2023-12-07

Evil Smiley Face, et al.

.

You never know how things will fall down. I would not have guessed my new batch would be nothing but comics or books aimed at children, but so it is. And I have no regrets. Everything here is of good report and praiseworthy, and some of them I even liked!

.

125) The Sandman: Worlds' End by Neil Gaiman et al, finished November 28

This is the one I thought maybe I hadn't read before. When I got into Mike Allred's stuff I discovered that he'd done an issue of Sandman and I could not recall the weird smiley-face guy who came up in searches.

And I was right. I have not read this volume.

It's a Decamerony sort of book, travelers trapped by storms at the inn at the worlds' end come together and tell stories. Brian Talbot's muddy art bookends each issue, with another artist telling the story itself. Allred's is based on a character I had never heard of before. My favorite story might have been that of the girl sailor drawn by Michael Zulli, but Mike's art's my favorite art.

Incidentally, in Gaiman's afterward, he talks about picking Mike Allred for his art, his "clean and simple shapes." Which is crazy because the story digs into many of the theo/cosmological concepts I associate with Allred's later work. I would need to see exactly where this falls among all the Madman comics, but my gut tells me Gaiman's straight up predicted where his artist was headed with his own tales.

(This'll back me up.)

Anyway, just four more volumes to go! Wonder if I'll read any more for the first time.

a week
 

126) Boys Weekend by Mattie Lubchansky, finished November 29

The Washington Post turned me on to this book and luckily my library had it. I put it on hold and it came right away. And it was . . . fine.

I like many things about Boys Weekend: I liked the weird near-future setting, I liked the mundanity of trans experience, I liked the color palette, I liked the pacing, I liked the dumb jokes.

But there were things I did not like as well. For instance, that near-future world was a bit confused. Is this our new future? The protag was born in 1999 and she's, what, thirty? Maybe thirty-five? So this is ten years from now? Not likely. So maybe it's some other world? Honestly, before I saw the birthday, I was assuming this was a hundred years out and my main complaint then would have been that surely the current awkwardnesses between trans folk and their cis friends would at least have evolved into something new. But it feels pretty 2023 to me.

But Theric, you might say, this is a satire! So of course it's really about our current world.

Sure, but you see: near-future is my jam. I care very much about its execution. I can't help it.

My other big complaint is the character design. I feel like this look, new so recently, is deeply overdone by now and I'm over it. I suppose this may be petty. But it's how I feel. Sorry.

Anyway, someone whom I thought had begun transitioning perhaps a decade ago (revealed late in the book to actually be less than a year ago) is invited to Las Vegas on a floating island (everything's legal!) to be the best man at her college-era best friend's weeklong bachelor party. Self-discovery ensues as we pass through satires of tech, techbros, capitalism, morality, and more more more!

Again: lot to like. I do believe lots of people really like this book. Alas that I am not one of them. (Insert sadface here.)

in bed one night
 

127) Dragon Hoops by Gene Luen Yang, finished December 15

I've seen this book at the library before. it's hard to miss. It's a bright orange basketball of a book. And although I love Yang's work this is a long one. And it looks like a bright orange basketball.

But I finally picked it up which I needed to stand next to the shelves it was on for an extended time and I started reading it and, no surprise, it's excellent.

It's the true story of Bishop O'Dowd's 2015 run for the state championship / the end of Yang's teaching career / the history of basketball / dozens of other things small and large. The book is also about its own creation. But it takes the endnotes to really get behind the process of how the artist sculpted reality into a story. I recommend the endnotes.

And I recommend the whole dang 446 pages. It doesn't take that long to read and you'll be glad you did. A lot of pages gives an artist of Yang's caliber the room to stretch his muscles, to create meaningful motifs and expound themes. Sometimes a longer book is the right choice.

