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

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Bought:

  • ?? Probably a few but I did not keep track apparently.

Read:

  • A Wanted Man, by Lee Child
  • A Tale Dark & Grimm, by Adam Gidwitz
  • The Thief Lord, by Cornelia Funke
  • Any Small Goodness, by Tony Johnston

Gee, what happened in September? Well I started my first official “my own classroom” teaching job (I did have a teaching job in the spring but it was a maternity leave position in someone else’s classroom. Then we teachers went on strike and I was insanely busy going to the picket line and going to rallies and talking to my coworkers and I got no reading done whatsoever. And three of the four books I did eventually manage to read in the month were ones I wanted to review for the kids from our classroom library. Yeah, it was a crazy month.

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

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Bought:

  • Kornwolf, by Tristan Egolf
  • Throne of the Crescent Moon, by Saladin Ahmed

Read:

  • Blue Front, by Martha Collins (poetry)
  • The Wise Man’s Fear (Kingkiller #2), by Patrick Rothfuss (library)
  • Broken Harbor, by Tana French
  • You and No Other, by Cathy Maxwell (borrowed from mom)
  • Kornwolf, by Tristan Egolf
  • Dragonflight, by Anne McCaffrey (reread)
  • Dragonquest, by Anne McCaffrey (reread)
  • Dragonsong, by Anne McCaffrey (reread)
  • Dragonsinger, by Anne McCaffrey (reread)
  • The White Dragon, by Anne McCaffrey (reread)
  • Dragondrums, by Anne McCaffrey (reread)
  • Throne of the Crescent Moon, by Saladin Ahmed
  • Hark a Vagrant, by Kate Beaton (gift from Ginger ages ago!)
  • Golden Domes and Silver Lanterns, by Hena Khan
  • Far Arden, by Kevin Cannon (8/27)
  • Walk Two Moons, by Sharon Creech
  • The Book Whisperer, by Donalyn Miller

August was a great month of reading. Getting ready for school but full of free time.

Presidential Politics and oh the wave of depression.

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I used to post more about politics. I honestly try to avoid thinking about anything connected to that for even one second because of the swell of immense anger and disappointment that immediately surges up. But honestly if you would vote for people who believe these things are the right things to do, then you and I are at completely opposite ends of the pole of what is acceptable to think AS A DECENT HUMAN BEING and what is not. And that’d be ME on the side of acceptable and you making a choice that other people don’t matter even one tiny bit.

Life begins practically at the THOUGHT of it. The rich get crazy crazy richer (without any effort on their part) and the poor are left to die unmedicated in the gutter? Ryan & Romney = truly revolting and despicable.

That’s the definition of INHUMANE at its very core.

Well, hello there, reader who loves movies, if there indeed are still any readers out there.

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Just an FYI that today, August 6, I went back and wrote quick reviews of all 22 movies I’ve seen so far this year! But since I was writing in reverse order and didn’t feel like having a post on, say, The Descendants, a movie most people saw last year, at the top of my already very neglected blog, I decided to post-date all the reviews back to around about when I saw the movies. So if you want to hear what I had to say, you may just want to go to the watchin’ category page and read from there.

My favorites of the year so far were Pariah (so good, see Ebert’s review which I think is what made me need to see this), Cabin in the Woods, A Separation and Moonrise Kingdom. I thought Tinker, Tailor was great as well but again that’s a movie many people will have seen in 2011. Pariah and Cabin in the Woods should be (?) out on DVD, I would think, and you should seek them out. Both so SO good, in completely different ways.

Big Screen: The Dark Knight Rises.

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I thought this movie was a completely convoluted mess. But apparently that opinion may get you death threats. So, yeah, I liked it just fine. #butnot

Anne Hathaway was great and certainly the best part of the movie.

This may be a spoiler (but come on, the movie’s been out for a month).
The biggest of many ridiculous things about this movie: if you’re going to put your villain in a face mask, HAVE A LEGIT (& LOGICAL) REASON FOR IT. And have it be meaningful within the plot of the film.

