Even more acquisitions to the library

My nephew challenged me this weekend. He said that he had more Hot Wheels than I had books. I hated to contradict him, so instead I took advantage of Half-Price Books 20% off sale and added a few more to the shelves. 

• A Wizard of Earthsea and The Farthest Shore by Ursula K. Le Guin - The final books in one of my favorite series when I was a kid. I had the second, but not the first or the third. 
• The Bonfire of the Vanities by Tom Wolfe 
• Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry - Not the type of book I would normally read but it comes highly recommended by a friend. We'll see if I agree with him. 
• Babylon Revisited and Other Stories by F. Scott Fitzgerald - I pretty much adore Mr. Fitzgerald
• In the Lake of the Woods by Tim O'Brien - Given to me to read by a friend years ago. (Not a friend anymore but at least she introduced me to this book.)  I finally got my own copy.
• Coyote Blue: A Novel by Christopher Moore - I'll read anything he writes. 
• Spaceman Blues: A Love Song by Brian Francis Slattery - This has been on my wishlist so long I don't really remember why - I think I read about ti in Entertainment Weekly. 
• All the Pretty Horses by Cormac Mccarthy - I'll also read anything he writes, or at least, I am working on it. 
• Look Homeward, Angel by Thomas Wolfe - One of those that I should have read a long time ago. 
• The Daughters of Juarez: A True Story of Serial Murder South of the Border by Teresa Rodriguez - The murders happening down there are so scary.
• Practical Magic by Alice Hoffman
• Black Water by Joyce Carol Oates
• City of Glass, Ghosts, The Locked Room (New York Trilogy) by Paul Auster
• Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
• The Good Guy by Dean Koontz - I don't read a lot of Koontz but I saw this on Stephen King's best of list so I thought I'd check it out. 
• Knots and Crosses by Ian Rankin
• Presumed Innocent: A Novel by Scott Turow
• The Fall of Hyperion, Endymion, The Rise of Endymion by Dan Simmons - The first science fiction/fantasy book I ever read was Hyperion. Many, many years later I discovered there were sequels. I will say that these are some of the very few science fiction/fantasy books I really, really enjoyed, so I picked them up fro Steve to read. He owes me big time for the Dragonlance books. 
  

Recent Acquisitions to the Library

As you might expect, books and DVDs were plentiful under the Christmas tree this year. People know me oh so well. 

DVDs:

• Wall-E (BluRay)
• HellBoy II: The Golden Army (BluRay)
• The Dark Knight (BluRay)
• Cowboy Bebop Remix DVD set (Whee! Finally, Bebop of my very own!)

Books:

• The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul by Douglas Adams (Thanks LibraryThing Secret Santa!)
• The Stupidest Angel: A Heartwarming Tale of Christmas Terror by Christopher Moore (Thanks LibraryThing Secret Santa!)
• The Lost Continent: Travels in Small-Town America by Bill Bryson
• I'm a Stranger Here Myself: Notes on Returning to America After 20 Years Away by Bill Bryson
• Loser Goes First: My Thirty-Something Years of Dumb Luck and Minor Humiliation by Dan Kennedy
• Rock On: An Office Power Ballad by Dan Kennedy
• Who the Hell Is Pansy O'Hara?: The Fascinating Stories Behind 50 of the World's Best Loved Books by Jenny Bond
• Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife by Mary Roach
• Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex by Mary Roach
• Desperate Passage: The Donner Party's Perilous Journey West by Ethan Rarick

Comics:

• Dead at 17: The 13th Brother by Josh Howard
• Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter: Guilty Pleasures, Vol. 1 (v. 1) by Laurell K. Hamilton
• DMZ Vol. 4: Friendly Fire by Brian Wood

Live action Cowboy Bebop? Wha?

So Keanu Reeves spilled the beans supposedly.

http://www.aceshowbiz.com/news/view/00020675.html

I can't decide if I am overly excited or scared. I srsly love Cowboy Bebop. Keanu Reeves might not be too bad. After all Spike is kind of laid back, but can still kick ass. Keanu kicked ass in The Matrix. It could work.

No, the real question is, who will play Faye...

And will there be a Corgi...'cause go Data Dogs!

Run Fatboy Run

"The only serious relationship I've been in ended in a broken collarbone and a dead meerkat. " - Gordon

I love Simon Pegg and Dylan Moran, even better if they are working with Edgar Wright. Well, Mr. Wright wasn’t in on this one, but Run, Fatboy, Run was funny and sweet. It was a good little movie, and anyone who has ever thought about participating in a long-distance run would get a kick out of it I am sure. I think it could have been leaps and bounds better with Edgar Wright back in there with the team, but Simon Pegg and Dylan Moran do a great job of carrying off the movie. These guys are comedy gold. In fact, I feel compelled to wax poetic on the awesomeness that is Black Books rather than say anything about Run, Fatboy, Run, but I won’t. I’ll just leave it at that.

This time around, Simon Pegg is playing Dennis Doyle, a hapless security guard who made a huge mistake about 5 years ago. He left his pregnant girlfriend at the altar after having a bout of cold feet. Now he wishes he could get her back, but instead Libby (Thandie Newton) is dating a new guy, Whit (Hank Azaria). Whit’s not such a nice guy really, although he treats Libby well. To Whit, everything is a competition, and eventually Whit & Dennis end up competing with each other over Libby, which ultimately leads to Dennis saying he will run the London Marathon. Dennis isn’t exactly physically fit, but he is determined to prove to Libby that he can finish something. Will he make it and will Libby see what kind of man he can become?

This was a sweet movie, and the supporting characters are hilarious, but honestly, it’s not as good as some of Simon Pegg's other work. I'm happy to have rented this but I wouldn't own it and watch it over and over like Hot Fuzz or Shaun of the Dead. David Schwimmer’s directing seemed uneven. Sometimes it seemed like the movie couldn’t decide if it was a comedy or a sticky-sweet romance. The birthday party speech Dennis gives Libby is truly touching. Dylan Moran steals the show as the goofball best friend to Dennis, but that’s no surprise. Dylan Moran is my not-so-secret, over the other side of the ocean crush. He had me at “Popsicle” and I’ll never let go. I'd watch him just sit and eat crackers.

Rating: 4 Purrs for Simon Pegg and Dylan Moran. They carry off the story despite the unevenness of the directing.

Ghostwalk by Rebecca Stott

I picked up Ghostwalk by Rebecca Stott expecting one type of book and finding, on the whole, another. I thought I would be reading a mystery, but instead I found a complex weaving of mystery, history, romance, and thriller all in one package. Ghostwalk was excellent.

Ghostwalk starts off with the death of Elizabeth Vogelsang. Elizabeth died under slightly mysterious circumstances while writing a biography of Isaac Newton. Enter Lydia Brooke, hired by Elizabeth's son Cameron to come in and finish the biography. Lydia and Cameron have a history together, and when Lydia returns to Cambridge, their romance is rekindled, despite the fact that Cameron is married with children. Lydia begins picking through the mostly written biography and in turn ends up getting drawn in to the mystery surrounding two separate series of murders - a group of Cambridge scholars that Elizabeth discovered when researching Isaac Newton's biography and a group of Cambridge-affiliated researchers that have drawn the wrath of a radical animal rights group. Are these two groups of murders actually connected in some way? Lydia begins to think so, and begins to feel haunted by the ghost of (possibly) Newton. While she follows Elizabeth's research, Lydia realizes that Elizabeth might have uncovered a conspiracy that someone might be willing to kill for. Will Lydia be able to finish the book? Who is the ghostly figure that haunts her? How are the two sets of murders tied to Newton, if they are at all, and will Lydia be next?

This book is a great mystery; it successfully intertwines the current and historical time lines so that you feel much like Lydia does. On one side, you have this wandering, flowing narrative, and on the other, you are inundated with historical facts about Newton, Cambridge, alchemy, glass making, and more. It’s difficult to do, and I never felt overwhelmed with either side. You are captured in a dreamlike state, so much so that I longed to travel and walk where she walked, to see what Elizabeth saw, and know Newton to the extent that these main characters did. It literally felt like I was reading a walking dream and those types of books end up way high on my list of best. Mostly because I think reading should take you away, bring you into a place where your imagination can fly, and help you discover new things about the world and yourself, leaving you in a better place than when you started (even if that place is a sad one). Ghostwalk is one of those. I’m sure some will find things that could be improved, but really, it was perfect to me.

