The Art of the English Murder // Lucy Worsley {Audiobook}

Why I'm reading
This somehow made it onto my to-read list while I was bookmarking Sherlock Holmes audiobooks. I needed something non-fiction after finishing the Hunger Games series.

Where I got the book
Greenwich/Overdrive.

Expectations
I barely read the title before clicking… but hey, Sherlock Holmes.

So how was it?

Once I got past my innate urge to start taking notes, this was pretty interesting! It explores the historical context behind the English murder-mystery genre: when it started, its predecessors (Gothic novels, penny-dreadfuls, melodrama, theater), historical and cultural contexts (capital punishment, crime, famous murderers, the development of police and detective agencies, literacy), and its continued influence and popularity. It was actually very appropriate for having just finished the Hunger Games series (even moreso than BBC Sherlock).

Recommendation
Fans of murder-mysteries and crime dramas (looking at you, CSI) will enjoy this -- but it’s  non-fiction, so no plot or drama.

I would actually recommend reading this after the Hunger Games series, if you need some time to recover -- both of them deal with the spectacle of death and murder.

Feels
Informative, but not too dry. Well organized.

Favorites
Reading about the development of police and police detectives was interesting -- something so obvious as a government-run police force, or even individuals who figure out crimes based on any kind of evidence (not just forensic evidence!), was apparently controversial. Like, “oh no, it couldn’t be him, he’s such a nice guy!” was a legitimate defense. The author also pays attention to women throughout the book, which is pretty cool. Female authors, female murderers, female detectives, and female readers are all included as part of the narrative, not as a side note or subsumed by the male perspective.

Least favorites
I’m surprised the book never really addressed Sherlock Holmes (or Agatha Christie, or Colombo, or any other detectives) in TV and movies. Insanely popular shows like CSI are a pretty obvious heir to the murder-mystery detective genre. This was published in 2013 so there’s really no excuse.

Fragile Things // Neil Gaiman {Audiobook}

Why I'm reading
Neil Gaiman is fantastic.

Where I got the book
Audiobook from Greenwich. Again.

So how was it?

A collection of short stories and poetry featuring Gaiman’s unique mixture of spooky, creepy, morbid, snarky, dark horror. Also includes lots a little tidbits of poetry interspersed between the chapters, and introductions/context in the foreword. The audiobook is read by Gaiman as well -- he’s brilliant.

The Mapmaker 
I wasn’t really sure about this one. It’s the story of a Chinese emperor who creates a miniature map of China in his garden. It’s extremely accurate and a huge drain of resources; then he dies, and the map is abandoned and grows over. Something about transience, maybe, and the whims of people in power.

A Study in Emerald 
Oh. my. god. Oh my god. I can’t even. This is a retelling of the Sherlock Holmes story A Study in Scarlet within the Cthulhu universe, where the ruling class consists of Lovecraftian monsters. That’s right: Gaiman wrote crossover fanfiction, and it is fantastic. Sent me into mental cascade failure by the end. I made Alan listen to it, it was so good. Read it here!

October in the Chair 
The seasons tell stories around the campfire; October tells an oddly peaceful horror story about a young runaway boy playing in a haunted graveyard. The framing (i.e. the seasons) was more memorable than the individual stories. There was a moment where the ghost’s story reminded me of Bradbury’s "Yes, We'll Gather at the River" -- sure enough, it’s dedicated to him.

Forbidden Brides of the Faceless Slaves in the Secret House of the Night of Dread Desire 
An author struggles to write realistic fiction, in a world where elaborate Gothic horror constitutes ‘realistic.’ A fun little turn-up of expectations.

The Flints of Memory Lane 
A tiny little story where the author -- like several of these, I’m not entirely sure if it’s really Gaiman, a fictional Gaiman, or just an arbitrary fictional author -- encounters a chilling gypsy woman. There’s no real backstory or follow-up, and that seems to be the point; some things are just unexplained and creepy.

