2022-07-31

A Quality July

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library dvd
The Mummy (1999)

After we watched the Universal original, the monster-loving son asked about any remakes and I talked about the bad reviews Tom Cruise got. But then, a couple months later, I read about how well this movie holds up and I could not believe I had forgotten it. We all loved this movie back in 1999! (Incidentally, I thought it was a few years earlier and a few things happen that I was sure The Matrix must've ripped off, but I guess just pulling-out-guns-emptying-them-pulling-out-more was just the zeitgeist that year.)

(Incidentally, The Matrix only came in fifth [fifth!] that year while this movie pulled eighth.)

It's kind of shocking how few stars this movie birthed. It's really just Rachel Weisz, right? Wild.

The movie is absurd in a very lean-into-being-a-movie sort of way and that lets us forget its nonsense because it's just trying to be a movie. And it does well at that. Remade today, it would be better at some cultural things but it probably wouldn't be nearly as fun. (I have no idea if any of what I said replied to the dissimilar 2017 reboot.) When quicksand eats a plane in the middle of the desert, you're not in any real world.

The kids were surprised by the CG. The mummy they thought was excellent and most of the rest of it they thought was terrible. That makes sense, really.


THEATER
Alamo Drafthouse
San Francisco
Mad God (2022)

I've heard chunks of the same interview with Phil Tippett on KALX about Mad God several times over, I don't know, the last five years? It's always charming and fascinating and makes me want to watch the movie. But I've held off on paying for the pieces of the thing (these chunks no longer available). I've been holding off for the full thing and hoping ol' Phil didn't drop dead between now and then.

A couple weeks ago the interview started playing again except . . . he was talking about finishing it . . . and how he felt afterwards. Which was strange.

Only to discover he had finished it and it was in theaters.

On the one hand, this is about exactly what I expected, the sort of weird nightmare vision I know from a number of shortfilms. On the other hand, this is eighty-three minutes long and that sustained level of surreal madness is more Lynchian than anything else. (That baby did remind me of Eraserhead.)

If you can, make the effort to see it big. The detail deserves your attention.


THEATER
Landmark
Albany Twin
Elvis (2022)

This is very Baz Luhrmann but I also thought it was quite a restrained and respectful Baz Luhrmann. And Austin Butler was incredible. I get the artistic value of Tom Hanks's voiceover but I'm not sure it was a good idea.

Regardless, it made me love Elvis and loathe the Colonel. As, perhaps, one should do in a Faust story where Faust does not quite understand whom he has made his deal with.

Lady Steed and I diverge opinions on several points. I think this is the best Baz soundtrack since R+J. She found it frustrating. But we both agree that for all its merits it does run rather long.

As hagiography, it's thrilling.


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YouTube
The Bob Emergency (2019)

Another fascinating documentary from the people who went on and on about the Seattle Mariners, this time about professional athletes named Bob. Really. And it's a fascinating mix of stories ending with their extinction (or, at least, northern white rhino-level extinction).

But while the doc made me laugh and gasp, what I loved most about it was its concluding thesis:

There are no dull stories. People are full of wonder. No matter how you study our history, you will always, always find it.

Right on, Jon Bois. Right on.


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Kanopy
The Night of the Shooting Stars (1982)

I've been wanting to watch this since reading Pauline Kael's review (she loved it). And now I've seen it. And while I've liked it (I would call it my second or third favorite Italian movie after Cinema Paradisio and maybe Rififi), it also struck me as rather flawed. Now, part of this is probably because of its vintage. I think something about being my age makes a love of movies from around this time not cool-vintage but cringy-agèd. Blame that on my own age.

And part of it, I think, is a general ambivalence for Italian cinema (example). Some of that may just be the level of professionalism (sort of like how Hong Kong didn't start recording dialogue while filming until a couple decades ago)—so while some of the choices can be artistic, some (like night that isn't dark and badly lipsynced singing) are not. They're just not done well.

But again—it's not old enough for me to find charming and not young enough for me to think it's cool. It's sort of a filmic corollary to Adams's Law.

AGAIN, all that said, it was a good movie. It's the story of a few dozen Italians from a small town trying to survive the Fascists in the final days and hours before the Americans arrive to liberate them. It's war, so terrible things happen and absurd things happen. The primary point of view is that of a 6yrold so we also get some warpings and flights of fancy, but overall it is lovely and tragic. The heights and depths of humanity, etc. And a much welcome new perspective on WWII.

If you are younger or older than me, you can probably love it without reservation!


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Disney+
Timmy Failure: Mistakes Were Made (2020)

I was reading about Stephan Pastis and learned he had done some Wimpy Kid-esque kids novels and they had been turned into a movie which he cowrote with the director, Tom McCarthy, whom I know as the director of Station Agent but is probably best known as the director of Spotlight.

Anyway, why shouldn't serious directors direct fun kid films? I can't think of a reason.

But this movie's a terrific reasron why they should.


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Disney+
Princess Protection Program (2009)

This movie was bad in all the ways I anticipated, plus some, besides. And I know it's not supposed to be realistic, but still. All the parts worth keeping have been done better in other movies. Characters change when the beat arrives, not because they've changed. That had to be the most sinking failure.

I've only seen Selena Gomez in The Dead Don't Die and Only Murders in the Building and I won't hold her Disney channel roots against her. The other lead seemed vaguely familiar and it ends up this is who Demi Lovato is. Did you know? I had no idea! Just knew the name. Assumed she was a singer. Maybe she's that as well.


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library dvd
Last Night in Soho (2021)

Is it a story of ghosts or time travel or madness? Is it mod London or Hitchcock? The answer, of course, is yes, in a very Edgar Wright fashion. And I was glad it resolved as it did, even though that did make it more of a horror movie. But not knowing what genres a film will pass through is also part of the Edgar Wright experience.

Anyway, it was lovely and the cast excelled and, as expected, the camera and sound danced together throughout. It's just amazing to look at and listen to, even if the story hadn't compelled as much as it did.

It may have cheated a bit but with . . . this sort of thing, who can really be sure what they've seen.


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library dvd
The Insufferable Groo (2018)

It's hard, watching this movie, to know what lessons to take from it. At times I would get smug but then I would quickly repent. Is this a positive example of remaining a child or an example of how insanity is doing the same thing over and over while expecting a different result? Is he a hero or is he a fool?

Frankly, that latter question should be asked by, oh, 70% of all movies? But this movie never stops asking it. And it doesn't provide a clear answer.

I'll need to hop onto Amazon and watch a movie of his or two before I can decide for myself. But I'm a little afraid to know.

Because, for all the differences, it is a bit like looking into a mirror.


THEATER
Century 16 Hilltop
Thor: Love and Thunder (2022)

I think this is a movie that will be better on second viewing. At times I just didn't know where it was going and it seemed drawn out, but most of those moments paid out in the end. And so I hope to give it another shot. I think it'll improve.

I did not expect the title to end up meaning what it did and that in particular I found worth the journey.

And I must say that the casting of the midcredits intro was so, so, so perfect. So perfect.


HOME
library dvd
The Thing (1982)

Years have passed since I watched the original and since then I've only heard more and more good things about John Carpenter's version. So here we are!

In a way, this is almost a sequel to the original. Imagine the first movie had ended unhappily. Well, what happens next? Could be this movie.

Not exactly, of course. Not all the understandings are the same, but a several plot points in 1951 are what the Norwegians were up to before 1982 starts.

The monsters have obviously been influential. That first sight of them looks like beasts we know from Stranger Things and The Quiet Place.

One great thing about watching this movie is the jump scares don't hit quite where expected and they don't precisely release tension so much as reveal where it'll be ratcheted up next.

I thought the "disgusting" aspect was going to be something other than it was. But it was pretty gross. Yuck.

Anyway, if this seems broken into pieces, it's because I'm watching the making-of as I type. Not the best circumstances to say intelligent things!

One weird thing about my experience specifically is that this 1982 movie, while the effects are 1982, did not give me uncomfortably-dated vibes as did Shooting Stars above. I'm not sure why. Your theories welcome.


THEATER
Century 16 Hilltop
Nope (2022)

First, this was one heck of an entertaining movie. I enjoyed every minute. I thought it's take on flying saucers was a brilliant innovation and the movie never stopped moving.

I want to lead with that because I think the film has a couple pretty significant flaws. The biggest of which (spoilers ahead) is that our horse ranchers don't seem to feel much at the loss of their horses. I get that Daniel Kaluuya's character keeps his emotions inside but on this point it was tough to tell whether they were still waiting for the horses to return (maybe they had returned?) or they assumed they were dead or what. That didn't only seem off for horse people but it impacted our ability to follow the plot.

The other big flaw (imo) was the chimp subplot. (And not because the cg chimp was lesser than other, older cg chimps.) I get the thematic resonances, but the plot itself just doesn't make a lot of sense. If I were writing an essay, I could get into all the reasons I don't think it works, but the only reason for it I can see that almost holds up to scrutiny is to get us sympathetic to our former kid sheriff. But it'sa dumb solution! We would care much more about him if we knew, before the last second, that he has a wife and children—if we had seen them interact and how they loved each other. That subplot would have made the movie stronger. And while the chimp scenes have have been the most terrifying in the movie, they didn't resonate with or increase our stakes in the film at large. CUT.

Anyway, I'm pretty sure Jordan Poole is the only filmmaker with three or more films of whom I have seen all their films in theaters. And I liked this movie, don't get me wrong. But it's a summer entertainment only. While there are sniffs of Something to Say, they are much less aromatic that we saw in Get Out or Us, and the film at a whole isn't quite sure what it's about. And because of that, characters make choices we can't understand and have experiences we can't care about. The script really needed another draft. And that's a shame. It could've been great.


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link+ dvd
The Fog of War (2003)

This film has seemed like one I should watch since it came out. (Possibly since before it came out—I have clear memories of hearing about it ten years before it existed. Perhaps I am remembering McNamara's book, but this seems muy unlikely.) I don't remember exactly what I was to learn. I thought maybe something about McNamara's monstrosity. But the film's not so simple as to turn him into hero or villain. He's a talented human put into impossible situations. And, at the end of life, he's learned something. And he wants to share what he's learned.

Of course, we have Errol Morris to thank for the intimacy of our encounter with one of history's great villains / desperate humanists. The interrotron makes the conversation almost one we are having ourselves. And McNamara's willingness to be open (when he is willing to be open) is powerful. And sets up an intense contrast with when he deflects or dissembles.

I'm not sure what I feel, here at the end of Fog of War. His lessons have value.

But are they enough?

(I feel it's worth mentioning that we're finally watching this film because of McNamara's appearance in The Post.)


HOME
library dvd
Masterminds (2016)

I think one lesson we learn is that, with the rarest of exceptions, movies like this don't do much box office. But they can become cult classics. And, frankly, I'm surprised that, to the best of my knowledge, this hasn't. You have a strong cast with SNL flavor embodying the SNL ideal.


But what you also have is Jared Hess. Now, I love Jared Hess. I really do. And here he draws a number of Hessian performances from people he hasn't used before. But the fact is, most people don't want this movie. And that makes me sad.

So I liked it a lot. Not a top Hess movie for me, but Jared and Jerusha didn't write it, so there you go. Regardless, it was fun and I would happily watch it again. And the most absurd detail (the name double) actually is part of the true story. Amazing.


HOME
library dvd
Heat (1995)

This movie is packed! Even at two hours and fifty minutes there's always something going on. Since it's an acclaimed classic, I'm assuming all the pieces fit together, but it was hard to follow how certain people knew certain things.

