So basically ever since I reached the 250 (books read this year) milestone, I haven't read anything longer than Vanity Fair's article on Meryl Streep. (Really good, incidentally; I love her.)
I've read the first chapter of Churched by Matthew Paul Turner, and I can tell I'm going to love that book once my brain starts working again. I've also read the first chapter of The Angel's Game (thank you again, Rob!) and same thing. I'm going to love it. But right now? Now I don't want to read anything. (This may even include the ARC of the new Joe Hill novel, which I am really looking forward to. But it hasn't come yet, so there's no way to know for sure.)
So probably this weekend will be an exercise in not reading (except for People and Entertainment Weekly). I need to do laundry and I'm definitely watching Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. I'm also planning on getting Julie & Julia and Up from OnDemand.
I'm also trying to remember that I've read a ton of books this year (101 more than last year!) and so even if I don't read any more books for the rest of the year, I've more than done my part.
(And then I think, "Not read for the rest of the year?!")
Best. Surprise. EVER.
Yesterday, the mail came after I had already left for work. When I picked it up last night, I had a little notice saying there was a package. When I got that package this morning, it was a parcel of books.
Automatically fantastic, right?
Turns out it was from my friend Rob. And it consisted of two books I had loaned him and a copy of the new Carlos Ruiz Zafon (The Angel's Game). And upon closer inspection?
"To Kelly, Friend of the Shadow" and a signature.
My awesome friend Rob sent me a personally signed copy! He met Carlos Ruiz Zafon at a bookstore in Germany (where he and his wife Tasha now live) and snagged me a book. :)
I am a very happy Kelly. :)
Finished A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens.
I haven't read this before, but of course I've seen several different movies (and TV show episodes) that are based on the story, so I knew it going in.
In case you've lived under a rock: Scrooge is a miserable bastard who does his level best to make everyone else miserable, too. He pays his one employee incredibly poorly and wishes that the sick among us would just die already. He doesn't want anything to do with his nephew and said nephew's family. And then three ghosts come (four, really, counting his dead business partner) and show him the error of his ways. And God bless us, every one.
One thing I didn't realize going in was that this is actually really funny. (Scrooge tells Marley that he's not a ghost so much as a case of indigestion.)
But it's a sweet, funny (and, thanks to the final ghost) creepy tale. If you've only known the story through movies, you should read the book, too. (It's also pretty short, so it probably won't take too long.)
As the lead “Emo” Andrea in St Trinian’s, Faith scored herself a considerable amount of screen time, although I didn’t really notice her until she ditched the face-paint and piercings, and appeared as herself on an episode of Never Mind the Buzzcocks. According to Wikipedia, “as an ex-magician’s assistant, trained contemporary dancer, Leeds alumna with an MA in time based arts, a performer in burlesque show and dance club, and an actress, Paloma has been mixing artistic media throughout her adult life. A few years ago she introduced music into the equation, at first mimicking the blues and soul singers she admired, but eventually finding her own voice.” Um... except that “her own voice” sounds suspiciously like Amy Winehouse’s... not that that’s such a bad thing, of course. Still, it would be difficult to confuse the two because, as asserted in an overly harsh NME review of her debut album, Do You Want the Truth or Something Beautiful?, Faith lacks the sneering, snarling and swearing swagger of her predecessor. True, that’s a large part of the appeal with Winehouse, but that doesn’t mean that Faith doesn’t have anything to offer, simply because she’s taken a sweeter, softer approach to White-Girl Soul.
Singles like "Stone Cold Sober" and “Upside Down” are hooky and charming enough on their own, but also benefit greatly from being seen as part of her overall performance. Faith isn’t “edgy”, by any stretch of the imagination, but she has chipper charm, quirky style, an easy smile, and a powerful set of pipes... plus she knows how to play to the camera/audience in ways that the typical NME-approved hipper-than-thou artists could never manage. Yes, maybe her show has more spectacle than scathing social commentary or political bluster, but what’s wrong with that? Pop music is a pretty broad church, and there’s plenty of room on our playlists for a little levity, isn’t there? And there’s always the outside chance she’ll fall under the spell of a sinister Luke Haines-esque svengali, who’ll have her singing about the Baader Meinhof Group and such... but until then, come to the cabaret, old chum!
Finished Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll.
I hadn't read this before, but I have seen the Disney cartoon (and the one that aired on TV in the 80s, the one with Sammy Davis Jr. as the Caterpillar).
So pretty much if you've seen the movie, you know what happens. (Except the book didn't have Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum or the story of the Walrus and the Carpenter--are they in Through the Looking Glass?)
It was really cute (and insanely short) but I wish I had read it when I was little, because this is definitely a book for children.
The best part was reading this right after Alice I Have Been and seeing how some of the characters in this related to people in the real Alice's life.
Finished Alice I Have Been by Melanie Benjamin. (This is a review copy; the book comes out January 12.)
This is a fictionalized account of Alice Liddell, who was the inspiration for Alice in Wonderland. The book starts when she's a little girl and friends with Mr. Dodgson (who you know better as Lewis Carroll), but continues through her entire life. In fact, most of the book takes place after her family stops speaking to Dodgson.
I enjoyed this book a great deal. The last part (where she's a wife and mother) dragged a little for me. It's not so much that it was boring (it wasn't) but that the first two parts (Alice as a child and Alice in love) were so interesting that the third part was almost doomed for me.
There's an author's note at the end where she explains which parts of the book were true and which weren't, and that was very interesting, too. (No, I'm not going to tell you.)
You don't need to have read Alice in Wonderland to appreciate this book (although I'm going to read it next).
Groundhog Day is #34 on 100 Years, 100 Laughs and #8 on their 10 Best Fantasy list.
I'm sure everyone's seen it, so no synopsis.
It's held up really well, and it made me miss Andie McDowell. (Why doesn't she act anymore?) And of course, Bill Murray is always great.
All I want for X-Mas this year is a cheque for $30 Million, and Sarah Silverman on my arm. Make it so!
(Aside from being a window into my dearest day-dreams, this is also a still from a new movie starring Steve Buscemi, called Saint John of Las Vegas. Apparently it has already appeared at several film festivals and is scheduled to hit American theaters on January 29th, in limited release)
Finished Tainted by Brooke Morgan.
I enjoyed this book, although I never really got sucked into it. Basically, it was good enough where I always wanted to keep reading but not so good that I had a hard time putting it down. (Solid read, though, and it's in paperback.)
Holly is a single mom (to five-year-old Katy). She doesn't really have much of a social life (partly due to Katy; partly because she's a homebody anyway). Katy's dad isn't in the picture and Holly's life is Katy and Henry (Henry is her grandfather, Katy's great-grandfather). And then she meets Jack. Jack's British and gorgeous. He sweeps Holly off her feet (as in they move in together pretty quickly and get married not too long after that). Everyone seems to love Jack, but is he really what he seems?
Finished U is for Undertow by Sue Grafton.
Another fantastic Kinsey Millhone mystery. In this one, she's hired by someone who thinks he may know something about a decades-old kidnapping case. (He remembers seeing two guys burying something a couple days after a little girl was kidnapped.) She doesn't have much to go on, but that doesn't stop her. :)
I can't even tell you how much I love the Kinsey Millhone mysteries. I started reading them in high school after some friends pointed out that if I liked VI Warshawski, I'd probably be fond of Kinsey, too.
Some people get annoyed that these books are still set in the 1980s, but I think it's nice. Besides, if it moved to modern day, Henry would have to die, and I do not want Henry to die.
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