And maybe he'll even do to you what he did to himself—make you like basketball.

since Friday


128) Ramona's World by Beverly Cleary, finished December 6

We did it! The almost-eight-year-old and I read all the Ramona books! Behold:

Ramona and Beezus
Ramona the Pest
Ramona the Brave
Ramona and Her Father
Ramona and Her Mother
Ramona Quimby, Age 8
Ramona Forever
(links to Blogger only as that's where I have anchors for better linking)

And now Ramona's World in which, by reaching age zeroteen, she is a teenager.

Ramona continues to grow. She makes new kinds of friendships and desires new kinds of responsibilities. She becomes better capable of empathy but also is moving into an adolescent capacity for embarrassment. Not everything is resolved (her dad, for instance, still hasn't been able to get a job as a teacher) but in life, not everything is.

This was the last novel Cleary published. It came out in her early 80s, and though she made it to juuust shy of 105, she never wrote another. Her skills are still strong in Ramona's World but, well, she'd earned her retirement.

Frankly, these eight books are a terrific accomplishment and we here enjoyed them very much. They're the real stuff.

Thank you, ma'am.

perhaps two months


129) A Child's Anthology of Poetry edited by Elizabeth Hauge Sword with Victoria Flourney McCarthy, finished December 7

This is anthology of poems that work for children. Not necessarily for children. There is some children-intended verse, sure, but there's also a lot of Blake and Frost and Dickinson and Yeats and the like.

This was originally published in 1995 and I don't think a new book making a similar attempt would make some of the same choices. For example, it includes Countee Cullin's "Incident" and one might say rightly so. I forget when I first read it, but I was not an adult and that poem changed me. I think all my understanding of racism and its ugliness can be traced to reading "Incident" in my youth. But it's not going into a book for kids in 2023. And I'm sympathetic to why not. But I can't be sure it would be the right choice. Because changing you—may that not be a primary purpose of poetry?

Of course, a, ah, "funny" thing about leaving incident out in our imaginary 2023 volume is that this is something the left and the right would agree on in almost identical language.

The great thing about a book like this is that no matter how late it is, we still have time for a poem. Even if there's no time for a chapter of Ramona, there is time for a poem. And so reading a poem is now an expected certainty for the almost-eight-year-old.

I know what we're reading next.

let's guess a year and seven months but really that's just a guess



 

Previously. . . . :

2023-12-04

Forgetting November

.

I'm late posting this because November has 30 days.

That's not true. I sat down on November 30th to post this and somehow . . . just did other things instead.

The internet is a wonderful, awful thing.

Anyway, I started the month by cramming in the Halloween movie I'd most wanted to see (it didn't come off that Halloweeny) and then watched very few other movies besides.

Perhaps it is late because I have simply forgotten movies exist?

.

HOME
library dvd
The Phantom Carriage (1921)

Not what I expected. When what I know is that the laster person to die on New Year's Eve becomes the grim reaper for the next calendar year, I expect some more cosmology. What it like to put on those robes? What's it like to reap souls? There's a bit of that upfront in some of the movie's coolest scenes, but most of the film is a very 1920s morality tale that plays out more like A Christmas Carol than Bogus Journey.

So that was kind of a bummer, but it was a good movie. What seems to be the Criterion version is currently on YouTube as public domain. Don't know if that's legit or not. The dvd also has another soundtrack that's waaay creepier that might have given the film a more horror-movie vibe. As it is, I would not call this horror at all. Even though there are some great visuals of the reaper carting off the dead.

It is certainly a better movie than The Shining though, which quotes it.


HOME
Disney+
Lady and the Tramp (1955)

Movies like Lady and the Tramp are remarkable to me, with their quick pacing and barely bothering to spend time with characters, yet by the end we are fully invested and moved. I suspect that animation is just better for this sort of thing. The universailty of cartoon drawings let us in.

The Siamese cats truly have aged terribly. Egad. Not as bad as Peter Pan's Indians, but they ain't great. Shame they got the best song in the movie. Or, rather, the catchiest. "Bella Notte" would be the best song.

And, I remember last watching it circa . . . 2010? and discovering (not for the for the first time, nor for the last) that Peggy Lee's voice is, ah, very sultry.

In all, it's a great example of what Disney once did in very little space (76 minutes). It's a lost skill.


