Make Me

Explicit content warning

09/16/18 • 107 min

It took a while, but the world finally made us go back to Lee Child, so here we are: Make Me. Yes, down these manicured streets a man must go who is not himself manicured, who is neither wearing cologne nor designer clothes. The detective in this kind of story must be such a man. He must be a complete man and a common man and yet an unusual man (pauses, sips coffee, explains joke).

So it's another long walk with Jack Reacher, full of long descriptions of diners, short rants about leg room on airplanes, and a whole lot of bottomless cups of coffee. Oh, and bone-splintering acts of violence. Lots and lots of those. Mostly those, actually. Not a whole lot of anything else that I can remember, actually. But I'm certain that for a certain kind of reader, it's just a non-stop ride of thrills and chills. For us, it's an occasion for bellyaching. So all aboard the IDEOTV Train -- next stop, fun!

CONTENT WARNING: This book's plot revolves around self-harm and suicide and people's plans to take their own lives, and includes some descriptions of torture. The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline phone number is: 1-800-273-8255.

Recommendations:

"The Glass Essay", by Anne Carson
"What Was It Like to Be a Nintendo Game Play Counselor?", by Annie Zaleski

Music:

"Wild Mountain Nation" by Blitzen Trapper
"Travellin' Man" by DJ Honda (feat. Mos Def)
"Train Song" from MST3K

Recommendations:

"The Glass Essay", by Anne Carson
"What Was It Like to Be a Nintendo Game Play Counselor?", by Annie Zaleski

Music:

"Wild Mountain Nation" by Blitzen Trapper
"Travellin' Man" by DJ Honda (feat. Mos Def)
"Train Song" from MST3K

Previous Episode

Daughter of the Blood

You wanted the best, you've got the best, because we're joined byHow2Wrestling's tremendous Jo Graham to discuss sexy pirate outfits, smart, sad horses, and love quadrangles, because that's what we've got when we've got Anne "Quinoa" Bishop's Daughter of the Blood.

Light S&M, sexy vampires, sexier vampires, sexier still demons, and, at the center of it all, a girl who ages from 7 to 12, so it's safe to say that very strong content warnings apply.

Recommendations:

"re:memeber" -- Ólafur Arnalds
Marie Antoinette
Do Men Enter Bathtubs on Hands and Knees So Their Balls Hit the Water Last?
The Wizard's First Rule, Terry Goodkind

Music:

"This Corrosion" by The Sisters of Mercy
"Ride the Wind" by Poison
"Hot Blooded" by Foreigner

Next Episode

Spy Killer

It's time...for us to take on one of the pale male faces surely adorning everyone's Bad Book Rushmore, but for complicated reasons we explain at no little length, we enjoy or anyway endure one of L. Ron Hubbard's lesser-known book-like objects, a...collection of described events entitled Spy Killer.

No matter how bad you think this thing is going to be, it's worse than you can easily imagine. It features a main character who actually snaps back at his captor "I'm laughing out loud," because being captured by the spy he is supposed to kill is actually funny to him, he can't believe you thought this would upset him. This 1936 action (?) / adventure (?) is jam-packed with racist descriptions of non-white characters, MANY scenes of our rugged, uh, protagonist, being captured and locked in rooms, and a scene that's supposed to be happy denouement description but that includes the words "brutal kiss". On the plus side, it also includes things we somehow didn't even get to, like "The man was riddled." (Yes, with a full stop. No, not riddled with anything, like every other time you've ever seen the word "riddled".) "Even a decanter couldn't be trusted."

Short story shorter: this old Hubbard? It's a real mother.

Recommendations:

The Outsider, by Stephen King (NOTE FROM JW: I was very wrong about the lack of supernatural stuff here, it just takes a while to kick in. Don't @ me.)
The Mars Room, by Rachel Kushner

Music: