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Jan. 9th, 2009 11:32 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
katekatthings I've read (all suggested by ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
replicant_rasa) :
The Lies of Locke Lamora, Scott Lynch
Great fun. I liked the structure, even though the descriptions got a little long (but then again, as I was getting closer to the end of the book it was earlier and earlier in the morning, so that may have been part of my impatience). It was bloody, clever, and entertaining.
The first four books of the Blood series, Tanya Huff
Tons of fun and exactly what I was looking for in my winter break reading. I'd originally tried to pace myself by only reading 1 a day, but then kind of threw my hands up in the sky and just kept turning pages. That was part of the fun - all four of the books were great page turners. And the great part is the prickly-slightly-older-tough-heroine has a voice that's consistently interesting to listen to, her perspective changes throughout the books as her world view is challenged (and she's surprised by the supernatural, which is kind of lovely), her inability to commit to the men in her life don't stop her from having sex with them (and she doesn't feel guilty about it) and the sex scenes are a graceful fade to black (for those in the know I am of course comparing her to LKH, and trying to do so favorably). AND I loved how she freaks out about having to spend a day with her undead boyfriend while he's asleep, and ... yep, liked 'em. I have two more of her other series that i'll be getting to at some point.
things I've seen (movie wize, that is)
The Day the Earth Stood Still
I know, you're probably reading this thinking "I could have told you that was going to suck from the previews!" And you would have been totally right. But it's a sci-fi movie, and I'm willing to give them a chance. And it's a part that Keanu shouldn't have had a problem with - a wooden alien? so suits him. Sadly other than a really cool scene with John Clease as an academic, the rest of the movie pretty much blew monkey chunks in one way or another. Oh, but the alien body-guard was cool.
Le Cirque: A Table in Heaven
A really lovely documentary about the family and the restaurant. I'm fascinated by the inner workings, and by the personality of Sirio Maccioni (who else would get to ask Henry Kissinger where he should move his restaurant). It was a little sad though, since it's obvious this kind of dining is either gone or going. It lead us to an interesting discussion of just what 'fine dining' means anymore, and who's going to this kind of restaurant, and how you make food that your regulars will love but still keep people coming in from the cold to eat your food.
OH, and the biggest news is that ALL of my applications for grad school are DONE! I got a call from one of the admissions offices this morning saying they hadn't gotten my printed copy of my writing sample. The upshot of the conversation was that I needed to overnight it to them, and so I finished up the last two statments of purposes and into the mail all three went!
One thing that's really annoyed me about this whole process is the amount of paper I've had to send out. If I submit a writing sample online, I should not then have to resubmit it in hard copy. And it's doubly annoying that some programs have a "Graduate School" that you apply to, but then that place doesn't seem to share information with the *acutal* program (thus I have to send copies to the program as well). Why on earth have an online application if you're going to make me mail it in too? How is that saving anyone time and money since they've got to store the hard copies and the virtual copies somewhere right?
Now that I've got all that out, I'm proceeding with the rest of my friday night quite pleasantly. Happy evening to you all!
replicant_rasa) :The Lies of Locke Lamora, Scott Lynch
Great fun. I liked the structure, even though the descriptions got a little long (but then again, as I was getting closer to the end of the book it was earlier and earlier in the morning, so that may have been part of my impatience). It was bloody, clever, and entertaining.
The first four books of the Blood series, Tanya Huff
Tons of fun and exactly what I was looking for in my winter break reading. I'd originally tried to pace myself by only reading 1 a day, but then kind of threw my hands up in the sky and just kept turning pages. That was part of the fun - all four of the books were great page turners. And the great part is the prickly-slightly-older-tough-heroine has a voice that's consistently interesting to listen to, her perspective changes throughout the books as her world view is challenged (and she's surprised by the supernatural, which is kind of lovely), her inability to commit to the men in her life don't stop her from having sex with them (and she doesn't feel guilty about it) and the sex scenes are a graceful fade to black (for those in the know I am of course comparing her to LKH, and trying to do so favorably). AND I loved how she freaks out about having to spend a day with her undead boyfriend while he's asleep, and ... yep, liked 'em. I have two more of her other series that i'll be getting to at some point.
things I've seen (movie wize, that is)
The Day the Earth Stood Still
I know, you're probably reading this thinking "I could have told you that was going to suck from the previews!" And you would have been totally right. But it's a sci-fi movie, and I'm willing to give them a chance. And it's a part that Keanu shouldn't have had a problem with - a wooden alien? so suits him. Sadly other than a really cool scene with John Clease as an academic, the rest of the movie pretty much blew monkey chunks in one way or another. Oh, but the alien body-guard was cool.
Le Cirque: A Table in Heaven
A really lovely documentary about the family and the restaurant. I'm fascinated by the inner workings, and by the personality of Sirio Maccioni (who else would get to ask Henry Kissinger where he should move his restaurant). It was a little sad though, since it's obvious this kind of dining is either gone or going. It lead us to an interesting discussion of just what 'fine dining' means anymore, and who's going to this kind of restaurant, and how you make food that your regulars will love but still keep people coming in from the cold to eat your food.
OH, and the biggest news is that ALL of my applications for grad school are DONE! I got a call from one of the admissions offices this morning saying they hadn't gotten my printed copy of my writing sample. The upshot of the conversation was that I needed to overnight it to them, and so I finished up the last two statments of purposes and into the mail all three went!
One thing that's really annoyed me about this whole process is the amount of paper I've had to send out. If I submit a writing sample online, I should not then have to resubmit it in hard copy. And it's doubly annoying that some programs have a "Graduate School" that you apply to, but then that place doesn't seem to share information with the *acutal* program (thus I have to send copies to the program as well). Why on earth have an online application if you're going to make me mail it in too? How is that saving anyone time and money since they've got to store the hard copies and the virtual copies somewhere right?
Now that I've got all that out, I'm proceeding with the rest of my friday night quite pleasantly. Happy evening to you all!
no subject
Date: 2009-01-10 01:43 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-01-10 06:20 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-01-10 11:11 pm (UTC)i only applied to three programs, which is pretty atypical in philosophy (where 6-10 seems more common), but i wasn't totally certain it was what i wanted to do, so was only comfortable trying those three.
good luck on responses!
no subject
Date: 2009-01-12 08:08 pm (UTC)