Sunday Salon: The last days of Google Reader

Between the holiday coming up this week and the fact that tomorrow is Google Reader's not-so-grand finale, I'm thinking that the blogiverse may be on the quiet side for the next little while--so it seems like a good time to post some vacation photos! If you like that sort of thing, there will probably be plenty of it around here for the next couple of weeks, while I catch up on reading and writing.

I only succeeded in dragging the family into one bookstore during our trip to New England, but if there had to be only one, the Village Book Store in Littleton, New Hampshire was worth it, so I'll start by sharing my pictures from there.

I bought one book there--supporting indie bookstores, of course!--and admired the Staff Recommendations shelf, where someone had the good taste to include Mary Doria Russell's The Sparrow.

I did manage to write two reviews and read one entire book during vacation, but has been too much the norm lately, blog-reading fell by the wayside. But I've made some progress on that front during the last couple of days, and I hope to be back in step with that before too long. (If the blogiverse actually is quiet for the next little while, it'll help!)

On that note, have you decided on what you'll use to keep up with your blog subscriptions once Google Reader retires on July 1? (Yes, that really is happening, and it really is happening tomorrow!) I switched over to Feedly a couple of years ago as a GR interface/overlay--and so I guess I was more prepared to lose GR than some were--but it's now developed its own independent infrastructure and is officially supporting all my feed subscriptions. It's also supporting other apps running on its cloud, and although I like Feedly Mobile, I'm giving one of those new partners, Newsify, a try on my iPhone and iPad (it's iOS only). It's not quite as pretty as Feedly, but it integrates with more services that I use regularly--most notably Evernote, Readability, and Buffer--and that's giving it an edge for me right now, although it may not end up being my top choice on the tablet. Lifehacker recommended Mr. Reader as a "power user's RSS app" (and with my hundreds of subscriptions, I probably qualify) for the iPad, and although I'm just getting acquainted with it, it's looking like the winner right now.

I'm officially 3% behind on my 2013 Goodreads Reading Challenge goal, but it's too hot to spend much time out and about in Southern California this weekend, and I have a book-club read and two blog tours this month, so I think I'll get in some reading time today. How about you?

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Book Talk: MAINE, by J. Courtney Sullivan

Maine
J. Courtney Sullivan (Facebook) (Twitter)
Vintage (2012), Paperback (ISBN 0307742210 / 9780307742216)
Fiction, 528 pages
Source: Purchased
Reason for reading: Personal, vacation

Opening lines: “Alice decided to take a break from packing. She lit a cigarette, leaning back in one of the wicker chairs that were always slightly damp from the sea breeze. She glanced around at the cardboard boxes filled with her family’s belongings, each glass and salt shaker and picture frame wrapped carefully in newspaper. There were at least a couple of boxes in every room of the house. She needed to make sure she had taken them all to Goodwill by the time the children arrived. This had been their summer home for sixty years, and it amazed her how many objects they had accumulated. She didn’t want anyone to be burdened by the mess once she was gone.

“She could tell by the heavy clouds that it was about to rain. In Cape Neddick, Maine, that May, you were likely to see a thunderstorm every afternoon. This didn’t bother her. She never went down to the beach anymore.”

Book description, from the publisher’s website: 

For the Kellehers, Maine is a place where children run in packs, showers are taken outdoors, and old Irish songs are sung around a piano. As three generations of women arrive at the family's beach house, each brings her own hopes and fears. Maggie is thirty-two and pregnant, waiting for the perfect moment to tell her imperfect boyfriend the news; Ann Marie, a Kelleher by marriage, is channeling her domestic frustration into a dollhouse obsession and an ill-advised crush; Kathleen, the black sheep, never wanted to set foot in the cottage again; and Alice, the matriarch at the center of it all, would trade every floorboard for a chance to undo the events of one night, long ago.

Comments: I took the perfect novel with me on a trip to New England. I picked up J. Courtney Sullivan’s Maine based on good word from some of my most trusted blogger friends, and it’s been hanging around TBR Purgatory for almost a year. When I decided that I wasn’t bringing any books associated with review responsibilities on our family vacation this month, it seemed an obvious choice--we were spending ten days in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Maine. Reading this novel on its home turf--and on the plane back home from my visit there, in between editing photos that I took there--certainly made it more of an experience; the type of novel it is--lengthy but fast-moving, propelled by family drama and complicated, conflicted characters--is made-to-order vacation reading.

Credit: theus50.com, via Google Image Seearch

The state of Maine’s license-plate motto is “Vacationland,” and for many New Englanders, its southern coast defines the concept of summer: cottages near small beach towns, long days of family gatherings for barbecues and water play, picnics and the freshest berries and seafood. Three generations of the Kelleher family have spent their summers this way, at their property in Cape Neddick, for sixty years. However, the family dynamics have shifted since patriarch Daniel died a decade ago, and his widow Alice is making plans for the home he left her. So are her son Patrick and his wife Ann Marie. Meanwhile, her daughter Kathleen has made a new life on the West Coast and hasn’t come back to Maine since her father died, although Kathleen’s daughter Maggie finds a sense of home there.

While the central action in Maine occurs over several weeks in early summer, the backstories of these characters are explored at length, and by shifting focus with each chapter between the perspectives of Alice, Ann Marie, Kathleen, and Maggie, Sullivan strengthens her characterizations with the women’s views of one another. It’s a device that rounds them out and helps render each of them more sympathetic, and since none of them really comes across as terribly likable on her own merits, I thought it added depth, interest, and a distinct sense of realism.

