Progress Report #3

Oh man, at the beginning of July, I was supposed to write another progress report! Summer has been just slipping away from me, and it's hard to believe the month is almost up. So here is the next progress report, albeit a few weeks late.

Progress Report #3:
Timeline: Well, I’m not going to finish this project by the end of this year, like I was hoping to. This summer, in particular, has left very little time for reading Daily Shill books.

Here’s where I stand:
I’ve read 43 of 73 books.
I watched 28 of 35 films.
I’ve watched 9 of 15 TV shows.
I’ve heard 3 of 4 albums.

I’ll continue to plug away at this, but I recognize it’s not realistic for me to reach my goal of completing all sections by the end of December. Oh well!

Writing: I’m happy with where I’ve come with this blog, and I certainly feel more confident in my ability to write for it. Lately, I was especially pleased with my review of Unstoppable and my review of The Blueprint (both are quite different).

Best Book: Packing for Mars
Worst Book: Courting Disaster

Best Film: A Single Man
Worst Film: Unstoppable

Best TV Show: Louie
Worst TV Show: Hot in Cleveland

Best Album: The Suburbs
Worst Album: More Malice

Am I Glad I’m Doing This?: Sometimes, but not always. Lately, especially, I’ve come close to quitting, and the novelty of this project has worn off. Even though I’m ready to be done (and relatively far from it), I’m still glad I’ve worked on this project. I’ve certainly expanded what I read, which is a good thing for anyone, but especially for a librarian.

Thank Yous: First off, a huge Thank You to Mom, Nana, Uncle Greg, Amanda, Brodie, Caroline and Theresa for being regular readers. (There may be more of you out there...thank you to you as well!) As always, thanks to the Chelsea District Library for helping me get all of the books, movies, and albums I need to review, and thanks to Anna at the library for taking my profile picture. Thanks to Kate and her handy-dandy list of Daily Show books. And thanks to the folks at Ignite Chelsea 2 for giving me the opportunity (and talking me into) giving a talk on the Daily Shill (which you can see here!)

Expect fewer reviews in the months to come—I’ll do my best to continue posting something every Monday, but I can’t make any promises.

Again (as I’ve said in every progress report), I’d appreciate any feedback you have—positive or negative.

Have a super week, everyone!

The Town

I watched Ben Affleck’s movie The Town more than a week ago, but I’ve had troubles sitting down to write the review. After finishing the movie, I wasn’t entirely sure how I felt about it, and, over time, no more clarity has been found.

The Town takes place in Boston’s Charlestown neighborhood, a location rife with crime, particularly bank and armored truck robberies. Doug (Affleck) and a group of his buddies make their living by performing these robberies, and the movie opens will the group robbing a bank managed by Claire (Rebecca Hall). Though it’s a little rocky, the guys eventually end up pulling off the robbery, but not without killing a guard and taking Claire as an incredibly temporary hostage. However, more problems are to come. This robbery causes FBI Agent Frawley (Jon Hamm) to begin to seek out the guys. Additionally, Claire lives in the same neighborhood as Doug and when the two meet at a Laundromat, they begin to fall in love (Doug recognizes Claire, she does not recognize him).

This relationship was the thing that bothered me about The Town. I couldn’t understand how Doug would allow himself to spend enough time with Claire to fall for her, and I also didn’t get how they fell in love so fast. I know The Town is an action movie, and wasting time on scenes developing a romantic relationship is probably not what the audience wants, but it was this (and, oddly enough, not the robberies and violence) that kept the movie from being believable to me.

The Town is without a doubt an action movie (though one with a bit more depth than the typical action fare, I assume). As this blog has already made clear, action movies are not my favorite. However, The Town was the first action movie I’ve seen for this project where the car-chases and gunfights didn’t seem gratuitous. Though they still aren’t things I particularly enjoy watching, they fit within the story and didn’t distract me.

I appreciated that The Town did not have distinct lines drawn between good and bad characters. Typically, you’d be led to root for either the FBI agent or the robbers, but The Town did no such leading. Sure, the robbers were wrong to steal and kill, but the movie showed the personalities behind their tough-guy characters and explained how they got in that situation. Conversely, it was clear that Agent Frawley was just doing his job—he wasn’t crooked, he wasn’t malicious. I liked that characters weren’t cut and dry and that I was able to choose for myself who to support. However, instead of picking a side, I found myself not cheering for either one; I just didn’t care.