Rating: 5 Purrs. I’ll put this one up there with The Virgin Suicides and The Lovely Bones for the way the words worked in my head.

The Tattooist

I'll watch almost anything with Jason Behr in it. I've been hooked on him since watching Roswell reruns on SciFi channel, so of course I picked up The Tattooist when I found it on NetFlix. (I think he needs to get more work. He's a pretty decent actor and nice to look at.)

In this horror film from New Zealand, an American tattoo artist specializes in tattoos that "heal." Jake is a wanderer, learning about different cultures and exploiting the design and symbols in his tattoo designs. While at an expo in Singapore, Jake sees his first traditional Samoan  tattoo ritual, called tatau, and of course falls for the exotic woman involved in the ritual. He swipes something belonging to the group, and by doing so, awakens an angry spirit who stalks and kills everyone Jake has tattooed since he stole from the group. The bad news: Jake has tattooed the new girl he's dating. Can he save her in time and figure out who or what is killing his clients?

The Tattooist isn't bad. In fact, it's pretty good. Nice scenery, nice acting, interesting culture. I hate that Jake is a callous American who cares very little about using and abusing the rituals and history of the cultures he visits, but I guess that kind of helps push the plot. Like I said before, I really wish Jason Behr would get more work. If you have seen a few Asian horrors with the long-haired ghosts, then you probably won't be surprised by the plot or some of the scares. 

Rating: 4 Purrs for Jason Behr's lovely chest, the interesting take on cultures and respecting what you don't know

Saturday by Ian McEwan

Saturday by Ian McEwan has been sitting on my bookshelf for years, and often when I was searching for the next book to read, I picked it up, flipped through the pages, and put it back down. Not because it didn’t seem interesting, but because lately I can’t seem to make myself read a lot of “worthy” fiction. Instead I end up over in the horror section of my bookshelves, or the mysteries. This time, though, I picked it up and followed through. Boy, am I glad I did, because Saturday was engrossing in a way I don’t find much in books (probably because I keep reading the crap fiction over in my mysteries and horror shelves).

In Saturday, we follow an entire day in the life of Henry Perowne. It’s a Saturday, of course, and it’s been a long week for Henry. He’s a neurosurgeon, and this week has been abnormally busy. When he wakes up in the pre-dawn hours of Saturday morning, he sees something that surprises him – a plane on fire headed for Heathrow. His reaction is much what you would expect in the post-911 world. Is it terrorism? This question drives him all day, never leaving his mind until he hears more and more on the news as to what exactly happened. That Saturday is the day of a public demonstration against the imminent Iraq War, and the demonstration ends up shaping his and his family’s life in an unexpected way. As a reader we follow Perowne throughout his day, fully immersed in this character, his feelings, and his surroundings. On the way to his weekly squash game, he has a car accident (caused in a small way by the demonstration) and is set upon by three hoodlums, and the attack contributes to the tone of the rest of Perowne’s day, culminating with the evening family dinner where his estranged father-in-law, daughter, son, and wife are pawns in a very scary reunion. What was supposed to be a day of gathering, ease, and rest ends up being an uneasy and stressful day, and you the reader feel that throughout the story. The dual nature of the story (Perowne’s scientific brain, his inability to truly give himself to the arts while his children are professional artists, a poet and a musician), pull together in this climax, tying nicely into the final scenes of the story. Where there was fear, anxiety, doubt, even Perowne finds some peace and truth in the classical music he favors while performing surgery on a patient in the novel’s closing scenes. (In a particularly serendipitous moment, Perowne is listening to Barber’s Adagio for Strings at the end of a patient’s surgery.)

I really liked this book and am glad that I also have Atonement up there on the bookshelf to read. The places that Henry visits are richly drawn, the pace of the story builds consistently and rapidly to the end as you would expect. The characters are drawn rather well though Henry’s inner musings, although it becomes obvious that Henry’s thoughts and assumptions are not all truth. When I think of another “day in the life story,” that ever incomprehensible and yet highly revered Ulysses by James Joyce, I can’t help but say this one, Saturday, does it oh so much better. But that could be because I could read Saturday without 3 study guides. It could also be because I could relate ever so much to Henry and the world he lives in. Either way, Saturday is a very good book and worth the time, if only to remind ourselves that there is hope, that fear does not always win, and there is beauty in the world still.

Rating: 4 ½ Purrs

World War Z!!!!!!!!! Why did I not know about this???

The guy who headed up Quantum of Solace (while I thought it was good...not great), is also in charge of the movie adaptation of World War Z, one of my favorite books of the past year. If you haven't read the book, shame on you. It's more than just a zombie novel. It's a biting commentary on the world we live in and amazingly written. It actually brought me to tears in some parts.

But anyway, he says it's going to be huge - a huge scale. Which makes me so f*ckin' happy I want to puke. Like Bourne Identity meets zombies. Which could be really awesome or like House of the Dead. Which could be not so awesome but still watchable because I love/hated House of the Dead.

MTV movies has the comments.

The Sookie Stackhouse Mysteries by Charlaine Harris

I first read Dead Until Dark and Living Dead in Dallas by Charlaine Harris several years ago, at the same time I was reading the Anita Blake series. I gave them up after two books because I thought they were way to close to the other series, which had really grabbed me and pulled me in at that time. Later the Anita Blake series got to be too much sex and no plot, so I put those away, and really didn't read the vampire type books at all for a long while. Then I picked up Twilight, and when I was finished with that series, my future sis-in-law said, here read these. So back to Sookie I came, and this time I read every single one as quickly as I could. I couldn't put them down. On the tail end of that came the HBO series True Blood, and the sis-in-law and another fiend started coming over for Sookie Sundays. Now my friend is reading the Sookie books, and we are sufficiently hooked and waiting for the next installment.

The Sookie Stackhouse Mysteries, starting with Dead Until Dark, are all about Sookie Stackhouse. She's a telepath, and most of the folks in her small town of Louisiana, Bon Temps, aren't quite sure if they should pity her or fear her, so they do a little bit of both.  In Sookie's universe, vampires are real and they have come out of the coffin, so to speak. There's this synthetic blood developed by the Japanese that allows the vamps to "main stream," so a few try it. Enter Bill the Vampire. One night he walks into Sookie's bar (where she waitresses) and her life will never be the same. Bill's mind is the one she can't read, and so she becomes fascinated. The relationship between those two is at the heart of most of the books, and as the series goes on, more and more supernatural things become a part of Sookie's world. In the process, Sookie realizes her telepathy may not be such a curse, as she can use it to help, sometimes most reluctantly, to aid those in the supernatural community.

I love these books. They are sweet and frothy, not too bad on the violence (except Sookie does seem to get herself into some pickles that can turn bloody), and pretty light even on the mystery. However, Sookie's voice is so refreshing. She's no nonsense, hopeful, sarcastic, and romantic. She's got that Southern thing going on, which on one hand bothers me because we are not all chicken-fried down here, thank you very much, but then again, some of us are. I really detest the clothes. I know that seems weird, but Sookie's fashion sense is appalling, and I wouldn't care except that Charlaine Harris spends a lot of time talking about banana clips, short denim skirts, and big blue bows.  The secondary characters are eccentric and varied, but none are well developed, but you aren't really reading for those guys, you are reading for Sookie and her various cohorts and new loves. 

One thing that I think kept me from reading the books for so long is the fact that my grandmother had a cow named Sookie, and every time (even now) that I read that name I picture my grandmother standing in the back pasture calling, "Soooo-kie! Come 'ere girl!" I would recommend them to anyone who might like a bit of southern-fried mystery, and who doesn't mind the batter a bit thick. You should also watch True Blood, but don't expect the series to follow to closely to the books. Major characters have been changed, but it didn't bother me too much. The series can be a little heavy-handed when trying to use the vampire as a metaphor for racism and gay rights, where the book does it in a way that you could almost miss it.  It seems like it would be better to have a happy medium in there somewhere. 

Rating: 4 Purrs for Sookie and Bill. No matter what, I'll be Team Bill over Team anyone else Charlaine Harris throws in the mix. 

The Lost Boys: The Tribe

"Your sister's a suck monkey. " - Edgar Frog

Boy, rarely do I see a horror movie that makes me sad. It's happened occasionally, but I can't think of one on the top of my head. The Lost Boys: The Tribe made me cry. It was so bad, I can't even explain how bad it was. I like bad horror movies, generally, but damn, this was bad in a way you can't even MST3K.

In TLB:TT, we meet Chris, a former surfer, and his sister Nicole. They've just moved to Luna Bay, CA hoping to start a new life with their Aunt Jillian, but unfortunately, she's not being as generous as they had hoped. They are having to pay rent for their broken down house she is leasing to them, so now the siblings must find work. In the process, Chris meets another former surfer, Shane, and tries to get a job with Edgar Frog working in his board shop. One night at a party at Shane's house, Shane takes an extra interest in Nicole, and she ends up drinking something special. You know the drill. Once Nicole and Chris realize something's up, Chris seeks out Edgar again to help save his sister. Can he save her?

Everything about this movie was bad, from the extra cheesy special effects to the piss-poor acting. I know The Lost Boys wasn't all that Oscar-caliber, but it has a special place in my heart. We used to run around quoting the damn thing. "You can never grow old, you can never die, but you *must feed.*" Ha. Such fond memories. Why, oh why did they make a sequel? It was a very pale imitation of what could have been. The Reign of Frogs comics were better than this (they walk through the events leading up to the film). If only they had made the sequel in comic form, but even then, unless they improved the story and added to the whole vampire as hippies type myth that The Lost Boys started, it wouldn't have mattered. I look for more than just a redux in a sequel (which this pretty much was, albeit a very poor, colorless redux). I want to get more of the story, more of the myth. Think Friday the 13th Part 2. There you get a similar story overall, but then you learn more about Jason (plus, hello, Amy Steel). 

Anyway, just avoid this if you liked the original at all. Trust me, you'll just be disappointed.

Rating: Hiss. Hiss. Phooey on you for coloring the memory of one of my favorite vampire films. 

Speed Racer

I went into watching Speed Racer not expecting much, and I got what I expected. Now that may sound like I didn't like it, which is completely not true. I *loved* Speed Racer. I loved everything about it. From the loud, candy colored art design, to the outrageously silly story, to Emile Hirsh and Christina Ricci, I loved this movie. It helps that I also loved the original cartoon series; Speed Racer was my first real crush, and seeing him again in action just made me smile a whole heck of a lot.

So the story is all about Speed and his family. From a young age, Speed has been obsessed with cars and racing. Part of this is probably a because of hero worship, since his brother and his whole family is also obsessed with racing. In the opening, Speed is racing the same car race where his brother died, and later is offered a job racing with a big conglomerate.  Speed turns the job down, and of course must then fight the big machine. Will he win the big final race? Who is Racer X? Will Speed and Trixie *ever* kiss?

Everything about this movie is popcorn. The art design in this is all bright colors and video games. It's pure carnival. Everyone plays their parts well - John Goodman as Papa Racer, Susan Sarandon as Momma Racer, Emile Hirsch as Speed, Christina Ricci as Trixie, and Matthew Fox as (who has the perfect profile for) Racer X. Everything about this film was over the top, and while it is mostly just a light, frothy confection, there is a nice moral to the silly, comic story. Speed sees the value in being true to one's self, the value of family, and the fact that no matter how great you are, there are others who are there to catch you and help you.

Trust me, this movie isn't deep by any means, but I didn't go into a movie called Speed Racer expecting Oscar material. I expected silly fun and I got it.

Jack Brooks Monster Slayer

I'll admit to you right up front that I had pretty low expectations for Jack Brooks: Monster Slayer. I saw the poster somewhere and thought, "Hm, that looks funny." And lo and behold, it was funny. It was darn funny.

Jack Brooks is just your average guy. Well, except that tricky monster attack when he was 10-ish that killed his whole family. It's haunts him into his 20's. Now he's a plumber with a harpy for a girlfriend, he's taking night school classes that he could care less about, he has a temper that gets him into a ton of trouble, and he's harboring a crush on the girl in the front row. His therapist is afraid of him, and now, it looks like his professor is becoming something nasty. Something possibly monster-like. What's an average guy to do?

Robert Englund plays the professor, and man he is a treat. He's just funny. Trevor Matthews is funny as Jack Brooks. I mean, there aren't any Oscar worthy performances here, but the acting in this is better than many of the "Movies to die for" series and Sci Fi channel Originals. The whole thing plays like a B-Movie, and it does it well. I love that they used "men in suits" and puppetry to make the monsters. CGI can be so bad, especially in a low budget situation. The Professor monster was awesome, so gross and almost Jabba the Hut like.

Jack Brooks: Monster Slayer is worth a rental if you are looking for a funny, low budget B Movie. It won't kill you to miss it, but I think we might see good things from these guys in the future.

Rating: 4 Purrs for surpassing my expectations and the tentacle monster - yikes!

Obedience by Will Lavender

As the case usually goes, I found this book via my paperback book club. Good old Quality Paperback Books. You are the reason I have over 1000 books in my library. QPB, you and I are soul mates. Truly, deeply, madly, forever. Obedience by Will Lavender is one of those books that seal the deal. It’s one of those that bind us together forever, QPB. Yes, it does.

When you start Obedience, you are introduced to a cast of very intriguing characters (and the characterization is just one of the reasons why I love this book. It's subtle, but Mary is a great character.). You have Mary, the insecure girl who feels compelled to be the one who answers everyone’s questions, who is only made more nervous by seeing that her ex-boyfriend, Dennis is in her new philosophy class. Dennis is the self-confident one, the star, the one who usually gets what he wants. There’s Brian, the boy who has a troubled past and is hiding some secrets, including a possible affection for Mary. Then there's good old Professor Williams. His classes are rumored to be much more entertaining than your normal philosophy courses. He opens the Logic and Reasoning class with this: there's this girl; her name is Polly. She's been kidnapped and you have until the end of the course to save her (six weeks). Otherwise she's dead, murdered by her kidnapper. As the professor introduces more and more clues (including real photographs of real people and places that the trio know), they get more and more involved, and all begin to wonder if the story is true. Is Polly really alive? Who took her? What is Dr. Williams' real purpose? Is it really just a game or is Polly dying day by day?

Like I said before, the characters were interesting, and the plot moves pretty rapidly once the game is afoot. The title of this book is pretty much what the whole story is all about. It’s the heart of the matter, so to speak, but you might not get that until the very end. Read until the end, find out the solution. It’s worth it, even if it does feel a bit like a let down. I know some have felt that way. I, however, laughed. It was perfect.

Rating: 4 1/2 Purrs. Loved it. Loved it right down to the fact that Mary thinks Poirot is just a little bit sexy. I even loved the end. Well, the end, but not the *end.* I wasn't happy with what happened to a couple of characters, but I can't say more or I'll give it away. 

Terry Gilliam! Windmills! Don Quixote!

I just read that Terry Gilliam is going to restart his production of The Man Who Killed Don Quixote. Whee!

I watched the documentary Lost in La Mancha a few years ago and was so overwhelmed with Gilliam's vision and so sad to see the just *awful* luck involved with the film. Flash floods, back problems, destroyed sets. Just like someone broke 100 mirrors and channeled all of that bad luck into one film. But the pieces of the film that you did get to see, the storyboards and costumes and drawings, gave me just enough of a taste to really wish he would have been able to push on. Wow. I just love his movies, mostly because I have always felt that Gilliam has such vision, such a signature style that creates a fairytale on screen. Sometimes it's dark , like 12 Monkeys, sometimes it's an adventure full of life and bittersweet relationships, like The Adventures of Baron von Munchausen. But what you always get is a dream. A beautiful, eerie, haunting dream.

Barber's Adagio for Strings

I was listening to my iPod, The DoctorPod, this morning while getting ready for work and heard the most amazing song. I had to take a moment and just listen while Samuel Barber's Adagio for Strings played. It is possibly one of the most hauntingly beautiful pieces of music I have ever heard. I swear my heart broke listening to this piece, the way the strings slowly build and descend, build and descend, until you feel like your heart will burst, and the things get quiet, and then build again. Wow.

I like a lot of classical music; a lot of pieces make me really, truly, emotionally respond, but this one, well, it's a cut above. It's up there with Bach's Toccata and Fugue, Air on the G String, Jesu Joy of Man's Desiring. It's up there with Mozart's Moonlight Sonata, Haydn's Emperor's Hymn, Debussy's Clair de Lune, and pretty much any version of Ave Maria. It's just amazing. I can't tell you how much, you need to go listen yourself.

I am committed to Sparkle Motion.

Yes, that's right. It's D-Day. My future sister-in-law bought the "Sookie Sunday" group tickets to see Twilight tonight at midnight. Lord help us, for we may be lost in the screaming hordes of fangirls as they rush the theater to get good seats to see RPattz on the big screen.

