media update: November

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. Curious Toys* by Elizabeth Hand:  Pin is a young girl posing as a boy in 1915, hanging out at the amusement park where her mother works as a fortune teller.  When a murderer begins stalking the park looking for new victims, Pin teams up with a strange man named Henry Darger (based on the real outsider artist who wrote and illustrated a 15,000 page book) to catch him.  Atmospheric and engrossing.

2. The Grace Year* by Kim Liggett:  When girls turn 16, their skin begins to emit an aphrodisiac, so they're banished into the wild while their magic "burns off".  But the wilderness is dangerous, and full of poachers who kill the girls to use their body parts in lucrative elixirs.  Extremely dark and beautifully written.

3. Girls of Storm and Shadow by Natasha Ngan:  This is a sequel, so I can't review it properly lest I spoil its predecessor. 

4. The Arrangement by Robyn Harding:  Desperate for money, Nat signs up on a sugar baby site, but it leads to disastrous consequences.
 
2019 total so far:  61


NONFICTION

1. Beautiful on the Outside by Adam Rippon:  An entertaining autobiography by the Olympic figure skater.

2. Dear Girls by Ali Wong:  A collection of touching and/or raunchy letters the comedian wrote for her two daughters. 

3. The Witches Are Coming* by Lindy West:  A collection of essays about our current political climate and feminism that's both incisive and savagely funny. 

4. The Less People Know About Us by Axton-Betz Hamilton:  When the author was 11, her parents' identities were stolen, kicking off decades of ruined credit, missing money, and debts they hadn't run up.  When Axton was in college, she discovered that her identity had been stolen too.  She was determined to track down the culprit, but she wasn't prepared for who it was.  It wasn't much of a surprise to me, because it's pretty heavily telegraphed almost from the beginning, but it's still a good book. 

2019 total so far:  27


MANGA/GRAPHIC NOVELS

1. The End of the Fucking World by Charles Forsman

2. Guts by Raina Telgemeier

3. No Matter How I Look at It, It's You Guys' Fault I'm Not Popular! vol. 14 by Nico Tanagawa:  I have to be honest and say this manga has really gone downhill since Tomoko, the main character, got a bunch of friends.  I'm happy for her---well, inasmuch as you can be "happy" for a fictional character---but the whole premise of the manga was that she's a loner and mostly fine with it, so once they took that away, it stopped being nearly as funny or relatable.

4. Ms. Koizumi Loves Ramen Noodles by Naru Narumi

5. Kaze Hikaru vol. 27 by Taeko Watanabe

6. Saint Young Men by Hikaru Nakamura

2019 total so far:  46 volumes of manga and 27 graphic novels


MOVIES

1. Toy Story 4*:  Woody, Buzz, and the other toys go on a road trip with their new owner Bonnie in this charming and funny adventure.  To quote a (professional) reviewer, it didn't need to be made, because TS3 ended on such a perfect note, but I'm glad it was.

2. Flavors of Youth:  An animated anthology of three stories, all set in China.

3. The Boy:  9-year-old Ted (Jared Breeze, who's excellent) lives in a seedy motel with his father.  He's fascinated with death, and when a drifter shows up at his motel, it brings out Ted's worst impulses.  Not to be confused with the creepy doll horror movie of the same name, though it's horrifying in a different way.  It's a bit of a slow burn, but worth it, in my opinion.

4. Hobbs & Shaw:  The titular enemies (Dwayne Johnson and Jason Statham) team up to fight a cyber-enhanced villain (Idris Elba) and rescue the world from a deadly virus.  It's dumb, but it has a lot of fun action and some funny lines, and if you're into dudes, there's plenty of delicious eye candy to feast on.

5. Stuber:  An Uber driver (Kumail Nanjiani) winds up getting involved in a case when a cop (Dave Bautista) recovering from Lasik books a ride.  Occasionally quite funny.

6. Knives Out**:  A mystery writer (Christopher Plummer) dies by suicide, but a famous detective (Daniel Craig) is hired by an unknown party to investigate further in this exceptionally clever mystery with a top-notch cast.

2019 total so far:  83

media update: October

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. Full Throttle by Joe Hill:  A collection of short stories, including a couple cowritten with Joe's dad, Stephen King.  (Who, in my opinion, Joe is besting these days.)

2. Opioid, Indiana by Brian Allen Carr:  After his mother dies by suicide, 17-year-old Riggle moves in with his uncle, but when his uncle goes missing, Riggle has to find him before the rent is due.

2019 total so far: 57


NONFICTION

1. Toil & Trouble by Augusten Burroughs: A memoir about the author's discovery that he's a witch, among other things.

2. Things We Didn't Talk About When I Was A Girl by Jeannie Vanasco:  The author was sexually assaulted by a friend when she was a teenager, and later on, she decided to get in touch with him and find out why he did it and if it still haunts him too.

3. Catch and Kill* by Ronan Farrow:  When Ronan Farrow began investigating claims of sexual assault against Hollywood bigwig Harvey Weinstein, he didn't expect the huge can of worms he was about to open.  Riveting and enraging, and occasionally even funny (at one point, discussing a seemingly benign Gwen Stefani interview he had to scrap on orders from her publicist, he says "I felt neither hella good nor hella bad").

4. How We Fight for Our Lives by Saeed Jones:  A memoir about coming of age as a gay black man in the south.

2019 total so far:  23


MANGA/GRAPHIC NOVELS

1. Food Wars!* vol. 32 by Yuto Tsukuda and Shun Saeki

2. Our Dreams at Dusk* vol. 3 by Yuhki Kamatani

3. Ao Haru Ride vol. 7 by Io Sakisaka

4. Avatar: The Last Airbender - Imbalance Pt. 3 by Faith Erin Hicks and Peter Wartman

5. Avatar: The Last Airbender - The Lost Stories (anthology)

6. The Promised Neverland vol. 12 by Kaiu Shirai and Posuka Demizu

7. Avatar: The Last Airbender - Team Avatar Tales (anthology)

2019 total so far:  42 volumes of manga and 25 graphic novels


MOVIES

1. Rocketman*:  A musical biopic about Elton John and his rise to fame.  Superior to Bohemian Rhapsody in every way but the songs.  (Nothing against the songs in this, I just prefer Queen's music.)

2. X-Men: Dark Phoenix:  After Jean Grey (Sophie Turner) is hit by a solar flare, she becomes even more powerful, and alien forces wish to use her for bad things.  A commercial and critical failure that didn't really deserve to flop; it's obviously not in the same league as most Marvel movies, but it certainly wasn't awful.

3. Midsommar:  After a devastating tragedy, Dani (Florence Pugh) tags along with her boyfriend and his friends to visit a secluded Swedish village for a festival, but the 24-hour sunshine and pretty flower crowns hide a sinister secret.  Not as scary as Ari Aster's previous movie, Hereditary, but it's still plenty emotionally distressing and much gorier, so view with caution.

4. Anna:  A supermodel becomes an elite KGB assassin in this dumb but surprisingly entertaining thriller.

5. The Art of Self-Defense*:  After being mugged by a gang of motorcycle thugs, Casey (Jesse Eisenberg) decides to take karate classes in this extremely unpredictable and very dark comedy.

6. Satanic:  Chloe (Sarah Hyland) and her friends go on a road trip to Los Angeles that turns into a literal vacation from hell. It's not particularly scary or good, but it had a few decent bits of dialogue that kept me watching.

2019 total so far: 77