Recent Acquisitions to the Library

My most recent haul from Half-Price Books.

• Severance Package by Duane Swierczynski
  
• The Illustrated Man by Ray Bradbury
  
• Just After Sunset by Stephen King
  
• Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by JK Rowling
  
• Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by JK Rowling
  
• Underworld by Don DeLillo
  
• Clandestine by James Ellroy
  
• The Bedroom Secrets of the Master Chefs: A Novel by Irvine Welsh
  
• Bright Lights, Big City by Jay McInerney
  
• The Mystery of Edwin Drood and Other Stories by Charles Dickens
  
• A Swiftly Tilting Planet by Madeleine L'Engle
  
• Transformations by Anne Sexton
  
• Filmmakers Series - Fellini's Films by Burke
  
• The Monster of Florence by Douglas Preston
  
• The Penultimate Truth by Philip K. Dick
  
• Death Is a Lonely Business by Ray Bradbury
  
• Metamorphosis and Other Stories by Franz Kafka
  
• Sweetheart by Chelsea Cain
  
• Next by Michael Crichton
  

Recent Acquisitions to the Library

I just picked up some new books:

• Welcome to the Monkey House by Kurt Vonnegut (I needed a new copy - mine was falling apart.)
• The Man in the High Castle by Philip K Dick
• A Scanner Darkly by Philip K Dick
• The Informers by Bret Easton Ellis
• An Arsonist's Guide to Writers' Homes in New England by Brock Clarke
• Ham on Rye by Charles Bukowski
• The Women by Charles Bukowski
• Factotum by Charles Bukowski

Ham on Rye by Charles Bukowski

I never would have picked up Charles Bukowski on my own if it weren't for 3 different people waxing poetic about him, so I threw in the towel and tried him out. Wow. I wasn't sure about him because although I understood the significance of On the Road, I just didn't fall in love with it, so more Beats, well, I wasn't interested. But damn if Mr. Bukowski didn't blow me away. Technically, he's not a Beat, but he has a similar style. So far I have read Post Office and Ham on Rye this year, and I have several more queued up in the library to read. I am parsing them out so I don't run through everything too quickly; that's how much I like Bukowski. He is reaching Vonnegut proportions for me.

Ham on Rye is set in Bukowski's younger years and man if the guy can't create a vibrant visual image using like, 3 words. 

If you are interested in an author who can write using concise, simple language to create images that stick with you, beauty out of the ugly. gilding out of the sow's ear so to speak, then check him out. He runs up there with my e.e. cummings, Kurt Vonnegut, and (new) Philip K. Dick obsession. 

Rating: 5 Purrs so far...there's still so much to read!

Ubik by Philip K. Dick

I had a friend recommend Ubik to me, saying it's one of those books that leaves you saying, "what the hell just happened?" Well, he was right, because that's the exact reaction I had when I read the last paragraph. I can't get this book out of my head. 

I read a collection of Philip K. Dick short stories awhile back, and I really wasn't sure I would like another go around. His short stories just felt like too much of a "ta-da" ending, a la Twilight Zone, but I think that's because it was a whole lot of them all at once. Ubik was almost a whole other animal. Glen Runciter runs a business full of anti-telepaths that people hire to protect their secrets. On a trip to the moon, a bomb goes off and the real adventure begins. Who lived and who died? Reality starts to change, shifting backwards in time and soon you don't know what is going on or what is real and neither do the characters.

I want to say more about the plot, but I am afraid that giving too much away would spoil the greatness that is Ubik. I'll never doubt Philip K. Dick again, and dang it, now I have to accept that every time that friend recommends a book I should pay attention. I can't get this damn book out of my head, and I keep twisting and turning it about like maybe then I could figure it out. 

Rating:  5 Purrs for totally blowing me away

Let the Right One In

Oskar: Are you really twelve? 

Eli: Yes. It's just I've been twelve for a very long time. 

I heard all sorts of good things about Let the Right One In about the same time Twilight came out in the theaters. I missed it in the theater, so when I stumbled upon the actual book, I snatched that puppy up like it was a tub of Chubby Hubby Ben & Jerry's ice cream (I can never find that most favorite flavor in the grocery store, people. If you can, you are most lucky.) It was one of the best books I have read this year, maybe even one of the best horror novels I have ever read. The movie, while beautiful and haunting in its own way, is not nearly as perfect as the original source. 

