's format, I'm going to go make you work for your numbers and see if you like it! 9.9/10 gaffers do it, so at this point in time, I don't see why the remaining 0.1 gaffer doesn't.*
It'll be my own one-off. Asked about an hour-based change in the 52 games thread, but there wasn't much interest in it. Therefore for 2016, I'm doing my own one-off for it where I focus on hours of gaming for a completed game instead of just the raw number of games. As said, I'm purposefully avoiding longer games this year because I'm barely on pace for 52, as it is, and I don't want to do that. I know I could switch goals mid-year, but I'd like to stick to the original goal I signed up for this year. I find goals useful for keeping me on task, so next year, I'll just be doing my own variation on it that works a whole lot better for my life and available time. (^_^)
I did some statistics on my choice of literature. It's my personal belief that I've grown a bit stale with my selection. And looking at the 50 books read I'm having a hard time denying it.
The split male to female writers is laughable. Out of 31 writers only 5 of them are female. Behind the "Lars Kepler" moniker are two writers: Alexander Ahndoril and Alexandra Coelho Ahndoril. So 16.67% female writers. All of them Swedish! No foreign female authors at all!
Then country of origin: At first place with 34% we have USA followed by my native Sweden in second place with 30%. After them we have France at 20% after which England comes forth with 8%. Then Japan with a meager 4% and finishing in tied last place we have Portugal and Ireland with 2% each (as in 1 book each). That's a pretty stale and limited selection.
Fiction stands for the major part of reading with non-fiction finishing at 10%.
So, now finished with 50/50 and Proust I'm looking forward to diversifying.
I did some statistics on my choice of literature. It's my personal belief that I've grown a bit stale with my selection. And looking at the 50 books read I'm having a hard time denying it.
The split male to female writers is laughable. Out of 31 writers only 5 of them are female. Behind the "Lars Kepler" moniker are two writers: Alexander Ahndoril and Alexandra Coelho Ahndoril. So 16.67% female writers. All of them Swedish! No foreign female authors at all!
Then country of origin: At first place with 34% we have USA followed by my native Sweden in second place with 30%. After them we have France at 20% after which England comes forth with 8%. Then Japan with a meager 4% and finishing in tied last place we have Portugal and Ireland with 2% each (as in 1 book each). That's a pretty stale and limited selection.
Fiction stands for the major part of reading with non-fiction finishing at 10%.
So, now finished with 50/50 and Proust I'm looking forward to diversifying.
You should check out some book podcasts, like Literary Disco or Books on the Night Stand or Bookrageous or The Readers or something. Even if you don't actually like listening to them, some of them have show notes that cover books mentioned during each episode. It's a great way to learn about books. Books on the Nightstand actually keeps an on-going index of all the books they've mentioned.
It'll be my own one-off. Asked about an hour-based change in the 52 games thread, but there wasn't much interest in it. Therefore for 2016, I'm doing my own one-off for it where I focus on hours of gaming for a completed game instead of just the raw number of games. As said, I'm purposefully avoiding longer games this year because I'm barely on pace for 52, as it is, and I don't want to do that. I know I could switch goals mid-year, but I'd like to stick to the original goal I signed up for this year. I find goals useful for keeping me on task, so next year, I'll just be doing my own variation on it that works a whole lot better for my life and available time. (^_^)
I tried my best at the 52 games-thread this year but gave up. I've just stopped updating my main post. The focus on hours and the meticulous nature of accounting that goes on scares me. It really alienates me since I can't grasp that a medium should be measured as time spent with it. I think the whole point of a game a week is to try different types of games that you can play at different times.
You should check out some book podcasts, like Literary Disco or Books on the Night Stand or Bookrageous or The Readers or something. Even if you don't actually like listening to them, some of them have show notes that cover books mentioned during each episode. It's a great way to learn about books. Books on the Nightstand actually keeps an on-going index of all the books they've mentioned.
I compiled the stats last week and remedied it somewhat by getting some books outside of my usual go-to places. Then I searched my girlfriend's collection of books and found some interesting stuff. Hopefully my efforts will show in the coming updates.
And yes, I should definitely check out some podcasts. Gave up on the concept a couple of years ago. I've even been recommended a dip in the audio book pool by a colleague who was recently won over by them. Those are also outside of my comfort zone. Thanks for the advice.
