Media Consumed: October 2011

Books Read
The Dragon's Tooth by   N.D. Wilson
Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by   Ransom Riggs
*Benjamin Bear in Fuzzy Thinking by  Philippe Coudray
Real Steel by   Richard Matheson
*Yellow Rose of Texas  by   Douglas Brode & Joe Orsak
*Zig and Wikki in Something Ate My Homework by   Nadja Spiegelman
Wreck the Halls by   Jen Yates
In the Land of Believers by   Gina Welch
The Boxcar Children #113: The Box That Watch Found   inspired by Gertrude Chandler Warner
*Puns of Steel by   Scott Hilburn
*Ziggy by   Tom Wilson
The Boxcar Children #115: The Great Detective Race   inspired by Getrude Chandler Warner

* = denotes a graphic novel, TPB, or collection of comic strips

October was a productive reading month. There are several title worth mentioning.

The Dragon's Tooth was an exciting young adult novel that is really unlike any young adult novel I've ever read before. The book has elements of steam punk, adventure, and fantasy. The marketing tried comparing it to Harry Potter, but the book felt more like a serious version of A Series of Unfortunate Events. I can't wait to read the next volume in the series once it's finished.

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children wasn't quite as exciting as The Dragon's Tooth. However, it was interesting, nevertheless. The book is different because there are a series of photographs scattered throughout the novel that are important (and in some cases essential) to understanding the story. The photographs are real discarded photographs. The book has been optioned for a movie that is currently in pre-production.

Real Steel is a collection of previously published Matheson stories. It's Matheson so it's worth reading; even his garbage is better than much of the dreck that passes for literature nowadays (ahem, Shades of Grey, Twilight, etc.).

In the Land of Believers is a memoir about an agnostic of Jewish descent who spent two years of her life integrating herself into Thomas Road Baptist Church to learn more about how the "opposition" thinks. It's a good book to read, whether you be a Christian or not. However, though I enjoyed the book, I liked the similarly-themed, The Unlikely Disciple by Kevin Roose better.

The Boxcar Children #113: The Box That Watch Found is a good piece of children's fiction that features geocaching as key to the plot.

Movies Watched
The Smurfs
The Spine Tingler
Brother's Justice
Drive

Anyone who is interested in movies should watch The Spine Tingler. It's a documentary about filmmaker William Castle.

Drive is one of the best movies released in 2011. It has very little dialogue, incredibly violent, and stylized. It's like watching a 1980s Michael Mann movie. Plus, despite the violence, there is a morality to the tale and the story is one of a man who is a modern day knight.