ELSEWHERE
HBO
or something like that
on a hotel tv
Evan Almighty (2007)

Here we are in a hotel looking for a movie that ends at nine and so we watch the last half of Evan Almighty. I've never been that interested even though it was a nobody called Steve Carroll who blew me away when I saw Bruce Almighty all those years ago.

Anyway, the last half was a fun watch for the family! No idea if the whole thing holds together. I can see it going either way.

Incidentally, great Noah story in the latest issue of Irreantum.


ELSEWHERE
YouTube

Ballad of a Mountain Man: The Story of Bascom Lamar Lunsford (1989)

It's remarkable how one person can make a huge difference then be forgotten by practically everyone but specialists. Lunsford brought Appalachian-style music to the masses, started the clogging craze, made things like O Brother possible, and yet according to IMDb, he's only ever been on ten soundtracks.

And this the guy who wrote the song Mountain Dew is named after!

I suspect, based on what I saw, that his legacy was more important to him than it being attached to him. So he certainly succeeded. But maybe take an hour and learn a tad more.


HOME
library dvd
Addams Family Values (1993)

I didn't see this when it came out. I'm not sure why not. Perhaps the reviews in my local paper were negative. Perhaps I was feeling burnts from other terrible followups to beloved movies (the awfulness of Sister Act 2 still stings, and Home Alone 2 was not much better) (and yes, Sister Act 2 came out twenty-one days before Addams Family Values, but when a movie is that painful and appalling, I see no reasons it cannot send ripples backwards through time) (I suppose it's more likely I missed AFV in theaters and SA2 just assured I'd never borrow it on VHS).

Anyway, it keeps showing up on Great Sequels! lists and Great Thanksgiving Movies! lists and so it felt like the time had come to give it a shot. Especially having recently watched its precursor (and Wednesday) with the kids.

So we did. And while I'm not sure it quite holds up to #1 (or quite counts as a Thanksgiving movie), it was fun.

My biggest problem was Joan Cusack. Not because she didn't do a great job, but because I don't want a sexy Joan Cusack going all femme fatale on my screen. To me, and I'm sorry but I can't really get over this, it's like she's my friend or big sister. And since I didn't want to look at her breasts, the role did not quite work as intended.

It's wild how many people on the cusp of stardom are in this film in bit roles (Tony Shalhoub [sailor at bar], David Hyde Pierce [bemasked obstetrician], Nathan Lane [weary police clerk]) or as a child (David Krumholtz).

What surprised me most as I was watching it was how all the various versions of the Addams clan are started to meld togeher in my mind. One party scene I had a flashback to, was that from the first movie in this series? the first in the recent animated series of films? But somehow they all fit together nicely in my brain.

And that's what family means.


THEATER
Cinemark
Cinema Hilltop 16
Killers of the Flower Moon (2023)

Usually, Lady Steed and I have roughly the same reactions to movies. And when we disagree, it's usually because I liked it more. Not today.

Lady Steed was riveted throughout. The movie did not feel long at all. It was consistently engaging emotionally. And, ultimately, a powerful experience.

I thought the movie was frequently powerful and when engaging emotionally very much so. But I also thought it was too damn long and all that extra space prevented the powerful moments from really coming together. Also (spoiler alert) while I love watching recreations of oldtime radio, the final radio sequence was a strange choice. And having Scorses himself give the final lines was . . . peculiar. Not sure what to make of that.

Other than that one choice, no qualms about the cast. Uniform excellence. Though I'd like to make a special shoutout to Everett Waller who had some of the longer lines that could easily been rote and soulless, but they were not. not at all.

The film was beautiful and good. Only the question of how good is still under debate.





Previous films watched

MOST RECENT POST




2020

2019

2018

2017

2016

2015

2014

2013

2023-11-23

Lots of unicorns here

.

Unicorns can be fun. Unicorns can be lonely. Unicorns may live through the wrong time. Or just the right time. Or unrecognized until much later. Or only by the prophets who preceded them.