If it was to just play a game a week, it wouldn't be so bad. However it's to finish a game a week, and my schedule doesn't allow that easily. Keeping track of hours is pretty simple with modern devices. 3DS and Wii U do it natively. Steam, too. Some older games keep track of the game time, but for others, it's just guesstimating. Getting the hours right isn't critical, so it's not an issue. I do try to include new game types that have reviewed well/aren't overly long in my gaming, anyways, so variety isn't so much an issue. Hours just makes much more sense for me, since some of the games I know I'll like or are so critically acclaimed as to seem to be worth devoting the time (e.g. Xenoblade) take a long time to play. A month or two at my typical gaming rate, at least. Don't want to avoid them just because it would kill my "game a week" pace, then. (^_^)
Boundary Crossed (302 pages) (2015) - ★★★★★ (September 6, 2015)
Another great Kindle First book (after Guardians of the Night)! Most have been duds, but it's nice to get two series (so far) that I'm intestested in continuing with out of these free* ones. It'a a book that includes vampires, but it's not about vampires. It's really about the Old World of magic that includes werewolves, witches, and vampires. The main character is
a witch that can control vampires to a point
, so that makes for an interesting dynamic. Good storytelling. Good suspense. Not written like a diary in the first person. Good stuff!
A Dark Lure (408 pages) (2015) - ★★★★★ (September 8, 2015)
Man, this book grabs you! First, an observation: a integral part of the storyline seems to match up pretty closely to Flirting With Felicity (another romance book).
The dying uncle/dad decided to bequeath their prized hotel/ranch to the young girl on hard times with whom they've developed a father/daughter friendship instead of to the rightful heir nephew/son and daughter in order to preserve the place. This leads to the nephew/son spending a lot of time with the young girl and they end up falling in love.
Maybe it's a repeated motif of romance books? The story was gripping, loving, touching, heartfelt, could make you cry kind of stuff. I liked that the writer did not focus her time on
the depraved sociopath who was hunting, capturing, raping, and then releasing just to kill them and skin them
and instead focused on the good people who's lives were affected by his heinous actions. Wonderful story. Worth reading. Not for kids.
Dead Spots (287 pages) (2012) - ★★★★★ (September 9, 2015)
Okay, I'm going through books kind of fast at the moment. Shouldn't last. Dead Spots is by the same author as Boundary Crossed, which I loved (see the writeup there for an explanation of the main groups involved). It involves the LA version of what's going on in Colorado in Boundary Crossed. Will say that I much prefer the heroine in BC over DS.
In DS, the heroine's power is to not have power and to take the magic power away from others. She's also pushed around a lot by the Vampires ruling the area, which pisses me off. In BC, she's a witch with power over Vampires, so maybe BC is kind of an answer to DS's power balance, in a way.
This one doesn't leave out the
werewolves
, though, so it's a little interesting to see them in play. Also
nulls
seem more plentiful here than was implied in BC (though still rare). Story ends on a whacked note, so looking forward to reading the next one next month when I can borrow another Amazon book. Had gone several months without borrowing one, and now I got a queue. Crazy.
Crow Hollow (335 pages) (2015) - ★★★★☆ (September 11, 2015)
Finished 4 books in 6 days. That's unexpected. This one is about a spy thriller set in 1676 Puritan New England. Indian Wars. Conspiracy. Religion. The writer seems pretty big on a lot of Puritans being barely concealed evil. Of course, they're just regular people thrown into a very strict soceity, so that may not be too far from the truth. But he seems especially keen on pointing it out. Curious. Anyways, after reading 4 straight books by female authors, it's a little jarring to see how a man writes a woman's internal thoughts and motivations. Kept thinking "she wouldn't be that shallow. That's more like how a man thinks a woman would think." Interesting that I'd notice that. I'm hardly an expert on a woman's internal monologue. :lol As for the storyline, it's a little dull and drawn out as you'd expect a story set in 1676 to be. It was quite compelling, though.
Brought together at the end to make everything right by a hair's breadth, so clearly a work of fiction.
Decent read if you don't mind taking yourself back to 350 years ago and dealing with the restrictions of the time!
