next_to_normal | Entries tagged with books

For now, linkspam:

* Carrie Underwood as Maria von Trapp in a remake of The Sound of Music? There is not enough OH HELL NO in the world.

* Never fear, Community fans. They have a plan to deal with the absence of Chevy Chase.

* Watch Karen Gillan and Craig Ferguson being very Scottish at each other.

* Serbians, be careful. There is a vampire on the loose there.

* Why Brody needs to die. Much as I'd hate to lose Damian Lewis from Homeland, this post does make some valid points.

* My list of reasons for loving Anderson Cooper just got longer.

* I kind of wish I lived in this imagined alternate universe where the model for the best TV dramas is "the rise and deconstruction of female fantasies in the way that shows like Breaking Bad or Mad Men paint glorious specters of masculine badassery [...] and then reveal the rot in them." (Or, in other words, where are my female anti-heroes?)

* The Daily Beast's 2012 Holiday Books Gift Guide.

Current Mood: lazy

* Jenna-Louise Coleman talks about playing the next Doctor Who companion.

* This is strange and hilarious and would totally freak me out if it happened to me.

* Holiday gift ideas for theater lovers. Just saying...

* I already bought it, so it's not on my Christmas list, but a good gift for TV lovers: The Revolution Was Televised, a new book by TV critic Alan Sepinwall. If you want to preview before you buy, here's an excerpt from the chapter on Lost.

* If you're wondering why Tumblr suddenly hates James Gunn, this is why. Also, as a follow-up: why, if it's supposed to be satire, it's really bad satire.

* Speaking of failed attempts at humor, Rainn Wilson's parody of the video by the Half from Two and a Half Men would be funnier if The Office weren't actually kind of terrible now.

Current Mood: lazy

I haven't done a book review in forever - not because I'm not reading, but because I used to use my journal as a place to keep track of everything I read, and now I have Goodreads for that (feel free to friend me there, btw!).

The book I'm reading now, however, sort of begs to be talked about, because it's all about making friends. MWF Seeking BFF: My Yearlong Search for a New Best Friend, by Rachel Bertsche, is a chronicle of the author's efforts to make friends after leaving her BFFs behind in New York and moving to Chicago with her husband. (There's also a website, and if nothing else, I recommend reading the initial articles that kicked off the whole project.) In order to expand her circle of friends, Rachel decides to go on one new "friend-date" a week for a year. Out of those 52 potential new friends, she's hoping to find a BFF whom she can count on to be there in a pinch (whether it's a ride to the airport or a last-minute pedicure), someone who shares her interests and calls just to say hi, and above all, someone who understands the importance of girl talk.

So let's talk.

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Current Mood: curious

I haven't done a 100 Things post in aaaages, and if I don't get a move on, it will take me years to finish. Remember - you can ask me questions! It can be personal (within reason), fannish, hypothetical, political, philosophical, silly, whatever.

(Questions I still have to answer: "Name a book or film or show or play (or whatever) that made you question your most deeply held beliefs." from

fuelforflight - OMG HARD! Still thinking. Also "If you were a superhero, what would your superhero name and special power be? What would you costume look like?" from

snickfic. I haven't forgotten!)

Today I'm going to go to the prompt generator: Between the ages of 5 and 10, what was your favorite activity?

I was an extremely active child, lol. During that time span, I took dance classes (ages 4-6) and piano lessons (started at age 6), and I think I started basketball around age 9? But my favorite thing to do was to read. I was that kid who would sneak a book into bed so that I could stay up way past my bedtime reading. (Come to think of it, maybe my terrible eyesight comes from all that reading in the dark?) I remember that my school used to have a book sale thing every year, and I'd exasperate my mother because she'd let me choose three, but I wanted ALL THE BOOKS and kept saying, "Please, Mommy? Pleeeeeeeeeeease?"

Some of my favorites were the Little House series, the Narnia series, Bunnicula (which was also a series, as I recall), Tuck Everlasting, Bridge to Terabithia, and Island of the Blue Dolphins. I am fuzzy on which age I read what, but I was always a pretty advanced reader for my age. I do recall that I was reading Lord of the Rings and Les Miserables by middle school, so...

What were your favorite books as a child? And what was your favorite childhood activity?

Current Mood: listless

I've been keeping track of things on Goodreads for a while now, and I haven't been posting reviews of everything I read, but everyone else seemed to be doing "books I read" posts, so.

My ratings are all on Goodreads, but if anyone wants an actual review (or just a recommendation), let me know. I'll be happy to oblige.

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Current Mood: blah

It occurs to me that I never posted my thoughts on Whedonistas, which I figure might be relevant to some of your interests?

If you have no idea what I'm talking about, here's the scoop: my BFF

gabrielleabelle got published in a book about Whedony things, along with a few other fandom peeps - whom you'll be able to identify because they cite their posting handles or their work, unlike Gabs, who retains her sekrit identity - and some actual professional people, who are far less interesting to me because we don't hang out on LJ together.

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Current Mood: lazy

Snagged from

penny_lane_42.

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Current Mood: lethargic

I am thisclose to giving in to the urge to write epic, detailed Farscape reviews. Kind of wishing I'd taken notes as I watched (as I did with Lost), but will likely make do with recaps or transcripts if I can find them. In the meantime, books!

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Current Mood: blah

We are nearing the end! Which means the next few posts will just be random collections of awesome ladies, lol. YOU CANNOT CONTAIN ME WITH YOUR PUNY CATEGORIES, MEME! But this one I actually wanted to stick to, because I think it's just as important to celebrate the creators who give us these awesome lady characters. Even if it's harder to picspam, lol.

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Current Mood: bored

We are approaching the end of this, the longest month in the history of EVER.

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Current Mood: nostalgic

It's time for another one of my sporadic book review posts!

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Current Mood: weird

I swear, I am almost caught up with these! We're back to fiction, which means I'm done with the books for school.

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Current Mood: lethargic

It's been SO QUIET in work this week, so I figured it was a good time to knock out a couple of book reviews before I get embarrassingly behind.

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Current Mood: hungry

More books for class! Trying to get through these a little quicker and failing miserably, lol.

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Current Mood: geeky

Also known as "What I learned in feminism class," lol. Which technically I should be writing my final paper for, but it's not due until Thursday, so I'm not feeling the urgency yet...

So, book reviews, interspersed with class notes! I will probably have quite a bit to say, so I'm dividing them up into several posts. (I already reviewed the first book for class here.)

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Current Mood: lazy

So I really ought to review some of them. Class has started up again, but I'm reading some really interesting stuff for my Women in Leadership class, so I'll probably have more recs from there.

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Current Mood: tired

Have I mentioned how much I love semester breaks? I get SO MUCH (fun) reading done. One more semester, one more semester...

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Current Mood: hopeful

Woody Harrelson as Haymitch FTW.

While I'm here, I should note that I've joined Goodreads as eowyn315. Thanks to the whole blogging thing, I have a pretty good record of what I've been reading for the last, oh, three years or so, so I filled in most of the backlog. Not quite sure whether/how I want to integrate my reviews and such, but I did set myself a goal to read 50 books in 2011: