What I'm Loving Lately: Orphan Black

Several months ago I randomly began receiving regular issues of Entertainment Weekly. I have no idea how I was selected for this as I don't watch television much. Still all my bills are paperless and it's nice to get mail I guess. The magazine proved useful before the Oscars and when wrapping a birthday present for a friend who loves pretty much everything television.

Recently I got this copy:

Orphan Black? Hmm? Clones? What's this?

It's a show about clones, people! Maybe you don't know this but clones and genetic augmentation plots a course that leads right up my nerd alley.

Orphan Black is a Sci-Fi drama. I was all like, "You can stop convincing me. You had me at clones." The show is about a troubled orphan punk named Sarah who sees a woman who looks exactly like her commit suicide at the train station. Unable to resist the pull of the coincidence or the purse left on the platform, Sarah goes to the woman's apartment and delves into the life of her possible twin. However, instead of a long lost family, Sarah discovers a host of clones from all over the world. Oh, and someone has begun killing them off.

The first season is available on Amazon Instant (sorry to Netflix only customers) and the new season starts April 19th. I've been binge watching season 1 and will actually have to upgrade my cable to get BBC America which isn't included in my super basic package. Yes, it's that serious.

I see what you did there Entertainment Weekly.

Well played.

Book Report Monday: The Stand by Stephen King

Title: The Stand

Author: Stephen King

Genre: Fiction

Synopsis: This is the way the world ends: with a nanosecond of computer error in a Defense Department laboratory and a million casual contacts that form the links in a chain letter of death.

And here is the bleak new world of the day after: a world stripped of its institutions and emptied of 99 percent of its people. A world in which a handful of panicky survivors choose sides -- or are chosen. A world in which good rides on the frail shoulders of the 108-year-old Mother Abagail -- and the worst nightmares of evil are embodied in a man with a lethal smile and unspeakable powers: Randall Flagg, the dark man.
(from Goodreads)

Why did I pick it up?: So many reasons. It's one of my sister's favorite books, I remember enjoying the miniseries with Gary Sinise and Molly Ringwald, and I found it used at a local bookstore.

Favorite Line(s): "Culture lag, he thought distractedly, what fun it all is."

"She couldn't be on his wavelength all the time. When you could recognize that and deal with it, you were on your way to an adult relationship."

"Just the act of cooking made her feel better, because cooking was life."

"Love didn't grow very well in a place where there was only fear, just as plants didn't grow very well in a place where it was always dark."

"Baby, can you dig your man?"

My Review:

Things I do not recommend

1. Touching hot stoves
2. Wearing overalls if you are not under 10, pregnant, or employed in a profession where they are deemed appropriate such as general construction.
3. Twerking
4. Reading The Stand during Flu Season.

I do highly recommend that you read The Stand just at any other time of year. I enjoy King's writing but he can scare me into convulsions which is not good for someone living alone with just their dog. I should mention that far from being a protective guard dog, my fur child is afraid of storms, loud noises and any kind of mechanical whirring like when buses lower their handicap ramps. Most recently, he developed a fear of walking to the coffee shop as there is an overpass. Sometimes when we cross the overpass he freaks out and tries to dive into oncoming traffic. In his canine brain that seems like a safer option.

The Stand is a full account of the apocalypse caused by the Super Flu epidemic that wipes out 99.4% of the world's population. The highly contagious flu strand was developed in an underground government lab in California and is accidentally released. That's where the story begins and King explains how the Super Flu spreads across the US and into other countries. For the first few hundred pages characters are surrounded by people who cough, sneeze, and complain of exhaustion with watery eyes. (I read all about that while waiting to get my Flu Shot and riding the crowded T full of sniffling Bostonians.)

Another thing happening in those first few hundred pages is the courting of characters by the forces of good and evil. Mother Abigail in Nebraska is 108 years old, a devout believer in God and the Devil, and represents the good side. Randall Flagg aka The Dark Man aka The Walkin' Dude sets up his base in Las Vegas just in case there was any question about his being the personification evil or a sociopath or the Antichrist. Characters dream of Mother Abigail and The Dark Man and are pulled towards one or the other. It's not clear where all the characters will end up and that kept me turning the pages.

