hello all.
i've moved my blog over to wordpress.com...please come check me out there. i'm making a concerted effort to blog daily (or close to it) so come check me out.
http://1979semifinalist.wordpress.com
thanks!
kelly
Wednesday, August 08, 2007
Saturday, March 03, 2007
McSweeney's #21
finally finished it last week - it's fantastic - as all McSweeney's are. for anyone interested in short fiction - you just have to be reading McSweeney's. and everyone should do themselves a favor and read the Believer too. just fucking do it already. learn something for once already.
McSweeney's #21 - 4 stars
McSweeney's #21 - 4 stars
two more books...
i must be in a reading zone right now.
it may also be called "avoidance" but you know, let's just call it a reading zone.
i finished this week reading An Anthology of Graphic Fiction, Cartoons, & True Stories editited by Ivan Brunetti. 4 Stars. this was a great collection. i had already read even more of these pieces than in the Best American Comics 2006 collection, and some of my favorites (Jeffrey Brown!) were happily collected here. i can't put my finger exactly on why this collection speaks to me a little more than the Best American collection, maybe because of the way in which it was organized...there was a fluidity to it in Anthology that i didn't feel in Best. Best just seemed to be a collection of great pieces, whereas Anthology feels more like a history of work - which makes sense i suppose since Best of has to be work from 2006 and Anthology can collect anything. i guess it is unfair to punish Best of for having limitations put on it, but i couldn't help enjoying the Anthology a little more. that said, they are both great books and i am happy to have read (and own) them both. again, i felt incredibly inspired to pick Shiksa back up again. however, that too could just be considered avoidance :)
i also read over the last two days Judy Fong Bates Midnight at the Dragon Cafe. it was quite good. i'm going to say 4 stars. i read her short story collection China Dog last year and enjoyed it even more than i had suspected and the same was also true here. she has a very easy way of writing that kind of sends you through the pages without even realizing it. and she also has a very fluid way of sneaking plot twists in on you. i was a third of the way through the book, finding it enjoyable but fairly predictable, when she threw a twist in there that really changed my whole perception of the novel. and not a cheesy out of nowhere twist, it just arrived very naturally, as life does. i really enjoyed it.
it may also be called "avoidance" but you know, let's just call it a reading zone.
i finished this week reading An Anthology of Graphic Fiction, Cartoons, & True Stories editited by Ivan Brunetti. 4 Stars. this was a great collection. i had already read even more of these pieces than in the Best American Comics 2006 collection, and some of my favorites (Jeffrey Brown!) were happily collected here. i can't put my finger exactly on why this collection speaks to me a little more than the Best American collection, maybe because of the way in which it was organized...there was a fluidity to it in Anthology that i didn't feel in Best. Best just seemed to be a collection of great pieces, whereas Anthology feels more like a history of work - which makes sense i suppose since Best of has to be work from 2006 and Anthology can collect anything. i guess it is unfair to punish Best of for having limitations put on it, but i couldn't help enjoying the Anthology a little more. that said, they are both great books and i am happy to have read (and own) them both. again, i felt incredibly inspired to pick Shiksa back up again. however, that too could just be considered avoidance :)
i also read over the last two days Judy Fong Bates Midnight at the Dragon Cafe. it was quite good. i'm going to say 4 stars. i read her short story collection China Dog last year and enjoyed it even more than i had suspected and the same was also true here. she has a very easy way of writing that kind of sends you through the pages without even realizing it. and she also has a very fluid way of sneaking plot twists in on you. i was a third of the way through the book, finding it enjoyable but fairly predictable, when she threw a twist in there that really changed my whole perception of the novel. and not a cheesy out of nowhere twist, it just arrived very naturally, as life does. i really enjoyed it.
the road. jesus man, the fucking road.
so here's a story about me trying to go to sleep around 11:30 on monday evening and picking up my new copy of The Road by Cormac McCarthy and reading a few pages, cut to 2:30 am and me finishing The Road with a 'holy shit what a ride' look on my face. and then cut to me watching cartoons for half an hour to get the imagery and intense horror out of my head so that i had a better shot at non-apocalyptic dream (which i am prone to - both to dreaming in general and ofen enough the apocalyptic kind - even without a brilliant book forcing me into it). suffice to say the cartoons only partially worked and i ended up having an apocalyptic horror meets superhero dream. not a great combo.
so 4.5 stars.
this book is incredibly well written, and perhaps more importantly it is just brilliantly executed. no chapter breaks at first may make you think, "that's strange" but after reading a few pages you realize how innane chapters in this book would be (maybe all books? - whoa i just blew my own mind a little bit there). anyway, the only reason this book does not get a perfect score is because i didn't really enjoy the prose that made up "the man's" dreams/hallucinations. my boyfriend (who read it first and also loved it) thought these beautiful passages offered a great comparison to the horror of the dystopian life these characters were living...and he has a great point...but overall i didn't find the actual prose that moving, and i was so intensely invested in what was actually happening to these characters that i became annoyed by these forays into fantasy and often found myself skipping ahead to see if they were going to be able to avoid whatever next horror awaited them. oy. what a book. it's been a very long time since i curled up with a book good enough to make me not regret only getting a few hours sleep before work.
