Category: BOOKS!

Mallory’s Monthly Reads – October

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I wanted to read ten books this month! In an alternate universe, I read twelve. In this one, I read three. I started two more and I’ll finish them both this month. In the meantime, here’s what I finished!

  1. Wyrd Sisters, by Terry Pratchett – Aaron has been a fan of Terry Pratchett for practically his entire life. Recently, he downloaded ten of his favorites onto my Kindle! Remembering that I wanted to have a Halloween theme for my books in the month of October, I decided to read a book about witches! Wyrd Sisters is part of Pratchett’s “Discworld” series, but works as a standalone as well, lucky for me. It’s a bit of a satire on Macbeth, focusing on the witches who use similar spells as the ones in the Scottish play!
    Granny Witherwax, Nanny Ogg, and Magrat Garlick are given a baby by an escaping servant after the king is slain. The baby is said to be the true heir to the throne! The witches agree to help usher the baby to safety and ensure his rightful place as king when the time comes.
    Wyrd Sisters is more funny than scary, to be sure! It’s witty and played very straight. The witches are fearless and are mostly unintimidated by the events that befall them. Things like being captured by the enemy and nearly killed are less traumatizing moments for them and moreover inconvenient instead. The tone of the novel felt very similar to when I read The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy in September. It’s very similar to Aaron’s sense of humor! I believe that means I will enjoy the other books in Pratchett’s canon.
    As I said, I thought Wyrd Sisters to be very funny, and I hope it gets a modern film adaptation! Here were a few of my favorite lines:“The night was as black as the inside of a cat.”

    “I feel like women in general are like this – we don’t super care who has the most power, as long as we get things done.”

    “Particles of raw inspiration sleet through the universe all the time. Every once in a while one of them hits a receptive mind, which then invents DNA or the flute sonata form or a way of making light bulbs wear out in half the time. But most of them miss. Most people go through their lives without being hit by even one. Some people are even more unfortunate. They get them all.”

    “The Ogg grandchildren were encouraged to believe that monsters from the dawn of time dwelt in its depths, since Nanny believed that a bit of thrilling and pointless terror was an essential ingredient of the magic of childhood.”

    “Demons don’t care about the outward shape of things. It’s what you think that matters.”

    “Only in our dreams are we free. The rest of the time we need wages.”

     

  2. Something Wicked this Way Comes, by Ray Bradbury – A spooky carnival? Sign me up for this one! I’ve only been to Halloween Horror Nights once. Everyone I know now is too scared. Weirdos. This novel is ALSO inspired by Macbeth, albeit mostly (if not entirely) in its name only. It takes place in the mid-twentieth century, and is a somewhat chilling story about friendship. I kind of wish this had been required reading for my classmates and I in high school!
    Will and Jim, best friends closer than brothers, are on the verge of their fourteenth birthdays when a mysterious carnival comes to town. The townspeople are enchanted by the scents and sights and sounds, but Jim and Will discover something far more sinister at play, particularly at the hands of the carnival ringmaster of sorts, Mr. Dark.
    I was surprised by how much I liked this book! It wasn’t as scary as I thought it would be, but parts of it did keep me on the edge of my seat. I wonder if the film version would scare me. I find the relationships between the boys, and the relationship between Jim and his late-in-life father Charles, to be simply wonderful. It is a positive depiction of love between friends and father-and-son, which I think there is a lack of in most modern pop culture.
    I imagine that’s why so many guys revere Lord of the Rings so much; not that Tolkien’s masterpiece cannot be enjoyed by women, but that the idea of adventure and friendship (without any kind of homoerotic subtext), is so rarely done right. This is the sort of story that should be given to guys, and give them room to TALK ABOUT THEIR FEELINGS. I see so many men discussing how they feel they cannot properly express their feelings without coming off as effeminate or weak. THAT’s what’s weak right there. If only we were all more communicative and empathetic. We’d all be a much more kinder society.
    I’m rambling. Here’s a few good quotes:“Like all boys, they never walked anywhere, but named a goal and lit for it, scissors and elbows. Nobody won. Nobody wanted to win. It was in their friendship they just wanted to run forever, shadow and shadow.”

    “Mr. Dark nodded, pleased. “What’s your name, boy?” Don’t tell him! thought Will, and stopped. Why not? he wondered, why? Jim’s lips hardly twitched. “Simon,” he said. He smiled to show it was a lie. Mr. Dark smiled to show he knew it.”

    “Evil has only the power that we give it. I give you nothing. I take back. Starve. Starve. Starve.”

