2022-08-31

August films so few

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Beaver Trilogy (2000)

I've been wanting to see the Beaver Trilogy since I first heads about it on This American Life about twenty years ago. At that point there was no way to see it. And so I wanted to remember it well enough to recognize it when the opportunity arose, yet to forget as much as possible so I can have the experience of not knowing what would be next.

I bought the film on dvd directly from Trent Harris years ago but even today I remembered what would happen. Trivia-minded brains are like that, I guess. Lucky Lady Steed came into it today with absolutely no memory of the TAL story. I'm jealous.

Anyway, I finally watched it because it was talked about by Phil Lord in a book I've been reading. I saved Lord's interview for last, after having watched the movie.

My experience? In short, while I couldn't enter it utterly ignorant, I still found it surprising and fascinating. I'm deliberately telling you almost nothing in hopes you'll click on the poster and buy your own copy (I just did so and bought two of his other movies I have not seen). It's weird and unlike anything else, but it's time well spent and will give you a lot to write about—if you're less worried about spoilers than I'm being.

(PS: Followed this up by buying two more dvds from Trent Harris. I know own, on DVD, Ruben & Ed, Beaver Trilogy, Delightful Water Universe, and Luna Mesa, and the script of Ruben & Ed.)


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Plex
Beaver Trilogy Part IV (2015)

After watching Beaver Trilogy, I wanted to reintroduce Lady Steed to the This American Life episode she'd forgotten about. And in the process of duckduckgoing it, I found this movie as well. So we have a Beaver Trilogy Trilogy today, I guess you could say.

The filmmaker's a former kid who (like, the film reveals, and which we had long suspected, includes Jared Hess), unlike me, was lucky enough to see Ruben & Ed as a kid. And he starts by trying to track down Groovin' Gary and Trent Harris and see what the film meant to both but, like any good documentary, it goes plenty of other places on the way.

If you like weird stuff or filmmaking or anything tangential to either, I recommend following up your Beaver Trilogy party with a viewing of Part IV. I really liked it. It was fun and funny and even moved me in its final moments.


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library dvd
Once (2007)

This man makes such wonderful and naturalistic musicals—this one almost feels like cinema veritee; a couple moments almost felt like documentary. And it makes sense: the intentionally went for a microbudget and it's a smart choice. It's so close and intimate, almost stolen. It wasn't surprising to learn from the making-of that they were shooting more from outline than script.

I like Once better than Sing Street largely because the leads are older, adults, and the ending is so much more grown-up—which feels more honest to me, now, at this time of life. I wonder what I would have thought in 2007?

Anyway, these are real musicians playing music they wrote for this movie and the whole thing sings. It just sings.


GRANDMA'S HOUSE
grandma's dvd
Cinderella 3: A Twist in Time (2007)

So apparently, among direct-to-video-Disney-sequel connoisseures, this number has a solid reputation. I'm not sure I've seen any direct-to-video Disney sequels, so I can only compare it against my expectations.

Was it good?

Not really. But it was much more interesting than it was obligated to be, and you could tell that people were working on this film were being ambitious within their constraints. So good for them!

But if you ask me to watch it, I'll wonder what else you might be interested in instead.


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Kanopy
Jules et Jim (1962)

Starring Owen Wilson as Jules and Adrian Brody as Jim, and narration by Alec Baldwin, this early Wes Anderson film already contains many of the elements we know from his later work, for instance in its use of an active camera and the manner of its dialogue.

From what I knew of the movie beforehand, I assumed the first act was the entire movie. I had no idea we would head for the trenches (or of anything else that followed). The passage of time was a bit tought to follow and the child seemed to disappear after age ten, but I am absolutely looking forward to watching it again. I enjoyed it much more than The 400 Blows and it makes me more excited to get back on the Truffaut train. Shoot the Piano Player next, anyone?


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Hoopla
Bang the Drum Slowly (1973)

I picked up an old paperback of the novel and gave it to Son #1 for Christmas. He just finished it and loved it and wanted to watch the movie together before heading off to college and I was happy to acquiesce.

Rodert De Niro plays the doomed ballplayer (the same year he appeared in Mean Streets, so he was off to the races) and Michael Moriarty plays his friend. It's warming to watch the team slowly rally around this dummy as he plays the best ball of his ending life.

