And now, back to your regularly scheduled blogging:
Bunker Hill
This movie is brought to you by the same fellow who did "C.S.A," KU film professor Kevin Willmott. General premise is a little like Jericho - small town in Kansas becomes isolated after disaster. There is no electricity, and the cars won't start. The townspeople, scared and lacking any information, start on their own personal revolution, ending in demagoguery and xenophobia. Targets of their rage include the town's single black man, gay man, Pakistanis, and independent thinker.
It's not exactly a feel good movie. It ends with an old-fashioned Western-style shootout in the town's square. In a lot of ways, it draws heavily on the Western tradition. The modernity comes in the post-9/11 way these townsfolk justify their new militia and gunbarrel justice.
I was terribly dissatisfied with the ending, which is abrupt and inconclusive. Maybe I'm just a peon movie watcher spoiled on Hollywood endings, but I wanted a LITTLE more closure.
It's only playing at Liberty Hall, and closes Thursday. But if you like a movie that'll make you think about how people respond in crises - try to make it out there.
Beware of God by Shalom Auslander
A delicious little collection of short stories. It's a couple hour read if you do it in one sitting - which you might be tempted to do - but the short stories make it easy to break up if your reading tends to come in 10-15 minute chunks.
The short stories deal largely with our human relation to (obviously) God and the Hebrew God and Judaism in particularly. They vary from absurd to tragic to funny - a very dark humor - all enough to entertain without being cheeseball fluff.
In one story, a man in a near-death experience discovers that God is a giant chicken. In another, two hamsters anxiously await the return of their Savior, Joe. In still another, an average man thwarts God's carefully laid plans for his death, forcing God, Death, and Satan to take matters into their own hands on Earth.
Read this book. Read it now!
Showing posts with label book review. Show all posts
Showing posts with label book review. Show all posts
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
Monday, May 12, 2008
You don't get a title today
Woe be unto you, Creepy Blogreading Guy, aka "Secretary of Keeping it Real"... I'm on to you. And your Double Wide IPA-loving life of lies...
Moving right along.
Today was the first day of KC's Bike Week. Naturally I rode to work. Then (and here's where I start questioning my mental stability) rode home, was home just long enough to change clothes and change bikes, rode to the Trek Store, went on a group ride, then rode home. 28 miles total today. And I spent *nearly* the entire time from 5pm-8pm on a bike. But we saw some really pretty areas of northeastern Shawnee and western Merriam, and it was a lot of fun. A lady from City of KCMO came out with freebies to promote bike week. We got little zipper packs made from reclaimed bike tubes and bracelets from reclaimed... climb ropes? I think? Anyway, they're both branded "green guru" which makes me happy. :)
Oh, I've been delinquent in giving you reviews. Today's loser: Home Delight Chinese Buffet. Located at SMP and Quivira, just west of the HyVee, this one is a real must-miss. My first clue should have been that all the staff was more, ah, Hispanic-looking, soccer-watching, and Spanish-speaking than your normal Chinese buffet. And in addition to Egg Foo Young, the buffet sported flautas. And nothing was particularly good. So kids, in your lust for Chinese buffets, I urge you to look elsewhere.
Letsee...haven't really been to any movies lately...oh! We played Mario Kart for the Wii at David's apartment in Omaha when we went up for his graduation. I'm NOT generally a Mario Kart lover - I usually spend more time running into walls, going the wrong direction, and getting generally grumpy than actually doing any "racing." This one, though, was really fun! I used the little steering wheel attachment, which I thought made it rather nice, though the "gamers" of the bunch were generally derisive. Screw them. But yes - a very fun group game, and friendly to non-Mario Kart freaks.