The Town gets a 3/5. It’s worth watching, but not worth buying.

Watch Jon Stewart interview Ben Affleck

Buy the DVD

And I’d like to thank Anna at the Chelsea District Library for taking my new profile picture (finally, it’s Daily Shill relevant) and writing about the Shill in the library’s e-newsletter!

Progress Report #2 (The semester review)

It’s weird. New episodes begin on the Daily Show tonight, and I haven’t been checking their website obsessively looking to see who this week’s guests will be. (Okay, I’ve checked once, and they weren’t listed, and, in all truthfulness, I’ll probably check again this afternoon). Why aren’t I impatient with anticipation for more information? Because I don’t have much riding on it anymore. My Daily Shill mission is halfway through, and if I don’t want to read the book about Thomas Jefferson’s opinion of our recent financial crisis or watch the children’s movie about the magical fart monster, I don’t have to.

I do, however, have to complete my reviews of everything featured in the 2010 shows, and since I’ve reached the halfway point, it’s time for another Progress Report. (Miss the first progress report? Read it here)

Again, I’d love some feedback from readers (for example, do I have any who I’m not related to?). Do you have any suggestions? What do you think of the Daily Shill? Feel free to comment on the blog (I’ve enabled anonymous comments, so you don’t need to have an account) or on the facebook page.

Progress Report #2

Timeline: Out of the 127 books, films, TV shows, and albums I need to review, I’ve completed 62, or 49%. Which, you know, is practically 50%, or exactly on schedule. I cannot believe that (but it’s true—I did the math at least three times!) I think I’m going to make it, friends. There are couple TV shows that I missed that I’m not sure how to find (namely, Brian William’s Hurricane Katrina: The first five days and Morgan Freeman’s Through the Wormhole), so let me know if you’ve got any leads, but I feel like I’m going to find success.

Here’s a more detailed breakdown of my progress:
I’ve read 34 of 73 books.
I’ve watched 18 of 35 films.
I’ve watched 8 of 15 TV shows.
I’ve heard 2 of 4 albums.

Writing: Though I still wish I were funnier and that I had a little more time to commit to making well-written reviews, I also think I’ve gotten a lot better at this over the course of the year. Here’s hoping I keep improving throughout year two of this mission.

Things I Would Change: In my last progress report, I had this section, so I felt the organizational need to keep things consistent. However, though I still stand by everything I wrote there, I don’t think there’s anything additional that I’d change. Which is pretty cool.

Best Book: Crazy Like Us
Worst Book: Courting Disaster
(Yes, these haven’t changed since the last progress report)

Best Film: A Single Man
Worst Film: Cop Out Oops, I forgot about Remember Me

Best TV Show: Louie
Worst TV Show: Hot in Cleveland

Best Album: Y Not
Worst Album: More Malice
(Keep in mind, I’ve only heard two albums, and neither was particularly good.)

Am I Glad I’m Doing This?: Yes. Yes I am. Though I’ll be thrilled to read whatever I want to when I complete this mission, I’m going to miss reading new things (and watching new movies) and writing about that. It’s going to be especially weird watching the Daily Show interviews and not having so much at stake with each one. Keeping that in mind, here’s a

Plan for the Future: (Did you see what I did there? I didn’t forget to finish my last sentence, it was just leading into this new section. There’s a transition any English teacher would hate).
When I see a book or a movie (or something else) promoted within the Daily Show that I want to read or watch, I’m going to do it, and I will post a review to the Daily Shill. Likewise, if you see something on there that you’d like to read a review for, let me know, and I’ll probably do it. I’m not ready to let the Daily Shill die.

A few thank yous:
First off, a huge thank you to people who actually read this, even though I don’t know for sure that you exist (but I think you might). Thank you Mom, for always telling me what you like about a review; thank you Nana, for telling me you don’t want to delete the e-mails you get of posts; thank you Amanda, for asking me when there’s going to be a new review when it’s been awhile.