Closing Time 
A few pub (club) goers tell ghost stories before closing up shop for the night. The main ghost story follows a young boy who falls in with three slightly older and more delinquent boys; they find a creepy old playhouse, and the older boys disappear inside. Turns out the youngest of the three is in the club. Nothing is really resolved. I’m not sure if it’s an allegory for loss of innocence, child abuse, or just the scattershot nature of stories.

Bitter Grounds 
A man drops his life and picks up another one at random, following where it leads, until he ends up at an anthropology conference in New Orleans and … something something something zombies? It’s a rambling story that actually makes sense as you read, but doesn’t have a cohesive plot.

Other People 
A man is tortured until he understands why he deserves to be tortured. Creepy and sad, although it’s hard to feel one way or the other about the main character without knowing why he deserves torture.

Keepsakes and Treasures: A Love Story 
A story about a (psychopathic?) young orphan overcoming his terrible upbringing, meeting the mysterious and insanely wealthy Mr. Alice, and becoming his devoted right-hand man. Surprisingly nasty; disturbingly satisfying in a way that’s seriously Not Good. No, despite my vocabulary, this is nothing like Sherlock!

Good Boys Deserve Favors 
Strangely endearing, I can’t really call this one ‘horror.’ It’s the story of a boy who takes up playing the double bass, although he has no particular passion for it -- and has one spontaneous moment of connection with the instrument. There wasn’t anything about this story that really stood out, but I liked the sense of having one perfect in-the-moment experience.

The Facts in the Case of the Departure of Miss Finch 
The narrator is invited to entertain his friends’ standoffish acquaintance; they all go to a really weird circus performance. Well written and entertaining (of course) but I didn’t really connect with this one.

Harlequin Valentine
I like Harlequin type characters (incidentally, Harley Quinn was my Halloween costume!) so I enjoyed this quasi-mythical take on the character/archetype of Italian theater. The story is sad if you empathize with the male main character, but delightful and fun if you consider Harlequin the main character -- exactly the kind of dark humor you want from a Harlequin. And his seamless transition into real life was so cool.

The Problem of Susan 
Another sort-of-fanfiction, this time in the Narnia universe. Not being familiar with Narnia, the source of her turmoil isn’t quite clear to me -- but I always appreciate fanfiction that goes for a darker, realistic, more complicated interpretation of simple/idealistic stories.

Instructions 
A poem with instructions on what to do if you find yourself in a fairy tale. Similar to The Evil Overlord List.

How Do You Think It Feels? 
A weird little story about a guy who cheats, falls in love with his young mistress, gets his heart broken… and makes a gross little stone demon? I didn’t connect with this one at all. Also, holy shit, this was porny! I mean, hey, I regularly listen to worse podfic, but Overdrive occasionally plays snippets before switching over to headphones, and I was listening to this at work D:

Feeders and Eaters 
A weird not-quite-zombie story with this undercurrent of unhealthy compulsion. It doesn’t quite make sense -- shouldn’t there be a more straightforward way to eat? -- but somehow that makes it creepier.

In the End 
Genesis in reverse; the last book of the Bible. Weird.

Goliath 
A little side story set in the Matrix universe, following one human as the war causes glitches in the Matrix. I loved the experience of a mostly regular human within a glitching Matrix!

Pages from a Journal Found in a Shoebox Left in a Greyhound Bus Somewhere Between Tulsa, Oklahoma, and Louisville, Kentucky 
A circular, dizzy adventure that feels like something between heatstroke and time travel.

How to Talk to Girls at Parties 
Two teenage boys -- your typical extrovert and introvert -- wander into a party full of alien tourists, looking to hit on girls. Apparently this is going to be a movie! I don’t think it has enough plot to be a movie, but John Cameron Mitchell is directing, so it can’t not be great.

The Day the Saucers Came 
I’ve heard this one before; it’s cute. As the world falls into elaborate and redundant ruin, the author is preoccupied with his love life.

Sunbird 
The gastronomical adventures of the Epicurean Society, an ages-long society dedicated to eating everything you could possibly eat. They’ve run out of new things to try, when one of the older members suggests the mysterious sunbird in Egypt. As fanciful as it was, this one felt weirdly reassuring.

Also, I couldn’t help but picture the character Methos from Highlander.

Inventing Aladdin 
The inner thoughts of Scheherazade -- the “author” of stories like Aladdin and Arabian Nights -- as she invents new passages every night so her sultan husband won’t behead her. Exactly as I’ve always pictured her; what an awful situation.

The Monarch of the Glen
A crazy, blurry take on Norse? pagan? mythology, (apparently) part of his American Gods novel. It follows Shadow, a reincarnation of a Norse hero, as he wanders into a small town. He ends up playing bodyguard -- and then the entertainment -- at a strange pagan party.

Storm Front // Jim Butcher

I don’t think Connecticut knows how to spring -- which, hey, I’m not complaining that it warmed up so fast. After an extremely snowy winter, we had about a month of foggy, chilly ~20 degree weather, then one day hit 70, then another week of ~20, and suddenly early summer. One of my professors back in college said she’d never understood spring until she experienced it in England, where apparently the seasons don’t flip overnight. This is how you know I’m from Connecticut : talking about the weather is practically our national pastime.  

Why I'm reading
I watched a few episodes of the TV show, and it was pretty good.

Where I got the book
ebook from Greenwich Library, using the Overdrive app. Berlin-Peck lists both collections of the Dresden series, but weirdly enough the first set is “unavailable” -- not borrowed, just unavailable.

Expectations
Honestly? John Constantine.

So how was it?

I couldn’t finish this. I just couldn’t. I got a few chapters in, and gave up. Maybe if it was a short story I could have persevered, but even then, it didn’t have the infuriating unintentional humor of subatomic dinosaurs.

Harry Dresden is a wizard private eye -- yes, you read that right, he’s a wizard named Harry, in a book published three years after the first Harry Potter -- in a world run by shadowy wizard councils, mafia bosses, and good-cop bad-cop tough-but-also-somehow-feminine-hot-female-cop / annoying-ugly-skeptic-male-cop duos. Sounds pretty interesting, right? But the writing was just excruciating.

I can 110% understand how this would make an engaging TV show, because -- unless some very strange choices are made -- a TV scifi hero isn’t going to spend the entire first episode monologuing about himself as things happen in the background. Since the problem is bad characterization, even a minimally engaging lead actor could make the series actually interesting.

And yeah, a lot of long series take a while to get better -- to grow their beard, as it were. I have no doubt that the later books are better… but better than this still isn’t worth it for me.

Recommendation
I just can’t recommend this, but hey, I guess it works for a lot of people. If you’re looking for a quirky, noir, slightly humorous, slightly sci-fi, down-on-his-luck private detective that’s actually well written, check out Douglas Adams’ Dirk Gently.

Feels
Self-involved. Lame. Unbearably, ignorantly, "look at the gams on that, uh... bossy strong female character who won't sleep with me" sexist. If a book can dwell on itself, that’s what it seems to be doing.

Favorites
I can't even.

Least favorites
He’s a pretty big Marty Stu, and a little bit neckbeardy, to be honest. Opening doors for women, with a couple of paragraphs explaining his old-fashioned philosophy, and dropping off-hand comments to the reader about all his Dangerous Wizarding Powers. He’s a super powerful, super impressive wizard -- we know this because he tells us, not because of context clues, or characterization, or even seeing him use his awesome powers. It’s just constant, constant talking about himself.

Writing style
It’s trying -- and failing -- to be noir. The fact that Dresden talks about himself constantly doesn’t just make me dislike the character; it’s bad writing, and terrible world-building. He’s constantly dropping hints about himself, which I imagine are supposed to build mystery and suspense, but it has all the subtlety of a bowling ball out a window. No, I take that back -- a bowling ball out a window has more intrigue than these books.

So what did I really think?

