Item 16 - Finish 30 13 books - "The Will to Whatevs" by Eugene Mirman

I'm a fan of Eugene Mirman. He is one of the best parts of "Bob's Burgers" and his riffs can be some of the funniest moments on the show. His stand-up is smart, funny and original. Rather than write a review of the book I've decided that I'd post a clip of him talking about doing a reading of his book (skip to 2:59 for the relevant part, or watch the whole thing, it's pretty funny).

Item 16 - Finish 30 14 books - "Bad Juju & Other Tales of Madness and Mayhem" by Jonathan Woods

Bad Juju, good cover

I read this book primarily in a bar while waiting for friends. Not in a single trip, hopefully I would give up on waiting after an hour; but it happened to be a book that I had on my phone and that I didn't mind putting down when people would show up unexpectedly. I mention this because there is something deceptive that happens when reading noir fiction in a bar. The atmosphere of a bar can make the worst noir seem good; it can make it more real, more gritty, more sexy. This book was far from the worst but even the bar couldn't put it into great reading territory.

"Bad Juju" committed a few of the ancient sins of noir fiction, things that I hope we can all learn from and work past to make better books. Woods didn't commit all of them, very rarely do you get authors that do that aren't self-published. But in an effort to spread the gospel here are some of the cardinal sins of neo-noir:

• You shall not make your protagonist an invincible badass white guy, Bruce Willis already exists and we're all kind of tired of him anyway.

Seriously, smirking...

...is not...

...acting. Knock it off.

• You shall not make two dimensional female characters that are just sex in high heels, even if you believe that making her the protagonist is "forward thinking." Remember the Bechdel Test and keep it handy.

(Source)

• Smoking and drinking are not all that is required to give fiction a hardboiled edge; reaching for a cigarette or a whiskey is not a character trait, it is just filler.

I'm cutting you off for your own good, trust me (Source)

• Honor your forefathers and foremothers: Hammett, Chandler, Highsmith, Ellroy and Mosley (among others) blessed are their names. Learn from their teachings but do your own thing (i.e. you shall not steal).

(Source)

I'm sure there are many more, but these are the ones I've come up with off the top of my head. I want to reiterate that "Bad Juju" didn't commit all of these sins; its chief problem was that it flogged number two to death. There wasn't a single female character in any of the stories that was more than a sex object or a venomous snake. Not that the male characters were likable nor that characters necessarily need to be likable, but all of the women were little more than prizes to be won or monsters to be defeated.

There was one instance where this wasn't the case. The story in which the POV was a female character by it nature necessitated it. Unfortunately being a woman is her only defining characteristic and her sex is her primary weapon. It all just came off as sloppy and a bit lazy.

YMCA Corporate Cup 5K Item 20 - Run 6 2 5K's

Think I've found my new profile pic

I started running races last year, before that I'd always just run against myself. The YMCA Corporate Cup was the first 5K that I'd ever run in, so it has a special place in my heart. I also was in charge of organizing my companies involvement in the Corporate Cup this year, helping to organize it with the YMCA and getting people involved. So it felt a little extra special this year.

As last year, it was well organized and well attended. The race runs a course that's fairly flat and has nice scenery, so it's good for all skill levels. I paced with a co-worker for the most part, but when we were getting close to the end I told him to try to take second if he thought he could. He gave it his all and ended in third, I was in fourth. I'm going to blame my poorer performance on the fact that he's eight years younger than me, but I'm also going to be stepping up my training a bit more. Can't let these whippersnappers get the best of us old fogies.

I promise, that's not a heel-strike. It just kind of looks like it is

Item 16 - Finish 30 15 books - "Swann's Way" by Marcel Proust

Swann's Way by Vanessa Fermino Card

I said before that there was very little I could say about "Swann's Way" that hasn't been said already and said better. It's the world in a teacup. It's the persistence and imperfection of memory. It's idealized love.

That, or it's a really good marketing strategy for sponge cookies.

Donation to the Human Rights Campaign Item 19 - Donate to 30 25 charities/non-profits

As a straight white male under the age of 50 in the United States I have it pretty easy. I'm disproportionately represented in the media, there is very little likelihood of my being assaulted and pretty much nobody hassles me about who I want to love.

I am a big believer in the idea that all humans should grant one another equal respect and rights. I'm lucky enough to live in a state that recognized last fall that denying an entire group of people the right to marry "just because" was actually unconscionable. Unfortunately we still have a long way to go in this country, which is why I donated to the HRC. When our children and grandchildren look back at this time in our history they're not going to be proud of our actions in granting entire groups of people basic rights, they're going to ask why it took us so long.

Item 16 - Finish 30 16 books - "The Hole" by Aaron Ross Powell

(Source)

I'll break my review of "The Hole" by Aaron Ross Powell down, in the interest of keeping it short.

Il buono: Great premise; a zombie book that's not actually a zombie book. Plus the elder gods in the shape of Mormon mythology angle is a fantastic idea that I wish had been explored more fully instead of in just the last bit of the book. As I've said before, I'm a sucker for a good premise.

Il brutto: There are only two characters in the book and they are never really fleshed out. Every once in a while another character is introduced just to be killed a few pages later, but they are never defined enough to make you care. Unfortunately the same is essentially true of the protagonists.

Il cattivo: That last part of the book where the most interesting part happens? It's also where the anti-climactic finish comes up. We trade any sort of action that happened in the rest of the book for what I can only describe as deus exposition machina, it's pretty unsatisfying. I think Powell is a decent writer and had a good concept, unfortunately it just didn't work.