And some things are not unicorns at all.

119) The Sandman: Fables & Reflections by Neil Gaiman et al., finished October 27

Another great short-story collection including the Emperor Norton story and probably the most nudity so far. Sometimes I wish I'd been buying these as a kid but maybe not.

Anyway, I do wonder if these will retain their classic status another fifty years. Neil Gaiman helped create new possibilities in fiction but sometimes the first thing through the door is not the one that becomes immortal.

I probably won't live long enough to know the answer to this question.

almost two weeks


120) The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle, finished November 3

I know the story as a movie that more scared me as a child and more annoyed me as an adult. That said, the book is its own thing and it is beloved and every once in a while I consider reading it and now I finally have.

It is such a different road for fantasy than all the Tolkein/Sanderson stuff. Which is not to knock those styles, but the light touch here allows for a different form of beauty and meaning and I love that.

The novel makes for a delightful companion. It is both small and vast and I wish I didn't have the movie's imagery holding it back. I'm sure next it'll be a ten-hour streaming event and that will be too realistic and maybe even gritty. It'll happen and it should happen but it won't change the simple fact that some books are best as books.

No wonder everyone loves it.

weeks
 

121) Three Men in a Boat (To Say Nothing of the Dog) by Jerome K. Jerome, finished November 3

I believe this is my third time reading this book. I discovered it thanks to Connie Willis and first read it was hilarious. It still made me laugh out loud numerous times but the bits didn't really combine into a driving read. I don't know if my tastes have changed or it's a one-and-done sorta thing.

This version was published by TOR which seems odd for something decidedly NOT science fiction and thus I wonder if it was in response to Willis's novel. This might also be why they added Told After Supper to the end, a very silly sequence of ghost stories. But, weirdly, there is NO suggestion of an additional text tacked on anywhere on the book's outside or pre-text pages. Even the tops of the pages still say THREE MEN IN A BOAT after you switch books.

Plus, TOR's version has a smattering of typos, hardly appropriate for a book that's been out 112 years at the time of publication.

Anyway, if you're unfamiliar of it, three uppermiddleclass British fellas (and a dog) take a fortnight's trip up the Thames. Laughs ensue.

months


122) The Last Unicorn: The Lost Journey by Peter S. Beagle, finished November 5

This is his original draft, written years before the version that became a massive hit and remains beloved. Bits of the original remain here—some lines, some images—but this unicorn leaves her forest to discover our world and meets and then travels with a demon rather than a magician and a Molly.

The tone is right. The beauty of the sentences is right. But placing it in the modern era is wrong. It makes it feel like it's trying very hard to say something specific (ala White Noise) while in fact saying nothing in particular. By being more openly about whatever you want it to be about, the published version of The Last Unicorn becomes all the more meaningful. As Beagle says in the afterward, he was trying to be a satirist and it wasn't working.

That said, even though it's a bit glum without purpose and although it ends before it figures out its point, it was another great read.

Clearly, I'm now a person who will pick up Peter S. Beagle books.

two or three days
 

123) Have Spacesuit–Will Travel by Robert A. Heinlein, finished November 14

I listened to Citizen of the Galaxy during my commute back in 2006 and, while parts of it irritated me, I did enjoy its bounty of imagination.

This is my second Heinlein book and I'm reading as part of a trio, starting with Three Men in a Boat (see above) and ending with To Say Nothing of the Dog (which I read c. 2000 and still think of as one of my favorite books). Connie Willis, thanks Heinlein for introducing her to Three Men in To Say Nothing's dedication, so all I'm doing it arranging them in chronological order.

Have Spacesuit is not as tightly connected to Jerome's novel and Willis's; the protagonist's father is just reading it in the opening scene (for, like, the 500th time). But it does come off as a real recommendation.

I'd always imagined this novel would be about a professional adventurer, but in fact it's about a teenager who wins a spacesuit in a soap company's contest then gets kidnapped by aliens and so on and so on. It's a very 1950s YA sort of read but it's also great fun. It is funny to see Heinlein striving to imagine the future and attempting something like feminism and just falling grossly short of where the world would be just years after he's writing.