Click "read more"

Blade Runner // Ridley Scott {Movie}

Why I'm reading
It’s a scifi classic! I actually borrowed it a little while ago and never got around to watching it, until it was mentioned in Ready Player One.

Where I got the movie
Greenwich Library.

Expectations
Action-adventure, with a dose of existential confusion over what it means to be human. The movie is old enough that I’ve acquired a vague idea of the ending scene, albeit with zero context. Other than that, any expectations have been obscured by my long-standing confusion between this and Blade. Like, Wesley Snipes hunting vampires Blade. ……… ಠ_ಠ

So how was it?

The plot itself is fairly skeletal: Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford) is a blade runner, responsible for hunting down and “retiring” Replicants -- lab-grown (or built?) creatures that are nearly indistinguishable from humans, used as slave labor off-world and banned on Earth itself. A small group of Replicants makes it back to Earth, and Rick agrees to take the assignment.

The movie was very loosely based on Philip K. Dick's novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, so I’ll probably pick that up sometime soon. It also clearly influenced Fifth Element and the later scenes of Cloud Atlas, just off the top of my head.

Recommendation
Sci-fi fans (of course). Fans of film noir might get a kick out of it, too.

Feels
Our media center gave this movie genres like existentialism and neo-noir... More accurate words could not have been chosen. It has themes of mortality, identity, and what it means to be human… but it never gets preachy or concrete on anything. The filmography and special effects were characters in their own right, with sweeping sci-fi matte painting backgrounds, elaborate noir lighting, and grungy dieselpunk Chinese street scenes.

Favorites
The movie has lots of little details that it doesn’t feel the need to shove down your throat, adding a lot of depth to the characters. Of course, the downside of that is a lot of random shit that doesn’t make sense -- like, say, the unicorn hallucination.

I also like the ending. We know what happened (this isn’t Inception) … but… was it a victory? or a tragedy?

Least favorites
Ummm how about the date rape scene? I'll go with the date rape scene. I can’t call it anything else. I don’t know if it was supposed to be romantic or what, but when you kiss someone and they run for the door, and you follow them, grab their wrist to physically prevent them from leaving, push them up against a wall, and demand that they say ‘kiss me’, and ‘I want you’ multiple times… that’s not romantic. That’s pretty much a script for date rape. Literally the only thing that keeps this from ruining the movie for me is that I’m not sure if they even meant for it to be romantic.

Aside from that, I really wish we got some glimpse into Pris (Daryl Hannah). Her character was just as interesting as the two other (male) Replicants, but we got zero insight into what made her tick. Leon got about the same amount of screen time, but had several lines that made you think about his motivations and see him in an almost-human light. She just seemed arbitrarily evil and manic.

Cinematography
...was gorgeous. Old school matte paintings and real physical models, and filmed with this great noir feeling. With that said, it got a little clunky ; very often the camera (and the action) just ground to a halt so we could appreciate the scene’s setup, lighting, costuming, etc. Not that I don’t appreciate those scenes -- they were beautiful -- but it felt a little forced.

So what did I really think?

Click "read more"... massive spoilers ahead!

The Salmon of Doubt // Douglas Adams

Merry Christmas! Just got home and finished up the last few chapters on The Salmon of Doubt. The condo is a mess, and we got a waffle iron, a beer making kit (!), a battery backup (!?), and the new Rush R40 box set. In other news, I'll be starting my new job on January 6th! Super excited, except for the hour-twenty I'll be driving every other day, like an idiot. 

Why I'm reading
Finishing up the Douglas Adams classics! Although now I realize there are a few non-fictions I haven't read... 

Where I got the book
The Berlin-Peck Memorial Library. I was completely lazy and put a hold online, so they were waiting for me at the front desk. Even though it's a teeny library, and I occasionally work there, and clearly know where the books are.

Expectations
The third Dirk Gently book, unfinished.

So how was it?