It was clearly a tragedy, pretty much from the getgo, what wasn't clear was just how tragic it would be character by character.

Anyway, I felt I needed to watch this because it keeps. coming. up. in late-night jokes and movie reviews and et cetera. It's a movie that, three hours or no, I figured I had better watch.

I'm glad I did. It's my first Michael Mann, movie believe it or not. Can't say I'm eager to watch more, but it was a well crafted film and I appreciated little details like breath fog coming from a chest wound. Classy.


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our bluray
WWJD (2022)

I paid fifty bucks for this dvd/bluray combo ten years ago to help pay for production (look for my "name" in the credits) (and, yes, ten years is a long time). IMDb estimates the budget at 5K; I haven't asked Davey if this is accurate, but I can believe it. There are a few issues with (especially) the sound mix, for instance, but the film is great. Really. I highly recommend it. You can stream it for much cheaper than I paid.

I read the original play nearly fifteen years ago (I don't remember the exact date and, best I can tell, I didn't track it under my listed readings) but I thought it was great then. The movie isn't the play in smart ways. For instance, instead of on-stage doppelgangers, they make use of old film, and it works great. It had been long enough since I read the play, that I really did not know where the movie was going, but it's a satisfactory ride.

Incidentally, I recommend reading the linked-to pdf not just for the play written by Anna Lewis (movie) / Anna Christina Kohler Lewis (thesis) but also for the scholarly things she says afterwards about her play. Interesting stuff.


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library dvd
The Lunchbox (2013)

Of the films we've watched this month that have something akin to classic status, this is the only one which, for me, lived up to the billing. I absolutely loved this movie. Loved it. It's a darn-near perfect movie. A two-hander, really, with incredible performances to the two leads—legend Irrfan Khan and new-to-me Anna Kendrick lookalike Nimrat Kaur.

There's much I would like to discuss about the structure of the film and the camera and edit choices made, but really: just watch it yourself.

Note: you won't make a mistake to watch at least one of these before starting the film. Otherwise the film's basic conceit might seem impossible. Short. Long.

After you see the movie, rejoin me in awe at its simplicity, kindness, boldness, and joy.




Previous films watched

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2022-07-28

V is for verrry fine literature

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077) V is for Vengeance by Sue Grafton, finished July 7

One fun puzzle to work out in any of these books is just what the title is in reference to. This one has layers. So many vengeances!

Organized crime and people connected in so many different ways. If ever there was a Grafton novel to break out the red yarn and corkboard over, this is it. It was also intensely satisfying. Even though I've decided I miss the old days when the entire novel was from Kinsey's perspective. It did provide the unusual perspective of seeing Kinsey from another character's point of view. It also provided a different sort of morality in that one of the final thrills is a bad guy getting away with it. These are not books that allow you to cheer for bad guys.

Which makes me excited for X. (And even more disappointed over Z.)

Onward!

A B C D E F G H I J
K L M N O P Q R S T U V

the first chapter months ago the rest in about a month


078) Spin by John Bennion, finished July 10

This was the third of three books I ordered on April 6 (!) and when it arrived I was stunned by how long it was. I was expecting a slim lil volume and it was not that. Heike's Void was longer than I expected but Spin was, like a dozen Hemingways in Paradise!

I figured it was entering the realm of Books I Own But Who Knows If or When I'll Ever Read Them. There are already a couple Bennion books in that category, to be honest.

But I was intrigued by the concept and it kept staring at me from the shelf and it felt paired to Heikie's, which I had loved, so one Sunday afternoon I stood from the couch and took it down. Glad I did.

I'm a little hesitant to talk about the novel as most of what I want to say will sound like the sort of stuff that might keep me from reading it, had I known ahead of time. So be warned of spoilers—not spoilers of plot! but spoilers of theme and tone and form and narration.

The "concept" I referred to above was that the main character's daughter is taken from her in a divorce. She grabs her and runs off and manages to stay ahead of her pursuit by delegating her decisions to an "executive decision maker."