My own personal history includes about a decade of Northeastern summers--I grew up in coastal Connecticut, but my extended family were more New Jersey lakes than New England beaches people. That said, I think I would have appreciated Maine s sense of place anyway, but reading the novel in the midst of being there myself definitely made the whole thing more affecting for me, and I think it helped me plunge more deeply into the lives of the Kelleher family. I don’t feel much need to know what else might become of them after the last page of the novel, but I do think I need to read some more of J. Courtney Sullivan’s fiction, even if I’m not going on a vacation.

Rating: 3.75/5

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Wordless Wednesday: Family/Love on Vacation

The red-haired girl is off to college in New Hampshire this fall. We took a family trip to get acquainted with her new locale, and we saw a lot to love.

Top left: father and son; Botton left: granddaughter and grandmother; Right: sister and brother

My photos, edited with Snapseed and collaged with PicFrame; text by Phonto

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Book Talk: WHAT CHANGES EVERYTHING, by Masha Hamilton

What Changes Everything 
Masha Hamilton
Unbridled Books (June 2013), hardcover (ISBN 1609530918 / 9781609530914)
Fiction, 288 pages
Source: ARC from publisher
Reason for reading: Intended for review in Shelf Awareness for Readers, but didn’t make the deadline

Excerpt:

“In the narrow strand of space between the first piece of information and all the rest, thoughts rushed through Clarissa that could not be said aloud, not then, probably not ever. They came like the violent Nor’easters she’d known as a child in Maine, appearing without warning as she’d disconnected the phone for the third time in quick succession.

“How could he have let this happen?

“The initial call came from a reporter, and Clarissa hung up midsentence, telling herself there’d been a mistake. He’d tricked her, Todd had. Tricked her into trusting him, even though she knew life was delicate beyond belief, and humans were flimsy, including those who seemed invincible.”

Book description, from the publisher’s website:
After Todd Barbery, director of a humanitarian organization working with refugees, is assaulted and kidnapped on the streets of Kabul, Afghanistan nothing remains the same. How could it? 

What Changes Everything is the story of Todd’s wife, Clarissa, who tries to save her husband, while her own life spins out of control in the dark nights of Brooklyn. There on the night streets, she meets Danil, an angry New York graffiti artist whose life was derailed by a loss in the same incomprehensible war half a world away. Danil’s mother Stela writes letter after letter from her bookstore in Cleveland in hopes of comprehending the loss of one son on an Afghan battlefield and of reconnecting with Danil, who abandoned her in anger when his brother died. This is also the story of Mandy, a mother from Texas, grappling with the fury of a wounded son who barely made it home from that war. And it’s Todd’s story, too, who for only a moment let down his guard in a Kabul marketplace and now confronts the worst of possibilities. 

But, remarkably, What Changes Everything also tells another story: the true story of Mohammad Najibullah, the last president of Afghanistan during the Communist era, whose fall from power was made final by the arrival of the Taliban. The letters in this novel from Najibullah to his three daughters are imagined, but the author had the privilege of lengthy exchanges with one of them, who shared recollections of her father—and a poem her mother had written about him. 

Masha Hamilton braids the lives of all these characters, real and imagined, into a powerful novel about the grace of human connections in a world that is so often too harsh and dangerous to face alone,

Comments: As she shifts between the perspectives of half a dozen characters, Masha Hamilton explores geopolitical conflict through the individual experiences of a kidnapped relief worker and his wife, two soldiers and their families, and a deposed political leader refusing to be exiled from his native land. That land, and the common bond between these characters, is Afghanistan, and what happens there is What Changes Everything.

While the common thread of the novel is Afghanistan, its connective tissue is the character Amir. The five sections of What Changes Everything are each framed by a fictional letter from Afghanistan's last Communist leader, Mohammad Najibullah, to his wife and daughters. When he was brought down by the rising power of the Taliban, his family fled into exile in India. Afforded protection by the United Nations, Najib is aided by the young Amir, who works behind the scenes to broker his release to join his family, although Najib resists leaving their country behind. Years later, Amin finds himself in a similar role when his boss, American humanitarian worker Todd Barbery, is kidnapped from the streets of Kabul by Islamist terrorists. At home in New York City, Todd's wife Clarissa and daughter Ruby disagree over the appropriate intervention to obtain his release, and in the midst of this conflict, Clarissa crosses paths with Danil, a Russian-born street artist whose work is informed by the loss of his soldier brother to friendly fire in Afghanistan.

Hamilton reinforces the parallels between the captivity stories of Todd and Najib by employing Amir in both of them, and explores the complexity of modern-day Afghanistan--a country that once sought to be truly "modern," but now struggles against what that signifies--through these characters' connections with people outside it. The changes that truly change everything, more often than not, are those that happen person to person. What Changes Everything wraps a tense, fast-moving plot around the effects of these changes.

Rating: 3.75/5

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Postcards from Boston, June 2013

I'm on a plane back to the West Coast today, leaving you the first of what will probably be several photoblogs from my trip back East. These "postcards" were created with the Postale app for iPad.

It wasn't a big vacation for reading, sadly, but it was a pretty good one for taking pictures, and there will be more to come...

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(Audio)Book Talk: SOMEDAY, SOMEDAY, MAYBE, by Lauren Graham

Someday, Someday, Maybe: A Novel
Lauren Graham (Twitter) (Fan site) (IMDb)
Ballantine Books (April 2013), Hardcover (ISBN 0385367473 / 9780345532749)
Fiction, 352 pages
Source: Purchased audiobook (Random House Audio, April 2013, ISBN 9780385367486; Audible ASIN B00B3Y1B5U)
Reason for reading: Personal

Opening lines:
“'Begin whenever you’re ready,' comes the voice from the back of the house.

