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sunshine jen: Books & Movies 2012
I decided to sum up my cultural consumption of 2012 in one giant blowout wambang posting.
2012 will always be the year of my first Camino, so I decided to keep it all positive and loving. These are not all the books I read or movies I saw. Too much of a slacker to write all that out. Instead, I decided to keep it simple and do four each (although it's really seven books because of the four Sarah Vowell books, but I'm not gonna get technical).
Books
How Should A Person Be? By Sheila Heti
I thought I would toss the book aside after thirty pages of hipster girlie angst. Instead, I kept reading. It has no answers for how a person should be, but it was fun watching one person try.
A Hologram for the King by Dave Eggers
Darn you, Dave Eggers. You publish really good books with really nice covers. You can write fiction and nonfiction. You pulled me into this modern tragic comedy and made me care.
Assasination Vacation, The Partly Clouded Patriot, The Wordy Shipmates, Unfamiliar Fishes by Sarah Vowell
This year, I discovered Sarah Vowell thanks to my friend Sara (no H). Sarah Vowell replaced Jack Kerouac as the author I would most want to take a road trip with. She unapologetically becomes obsessed with things, and I have caught myself a few times telling people strange facts I learned from Sarah Vowell.
The Longest Way Home: One Man's Quest for the Courage to Settle Down by Andrew McCarthy
Yes, it's the dude from Pretty in Pink. He was also in a Hallmark Christmas movie this year. He's also a very good travel writer. He can put himself into a place and describe himself in that place without it being all about him.
Movies
Hello I Must Be Going
This is a small film, it's not perfect, it's just human. It's about a thirty something divorced woman who moves back in with her parents and meets a eighteen year old guy. Excellent acting by an ensemble anchored by Melanie Lynskey.
The Way
I decided to do the Camino before I saw The Way. Then I saw The Way and realized I had made a good choice. You can't walk from St. Jean to Santiago de Compostela in ninety minutes. However, it did capture some of the spirit of the Camino Frances. And no, not all Dutchmen carry weed. Year of the Camino! Woohoo!
The Avengers
Batman and James Bond were both physically rundown in their angst filled movies, but these Avengers were so much fun and full of spunk. They got to save the world from some really bad stuff. I especially liked Mark Ruffalo as the Hulk.
A Night at the Opera
This is the last film I saw on the big screen in 2012, and I laughed my ass off. The Marx Brothers were funny, are funny, and will always be funny until the end of the world (which was supposed to be this year but wasn't, someone got the timing wrong).
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