Finally - FINALLY - got and read "The Yiddish Policeman's Union" by Michael Chabon, which was all the rage on public radio shows last summer. I requested it from the library, and apparently so did everyone else. Makes sense that public radio listeners would be public library users. Buncha leeches. So though I requested it in June of 07, I got it at the end of April. It was good - glad I hadn't been EAGERLY awaiting it for that long - but I liked it. It's definitely a mystery novel, which isn't usually my genre of choice (as you may have noticed). But Chabon has a really nice way of weaving a whole bunch of threads together into a tidy package that at the end makes you say, "Oh, well that's nice then." without being a sentimental piece of tripe or another action-adventure novel. If you like mysteries or even just non-genre fiction, check it out.
Good night, and good luck.
Moving right along.
Today was the first day of KC's Bike Week. Naturally I rode to work. Then (and here's where I start questioning my mental stability) rode home, was home just long enough to change clothes and change bikes, rode to the Trek Store, went on a group ride, then rode home. 28 miles total today. And I spent *nearly* the entire time from 5pm-8pm on a bike. But we saw some really pretty areas of northeastern Shawnee and western Merriam, and it was a lot of fun. A lady from City of KCMO came out with freebies to promote bike week. We got little zipper packs made from reclaimed bike tubes and bracelets from reclaimed... climb ropes? I think? Anyway, they're both branded "green guru" which makes me happy. :)
Oh, I've been delinquent in giving you reviews. Today's loser: Home Delight Chinese Buffet. Located at SMP and Quivira, just west of the HyVee, this one is a real must-miss. My first clue should have been that all the staff was more, ah, Hispanic-looking, soccer-watching, and Spanish-speaking than your normal Chinese buffet. And in addition to Egg Foo Young, the buffet sported flautas. And nothing was particularly good. So kids, in your lust for Chinese buffets, I urge you to look elsewhere.
Letsee...haven't really been to any movies lately...oh! We played Mario Kart for the Wii at David's apartment in Omaha when we went up for his graduation. I'm NOT generally a Mario Kart lover - I usually spend more time running into walls, going the wrong direction, and getting generally grumpy than actually doing any "racing." This one, though, was really fun! I used the little steering wheel attachment, which I thought made it rather nice, though the "gamers" of the bunch were generally derisive. Screw them. But yes - a very fun group game, and friendly to non-Mario Kart freaks.
Finally - FINALLY - got and read "The Yiddish Policeman's Union" by Michael Chabon, which was all the rage on public radio shows last summer. I requested it from the library, and apparently so did everyone else. Makes sense that public radio listeners would be public library users. Buncha leeches. So though I requested it in June of 07, I got it at the end of April. It was good - glad I hadn't been EAGERLY awaiting it for that long - but I liked it. It's definitely a mystery novel, which isn't usually my genre of choice (as you may have noticed). But Chabon has a really nice way of weaving a whole bunch of threads together into a tidy package that at the end makes you say, "Oh, well that's nice then." without being a sentimental piece of tripe or another action-adventure novel. If you like mysteries or even just non-genre fiction, check it out.
Good night, and good luck.
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
Stardust
Well, I probably won't actually get to that backlog promised in the last last post, except perhaps by special request (ie, you writing in the comments that you want to know about something). So to satisfy my throngs of eager readers [*snicker*], here's my latest review:
I read "Stardust" over the weekend, then watched the movie. Now, I will say that I read the book in Spanish, so it's possible that I missed something in the translation... that it might have actually been funnier or maybe deeper... but frankly I don't think so.
I found the book to be disappointing and the movie to be better, but still confusing. The book was, for the most part, written like a children's book, almost a deliberate imitation of The Hobbit (which I hated). Characters go along, do things, run into almost no difficulties, and when they do, they extract themselves with teeth-grinding simplicity. 80 pages in, nothing had really happened. At 100 pages, the "mission" of the book is accomplished, and all that's left is getting home. The problem with seeing it as a sweet children's book would be the explicit language (more an issue in English than it was in Spanish), one fairly graphic sex scene, and a couple scenes of rather descriptive violence perpetuated against a unicorn. These scenes were all the more discomfiting because they're so unexpected in this sort of book. It's like you're watching..."Aladdin" say, and Jasmine suddenly takes her top off while Aladdin yells "Holy fuck! Check out those knockers!" ...and then you're right back to the regular movie.