"Oh, I’m ready.

"After all, I’ve prepared for this day for years: The Day of the Most Important Audition of a Lifetime Day. Now that it’s finally here, I’m going to make a good impression, I’m sure of it. I might even book the job. The thought makes me smile, and I take a deep breath, head high, body alert, but relaxed. I’m ready, alright. I’m ready to speak my first line.

“'Eeessssaaheeehaaa.' The sound that comes out of me is thin and high, a shrill wheezing whine, like a slowly draining balloon or a drowning cat with asthma.

"Shake it off. Don’t get rattled. Try again.

"I clear my throat.

“'Haaaaaawwrrrblerp.' Now my tone is low and gravelly, the coarse horn of a barge coming into shore, with a weird burping sound at the end. 'Hawrblerp?' That can’t be my line. I don’t think it’s even a word. Oh, God, I hope they don’t think I actually burped."

Book description, from the publisher’s website
It’s January 1995, and Franny Banks has just six months left of the three-year deadline she set for herself when she came to New York, dreaming of Broadway and doing “important” work. But all she has to show for her efforts so far is a part in an ad for ugly Christmas sweaters, and a gig waiting tables at a comedy club. Her roommates--her best friend Jane, and Dan, an aspiring sci-fi writer--are supportive, yet Franny knows a two-person fan club doesn’t exactly count as success. Everyone tells her she needs a backup plan, and though she can almost picture moving back home and settling down with her perfectly nice ex-boyfriend, she’s not ready to give up on her goal of having a career like her idols Diane Keaton and Meryl Streep. Not just yet. But while she dreams of filling their shoes, in the meantime, she’d happily settle for a speaking part in almost anything—and finding a hair product combination that works. 

Everything is riding on the upcoming showcase for her acting class, where she’ll finally have a chance to perform for people who could actually hire her. And she can’t let herself be distracted by James Franklin, a notorious flirt and the most successful actor in her class, even though he’s suddenly started paying attention. Meanwhile, her bank account is rapidly dwindling, her father wants her to come home, and her agent doesn’t return her calls. But for some reason, she keeps believing that she just might get what she came for.

Comments: I've long since owned up to my guilty-pleasure reading of celebrity memoir, but celebrity-penned fiction is something I've been more hesitant to try. But I was willing to set aside any misgivings for Lauren Graham, the actress who embodied one of my all-time-favorite TV characters, Lorelai Gilmore of Gilmore Girls, especially after I learned that she read the audiobook of her semi-autobiographical first novel, Someday, Someday, Maybe, herself.

Graham's protagonist/stand-in, Franny Banks, is quickly approaching the last six months of her self-imposed three-year deadline to make a go of an acting career New York City, and it's not looking promising. She's done a couple of commercials, but the closest she's come to stage work is in her acting classes...and at the comedy club where she serves drinks. She's got her fingers crossed that she'll get noticed for her monologue during the annual class showcase, and then things will start happening--but until they do, she'll be taking catering jobs to pay the rent she splits with her best friend Jane, a production assistant, and Dan, a Princeton who crushed his parents' med-school plans for him when he decided to try writing sci-fi screenplays.

Someday, Someday, Maybe has a firm sense of time and place: New York City, 1995. Franny and her roommates share a converted brownstone apartment in Park Slope, Brooklyn, in the pre-hipster era when it was still outer-boroughs cheap to live there. Pay phones are still plentiful all over the city, and when you can't reach someone via one of those phones, you leave messages on her answering machine and ask her to note them in her Filofax datebook. The Internet is still the province of a niche market of techie specialists, and video-rental stores are big business. While on the one hand I find it a little sad to be nostalgic for the '90s, it is pretty striking to realize just how much we've come to take for granted in less than 20 years. Being constantly connected and accessible to one another hasn't just changed the way we tell our stories; it changes how they happen. Some aspects of Franny's story would play out differently in 2013, just because the world works differently. That said, the heart of Franny's story is finding one's footing in adulthood--the tension between pursuing your dreams and making a living, learning and working, and navigating new and changing relationships--and that story remains resonant and timeless.

I thought Franny was thoroughly charming, and related all too well to her insecurity-fueled inner monologues, although I was less patient with the guy-inspired ones than the career-conflicted ones. I felt like the romantic angle of Someday, Someday, Maybe was there because it was supposed to be, and for me, it was the least compelling part of the novel. It's curious; Graham has said she wrote a novel because she tried a memoir first, but it just wasn't that interesting; but for me, the element that most establishes this book in a conventional fiction framework isn't terribly interesting either; it feels less authentic, although it could be just as autobiographical as some of the other attributes Graham has given Franny. And all things considered, I found the novel generally enjoyable and in spots delightful, and I breezed through the audiobook. There are times when Graham's reading really does sound like reading, but she handles the dialogue and character voices particularly well, and her connection to the material is never in question. There's already talk of a followup novel and/or a TV-series adaptation, and I'd be happy to spend more time with Franny Banks either way.

Rating: book and audio 3.75 / 5

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Wordless Wednesday: Picture This Hobby

We're on vacation in New England this week, and Tall Paul is getting lots of chances to indulge in his photography hobby. (And in our various travels, I've gotten lots of pictures of him taking pictures.)

