Back in Booklog
Nov. 21st, 2008 12:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
trinityofoneThis just in! Writing one's booklog is an excellent way to avoid doing actual work! La la la!
181. I Love You, Beth Cooper, Larry Doyle — Rather than deliver the usual platitudes, dorky Denis decides to lay some honesty on his high school graduating class during his valedictorian speech. Among other things, this involves outing his best friend and declaring his love for head cheerleader Beth Cooper—who unfortunately has no idea who he is. What follows is pretty much a lesser Judd Apatow movie in book form. There is Zaniness. And Shenanigans. And—quite a few funny moments, too. I came to like this book more as it went along—toward the end, it almost approached depth, and it was pleasantly amusing along the way. Doyle is a screenwriter, so the book does at times read like the novelization of a movie that was never made, but not in that “Buy me, Hollywood! I will adapt so easy” way that a lot of bad thrillers seem to adopt these days. It didn’t redefine my definitions of comedy, but overall, I enjoyed it.
182. Snuff, Chuck Palahniuk — After Rant, I was excited and hopeful at the thought that Palahniuk might be trying to move in a new direction, but with Snuff, he backslides into the realm of same-old, same-old. Only, you know, more boring—whether because it’s just such familiar territory, or because it’s inherently dull, I don’t know. Anyway, in an effort to be cruder and more shocking (but not more original) with each successive novel, Palahniuk here turns to the porn industry, but unlike that Thanksgiving dinner-interrupting description of felching in Invisible Monsters, nothing here manages to be so awe-inspiringly stupor-destroying—mostly it’s just kind of gross. Nor are the twists twisty or the prose compelling. Frankly, I was bored—and for a shock artist like Palahniuk, that’s almost the worst review one can get.
183. Absolutely, Positively Not, David LaRochelle — Cute book about a teen guy coming to terms with his sexuality. Nothing earth-shattering or even particularly memorable, but it’s funny (International Male!) and a lot more natural and less anvilicious than, say, Geography Club.
184. The Tent, Margaret Atwood — Collection of short-short stories that I found to be a mixed bag, although my overwhelming impression was definitely positive. Some of these are very funny, others are thought-provoking and cool, and this collection as a whole is definitely worth reading.
185. Superpowers, David J. Schwartz — A realistic look at what might happen if five college students suddenly developed superpowers after a night of heavy drinking. (Clearly, I went to all the wrong parties when I was at school.) This book manages to be very funny and very sad at the same time, which is a combination I love. Schwartz uses his characters—all of whom he managed to make complex and distinct—to explore a number of interesting ideas. I’m not sure he quite gets everywhere he wanted to go with all of them, but the resulting novel is still fascinating and complicated and tragic and fucked up—in other words, it flies higher and moves faster than any of the other superhero fiction I’ve read lately.
186. Sammy’s Hill, Kristin Gore — For once the blurbs on the back of the book are pretty much right: this is basically Bridget Jones meets Meet the Press. And it’s not a bad combination. At times Gore does rely too heavily on chicklit clichés, getting her heroine into wacky scrapes involving things like rollerblades and accidentally clicking “send-all.” It’s also insanely obvious who her true love is going to be from the moment he appears. But I very much enjoyed the political fluff aspects of the book, with Sammy, the health care policy advisor to Ohio Senator Robert Gary, standing in for all the hard-working, idealistic government workers we would all so badly like to believe exist. And in her own right, Sammy’s a great character—a smart, neurotic, nerdy, still-getting-laid-a-lot woman the likes of which one rarely sees in fiction. She gets my vote.
187. Astonishing X-Men: Unstoppable, Joss Whedon — I think this suffered from issues of time and distance: it’s been so long since I read the first few issues that I think I missed some of the nuances needed to fully appreciated this conclusion. There was still plenty I liked: The great big team-up gone wrong! Beast and Brand! Emma and Scott—I mean, Whedon makes Scott interesting! That’s pretty impressive. But I’m still not sure how I feel about the Big Bad reveal or Kitty’s arc. If I’m ever able to assemble all the TPBs together in one place, perhaps I’ll be able to reread and see.
188. Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats, T.S. Eliot — Not my favorite mode for Eliot, I have to say. I much prefer him being apocalyptic and gloom-and-doomy as opposed to twee. Perhaps I’d feel differently if I’d read this as a child, but I didn’t—I read “The Journey of the Magi”—so there you go.
189. & 191. Batman: Hush Vol. 1 & 2, Jeph Loeb — Probably the most fun I’ve had with the DC Universe so far. Batman + Catwoman = HOT.
190. The Book of Lists: Horror, Amy Wallace, et. al. — An assemblage of lists and essays-in-the-form-of-lists about horror movies, horror books, and horror in a variety of other formats. I’m not a huge horror fan, but I still got a kick out of this book. The humorous lists were unsurprisingly my favorites—top honors definitely go to Vince Churchill’s “Wow, the Black Guy Lived!”—and there were some good reading recommendations to be gleaned from the books section as well. However, there were far too many lists that were basically, “Hey, Here Are My Favorite Examples of the Horror Genre. You Know. In Case You Care, Since I’m Vaguely Connected With the Horror Industry and Whatnot.” Also, reading an essay about Eli Roth’s favorite examples of cinematic genital mutilation in which he pauses to complain that the horror genre is too often falsely accused of being misogynistic? That makes me want to do something pretty horrific to him.
Total Reviews: 191/227
Haha, looking back on this run often eleven books, you can really tell that this was during the height of the campaign: this is one of the least substantive runs of reading I've ever thrown out there. Um. Don't judge me, okay?