We'll be much more dignified of course. We won't scream. At least not until the movie actually starts.

April Fool’s Day (remake)

April Fools Day is hands-down one of my favorite 80's slasher films. It stars Deborah Foreman and Amy Steel, two of my favorite horror actresses (plus who can forget Deborah Foreman's memorable scene in Real Genius? Not I.) I rented the "remake" of AFD knowing it would in no way meet my expectations, but I guess I am just a glutton for punishment because this was way beyond bad.

This new version of April Fool's Day has none of the spirit of the original. The whole film is shot on video and has that shiny, crisp feel. The characters aren't interesting or sympathetic, and none of the actors are half as good as the originals. Scout Taylor Compton isn't nearly as good as Amy Steel. There really isn't anything about this movie that makes it worth watching, from its silly prank to death beginning to the twist ending that's not even close to a twist. This time around it's not a murder mystery weekend set up, it's a killer back to avenge the accidental death of a friend a year before set up. Even the deaths are so choreographed you can see them coming a mile away.

I don't know how this even got made, but I can tell why it went straight to video. I have seen Sci-Fi Channel Originals starring Casper van Dien that were more entertaining than this.

Rating: Hiss Hiss Hiss. This just makes me sad that they even tarnished the original by pretending this was a remake.

The rumors are true!

I just saw on Amazon that P.D. James has written a new Adam Dalgliesh mystery and it comes out tomorrow.

Maybe iSanta will be good enough to get it for me. I just love her books. She's like Agatha Christie on steroids - more plot, more characterization, more thinking. I've been waiting to read The Lighthouse because I knew it would be awhile until I got the next AD mystery and now the waiting is over. Yipee!

OMG Star Trek num num num

When I saw Quantum of Solace this weekend I was hoping for the new Watchmen trailer. Instead I got the latest Star Trek trailer.

Wow.

Wow.

I *love* Star Trek. I've seen all of the movies (outside of the the first one, when I was 4) in the theater. Some on opening day. I even love the The Voyage Home (Save the Whales).

I really had to keep myself from jumping up out of my seat and wiggling around like a crazy fool. It took a lot of willpower. I'm still giddy thinking about it today.

And on that note...a little Star Trek The Voyage Home quote to brighten your day.

"I mean, I may have carried your soul but I sure couldn't fill your shoes. " - McCoy to Spock

We are going to need a bigger boat.

Steve has been watching this series from the BBC (I think) called Planet Earth. He also knows that while Jaws is one of my all time favorite films, it is one of my favorites because I have a terrifying fear of sharks. Big ones, small ones, I don't care. My hands get clammy just thinking about sharks, which sucks, because I do happen to have a serious love of the ocean. So just think of me, on the beach in Mexico or wherever, fully fortified with alcoholic beverages, saying to myself, there are no sharks, there are no sharks, and then remembering this video.

You Tube video of a Great White


Bastard.

The Eye (Remake)

I really liked the original Hong King film, Jian Gui, so I thought I would give this American remake a chance. Unfortunately The Eye was almost the exact same as the original, and I just hate it when a remake doesn't bring something new to the table. On the other hand, the remake stars Alessandro Nivola, and I'll pretty much salivate over that guy in anything he ever does (including singing and dancing in Kenneth Brannagh's Love's Labors Lost), so I can't be too down on the film regardless of how much I would like to be.

In The Eye, Jessica Alba plays Sydney, a blind violinist who receives a corneal transplant. Finally, for the first time since she was very young, she can see. While she is getting used to seeing the world again, she realizes that some things that she sees aren't real. Some of those things are ghosts, and they want something from her. Alessandro Nivola plays her doctor, who sort of ends up falling for her and helping her uncover the mystery. Why is this happening? Who was her donor, and why, now after all of this time, is she seeing these ghosts? Are the visions real, or is she losing her mind?

Long story short, I liked the original better. This one had some nice atmosphere, but overall I think the original did it all better. It was spookier, the ghosts were more forboding, and well, even with avingt o read subtitles, the acting was far better. I would probably feel differently if there was something new and fresh brought to the story in the American remake, but there really wasn't. I liked Ringu and The Ring because I thought each really stood on their own. The Ring was similar enough to the original and yet still had a feeling of its own. The Eye didn't really have that.

Rating: 3 Purrs for some creepy ghost scenes and Mr. Nivola, but that's pretty much it.

The Mist

“Lady, your tongue must be hung in the middle so that it can waggle at both ends.”

The Mist is one of my favorite Stephen King short stories. When I heard they were making a movie version I was torn. On the one hand, I loved the idea of seeing the story brought to life, but on the other, I know that sometimes his stories just don't translate well. What I loved about the written story was the lack of a reason why behind the mist. And well, we know that movies don't exactly let the reason behind why things occur just hide in the background anymore. They like to spoon-feed it to you. 

So yes, the bulk of the story remains the same. Dave Drayton travels into town one day to pick up supplies after a terrible storm has knocked a whole heck of a lot around his lovely lake-front home. He takes his son with him, leaving the wife to guard the homestead. Once in town, strange things start to happen. A mist is moving across the town, and something's in the mist. Something that likes to eat people. Dave and his son are trapped in the grocery store with some other townsfolk, including the crazy religious freak, Mrs. Carmody, who declares it the "end times" and starts ranting about sacrifices and the second coming. Tension build between those who begin to follow Mrs. Carmody and those who hold to reason and fact. The question becomes will Dave and his band of "common sense" folks survive, or will they be sacrificed at the hands of the new religious fever infecting the survivors? Will they stay in the store or will they take their chances in the mist? Has the mist overtaken just the town, or has it reached everywhere?

What I liked? I thought the actors did a very fine job here - Thomas Jane was Dave and Marcia Gay Harden is sufficiently creepy as Mrs. Carmody. Although, she does tend to turn into a stereotype after awhile, but then I don't know how you could not make that character over the top, seeing as her purpose to the story. The creatures were scary, the atmosphere spooky, and there were some moments where I definitely jumped in my seat. 

What I didn't like? Andre Braugher was woefully underutilized. He was a really nice foil for Thomas Jane's character. And the ending. Yes, I didn't like it. I understand it was approved by Stephen King (he's credited as saying he wished he'd thought of it), but I just didn't get that he and the others had reached that point of despair. It seemed too much like an ending Hollywood decided on for shock value, rather than it being true to the characters. Also, the reason behind the mist was of course inferred rather heavily, rather than left up to the imagination. 

I wasn't disappointed in the movie version at all, but I don't think it could ever be as fascinating and as much of a draw on my imagination as the story itself. 

Rating: 4 Purrs for some awesome dialog, spooky atmosphere, and of course, The Punisher, Mr. Thomas Jane

Friday the 13th remake

I just watched the teaser trailer for the upcoming Friday the 13th movie. I was doubtful. I love love love the Friday the 13th movies. I watch them back to back every Friday the 13th, if I can. I've probably seen the first 2 in the series 100 times. 

The remake looks awesome. 

Can it be? Could it be true? Could it be a scary, bloody, oh so fabulous remake of the original? I really hate to get my hopes up. Really I do. 

Pandabob laughed (well maybe it was a nervous laugh) because I giggled like a little kid at Christmas time while I watched it. 

The Twilight Saga by Stephenie Meyer

I tried very, very hard to not read these books. I looked at them much like I looked at the Harry Potter books when they first came out – I sneered. I said to myself – they are “teen vampire romance novels.” I rolled my eyes. I mocked and said no way. Then I made the mistake of picking one up. (I lay the blame on my brother's girlfriend. It's on her doorstep. She's such an enabler.) I said to myself, okay, fine, fine. I’ll try it out and see what the big deal is. Next thing I know I am voraciously reading Twilight like it’s the next best thing to a full-bodied, aged Cabernet that I can’t get enough of. Honestly though, instead of comparing these books to a Cabernet, I should probably compare them to those iced sugar cookies you can get at the grocery store. You know they aren't good for you, you know there' s nothing good or natural in them, but you can't just eat one. Then, you'll crave them later, like I imagine a crack addict probably craves the rock.

If you haven't been living under a rock, you'll know that there are 4 books in the series, all outlining the ins and outs, the ups and downs of Bella Swann, normal, clumsy (ahem Mary Sue ahem) high school girl and the love of her life Edward Cullen, who also happens to be a vampire who doesn't believe in eating people. That's it in a nutshell. Throw the word teenager in there, think back to when you were one, add a little vampire, and rinse repeat for 4 books. There's drama, there's OMG I want to kiss you/eat you OMG you're so perfect, etc., and there some stalking in there for color.

