Something Remarkable is now accepting recommendations in the following categories:
1. Smart, comedic entertainment (think I Heart Huckabees and Gilmore Girls).
2. Contemporary fiction (of the literary variety).
Low stakes way to comment, people. Come introduce yourself if you haven't already done so. And help keep me distracted from now through....hopefully November 2011.
I'm afraid I'll be less than useless to your recommendation list - Looking back over all the books I've read this year, only A Suitable Boy comes close to your fiction requirements, I'm kind of an SF/F girl all the way.
ReplyDeleteBut I wanted to let you know I'm thinking of you and wishing you 8 months of happy distraction.
Not that I watch TV anymore but the first thing that comes to mind is Modern Family. Also, mildly comedic, The Closer with Kyra Sedgwick is excellent. And In Plain Sight is another goody. The last two would be best on DVD as they are off the air currently. If I can think of any others, I'll let you know.
ReplyDeleteS, I'll read some sci fi...haven't read that stuff since grad school mostly. But like it. Octavia Butler, Joanna Russ, etc.
ReplyDeleteM...you got me hooked on The Closer last year. I'm waiting for the next season to come out!
I have a bunch of Closer episodes on my DVR - wish I could send them to you! They do have repeats on weekdays I think but I don't recommend watching them out of order - so much better in sequence. :)
ReplyDeleteI haven't read anything of the grownup variety in a while - but I do read a lot of the fiction that my third grader (who reads at an 8th grade level) reads, and I stumbled across the most clever book that HE'S read in a while, called School of Fear. It's tongue-in-cheek, and delightful (if you're in the mood for something like that).
ReplyDeleteMovies - I love comedic entertainment, but not necessarily smart. I have recently loved Couples Retreat and Megamind. I have to say that Megamind, while designed to appeal to a younger crowd, left my husband and I chuckling over dialogue that went way over our childrens' heads.
This may not fall under the category 'literary' but I found Ken Follett's 'Pillars of the earth' a great distraction during my last TWW and then watched the surprisingly good miniseries during the last 2 weeks of my pregnancy.
ReplyDeleteHave you watched True Blood or Deadwood or The Tudors? They are all Showtime or HBO series & I really liked them. They definitely aren't for watching with LG though.
As for literary, it isn't recent but I just finished The Jungle for the first time and loved it (if love is the right word).
I don't get a lot of time to read for fun these days, but with that proviso, I'm going to recommend Lorrie Moore's A Gate at the Stairs as probably the best novel I read last year. I like Moore in general; this one especially struck me as both beautiful and brilliant. Oh, and her skewering of self-congratulatory liberal university communities is delicious. I'm not intimately familiar with Madison, on which Moore's fictional Troy is modeled. My own world is close enough in both space and ambience, though, that her presentation felt right. There are a few plot implausibilities, but I was willing to grant them to her given the novel's many strengths.
ReplyDeleteLastly, I think I need to mention that there's a tragedy involving a child near the end of the book. If you're feeling especially fragile, you may want to read the book later rather than sooner. Even so, in my book group composed entirely of mothers of young children, no one was so put off by this plot point that she couldn't finish the book. It wasn't dealt with sensationalistically or in a Jodi Picoult-like "oh yeah, and if THAT weren't enough, here's one more heart-wrenching plot twist" but was essential in fleshing out character and motivation.
I'll be a geek, and recommend the best comedy of all times: "His Girl Friday", by Howard Hawks. My husband disagrees with me, and says the best comedy of all times is "Bringing Up Baby", by Howard Hawks. By the way, Baby is a leopard, not a real baby. Both of them are smart, witty, great female characters, and really funny.
ReplyDeleteHow about Sittenfield's American Wife? Mating by Norman Rush is beautiful (National book award winner). Or Birds of America by Lorrie Moore. All literary. I admit I read Girl with the Dragon Tattoo over break and loved it. Not literary but still awesome. I'll think on some more. And I could send you a free copy of one of husb's novels. Are you creative writing or lit prof?
ReplyDeleteI got on a 50s movie streak a while back: Hepburn, Day, Gable, etc. You could try that. My current ongoing shows are Modern Family and Parenthood. Have you seen those?
Interesting that Lorrie Moore has come up multiple times... I do like her as a short story writer; haven't read any of the novels. Will do!
ReplyDeleteThanks for all the recs, y'all. Keep them coming!
Rebecca, I do both, actually, which made for a fairly schizophrenic tenure portfolio.
don't know if you watched HBO's Ladies Detective Agency, or if it's on DVD, but I thought it was great. these days I'm watching Top Chef and Chopped and Castle.
ReplyDeleteUnlurking to suggest Everwood ( most like GG), Arrested Devolpment, Dead Like Me, Veronica Mars, Freaks and Geeks.
ReplyDelete