Anyway, it was fun and a light lift.

coupla weeks


124) Romney: A Reckoning by McKay Coppins, finished November 16

I don't know when I first became aware of Mitt Romney, but certainly living in Utah when he saved the 2002 Olympics put him on my good side. When he was on the ballot in 2012, I didn't vote for him, but even with some of the embarrassing things he said, I still thought of him as a reasonably decent human being.

The biography filled in blanks in his story and it's excellent at letting us dig deeper into one man's mind and thoughts. And, since he has been around at a number of significant historical events, his own witness and insight opens new windows of understanding.

The biggest indictment (imo) the book offers is of our democracy's bad motivators—we have created a system where our leaders are worried more about reelection than doing good or right.

McKay's writing is easy on the eyes; the pages just fly by. For a book that was done as quickly as possible, it holds together as a piece of writing and there are relatively few errors (only one seemed significant, writing 2002 instead of 2022). Of course, the occasional missing word makes you wonder about errors of content, but the lengthy notes provide a sense of confidence in that respect. Not to mention McKay's longstanding respectable reporting.

This is not a full biography, though it does cover every portion of his life. The early years fly by and then the text slows down to examine more closely events that seem most important during the last decade—and I don't just mean events events, but these are often thematically motivated editorial choices. I don't disagree with these decisions (it's the right book for this moment) but there is still room for future biographical attention.

But me, I'm satisfied.

(If you were hoping for a better review from me while I have a cold, sorry, try this instead.)

about three weeks


  125) The Sandman: Brief Lives by Neil Gaiman et al., finished November 21

This is the only one we own (Lady Steed brought it into the marriage) and in many respects I think it deserves that honor, though Ishtar's dance means it cannot be left at reaching level (the description of a man ejaculating over and over until he was ejaculating blood stuck with me a long time; maybe it will again).

What Gaiman is best at is concepts and that's why it's his shorter works (comics, short stories, children's novels...) that tend to be his best. And Brief Lives has just strong concepts throughout, with a just-strong-enough plot to contain them all.

Maybe I should say that his shorter AND his episodic works that work best. Because Sandman, as a whole, is not particularly "short" and it works as both an entire and in its bits.

Anyway, I liked it.

three weeks (with a two-week gap in the middle)



 

Previously. . . . :

final posts in this series from
  2007 = 2008 = 2009 = 2010 = 2011 = 2012 = 2013
2014 = 2015 = 2016 = 2017 = 2018 = 2019 = 2020 = 2021 = 2022

 
 
Earlier in 2023

001) The Dark Room by Gerry Duggan & Scott Buoncristiano, finished January four
002) The Only Harmless Great Thing by Brooke Bolander, finished January 6
003) Rose by Jeff Smith and Charles Vess, finished January 10
004) Acting Class by Nick Drnaso, finished January 10
005) Red Scare by Liam Francis Walsh, finished January 11

006) The Short Reign of Pippin IV by John Steinbeck, finished January 18
007) Filmish by Edward Ross, finished circa January 20

HOW many times?

008) Maddy Kettle Book: The Adventure of the Thimblewitch by Eric Orchard, finished January 24 
009) Fantastic Frights: A Beginner's Guide to Scary Stories, finished January 24
010) Ramona the Pest by Beverly Cleary, finished February 2
011) Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman, finished February 3
012) The Postman Always Rings Twice by James M. Cain, finished February 4

013) Is that all there is? by Joost Swarte, finished February 6
014) Edge Case by YZ Chin, finished February 7

If it weren't for a friendly sex talk, everything here would be miserable

015) Double Indemnity by James M. Cain, finished February 10
016) Sex Educated: Letters from a Latter-day Saint therapist to her younger self by Bonnie Young, LMFT, finished February 13
017) Unmask Alice: LDS, Satanic Panic, and the Imposter Behind the World's Most Notorious Diaries by Rick Emerson, finished February 20 