Twilight starts off with Bella Swann moving from Pheonix, AZ to Forks, WA to live with her dad. Her mom's recently remarried, and Bella wants to give her mom some space, so off she goes to the great rainy Northwest, where the sun hardly shines and Bella is so sure she will be miserable. Here in Forks, Bella meets Edward Cullen. He's a strange boy. He's pale, hangs out only with his family (the equally beautiful Alice, Jasper, Rosalie, and Emmett), and when she sits next to him in biology he acts like she has the plague. He confuses the heck out of her, and naturally she falls head over heels for him. The rest of the book pretty much runs the gamut of OMG does he like me, no way could he like me, oh wow he does like me, oh wow you sparkle in the sun (yes sparkles. see - silly and yet OMG), oh crap someone wants to kill me, oh yeah he loves me.

Rating: 5 Purrs. Yes, it's totally emo. They are both incredibly silly emo kids mooning over each other but I totally loved every second of it, even the creepy stalker vampire boyfriend parts. The story was totally Mary Sue, but I could relate to some of Bella's sad little emo teen-ness and the story was fun. Like I said - sugar cookie goodness.

New Moon is all about Edward running away because he thinks he has no soul and that he or one of his family members will probably kill Bella. Enter Bella the zombie-girl and Jacob the best friend trying to get into her pants (so to speak. Also *werewolf*). Also, lots of I must keep up appearances, oh wow I am so using you to hide how craptastic I feel, let's go do dangerous stuff so I can try and kill myself but not really, really try to kill myself, oh I shouldn't treat you this way, holy crap will he really go off and kill himself, I can save the day if I don't trip, and BAM oh shit, you love me, really?

Rating: 4 Purrs. Kind of silly, but not too terrible follow up. You can see why he left and why she saves him.

Eclipse is pretty much about the continuing love triangle between Jacob, Bella, and Edward. Edward's decided to stick around, and now Jacob's out to try and convince Bella she wants him instead. In doing so he becomes way too close to a previous relationship of mine for me to like anymore (angry boy, let's say). So it's pretty much: oh somethings up out in Seattle with some mysterious deaths, oh crap could it be a leftover bad guy from the previous books, oh yes it might, oh crap Bella's in danger, grr we will fight over who can protect her best, oh shit I really love both of them but I choose him, can we save the day whoops maybe I shouldn't have done that, awesome new wolf friend Seth high-fiving Eddie, whee we can get married way too young cause of course I don't mind your antiquated sensibilities my dearest sparkly vampire boyfriend.

Rating: The controlling nature of the two boys irritates me here, but I like Seth a lot so I can't give it less that 3.75 stars.

And then there was Breaking Dawn. Oh man. Seriously. Married at 18? Really? Feather biting, bedframe breaking vamp on human sex? Not too bad but woefully under written (of course this is a teen book, so I can forgive that) I'm sorry, did this really include a vamp-human hybrid mommy-killing baby? Yes it did. This one was broken into 3 parts, and I could have done without the second one completely. In fact the whole Nessie storyline could have gone away and I would have been so much happier. So this one was: married! Sex! Uh oh human killing, blood drinking baby on board, whoops - you imprinted on my baby? Whee I'm a vampire (finally I might add. Seriously it took 4 books?) and I am so good add it (ahem Mary Sue ahem again) and I save the day cause I really love my new family grrrr I will protect you with my mind-shield.

Rating: 3 Purrs - Bella the vampire was the awesome. She was fun. Edward became a seriously whiny bitch that ruined him as a character to me and Jacob creeped me out even more. Seth however was a win. Alice - always love her. What I hated the most - that Bella didn't have to really give up *anything.* After 3 whole books of knowing what she would give up to follow the life she wanted, she ended up having it all. It would have been nice for there to have been some consequences to her actions. I know it's fiction and a fairy tale. I wouldn't feel cheated if it hadn't been an underlying theme in all the books previous.

Overall, I loved these books. They were totally silly. They were totally not good fiction and most definitely not the "next Harry Potter," (J.K. Rowling has much better character development and plus, people actually face the repercussions of their actions in Potter books.) but I loved them anyway. My brother's girlfriend and I have midnight tickets to see the film and are debating which t-shirt to buy to wear to the festivities. I am embarassed at my love for these books. Having a devastating crush on Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart doesn't help matters (Ed & Bella in the movie) The books are just.so.bad. and yet I just.can't.stop. In fact, writing about them makes me want to run home and read all four again back to back. I am addicted to Twilight Tuesdays on the MTV blog and cleolinda's livejournal posts about the books.

I am sick. Please send help. (If he's sparkly, a vampire named Edward, and writes music even better.)

See? I'm a lost cause.

Sigh.

The Ruins by Scott Smith

I picked up The Ruins ages ago, back when we were wandering around a Wal-Mart in Taos, New Mexico last year and I had heard it was a good read. It has to be, hands down, one of the ickiest horror novels I have ever read. There were points I actually winced. I don't mean for this to sound like a bad thing. In fact, it's an awesome thing. I was even more pleased to watch the Unrated movie version and see that some of the most skin-crawling aspects of the book were kept, in spirit anyway.

In The Ruins, two college-age couples are vacationing at a Mexican resort. Jeff, Amy, Eric, and Stacy are getting tans, drinking too much, and relaxing near the water. It's pretty much what you would hope for a sun-drenched vacation to be. They've made some friends - 3 crazy, non-English speaking Greeks and a German named Matthias. Matthias's brother, Henrich, hasn't returned from the archeological dig he ran off to (he met the love of his life and followed her there), and Matthias wants to run out there for the day and hunt him down. Despite some initial unease from Amy, the two couples and the sole sober Greek agree to accompany him, thinking they will be in for an adventurous hike through the woods to see some ancient ruins. Unfortunately, these ruins aren't your average Tulum and these kids are woefully unprepared for a hike through the jungle. This place, they find, is home to an unbelievable force. It's going to take them one by one, and as the stress increases, these kids slowly fall further into denial or almost psychosis. Will any of them survive to warn others away? Will someone come to find them?

Scott Smith does a great job of slowly building suspense in the novel, but the real charmer here is the baddie. Like I said before, there are some scenes that just make your skin crawl. It makes me ick just thinking about it ( I have this wisteria at home that just grows and grows. Makes me wonder if Mr. Smith also has a wisteria vine growing in his garden...maybe that is where he got his idea). You honestly don't know if anyone will make it out alive, if there will be a final girl or guy, if they will all turn on each other before the baddie gets them, or if the Greeks will ever show up. 

I don't read a whole lot of horror novels, which probably sounds weird since I watch a ton of horror movies, but this one is a keeper. Just be prepared to never think about visiting Mayan ruins again the same way, or the vines growing in your garden, or even a simple hiking trip. It's got suspense, great pacing, and enough cringe-worthy moments to make you want to put the book down but you just can't stop reading it so you don't. The movie eliminated some characters, switched some things around, and focused more on the gore than the suspense, but I picked up a copy after seeing it. It wasn't the book, but they hardly ever are. 

Rating: 5 stars for still making me shiver when thinking about the vines. As odd as t was, the thought of it growing...well, I won't spoil it. Ugh.

The Orphanage

The Orphanage wasn't quite what I expected. I expected a straight up horror movie and instead I got a supernatural, creepy, spooky thriller. Not a bad thing. Not a bad thing at all.

The Orphanage is Laura's new home. She's brought her husband Carlos and adopted son Simon to live in the orphanage where she grew up, hoping to open the house once again as a home for orphaned children. After moving in, Simon begins telling Laura about his invisible friends, and naturally she writes it off as normal childhood behavior, until Simon tries to show her his invisible friend's hidey-hole. Frustrated and busy throwing a party for the children she hopes will come to live in the home, she yells at Simon, sees a spooky kiddo in a scary burlap mask, and away Simon runs only to disappear into thin air. Laura refuses to give up hope, searching and searching until she begins feeling strange, otherworldly presences in the home. She becomes desperate, Carlos is ready to move on, but Laura refuses to give up hope. Eventually they invite parapsychologists into the home to help them find Simon, but it seems that it is left to Laura to unravel what really happened to Simon. Are there really ghosts in the house? Is Simon still alive?

