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I used to do a monthly log of all the books I'd read, but stopped because I wasn't reading so much as I was watching TV and playing video games, but I was also doing a piss poor job of recording what I'd watched/played so I thought I'd bring it back as a sort of...This Month in Content.
Books
The Cut - Christopher Brookmyre A former schlock horror makeup artist in her seventies is released from prison after serving thirty years for a murder she doesn't remember committing during the production of a "cursed" film, and goes on the run with a twenty year old film student when her past catches up with them. Badass old women! Unlikely cross-generational friendships! I haven't been reading as much as I've wanted to these last few years, but I really feel like this has kickstarted my 20222 in reading. I really loved it a lot!
Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty - Patrick Radden Keefe I watched Dopesick last year (hell of a watch, albeit not an easy one) and this immaculately-researched, compellingly-written history of the family not only cemented my belief that the Sacklers are bad people, but illustrated how ill-equipped the current system is to deal with that particular flavour of bad person.
Fuzz: when nature breaks the law - Mary Roach Not Mary Roach's best pop-science book, but also not her grossest, so. I'm not sure there was enough in the basic concept (when animals and plants break the laws of man) to fill an entire book. Like, the chapter on elephant and leopard fatalities in India as well as the one on trying to prevent animal strikes (because deer are the biggest offenders) at a jet propulsion laboratory were fascinating; the chapter on poisonous legumes less so.
The Guilt Trip - Sandie Jones An acquaintance from the dog park loaned me this in paperback, which was really kind of them, and the only reason I finished it because...my God, this is rough. It's not just this it was full of terrible middle-class heterosexuals being terrible, middle-class, and so very heterosexual, it's that the mysterious murder the book has been building towards happens right at the very end, immediately after which we smash cut to an epilogue set six months later which, I kid you not, starts with one character saying to another: "thank goodness you overheard him confessing to his diabolical crime and could immediately tell the police everything." I mean...the fuck?
Comic Books
Hawkeye: Kate Bishop, Vol. 1: Anchor Points Most of my graphic novel reading is based on what Amazon includes with prime, and most of that is based on what the most recent show or movie has been. So last month is was Kate Bishop, and I liked this, I like Kate. Good story, good art style, ends satisfyingly enough that I'm not mad vol. 2 isn't on prime. Yup, thumbs up.
Harley Quinn & Poison Ivy Good things: It's self contained, which is literally the only thing I want out of my graphic novels. Bad things: THEY DIDN'T KISS. Like, I thought that now I have the Harley Quinn animated series I didn't need Harley and Ivy to kiss in the comics, but no, I do.
Films
Spider-Man: No Way Home This was...fine. Maybe if I had fonder/more recent memories of the the Maguire/Garfield movies, but even the scenes that seemed tailor made for me (like Aunt May getting the "With great power..." speech) fell kinda flat. I did enjoy the last scene, which felt like it had been lifted wholesale out of the playstation Spider-Man game, even if it did make me cross that they'd made me sit through three and three quarters 'Iron-Boy' movies to see one scene that felt like it was Spider-Man
TV
Doctor Who: Eve of the Daleks My relationship with the current incarnation of Doctor Who is thus: I was so hyped to love the first female Doctor, I so wanted to, and I am aware that loads of people hate this era, but mostly I just...forget it. Like, I'll watch an episode and it'll scoot straight through my eyeballs and out the back of my head. And so I'm minded to assume that Eve of the Daleks was the best Thirteenth Doctor episode yet, if only because it aired four weeks ago and I still remember it. I'm hyped that they made Yaz's feelings for the Doctor (and Thirteen's implied reciprocation) canon. Although, with only only two specials two go, and one of those being the regeneration episode, I'm guessing that they're not going to do anything with it. Still, it's neat! Does anyone have any fic recs for someone who wants to get onboard with the ship super late in the day? Asking for me.
The Expanse Season Six Because The Expanse's final run was a curtailed six episodes it got a lot of comparisons to GoT's final season before it aired. The big difference between the two is that unlike Game of Thrones, The Expanse's final season was a competent season of television. The problem with GoT S8 was less the number of episodes, it seems, than that the people making it didn't want to be. Anyway, the last season of The Expanse is competent, it's coherent, extant plot threads are wrapped up...at the cost of the more character and relationship focused moments where the series excelled. The lingering thought I have is, if this is really, properly the end, why introduce Laconia? The basic plot hangs together without it, and ditching it claws back a decent amount of time to do some of those two characters talking scenes that were the best of the show.
Video Games
A Plague Tale: Innocence You are an annoying French child trying to escape both a plague of rats and the inquisition while accompanied by a smaller, even more annoying French child. Basic stealth and simple environmental puzzle solving. It's better than that description makes it sound, and while I do have a preference for longer, more open world games, it was nice to be handheld through a shorter, more linear game.