The book: Totally immersive. Descriptive and foreign. Disturbing. A whole new ball game when it comes to vampires. Not that you've never seen a story that involves vamp children, because it has been done before, but this version is way more than just a vampire story. It's more about the relationship between Oskar and Eli, the joy they find in each other. It's tender, and that's not an adjective I would ever think I would want to hear in conjunction with the word "vampire," but hey, it works. It works amazingly well. Here you have this young boy, terribly lonely, bullied, on the outside. Then he meets this strange girl who is not who she first appears to be,  a little odd, but somehow their souls know each other. I know that sounds romantic, which it really isn't...but it's like they were lost and when they met, well, they weren't. 

The movie: The movie covered most of the major plot points in the book, but so much backstory and depth was left out, it was a pale imitation of what it could have been. Now, it was good, don't get me wrong. I think if I hadn't read the book beforehand, I probably would have been enamored with it all. The visuals were striking - all of that cold and snow added quite a bit to the atmosphere, and it was nice to put actual visuals to what the book described in the way of location. The scene at the beginning in the forest is truly tense and haunting. I really wish the Blu-Ray didn't have that pesky overdubbing. The voices seemed all wrong. 

I loved the book and I liked the movie. I recommend both. If I were you, I would see the movie first, just to keep from constantly looking for the wonderful subplots and characters that you read in the book.

Rating: 5 Purrs for the book, 4 1/2 Purrs for the movie

The Convent

"Prince of Evil? You work at fuckin' Dairy Creme for crissakes."

The Convent started off strong, pussed out in the middle, and got better towards the end for a bit. I picked it up because Final Girl reviewed it awhile back and it sounded worth a viewing. I'm not sure I can recommend it though, because despite the few bits here and there, it really was awful. 

The Convent starts off with the best scene - a chick in a leather motorcycle jacket and Catholic schoolgirl outfit enters a chapel, disrupting what seems to be some sort of religious service. She whips out a shotgun, starts blasting away, and then burns the place down. All of this to the tune of "It's My Party" I think, or some such similar song. It's awesome in a cheesy horror movie sort of way. Then it all goes downhill when we zoom forward to the present - and a group of stereotypical college kids are geared up to hit the Convent where all the bad stuff went down. You know what happens when a group of kids gets together to smoke out and have the premarital sex. Especially when the local satan worshipers sacrifice a virgin. Yes, I know. It's too good to be true. It's like Santa came early, but then when you open your presents they really ended up being white tube socks. Enter evil nun and priest possession and goretastic attacks to the tune of really, really bad techno music. Techno music so disjointing it woke me up from my almost nap. But then, when all hope seemed lost, who shows up but Adrienne Barbeau. Ms. Escape from New York plays that Catholic schoolgirl all grown up. She commences to kick ass and take names, until the movie begins to suck again.

Really, I wouldn't rent this unless you really must see every movie Adrienne Barbeau is in. It's really not so good, even for folks who like really bad horror movies. I tried. Really, I tried. I had hopes there in that opening scene, but then the movie just stomped all over those hopes and dreams. Stomp, stomp, stomp. 

9/9/9 Comics January - March Progress

Graphic Novels recommended by Jeremy and his cohorts at Titan

1. Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic by Alison Bechdel
2. Therefore, Repent! by Jim Munroe
3. The Blot by Tom Neeley
4. The Travels of Thelonious by Susan Schade
5. The Aviary by Jamie Tanner
6. Glister Volume 1
7. ?
8. ?
9. ?

Graphic Novels recommended by Steve

1. ?
2. ?
3. ?
4. ?
5. ?
6. ?
7. ?
8. ?
9. ?

Graphic Novels recommended by others

1. The Complete Persepolis
2. Jimmy Corrigan: Smartest Kid on Earth
3. Burnout by Rebecca Donner and Inaki Miranda
4. Local, Issues 1-3 by Brian Wood and Ryan Kelly
5. ?
6. ?
7. ?
8. ?
9. ?