The Orphanage was way spookier than I expected and the ending is just heart-breaking. Several times I jumped in my chair spooked. This is very good - not very many movies make me jump in my chair without resorting to cheap theatrics. The scene with the "freeze" game was so tense I clenched my hands. Why can't I find movies like this more often? Cause wow. When the mystery is revealed I was surprised just like I should have been. Oh yeah, and don't forget the gruesome looking face of the lady lying in the road. Ugh and awesome all at the same time.

Rating: 4 1/2 Purrs for a beautiful, haunting, scary film

X-Files Redux

Yesterday I caught up on this new show everyone has been telling me about. Fringe. It looked intriguing in the previews, but part of me said, enh. Looks like Alias (which I never really got into no matter how hard I tried) married The Eleventh Hour (which I did get into, the British version of course, and dang it I forgot to DVR the premiere of the US version last night), had a side affair with Lost and birthed the The X-Files all over again. Which yeah, I was pretty much right.

Which doesn't mean I am not totally, so much, OMG, Srsly in love with it. Cause I am.

I am so ashamed of myself. Where's my loyalty? I loved the X-Files. I even watched the horrid last two seasons. I've watched every single episode at least twice. I own them all on DVD. (The original DVD printings I might add, before they got so damn cheap.)

I'm sorry, Mulder & Scully. Really, I love Fringe and its adorable wide-eyed, expressionless Agent Olivia (I even love her name!) and baby-sitting Pacey in a completely different way than I love you.

Promise.

Pinky Swear.

The Mother of Tears: The Third Mother

For many, many years I waited in anxious anticipation to see the realization of a dream. Not the top of Mount Everest. Not the Aurora Borealis. Not the Grand Canyon (all though that was very cool). I waited for the completion of one of my favorite trilogies - the Three Mothers trilogy by Dario Argento. When I heard the day had finally come for him to make the final film in the trilogy, and it was going to star Asia Argento but also include a role for Daria Nicolodi, I just about wet my pants. I waited for Mother of Tears to come to theaters like most Star Wars geeks waited for Episode 1 (okay, I might have been one of those geeks too...but I didn't dress up). 

Mother of Tears starts off with the discovery of a mysterious box, sealed and chained to a coffin buried right outside of an old cemetery. The local priest sends it to the museum where Sarah Mandy and her colleague, Gisele, open the box to see what's inside. Kind of like Pandora, Sarah and her friend unleash hell on earth, with her friend getting the big old brunt of it right then and there. After narrowly escaping with her life, Sarah and her boyfriend, Michael, investigate. Who killed Gisele? Why are people going mad, committing great acts of violence in the streets, and committing suicide at an alarming rate? Who is the Mother of Tears and what does she want with Sarah Mandy?

I watched this DVD twice before writing this. When I first watched it, I was disappointed. Of course, I knew that I probably would be because most of Argento's recent work was just not what I loved in his early films. However, this first viewing was much more disappointing than I was expecting. So I knew I had to watch it again to really see what I liked and disliked, just to make sure I was seeing it for the film it was rather than the disappointment it was bound to be after so many long years of anticipation.

I warn you from here on there might be things I say that might spoil it for you - so beware.

First off, this movie is gory. I mean gory, gory, blood, guts, and gore. From the opening scene where Gisele bites it to the very end there are buckets of blood everywhere. And when I say blood, I mean blood, guts, maiming, eye gouging, self-mutilation, torture, and child death. It was downright disturbing the first time and didn't really seem any easier the second time around. The opening scene where Gisele gets killed involves her mouth being crushed with some sort of screwdriver thing, being sliced open, and strangled with her own guts. That's not the worst of it. I like gore. I like buckets of blood, but for some reason this time it just seemed like too much. Ugh. I did love the mouth thing with Gisele though. It looked way freaky.Plus the scene where Udo Keir bites it was just awesome. Chop chop, slice slice! Overall, all of this slice and dice reminds me of the images used opening credits (and others like them) - think Renaissance images of Hell. 

Second, this movie has its tense, suspenseful, and scary moments. When Sarah is returning to the room and hears Gisele being murdered, you do get  bit toward the edge of your seat, especially when the baboon starts stalking her. Baboons stalking anyone is scary. The building tension of Rome falling apart seems kind of silly at first but builds to a decent tension by the end. The scene in the train bookstore where the police detective is leaning right into her and not seeing her is well done. Honestly, though, the pacing seems a bit uneven to keep the tension and suspense going full on until the end. 

The acting in this movie is really varied; some of it is good and some of it borders on community theater. Asia Argento does a good job even though some of her lines are a bit silly ("don't leave me hanging," really?). The witches are just absurd - the gangs of witches roaming the train station act more like punk rockers out of a bad exploitation film or spoof  than spooky evil witches out of a horror film. Asia has much more chemistry with the guy playing the police detective (smoking hot police detective) than she does with the actor playing her boyfriend Michael. He's just awful. He overacts the part and just bumbles around. I think it's a major flaw because it is hard to stay "in the world" with him shouting and bumbling around. Udo Keir was awesome as always plus it was nice to see him again (he was also in Suspiria).  The actress playing the Mother really didn't have a whole lot to do other than stalk around naked, but the relish she shows when she is licking the tears off of a dying woman's face makes your skin crawl. Other than that, she is pretty sub par. (The brief appearance of Mater Lachrymarum in Inferno had more oomph to it than most of the scenes in this one - which spells bad news. The good thing is most of the other henchmen were creepy enough.)

What was missing - most of the atmosphere from the first two films in the trilogy. Suspiria had the psychedelic colors, and frantic editing, the spectacular death scenes. The whole movie felt like a dream. Inferno was more noir, and it had that awesome underwater room scene. Plus, you can't forget the amazing music by Goblin. It added such mood to the films. This time around there is only one scene with that kind of heavy color wash and most of the music is operatic. I miss the sound that Goblin gave the original. 

The ending just kind of fell flat for me. The final blood orgy scene just kind of felt, well, enh. I don't know what it was missing, but it was missing something. And the crawling through the pool of skeletons to get out just felt out of place (but very reminiscent of Phenomenon). Of course, the others had kind of wham, there's the end, endings too, so maybe that is par for the course. 

These first two movies were spooky. That's what made them so intriguing. This one seems to rely mostly on the gore without the spookiness. I miss the spookiness. 

Rating: 4 Purrs because I love the idea of the Argento family back together again but somehow the magic was missing this time. It's that ending. It's good and then enh. 

Theater of Blood

I love old Vincent Price movies. You can imagine how excited I was when saw this one was on my Monster channel (before I lost it – phooey on you DishNetwork), I was very, very excited, because outside of the Dr. Phibes movies, Theater of Blood is my favorite Vincent Price movie. 

In Theater of Blood, Vincent Price plays Edward Lionheart, a very egotistical actor who all he really wants for Christmas is an award usually given by the Critic's Circle for the best actor in the theater. Unfortunately, he's overlooked, shunned, and critically flamed by the Critic's Circle, so he decides to attempt suicide after confronting the harpies. Too bad his suicide is just one other thing that doesn't seem to go right in Lionheart's life. He survives his swan dive into the Thames and  is rescued by the crazed tramps living in the area. Cue the revenge. (I love Vincent Price's revenge movies - they are always so dramatic.) This time, instead of the plagues or some such like Dr. Phibes, Lionheart's revenge follows the many grisly deaths that took place in the Shakespeare plays in which he starred. He slowly takes out the critics who denied him his just reward while the police are helpless to stop him. 

Vincent Price really hams it up and Diana Rigg is just amazingly beautiful. You know what else makes me really love this movie? The fact that they both consider this one of their best and favorite films. They have very good taste, if I do say so myself. 

They just don't make them like this anymore, and I hope beyond hope no one gets it in their craw to remake this anytime soon. Theater of Blood is very much a movie of its time - it has just the right amount of camp and buckets of bright red theater blood to make a perfect pie - even if it is stuffed with poodles. 

Rating: 5 Purrs  - it' s my favorite Vincent Price movie ever. How could I not give it all 5 Purrs? 

Buffy & The Doctor: The Comics

Buffy Season 8 and the Doctor Who comics (Go comic version of David Tennant!) have become my new favorite comics. I've tried to read a few TV or movie based comics, but none really seemed to capture the essence, the joy of why I watched the TV show or movie in the first place. Buffy Season 8 and Doctor Who somehow have.