Clockwise from top left: Central Park, New York City; Memphis Zoo, Memphis, Tennessee; Bridgeport, California; Monterey Bay Aquarium, Monterey, California

My photos, edited with Snapseed and collaged with PicFrame

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Audiobook Week 2013, All In One Day

I found time to tackle the daily topics for Audiobook Week before I left for vacation, but since I found I didn't have quite enough to say for any of them to warrant separate posts, I'm condensing it all into one.


2012-2013, Your Audiobook Year

• Are you new to audiobooks in the last year? Have you been listening to them forever but discovered something new this year? Favorite titles? New times/places to listen? This is your chance to introduce yourself and your general listening experience.

I’ve averaged just over one audiobook per month for most of the past year, which is just about what I plan for; I divide my audio time between books and podcasts, and that works out about right if I don’t want my podcast listening to get too far backlogged.

2012 was my first full year as an audiobook reader, and the first time I included an audio selection among my Books of the Year. I’ve discovered that “genre-influenced” literary fiction (it’s a thing, I swear) seems to work better for me in audio than more conventional fiction does (although not always); that I particularly enjoy comedic science fiction in audio format; and that audio may be becoming my preferred format for memoir and autobiography, particular when read by its author/subject.

How do You Choose Your Audiobooks?

• How do you decide what you’ll listen to? Do you mostly listen, or split time between listening and reading? Particularly if you split time, how do you decide what you’ll consume in audio and what in print? 

I still read print more than audio, but adding audio to the mix definitely allows me to read more overall. (I’m still kicking myself over the fact that I didn’t turn to audiobooks until just two years ago, but I’m pretty sure they’re here to stay!) It also has led to my reading more in the “entertainment memoir/autobiography” genre specifically. Celebrity memoir has long been guilty-pleasure reading for me--for years it was so guilt-inducing I shied away from it entirely--but since I’ve had some very pleasant experiences with these in audio, the guilt has dissipated (but I’ll still read these only when alone, in my car, with no book covers to be seen, so I guess it’s not all gone).


Audiobook Tasks 

• What do you do while you listen? Any particular tasks or games that you find amazing for audio time?

This is the “reading” I do during my daily commutes, and while that theoretically gives me a good ten hours each week in the car to devote to it, that’s not usually how it works, mostly because I’m not always alone in the car. I love that audiobooks have given me a way to feel like I’m accomplishing something while creeping along the freeway, but while most of what I listen to wouldn’t necessarily be inappropriate for my most frequent car companion--my 13-year-old stepson, shuttling to and from school and/or his other parent’s house--it probably wouldn’t be terribly interesting for him, either.

That said, my best listening experience of 2013 has probably been sharing the audios of the original Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy trilogy with Spencer, which I posted about earlier this month; he read the whole series in print for the first time last year. I’m not sure I’ll ever read it in print again--I enjoyed the audiobooks that much.


Finding Audiobooks 

• Where do you learn about great audiobook titles? Buy your audiobooks? Share your secrets with the rest of us! We’d particularly love to know what narrators or publishers are active in social media or do a great job communicating with listeners. 

When I decided I was ready to take the plunge with audiobooks, I signed up for a monthly-credits plan with Audible.com--they’ve been the source of every audiobook I own, except for the Harry Potter ones (digital downloads of those are exclusively available at Pottermore.com). I think that the digital-download format--as opposed to boxes of CDs--was a big factor in my willingness to try audiobooks at all, and Audible’s app has a prime spot on my iPhone screen.

Audible also does a good job of bringing quality audiobooks to my attention, both on their own site and as a frequent sponsor of the Slate Culture Gabfest (part of the podcast rotation I mentioned earlier). However, this is a format where I’m more likely to look for reviews and recommendations from book bloggers than for any other reading that I do--those I rely on most tend to come from Candace, Sandy, Jen, Jennifer, and Michelle, but I’ve always got my eye out for something good, so please feel free to leave a recommendation in the comments on this post!

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At the Movies: MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING

Much Ado About Nothing

official movie website

Comedy, 2013 (rated PG-13)

Starring: Amy Acker, Alexis Denisof, Clark Gregg, Reed Diamond, Fran Kranz, Jillian Morgese

Written by: William Shakespeare

Directed by: Joss Whedon

Plot synopsis:

Leonato (Clark Gregg), the governor of Messina, is visited by his friend Don Pedro (Reed Diamond) who is returning from a victorious campaign against his rebellious brother Don John (Sean Maher). Accompanying Don Pedro are two of his officers: Benedick (Alexis Denisof) and Claudio (Fran Kranz). While in Messina, Claudio falls for Leonato's daughter Hero (Jillian Morgese), while Benedick verbally spars with Beatrice (Amy Acker), the governor's niece. The budding love between Claudio and Hero prompts Don Pedro to arrange with Leonato for a marriage.

In the days leading up to the ceremony, Don Pedro, with the help of Leonato, Claudio and Hero, attempts to sport with Benedick and Beatrice in an effort to trick the two into falling in love. Meanwhile, the villainous Don John, with the help of his allies Conrade (Riki Lindhome) and Borachio (Spencer Treat Clark), plots against the happy couple, using his own form of trickery to try to destroy the marriage before it begins.

A series of comic and tragic events may continue to keep the two couples from truly finding happiness, but then again perhaps love may prevail.

Sparknotes guide to the play

Full text of the play

The unofficial distinction between Shakespeare’s comedies and tragedies is that the comedies end with weddings, and the tragedies with deaths. That would qualify Much Ado About Nothing as a comedy even if it weren’t laugh-out-loud funny...and more than five hundred years on, it can still make audiences laugh, even when it’s presented in language we don’t understand as well as its original Elizabethan-era viewers did.

