Author: HCNewton Page 224 of 628

Saturday Miscellany—10/1/22

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On October 1, 2022

In Books, News/Misc., Saturday Miscellany

So, this is pretty late, but…at 11:45pm yesterday, my daughter called asking me to take her to the ER. So I put this aside. Almost 20 hours later, I got home—and she has one less inflamed appendix. But it’s still Saturday (for at least some of the world), so this counts.

Odds ‘n ends about books and reading that caught my eye this week. You’ve probably seen some/most/all of them, but just in case:
bullet What Book Bans Take From Kids
bullet Books won’t save you: You can’t use literature as a shortcut to self-improvement—hear, hear
bullet Meet the Author: Neil Lancaster
bullet Tom Hanks is publishing a novel, and it sounds exactly like a Tom Hanks movie.—huh.
bullet Sherlock Holmes and the Case of Friendships with Entirely Fictional Characters—this post is more directed at TV, but it easily applies to novels
bullet The Book Character Awards! (a bookalicious initiative)—this is a neat idea
bullet My Experience with Not Using Goodreads for a Month
bullet Hugboxing and Scabpicking—Peat Long gives a vocabulary lesson…
bullet An Author’s Monster Manual—Witty and Sarcastic Book Club launched another series this week—I love the premise for this—what if the D&D Monster Manual was compiled from creatures in Fantasy novels?

A Book-ish Related Podcast episode (or two) you might want to give a listen to:
bullet Eating the Fantastic Episode 181 Chow down with Wesley Chu—this is the first I’ve heard of this podcast, but I’ll likely come back for more, if the interviews tend to be as good as this one with Chu was.
bullet Blood Brothers Episode 105 with Anthony Horowitz—a fun chat with Horowitz that has convinced me to give the Hawthorne and Horowitz books a couple of more installments, at least.

This Week’s New Releases that I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
bullet The Iron Gate by Harry Connolly—the new installment in The Twenty Palaces series. The best Urban Fantasy series you aren’t reading. Circumstances allowed me to read this today (two weeks or so ahead of schedule), and it was great. I’ll be posting about this as soon as I can.
bullet The Last King of California by Jordan Harper—He made a new life for himself, but it didn’t work out, and now Luke has to return to the gang he escaped from. Sure, you have to import this from the UK to read it, but I can’t imagine it wouldn’t be worth it, since its from Harper.
bullet Treasure State by C.J. Box—a new Cassie Dewell novel has the PI on the hunt for a con man.
bullet The Big Bang Theory Book of Lists: The Official Guide to Characters, Quotes, Timelines, and Memorable Moments by Bryan Young—this looks like it could be a lot of fun
Tsundoku

Roxanne (Audiobook) by Peter Grainger, Gildart Jackson: The Murder Squad Wades Through a Pool of Lies

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On September 30, 2022

In Audiobook, DC Smith & Kings Lake, Fiction, Mystery/Detective Fiction/Crime Fiction/Thriller

RoxanneRoxanne

by Peter Grainger, Gildart Jackson (Narrator)

DETAILS:
Series: A Kings Lake Investigation, #3
Publisher: Tantor Audio
Publication Date: March 2, 2021
Format: Unabridged Audiobook
Length: 10 hrs., 13 min.
Read Date: August 19-23, 2022
Support Independent Bookstores - Visit IndieBound.org

What’s Roxanne About?

Gregory “It’s not lupus” House, MD’s guiding dictum was “Everybody lies.” Every police officer/detective knows and expects this, too. But there are cases where the lies fly thicker than others—this is one of those.

DS Chris Waters and DCI Cara Freeman are called to sign off on an apparent suicide/accidental overdose. But because this isn’t a short story, they both notice some things that make those scenarios highly improbable/impossible, and the Murder Squad takes the case (incidentally, they haven’t had a lot of work to justify their existence, so it’s coincidentally good for them). They soon discover that the victim was a sex worker. This alone pretty much guarantees that everyone is going to be lying to them—her roommates, clients, the people at her former booking service.

