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Reading the End Posts

Review: Marcelo in the Real World, Francisco X. Stork

I love it that this author’s name is Francisco X. Stork.  There is nothing about that name that I do not love.  I would read more of this guy’s books based solely on the fact that his name is Francisco X. Stork.  I wish my name were Stork, except Jenny Stork is not nearly as amazing as Francisco X. Stork.  So never mind, I guess. Marcelo Sandoval has an autism spectrum mental issue that doctors have been unable to identify.  Since first grade he has attended a special education school, but when he is seventeen his father tells him that…

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Anthropomorphizing (I can’t help it)

I noticed the other day that the ads on my Facebook sidebar had little X icons to let you close them.  I thought, Hey, great, I will get rid of this Facebook Mobile ad.  Facebook Mobile is of no use to me as I do not have that functionality on my little crappy phone.  But when I clicked the X to get rid of the ad, it popped up a little notification that said, “Why don’t you like this ad?  Choose reason,” and all the reasons were hurtful.  They were all “Offensive” or “Uninteresting” or “Irrelevant”, and I kept picturing…

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The Vintner’s Luck, Elizabeth Knox

I am being awesome at the Graphic Novels Challenge but completely falling down on the other ones.  Women Unbound, nothing since The Group though in fact I suppose I could have used The Opposite House.  Or, hey, Committed!  Actually, Committed totally is one.  I’m going back and editing that post and using Committed for the Women Unbound Challenge.  Time Traveling, couldn’t manage to get anywhere with the Stephen Fry.  And Horns and Halos?  UTTERLY have not read anything for it.  I started and stopped Johannes Cabal the Necromancer, and that is it. Until now! The Vintner’s Luck is about a…

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Review: Swallow Me Whole, Nate Powell

Y’all, at some point, I’m going to do a mental illness reading challenge.  Is there already one?  I’m going to do one if there isn’t already one.  I love mental illness (I mean I do not love it.  It is awful and ruins people’s lives.  I just find it very interesting).  As soon as I think of a clever name and invent an adorable button, I will be all over this, and Swallow Me Whole is one of the books you can read for it.  PREPARE YOURSELVES. I read Swallow Me Whole for the Graphic Novels Challenge! Swallow Me Whole…

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Review: The Opposite House, Helen Oyeyemi

When I do not expect to enjoy a book all that much, but I need to get it read so I can return it to the library, I leave it in my loo and read it in tiny increments when I am cleaning my teeth and contact lenses, or waiting for the hot water to heat up (my hot water acts like it’s ready to go and then turns from a gush to a trickle; you have to wait SO LONG to get it going properly.  Many lukewarm showers before I figured it out).  If the book turns out better…

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Questions for you

So here are two things that have been weighing on my mind. I read about the Bechdel Rule recently.  Alison Bechdel, author of Fun Home, says that for a movie to be worth her time, it has to meet three conditions.  1) There have to be two female characters that are 2) having a conversation about 3) something other than a guy.  So I went and counted my movies, and checked to see how many of them would qualify under this rule.  I own 107 movies right now, of which nine met these criteria.  That’s ridiculous.  (I’m counting Breakfast on…

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Review: Gunnerkrigg Court, Tom Siddell

Can this count as part of the mini-challenge where we read graphic novels with animals in?  Animals are not main characters exactly, but they are around, and rather important.  And I didn’t like the other graphic novel I read for the mini-challenge, so I hereby decree Gunnerkrigg Court counts.  So let it be written; so let it be done. Gunnerkrigg Court is about a girl called Antimony Carver, who goes to live at a boarding school called Gunnerkrigg Court, following the death of her mother.  (Her father is off somewhere doing some sort of we don’t know what he’s doing.) …

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My day yesterday

Jenny: If fiction is going to be meta, it should be meta exactly like The Unwritten.  I HAVE DECREED IT SO. Universe: Oh yeah? NY Times: Zachary Mason’s The Lost Books of the Odyssey is metafiction and sometimes wonderful.  Read an excerpt. Jenny: I am unmoved by this excerpt. Slate and WSJ: Zachary Mason’s The Lost Books of the Odyssey is meta-licious.  We love it. Jenny: Whatever.  I will believe it when I see it. The Lost Books of the Odyssey: WIN WIN WIN. True story.

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Review: The Unwritten, Vol. 1, Mike Carey and Peter Goss

For the Graphic Novel Challenge! The Unwritten is about a guy called Tom whose father – long since disappeared without a trace – wrote an incredibly popular series of books about a character with Tom’s same name: Tommy Taylor.  However, it turns out that all the paperwork proving Tom is his father’s son has been forged.  At first it is theorized that he is a fraud, the son of Romanian peasants; then people begin to believe that he is, in fact, Tommy Taylor, brought into existence by the stories themselves.  The word made flesh. The Unwritten is set in London,…

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