Joss Whedon’s new screen adaptation of the play--filmed in black and white over just twelve days, and quite literally made in his own backyard (and house)--doesn’t alter that traditional language, but it feels contemporary. Although the setting is clearly present day, nothing in the text suggests modernization of the story itself; the characters are still understood to be post-medieval Italian nobility, but are in everyday 21st-century clothing, drive cars, and are otherwise presented as being of our own time. Much of the cast has prior documented experience with Whedon--Amy Acker and Alexis Denisof (Angel), Nathan Fillion and Sean Maher (Firefly), Clark Gregg (The Avengers)--but their prior experience with Shakespeare is more varied (or, at least, less well documented). Some of the actors rise to the challenge of the material better than others--although that’s something that can be said about pretty much every production of every script that’s ever existed--but none of them fares noticeably badly.

The thing about Shakespearean comedy is that when you note the tropes that it employs, you have to make a secondary note that it’s the birthplace many of those tropes. The witty verbal sparring between a man and a woman who will surprise no one but themselves by ending up together (screwball comedy); the plots and counterplots of one set of characters against another, and the misunderstandings that result (“hijinks ensue”); and the physical missteps and pratfalls that alter a scene’s mood (slapstick)--they’re all readily recognizable, and excellently rendered, in Much Ado About Nothing.

I’ll confess that I’m not really a Shakespeare junkie--I’m an appreciator, but not an especially knowledgeable one--but my enthusiasm for this interpretation of Much Ado... has been high ever since we had the chance to see Whedon and several members of the cast and crew in a panel presentation at WonderCon 2013. I’m still enthused, and I want to see this film again, more than once. I’ll confess that it’s partly so that I can catch more of the dialogue, but it’s also because this story, and this presentation, is just a delight, and I was delighted to be delighted by it.

Much Ado About Nothing is currently playing in Los Angeles, New York City, and San Francisco; it goes into wide release on June 21. My husband and I purchased our own tickets to see it in the Cinerama Dome at the ArcLight Hollywood.

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Wordless Wednesday: Proud Dad With Grads

The women of Linked-Up Wordless Wednesday are turning to the Dads in our lives for our photo themes this month. Today, we're picturing "Those Proud Moments as a Dad." Here's a dad who's proud of a couple of grads!

L. Commencement, University of Tennessee  May 2007
R. Graduation, High School at Moorpark College  May 2012

 Photos edited with Snapseed and collaged with PicFrame

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TV Talk: ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT, The Netflix Season

Despite being told for years that we really needed to watch Arrested Development, and even being given the first season of the show on DVD as a Christmas gift one year, we didn't take the bait until about a year ago--six years after its last episode aired. We never did get around to those DVDs, but my stepdaughter Kate shepherded us through the full run of the series on Netflix. Although this show lacks most of the characteristics that render something conventionally "lovable," we soon joined its deeply devoted, although never large, following, and loved it anyway. That following had been clamoring for a continuation of the story of the Bluth family almost since the day Arrested Development was cancelled; by the time we started watching, the plans for a long-delayed "fourth season" were already in the works.

All 15 of these new episodes were added to Netflix on Memorial Day weekend. Some fans watched them all straight through in one extended binge, some spread them over a few days, and some watched because they had to. Some watched the first few episodes, and then quit; some aren't sure they're even fans any more.

We watched all the episodes at the rate of two or three at a time over the course of about a week, and having stayed to the end, I understand why some people bailed before the halfway point. I'd suggest you pick it back up, though. The individual episodes get better, for one thing: but more importantly, a good deal of what's introduced early on comes back in later episodes--and with a better-established framework, it's a lot funnier when it does.

That makes sense, since one hallmark of Arrested Development's style of comedy was its callbacks and running gags. They're still there, but it takes a little more patience to get to them, largely because of the way this "season" is constructed. A major reason that it took so long for this followup to happen at all was the difficulty of reassembling the show's cast, which forced a different approach to storytelling. The storylines don't move forward in a smooth linear fashion, and there are only a very few scenes that include all of the original characters together; rather, each episode focuses on one Bluth (or Funke, if you count in Tobias and Maeby), joined by just one or two other family members and some new characters.

There are definitely weaknesses at the episodic level. Nearly every individual episode is longer than it should be for optimal comedy--32 to 37 minutes straight through, without commercials (although there are fake "act breaks" where they would go), is a little more of these people than we need in a single dose. Not having all of the core characters in every episode changes the chemistry from the original recipe, and not usually for the better. As I said earlier, this isn't a conventionally lovable sitcom, and it features some of the most fundamentally unlikable characters this side of Seinfeld--Season 4's structure reinforces just how unpleasant these people really can be.

All that said, AD's Netflix season is best considered as a whole rather than in parts. It's essentially founded on just a few events which are frequently revisited from different characters' perspectives, and that structure means that it makes more sense as a single work. While that single work is absorbed more easily a couple of pieces at a time, it's not really possible--or fair--to see it it that way if you don't see all of the pieces.

I'm glad I did. I might, eventually, do it again, and if you loved
AD's original three seasons, I recommend the Netflix season in full. And if you find it a not-completely-worthy followup, might I suggest giving its genuine spiritual successor, Archer, a try? Sterling Archer and Buster Bluth have the same mother. (And Archer's also available for catching up on Netflix.)

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Sunday Status: Pre-Vacation Edition

Time: Late Saturday afternoon

Place: The sofa, armed with my iPad

Eating: Fewer things made with white sugar and flour, because of some bloodwork readings that my doctor didn't like. The week before a vacation is probably not an ideal time for making dietary changes, but I'd rather start building a base of better habits before we leave as a hedge against overindulging while we're gone. And after a few weeks of it adjusting to it, I think I may feel better both physically and psychically, but at this point I think it's making me rather cranky and out of sorts.

