I Volunteer! I Volunteer As Micro-Reviews!!!

Movies

Chronicle (**** – liked)
My Neighbour Totoro (***** – loved)

Books

Adult fiction:
The Night Circus (**** – liked)
Ready Player One (**** – loved)
Double Dexter (**** – liked)

Adult non-fiction:
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (**** – liked)
Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions (**** – liked)

Graphic novels:
Unmanned (Y: The Last Man vol. 1) (*** – enjoyed)

YA/MG fiction:
True Blue (**** – liked)
The Power of Six (*** – enjoyed)
The Son of Neptune (**** – liked)
Gone (*** – enjoyed)

Chronicle by Josh Trank (film, 2012) – Thanks for seeing this with me, Ryan! I liked the originality of this found-footage-style film about three teenaged guys who stumble upon… well, something… that gives them supernatural powers. And I liked the realism of how one of the three protagonists, the lonely outsider Andrew, reacts to the experience. Also, wow, just put together that the popular kid Steve is the same guy who played Wallace on The Wire — crazy good actor!

My Neighbour Totoro by Hayao Miyazaki (film, 1988) – Thanks for seeing this with me, JB, YK, Liz, Amanda, Dan, Ryan, and Kathryn! I love how Miyazaki’s films manage to preserve the conventional innocence of childhood while still keeping the realism of their child characters. And I liked how the fantastic creatures encountered by the two sisters who are the protagonists of My Neighbour Totoro have an edge of creepy danger to them that doesn’t spill over into terrifying. Basically, I like how this movie mutes everything down with a realistic feel without sacrificing evocativeness or depth.

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern (fantasy novel, 2011) – I’m not sure how I feel about this novel about two rival magicians and their contest with one another that takes place in the rings of a mysteriously magical circus. On one hand, I’m too close academically to the exploration of what makes conjuring and illusion appeal to people to be able to read this novel without tripping up on assumptions with which I disagree. On the other, it’s beautifully written with lyrical descriptions that distill all the best memories and ideas of circuses into an ideal dream.

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline (science fiction novel, 2011) – Although it started a little slow, I wound up loving this Gen Y tale that takes place about fifty years from now. Teenaged Wade lives in two worlds: an impoverished real world and an exciting virtual reality with an in-game economy and a super awesome treasure hunt for real-world ownership of the VR that requires exhaustive knowledge of pop culture from its creator’s formative years, the 1980s. Part post-modern sci-fi Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, part coming-of-age story, this book perfectly captures the geek-culture zeitgeist.

Double Dexter by Jeff Lindsay (crime novel, 2011) – In the newest Dexter novel, our favourite anti-heroic serial killer tangles with a witness to his crimes who not only sees Dex and his Dark Passenger in action but also decides to become a mimic killer. With 90% less sibling obliviousness (and 100% less incest…) than the TV series, the Dexter novels always have a sharp, funny voice. This one is the best of the recent offerings, although, IMHO, it doesn’t reach the level of the first two novels in the series.

Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt (non-fiction narrative, 1994) – This is the kind of non-fiction narrative that makes you go, wait, seriously, when you catch that “non” sneaking in there. Berendt details the wacky people and strange conventions he ran into when he lived in Savannah, Georgia, and how a local murder case affected them all. It’s a quick read, and although I can’t say it stuck me with a lasting impression, it did make me curious about the movie.

Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions by Dan Ariely (non-fiction book, 2008) – This book on unconscious human biases has a companionable tone that makes it easy to read, and unlike many popular science books, the author’s personality comes through. In this case, Ariely presents himself as an affable guy who loves his work, which makes it more fun to read. When you boil it down, if you read pop psychology or have taken Psych 101, you won’t find too much new stuff here, but you’ll still have a good time reading.

Unmanned (Y: The Last Man, vol. 1) by Brian K. Vaughan, Pia Guerra, and Jose Marzan (graphic novel, 2003) – This graphic novel stars Yorick, an escape artist who becomes literally the last man on Earth when a disease somehow wipes out all other males on the planet, and it left me intrigued but uneasy. The plot is interesting, but I’m not sure I quite buy that Yorick’s story is the most interesting one to tell here. The gender politics also make me uncomfortable — I can’t imagine the last woman on Earth being permitted to do all the things Yorick does, nor can I imagine her having as much power as he still appears to have.

True Blue by Deborah Ellis (YA novel, 2011) – This gripping book puts the reader in the shoes of Jess, a teenaged camp counsellor whose best friend has been accused of murdering a child under their care. Ellis does a great job of keeping the reader in Jess’s head while at the same time raising doubts about her reliability as a narrator. The eventual conclusion of the “whodunnit” isn’t as powerful as the exploration of the limits of loyalty to friendships.

The Power of Six by Pittacus Lore (YA fantasy novel, 2011) – Aliens. Still lots of action-packed superpowered teenagers-fighting-evil-invaders madness, this time with 50% more alternating viewpoints. It was a refreshing surprise to have a book in this genre point out that both boys and girls can be in love with two people at once, and such feelings aren’t fake or inferior.

The Son of Neptune by Rick Riordan (YA fantasy novel, 2011) – Filling in the other half of the story from The Lost Hero, The Son of Neptune follows our old demigod friend Percy Jackson, who finds his amnesiac self at the camp for Roman demigods, where he makes friends and goes on a quest to stop bad guys. The story is told alternating between his POV and those of his two new Roman friends. As always with Riordan, the adventure is fast-paced, the re-imagining of old mythology is cool, and half the fun comes from trying to guess how things will play out before they do.

Gone by Michael Grant (YA fantasy novel, 2008) – In a town where some children seem to be developing special powers, everyone 15 and over disappears, leaving our protagonist Sam to organize those who are left, try to figure out what’s going on, and battle for power with the evil kids from the boarding school up the way. Aside from the really cool main premise, the plot feels a bit clichéd, and the writing felt stilted to me. Still, I’m interested in how the whole kids-on-their-own thing will play out over the rest of the series.