of course i'm going to have to watch cartoons for two weeks straight to purge these dreams, but its still worth it i think.
so 4.5 stars.
this book is incredibly well written, and perhaps more importantly it is just brilliantly executed. no chapter breaks at first may make you think, "that's strange" but after reading a few pages you realize how innane chapters in this book would be (maybe all books? - whoa i just blew my own mind a little bit there). anyway, the only reason this book does not get a perfect score is because i didn't really enjoy the prose that made up "the man's" dreams/hallucinations. my boyfriend (who read it first and also loved it) thought these beautiful passages offered a great comparison to the horror of the dystopian life these characters were living...and he has a great point...but overall i didn't find the actual prose that moving, and i was so intensely invested in what was actually happening to these characters that i became annoyed by these forays into fantasy and often found myself skipping ahead to see if they were going to be able to avoid whatever next horror awaited them. oy. what a book. it's been a very long time since i curled up with a book good enough to make me not regret only getting a few hours sleep before work.
of course i'm going to have to watch cartoons for two weeks straight to purge these dreams, but its still worth it i think.
Saturday, January 20, 2007
copy cat blog...
so rather than doing one end of the year book review i've decided to copy my boyfriend and review books as i complete them. i hope this will allow me to give more honest immediate impressions and also i suppose make my blog more palatable so that not everything has to be downloaded at once. i can be quite wordy if you haven't noticed. i will probably do a summary at the end of the year, but i'm going to try to do them as i go, so here goes...
i'll use the same star rating system that netflix uses as mentioned before, with 5 stars possible.
1. Third Class Superhero by Charles Yu. short fiction collection. 3 stars.
i really really really wanted to love this book. so perhaps having my expectations too high led ultimately to both our downfalls here. i found myself, after the first story, wishing for men & cartoons. the first story titled Third Class Superhero was wonderful. really lovely and thoughful and quite brilliant i thought. it also set the bar rather high for the rest of the collection and for me, it did not quite deliver. i give it three stars however instead of 2 or 2.5 because i have to admit that it is pretty groundbreaking in a way. most of the stories are very experimental and while for the most part i had trouble connecting with them emotionally and found them to be clinical i've made a mental (and now physical) note to go back and re-read this collection in a year or so and see how i feel about it on a second reading. i'll let you know if i have a change of heart. so that, the experimental groundbreaking nature and my LOVE of the first story brings the rating up quite a bit. check it out certainly if you are into experimental short fiction, he does some very intersting things. also, this is a first novel/collection i believe, so i think we'll see some great things forthcoming from Mr. Yu in the future i'll definitely be checking out the next one.
2. Zoetrope - All Story Winter 2006 issue. Editor - Michael Ray, presented by Francis Ford Coppola. short fiction collection. 4 stars.
even though this is technically not a book i include it both because of it's length (90+pages of writing and images) and because of it's impressive weight in the short story field - much like Tin House and McSweeney's, Zoetrope features really great writers quite often. this was a really solid collection from start to finish. Miranda July is quickly becoming one of my favorite short fiction authors. she really has a great voice and a wonderful perspective. her stories often leave me with an aching feeling. in a good way i suppose. Alice Munroe is also featured here with a story that i gather she wrote and published quite some time ago, it is reprinted here with a preface by Sarah Polley (writer, actress, director) who is releasing a film based on the story in May 2007. i am truly glad i got a chance to read this story it is quite beautiful. also it goes a long way towards redeeming Ms. Munroe in my eyes. i spend a good chunk of time reading a VERY long piece of hers in the New Yorker some years ago that i really did not like. i kept pushing through it figuring it would pay off for me and it just never did. i was incredibly disappointed and though i have read other works of hers that i enjoyed since then this one sealed the forgiveness deal for me.
