Here's what I plan on reading and watching this week (9/25 - 10/1)

Good afternoon!

It occurred to me that I need to be a little more interactive with this blog to increase my regular posting.  To that end, I thought I’d go ahead and start each week by going over what books I plan on reading and what films I plan on watching.  I thought about adding more to this paragraph to flesh it out, but I think it’s pretty self-explanatory.  Nothing to see here.

Of course, I could just get lazy and eat pancakes all week instead.  We'll find out how I did next week!

Books

I’m a day late on this post, as I consider Sunday the start of my week.  I already read one book this week—Fight Club 2 by Chuck Palahniuk, Cameron Stewart, and others.  This book gave me such rage and nausea.  I’m working on a review and I’ll have it up tomorrow. 

It’s Banned Books Week!  In case you aren’t aware of the occasion, I’ll link to the official website.  To celebrate, I have chosen a couple of recently challenged books.

•            This Book is Gay by James Dawson.  This book was challenged at a library in Alaska because some parents took issue with the book’s positive stance on diversity and the LGBTQIA community.  I haven’t heard much about this book, but I knew of its existence. 

•            The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie.  Again, this book was challenged based on diversity.  I very briefly met Sherman Alexie at Bookcon in May and foolishly didn’t bring this with me for him to sign, but this book has been on my radar for quite some time.

If I’m feeling especially adventurous, I’ll seek out a third book to read for Banned Books Week.

Movies

Earlier this year I would be lucky to average one movie per week.  Lately, it’s been 4-5.  I guess I am mentally preparing myself for awards season already!  It’s better to watch multiple movies per week than catch up with 10-12 per week in January, I suppose.

Here are the movies I plan on watching this week:

•           Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, directed by Tim Burton.  Tim Burton is very hit or miss with me—especially his live action projects, which have been misses for me since Sweeney Todd back in 2007.  Still, I enjoyed the source material, so I am cautiously looking forward to this.

•          Storks, directed by Nicholas Stoller and Doug Sweetland.  It came out last week, but I was swamped over the weekend and wasn’t able to see it.  According to the box office records, I wasn’t the only one who stayed away.  The reviews aren’t terrible, so I’m hoping for a silly animated film.
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•           The Revised Fundamentals of Caregiving, directed by Rob Burnett.  Not sure why they butchered the title of the book, but I'm not going to lose sleep over it.  I was a fan of the book, so I’m optimistic, despite my usual aversion to Selena Gomez.