Sunday, November 01, 2015

[insert effective post title here]

Adventures in Human Being: A Grand Tour from the Cranium to the Calcaneum by Gavin Francis.  I'm not going to finish this, although I very easily could-- it's not very difficult or taxing, every medical reference dumbed down to a ridiculous degree.  There's very little reason for me to finish it: the stories the author shares from his practice aren't particularly different from other medical memoirs; he does tie in art or literature references in each section, but it's not an especially deep examination so does not add substantially to the book.  There are numerous illustrations, but they aren't labeled or cited in-text-- just a list of illustrations at the end of the book-- which detracts from their impact.

I'll add it to my library because I have it, but I cannot recommend for purchase under any circumstances. 

Andy Warhol was a Hoarder: Inside the Minds of History's Great Personalities by Claudia Kalb.  For some reason, I thought the author was male; I dunno, maybe something about the voice.

There are few situations for which this would be an appropriate title. If readers are interested in the mental health of the celebrities included in this work, they would do better to read the biographies from which this author quotes (extremely) heavily.  If readers are interested in accessible works on brain science and mental health and have not yet read anything of the kind, this might fit the bill. If the reader has already read one or more pop science works, this will be unnecessary and unenlightening.

There isn't anything actually wrong with this book, per se; it just fails to add anything of value to the shelf.

Pretty Girls by Karin Slaughter.  This is far from my usual fare.  There has rather more violence and gore then I usually choose for myself but the storytelling, the little drops of information doled out with perfect timing, kept me reading.  You think you know what's going on and have developed a theory, and then the author gives a little bit more information and you want to go back and reread whole sections. Except you don't want to because it will delay you from reading on.  Highly recommended.

Mrs. Roosevelt's Confidante by Susan Elia MacNeal. I feel like most of this book was scene description.  Yes, a big draw for this series is the historical setting, but there's, like, a normal amount of period detail and then there's this: every room described, every building, every outfit.  Not too very much actually happened plot-wise; that is, stuff happened, but if you took out the insane amounts of room descriptions, you'd probably be left with something more appropriate to a short story or a novella.

I don't remember the previous books being quite like this.  I didn't notice any glaring consistency errors, which I do remember being a problem in previous installments.

The next installment will be The Queen's Accomplice, but I don't feel compelled to read it.

And now media, because I'm in full-on knitting-Christmas-presents mode.  I can binge-watch and get through half a sweater on my morning off.  I have so far this fall made a purse, a sweater, and a pair of socks.  Still to go: a hat, another sweater, and maybe mittens.

Death in Paradise, season 4, with Kris Marshall.  I found a place to watch these online instead of waiting to pay for them through Amazon.  Huzzah!  I also see that IMDb has (empty) placeholders for season 5.  Most excellent.

William and Mary with Martin Clunes and Julie Graham.  I did not discover this on my own; I checked it out for someone and went "oo!"

I really liked this actress in Bletchley Circle, but this role was not a good choice: the character wasn't written particularly well (are we even supposed to like her?  there's little about her to sympathize with) but still could probably have come off better from a different actress.  All in all, not a great use of my time.

Note to self: previews from William and Mary that I should look for:
Fortysonething
Life on Mars
Brideshead revisited (but just to ogle Jeremy Irons!)
Dirty tricks

1 comment:

Ms. Yingling said...

Monarch of the Glen! Ballykissangel! The newer Reginald Perrin. House of Eliot! I am such a BBC addict, it's not even funny. My local library has a lot of collections on DVD, and once upon a time Amazon Prime had a bunch, although they've dropped most of them. Half tempted to subscribe to the Acorn Video site, but I don't often get a chance to watch things. William and Mary was very good.