3. The Best American Comics 2006. Harvey Pekar Guest Editor and Anne Elizabeth Moore, Editor. 3.5 stars.
First let me say, congratulations to The Best American series for recognizing comics as the powerful and important media it is, and should be. I hope they keep this up for a long time in coming, i will be buying the issue every year both excited to see what they have picked up and also strictly to support something i believe in. If you believe in comics and furthering the art as a "legitimate" medium, you should pick it up too. it is yet another way to support the arts - what other wasteful thing are you going to do with your $22 bucks. buy it now. okay, onto the review. a really solid collection. are these the things i would have picked? some of them, definitely some of them not, but that happens in any "best of" collection. you've got people who have different tastes and even different reasons for the pieces they pick, but overall it's a nice cross section i think of what is going on in comics today. harvey pekar really hates superheros judging from his introduction, and as many of you know, i love me some superheros. but i love a different kind of superhero i think than the masses and i like to think that if harvey and i sat down to talk about superheros we wouldn't be that far away from each other really. you won't find any superheros here (actually that's not true, because Onion Jack is a great superhero story i think, and Rabbithead seems like she's gotta be a superhero to me, and then there's a Wonder Warthog story as well) but that's definitely not the focus of the collection. some standouts for me are: Joel Priddy's The Amazing Life of Onion Jack; Anders Nilsen's The Gift; Chris Ware's Comics: A History (obviously); Jonathan Bennett's Dance With The Ventures; Alex Robinson's Thirty Three; Rebecca Dart's Rabbithead; Jamie Hernandez's Day By Day with Hopey: Tuesday is Whose Day?; Kurt Wolfgang's Passing Before Life's Very Eyes; and Robert Crumb's Walkin' The Streets. You may have read some of these stories elsewhere, i know i have, but again, still worth it to see them and have them all collected beautifully here.
as a sidenote i must also congratulate Pekar and Moore on their introductions as i felt quite inspired to go back to comics immediately after reading their words. maybe i'll pull dusty Shiksa back out. who knows.
i'll use the same star rating system that netflix uses as mentioned before, with 5 stars possible.
1. Third Class Superhero by Charles Yu. short fiction collection. 3 stars.
i really really really wanted to love this book. so perhaps having my expectations too high led ultimately to both our downfalls here. i found myself, after the first story, wishing for men & cartoons. the first story titled Third Class Superhero was wonderful. really lovely and thoughful and quite brilliant i thought. it also set the bar rather high for the rest of the collection and for me, it did not quite deliver. i give it three stars however instead of 2 or 2.5 because i have to admit that it is pretty groundbreaking in a way. most of the stories are very experimental and while for the most part i had trouble connecting with them emotionally and found them to be clinical i've made a mental (and now physical) note to go back and re-read this collection in a year or so and see how i feel about it on a second reading. i'll let you know if i have a change of heart. so that, the experimental groundbreaking nature and my LOVE of the first story brings the rating up quite a bit. check it out certainly if you are into experimental short fiction, he does some very intersting things. also, this is a first novel/collection i believe, so i think we'll see some great things forthcoming from Mr. Yu in the future i'll definitely be checking out the next one.
2. Zoetrope - All Story Winter 2006 issue. Editor - Michael Ray, presented by Francis Ford Coppola. short fiction collection. 4 stars.
even though this is technically not a book i include it both because of it's length (90+pages of writing and images) and because of it's impressive weight in the short story field - much like Tin House and McSweeney's, Zoetrope features really great writers quite often. this was a really solid collection from start to finish. Miranda July is quickly becoming one of my favorite short fiction authors. she really has a great voice and a wonderful perspective. her stories often leave me with an aching feeling. in a good way i suppose. Alice Munroe is also featured here with a story that i gather she wrote and published quite some time ago, it is reprinted here with a preface by Sarah Polley (writer, actress, director) who is releasing a film based on the story in May 2007. i am truly glad i got a chance to read this story it is quite beautiful. also it goes a long way towards redeeming Ms. Munroe in my eyes. i spend a good chunk of time reading a VERY long piece of hers in the New Yorker some years ago that i really did not like. i kept pushing through it figuring it would pay off for me and it just never did. i was incredibly disappointed and though i have read other works of hers that i enjoyed since then this one sealed the forgiveness deal for me.
3. The Best American Comics 2006. Harvey Pekar Guest Editor and Anne Elizabeth Moore, Editor. 3.5 stars.
First let me say, congratulations to The Best American series for recognizing comics as the powerful and important media it is, and should be. I hope they keep this up for a long time in coming, i will be buying the issue every year both excited to see what they have picked up and also strictly to support something i believe in. If you believe in comics and furthering the art as a "legitimate" medium, you should pick it up too. it is yet another way to support the arts - what other wasteful thing are you going to do with your $22 bucks. buy it now. okay, onto the review. a really solid collection. are these the things i would have picked? some of them, definitely some of them not, but that happens in any "best of" collection. you've got people who have different tastes and even different reasons for the pieces they pick, but overall it's a nice cross section i think of what is going on in comics today. harvey pekar really hates superheros judging from his introduction, and as many of you know, i love me some superheros. but i love a different kind of superhero i think than the masses and i like to think that if harvey and i sat down to talk about superheros we wouldn't be that far away from each other really. you won't find any superheros here (actually that's not true, because Onion Jack is a great superhero story i think, and Rabbithead seems like she's gotta be a superhero to me, and then there's a Wonder Warthog story as well) but that's definitely not the focus of the collection. some standouts for me are: Joel Priddy's The Amazing Life of Onion Jack; Anders Nilsen's The Gift; Chris Ware's Comics: A History (obviously); Jonathan Bennett's Dance With The Ventures; Alex Robinson's Thirty Three; Rebecca Dart's Rabbithead; Jamie Hernandez's Day By Day with Hopey: Tuesday is Whose Day?; Kurt Wolfgang's Passing Before Life's Very Eyes; and Robert Crumb's Walkin' The Streets. You may have read some of these stories elsewhere, i know i have, but again, still worth it to see them and have them all collected beautifully here.
