Reading Review

Well, that was a bit of fail on my part for not regularly updating my blog. I wanted to keep up with books I have read in the past months and I could find no list. I have been reading a lot now that I am almost done with grad school.

I just finished the Coldest Winter Ever by Sister Souljah. I have long avoided this book and many others that fall under the genre urban/street/hood/etc. literature. This book has started the revival of the genre in the past decade. It is well written with an engaging plot, realistic dialogue, and characters that stick with you even if you don't like them. I'm glad I bought the copy with a Reader's Guide included. It had an interview with the author and gave a lot of insight into why she wrote the novel. I really regret being a book snob and avoiding books like this. I have to tip my hat to the graphic novels class I took this summer, which lead my to evaluate my own literary biases.

Over the summer I read:

• The Hunger Games and Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins -mixed feeling a sci-fi world underealized because of an unreliable protagonists and I am sick of love stories and love triangles in Young Adult literature. I was hoping that Katniss would be a lesbian in a great twist,
• The Nanny Diaries by Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus - the movie was better than the book but I am horribly biased in favor of Chris Evans, and Scarlett Johansson,
• The Politician by Andrew Young - serious what was wrong with this dude? I can't believe he stayed with the Edwards that long and Rielle Hunter was a nut,
• Red Son by Mark Millar - I don't like how he made Wonder Woman a damsel in distress for Superman. I'm so angry at his fridging of her and he has so many issues with minority characters and female characters,
• and I caught up on the last three volumes of Marvel's Runaways.

I watched Daybreakers, The Messenger, and Julia & Julia this week. They were all great for different reasons. Daybreakers was a horror and science fiction movie with a wonderfully realized world and great visuals. It was also great to see a very bloody vampire movie. The Messenger had great acting from the cast and a touching and and timely subject. Julia & Julia also had great acting and wonderful visuals. There was food porn and hat porn. I wanted to buy cloche hats, church lady hats, and more and then go out to squeeze fresh fruit, inhale the aroma of fresh pastries, and cook something in half a stick of butter. The chemistry between Stanley Tucci and Meryl Streep is electric (please ignore the mixed metaphor).

Back Again

I think I'm going to try to update this blog again. It's been over two years since I last made a comment.

I will still with the review of books, movie, graphic novels, etc. aspect of this blog, but add music that I'm listening to now.

Music:




Last book read:
Dead Days - I think I've read all of the Marvel Zombies stuff. No, wait. I reading of the Wikipedia page informs me that Marvel Zombies 4, Marvel Zombies: Evil Evolution, and Marvel Zombies Return have missed my readings because they are not in trade paperback form. Not to mention that Marvel Zombies 5 is expected in April. The irony of the Marvel Zombie moniker is not lost on me (it was originally used to refer to Marvel comic book fans that would read anything the publisher put out regardless of quality).
Anyways Dead Days is a prequel that fills in gaps between Marvel Zombies vs. Army of Darkness and the Ultimate Fantastic Four. The Ultimate Fantastic Four issues are included. It is an uneven collection but fun. The UFF was marred by Greg Land's crappy tracings and just okay writing. The issues from Black Panther were fun, but didn't have any sort of resolution.

...

R.I.P. Lady Bird Johnson


Just to keep this from being a total downer, today is free Slurpee day!

Murder & Mystery

I finished Til Death Do Us part edited by Harlan Coben. Not all of the stories were about marriage, which I had assumed. As with any anthology, it was hit and miss. But there were a lot of hits.

Also, I watched the "Snakes on a Plane" gag reel. Watching Flex Alexander and Keenan Thompson ad-lib with the male flight attendant(Bruce James AKA Christian Bale's imperfect clone) reacting and laughing was better than the movie itself.

Identity Issues

I read Not A Genuine Black Man by Brian Copeland and American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang.

I didn't intend to read them one after another. It just ended up that way. Of the two, American Born Chinese is better. Mind you I am biased in favor of comics and graphic novels, but it ties personal struggles in with mythology, so I was made to love it.

Kurt

On Tuesday I finished reading Hotel Babylonby Imogen Edwards-Jones and Anonymous. I didn't think it was that great or funny, but it was enough of a hit in the UK to spawn a BBC series.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/drama/hotelbabylon/

In other, sadder news Kurt Vonnegurt has died. So, I guess I should actually read the Slaughter House V book in on my bookcase.

I just noticed that I have a lot of books I never finished reading on my bookcase.

Cane River

I finished reading Cane River by Lalita Tademy this week. I think it might me the best book I've read all year. At first I scoffed at it a little because it was a Oprah's Book Club pick, but it's really good and not her usual choice of it's-deep-because-it's depressing-and-obtuse. While I'm not going to run out and buy the positive-thinking hokum of The Secret, Oprah's next pick is The Road by Cormac McCarthy and I was planning to getting around to reading it anyways....