Some good breaks, some lucky leaps of intuition—and a little advice from a certain retired detective—help the team get to the truth. A very nice touch was seeing how Waters being a decent guy with a good memory from a previous case or two pay off now. His training served him well.

Just Enough

We get a little more backstory for DCI Freeman here—rounding the character out a bit. It’s nice, but I don’t know that her character needs to be humanized or anything. She’s a driven and highly compartmentalized person, and if we really only see her at work, I think that’s enough. I clearly don’t think that’s the case for all characters in this series (I’m a huge fan of the current romantic subplot for Waters, can’t get enough of John Murray as father, etc.), but for her, I’m content as is.

But hey, if Grainger wants to shed some light on her? I’ll take it—and I thought it was a good way to show what made her into the person she is today.

I’m Not So Sure About This…

This could be spoiler-ish, but I’ll try to keep this detail-free. So when Grainger introduced a whole lot of new characters in On Eden Street, I wondered how he was going to serve them all—and so far, the answer is sparingly. But he’s not ignoring them, and they seem like better people to work with than the characters on the other side of the office back in the DC Smith series. We got to know some of them in On Eden Street, but there was one character Grainger didn’t do much with, but he addressed that this time.

I think it was better to ignore her. Her activities land Waters in some hot water—and it could’ve been interesting to see this play out. It also could’ve been annoying because there’s no way that any reader would believe Chris did something that questionable, and Grainger really couldn’t afford to damage the character at this point. At the same time, it seemed almost too easy for Waters to get out of that hot water. I knew he’d be okay, but he should’ve had to work a little harder for it.

Unless this storyline circles back in a future book, I just don’t understand why it happened. It’s the first time in 11 books that I’m really questioning something that Grainger did.

Gildart Jackson’s Work*

I don’t have anything new to say about Jackson at this point. I thoroughly enjoy his work, I can’t imagine listening to one of this series with anyone else, nor do I think I’d enjoy reading one on my own half as much.

* Yes, I’m just plagiarizing myself at this point—and will likely do so in the future, I’m not creative enough to find a new way to talk about how good he is.

So, what did I think about Roxanne?

This is another winner from Grainger and Jackson. Grainger has this gift for taking what looks like a “small” case, an everyday kind of thing—no grand conspiracy, serial killer, or especially violent death like we so often get in procedurals—the kind of case you expect the police to deal with on a pretty regular basis, and turning it into something as interesting for the reader as a “flashier” case would be in other series.

There’s not a lot of character development going on here—these are all adults who are good at their jobs—they’re gaining experience, getting better at them, and are progressing through their careers/personal lives as we all do. So at this point, it’s about us getting to know them better (this is not, in my mind, contradicting what I said about not needing to know more about Freeman outside of work), understanding them better, and seeing how the past builds on itself. Grainger is able to do this while telling stand-alone stories in a way that few others can. It’s one of the surest pleasures in my life watching him do this.

Not surprisingly to anyone who’s read me before—I strongly recommend this, and all of Grainger’s DC Smith/King’s Lake Investigations series. Solid, entertaining mysteries; characters that will endear themselves to you; and a reliably clever narration (the text itself and the audiobook narrator).

4 Stars

This post contains an affiliate link. If you purchase from it, I will get a small commission at no additional cost to you. As always, the opinions expressed are my own.

The Ballad of Bonaduke—Episode 2: The Register by R. T. Slaywood: Bad Stuff on the Horizon

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On September 30, 2022

In Urban Fantasy

The Ballad of BonadukeThe Ballad of Bonaduke—
Episode 2: The Grift

by R.T. Slaywood

DETAILS:
Series: The Ballad of Bonaduke, #2
Format: Kindle Vella Story
Read Date: September 29, 2022

…when weird stuff happened, it was a sign that the bad stuff was close by.

The Story So Far…

A drunken Michael Bonaduke decides to use a grift (with maybe some sort of magic/magic-like “help”) to win on a scratch-off lottery ticket so he has money to buy more to drink.