On page 48—much later than I would have expected from, say, Vonnegut (as in Slaughterhouse-Five or Timequake)—Bennion steps out from behind the curtain and just starts talking to us with no warning about swimming in the faculty pool and imagining being a pregnant woman. It's startling. Then he's back to the story.

It takes a few of these visits before we can figure out what he's up to.

And what he's up to is plural, but I only wish to discuss one.

Bennion has broken fiction in a manner I never imagined it could be broken.

He tells us that his heroine's journey isn't just fictionally determined randomly. No, the author himself is using random methods to determine what happens to her next.

I never realized how much, in fiction, we count on the guiding hand of the author, that such a hand exists, to convince us to keep reading. We trust the author. And John Bennion has rejected that stewardship.

It made for a disorienting experience. It made me wonder if the book I'd picked off the new shelf at the library, read chunks from, then tossed away in anger and disgust, was right: storytelling, fiction—these things are terrible and we should just stop. Spin made me question the entire enterprise of fiction.

But as his intrusions into the text become longer and more frequent, we entered on a journey with him, discussing how much responsibility writers even deserve.

And thus, I believe, we come to the title's primary meaning—not spin as in the tool poor Lily uses to design her life, but spin as in doctors. Bennion explores is own politics and artistry and feelings and wonders how well he is doing expanding beyond all the privileges he has inherited to really imagine the Other.

En route, he quotes numerous thinkers (especially Levinas). And, perhaps, presents an argument against the fiction-hater whose book I still intend to leave at the library.

I rush to assure you that this second layer of the book (the essaying, he calls it) does not prevent the fiction from working. This film gave me one of the most upsetting moments I've had in some time as well as some successful thrills. The oppression Lily undergoes in this book, the powerlessness, is heavy. And the book supplies no easy wins in the end. It may turn out well, but it'll take thirty years.

Let's also point out that the Lily-drawn illustrations (actually by daughter Amy Bennion) are excellent and thought-provoking and mysterious. We don't know what they are until near the end of the novel, not long after a long gap without any at all.

It's hard to say whether this book is a "success" or a "failure" because those terms hardly seem the point. The etymology of the word "essay" is to try and that of "fiction" is to form. The book does both these things with aplomb. And it rather forces us to as well.

Certainly, it's not an experience I've had before.

a hair over a month
 

079) The Complete Cartoons of The New Yorker edited by Robert Mankoff, finished July 11

Let me make clear I read the paper. the book comes with two cds that contain the complete 68, 647 cartoons that have appeared over the years. Haven't hit that yet.

But it's a hefty collection all the same! Over 600 pages with short essays on each of the first eight decades (it was released in 2004) and bitty essays as well on certain themes and cartoonists.

If you know what to expect, you will be correct.

coupla weeks
 

080) The Shepherd's Crown by Terry Pratchett, finished July 23

This is the final Tiffany Aching book (1, 2, 3, 4) and also the final novel of Sir Terry's career. It's astonishing how much he accomplished in the seven, eight years he had between diagnosis and death, but it still came to an end.

This one felt a little . . . less . . . and the afterword by the author's factotum reveals why. And it wasn't because his brain was decomposing. Or at least, not much.

Terry Pratchett would write important chunks of the book, assemble them, then add and refine until his publisher took it away from him. This makes me feel good because this is how I wrote Byuck but it also explains why this book wasn't up to his normal standard of excellence. It was in full form, but he died before he could finish it. And that's sad, but this is still a wonderful book. Geoffrey is an excellent addition to the cast; the some of the side witches are developed in interesting ways; the final line is absolutely perfect; et cetera. But other bits (the development of Nightshade, the shape of the final battles) are not up to par. And you have to imagine, with a few more months, they would have been.

Anyway. Thank you, Terry Pratchett. Each of your books is a gift and we are grateful.

under a month
 

081) W is for Wasted by Sue Grafton, finished July 25

What a thrilling conclusion! Sue Grafton at her best builds everything into astonishingly tense conclusions.

