Friday, April 10, 2009

What I'm reading

This topic on Metafilter made me realize I hadn't read a good scary story in a while, so I browsed through a lot of the horror books mentioned.

I ended up buying "The Descent" for my iPhone Kindle program, and have been slowly reading it. CREEPY! It's not the same "Descent" as the movie about the women cave-explorers...it's a completely different story, but it does involve creepy creatures living underground and running into humans, and, well, I probably shouldn't give too much away. But try and imagine if there was a whole civilization living way, way, deeper underground than we ever thought we'd go. And if scholars looking for the real Satan became convinced that this was their key to that answer.

I probably shouldn't be reading it before bed, but that's about the only time I have for any reading, so there you go. I blame it for my sudden influx of weirdo dreams.

For book club, we read "American Wife," which I would have read anyway, but still haven't finished. Curtis Sittenfeld is a really engaging writer, and the book kind of did the impossible which is made George and Laura Bush a bit likable. (Not that I had anything against Laura, really.)

And for our next book club, I suggested we read Paul Feig's "Kick Me: Adventures in Adolescence," which I think I've read before but am more than willing to read again and discuss. Feig created "Freaks and Geeks," and once you're a chapter or two into "Kick Me," you know that show was pretty much a documentary for him. He also has a hilarious sequel, "Superstud: Or How I Became a 24-Year-Old Virgin."
No less than Joel "Mystery Science Theater 3000" Hodgson himself said "Paul Feig's Kick Me is an astute study of growing up in the seventies that thinks it's a happy-go-lucky humor book." So there's depth there, not just laughs that you forget a minute later.

2 comments:

Sylko said...

I just finished American Wife, an thought it was very good. The writing really drew me in, and did make George Bush more likable, and Laura Bush less enigmatic, though I realize these are fictionalized versions of them.

I plan to get Sittenfeld's other books, because her writing really impressed me.

Anonymous said...

The Nazi flag story from "Kick Me" rivals anything Sedaris ever wrote for funniest childhood story ever...You can feel both the pride the kid had, as well as the horror the mom must have felt when she turned in the driveway.