Second Quarter 2014 book reviews

Mrs. has done a great job consolidating her book reviews and limiting them to just a few sentences.  I’m going to try my best to keep my second quarter book reviews as short as possible (for me).  I only read three books in the second three months of 2014, so this should be a quick post.


The Vampire Armand by Anne Rice

As you can tell from the title, Armand is the focus in this one, the sixth book in Anne Rice’s The Vampire Chronicles.  After the last couple of disappointing books about the adventures of Lestat, it was a welcome change to read about Armand’s origins and the journey that brought him from Russia to Italy, where he becomes a vampire by his teacher Marius, and eventually to Paris, where we first met him in Interview with the Vampire.  Overall, I was much happier with this book than the last couple in the series, but it was still nowhere near the level of Interview with the Vampire (a recurring theme with my reviews of Anne Rice novels).  Related side note – Anne is now working on a new entry in The Vampire Chronicles, set for release in October (although back to Lestat as the focus), so I have that to look forward to.


The Great Depression: America in the 1930s by T.H. Watkins

The titles are giving these away – yes, this is a nonfiction book about The Great Depression.  I had wanted to read more about this time period (in particular before I read the next book in this post), and this was a pretty detailed look at this tumultuous period in our nation’s history.  It kept my interest and was a fairly easy read (at least for a book on a topic like this).  It did get bogged down a bit when delving into the labor movement.  I think I’ve read about all I can take on the union battles during the 1930’s.  But I guess if that’s what was going on during those years, the author had to write about it.  And I will say that it gave me a good historical background for this next one . . . 


The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck


Surprisingly, I had never read this Steinbeck classic in high school or college, and it’s been on my list of "classics to read" for years.  I’m not sure what made me put off reading it, but for what it’s worth, I thought it was fantastic.  One of the best of the “classics” that I’ve read.  The story follows the Joad family as they’re forced off their tenant farm in Oklahoma during the dust bowl at the height of the depression.  They make their way across the country to California, to join the many migrant workers fighting to survive.  What is a promised utopia, instead becomes a nightmare, where hundreds of thousands of people can’t find work and are forced to accept low wages and unfit living conditions.  It is depressing, heartbreaking, and doesn’t end with a ton of hope.  And yet I still enjoyed it.  The book alternates chapters on the Joads and chapters detailing the migrant workers' plight in general, and that may have been a bit distracting, but I still think Steinbeck created something pretty great here.  It’s not a perfect novel and many of the characters aren’t developed fully, but I can at least agree that it belongs on a list of classic American novels. 

A long overdue Mad Men recap

So you may have noticed that the blog has gone dark for a while.  Since May 20^th to be exact, including not one single post in June, the first month since the blog started that that happened.  So what does it mean?  Well for one, it means we haven’t been posting anything.  But really it just means we haven’t had anything to say, or more appropriately, haven’t had anything to say in blog form.  I hate to say it, but it’s possible the blog fad has passed (for us at least – it may have passed a long time ago for everyone else).  We’ll see what happens going forward.  For now, I have a post on the Mad Men mid-season finale that I wrote sometime shortly after it aired and never posted for reasons unclear even to me.  So here it is: 

Well that went fast.  Seven episodes done and now we have to wait another year (I suppose at this point were down to 9 months) to get the conclusion of the final season of Mad Men.  Here are some thoughts on where we’re leaving each character.

Megan – so I guess this is officially goodbye?  I feel like we’ve seen the Megan-Don marriage end multiple times, so maybe they will reconcile yet again, but I think we've seen the last of Megan.  With only seven episodes left, there’s probably too much else to wrap up to waste time on her.  That being said, I know I liked Megan more than the average viewer, and I always felt she was a good way to show us someone Don could be happy with.  But as Don himself once said, “But what is happiness?  It's a moment before you need more happiness.”  And that is certainly true of Don and women.  Megan made him happy.  But so did Faye, and Rachel, and even Betty once upon a time.  And then Don needs to move on.  Here’s hoping Megan becomes a big Hollywood success. 

Bert – I’m even more certain that this is the last we’ve seen of him.  At least he got to witness the moon landing before he kicked the bucket.  And he even got to give us a song and dance number from beyond the grave.  I think his ghost was trying to tell Don that it’s not all about the money.  We’ll see what Don does with this information.

Cutler – well, it is a lot of money.  The resident villain of SC&P wasn’t able to get what he wanted with Don out of the firm, but he did agree to cash in on the offer from McCann.

Betty – I feel like I’ve said this before, but what is left of Betty’s story?  To justify her continued presence on the show the writers are going to have to come up with something for her to do in the last seven episodes.  If nothing else, it might be nice to see her and Don have some sort of real closure to their relationship.

Sally – smoking cigs and kissing nerds.  I also liked how Sally repeated the college dude’s comment about the moon landing being too expensive when she was talking to Don on the phone.  Don’t be cynical her Dad tells her.  That’s good advice Don.  I still find it hard to believe that Sally doesn’t end up at Woodstock.  I mean she has to get into some trouble before the show says goodbye, right?

Ted – was he suicidal there at the beginning?  Is this still because of Peggy?  Seriously?  Get it together man.  With Ted presumably coming back to NY, is it inevitable that he’ll end up with Peggy at the end?  Because I’m kind of rooting for that not to happen.  Like seriously hoping that isn't a story line we have to endure.

Harry – at this point the computer will make partner before Harry.

Joan – I like that Roger referred to her as Benedict Joan.  I still remain confused on her behavior all season.  I get that Don cost her a lot of money by killing the deal where the firm would go public (I think), but I think it’s been a bit much.  Hopefully now that she’s got her money, Joan will be a bit more pleasant in the second half.  I feel like there’s story left to tell with her and I still think her and Roger end up together in the end.

Roger – he’s been mostly comic relief, but it was good to see him flex the dramatic muscles when talking on the phone with Don.  Bert was a father figure to Roger and it’s understandable how emotional it made him and how he suddenly had much more incentive to try to keep his friend Don around.  And it was good to finally see him take charge and do something.  Although I wonder if they’ve gone to this well a few too many times.  How many times can one firm change names and move offices and avoid folding?

Pete – I have 10%!  Yes Pete, we know, you’re rich now.  Or richer.

Peggy – I didn’t write about this previously, but it was great seeing her and Don reconcile.  The scene of them working in Lou’s office that ended in the slow dance will be added to the top scenes the show has ever given us.  Much like Bert to Roger, Don has been Peggy's father figure all along.  The two of them have been through so much together and it’s a better show when they’re on the same team.  It was also great to hear Peggy give her first Don-like pitch to a client.  The baton has officially been passed.

Don – “I worry about a lot of things, but I don’t worry about you.”  Again, I love Don playing the father figure to Peggy and then putting his ego aside to let her do the Burger Chef pitch.  Two other great Don scenes: Meredith attempting to comfort Don after he gets the termination letter.  Never change Meredith.  And an angry Don charging into Roger’s office and forcing the partners to vote on his dismissal.  “Motion denied!”  Poor Cutler, don’t you know not to make Don angry?  I still think the show ends with him out of advertising, although the new contract with McCann may make that more difficult.  But Don’s never been one to care much about contracts and rules and not doing things only for himself.  We’ll just have to wait and see . . . another 9 months.

Ok gang, see you next year.  You know, if the blog is still around.