2018 50/50 Challenge - 50 Books & 50 Movies in One Year

[B]

I, Tonya

Just finished that. I was expecting boring Oscar schlock, but I loved it. Everyone was great in it.

[epilogue]

I, Tonya

Just finished that. I was expecting boring Oscar schlock, but I loved it. Everyone was great in it.

[epilogue]

Books: 16/50:
1. Ernest Hemingway on Writing
2. The Secret History of Twin Peaks by Mark Frost
3. Raven Girl by Audrey Niffenegger
4. Gilead by Marilynne Robinson
5. Pattern Recognition by Wiiliam Gibson
6. Ancient History - David Ives
7. Freedom - Jonathan Franzen
8. Crapalachia - Scott McClanahan
9. Exit Ghost - Philip Roth
10. The Westing Game - Ellen Raskin
11. To Peter Pan on Her 70th Birthday - Sarah Ruhl
12. Universal Harvester - John Darnielle
13. Paris Nocturne - Patrick Modiano
14. The Cave - Jose Saramago
15. How To Win A War (first draft) - Brady Gerber
16. Lincoln in the Bardo - George Saunders

Movies: 25/50:
1. Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
2. What If
3. Logan
4. The Shape of Water
5. Call Me By Your Name
6. Phantom Thread
7. A Bad Moms Christmas
8. A Ghost Story
9. A Futile and Stupid Gesture
10. Black Panther
11. David Bowie: The Last Five Years
12. Annihilation
13. Girls Trip
14. The House
15. A Quiet Place
16. License to Wed
17. Kodachrome
18. Downsizing
19. Coco
20. Thor: Ragnarok
21. Disobedience
22. Tully
23. Solo: A Star Wars Story
24. Won't You Be My Neighbor?
25. Sorry to Bother You

[Stardog Champion]

I, Tonya

Just finished that. I was expecting boring Oscar schlock, but I loved it. Everyone was great in it.

Completely agree. Fantastic performances throughout. It also added some nice depth to a story I thought I knew pretty well, having been aware of it when it all happened.

[bada]

Books:
01. The Cold Dish (Walt Longmire, #1)
02. Pastime (Spenser, #18)
03. Fletch's Fortune (Fletch, #3)
04. Pacific Vortex! (Dirk Pitt, #1)
05. True Grit
06. Stardust
07. Blood Meridian or the Evening Redness in the West
08. Norse Mythology
09. The Bat (Harry Hole, #1)
10. Live and Let Die (James Bond, #2)
11. Death Without Company (Walt Longmire, #2)
12. Firestarter
13. The Terror
14. Sherlock Holmes: The Complete Novels and Stories, Volume I
15. The Complete Chronicles of Conan
16. The Jungle Books
17. Tom Sawyer (The Adventures of Tom and Huck #1)
18. Huckleberry Finn (The Adventures of Tom and Huck #2)
19. The Dragon and the George (Dragon Knight, #1)
20. The Mysterious Affair at Styles (Hercule Poirot, #1)
21. Fletch and the Widow Bradley (Fletch, #4)
22. Double Deuce (Spenser #19)
23. The Old Man and the Sea

Movies:
01. Safari (1956)
02. Ice Station Zebra (1968)
03. Knights of the Round Table (1953)
04. The Maltese Falcon (1941)
05. History of Iron Maiden Part 1 (2004)
06. Black Panther (2018)
07. Avengers: Infinity War (2018)
08. Baywatch (2017)
09. The Secret of the Incas (1954)
10. History of Iron Maiden Part 2 (2008)
11. The Naked Jungle (1954)
12. Legend Of The Lost (1957)
13. Valley Of The Kings (1954)
14. The Conqueror (1956)
15. History of Iron Maiden Part 3 (2012)
16. Gunga Din (1939)
17. Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol (2011)
18. The Seven-Ups (1973)
19. Incredibles 2 (2018)
20. Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation (2015)
21. Spectre (2015)
22. Fate Of The Furious (2017)
23. Action Point (2018)

Video Games:
01. Uncharted: Drake's Fortune Remastered (PS4)
02. Uncharted 2: Among Thieves Remastered (PS4)
03. Super Mario Odyssey (Switch)
04. Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception Remastered (PS4)
05. Uncharted 4: A Thief's End (PS4)

[bune]

Hit 50 books this month. Comment for the month: A Wrinkle in Time was a terrible movie. Everyone in my family hated it, including the kid that recently read and loved the book.

Same here. Still can't get over the flying cabbage.

