Author: Ryan

Movie Review – Spider-Man: Homecoming

RyanLeave a comment

IMDB Summary

Thrilled by his experience with the Avengers, Peter returns home, where he lives with his Aunt May, under the watchful eye of his new mentor Tony Stark, Peter tries to fall back into his normal daily routine – distracted by thoughts of proving himself to be more than just your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man – but when the Vulture emerges as a new villain, everything that Peter holds most important will be threatened.

SpiderManHomecomingPoster

Spider-Man: Homecoming, directed by Jon Watts and starring Tom Holland, is the sixteenth and latest film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). It is the second appearance of Spider-Man in the MCU, but his first feature. Once again we have a reboot of Spider-Man on film. It’s hard not to understand the cynicism around that, considering this is the second reboot in the span of a decade, and the third interpretation. Despite this, I’ve never felt that negatively about it. I love the character generally, his appearance in Captain America: Civil War last year was promising, and his joining the MCU pretty much guaranteed for me this film was going to be a unique take on him.Read More »

WWW Wednesday – 2017/07/12

RyanLeave a comment

www_wednesdays

WWW Wednesday is a book meme run by Taking on a World of Words.

The Three Ws are:

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?

Currently Reading

ReflectionsI’m still in the middle of Reflections: On the Magic of Writing by Dianna Wynne Jones. It fell to the wayside during most of my reading time since last week, so I didn’t get much further along in it, which I’m okay with for the moment since it’s meant to complement what I more strongly focus on. An essay of particular note was about her realization of responsibility to a reading audience of children, particularly in regards to opening up imagination; considering what you thought otherwise not possible. In doing so she derides other authors (unnamed) who reduce their characters’ journeys to mere flights of fancy, where in the end they escape into fantasy had no bearing on reality. It was a fascinating angle to consider.

Recently Finished

LovecraftCountryCoverI’m happy to say I finished reading Lovecraft Country by Matt Ruff. Though not perfect, it was a great novel that I’m sure I’ll be recommending to anybody who asks about a new book to read. I didn’t mention this in my review, so I want to take a moment to gush about the binding of the book. Not only is it’s artistic style made to look like a pulpy horror novel from the 1950s, but the texture feels gritty as well. Part of its design makes it look worn too, as if it’s been sitting in a used bookstore for a long time, having changed who knows how many hands.

Reading Next

PaperGirlsVol1Like I said last week, I plan to start reading The Sisters Brothers by Patrick deWitt any day now. I really liked Undermajordomo Minor and the unorthodox style of Ablutions was certainly memorable, so I’m hopeful I will really like this novel as well.

Otherwise, I intend to get through some comic book trades that I’ve been stockpiling lately. Fortunately for the sake a space most of them are digital editions. It’s hard to say which I’ll start first, but I’ve got some Star Wars and Guardians of the Galaxy volumes on my tablet that should do just fine. I also picked up volumes one and two of Paper Girls by Brian K. Vaughn, which I also want to start to broaden by comic book horizons a little.

Book Review – Lovecraft Country by Matt Ruff

Ryan3 Comments

Summary

Chicago, 1954. When his father Montrose goes missing, twenty-two-year-old Army veteran Atticus Turner embarks on a road trip to New England to find him, accompanied by his Uncle George—publisher of The Safe Negro Travel Guide—and his childhood friend Letitia. On their journey to the manor of Mr. Braithwhite—heir to the estate that owned Atticus’s great grandmother—they encounter both mundane terrors of white America and malevolent spirits that seem straight out of the weird tales George devours.

LovecraftCountryCover

Lovecraft Country is a 2016 horror novel by Matt Ruff, which I have been looking forward to reading for quite some time. I enjoy otherworldly forces and eldritch beings, but what especially drew me in was how this book appeared to be marrying these ideas with a real-world source of fear and suffering (as most good horror does). In this case, it is the world of Jim Crow America from the perspective on an ensemble cast of characters from two Black American families.Read More »

WWW Wednesday – 2017/07/05

RyanLeave a comment

www_wednesdays

WWW Wednesday is a book meme run by Taking on a World of Words.

The Three Ws are:

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?

