May, 2007
May 2nd, 2007, 8:54 p.m. - I...guess they rocked?
May 5th, 2007, 9:35 p.m. - Oh, and the death theme doesn't really work either
11. Driving With Dead People (Monica Holloway)
Up next: Then We Came to the End (Joshua Ferris)
May 7th, 2007, 8:56 a.m. - We're free from Mirna forever!
May 8th, 2007, 10:31 p.m. - My cab driver wrote this article
"Why Brittany is Not a Top Model"
May 9th, 2007, 11:03 p.m. - 'Bye, LaKisha! Hi, all you other guys!
May 10th, 2007, 8:52 p.m. - They say it's your birthday
Well, mine, anyway. Apparently I can now officially rent a car. Good to know.
May 14th, 2007, 8:06 p.m. - Pretty soon I won't have anything left to post!
"Why Dionne is Not a Top Model"
May 16th, 2007, 10:29 p.m. - America, put down the crack pipe!
May 17th, 2007, 7:52 p.m. - She's still smarter than me. And you. Everyone, really
Just hours after Melinda was completely unfairly eliminated from American Idol, one of my favorite TV shows ever, Veronica Mars, has been euthanized. The past 24 hours have been bad for people with good taste.
May 19th, 2007, 2:39 p.m. - The Jim and Karen in this office actually hate each other
12. Then We Came to the End (Joshua Ferris)
Up next: Committed (Dan Mathews)
May 22nd, 2007, 5:44 p.m. - "So then Jack is like 'That's why the Sox will never win the series' and Benry is just like LOL YOU ARE PWNED"
In case you've forgotten what happened all season on Lost, here's a nifty (and hilarious) recap. It might possibly make more sense than the show itself.
May 24th, 2007, 6:02 p.m. - Yay!
May 26th, 2007, 10:02 p.m. - They should have put the photo of him in the bunny suit on the front cover instead of the back
13. Committed (Dan Mathews)
Up next: I Love You, Beth Cooper (Larry Doyle)
May 29th, 2007, 10:54 p.m. - Apparently all I'm doing now is reading. Awesome
14. I Love You, Beth Cooper (Larry Doyle)
Up next: The Kite Runner (Khaled Hosseini)
I don't want to spend a lot of time on this book, since it really wasn't that good, but: Holloway's parents are in the running for worst parents ever and make a good argument for forced sterilization.
Then We Came to the End is kind of like The Office if The Office were more realistic and had less-quirky characters. The book (which has no protagonist, really, since it's written in the first-person plural) is about an advertising firm and how the employees get along, don't get along, pass the time, and juggle their personal lives with their work lives. It's about how work takes over our lives until we don't remember what it's like to have a life. It's also about how our coworkers become our family because we spend so much time with them. I wish Ferris had made the characters livelier - it's hard to differentiate them sometimes - but for the most part it's a pretty good read with a lot of humor and some scenes that are drawn beautifully. The detour between the two main sections, which focuses on one character in particular, is especially well-written.
Mathews has worked for PETA for 20 years, having worked his way up from secretary to vice president and the head of many outlandish protests. You'll be happy to know that he has a great sense of humor, knows how to avoid offending people, and is very down-to-earth. He makes it easy to stomach the tales of his escapades because he doesn't make them sound like jewels in his animal-rights crown. Mathews just wants to spread the message that animals have feelings and should be treated with respect. If it takes a flashy event to do that, he'll create one, but he also wants to keep the issues in mind. Yeah, he'll throw fake blood on a woman wearing a fur coat, but he'll just as likely sit down with her and have a calm conversation. In short, he's the kind of guy you'd like to spend a night out on the town with.
During his valedictory speech at his high-school graduation, supergeek Denis Cooverman announces to his entire class that he is in love with head cheerleader Beth Cooper. Over the next 12 hours, he attempts to dodge the fists of Beth's military boyfriend Kevin, tries to prove that he's cooler than people think, and gets closer to Beth, who isn't the person he idealized. Doyle used to write for The Simpsons, so it's no surprise that he's funny, but he also is well-versed in the teen-comedy movie genre, as the book spoofs and pays homage to every teen movie you've ever seen. The characters are well-drawn and some of the dialogue is hilarious. Though the plot is pretty much cotton candy and I didn't really care about any of the characters, the book as a whole is a fun diversion. I'd call it a beach read, even though I didn't read it at the beach.