Rated Doctor Who: I Am The Master 10/10
Oh I loved this. A bit meta, well-suited for headphones, the Master being devious. It's great.
book
Rated The Age of Innocence 10/10
<div>Edith Wharton is one of the best to ever do it.</div>
Rated Station Eleven 10/10
Honestly, this might be the best book I've read (so far) this year.
Rated Doctor Who: A Small Semblance of Home 10/10
<div>A perfect First Doctor Short Trip really.</div>
Wants to read Lady Stuff: Secrets to Being a Woman
Rated Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? 8/10
<div>I was surprised by how much liked this.</div>
Rated Bad Feminist 10/10
Of course I recommend this wholeheartedly.
Rated Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic 10/10
Excellent. Would love to see the musical.
Rated Dirtbag, Massachusetts: A Confessional 10/10
<div>I have followed Isaac Fitzgerald's literary career ever since he was an editor at The Rumpus back in the late 2000s, and it's been great to see where he's gone since then. A couple of these essays, I read wherever they were originally published, though long enough ago that I don't know whether or not they changed in any significant way. This is a great memoir, full of honest, insightful memories, and it's also interesting to see what was happening "behind the curtain," so to speak, during some of the times I was paying attention to his professional work. He's the same age as I am, so some of his childhood attitudes and memories felt very familiar, even though I did not grow up in the same area (and my childhood was considerably more stable). Like, of course you just get up to shit in the woods and are glad for only loose supervision! Of course every teen boy was obsessed with Fight Club and the Pixies after the movie came out! I definitely knew guys like the friends he describes.<br><br>Also, Zeitgeist sounds like an amazing bar.</div>
Rated One Day 10/10
One Day is an excellent book — one filled with as many funny moments as there are heart-crushing. One of the best books I've read all year.<br><br>(Full review can be found on <a href="http://glorifiedloveletters.blogspot.com/2010/08/one-day-by-david-nicholls.html">Glorified Love Letters</a>)
Rated Candida Royalle and the Sexual Revolution: A History from Below 6/10
<div>Candice Vadala/Candida Royalle definitely has an interesting story, but I don't quite agree with all the cultural analysis offered by Kamensky. For one thing, the book is a little too fond of Andrea Dworkin quotes. Though this <em>is</em> a look at several key moments in the "sexual revolution" and secondwave feminism, it is definitely with a heterosexual lens. And while one can't include everything and still have it also be a biography of one woman who lived through it, the book keeps a bit of distance from any queerness in Candice's life. Still, it was interesting enough to keep reading, even if the book was a bit overlong.</div>
Wants to read Please Don't Be Upset and Other Stories
Rated Love and Other Consolation Prizes 8/10
His best one yet.
Wants to read Beautiful and Pointless: A Guide to Modern Poetry
Rated The Thing About Thugs 8/10
In some ways, the darker elements and seeing the killer's point-of-view reminded me of Patricia Highsmith's work, though she did not set any of her stories (that I know of) in Victorian times. The methodical way everyone justifies their bad behavior, killer or not, is also very much like her. The difference is that Khair doesn't write with underlying disdain for society. There is still an element of magic, though not the fantastical kind. It's magic in the form of hope, the willful suspension of disbelief, and the transforming power of a good story. I certainly recommend tracking down this book.<br><br>(My full review appears on <a href="http://glorifiedloveletters.blogspot.com/2012/12/the-thing-about-thugs-by-tabish-khair.html">Glorified Love Letters</a>.)
Rated The Zero 10/10
Not in recent memory have I read a book so enthralling, heartbreaking and with such deadpan humor. In what he calls his "9/12" novel, Jess Walter’s <i>The Zero</i> follows "hero cop" Brian Remy, who is trying to make sense of the world while also suffering from memory lapses. His journey is at once bewildering and mournful, and though I’m not one to go on about perfect first lines, Walter had me at the outset:<br><br><blockquote>They burst into the sky, every bird in creation, angry and agitated, awakened by the same primary thought, erupting in a white feathered cloudburst, anxious and graceful, angling in ever-tightening circles toward the ground, drifting close enough to touch, and then close enough to see that it wasn’t a flock of birds at all — it was paper.</blockquote><br><br><br>Is it a long first sentence? Yes. Does it matter? Absolutely not.<br><br>Part existential crisis, part satire, <i>The Zero</i> also presents some of the ridiculousness of government during this time. There’s talk of “evildoers” and an entire agency dedicated to collecting all those scraps of paper, The Department of Documentation. “Things will be better when all the paper has been cleaned up.” Cops and firefighters are getting agents and their faces on cereal boxes; tourists pose for photos by the wreckage. Even in the event of a national tragedy, capitalism and consumerism worm their way into the larger discussion.<br><br>(Full review can be found at <a href="http://therumpus.net/2010/07/sara-habein-the-last-book-i-loved-the-zero/">The Rumpus.</a>)
Rated Just Kids 10/10
One of the best, most affecting memoirs I have ever read. Just Kids is a love story — a love story between people, a love story about art — and a story of sacrifice for what one believes is their destiny. <br><br>My full review can be found on <a href="http://glorifiedloveletters.blogspot.com/2011/01/just-kids-by-patti-smith.html">Glorified Love Letters</a>.
Rated Doctor Who: The Forgotten Army 6/10
This is definitely a Doctor Who novel that is more suited for younger readers, since it's a bit more simplistic in both plot and writing style. Tell a kid, "The Doctor is investigating a prehistoric mammoth and tiny soldiers in New York," and I'm guessing they'd be on board immediately. As an adult, I still enjoyed it well-enough. However, Minchin tried a bit TOO hard to play up the contrary parts of Amy's character, along with some of the Doctor's more common turns of phrase, and they didn't quite ring true. So, not essential reading, but not wasted time either.
Rated Memory's Legion: The Complete Expanse Story Collection 10/10
<div>I'd already read some of these stories in their novella form, but it was great to finally get the full collection. The story centering on Amos' origins ("The Churn") and "Strange Dogs" were probably my favorite, but they're all good.</div>
Rated Gallifrey: The Inquiry 8/10
This is very good. Romana gets to flex some Presidential Power.