Somehow, Joss and team have given me more Buffy when I thought I had none. I loved the show, and I didn't really think they would be able to reasonably continue the story lines in comic form, nor did I think I would like it. I figured I would read a few issues and then say never mind, the soul is missing, the art isn't that great, etc. Man, was I wrong. I love the new story lines. The new season gave some space between the series finale and this new set of stories, so it was easier to remove myself into this new Buffy world, all while continuing with familiar characters I know and love. The dialog in the comic is still Whedon-esque, so much so that I can hear the snappiness and almost hear the actors' voices. The art captures the familiar glances and nuances of the Scoobies.

The Doctor Who comics have many of the same pluses - even though the Doctor's companion is Martha (not my favorite). The art, at least for the first few issues, was perfect to capture the goofiness and occasional darkness of the Doctor Who story lines. The artist also does a good job of capturing some of those really goofball expressions that make David Tennant my favorite Doctor. (I'm not a real fan of the artist in the 4-6 issues. It just doesn't feel the same.) The stories feel like mini episodes, which is what I am looking for. The dialog has the same feel as the Buffy comics do - it's enough like the TV show to make me feel like I am reading what I obsessively watch on my DVR and DVDs.

Buffy and Doctor Who are two of my favorite comics to watch for in my pull pile from Titan, and man, every time I see a new one I really have to make myself not clap in front of the other comic book geeks. But hey, if you can't clap with glee over a new comic while standing next to a giant Hulk statue and not be embarrassed, where can you?

Rating: 5 Purrs - I love my Buffy and Doctor - don't even ask to borrow them . Get your own.

Recent Acquisitions to the Library

My latest haul from Quality Paperback Books:

• An Incomplete Revenge: A Maisie Dobbs Novel by Jacqueline Winspear - I love these mysteries. 
• Not Quite What I Was Planning: Six-Word Memoirs by Writers Famous and Obscure by Rachel Fershleiser - This sounded so intriguing.
• Monster, 1959 by David Maine - A monster from the 50's comes to life. 
• Love Is a Mix Tape: Life and Loss, One Song at a Time by Rob Sheffield - I hear this one is a tear-jerker. 
• Obedience: A Novel by Will Lavender - A prof tells his students that their assignment is to save the girl he's got trapped somewhere by the end of the semester.
• The Vicious Circle: Mystery and Crime Stories by Members of the Algonquin Round Table by Otto Penzler - An anthology of mysteries from those sharp-tongued members of the Round Table.
• Secret Lives of Great Authors: What Your Teachers Never Told You About Famous Novelists, Poets, and Playwrights by Robert Schnakenberg - I love this series of books. 
• The Serpent's Tale by Ariana Franklin - The second in the series of medieval CSI. 
  

Stiff: The Curious Lives of Cadavers by Mary Roach

I wasn’t so sure I could believe the hype surrounding this book. I wondered how someone can write about what happens to cadavers when you donate them to science, make it funny, sometimes laugh out loud funny, and yet still be totally respectful of the dead. Somehow, Mary Roach is able to be all of that and more.

Stiff was hilarious. Mary Roach is matter of fact from the start, using her unique and funny voice to explain all the different ways your body can be used if you donate it to science. You might think your body would end up in some Gross Anatomy class, and it might, but there are plenty of other ways your cadaver can be used. Think car crash experiments. Think military gear tests, especially bombs and how they affect the body. Think practice sessions for plastic surgeons. Think the body farm, where forensic scientists see how well and how long, and generally how you decay. Before all of that though, she includes a chapter on the history of cadavers and medical science, including body snatchers and their place in this weird sphere.

Stiff seems like it might be just a wry take on what happens to you after you are dead, but really Roach includes an amazing amount of detail in such a small book. It can become a bit heavy, but just when you think you can’t take any more, Roach digresses into some odd fact or makes some kind of comment that makes you laugh. The important thing is, she never “speaks ill of the dead;” in fact, her tone can sometimes be almost reverent. She always makes sure you understand the purpose behind using the cadavers in experiments; she wants you to know what they want to learn, and how cadavers have played an unsung role in more than just medical history.

I really enjoyed this book. In fact, I think it’s probably one of my new favorites. It really is an amazing combination – funny, serious, informative. I'm definitely going to pick up Spook, her book on the afterlife, and Bonk, or everything you always wanted to know about sex.

Rating: 5 Purrs for someone who can write,

“It’s just that there are other ways to spend your time as a cadaver. Get involved with science. Be an art exhibit. Become part of a tree. Some options for you to think about.
Death. It doesn’t have to be boring.”

Recent Acquisitions to the Library

Part of my latest horde:

• The Ladies of Grace Adieu by Susanna Clarke - I loved Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell so we'll see how this one goes.
• Gatsby's Girl by Caroline Preston
• The Dead Fathers Club by Matt Haig
• The Collected Poems of W.B. Yeats by William Butler Yeats
• The Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey - Another Richard III mystery. 
• The Post-Birthday World: A Novel by Lionel Shriver
• The Nymphos of Rocky Flats: A Novel by Mario Acevedo - Vampires & nymphomaniacs. I couldn't pass it up. 
• My Lush Life by Douglas McEwan - Highly recommended by my wine bar guy. I had to pick this one up at Half Price. 
• The Complete Stories by Flannery O'Connor - I love Flannery O'Connor's short stories. 
• E.E. Cummings: Complete Poems 1904-1962 by E. E. Cummings - I've always liked e e cummings, but lately I have become borderline obsessed. 
• The Best of Roald Dahl by Roald Dahl
• Roald Dahl's Book of Ghost Stories by Roald Dahl
• Parental Advisory: Music Censorship in America by Eric Nuzum - I loved his book  The Dead Travel Fast, so I thought I would check out his earlier book on music censorship.
  

Susie, do you know anything about... witches?

My copy of Mother of Tears just arrived at Pandabob's office. Oh how I wish I were over there so I could rip the package open and watch it *right the hell now.*

Three Bags Full: A Sheep Detective Story by Leonie Swann

Three Bags Full is another one of those books I would never have found had it not been for Quality Paperback Books (QPB). I joined the book club on a whim back in college and have consistently found books there that were in a word, awesome. I mean awesome in the true sense of the word, too, not the overused "awesome" people say today. Three Bags Full is just another in that long line of satisfying impulse purchases.

In this very amusingly titled book, the sheep of Glennkill have a problem. One morning they are out and about, grazing the fields like normal, and they find their beloved shepherd, George, dead with a spade through the heart. Of course, the sheep can't rely on the humans of the village to investigate the murder thoroughly. The sheep know someone in the village had to have a reason to want George dead...if only they can put it all together. Now it's up to Miss Maple (named not so much to mimic Miss Marple, but she is the cleverest sheep in Glennkill) and her fellow flock to uncover whodunit. After all, George was more than just a shepherd. He was their friend. He read stories to them. He promised to take them to Europe. They want "justice."

What I love most about this book is that, yes, it can seem like a silly premise. It is funny. But the sheep truly care for George. The author thinks enough of her characters to create individual personalities for each sheep or ram in the flock, weaving together true sheep characteristics with human so that each character is memorable, each provides a part to the greater good of the flock, and each in their own way helps solve the mystery. The flock's interpretations of strange words and the villagers' actions sometimes are way off base but sometimes they are terribly accurate. The author uses these funny, sweet, goofy sheep to point fingers at her human characters, uncovering the darkness within, but also uncovering what makes each of us human. It's very effective, amusing, and sad. The mystery is simple (no Agatha Christie Then There Were None here), but the journey is what makes this story so worthwhile.

The best scene - when the sheep try to communicate "whodunit" to the humans at the "Smartest Sheep in Glennkill" contest. I was in tears I was laughing so hard. Seriously. Pandabob didn't know what to do - he didn't know if he should pull the car over so I could breathe (I read this on the way back home from New Mexico).

I won't forget Miss Maple, Zora, the winter lamb, Mopple, and their friends for a very long time. I never thought I would read a book that had me rooting for the sheep, but this one did. It was a perfect vacation read - funny, engaging, bittersweet, and worth every page.

Rating: 4 1/2 stars - it meandered a bit here and there but otherwise it was perfect

Ah vacation...

Vacation - the days where you can read a million books, take a million pictures, relax...

Well, I didn't quite get a million books read, and maybe not a million pictures, but I did read a whole heck of a bunch (I was only gone a week or so) and took so many pictures it's going to take me weeks of cropping, etc., before I can get them all posted.

