Hello, November. I should celebrate the month, as it brings good food, the transition from fall to winter and an excuse to start digging sweaters out of my closet, but it’s also adding a lot of stress for my brain to marinate in, so boo! No, I’m not doing NaNoWriMo this year (last year gave me a week-long migraine for my trouble), so I guess I’ll have to spend the time reading. But first, let’s see how October turned out on the entertainment front.
Books
Definitely an interesting month for me. The Beatty I read because it’s a supernatural thriller set at the Biltmore Estate, and that’s close enough to home to be “local” for me, and also, the author came by our local Barnes & Noble for a signing. Nice guy, fun little book, though I will say it reads more middle-grade than YA. But during the Q&A at the signing, the kids were REALLY ENGAGED with the book and the author, and it does have a really spiffy book trailer. Must be nice to be published by Disney!
And yes, I’m aware that I’m a big fat liar, but the new Star Wars trailer came out and I got a Rey bookmark at BN, and I couldn’t take the pressure anymore! I’ll probably talk more exclusively about the new Star Wars books later, but in short: Wendig’s book is the best Star Wars novel I’ve read in a while. Don’t let the 1 star reviews scare you off.
But the shining FAVORITE for October was a birthday gift: A Head Full of Ghosts by Paul Tremblay. A friend of mine and I were Facebook Messaging on our smart phones trying to squee over how much we loved it, but it’s really hard to have in-depth conversations on those little keyboards, and there’s SO MUCH AWESOME in this book to talk about. So run, don’t walk, and get a copy of Tremblay’s book today. It’s awesome. And disturbing. And awesome. And as of today, November 1st 2015? It’s only $1.99 on Kindle. GO FORTH AND READ.
39) Serafina and the Black Cloak by Robert Beatty
40) Dark Places by Gillian Flynn
41) Star Wars: Aftermath by Chuck Wendig
42) A Head Full of Ghosts by Paul Tremblay
Short Fiction
Only one piece of short fiction this month, but it was a Tor novella that I pre-ordered because I loved Slatter’s debut collection, The Girl With No Hands and Other Tales. Reading her new novella makes me want to track down more of her work, because it is so engaging.
10) Of Sorrow and Such by Angela Slatter
Comics
LOOK AT ME TACKLING MY COMIC BOOK TBR!!!! I KILLED IT!!!!!
Mostly. I’ve got the Fight Club 2 and The Sandman: Overture series still waiting, as well as a stack of hardcovers, but I KILLED THE TBR PILE!!!! It’s hard to narrow down and talk about the greats: Coffin Hill wrapped up, and it was very good, but probably best read as a single story rather than individual issues spread out over a few years. I thought Descender was a mini-series, but NOPE. Great start to an on-going, and I love the art. But you’ll have to forgive me for this month’s focus image: The Misadventures of Grumpy Cat and Pokey. For starters, the cover is too cute, and I’m a huge fan of Grumpy Cat. I even sat through that awful Christmas movie last year! The comic itself was a series of short misadventures, and the actual verdict is…. it’s cute. Grumpy Cat is a wee bit more mean than I would’ve liked, but it’s a cute title.
Batgirl #44
Coffin Hill #19
Coffin Hill #20
Copperhead #8
Copperhead #9
Copperhead #10
Descender #4
Descender #5
Descender #6
Jem and the Holograms #7
Jem and the Holograms Outrageous Annual #1
Lazarus #17
Lazarus #18
Lazarus #19
Mad Max: Fury Road: Max Part Two #2
Sex Criminals #12
Star Wars #7
Star Wars #8
Star Wars #9
Star Wars #10
Star Wars: Darth Vader #7
Star Wars: Darth Vader #8
Star Wars: Darth Vader #9
Star Wars: Lando #1
Star Wars: Lando #2
Star Wars: Lando #3
Star Wars: Lando #4
Star Wars: Lando #5
Star Wars: Princess Leia #4
Star Wars: Princess Leia #5
Star Wars: Shattered Empire #2
The Dying and the Dead #3
The Misadventures of Grumpy Cat and Pokey #1
The Walking Dead #146
Movies
Let’s see: The Hunger Games marathon, COMPLETE. The Martian: very good adaptation, very entertaining, and it kept out all of the stuff that annoyed me about the book. Back in Time: a delightful documentary about the making of the Back to the Future movie and its fans. Kingsman: The Secret Service: I could deal with the crazy-stupid, over-the-top violence, and while I understand this movie is, on some level, making a parody of the old Bond films, are you KIDDING me with that ending? Jesus. Sleepy Hollow: actually, no where near as good as I remember it being when I saw it in theaters back in the day. Maggie: a great, quiet, character-driven film about what happens to the person who’s turning INTO a zombie, as well as the weight of responsibility it puts on the family.