It lacked depth, it lacked character development, it lacked conflict. There are two other groups of people chasing the star, but it never really all comes together in the grand finale the way you'd expect; the other plot lines just peter out before the end.
The movie was better...in that it wasn't a total waste of my time. We get the grand finale, which is really quite good, and there are some scenes of visual humor that were really entertaining - though they had little to do with the book, that was a good thing in this case. My only beef with the movie is that some of the funny bits were WAY out there - ie, the smart-alecky ghosts and the gay pirate - that I found myself wondering whether the movie was deliberately a spoof/parody or whether it had just ended up that way. There were parts that took themselves seriously, and parts that I said to Eric, "Okay, this HAS to be a parody of a fantasy movie." Anyway, it was a cute bit of fluff, but I'd still recommend going to see "The Golden Compass" for those wanting a bit of high fantasy to go with their evening.
I have a collection of Gaiman's short stories coming in from the library soon, so I'm pretty excited about that.
I read "Stardust" over the weekend, then watched the movie. Now, I will say that I read the book in Spanish, so it's possible that I missed something in the translation... that it might have actually been funnier or maybe deeper... but frankly I don't think so.
I found the book to be disappointing and the movie to be better, but still confusing. The book was, for the most part, written like a children's book, almost a deliberate imitation of The Hobbit (which I hated). Characters go along, do things, run into almost no difficulties, and when they do, they extract themselves with teeth-grinding simplicity. 80 pages in, nothing had really happened. At 100 pages, the "mission" of the book is accomplished, and all that's left is getting home. The problem with seeing it as a sweet children's book would be the explicit language (more an issue in English than it was in Spanish), one fairly graphic sex scene, and a couple scenes of rather descriptive violence perpetuated against a unicorn. These scenes were all the more discomfiting because they're so unexpected in this sort of book. It's like you're watching..."Aladdin" say, and Jasmine suddenly takes her top off while Aladdin yells "Holy fuck! Check out those knockers!" ...and then you're right back to the regular movie.
It lacked depth, it lacked character development, it lacked conflict. There are two other groups of people chasing the star, but it never really all comes together in the grand finale the way you'd expect; the other plot lines just peter out before the end.
The movie was better...in that it wasn't a total waste of my time. We get the grand finale, which is really quite good, and there are some scenes of visual humor that were really entertaining - though they had little to do with the book, that was a good thing in this case. My only beef with the movie is that some of the funny bits were WAY out there - ie, the smart-alecky ghosts and the gay pirate - that I found myself wondering whether the movie was deliberately a spoof/parody or whether it had just ended up that way. There were parts that took themselves seriously, and parts that I said to Eric, "Okay, this HAS to be a parody of a fantasy movie." Anyway, it was a cute bit of fluff, but I'd still recommend going to see "The Golden Compass" for those wanting a bit of high fantasy to go with their evening.
I have a collection of Gaiman's short stories coming in from the library soon, so I'm pretty excited about that.
Monday, April 14, 2008
Book Larning
When I attended the kick off of The Big Read project last year, one of the questions on their readers' survey was: "How many books did you read last year?" It's a simple enough question, and one that all too many Americans, statistically speaking, would have a difficult time answering greater than zero.
I should have started it earlier, but in the middle of February of this year, I started keeping a list of the books I was reading. Here's my list so far - though I swear I think I've forgotten a couple...
Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke [incomplete]
The Mighty and the Almighty by Madeleine Albright
Empire by Orson Scott Card
Magic: The Final Fantasy Collection by Isaac Asimov
Tales of the Black Widowers by Isaac Asimov
Asimov's Guide to Shakespeare by Isaac Asimov [incomplete]
"Julius Caesar" by William Shakespeare (with Asimov guide)
"As You Like It" by William Shakespeare (with Asimov guide)
"Midsummer Night's Dream" by William Shakespeare (with Asimov guide)
The Golden Compass by Phillip Pullman
The Subtle Knife by Phillip Pullman
The Amber Spyglass by Phillip Pullman
Memo to the President Elect by Madeleine Albright
An Isaac Asimov Second Omnibus by Isaac Asimov (including "Pebble in the Sky", "The Stars, Like Dust", and "The Currents of Space")
The Furies of Calderon by Jim Butcher
Academ's Fury by Jim Butcher
Time's Eye by Arthur C. Clarke
Stardust by Neil Gaiman
Simple Prosperity by David Wann [in progress]
So here's where it gets difficult to count, difficult to answer the simple question, "How many books have I read?" For example, do I count Jonathan Strange... since I didn't finish it? (Probably not - I wasn't even halfway through when I put it down) Or Asimov's Guide to Shakespeare - it's a reference book. I've read in the book, but certainly didn't read it cover to cover. Also, does each Shakespearean play count as a separate "book" for counting purposes? Similarly, in the Asimov Omnibus - that included three separately published novels, each in the 150-250 page range. Was that three books? Or was it once since it was published into one binding?
I guess my best answer to this question is: 13 - 20 in two months.
I should have started it earlier, but in the middle of February of this year, I started keeping a list of the books I was reading. Here's my list so far - though I swear I think I've forgotten a couple...
Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke [incomplete]
The Mighty and the Almighty by Madeleine Albright
Empire by Orson Scott Card
Magic: The Final Fantasy Collection by Isaac Asimov
Tales of the Black Widowers by Isaac Asimov
Asimov's Guide to Shakespeare by Isaac Asimov [incomplete]
"Julius Caesar" by William Shakespeare (with Asimov guide)
"As You Like It" by William Shakespeare (with Asimov guide)
"Midsummer Night's Dream" by William Shakespeare (with Asimov guide)
The Golden Compass by Phillip Pullman
The Subtle Knife by Phillip Pullman
The Amber Spyglass by Phillip Pullman
Memo to the President Elect by Madeleine Albright
An Isaac Asimov Second Omnibus by Isaac Asimov (including "Pebble in the Sky", "The Stars, Like Dust", and "The Currents of Space")
The Furies of Calderon by Jim Butcher
Academ's Fury by Jim Butcher
Time's Eye by Arthur C. Clarke
Stardust by Neil Gaiman
Simple Prosperity by David Wann [in progress]
So here's where it gets difficult to count, difficult to answer the simple question, "How many books have I read?" For example, do I count Jonathan Strange... since I didn't finish it? (Probably not - I wasn't even halfway through when I put it down) Or Asimov's Guide to Shakespeare - it's a reference book. I've read in the book, but certainly didn't read it cover to cover. Also, does each Shakespearean play count as a separate "book" for counting purposes? Similarly, in the Asimov Omnibus - that included three separately published novels, each in the 150-250 page range. Was that three books? Or was it once since it was published into one binding?
I guess my best answer to this question is: 13 - 20 in two months.
Friday, February 29, 2008
On Unexpected Surprises and Stupid People
Restaurant Review:
We went to check out this El Salvadoran restaurant in Mission the other day. It's called El Pulgarcito, and it's just this little place off Mission Drive, almost right under I-35. It sure doesn't look like much... the booth seats are ripped, and the front door doesn't close quite right. But we were the only gringos in there...and to judge from the stares we got, we were probably about the only gringos who'd been in there in a really long time. Good service, though I did have to switch languages a few times due to some misunderstandings. No big deal. After all, that's why you learn a second language, right? To eat a wider variety of foods at local digs? And yes, the food. Wow! We tried pupusas, which I understand from Karen, a salvadoreña friend of mine, are THE thing to eat. They're like... meat pancakes. Like you might eat a banana pancake? This was a bean pancake. They started the meal with this salad in a jar. Basically shredded cabbage, some tomato, cucumber, and jalapeños, all of which has been pickled in vinegar in this jar. So they just bring the jar and some tongs to the table and you go to. Anyway, it was great. I'd recommend it for sure - if you don't speak Spanish, you might have to resort to a little bit of grunting and pointing for special questions, but they were pretty good about order taking and check bringing in English. :) It was quite an experience... like stepping into this wholly other subculture just a half block off of Standard Suburbia.