If you are someone who wants to know the whole story, you'll appreciate The Stand. It's a lengthy book, but I enjoyed every bit of it. Nothing seemed extraneous. There are a lot of characters and about 10 of them have their own point of view chapters. My friends and I would say that is, "very Game-of-Thrones-y". Yes, we've read all the books and know the series is A Song of Ice and Fire. 

My Recommendation: Fans of apocalyptic stories will enjoy this. If there's a Walking Dead fan left on your Christmas shopping list, they might like it too.

For Next Week: The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman

Book Report Monday: Gone Girl

Title: Gone Girl

Author: Gillian Flynn

Genre: Thriller

Synopsis: Marriage can be a real killer.

On a warm summer morning in North Carthage, Missouri, it is Nick and Amy Dunne’s fifth wedding anniversary. Presents are being wrapped and reservations are being made when Nick’s clever and beautiful wife disappears from their rented McMansion on the Mississippi River. Husband-of-the-Year Nick isn’t doing himself any favors with cringe-worthy daydreams about the slope and shape of his wife’s head, but passages from Amy's diary reveal the alpha-girl perfectionist could have put anyone dangerously on edge. Under mounting pressure from the police and the media—as well as Amy’s fiercely doting parents—the town golden boy parades an endless series of lies, deceits, and inappropriate behavior. Nick is oddly evasive, and he’s definitely bitter—but is he really a killer?

As the cops close in, every couple in town is soon wondering how well they know the one that they love. With his twin sister, Margo, at his side, Nick stands by his innocence. Trouble is, if Nick didn’t do it, where is that beautiful wife? And what was in that silvery gift box hidden in the back of her bedroom closet?

(from Goodreads)

Why did I pick it up?: My sister, the Florida one, said she was up all night finishing it. You have to know her to understand how serious this was. She loves sleep, it's precious to her. Normally, I suggest books to my sisters and not the other way around. So when it happens, I take their suggestions and add it to my list, since they usually trust me.

Favorite Line: "So I know I am right not to settle, but it doesn't make me feel better as my friends pair off and I stay home on Friday night with a bottle of wine and make myself an extravagant meal and tell myself, This is perfect, as if I'm the one dating me."

My Review: Relationships can make people crazy. Everyone knows that, but some people are already psychotic, sociopaths beforehand and after. . .well. . .you'll have to read Gone Girl to see what I mean.  

Real people are not easily filed away into categories of good and bad behavior and characters shouldn't be either. Gone Girl is full of fleshed out personalities. At the start, the story pulls you into the psyche of Nick beginning the morning of his wife's disappearance, but she teases with showing how much Nick knows. Is he guilty? Is he guilty? I needed to know. The chapters alternate between Nick's journey and Amy's diary entries which begin with her and Nick's first meeting seven years before she disappears. Both perspectives shed light into the darkest corners of the mind. I enjoyed the way Amy and Nick described the same events, it showed how they each viewed their spouse and what the other one was leaving out or altering.

Flynn shows the relationship ups, downs and insane bumps of Amy and Nick honestly, giving the reader just enough details to hope, cringe, laugh, admire, and worry about the couple's marital state and their psychological well-being in turn. It was an emotional roller coaster, complete with the nausea at the disgust with the extremes some people will go to save face or just to say they won.

Sometimes a book buzzes its way to bestsellerdom and everyone's reading it and they keep telling you to get on board because you're a big reader, are you not? So, you pick it up and it's fan fiction that makes you a little (or more than a little) uncomfortable. This is not one of those bestsellers. Gone Girl is a fast read and there are many unputdownable chapters that kept me up later than usual. 

Recommendation: If you liked The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, even though you found the beginning a bit slow, you'll love Gone Girl which will pull you in without delay and none of the names will cause you to stumble and curse the Swedish language.


For Next Week: 'Salem's Lot by Stephen King