*** Suzanne Collins - The Hunger Games
** Suzanne Collins - Catching Fire
** Suzanne Collins - Mockingjay
** George MacDonald Fraser - McAuslan. Entertaining for a while but not particularly gripping. A bunch of amusing anecdotes about being in the army shortly after the end of WWII.
*** John Scalzi - Old Man’s War. Great. An interesting reversal ( Read more... )

*** Source Code was gripping and compelling, but pretty much falls apart as soon as you think about it too carefully. It mostly works while you’re caught up in it though.
**** Easy A. Awesome. If you liked Heathers or Mean Girls (I need to see that again and see if it holds up after all this time), you will like this. It’s very smart and well- ( Read more... )

*** The Adjustment Bureau. Entertaining, fun to think about, nice hats.
*** Cranford. Disappointing, actually. We watch a lot of period miniseries around here, and this has a terrific cast etc etc, but it ended up being only pretty good. A lot of it was episodic, without getting us that interested in the characters.
*** Modern Family. Funny, well- ( Read more... )

*** P.G. Wodehouse - The Works of P.G. Wodehouse

Seriously, all I did from late April until early June, books-wise, was plow through this gigantic Wodehouse tome (thank god I didn’t have to carry it around on actual paper). I spent a solid 5-6 weeks on it and am still only 30% finished, and I read fairly quickly. I gave it up not because I didn’t ( Read more... )

** The Fifth Element
*** The Bourne Identity

People love this movie but I still have no real idea why. Gary Oldman being crazy and trying to make some kind of deal with a giant expanding ball of evil is amusing, but the whole movie is so sort of formulaic and cheezy and Chris Tucker is actively annoying (and let’s not even get into the skin- ( Read more... )

In the last 24 hours: pickled cabbage, pickled green beans, vietnamese grilled pork, homemade banh mi, grilled chicken wings, chicken stock. Was going to make rice paper too, but maybe tomorrow.
 

*** Arturo Perez-Reverte - The Flanders Panel
** Arturo Perez-Reverte - The Sun over Breda
*** Philip K. Dick - 11 Science Fiction Stories by Philip K. Dick
*** David Foster Wallace - Oblivion

I actually saw the horrible movie version of The Flanders Panel. It was horrible, though you do get to see Kate Beckinsale’s boobs. The book was ( Read more... )

*** Little Dorrit
*** Scott Pilgrim vs. the World
*** Nicholas Nickleby

LIttle Dorrit was good, yet another Matthew-Macfadyen-in-period-dress miniseries. Matthew Macfadyen: your sign of quality! There were some really irritating characters that made it annoying to watch, but I’m not sure if that’s Dickens’s fault or the producers’. NIcholas ( Read more... )

*** Herman Melville - Bartleby the Scrivener, a Story of Wall-Street
** David Sedaris - When You are Engulfed in Flames

Bartleby was my first Melville; I somehow managed to get through high school without reading Moby Dick. It was pretty good; I’m planning on reading more Melville.

I used to think David Sedaris was hilarious and occasionally moving ( Read more... )

Elizabeth Bennet: I am very sensible of the honour of your proposals, but it is impossible for me to do otherwise than decline them.

Mr. Collins: I am not now to learn, that it is usual with young ladies to reject the addresses of the man whom they secretly mean to accept, and shall hope to lead you to the altar ere long.

Elizabeth: Upon my word ( Read more... )