2013 Media Log

[Calliope]

(SPOILER)March

Books:

Boy - Roald Dahl
Dora: A Headcase - Lidia Yuknavitch
Mr Penumbra's 24 Hour Bookstore - Robin Sloan
Eleven Kinds of Loneliness - Richard Yates
Winter Journal - Paul Auster
Fidelity - Michael Redhill

Mr Penumbra made me desperately want to work in a used bookstore, which is slightly ridiculous given that I currently work in a library.

TV
The Walking Dead
Community
Project Runway
Grey's Anatomy

April

Books:

Unaccustomed Earth - Jhumpa Lahiri
The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
A Million Little Pieces - James Frey

May
smurfed if I know/no time

June

Books
Paul Auster - Travels in the Scriptorium - 3/5
David Sedaris - Let's Explore Diabetes With Owls - 3/5
Alice Munro - Dear Life - 4/5
Kurt Vonnegut - We Are What We Pretend to Be - 3/5
J.M. Coetzee - The Childhood of Jesus - 3.5/5 (will need to reflect on it)

TV
Glee Season Four - I thought that this was highly problematic in many ways, including that one character undertakes and then abandons eating disordered behaviour simply because someone else tells her to; and also because another character earns a living as a male prostitute - an act that is portrayed as perverse and immoral. I suspect that if it were a female character exploring this arc, it might be portrayed as being vulnerable and something toward which we should be sympathetic.

This portrayal does not surprise me (this is Glee, after all), but for a show that supposedly makes a point of being seen to be diverse and "tackling issues", it should at least entertain the idea that an individual can choose to engage in consensual sex in a clean, safe environment (this took place in some sort of escort club, no streetwalking involved) and make the absurd amounts of money it takes for the Glee kids to attend expensive private schools, afford enormous New York loft spaces, and fly across the country every other week - without being completely vilified.

September
David Mitchell - Cloud Atlas
Brian Kimberling - Snapper
Jeanette Walls - The Glass Castle
Cynthia Kaplan - Why I'm Like This
Joan Didion - -The Year of Magical Thinking
Sarah McGarrity - All Her Pretty Songs
Max Barry - Lexicon

October
Jhumpa Lahiri - The Lowland
Dave Eggers - The Circle
Best American Comics 2013

December - all by Edward St. Aubyn
Never Mind
Bad News
Mother's Milk
Some Hope
At Last