I also bested 50 books

58/50 Books

• Son of Retro Pulp Tales by Joe R. Lansdale
  Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein
  The World of Lore: Monstrous Creatures by Aaron Mahnke
  A Wrinkle in Time: The Graphic Novel by Hope Larson
  Cassandra French's Finishing School for Boys: A Novel by Eric Garcia
  We Were Eight Years in Power: An American Tragedy by Ta-Nehisi Coates
  William Shakespeare's Star Wars: Verily, A New Hope by Ian Doescher (AB)
  A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle
  Null States by Malka Ann Older
  Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers (Red Dwarf #1) by Grant Naylor (AB)
  Better than Life (Red Dwarf #2) by Grant Naylor (AB)
  Backwards (Red Dwarf #4) by Rob Grant (AB)
  Last Human (Red Dwarf #3) by Doug Naylor (AB)
  Sleepwalk With Me and Other Painfully True Stories by Mike Birbiglia
  Shadow Moon (Chronicles of the Shadow War #1) by Chris Claremont, George Lucas
  Who Could That Be at This Hour? (All the Wrong Questions #1) by Lemony Snicket
  You're Saying It Wrong: A Pronunciation Guide to the 150 Most Commonly Mispronounced Words by Ross Petras and Kathryn Petras
  Mr. and Mrs. Bunny—Detectives Extraordinaire! by Polly Horvath
  When Did You See Her Last? (All the Wrong Questions #2) by Lemony Snicket
  Lord and Lady Bunny--Almost Royalty! by Polly Horvath
  File Under: 13 Suspicious Incidents (All the Wrong Questions, #2.5) by Lemony Snicket
  Shadow Dawn (Chronicles of the Shadow War #2) by Chris Claremont, George Lucas
  1984 by George Orwell (AB)
  Moone Boy: The Blunder Years by Chris O'Dowd
  Dragonslayer by Wayland Drew
  Willow (Chronicles of the Shadow War) by Wayland Drew
  Moone Boy: The Fish Detective by Chris O'Dowd
  The Last Jedi by Jason Fry (AB)
  The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Robert A. Heinlein (AB)
  All Systems Red (The Murderbot Diaries #1) by Martha Wells (AB)
  The Smartest Book in the World by Greg? Proops (AB)
  Only Human (Themis Files #3) by Sylvain Neuvel (AB)
  Shadow Star (Chronicles of the Shadow War #3) by Chris Claremont
  20th Century Ghosts by Joe Hill (AB)
  Ship of Fools by Richard Paul Russo
  Shouldn't You Be in School? (All the Wrong Questions #3) by Lemony Snicket
  Pines (Wayward Pines #1) by Blake Crouch
  Wayward (Wayward Pines #2) by Blake Crouch
  Horns by Joe Hill (AB)
  The Last Town (Wayward Pines #3) by Blake Crouch
  Holidays on Ice by David Sedaris
  Mustache Shenanigans: Making Super Troopers and Other Adventures in Comedy by Jay Chandrasekhar
  Why Is This Night Different from All Other Nights? (All the Wrong Questions #4) by Lemony Snicket
  Guardians of the Whills by Greg? Rucka
  FantasticLand by Mike Bockoven
  The Escape Artist by Brad Meltzer
  Savage Season (Hap and Leonard #1) by Joe R. Lansdale
  The Strange Affair of Spring Heeled Jack (Burton & Swinburne #1) by Mark Hodder
  Adjustment Day by Chuck Palahniuk
  False Idols (The Dragon Lords #2) by Jon Hollins
  Challenger Deep by Neal Shusterman
  Night Shift by Stephen King
  Blindsight (Firefall #1) by Peter Watts
  The Blade Itself (The First Law #1) by Joe Abercrombie
  Gideon's Sword (Gideon Crew #1) by Douglas Preston, Lincoln Child
  Gideon's Corpse (Gideon Crew #2) by Douglas Preston, Lincoln Child
  The Hatching (The Hatching #1) by Ezekiel Boone
  The Lost Island (Gideon Crew #3) by Douglas Preston, Lincoln Child

Adjustment Day is a mid-tier book from Chuck. I liked the book, I just thought that there were too many stories that were largely ignored near the end. Oh and the cover is a huge problem for me: It says twice (once by the person who 'wrote' the book-within-the-book) that it's the left ear. What's on the cover? Right ears! Lazy art. (view spoiler)

This book certainly is an exercise in radicalization. There were many times where I was thinking to myself, "This guy's saying what we're all thinking" and then I realized that he was a crazy person and I was agreeing with a crazy person. That's how it starts: you hear some of the arguments that sound like they were tailor made for you and it can make you disregard the other parts that don't and then suddenly you're driving a Dodge Charger in Charlottesville.

False Idols was alright but you could probably cut 15% of the book out if you just had some characters talk to each other instead of doing the usual trope of "no, not my problem yet so I'm going to ignore it for now until it is my problem". Some funny bits though and the third one is out next month.

Challenger Deep is hard to review because it's a product of time for me as the last two months or so have seen me hitting the deepest (hence the title) parts of my depression ever so reading this was like reading a book someone wrote to me. (I'm not schizophrenic though so that part missed me by).

The part that stood out for me the most is where Caden realizes that while his mental illness is affecting him, it is also affecting his family. It's certainly possible to lose yourself in your illness to the point where you forget about what it's doing to the people around you. It's hard to force yourself to see outside of what is happening to you to see what is happening to them.

I'm purchasing the hardcover so I can highlight parts and write in the margins.

36/50 Movies

• Kingsman: The Golden Circle (2017)
  The Dark Tower (2017)
  Kong: Skull Island (2017)
  Justice League (2017)
  Geostorm (2017)
  The Book of Henry (2017)
  Black Panther (2018)
  Being Canadian (2015)
  Willow (1988)
  Justice League Dark (2017)
  Despicable Me 3 (2017)
  Journey Through the Past (1974)
  Coco (2017)
  The Music of Strangers (2015)
  The Big Sick (2017)
  Chronicle (2012)
  Transformers: The Last Knight (2017)
  Darkest Hour (2017)
  The Man Who Invented Christmas (2017)
  The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966)
  Ready Player One (2018)
  Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle (2017)
  Avengers: Infinity War (2018)
  Peter Rabbit (2018)
  Paddington 2 (2017)
  The Greatest Showman (2017)
  Murder on the Orient Express (2017)
  Solo (2018)
  Annihilation (2018)
  Incredibles 2 (2018)
  A Wrinkle in Time (2018)
  Pacific Rim: Uprising (2018)
  Sherlock Gnomes (2018)
  CHiPS (2017)
  The Equalizer (2014)
  Bubble Boy (2001)
  Beerfest (2006)
  Best in Show (2000)
  Keeping Up with the Joneses (2016)
  Inside Man (2006)
  Mission Impossible 2 (2000)

