May in Review
Books Acquired:
Poems by Robert Frost: A Boy’s Will; North of Boston by Robert Frost
The Abbess of Crewe by Muriel Spark
Conversations by César Aira
The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith
Bullfighting by Roddy Doyle
The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
A Good Year by Peter Mayle
The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery
The Sisters Brothers by Patrick deWitt
Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel
Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi
Shopgirl by Steve Martin
Three Men in a Boat (To Say Nothing of the Dog) by Jerome K. Jerome
The 100 Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson
The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga
The Book of Negroes by Lawrence Hill
Baudolino by Umberto Eco
The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach
Books Read:
Garlic and Sapphires by Ruth Reichl
The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas
The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga
I Was the Cat by Paul Tobin
The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
This month started, of course, with the annual used book sale, which is always a highlight. That’s also why my Books Acquired list is so ridiculous. I’ve only read one of the new pile of books so far, The White Tiger, and I thought it was great.
Lee-Ann’s birthday was this month, which was a very busy weekend full of nonstop eating and visiting with friends.
Her birthday coincided with the local Highland Games here, which is always fun. It’s a good chance to eat some haggis, buy random Scottish knickknacks, and watch huge guys throw heavy objects around.
I’m mainly just happy the sun is finally out. Our winters here are grey and dark and wet, and I always forget just how much that affects me until I get a bit of sun on my skin and find myself spinning on hilltops like Maria von Trapp.
Movies watched:
The Lady in the Van (2015) – Both Maggie Smith and Alan Bennett are fantastic, so I really enjoyed this. It reminded me that I need to read more Alan Bennett soon.
Deadpool (2016) – Just raunchy fun. Interested to see if Deadpool pops up in any other Marvel movies.
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017) – Not as good as the first, but still entertaining. They tried way too hard in too many scenes to be heartwarming, and it fell a bit flat for me.
Now You See Me (2013) – This was a bit silly. If you really turn your mind off, it’s an enjoyable heist movie, but don’t let your mind wander back to reality for even a second.
TV watched:
Master of None: Season 2 (2017) – Some of the best television I’ve watched in ages. Season 1 was already fantastic, and this was a huge improvement on that. Very clever filming, great writing and casting. Aziz Ansari should be winning every award for this series.
Games played:
Rocket League (2015) (PC) – I haven’t really been playing anything recently, but I still always come back to this.
What have you been reading/watching/playing this month?
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2 Comments
Geoff W
Oh, what did you think of The Three Musketeers? It’s on my Classics list and I want to revisit The Count of Monte Cristo, but I seem to remember Dumas being pretty heavy handed (or at least the translation we read in high school).
Rob
I loved it! It dragged a bit for me in the middle, but overall I thought it was great. I listened to the Pevear translation and the writing was fantastic. Quite modern actually.