181. I Love You, Beth Cooper, Larry Doyle — Rather than deliver the usual platitudes, dorky Denis decides to lay some honesty on his high school graduating class during his valedictorian speech. Among other things, this involves outing his best friend and declaring his love for head cheerleader Beth Cooper—who unfortunately has no idea who he is. What follows is pretty much a lesser Judd Apatow movie in book form. There is Zaniness. And Shenanigans. And—quite a few funny moments, too. I came to like this book more as it went along—toward the end, it almost approached depth, and it was pleasantly amusing along the way. Doyle is a screenwriter, so the book does at times read like the novelization of a movie that was never made, but not in that “Buy me, Hollywood! I will adapt so easy” way that a lot of bad thrillers seem to adopt these days. It didn’t redefine my definitions of comedy, but overall, I enjoyed it.
182. Snuff, Chuck Palahniuk — After Rant, I was excited and hopeful at the thought that Palahniuk might be trying to move in a new direction, but with Snuff, he backslides into the realm of same-old, same-old. Only, you know, more boring—whether because it’s just such familiar territory, or because it’s inherently dull, I don’t know. Anyway, in an effort to be cruder and more shocking (but not more original) with each successive novel, Palahniuk here turns to the porn industry, but unlike that Thanksgiving dinner-interrupting description of felching in Invisible Monsters, nothing here manages to be so awe-inspiringly stupor-destroying—mostly it’s just kind of gross. Nor are the twists twisty or the prose compelling. Frankly, I was bored—and for a shock artist like Palahniuk, that’s almost the worst review one can get.
183. Absolutely, Positively Not, David LaRochelle — Cute book about a teen guy coming to terms with his sexuality. Nothing earth-shattering or even particularly memorable, but it’s funny (International Male!) and a lot more natural and less anvilicious than, say, Geography Club.
184. The Tent, Margaret Atwood — Collection of short-short stories that I found to be a mixed bag, although my overwhelming impression was definitely positive. Some of these are very funny, others are thought-provoking and cool, and this collection as a whole is definitely worth reading.
185. Superpowers, David J. Schwartz — A realistic look at what might happen if five college students suddenly developed superpowers after a night of heavy drinking. (Clearly, I went to all the wrong parties when I was at school.) This book manages to be very funny and very sad at the same time, which is a combination I love. Schwartz uses his characters—all of whom he managed to make complex and distinct—to explore a number of interesting ideas. I’m not sure he quite gets everywhere he wanted to go with all of them, but the resulting novel is still fascinating and complicated and tragic and fucked up—in other words, it flies higher and moves faster than any of the other superhero fiction I’ve read lately.
186. Sammy’s Hill, Kristin Gore — For once the blurbs on the back of the book are pretty much right: this is basically Bridget Jones meets Meet the Press. And it’s not a bad combination. At times Gore does rely too heavily on chicklit clichés, getting her heroine into wacky scrapes involving things like rollerblades and accidentally clicking “send-all.” It’s also insanely obvious who her true love is going to be from the moment he appears. But I very much enjoyed the political fluff aspects of the book, with Sammy, the health care policy advisor to Ohio Senator Robert Gary, standing in for all the hard-working, idealistic government workers we would all so badly like to believe exist. And in her own right, Sammy’s a great character—a smart, neurotic, nerdy, still-getting-laid-a-lot woman the likes of which one rarely sees in fiction. She gets my vote.
187. Astonishing X-Men: Unstoppable, Joss Whedon — I think this suffered from issues of time and distance: it’s been so long since I read the first few issues that I think I missed some of the nuances needed to fully appreciated this conclusion. There was still plenty I liked: The great big team-up gone wrong! Beast and Brand! Emma and Scott—I mean, Whedon makes Scott interesting! That’s pretty impressive. But I’m still not sure how I feel about the Big Bad reveal or Kitty’s arc. If I’m ever able to assemble all the TPBs together in one place, perhaps I’ll be able to reread and see.
188. Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats, T.S. Eliot — Not my favorite mode for Eliot, I have to say. I much prefer him being apocalyptic and gloom-and-doomy as opposed to twee. Perhaps I’d feel differently if I’d read this as a child, but I didn’t—I read “The Journey of the Magi”—so there you go.
189. & 191. Batman: Hush Vol. 1 & 2, Jeph Loeb — Probably the most fun I’ve had with the DC Universe so far. Batman + Catwoman = HOT.
190. The Book of Lists: Horror, Amy Wallace, et. al. — An assemblage of lists and essays-in-the-form-of-lists about horror movies, horror books, and horror in a variety of other formats. I’m not a huge horror fan, but I still got a kick out of this book. The humorous lists were unsurprisingly my favorites—top honors definitely go to Vince Churchill’s “Wow, the Black Guy Lived!”—and there were some good reading recommendations to be gleaned from the books section as well. However, there were far too many lists that were basically, “Hey, Here Are My Favorite Examples of the Horror Genre. You Know. In Case You Care, Since I’m Vaguely Connected With the Horror Industry and Whatnot.” Also, reading an essay about Eli Roth’s favorite examples of cinematic genital mutilation in which he pauses to complain that the horror genre is too often falsely accused of being misogynistic? That makes me want to do something pretty horrific to him.
Total Reviews: 191/227
Haha, looking back on this run of
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Date: 2008-11-21 09:32 pm (UTC)I'd love more good X-Men stuff, too—and Joss' was, I agree, way better than what's typical. I'm just not also convinced it couldn't have been better. But then maybe I'm putting Joss on the same pedestal of impossible loyal devotion—OH NOES!