Independent graphic novels

1. Re-Gifters by Mike Carey
2. The Plain Janes by Cecil Castellucci
3. Dead at 17: the 13th Brother by Josh Howard
4. Polly and the Pirates by Ted Naifeh
5. Lava Punch by Ben Seto
6. Last Exit Before Toll by Neal Schaffer
7. ?
8. ?
9. ?

Next in the Series (because I have a lot of series that I read and a lot of backlog here)

1. Walking Dead Volume 6
2. Walking Dead Volume 7
3. Walking Dead Volume 8
4. Hell and Back: Sin City
5. Fables Volume 11: War & Pieces
6. ?
7. ?
8. ?
9. ?

It's the end of the world as I know it: Dystopias

1. DMZ Volume 1
2. DMZ Volume 2
3. DMZ Volume 3
4. DMZ Volume 4
5. Channel Zero
6. ?
7. ?
8. ?
9. ?

Zombies, Vampires, Vampire Slayers, and other stuff of the supernatural

1. Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter Vol. 1: Guilty Pleasures
2. Buffy Season 8 single issues, catch up
3. Zebediah the Hillbilly Zombie Redneck Bites the Dust 
   
4. Pablo's Inferno: An innocent child's descent into the Underworld and Beyond
   
5. ?
6. ?
7. ?
8. ?
9. ?

Men (and women) in Tights: Superheroes

1. Superman Red Sun
2. Bulletproof Monk
3. Fallen Angel Volume 1
4. Elektra Lives Again
5. Wonder Woman: Love and Murder
6. ?
7. ?
8. ?
9. ?

Adaptations of Books

1. League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Black Dossier
2. Horror Classics: Graphic Classics
3. Graphic Classics: Robert Louis Stevenson
4. Graphic Classics: Mark Twain
5. Richard Mathesons' Hell House
6. ?
7. ?
8. ?
9. ?

Whatever, Whatever, I'll read what I want...

1. Fell Volume 1: Feral City
2. Flight, Volume 1
3. The Killer, Volume 1
4. Ex Machina Volume 1
5. Ex Machina Volume 2
6. Ex Machina Volume 3
7. Ex Machina Volume 4
8. Ex Machina Volume 5
9. Ex Machina Valume 6
10. Jack of Fables Volume 1
11. We3 by Grant Morrison
12. ?
13. ?
14. ?
15. ?
16. ?
17. ?
18. ?
19. ?

9/9/9 Books January-March Progress

Here's an update. Books in bold I have read. Yeah, I am a little behind...I'm at 15, working on 16.

Books I should have read but haven't (The Classics)

1. Sanditon and Other Stories by Jane Austen
2. Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
3. I, Robot by Issac Asimov
4. Breakfast at Tiffany's by Truman Capote
5. Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
6. Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy
7. The Monk by Matthew Lewis
8. The Sound and The Fury by William Faulkner
9. Middlemarch by George Eliot
   

Books picked by Steve (and recommended by others)

1. The Birth of Venus by Sarah Dunant
2. The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski
3. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon
4. Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry
5. Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson
6. Post Office by Charles Bukowski
7. ?
8. ?
9. ?

Collections and Anthologies (short stories and poetry)

1. QPB Anthology of Women's Writing edited by Susan Cahill
2. The Disobedience of Water: Stories and Novellas by Sena Jeter Naslund
3. Welcome to the Monkey House by Kurt Vonnegut
4. The Portable Dorothy Parker by Dorothy Parker
5. The Best of Roald Dahl by Roald Dahl
   
6. Morning in the Burned House by Margaret Atwood
7. The Waste Land and Other Poems by T.S. Eliot
8. e e cumming collection
   
9. Sylvia Plath, Anne Sexton, or Rainer Maria Rilke

True Stories, Writing, Biographies, History...in Other Words Non-Fiction

1. Sin in the Second City: Madams, Ministers, Playboys, and the Battle for America's Soulby Karen Abbott
   
2. Art & Fear by David Bayles
3. What If? Writing Exercises for Authors by Anne Bernays
4. The Lost Continent: Travels in Small-Town America by Bill Bryson
   
5. Secret Lives of Great Authors: What Your Teachers Never Told You About Famous Novelists, Poets, and Playwrights by Robert Schnakenberg
   
6. A Biography of Zelda by Nancy Milford
7. Desperate Passage: The Donner Party's Perilous Journey West by Ethan Rarick
8. Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life by Anne Lamott
9. ?

