I read the following books:
- In the Land of the Birdfishes by Rebecca Silver Slayter
- Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: Already talked about a little bit here.
- Echo Year by Casper Silk
- The Silent Wife by A.S.A. Harrison: What a dumb book. I probably should have realised I wouldn’t enjoy it because of all the It’s like Gone Girl, which I also thought was ridiculous, but The Globe and Mail was all rah rah rah and it had a Kate Atkinson blurb on the front, and maybe I need to read fewer books that are taut, psychological thrillers and just go back to reading my even, lit-fic stuff instead.
- The Quiet Twin by Dan Vyleta: Talked about in one of my Reading Around the World entries.
- The Juliet Stories by Carrie Snyder: I came so close to being completely in love with this book, but couldn’t get there in the end. Like those people you should be friends with but aren’t. I really liked it, but there was no chemistry between me and the book, but I’m inspired to write a whole intertwined story book lately, with my last published piece as the starting point.
- Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto: On the recommendation of someone at my book club. I think me and Japanese novels just aren’t friends.
- And the unending quest to finish War and Peace. Perhaps November will be the month I finish.
Best book: There were no four and a half or five star books this month. I’m wanting to read the next Dan Vyleta book (The Crooked Maid) – perhaps Giller winning (check back tonight). Maybe if it does win the Giller, the New Brunswick Library will actually buy it so I can read it.
I watched:
- The IT Crowd: I tried turning it off and one again one last time by watching the series finale.
- How I Met Your Mother: Ugg. I am done. If I am ever cleaning and need to have something on Netflix on in the background to distract me while I do it, I don’t know, I’ll stream Golden Girls or something and then re-read again how rape culture-normalizing the entire stupid show is. Edit: Golden Girls is not on Netflix. Boo.
- Parks and Recreation: I am still not clear if Parks and Recreation is on hiatus or not. I am also sad for the day (likely soon), when there will be no more Parks and Recreation.
- Mad Men: After six months, I finally finished all the Mad Men that are on Netflix. I’m not sure if I care or not.
- The Office (US): Trying to find something to watch on my lunch hour now that I’ve finished Mad Men.
- Beezus and Ramona: I am trying hard to find quality movies with female protagonists in it for Tesfa. I use Reel Girl a lot, but even then, it’s still hard. So I picked this one for all of us to watch with popcorn in the basement on weekend. I can’t remember most of the books, but did Ramona’s aunt really end up marrying Howie’s uncle in the books? What was with the tacked on romantic subplot with Beezus? In fact, why does every kids’ movie have to have a tacked on romance subplot for the female characters? The Miyazaki movies we have don’t. Maybe we’ll just stick to Miyazaki, although Geoff was lent Wall-E and I have a coupon to see Frozen so we may be trying those this month too.
- My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic: Geoff’s favourite character is Gummy. My favourite character is I’m going to claw my eyes out if I have to watch this one more time we are on our fourth run through the Netflix episodes.
- Top of the Lake: Easing into my post Mad Men world with a show that has an actress from Mad Men (Elisabeth Moss). So I am going to Spoiler away here: What is with the modern trope of Strong Woman Who Has Been Sexually Abused? This is in no way denigrating survivors and victims of sexual abuse but I am tired of the current way to code vulnerability now seems to be to have them raped. Is it some thought process like No worries gents if she gets a bit feisty with you – just hold her down and stick your dick into her! See, she’s not really that threatening at all. It’s become lazy, clichéd writing and I’m tired of it. I have two episodes of Top of the Lake left and I don’t know if I’m going to bother finishing it. Also, I don’t know why people keep saying New Zealand is so gorgeous – a lot of Top of the Lake looks like around here or parts of Alberta.
I wrote:
- Submitted my Jersey Cow story to The Antigonish Review. Then did the big push of a bunch of recently rejected stories to other spots.
- Faerie typing.
- Rewriting Come From Away for my new mentor.
- Came in second in The Puritan‘s Thomas Morton Writing Contest. Spent some time working with the editors fixing everything up.
I’m also going to start adding a new category for my monthly wrap-up. So here is my new category:
Most promising book I put on my wishlist
I’m always putting books on my wishlist, so maybe I’ll have some accountability and stop being like Oh – the name of this book popped up randomly when I was looking for something completely unrelated. It must be amazing!.
So, for my inaugural most promising wishlist book, I say: Adios Happy Homeland by Ana Menendez, which has such a happy and colourful cover that I just want to frame it and put it up. Of course, this book is not in the New Brunswick Library so unless it shows up a book sale for a dollar or less (currently, the only place I am allowing myself to buy books until I finish at least one hundred of the unread books I have), it may be awhile before I get to this one.