Movie: The Five-Year Engagement

I didn't hate this movie, but I didn't love it either. My main issues were with the scenes depicting academia (a grad level class of 80 people with a wacky professor? deciding details of psych experiments on the fly? really?) and that it of course had to have a happy ending. Of course, I can't really expect a famous rom-com to have anything other than a happy ending.

imdb

Book count: 28
Movie count: 16
Other media: 14

Other: Webcomic: Lunarbaboon

This is definitely the most heartwarming webcomic I've read. A welcome change. I have no idea if it's based on reality, but also I don't want to know because I don't want to give up on my dream that it is real.

http://lunarbaboon.squarespace.com

Book count: 28
Movie count: 15
Other media: 14

Other: TV: Lucky Louie

This show was great, but I can see why it only made through one season, it's quite profane. I thought very similar to the current show 'Louie', but maybe a bit more awkward and less polished.
The best thing about watching this show was learning that the actress who plays the wife does cartoon voices, including Moose from Pepper Ann. That was very exciting to learn, really.

imdb

Book count: 28
Movie count: 15
Other media: 13

Other: TV: Bob's Burgers

I was skeptical of this show because it's on fox and looks like other fox cartoons that I'm not particularly fond of. However, I gave it a shot because Loren Bouchard created it, and he also created Home Movies, which I love.
I was pleasantly surprised to find that this show was unlike the other cartoons I associate with fox. The best thing about this show is probably how frighteningly relatable Tina is.

imdb

Book count: 28
Movie count: 15
Other media: 12

Book: Cool, Calm & Contentious by Merrill Markoe

I didn't particularly love this book, but I think that the essays about her dogs were a big redeeming factor. An enjoyable, easy to read palate cleanser between fiction works, which was what I wanted.

goodreads

Book count: 28
Movie count: 15
Other media: 11

Book: Demons in the Spring by Joe Meno

I think this is my one of my favorite collections of short stories by a single author. The stories have enough differing perspectives and wildly varying plots to keep things interesting for the entire length of the book. Also, the illustrations were great, and a nice break from words every so often.

Goodreads

Book count: 27
Movie count: 15
Other media: 11

Book: Lost and Found in Russia: Lives in the Post-Soviet Landscape by Susan Richards

I thought this book was really interesting in showing the changes that recently happend in Russia, and how it has affected the people there.
I did get a bit confused with all of the names of people, which were hard for me to keep straight, but by the end I pretty much understood what was going on. Definitely the portrait of Russia and the lives of Russians that this book gave was somewhat different from what I would have thought. Also, I didn't know anything about the traditional religious communities who live out in the outerlying areas of Russia, but I found them particularly interesting, and something I'd like to read more about.

Goodreads

Book count: 26
Movie count: 15
Other media: 11

Movie: The Farmer's Wife

I didn't really think anything too interesting happened in this documentary, but I still watched all 5 or so hours, so there was something that drew me in and made me want to continue watching. I was a bit disappointed about half way through, I accidentally spoiled the ending for myself, but, again, despite that I still kept watching. I think that what made this interesting to watch was to see the minutia of the family's life and the how they responded to everything in lots of detail which would probably be skipped over in favor of time usually.

imdb

Book count: 25
Movie count: 15
Other media: 11