Secret Pretend Boyfriendland

Total Books Read: 52

Fiction: 35
(Novels-27, YA-3, Plays-4, Short Story Collections-1)

Non-Fiction: 17
(Memoirs/Personal Essays-10, Science/Social Science -4, Language/Food/Self-Help -1 each)


Fave Fiction (in no particular order, because ranking things is hard, dammit):

The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet -David Mitchell
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close -Jonathan Safran Foer
Juliet, Naked -Nick Hornby
Shades of Grey -Jasper Fforde
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian -Sherman Alexie
Freedom -Jonathan Franzen
The Year of the Flood -Margaret Atwood
The Help -Kathryn Stockett


Fave Non-Fiction:

Manhood For Amateurs -Michael Chabon
The Happiness Project -Gretchen Rubin
Rapture Ready! Adventures in the Parallel Universe of Christian Pop Culture -Daniel Radosh
Bright-Sided: How Positive Thinking Is Undermining America -Barbara Ehrenreich


( Le Grand List, in the order I read them )

Yay, year-end wrap-up!

Movies Seen In Theatres: 40
10 were released in 2009 (or 11 depending on how you count Un Prophete), the rest from 2010


I'm trying to make a top 10, and it's hard! I saw lots of great movies, and a few movies that I really really enjoyed, despite not being the kind of movie that should maybe be on a "best of" list. Plus, there are still a bunch of movies I need to see before I can make any kind of definitive 2010 list. Nonetheless, I usually make my rankings based on what I saw in a calendar year, not counting the ones I see later (flawed methodology, to be sure.)

My top 5 would be maybe some combination of (in alphabetical order, because I am a wimp):

Black Swan
The King's Speech
Inception
Never Let Me Go
The Social Network

...to which I'd probably add:

Easy A
Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work
The Kids Are All Right
Scott Pilgrim vs. The World
True Grit

...and then I'd sneak in and 11 and 12, because I also really enjoyed:

Please Give
The Trotsky

...and maybe a 13, while not technically a "best" movie, one that I enjoyed a great deal:

Babies (because, people--Babies! Babieeeeeeeees!)


Dishonourable mention to the only two movies I saw that were really bad:

Sex and the City 2
You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger


( Le Grand List )

Half-Empty -David Rakoff
Rakoff is my favourite melancholy essayist. I also love his appearances on This American Life. These personal essays are darkly funny, sometimes surprisingly poignant, and always wonderfully written. The essay on "Rent" alone had me laughing my head off and reading it out loud to people. The essay on his cancer diagnosis and treatment is powerful and raw.

So Much For That -Lionel Shriver
Well, I can't say that I 'enjoyed' this book, because man, was it depressing. It was really interesting and well-written, though, so worth a read if you're not too sad already! The protagonist has been planning all his life to retire to a small island nation, where his nest egg would let him live like a king. The night he's about to leave, his wife reveals that she has terminal cancer, and will need his money for treatment, as his work insurance has recently been slashed. It's a pretty damning statement on the American health care system, that's for sure!

Mary Ann In Autumn -Armistead Maupin
Yay, new Tales of the City book! Unlike the last one, which wasn't great, this book was a pretty great return to the old school TotC style. Funny, sad, weird, awesome.

The Hunger Games -Suzanne Collins
I finally succumbed to the (imagined) pressure, and read the first book in the popular series. And......I liked it! I don't want to overuse the word 'compelling', but that's how I'd describe it--once I started, I didn't want to put it down!

November was a pretty busy month for me, so I only saw two movies and one musical. Slacker!


Inside Job is a fascinating, compelling documentary on the recent financial crisis, and it made me so sad/mad--smad!

Love and Other Drugs was almost really good, but not quite. I am all in favour of naked Jake Gyllenhaal and Anne Hathaway, both of whom are very pretty. I am emphatically not in favour of the terrible boorish brother character, who I wanted to punch repeatedly in the nose. Seriously, he brought the movie down at least 2 letter grades. If they'd excised him entirely from the film, it wouldn't have made a lick of difference to the plot, and there would have been time for more naked pretty people scenes! Missed opportunity, people.


