I read
Thoughts:
- How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia by Mohsin Hamid: Discussed here.
- Bound To You by Christopher Pike: Discussed here.
- A Hero for WondLa by Tony DeTerlizzi: I liked this book better than the previous one in the series. Maybe I’m softening when it comes to sci-fi/fantasy? Possibly a good series to suggest to Tesfa when she’s older. Points for having a female protagonist in a sci-fi book too. It would be nice if it was more of a fifty-fifty gender split though.
- Lemony Snicket All The Wrong Questions Series by Lemony Snicket: Discussed here.
- 419 by Will Ferguson: I spoke briefly about location scouting here. Other that that, I’m not quite sure why this book won the Giller. It’s a well-paced thriller sure, but other than that? It was up against The Imposter Bride and won? That makes zero sense to me whatsoever.
- Geronimo Stilton Some Adventure I Don’t Care About Enough to Even Look Up the Correct Title: What is the purpose of these books? As I said in an email last week, the stories are saccharine, there is no character development, the language is uninteresting, and Geronimo is whiny and incompetent, yet always manages to do everything irrespective of his bumbling and lack of ability. Why doesn’t he make an effort to learn how to do even the most mundane of tasks? He’s so boring. There is no need for there to be sixty thousand books about him. One would have sufficed.
- The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton: Discussed here.
- Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin: The librarian in town seemed really happy I was taking this book out. It’s funny, looking at it now, how controversial it must have been when first published. I spent some time thinking about what books would be controversial now. The best I could come up with was an old article I’d read on cbc entitled What’s with all these filthy European novels? Still, however quaint Giovanni’s Room may seem now, it’s a testament to the strength and beauty of the writing that such a navel-gazing novel held my interest.
- The Land of Long Shadows by Muriel E. Newton-White: I bought this book at Master’s Book Store in Haliburton, Ontario when I was eleven or twelve. Has anyone else read this basically self-published book other than me? If you have, tell me! It’s a cute story, a bit too religious and a bit too essentialist regarding the various tree-folk’s “race”, but I can edit those bits out as I read the book to Tesfa.
- Carthage by Joyce Carol Oates: Okay, confession number one: for an embarrassingly long time (let’s say into my late twenties), for some reason I thought Joyce Carol Oates was a man, irrespective of the Joyce and the Carol, two female names right there for me to see.
Now that that’s out of the way, why do I read Joyce Carol Oates? I’m always pulled in by the premise, enjoy the first fifty and the last fifty pages, but then everything in the middle, there is no way to make the groaning sound I make whenever I get to the middle of a Joyce Carol Oates novel. It’s like a Zombie whose stood in line to buy Christmas presents on Christmas Eve and then finally gets to the cash to find out he’s left his wallet at home. That’s the noise I make in the middle of a Joyce Carol Oates novel. The middles are always so tediously boring and plodding along and I just want to quit every single time. And the middle is always like four hundred pages long, yet I keep reading Joyce Carol Oates novels for the premise and the one hundred pages I actually think are kind of good. Make me stop. Someone make me stop.
Even yesterday, when I’m reading the middle, bored out of my mind so I’m actually surfing the internet on my iPad instead, I’m like Oh, she wrote a book about Jeffrey Dahmer (I can’t really recall why I was looking up stuff on Jeffrey Dahmer. I read a lot of books about serial killers as a tween, in my house, alone, after the sun went down. I probably shouldn’t have been doing that, but I did. I assume looking up things on Jeffrey Dahmer yesterday is some sort of rippling after-effect of those years.) Maybe I should put it on hold at the library.
Someone needs to save me from myself.
Best book:
So good. Lots of little stories revolving around Métis and Aboriginal characters. And I mean lots – gives me hope that maybe one day I too can publish a collection with lots of little, perfect stories in it.
Most promising book put on my wishlist:
I don’t know if I can get this shipped to Canada affordably. Maybe an ePub will come out soon and I can get it that way.
I watched
:
Thoughts:
- The bunch of Disney XD shows: We were at a friend’s house. These were on in the background. If I was doubting my decision to not have cable, let’s just say that I am doubting that decision no more.
- The Mindy Project: On Canadian Netflix! I enjoy shows about pudgy, random doctors, such as myself, although this show is about an OB-GYN rather than someone who has a somewhat useless PhD in Pure Mathematics. But that’s still fine – pudgy, random doctors unite! I watch this while I do jigsaw puzzles on the floor.
- Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Crystal: New Sailor Moon Episodes! I went to pick up Tesfa at camp one day and one of the counselors was drawing a picture of Sailor Moon. None of the kids knew who that was. I did. I was pretty much like Oh my goodness! You’re drawing Sailor Moon! There’s going to be a new Sailor Moon series did you know that? and the counselor looked at me like I was a reprehensible idiot and told me that they’d already aired the first episode. She probably watched it in Japanese without subtitles but I don’t care. New Sailor Moons! The majority of my Japanese comes from Sailor Moon catch phrases. If I ever need to punish someone in Japanese, I’ll be ready.
- MLP: FiM: We watched all the new episodes. Why is Pinkie Pie now batshit crazy rather than just ebullient? I have a MLP:FiM post I’m getting around to writing. Maybe next week.
- American Horror Story: Like so many dramas lately, I get really involved, but then by episode three I lose interest. The only thing this show has going for it currently is the over-the-top, hormonal driven love between Violet and Tate. So teenagery, like the world is going to end. Sometimes I miss the intensity of teenage feelings.
- Orange is the New Black: Am I the only one who has no interest in the Daya/Bennett subplot? Daya just sulks and Bennett just flails. Still love Poussey, especially her wearing those earrings in the flashback. There’s no way they could shank Piper and make the whole show about Poussey, is there?
I wrote: Not a whole lot. I’ve been down about writing. A string of rejections will do that to a person, especially a person like me who tends to live in the negative. I have one more short story to finish up, which will bring me to seven short stories this year. I think in the fall, I’m going to focus on finishing the faerie story, then go back to short fiction.
In any case, a few nibbles, but mainly no’s. The same criticisms – I don’t say enough. So now I’ve got to decide: write what I want or write what will get published. Although, that’s a lie. It’s not even a decision. I’m always going to write what I want, which is why I am a small time short story writer and not Alice Munro.