more reviews
I'm on pseudo-spring break; there aren't undergrads around and I can't really collect new data, so it's like break!
I'd been meaning to read A Homemade Life by Molly Wizenberg for a little while, as I follow Orangette. It was simple and relaxing to leaf through (and I don't mean that as a bad thing). However, I didn't actually want to make that many of the recipes she talked about: this may be because I already knew a few from the blog, or because I'm picky (both possible). She writes beautifully about food, and I've made recipes of hers before (she also has a column for Bon Appetit which is a great resource), but I just didn't want to make many of these.
I reread Dune: man, it'd been too long. The copy my dad had passed to me literally fell apart from so much reading: the cover, then the title page, then the first chapter, etc fell out one by one (and we take pretty decent care of our books!). We now have a newer hardcover at home. This paperback is from a library, but had clearly been equally loved.
It makes me feel a liiiiiiittle bit old to realize that a guy from my year at Wes has published a book since graduating. (I realize that we knew a few people while at Wes who had books out, but this one was new to me, and seems to be entirely post-college.) Plus, in this case, I knew the author just a bit, and he's a great guy. Girl Parts was a fun and easy YA-level read, and John is, in fact, a pretty good writer. I buzzed through it pretty quickly, so I guess it's a good thing I didn't try to save it for a conference or something I'd need a lot of reading material for. (I've now got a stockpile for CNS...)
Nick and I watched a few things while at his parents' house in CT this past weekend.
RED was totally enjoyable. Helen Mirren with a really big gun? Bruce Willis and John Malkovitch? Mary-Louise Parker? Karl Urban being a general badass (something he has done quite well in many parts!), with "cute hair"? done. It was fun for a movie where stuff blows up, people get shot, and there's an actual plot to follow.
I really like Matt Damon in most things, and we both adore Joel McHale, but The Informant! was not very good. We almost stopped it at least seven times out of boredom or just frustration at how bizarre it got. There were some amusing lines, but overall it was not worth watching. whomp whomp. (We totally should have gotten Salt, which was Nick's pick, but I was all "oh, we just saw an action movie last night, let's see this, it's supposed to be funny!" Fail on my part: at least in Salt, there would've been explosions.)
I'd been meaning to read A Homemade Life by Molly Wizenberg for a little while, as I follow Orangette. It was simple and relaxing to leaf through (and I don't mean that as a bad thing). However, I didn't actually want to make that many of the recipes she talked about: this may be because I already knew a few from the blog, or because I'm picky (both possible). She writes beautifully about food, and I've made recipes of hers before (she also has a column for Bon Appetit which is a great resource), but I just didn't want to make many of these.
I reread Dune: man, it'd been too long. The copy my dad had passed to me literally fell apart from so much reading: the cover, then the title page, then the first chapter, etc fell out one by one (and we take pretty decent care of our books!). We now have a newer hardcover at home. This paperback is from a library, but had clearly been equally loved.
It makes me feel a liiiiiiittle bit old to realize that a guy from my year at Wes has published a book since graduating. (I realize that we knew a few people while at Wes who had books out, but this one was new to me, and seems to be entirely post-college.) Plus, in this case, I knew the author just a bit, and he's a great guy. Girl Parts was a fun and easy YA-level read, and John is, in fact, a pretty good writer. I buzzed through it pretty quickly, so I guess it's a good thing I didn't try to save it for a conference or something I'd need a lot of reading material for. (I've now got a stockpile for CNS...)
Nick and I watched a few things while at his parents' house in CT this past weekend.
RED was totally enjoyable. Helen Mirren with a really big gun? Bruce Willis and John Malkovitch? Mary-Louise Parker? Karl Urban being a general badass (something he has done quite well in many parts!), with "cute hair"? done. It was fun for a movie where stuff blows up, people get shot, and there's an actual plot to follow.
I really like Matt Damon in most things, and we both adore Joel McHale, but The Informant! was not very good. We almost stopped it at least seven times out of boredom or just frustration at how bizarre it got. There were some amusing lines, but overall it was not worth watching. whomp whomp. (We totally should have gotten Salt, which was Nick's pick, but I was all "oh, we just saw an action movie last night, let's see this, it's supposed to be funny!" Fail on my part: at least in Salt, there would've been explosions.)