I also saw the west coast premiere of a new Canadian musical: Mimi, or a Poisoner’s Comedy, based on the true story of a murderous 17th century marquise who poisoned her father and brothers. The music was decently interesting, the performers were hamming it up enjoyably, and I liked it quite a bit!

I really like compiling my year-end lists, but I'm so far behind still! I gotta get going...

In the theatres in September I saw:

Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work, an excellent and compelling documentary. I do find it fascinating how so often funny people are totally damaged and sad inside. Definitely recommended.

Going The Distance is a rom-com with Drew Barrymore and Justin Long that I barely remember. I think I liked it ok! Man, I gotta write these posts quicker. Sigh.

I do remember that I liked Never Let Me Go quite a bit. I read the book a few years ago, and I think the movie did it justice. Great moody atmosphere, good performances, great overall creepiness. Good!



I continued my Bones-watching with Season 5. Fun stuff.



September is Fringe month in Vancouver, so my month was theatre-riffic!

TJ Dawe's latest, Lucky 9, was my total favourite. Is it a cliché to say that I laughed and I cried? 'Cause I did! So good.

Also quite good: Every Job I’ve Ever Had, Die Roten Punkte: Kunst Rock, 52 Pick-Up.

Decently fine: Raccoonery!, Dr. Horrible’s Singalong Blog (I was excited for the live-action version of this, and it was fun, but not as great as I was hoping...)

Not my cup of tea, although I'd always heard such great things about him: Jem Rolls: One Man Riot


I also saw Tear The Curtain!, a super-cool show at the Arts Club that blended theatre and film and was bezonkers. I'm not sure it added up to anything, but it was sure fun to watch.

I thought maybe I'd stop bothering to do my little write-ups, but I want to catch up, because I do like looking back at them later on. Trouble is, if I keep doing them months later, I won't remember anything about the books/movies/plays!

Let's see what I remember about August:

August: Osage County -Tracy Letts
I saw this play in Toronto last year, and it's coming here to Vancouver next year, so I thought I'd read the libretto. It's so intense, and darkly funny and upsetting. Not quite the same right on the page, but a play is really meant to be seen, or at least heard out loud. I cannot confirm or deny that I occasionally read scenes out loud to myself, playing all the characters.

Great House -Nicole Krauss
I remember quite liking this, but the details have faded pretty fast. It's a bit dense, and I didn't love it like I loved her previous novel "The History of Love", but this is still a beautifully written, sad novel. There are several different plots and a big, imposing desk that ties the many characters together.

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian -Sherman Alexie
I loved loved loved this!! Why hadn't I read any Alexie before? Everyone should go read this right now.

Rapture Ready! Adventures in the Parallel Universe of Christian Pop Culture -Daniel Radosh
I have a definite fascination for books about mysterious religious things I don't understand. Radosh wrote a great, funny and informative overview of, well, the title says it all. I knew a certain amount about, say, Christian pop, but my eyes were opened to the worlds of Christian movies, theme parks, romance novels, pro wrestling, you name it. Great book.

Going In Circles -Pamela Ribon
Yay, pamie.com! I still feel all proprietary and proud when a blogger I've read for years starts writing books! This third novel was her best yet, I think. The main character goes through a divorce and takes up roller derby. It's funny, and sad, and a good quick little read.

The Happiness Project -Gretchen Rubin
I picked this up based on a few recommendations from friends, and I'm so glad I did! Rubin recounts her year of trying various projects to get more happiness into her life. Get More Sleep, Sing in the Morning, Start a Blog (which became wildly popular, and led to this book!), Take Time to be Silly, and many more. I can't say that I immediately went out and made myself a million projects to try, but I definitely enjoyed reading about her year, and I think it's a book I'll return to every so often to give myself a boost.

Bite Me: A Love Story -Christopher Moore
I do love me some Christopher Moore. This was the latest in the vampire-y series, which isn't my very favourite stuff of his, but is reliably silly and funny, as expected. Good times.

The Book of Dahlia -Elisa Albert
I went into this one knowing nothing about it, but somehow having the idea that it was some sort of murder mystery or thriller or something (maybe the name Dahlia made me think of the Black Dahlia? Dunno.) That's not what it's about! It's about a slackery, misanthropic 30-year-old woman who is diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumour. No one in the book is particularly likable, but the writing is great and the story definitely drew me in. Funny and sad.

