Social Justice Reads

You guys, I am bad at posting. I am going to go ahead and blame vacation time (Hawaii post coming. I swear. It is like 85% written and I am trying to get that last 15%) but I have been lazy and unmotivated and have spent a lot of time watching episodes of Big Fat Quiz of [blank] on YouTube.

Me, basically

So while I work up the energy to actually get something real written, let's crowdsource some social justice reads. Because yeah we should probably have a better understanding of some of the terrible things happening in society. You know, other than the other terrible things happening

I have some stuff on my radar but what else should I add? Here's what I've got

Divided by Faith: Evangelical Religion and the Problem of Race in America by Michael O. Emerson
A Different Mirror: A History of Multicultural America by Ronald Takaki
Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption by Bryan Stevenson
White Trash: The 400-Year Untold History of Class in America by Nancy Isenberg
Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates

So WHAT ELSE? TELL ME YOUR RECOS

Top Character Names I Love and a Few Terrible Ones

I'm going to be upfront with you. This is a procrastination post. I am writing this post so I can have something to post without having to write up reviews for Alif the Unseen or Quiet or Coraline, all of which I enjoyed (to varying degrees [EXCEPT CORALINE WHICH I LOVED]). I even have a wedding update post I was planning on writing/posting last week and that clearly didn't happen. Last week and this week are just stress extravaganzas so the odds of a well thought out review are unlikely.

Instead, I'm doing this week's Tuesday Top Ten (hosted by the folks over at The Broke and The Bookish) which I like the topic, but my heart isn't totally in it. I'm sorry, and I'll make it up to you next week.*

Top Character Names I Luuuuurve

1. Thursday Next from the Thursday Next series - I don't like names that are ridiculous or unusual just for the sake of being unusual. Thursday's name is just unique enough to be interesting, but not so out of the blue that I think "You poor dear. Your childhood must have sucked."

2. Coraline from Coraline - As with Thursday, it's juuuust this side of unusual. I mean, it's really just Caroline with two of the letters switched but I LOVE THE NAME CORALINE. (Did I mention I read this not long ago and very much enjoyed it so I'm still in internet-shouty mode?)

3. Rosalind from As You Like It - I just think this is a pretty name.

4. Scout from To Kill a Mockingbird - I supposed technically this is a nickname, but still. it's so much more her than "Jean Louise" is.

Top Character Names That Make My Eyes Roll So Far Back I Actually Give Myself A Headache

5. Jaime Lannister from The Song of Ice and Fire/Game of Thrones series - The name itself isn't bad. The fact that this is a character in an epic fantasy series and his nickname his "Kingslayer" but his real name is Jaime, and I'm sorry. No. That makes me laugh every time. A fantasy name with lots of consonants would have made more sense. But Jaime is not a name that instills fear in my heart. *Updated* to fix the fact that it's  Jaime and not Jamie. Neither name is scary

6. Bella Swan from the Twilight series - Really? Bella Swan? Not even going to try the whole "subtly" thing, huh?

7. Renesmme from the Twilight series - Oh Meyer, you made it here twice. Congrats. At least she seemed to realize, at least on some level, that this name is ridiculous given she had characters make fun of it. I mean, she also later had a teenager fall in love with a new born, so I guess that was his punishment.

8. Anastasia Rose Steel Grey from the 50 Shades of Grey series - Ladies and gentlemen, we have our champion. I think 8 year old me would have put this in the other category, because 8 year old me had terrible tastes. (Have you read Jennifer's 50 Shades recaps? Cos if not, you are seriously missing out)

*I understand I could just not post. But I WANT to post. I just don't want to write anything that requires too much brain power. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go back to yelling a fictional characters on TV.

Look at these pictures instead of noticing I don't have a real post

I feel like I should post because I only had the one post last week. And it was a post about my bookshelves because I haven't actually finished another book yet. Looks like 2012 reading is going to end with a whimper. But I have a pretty good reason for, right now, not having any new reading done.

See Boyfriend+ and I just got back from Disney.*

He was getting all stressed out at work and decided he needed a mini-vacation before his crazy busy season starts. As luck would have it, JetBlue was running a deal where flights were 50% off, so that worked out. I'm bad at keeping track of things, so I have a bunch of vacation days I need to use, which also worked out nicely. And I love Disney. I can be sarcastic and cynical about everything else, but Disney makes me run around like a little kid. Because of the whimsy and the CRAZY attention to detail and so much fun and stop pointing out how expensive everything is. I can't hear you over the whimsy.