Currently Reading

LovecraftCountryCoverMaking good on my plans for the last few weeks, I’ve been reading Lovecraft Country by Matt Ruff. I’m currently a little over halfway through and it’s almost everything I’d hoped it would be. It doesn’t lean quite as much on the horror aspects of it as I would like, but they’re very real and very present. Though not literally from the pages of Lovecraft’s works, there are certainly eldritch forces at play. This includes a stand-out encounter with a racist ghost, a sequence which I found marvelous in how it shifted the tone and how the character dealt with it. The racism of Jim Crow America is the most impactful part, made all the more horrific by the reality of it all. It blends with the horror genre superbly.

ReflectionsI’ve also been reading Reflections: On the Magic of Writing by Diana Wynne Jones, though I’ve more bit dipping in and out of it, reading an entry here and there. It’s different from what I expected, as they’re essays, letters, articles, she’s written or taken a part of over the course of her entire life. It’s more of a bringing together of existing writings she’s done than anything new, though I think they’d a lot more hard to track down outside of this book. Her insight into writing for children, as well as her experience writing for adults by contrast, is quite valuable. Nothing is explicitly written as writing advice, but in their own way provide worthwhile insight into understanding the structure and formation of narrative.

Recently Finished

Nothing yet, but I’m working on it!

Reading Next

SistersBrothersCoverDespite other books brought up in past posts, I think I will read The Sisters Brothers by Patrick deWitt next. I’ve had a copy for a few years now, and jotted it down among other books at the beginning of 2017 to get through by year’s end. A lot of the fiction I’ve been reading has been in the realms of fantasy, science fiction, and horror lately too, so I think a more grounded book will be a nice change of pace. I know it’s a Western, so I’m not stepping all that far out of genre fiction, but I love it here, dang it.

TV Series Review – Orange is the New Black Season Five

RyanLeave a comment

This review contains spoilers for events prior to this season.

OITNBTaysteeGroup

Leaving us with the nail-biting cliffhanger that was the finale of the last season, season five of Orange is the New Black was going to be a different sort of beast. This isn’t something I’d put together leading into the new season, but once it started it quickly became apparent that the developments at Litchfield were not going to blow over in an episode or two. Even by the conclusion of this season, Poussey Washington has only been dead for about four days. The events are that condensed.Read More »

WWW Wednesday – 2017/06/28

RyanLeave a comment

www_wednesdays

WWW Wednesday is a book meme run by Taking on a World of Words.

The Three Ws are:

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?

Currently Reading

Having just cleaned up my slate on Sunday, I’ve taken a break of a couple days before starting reading again. I know that’s not particularly interesting, but sometimes a lull can be good for reinvigorating one’s interest.

Recently Finished

TheftByFindingCoverI finally finished David Sedaris’s Theft by Finding, the first of two volumes collecting his personal diaries (review here). It provided some fascinating insight into the life of the author, as well as the influences on his writing recorded from his daily life. His observations are stark, humorous, and very human. At times, it was unfortunately a bit of a chore to get through a lot of it at once. I never really found a happy medium regarding how much to read in a sitting and how often. I am nevertheless happy I read it and look forward to volume two.

Reading Next

ReflectionsOne book I’ve decided to start soon that I haven’t brought up already is Reflections: On the Magic of Writing by Diana Wynne Jones, which I picked up a few months ago at a Dollar Tree of all places. I’ve enjoyed her work in the past and would love to read what she has to say about the craft and her experience writing. Since it’s a collection of essays and anecdotes, I think it will make a great supplemental read.

Like I said last week, I’m set on starting Lovecraft Country by Matt Ruff any day now as my reading main focus. I’m hoping to hit a faster pace with books again after the unfortunately slow month that was June, especially compared to how much I got done in May.

Book Review – Theft by Finding by David Sedaris

Ryan1 Comment

Summary from Goodreads

David Sedaris tells all in a book that is, literally, a lifetime in the making.

For forty years, David Sedaris has kept a diary in which he records everything that captures his attention-overheard comments, salacious gossip, soap opera plot twists, secrets confided by total strangers. These observations are the source code for his finest work, and through them he has honed his cunning, surprising sentences.

Now, Sedaris shares his private writings with the world. Theft by Finding, the first of two volumes, is the story of how a drug-abusing dropout with a weakness for the International House of Pancakes and a chronic inability to hold down a real job became one of the funniest people on the planet.