A Bookful Bounty for thee and thine 

018) I'm Glad My Mom Died by Jeannette McCurdy, finished February 27
019–21) The Abominable Charles Christopher by Karl Kershl, finished March 6
022) Displacement by Kiku Hughes, finished March 6
023) The Many Deaths of Laila Starr by Ram V and Filipe Andrade, finished March 6
024) The Homeland Directive by Robert Venditti and Mike Huddleston, finished March 7
025) Titus Andronicus by William Shakespeare, finished March 14
026) Last West: Roadsongs for Dorothea Lange by Tess Taylor, finished March 15
027) 22 Young Mormon Writers edited by Neal E. Lambert and Richard H. Cracroft, finished March 19
028 & 029) Titus Andronicus by William Shakespeare, finished March 23 & March 27

Literarily solving for X

030) X by Sue Grafton, finished March 28
031) Ramona the Brave by Beverly Cleary, finished April 5
032) Camera Man: Buster Keaton, the Dawn of Cinema, and the Invention of the Twentieth Century by Dana Stevens, finished April 5
033) Abe Lincoln in Illinois by Robert E. Sherwood, finished April 8
034) Theology of Play by Jürgen Moltmann, finished April 12
035) The Male Animal by James Thurber and Elliott Nugent, finished April 12
036) Bluffton by Matt Phelan, finished April 16
037) Number One Walking: My Life in the Movies and Other Diversions by Steve Martin and Harry Bliss, finished April 15

From Lolly to Elias

038) Lolly Willowes by Sylvia Townsend Warner, finished April 17
039) The Emperor's Soul by Brandon Sanderson, finished April 19
040) Beware the Eye of Odin by Wager/Odland/Madsen/Dukeshire, finished April 19
041) The Complete Peanuts: 1965–1966 by Charles M. Schulz, finished April 20
042) A Wealth of Pigeons by Steve Martin and Harry Bliss, finished April 22
043) Elias: An Epic of the Ages by Orson Ferguson Whitney, finished April 23

Old Hollywood & Olden Times

044) Straight Lady: The Life and Times of Margaret Dumont, "The Fifth Marx Brother" by Chris Enss and Howard Kazanjian, finished April 25
045) Voices from the Radium Age edited by Joshua Glenn, finished April 26
046) The Ballad of YFB by Aaron Brassea, finished April 28
047) Reynaud's Tale by Ben Hatke, finished May 3
048) Superman: Up in the Sky by Tom King and Andy Kubert, finished May 5
049) Ramona and Her Father by Beverly Cleary, finished May 5
050) Resurrection Row by Anne Perry, finished May 6 

Saying good bye to our friend Kinsey

052) More Gross: Cartoons by S. Gross, finished May 9
053) I Am Blind and My Dog Is Dead by S. Gross, finished May 9
054) Batgirls: One Way or Another by Becky Cloonan / Michael W. Conrad / Jorge Corona / Sarah Stein, finished May 11
055) Batgirls: Bat Girl Summer by Becky Cloonan / Michael W. Conrad / Neil Googe / Robbi Rodriguez / Rico Renzi, finished May 11
056) Y is for Yesterday by Sue Grafton, finished May 12 

The tyranny of getting stuff in the right order

051) On Tyranny by Timothy Snyder, finished May 8
057) Superman Smashes the Klan by Gene Luen Yang and Guruhiru, finished May 13
058) Four in Hand by Alicia Mountain, finished May 17
059) The Glob by John O'Reilly and Walt Kelly, finished May 20
060) Why They Can't Write: Killing the Five-Paragraph Essay and Other Necessities by John Warner, finished May 24
061) Less by Andrew Sean Greer, finished May 25
062) Children of the Woods by Ciano/Hixson/Stevens/Otsmane-Elhaou, finished May 27
063) The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece by Tom Hanks, finished May 29

Such quality. Such excellence.