What’s The Grift About?

Bonaduke gets a sign that he shouldn’t proceed with the grift–and he actually doesn’t have to anymore. But he goes ahead, anyway, and gets a little carrying around money and the bottle he wants so much.

But there appears to be a price for his little trick–and he knows he’s going to pay it soon.

So, what did I think about The Register?

Okay, these story segments are wayyyy too short for me–as soon as I start to dig my teeth into something, it’s over. I’m curious to see what comes next–it promises to explain a little about what’s going on. I don’t expect that to be good for Michael.

3 Stars

The Friday 56 for 9/30/22: A Death in Door County by Annelise Ryan

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On September 30, 2022

In Currently Reading, News/Misc., Quotations, The Friday 56

The Friday 56This is a weekly bloghop hosted by Freda’s Voice.

RULES:
The Friday 56 Grab a book, any book.
The Friday 56 Turn to Page 56 or 56% on your ereader. If you have to improvise, that is okay.
The Friday 56 Find a snippet, short and sweet.
The Friday 56 Post it.

from Page 56 of:
A Death in Door County

A Death in Door County by Annelise Ryan

He paused and pulled at his beard. “I suppose one explanation is that whatever bit them fellas carried them to the waters near the beaches where they were found.”

“But why?” I said, a mostly rhetorical question. I was merely thinking aloud. “If the men weren’t killed for food, why were they killed? It doesn’t fit with typical animal behavior.”

“Well, this ain’t exactly a typical animal we’re thinking about here, is it?” Marty said, arching those scraggly eyebrows.

Directed by James Burrows (Audiobook) by James Burrows et al: Behind the Scenes of the Best Sit Coms

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On September 29, 2022

In (Auto)Biography, Audiobook, Non-Fiction

Directed by James BurrowsDirected by James Burrows
Five Decades of Stories
from the Legendary
Director of Taxi,
Cheers, Frasier, Friends,
Will & Grace, and More

by James Burrows, with Eddy Friedfeld; Narrated by James Burrows and Danny Campbell

DETAILS:
Publisher: Random House Audio
Publication Date: June 6, 2022
Format: Unabridged Audiobook
Length: 12 hrs., 18 min.
Read Date: September 23-26, 2022
Support Independent Bookstores - Visit IndieBound.org

What’s Directed by James Burrows About?

This is largely a professional memoir about the long and storied career of TV director/producer James Burrows.

The book starts with a chapter and a half (or so) describing his childhood, early family life, and so on—talking about his father’s Broadway writing and directing a bit and how that did/didn’t influence his career choices. Then we get about a half-chapter talking about his education/theater work. Which is all a lead-up to his TV career. We get a little more of his personal life sprinkled in throughout the following chapters, but not much—Burrows knows the interest in his own story is in the stories he told—and more importantly—helped others to tell. That’s where the focus of the book is—he’s giving the people what they want.

And it feels like a pretty a fairly exhaustive tale of the various shows he worked on and his involvement in them, with an occasional interlude to talk about something like screwball comedy and why one would use it, with some examples from his own career. There’s no way it can be exhaustive—and it sure isn’t detailed by any means*—he’s got too much under his belt, but he comes close.

* That’s a description, not a criticism. Burrows gives plenty of details, but not blow-by-blow kind of stuff too often.

He starts with a discussion of his time on The Mary Tyler Moore Show where he learned from some of the best around how to do what he does—and a lot about comedy. Then he moves on to where he becomes a driving influence on the show—and that’s the majority of the book. Which is what’s named in the subtitle: Taxi, Cheers, Frasier, Friends, Will & Grace. There’s plenty covered in the “and More” for sure—including many things I hadn’t realized he’d worked on (but make a lot of sense knowing that he did). The book does cover what he did in 2020 and 2021, so it’s about as up-to-date as you could want.