Now you'd think "Oh so you were on vacation and clearly had lots of reading time, or at least time to read on the plane so soon you'll have reviews!" To which I respond "Did you know JetBlue has TVs at each seat AND it turns out Taken was on AND Boyfriend+ only knew that one speech but otherwise had never seen the movie so clearly it was important we spend the flight watching Liam Neeson murder all of Paris in increasingly ridiculous ways." The way back was spent watching news reports about the Sandy Hook massacre, but still no reading.

Back to happier things. Like pictures from Disney

 

*Or rather when I started writing this we had just got back from Disney**. But it's been a few days now so...yeah...
**I'm using Disney and Orlando interchangeably. Because Disney was the important part.

Thanksgiving and all my excuses for not being around

Heeeeeey everyone. Long time not talk to. Or "write at" I guess is more accurate. So, where have I been?

First up, there was Thanksgiving! I had/have extra vacation days that I failed to use, so I took some extra time off to spend the time with my Dad down in South Carolina. I was down there last Thanksgiving as well because, again, screw cold weather and YAY for lots of pets. The numbers have reversed and now my Dad has 3 cats and 6 dogs, and since I like dogs better anyway, that was pretty sweet. Like last year though, I don't really have internet access down there, save what I can get on my phone. Which means I had no easy way to post, and instead I decided to focus on reading and eating and playing with the dogs.

UPDATED to include those puppy pics that I tried to give you earlier.

I didn't actually get THAT much reading done while I was down there. Or rather I finished Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter not long into my journey down south and decided I should give this Game of Thrones thing a try and that book is a zillion and 1 pages long. Oh also AMC played Gone with the Wind on Wednesday and then The Godfather and The Godfather Part II on Thursday, so that distracted me as well.

I was thinking I'd get a post out once I got back from the airport but that didn't so much happen. I didn't realize it but I was landing at the airport right at rush hour and taking the LIRR with luggage during peak times is NOT FUN. On top of that, Hurricane Sandy messed up one of the train tunnels, which means there are still cancelled trains, so the trains are even more crowded. AND THEN the train I got one was running 2 less cars than normal because the LIRR wanted to welcome me back and remind me what I had missed. By the time I got home, this was all I wanted:
I started to catch up on The Walking Dead but I failed at that because Boyfriend+ came home bearing Chinese food, so I agreed to turn off the zombies. I DID win at eating Chinese food so there you go.

So yeah, I'll get working on a review soon. I'll also get around to reading all those blog posts that backed up on my Google Reader. It will take some time but I'm working on it. And I'll have a wedding update on Sunday that's actually about stuff from two Sundays ago, but I am bad at doing anything in a timely manner.

A post to tell you I'll be posting soon

Something does not want me to review Full Dark, No Stars. OK, so "something" is really a series of excuses on my part. But that's still a "something".

The baby gets me

First it was TV. TV doesn't seem to be getting in the way of my reading, but my reviewing is another matter. First it was the Chopped marathon. Then Mad Men depressed me out of writing anything Monday night as I had planned to.* "Don't worry," I told myself. "I'll definitely write something Tuesday, as soon as I get home from work." Ah, such good intentions.

For those of you not in the NYC area or those who are around NYC but don't take public transportation, let me explain. Normally my commute involves a 30-45 min subway ride and then a 45 min train ride. Yesterday however, it took 30+ minutes to go between 2 stops. And then after we reached the stop (meaning after the doors had already closed and we started again) the MTA, conductor, whoever makes these decisions, decided "Eh, we're running on the local line now." I just kept looking at my watch and counting off the trains I was missing. When I finally got to the station it turns out those trains were also running on delays of about 30-45 min. I made it home (hooray) but about an hour later than normal (on the days when I miss the earlier train). However, I felt bad complaining once I got home and learned the reason for the insanity was a guy was hit by a train. Not sure if it was an accident or not, but regardless, I was not in a mood to do anything productive last night and instead spent the time watching 16 and Pregnant. Because apparently when I'm mad I like to watch teenagers make bad decisions.

So I will have that review soon(ish). And I'm about done with Emma so hopefully that review will be less frustrating to write than it has been to read.

*We DVR'd the show because I can't seem to watch anything when it actually airs. If you ask me when something is on or what channel I can give you a vague idea of both, but nothing that's, you know, actually helpful.