Novels, Movies and Hayden Christensen Gorgeousness
I am reading Freedom and Necessity, by Steven Brust and Emma Bull. I love it. I know queenofthorns did not care much for it, but while it's not the best book ever written, it's very very enjoyable, sort of a modern take on a Willkie Collins novel. The novel (entirely epistolary) is set in 1849 and centers around James Cobham, a man-about-town who comes to himself in a country inn, with no idea how he got there and no memory of the past few months. Corresponding with his cousin Richard, he discovers he's been presumed drowned and they decide to investigate what's behind all this. James' other cousin Kitty and Kitty's best friend Susan (an extremely strong-minded young woman who has always been fascinated by James) are also on the trail. What they find out is that James is wanted by everyone: by government conspirators, by the Chartists (a social movement of mid-century) and by unscrupulous members of his own family. And as James slowly pieces the puzzle together, Susan and Kitty and Richard (and the reader) find out just how much of that carefully indolent pose was a mask, and in reality James becomes a Lymond-ish figure, messed-up, and brilliant and masked and fragile and with a huge social conscience mixed with hard-won cynisism.
The book started a bit slowly for my tastes, but it really picked up about a hundred pages in and is now unputdownable, mainly because I am rather in love with James (who granted, in no Lymond, but does have Lymondish qualities). The women aren't as well drawn, but I am all about the men anyhow. And of course, like with any novel in letters, a bit of suspension of disbelief about the characters' writing speed and memories for conversation has to be assumed.
In completely unrelated news, I've started watching Bluffmaster, a delightful Bolly flick. Roy (Abhishek Bachchan) is a master con-artist who is trying to go straight to win back his fiancee (Priyanka Chopra) but is forced to take on a dimwitted apprentice Ditty (Riteish). And the whole thing spirals out of control. It's a funny, clever, witty movie, the cast of characters is delightful, Abhi/Priyanka chemistry is out of this world, and Abhishek continues his recent run of great movies (it's an odd thing to say, but I think he comes across as most masculine of the new generation of Bolly stars. Not sure how to phrase it but...)
And now, the uber main point of this post. Hayden Christensen picspam. Yup. More Hayden than you can shake a stick at. But why would you want to? Some GORGEOUS pics behind the cut.
The book started a bit slowly for my tastes, but it really picked up about a hundred pages in and is now unputdownable, mainly because I am rather in love with James (who granted, in no Lymond, but does have Lymondish qualities). The women aren't as well drawn, but I am all about the men anyhow. And of course, like with any novel in letters, a bit of suspension of disbelief about the characters' writing speed and memories for conversation has to be assumed.
In completely unrelated news, I've started watching Bluffmaster, a delightful Bolly flick. Roy (Abhishek Bachchan) is a master con-artist who is trying to go straight to win back his fiancee (Priyanka Chopra) but is forced to take on a dimwitted apprentice Ditty (Riteish). And the whole thing spirals out of control. It's a funny, clever, witty movie, the cast of characters is delightful, Abhi/Priyanka chemistry is out of this world, and Abhishek continues his recent run of great movies (it's an odd thing to say, but I think he comes across as most masculine of the new generation of Bolly stars. Not sure how to phrase it but...)
And now, the uber main point of this post. Hayden Christensen picspam. Yup. More Hayden than you can shake a stick at. But why would you want to? Some GORGEOUS pics behind the cut.