Stuff we're reading / watching / listening to

[Portia]

And the last sentence doesn't make sense to me, considering the fastest-growing subset of Mormons ...

[Marduk]

The fastest growing subset of Mormons is not Hispanic Americans.

[Digit]

According to this fairly pessimistic Psychology Today article Why do we cling to the myth of the "self-made man?", the term meritocracy was first used in the 1958 satirical book The Rise of the Meritocracy, which is described as a dystopian future in which one’s social place was determined by IQ and effort. That sounds like an interesting book.

[Whistler]

if I remember correctly, Vonnegut's Cat's Cradle has a similar premise

[Portia]

The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton. Probably will take most of January, as busy as I am.

[Emiliana]

The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton. Probably will take most of January, as busy as I am.

Dude. I read that over Thanksgiving and it was fascinating.

[Digit]

if I remember correctly, Vonnegut's Cat's Cradle has a similar premise

Interesting. In Vonnegut's Harrison Bergeron, it was the opposite: All people were forced to be equal, with strong people being forced to wear weights, beautiful people forced to wear ugly masks, and smart people forced to have bells ringing in their ears to interrupt their train of thought.

[thatonemom]

Digit thanks for bringing that story up! I had to read Harrison Bergeron in school, possibly in elementary? I don't remember exactly, but I was young enough that I found it pretty disturbing. It would be interesting to read it again as an adult.

I've mentioned before that I'm a book blogger and I hope I'm not being annoying about it. But I'm giving away a young adult book I really liked featuring two girls who are going to be college roommates and start emailing each other the summer before school stars. If that's your sort of thing the giveaway is here.

[Digit]

YA isn't really my genre, but thanks for the offer anyways, thatonemom!

[Indefinite Integral]

Digit thanks for bringing that story up! I had to read Harrison Bergeron in school, possibly in elementary? I don't remember exactly, but I was young enough that I found it pretty disturbing. It would be interesting to read it again as an adult.

I've mentioned before that I'm a book blogger and I hope I'm not being annoying about it. But I'm giving away a young adult book I really liked featuring two girls who are going to be college roommates and start emailing each other the summer before school stars. If that's your sort of thing the giveaway is here.

Hey! The book you are currently reading is written by my former roommate's sister. Yay for random connections!

[thatonemom]

Aww, sorry Digit. I didn't meant to single anyone out! I just meant to throw that out there for anyone on the board board who might have been interested.

Indefinite Integral that is really cool! It's a small Mormon world, I guess.

[Tally M.]

42 was actually a much better movie than I expected.

[Katya]

I finally got around to seeing Silver Linings Playbook and it was fantastic. (Also, of all of the actors and actresses on Alias, I would not have predicted that Bradley Cooper would have the best career, 8 years later.)

[Digit]

I like the sound of Enya's Smaointe. Some of her songs are traditional folk songs that have been around for a long time, but this one appears to be an original work by one her friends dedicated to her grandparents. More here about Smaointe (thoughts in Irish).

[Portia]

Anyone read the Divergent books? They were huge when I auditioned for my part in a film about Millennials by working at an Indie Bookstore (TM).

I'm interested because my homegirl Shailene Woodley will be the star of the film version. (As well as in The Worst YA Book of All Time. And White Bird in a Blizzard, which I'm going to try to waitlist at Sundance here in SLC.) I love that chick. She was great in The Descendants and The Spectacular Now.

[SmurfBlueSnuggie]

I liked the first two. Haven't downloaded the third to my Kindle yet. One stand-out they have is that there is no love triangle. A YA novel without a love triangle is refreshing. Otherwise I'd rank it near Hunger Games. It's similarly gripping, but I also had the sense of "This isn't that great. Why am I addicted to it?" Nevertheless, I'm looking forward to the next one.

[Giovanni Schwartz]

I liked the first two. Haven't downloaded the third to my Kindle yet. One stand-out they have is that there is no love triangle. A YA novel without a love triangle is refreshing. Otherwise I'd rank it near Hunger Games. It's similarly gripping, but I also had the sense of "This isn't that great. Why am I addicted to it?" Nevertheless, I'm looking forward to the next one.

Just for the record, I haven't read the third one, but two different people have told me, unsolicited, that they hated the ending. O.o

[Digit]

Cool hover bike, but it's no surprise to me why there's no sound to the video. I bet it's noisy as all get out.

[Dragon Lady]

I'm restarting the Alcatraz vs. the Evil Librarian series. Just because I want to laugh out loud lots again.

[Tally M.]

I'm restarting the Alcatraz vs. the Evil Librarian series. Just because I want to laugh out loud lots again.

I LOVE that series