pop culture consumption (apr - jun)
21. These Old Shades - Georgette Heyer
This was my second attempt to get into Heyer (as littlerhymes has been urging me to do for years now). I enjoyed this - I think the word is 'romp'? - though I have come across better ones now.
22. 21: Bringing Down the House - Ben Mezrich (NF)
I'm still really mad at the movie for whitewashing all the characters. The book even makes a point about how the teams looked for Middle Eastern/Asian kids because they served a better function in how they tricked the casinos. It really isn't a particularly interesting story though, and the main guy is an entitled wanker really, but at least he's honest about it - he was motivated by restlessness and a desire to beat the system rather than some noble goal.
23. Pop Princess - Rachel Cohn
I liked this. It's like if Britney had died early in her career, and then Jamie Lynn was discovered and groomed to be the next best thing. Predictable, but it had heart.
24. Sex, Drugs and Cocoa Puffs - Chuck Klosterman (NF)
After how much I hated the Klosterman I read last month, I was incredibly taken with this one. Klosterman in measured doses = A+++. He's hilarious, pop culturally erudite, and when in full flight he's just so enjoyable to read.
25. Johnny Hiro: Half Asian, All Hero 2 - Fred Chao (comic)
26. Johnny Hiro: Half Asian, All Hero 3 - Fred Chao (comic)
I picked this up on a whim while browsing at the comic book store, and ended up buying them. Really sweet, whimsical comics with Asian protagonists, playfully riffing on recognisably 'Asian' elements (samurai, ninjas) while working them into an ordinary life of an ordinary guy.
27. Look Me in the Eye - John Elder Robinson (NF)
The memoirs of Augusten Burrough's older brother, who was diagnosed with Asperger's late in life. I enjoyed this - he has a good way of explaining how he felt (or what he didn't feel, which is important) - and he really has led quite an exciting life!
28. Ember - Bettie Sharpe (ebook)
A retelling of Cinderella. Really enjoyable, and nicely thought out in its inversion of the known fairytale.
29. Michael Tolliver Lives - Armistead Maupin
This was a nice revisit to Barbary Lane. It's pedestrian, but that's kind of a good thing after the nutso plots of the later books. It's nice to know how people turned out, how characters stayed friends, how they remained there for each other through all those years.
30. Nickel and Dimed - Barbara Ehrenreich (NF)
Interesting concept - author tried to live several months, in different US cities, the lives of low-income workers. While it works to highlight the poverty that many ordinary people are dwelling in, and surviving, it irked that she could, at any moment, pull out or draw on her emergency stash, and reveal the true privilege that she already had.
31. A Civil Contract - Georgette Heyer
I didn't like this one - Heyer didn't convince me that they were right for each other. The ending really rubbed me the wrong way.
32. Black Sheep - Georgette Heyer
Whereas I really enjoyed this one. It was lighthearted and fun...and I can't remember any of it. Wait. It had an older guy who didn't want to settle down, a feisty girl who didn't really want to settle down, and they get together in the end anyway, right? =) (I mock, but I really do like that plot, which is a good thing because it comes back again and again...)
33. Kissing Kate - Lauren Myracle
I really don't enjoy her books. I thought I'd give this a try because it's LGBT YA, but I didn't think she handled the sexuality confusion well. Her characters are also rather unlikeable, or unbelievable.
34. The Masqueraders - Georgette Heyer
This one puzzled me. I could never quite figure out why they had to cross-dress. But it was a decent read.
35. The Grand Sophy - Georgette Heyer
36. Special Topics in Calamity Physics - Marisha Pessl
I think I was more impressed by the style she maintained, the voice of Blue, the eclectic amazing referencing, and how she developed and revealed the character of Gareth. The secret society failed in that Hannah doesn't come across as brilliant and charismatic as she needs to be, and the other kids are very shallowly written, portraying one facet and one facet only in order to give Blue a complex. But it was an intriguing read, very Prep mixed with The Secret History.
37. Last Argument of Kings - Joe Abercrombie
The ending drove me crazy, which was disappointing. He manages to bring together all the disparate strands set up in the previous two novels, but I just felt so annoyed that I'd invested all this time and energy into believing and caring for these characters, only to have the author figuratively spit in my face. That said, the book is still a good read, tense and exciting.
38. Son of the Mob - Gordon Korman
Adorable. Snappily written, funny and sharp.
