PERSONAL: Books and Music

Newly added to my life and/or read and/or downloaded...

BOOKS

Parasites Like Us by Adam Johnson
Story detailing the apocalypse... the end of humanity, rather... at the hands of an anthropologist. The premise is that the main character, a professor of anthropology at a small school in South Dakota, has a series of events that lead to him and his students kill off humanity. OOPS! He is writing this for future generations to understand what happened.

This was extraordinarily hard to get into, as it took about 200 pages before the point of the whole book starts coming together. No, really. Then, it wraps up in about 50 pages that makes the rest seem plausible and important. It was, however, extraordinarily easy to read.

OVERALL GRADE: B


Shopgirl by Steve Martin
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The sexual and personal growth of young Miss Mirabelle, the glove counter girl at Neiman's in LA. I picked it up for two reasons: 1) Steve Martin (yes the actor) wrote it, and 2) Emmett referenced it in Queer As Folk. The story does not venture much from the above premise.

It's short, it's sweet, and it's kinda cute, though the ending rushes upon you. But that's easy to happen in a novella of 128 pages. Pretty melancholy mood throughout, but joyful at the end, and we are thankful for the joy.


OVERALL GRADE: B+

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MUSIC
Everyone knows I like musicals, right? Well, here are my two new additions to the music collection:

Legally Blonde: The Musical
Cute, whimsical, funny. Just like the original movie. Tres gay, btw. Very Very Very Very Gay -- especially with a song call "There Right There" whose chorus is "Is he Gay or European?" And the Bend and Snap will probably end up being a Kristy song :-).



Hairspray
Duh. Are you surprised I bought it? It's great. Fun to listen to... I am often found jamming to it down the road, though I like the stage version of "You Can't Stop the Beat" better.





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Next thing to read: Brokeback Mountain. No really. I bout the 50pg story for $5.00. That's right, kids, $0.10 a page. I'm not happy about the price, but I'm excited about the story!