Chips was hilarious. I've only seen Michael Peña in the Ant-Man movie (and I guess Wrinkle but that was dumb) so it was great seeing how funny he was. The Equalizer was pretty good, though a little extended, if that makes sense? Bubble Boy was kind of dumb, though Zach Galifianakis was hilarious. The incredibly racist Chinese-guy scene was pretty awkward to be sure. And the weird poontang editing with the backfires? They could say poonanny but not poontang? Beerfest was just muddled.

[4/5]

Books (12/50)
1. Infinite Jest--David Foster Wallace
2. The Anti-Capitalistic Mindset--Ludwig von Mises
3. The Quartet: Orchestrating the Second American Revolution 1783-1789--Joseph Ellis
4. Thoughts on Government--John Adams
5. The Three Languages of Politics--Arnold Kling
6. How Adam Smith Can Change Your Life--Russ Roberts
7. The Courage to Act: A Memoir of a Crisis and its Aftermath--Ben Bernanke
8. The Adobe Photoshop CS6 Book for Digital Photographers--Scott Kelby
9. Free to Choose--Milton Friedman
10. Homage to Catalonia--George Orwell
11. Active Liberty--Stephen Breyer
12. Revolutionary Russia 1891-1991: A History--Orlando Figes

Movies (18/50)
1. Braveheart
2. Baby Driver
3. Ocean's Eleven
4. Inside Llewyn Davis
5. Tinker Tailor Solider Spy
6. An Invisible Sign
7. Black Panther
8. Flight
9. Annie Hall
10. Malcolm X
11. Fences
12. Three Billboards Outside of Ebbing, Missouri
13. Darkest Hour
14. Walk the Line
15. Do the Right Thing
16. Spider-Man: Homecoming
17. Sully
18. Whiplash

[Stardog Champion]

Books 30/50
Sing Unburied Sing - Jesmyn Ward
And The Mountains Echoed - Khaled Hosseini
The Alchemist - Paulo Coelho
Women And Power - Mary Beard
Tales Of Ordinary Madness - Charles Bukowski
Mystery Train: Images Of America In Rock N Roll Music - Greil Marcus
Between The World And Me - Ta-Nehisi Coates
Wolf In White Van - John Darnielle
A Mercy - Toni Morrison
The Importance Of Being Earnest and Four Other Plays - Oscar Wilde
Love Goes To Buildings On Fire - Will Hermes
Cat's Cradle - Kurt Vonnegut
Shake It Up: Great American Writing On Rock And Pop From Elvis To Jay-Z - Various Authors (Edited by Jonathan Lethem)
The Picture Of Dorian Gray - Oscar Wilde
Marvel 1602 - Neil Gaiman (not sure if this counts)
Tartuffe - Moliere
Slam - Nick Hornby
Good Omens - Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett
Twilight of the Gods - Steven Hyden
Adjustment Day - Chuck Palahniuk
Dawn - Elie Wiesel
East, West - Salman Rushdie
Salvage The Bones - Jesmyn Ward (best book I've read so far this year)
Milk It - Jim DeRogatis
Barracoon - Zora Neale Hurston
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court - Mark Twain
A Man Called Ove - Fredrik Backman
The Master and Margarita - Mikhail Bulgakov
Go Tell It On The Mountain - James Baldwin
The Complete Stories - Flannery O'Connor

Movies 27/50
Hell Or High Water
Black Panther
Lego Ninjago
Bowie The Last Five Years
Baby Driver
Pitch Perfect 3
Coco
Girls Trip
Isle Of Dogs
Andre The Giant
Lady Bird
Avengers Infinity War
It
Atomic Blonde
Disaster Artist
Fahrenheit 451
Deadpool 2
Three Billboards
I, Tonya
Hereditary
Dunkirk
Kong Skull Island
East of Eden
Fist Fight
The Equalizer 2
Justice League
Robin Williams: Come Inside My Mind

[epilogue]

Books: 17/50:
1. Ernest Hemingway on Writing
2. The Secret History of Twin Peaks by Mark Frost
3. Raven Girl by Audrey Niffenegger
4. Gilead by Marilynne Robinson
5. Pattern Recognition by Wiiliam Gibson
6. Ancient History - David Ives
7. Freedom - Jonathan Franzen
8. Crapalachia - Scott McClanahan
9. Exit Ghost - Philip Roth
10. The Westing Game - Ellen Raskin
11. To Peter Pan on Her 70th Birthday - Sarah Ruhl
12. Universal Harvester - John Darnielle
13. Paris Nocturne - Patrick Modiano
14. The Cave - Jose Saramago
15. How To Win A War (first draft) - Brady Gerber
16. Lincoln in the Bardo - George Saunders
17. The Mars Room - Rachel Kushner