There's no doubt that's she's abandoned all pretense of the alternate p-o-vs being some creation of Kinsey's. Kinsey's purely a fictional character, I guess.

But it's hard to see how you recreate this story through just one character's point of view. You lose something but you gain something. Who am I to say all twenty-five books have to play by the same rules? I'll try not to mention this again.

The book opens with two bodies appearing at the same time and Kinsey, of course, getting involved with both. Hijinks ensue, including a trip to Bakersfield down down roads and even in a building I know well. Maybe she'll get to the corner of Shaw and Fowler—or even Tehachapi!—before she's through!

A lot of new issues are introduced in this novel—cats, wealth, a new set of family dynamics, new varieties of forgiveness. I was all ready to complain that it had been too long since Kinsey had connected with her extended family, but waaaaay more happened there than I expected!

As always, since 2017, I'm sad we'll never get all the way to Z. I genuinely believe she had the conclusion planned out. I would take a coffee-table book of her notes.

A B C D E F G H
I J K L M N O P
Q R S T U V W
i guess eighteen days


082) How About Never—Is Never Good for You? by Bob Mankoff, finished July 28

Mankoff has been the cartoon editor at The New Yorker since the Nineties and this memoir is about his journey, but it's also a mini-history of drawings at the magazine from before his time and into the present (2014; he retired in 2017; some things have changed since then—for instance, he recommended submitting at least ten a week and now you can submit no more than ten a month which, let's face it, is more manageable for the hobbyist).

Anyway! Bob is a wonderful host and the book is loaded with cartoons new and old. It's a wonderful read. One of the books Lady Steed stole from me and read first and actually finished and returned because she wanted to talk about it. I know you don't sleep in our bed, but that is high praise indeed.

since before the other new yorker book


Previous Posts

001) U Is for Undertow by Sue Grafton, finished January 4
002) Far Sector by N.K. Jemisin et al, finished January 7
003) Joseph Smith and the Mormons by Noah Van Sciver, finished January 7
004) The Blank Wall by Elisabeth Sanxay Holding, finished January 11
005) The Art of Perspective by Christopher Castellani, finished January 11
006) Bad Kitty Goes on Vacation by Nick Bruel, finished January 12
007) Remina by Junji Ito, finished January 15
008) The Tea Dragon Society by Katie O'Neill, finished January 15
009) The Tea Dragon Festival here by Katie O'Neill, finished January 15
010) A Hat Full of Sky by Terry Pratchett, finished January 18
011) Diana: Princess of the Amazons by Shannon & Dean Hale and Victoria Ying, finished January 26

012) Just Julie's Fine by Theric Jepson, finished January 28
013) The Art of Description by Mark Doty, finished January 28
014) Green Lantern: Legacy by Minh Lê and Andie Tong, finished February 5
015) Serious Concerns by Wendy Cope, finished January 9
016) The Art of Mystery by Maud Casey, finished February 11
017) The Art of Bible Translation by Robert Alter, finished February 13
018) No Longer Human by Junji Ito, finished February 15

019) Zatanna and the House of Secrets by Matthew Cody and Yoshi Yoshitani, finished Febraury 17
020) Fuzz by Mary Roach, finished February 19
021) Deserter: Junji Ito Story Collection by Junji Ito, finished February 25
022) You May Already Be a Winner by Ann Dee Ellis, finished March 4
023) Audience-ology by Kevin Goetz, finished March 4
024) The Writing Life by Annie Dillard, finished March 7

