media update: September

CONFIDENTIAL TO G:  Skip the first movie review.

Much to my "delight", I somehow managed to delete my original draft of this entry about a week into September. I think I managed to remember what I'd read/watched up to that point, but I may have forgotten something.  This displeases me.

Asterisks denote something I particularly enjoyed or found especially worthy of my time; double asterisks are reserved for the creme de la creme.  As always, your mileage may vary.


FICTION

1. The Warehouse by Rob Hart:  In the not-so-distant future, a company called Cloud has eaten up most of America's commerce and employment (hmmm, who could this possibly be based on?).  Zinnia gets a job as a picker/packer, but she has a secret mission: to take Cloud down from the inside.

2. The Institute by Stephen King:  A shady organization kidnaps children with special abilities and imprisons them in the titular institute.  I won't spoil what they want with the kids, but it's a Stephen King book so you know it isn't anything good.

Something was bothering me while reading this, and it finally occurred to me: in my opinion, King's lost his touch when it comes to writing realistic children.  It's been a long time since I read It and The Body (the basis for Stand by Me), but I remember them being really accurate to the way kids talk, think, and behave.  My best guess is that his own kids were young at the time he wrote those books, so he had in-house examples to draw from.

3. Missing Person* by Sarah Lotz:  A man turns to an internet forum of cold case aficionados for help in finding his missing uncle.  Unfortunately, it looks like his uncle could be an unidentified murder victim known as "The Boy in the Dress", and one of the posters has reasons for not wanting the case solved.

4. Permanent Record* by Mary H.K. Choi: While working the overnight shift at a bodega, Pablo strikes up a conversation with a cute customer and is shocked when he finally recognizes her as a celebrity.  They form a relationship, but her fame complicates matters.  Sharp and funny; it even made me cry.
 
2019 total so far: 55


NONFICTION

1. Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs? by Caitlin Doughty:  The star of YouTube's "Ask A Mortician" channel answers some of the weirdest and most interesting questions she's been asked.  (And in regards to the title question: if you've been dead for several days and it's been left alone with your corpse, probably, 'cause the poor baby is starving!  But it most likely wouldn't start there.)

Warning for ebook readers: I read this on my Kindle and some of the illustrations were printed over the typeface.  Most of the time you could still make out the words, either because the drawings were "transparent" or by Wheel of Fortune-ing it, but I'd still advise reading a physical copy instead if you can swing it.

2. Inside Out by Demi Moore:  The actress covers her troubled youth (her own mother accepted $500 from a man to let him rape Demi when she was 15 years old, which: holy shit), drug and alcohol addictions, fame, and marriages to Bruce Willis and Ashton Kutcher.

2019 total so far: 19


MANGA/GRAPHIC NOVELS

1. The Walking Dead* vol. 32 (final volume) by Robert Kirkman and Charlie Adlard

2. Harley Quinn: Breaking Glass by Mariko Tamaki and Steve Pugh

3. Dream Daddy (anthology)

4. Idol Dreams vol. 6 by Arina Tanemura

5. Gender Queer: A Memoir by Maia Kobabe

6. Pumpkinheads by Rainbow Rowell and Faith Erin Hicks

2019 total so far:  38 volumes of manga and 22 graphic novels


MOVIES

1. Once Upon a Time...in Hollywood*:  In 1969, washed-up star Rick Dalton (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his stunt double/friend Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt) try to stay afloat.  Both a love letter to and a eulogy for the Golden Age of Hollywood.  I wasn't sure whether I loved or hated the ending when I saw it, but after chewing it over for a bit, I decided it was pretty fucking brilliant.

2. Booksmart*:  Best friends Amy and Molly (Kaitlyn Dever and Beanie Feldstein, both terrific) decide they've spent too much of their high school years studying, so they decide to fit as much partying into one night as they can.  Delightful and funny.

3. Dear Zachary*:  The director, Kurt Kuenne, is a documentarian whose best friend Andrew was murdered by his ex-girlfriend, Dr. Shirley Turner.  While Dr. Turner was on trial for the crime, she revealed that she was pregnant with Andrew's child.  Dr. Turner eventually gave birth to a boy named Zachary, and Kurt began making this documentary as a way of sharing memories of Andrew once the child was older.  I already knew about this case, so it wasn't quite the emotional gut punch it might have been otherwise, but it was still emotionally devastating.  Make sure you have a box of tissues handy; two if you don't already know the outcome.

4. John Wick 3: Parabellum*:  This picks up immediately where JW2 ended, so I won't spoil it.  I'll just say that although the plot is nothing to write home about, there are some fantastic action sequences that make it well worth seeing.

5. Ma:  Sue Ann is a lonely woman who lets a rowdy group of teenagers use her basement as a party pad, but unbeknownst to them, she's a little...off.  I didn't like this as much as I thought I would, and the ending is really abrupt, but Octavia Spencer is great, imbuing "Ma" with much more humanity than you generally see in this type of movie.

2019 total so far: 71