Movies: 25/50:
1. Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
2. What If
3. Logan
4. The Shape of Water
5. Call Me By Your Name
6. Phantom Thread
7. A Bad Moms Christmas
8. A Ghost Story
9. A Futile and Stupid Gesture
10. Black Panther
11. David Bowie: The Last Five Years
12. Annihilation
13. Girls Trip
14. The House
15. A Quiet Place
16. License to Wed
17. Kodachrome
18. Downsizing
19. Coco
20. Thor: Ragnarok
21. Disobedience
22. Tully
23. Solo: A Star Wars Story
24. Won't You Be My Neighbor?
25. Sorry to Bother You

[epilogue]

Books: 18/50:
1. Ernest Hemingway on Writing
2. The Secret History of Twin Peaks by Mark Frost
3. Raven Girl by Audrey Niffenegger
4. Gilead by Marilynne Robinson
5. Pattern Recognition by Wiiliam Gibson
6. Ancient History - David Ives
7. Freedom - Jonathan Franzen
8. Crapalachia - Scott McClanahan
9. Exit Ghost - Philip Roth
10. The Westing Game - Ellen Raskin
11. To Peter Pan on Her 70th Birthday - Sarah Ruhl
12. Universal Harvester - John Darnielle
13. Paris Nocturne - Patrick Modiano
14. The Cave - Jose Saramago
15. How To Win A War (first draft) - Brady Gerber
16. Lincoln in the Bardo - George Saunders
17. The Mars Room - Rachel Kushner
18. When Women Were Birds - Terry Tempest Williams

Movies: 25/50:
1. Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
2. What If
3. Logan
4. The Shape of Water
5. Call Me By Your Name
6. Phantom Thread
7. A Bad Moms Christmas
8. A Ghost Story
9. A Futile and Stupid Gesture
10. Black Panther
11. David Bowie: The Last Five Years
12. Annihilation
13. Girls Trip
14. The House
15. A Quiet Place
16. License to Wed
17. Kodachrome
18. Downsizing
19. Coco
20. Thor: Ragnarok
21. Disobedience
22. Tully
23. Solo: A Star Wars Story
24. Won't You Be My Neighbor?
25. Sorry to Bother You

[4/5]

Books (17/50)
1. Infinite Jest--David Foster Wallace
2. The Anti-Capitalistic Mindset--Ludwig von Mises
3. The Quartet: Orchestrating the Second American Revolution 1783-1789--Joseph Ellis
4. Thoughts on Government--John Adams
5. The Three Languages of Politics--Arnold Kling
6. How Adam Smith Can Change Your Life--Russ Roberts
7. The Courage to Act: A Memoir of a Crisis and its Aftermath--Ben Bernanke
8. The Adobe Photoshop CS6 Book for Digital Photographers--Scott Kelby
9. Free to Choose--Milton Friedman
10. Homage to Catalonia--George Orwell
11. Active Liberty--Stephen Breyer
12. Revolutionary Russia 1891-1991: A History--Orlando Figes
13. Animal Farm--George Orwell
14. The Seven Ages of Paris--Alistair Horne
15. We--Yevgeny Zamyatin
16. How to Win Friends and Influence People--Dale Carnegie
17. The Communist Manifesto--Karl Marx and Friedrich Engles

Movies (22/50)
1. Braveheart
2. Baby Driver
3. Ocean's Eleven
4. Inside Llewyn Davis
5. Tinker Tailor Solider Spy
6. An Invisible Sign
7. Black Panther
8. Flight
9. Annie Hall
10. Malcolm X
11. Fences
12. Three Billboards Outside of Ebbing, Missouri
13. Darkest Hour
14. Walk the Line
15. Do the Right Thing
16. Spider-Man: Homecoming
17. Sully
18. Whiplash
19. The Incredibles
20. The Redeemed and the Dominant
21. The Last Jedi
22. The Grapes of Wrath

[Stardog Champion]

Books 32/50
Sing Unburied Sing - Jesmyn Ward
And The Mountains Echoed - Khaled Hosseini
The Alchemist - Paulo Coelho
Women And Power - Mary Beard
Tales Of Ordinary Madness - Charles Bukowski
Mystery Train: Images Of America In Rock N Roll Music - Greil Marcus
Between The World And Me - Ta-Nehisi Coates
Wolf In White Van - John Darnielle
A Mercy - Toni Morrison
The Importance Of Being Earnest and Four Other Plays - Oscar Wilde
Love Goes To Buildings On Fire - Will Hermes
Cat's Cradle - Kurt Vonnegut
Shake It Up: Great American Writing On Rock And Pop From Elvis To Jay-Z - Various Authors (Edited by Jonathan Lethem)
The Picture Of Dorian Gray - Oscar Wilde
Marvel 1602 - Neil Gaiman (not sure if this counts)
Tartuffe - Moliere
Slam - Nick Hornby
Good Omens - Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett
Twilight of the Gods - Steven Hyden
Adjustment Day - Chuck Palahniuk
Dawn - Elie Wiesel
East, West - Salman Rushdie
Salvage The Bones - Jesmyn Ward (best book I've read so far this year)
Milk It - Jim DeRogatis
Barracoon - Zora Neale Hurston
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court - Mark Twain
A Man Called Ove - Fredrik Backman
The Master and Margarita - Mikhail Bulgakov
Go Tell It On The Mountain - James Baldwin
The Complete Stories - Flannery O'Connor
Big Fish - Daniel Wallace
Underworld - Don DeLillo

