Programming note

It's that time of the summer when I tell you that I'm going on vacation. (Except I'm not actually going anywhere other than to local places of interest and a couple of shows and some tennis and a lot of restaurants and patios and, perhaps, a tattoo parlour). Anybestvacationever, I will be back Aug. 22 and I hope you will be back too. Last year I didn't leave you with a reading list and I got all kinds of bleep for that, so here are some suggestions:

I am planning to read Jim Butcher’s new Dresden book Ghost Story (can't wait to see what happens after the major shake-up of the series), Glen Duncan’s The Last Werewolf and Carrie Vaughn’s After the Golden Age. And I want to get to Felix J. Palma's The Map of Time. On my If-I-Have-Time List: Daniel H. Wilson’s Robopocalypse and Mira Grant’s Deadline (the sequel to the quite excellent and surprising Feed). Perhaps Moira Young’s Blood Red Road. I started it and didn’t like it much, but it’s sitting there on my Kindle and I may give it another try. And no, although I own it, I will not yet be reading A Dance with Dragons because I have to go back and re-read books 2-4 first. It’s been too long and I’ve forgotten too much. And I’ll be trying to live with the fact that Richard Kadrey’s third Sandman Slim novel, Aloha from Hell isn’t released until October.

What else can I recommend? Witches of East End by Melissa De La Cruz starts out kinda so-so but becomes more interesting as it goes on – especially for anyone keen on Norse mythology (and who isn't, really?) And then the last 30 pages are irritatingly hurried. I don’t know. Maybe I can’t recommend it at all. On a witchily related note, you may want to check out Deborah Harkness’ A Discovery of Witches. If you don’t mind a book full of neat ideas and a grand alternate history in which nothing really happens other than setting up the sequel and a lot of Twilighty-type yearning. It annoyed me a great deal, but I did read it until the end. I’ll also mention the flawed, but full-of-interesting-sad-ideas, Soft Apocalypse by Will McIntosh. And Ben Aaronovitch’s amusing, swift-paced Midnight Riot and Moon Over Soho. Caitlin Kittredge’s Black London series – Street Magic, Demon Bound and Bone Gods (and Devil’s Business, out Aug. 30) – is a nice dose of Urban Fantasy Methadone while you wait for the next Kim Harrison book.

I'll miss you a little bit.

Tower Heist trailer

Is it possible that Eddie Murphy has shaken off that fat suit and is back in form? Judging from this, it's indeed entirely possible that it's possible.

Best conversation ever. Today

It's so sad and upsetting when you want to play and your friend doesn't want to play. Via The Daily What.

Worst story ever. Today

Don't miss the "related articles" suggestion.  

 

Talk to the mirror

WARNING: Some bad language. Or good. Depending on your viewpoint.

Cinema's Greatest Mirror Pep Talk from FilmDrunkDotCom on Vimeo.

New Hunger Games pictures

I have to agree with various commenters on various sites: The actors - Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth - look too old. I like the clothes and the art direction and everything. But it's supposed to be kids. I believe that's sorta the whole point. Am I wrong?

Via Coming Soon.

Family believes booze withdrawal killed Amy Winehouse

People has this interesting theory: "Amy Winehouse's struggles to quit drugs were well documented. But her family fears that sudden abstinence from alcohol might have been what led to her death last Saturday at age 27, according to a report. Winehouse ignored doctors' advice to step back gradually from her heavy drinking and went cold turkey in the past month, an unnamed family friend tells Britain's Sun. Her family believes that was too much of a shock to her system, the source adds. "Abstinence gave her body such a fright, they thought it was eventually the cause of her death," says the source. The cause of Winehouse's death won't be known for weeks, pending the completion of toxicology tests. There have been reports that Winehouse went on a bender during her final days. But the family source tells the Sun that her father, Mitch Winehouse, said in his eulogy at his daughter's funeral that he believed it was just the opposite. "He said doctors had told Amy to gradually reduce her intake of alcohol and to avoid bingeing at all costs. Amy told him she couldn't do that. It was all or nothing and she gave up completely," says the source. "Mitch said the shock of giving up, after everything she had been through over a bad few years, was just too much for her to take."

Hey Morrissey! Go choke on a chicken thigh!

 

Buzzfeed/The Telegraph.

Not sure this is a good use of anybody's time

Via The Daily What.

This icecream chart makes no sense

... because it's impossible to have a favourite icecream flavour when they're all so delicious. Besides, there is no coconut, no peach, no lemon, no boysenberry, no raspberry, no orange/mocca and no every other flavour that I love, so this chart is super-flawed and invalid. And while I really like Rum-Raisin, I promise you that not a single person in the world respects me. Via Buzzfeed.