LaytonReads

I moved recently and I was sorting through boxes of my books and I came upon my old Three Investigators collection. This series is so good, and I haven't found many people who were as obsessed with these books as I was when I was younger. 

This was a children's series in the same vein as The Hardy Boys or Nancy Drew, but you can't really compare these books to them; they are just that good. The stories were also significantly darker than most children's books being published at the time. I mean just look at the beautiful endsheets from them:

I think they're gorgeous at least. 

And yes, that's old Alfred Hitchcock himself. He use to introduce and close the stories and set the Three Investigators on cases. He was the reason the series sold so well in the 60s.

I'm also pretty confidant that these stories caused my initial interest in horror and dark fiction. Some of these stories creeped me out quite bad, especially the fifth one, The Vanishing Treasure. I remember the story had something to do with a woman who kept seeing these evil garden gnomes around the house, and looking back it sounds kind of silly and brings to mind images of the Travelocity gnome, but for my fifth grade self it was scary as fuck.

So I'll probably be rereading some of this series because I love it so much, and I'd really love to know if you guys ever read these books!

These, and others, have been done by an artist called DrFaustusAU. He has lots of other artwork on display, well worth having a look through.

The Emmys happened this past Sunday, and I promised a few days ago to put up a post about what upset me and had me pleasantly surprised. This post is coming a bit late because this week has been terrible and when I get home in the evenings I'm so exhausted I just feel like sitting down. Sorry about that. Here goes. 

Pleasantly Surprised

• Bryan Cranston winning Best Actor in a Drama Series for Breaking Bad made me extremely happy. This was by far the hardest-to-predict category of the evening. No one knew whether Matthew McConaughey would win for True Detective or Cranston would win. I was backing McConaughey but since I love Breaking Bad and Cranston I don't mind. He also gave a terrific acceptance speech.

• Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman win for Sherlock. I was totally expecting Freeman to win, but not Cumberbatch. I was hoping Billy Bob Thorton would win for Fargo in that category but oh well.

• Julianna Margulies wins for The Good Wife. I don't really like this show but Margulies is the real reason it's still running. Good for you girl.

• Ozymandias episode from Breaking Bad wins Best Writing in a Drama Series. This is my favorite episode of the show and it deserves all the acclaim it gets.

What Upset Me

• Allison Tolman getting snubbed by Kathy Bates. Tolman gave an amazing minimalist performance on Fargo and Kathy Bates beat her out just because Bates is an older, more renowned actress. Case closed.

• Allison Janney beats out Kate McKinnon for Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series. I absolutely love Kate McKinnon and she is the only reason I'm watching SNL at this point. I love Allison Janney, but still this wasn't right.

Best Moments

• Bryan Cranston and Julia Louis-Dreyfus make out like they did on Seinfeld. This was just hilarious and I loved it.

• Andy Samberg plays Prince Joffrey and interrupts Lena Heady while she is presenting to tell her he has been poisoned, and pleads with her to love him like she loves Uncle Jaime. I couldn't breathe after this.

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So there are some of my thoughts about the Emmys. I'd love to hear what you guys think.

For more artsy art, go here.

I'm going to put up a post about what I thought of the Emmys later. In the mean time I'm going to take a nap...

This would make for an...interesting season.

SO MISSY IS SAURON!!!!

I tend to pace when I am frustrated, angry, or emotional. Today, after watching Deep Breath I was all three.

This episode really doesn't go together right. The first half is hilarious, with the Doctor acting practically senile, but the second half is so dark it doesn't contrast right with it.

I also didn't actually care for Capaldi until halfway through. His Doctor was acting far too much like Matt Smith or David Tennant's and that really worried me. If this Doctor was too similar to the previous two I would lose interest rather quickly. But he pulled through come that second half, even though I am not entirely familiar with him. You see, even though Capaldi's doctor is flung across the screen in front of us we still only vaguely know him. You may think I sound stupid since it is only the first episode with him, and it would be impossible to truly understand him yet, but we still don't even understand him enough after a first episode.

Some other fans, including a friend of mine who wouldn't stop texting me during the show (grrr) remarked that they couldn't understand him. I couldn't either. He seemed to mumble his lines and I didn't like that.

But for once Clara was the best thing about the episode. I absolutely adored her scenes and she showed a strength I had not yet seen. I loved her and if Jenna Louis-Coleman keeps delivering performance like this, I will be sad to see her go. 

The villains were boring and reminded me both of The Girl In The Fireplace episode and the classic Talons of Weng Chiang serial, which was sad considering that those were both brilliant stories. 

I liked the appearance from the Paternoster Gang but didn't find them necessary. Strax was quite funny though, especially when he knocked Clara in the face with a newspaper (which really needs to be a gif). 

I do think Moffat chose wisely to make the Daleks be this Doctor's second villains. He needs a familiar face(s) to complain about. 

Ahh, this episode was good but I want my Eleventh Doctor back, which wasn't helped at all by giving Matt Smith a cameo at the end of the episode, which I thought was a stupid move and was just Moffat trying to be a tearjerker. He should be distancing the audience from the last Doctor not giving him cameos, and making him the real hero of the story.

3.5 Stars

This episode was extremely dark and good in that respect, but if this season is going to work, some things are going to have to change.

I might update this with more thoughts on the episode once I rewatch it. 

I'm a little bit confused and unsure about the new Doctor Who. I'm going to rewatch it and then do a real review. This episode didn't do a good job of familiarizing the fans with Capaldi's doctor, in fact I'd say how he acted in the first half of the episode distanced us from him. 

And he is acting a little too much like Matt Smith.

Some books I got at Half Price Books today. Excited to read them all. I about croaked over when I saw that hardcover of The Ceremonies.

When a writer gives their own book a five star review or rating. There is nothing more off putting than that.

Don't you agree?

I just found the stop the goodreads bullies website and was extremely disgusted to see some of my favorite readers mentioned there. That website needs to be taken down and Melissa Douthit needs to be sued.

Silly Jane, haven't your parents ever told you to not read the Necronomicon?