When All Is Read and Done: February 2020 Wrap-Up

Have you ever seen Lion King 1 1/2? If you haven’t, you’re missing out on some uhhhh… “quality” entertainment. For the uninitiated, the movie is basically one giant, low-budget spoof, but one that’s officially sanctioned by The Mouse itself. In it, there’s a scene where Timone and Pumba mournfully sing: “Sunrise, sunset. Sunrise, sunset. Swiftly fly the years.” (Which I now know is from Fiddler on The Roof. But as a kid with a limited refined taste in movies, the joke flew about five feet over my naive little head.)

In any case, that’s how I feel right about now. The sun rises, the sun sets, and the years fly by with the speed of a Japanese bullet train on steroids (not that a machine can take drugs, but you get the idea). Like, how is the month of February already over? Moreover, how is it already the year 2020? Excuse me for a moment while I proceed to have a mini midlife crisis.

WHAT I READ IN FEBRUARY

📱The Downstairs Girl by Stacey Lee: This book was a not a breath of fresh air – it was a freaking tornado! With its plucky heroine, fantastic writing, and empowering message, it deserves all the love (and waffles) in the known universe. (Not that books have any use for waffles…or food for that matter…) Now excuse me while I spend the next millennia or two (lovingly) shouting at you to read this.

🎧Bone Gap By Laura Ruby: This unconventional book is like a big plate of chicken and waffles; it’s an unusual combination of literary flavors that shouldn’t work together, but somehow does. Mixing together suspense, small-towns, and surrealism, Bone Gap is an endearingly-strange and unforgettably quirky example of the Magical Realism genre that will be a hit-or-miss with most readers. For me, it mostly worked.

📱The Iron Will of Genie Lo by F.C. Yee: I’m a sucker for origin stories. I love seeing how Jane Doe or John Smith react when the Universe not-so-lovingly decides to AirDrop them the ability to fly or shoot lasers out of their butt cheeks. (Okay, so I don’t know of any superhero with that particular….unique….superpower, but you get the idea.)

That was one of the things I enjoyed so much about The Epic Crush of Genie Lo; Genie’s graceless attempts to master her newly realized powers were SO. DANG. ENTERTAINING! In The Iron Will, Genie has really grown into her abilities, and while that only makes logical sense, I found it to be less interesting and humorous to read about. But that’s pretty much how I feel about every Marvel sequel, so…*shrugs*

🎧Under a Painted Sky by Stacey Lee: Don’t you just hate it when you wake up in the middle of the night with a sudden craving for a good old fashion Western? What????? That’s never happened to you before? Oh well…me neither, now that I think about it. In fact, I’m not usually one for anything to do with cowboys, rodeos, or the Wild Wild West. But this book was so good, it somehow managed to change my mind. The brilliance of Stacey Lee strikes again, folks!

📱A Heart So Fierce and Broken by Brigid Kemmerer: Do you remember that scene in Anne of Green Gables where Anne accidentally serves her friend, Diana, currant wine instead of raspberry cordial? Well, reading this book was kind of like that. I was expecting one thing, and what I got was vastly, intoxicatingly different.

🎧Strange Birds: A Field Guide to Ruffling Feathers by Celia C. Pérez: At its core, the theme of this vibrant book is that activism is for everyone. It shows how anyone, regardless of age or background, can make a difference in their community if they are courageous enough to persevere. ALSO, I now have an unearthly craving for Girl Scout Cookies. *scurries off to see how much it would cost to ship a box of Lemon-Ups internationally *

📱Homerooms and Hallpasses by Tom O’Donnell: This is not highbrow literature by any means, but it sure as heck is some quality comedy. But sometimes, I need a good side-splitting laugh more than I need perfectly crafted prose. And this was one of those times. Plus, this book was pitched as Dungeons & Dragons meets Jumanji, and if that doesn’t immediately grab your attention, then I don’t know if we can be friends. (Just kidding – of course we can still be friends! I’ll just be giving you some major side-eyes for a couple of days haha 👀👀👀)

🎧We Rule the Night by Claire Eliza Bartlett: The whole time I was listening to this audiobook, all I could think of was that old song from Annie Get Your Gun that goes something like, “Anything you can do, I can do better! I can do anything better than you!” The reason? This book is all about FIERCE WOMEN who GET. THINGS. DONE. Although the worldbuilding felt superficial and disjointed to me, the main message of the story is clear: women are just as strong and capable as men, if not more so. And boy, if that’s not a powerful message, I don’t know what is.

#YARC READING CHALLENGE UPDATE

WHAT I WATCHED IN FEBRUARY

Ad Astra: For somebody who adores a good bookish Space Opera, I’m surprisingly less inclined to like space movies. ¯\(ツ)/¯ My husband, on the other hand, can’t get enough of them. The Martian, Gravity, Interstellar, 2001: A Space Odyssey – I’ve seen them all because of him (though I admittedly couldn’t make it ten minutes into Space Odyssey before falling asleep). Ad Astra was another film I ended up watching due to his space-movie-loving influence, and although it wasn’t really my cup of apple juice, I do have to admit that Brad Pitt’s acting was just…WOW!!!!

Ford v. Ferrari: I haven’t see Christian Bale in anything since *The Dark Knight Rises (*which was released freakin’ EIGHT YEARS AGOOOO. WHAT IS LIFE??). So, for pretty much the whole two and a half hours, all I could keep thinking was, “WHEN DID BRUCE WAYNE GET OLD? AND WHY DOES HE HAVE A BRITISH ACCENT???”

Ghostbusters: Can you believe I had never seen this classic movie before now? My husband couldn’t either. So here we are.

Jojo Rabbit: Okay, wow, I have really mixed feelings about this one. Was it brilliant? Yes. Was it impactful? Yes. Was it emotional? Yes. Was it funny? At times. But the way it constantly swung back and forth between silly slap-stick humor to intense emotional drama was a bit disorienting to me. I realize that was intentional, but still. I could probably sit on this movie for the next decade, and still not be 100% sure if I liked it or not.

Frozen II: Watching this movie was like looking directly at the sun during a solar eclipse; it was so beautiful, I think it may have caused permanent damage to my eyes. Like, I don’t think my retinas will ever recover. How is it even possible for one animated movie to look so breathtakingly, heart-achingly, soul-wrenchingly GORGEOUS?

Anne With an E {Season 1 Rewatch}: After finishing the UTTER PERFECTION that was Season 3, I decided that I simply had to go back and rewatch this show from the beginning. And I adored it so much more the second time around. Also, can we just all acknowledge that this show is one big Tumblr Aesthetic and I am LIVING for that. Like, my crops are thriving, my pores are cleared, the sun is shining, and life is perfect.

Knives Out: Not everybody liked how Rian Johnson tried to shake things up in that beloved galaxy far, far away with The Last Jedi. BUT. BUTBUTBUTBUT!!! His unconventional deconstruction of the Whodunit genre in Knives Out was nothing less than supercalifragilisticexpialidocious. (I used the biggest word I could possibly think of, and it still doesn’t fully capture the way this movie scrambled my brain up like an omelet. But in the best way possible.)

THIS MONTH ON THE BLOG