Category Archives: Lists

À la Nick Hornby, books in/books out for February.

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Bought:

  • The Watchman (A Joe Pike Novel), by Robert Crais (Elvis Cole gets his own spinoff!)
  • The Odyssey and The Iliad, Homer (buying the Robert Fagles translations, my other ones are Lattimore)
  • The Faithful Spy, by Alex Berenson
  • The Monsters of Templeton, by Lauren Groff
  • The Priory, by Dorothy Whipple
  • Saplings, by Noel Streatfeild
  • Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day, by Winifred Watson
  • The Tourmaline, by Paul Park
  • The White Tyger, by Paul Park
  • A Great and Terrible Beauty, by Libba Bray
  • Dark Roots, by Cate Kennedy (stories)

Read:
  • Iron Kissed, by Patricia Briggs
  • A Princess of Roumania, by Paul Park
  • The Faithful Spy, by Alex Berenson
  • The Good Soldier Svejk, by Jaroslav Hasek

Note I am not including books I received as gifts (Bonus!) of which there happened to have been quite a few in February (Yay!).

Just another trip to Coinstar.

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Total change turned in for “real money” = $144.50.
“Change” rejected by Coinstar:

  • Another Boston T token.*
  • One 2-cent Euro.
  • One Canadian dime.
  • One British penny.
  • One, presumably U.S., penny so molded over and verdigreed that I think it might grow a tree if I planted it.
  • One U.S. penny just barely beginning to mold.
  • One U.S. dime, the side ridges of which seem to have somehow been replaced by the outside edge of a penny? I mean, it’s a dime, silver 10-cent piece, but instead of the thin silver scored outer rim a normal dime has, it has a smooth copper rim that extends past the edge on both sides (i.e., is for a fatter coin than a dime). Bizarre!
  • One perfectly normal U.S. dime.
  • And a perfectly good U.S. quarter.

So one transit coin, three non US, two US degraded, one US bizarro, and two perfectly good coins that should have been accepted as Legal currency.

*It’s got to be the Walgreens by work that keeps giving me these. I don’t know if they’re even still valid tokens!

Live Tunes: Winter/Spring [Updated]

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Jan 18: Bon Iver (it was awesome. I’ll try to write it up soon)
Feb 2: Joe Henry / Chris Connelly
Feb 8: Jason Isbell (others playing as well but he’s who I’m going to see)
Feb 22: Sara Bareilles / James Blunt
Mar 1: Griffin House (2nd x)
Mar 8: Peter Mulvey (3rd x)
Mar 9: Carrie Newcomer
[Mar 12: Dan le Sac Vs. Scroobius Pip (yay!)]
Mar 17: Matt Nathanson (yay!)
Mar 18: Raveonettes
Apr 13: Girlyman
[Apr 24: Long Blondes]
Hmmm. These things really seem to come in clusters, don’t they? The person planning my life is doing her usual crapass job of scheduling, at least in March. I’m going to be all tired out right in time for my trip to Japan!

Dad’s and My Reading Challenge for 2008 [Updated]

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Alternating short stories & Eastern European novels.

January: “The Oxford Book of English Short Stories” edited by A.S. Byatt

February: “The Good Soldier Svejk” by Jaroslav Hasek

March: Complete Short Stories, David Malouf

April: “The Death of Virgil” by Hermann Brach

May: Collected Short Stories, Isaac Baschevis Singer

June: “War with the Newts” by Karel Capek

July: Stories TBD“The New Granta Book of the American Short Story” edited by Richard Ford

August: “The Man Without Qualities, Vol 1” by Robert Musil

September: Stories TBD“Dead Boys: Stories” by Richard Lange

October: “The Man Without Qualities, Vol 2” by Robert Musil

November: Stories TBD“The Oxford Book of Short Stories” edited by V.S. Pritchett

December: “The Trial” by Kafka

À la Nick Hornby, books in/books out for January.

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Bought:

  • Matthew Eck “The Farther Shore”
  • Bill Holm “The Windows of Brimnes”
  • Vendela Vida “Let the Northern Lights Erase Your Name”
  • Elizabeth Crane “You Must Be This Happy to Enter”
  • Paul Park “A Princess of Roumania” (sci fi/fantasy)
  • Walter Mosley “Fortunate Son”
  • Elliot Perlman “Three Dollars”
  • Robert Hass “Time and Materials” (poems 1997-2005)
  • Making Out in Japanese
  • Patricia Briggs “Iron Kissed”
  • Pat Barker “Life Class”
  • Zachary Lazar “Sway”

Read:
  • Nick Hornby “Housekeeping vs. the Dirt”
  • The Oxford Book of Short Stories, edited by A.S. Byatt
  • Natasha Trethewy “Native Guard” (poetry)
  • Adrian McKinty “Dead I Well May Be” (library book of Silvia’s)
  • Walter Mosley “Fortunate Son”
  • Denis Johnson “Tree of Smoke”
  • Elizabeth Crane “You Must Be This Happy to Enter”

I have yet to write up a single book I read in January. Perhaps later this week. Perhaps.

Playing at a Theater Near You?

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Movies I Might Try to See This Weekend

  • There Will Be Blood (Looks intense, no? I am not DDL’s biggest fan but it appears a lock on many awards.)
  • The Golden Compass (My dad loved the books and still enjoyed the movie. Jen liked both. I’m still willing to give the movie a chance, despite my irrational love for the books and my fear of what other people have been saying.)

Movies I Would See But Are Not “On My List”

  • National Treasure 2 (I KNOW it’s not a good movie. but the first one was enjoyable despite that, and despite me hating Nicolas Cage. Remember, I’m a low class viewer of mainstream blockbusters and proud of it. )
  • The Great Debaters (Eh. Subject matter doesn’t thrill me. But you can’t go wrong with two hours of Denzel.)
  • Enchanted (Eh. No need to email me, I KNOW EVERYONE IS ALL GA-GA for it. I just don’t know if I can take that much sugar.)

Movies I Will NOT See Unless You Pay Me (and more than the price of the ticket)

  • The Bucket List (middle-aged males patting each other on the back? (I’m being generous there, no?) It’s “Cocoon” all over again. And WHO CARES!)
  • PS I Love You (I’m sorry Gerard Butler and “Denny”, but not even for the two of you.)

Wrapping It Up: Best Movies 2007

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1. Grindhouse
2. Juno (and here and here as well)
3. A Mighty Heart (Knocked down a notch by Juno, but really great and I wish more people would have seen it.)
4. No Country for Old Men
5. American Gangster
6. Control
7. Blackout
8. In the Valley of Elah
9. The Bourne Ultimatum
10. Gone Baby Gone (In retrospect, and in comparison to others, this movie moved further up the list than I originally felt)
But there were lots of other movies I enjoyed as well, and you can read more about that here.

Wrapping It Up: Best Books 2007.

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My Favorite Six Books of 2007 were:


But there were lots of other books I enjoyed as well, and you can read more about that here.

Last Minute iTunes Purchases

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Buying stuff off other people’s year-end lists for the roadtrip home…

  • Dyme Def “Space Music (rap/hip hop from Seattle)
  • Mavis Staples “We’ll Never Turn Back” (takes you back)
  • The Avett Brothers “Enthusiasm” (twangy poppy fun)
  • Hard-Fi “Stars of CCTV” (an older album as I love the new one I got earlier this fall)
  • Jay Brannan “Unmastered” (the dude from “Shortbus” if that means anything to you. great sassy lyrics)
  • UGK “Underground Kingz (rap)