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Recommended Reads and See's, as of 6/6/08
Friday, June 6th, 2008 01:39 pmBooks:
Sex and Bacon: Why I Love Things that are Very, Very Bad for Me, by Sarah Katherine Lewis: I know that you shouldn't buy books based on the title alone, but I have to admit that I was completely taken in by this one. Bacon is one of the major obstacles to my flirtation with vegetarianism, and anyone who equates the act of eating it to sexual pleasure has hit the nail right on the head. The book did not disappoint! ( Read more, probably some of which is NSFW. )
Murder with Reservations (A Dead End Jobs Mystery), by Elaine Viets: This is #7 or 8 of the Dead End Jobs series, and I think the writer is starting to realize that her main character's central motivation is wearing thin. Hence, this volume really speeds in the meta-plot along. I'm sincerely hoping that the next book will give some kind of resolution of the admittedly silly premise for the main character's presence at so many terrible jobs. That said, this book was a great diversion, and Viets writes with genuine sympathy for the other workers who are stuck with Dead End Jobs because they can't do any better, while our heroine learns that what's really holding her back is HERSELF. After this book, I will never undertip a hotel maid again. I would also love to see these books crossed over with the Dexter series, as both of them take place in South Florida, but I don't think Viets is into that amount of gore or gravitas.
DVDs:
Hustle (Seasons 1 & 2): If you enjoyed The Sting or any of the Ocean's # movies, you will enjoy this series; if you like heists or complicated scheming with double- and triple-crosses, you will like this; if you want a tightly plotted, well-written TV show about some well-intentioned con artists, you will definitely enjoy this series. I am incredibly impressed at the writers' ability to hold the resolution of the plot off until the last ten minutes of the episode, and not have it feel forced or annoying. Also, if you're not looking to get into a million episode series, each season is just six episodes long! A winner in all circles! I've enjoyed it immensely.
Manga:
Nightmare Inspector: I expected this to be a CLAMP rip-off, to be perfectly honest. With its dreamy cover design, and androgynous main character, it hovers just above the rip-off line. What brought it over the "rip-off level" and into the "decent" level for me was the nightmares themselves, which were remarkably rich and visually detailed. NI is the story of the Hiruko, a baku, dream eater, who sits in a cafe and waits for clients to approach him; when they do arrive, he goes into the dream with them and attempts to fix it in a way that's good for them and him (he gets to "eat" the dream, which turns into a marble-sized ephemeral jelly-like thing at the conclusion). The nightmares themselves are wonderfully illustrated, fully realized spaces that often take up the bulk of the storyline. My favorite was the story of a young man who dreams of a woman who calls him on the phone every night and talks and talks, but never wants to meet with him; in the dream, he is speaking with her in a mirror, but her reflection won't turn around and speak to him. The solution to this story is simple enough, but the major plot wrinkle that results is surprising. I hope this story will pick up a bit in the next few volumes and distinguish itself rather more from its obvious source of inspiration.
Beauty Pop, Volume 8: I've talked about this manga before, but I will simply say that Volume 8 brings a true villain into the midst of the story and contains the most ham-handed attempt at courting a girl that I have ever seen in a manga. Highly readable, wonderfully funny. Most assuredly NOT a guilty pleasure.
In other fannish news: the new X-Files trailer is out. And... and... at the risk of sounding horribly cheesy, I want to believe! But I'm not getting a good vibe from it. But perhaps the problem is that I'm just not getting a good vibe from the X-Files in general, anymore. It's coming out smack in the middle of Comic Con, too, which I suppose the studio thinks is good timing. But the series jumped the shark, then married the shark, and had shark-babies that went on to save Spring Break. So, Chris Carter, you'll pardon me if I'm not feeling more jazzed about the film. I just don't think I'm ready tolove conspiracy again.
Sex and Bacon: Why I Love Things that are Very, Very Bad for Me, by Sarah Katherine Lewis: I know that you shouldn't buy books based on the title alone, but I have to admit that I was completely taken in by this one. Bacon is one of the major obstacles to my flirtation with vegetarianism, and anyone who equates the act of eating it to sexual pleasure has hit the nail right on the head. The book did not disappoint! ( Read more, probably some of which is NSFW. )
Murder with Reservations (A Dead End Jobs Mystery), by Elaine Viets: This is #7 or 8 of the Dead End Jobs series, and I think the writer is starting to realize that her main character's central motivation is wearing thin. Hence, this volume really speeds in the meta-plot along. I'm sincerely hoping that the next book will give some kind of resolution of the admittedly silly premise for the main character's presence at so many terrible jobs. That said, this book was a great diversion, and Viets writes with genuine sympathy for the other workers who are stuck with Dead End Jobs because they can't do any better, while our heroine learns that what's really holding her back is HERSELF. After this book, I will never undertip a hotel maid again. I would also love to see these books crossed over with the Dexter series, as both of them take place in South Florida, but I don't think Viets is into that amount of gore or gravitas.
DVDs:
Hustle (Seasons 1 & 2): If you enjoyed The Sting or any of the Ocean's # movies, you will enjoy this series; if you like heists or complicated scheming with double- and triple-crosses, you will like this; if you want a tightly plotted, well-written TV show about some well-intentioned con artists, you will definitely enjoy this series. I am incredibly impressed at the writers' ability to hold the resolution of the plot off until the last ten minutes of the episode, and not have it feel forced or annoying. Also, if you're not looking to get into a million episode series, each season is just six episodes long! A winner in all circles! I've enjoyed it immensely.
Manga:
Nightmare Inspector: I expected this to be a CLAMP rip-off, to be perfectly honest. With its dreamy cover design, and androgynous main character, it hovers just above the rip-off line. What brought it over the "rip-off level" and into the "decent" level for me was the nightmares themselves, which were remarkably rich and visually detailed. NI is the story of the Hiruko, a baku, dream eater, who sits in a cafe and waits for clients to approach him; when they do arrive, he goes into the dream with them and attempts to fix it in a way that's good for them and him (he gets to "eat" the dream, which turns into a marble-sized ephemeral jelly-like thing at the conclusion). The nightmares themselves are wonderfully illustrated, fully realized spaces that often take up the bulk of the storyline. My favorite was the story of a young man who dreams of a woman who calls him on the phone every night and talks and talks, but never wants to meet with him; in the dream, he is speaking with her in a mirror, but her reflection won't turn around and speak to him. The solution to this story is simple enough, but the major plot wrinkle that results is surprising. I hope this story will pick up a bit in the next few volumes and distinguish itself rather more from its obvious source of inspiration.
Beauty Pop, Volume 8: I've talked about this manga before, but I will simply say that Volume 8 brings a true villain into the midst of the story and contains the most ham-handed attempt at courting a girl that I have ever seen in a manga. Highly readable, wonderfully funny. Most assuredly NOT a guilty pleasure.
In other fannish news: the new X-Files trailer is out. And... and... at the risk of sounding horribly cheesy, I want to believe! But I'm not getting a good vibe from it. But perhaps the problem is that I'm just not getting a good vibe from the X-Files in general, anymore. It's coming out smack in the middle of Comic Con, too, which I suppose the studio thinks is good timing. But the series jumped the shark, then married the shark, and had shark-babies that went on to save Spring Break. So, Chris Carter, you'll pardon me if I'm not feeling more jazzed about the film. I just don't think I'm ready to