Reading: I have never been one for "reading slumps," but I am too preoccupied to make much headway in print lately. The blog-reading backlog isn't nearly as bad as it's been, and I feel better about that, but I'm just not getting very far with the books. I do have a short-term goal, though: I don't want to bring my current read, What Changes Everything (fiction, June 2013) by Masha Hamilton, with me on vacation. We leave Friday morning, so I need to finish it by Thursday night. It's a relatively short, not particularly dense novel that should be a fast read; I'm the one at fault for how long it's taking, not the book. My attention span is definitely off!

Watching: We started tuning into Arrow on the CW about 2/3 into the season, and now we're partaking in that classic pursuit, "catching up during summer reruns." The critics are right that this show definitely improved over the course of its first season, but we haven't had a fun "superhero soap opera" show since Smallville ended, and we're enjoying Arrow more than we should, if measured against its objective quality.

There are only three episodes left in this next-to-last season of Mad Men--a season that's had some very weird moments, but has me as riveted as ever. I'll miss it like crazy when it's over, and I may blog about the season as a whole once it's done and I've had time to reflect on it. We finished watching the "Netflix season" of Arrested Development a few days ago, and I'll be posting my thoughts about that soon.

Listening: I may struggling with print reading right now, but I'm breezing through the audio of Lauren Graham's debut novel, Someday, Someday, Maybe--she reads it herself, and it's a charmer. Since June IS Audiobook Month, I think I'll let the podcasts keep piling up and focus on reading by ear for the next few weeks.

Blogging: The forecast for June: Maintaining 3-4 posts per week, with content including Book Talks--mostly audio, but hopefully a couple of print books and maybe an e-book or two will make it in as well--some TV thoughts, Wordless Wednesdays, and possibly some online postcards from New England. Basically, more of the same, but possibly mixed with a little different. On that note...

Pondering: I really want to get back into my blogging groove, because I don't like the way that being out of it is making me feel! That said, it's entirely possible that the lack of sugar is as at least as big an influence as the lack of writing on my current state of mind. It's also entirely possible that I just really need that vacation...

Enjoying: The prospect of a freshly-painted office and a new desk awaiting me when I return to work on June 25.

Avoiding: Packing and cleaning up my office in preparation for the painting and replacement of the desk--work is actually more appealing.
Anticipating: Waking up in Boston one week from today (we arrive on Friday)...and then getting into our rental car to drive up to the White Mountains in New Hampshire!

Gratuitous Photo of the Week

...because we're headed to the movies again today, this time to see Much Ado About Nothing

How's your weekend going?

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(Audio)Book Talk: LIFE ITSELF, by Roger Ebert

Life Itself: A Memoir
Roger Ebert
Audiobook read by Edward Herrmann (IMDb)
Grand Central Publishing (September 2012), Paperback (ISBN 0446584967 / 9780446584968)
Memoir/essays, 448 pages
Source: Purchased audiobook (Hachette Audio, 2011, ISBN 9781611133226; Audible ASIN B005MM7F1S)
Reason for reading: Personal, via DearReader.com and the Slate Culture Gabfest podcast

Opening lines: “I was born inside the movie of my life. The visuals were before me, the audio surrounded me, the plot unfolded inevitably but not necessarily. I don’t remember how I got into the movie, but it continues to entertain me.”

Book description, from the publisher’s website  

Roger Ebert is the best-known film critic of our time. He has been reviewing films for the Chicago Sun-Times since 1967, and was the first film critic ever to win a Pulitzer Prize. He has appeared on television for four decades, including twenty-three years as cohost of Siskel & Ebert at the Movies.

In 2006, complications from thyroid cancer treatment resulted in the loss of his ability to eat, drink, or speak. But with the loss of his voice, Ebert has only become a more prolific and influential writer. And now, for the first time, he tells the full, dramatic story of his life and career.

Roger Ebert's journalism carried him on a path far from his nearly idyllic childhood in Urbana, Illinois. It is a journey that began as a reporter for his local daily, and took him to Chicago, where he was unexpectedly given the job of film critic for the Sun-Times, launching a lifetime's adventures.

In this candid, personal history, Ebert chronicles it all: his loves, losses, and obsessions; his struggle and recovery from alcoholism; his marriage; his politics; and his spiritual beliefs. He writes about his years at the Sun-Times, his colorful newspaper friends, and his life-changing collaboration with Gene Siskel. He remembers his friendships with Studs Terkel, Mike Royko, Oprah Winfrey, and Russ Meyer (for whom he wrote Beyond the Valley of the Dolls and an ill-fated Sex Pistols movie). He shares his insights into movie stars and directors like John Wayne, Werner Herzog, and Martin Scorsese.

This is a story that only Roger Ebert could tell.

Comments: News and opinions about entertainment and popular culture weren’t always as readily available as they are these days, and even if everyone was a critic privately, the number of people who had a public outlet and audience for their criticism was pretty small. Roger Ebert didn’t originally set out to be among that small number, but his appointment to the position of film critic for the Chicago Sun-Times--a job he held for four decades--landed him there, and as the first movie critic to win the Pulitzer Prize and co-host a movie-review show on television, he ended up with a larger audience than many. Losing the ability to speak as a side effect of cancer several years ago may have forced him off TV, but it made him an even more prolific writer as he moved to the internet and became a much-followed Twitter personality. Ebert passed away in early April of this year, just days after posting on his website that he would be taking a “leave of presence” from his online activity. But he’s still not really leaving; RogerEbert.com will continue under the direction of his beloved widow, Chaz Ebert.