as a sidenote i must also congratulate Pekar and Moore on their introductions as i felt quite inspired to go back to comics immediately after reading their words. maybe i'll pull dusty Shiksa back out. who knows.
Monday, January 01, 2007
Kelly's Year in Books 2006 Review
so here it is, the much awaited (okay, only by me) Kelly's 2006 Year in Books Review.
please note that this is only books consumed by me in the past year, not books actually published this year (common misconception of the first ever 2006 Kelly Review). also these books are in no specific order, not chronological, hell, not even alphabetical - i'm far too lazy for any of that.
also, although i prefer a four star system, the ratings i have been doing on netflix over the past year(s) (2500+ ratings and counting) have corrupted me over to a five star system, so here is how it breaks down.
* = hated it
** = did not like it
*** = liked it
**** = really liked it
***** = loved it (supberb!)
unlike what netflix allows you to do however, i am allowing myself half stars as this rating stuff all became very difficult at some point. it should also be said that it is unlikely you will find much below a three here as i have a fairly foolproof system for picking books for myself these days (see previous riveting blogs for more on that)
okay, enough, on to the list!
1. Little Children (fiction) by Tom Perotta - 3 Stars
this experience has robbed me of reading the book before seeing the movie. i will never again rush to the book before the movie because although the book was good, i felt the movie (for once) was far superior and yet the movie was tainted for me because i kept getting caught up in remembering the book. i was quite annoyed.
2. Twilight of the Superheros (short fiction collection) by Deborah Eisenberg - 3 stars
nice collection. some weak spots however that brought down the overall ranking.
3. Human Oddities (short fiction collection) by Nora Jabonski - 4 stars
this was occasionally difficult for me to read as i'm a bit squeamish, but it was a beautiful collection of stories and reallly made me push myself in my own writing.
4. A Good Man is Hard to Find (short fiction collection) by Flannery O'Conner - 4.5 stars
this is a brilliant collection by a prolific female writer who was really breaking boundaries for her time. the short piece that shares the name of the collection is a real standout as well - if they were all that good i'd have had to go with 5 stars.
5.Yellow (fiction) by Janni Visman .. 3 stars
this book originally blew my mind and i still like it, but it hasn't stood the test of time like others. i did however read it in one day, so that speaks well for it.
6. Ishmael (fiction) by Daniel Quinn .. 4 stars
this book also blew my mind and continues to. i still think of it often, especially when i consider hunger, poverty and other world issues (which i'm sorry to report .. especially considering i just saw children of men today .. is not often enough).
7. Good Omens (fiction) by Terry Prachett & Neil Gaiman .. 4.5 stars.
i read again this summer in Hawaii while on vacation and tore through it just as hungrily as the first time. a brilliant read, that while "light" is also surprisingly "heavy"...
8. The Best American Short Stories 2005 (short fiction collection) edited by Michael Chabon .. 4 stars
a great collection, maybe not "the best" in my mind, but a lot of the best.
9. The Dead Fish Museum (short fiction collection) by Charles D'Ambrosio .. 4 stars
some of these stories blew me away, and i was pleased to realize that i'd already read many of them in other publications.
10. Remote Feed (short fiction collection) by David Gilbert .. 3.5 stars
this was great stuff, but not as great as i had expected .. perhaps my expectations were up too high.
11. China Dog (short fiction collection) by Judy Fong Bates .. 4 stars
i looked for this collection for fucking ever and it was worth the wait. i'm hoping to read her novel this coming year.
12. Klepto (fiction) by Jenny Pollack .. 3 stars
to be fair to Ms. Pollack i actually enjoyed her book and thought it was a great light ride, it's just not really aimed at me and thus missed it's mark for my rating system (it's young adult fiction really).
13. How We Are Hungry (short fiction collection) by Dave Eggers .. 4.5 stars.
fucking brilliant. no more needs be said.
14. Icelander (fiction) by Dustin Long .. 4 stars
it took me awhile to get through Icelander but when i did it really paid off. plus .. beautiful! hands down the most beautiful book i have ever read, cover to cover .. not a misstep visually.
15. Here They Come (fiction) by Yannick Murphy .. 4.5 stars
this was a great read .. from the packaging right through to the content i loved it. Mc'Sweeney's Press strikes it right again.
