Episode watched: Pilot

Seen before? This is the first time I’ve seen an episode in its duration. I have tried to watch the pilot three other times; this is the first time I’ve managed to do it. :)

Would I keep watching? I doubt it.

This seems like a show that I should love, right? Zombies, it’s on AMC (I love Breaking Bad and Mad Men), it’s got the woman from Prison Break and Frank Darabont was involved. (I know he isn’t anymore.)

I don’t know why there’s such a disconnect for me and this show. Maybe if it’s all on OnDemand and I power through the first season, I would end up loving it like everyone else seems to.

I do definitely understand why it made the AFI’s list, though. It was interesting and unique. (I can’t say I’m surprised it only made the list once though; I bet it’s kind of hard to keep it going.)

Sasha Zaichik lives in Communist Russia during Stalin’s regime.  He’s hoping to be a Young Pioneer and the day before his ceremony, his father—one of the best Communists of all!—is arrested and dragged off in the night by police.  Sasha knows it’s a mistake but at the same time, how can the police make mistakes?  Everyone knows that if you’re arrested you did SOMETHING.  So he tries not to think about it.  But then things start falling apart for him, too.  He’s supposed to carry the banner during the ceremony but while marching with said banner in the hallway, he accidentally breaks the nose off a statue in the hallway.  This would be unfortunate enough but it’s a statue of Stalin.

I don’t really know much about Communism or Russia or Stalin.  I did know that, like in Nazi Germany, neighbors were encouraged to report anything they saw that could be suspicious or a sign that someone was not as devoted to the cause as they could or should have been. 

I find that children are the best narrators for these types of stories (see also Jack in Room by Emma Donoghue) because they don’t realize just how horrific the situation is.  Reading these books as an adult is an uncomfortable, eye-opening experience in no small part because we DO realize how wrong things are. 

This is a tiny book (154 pages, counting the author’s note at the end) and yet, it’s a powerful one.  Sasha is a character that I think will stay with readers for a long time, as will the question of just how hard it is to turn your back on everything you’ve spent your entire life believing—even if your entire life is just a few years.

Recommended.

Episode watched?  Pilot

Seen before?  No

Would I keep watching? Yes

I like heist/caper shows and movies, and spy shows/movies are similar enough to keep me entertained.  (Give me a cover story and an element of danger and I am there…even if I prefer money/art/jewel thefts to stealing secrets.)

This is a fun show, too.  I like Jennifer Garner and it was nice to see an incredibly young Bradley Cooper.

In case you haven’t seen it either, Jennifer Garner is a grad student who just got engaged to her boyfriend.  When she tells him that she’s actually an agent for the CIA, he ends up dying.  (You do not ever break your cover when you work for a covert branch of the CIA ’cause if you do, people die.)

THEN it turns out that she doesn’t work for the CIA at all.  She’s actually working for an enemy of the US and they lie to all the young agents about what they’re actually doing. So by the end of the pilot, she’s a double agent.

Arnold Spirit Jr. (known as “Junior”) is Native American and lives with his parents and sister on the reservation.  He’s poor, but so is everyone he knows.  He has dreams, of course, but at the same time he has no real plan on ever fulfilling them.  And then a teacher tells him that he needs to get off the reservation.  All of a sudden, it’s like getting permission has opened the door and he transfers to a white school that’s miles away.  Except this brings its own problems.  He doesn’t really fit in at the new school and all the people on the reservation view him as a traitor.

I’d heard a lot of good things about this book but I’d never been THAT tempted to pick it up until two things happened.  First, it was released on the Kindle (yes, I have become one of those people who prefers to read on an e-reader—but if you saw the number of books I own, you’d understand) and, more importantly, there were all these references to it in Wonder.  (Which, you may recall, I absolutely loved.)

This is an incredibly good book.  While most of us are not Native American or incredibly poor, I think most people can relate to the idea of wanting more than you currently have, more than some people may think you’re allowed to have.  And I think a lot of us can ALSO relate to the idea that there are people who will take that incredibly personally, because when you say that a certain kind of life isn’t good enough for you, there are people who will think that means that you think they aren’t good enough for you, either. 

I can completely understand why this book has gotten so much attention and acclaim.  Recommended.

BOOKS:

I recently read Wonder (review posted yesterday!) and completely fell in love, so much so that I sent copies to my YA-loving friends (note: this is why some of my favorite people did NOT get copies, because I know that YA is not quite their thing).  But wow, this book.  It’s sweet and heartbreaking and poignant and perfect.  It reminds me a lot of The Pull of Gravity, one of my favorite books of last year.  As I was reading it, all I could think was, “I bet Auggie and The Scoot would be BEST FRIENDS!” 

Also, it seems like this year has a lot of books that I want to read coming out on the same day.  On the 28th, the sequel to Delirium (Pandemonium) by Lauren Oliver is released on the same day as the new Jodi Picoult!  And the sequel to Divergent (Insurgent) comes out on the same day as Bitterblue (third book in the Fire trilogy by Kristin Cashore) AND the third book in Jeri Smith-Ready’s Shade trilogy comes out that day, too (May 1). I know there are some other huge release days, but those are the big two, I think.

And of course…BEA!  Bits of information are starting to surface (Jennifer Weiner will give the keynote at the book bloggers’ convention!) and it should all come out around my birthday.

MOVIES/TV:

The Oscars are this weekend!  I’m so excited. :)  I am throwing an Oscar party (my second annual Oscar party) and cannot wait.  As an added bonus, the Independent Spirit Awards are the night before, and since I have the day off, I can watch! (The Spirit Awards start at 10, and that’s not conducive to having to be at work at 8am.)