Movies 29/50
Hell Or High Water
Black Panther
Lego Ninjago
Bowie The Last Five Years
Baby Driver
Pitch Perfect 3
Coco
Girls Trip
Isle Of Dogs
Andre The Giant
Lady Bird
Avengers Infinity War
It
Atomic Blonde
Disaster Artist
Fahrenheit 451
Deadpool 2
Three Billboards
I, Tonya
Hereditary
Dunkirk
Kong Skull Island
East of Eden
Fist Fight
The Equalizer 2
Justice League
Robin Williams: Come Inside My Mind
Stripes
Battle of the Sexes

[B]

Movies
1. Bright (2017)
2. An Inconvenient Sequel (2017)
3. Alien: Covenant (2017)
4. Paddington 2 (2018)
5. Inside Man (2006)
6. Baby’s Day Out (1994)
7. Dave Made a Maze (2017)
8. Hidden Figures (2016)
9. Brad’s Status (2017)
10. The Cloverfield Paradox (2018)
11. Ingrid Goes West (2017)
12. North by Northwest (1959)
13. Primer (2004)
14. Kingsman: The Golden Circle (2017)
15. Boy (2010)
16. Professor Marston and the Wonder Women (2017)
17. Icarus (2017)
18. Eagle vs. Shark (2007)
19. 1922 (2017)
20. Black Panther (2018)
21. Dunkirk (2017)
22. Blade Runner 2049 (2017)
23. Cell (2016)
24. The Florida Project (2017)
25. Moonlight (2016)
26. Jumanji (2017)
27. Ratatouille (2007)
28. The Greatest Showman (2017)
29. Avengers: Infinity War (2018)
30. Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017)
31. Justice League vs. Teen Titans (2016)
32. Justice League (2017)
33. The Descent (2005)
34. Curse of Chucky (2013)
35. Cult of Chucky (2017)
36. Cargo (2018)
37. Solo (2018)
38. The Shape of Water (2017)
39. Howl’s Moving Castle (2004)
40. Baywatch (2017)
41. Lady Bird (2017)
42. A Wrinkle in Time (2018)
43. Incredibles 2 (2018)
44. It (2017)
45. Batman: The Killing Joke (2016)
46. Transformers: The Last Knight (2017)
47. I, Tonya (2017)
48. Annihilation (2018)
49. A Ghost Story (2017)
50. Raging Bull (1980)
51. Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018)
52. Vertigo (1958)

Books
Key: AB=Audiobook, TP=Trade Paperback, GN=Graphic Novel
1. The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck (AB)
2. What Unites Us by Dan Rather (AB)
3. Aphra (TP)
4. Endurance by Scott Kelly (AB)
5. The Silent Corner by Dean Koontz
6. The Chronology of Water by Lidia Yuknavich (AB)
7. Hacks by Donna Brazile (AB)
8. Woman Rebel by Peter Bagge (GN)
9. Strange Weather by Joe Hill (AB)
10. Fire and Fury by Michael Wolff (AB)
11. Things My Girlfriend and I Have Argued About by Mil Millington (bailed at 230/394p)
12: Star Wars: Last Flight of the Harbinger (TP)
13. One Shot by Lee Child (AB)
14. March (Books 1-3) by John Lewis (GN)
15. Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson (AB)
16. Shrill by Lindy West
17. In a Dark, Dark Wood by Ruth Ware (AB)
18. Spider-Gwen: Weapon of Choice (TP)
19. A-Force: Warzones (TP)
20. The Trouble with Reality by Brooke Gladstone
21. You’re Saying It Wrong by Ross Petras
22. Bush by Jean Edward Smith (AB)
23. Darth Vader: Imperial Machine (TP)
24. Walking Dead 29: Lines We Cross (TP)
* Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward (AB)
25. Educated by Tara Westover (AB)
26. Lust and Wonder by Augusten Burroughs (AB)
27. Time Salvager by Wesley Chu (AB)
28. The Life and Death of Superman by Roger Stern
29. Black Panther: A Nation Under Our Feet by Ta-Nehisi Coates (TP)
30. The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu by Joshua Hammer (AB)
31. Saga: Volume 7 (TP)
32. The Radium Girls by Kate Moore (AB)
33. The Monk of Mokha by Dave Eggers (AB)
34. An American Marriage by Tayari Jones (AB)
35. A Higher Loyalty by James Comey (AB)
36. Unicorn of Many Hats by Dana Simpson (GN)
37. Supernatural Enhancements by Edgar Cantero
38. The Divide by Matt Taibbi (AB)
39. Screaming Citadel by Kieron Gillen (TP)
40. The Hard Way by Lee Child (AB)
41. Dear Madam President by Jennifer Palmieri
42. The Incredible Hulk: The Future Imperfect by Peter David (GN)
43. The Power by Naomi Alderman (AB)
44. Annihilation by Jeff Vandermeer (AB)
45. Be Prepared by Vera Brosgol (GN)
46. Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterly (AB)
47. Frankenstein in Baghdad by Ahmed Saadawi
48. All Star Superman by Grant Morrison (GN)
49. Marvels by Kurt Busiek (GN)
50. The Outsider by Stephen King (AB)
51. Aftermath: Life Debt by Chuck Wendig (AB)
52. Calypso by David Sedaris (AB)
53. The Wide Window by Lemony Snicket (AB)
* The Hidden Reality by Brian Greene (did not finish)
54. The Death of Mrs. Westaway by Ruth Ware (AB)
55. The Time Machine by H.G. Wells (AB)
56. The Miserable Mill by Lemony Snicket (AB)
57. The Hunger by Alma Katsu
58. The Last American Vampire by Seth Grahame-Smith (AB)
59. A.D. After Death, Book One by Scott Snyder (GN)
60. The Recovering by Leslie Jamison (AB)
* No One Can Pronounce My Name by Rakesh Satyal (did not finish)
61. Darth Vader: Legacy’s End by Charles Soule (TP)
62. The Flash: Rebirth by Geoff Johns (TP)
63. #NeverAgain by David & Lauren Hogg
64. The Mighty Thor: Lords of Midgard (TP)
65. The Minority Report and Other Stories by Philip K. Dick (AB)

