Laura's 100 Books in 2012 - #3

The Quiet American by Graham Greene

I always wanted to read Graham Greene after seeing the movie Donnie Darko. My step-dad gave me this book to read, but I put it away for awhile because it reminded me of college research papers.  I'm trying to shake it up a bit with the genres that I'm reading so that I don't get bored. After reading Chick Lit for #2, I decided to go to the opposite end of the spectrum with #3.

The Quiet American is about a British journalist named Fowler living in Saigon during the First Indochina War. He meets a young American named Pyle, who is the poster boy for American idealism. Pyle has a black-and-white view on the current war that doesn't sit well with Fowler. Add that Pyle ends up with Fowler's Vietnamese girlfriend, and you would think Fowler would hate Pyle. Somehow they end up as friends. Pyle is found dead at the beginning of the book and the story goes back and forth between the two years that Fowler knew Pyle and the investigation of Pyle's death. The ending, at least for me, isn't really a shocker, but the way that Greene got there was very interesting.

I enjoyed the book, but I wish that I would have looked up some info on the war before I started. Thanks to Wikipedia, I was able to follow along. The Quiet American is also a movie starring Michael Caine and Brendan Fraser. If you'll excuse me, I'm going to go add it to my Netflix queue.

What Would Darren Read, Home Edition (Feb. 1st)

Every week on the FIGcast, we take Darren to our imaginary comic book store and force him to choose three comic books based solely on their covers. You, too, can play at home! Look at the covers after the break, listen to the podcast or the theme music and judge some comics!

Weekly Round Up, Friday February 3rd, 2012

Tripp sits down for an interview with Marlene of ilikecomicstoo.com:
FIGcast Interview - Marlene, aka "I Like Comics Too"

Here it is! The trailer for Game of Thrones Season 2!
Game of Thrones - Trailer: "Shadow"

Liz and Laura are making headway in their quest to read 100 books in 2012:
New Contributor - Liz
Liz's 100 Books in 2012 - #1-3
Liz's 100 Books in 2012 - #4
Laura's 100 Books in 2012 - #2

Weekly Comic Book News, Reviews, and Opinions:
52 Pick Up: Analyzing DC's New 52 Creative Team Strategies So Far
Comic Mini-Reviews Week of January 25th, 2012

...and of course, the latest FIGcast is here:
FIGcast - Episode 50 - "Purple Button"

FIGcast Interview - Marlene, aka "I Like Comics Too"

Hat tip to Miranda Barnes at mirandabarnes.tumblr.com

FIGcast Interview - Marlene, @ILikeComicsToo

I've been hoping to add original interviews to the FIG toolbox since the beginning, and getting ready for our 50th episode gave me the push I needed to go out and give it a shot.  My first email was to Marlene, a really cool geek I've been following on Twitter for about 6 months.  She's a blogger (ILikeComicsToo.com), former Marvel intern, freelancer for Wizard World, comic book reviewer on YouTube, and a really, really big fan of all blue comic book characters.  Somehow, I convinced her to be my first interview, and the post you're reading now is the result.  We put some snippets in Episode 50 of the FIGcast, but since the interview went over an hour we decided to give it its own release on iTunes, and its own post here on the blog.  Marlene was awesome, and if you like what we do here you should really check her out at all of her many digital enclaves.  You can find her tweets @ILikeComicsToo, or follow her Tumblr account.

Liz's 100 Books in 2012 - #4

Double Dare by Rhonda Nelson

My fourth book was another Chick Lit quick read. I have no shame...I WILL be the first to 100!

A sheltered heiress runs away from her arranged marriage to wander around the U.S. with a random guy looking for some adrenaline-pumping adventures (bungee jumping, swimming with sharks, etc.).

Nothing too exciting about this book...I guess that's what you get from Amazon's free list of eBooks. I finished the it, but wasn't left with any lasting impressions of the characters or the plot. It was kind of "meh" for me. I give it 1 out of 5 turkey legs.

FIGcast - Episode 50 - "Purple Button"

If you're not supposed to push the red button, why not make it a purple button? It's so hard not to push a big red button.

FIGcast - Episode 50 - "Purple Button"

Shownotes:

• (00:03:20) Darren watched Moneyball and The Help, and saw Kevin Spacey in Richard III
• (00:14:35) Trey read FF Vol. 2 and watched Finding Bigfoot and Infested!
• (00:22:45) Tripp finished The Annotated Sandman Vol. 1, saw The Eagle, did a special interview, and started reading The Rook and Ex Machina
• (00:30:15)  TV Talk:  (lots of new episodes this week, including the series premiere of The River)
• (00:35:35) Blu Rays: (Transformers: DotM...In Time...The Thing (2011)...Star Trek: TNG)
• (00:41:25) Coming Attractions: (Chronicle...The Woman in Black...Big Miracle)
• (00:47:15) Box Office:  (Liam Neeson wins!!!)
• (00:51:05) We share some clips from Tripp's interview with Marlene, aka "I Like Comics Too"
• (01:07:25) Keith talks about Wizard World New Orleans and the Mannings
• (01:13:00) What Would Darren Read
• (01:26:00) Trey's Pullbox:  (Action Comics...Animal Man...Stormwatch...Swamp Thing...The Defenders...Winter Soldier...Uncanny X-Men)

Don't forget, you can email us at FullyIntegratedGeeks@gmail.com, you can follow us on Twitter with @theFIGcast, or you can look for us on Facebook or the iTunes Store.

Liz's 100 Books in 2012 - #1-3

Flawless, Perfect and Unbelievable by Sara Shepard

OK, don't judge me too harshly based on my first three books! I got sucked into the TV show (and read the first book late last year) and couldn't stand not knowing what was going on, so I picked up the books thinking I could read to the end way before the show got there.

A lot of good that did me since the show isn't following the books at all.

Anyway, I decided to clump the reviews together rather than bore anyone with individual reviews.

The basic plot is that there's a group of "mean girls" and the ring leader goes missing. Then someone is stalking the other girls and blackmailing them with their own secrets via text message/email (kind of Gossip Girl meets Ghost Writer. Anyone?)

I'm not going to lie, I actually enjoyed reading the books. I love a good murder mystery! Obviously the whole idea that the girls won't tell the police or their parents about this "stalker" is a little bit ridiculous and far-fetched, but I'll definitely hand it to the author...I had no idea who it was going to be or how she was going to wrap the story up. They were fast reads and overall entertaining, if a little silly.

New Contributor - Liz

I'm Liz, and I like to pretend that I'm not a big nerd.

In fact, I've discovered that anything geeky about me can be directly linked back to my brother's influence. He introduced me to zombie movies, science fiction, video games, and graphic novels. I guess now we can add blogging to the list...and trying to read 100 books in 1 year. (ok, maybe I'm nerdier than I realized).

I read a lot anyway, so when Laura suggested trying to read 100 books this year, I was all for it. Plus, I like a little friendly  competition every now and then (I'm totally going to read 100 before her). The idea of blogging about the books I'm reading wasn't my favorite at first. I read anything and everything that I can find, so some of the books might be a little embarrassing, but I think it should be fun!