So what are you obsessed with this week?

I wasn’t sure about seeing this. I like Leonardo DiCaprio and movies directed by Clint Eastwood but I am not a huge fan of biopics.

Also, the AFI best movies of 2011 have been a mixed bag for me. I loved The Help, Midnight in Paris and Bridesmaids, agreed with Tree of Life and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, but as enjoyable as Moneyball was, I didn’t think it deserved to be there. And we won’t discuss The Descendents.

So where would J. Edgar fall?

I ended up really enjoying this movie. The cast is perfect and the movie is very good. I wish it had gotten the award love that Moneyball is getting.

August (who goes by “Auggie”) has this weird fluke thing that makes him look different than anyone else.  (He basically tells readers he won’t describe himself, and then adds “Whatever you’re thinking, it’s probably worse.”)  He was homeschooled for most of his life but now his parents have decided that he needs to go to school…just in time for middle school.  Still, against all odds, Auggie makes some friends.  (And, of course, spends a not-small amount of time being stared at and then avoided.) 

Oh, you guys, this book.  I have not loved a book like this since The Pull of Gravity.  (In fact, I think this book is probably what would happen if TPoG and The Fault in our Stars got together and had a book baby.)  I know it’s a total cliche, but this is the kind of book that changes lives and definitely the kind of book that turns me into a crazy person and start brandishing it at strangers, saying, `GUYS.  READ THIS.  READ THIS NOW.”

I’ve become a total sap in my old age (32 in April) and I find that the two things that make me cry most often are blatant cruelty and unexpected kindness.  There’s a lot of both in this book.

It’s pretty impossible not to fall in love with August and his obsession for all things Star Wars.  But it’s just as hard not to love his family (his parents and his older sister Olivia—or “Via”), who love Auggie as fiercely as…well, as I do, at this point.  And the group of friends that Auggie makes are pretty awesome as well. 

I don’t think I can talk about this book like a normal person.  It’s sweet and sad and profound and brilliant, but when I try to expound on that (so that people will want to buy this book), I just keep coming back to “This is probably the best book I will read this year.  And I am so sad that I read it in February, because everything is going to be downhill from here.”

Highly recommended.

Episode watched: Pilot

Seen before? No

Would I keep watching?  No

It’s not that Band of Brothers was bad because it wasn’t.  The cast is wonderful (Damian Lewis, especially…and Lewis is all over the AFI’s Best TV list) but I am not a fan of war movies. And that apparently extends to “war miniseries,” too.  Too bad I have so many to get through.

Anyway.  This show follows the soldiers in Easy Company during their basic training and deployment.  They’re in the Atlantic theater of World War II.  (David Schwimmer is one of their commanding officers and he is such an asshole.  I would never have believed Ross would act that way!)

Another concern is that I watched this on Spike TV.  I’m sure a lot of things were edited, so I’m not sure what I missed.  (Probably a ton of language, at the very least.)

Rachel left Manhattan to move to Chicago to be with her then-boyfriend (now husband).  They have plenty of friends, but she doesn’t have a best friend there.  (To be clear, she has best friends, but none in Chicago.)  So she decides to devote a year to finding friends in the hopes that one will be her BEST FRIEND. 

I could completely relate to this book because when I moved to Baltimore, I didn’t know anyone.  Rachel had a husband and family here (her mom moved to Chicago not long after she did) but I didn’t have anyone.  I quickly made friends at work but, as Rachel points out, it’s generally hard to transition from work-friends to friends-friends.  (Even now, five years later, I only have one person here that I’d call a friend-friend, although I do have dinner with coworkers every so often.) 

(I would like to point out that now I do have friend-friends here.)

This book is basically a journal of her attempts to find friends (most of which go pretty well; there are only a few really awkward encounters) coupled with some sociological discussions of how important friends are (apparently they can literally be the difference between life and death). 

This is definitely an interesting book, although I think it could’ve been a little shorter (I know—I never thought I’d say it either!) because it got a little bit repetitive.  Still, I had a fun time reading it, and I think it’d be valuable for anyone who finds themselves looking to make a new friend.  (Because it’s hard once you’re out of college!)

Recommended.

Andy Barber is a successful prosecutor.  He works for the DA’s office and is second in command.  When a kid at his son’s school is murdered, it’s only natural that he prosecute the case when it goes to trial.  Except soon they DO find a suspect: Andy’s son, Jacob.  Andy is sure that Jacob is innocent, but now he’s going to have to come clean about a secret in his own past, one that could reflect very, very poorly on Jacob.

I’m not generally big on legal thrillers, but there’s a lot more to this than a courtroom drama.  There’s a lot going on in this novel, not the least of which is the question of whether you can ever really know someone else…even if that person is your spouse or child. 

I’m of the opinion that we never see people as they are; instead, we tend to view them as better or worse than they actually are.  I’m sure that’s never more true than when it’s your child.  And who would want to see the boy they raised as capable of murdering another person?  Especially (as in this case) with a knife?  That requires a bit more ruthlessness than a shooting, you know?

It was also fascinating watching the family imploding.  Andy is absolutely convinced that Jacob is innocent but his wife Laurie has some doubts…well, to be more specific, she doesn’t think he actually did it, but she’s starting to think that maybe he COULD have done it.  Obviously, that drives a wedge between the two of them.  Just as interesting, though, is how quickly Jacob and Laurie lose their friends.  It’s almost funny to see just how long it doesn’t take for people to distance themselves from you once an accusation like that is leveled.

Recommended—especially for book clubs.  You’ll have a lot to discuss.