By the Pricking of My Thumbs by Agatha Christie
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Another great Tommy and Tuppence story. I saw a PBS miniseries of this a year or two ago. They shoehorned Miss Marple into the story and practically left Tommy out of it. While I enjoyed the miniseries, the book does a much better job with T & T.
It comes to kind of a strange end that seems a little forced, but other than that, thoroughly enjoyable.
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Juliet, Naked by Nick Hornby
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
A fun read. Not Hornby's best, but still entertaining.
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The Good Rain: Across Time and Terrain in the Pacific Northwest by Timothy Egan
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
If you love the Northwest, you should read this book. Egan's first book is a thorough look at the landscape, the people, and the history of the region. Even though it has been twenty years since it was published, it is still incredibly relevant. Egan is an environmentalist and an outdoorsman and a lot of the book is about water and trees. He talks about how the landscape has shaped the people and how the people have shaped the landscape.
I learned a lot about my home and Egan has inspired me to explore it further.
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The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Very entertaining. This was my first Sherlock Holmes and he wasn't at all the stuffy English dude I was expecting.
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This is the fourth year I have kept track of movies I have seen in a theater and books I have read (2008, 2007, 2006). Today I took down the calendar and had a look at my year in book and film.
JANUARY
Doubt
Milk
America’s Women: Four Hundred Years of Dolls, Drudges, Helpmates, and Heroines by Gail Collins
Last Chance Harvey
Benjamin Button
FEBRUARY
Gould’s Book of Fish by Richard Flanagan
Lifehacker: 88 Tech Tricks to Turbocharge Your Day by Gina Trapani
The Reader
The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie
Bolt
Shakespeare Wrote for Money by Nick Hornby
The Wrestler
The Wrestler (2nd time)
Getting Things Done by David Allen
MARCH
APRIL
Public Enemies by Bryan Burrough
Sunshine Cleaning
The Dante Club by Matthew Pearl
The Body in the Library by Agatha Christie
Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris
MAY
Earth
Is Anybody There?
Star Trek
Wolverine
JUNE
Underworld by Don DeLillo
JULY
The Best American Travel Writing 2008 edited by Anthony Bourdain
Rabbit-Proof Fence by Doris Pilkington Garimara
Public Enemies
Moon
Unlikely Destinations: The Lonely Planet Story by Tony Wheeler
AUGUST
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary by Simon Winchester
Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace
SEPTEMBER
The Means of Reproduction: Sex, Power, and the Future of the World by Michelle Goldberg
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
(500) Days of Summer
OCTOBER
Dracula by Bram Stoker
The Accidental Adventurer by Barbara Washburn
NOVEMBER
The Men Who Stare at Goats
DECEMBER
La Danse
The Secret Adversary by Agatha Christie
Theodore Rex by Edmund Morris
Sherlock Holmes
Up in the Air
In progress—Ghostwritten by David Mitchell
The number of books I read took a slight dip from previous years, but the number of movies I saw was only half of previous years. That reflects my move to a new town where I don't have a huge movie theater in walking distance (however, many of the movies I did see were at the Grand, an awesome non-profit movie theater here in Tacoma).
I read a whole stack of awesome books this year. I somehow ended up reading the giant Underworld and the giant Infinite Jest back to back, which I wouldn't necessarily recommend. However, both were great (especially IJ). I also really loved Theodore Rex, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Public Enemies, and The Dante Club. You can check out all my ratings over at my Goodreads profile.
I saw some great movies and some stinkers too. In the stinker category: Bolt, Wolverine, and Public Enemies. Some of those in the great category: Sunshine Cleaning, Star Trek, Moon, (500) Days of Summer, The Men Who Stare at Goats, Sherlock Holmes, and Up in the Air.
One of my New Year's resolutions is to read more...I should probably add a resolution to watch more movies.
I'm trying to find a way to import all my posts from Xanga into this blog. However, Xanga makes that incredibly difficult. So, for now, for older posts you can visit the old blog: http://martha1104.xanga.com/
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