Unrelated to any of that... I've been browsing Craigslist a lot lately, mostly looking for furniture. I must say, I am completely appalled by the utter illiteracy of a LOT of people. The most egregious I've seen so far is the person who was selling an "Intertainment Armuar" I imagine that even if their computer had a spell checker, it probably just gave up and committed suicide. I mean, all over the place - just shockingly bad spelling, bad grammar...not even Internet lingo kind of bad grammar, either... misused homophones (their and they're and there being the very worst). I mean seriously, people? Do you not even have a middle school education?
Oh, and the slobs are my favorite. They take these pictures of their furniture, and it's like they didn't even try. The bed they're selling will have sheets tossed all over it, the table they're selling is still covered in mountains of crap to the point you can't even see the table. I know I'm sounding kind of anal here, but I've seen enough HGTV to guess that that ain't good salesmanship there, no sir.
And now for a couple of book reviews: (I think I might start doing more reviews on this page... god knows I consume enough various media to share a little...)
Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell - I'd probably refer you to the extensive reviews on Amazon for this one. From that, you'll probably notice that people either LOVE or HATE this book. I had to come down on the negative side, though I wanted so badly to like it. I gave up after nearly 200 pages of torture. People compare the writing style to Dickens or Austen... but while its written to appear contemporary with these (which I found charming, and not obnoxious), it does a huge disservice to Dickens and Austen, who were actually charming, witty, and descriptive with their prose, instead of just...long. And dry. And meandering. And pointless.
The Return of the Black Widowers, by Isaac Asimov - A real winner. If you like Agatha Christie style mysteries that are centered more around logic and cunning than around crime scene procedure, then you should love these. It's a collection of short stories that center around these curmudgeonly old farts who attempt to solve puzzles over dinner, though its always their clever waiter, Henry, who solves everything. The stories are formulaic, but very well written, and you usually have a chance to solve them ahead of Henry if you really try. A pleasant little read. Goes quite fast.
Asimov's Guide to Shakespeare, by Isaac Asimov - If you're not a complete Asimov nut (as I am), you may not realize how amazingly prolific he was, and what a broad range of topics he wrote on. Over 800 published works ranging over everything from history, to natural sciences to sci-fi, fantasy, mystery, children's books, and literature. His guide to Shakespeare is not concerned so much with lit interpretation as providing a historical and cultural background to the plays, both of the writing and the setting of the play. After only having read a couple plays (Asimov's Guide open to one side of me, Shakespeare's complete works open on the other side), I consider this a nearly indispensable guide for reading Shakespeare, and I plan to buy it as soon as I can find it.
Madeleine Albright, The Mighty and the Almighty and Memo to the President-Elect - I've recently read both of these, and I really enjoy her insight, though I don't always agree. The first deals with the role of religion in politics, and in particular in foreign affairs through history, which she certainly has an informed perspective on. Memo is more about the current state of the US and, again, mostly foreign affairs, and is sort of a handbook for an incoming president (you know, the kind Obama will have to read on Day One, says Hillary). I, for one, wish the incoming president, whoever he or she be, would read it. Either of these I'd recommend, depending on your particular interests.
