I read:
Thoughts:
- In Praise of Hatred by Khaled Khalifa: Discussed earlier.
- Roost by Ali Bryan: Sort of a funny novel. Irreverent maybe. It takes place in Halifax, but it didn’t have that much of a Halifax feel until the end (with a shoutout to KOD). Sometimes I wish I could write (intentional) humour when I read books like this, but other times, absurdity in fictional life feels overdone, which it did sometimes here too. But it’s a first novel, so there are always rough spots, and it isn’t as if I have a first novel or anything so maybe this is all sour grapes.
- Wildwood by Colin Meloy: Reel Girl has some good complaints about this book, but overall, Tesfa seemed to enjoy it. We finished it near the beginning of the month and yesterday Tesfa started talking about a little, inconsequential scene in the book, so clearly the plot sticks in kids’ heads.
- The Ramona books: I am surprised by how much I remember from these books. I wish they wouldn’t call people stupid in it though. Yes, I am one of those very very politically correct freaks.
- The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen: Ugggg. The Great American Novel bores me. The middle is such a slog. I wish Franzen committed to the Aslan subplot as deeply as David Foster Wallace did for The Entertainment in Infinite Jest. I didn’t really need the love triangle. I didn’t really need the long sentences. I did warm up to it near the end and the Lithuania subplot, but most of the other subplots just ended up dragging and dragging and dragging. But I’m not a fan of The Great American Novel in general, so it’s sort of a mystery why I decided to read this. So far I’ve got two conflicting pieces of advice for Freedom: Freedom is so much better than The Corrections versus The Corrections is so much better than Freedom, but I have a copy of Freedom so I’ll probable end up reading it eventually.
- The Truth About The Harry Quebert Affair by Joël Dicker: Discussed earlier.
- The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie: I think I’m going to buy this book as part of my nephew’s birthday present. Quality YA.
- The Dinner by Herman Koch: Discussed earlier.
Best book:
Here’s another Halifax book I read this month that is completely, overwhelmingly, achingly Halifax, but a book that seems to have come out and vanished without making much of a splash. I wish for more people to read it. If nothing else, it demonstrates how great books from small publishers about POC get forgotten quickly.
Most promising book put on my wishlist:
I read a review of this book that talked about it being literary fiction and a mystery. I keep searching for books like that (as evinced by, for example, The Harry Quebert Affair). I keep trying to recreate when back in the late nineties when I picked up a Minette Walters book (The Dark Room I think it was) and read for what seemed like the first time, a well-written, non-pedantic mystery novel. Maybe Viviane will be it. The library only has it in the original French. I don’t know if I’m brave enough to try to read it or just wait until the library purchases a translation.
I watched:
- Les Revenants: Yay, I love spooky shows that haven’t let me down. But there’s only one season so far, and maybe there will never be another one, and then it will have let me down. Time will tell.
- Portlandia: I finally finished Season Three. Liked the other seasons better, but did appreciate Matt Berry being there for an episode.
- My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic: Oh thank you sweet Deities, Netflix has new episodes. Not that Tesfa wants to watch them. No, she wants to start back at Episode One and work up to them. Why does my child want to have me lose my mind?
- Game of Thrones: The show doesn’t seem to be making an impression on my brain this season. I thought and thought and thought just now about what happened in the final episode. I finally remembered a little bit, then I thought some more and remembered more, but this was a non-trivial amount of thinking to remember.
- Frozen: I have decided that no, I do not want to build a snowman. Or ride my bike around the hall. I don’t even own a bike.
- American Horror Story: All I am eager to watch right now is spooky and horror. I just want to watch this nonstop because I suppose horror and fear are the best escapism I have right now. Of course, doing the single parenting thing means that I have to wait until Tesfa goes to bed. Tesfa is not going to bed at appropriate times. So I’ll have to wait until Geoff returns to watch more. I’m so jaded that I’m already expecting to be disappointed.
- Maleficent: So in one of my moments of stellar parenting, I decided Tesfa and I would go to the movies and we would see Maleficent because if I was paying twenty dollars for us to go (ten dollars each), we were going to see a movie I had at least some small interest in seeing (the other option being How To Train Your Dragon 2 and I just don’t want to spend that much money to see it). So we saw Maleficent, which is the first time I’ve been to the movies since The Trailer Park Boys Movie.
Tesfa did well – a few jumps and closed eyes, but no nightmares. The trailers before the movie however – whatever Transformers junk movie they are on now and Jupiter Ascending – they frightened her far more badly (loud explosions and random screaming and fighting). Even the trailer for whatever that Chris Pratt movie is (I looked it up – Guardians of the Galaxy) seemed unnecessarily violent. Uggg.
But then we watched the movie and I have sort of a soft spot for it. I was just nice to have a movie about women that wasn’t a rom-com or had plotlines about pairing off happily ever after. I also think I may be in love a bit with Sharlto Copley (somewhat worrying as he was a horrible villain in this movie) but as he is dating a supermodel, I doubt things are going to work out between us.
Bits from the movie keep popping back into my head now and then. But, and I felt the same with Frozen, which is one of the few other newer movies I’ve seen recently, the story seems so fast. Movies just rush by. Maybe because I’m reading long books and watching long television shows, I’ve lost my short-attention span for movies. I could have watched so much more of Maleficent. I could have sat there for hours.
I wrote: Minimal faerie story work. Proof-read fan story and IRA story. Working on another magical-realism story, similar to fan story, about breathing underwater. Submitted to some contests and publications – haven’t heard back from any. A story that was accepted in March was published (Ana’s Cupcakes). A difficult month to work since Tesfa was off school for large parts of it and Geoff was/is away. I can write longhand somewhat with Tesfa around, but typing it up, don’t even bother. I have to wait until she sleeps, and then I’m too tired to type. I don’t have much hope for accomplishing much writing this summer, but perhaps a creative break will do me good.