Chill December brings the sleet

MUSICAL DISCOVERIES

I am not quite sure what has happened to or during the month of December. The whole thing has evaporated in a beyond-busy whirl. It seems that once again I find myself barely having time to listen to music I already know about, let alone discover anything new. I guess the only thing I "discovered" this month is that Garth Brooks's Christmas albums are rather delightful. I, the Jewish girl who went to TCU, am especially taken by the song "Baby Jesus is Born" (love that gospel chorus!). Take a minute to allow the irony to sink in, and then continue reading below.

MINI MIX

"My Goals" -- Francis & The Lights
"Show Me" -- Ali Love
"American Honey" -- Lady Antebellum
"MY KZ, UR BF" -- Everything Everything
"Hi Friend" -- Deadmau5
"One by One" -- Cher

FILMS

I Love You, Phillip Morris
Black Swan
The Company Men
How Do You Know
The Fighter
TRON: Legacy
True Grit
Rabbit Hole
The Illusionist
Somewhere

NETFLIX QUEUE

Kiss Me Goodbye
Random Hearts
Mermaids
Nice Guy Johnny
The Player
Havana
True Grit
The Object of My Affection

COOKING

Butternut squash risotto
Swedish meatballs
Vegan chocolate chip cookies

BOOKS

Matched, Ally Condie

This is a very engaging teen-dystopian-fantasy-love-triangle book. I think it may actually be my favorite of the genre for this year, above Incarceron and The Hunger Games. The heroine is extremely likable, and the two guys are quite evenly matched, yet one of them is presented as a clear favorite, which makes everything a whole lot easier.  The world of Matched is one that is deeply creepy beneath it's organized surface; the amount of regulation going on is rather scary when given a lot of thought.  This whole genre is sort of like my own vamp craze, and Matched was a satisfying way to close out the year.

You or Someone Like You, Chandler Burr

I would like a book whose major themes are some of my major interests: hollywood/movies, literature, and Judaism......what's that? You've already written that book? Why, yes, Chandler Burr, you have. This book is a lovely piece of contemporary literature, written in clean and distant prose filled with emotion. There was so much in this book with which I identified, yet at the same time so much of it seemed other worldly, a glass-encased fable so close to being real, but suspended like a jewel just beyond the plane of everyday life. The questions raised about Judaism and choice and how the religion fits into today's society are fascinating and thought provoking. I could also identify with the outwardly rational, but inwardly jumbled, turbulent emotions of the protagonist/narrator.  Most of all, in thinking about this book, I keep coming back to the word "distant." There is a sense of curation surrounding this book that echoes the glass house in the Hollywood Hills - transparent, yet distant - in which the story is set.

Nocturnes, Kazuo Ishiguro

Of Ishiguro's previous work, Nocturnes is closest to A Pale View of Hills in its quiet, slow pace and concentration on small, everyday details. There is something very peaceful in the examination of simple moments in the lives of ordinary people. However, where such an examination could be dull and boring in the hands of most authors, Ishiguro finds, nurtures, and brings to our attention every beautiful nuance.

Juliet, Naked, Nick Hornby

Hornby has returned to form here (form meaning High Fidelity- and About a Boy-like tones). It reminded me a lot of the Hornby books I love (How To Be Good, A Long Way Down, and Slam were all rather disappointing in their earnest effort to capture the tone of success without actually offering anything to the reader), but is different enough to avoid being derivative. Hornby is once again writing about music-as-conncetive-tissue and its central role in the lives of the story's main characters. It's gentle and funny. It's also like reading the novelization of a film. This book just screams, "Make me into a movie!" All the romcom elements are right where they should be.  Also, Hornby has an amazing way of stating obvious things about human emotion and behavior in such a clever way that it takes a minute to realize that of course you already knew that and he isn't really that clever. Though in the end, stating the obvious in a pseudo-profound way is just the tiniest bit clever, and that's why the man is the lit-pop sensation that he is, deservedly so or not.

Palo Alto, James Franco

I find myself not having that much of an opinion on this book. The exploits of the middle and high school students that Franco creates didn't resonate for me since I went to a prep school and had no free time to skulk around and get into drinking or drugs like Franco's characters. Do kids really act this way? I felt like these stories were written by someone who based their notion of kids today on a viewing of the film Fast Times at Ridgemont High, a film actually mentioned in one of the stories, rather than on Cameron Crowe's original book. The thing that struck me the most was Franco's relentless use of the word "handsome," even by male narrators. Do teen boys really go around judging each other as "handsome" or not? This book certainly has a handsome, well designed jacket. I think that's the best thing it has going for it. If only the stories inside were as smooth and streamlined as the modernist font and sunset colors of the cover.