Rated Pivot: A Novel 8/10
<div>A solid queer rom-com! It's fun, touches on the struggles of hearing loss, and also? Be still my heart — it contains competent event planners. If you're looking for something lighter to close out the year with, you'll have a good time. <br><br></div>
Wants to read Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk
Rated Professor Bernice Summerfield and the Doomsday Manuscript 8/10
<div>I was slightly surprised by how much I enjoyed this, my first Benny audiobook rather than the usual Big Finish audio adventure. I wondered if the style would be different, the writing weaker somehow, but it wasn't. I've certainly heard worse audio adventures centering around Benny. I'm sure the narration from Lisa Bowerman helps, since at this point, I bet she knows this character inside and out. I'm looking forward to listening to the other audiobooks with her that I got recently.</div>
Rated Quietly Hostile: Essays 10/10
<div>Very few writers make me cry-laugh while reading, or really do anything more than that amused rapid nose-exhale we do while writing LOL, but Samantha Irby is one of them. Maybe it's because I too will overshare about the various ways my body is falling apart, but I appreciate someone being funny about all that. Also, this book features my favorite way to consume Sex & The City (or AJLT) — which is through other people making jokes about it. (I've only ever seen a few episodes, and they were the edited ones on CBS or whoever aired them in the late-'00s.)<br><br>Also, if you're not subscribed to her "who's on judge mathis today?" newsletter, get on it because that too will be the peak way to consume the show.</div>
Rated Doctor Who: Remembrance of the Daleks 8/10
Enjoyed reading this to my son, but can you believe I've yet to see the episodes matching this story?
Rated Seek You: A Journey Through American Loneliness 8/10
<div>Smart, depressing, captivating art.<br><br>All the content warnings for the monkey science portions. I had already read an excerpt online when this first came out, and that part was difficult enough then, so I chose to skip over those pages now that I finally read the whole thing. It is a testament to how interesting the rest of this book is that I still wanted to read the rest. "Graphic novel" doesn't seem quite the right category for this memoir mixed with research into loneliness, but that's where you'll find it in the library.</div>
Wants to read Recollections of My Nonexistence: A Memoir
Wants to read Role Models by John Waters
Wants to read Serafina and the Black Cloak
Rated Simon's Cat Vs. the World! 10/10
Both very funny and full of detail.<br><br>Full review to come.
Rated Somewhere in France 6/10
If the relationship had occurred differently and if the pacing were tightened, I think I would have liked this book quite a bit. I’ve been reading and watching a lot of WWI and WWII content set in England lately, and I am interested for reasons I don’t yet fully know. Robson has a great love for historical subject matter, and it shows. Her insights into period details are very, very good, and the descriptions of the hospital and the war feel true, even coming from semi-naive Lilly. There’s an excellent book floating around in here, but as it stands, Somewhere in France is merely adequate.<br><br>(My full review appears at <a href="http://persephonemagazine.com/2014/02/book-review-somewhere-in-france-by-jennifer-robson/">Persephone Magazine</a>.)
Rated Song So Wild and Blue: A Life with the Music of Joni Mitchell 9/10
<div>I really loved this. If you know how personal being a great fan of music can be, and perhaps in a larger sense, how love has a way of shifting and changing over decades, then you will find reflections that feel very familiar here. <br><br>I'm also quite jealous that Lisicky and his partner got to go to the Joni Jam at the Gorge, but I did enjoy hearing about his experience of being there.</div>
Rated Spin 6/10
<i>Spin</i> is cute, yes, and nicely satisfying in a not-totally-insulting romantic comedy way, even though this is a story more about addiction than wanting to make out with someone. It’s about all relationships a person can have, and how a person’s behavior affects those relationships. While it's not my usual literary neck of the woods, it made for a nice palate cleanser after reading heavier material.<br><br>(My full review can be found at <a href="http://persephonemagazine.com/2012/03/book-review-spin-by-catherine-mckenzie/">Persephone Magazine</a>.)
Rated The Cassandra 10/10
This was really great. I wish I knew more about the myth so I could've gotten even more out of it.
Rated Sherlock Holmes: The Speckled Band 8/10
A very good, suspenseful [original] Holmes tale given the full Big Finish audio treatment, which added to the story for me. Enjoyed listening to this more than I did reading one of the other original Sherlock Holmes stories last year (though doing that was fine enough).