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close -Jonathan Safran Foer
I liked Foer's first novel just fine, but this one just slayed me. So much love. Experimental and emotional and funny and terribly sad and just...LOVE. Oskar is a weirdly precocious 9-year-old whose father died in the Sept 11 attacks, and who sets out on a quest across New York City to find the lock that fits a mysterious key. Foer intertwines this with the story of Oskar's grandparents (including some passages so beautifully written that I gasped out loud), and the novel is also studded with photographs and drawings and other bits of experimental layout. Possibly too precious or consciously sentimental for some, I totally bought in to it and it got to me big time. I burst out laughing, and crying, several times. Highly recommended.

I gotta catch up on this!

June was a giant roadtrip, basically, so I didn't really read much. I get a bit sick reading in a car (plus I figured making conversation is the politer option!)

So, yeah. Only three books read. Let's see if I remember anything about them two months later!

Committed: A Skeptic Makes Peace with Marriage -Elizabeth Gilbert
I read Eat, Pray, Love several years ago when it first came out (before all the hype) and really enjoyed it, so I was intrigued to read this followup. I have also often been fairly skeptical of marriage (and yet find myself contemplating it), so the subject matter interested me. Gilbert has a way with a phrase, and did a lot of interesting research on the history of marriage. I enjoyed the book!

A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary For Lovers -Xiaolu Guo
I picked this up based on the concept: a young Chinese woman comes to London to learn English, and, as it's written from her perspective, the grammar and vocabulary of the book improve as the character's English improves. I thought it was a really interesting idea! The plot of the book was pretty standard, but I loved the experimental style. From choppy, broken English at first to complex fluency by the end. Neat idea.

The 100-Mile Diet -Alisa Smith and James McKinnon
I certainly admired this book, and the yearlong experiment this couple undertook. Eating local is a great idea, but they went hardcore! It hardly seems realistic for most people to go quite as far as they did, but it was a very eye-opening idea. Anything that gets me thinking about where my food comes from is a good idea. I try and get local food, and looooooove farmer's market season, but I confess that I couldn't possibly live without things like avocado, so a fully local diet ain't gonna happen.

I heart movies. I saw three movies in July, and they were all excellent!

The Kids Are All Right has great performances and a good script and was overall very good and recommendable, although there were a couple of plot points that I didn't totally buy, or thought maybe the tone was a bit off. I may need to watch it again to get my thoughts clearer. Mostly, I thought it was awesome.

And speaking of awesome, Inception blew my mind up into a million pieces. Unlike some overly ambitious/complicated/layers of reality movies, I thought this was constructed in such a way that I pretty much knew what was going on, which was nice. I didn't particularly care about the central relationship that a lot of things hinge on, but the visual stuff was so awesomely fantastic, it didn't bother me too much. Ellen Page-as-exposition-fairy was just fine by me (an area that some people didn't like) and Joseph Gordon-Leavitt should be in all movies, weightless fighting or no weightless fighting. He's awesome.

Toy Story 3 made me laugh and cry, as predicted. I'm not a giant animation fan, but Pixar makes good movies, it's true. Well done, and lives up to the quality of the first two. I particularly enjoyed Michael Keaton as a Ken doll.


On DVD, we watched a couple of movies that I'd seen and enjoyed, but CJP hadn't ever seen. I introduced him to:

Searching For Debra Winger, a very cool documentary that Rosanna Arquette made about women in Hollywood. She set out to find out why Debra Winger quit the business (this movie came out several years ago, before Winger was in Rachel Getting Married) and along the way interviewed dozens of actresses about acting, motherhood, getting older in Hollywood, etc. Very interesting movie.

In unpacking, I came across a cassette of the Newsies soundtrack, which led to me to force CJP to watch the movie. It was a favourite of mine when I was a teenager, but I warned him that except for the big dance numbers, it was pretty bad in my memory. And woah, is it! Bad, that is. There are definitely some fun song and dance bits, but any time there's no music, the movie stops dead in its tracks. Robert Duvall is TERRIBLE, Ann-Margret is terrifying. But, still--I had the songs in my head for weeks after, and I can see why teenaged me liked it. Cast of dozens of cute teenage boys singing and dancing. My kind of movie!

