Warm September brings the fruit

MUSICAL DISCOVERIES

The Rassle: This band was the first of three on the bill for the Mystery Jets gig at Mercury Lounge, and as far as I'm concerned they were the best act of the night. Fun, high-energy, country-twinged pop. Fun both to see (great sense of style, just this side of being too hipstery) and to hear. I will definitely make the effort to catch them live again, which hopefully won't be too hard to do since they are based here in New York.  They have a free EP; check them out.

MINI MIX

"Teenage Dream" -- Katy Perry
"Swimming Places" -- Julien Jabre
"Protection" -- Massive Attack
"Two" -- The Antlers
"East Side" -- Beautiful Small Machines
"Say It Isn't So" -- Hall & Oates
"Stutter" -- Maroon 5

FILMS

Centurion
Mesrine: Public Enemy Number One
Going the Distance
Heartbreaker
Never Let Me Go
The Town
Easy A
Winter's Bone
Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps
Jack Goes Boating
Buried
You Will Meet A Tall Dark Stranger

NETFLIX QUEUE

The Blind Side
Cemetery Junction
Paris
I'm Here (Spike Jonze short)
Heartburn
Boy A
The Chateau

COOKING

Mediterranean veal sliders
Coconut, cornflake, and cranberry cookies
Mediterranean couscous with kalamata olives, roasted red peppers, feta cheese, and grilled chicken

BOOKS

Mockingjay, Suzanne Collins

Fortunately, I didn't have too long to wait for this final Hunger Games installment, having read the other two books in the trilogy back in May, and it's a good thing too, because if I had had to wait a year for this book, I would have been severely disappointed when I read it. The first two books had a brilliant sense of danger and urgency to them that was completely gone from this volume. There was also a certain sense of inevitability to the conclusion of the saga. I was expecting Collins to surprise me, but instead I found my self thinking that Katniss never really had a choice in what happened to her and seemed fated for a specific denouement, one not befitting of her supposed rebellious independence. I am inclined to agree with all of those who spurned Team Peeta and Team Gale in favor of Team Katniss. Since when does a girl have to end up with a guy? However, I must give Collins credit for developing strong, compelling secondary characters. I often wanted to know more about these bit players than I wanted to know or cared what happened to the main players.

Hell Gate, Linda Fairstein

Fairstein is one of my guilty pleasure authors. She blends New York history, beach-read crime, and frothy humor in a winning combination. This is not one of her stronger books, but my favorite character, Mike Chapman, totally stole the show with some of his best lines ever, so I kinda loved it for that reason.

The Moneypenny Diaries: Final Fling, Kate Westbrook

Continuing my trashy, frothy trend this month, I found myself ordering and reading the third (and I'm guessing, from a look around Amazon.co.uk, final) book in this James Bond inspired series that I originally discovered in the WH Smith at Euston station while waiting for the Caledonian Sleeper (a decidedly un-Bond-like experience, dashing my high hopes for the romance of a sleeper train) in September of 2007. While this book improved on the two that preceded it in that it didn't have footnotes annotating everything (or actually anything, thank goodness), it regressed in that its plot simply was a bit of a tease and not all that compelling, with a contrived, yet somehow strangely satisfying, ending on top of it all. And, let's be honest, you have to be pretty damn contrived to even register as such in the James Bond universe. On the other hand I love the glamour of swinging 60s London, and a little fluffy intrigue is good for the soul.

Dawn of the Dreadfuls, Steve Hockensmith

Since I was on a kick of reading fun books that had another home to go to (Moneypenny to my James Bond shelf, and this tome to one of my zombie-loving friends), I decided to finally get this prequel to Pride & Prejudice & Zombies out of one of my many to-be-read stacks. After disliking World War Z so much, I wasn't sure if I really wanted to read another zombie book, but this one was surprisingly enjoyable. It struck just the right balance between riffing on Jane Austen and being completely silly and absurd. One would be hard pressed to find suitors less worthy of heroine than the two inept males vying for Elizabeth Bennet's attention in this chapter of her saga, and props to the author for allowing Elizabeth to shine on her own terms, not that he really had a choice in writing her future.
Never Let Me Go, Kazuo Ishiguro

This is my second time reading this book. I hardly ever read books twice by choice (I'm looking at you, Jane Eyre -- aka torture via printed word -- and ninth grade Honors English summer reading), though I have read Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy twice as well. It was well worth it to read Never Let Me Go twice, so much so that I wrote a whole post about it. This is a very good book. Read it. (preferably before you see the film, but it's different enough that you can read it after you've seen the film and still get plenty out of the experience.)
Running In The Family, Michael Ondaatje

I tend to read Ishiguro and Ondaatje in pairs. Their writing styles complement each other nicely as they both capture humanity so well, yet while Ishiguro is very spare in his Britishness (of course the kids in Never Let Me Go didn't rebel against the system; British people don't know how to do that - it would never occur to them that they didn't have to follow the path laid for them) and Japaneseness, Ondaatje's work is full of exuberant emotion and the fire of life, derived from his Ceylonese upbringing.  Running in the Family is an autobiographical collection of short stories and poems that is a fascinating look at the roots of Ondaatje's inspirations. Having read several of his other books, I can now see where the sensuality, beauty, and depth of emotion expressed in his writing come from.