I read the following books:

• The Dovekeepers by Alice Hoffman: I did not enjoy this book. As I put in a review the execution so poor that any goodwill towards the story is effectively squandered by a few pages in. The characters are flat and their voices barely differentiated; there almost seems no need to have four separate voices since the voices are identical. The situations are melodramatic. The writing is plodding and the book too long. The love others have for this book completely confounds me.
• The Story of Lucy Gault by William Trevor: A gentle novel. I can’t think of another novel I’ve read recently that is as gentle as this one.
• Alif the Unseen by G. Willow Wilson: A book I really wanted to love but couldn’t because this book is sloppy. It has the forward momentum thrust and the cute humour, which I will admit are aspects anything I write lacks, but the book is rushed and reads juvenile in many places. This book, much like the revolution within it, is about potential rather than anything realised. Maybe someday.
• The Pale King by David Foster Wallace: Unfinished (that is, the book is – I read all of what is written) by still I liked.
• Ten Good Seconds of Silence by Elizabeth Ruth: Another novel of potential unrealised. I read it and worry that if I ever write a first novel, it will end up over-muddied like this one and then lost and forgotten. There is a lot of good stuff here, but then there is a lot of unnecessary stuff as well as big coincidences. I don’t know. I don’t buy it.
• Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White: With Tesfa.
• Matilda by Roald Dalh: Geoff had a conference. Tesfa and I spent most of a weekend reading this book instead.

Best book: The Pale King. What else am I going to pick? I didn’t have a very successful book reading month.

I watched:

• How I Met Your Mother: *hangs head in shame* This show is awful.
• Game of Thrones: I guess I was supposed to be sad some people died. I wasn’t. Geoff, annoyed, asked me why I even watch this show if there is nothing I like about it. I thought and came up with the following: I like Bronn, Ja’quen Haagard, oldest Lannister, and the grandmother because they actually do things rather than whine and sulk about their situations. I hope Ja’quen Haagard becomes king.
• The Fall: Although somewhat suspicious of Gillian Anderson’s inclusion (I liked how they didn’t even bother having her try a Northern Irish accent and just let her be from London), this wasn’t bad. It skirted the line on being exploitative though – the length of the scene murdering Sarah Kay in particular. I watched this over a few weeks, and in the middle watched Bridesmaids and thought to myself I can see why everyone watches television now rather than movies and thought of this show in particular.
• Mad Men: I guess this is one of the leading I can see why everyone watches television now rather than movies television shows, but I’m really losing steam watching lately. I think I only watched one episode all month.
• Community: I watched some episodes on an airplane and, relatedly, fuck you Air Canada that you have seatback television on Halifax-Montreal flights but shit all on Moncton-anywhere ones.
• Arrested Development: I’m disheartened by how cruelly the writers/producers/directors/Mitch Hurowitz/whoever treated so many of the characters. I guess in the earlier seasons it didn’t seem so mean-spirited. Oscar pretending to be George and having sex with Lucille was also uncomfortable – that whole subplot removes consent, so is rape. So I am not happy with any of this.
• Sandbaggers
• Superwhy: With Tesfa
• My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic: which has eclipsed all other shows in the Tesfa-universe. Gone Fraggle Rock. So long Dinosaur Train. Superwhy? What’s that? She found this on a blurry television screen in Costa Rica, in Spanish, and sat there entranced for the whole half hour. Now that she knows it is on Netflix, her whole life revolves around five o’clock when she gets to watch My Little Pony. I try to be positive: lots of females with differing skills and interests, not many romance subplots, not much mean competition, but sometimes I watch an episode with Tesfa and wonder how much marketing psychology is going into the shows and how many times I’m going to have to say no to cheap, plastic merchandise with a variety of My Little Pony tie-ins affixed to them.
• The Debt: I thought that by watching the Israeli original it would be cool. It wasn’t. I should have stopped twenty minutes in but kept going.
• Bridesmaids: Bitchflicks had an article on Why We All Need to See ‘Bridesmaids’, so I watched it (quasi-illegally – why can I not rent this movie online?) and did not get the appeal. I am getting the appeal less and less of everything that other people like. I think I need to take drugs to make me happier and ensure that I enjoy something, anything, each month.
• Upstream Color: Okay, having said I dislike everything, I liked this movie. I didn’t find it as terrifyingly baffling as the internet suggested I would, but then again I didn’t find Shane Carruth’s earlier movie Primer difficult to follow either (at the same time, I didn’t actively try to analyse Primer and its timelines; I simply passively accepted what was happening). So this was good. I watched it with a migraine, so maybe that made me care less about understanding.

I wrote: A story about a laundromat that might be the starting point for something more. Worked on a longer story about faeries for Tesfa, probably end up being YA since YA is hot right now and I am nothing if not a slave to the whims of popular culture (this is a joke – popular culture rejects me like a pretty girl does a whinging boy asking her on a prom date). Submitted some stories. Had an earlier accepted story published in hard copy.