  3. American Psycho, by Bret Easton Ellis – I must have seen this movie at least five times by now. It’s the same story, but it feels so different. Apparently when this book was released, it was so obscene that it was wrapped in bookstores. Censors didn’t want people reading it in public, or chance an unready bystander sampling its horror. I don’t agree with censorship, but at least this time, I totally get it.
    Patrick Bateman is an investment banker in the 1980s, and when he’s not at the office (where nobody appears to do any work), he’s either at the most exclusive men’s clubs, the gym, the most expensive restaurants and dance halls, or slicing and dicing up whomever he pleases from the side of the road. Or is he?
    The movie is far more vague with Bateman’s violence. In the book, you learn about each facet of each murder. Each violent, tortured victim is given a horrific death, and the reader knows every morbid detail.
    I am not easily shocked. This book shocked and disturbed me. One particular scene had me horrified to the point that I wondered what kind of a person could write such a thing (I’ll give you a hint: it involves a rat). Thankfully (but not thankfully) I listened to the book on Audible, and the Audible featured an interview with the writer, Bret Easton Ellis. Ellis details that while he certainly never murdered prostitutes or had homicidal fantasies, when he was at the peak of his career (prior to writing this novel), he was surrounded by the banality of money. The clothes everyone wore, who you knew, which parties you went to, where you lived, all the pabulum, was so all-consuming to him that Ellis felt like he couldn’t escape. In the interview, he instantly felt disarming, you know? Like he ISN’T a serial killer. No offense, but Bateman totally comes off as a serial killer.
    To be sure, Patrick Bateman is just the worst. His constant mentions of who designed his suit, his friend’s suit, the dresses of his girlfriend or whomever he’s drinking with that week, gets so tiresome. Ugh, we get it, you have money. His near encyclopedic knowledge of music is much more explored in the book over the movie, as is his time on the receiving end of Lewis Carruthers’ affections. Those bits make him more interesting. The book features a lunch with his younger brother as well as a lunch with his college girlfriend, both in which Bateman is so painfully cringeworthy that it makes you wonder who he really is. We never really know. All we really know is that this guy HIGHKEY idolizes Donald Trump (who, as memory serves, was THE guy of New York City in the eighties, nineties… and now he’s in the White House. More on that later). Trump is mentioned roughly once a chapter, though he never personally appears in the novel. It’s all about getting in the same room as him, partying with him, going to Trump Tower, seeing him at the same restaurant. Oof. Give it a rest, buddy!
    I am still not sure if I found this novel to be too disturbing to be enjoyable. There were points where I didn’t want to finish it, but I pressed on, because at my core, I did want to see how it ended (even if, again, I know the ending after having seen the movie multiple times). The conclusion is so thought-provoking to me. I know I was thinking about it for several days after finishing it. I also decided to look up the short-lived musical version that lives only in clips on Youtube. It didn’t last long, unfortunately, and it didn’t have the funding to be done right. Still, the finale feels the most real. Maybe that’s a flaw. Either way, I want reservations at Dorsia.

I’m hoping I read closer to my ten-book a month goal this month! I’ve read one, started another, and have two in my back pocket to finish from this month. Hopefully I spend more time reading this month. The year is coming closer and closer to an end, and it seems like each day goes faster. That’s how winter works, you see.

Mallory’s Monthly Reads – September

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Three books down this month! Two of this month’s reads were inspired by a desire to read some of Aaron’s favorite books. The third was a revisit of one of the greatest literature series of my teenage years. How does that grab ya?