Well... it wasn't the third Dirk Gently book. At least mostly not. That is to say, it did include a few chapters of the unfinished third book, but primarily it was, well, an epilogue to a life that ended way too early. It was the contents of Douglas Adams' computer, collected together by friends and family after his all-too-sudden death, as well as a few writings from people who knew him.

It doesn't sound like a great read, does it? But it really, really was. There were lots of little bits of non-fiction writing, which I -- having never read his non-fiction -- greatly appreciated. It was also, in some parts, a biography written by a friend, and you really feel his loss. And no, there's not a whole lot of moaning and groaning about it, because it's not necessary to realize what a great person and author the world has lost. What he wrote, and the stories about his life, do that perfectly well on their own.

Recommendation
A MUST READ for anyone who likes his other works. The individual essays will appeal to anyone with a quirky, intellectual, but not stuck-up sense of humor -- think Monty Python -- but given the biographical stuff, I would recommend reading his other works first.

Feels
Fun, incredibly insightful, beautiful, silly, down to earth, smart.

Favorites
Discovering Adams' peculiar love of music.

Least favorites
The reason the book was (had to be) written. Sadface.

Writing style
Smart, practical, outrageous, insightful, intellectual, silly, imaginative,
full of weird metaphors... Douglas Adams is a writing style unto himself.

Dirk Gently // Douglas Adams

First of all: I GOT A JOB I GOT A JOB I GOT A JOB! Signed the offer letter today, and I'm handing in my resignation letter tomorrow. 

The pros are... it's in a library (cataloging). It's a big library. I'll be making just about the same amount of money, maybe a teensy bit less depending on if I get 18 or 19 hours. And I'll only be working three days a week! And best of all, I'm leaving my secretarial job that I've had for five years. It's sad, but it's really, really, really time to go.

The cons... It's in a library... an hour and twenty minutes from where I live. Yeah. That's gonna be fun.

Why I'm reading
Everyone knows Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (and if you don't, you should). I've read them a few times. But I've never read anything else by Douglas Adams! This must be rectified.

Where I got the book
eBook format, from... places.

Expectations
Great writing, quirky humor, randomness. Douglas Adams! Retrospectively, I was expecting a much more likeable, sexy detective Dirk Gently...

So how was it?

Dirk Gently actually comes in three books: Holistic Detective Agency, The Long Dark Tea-time of the Soul, and The Salmon of Doubt. {Err... sort of.} The books loosely follow the private ("holistic") detective Dirk Gently, but honestly he's just one of a group of characters. That's the great thing about Douglas Adams: you don't get a story resolving around one heroic main character; everyone is the protagonist in their own personal story. I can't even explain what the plot of these books. They're complicated and full of coincidence, and eventually resolve themselves into a story, if not necessarily a plot.

They're also sci-fi without trying to shove the sci-fi down your throat. That was probably the biggest difference between this series and the Hitchhiker series... err... not that Hitchhiker really shoves anything down your throat, it's just much more sci-fi oriented. Because the Dirk Gently books take place entirely on Earth, you get to experience Adams' writing style in a more mundane setting. Of course, I don't mean to suggest that Hitchhiker's shoves the sci-fi down your throat, either; it can't help being set in space.

Recommendation
Douglas Adams is required reading for fans of sci-fi, but you might want to start with Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy first. Witty, intelligent writing like Terry Pratchett, Isaaic Azimov, and Neil Gaiman. According to Wikipedia the Dirk Gently character began with Doctor Who serials written by Adams, which -- hello -- yes! Great for fans of Doctor Who.

Feels
Relaxing, with a teeny tiny hint of gentle mind-blowing.

Favorites
The writing, of course. In terms of the individual books, I have to say I enjoyed the first one much more than the second. My favorite character was absolutely the Electric Monk.

Least favorites
I didn't find the worlds or characters as engaging as Hitchhiker's, but this is a "weakness as strength," since it showcases his fantastic writing style.

Writing style
FanTAStic. I'm not even good enough to describe how good it is. Every once in a while he gives you these brilliant gems that are strange, witty, a little cheesy, out there, and absolutely perfect.