The stories of these shows include a lot of how they came about in terms of writers and networks and what kind of story they were going to tell before moving into casting, shooting the early episodes, audience reception, and success. The bulk of the material is behind-the-scenes, but there are a lot of descriptions of what ends up on-screen (including short-to-lengthy portions of the script), and how it landed. Most of his work is done with a live studio audience, so the immediate audience reception is almost more important than the TV audience’s.

There are stories of failure, things not working out quite right—and how he/the show recovered—either immediately or long-term. But almost all of the book is about the successes (why give more than a few sentences, for example, to a pilot episode that less than 100 people have seen/will see?)

The Narration

Burrows has some performing in his background, but not a lot. And that’s pretty evident in the narration here. He’s just not that good—there’s very little feeling in it—even when he’s telling a story he clearly (and correctly ) thinks is funny, you don’t hear it. When it’s an emotional moment for him, you don’t hear it. His affect is pretty much the same no matter what he’s talking about, and that really hurts the book.

Also, when he’s reading dialogue from a scene? You wonder how an actor will listen to him and come up with a good way to deliver a line. That feels harsh to say, but that’s the way it struck me. I think here it’s a deliberate choice—my gut tells me it’s a desire not to try to do an impression of an actor (especially one that would come across as unflattering) or he could be avoiding trying to give a different/competing take on the line. I don’t know—it comes across as flat, and these lines shouldn’t.*

* See We Had a Little Real Estate Problem for where a similar approach to narration worked better.

I know Burrows can tell a good story—I’ve heard and seen him interviewed. But here, he just comes across as wooden.

So, what did I think about Directed by James Burrows?

It’s clear to readers of this blog that I read a lot, but I could’ve easily done a TV-watching blog—and started one about the same time as this (but that’s another story). James Burrows is one of the first non-actors whose name I recognized as creating the TV I watched back in elementary school, and his involvement in a show will definitely get me to watch at least an episode or two if I’m at all interested in the premise. I’m the target audience for this book, no doubt.

The material overcame the narration—the first chapter and a half were really rough, I couldn’t connect with it at all, and was thinking about giving up. But once he moved into TV, I got over the fact that I didn’t care for the narration and had a blast with the book. The man has many insights, anecdotes, and memories that TV fans will eat up, and shares many of them.

Directed by James Burrows is full of trivia, insights, and just great stories. If not hampered by the narration, I’d be gushing about this. Instead, I’m just giving a hearty recommendation. TV junkies? You’re going to want to get your hands on this one.

3.5 Stars

This post contains an affiliate link. If you purchase from it, I will get a small commission at no additional cost to you. As always, the opinions expressed are my own.

Hell and Back by Craig Johnson: They Say All Haunting is Regret

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On September 28, 2022

In Craig Johnson, Fiction, Walt Longmire

Hell and BackHell and Back

by Craig Johnson

DETAILS:
Series: Series: Walt Longmire, #18
Publisher: Viking
Publication Date: September 6, 2022
Format: Hardcover
Length: 336 pgs.
Read Date: September 21-22, 2022
Support Independent Bookstores - Visit IndieBound.org

“Something wrong?”

“I’m not sure, but I’m thinking I might’ve screwed things up.”

“How?”

“The way you always do, by doing a good deed.”

What’s Hell and Back About?

Recently, Walt has across repeated references to Fort Pratt—a military base and a school for natives there. Neither Walt nor Henry had heard of this place before, and it made him curious—he did a little looking and asking around about it and found one person who knew something.

And now…Walt wakes up in the middle of the street in that town. He doesn’t know who he is, or what he’s doing there, and keeps running into people he vaguely recognizes (or thinks he should) and readers do. Then he finds himself witnessing events surrounding that school’s destruction by fire—which killed the 31 boys living there.

Meanwhile, Henry Standing Bear and Vic are trying to track down Walt. He’s been on the hunt for a suspect in a murder and hasn’t checked in for a while—they get to the area he was last known to be and find some disturbing signs, but no Walt.