  1. The Once and Future King by T.H. White. Aaron is a big fan of the fantasy/medieval genre. I remember when we first met, I asked him what his favorite book was and this was his near-immediate response! It’s an anachronistic telling on the legend of King Arthur. It’s technically five books in one, and it took me a while to completely finish! Truthfully, I didn’t fully learn the story of King Arthur as a kid. I know what you’re thinking: “Aren’t you a Disney fan? What about The Sword and the Stone?” Yes, I did watch that movie and own the VHS as a kid, but I barely remember it. In fact, it wasn’t until someone I follow on Twitter posted stills of the movie that fit within the context of the book that I started recalling parts of it. Thankfully, I have Disney Plus to re-watch the movie, now that I know the legend from beginning to end!
    I will say that the length of the story made it a little less enjoyable, but I enjoyed the characters and the silly references to then-modern situations (like cars, World War II, etc.). I also never thought I’d ever text anyone “Mordred is a lil’ bitch,” but I’m pretty sure I did that at least twice while reading. I didn’t take note of favorite quotes in this book, because Aaron’s copy is an original edition and if anything tarnished the book I think he’d never forgive me.
  2. Midnight Sun by Stephenie Meyer. In my younger years, as the story of a young wizard boy and the battle for good and evil came to a close, a new fantasy series was beginning to take fruition: Twilight. A romantic young adult series about a human teenage girl falling in love with a permanently teenaged, yet hundred year old, vampire boy. The novel spawned three sequels and iconic film adaptations, including this scene that is, without question, a cultural reset. Bella Swan, the protagonist, was played by then-mocked-now-adored Kristen Stewart, and we were all bidding for the heart of either Taylor Lautner, who played the second love interest Jacob Black, or Robert Pattinson, who played Edward Cullen, the quietly brooding vampire. While 2019 belonged to Timothee Chalamet, 2020 belongs to Robert Pattinson. He returned to the zeitgeist with the 2019 critically acclaimed The Lighthouse. Between starring in this year’s Nolan thriller Tenet and taking on the role of the Dark Knight in the upcoming Batman film, we all have our eyes back on Robert. How perfectly timed is it that Midnight Sun is released.
    Midnight Sun was in its early stages in 2008 when twelve chapters were leaked, and Stephenie Meyer decided to wait to finish it, leaving us “Twilighters” devastated. It was released on August 4. I downloaded it immediately. It was a trip.
    Midnight Sun returns us to Forks, Washington, to retell the story of Twilight from Edward’s perspective. It’s not the greatest book I’ve ever read, and parts of it were overdrawn out to a degree. I’m also no longer fifteen years old, “quivering” with love for a monster I just met. Some of the mooney-eyed talk of passion and how a girl so plain could be so beautiful had me rolling my eyes… but in the most good-natured way. I had fun reading it! And if they wanted to make a movie of it with Timothee Chalamet as Edward, I wouldn’t object! Let it happen! I’m not in charge!
    Two quotes I loved (one’s an overlap from the original, the other is just a good take on modern dating conventions):“You’re doing it again,” she murmured.
    “What?”
    “Dazzling me,” she admitted, meeting my eyes wearily.

    “How silly humans were, to let a six-inch height difference confound their happiness.”

  3. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams. Another favorite of Aaron’s! His sense of humor is prevalent in both books mentioned here, as well as what I remember from a Terry Pratchett novel I almost read five years ago (we’ll be circling back around to that in a minute). He calls it vaguely British, like Monty Python, and I’m tempted to agree. This book reminded me a bit of The Twilight Zone, with one big distinction: when the paradigm shift occurs, the protagonist just sort of rolls with the punches (in The Twilight Zone the protagonist often loses their mind and cannot accept this change). It was a quick and fun read, and I imagine I’ll read the other four books in the series some other time! A good-humored sci-fi adventure seemed par for the course, considering my penchant for Star Wars lately.
    The writing of this book is so patently amusing that I could have picked swarths of paragraphs that stuck out to me. That said, here’s a few gems:“I went to Cambridge University. I took a number of baths — and a degree in English.”

    “Mr. Prosser wanted to be at point D. Point D wasn’t anywhere in particular, it was just any convenient point a very long way from points A, B, and C. “

    “On Earth it is never possible to be farther than sixteen thousand miles from your birthplace, which really isn’t very far, so such signals are too minute to be noticed.”
    (I Googled this… it’s true!)

    “I repeat, all planet leave is canceled. I’ve just had an unhappy love affair, so I don’t see why anybody else should have a good time. Message ends.”
    (This has big Chris Traeger in “Operation Ann” energy)

I was also going to read “Pratchett’s Women,” a series of essays on the female characters in Terry Pratchett’s canon. Terry Pratchett is unquestionably Aaron’s favorite writer, having read almost, if not all, of his novels. However, I only got about one essay in when Aaron asked “Why are you reading this when you haven’t read any of his books?” A valid point. He provided several recommendations to get me started, and I’m eager to see how I like them!

Overall, a fun month of reading. However, I am more than halfway behind my reading goals. I have read 22 books this year, leaving me thirty to go. If I read ten books a month, I can pull it off. I don’t necessarily think it’s impossible, but considering how it takes me an entire month to read four books, I’m going to have to really focus! In October, I’ll be keeping to the theme of spooky and scary. I’ll explore the typical Halloween spooks (haunted houses, vampires, etc.), but I’ll also be reading a few true-crime novels, bringing in a dose of real-life horror: the American serial killer. Considering the fact that I play true-crime docs as background noise at work, I think this will be easier. My first dalliance: the Audible version of American Psycho. Ya like Huey Lewis and the News?