March in Review

Books Acquired:
None.

Books Read:
His Bloody Project by Graeme Macrae Burnet
The Double by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Alas, Babylon by Pat Frank
Room by Emma Donoghue
Company Town by Madeline Ashby

Not a single book bought or stolen or conjured up this month. My favourite used book sale is only about five weeks away now, so I’m saving myself for that. We have limited shelf space left here, and we usually both go a bit nuts at that sale.

It’s been a fairly busy (but also lazy) month, and as a result I’ve fallen quite behind on these posts. I haven’t written about a single novel that I read in March yet, but I do hope to start plowing through those soon. It has been quite a good reading month, however. Five books finished, and one finished just after the month ended, and I really enjoyed everything I read.

Here’s a random video of my dog, Paisley, and her version of what she considers ‘fetch’.

The weather has finally taken a turn for the better. I’m hoping this keeps up. The better the weather, the more audiobooks I’ll hopefully get through.

Movies watched:
10 Cloverfield Lane (2016) – This was fantastic! Perfectly handled suspense and great acting. I remember watching Dan Trachtenberg, the director, a lot when he hosted The Totally Rad Show, so it was very cool to see him go from hosting that to directing a big film like this.

The World’s End (2013) – Despite loving Edgar Wright, I never got around to watching the third movie of the Cornetto trilogy. This wasn’t my favourite film of his, but it was a lot of fun. I loved the premise and how it played out, but some of the humour felt a bit strained.

Beauty and the Beast (2017) – They did a great job with this. It’s probably been about twenty years since I watched the last one, and I’d forgotten how catchy the songs are. I also went into this somewhat blind, as I knew my girlfriend (who loved it) would be pulling me into the theatre for this no matter what, so I was happy to find such a stellar cast. They really made it feel like a seamless live-action Disney movie, rather than a bunch of actors surrounded by cartoons and CGI.

Night Train to Lisbon (2013) – Great locations and great actors, and I love that it’s a movie about a guy obsessed with a book, but it was a bit dull. The beginning setup was weak and underdeveloped, which made the main character’s actions throughout the movie seem a bit silly.

TV watched:
The Mind of a Chef: Season 4 (2015) – I absolutely love this series. It follows two chefs a season, one for the first half and another for the second, as they present and uncover recipes and food preparation techniques that explain how they approach food in their restaurant and throughout their life. This season had Gabrielle Hamilton and David Kinch. Both were great, but I really enjoyed Gabrielle Hamilton’s episodes. So much so that I looked her up to see if she’d written any books, as I just loved the way she described food, and I was happy to discover that she was the author of Blood, Bones, & Butter, a food memoir I’ve almost picked up multiple times in the past, so I’ll definitely be reading that soon.

Games played:
Torment: Tides of Numenera (2017) (PC) – This should almost count as another read for the month. A dialogue-heavy role-playing game, heavy to the point of almost having no combat so far, and it’s extremely well-written. I took a break and never returned, but I’d like to get back into it this month and finish it off.

Rocket League (2015) (PC) – They came out with a new update for this, so I’ve been playing again. Great fun.

What have you been reading/watching/playing this month?