TheftByFindingCover

Theft by Finding: Diaries (1977-2002) is the first of two volumes collecting the diaries of David Sedaris, curated by the author himself. This book is specifically his edit. Of all the entries written in this 25 year span he only included a fraction of what he wrote, selected by himself. He edited some of them for clarity, altered names and appearances where appropriate, and reformatted them for presentation and readability.Read More »

Movie Review – It Comes At Night

RyanLeave a comment

IMDB Summary

Secure within a desolate home as an unnatural threat terrorizes the world, a man has established a tenuous domestic order with his wife and son, but this will soon be put to test when a desperate young family arrives seeking refuge.

ItComesAtNightPoster

It Comes At Night is a 2017 psychological horror film written and directed by Trey Edward Shults. It was a movie I’d heard little about going in, other than a trailer and the look of the poster. It was the title along with the poster (above) that particularly enticed me. What I got from the movie wasn’t what I expected.Read More »

WWW Wednesday – 2017/06/21

Ryan2 Comments

www_wednesdays

WWW Wednesday is a book meme run by Taking on a World of Words.

The Three Ws are:

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?

Currently Reading

TheftByFindingCoverI’ve finally put my energy back into reading Theft By Finding by David Sedaris; I’m a couple more hundred pages in now. I’m still a little disappointed I haven’t finished it yet, but for some reason I’m just finding it harder to get through as quickly as a straightforward novel. I’m really enjoying it now, regardless. The diary entries are curated, so we’re only seeing what Sedaris wants us to see rather than the whole raw thing, but it’s still surreal to see the years of a life summarized and pass by so quickly. It’s making me a little self-conscious about how I’m spending my own time, though optimism is among the resulting feelings.

Recently Finished

WyrdSistersCoverOver the weekend I finished reading Wyrd Sisters by Terry Pratchett (review here). It was a lot of fun, I really enjoyed the characters, as well as the use of theatre to explore how words and stories can effect truth. It shows how a story with the right spin can effectively change reality by warping people’s perception of something until it’s no longer what it once was, as far as public opinion is concerned. I was a little disappointed, however, simply because I think it was a little too built up for me. It was good, consistent with Pratchett’s work, but not especially captivating.

HellboyWeirdTalesVol1I also read Hellboy: Weird Tales Vol. 1, which is a collection of stories written and drawn by other artists who wanted an opportunity to portray Mignola’s iconic character. Some of the stories were really great, giving glimpses into Hellboy’s relationships with other members of the B.P.R.D. that we don’t really see in the main series. A good number of others were very cartoony, though, which is not what I read Hellboy for. They were cute and fun, but not to my taste for the character.

Reading Next

LovecraftCountryCoverI’m pretty much dead set on reading Lovecraft Country by Matt Ruff once I’ve cleared by current slate. I really ought to look into other new books coming out, but as of yet I have nothing on my radar. I’ve been meaning to get to Starship Troopers by Robert A. Heinlein this year too, which should be a quick read, so I may tackle that soon as well.

Book Review – Wyrd Sisters by Terry Pratchett

Ryan1 Comment

Summary

Three witches gathered on a lonely heath. A king cruelly murdered, his throne usurped by his ambitious cousin. A child heir and the crown of the kingdom both missing…

Witches don’t’ have these kind of dynastic problems themselves – in fact, they don’t have leaders. Granny Weatherwax was the most highly-regarded of the leaders they didn’t have. But even she found that meddling in royal politics was a lot more complicated than certain playwrights would have you believe, particularly when the blood on your hands just won’t wash off and you’re facing a future with knives in it…

WyrdSistersCover

Wyrd Sisters by Terry Pratchett is the sixth book in the Discworld series. It is also the second book to focus on the Witches, reintroducing Granny Weatherwax, who first appeared in Equal Rites. She is part of a coven with her old friend Nanny Ogg and a younger witch Magrat, the trio serving as a parody of the three witches from Macbeth, as well as a play on the archetype of the Crone, the Mother, and the Maiden. The works of Shakespeare are a particular subject in this novel, with a traveling theatre troupe playing a huge role, and story elements from the plays Macbeth, Hamlet, and King Lear being adapted as well.Read More »