I am the Messenger by Markus Zusak

Posted by melydia on November 1, 2013 1 comment

I Am the Messenger by Markus Zusak: Underachieving taxi driver Ed Kennedy lives a pretty uninteresting life until one day he receives a playing card with three addresses on it. After visiting these addresses, he learns that he must can change these people’s lives for the better. As the weeks go by, he receives more cards with more situations to put right. The individual situations themselves are wonderful to read, and I liked and sympathized with Ed. However, the ending left me a bit sour. I was unimpressed with how the mysterious card-leaver was revealed. Still, the book was quite good up to that point, so it’s certainly possible that other folks would really like the somewhat unconventional resolution.

Also posted on BookCrossing.

Red Dragon by Thomas Harris

Posted by melydia on October 29, 2013 No comment

Red Dragon by Thomas Harris: Will Graham is good at catching serial killers, but the stress forces him into early retirement from government service – until a new one emerges, killing entire families at a time. In some ways this is your standard thriller, with the cops racing to catch the bad guy before he kills again, but the killer himself has an interesting and somewhat tragic backstory. Even more fascinating to me was watching the crime solving done with early pre-DNA technology. It’s a similar appeal to the Sherlock Holmes stories, solving mysteries without fingerprinting. Of course, these were all written with the then-latest technology in mind, but that adds an extra layer of interest to me as the years go by. I suppose if you’re only interested in the latest and greatest, this could come across as slightly dated. All the same, I really enjoyed it, even if The Silence of the Lambs was, in my humble opinion, a lot better.

For all the advertisement on the cover about this being the first Hannibal Lecter book, he’s barely in it at all. It’s not too surprising that the “ask a serial killer for help catching a serial killer” bit was reused to greater effect in The Silence of the Lambs. In fact, it would probably be helpful to read that one first in order to understand all the hullabaloo about that character in the first place – you certainly don’t get much of a taste (ha!) of it here.

Also posted on BookCrossing.

The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, Aged 13 3/4 by Sue Townsend

Posted by melydia on October 25, 2013 2 comments

The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, Aged 13 3/4 by Sue Townsend: Adrian has declared himself to be a misunderstood intellectual who has fallen in love with his classmate, Pandora. He is pretentious and irritable and a bit slow on the uptake – in other words, a pretty typical teenager. I found much of this book quite funny, but mostly because I was reading from an adult’s point of view. I have no idea how many of the jokes I would have understood had I been reading this at Adrian’s age (which is generally the audience to which the book is marketed). I also don’t see many adolescents reading this because it’s so very dated: for example, there are several references to Margaret Thatcher and a big party to celebrate the marriage of Charles and Diana. That said, I could see it appealing to us adults familiar with British culture from that time period. I don’t know that I’ll seek out any other Adrian Mole books in the future, but this was a quick and amusing read.

Also posted on BookCrossing.

Gulp by Mary Roach

Posted by melydia on October 22, 2013 No comment

Gulp by Mary Roach (unabridged audiobook read by Emily Woo Zeller; 8.5 hrs on 7 discs): This is a tour of the entire digestive system, end to end, from cat food tasters to fecal transplants. It’s told mostly with a sense of wonder, with the occasional bit of juvenile humor (because come on, really). The breadth of information is vast and most of the anecdotes are fascinating, but all in all I just could not get over the Ick Factor. As interesting or funny as the text was, I found I could not eat during any portion of this book. The mere mention of gastric juices was enough to put me off my breakfast. Still, it remains – as with all of Roach’s books – an unexpectedly enthralling survey of a subject you likely never gave much though to before. I just didn’t come away with the same desire to read more about any of the case studies presented because, you know, ick.

A note on the audio: Zeller’s decision to do character voices for the real people in the book was a little strange, but it didn’t detract from the narration. I just wonder what the actual people thought of her “impressions”.

My First Sketchcrawl

Posted by melydia on October 21, 2013 5 comments

I attended my very first official sketchcrawl this past Saturday. We started at the Maine Avenue Fish Market, then moved a little way down the shoreline to the Capital Yacht Club.

Drawing objects from a distance is very hard for me; I’m used to drawing still life mere feet away, or even photographs right in front of me. Plein air sketching is a new challenge. So because I have a tendency to over-explain/defend my drawings, I’m just going to present them without comment.

In conclusion: I had a good time and enjoyed the company of the artists very much, even if I felt more than a little bit intimidated when we all shared sketchbooks at lunch. Oh well – everybody has to begin somewhere!

The Winter Ghosts by Kate Mosse

Posted by melydia on October 18, 2013 No comment

The Winter Ghosts by Kate Mosse: Freddie is still grieving the loss of his brother in the Great War, and on the advice of his doctors he is touring around France to help his nerves. One snowy night he finds himself in the village of Nulle, suffering concussion and fever after a car accident. There he meets a mysterious woman named Fabrissa, talks the night through, and then loses track of her. Alas, the plot is pretty thin and I figured out the “twist” about eight years before Freddie did (or, I believe, the reader was meant to), largely because it’s been done so many, many times before. It was a decent tale despite its generic plot, and the description of the French Pyrenees was lovely, but it really should have been a short story.

Also posted on BookCrossing.

Tee Vee

Posted by melydia on October 17, 2013 1 comment

My husband and I have started watching television again. I mean, it’s always on anyway, but we’ve started following specific shows. Now, we don’t watch anything live – the ability to pause and rewind are just too wonderful to give up – but through the magic of Netflix and Hulu we do pretty well.