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

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Bought:

  • Horizon (Aftertime #3), by Sophie Littlefield
  • Grave Witch (Alex Kraft #1), by Kalayna Price (iphone/kindle)
  • Swamplandia!, by Karen Russell
  • Sixth-One Nails, by Mike Shevdon
  • The Road to Bedlam, by Mike Shevdon
  • Strangeness and Charm, by Mike Shevdon
  • Life on Mars, by Tracy K. Smith (poetry)
  • Blue Front, by Martha Collins (poetry)
  • Broken Harbor, by Tana French

Too much for a girl without a job but I did buy most of it with gift cards, so…

Read:

  • Silver, by Rhiannon Held (library)
  • Ash, by Malinda Lo
  • The Pox Party; the Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation #1, by M.T. Anderson (borrowed from prof)
  • Shoot to Thrill, by P.J. Tracy (library)
  • The Knife of Never Letting Go, by Patrick Ness (iphone/kindle)
  • Horizon (Aftertime #3), by Sophie Littlefield
  • Grave Witch (Alex Kraft #1), by Kalayna Price (iphone/kindle)
  • Swamplandia!, by Karen Russell
  • Sixth-One Nails, by Mike Shevdon
  • The Road to Bedlam, by Mike Shevdon
  • Strangeness and Charm, by Mike Shevdon
  • Life on Mars, by Tracy K. Smith (poetry)

Big Screen: Beasts of the Southern Wild

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It gets harder and harder to make it through movies with kids in bad situations. This is a very emotionally affecting movie that thankfully has enough of a fairy tale aspect to not throw you completely into despair. I was really swept into the story and definitely needed kleenex for the last 10 minutes or so.

On the other hand, while it completely works within the mood & tone of the film, but there is a LOT of soft-focus fuzzy filmmaking throughout the flick and there were several points at which my eyes had just really had enough of that (I’m such a cranky old lady).

Big Screen: People Like Us

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The problem with this movie exists at the very deepest level of plot: if these characters are brother & sister, they can’t wind up together and all their great chemistry is to no effect.

So while there were things I liked and some nice performances, it’s ultimately not what the viewer of a romance really wants to see. And the romance that does feature as a B-plot was shown so minutely in the film that you never really get to root for it.

I don’t think I know a single other person who saw this. It was crazy hot that day, and I can’t afford to turn on my air conditioning, and it was the only movie starting within the next 30 minutes. Also: Chris Pine is yummy.

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

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Bought:

  • Bitterblue, by Kristin Cashore
  • Blue Front, by Martha Collins (poetry)
  • It’s Not You, It’s Me; The Poetry of Breakup, edited by Jerry Williams
  • Gone Girl, by Gillian Flynn
  • Magic without Mercy, by Devon Monk
  • Tell the Wolves I’m Home, by Carol Rifka Brunt

Read:

  • Arcadia, by Lauren Groff
  • Bitterblue, by Kristin Cashore
  • After the War, by Carol Matas (borrowed from the classroom)
  • The Scorpio Races, by Maggie Stiefvater (iphone/kindle)
  • Trickster’s Choice, by Tamora Pierce
  • Taken, by Robert Crais (iphone/kindle)
  • Graceling, by Kristin Cashore (reread)
  • Fire, by Kristin Cashore (reread)
  • Break In, by Dick Francis (reread)
  • Bolt, by Dick Francis (reread)
  • Niccolo Rising, by Dorothy Dunnett (reread)
  • Gone Girl, by Gillian Flynn
  • Magic without Mercy, by Devon Monk
  • Tell the Wolves I’m Home, by Carol Rifka Brunt

Big Screen: Rock of Ages

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One of those “let’s make up a baloney plot as an excuse to sing these songs” movies (see also “Mama Mia”).

It was just as bad as you can possibly imagine except for two things:
1) How awesome to hear all these songs again all one after the other.
2) Tom Cruise KILLS IT. Say what you will about him, but when he COMMITS to a role, he COMMITS. This was as thunderously over-the-top yet wonderful as his Tropic Thunder performance. He’s the only one who doesn’t visibly appear to be lip syncing (even if they are all lip syncing to their own vocals/recordings of these songs). He’s the only one that just outright goes for the ridiculousness of his part.