more media consumption
Mar. 31st, 2013 09:55 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
llcoolvadThe stuff I read
Books Read 2013
JANUARY
1. The Last Kind Words, Tom Piccirilli, Crime.
2. Standing in Another Man's Grave, Ian Rankin, Crime.
FEBRUARY
3. Gun Machine, Warren Ellis, Crime. Comic-book writer Ellis has only recently branched out into novels. I read his other one, Crooked Little Vein, and it was good and quirky. This is a bit more straightforward, although it certainly has quirky bits. Burnt-out cop John Tallow witnesses the murder of his partner and inadvertantly stumbles into an apartment in the same building that is completely filled with guns. They've each been used to commit a homicide; it seems Tallow has discovered a serial killer of epic proportions, and everyone is pissed at him for reopening hundreds of cases, with a perpetrator that is seemingly a ghost. I'd love it if this turned into a series.
4. Stranger Here, Jen Larsen, Memoir. So Jen is an "Internet friend" of Patrick's, therefore I feel not very impartial, but honestly it was a great read. She had weight loss surgery in 2005 and went from 313 pounds to 140 or so, and shares all the emotional ups and downs, how unprepared she was for the whole thing, and how she thought it was going to change everything, and instead it changed some things and not others. It's really funny, too. And it sports my favorite cover art this year!
5. Chalk Girl, Carol O'Connell (audio), Crime. Mallory is back from her walkabout with no explanation to the squad. She's been doing scut work without complaining (which is a first for Mallory), but now an interesting murder has drawn her interest and she launches into solving the case. It ends up spanning a couple of decades, a bunch of pre-teens, a private school, voracious rats, and society dames. Excellent performance by the reader.
MARCH
6. Shame, Alan Russell, Crime. Caleb Parker is the son of an infamous serial killer known as Shame, but since Parker has changed his name, no one in his current life, including his wife and children, know the truth. Elizabeth Line is a true crime writer who was the only surviving victim of Shame, and who wrote the definitive biography of him. When new victims are found in identical tableaus to Shame's original crimes, many years after he was executed, Line investigates and discovers Parker. Is he following in his father's footsteps?
7. Burning Man, Alan Russell, Crime. LAPD detective Michael Gideon and his partner, Sirius the police dog, have literally gone through fire catching a serial killer, and after a year of rehab and skin grafts and nightmares and psych evals, are finally back on the job. They are given a new assignment: the Special Cases Unit, which is tasked with investigating anything unusual—basically anything that seems weird and merits special attention. A crucified high-school student seems to fit the bill, and at the same time an abandoned dead baby also requires attention.
8. Downriver, Loren D. Estleman, Crime. Written and set in 1987, it's Estleman's eighth Amos Walker mystery, and it's a pretty good read. Walker is a typical PI, too cool for school and a true blue kind of guy. He gets hired by an ex-con, Richard DeVries, to find the actual perpetrators of the crime DeVries was convicted for—not for justice, but because DeVries feels he's owed the money he paid for with twenty years of his life. Unravelling the mystery takes some beat-downs, meetings with a centenarian, and flirting with hot babes. All in a day's work.
9. A Share in Death, Deborah Crombie, Crime. Duncan Kincaid is on vacation, but is a Scotland Yard detective ever really on vacation? Nope. This was Crombie's first book, back in 1993, and spawned a series. Pretty cozy, and almost a locked-room mystery as the only suspects are other vacationers at the resort. A bit slight, but kept me entertained for a few hours. I might read others in the series.
10. Mixtape for the Apocalypse, Jemiah Jefferson, Fiction. Michael Squire is a comic book artist, skinny, geeky, 23, obsessed with Echo and the Bunnymen, and feuding with his roommates. It's the late 90s, and Squire is working for an Internet provider on their tech support line by day, and inking comics by night. Over the course of a few weeks things start to go very wrong in his life, and he doesn't really know why. Could it be outside forces conspiring against him? Or is it the voices in his head? Excellent read: funny, sad, and made me want to move to Portland.