064) Here by Darlene Young, finished June 1
065) Theseus Volume 1 by Jordan Holt, finished June 1
066) Theseus Volume 2 by Jordan Holt, finished June 1
067) Reviews for Non-Existent Movies by Eric Goulden Kimball, finished June 5
068) The Scarlet Plague by Jack London, finished June 6
069) Anne of West Philly by Ivy Noelle Weir and Myisha Haynes, finished June 10
070) Ramona and Her Mother by Beverly Cleary, finished June 10

 Books read: a forensic investigation

073) These Precious Days by Ann Patchett, finished c. June 17
074) Grass by Keum Suk Gendry-Kim, finished c. June 19
075) The Burning Book: A Jewish-Mormon Memoir by Jason Olson and James Goldberg, finished c. June 21
076) The Night Watchman by Louise Erdrich, finished June 23
From prehumanity to eternal destiny

077) Tuki: Fight for Fire by Jeff Smith, finished June 28
078) Tuki: Fight for Family by Jeff Smith, finished June 29
079) The Writer's Hustle by Joey Franklin, finished July 8
080) Future Day Saints: The New Arrivals by Matt Page, finished July 16
081) Binti by Nnedi Okorafor, finished July 18
082) Ramona Quimby, Age 8 by Beverly Cleary, finished July 19
083) Just One More by Annette Lyon, finished July 20
084) The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Six More by Roald Dahl, finished July 22
085) Somewhere Out There: My Animated Life by Don Bluth, finished July 22

Two women, in comics form

085) Beast by Marian Churchland, finished July 24
086) Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow by King/Evely/Lopes, finished c. July 28

The sex-and-metaphysics Venn diagram

087) Banana Sunday by Paul Tobin and Colleen Coover, finished August 2
088) Falconer by John Cheever, finished August 3
089) Still Life with Woodpecker by Tom Robbins, finished August 3
090) Homunculus by Joe Sparrow, finished August 5
091) Cuckoo by Joe Sparrow, finished August 9
092) Fatal by Kimberly Johnson, finished August 16
093) The Unsinkable Walker Bean by Aaron Renier, finished August 17
094) The Infinite Future by Tim Wirkus, finished August 22
095) Super-Infinite: The Transformations of John Donne by Katherine Rundell, finished August 23 

What, is this nothing but comics?

096) The Unsinkable Walker Bean and the Knights of the Waxing Moon by Aaron Renier, finished August 24
097)
Just Julie's Fine by Theric Jepson, finished August 26
098) Bea Wolf by Zach Weinersmith and Boulet, finished August 28
099) Assassinistas by Tini Howard / Gilbert Hernandez / et al., finished August 31
100) Wonder Woman Historia: The Amazons by Kelly Sue DeConnick / Phil Jimenez / Gene Ha / Nicola Scott, finished August 31
101) The Sandman: Preludes & Nocturnes by Neil Gaiman et al., finished September 6
102) Slapstick, or Lonesome No More! by Kurt Vonnegut, finished September 11

We got mysteries, we got apples, we got St. Paul. . . .

103) The Sandman: The Doll's House by Neil Gaiman et al., finished September 14
104) Hallowe'en Party by Agatha Christie, finished September 2023
105)
The Sandman: Dream Country by Neil Gaiman et al, finished September 27
106)
Apples Never Fall by Liane Moriarty, finished September 29
107)
Paul Among the People: The Apostle Reinterpreted and Reimagined in His Own Time by Sarah Ruden, finished October 1
108) Cymbeline by William Shakespeare, finished October 5
109) The Sandman: Season of Mists by Neil Gaiman et al, finished October 5

Coupla classics et al.

110) A Cluster of Noisy Planets by Charles Rafferty, finished October 6
111) Ramona Forever by Beverly Cleary, finished October 7
112) The Mysteries by Bill Watterson and Bill Kascht, finished October 10
113) The Sandman: A Game of You by Neil Gaiman et al, finished October 12
114) The Bridge of San Luis Rey by Thornton Wilder, finished October 13
115, 116) Cymbeline by William Shakespeare, finished October 16, 17
117) Kaya: Book One by author, finished October 21
118) White Noise by Don DeLillo, finished October 23