Another enormous thank you goes to libraries, specifically the Chelsea District Library. Nearly every book, movie, and album I’ve reviewed was checked out from this library. I literally could not have done it (and could not keep doing it) without the library. And the Chelsea District Library is my favorite place to be (even though it is also my workplace.)

Thank you to the two Daily Shill correspondents, Georgia and Andrea. Your reviews of the Rally to Restore Sanity and the Daily Show Experience were funny, exciting, and informative. Miss reading those reviews? Read them once and just want to read them again?

Here’s a link to Georgia’s piece on the Rally to Restore Sanity.

Here’s a link to Andrea’s piece on attending a taping of the Daily Show.

And, lastly, thank you to Brodie for naming this blog, designing the logo, and helping me to get the few books and movies that I couldn’t get through the Chelsea library. (And for being supportive throughout this entire Daily Shill process. You’re great!)


In 2011, I’m going to attempt to post every Monday. Since grad school is starting back up, I can’t 100% commit to this, but I’ll do my best. I will also try to post a review later this week, since this enormous Progress Report post is reviewless. No promises, though—I’ve already got homework.

The Big Short

As you may have already realized, I’m tired of reading books about the economy. Because of that, I know I didn’t approach Michael Lewis’s book, The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine, with the most open mind, and therefore, this may not be the fairest of reviews. Another thing not working in The Big Short’s favor is that I listened to the audio version of the book, and the narrator wasn’t super. The waitlist on the book was very long, but no one had checked out the book on CD, so I opted for that. One good thing came out of the long waitlist, though, and so I will further delay beginning this review to tell you the story.

Early this summer, I was working behind the circ desk at the Chelsea District Library, and a patron came to pick up a book he had on hold. The book happened to be The Big Short, so I mentioned that I was on the waitlist for that book as well.
A few days later, this gentleman returned to the library and said, “I’ve read about 50 pages of Lewis’s book, and boy is it a good one. Have you read the one Harry Markopolos just wrote?”
Sure enough, I had just picked up No One Would Listen that morning. “I just started it.”
“Well, if you like Harry, you’ll like this one. They’re both ruthless.”
Now, each time this man comes into the library, he’ll tell me about the latest book he’s reading about the economy and gives me his opinion on whether it’s worth reading. Even though I know I’ll probably never read one of the books he tells me about, I love having those interactions over the circulation desk. Because of my Daily Shill mission, I’m connecting with a patron that I wouldn’t have otherwise. And I’m glad for that.

And now, for the review.

The Big Short isn’t as bad as I may have made it sound. In it, he follows the financial moves of the handful of men who realized that the CDO market was doomed to fail. These investors and hedge fund managers purchased cheap insurance on these CDOs and ended up making tons of money.

Lewis candidly writes about these men. His stories of them are filled with direct quotes, and he doesn’t fill the book with technical talk that only economists could understand. I liked how he focuses on particular investors, which gives the reader characters to follow throughout the book. If it were the first book I’d read on the economic slump of 2008, I bet I’d have remained interested. Instead, though, I found myself losing focus. Rather than listening to the book over a short time span, I ended up listening to a disc here and there over the past 3 months.

But, even though it’s not going to be a fair one, I need to give The Big Short a rating. It gets a 3/5 because even though it bored me, I could see its merits. If you want to read a book about the economy, it’s probably a good choice.

Watch Jon Stewart’s interview with Michael Lewis

Buy the Book

Within Our Reach

Rosalynn Carter’s latest book, Within Our Reach: Ending the Mental Health Crisis is an easy one to get through. It’s not long, the print is big, the spacing is wide, and it is incredibly clear. However, it also reads like a high school term paper (albeit a very well written one).

Within our Reach is separated into eight chapters, each dealing with a specific topic within the mental health field, such as the stigma associated with mental illnesses and children with mental disorders. Each chapter is further divided into multiple subsections, and it is this fragmentation, combined with the “list-several-statistics-and-then-an-example” formula, that made me think of term papers.

Carter (along with her co-authors Susan K. Golant and Kathryn E. Cade) succeeds in relating the problems associated with America’s perception and handling of those with mental illnesses. However, it does not give a good indication of what the reader can do to help solve the problem. I can see how Within Our Reach could help to change the opinion of someone prejudiced against those with mental illnesses, but it seems unlikely that those people would pick up this book.