It's a lovely and moving film. I didn't know much about the story, but it made me laugh and left me thoughtful. It's a winner.


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YouTube
How to score 10 runs in the first inning and lose (2022)

This is our third Dorktown film long enough to qualify as a feature (though much shorter than that first behemoth) and it's just as well crafted and fun to watch with as many intellectual, heartfelt, and humorous beats. It's amazing what can be done with just the human voice, statistics, glowing lines, and old film footage.




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Disney+
Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers (2022)

So I'm not sure it was as brilliant or clever or hilarious as the buzz suggested but it was fun and dense with jokes and probably rewards a lot of freezeframing. But Andy Samberg and John Mulaney really are . . . not the greatest actors. And while that's fine, there are a couple moments it becomes an issue.

But I will say that the part I felt most keenly was the final line.

Because we DO want Darkwing. That's what we want.


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Disney+
Encanto (2021)

I really love this movie. Probably the best 2021 film I've seen. Very glad to finally rewatch it (first time).










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Crackle
Earth vs. the Flying Saucers (1956)

Largesse and I saw this trailer about a month ago and were delighted with how terrible the movie appeared. It took us a while to get around to watching it and, bad news, it's actually . . . good. It's good.

I shouldn't complain, I suppose. And it's not like it's a masterpiece, but it is a good movie.

The effects are by Ray Harryhousen and some of them are absurd and some are incredible. The fact that any fall in the latter category is astonishing—it's 1956!

No doubt this film was an inspiration for things like Independence Day as well as deliberate retrocamp like Mars Attacks.


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library dvd
The French Dispatch of the Liberty, Kansas Evening Sun (2021)

Honestly, I don't think this is Wes Anderson out to prove what he can do. I think we're seeing Wes Anderson trying to find out what he can do.

And the answer?

Just about anything.

I'm excited to watch this again then again on a much better screen.

For now, I'll just let French Dispatch inspire me to see just what I might be able to do as well.

Don't worry. It'll look like I did it on purpose.

Aside: It's astonishing how much trust and goodwill Wes Anderson has put together. So many astonishing people (speaking not only of the cast) willing to do small things. If you can be yourself and do it with grace, it looks like a good gig.




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2022-08-30

Thoughts on She-Hulk (and no, I have not done my research)

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We just watched the first two episodes of She-Hulk and what I feel like saying would be quite the series of tweets, so a post of some kind makes more sense. But, in short, I’m on team bad-cgi.

Like a lot of pointless pop-culture brouhahas, I was perfectly happy not to form my own opinion. Some people said the cgi was bad. Other people said the first people were sexist. And some of them probably are, based on what I also heard about the “woke dialogue.”

But the thing is: the cgi is bad. It is!

And this is not a comment, as Disney PR would have it, me being dismissive of certain body types (excellent defelction, Disney PR! way to put me on the defensive!). The cgi just ain’t good.

Jennifer Walters’s rendering is not good. Bruce Banner’s is better (probably because they’re lifting it from the movie?) but it hardly matters because the animation for both charactersn is first-Shrek level. When He- and She-Hulk rumble in the jungle, they genuinely look like Shrek and Fiona jumping around. It’s embarrassing. And so out of place given the wit in the writing and performances.

As mentioned above, I have not done my research, but the tweet that blamed this on non-unionized animators seems like a pretty occam way to explain the failures here. Just pay your animators enough to care! Give them the time to do their jobs!

Not that anyone should be surprised if Disney is shafting people. I mean—it’s been two years and nothing’s changed here, after all.

Get this crap in your email.

2022-08-20

Shannon Hale vs the end of the world

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I'm going to start (trying to remember to start) writing little intros to the books and movies posts so you have a sense of what's coming. Here we have two famous end-of-the-world novels, one of which I spend some time accusing of racism (I could also accuse Mary Shelley of something similar re Mohammadans, but she lived a long time ago, so I'm giving her a pass today). Squished between them: some comics, including Shannon Hale's lauded coming-of-friendship graphic novels with her regular partner LeUyen Pham. They're the best thing on this list, you want my opinion.