[bune]

67/50 Books

• Son of Retro Pulp Tales by Joe R. Lansdale
  Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein
  The World of Lore: Monstrous Creatures by Aaron Mahnke
  A Wrinkle in Time: The Graphic Novel by Hope Larson
  Cassandra French's Finishing School for Boys: A Novel by Eric Garcia
  We Were Eight Years in Power: An American Tragedy by Ta-Nehisi Coates
  William Shakespeare's Star Wars: Verily, A New Hope by Ian Doescher (AB)
  A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle
  Null States by Malka Ann Older
  Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers (Red Dwarf #1) by Grant Naylor (AB)
  Better than Life (Red Dwarf #2) by Grant Naylor (AB)
  Backwards (Red Dwarf #4) by Rob Grant (AB)
  Last Human (Red Dwarf #3) by Doug Naylor (AB)
  Sleepwalk With Me and Other Painfully True Stories by Mike Birbiglia
  Shadow Moon (Chronicles of the Shadow War #1) by Chris Claremont, George Lucas
  Who Could That Be at This Hour? (All the Wrong Questions #1) by Lemony Snicket
  You're Saying It Wrong: A Pronunciation Guide to the 150 Most Commonly Mispronounced Words by Ross Petras and Kathryn Petras
  Mr. and Mrs. Bunny—Detectives Extraordinaire! by Polly Horvath
  When Did You See Her Last? (All the Wrong Questions #2) by Lemony Snicket
  Lord and Lady Bunny--Almost Royalty! by Polly Horvath
  File Under: 13 Suspicious Incidents (All the Wrong Questions, #2.5) by Lemony Snicket
  Shadow Dawn (Chronicles of the Shadow War #2) by Chris Claremont, George Lucas
  1984 by George Orwell (AB)
  Moone Boy: The Blunder Years by Chris O'Dowd
  Dragonslayer by Wayland Drew
  Willow (Chronicles of the Shadow War) by Wayland Drew
  Moone Boy: The Fish Detective by Chris O'Dowd
  The Last Jedi by Jason Fry (AB)
  The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Robert A. Heinlein (AB)
  All Systems Red (The Murderbot Diaries #1) by Martha Wells (AB)
  The Smartest Book in the World by Greg? Proops (AB)
  Only Human (Themis Files #3) by Sylvain Neuvel (AB)
  Shadow Star (Chronicles of the Shadow War #3) by Chris Claremont
  20th Century Ghosts by Joe Hill (AB)
  Ship of Fools by Richard Paul Russo
  Shouldn't You Be in School? (All the Wrong Questions #3) by Lemony Snicket
  Pines (Wayward Pines #1) by Blake Crouch
  Wayward (Wayward Pines #2) by Blake Crouch
  Horns by Joe Hill (AB)
  The Last Town (Wayward Pines #3) by Blake Crouch
  Holidays on Ice by David Sedaris
  Mustache Shenanigans: Making Super Troopers and Other Adventures in Comedy by Jay Chandrasekhar
  Why Is This Night Different from All Other Nights? (All the Wrong Questions #4) by Lemony Snicket
  Guardians of the Whills by Greg? Rucka
  FantasticLand by Mike Bockoven
  The Escape Artist by Brad Meltzer
  Savage Season (Hap and Leonard #1) by Joe R. Lansdale
  The Strange Affair of Spring Heeled Jack (Burton & Swinburne #1) by Mark Hodder
  Adjustment Day by Chuck Palahniuk
  False Idols (The Dragon Lords #2) by Jon Hollins
  Challenger Deep by Neal Shusterman
  Night Shift by Stephen King
  Blindsight (Firefall #1) by Peter Watts (AB)
  The Blade Itself (The First Law #1) by Joe Abercrombie
  Gideon's Sword (Gideon Crew #1) by Douglas Preston, Lincoln Child
  Gideon's Corpse (Gideon Crew #2) by Douglas Preston, Lincoln Child
  The Hatching (The Hatching #1) by Ezekiel Boone
  The Lost Island (Gideon Crew #3) by Douglas Preston, Lincoln Child
  Beyond the Ice Limit (Gideon Crew #4) by Douglas Preston, Lincoln Child
  The Pharaoh Key (Gideon Crew #5) by Douglas Preston, Lincoln Child
  The Authorities™ by Scott Meyer
  Frank Miller's RoboCop by Frank Miller (GN)
  Deadpool Kills the Marvel Universe (Deadpool Killogy #1) by Cullen Bunn (GN)
  Deadpool Kills Deadpool (Deadpool Killogy #3) by Cullen Bunn (GN)
  Deadpool vs. Carnage (Deadpool VS) by Cullen Bunn (GN)
  Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets: The Official Movie Novelization by Christie Golden (AB)
  Meddling Kids by Edgar Cantero

Summertime means shit books, right? Hence my re-read of the first four Gideon Crew books. They are not good, in case you're wondering, and the 5th doesn't win any awards either. They give the guy a death sentence in the first book, say they want to write 12, and then it just ends in 5 with him still alive but the story is done because the in-story doctors say you have three months and the story takes 2 months and three weeks. They should have had him die as the final page, I would have been happier with that.