Good Intentions: Books I Own but Keep Avoiding

1. Falling Angels by Tracy Chevalier
   
2. The Secret Agent by Joseph Conrad
3. The Body Artist by Don DeLillo
4. Middlesex by Jeffery Eugenides
5. Snobs by Julian Fellowes
6. Fragile Things Neil Gaiman
7. Love by Toni Morrison
8. ?
9. ?

Books Turned into Movies

1. L.A. Confidential by James Ellroy
   
2. The Road by Cormac McCarthy
   
3. The Turn of the Screw by Henry James
4. Let the Right One In by John Ajvide Lindquist
5. ?
6. ?
7. ?
8. ?
9. ?

Books from Childhood (or that I wish had been there for me to read)

1. The Prydain series by Lloyd Alexander (The Book of Three, The Black Cauldron, The Castle of Lyr, Taran Wander, The High King)
2. The Earthsea Cycle by Ursula K. LeGuin (The Wizard of Earthsea, The Tombs of Atuan, The Farthest Shore)
3. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll
4. I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith
5. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory & The Glass Elevator by Roald Dahl
6. Dianna Wynne Jones - something of hers?
7. The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster
8. Rumo & His Miraculous Adventures by Walter Moers
9. ?
   

Books translated into English

1. After Dark by Haruki Murakami
2. The Helmet of Horror: The Myth of Theseus and the Minotaur by Victor Pelevin
   
3. Perfume by Patrick Suskind
4. Have Mercy on Us All: A Novel (Chief Inspector Adamsberg Mysteries) by Fred Vargas
   
5. The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón
   
6. Day Watch by Sergei Lukyanenko
7. Something by Arturo Perez-Reverte
8. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
9. ?

Classic Mysteries

1. The New York Trilogy by Paul Auster
2. Hollow Man by John Dickson Carr
3. Inspector Morse novel
4. Uncle Silas by J. Sheridan Le Fanu
5. Dashiell Hammett novel collection
6. The Blunderer by Patricia Highsmith
7. ?
8. ?
9. ?

Whatever, Whatever, I'll read what I want...

1. Ghost: A Novel by Alan Lightman
2. The Lighthouse by P. D. James
3. ?
4. ?
5. ?
6. ?
7. ?
8. ?
9. ?
10. ?
11. ?
12. ?
13. ?
14. ?
15. ?
16. ?
17. ?
18. ?

Murder Party

I've been reading and watching as much as I could, but unfortunately work has been draining all of my free time and any desire to expend any extra effort on my part to do much of anything besides, work, eat, sleep.  At least I have loved the guys I am working with, so it's been fun as well as all-inclusive. Ha ha. Anyway, since the Panda prodded me saying I hadn't posted in for-freaking-ever, I am going to sit down and write a post about the movie I just watched - Murder Party. Work be damned! 

I read about Murder Party ages ago when it received some Slamdance Movie award and I thought it sounded like a fun, goofy, gory horror flick, which naturally is right up my alley. I was right. It was hilarious. Now I say that with the caveat that Murder Party is no Shaun of the Dead (I know, I know, I always say that.) , but it was a funny little indie movie for sure.

In Murder Party, Christopher, a lonely traffic cop, picks up an invite to a "murder party" on Halloween night. He builds himself the most awesome knight costume ever out of cardboard and duct tape (it's like the Knights Who Say Ni) and heads out, only to find an old warehouse in a scary part of town and a group of New York Art Scene artists who want to impress a local art king, Alexander. Chris hands them pumpkin bread; they try to murder him. You see, they want to get it all on tape as an "art piece" to impress Alex. It's like this black, black comedy poking all sorts of fun at the "art scene,"  indie films, so much. 

Murder Party is like Drop Dead Gorgeous mixed with The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. It's low budget, but that works for it rather than against it, because unlike most low-budget horror, these folks can act somewhat well and the movie has a bit of a plot and good dialogue.

If you like the horror comedy genre, Murder Party is worth a rental. I won't buy it, but I am glad I moved it higher up in my NetFlix queue.