39. Naomi and Ely’s No Kiss List - David Levithan and Rachel Cohn
Whoever wrote Naomi's part should be shot. Pictograms? If that's meant to show how quirky and wonderful she is, it totally fails (have a gander at the first chapter to see what I mean). Naomi is such a gigantic flake and pain that I really hated her, particularly as characters continue to moon over her and TELL us how great she is when everything she is shown to do proves the opposite. Ely is at least redeemed by his sweet romance with Bruce the Second, but even then that relationship is let down with a greater focus on the emnity that springs up between Naomi and Ely over this issue. UGH. I was so mad at this book at the end.
40. Broken Soup - Jenny Valentine
Decent YA, though the beginning premise seems more intriguing that it actually is. Her characters are warm and well drawn though, and emotionally it really drew me in.
41. Queenan Country - Joe Queenan
42. Frederica - Georgette Heyer
43. Burnout - Rebecca Donner, Inaki Miranda (comic)
The first Minx comic that has a complete downer of an ending, and is better for it. This is darker than most of the others in the series, with a real sense of consequences relating to the story itself. Nicely and simply drawn.
44. City of Ashes - Cassie Clare
45. A Great and Terrible Beauty - Libba Bray
Not bad. Sometimes I felt the author was trying to hard to show how much she'd learnt about England in that era, with intrusive descriptions and asides, but it's a page-turner. Victorian schoolgirl mystery with a fantastical bent.
46. Hope was Here - Joan Bauer
Really really liked this. I choked up towards the end, because she made me believe and care for these characters so much.
St Trinian's (2008)
This is fun. Silly and implausible and lazy, yes, but it's still quite enjoyable. There's too much reliance on popular culture and stereotype to inform the characters, but oh well.
The Mostly Unfabulous Social Life of Ethan Green (2007)
I watched to the end, even if it was too silly for words at times. Daniel Letterle always puts me off - I can't tell if he's in character (because Ethan is really annoyingly self-centred at times) or if he just has these acting tics. I also disliked him in Camp, but I put it down to characterisation there. However, the guy who plays Leo Worth is cute, and I'm a sucker for (not very good) gay rom-coms involving large groups of incestuously involved friends (see: The Broken Hearts Club also).
The Holiday (2006)
This drags so much; a lot of the scenes could either be cut, or shortened, for better pacing. I enjoyed the Kate Winslet storyline so much more, as I really liked her interactions with Arthur, and the sweet friendship between her character and Jack Black's character. Whereas Cameron Diaz and Jude Law make a really *beautiful* couple, but it just kept going around and around the same ground.
Running With Scissors (2006)
This translated to film better than I thought it would. It's still feels very episodic - characters drop in and out of the storyline without much linkage - but the acting is good, and you can feel the pain in Augusten's situation. But it ultimately it's all a bit too emotionally manipulative.
Death At a Funeral (2007)
I thought this would be laugh-out-loud funny considering the reviews, but it was only mildly amusing. There were just too many characters, most of whom are no more than plot diversions, and it just peters off into nothing. The dark comedy is not that dark, and not that funny in the end.
Blow-up (1966)
I loved this. I enjoyed the minutae of the photographer's life, the look at the swinging London of the 1960s - the costumes of the models! the club scene with both Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page! - and the intensity of the mystery unfolding late in the movie and with such ambiguity. The use of sound in this movie is really intriguing too.
Landscapes in the Mist (1988)
Were there moments in this when I wondered if it couldn't be a little bit faster? yes. Have I stopped thinking about this movie since I saw it? No. It's incredibly discomforting to watch though. What the children go through, the harsh moments of...(read more) their journey, is made all the more affecting by Angelopoulos' unflinching direction, and the beautifully constructed scenes of wet, snowing, cold landscapes they traverse through (eg. the scene with the raucous wedding party overlaid with the dying horse and Alexandre's sobs). The only time anything looks warm are small moments of happiness in Orestes' company, but even that too, has to pass.
Mad Max (1980)
Meh. I found this boring for most part, and I didn't really care enough about the characters, apart from Goose. It's very dated, and there's something rather repellent in the sadism of the bikie gang as well as Max's "justice". Also, the women in this are almost *actually mute*, which drove me nuts.
The Gleaners and I (2001)
Varda has a real skill in drawing people out, the ability to turn chance encounters into real stories that not only touch on the topic of gleaning, but reveal real people's lives.
Speed Racer (2008)
I really really enjoyed this. It was beautiful to look at, definitely, but more than that it was really sweet natured, clean fun. Emile Hirsch is easy on the eyes too. =)