But this month’s feature is A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night: recommended by The Bloggess, and you can watch it for free on Netflix. It’s a Persian film, set in Iran, filmed in California. It’s bizarre, beautiful, quiet and a little odd, but fascinating. But the film’s MVP is the cat. Seriously, just watch it for the cat. That cat is a CHAMP.
* = repeat viewing
A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night
Back In Time
Big Hero 6
Kingsman: The Secret Service
Maggie
Sleepy Hollow*
The Hunger Games: Catching Fire*
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay: Part One*
The Martian (in theaters)
Wreck-It Ralph*
Television Shows
Now that the fall tv season is in full swing, there’s not a lot of stuff getting COMPLETED right now. However the hubby and I continue to get through Seinfeld episodes, and we decided to go ahead and give Fear the Walking Dead (still hate the title) a shot. Regarding the latter…. not bad. Different enough that you don’t feel like you’re getting The Walking Dead but in California, and also, this starts right before the zombie apocalypse even happened, so you get a different side of the story. I liked it, and I like the possibilities it offers for potential crossover in the future. That said, the first episode was a wee bit slow, and you keep wanting to yell at characters to SHOOT THE ZOMBIES IN THE HEAD. But they don’t know any better yet, do they?
* = repeat viewing
Fear the Walking Dead Season 1
Seinfeld Season 8
That’s it from me! Also, feel free to share whatever 2015 stats you’ve got! How many books? How many movies? What were your favorites? Lay them on me!
Cheers!
Calico Writes 
Here’s what I read:
New Books:
1: I am Princess X, by Cherie Priest. 4 stars. I really loved how the graphic story interacted with the regular book.
2.The Martian, by Andy Weir. 4 stars. I had not bought this, but was visiting my sister and brother-in-law, and they had a copy that I read over the course of one evening. I enjoyed it.
3. Ancillary Mercy, by Ann Leckie. 5 stars. An excellent conclusion to the trilogy.
4. Lords and Ladies, by Terry Pratchett. 3 stars. For Mark Reads.
5. Fair Winds and Homeward Sail: Sophy Croft’s Story, by Sherwood Smith. 4 stars. This is fan-fiction of Persuasion, by Jane Austin, and Persuasion is an all-time favorite book of mine. It was fun to read.
6. Sorceror to the Crown, by Zen Cho. 4 stars.
7. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, by Michael Chabon. 4 stars. Read for my UU bookclub. It won a Pulitzer Prize.
8. Radiance, by Catherynne M Valente. 5 stars. It was hard to get into, but well worth the effort.
Re-reads:
1. Melting Stones, by Tamora Pierce. For Mark Reads.
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I adored PRINCESS X. Such a wonderful concept with the novel and graphics, and I loved the story too.
I’ve got ANCILLARY MERCY in my TBR. I’m weird about wrapping up trilogies…. I look forward to them, but I dread them in a way too. But I keep hearing great things about this, so I’ll get there!
I’ve got RADIANCE in my TBR too!
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November Reading:
1. Furiously Happy by Jenny Lawson
2. Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain
3. The Library of Souls by Ransom Riggs
4. Leaving Before the Rains Come by Alexandra Fuller
5. Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill
6. Queen of the Tearling by Erika Johansen
7. The Nasty Bits by Anthony Bourdain
8. Missoula: Rape and the Justice System in a College Town by Jon Krakauer
9. Medium Raw by Anthony Bourdain
10. The Orchardist by Amanda Coplin
11. A Cook’s Tour by Anthony Bourdain
This was the month that I became obsessed with Anthony Bourdain, apparently. You already know that Furiously Happy was awesome. I have also really enjoyed the Peculiar Children series by Ransom Riggs. I thought that Heart-Shaped Box was every bit as good as anything I have read by Stephen King (Joe Hill’s dad). I’m going to put A Head Full Of Ghosts on my to-read list.
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Yay for Joe Hill! I haven’t read everything by him, but what I have, I’ve rather enjoyed. And YES! Let me know what you think of the Tremblay!
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I need to see A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night. It looks like it’s just my kind of movie.
A Head Full of Ghosts also sounds fantastic.
Books this Month:
1. The Ladies of Grace Adieu and Other Stories (audio book) by Susanna Clarke
2. All the Rage by Courtney Summers
3. Fiendish (audio book) by Brenna Yovanoff
4. Celestial Inventories (short stories) by Steve Rasnic Tem
5. Failure Lyric, poetry by Kristina Marie Darling
Movies:
1. Glengary Glen Ross (1992)
2. The Martian (2015)
3. We Are Still Here (2015)
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How did you like the Clarke? I’ve also been wanting to read the Tem.
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Clarke’s book was a wonderful extension of Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrel, exploring some POVs that the novel doesn’t get to explore.
Tem’s book had a handful of beautifully written, utterly fantastic stories and a handful of stories that I didn’t much care about at all.
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I couldn’t make myself finish that novel, so it sounds like that one is a safe pass until I get around to maybe reading the novel one day! 🙂
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