16. Some of the Parts (fiction) by T. Cooper .. 3.5 stars
a really interesting read, sometimes i thought i was falling in love, other times, less so.
17. Exercises in Style (fiction) by Raymond Queneau .. 3 stars
this rating is not fair because this book probably opened my mind more than any other two books i read this year, but i didn't fall in love reading it and that is what i am remembering as i write this.
18. Rape: a love story (fiction) by Jocye Carol Oates .. 2 stars
i was very disappointed by this. a great idea, but weak execution to my mind.
19. Black Hole (comic book/graphic novel) by Charles Burns .. 4.5 stars
this is a brilliant fucking book and my reading it was LONG overdue.
20. V For Vendetta (comic book/graphic novel) by Alan Moore .. 3.5 stars
also a long overdue read, but reading it just after Black Hole was a mistake, it couldn't stand up.
21. Fat Pig (play) by Neil Labute .. 4.5 stars
awesome. honest. brutal.
22. The Stinging Fly: These Are Our Lives (short fiction collection) edited by Declan Meade .. 4 stars
a really great collection of international short works.
23. McSweeney's Quarterly Concern ..20 (short fiction collection) edited by Dave Eggers .. 4.5 stars
AWESOME. they owe the last half point to a couple of really mind blowing stories at the end. and of course to their superior production values.
24. The Walking Dead Hardcover edition ..1 - ..25 (comic book/graphic novel) by Robert Kirkman .. 5 stars
i've talked enough about this book on here .. we all know i'm in love with it like an itty bitty fanboy.
25.The Best American Non-Required Reading 2005 (short story collection) edited by Dave Eggers .. 3.5 stars
i think my hopes were up too high for this one, it didn't pay off as i'd hoped.
26. Don't Get Too Comfortable (collected essays) by David Rakoff .. 4.5 stars
i loved this and have become an instant fan. saw mr. rakoff on tv with my secret boyfriend (jon stewart) .. went out and bought the book as soon as possible and was not disappointed, unfortunately i also purchased Fraud, and though it is good, it does not live up to his latest.
27. Fraud (collected essays) by David Rakoff .. 3 stars
see above.
28. Last Evenings on Earth (short fiction collection) by Roberto Bolano .. 4 stars
i wish i could give this 5 stars .. it seems every other reviewer on earth did, but maybe my education is just not there yet. i'll try re-reading it in a couple years and see if i change my mind.
29. Honored Guest (short fiction collection) by Joy Williams .. 3 stars
this started out strong, but really tapered off for me unfortunately.
30. Lucky (comic book/graphic novel) by Gabrielle Bell .. 4 stars
i just read this a couple days ago and really enjoyed it. plus the cover is just great.
31. Same Difference and Other Stories (comic book/graphic novel) by Derek kirk kim .. 4 stars
this was just great .. especially the title story.
32. Men and Cartoons (short fiction collection) by Jonathan Lethem .. 4.5 stars
i absolutely loved this collection. the stories were all very different but had similar strains that pulled them together beautifully. also the creativity in some of the stories made me literally feel as if my mind was expanding at times. it was a great read. the only reason it loses the 5 star rating is because there was one story that i did not like and i felt did not fit the collection in the same way as the others (the national anthem). still brilliant though.
33. Pearl ..34 - 2005 (short fiction collection) edited by Smith, Johnson, and Hauk - 4 stars.
a really nice collection with some haunting pieces from a real variety of writers.
Alright, that is it for 2006 .. 33 books .. which isn't bad, especially considering there are certainly more little books in there (especially comic collections) that have been missed in my accounting i'm sure (apologies you brilliant but unacknowledged few). Nevertheless I am going to shoot for 52 books for next year .. some of those include:
The Crying of Lot 49
All the McSweeney's Quarterly Concerns that i receive
Giraffe
Consider The Lobster
This is Not It
Third Class Superhero
Best American Short Fiction 2006
Best American Non-Required Reading 2006
Best American Comics 2006
Art Out of Time
An Anthology of Graphic Fiction, Cartoons, & True Stories
Brief Interviews with Hideous Men
Midnight at the Dragon Café
The Island
House of Leaves
American Genius, A Comedy
Eat The Document
Save Your Own
Lolita
Tropic of Cancer
Watership Down
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius
2007 Pushcart Prize XXXI for the small presses
and of course, all The Walking Dead i can get my hands on..
best to you all and a happy 2007
please note that this is only books consumed by me in the past year, not books actually published this year (common misconception of the first ever 2006 Kelly Review). also these books are in no specific order, not chronological, hell, not even alphabetical - i'm far too lazy for any of that.
also, although i prefer a four star system, the ratings i have been doing on netflix over the past year(s) (2500+ ratings and counting) have corrupted me over to a five star system, so here is how it breaks down.
