So, it’s Friday, and why not do one of those listy things? This one comes courtesy of Erin at Rarely Likable. Bold the ones you’ve seen at least three episodes of, add italics for those you’ve seen every episode of, and I’m adding a star to the ones I actually loved/love, etc. The others I just liked enough to watch at least three episodes.
Follow the clicky.
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Oh, yay, the weekend has arrived and with it will come Miss Barb Gilly and Mister Richard Butner, live from Raleigh, for birthday celebrationing. The house is allmostly spiffed and life is grand. I bought Scattergories. And we still haven’t played Save Dr. Lucky, even though we’ve had it for AGES. Drinking and board games, people; try it at home.
Emma the Dog Girl and I took a long meander around downtown last night, and she was the picture of bravery, sidling up to the giant, public-showeresque water feature in the courthouse square to steal a drink. Must start taking camera along. Even funnier, when we got home, she immediately lay down on the bathroom floor with her face over the a/c vent. Must start taking pictures at home. Later, Hemingway taunting her by lolling lazily on his back while she bark, bark, barked, which was the best, but also sadly unphotoged. Consider this paragraph your Friday Pictorial that isn’t.
Hangovers later, and I have a couple of real posts I haven’t had time to get to yet. Oh, and t
he Twenty Epics festivities continue; just go buy it! Christopher hasn’t written an entry about his story yet, which is sort of appropriate since it’s tiny — the shortest epic in the book, I believe. So consider this a post on his behalf and an admonition to buy what is most assuredly one of the best anthologies you’ll read this year. I hear the index is epic, all on its own. Ciao.
Let the Celebrating Continue Read More »
… oh, fellow Typepad users. All my content still existed this morning, and then all the lovely birthday comments went poof! Going dark until tomorrow in defensive posture…
Thursday Hangovers Read More »
And I’ll give away stuff if I want to. That’s right. I want everyone to be happy on my birthday and get presents. Since I can’t do that, the first person who emails or comments and says they would like them will get advance copies of Susanna Clarke’s The Ladies of Grace Adieu and Mark Binelli’s Sacco and Vanzetti Must Die! (plus whatever else I feel like throwing in, probably a copy of the new F&SF, some zines and spare stuff); they’ll even be wrapped nicely.
Now I go eat scones then get the superdeluxe massage and at some point sushi. (& a little party this weekend.) I love birthdays. And I’m actually ecstatic to finally be 30. It’s going to be a great decade. I can feel it.
Someone did the juju.
Jeez, I haven’t done this in awhile. And I suspect, as is always my undoing with this sort of thing, I’ve forgotten to record some books.
This has been a very weird year for reading. I was actually shocked to discover I’m relatively on track for the 75, because I’ve been reading a lot less than normal this year. (And WAY less fiction and WAY more rereading.) Vast sections of this year have just been in too much upheaval to do much in the way of reading. And at the moment, I have several books going at once, which is highly unusual for me.
Tonight, by way of beginning to clean and sorting out books to try and sell and donate to the library to make much-needed shelf space, I actually sorted out the Really Really TBRs from the TBR pile. Managing to get it down to about a dozen books I’d like to read right away. You know, after the four or so I have going. This feeling drives me nuts. I prefer a more serendipitous way of choosing books, and am even curious as to whether having sorted out this pile will make me avoid it. Anyway, the reading life feels like it’s settling back into a more comfortable groove. I hope, hope, hope. (And the LBC going to fewer books per round in future will help immensely.) Also, I only have research books out from the library; must remedy that immediately.
So here’s an attempt at some thumbnails to catch things up. I’ll try not to go this long without doing this again, for it makes me very sad to give short shrift to books I really enjoyed. Please forgive any repeat squibbing.
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75 Books (Sort of) Update Read More »
Did I skip Monday? Not quite.
More to come, promise. But the household is a wreck, Emma the Dog is barking at Hemingway the Cat (don’t worry, in moments they’ll go racing through the house after each other, happily), lots and lots going on. I’m working on a 75 books update, but since I’ve got about 30 books or so to include, it’s taking awhile. WEIRD reading year so far. And more on that too.
Today’s mail brought a lovely copy of one Jonathan Lethem fans won’t want to miss — How We Got Insipid, a beautiful limited edition from Subterranean Press featuring two previously uncollected short stories, "How We Got in Town and Out Again" and "The Insipid Profession of Jonthan Hornebom," along with an author afterword about why these stories slipped through the cracks of his two short story collections. I might also say that this included quite possibly the best ARC pitch letter I have ever seen. More as soon as I read the stories.
And speaking of sure to be lovely books, Jeff VanderMeer (and happy birthday!) announced that he and wife Ann are going to be co-editing an anthology of original pirate fiction for Night Shade Books (and, related, Jeremy Lassen looks quite fetching as a Lolita in military garb: scroll down). A reading period will be announced at a later date. (Aside: I cleaned one of our cars out over the weekend and found a pirate eyepatch shoved into the seat.)
Elizabeth Bear has a beautiful fucking post about beauty/aesthetics in genre fiction that I’ll also try and muster a more organized response to than just, "Yeah! Well said!", but in the meantime let the record show…
Cynthia Leitich Smith’s indispensable Cynsations features Heidi E.Y. Stemple, another of the outrageously multitalented Yolen/Stemple brood.
Uncle Ray offers some very entertaining book recs (yay, Cruddy!) at Sara Gran’s digs.
Oh, and Ed has posted the superhuman Dan Wickett’s opening comments in a back and forth about T.C. Boyle’s Talk Talk that I lamely represented in along with several other fine readers. Coming all week. Check it.
See? Too tired even for bullets. Nightie night night.
Actual content will be attempted next week, promise.
The Watcher (my favorite TV blog) has Project Runway’s Tim Gunn on The Devil Wears Prada:
“On [July 2], Grace Mirabella (17 years as editor in chief of Vogue, right before Anna Wintour [took over as editor]) and I decided to postpone our movie plan in favor of heading up to Connecticut to visit a mutual pal, Grace’s fashion director at Vogue and, later, Mirabella and then New York magazine, Jade Hobson.
“Frankly, I knew that Grace was ambivalent about seeing the movie and was equally ambivalent about being seen seeing it. So, I capitulated and off we went. We had a wonderful lunch after which Jade exclaimed, `Let’s see The Devil Wears Prada! It’s playing in Westport!’ So, off we went.
“Watching the movie while sitting next to the person who was ousted in favor of Anna was an experience in itself. I kept saying to myself, `Don’t like the movie. Don’t like the movie.’
“The trouble was, I did like the movie. Meryl Street is fabulous. She isn’t doing an impersonation of Anna. Rather, she really owns the role herself. And I loved Anne Hathaway and Stanley Tucci too. I have mixed feelings about the clothes: Streep looks stunning, but slightly dowdy and sometimes too costume-y, and Hathaway, but for the Chanel ‘costume’ with the thigh-high boots, looks stunning and stylish.
“Anyway, after the movie ended and the credits rolled and the lights came up, Grace and I turned to each other and said simultaneously, `I loved it!’ We did. And Jade did too.”
Le happy sigh.
The Only Opinion That Matters Is His Read More »