While they look for Walt, our favorite sheriff and the reader have to figure out where he is and why—and does it have anything to do with the Éveohtsé-heómėse, the Wandering Without, that Walt encountered in the last book?

Hmmm…

I wanted to give a section focusing on each of our main trio of characters—or at least the two main storylines. And I can’t. Anything I say would divulge so much of the plot/mechanics of the novel that I’d ruin something.

So why am I spending time talking about this? 1. I don’t want it to look like I’m harping on just one point (see the next section) and 2. to make a point—these threads are so tightly woven in this book that to look at any of them, you have to look at how it all plays out—from beginning to ending. Don’t decide—or try to decide—what you think of anything until the ending—you’ll be wasting time and effort.

Is Craig Johnson Taking a Stand?

A mixture of native Spirituality (beliefs, practices, and possible occurrences) have been around since the beginning of this series as a constant, but emphasized in books like Hell is Empty and last year’s Daughter of the Morning Star. But the novels have never really taken a stand on whether a spiritual entity/entities or powers are interacting with Walt and others or whether that’s one possible interpretation—and maybe Walt was hallucinating/dreaming due to physical injury, mental exhaustion, hypothermia, etc.

It really seems like Walt believes it’s true in the moment (sometimes he has to be convinced), but then brushes it away. Although a couple of times, I thought it was Henry who suggests an alternate explanation—Vic never seems to give a mystical idea any precedence.

If only for the amount of this book that appears not to transpire in our world, I think that Johnson’s not really pretending to be neutral anymore. Even Walt’s “but maybe…” take seemed halfhearted.

I think I’m fine with it—if only so we don’t have to have this discussion so often within the books. As long as Johnson isn’t trying to veer into Urban Fantasy or anything (and I don’t think he is), go for it. Let Walt be convinced by his experience, embrace them, and move forward that way. At least let him wrestle with it, not just brush it away.

Now, if Vic starts seeing Virgil White Buffalo or something like him…that might be a problem.

So, what did I think about Hell and Back?

In his Acknowledgements, Johnson says he attempted to create “a Western, gothic-romance with traces of horror.” “Traces” is a good word—it’s just a hint, like the hint of whatever fruit a particular can of La Croix tells you it has (maybe a little heavier). The rest seems like a good description of the result—I guess I’m not sold on “if” he should’ve tried, or at least tried in this way. I don’t want this series to turn into a bunch of cookie-cutter novels about Walt and the gang solving mysteries at home or in a nearby county. But…not all experiments are successful.

I’m torn. I enjoyed this, I like that Johnson is constantly trying to keep each novel from being a duplicate of a previous one and trying to do new things with well-established characters. I thought the ideas were great, I appreciate that Johnson wants to discuss things like the horrible conditions and events in “Indian schools.”

But I think this was a lousy Walt Longmire book. There were some strong character moments for Vic and Henry (and a moment or two that I’m not so sure about for each). I don’t think it was a good use of the character of Walt Longmire or the kind of story that’s good for the series. There are a couple of things that could spring from this for future books, but I think Johnson probably could’ve gotten there a different way.

Yes, I’m prepared to eat my words in that last sentence, but I feel pretty safe about it.

This was a good follow-up to the previous book, but it’s also a wholly unnecessary follow-up. It ended so well, and yet so ambiguously on one point that I thought was very effective. This book takes away that ambiguity and takes away the power/mystery from the conclusion.

Long-time fans will find enough to justify their time (there’s a moment where Vic reveals a lot of herself to another character that’s one of the most honest moments in the series for her, for example), but I expect most will be unsatisfied by the book as a whole. I think I was. Still, while this might not have been the most successful Walt Longmire book, I tip my cap to Johnson for giving it a shot.

3 Stars

This post contains an affiliate link. If you purchase from it, I will get a small commission at no additional cost to you. As always, the opinions expressed are my own.

Book Blogger Hop: Do You Reread Books?

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On September 28, 2022

In Book Blogger Hop, Books, News/Misc.

