My Most Recent Reads - February 2016

A very slow month for reading for me.  I only read 10 books this month, which as we know is very unusual for me.  Much of that has to do with just limited time but also a few of the audiobooks I listened to this month were longer than usual.  And like January, I didn't find the lot entirely exciting, though there were two that I can speak to.  I had a lot of titles to review for magazines, which also keeps me from reviewing them here (something about a conflict of interest, right?).  
Jean Paul Satre - No Exit Page 1

No Exit by Jean-Paul Satre

Confession time--I haven't read much of Satre's philosophical work; though I would guess that's many people.  However, after reading No Exit, I am much more intrigued.  No Exit is a one-act play in which three people find themselves in a room without (wait for it...) an exit.  They have been placed in here as their essential version of hell to wait out eternity.  The surprise is the method in which hell is enacted.  It's not filled with traditional sadists who want to throw these characters on the rack and watch them writhe in pain, but rather a balance of or rather an imbalance of the three characters is what makes it the quintessential hell.  Each character seeds the anger and frustration as they each reveal their secrets and then their true selves, illustrating why they make the perfect threesome for eternal damnation.  I found Satre dialogue engaging and that the characters were easy to formulate through their lines.  It's a quick but fascinating read.  

The Horror of It All: One Moviegoer’s Love Affair with Masked Maniacs, Frightened Virgins, and the Living Dead... by Adam Rockoff

I tend to be a fan of film critic memoirs mostly because they provide me with insight into the mind of the critic about key moments in their cinematic-taste development.  I always appreciate when a film critic can crystallize their viewing experience and that's what Rockoff does a lot of in this book, mixing his life with a great deal of horror films--some good, some bad, and some we should probably not talk about.  Sprinkled among his films and reflections are sometimes political or theoretical views that I personally disagree with but can see how and why he has inserted them.  But the main reason I enjoyed this book is to see the great many horror films that I may know nothing about and wish to learn.  Indeed, a book like this makes me go and add a bajillion (yes, that's an accurate count) new titles to my Netflix que.  Horror fans may not agree with every choice or film that Rockoff brings up, but there is plenty of great content to sift through here.  

Monthly reads for 2016 (and you can always look at all of my books that I've read on GoodReads)

BOOKS
  • No Exit by Jean-Paul Sartre
  • Plotted: A Literary Atlas by Andrew DeGraff

AUDIOBOOKS
  • United: Thoughts on Finding Common Ground and Advancing the Common Good by Cory Booker
  • Gamelife: A Memoir by Michael Clune
  • The Big Dark by Rodman Philbrick
  • The Brain Electric: The Dramatic High-Tech Race to Merge Minds and Machines by Malcolm Gay
  • Groucho Marx: The Comedy of Existence by Lee Siegel
  • Revolution in Higher Education: How a Small Band of Innovators Will Make College Accessible and Affordable by Richard Demillo
  • Aftermath (Star Wars: Aftermath, #1) by Chuck Wendig
  • The Horror of It All: One Moviegoer’s Love Affair with Masked Maniacs, Frightened Virgins, and the Living Dead... by Adam Rockoff
GRAPHIC NOVEL

  • Invincible, Vol. 22: Reboot by Robert Kirkman

What about you reader?  What book recommendations do you have for me?



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