The Hatching was a pretty enjoyable romp though it ramps up to a point where you wonder how to pull two more books out of it, especially given some of the science used (and ignored, both) in the book.

The Blade Itself was great. I can't wait to keep going in that series.

The Authorities was a really fun book, and bonus if you live in Seattle it's set there and has some good local humor.

The graphic novels were all fair to middling except for Robocop which was pretty bad and all over the place storywise. I just couldn't care for any character and the story was just too over the top in violence and sexualization. I don't know what Frank was going for but I think I figured out why they didn't use his story for the film.

Deadpool was just OK. I assume the one-shots like these are not as well written as a longer storyline, maybe? They just seemed rote.

Valerian was pretty terrible. First you have a pretty straight retelling of the movie, but then there's also little to no internal dialogue to help bring more life out of the characters. For as bad as the characters were in the film they are even flatter here.

44/50 Movies

• Kingsman: The Golden Circle (2017)
  The Dark Tower (2017)
  Kong: Skull Island (2017)
  Justice League (2017)
  Geostorm (2017)
  The Book of Henry (2017)
  Black Panther (2018)
  Being Canadian (2015)
  Willow (1988)
  Justice League Dark (2017)
  Despicable Me 3 (2017)
  Journey Through the Past (1974)
  Coco (2017)
  The Music of Strangers (2015)
  The Big Sick (2017)
  Chronicle (2012)
  Transformers: The Last Knight (2017)
  Darkest Hour (2017)
  The Man Who Invented Christmas (2017)
  The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966)
  Ready Player One (2018)
  Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle (2017)
  Avengers: Infinity War (2018)
  Peter Rabbit (2018)
  Paddington 2 (2017)
  The Greatest Showman (2017)
  Murder on the Orient Express (2017)
  Solo (2018)
  Annihilation (2018)
  Incredibles 2 (2018)
  The Shape of Water (2017)
  A Wrinkle in Time (2018)
  Pacific Rim: Uprising (2018)
  Sherlock Gnomes (2018)
  CHiPS (2017)
  The Equalizer (2014)
  Bubble Boy (2001)
  Beerfest (2006)
  Best in Show (2000)
  Keeping Up with the Joneses (2016)
  Inside Man (2006)
  Mission Impossible 2 (2000)
  Downsizing (2017)
  Collateral Beauty (2016)

Downsizing the Trailer had a pretty dumb premise - let's get little and drink! - but Downsizing the Movie was actually alright, for a bit. It just seemed to me to be all over the place with what it wanted to do. A few good ideas that were dropped too quickly and then a bummer (maybe?) of an ending.

Collateral Beauty was just strange. I thought it was a serious movie but they kept having lots of funny comedic bits in weird places. It got to where I asked my wife and she said, "What's funny about it so far?" which made me wonder what's up with my humor. I called the last twist almost immediately when I saw it but the first one I didn't see coming until a few seconds before it happened. And holy cow...I just checked Wikipedia because I was going to complain about the one person being so much younger than Will Smith but she's only 8 years younger. She looks like she could be early 30s, that's amazing. The tech of removing a person from a scene like they did was just a little far-fetched, especially the one on the subway.

[Stardog Champion]

Books 35/50
Sing Unburied Sing - Jesmyn Ward
And The Mountains Echoed - Khaled Hosseini
The Alchemist - Paulo Coelho
Women And Power - Mary Beard
Tales Of Ordinary Madness - Charles Bukowski
Mystery Train: Images Of America In Rock N Roll Music - Greil Marcus
Between The World And Me - Ta-Nehisi Coates
Wolf In White Van - John Darnielle
A Mercy - Toni Morrison
The Importance Of Being Earnest and Four Other Plays - Oscar Wilde
Love Goes To Buildings On Fire - Will Hermes
Cat's Cradle - Kurt Vonnegut
Shake It Up: Great American Writing On Rock And Pop From Elvis To Jay-Z - Various Authors (Edited by Jonathan Lethem)
The Picture Of Dorian Gray - Oscar Wilde
Marvel 1602 - Neil Gaiman (not sure if this counts)
Tartuffe - Moliere
Slam - Nick Hornby
Good Omens - Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett
Twilight of the Gods - Steven Hyden
Adjustment Day - Chuck Palahniuk
Dawn - Elie Wiesel
East, West - Salman Rushdie
Salvage The Bones - Jesmyn Ward (best book I've read so far this year)
Milk It - Jim DeRogatis
Barracoon - Zora Neale Hurston
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court - Mark Twain
A Man Called Ove - Fredrik Backman
The Master and Margarita - Mikhail Bulgakov
Go Tell It On The Mountain - James Baldwin
The Complete Stories - Flannery O'Connor
Big Fish - Daniel Wallace
Underworld - Don DeLillo
Player One - Douglas Coupland
Grendel - John Gardner
The Informers - Bret Easton Ellis

Movies 30/50
Hell Or High Water
Black Panther
Lego Ninjago
Bowie The Last Five Years
Baby Driver
Pitch Perfect 3
Coco
Girls Trip
Isle Of Dogs
Andre The Giant
Lady Bird
Avengers Infinity War
It
Atomic Blonde
Disaster Artist
Fahrenheit 451
Deadpool 2
Three Billboards
I, Tonya
Hereditary
Dunkirk
Kong Skull Island
East of Eden
Fist Fight
The Equalizer 2
Justice League
Robin Williams: Come Inside My Mind
Stripes
Battle of the Sexes
The Magnificent Seven

[bune]

How did you like Adjustment Day?