I took about twice as many books as I actually read on my trip last week, which is pretty normal. My goal was to take things I wanted to read, even if I had read them before many times. I took some new stuff too, but I took some old favorites to revisit because I can never seem to convince myself to re-read things when it's "regular" reading.

What I read while I was gone:

• Bare Bones by Kathy Reichs - I picked these up because I love Bones. While the characters in the book are quite different from the TV Show, I still enjoy the dual mystery and forensics detailed in this series. I didn't think this was nearly as good as some of the former entries in the Temperance Brennan series of books. Here Dr. Brennan is trying to take a vacation with the hunky cop from Canada, but instead she find a big cache of bones that might be bear and might have some human there too. The investigation, death threats, and gore ensues. There's a lot of detail about endangered species here and you can't help but think that it's a topic close to Ms. Reichs' heart. I'd recommend it if you like forensics and want a pretty detailed look at the science.
  
• The Dispatch by Bentley Little - I like Bentley Little. His books are like horror cotton candy. They are tasty, fun, easy to eat up, but sometimes they give you a stomach ache after. This one is a bout a guy who writes letters. The letters he writes end up making things happen, and someone notices and wants to use him for something not so ethical. It's not his best work. I'd recommend The Walking or The Collection (short stories) first.
• The Maul and The Pear Tree by P. D. James and T. A. Critchley - A non-fiction work about the Ratcliffe Highway murders that took place in the early/mid 1800's. The book was very thoroughly researched, but the story felt sort of dry. Not nearly as engrossing as P.D. James' mystery stories. It's nice on a completist's perspective to have read this too, but I think I'll stick to her fiction from now on.
• The Mummy : or Ramses the Damned by Anne Rice - I can't help it. I love this book. Always have, always will. Julie's dad dig's up Ramses' tomb, only to discover he's an immortal. An immortal who fell for Cleopatra. Chaos ensues. Romance blooms. Things blow up and people die. Seriously, it's not Pulitzer Prize material, but I love it anyway. It's my favorite Anne Rice book, ever.
• No Escape by Heather Lowell - It's a romance/thriller/mystery. I know. So sue me.
  
• Sunshine by Robin McKinley - Robin McKinley, one of my favorite authors of all time, writes a vampire novel. It's an interesting take - Rae, nicknamed Sunshine, likes to bake things. She's the Queen of Cinnamon rolls. She wants to just do that, but when some vampires kidnap her, she remembers what her Grandmother taught her - how to transmute objects. When she decides to save the life of Con, the vampire chained to the wall (she's supposed to be his lunch but he won't eat her), her life will never be the same. What I like about this book is that Con isn't a sympathetic, romantic vampire, at least not that much, and definitely not for most of the book. He's flawed, not really all that handsome, and Rae doesn't really find him attractive. In fact, she thinks something is very wrong with her for even helping him. I've read this before, and I picked it up again because of my sister-in-law getting me hooked on all of these Sookie Stackhouse vampire novels and those Twilight books. This one was much more complex and a completely different voice. I highly recommend it - and please Ms. McKinley, write the darn sequel.
  

Primeval

Primeval was that movie – you remember the trailer – that made you think it was about this super scary serial killer who had killed thousands of people. Then you find out it is about a great big man-eating crocodile. Really, it’s not that bad. Definitely not as bad as I thought it would be. In fact I was pleasantly surprised.

In Primeval, Dominic Purcell is a fancy pants journalist who doesn’t want to trek down to Africa like his boss is telling him to do. He has better things to do. But he goes, and takes Orlando Jones and Brooke Langton with him. They are on the “story of the century” to find, and with the help of a Steve Irwin type, trap the man-eating crocodile. Well, you know what happens next right – you’ve seen Anaconda? (Oh well, okay. Maybe that was just me…) Surprise – instead, there is an even bigger story – one about the evil warlord who wants to kill the group because of some pesky eye-opening footage. Off they go to avoid the croc and the warlord. Maybe they will make it, maybe not.

You know, even though the story was silly, the croc was silly, and the characters are kind of silly, I couldn’t help but get into the movie. Maybe it was just me. I do have a thing for gigantic attacking animal movies. Plus it is loosely based on a true story I believe, with the croc being part of the story. He gets so big and hungry for man flesh because of the warlord dumping copious amounts of bodies into the river where he lived. Kind of icky, when you think about it.

 
I don’t know if I can really recommend this one. It was no Anaconda. In fact, I’m not sure it’s even an Anaconda: The Hunt for the Blood Orchid. But I enjoyed it on a purely half-watching, easy Saturday afternoon sort of way.

Rating: 3 Purrs for a croc named Gustave.

Grotesque by Natsuo Kirino

I picked up Natsuo Kirino’s Out on a whim, mostly based on the cover and because it was on the end cap at Barnes & Noble. I loved Out. It was bloody, feminist, thrilling, tightly woven. When I saw that Natsuo Kirino had a new book out, I could barely wait for it to hit paperback (which I didn’t, I waited for it to hit my Quality Paperback Book Club). I was worried it wouldn’t be as good, but I was wrong. Grotesque was different, but still excellent.

Grotesque is a dark, brooding novel, much like Out, in which Kirino continues to peel back the dark corners of modern Japan and the everyday darkness women there face. Her characters, though, face the world in such colorful ways – like slicing up abusive husbands in showers. This time around, Kirino tells the story of two women in their 30s who have been killed almost a year apart in the same way. Yuriko and Kazue knew each other a long time ago, and now both turn tricks (one for fun and one to make the rent).  It may seem like the only things these two women might have in common is their professions and their deaths, but really what ties them together is the narrator – a nameless woman who happens to be the older sister of one and the former classmate of the other who tells the tale is an almost monotone and yet self-protective way.

The narrator slowly tells the histories of these two women, telling her own arrogant, desperately clinging story as well. Yuriko is beautiful; in fact, she is pretty much doomed by her looks, as she soon decides it is the only way to make her way in the world. Kazue, on the other hand, is awkward and unpopular, constantly trying to rise and yet getting nowhere.  The narrator is miserable and spiteful of everyone from the beginning.  These girls grow up in a world where survival of the fittest is evident in every move they make.  In this world, conformity is king; there is a place for everything and everything should be in its place. Yuriko is too beautiful. Kazue’s drive for success and popularity is too evident to be accepted.  They really have no chance – and in the end find freedom in their grotesque and monstrous selves.  To become free – to sell themselves as prostitutes - allows them a freedom most in Japanese society can’t find. In the end, that freedom gives them the chance to be murdered by a foreigner and be envied by the narrator, who wallows in her bitterness and hatred.

It’s a powerful indictment of the world Natuso Kirino lives in, and a very powerful voice to be heard. I think Kirino is an amazing writer. You can enjoy her work on a purely superficial level, reveling in the grotesque and disturbingly bloody images she creates, or you can look and see her deeper message. Either way, it’s a deeply disturbing and yet truly enjoyable read.

Rating: 4 ½ Purrs – just what I was looking for – a truly disconcerting and liberating book. It would be 5 Purrs but it wasn’t quite as good as Out.

One Missed Call (Remake)

I loved the original One Missed Call. Takashi Miike is one of my favorite directors, but his American remake is nothing like the original - at least in tone, scares, or quality. I almost bought this movie and boy, am I glad I didn’t.

In One Missed Call, people are haunted by a phantom ringtone. They get calls to their voicemail saying One Missed Call, with this weird ring tone, and they hear their own deaths. Shannyn Sossoman is Beth – the heroine. Her friends are the ones who keep dying off with the weird phone messages. She hooks up with Ed Burns (but doesn’t “hook” up with him) to solve the mystery.

I usually don’t mind American remakes of Asian horror all that much. I really liked The Grudge and The Grudge 2. Dark Water was okay. The Ring was freaking scary as hell. I almost climbed right the hell out of my seat when Samara came crawling out of that TV (I saw that movie as a team-building event for work. How cool is that?!). One Missed Call just left me cold. I don’t care of you practically remake the movie, shot for shot, it has to be scary, and this version just plain wasn’t. The motive was trite, and followed pretty much the same plot and scares as the original. At least with the original, you had some good scares and the actors had some chemistry. This version had none of either. I hate to say that too, cause I like Ed Burns and Shannyn Sossoman.

I read in the IMDB trivia for this movie and saw that the director Eric Valette told the actors and crew to not watch the original (and he didn’t either). Somehow, that explains so much.

Rating: 4 Hisses – this should have been scary scary scary. Instead I was bored out of my mind.