New Frontier: The Returned, Part II (161 pages) (2015) - ★★★★★ (September 12, 2015)
Just keeps getting more complicated. Switches between three different threads of the story and keeps breaking on cliffhangers. Typical Peter David humor. Loving it. (^_^)
New Frontier: The Returned, Part III (171 pages) (2015) - ★★★★★ (September 13, 2015)
Spoilers (really):
Okay, so there are two Xenexians left (Calhoun and Xyon) and now Calhoun has aided a group that killed all of the people that killed the Xenexians except the actual guy who led the effort to kill the Xenexians and a new Excalibur historian. Good symmetry. Soleta is pregnant with Calhoun's baby after a Pon Farr fueled fling, thinking of killing it, but that wouldn't make sense as they need all the Xenexian progeny around that they can (even if this one would be half Xenexian, quarter Romulan, quarter Vulcan). Also Soleta was conceived by a Romulan raping her mother, and now her baby was conceived by her raping Calhoun (via Pon Farr fueled mind-meld). Good symmetry, again. Robin Lefler (love her) was going to be tied down raising Si Cwan's baby for the next 17 years before Q took him, raised him, and then came back in time for him to save everybody (and kill the race that killed the race that killed the Xenexians). Now they have Robin and Si Cwan's baby and McHenry with God-like abilities? What's next? Bring Si Cwan back to life or something?
Great book. Messed up, twisted story typical of Peter David, but then that's why he's so interesting to read! Nice.
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (295 pages) (1870) - ★★★★☆ (September 22, 2015)
Ended kind of suddenly. Also disappointed that there was no Octopus attach where they electrify the hull to get rid of it. Guess that was just part of the Disney adaptation or something. Seemed like a fictional travel story in a time where real-life travel stories were all the rage (it let people virtually experience travel they'd probably never be able to in their lives). Long, but still an interesting bit.
Flee (247 pages) (2012) - ★★★☆☆ (October 4, 2015)
Tries to be a female Jason Bourne with absolutely ridiculous extremes. Can overcome injury after torture after near-death after surprise, clears browsing history by formatting C:\ drive completely unrecoverably in a few seconds (No way! I know better than that! Ghosting a computer is a pain!), yet all falls to the wayside and she'll give up every secret in the world if she's
waterboarded
. Uh-huh. Also, totally out of place
sex scene with a guy she's been torturing six ways to Sunday to find out if he's a spy before doing him handcuffed on the couch after passing her tests. Oh, but it's okay that she was so mean and over-the-top with her torture to vet him, since it turns out he really was a bad guy
. Right. Also some "Uh-huh" genetics stuff going on and total non-understanding of the inability for the human body to function when enough bones are broken, injuries are endured. It's not about will power. Will power doesn't trump physics or anatomy. It's part of a series, but I think I'm good leaving the series here. (~_^)
Trail of Dead (299 pages) (2013) - ★★★★★ (October 6, 2015)
Okay, so my problems with Dead Spots are starting to be answered a bit in this sequel.
The lack of power of the heroine is now being replaced by a power to remove magic from Old World participants (and possibly do even more as hinted at the end of the book). Also, the psychopath (I hate psychopaths and want nothing to do with them after my own personal history with one) Olivia is thankfully dead,
and we got to see some more nuances of the Old World in action. Love the history that this novel brings to it. Really makes the witches seem like the potentially most powerful ones even though the Vampires and Werewolves dominate their shared soceity. Could be where the Boundary series comes in with a
Boundary Witch having power over Vampires
. The love triangle is not resolved between Eli, Jesse, and Scarlett, but it seems like the third book will get there. Very glad to see strong female protagonists again, too.
Arena Mode, Book 1 (299 pages) (2013) - ★★★★☆ (October 8, 2015)
Good story! Comic book powers are real, but it's still just people with real vulnerabilities with them. Arena Mode sounds like "Hunger Games," but it's really not. Worth reading. (^_^)
Once Bitten (234 pages) (2015) - ★★★☆☆ (October 14, 2015)
Another story with a psychopath. At least this one involved the psychopath's victim recognizing it before the end, but the psychopath's love target kills himself instead of pulling up by his bootstraps and digging in. Would've liked a much more positive ending.
Different take on Vampires being
immortals who lack a protein most easily replaced through blood and are overly sensitive to light. Still like Star Trek's "Requiem for Methusaleh" when it comes to best portrayals of human immortals, though
. Also mention werewolves and shape shifters, but they aren't actually encountered in the book. This is about a vulnerable LAPD psychologist falling for a young girl found over the body of a dead guy with blood on her mouth. She, for some reason, takes a liking to him, brings him into her world, and focuses on him for a relationship.