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089) The Last Man by Mary Shelley, finished August 11

So I am very sad to admit I did not like this book. I'm a huge fan of Frankenstein and I've always assumed the rest of Mary's ouevre has awarded insufficient attention. And while reading this novel I've read of others' reassessment of the novel but, man, I found it a slog.

There were moments where the text really came alive for me and those parts were largely about characters not based on Mary's inner circle. Remove the romanaclefery of the thing and it's pretty great. There were numerous one-page stories where I scribbled in the margins that THIS should have been the novel! (At one point her narrator says he "will not ... what would be a tedious account" of something I was very interested in!)

Mary Shelley
The Last Man is a pandemic apocalypse just before the year 2100 and part of what disappointed me, I'll admit, is the author's low imaginitive efforts to create a future. Other than dirigibles and a (barely) new English political system, it's pretty much her world. Disrupted expectations are a big part of what kept me more anxious than pleasured—I mean!—the bulk of the novel passes before we hear rumors of a plague! It's also, perhaps unreasonably on my part, frustrating how poorly Shelley (or, to be fair, medical professionals of her era) understood disease. But this disease does seem connected to the seasons and the sun and the ocean and all of nature coming down hard on humanity. And it's weird how a crazy leftist like Mary Shelley lets her surrogate (or herself) or his companions (or her own lost family and friends) wax superstitious about the monarchy.

The insightful reader will recognize that most (all?) of my complaints regard Shelley not writing the book I had assumed she would write. How is it her fault I wanted the last man to be the last man before the last twenty pages? She didn't write the book Theric thought she should! Someone call the literary police!

So, yeah: me being unfair. But I'm not going to read it again to give it a more fair shot. I would read a novel about Juliet had she written it. Or one on Merrival. I suspect her biggest error (again, with a big EYE EM OH), was choosing the first person. The third person would have given her more flexibility. Sure, her narrator assumes a near omniscient stance at times, but it ain't the same. I'm not sure how developed third-person was at this point, so again: me being unfair. I'm just saying.

So let me also just say that The Last Man has some lovely lines and brilliant moments and occasions of great character. At two thirds the size and some different foci, it could have been great. She has greatness in her.

since shortly after Christmas 2018


090) Funny Business by Revlio, finished August 13

The Reuben winner for best greeting-card cartoonist in a collection of business-themed cartoons.

I have nothing to add.

one sitting
 

091) The Sopratos by Stephan Pastis, finished August 15

A Pearls Before Swine collection. I liked it.

say four days
 

092) Real Friends by Shannon Hale and LeUyen Pham, finished August 16
093) Best Friends by Shannon Hale and LeUyen Pham, finished August 16
094) Friends Forever by Shannon Hale and LeUyen Pham, finished August 16

My five-year-old opinion of Real Friends holds up. It is excellent. It takes little Shannon from K through 6. The second book is 6. The third is 8. Each one feels whole. Any one you could believe stands alone or is the completion of the series. So even though I feel quite certain she is done (largely for marketing-category reasons), I could easily accept another volume about a later year.

Shannon's written about how her national publisher made her genericize the Mormon which is disappointing. There are some moments that make you wonder what more she might have done.

Besides the books being entertaining, they also could be a an onramp for their audience to valuable stuff like, you know, mental health.

As an adult I may love the nostalgia and such, but what I really admire about the books are their literary complexity. These are fine comics to get young readers to think more thoroughly about their reading—rereads will reward.

one half took one day then the rest on another day
 

095) The Drowned World by J.G. Ballard, finished August 20

The Drowned World has been on the (rather long) list of potential dystopian novels my students can choose from. It's been selected by two or three or four groups over the years and they generally result in good work though often they lack a couple elements which I know understand why. This is not a dystopia. It's postapocalyptic, sure, but not all postapocalypses are dystopias. That's why The Road isn't on my list, to give just one for-instance. So I knew before I was halfway through that it had to come off the list. I was sad to see it go, because I need clifi dystopia on my list (kids care about climate issues), but my regrets dissolved away entirely once I got to the second half of the novel. Which gets incredibly racist.

No one told me this book was racist! And this is a very famous book! People publish collections inspired by it!