Book Blogger Hop

 

This prompt was submitted by Billy @ Coffee Addicted Writer:

Have you ever reread a book? If so, why did you decide to reread it?

Have I ever? There’ve been times in my life when re-reading was the majority of my reading. Thankfully, a better library, a larger budget, and the occasional book in exchange for a review have prevented that from being the case lately.

Sometimes, I re-read because I have nothing else on hand to read (it’s been ages since this has been an issue). Sometimes it’s because I need to refresh my memory before a new installment of a series comes out and I want to get the last book or two in my mind as a refresher. Sometimes it’s because I didn’t understand something the first time—or I need to review the material in general (I’m thinking primarily of non-fiction books here). But the primary reason I re-read is that I liked the book and want to experience it again.

A lot of it is the comfort of returning to a world and characters that I liked—when I get sick, for example, a quick visit to the Brownstone on West 35th Street* does as much good as chicken noodle soup. Or it’s the writing—the wordplay of Ellen Raskin or Gregory Mcdonald always makes me smile. Or just to relive the story—I could give too many examples here.

* That’d be Rex Stout’s Nero Wolfe/Archie Goodwin books.

Sadly, I really don’t have that much time anymore to re-read and I miss it. I feel a little guilty that I’m not reading something I can blog about when I do that (sure, sometimes I do talk about re-reads, but it’s not often)—and even without the guilt, I just don’t have the time. Largely, that’s what I use audiobooks for now.

Are you a one-and-done type of reader, or do you keep circling back?

WWW Wednesday, September 28, 2022

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On September 28, 2022

In Books, Currently Reading, News/Misc., WWW Wednesday

It seems like my library has decided to bring me every book I’ve put on hold in the last three months at once. I’m drowning in books to read–and don’t get me started on books I pre-ordered months ago that are gathering dust. On top of that, it feels like I’m getting interrupted and distracted every time I sit down to read or blog. Basically, “I feel thin, sort of stretched, like butter scraped over too much bread” (a few days too late for Hobbit Day). Humbug.

On the other hand, it’s been so long since I read/listened to a dud, that I don’t remember what it was, and am having a great time with these books.

Anyway, here’s this week’s WWW Wednesday, as I chronicle my attempt to tread water in the middle of this flood.

This meme was formerly hosted by MizB at A Daily Rhythm and revived on Taking on a World of Words—and shown to me by Aurore-Anne-Chehoke at Diary-of-a-black-city-girl.

The Three Ws are:

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?

Easy enough, right?

What are you currently reading?

I’m really enjoying, but making slug-like progress in, Station Eternity by Mur Lafferty and am digging into For We Are Many by Dennis E. Taylor, Ray Porter (Narrator) on audiobook. And boy howdy, is that title correct, I’m having trouble keeping track of the “many” POVs.

Station EternityBlank SpaceFor We Are Many

What did you recently finish reading?

I was apparently in a subtitle mood last week with a couple of fun and informative books celebrating some of my favorite books/shows: Danielle Higley’s The Stories Behind the Stories: The Remarkable True Tales Behind Your Favorite Kid’s Books and Directed by James Burrows: Five Decades of Stories from the Legendary Director of Taxi, Cheers, Frasier, Friends, Will & Grace, and More by James Burrows with Eddy Friedfeld and Read by James Burrows and Danny Campbell on audio.

The Stories Behind the StoriesBlank SpaceDirected by James Burrows

What do you think you’ll read next?

My next book should be the ARC for Santa’s Little Yelpers by David Rosenfelt (moved up the list to make sure I hit the publication date) and my next audiobook should be Heads in Beds: A Reckless Memoir of Hotels, Hustles, and So-Called Hospitality by Jacob Tomsky, Jacob Tomsky (Narrator), something I stumbled onto at the library that caught my eye.

Santa's Little YelpersBlank SpaceHeads in Beds

How are you closing out this ninth month?