025) Wintersmith by Terry Pratchett, finished March 8
026) The Croquet Player by H. G. Wells, finished March 11
027) Lost States: True Stories of Texlahoma, Transylvania, and Other States That Never Made It by Michael J. Trinklein, finished March 12
028) Nightwing: Leaping into the Light by Bruno Redondo and Tom Taylor, finished March 13
029) Batman: The Court of Owls by Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo and Jonathan Glapion, finished date
030) Invisible Ink: My Mother's Secret Love Affair with a Famous Cartoonist by author, finished date
031) Ghosts of Vader's Castle by a slew of folks, finished March 15
032) The Flintstones Volume 1 by Mark Russell and Steve Pugh, finished March 16
033) The Flintstones Volume 2 by Mark Russell and Steve Pugh, finished March 16
034) The Jetsons by Palmiotti/Brito/Sinclair, finished March 16
035) Exit Stage Left: The Snagglepuss Chronicles by Mark Russell and Mike Feehan, finished March 18
036) Ballad for Sophie by Filipe Melo and Juan Cavia, finished March 19

You tell me whether it's garbage-in or not

037) Bride of the Far Side by Gary Larson, finished March 23
038) Batman: Night of the Owls by the entire DC bullpen, finished March 23
039) The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin, finished March 25
040) The Pocket Book of Ogden Nash, finished March 25
041) Slaugherhouse-Five or the Children's Crusade: a Duty Dance with Death by Kurt Vonnegut / Ryan North / Albert Monteys, finished March 28
042) The Fox and the Star by Coralie Bickford-Smith, finished March 28
043) Jem by Frederik Pohl, finished March 31
044) The Mundane Adventures of Dishman by John MacLeod, finished March 31
045) Because Sometimes You Just Gotta Draw a Cover with Your Left Hand by Stephan Pastis, finished April 4

Books: extralong edition

046) Patsy Walker, A.K.A. Hellcat! Vol. 1: Hooked On A Feline by Leth/Williams/Allegri, finished April 9
047) The Hatred of Poetry by Ben Lerner, finished April 11
048) Weird Al: The Book by Nathan Rabin with Al Yankovic, finished April 11
049) My Year of Flops by Nathan Rabin, finished April 16
050) The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennet, finished April 19
051) Beast of Burden: Occupied Territory by Dorkin & Dyer & Dewey & Piekos, finished April 16
052) Building a Better Life by Stealing Office Supplies: Dogbert's Big Book of Business by Scott Adams, finished April 22
053) On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century by Timothy Snyder, finished April 27
054) Salt Magic by Hope Larson and Rebecca Mock, finished May 5
055) Star Wars Adventures: The Weapon of a Jedi, finished May 6
056) Hemingway in Paradise and Other Mormon Poems by Scott Hales, finished May 8
057) Romeo and Juliet: The War by a team assembled by Stan Lee, finished May 10
058) The Dark Horse Book of the Dead edited by Scott Allie, finished May 14
059) A Little Lower than the Angels by Virginia Sorensen, finished May 15

060) Irredeemable by Mark Waid, et al., finished May 20
061) Stanslaw Lev's The Seventh Voyage by Jon J Muth, finished May 23
062) Sir Gawain and the Green Knight translated by Simon Armitage, finished May 28
063) Heike's Void by Stephen L. Peck, finished May 30

064) Night Weather by JS Absher, finished June 2
065) Will Eisner Reader, finished June 2
066) Pen Pals by Aaron Cometbus, finished June 4
067) I Shall Wear Midnight by Terry Pratchett, finished June 6
069) Pluto: Urusawa × Tezuka 001 by Naoki Urasawa et al, finished June 16
070) The Gadget War by Betsy Duffey, finished June 16

071) Sensational Wonder Woman, finished June 22
072) Ain't Burned All the Bright by Jason Reynolds and Jason Griffin, finished June 27
073) 5 Very Good Reasons to Punch a Dolphin in the Mouth (And Other Useful Guides) by The Oatmeal, finished June 29
074) Socks by Beverly Cleary, finished June 29
075) The Ultimates Volume 1: Super-Human by Millar/Hitch/Currie, finished June 30
076) In China with Green Day by Aaron Cometbus, finished July 4



final posts in this series from
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2014 = 2015 = 2016 = 2017 = 2018 = 2019 = 2020 = 2021