What have you been reading/watching/anticipating/etc.? (Oct. 2017)
October 8, 2017 2:48 PM - Subscribe
So much is coming out in film, TV, streaming services, and books (including SF/F/H, mystery, romance, general fiction, and non-fiction) in October, 2017! What are you excited about, and more generally, what media have you been reading, watching, or listening to? As an experiment in the possibilities for FanFare Talk, this is an open thread for sharing recommendations and building interest in film, TV, books, and podcasts--new and old options equally welcome.
I'm another one for Manhattan Beach. I may have to wait on Eight Years because I'm into escapism right now. I'm intrigued by A Field Guide to the North American Family (new full-color edition) but still on the fence. Little Fires Everywhere sounds fairly in my wheelhouse (I liked, but didn't love, Ng's first book).
Season 4 of Voltron drops on Netflix, which we've been watching as a family with great enjoyment, so definitely that.
On regular TV, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend comes back this month (WOOOOO!) and Poldark just started season 3 (in the US, I'm not sure how far behind the UK we are).
I finally started The Fifth Season -- I tried last year but I can't read harrowing novels with dead children on page 1 that close to childbirth. I'm far enough out to manage it now. :) I've been Netflix bingeing Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries which is awesome. My kids have been Netflix bingeing the Magic Schoolbus reboot, which I'm liking too. On Amazon, we've been watching Just Add Magic which is very charmingly acted for a kid show! After the kids go to bed, husband and I are working our way slowly through Orphan Black.
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 8:10 PM on October 8, 2017 [1 favorite]
Season 4 of Voltron drops on Netflix, which we've been watching as a family with great enjoyment, so definitely that.
On regular TV, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend comes back this month (WOOOOO!) and Poldark just started season 3 (in the US, I'm not sure how far behind the UK we are).
I finally started The Fifth Season -- I tried last year but I can't read harrowing novels with dead children on page 1 that close to childbirth. I'm far enough out to manage it now. :) I've been Netflix bingeing Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries which is awesome. My kids have been Netflix bingeing the Magic Schoolbus reboot, which I'm liking too. On Amazon, we've been watching Just Add Magic which is very charmingly acted for a kid show! After the kids go to bed, husband and I are working our way slowly through Orphan Black.
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 8:10 PM on October 8, 2017 [1 favorite]
I just managed-not-to-binge the BBC miniseries of Bleak House from 2005. Charles Dance (Tywin Lannister) is no less calculating as a Victorian lawyer. Such delicious villainy! It's on Amazon Prime.
posted by janell at 10:19 AM on October 9, 2017
posted by janell at 10:19 AM on October 9, 2017
For current podcasts, I really like Steal the Stars, which is a full voice acted SF audio drama.
I'm also going to check out Kekkai Sensen/Blood Blockade Battlefront, since I remember enjoying the first season, although I'll probably have to brush up on the wiki a bit to remember what was happening.
posted by tautological at 5:57 PM on October 9, 2017
I'm also going to check out Kekkai Sensen/Blood Blockade Battlefront, since I remember enjoying the first season, although I'll probably have to brush up on the wiki a bit to remember what was happening.
posted by tautological at 5:57 PM on October 9, 2017
What I've been reading lately is SF/F short fiction published online in 2017, and I've posted several stories that I thought might be a fit for Metafilter.
In a way I've been inspired in that by Carmen Maria Machado's "Especially Heinous: 272 Views of Law & Order," because I thought it was amazing when it was posted on the blue. So it's great to see her collection getting good press this month.
Among other new titles, I'll definitely read Nnedi Okorafor's Akata Warrior at some point. I read Akata Witch around the time it came out, and the world-building/imagery in it was terrific. For similar reasons, I'm sure I'll read Catherynne Valente's The Glass Town Game. I think these are all middle grade--not YA--so I don't expect much in terms of plot, but they promise a lot in sense of wonder.
However, I'm sitting next to copies of Jeff VanderMeer's Borne, Catherynne Valente's The Refrigerator Monologues, and Daryl Gregory's Spoonbenders, and probably all those come first.
posted by Wobbuffet at 6:08 PM on October 9, 2017 [1 favorite]
In a way I've been inspired in that by Carmen Maria Machado's "Especially Heinous: 272 Views of Law & Order," because I thought it was amazing when it was posted on the blue. So it's great to see her collection getting good press this month.
Among other new titles, I'll definitely read Nnedi Okorafor's Akata Warrior at some point. I read Akata Witch around the time it came out, and the world-building/imagery in it was terrific. For similar reasons, I'm sure I'll read Catherynne Valente's The Glass Town Game. I think these are all middle grade--not YA--so I don't expect much in terms of plot, but they promise a lot in sense of wonder.
However, I'm sitting next to copies of Jeff VanderMeer's Borne, Catherynne Valente's The Refrigerator Monologues, and Daryl Gregory's Spoonbenders, and probably all those come first.
posted by Wobbuffet at 6:08 PM on October 9, 2017 [1 favorite]
I'm in the middle of Elena Ferrante's The Days of Abandonment, and I'm hoping to finish it tomorrow. I read and loved the Elena and Lila books a couple years ago, so I thought I knew what I was getting into with Ferrante, but I didn't quite expect to be so intimately plunged into this much of an abyss re: the narrator's psychological breakdown. I keep going, "I don't want to be present for what is happening!" but then hurriedly reading on anyway.
Next up, I think I'm leaning toward Ann Leckie's Provenance, but now I've added that Rivers Solomon book to my TBR as well. So much interesting SFF to read!
Outside of books, I'm keeping up with both The Good Place and Brooklyn Nine-Nine as they air, and I'm hoping to catch up with Broad City. I'm also eagerly awaiting Crazy Ex-Girlfriend; I can't wait to find out what this season's theme song is, since it'll inevitably be stuck near-permanently in my head after a few episodes.
posted by mixedmetaphors at 6:39 PM on October 9, 2017 [1 favorite]
Next up, I think I'm leaning toward Ann Leckie's Provenance, but now I've added that Rivers Solomon book to my TBR as well. So much interesting SFF to read!
Outside of books, I'm keeping up with both The Good Place and Brooklyn Nine-Nine as they air, and I'm hoping to catch up with Broad City. I'm also eagerly awaiting Crazy Ex-Girlfriend; I can't wait to find out what this season's theme song is, since it'll inevitably be stuck near-permanently in my head after a few episodes.
posted by mixedmetaphors at 6:39 PM on October 9, 2017 [1 favorite]
I'm in the middle of Star Wars: From A Certain Point of View, a book which collects 40 stories from 40 different authors to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Star Wars. All the stories are set during A New Hope, and the cherry on top, proceeds go to charity. They're delicious vignettes that fit my rando schedule of reading perfectly. It's great for someone who loves Star Wars, but doesn't want to get involved in reading the regular books.
posted by Atreides at 6:49 AM on October 12, 2017
posted by Atreides at 6:49 AM on October 12, 2017
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I've heard pretty 'meh' reivews of Jennifer Egan's Manhatten Beach, but I am still definitely going to read it.
We Were Eight Years in Power by Ta-Nehisi Coates is another 'duh' choice for me.
A lot of my goodreads friends are really enjoying Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado so that's on my to-read list.
Last but not least, I want to check out An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon. The Millions' summary says, "A debut work of speculative fiction features a spaceship with a white supremacist cult at the helm, making a generations-long trip to a new world via the labor of a group of enslaved black people living belowdeck. "
posted by tofu_crouton at 3:02 PM on October 8, 2017 [1 favorite]