I Read Books and Watch Stuff/Business Has Nothing To Do With Personal Feelings

At the moment I'm reading The Cheer Leader by Jill McCorkle. I find that I hate it when I can't find an image of a book that has the same cover as the physical book I'm reading...this is an example. I have not decided what I think about the book. I like the beginning, telling a story through snapshots...but then things slow down, the main character falls in love with the wrong guy numerous times (the same guy)...and seems to be heading for some serious melt down stuff. But I'm still reading it.

I like mysteries. I like the south. So it's no surprise that I like Margaret Maron's Deborah Knott series. But, secretly, I'm obsessed with Deborah's love life...how the same man was in love with her for, like, ever and how, eventually, she figured it out and now they're all happy and shit. I eat it up. I eat it up with a small dainty spoon and a large, large bowl.

Yesterday I finished reading Douglas Coupland's The Gum Thief. I've read at least one other book by Coupland (Microserfs) but I think I may have read at least one other (?). This book was a bit hard to get through. Between the conceit of all the characters writing letters to each other, frequent excerpts of one character's novel (purposefully bad, I think, but...um...still painful to read). Eh. I wouldn't bother.

I watched The Savages a few days back. I liked it well enough. All the actors were good and, considering the subject matter, it was pretty funny.

Before my trip to Philadelphia my mother and I went to Tullahoma for a little shopping for shoes attempt (which was, come to think of it, very successful). We also went to Big Lots to look for something, I forget what. In the checkout line they had all these movies. Included was Can't Hardly Wait...for $2.99...I don't care what you haters say, this movie is great. I bought it. And then I watched it. I also bought The Squid and the Whale, also for $2.99. But I haven't broken the seal on that sucker yet.

The Girls by Lori Lansen is the story of two sisters. They are conjoined at the head twins. They live in a small town in Canada. The story is told from the perspective of both sisters writing separate journals, slowly telling the stories of their shared life. Decent.

I found Northanger Abbey tiresome. The heroine is so clueless, so often, that it loses its charm to constantly be hoping she's going to get some balls and brains and get married. But, of course, she does.

Since my secondary return to Tennessee my parents and I have been watching a lot of Jeeves and Wooster. Once I'm settled into my new location and work life, I plan on writing an essay about my severe obsession with British television series (mini and not) and trying to figure out the 'why' of it. The 'why' of Jeeves and Wooster, in short form, is that it's funny. Hugh Laurie and Stephen Fry both do excellent jobs as their characters and P.G. (D?) Wodehouse's stories (I assume each episode is equal to one of the books) are chock full of Britishy wonders.

I also read both of Julia Glass' novels. Three Junes, her first, I liked very much. This guy didn't, at all. The Whole World Over I liked too, perhaps more. Though I must admit the way everybody's life is aesthetically pleasing if not dysfuntional gets a little harder to believe...everywhere these people go, almost even ground zero, is somehow pretty...I find myself (with that notable exception) the settings these characters live in would make you wish you lived there too. The guy wouldn't like it either, I wouldn't think.

I finished The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell a few days back. I read it in a three day period of time partially because I did, occasionally, stop myself from 'devouring' it...not literally, I eat many things but not books. This a book I could have taught in my class back at SAIC...an experience I don't think I fully wrote about. It's the kind of literary science fiction that I especially enjoy. I found the characters extremely well written, for the most part. The story was both intellectually stimulating and emotionally effective. The story itself 'unfolds' in two different time periods, both set in the future. There is love, there are aliens. Oh and much rumination on the nature of faith and the love of God. And a space ship. The best I could tell people who don't like those aspects of a story would be something like this: Yes, there are aliens and spaceships. But the worlds in which they exist are fascinating in their lack of 'science fictiony aspects'. People still watch baseball and wear shorts. Slums are still slums. But, if you really have a problem with conjecture about our society in 70 years, well, there's nothing I can do.
I think I've read more things and I've watched a fair amount of television. But nothing worth talking about, I don't think.