I give Within Our Reach a 3/5. Though I would’ve liked more from the book as far as solutions go, it does an adequate job of educating its readers.

Watch Jon Stewart’s interview with Rosalynn Carter

Buy the Book.

I know it’s been awhile since I’ve posted, and I’m sorry about that. I’ve been in a bit of a rut as far as the Daily Shill goes. It’s been difficult for me to focus my reading solely on the books I need to review for this blog.

I have a wonderful job working at the circulation desk at the Chelsea District Library, where I see hundreds (maybe thousands? I have a terrible concept of numbers) of books each day as they are checked out and returned. When I check in books, I am tempted to take many of them home and read them myself. Though I’ve done a decent job of resisting, it’s not a 100% success rate. And so my reviews have been coming in a little slower, but I promise to get back on track this month.

Progress Report!

Well, here I am, the first day of July. This marks six months since my Daily Show challenge began: halfway through the shows in 2010, a quarter of the way through my timeline.

It’s time for the quarterly review (or progress report, if you will). I’m going to jump right into that, but I also want to encourage you to give me suggestions and feedback. Is there something I do that you hate? What about something you wish I did? Anything you particularly enjoy? Does anyone (besides my mom) actually read this? Let me know!

Progress Report #1:

Timeline: Out of the 68 items currently on my list to review, I’ve completed 29. It’s not halfway, which would be right on target for my goal, but it’s not terribly behind either, especially considering that I wasn’t able to review anything in the month of January. I think my two-year deadline will still be tight, but, as of now, I say it’s possible. Of course, I’m starting grad school in the fall, which might change everything, we’ll see.

Writing: I wish I were a little better at this part. Though I think I’m getting the hang of it now, initially I had no idea how to write a review. I worry that I’m not interesting enough, and I wish I had more opportunities to be funny (or were better at writing humorously). I often struggle with writing reviews for things I really like, and I know I use the words “fascinating” and “engaging” too often. That being said, though, I don’t think I’m doing poorly. There are a few reviews that when I finished, I thought, “Hey, I think I did well on this one.” And I’m starting to think that more and more frequently.

Things I would change: There are some ratings I wish I could go back on. (George Lucas’s Blockbusting, for example, would get a one, not a two). I also wish I had listed books’ subtitles, since they give a good sense of what each book is about. This is something I can go back on, and I will begin including the subtitles. (And eventually go back and insert them into the reviews I’ve already written).

Best Book (that I’ve read for the show): Crazy Like Us

Best Film (that I’ve seen for the show): A Single Man

Worst Book (that I’ve read for the show): Courting Disaster

Worst Film (that I’ve seen for the show): Tooth Fairy

Now for the real question. Am I glad I’m doing this?: It’s a qualified yes.

I have read many interesting books that I never would have read. But I have read even more boring books that I also never would have read. I’m getting tired about reading about the economy and our founding fathers (and, yes, I do know I have more of that ahead). Last week, I was on vacation and allowed myself to check out and read any books I wanted to. I can’t tell you what an exciting trip to the library that was, and what a super week I had (though that certainly wasn’t due only to the books). I miss reading whatever I want to.

But I also feel like I’ve gained a lot of knowledge due solely to this challenge. I have a basic idea of what caused this economic crisis. I know what a “quant” is. I have opinions on pharmaceutical companies marketing American drugs in foreign countries. I know Barack Obama’s mother’s name was Stanley. And it’s nice to know things.

A few brief thank yous:

Let me tell you, libraries are wonderful. Over the past six months, I’ve used cards at the Kalamazoo College Library, Western Michigan University Library, Kalamazoo Public Library, and Chelsea District Library. These libraries (and the wonderful librarians and circulation staff at each of them) have allowed me to read all of these books for free (and worked hard to help me find them). Right now, alone, I have six books checked out, waiting for me to read and review them. Support your library!

My friend Brodie made the Daily Shill logo at the top of this blog. I think it looks really cool, and I never could have made it myself. Thanks, Brodie!

Also thanks to all my pals (and my parents) who ask me how this project is going. I appreciate your support.