Books I've Read This Week

If Chins Could Kill: Confessions of a B Movie Actor by Bruce Campbell. Look I love Bruce Campbell, probably more than the next guy, I mean he's been making movies and TV shows since the early 80's so there is something there for everyone to love. But read a memoir of a B movie actor, seems sketchy. It isn't, it is every bit as hilarious and charming as Bruce Campbell. It is an amazing look at his life starting with him making independent films as a teenager, meeting his friend and frequent collaborator Sam Rami and all the way up to his rise to somewhat stardom. This is a really funny book and a very cautionary tale of what it takes to get into the movie business. Highly recommended.

Night Watch by Sergei Lukyanenko is the first book in a 5 book series of this translated from Russian urban fantasy series. In this world all of the magical beings and creatures we read stories about are real but they are hidden from regular humans. The magical beings or "Others" as they are called are split into two factions, predictably, light and dark. There are two groups, The Day Watch who police the light others and The Night Watch, which this book focuses on, who police the dark others. The two groups are in a bit of a stalemate. You see if a light magician does some great good then it gives a dark magician the license to do great evil. This books is split into three stories where we follow Anton Gorodetsky, a light magician and member of The Night Watch. Anton is a member of the technical staff but due to events out of his control he has to step up and assume more responsibility. Throughout the novel we see Anton struggling with the differences between good and evil. I enjoyed this book and I'm interested in reading the next novel, The Day Watch, to see the story for the opposite viewpoint.