* = hated it
** = did not like it
*** = liked it
**** = really liked it
***** = loved it (supberb!)
unlike what netflix allows you to do however, i am allowing myself half stars as this rating stuff all became very difficult at some point. it should also be said that it is unlikely you will find much below a three here as i have a fairly foolproof system for picking books for myself these days (see previous riveting blogs for more on that)
okay, enough, on to the list!
1. Little Children (fiction) by Tom Perotta - 3 Stars
this experience has robbed me of reading the book before seeing the movie. i will never again rush to the book before the movie because although the book was good, i felt the movie (for once) was far superior and yet the movie was tainted for me because i kept getting caught up in remembering the book. i was quite annoyed.
2. Twilight of the Superheros (short fiction collection) by Deborah Eisenberg - 3 stars
nice collection. some weak spots however that brought down the overall ranking.
3. Human Oddities (short fiction collection) by Nora Jabonski - 4 stars
this was occasionally difficult for me to read as i'm a bit squeamish, but it was a beautiful collection of stories and reallly made me push myself in my own writing.
4. A Good Man is Hard to Find (short fiction collection) by Flannery O'Conner - 4.5 stars
this is a brilliant collection by a prolific female writer who was really breaking boundaries for her time. the short piece that shares the name of the collection is a real standout as well - if they were all that good i'd have had to go with 5 stars.
5.Yellow (fiction) by Janni Visman .. 3 stars
this book originally blew my mind and i still like it, but it hasn't stood the test of time like others. i did however read it in one day, so that speaks well for it.
6. Ishmael (fiction) by Daniel Quinn .. 4 stars
this book also blew my mind and continues to. i still think of it often, especially when i consider hunger, poverty and other world issues (which i'm sorry to report .. especially considering i just saw children of men today .. is not often enough).
7. Good Omens (fiction) by Terry Prachett & Neil Gaiman .. 4.5 stars.
i read again this summer in Hawaii while on vacation and tore through it just as hungrily as the first time. a brilliant read, that while "light" is also surprisingly "heavy"...
8. The Best American Short Stories 2005 (short fiction collection) edited by Michael Chabon .. 4 stars
a great collection, maybe not "the best" in my mind, but a lot of the best.
9. The Dead Fish Museum (short fiction collection) by Charles D'Ambrosio .. 4 stars
some of these stories blew me away, and i was pleased to realize that i'd already read many of them in other publications.
10. Remote Feed (short fiction collection) by David Gilbert .. 3.5 stars
this was great stuff, but not as great as i had expected .. perhaps my expectations were up too high.
11. China Dog (short fiction collection) by Judy Fong Bates .. 4 stars
i looked for this collection for fucking ever and it was worth the wait. i'm hoping to read her novel this coming year.
12. Klepto (fiction) by Jenny Pollack .. 3 stars
to be fair to Ms. Pollack i actually enjoyed her book and thought it was a great light ride, it's just not really aimed at me and thus missed it's mark for my rating system (it's young adult fiction really).
13. How We Are Hungry (short fiction collection) by Dave Eggers .. 4.5 stars.
fucking brilliant. no more needs be said.
14. Icelander (fiction) by Dustin Long .. 4 stars
it took me awhile to get through Icelander but when i did it really paid off. plus .. beautiful! hands down the most beautiful book i have ever read, cover to cover .. not a misstep visually.
15. Here They Come (fiction) by Yannick Murphy .. 4.5 stars
this was a great read .. from the packaging right through to the content i loved it. Mc'Sweeney's Press strikes it right again.
16. Some of the Parts (fiction) by T. Cooper .. 3.5 stars
a really interesting read, sometimes i thought i was falling in love, other times, less so.
17. Exercises in Style (fiction) by Raymond Queneau .. 3 stars
this rating is not fair because this book probably opened my mind more than any other two books i read this year, but i didn't fall in love reading it and that is what i am remembering as i write this.
18. Rape: a love story (fiction) by Jocye Carol Oates .. 2 stars
i was very disappointed by this. a great idea, but weak execution to my mind.
19. Black Hole (comic book/graphic novel) by Charles Burns .. 4.5 stars
this is a brilliant fucking book and my reading it was LONG overdue.
20. V For Vendetta (comic book/graphic novel) by Alan Moore .. 3.5 stars
also a long overdue read, but reading it just after Black Hole was a mistake, it couldn't stand up.
21. Fat Pig (play) by Neil Labute .. 4.5 stars
awesome. honest. brutal.
22. The Stinging Fly: These Are Our Lives (short fiction collection) edited by Declan Meade .. 4 stars
a really great collection of international short works.
23. McSweeney's Quarterly Concern ..20 (short fiction collection) edited by Dave Eggers .. 4.5 stars
AWESOME. they owe the last half point to a couple of really mind blowing stories at the end. and of course to their superior production values.