11. Fallen, Karin Slaughter (audio), Crime. Slaughter is good. Very dark, as always, but rich in detail and suspense. Her characters are flawed and believable, and learn things the hard way (as we all tend to). In this book, GBI agent Faith Mitchell is late getting back to her mother's house to pick up her infant daughter. When she arrives, there's a bloody handprint on the door, her daughter is in her car seat in the locked shed, and there's a dead body in the laundry room. Her mother is missing, and there's a tense tableau in the bedroom between two strangers. Previous books' characters Dr. Sara Linton and Will Trent will help Faith to solve the mystery of her mother's abduction, but the surprises are not what anyone expects. (well, except me, because I am wicked smaaaaht)
12. Suspect, Robert Crais (audio), Crime.
Good story, although I feel like I'm reading on theme, here. Cop loses his partner in a massive shootout, goes through physical and psychological therapy, hides his PTSD, and goes back to duty, except this time as a K9 officer. The dog he chooses, Maggie, has PTSD also, from a war scene in Afghanistan. They work together to solve the murder of his partner and face a lot of peril. Not cutesy in any way, although a bit of the book is told from the dog's perspective.
Movies Watched 2013
January:
The Descendents
Django Unchained
Unknown
Rise of Planet of the Apes
New Year's Eve
Bourne Legacy
Universal Soldier Day of Reckoning
Beasts of the Southern Wild
Ted
Premium Rush
Hope Springs
Branded
Cold Light of Day
Seven Psychopaths
Knight and Day
February:
Taken 2
Alex Cross
Flight
Mission Impossible 3: Ghost Protocol
Fantastic Four
In the Line of Fire
Iron Man
Iron Man 2
March:
End of Watch
Deadfall
The Factory
I Am Number Four
A Good Day to Die Hard
The Raven
Outlander
Good Day to Die Hard
Olympus Has Fallen
OZ The Great and Powerful
Argo
Zero Dark Thirty
Stand Off
Killing Them Softly
Silver Linings Playbook
Books Read 2013
JANUARY
1. The Last Kind Words, Tom Piccirilli, Crime.
2. Standing in Another Man's Grave, Ian Rankin, Crime.
FEBRUARY
3. Gun Machine, Warren Ellis, Crime. Comic-book writer Ellis has only recently branched out into novels. I read his other one, Crooked Little Vein, and it was good and quirky. This is a bit more straightforward, although it certainly has quirky bits. Burnt-out cop John Tallow witnesses the murder of his partner and inadvertantly stumbles into an apartment in the same building that is completely filled with guns. They've each been used to commit a homicide; it seems Tallow has discovered a serial killer of epic proportions, and everyone is pissed at him for reopening hundreds of cases, with a perpetrator that is seemingly a ghost. I'd love it if this turned into a series.
4. Stranger Here, Jen Larsen, Memoir. So Jen is an "Internet friend" of Patrick's, therefore I feel not very impartial, but honestly it was a great read. She had weight loss surgery in 2005 and went from 313 pounds to 140 or so, and shares all the emotional ups and downs, how unprepared she was for the whole thing, and how she thought it was going to change everything, and instead it changed some things and not others. It's really funny, too. And it sports my favorite cover art this year!
5. Chalk Girl, Carol O'Connell (audio), Crime. Mallory is back from her walkabout with no explanation to the squad. She's been doing scut work without complaining (which is a first for Mallory), but now an interesting murder has drawn her interest and she launches into solving the case. It ends up spanning a couple of decades, a bunch of pre-teens, a private school, voracious rats, and society dames. Excellent performance by the reader.
MARCH
6. Shame, Alan Russell, Crime. Caleb Parker is the son of an infamous serial killer known as Shame, but since Parker has changed his name, no one in his current life, including his wife and children, know the truth. Elizabeth Line is a true crime writer who was the only surviving victim of Shame, and who wrote the definitive biography of him. When new victims are found in identical tableaus to Shame's original crimes, many years after he was executed, Line investigates and discovers Parker. Is he following in his father's footsteps?