Ebert began working on his memoirs during the years of his illness, and Life Itself is a volume of “memoirs” in the old-fashioned sense--an individual sharing his lifetime of personal stories, but not necessarily following the chronological structure of autobiography--rather than the more limited-focus “memoir” writing we’re more accustomed to seeing now. That said, the first third or so of the book is pretty straightforward autobiography, and Ebert’s account of his mid-century, Midwestern youth sounds like it wouldn’t have been out of place in a movie; I found it evocative and quite charming.

And that said, I suspect that it’s easier to write about one’s youth in that fashion than it is to discuss the years that follow it; adulthood tends to be a far less linear passage than childhood. Life Itself becomes more sprawling and likely to double back on itself after its midway point, but many of the stories and insights get more interesting. There’s some name-dropping, but in a work life that largely revolved around movies and the people who make them, I didn’t find it ostentatious or out of place; I’d actually rather see the names dropped in than read coy guess-between-the-lines references. And mixed in with the life stories, there’s plenty of movie talk. Ebert includes versions of several of his profiles of classic movie stars and discussions of the filmmakers and movies he’s found particularly meaningful, and most of these are insightful, enlightening examples of the work he’s best known for.

Life Itself feels more like a collection than a cohesive work at times--there’s a sense that some of its stories have been told elsewhere, and more than once. But those stories are set alongside those that Ebert probably hadn’t told many times before--stories of his family, his alcoholism, and his romantic relationships, culminating with the twenty-plus years he spent married to Chaz. It’s apparent that the last chapters were written by someone who knew he didn’t have much time left to say what he wanted to say...and that he’d made peace with it. This is my favorite quote from the book:

“I believe that if, at the end, according to our abilities, we have done something to make others a little happier, and something to make ourselves a little happier, that is about the best we can do. To make others less happy is a crime. To make ourselves unhappy is where all crime starts. We must try to contribute joy to the world. That is true no matter what our problems, our health, our circumstances. We must try. I didn't always know this, and am happy I lived long enough to find it out."

The occasionally repetitive nature of Life Itself might have been a little tedious in print, but in audio--a format I rarely read for more than an hour at a time, with hours (or days) in between readings--it worked well for me, and I thought Edward Herrmann’s narration was a near-perfect fit for the material, beautifully done. (Many listener reviews on Audible were more complimentary of the performance than the book, and while I don’t think I’d go that far, I understand why.) Overall, Life Itself is an engaging exploration of life, work, and the movies, and its writer will be greatly missed.

Rating: Book and audio--4 of 5

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Wordless Wednesday: Sports Spectating

Since the Linked-Up Wordless Wednesday crew solicited our May photo themes from the Moms in our lives, we've gone to the Dads for our June prompts. Today's is "Sports (playing, watching, talking about..you know, guy stuff)"

When it comes to spectator sports, I think minor-league baseball is major-league fun. Before I moved to Southern California, my home team was the Memphis Redbirds, AAA affiliate of the St. Louis Cardinals.

Rooting for the home team: the Memphis Redbirds at AutoZone Park, Memphis, Tennessee, May 2007

My photos, edited with Snapseed and collaged with PicFrame

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(Audio)Book Talk: THE HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY Trilogy, by Douglas Adams

Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide to The Galaxy, Parts 1-3

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Audiobook read by Stephen Fry (IMDb)
Crown, 2004, hardcover (ISBN 1400052920 / 9781400052929)

Fiction (sci-fi/humor/satire), 224 pages

Audio edition: Audible ASIN B0009JKV9W (Random House Audio, 2005)

The Restaurant at the End of the Universe
Audiobook read by Martin Freeman (IMDb)
Del Rey, 1997, paperback (ISBN 0345418921 / 9780345418920) 

Fiction (sci-fi/humor/satire), 256 pages 

Audio edition: Audible ASIN B000GPCO0S (Random House Audio, 2006)

Life, the Universe and Everything
Audiobook read by Martin Freeman
Del Rey, 2005, paperback (ISBN 0345418905 / 9780345418906)

Fiction (sci-fi/humor/satire), 232 pages

Audio edition: Audible ASIN B000GPCO12 (Random House Audio, 2006)

Source (all): Purchased audiobooks
Reason for reading: Re-read on audio over the course of a couple of months during drives to and from school with my 13-year-old stepson, Spencer

“'This must be Thursday,' said Arthur to himself, sinking low over his beer. 'I never could get the hang of Thursdays.'”

Rather than start this Book Talk post with the customary “Opening Lines” excerpt, I will refer you to this Quotes from The Hitchhiker's Guide list on Goodreads for this and many other gems from the one-of-a-kind mind of Douglas Adams. It takes a one-of-a-kind mind to produce a five-part trilogy, and descriptions of each installment of the series are fairly meaningless--but just in case you happen to be completely unfamiliar with this remarkable piece of work, here’s what The Official Guide to The Hitchhiker's Guide says about the first three parts:

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
One Thursday lunchtime the Earth is unexpectedly demolished to make way for a new hyperspace bypass. For Arthur Dent, who has only just had his house demolished that morning, this seems already to be more than he can cope with. Sadly, however, the weekend has only just begun, and the galaxy is a very strange and startling place.
The Restaurant at the End of the Universe
Facing annihilation at the hands of the warlike Vogons is a curious time to have a cosmically displaced Arthur Dent and his curious comrades in arms as they hurtle through space powered by pure improbability - and desperately in search of a place to eat.
Life, The Universe and Everything
The unhappy inhabitants of the planet Krikkit are sick of looking at the night sky above their heads - so they plan to destroy it. The universe, that is. Now only five individuals stand between the killer robots of Krikkit and their goals of annihilation...