Books
The Cut - Christopher Brookmyre A former schlock horror makeup artist in her seventies is released from prison after serving thirty years for a murder she doesn't remember committing during the production of a "cursed" film, and goes on the run with a twenty year old film student when her past catches up with them. Badass old women! Unlikely cross-generational friendships! I haven't been reading as much as I've wanted to these last few years, but I really feel like this has kickstarted my 20222 in reading. I really loved it a lot!
Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty - Patrick Radden Keefe I watched Dopesick last year (hell of a watch, albeit not an easy one) and this immaculately-researched, compellingly-written history of the family not only cemented my belief that the Sacklers are bad people, but illustrated how ill-equipped the current system is to deal with that particular flavour of bad person.
Fuzz: when nature breaks the law - Mary Roach Not Mary Roach's best pop-science book, but also not her grossest, so. I'm not sure there was enough in the basic concept (when animals and plants break the laws of man) to fill an entire book. Like, the chapter on elephant and leopard fatalities in India as well as the one on trying to prevent animal strikes (because deer are the biggest offenders) at a jet propulsion laboratory were fascinating; the chapter on poisonous legumes less so.
The Guilt Trip - Sandie Jones An acquaintance from the dog park loaned me this in paperback, which was really kind of them, and the only reason I finished it because...my God, this is rough. It's not just this it was full of terrible middle-class heterosexuals being terrible, middle-class, and so very heterosexual, it's that the mysterious murder the book has been building towards happens right at the very end, immediately after which we smash cut to an epilogue set six months later which, I kid you not, starts with one character saying to another: "thank goodness you overheard him confessing to his diabolical crime and could immediately tell the police everything." I mean...the fuck?
Comic Books
Hawkeye: Kate Bishop, Vol. 1: Anchor Points Most of my graphic novel reading is based on what Amazon includes with prime, and most of that is based on what the most recent show or movie has been. So last month is was Kate Bishop, and I liked this, I like Kate. Good story, good art style, ends satisfyingly enough that I'm not mad vol. 2 isn't on prime. Yup, thumbs up.
Harley Quinn & Poison Ivy Good things: It's self contained, which is literally the only thing I want out of my graphic novels. Bad things: THEY DIDN'T KISS. Like, I thought that now I have the Harley Quinn animated series I didn't need Harley and Ivy to kiss in the comics, but no, I do.
Films
Spider-Man: No Way Home This was...fine. Maybe if I had fonder/more recent memories of the the Maguire/Garfield movies, but even the scenes that seemed tailor made for me (like Aunt May getting the "With great power..." speech) fell kinda flat. I did enjoy the last scene, which felt like it had been lifted wholesale out of the playstation Spider-Man game, even if it did make me cross that they'd made me sit through three and three quarters 'Iron-Boy' movies to see one scene that felt like it was Spider-Man
TV
Doctor Who: Eve of the Daleks My relationship with the current incarnation of Doctor Who is thus: I was so hyped to love the first female Doctor, I so wanted to, and I am aware that loads of people hate this era, but mostly I just...forget it. Like, I'll watch an episode and it'll scoot straight through my eyeballs and out the back of my head. And so I'm minded to assume that Eve of the Daleks was the best Thirteenth Doctor episode yet, if only because it aired four weeks ago and I still remember it. I'm hyped that they made Yaz's feelings for the Doctor (and Thirteen's implied reciprocation) canon. Although, with only only two specials two go, and one of those being the regeneration episode, I'm guessing that they're not going to do anything with it. Still, it's neat! Does anyone have any fic recs for someone who wants to get onboard with the ship super late in the day? Asking for me.
The Expanse Season Six Because The Expanse's final run was a curtailed six episodes it got a lot of comparisons to GoT's final season before it aired. The big difference between the two is that unlike Game of Thrones, The Expanse's final season was a competent season of television. The problem with GoT S8 was less the number of episodes, it seems, than that the people making it didn't want to be. Anyway, the last season of The Expanse is competent, it's coherent, extant plot threads are wrapped up...at the cost of the more character and relationship focused moments where the series excelled. The lingering thought I have is, if this is really, properly the end, why introduce Laconia? The basic plot hangs together without it, and ditching it claws back a decent amount of time to do some of those two characters talking scenes that were the best of the show.
Video Games
A Plague Tale: Innocence You are an annoying French child trying to escape both a plague of rats and the inquisition while accompanied by a smaller, even more annoying French child. Basic stealth and simple environmental puzzle solving. It's better than that description makes it sound, and while I do have a preference for longer, more open world games, it was nice to be handheld through a shorter, more linear game.