7. Burning Man, Alan Russell, Crime. LAPD detective Michael Gideon and his partner, Sirius the police dog, have literally gone through fire catching a serial killer, and after a year of rehab and skin grafts and nightmares and psych evals, are finally back on the job. They are given a new assignment: the Special Cases Unit, which is tasked with investigating anything unusual—basically anything that seems weird and merits special attention. A crucified high-school student seems to fit the bill, and at the same time an abandoned dead baby also requires attention.
8. Downriver, Loren D. Estleman, Crime. Written and set in 1987, it's Estleman's eighth Amos Walker mystery, and it's a pretty good read. Walker is a typical PI, too cool for school and a true blue kind of guy. He gets hired by an ex-con, Richard DeVries, to find the actual perpetrators of the crime DeVries was convicted for—not for justice, but because DeVries feels he's owed the money he paid for with twenty years of his life. Unravelling the mystery takes some beat-downs, meetings with a centenarian, and flirting with hot babes. All in a day's work.
9. A Share in Death, Deborah Crombie, Crime. Duncan Kincaid is on vacation, but is a Scotland Yard detective ever really on vacation? Nope. This was Crombie's first book, back in 1993, and spawned a series. Pretty cozy, and almost a locked-room mystery as the only suspects are other vacationers at the resort. A bit slight, but kept me entertained for a few hours. I might read others in the series.
10. Mixtape for the Apocalypse, Jemiah Jefferson, Fiction. Michael Squire is a comic book artist, skinny, geeky, 23, obsessed with Echo and the Bunnymen, and feuding with his roommates. It's the late 90s, and Squire is working for an Internet provider on their tech support line by day, and inking comics by night. Over the course of a few weeks things start to go very wrong in his life, and he doesn't really know why. Could it be outside forces conspiring against him? Or is it the voices in his head? Excellent read: funny, sad, and made me want to move to Portland.
11. Fallen, Karin Slaughter (audio), Crime. Slaughter is good. Very dark, as always, but rich in detail and suspense. Her characters are flawed and believable, and learn things the hard way (as we all tend to). In this book, GBI agent Faith Mitchell is late getting back to her mother's house to pick up her infant daughter. When she arrives, there's a bloody handprint on the door, her daughter is in her car seat in the locked shed, and there's a dead body in the laundry room. Her mother is missing, and there's a tense tableau in the bedroom between two strangers. Previous books' characters Dr. Sara Linton and Will Trent will help Faith to solve the mystery of her mother's abduction, but the surprises are not what anyone expects. (well, except me, because I am wicked smaaaaht)
12. Suspect, Robert Crais (audio), Crime.
Good story, although I feel like I'm reading on theme, here. Cop loses his partner in a massive shootout, goes through physical and psychological therapy, hides his PTSD, and goes back to duty, except this time as a K9 officer. The dog he chooses, Maggie, has PTSD also, from a war scene in Afghanistan. They work together to solve the murder of his partner and face a lot of peril. Not cutesy in any way, although a bit of the book is told from the dog's perspective.
Movies Watched 2013
January:
The Descendents
Django Unchained
Unknown
Rise of Planet of the Apes
New Year's Eve
Bourne Legacy
Universal Soldier Day of Reckoning
Beasts of the Southern Wild
Ted
Premium Rush
Hope Springs
Branded
Cold Light of Day
Seven Psychopaths
Knight and Day
February:
Taken 2
Alex Cross
Flight
Mission Impossible 3: Ghost Protocol
Fantastic Four
In the Line of Fire
Iron Man
Iron Man 2
March:
End of Watch
Deadfall
The Factory
I Am Number Four
A Good Day to Die Hard
The Raven
Outlander
Good Day to Die Hard
Olympus Has Fallen
OZ The Great and Powerful
Argo
Zero Dark Thirty
Stand Off
Killing Them Softly
Silver Linings Playbook
