Amy Reads the Week (of September 28th, 2008)

Will September never end, Gentle Reader? Between weather and school and illness (oh my!), I feel as if September has drained me of All Productive Activity. Woe to you, Most Constant of Readers, as this has Greatly Affected my Blogging.

Or, should we say, Lack of Blogging?

But what September has brought is the New Fall Lineup. I have already Waxed Poetic on Fringe, but let me express my delight on the Dark Horse Contender (but not Our Beloved Publishing House Dark Horse), The Mentalist. One episode in, and I am Greatly Impressed!

But o, Friends, the one that has pleased Above All Others is the season premiere of The Office. What else is there to say but that This Humble Author is pleased? Very, very pleased indeed.

And the Amazon.Com Fairy arrived this week, bringing two Delights beyond all imagination: Chelsea Cain's Sweetheart and the Cold War Kids's[1] Loyalty to Loyalty. The former is quite the powerhouse follow-up to Cain's dark and disturbing Heartsick, although neither quite has the charm of Confessions of a Teen Sleuth. The latter is Beyond Great. I cannot even begin to tell you, Gentle Reader, how much I adore the Cold War Kids. They have impressed me So Mightily that I think they deserve a place in Amy Reads's Top Five Artists and Bands, with such heavy-hitters as David Bowie, the Beatles, Nina Simone, and Portishead.

I apologize for my brevity which, in this instance, is certainly not the soul of wit. But I am still Rather Ill, and sitting upright at the desk, without real work put into preparing classes for this week, feels too decadent for This Ill (albeit still humble) Author. And as you Most Gentle of Readers know by now, Decadence is abhorrent to Those of Us languishing in High Victoriana. It must be savored only for those brief (!) forays into the fin de siecle.

[1] Mr. Reads and I discussed the grammatical correctness of this to determine whether it should be Cold War Kids' or Cold War Kids's. We both decided that as it is a collective unit--the band is The Cold War Kids--then it should be treated as a proper noun, like Wells's. Please feel free to contribute thoughts to this grammatical conundrum, Gentle Reader!

Amy (really doesn't have the time to) Reads the Week (of April 13th, 2008)

Gentle Reader, I've a chapter to revise by Thursday, yes, Thursday, and a few meetings this upcoming week to make it just that much more Difficult. So I must be Rather Silent this week despite the fact that 1) I've read Gail Simone's Wonder Woman #19 and thought it Absolutely Brilliant (who else but Ms. Simone can make me eat crow regarding Tom Tresser in just one month, and make me laugh *and* cry in just one final panel?), 2) I finished Jim Butcher's Small Favor and thought it Absolutely Brilliant (truly, his best Harry Dresden novel yet), and 3) both The Office and 30 Rock have returned to us (Jim! Pam! Jack! Liz Lemon! That's what she said!). Never mind the fact that Mr. Reads and I have a Large Stack of comics to be read this week, nor the fact that my Trinity Wonder Woman is just lovely and is begging for a Post of Her Own.

Never mind the pop culture. Here comes the Dissertation.

Wish me luck, Friends! It seems I'm Suffering under the Suffragettes at the moment, for the second (!) time this year.