I first read these books during my freshman year of university, and I’ve re-read the first two several times since; I was less entranced with the third book and never felt drawn to pick it up again. One of the things that piqued my interest in the man who became my second husband was that his online-dating profile said that the last book he’d (re-)read was The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy--”all four books of the trilogy.” (As I mentioned earlier, there are actually five books; my impression is that readership and affection for them follows a downward trajectory after the first two.) We both introduced our kids to the series when they were in middle school; my stepson read it last year, and we decided that we might both enjoy an audio re-read during our drives back and forth from school.

And we enjoyed it very much. Given that The Hitchhiker’s Guide originated as a BBC Radio production, these books seem naturals for the audiobook format, and they’re read by people who know the material well. British national treasure Stephen Fry reads and voices the characters for the original Hitchhiker’s Guide, while Martin Freeman--a/k/a Bilbo Baggins, but also a/k/a Arthur Dent himself in the not-entirely-satisfying 2005 movie adaptation of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (my husband’s and my first-ever movie date)--takes over the mic for the second and third books. This change leads to some surprising re-characterizations--the most striking of which is Zaphod Beeblebrox’s shift from intergalactic rogue to Jersey Shore mobster-in-training (well, still an intergalactic rogue, but sounding like he’s from an entirely different part of the galaxy. Maybe it’s the second head talking...)--but we acclimated to them pretty quickly.

I thought that the comedy of the Hitchhiker’s Guide series came across even better in audio form than it does on the page, largely because it’s enhanced by the delivery of Fry and Freeman, respectively. I also appreciated the story itself differently this time around because of certain pop-cultural experiences I’ve had during the decade or so since my last re-read, particularly my absorption by the world of Doctor Who. I detected many Whovian references and resemblances on this listen that I just didn’t know to notice before, and it makes perfect sense that I did; Douglas Adams and the Doctor had a long-term relationship, which is borne out by this bit of trivia:

“The third novel of Hitchhiker's Guide..., Life, The Universe and Everything, was originally intended to be a Doctor Who story. The Doctor was replaced with Slartibartfast, a planet designer from Magrathea, his TARDIS by the Starship Bistromath (which boasted a perception filter) and the Daleks by the Krikkiters.”

Perhaps that’s why I liked Life, The Universe and Everything much more this time than I did when I originally read it, although The Restaurant at the End of the Universe remains my favorite of the entire series. The first two books fit together so well--although it now makes more sense to me why the third one feels not entirely of a piece with them--but Restaurant is just a little better realized overall.

It occurs to me that the "Hitchhiker’s Guide" itself, described as “(having) many omissions and contain(ing) much that is apocryphal, or at least wildly inaccurate,” may well be the genesis of Wikipedia. It also occurs to me that Douglas Adams was a huge contributor to the development of a particularly nerdy and humorous worldview, and I’m not sure I understood before this just how much he’s shaped the way I engage with life, the universe, and everything. I’m so glad I revisited these books in audio form, and I’m pretty sure this won’t be the last time.

Rating (book and audio): 4 of 5 for all

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Right Here, Right Now: Sunday Status 6/2/2013

Time: Saturday evening, for posting Sunday morning

Place: Home, where husband and stepson are watching Serenity (we finished Firefly last week) and I'm partially doing the same, but I've been more attentive to weeding nearly two weeks of posts from my "book blogs" folder. It's crazy-hot this weekend in Simi Valley, and nice to be indoors and cool.

Eating: Nothing right now, but mentally debating dessert. Tall Paul grilled turkey burgers and corn on the cob for dinner, before we started the movie.

Drinking: Watered-down lemonade iced tea.

Reading: I have barely cracked a book this week. It's weird--I almost never do this! My focus this week was on trying to stay current on blog-reading rather than books--and that didn't work out so well either (see above re: "place"). But I think things just might be close to turning around...

Watching: We're a little past halfway through the new season of Arrested Development on Netflix. I may actually blog about it once we're done (but not before!)

Listening: I'm in between audiobooks right now, and catching up on podcasts. But I hope to make some time today to write up a review of the audio I finished a few days ago, which means I'd be able to post two timely Book Talks during Audiobook Week!

Blogging: I wasn't able to participate in Armchair BEA as much as I wanted or planned to, as my offline week proved busier than I'd anticipated. I did post on the development and ethics discussion topics, though, and I really wanted to talk about nonfiction as a genre topic, but just couldn't get to it. I may do that this week anyway, even though Armchair BEA is over, because I think I still want to.

Pondering: Audit Season at work is officially over this week, and our vacation starts a week from Friday--I may have time to rediscover blogging soon! What I'm pondering is just how much time I want to give to it...and whether I might just stay with this slower pace out of choice rather than necessity.

Promoting: If you were a fan of the TV-recap website Television Without Pity about a decade ago, you need to check out Previously.TV, a new project from TWoP's founding team that reunites some of the original site's writers to talk about TV again. I'm glad they're back.

Enjoying: I'll say it again--Audit Season at work is officially over this week!

Anticipating: Packing my bags for Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Maine--12 days till we get on a plane (and then hit the road!)

Gratuitous Photo of the Week, courtesy of BEA Week 2012

How's your weekend going?

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