24. The Walking Dead Hardcover edition ..1 - ..25 (comic book/graphic novel) by Robert Kirkman .. 5 stars
i've talked enough about this book on here .. we all know i'm in love with it like an itty bitty fanboy.
25.The Best American Non-Required Reading 2005 (short story collection) edited by Dave Eggers .. 3.5 stars
i think my hopes were up too high for this one, it didn't pay off as i'd hoped.
26. Don't Get Too Comfortable (collected essays) by David Rakoff .. 4.5 stars
i loved this and have become an instant fan. saw mr. rakoff on tv with my secret boyfriend (jon stewart) .. went out and bought the book as soon as possible and was not disappointed, unfortunately i also purchased Fraud, and though it is good, it does not live up to his latest.
27. Fraud (collected essays) by David Rakoff .. 3 stars
see above.
28. Last Evenings on Earth (short fiction collection) by Roberto Bolano .. 4 stars
i wish i could give this 5 stars .. it seems every other reviewer on earth did, but maybe my education is just not there yet. i'll try re-reading it in a couple years and see if i change my mind.
29. Honored Guest (short fiction collection) by Joy Williams .. 3 stars
this started out strong, but really tapered off for me unfortunately.
30. Lucky (comic book/graphic novel) by Gabrielle Bell .. 4 stars
i just read this a couple days ago and really enjoyed it. plus the cover is just great.
31. Same Difference and Other Stories (comic book/graphic novel) by Derek kirk kim .. 4 stars
this was just great .. especially the title story.
32. Men and Cartoons (short fiction collection) by Jonathan Lethem .. 4.5 stars
i absolutely loved this collection. the stories were all very different but had similar strains that pulled them together beautifully. also the creativity in some of the stories made me literally feel as if my mind was expanding at times. it was a great read. the only reason it loses the 5 star rating is because there was one story that i did not like and i felt did not fit the collection in the same way as the others (the national anthem). still brilliant though.
33. Pearl ..34 - 2005 (short fiction collection) edited by Smith, Johnson, and Hauk - 4 stars.
a really nice collection with some haunting pieces from a real variety of writers.
Alright, that is it for 2006 .. 33 books .. which isn't bad, especially considering there are certainly more little books in there (especially comic collections) that have been missed in my accounting i'm sure (apologies you brilliant but unacknowledged few). Nevertheless I am going to shoot for 52 books for next year .. some of those include:
The Crying of Lot 49
All the McSweeney's Quarterly Concerns that i receive
Giraffe
Consider The Lobster
This is Not It
Third Class Superhero
Best American Short Fiction 2006
Best American Non-Required Reading 2006
Best American Comics 2006
Art Out of Time
An Anthology of Graphic Fiction, Cartoons, & True Stories
Brief Interviews with Hideous Men
Midnight at the Dragon Café
The Island
House of Leaves
American Genius, A Comedy
Eat The Document
Save Your Own
Lolita
Tropic of Cancer
Watership Down
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius
2007 Pushcart Prize XXXI for the small presses
and of course, all The Walking Dead i can get my hands on..
best to you all and a happy 2007
neil
okay so this is my second blog about neil labute, which ranks him up there near the walking dead it seems. basically i've been compiling a list of what i read this year for a an extremely exciting "Kelly's Year in Review 2006" blog (coming soon!). anyway, i guess that's why i started thinking about neil labute and the mormon thing again, kind of out of nowhere.
i can't figure this mormon/neil labute thing out and would love anyone with particularly incredibly insight to weigh in. i always manage to block out the fact that labute is mormon. somehow my brain cannot hold the two facts together at once. not that you can't be a great writer and be mormon but that you can be a writer like labute - the kind of subject matter he tackles and the way in whch he tackles it is so "un-mormon" - really so "un-religious" even. so how is he both these things? mormon and let's call it "alternative/groundbreaking" writer. so i just can't figure it out. which i suppose is why i block it out, only to remember it later and attempt to re-puzzle it out again. let me also say that while i am no expert on mormonism i did grow up in salt lake city for a large portion of my life and feel i know a little more than the average joe about both the religion and the people.
neil labute, mormon.
i just can't fucking figure it out.
i can't figure this mormon/neil labute thing out and would love anyone with particularly incredibly insight to weigh in. i always manage to block out the fact that labute is mormon. somehow my brain cannot hold the two facts together at once. not that you can't be a great writer and be mormon but that you can be a writer like labute - the kind of subject matter he tackles and the way in whch he tackles it is so "un-mormon" - really so "un-religious" even. so how is he both these things? mormon and let's call it "alternative/groundbreaking" writer. so i just can't figure it out. which i suppose is why i block it out, only to remember it later and attempt to re-puzzle it out again. let me also say that while i am no expert on mormonism i did grow up in salt lake city for a large portion of my life and feel i know a little more than the average joe about both the religion and the people.