Movies (And Other Things) (Audiobook) by Shea Serrano, Mario Toscano: The Answers to Pressing Movie Questions

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On September 27, 2022

In Audiobook, Non-Fiction

Movies (And Other Things)Movies (And Other Things)

by Shea Serrano, Mario Toscano (Narrator)

DETAILS:
Publisher: Twelve
Publication Date: October 7, 2019
Format: Unabridged Audiobook 
Length: 11 hrs., 7 min.
Read Date: September 21-23, 2022
Support Independent Bookstores - Visit IndieBound.org

What’s Movies (And Other Things) About?

Serrano discusses movies from the point of view of a massive fan—he knows what he’s talking about, he can discuss them objectively, critically, and as a fanboy—mostly a combination thereof. In this collection of essays, he approaches films of the mid-80s (largely) to today, answering burning questions such as:
bullet Who’s the better tough guy movie dog owner? (Will Smith in Legend, Tom Hardy in The Drop, or Keanu Reeves in John Wick?)
bullet Which Movie had the more intense opening, Face/Off or Finding Nemo?
bullet When did you know Booksmart was special?
bullet Who’s in the perfect heist movie crew
bullet Which race was white-saviored the best by Kevin Costner?
bullet When did Michael B. Jordan break your heart into the most pieces? (which was immediately followed by)
bullet When was Diane Keaton the most charming in Something’s Gotta Give?

The mental whiplash between those last two shows the range that Serrano is capable of. He also ranks the deaths/trauma in the Kill Bill movies, discusses adjusting recent Academy Award nominations/wins after making sure Romantic Comedies are given their credit due, what movie villains would be fun to hang out with, and how aN NBA post-game style press conference with Michael Myers would go.

There’s a great combination of movie knowledge/insight, social commentary, and humor mixed throughout each of these. Even when it came to movies I’ve never seen, have no interest in seeing, or saw ages ago and don’t remember well, Serrano kept me pretty engaged and entertained.*

* Except maybe with the Fast and the Furious discussion, I don’t know why…I just can’t care about this franchise.

A Word About the Narration

I’ve heard Serrano as a guest on podcasts, and would’ve assumed his natural ability, experience, and passion would’ve made him a natural to read his own audiobook. But for whatever reason, Mario Toscano got the nod instead.

And I can see why—I had no problem believing I was hearing Serrano himself read these (maybe if I’d pulled up a podcast to listen to first, that wouldn’t have been true)—which is important when I’m hearing something so personal or passionate as this often is (see Black Nerd Problems, for example). Toscano sounds like a knowledgeable film geek going off on various topics—I think he could’ve put a little more energy into some of the quotations, but I’m sure there are good reasons for not doing that.

Ohh, man…

While researching this post, I saw that the ebook has three additional exclusive chapters…I might have been able to resist, but one of the chapters is “When Was Hans Gruber’s Subtlety the Most Threatening?”

So, I’m going to have to buy a print copy of this, too. I have to read this take.

So, what did I think about Movies (And Other Things)?

I had a blast with this—it’s the equivalent of sitting around with a bunch of friends talking about movies for far too long, which is one of my favorite ways to spend a lot of time. Even when I think he was out to lunch or arbitrary in some of his choices, I could get behind them for the sake of argument or be entertained by them.

Man, I wish I knew where he came up with some of the topics. If I spent a year doing nothing more than coming up with the chapter titles (never mind the content), I couldn’t be half this creative.

I didn’t need anyone reminding me of Opie Winston’s death scene—ever. But especially not in a book about movies where I didn’t know to be emotionally prepared for such a thing. Serrano lost a star from me for that one.*

* Not really, but it was cathartic to say that.

That incredibly important quibble aside, if you’re a current/former/would-be movie geek, grab this, you’ll have a blast.

3.5 Stars

This post contains an affiliate link. If you purchase from it, I will get a small commission at no additional cost to you. As always, the opinions expressed are my own.