We have also embarked on a grand and glorious Buffy rewatch. Well, rewatch for me, first time for CJP! In July we watched Seasons 1 and 2. Man, I love that show. It's exciting to watch it with someone who hasn't seen it. Whenever I know there's an episode or a plot point or even a funny line coming up, I can watch him enjoy it, which is super fun for me!


We went to the theatre, also! A young local company, Fighting Chance Productions, was putting on Hair. It was great! Mostly excellent voices, some cool staging ideas. I love the music in Hair so much-it was great to hear it done well. Yay, theatre!

I only saw one movie in the theatre in June--the French film A Prophet (Un Prophète). It was nominated last year for an Oscar, and had amazing reviews. I thought it was a very well-made and interesting movie, but the violence was a bit much for me. I mean, it's an intense drama set in a French prison, so the violence wasn't gratuitous or unexpected, but I watched the movie through my fingers for a good portion. Overall, I still thought it was a very compelling story, with great performances.


On DVD:

My friend S has a great knack for going to the video store and picking totally random, weird little movies that I haven't even heard of--and I've heard of most! To wir: Peacock, a totally random, weird little movie starring Cillian Murphy as a man with a female second personality. When a train crashes into his backyard, some townspeople meet the female personality for the first time and assume she's the protagonist's wife. Also starring Ellen Page and Susan Sarandon. Not bad, pretty odd.

CJP was distressed to learn that I had never seen Searching for Bobby Fischer, so we rectified that. It was great! Very compelling.

A Time For Burning was nominated for the best documentary feature Oscar in 1967, which is how it made its way to our Zip queue. It's a fascinating look at a church in Nebraska, and its pastor's attempt to start a dialogue between his congregants and members of a local black church. Definitely worth searching out.


TV-on-DVD-wise, I'm still working through Bones, and just got through Season 3. I'm definitely still really enjoying it. On a side note, CJP and I just started a Buffy re-watch (well, re-watch for me, first time for him!) and man, does David B look young!!


I saw a lot of live theatre this month, because, oh yeah, I went to New York!!! Always a fantastic trip.

Sondheim on Sondheim is a revue of SS's work, coupled with cool multimedia components. Between songs, there are big video screens showing old-and-new interviews with Sondheim talking about his writing process and even his personal life. Very cool. Neat staging, too, and excellent performances. It was a real treat to see Barbara Cook! My other favourite was Norm Lewis, who can feel free to sing to me any time. His "Being Alive" was insane. Love love love.

Why stop at one Sondheim show? We next took in the revival of A Little Night Music starring Angela Lansbury (!!^*#*&^*&@^!!!) and Catherine Zeta-Jones, who were both excellent. It was a somewhat scaled-down revival in terms of sets, cast size and orchestra, but it was still really effective. "Send In The Clowns" may be a bit (!) of an old warhorse at this point, but in the context of the show, it's devastating, and C Z-J brought it.

Having forgotten that some shows have different weekly show schedules, we weren't able to see the show we were planning for on the Wednesday night we were there (Next to Normal), so we somewhat spontaneously chose Everyday Rapture as a fill-in. It's a semi-autobiographical basically one-woman (there are also two backup singers and a brief cameo by a kid) show starring Sherie Rene Scott, one of my favourite theatre singers. She takes us, through the use of pop songs and stories, from her childhood as a half-Mennonite in Kansas all the way to the semi-big time on Broadway. She has a great voice and a totally winning, weirdo kook persona. I dug it!

After three pretty small shows by Broadway standards, we wanted to see a big old serious capital-B Broadway Musical! Mary Poppins did not disappoint. We chose it because a theatre school friend of mine was in it, and I'm glad we did! It was big--big cast, big set, big Disney Magic. I totally enjoyed it--not to mention, it was awesome to see a friend on Broadway! After the show, he met us at the stage door and gave us a tour of the stage area. Awesome!

Speaking of friends in shows, when I got to Vancouver, one of the first things I did was go see a production of The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee that several friends and acquaintances are in. It was excellent. I love having talented friends!!