And no, I'm not saying this book shows racism (like Huck Finn) , I am saying is is r a c i s t. As in racist. And what disturbs me more than the racism itself (which I'll get to in a second) is the fact that my woke students never seemed to pick up on it. I asked my son about it (who read it when he did this project in my class) and he said he thinks his groups just sort or forgot about it because the book didn't make a big deal about it. In other words, it's the insidious opposite of Huck.

It's not immediately obvious that the second half of the novel is a Heart of Darkness story because instead of the protags coming to Kurtz, he comes to them. (Note, if a sciencefiction-oriented Chinua Achebe has already written a takedown of Drowned World, please alert me.)

So anyway, our bright-white Kurtz (literally, he's the only untanned person on this burnt planet and loves white suits) comes to town with a bunch of strapping Negros as his entourage (Negro is not a word that has aged well, but that's the least of the novel's sins). Two of them get names and none of theme get anything like a personality. If one speaks, it's in an exotic patois, but they're much more into whooping and hollering and atavistic dances and playing music on bones and carrying machetes and so forth. One of them gets a conversation that is almost human, but otherwise they are just scenery and human jewelry accenting the depravity of our Kurtz.

The whole novel is about how the hotter sun is returning both the world and the human mind to a prehistoric state, but the black folks we meet were either born preregressed or regressed so naturally that there's nothing surprising about it. Symbolically, they represent where the Englishmen are headed. Though at least the Englishmen have the power to reflect thereon.

The novel has only one woman, but she gets better treatment than these alleged humans who get about as much humanity as the crocodiles who also follow Kurtz around (though are not quite as good at doing what Kurtz tells them to do).

Incidentally, I find it fascinating how the Wikipedia article, at least currently, refers to these subhumans—perhaps overcarefully—as "pirates" or "men." Mmhmm.

But what makes the book so dangerous is that it doesn't realize how poorly it's treating this large percentage of its cast. It doesn't give them attention because it can't imagine them deserving attention. And most readers will just accept that as their attention is on the acting characters and the plot. And that's what I meant when I said the racism is insidious. Just as the sun is sending our hero back into the Precambrian with its subconscious pounding, the novel itself is subconsciously leading readers to accept that black people have no personalities besides animal and no individual capacity to affect the plot. I find that troubling.

 Is the world Ballard created as compelling as claimed? Sure. But it's the parts of his world he did not invent and could not even see that are most terrifying about this apocalyptic wasteland.

weeks possibly months


     

Previously . . . . :

2022-08-07

Subtract this you you you ape you!

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083) Subtract: The Untapped Science of Less by Leidy Klotz, finished July 29

This is one of my December 31st books and the one I've been reading since. The basic conceit of the book is that we, as humans, are more adept at finding ways to add when solving problems as opposed to finding ways to subtract—even though subtracting is often the superior solution.

Klotz is a personable host, but I'll bet this book is waaaay better with him as professor than with him as author. Part of the problem is me taking too long to read the book; various callbacks and such lose their resonance when too much time passes between first and second read. Plus, he shares some nonce words like "satisfice" that can be slippery.

But his major points are made with extreme persuasion and I'm absolutely convinced that less is the solution to lots of problems, for instance, in education. This is something I and some of my colleagues have been playing with, but now I have science on my side! His sum-up of his argument is something I intend to make very visible from my desk so I return to them again and again.

I don't they'll be as persuasive divorced from his examples and analogies, but here they are—let them persuade you to give him a try:

two hundred eleven days


This seems like a good time to remind everyone that I get kickbacks for my Amazon and Bookshop links. One year I broke twelve dollars!


084) Ape and Essence by Aldous Huxley, finished July 30

What a weird book this is! It starts on a movie lot and we get some of the day-to-day activity on a lot. Two guys pass by a garbage truck filled with rejected screenplays. Scripts are falling off the truck and they start picking them up to mock them. But then they discover the script of Ape and Essence and it blows their mind. They go hunting in the California desert for the author only to find he had just died. One of the two creepily picks up a teenager while out there and then the rest of the book is the screenplay.