GUEST POST: Using Horror to Cope With Anxiety by C.J. Weiss

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On September 26, 2022

In Fiction

Using Horror to Cope With Anxiety

Anxiety is defined as a feeling of worry, nervousness, or unease. Serious cases can induce negative compulsive behavior or even panic attacks. Horror as a genre is intended to evoke apprehension or dread.

Given this, it’s fair to ask: how can horror help one’s anxiety?

Well, it’s precisely because of this apprehension and dread that horror is such a powerful tool. What’s happening in a book or on a screen isn’t real. There’s no lasting impact. When you step back into reality, the threats causing you tension vanish. Some may experience lasting effects such as nightmares, but for many, horror allows us to experience fear in a safe environment. This experience can aid in processing related feelings, providing a valuable understanding of one’s emotions, why they arise, and how to deal with them. In fact, a branch of psychotherapy called exposure therapy works along these lines.

Exposure therapy has existed since the 1950s. The purpose is to provide people with a safe method to confront whatever triggers their fears. Humans tend to react to fear with avoidance, and exposure therapy is targeted at this gut response. Familiarity with a situation or thing tends to lessen the anxiety it causes, whereas avoidance can actively make it worse. Engaging or disengaging from anxiety’s root cause almost works like an inverse sliding scale. The more you lean into it, the less it impacts you.

That doesn’t mean it’s easy. There’s a reason that highly educated professionals dedicate so much training to exposure therapy. Fortunately, some of this can be tapped into on our own. Understanding and recognizing the mental and physiological impacts of fear can aid us in coping with anxiety when it strikes. If you react similarly to real-life crowds as you do to a fictional haunting, you can assess and question these responses side by side. What can you control? Are you in immediate danger? What’s one thing you can do to feel better right now? You may find that answering these questions in regards to a horror movie will help you solve real-world fears too.

Whereas anxiety often deals with future events that never come to pass, the worst-case scenario happens quite frequently in horror. It’s healthy to experience those feelings from beginning to end while the danger is minimal. After all, we can’t really know how bad things can get unless we see how bad things can get. Coming out the other end safely after watching a heart-pounding horror movie adds a notch to one’s belt. It showcases how terrible sensations of fear and anxiety don’t necessarily result in something terrible happening to you. Humans feel fear so that our bodies activate our fight-or-flight response, but that doesn’t mean we should limit ourselves to these two options. What happens when this response is illogical, like so many anxieties are?

Taking a second to breathe and assess a fear’s cause can lead to healthier outcomes both now and in the future. Horror provides that safety net. It’s a lot easier to analyze one’s emotions when the biggest threat is targeted at a fictional character. Experience in “taking a second to breathe” can make it easier to do so in the future when a perceived threat is targeted at you.

Horror can act as simulations of terrifying scenarios in order to prepare for the future. Hauntings may be unlikely, but break-ins and contagions are real risks. Seeing or reading them play out in fiction can prepare you for the real thing. Not surprisingly, fans of horror films exhibited less psychological distress during COVID-19’s outbreak.

Anxiety also tends to build up over time, especially when it’s commonly avoided, as mentioned before. Many stressors in life exist as permanent fixtures. Horror gives us a lever to release these pent-up emotions. We can funnel our fears and worries into the scenes playing out before us and feel a weight lifted when it’s done. I’m not going to say horror is a substitute for exercise, but it sure gets my heart rate up. The release feels cathartic.

Finally, there’s perspective. At the very least, you’re better off than a Final Girl trying to survive a knife-wielding psycho. There are many ways horror can help us cope with anxiety. Finding what works best for you is a journey in and of itself.

Disclaimer: I’m not a doctor. This article is not intended as medical advice. Anxiety is best treated by a physician or qualified professional.

C.J. Weiss writes horror, supernatural thrillers, and other speculative fiction. He also loves peanut butter.

His debut novel, A Broken Clock Never Boils, is a supernatural psychological thriller. A psychiatrist’s initial infatuation with an influx of schizophrenic patients turns to terror as their ailments infect her too. You can find it on Amazon as well as digitally through most major retailers.

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