I am actually so far behind on Snip book reviews (2.5 months about. give or take) that it’s making me CRAZY whenever I get home and see this big ole stack of books sitting here that to my insane OCD mind canNOT be put away until they’ve at least been acknowledged on the blog. So expect a lot of SHORT reviews coming. Soon.
“My gripe is not with lovers of the truth but with truth herself. What succor, what consolation is there in truth, compared to a story? What good is truth, at midnight, in the dark, when the wind is roaring like a bear in the chimney? What you need are the plump comforts of a story. The soothing, rocking safety of a lie.”
–Vida Winter, The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield
[emphasis added]
found here.
Bought:
So you may remember me downgrading both my phone/Internet and cable services recently in an effort to be more fiscally responsible considering I won’t have an income for the last half of 2009 and probably all of 2010 (OMG! AM I CRAZY?!?! WHY am I returning to the world of poverty?!?!)….
I’m happy to report that I have now gotten my first full bills post the changes and am now paying $55 LESS per month for cable and $53 LESS per month for phone/Internet. I *could* bring my cable down another $40 if I gave up Sci Fi channel (well….other channels as well, but that’s the only one that concerns me) but I am planning to watch Warehouse 13 (OK it seems like a lame X-Files rip-off but I love Eddie McClintock (remember when he was Sully on Bones? Ah, Sully.)) this summer and Caprica this fall so I figure I’ll keep it for now…
Aren’t you proud of me? Still working on controlling my eating & my spending, my two big self-destructive areas of the moment, but you know, there’s still time. I do have a job for another two months, you know! 🙂
Remember I told you about a Mike Doughty song “That’s How You Fuck a Republican” a long time ago? Yeah, well, Heather Browne at Fuel/Friends has a live, admittedly full of crowd noise, version of it up on her site! Go! Not great sound but you can hear the great lyrics. 😉
The sad, sad trend of me buying very little new music….sadly continues. I have been reading a LOT this year. But that’s no excuse!
Absolutely Love & Adore:
Great Lake Swimmers “Lost Channels” – Le sigh. Everything GLS does is just daaaammmmn beautiful. I’d advise you not to start listening to this album. BECAUSE YOU WILL NEVER WANT TO STOP. This one might even be just a *teensy* bit more upbeat than their norm. (I love their melancholy.) Fave songs are “Stealing Tomorrow” “Still” and “It’s Too Late”.
Gomez “A New Tide” – Somehow I was clueless that these guys had a new album coming out (thank you, Becky, for letting me know!). LOVE it. Just love it. I actually think a lot of it is QUITE different than their last (also beloved) album “How We Operate.” (But I’m sure the Internets will tell me I’m wrong on that!) Fave songs “Engine” (“there’s gotta be an easier way…to find redemption…”) “Lost Track” and “Bone Tired”.
Favorite Singles (not on any of the above albums):
Other Albums I Liked:
Nada!
Not really for me / but maybe for you!:
Nada!
Shamefully have either not listened to at all, or not all the way through, or so few times that I can’t legitimately offer an opinion:
Nada!
Annnnd the weirdness continues. I bought very little music, went to no shows (WHAT?!) and while I liked most of what I bought in March, only really fell for one album. WHAT IS HAPPENING. Is 2009 a non-music year for me? WHAT? DO NOT WANT.
Absolutely Love & Adore:
Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit (self-titled) – Dude’s really growing on me. I liked his first solo album well enough. I LOVED him in concert. And I could listen to this album over and over. The first two songs are my faves “Seven-Mile Island” and “Sunstroke” but really it’s full-album-recommendation worthy.
Favorite Singles (not on any of the above albums):
(A great percentage of this month’s singles are from Paste Sampler 51. I have not searched out as many singles as I normally would. Something is wrong with me!)
Other Albums I Liked:
Shamefully have either not listened to at all, or not all the way through, or so few times that I can’t legitimately offer an opinion:
Belle & Sebastian “The BBC Sessions” – Not sure what brought on this purchase, just wandering aimlessly through Reckless I guess! I really haven’t listened to B&S in years.
Bought:
Eating: I’m drinking so many calories, there is no room left for eating. Bygones.
Making: Finishing the second of the two baby boy quilts. And an awesomely cute pair of wrist warmers that are sadly not for me. Sigh.
Reading: Another Dublin purchase “Eureka Street” by Robert McLiam Wilson. It’s self deprecating and fun and I quite like both the scruffy narrators/heros.
Watching: All the TV there is available to watch. Plus lots of old movies on random cable channels now that I got rid of all my 975 movie channels, in a preemptive “I may have no income soon” move. Oldies like Top Gun. Ah, Top Gun.
Listening to: New Great Lake Swimmers “Lost Channels” which I LOVE; new U2 “No Line on the Horizon” which I like a lot of; and an awesome new playlist made by yours truly on which I mixed in a few oldies more than my norm. Shouldn’t EVERY song sample the BeeGees? SHOULDN’T THEY ALL? Want a new mix? Got something I’d like in trade? E-mail me and we’ll see.
Failing at: Restraining addictions. Of many kinds.
Soooooo good.
I bought this after reading about it on John Scalzi’s blog.
Tactile and intense. Made me cry on the El train. I felt like I was in Mary’s head. I could barely put it down.
Wow, what a book. Spring 2010 is tooooo long to wait for the next one! Too long!
Sure, you won’t be able to read it without thinking of M. Night Shymalan’s The Village (a movie most people hated but I loved mostly for Joaquin’s quietly brooding performance. That scene where they’re on the porch? Sigh.), but just put it out of your mind as the similarities are only circumstantial.