We went to check out this El Salvadoran restaurant in Mission the other day. It's called El Pulgarcito, and it's just this little place off Mission Drive, almost right under I-35. It sure doesn't look like much... the booth seats are ripped, and the front door doesn't close quite right. But we were the only gringos in there...and to judge from the stares we got, we were probably about the only gringos who'd been in there in a really long time. Good service, though I did have to switch languages a few times due to some misunderstandings. No big deal. After all, that's why you learn a second language, right? To eat a wider variety of foods at local digs? And yes, the food. Wow! We tried pupusas, which I understand from Karen, a salvadoreña friend of mine, are THE thing to eat. They're like... meat pancakes. Like you might eat a banana pancake? This was a bean pancake. They started the meal with this salad in a jar. Basically shredded cabbage, some tomato, cucumber, and jalapeños, all of which has been pickled in vinegar in this jar. So they just bring the jar and some tongs to the table and you go to. Anyway, it was great. I'd recommend it for sure - if you don't speak Spanish, you might have to resort to a little bit of grunting and pointing for special questions, but they were pretty good about order taking and check bringing in English. :) It was quite an experience... like stepping into this wholly other subculture just a half block off of Standard Suburbia.
Unrelated to any of that... I've been browsing Craigslist a lot lately, mostly looking for furniture. I must say, I am completely appalled by the utter illiteracy of a LOT of people. The most egregious I've seen so far is the person who was selling an "Intertainment Armuar" I imagine that even if their computer had a spell checker, it probably just gave up and committed suicide. I mean, all over the place - just shockingly bad spelling, bad grammar...not even Internet lingo kind of bad grammar, either... misused homophones (their and they're and there being the very worst). I mean seriously, people? Do you not even have a middle school education?
Oh, and the slobs are my favorite. They take these pictures of their furniture, and it's like they didn't even try. The bed they're selling will have sheets tossed all over it, the table they're selling is still covered in mountains of crap to the point you can't even see the table. I know I'm sounding kind of anal here, but I've seen enough HGTV to guess that that ain't good salesmanship there, no sir.
And now for a couple of book reviews: (I think I might start doing more reviews on this page... god knows I consume enough various media to share a little...)
Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell - I'd probably refer you to the extensive reviews on Amazon for this one. From that, you'll probably notice that people either LOVE or HATE this book. I had to come down on the negative side, though I wanted so badly to like it. I gave up after nearly 200 pages of torture. People compare the writing style to Dickens or Austen... but while its written to appear contemporary with these (which I found charming, and not obnoxious), it does a huge disservice to Dickens and Austen, who were actually charming, witty, and descriptive with their prose, instead of just...long. And dry. And meandering. And pointless.
The Return of the Black Widowers, by Isaac Asimov - A real winner. If you like Agatha Christie style mysteries that are centered more around logic and cunning than around crime scene procedure, then you should love these. It's a collection of short stories that center around these curmudgeonly old farts who attempt to solve puzzles over dinner, though its always their clever waiter, Henry, who solves everything. The stories are formulaic, but very well written, and you usually have a chance to solve them ahead of Henry if you really try. A pleasant little read. Goes quite fast.
Asimov's Guide to Shakespeare, by Isaac Asimov - If you're not a complete Asimov nut (as I am), you may not realize how amazingly prolific he was, and what a broad range of topics he wrote on. Over 800 published works ranging over everything from history, to natural sciences to sci-fi, fantasy, mystery, children's books, and literature. His guide to Shakespeare is not concerned so much with lit interpretation as providing a historical and cultural background to the plays, both of the writing and the setting of the play. After only having read a couple plays (Asimov's Guide open to one side of me, Shakespeare's complete works open on the other side), I consider this a nearly indispensable guide for reading Shakespeare, and I plan to buy it as soon as I can find it.
Madeleine Albright, The Mighty and the Almighty and Memo to the President-Elect - I've recently read both of these, and I really enjoy her insight, though I don't always agree. The first deals with the role of religion in politics, and in particular in foreign affairs through history, which she certainly has an informed perspective on. Memo is more about the current state of the US and, again, mostly foreign affairs, and is sort of a handbook for an incoming president (you know, the kind Obama will have to read on Day One, says Hillary). I, for one, wish the incoming president, whoever he or she be, would read it. Either of these I'd recommend, depending on your particular interests.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