[epilogue]

Books: 18/50:
1. Ernest Hemingway on Writing
2. The Secret History of Twin Peaks by Mark Frost
3. Raven Girl by Audrey Niffenegger
4. Gilead by Marilynne Robinson
5. Pattern Recognition by Wiiliam Gibson
6. Ancient History - David Ives
7. Freedom - Jonathan Franzen
8. Crapalachia - Scott McClanahan
9. Exit Ghost - Philip Roth
10. The Westing Game - Ellen Raskin
11. To Peter Pan on Her 70th Birthday - Sarah Ruhl
12. Universal Harvester - John Darnielle
13. Paris Nocturne - Patrick Modiano
14. The Cave - Jose Saramago
15. How To Win A War (first draft) - Brady Gerber
16. Lincoln in the Bardo - George Saunders
17. The Mars Room - Rachel Kushner
18. When Women Were Birds - Terry Tempest Williams

Movies: 26/50:
1. Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
2. What If
3. Logan
4. The Shape of Water
5. Call Me By Your Name
6. Phantom Thread
7. A Bad Moms Christmas
8. A Ghost Story
9. A Futile and Stupid Gesture
10. Black Panther
11. David Bowie: The Last Five Years
12. Annihilation
13. Girls Trip
14. The House
15. A Quiet Place
16. License to Wed
17. Kodachrome
18. Downsizing
19. Coco
20. Thor: Ragnarok
21. Disobedience
22. Tully
23. Solo: A Star Wars Story
24. Won't You Be My Neighbor?
25. Sorry to Bother You
26. Black Klansman

[Stardog Champion]

How did you like Adjustment Day?

It's not my favorite Palahniuk work, but I did enjoy it. I thought he nailed the whole process of going down the rabbit hole into radicalization. I appreciated the way the country was divided and how and why he had each new region develop (or regress). While the separate regions were easy to follow, the characters weren't always easy to follow. The book felt a little too overpopulated at times, and I definitely lost track of some characters in the middle. When they reappeared later in the story, I had to think for a minute to remember who they were earlier in the novel. That kind of overpopulation, and subsequent confusion, doesn't feel necessary when dealing with characters who are basically tertiary (the catheter boy stands out as an example here).

[4/5]

Books (17/50)
1. Infinite Jest--David Foster Wallace
2. The Anti-Capitalistic Mindset--Ludwig von Mises
3. The Quartet: Orchestrating the Second American Revolution 1783-1789--Joseph Ellis
4. Thoughts on Government--John Adams
5. The Three Languages of Politics--Arnold Kling
6. How Adam Smith Can Change Your Life--Russ Roberts
7. The Courage to Act: A Memoir of a Crisis and its Aftermath--Ben Bernanke
8. The Adobe Photoshop CS6 Book for Digital Photographers--Scott Kelby
9. Free to Choose--Milton Friedman
10. Homage to Catalonia--George Orwell
11. Active Liberty--Stephen Breyer
12. Revolutionary Russia 1891-1991: A History--Orlando Figes
13. Animal Farm--George Orwell
14. The Seven Ages of Paris--Alistair Horne
15. We--Yevgeny Zamyatin
16. How to Win Friends and Influence People--Dale Carnegie
17. The Communist Manifesto--Karl Marx and Friedrich Engles
18. The Tragedy of Liberation: A History of the Chinese Revolution 1945-1957--Frank Dikotter

Movies (22/50)
1. Braveheart
2. Baby Driver
3. Ocean's Eleven
4. Inside Llewyn Davis
5. Tinker Tailor Solider Spy
6. An Invisible Sign
7. Black Panther
8. Flight
9. Annie Hall
10. Malcolm X
11. Fences
12. Three Billboards Outside of Ebbing, Missouri
13. Darkest Hour
14. Walk the Line
15. Do the Right Thing
16. Spider-Man: Homecoming
17. Sully
18. Whiplash
19. The Incredibles
20. The Redeemed and the Dominant
21. The Last Jedi
22. The Grapes of Wrath
23. Get Out
24. Coco
25. I, Tonya
26. Fittest Man in History
27. 13th
28. Mad Max: Fury Road

We just started The Sopranos so it's not looking great for movies for a little bit.

[bune]

Oh, you read "We"...how did you like it?

How did you like Adjustment Day?

It's not my favorite Palahniuk work, but I did enjoy it. I thought he nailed the whole process of going down the rabbit hole into radicalization. I appreciated the way the country was divided and how and why he had each new region develop (or regress). While the separate regions were easy to follow, the characters weren't always easy to follow. The book felt a little too overpopulated at times, and I definitely lost track of some characters in the middle. When they reappeared later in the story, I had to think for a minute to remember who they were earlier in the novel. That kind of overpopulation, and subsequent confusion, doesn't feel necessary when dealing with characters who are basically tertiary (the catheter boy stands out as an example here).

Agreed on all points. So many were introduced in such spectacular ways that you were like, did I forget this person's story already? But no, it's just a new character that is in the middle of their own story already and apparently you don't need to know that part. I get it, but it's confusing.

I hope there's a sequel because the ending is pretty terrible if it's not setting one up.

Hmm, he lives in the area...