Typical psychopath behavior. Take someone who has little self-worth, make them feel special, put lots of time into them, manipulate their feelings for them to control them. Shows up time and time again. Rapid-fire falling in "love" by someone out of league for no real apparent reason. Hate stuff like this.
Don't really recommend it as a book. The method of storytelling was nice, and it was generally well-written. Just cannot get behind these kind of
manipulative
characters particularly when it ends with the protagonist
just giving up instead of fighting to make things right
Shanghai Noon (2000) - ★★★★☆ (September 2, 2015)
I like Jackie Chan movies, and this one has the cowboy from Night at the Museum. Neat! Strange mix of Chinese nobility behavior and old West values, and interesting to watch it play out.
Parks and Recreation, Season 6 (2014) - ★★★★★ (September 3, 2015)
Miss the old characters but good to see the characters expanding, growing, and moving around in the world. Nice.
Zatoichi (2003) - ★★★☆☆ (September 9, 2015)
Wanted to see if the series looked intesting. Way lot of blood! Not a good thing! Strange Story! Lots of exclamation points!!!
Legend of the Drunken Master (2000) - ★★★☆☆ (September 16, 2015)
Jackie Chan movie with some kind of Kung Fu where being drunk doesn't make you any less potent a fighter and just makes you take hits more. Uh-huh.
The Scorch Trials (2015) - ★★★☆☆ (September 17, 2015)
This story still doesn't make a lot of sense.
Why try to harvest the kids who are immune instead of letting them grow up, have more kids, produce more blood, etc.?
Not as bad as Divergent but not as good as Hunger Games. All three fail in being particularly believable, though.
Hotel Transylvania 2 (2015) - ★★★★☆ (September 25, 2015)
Good movie!
Trying to promote acceptance into your family of people from different races (I think), in this case vampires and humans.
Good story, build-up, and execution. Love the vampire summer camp!
The Martian (2015) - ★★★★★ (October 1, 2015)
2.5 hours, and it felt like it needed another hour, at least. Can't wait for the Director's Cut! Great reviews, great sci-fi, no aliens, worth seeing. (^_^)
Goosebumps (2015) - ★★★★☆ (October 15, 2015)
Having not read the Goosebumps books and only seen the previews for the movie, wasn't holding out high hopes for it. However it was a lot more interesting than I thought! Loved the repeating subtle nature of the line from the previews. "Every book has three parts. The beginning. The middle. And the twist." This movie certainly had a few twists of its own worthy of the tagline!
The Guild (2007-2012) - ★★★★★ (October 24, 2015)
What a great show and what a great ending for this show. (Each "season" was really one episode, so counting the whole thing as a season.) Still wish Felicia Day had decided to keep it going, as I'd really like to see how things continue from here. Great positive finale, though. Well worth watching!
Bridge of Spies (2015) - ★★★★☆ (October 24, 2015)
Great story. Loved the comraderie shown, guts, recognition of the situation, and seeing an answer where none seemed to be present. Knew the general story of the U-2 pilot shot down in U.S.S.R before, but didn't realize there was this much activity behind the scenes. Nice!
Dracula (1931) - ★★☆☆☆ (October 25, 2015)
Loved Legosi as Dracula, but the story itself left a lot to be desired. Glad to have seen the classic version, though!
I was focused on catching up with films. Books take a while. Going to have to speed up on that front.
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Guess this means we're done for the month.
@Necrovex why do you hate me? Why do you make have to click through to your post. I'm going to make you quote my post to see your result. See if you like clicking through posts. smh.
At the current pace, I'm predicting that next month we'll see tmarques, Narag, and donny2112 [Congrats on getting to fifty films!!!] joining the champion's league table. See ya all next time.
@Necrovex why do you hate me? Why do you make have to click through to your post. I'm going to make you quote my post to see your result. See if you like clicking through posts. smh.
EDIT: I should stop saying that considering I've seen like 49 seasons of television this year. And Herp derp, this was based on him watching 7 movies a day...which obviously it's 7 a week
Slow going on both fronts. Finished a R.A. Salvatore book. He can write fun stories but technically he's weak. Just phoning it in it seems.
I watched Exodus: Gods and Kings. Not a bad movie, but not great. I was impressed by John Turturro. He turned in a solid job, almost unrecognizable. He hasn't been this good since his early work in Spike Lee joints.