neil labute, mormon.
i just can't fucking figure it out.
three years
so i generally don't write blogs that are about my personal life as i don't usually feel the need for that here (although anyone who reads frequently knows that i take everything incrediby personally anyway, so even movie reviews SEEM personal). anyway, today i do feel the need to be thankful to my boyfriend for an incredible three years (anyone who knows us knows that "technically it is longer than that" but we call it three years as of today). anyone who knows us also probably knows that it is thanks to his patience, love, devotion, and stubborness that we have made it so far. i'm incredibly thankful to the universe that he is that way and he continues to love me for some ridiculous reason. i'm lucky these days in this way if no other.
unbearable
just saw the unbearable lightness of being last night.
how is it possible i made it to thirty without having seen this movie? so great. it was both beautiful and insightful. i've been thinking about it off and on all day, not to mention last night. where have the movies gone that make you think for two days straight after seeing them?
*sigh*
how is it possible i made it to thirty without having seen this movie? so great. it was both beautiful and insightful. i've been thinking about it off and on all day, not to mention last night. where have the movies gone that make you think for two days straight after seeing them?
*sigh*
#33
the walking dead #33!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
whoohooooooo!
i thought i was going to have to wait like six or seven weeks (or at least well past the holidays to get in some masochistic zombie action) but only two weeks and here we are!
happy fucking holidays to me!
leaving now to pick up my issue - and you should be too.
whoohooooooo!
i thought i was going to have to wait like six or seven weeks (or at least well past the holidays to get in some masochistic zombie action) but only two weeks and here we are!
happy fucking holidays to me!
leaving now to pick up my issue - and you should be too.
another television rant
why the fuck is the charlie brown christmas special on tonight - november 28th? god damnit. i'll still be watching it because it reminds me of a happier simpler time in life when things like the charlie brown special could really make you legitimately happy. but i would rather be watching it in the actual month of december and when i am actually IN a christmas mood, not barely recovering from thanksgiving.
someone put me on the phone with whoever is in charge of these things.
someone put me on the phone with whoever is in charge of these things.
television rage
okay, i watched way too much lame television this weekend (thanksgiving), and that is certainly my fault entirely (although i blame it more directly on fear of success - and that there can be no failed success if i never actually mail out my manuscript right?) anyway. i wish there was a way to get this message out more widely to "the people" - or better yet "network executives", because i have absolutely HAD IT with the whole advertising during whatever thing i happen to be watching and taking up the bottom fourth of my fucking television screen. now i am at this point an old enough geezer to remember when we started with the itty bitty network logos in the corner. we were all in an uproar about that, but apparently not enough of one, because it has only gotten so much worse. we now get one of these quarter screen ads, always fully animated and more fucking annoying by the day, at the return of every commercial. and now there are even permanent ads with the logos, such as bravos add for six feet under that remains in the bottom right corner during the entire program (except during the commercials - god forbid we'd want to interfere with the commercials). so i guess the question is when is it going to stop? probably never. i know it sounds rather defeatist, but nothing ever really gets better around here, only worse, so why would something as stupid as television and commercials be any different?
let's chalk my poor attitude up to a series of things recently that have pissed me off in both my personal and professional life, but rather than get into that i am going to take it all out on my television, which deserves it too.
so i have decided that i will not be watching any of these shows. or be trying my damndest at least. if i see a fucking giant ass banner advertising a show then it is OUT. this will be particularly painful as these ads get worse and more frequent, and i'm not promising i can handle it especially considering how much worse my tv addiction has been in the past year. but i'm going to give it the old college try people. maybe if we all do it at once someone will notice?
yeah right.
ps - i forgot to mention the number of times over the past three days that these banner ads actually legitimately interfered with what i was trying to watch. 8 TIMES! five times i could not read subtitles because they were blocked by ads and three times i could not see some important action going on in the bottom of the frame. and that is just fucking RIDICULOUS!
let's chalk my poor attitude up to a series of things recently that have pissed me off in both my personal and professional life, but rather than get into that i am going to take it all out on my television, which deserves it too.
so i have decided that i will not be watching any of these shows. or be trying my damndest at least. if i see a fucking giant ass banner advertising a show then it is OUT. this will be particularly painful as these ads get worse and more frequent, and i'm not promising i can handle it especially considering how much worse my tv addiction has been in the past year. but i'm going to give it the old college try people. maybe if we all do it at once someone will notice?
yeah right.
ps - i forgot to mention the number of times over the past three days that these banner ads actually legitimately interfered with what i was trying to watch. 8 TIMES! five times i could not read subtitles because they were blocked by ads and three times i could not see some important action going on in the bottom of the frame. and that is just fucking RIDICULOUS!
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