Once Upon a Time continues to be fun. The relationships between the characters grow ever more tangled. I like that Mulan is finally starting to grow a personality and that Disney did not shy away from the obvious chemistry between her and another female character, heterosexual norms be damned. Rumpelstiltskin remains my favorite character. I rather enjoy alternating between loving, hating, and feeling sorry for him. My husband is rather fond of Captain Hook, and I have to admit that he does have some of the best lines in the show.

Once Upon a Time in Wonderland has only had one episode so far, and it shows promise. My reaction to the ads for it went something like this: “From the creators of Once Upon a Time…” – yay! – “…and the writers of Lost…” – um. Anyway, stylistically I haven’t been too impressed yet. One of the best parts of the original Once Upon a Time is the costuming, so I’m hoping that Alice starts wearing better stuff soon. I also would rather John Lithgow in a rabbit outfit than the painful CG critter they’re using, but whatever. I’ll give it a few more episodes before deciding how I feel about it.

Sleepy Hollow is a remarkably silly show, and we both are really enjoying it. Ichabod Crane is a Revolutionary War soldier brought back to life in modern times. Abbie Mills is a police officer. Together, they fight the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Yes, really. It’s hilarious far more often than I think it means to be. I wonder how many more Famous Stories From Colonial America will be incorporated into this show.

My husband’s started watching Supernatural on Netflix streaming, and his commentary is marvelous. He admits that he finds it entertaining, and he’s pretty impressed with some of the creature effects, but he thinks Sam and Dean are both complete douchebags. He’s right, of course, but I think most of the female audience overlooks that because they’re (1) funny and (2) incredibly hot. I stopped watching after the fifth season, but if my husband gets to that point and wants to keep going, I’ll watch it with him. I’m looking forward to hearing his opinion of the Trickster God episodes, and Ghost Facers.

Hannibal should be showing up from Netflix soon. I’ve read all of Cleolinda’s episode recaps, and I think this is the sort of show my husband will like. You might think it strange that I still want to watch the show even though I know everything that’s going to happen, but to me it’s a little bit like reading a book after seeing the movie: I already know I’m going to enjoy the story, only now I’ll get all of the details I missed.

I’ve heard a lot of buzz over the upcoming Dracula series, but I haven’t decided if I want to watch it or not. I’ll probably catch the pilot and go from there. I’m very excited about the upcoming 50th Anniversary episode of Doctor Who, and I think the twelfth Doctor will be a good one, but I really wish it could settle into a regular season format. I wouldn’t mind going back to half-hour episodes if it meant more than two months of episodes a year. And don’t even get me started on the Sherlock schedule. Is that ever going to start airing again?

I don’t consider myself much of a TV watcher, but a single 45-minute episode during dinner with my sweetie is kind of a nice ritual. Are you watching anything good these days?

The Stepford Wives by Ira Levin

Posted by melydia on October 15, 2013 No comment

The Stepford Wives by Ira Levin: When Joanna and her family move to Stepford, she quickly discovers that the women of the neighborhood are all quite boring: obsessed with housework and uninterested in pretty much anything else. I came into this already knowing the Big Secret, and could predict basically every single step in the plot, but it was still kind of fun. It was written in the 1970s, so the influence of the feminist movement of the time adds an extra dimension to the story. I found Joanna – as a woman, wife, and mother – to be written pretty believably, which is a refreshing change of pace for most male-penned science fiction. It’s not the most original premise, and could have easily been a short story, but as a novella it doesn’t overstay its welcome. It kept me entertained during a long plane ride, and that’s really all I expected of it.

Also posted on BookCrossing.

Mr. Obvious by James Lileks

Posted by melydia on October 11, 2013 No comment

Mr Obvious by James Lileks: As a fan of Lileks‘s humor books, I was curious to see how his fiction read. Pretty well, as it turns out. After food critic Simpson is accidentally shot in the head, he finds himself on the trail of a mass murderer of decidedly minor media personalities. Don’t let the inane food puns on the back cover blurb fool you: this book really isn’t about food at all. Sure, his scathing critique of hospital fare was pretty funny, but it’s far from the main plot. Actually, the first three quarters of the book are almost nonstop laughs. I was reading the first few paragraphs to some friends and had to pause after every sentence so we could giggle. The ending is a huge let-down, though, vague and meta and generally kind of lame. That said, everything leading up to it is pretty great, so it certainly did not put me off Lileks in general. If you come across a copy, it’s worth a look.

Note: This is evidently the second book starring Simpson (the first being Falling Up the Stairs), but I haven’t read the first book so I don’t see why you should have to either. Also, this book is thoroughly out of print and I am shocked that I managed to stumble upon a copy at all.

Also posted on BookCrossing.

Grave Peril by Jim Butcher

Posted by melydia on October 8, 2013 No comment

Grave Peril by Jim Butcher: In this third installment of The Dresden Files, Harry is up against vampires and ghosts and demons and nagging friends. This time around he is joined by Michael, whose magic powers come from his unshakable Christian faith and amazing sword. This book requires some amount of knowledge about the series, as several of the baddies are from the prior books: the head vampire lady, Harry’s fairy godmother, etc. The plotting here was a bit thinner and more scatterbrained, but I am hoping it’s the beginning of a larger story that will stretch into future books. I got a little tired of Harry being beaten up and then rallying over and over again, as well as his lengthy bouts of introspection, but I liked the story and characters enough that I’ll stick with the series for at least a few more books. I’ve heard it gets better as things go on, so hopefully this was just a bump in the road.

Also posted on BookCrossing.

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