Booknotes: September 2024
In which I briefly comment on the books I read each month, so a few years from now when I’m trying to remember one of them, I’ll be able to find it here. I’m a media omnivore, too, so this immediately evolved into more than just books, but I’m sticking with the book-first theme anyway.
Do we have similar tastes, or will you be questioning how we ever got connected? Let’s find out!
Book Notes
Hairball by Matt Kindt, Tyler Jenkins, Hilary Jenkins
- (3.0; ebook) Competent but not terribly scary nor original bit of cat horror combined with mental illness and generational trauma. I was lured in by the Junji Ito comparison, but it reads more like generic American storytelling with a random splash of “exotic” mythology for flavor.
{STAR} Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men by Caroline Criado Pérez
- (4.5; print) Insightful and infuriating. This isn’t about AI, but Pérez presents such a dizzying range of examples of the various ways women are ignored in research and data in a variety of sectors because [white] men are the default human, that anyone who believes AI and LLMs aren’t irreparably biased should be forced to read it.
Media Notes
The NY Mets (Radio, YouTube, Podcast)
- It had been nearly 10 years since I last paid attention to baseball before I heard the Mets were good again back in late-2022, tuning in just in time for them to get swept by the Braves before crashing out of the Wild Card series. It was like the bad old days had decided to jump scare me, but it also reminded me that I used to really love baseball. Last season was terrible, but I followed along anyway, mostly listening to the occasional game on the radio, watching recaps on YouTube, and listening to The Mets Pod every week. I had modest expectations for this season but was excited about some of the younger players and was intrigued by the potential everyone seemed to believe David Stearns had to turn things around. And did he ever! I had the first game of the season finale double-header vs. the Braves on in the background while working but had to stop everything for those ridiculous final two innings as they pulled off a miracle comeback — twice! I don’t have cable, so I’ll be listening to the playoffs on the radio, too, but like I said before the double-header kicked off, the Mets have already delivered a memorable season, and the future is so much brighter than it was 12 months ago. LGM!
I Saw the TV Glow (MAX)
- Whoever made the two trailers I saw for this should be fired because they were a misleading insult to the film Jane Schoenbrun actually made, setting expectations for something completely different. I had to sleep on it to fully wrap my head around how I actually felt about it, because my initial thoughts were muddied by those initial expectations, and now I want to read more about it to get a better understanding. It’s not a horror movie by any stretch, but more of a deeply personal, surrealist psychological drama that explores identity in subtle and completely unsubtle ways. Brigette Lundy-Paine continues to be one of my favorite young actors and is great, while Justice Smith gives a really weird performance (wtf was that voice?!?) that I have to assume Schoenbrun wanted from him. It’s kind of an uneven mess that’s also provocative and unique, and definitely won’t be for everyone — but if you’re curious, skip the trailers and just jump in.
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power S2 (Prime)
- There’s one episode left but I honestly may have forgotten all about this entire show by this time next month. This season isn’t BAD, but it’s also not very good, either. There have been a few good moments and a few characters I like, but the overall story is way too sprawling for only eight episodes, so it all feels rushed and occasionally totally dumb. The big battle in episode seven might be the most boring epic battle I’ve ever seen, partly because of a muted score, but mostly because there aren’t really any characters to root for. The elves are dicks, Galadriel has been wasted all season, and Elrond somehow becomes Aragon on the battlefield?!? I have more sympathy for Adar and his Uruks, particularly his increasingly skeptical (and unnamed?) right-hand man. I’ll watch the last episode because I’m a completist, but I don’t see myself caring at all about a third season. Related-ish, I also don’t care about commercials (I grew up with them), but streaming services have no clue how to do them right, constantly killing any tension with abrupt inserts, or cutting off their own end credits to squeeze in one more ad or promo.
Persona 3 Reload (Xbox)
- Part of the reason it was a light reading month is I’m now 70+ hours deep into this game and am playing it at every opportunity I can squeeze in — but only when I can dedicate at least an hour to it. I already wrote a ton of words about it and nothing’s changed except my progress, roughly 65-75% into the main story now, and how much deeper I’ve been sucked into the setting. Persona 4 Golden and 5 Royal went on sale this week and I’ve been really tempted to snatch both of them up as my next games to play, but I’m also very intrigued by their spiritual successor, Metaphor ReFantazio, which appears to be everything I love about Persona, with the appealing difference of adult characters. Either way, it looks like Diablo IV‘s new expansion is getting kicked to the backburner for a while.
Your Notes?
If you’ve engaged with any of these, let me know what you thought. And if you have any related recommendations, drop ’em in the comments like we used to do in the good old days! Some of you prefer email, which is cool, too. You do you!
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Three episodes into S2, I’m struggling with “The Rings of Power.” I barely made it through S1, and that was mostly out of a sense of loyalty to my teen self’s infatuation with LOTR. My kid and I rewatch the Peter Jackson movies (extended cuts) two or three times a year—a weird sort of comfort viewing—but this show is a slog. And there are So. Many. Characters and narrative arcs. Why do I keep going? I’m not sure.
I don’t even have teen fandom as a reason. Jackson’s trilogy was my beginning and end, not counting a couple of superficially related games, so I’m not sure why I got sucked into this series to begin with!