Books

Over Memorial Day weekend, I was looking for something to read. I like fantasy novels, so the clerk at our favorite Woodstock bookstore Shiretown Books recommended Sabriel by Garth Nix. It’s classified a Young Teen book but she highly recommended it, so I bought it.

It was so good, I went back the next day to buy the two additional books in the series, Abhorsen and Lirael.  I knew Shiretown had them and didn’t want to wait or run the risk that Borders at home wouldn’t have them.

The books are a pretty fast read, but the mythology stacks up well against the classics – Tolkien, McCaffrey, LeGuin, Eddings. If you like fantasy, you’ll enjoy this series.

I finally got around to reading Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris, the inspiration for the HBO series True Blood starring Anna Paquin (more on that in a minute). It was pretty good, and I am now reading the second, Living Dead in Dallas, but I’m trying to lower my expectations, as reviews on Amazon indicate that the series doesn’t maintain the same high standard as time goes on.

While I was in San Francisco for New Comm Forum, I picked up Death’s Daughter by Amber Benson, who you may remember as Tara on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Benson has made some interesting indie films since her time as Willow’s far -too-nice girlfriend on Buffy, and co-authored the Ghosts of Albion series with Christopher Golden.

My take: Death’s Daughter makes a great airplane read. You aren’t too fussed if you don’t finish it on the plane, but it will keep your attention. Plus it has a cute dog. Benson is on a book tour so check out her blog for dates and locations.

TV

Burn Notice is back. That is all.

Well, not really. I did check out True Blood the other day — FIOS has it On Demand, so I watched a couple episodes including the season two premiere. I liked it, but I probably wouldn’t stay home to watch it. Or subscribe to HBO. I’ll wait for FIOS to have it for free.

Merlin. Douglas liked it, so as a step up from Zack and Cody, I’ll take it. Plus Anthony Stewart Head. Yeah, I’m shallow like that.

Anthony Stewart Head in a Nescafe Ad

Movies

Douglas and  I went to see Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian on Sunday. What can I say? Your willing suspension of disbelief will get a major workout during this film, but who cares. It’s amusing, the kids will like it, and you’ve been to worse films. I know it. I still have Sheena Queen of the Jungle to live down because I thought Ted Wass was cute. Will my mother let me forget it? Noooo. Stupid zebra that was really a horse painted with zebra stripes.

Moving along, we are looking foward to Transformers, which starts tomorrow. The previews we’ve already seen pretty much summarize the plot, but we don’t care. Robots. Action. Explosions. It’s a Michael Bay film, and I’ll be right there with my kid cheering for Bumblebee and Optimus Prime.

Yeah, I ‘m weird like that.