In April, I again read just two books.
With Terry Pratchett’s passing in March, I decided to finally read all of the Discworld novels, as sort of my project for the year. Sadly, that’s completely do-able, now that it’s a finite number of books, the 41st and last out due out this fall. At the rate I’m reading, though, it’ll likely carry me over into 2016. Thus far, I’ve re-read The Colour of Magic and read for the first time The Light Fantastic. I liked both books, despite all the people say those are his weaker ones, and that you shouldn’t start there. That just means I have the really good ones still to look forward to. I started Equal Rites this morning, but that’s May, and will have to wait for next time.
I watched four movies.
First, the generically titled Animal, which I link to not to encourage you to watch it — don’t — but because it’s so generic a title I need to explain which movie it actually was. This was a terrible 2014 horror movie, only made enjoyable but watching (and mocking) it over Twitter with friends, chosen because it was looked so terrible.
Better movies for the month included the rather appropriately titled Blue Ruin, which starts with a strong, simple premise: what if you took one of those “man uses specialized skills to exact revenge” movies and took away the skills? It also included Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, which was odd — the only Martin Scorcese movie that was ever spun-off into a sitcom — and Furious Seven, which, honestly, was one of the most enjoyable movies I’ve ever seen. Pure ridiculousness on every level, but so much fun because of that.
I read thirty-four short stories, not including those I’m reading for Kaleidotrope or for my on-going writing workshop. Favorites include:
- “All That We Carry, All That We Hold” by Damien Angelica Walters (Fantastic Stories of the Imagination)
- “I am Graalnak of the Vroon Empire, Destroyer of Galaxies, Supreme Overlord of the Planet Earth. Ask Me Anything” by Laura Pearlman (Flash Fiction Online)
- “Stay” by Daniel José Older (Fireside Fiction)
- “When the Circus Lights Down” by Sarah Pinsker (Uncanny)
- “Ishq” by Usman Malik (Nightmare)
- Among the Thorns” by Veronica Schanoes (Tor.com)
- “Come My Love and I’ll Tell You a Tale” by Sunny Moraine (Shimmer)
- “Among the Sighs of the Violoncellos” by Daniel Ausema (Strange Horizons)
- “The Sorcerer’s Unattainable Gardens” by A. Merc Rustad (Daily Science Fiction)
- “Dr. Polingyouma’s Machine” by Emily Devenport (Uncanny)
And as always I listened to some music:
April was a pretty ordinary month, otherwise. In retrospect, from the tinged-with-sadness place I am right now at the very start of May, it was actually pretty damn good.
One of these days, I really must watch Alice Doesn’t Live Here Any More, just because I believe the town she no longer lives is the town I happen live in…. And it’s not exactly a town that attracts a lot of cinematic attention.
And, man, you have a lot of great Pratchett in front of you. A lot. I’m almost envious.
So sorry to hear about the poor dog, though. I know just how difficult it can be to lose a pet. They’re always there… and then, suddenly, they’re not.
Thanks. It’s definitely the “just not there anymore” that’s been toughest. I’ll walk into a room and be genuinely surprised for a moment not to see him. It’ll get easier, but right now we’re really missing him.
Alice is an odd movie, very Scorcese in some ways, but obviously an early effort and a product of the early ’70s. It’s a bit meandering. Alice, the character, starts out in Socorro, but the movie was apparently filmed in Arizona (Amado, Tucson, and Phoenix).