And it is, as they said, unfilmable. Some of the early scenes may have inspired 2001 (anyone know?) but they are trippy and weird and baboon-filled. Then we move to a post-apocalyptic California where some New Zealand scientists have just landed to check out what the nuked world looks like allllll these years later. And things go poorly right away, but the plot follows Dr. Poole who is almost killed by these wastelandians only to squeak out a survival when they learn he's good at making plants produce food.

What follows is a satire of religion (the devil rules!) and sex (once a year, blood and orgy!)—no mercy, as you should expect from Huxley—but he provides a rather sweet ending with both love and God, which surprised me, just as our hero couple are about to head across the Mojave, across the Tehachapis, and into the San Joaquin. So an ending I enjoyed, obviously. I love seeing local sights.

At times, I couldn't believe I was reading this nonsense. But its absurdist humor and final act were fully enjoyable.

But never coming to a multiplex year you!

two or three months
 

085) Urban Legendz by Paul Downs / Nick Bruno / Michael Yates, finished July 30

We picked this up last time we were at Comic-Con and gave it to the kids and I finally picked it up and . . . it's fine. Diverse cast, working together, serious issues, fun monster nonsense.

It was fine.

(My opinion must be common as the promised sequel still ain't here.)

two settings
 

086) The Best Film You've Never Seen by Robert K. Elder, finished August 1

These interviews with contemporary directors about movies they love but are not widely known were great fun to read. And while I still don't expect I'll like Boom! or Killer Klowns from Outer Space, now I want to watch them anyway. And movies I've never heard of like Arcane Sorcerer and The Super Cops are now on my wanna-see list, and movies I already wanted to see like Le samurai and The Trail bounced higher up that list. (Plus, one interview I held off reading until I could finally—finally!—watch my dvd.)

In his intro, Elder suspects that anyone who would pick this book up will have seen at least one of the films. He likes that because he wants readers to feel like they had a way in. And I guessed it worked, because I think I read those interviews (F for Fake, Joe Versus the Volcano) first.

(Maybe. Click on that Joe link and you'll see that I finally watched the film that time because I was reading this book. My guess? I checked it out from the library once before and just read a couple interviews, then returned it. But why didn't it get me to watch Beaver Trilogy that time? Mysterious.)

The point is I enjoyed the interviews and I've added a lot of movies to my various watchlists. Stay posted.

two or three weeks i guess
 

087) It's a Good Life if You Don't Weaken by Seth, finished August 4

I've read Seth before. I'm familiar with his aesthetic. But I'm not sure I've read an entire Seth book before.

Well, this was a great place to start. Besides being a terrific example of his cold, fraught aesthetic, his doppelganger gets to complain about things getting worse and worse while wearing oldfashioned clothes and thinking about oldtimey cartoonists. So Seth!

He bumps into a cartoon in The New Yorker from a cartoonist he's never heard of before but wants wants wants to know more about. But it ain't easy. By the time this book goes to press, he's found but eleven. He's interviewed members of the guy's family but he hasn't learned all that much. Not in the way of facts.

But even though he's curmudgeonly company, you do come away feelins like maybe we did learn something after all. Anyway, we don't regret the journey.

this day


088) Spencer Kimball's Record Collection: Essays on Mormon Music by Michael Hicks, finished August 7

These essays cover a lot of ground and also seemed, before I started them, longer than they needed to be, but each one fascinated and provided food for thought / fun trivia / new insights.

I now think a lot about how Emma Smith's hymnal suggested a different trajectory than the one we finally too. Or how minstrel shows found their way into LDS culture. Or some albums only now on old vinyl that offer something we might not be able to get anywhere else (example, example). Or the process of writing Mormon history and all the, ah, friends it can make you. And even one album from Spencer Kimball's I'ld like to get for myself.

This is a varied collection from an expert with varied interests. "Mormon Music," it ends up, is a lot of different stuff. And Hicks makes for a fun tour guide.

about a year


  

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

077) V is for Vengeance by Sue Grafton, finished July 7
078) Spin by John Bennion, finished July 10
079) The Complete Cartoons of The New Yorker edited by Robert Mankoff, finished July 11
080) The Shepherd's Crown by Terry Pratchett, finished July 23
081) W is for Wasted by Sue Grafton, finished July 25
082) How About Never—Is Never Good for You? by Bob Mankoff, finished July 28



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