books, movies
Once Dead, Twice Shy, Kim Harrison. Aaagh, it felt
like she skipped two chapters at the beginning (or a whole prequel
novel) showing how Madison got to where she is now, dead and with a
light reaper trying to figure out how she stole an amulet from the
dark reaper that killed her. (Hmm, mention of the anthology Prom
Nights from Hell on the back flap suggests the beginning might be
there, and looking up details says yes. *adds another book to the
to-read pile*). Plus the teenagers do typical stupid teenager things,
which is always frustrating. But those elements aside, the book kept
me up well past my bedtime and motored along. I liked the description
of her photography, and her relationship with Josh and his ex Amy. Aug
5/09
Prom Nights from Hell, Meg Cabot, Lauren Myracle, Kim Harrison,
Michele Jaffe, Stephenie Meyer. I picked this up (getting a
librarian to venture into the darkened children's section of the
Central Sq library, apparently the YA section is included in the area
that's closed at 6pm - I miss the main library, their kids/ya section
closed at 7 so I could actually get there after work - I abused it
gleefully when I was doing my Newbery award reading list. anyway...)
for the Kim Harrison story, since yes, it's the tale of the prom night
that killed Madison. Turns out that she did cover all the details in
flashbacks and explanations in Once Dead, Twice Shy but it was
nice to read the full thing. I'm sure that they meant the Meyer story
to be the lure (no sparkly vampires, thank goodness, just demons and
angels), Cabot's story switched voices between hero and heroine. The
hero's tone was very up to the minute (sometimes annoying) and it also
read like the first part of a YA novel. I liked the family set up: mom
was the executioner, daughter trying to take up her tools to avenge
her, dad the mad scientist trying to find a cure for vampirism. Not
sure why she decided to bring in Dracula's son, that was a bit too
much. Myracle's story was a retelling of The Monkey's Paw, it was
okay. I liked Jaffe's story, the two female leads were kick ass (the
main one is a proto-Wonder Woman). A quick read, but entertaining, and
not too heavy on the teenagers making stupid choices level. Aug
5/09
Wishful Drinking, Carrie Fisher. A very quick read (2
hours max, it's only 163 pages), it's Fisher's sketchy memoir as told
after electroconvulsive therapy. The shocks apparently destroyed lots
of her memory, so this is basically the summary, though it's sprinkled
with enough gossipy tidbits to keep the curious happy. :) She's a good
writer, very frank and funny, and the book just speeds along. The
photo collage showing how two kids might be related (only through
scandal is the conclusion) is hilarious in a "graphing the scene" sort
of way. *wry smile* Aug 5/09
Merchants of Venus: Inside Harlequin and the Empire of Romance,
Paul Gresco. In this unauthorised look behind the curtain at
Harlequin, the author covers business dealings, fans, authors,
editors. He talks about breaking into foreign markets, buying up
competitors (I didn't realise that they'd bought Silhouette), paying
authors to *not* write, how covers are made, and lots of other
tidbits. I'd bought this book years ago and started reading it, but
put it down when I got bogged down in the wheeling and dealing
section. It picks up after that when it focuses on the people. It's an
interesting insight into what makes the Empire of Romance run. Aug
7/09
Victorian and Edwardian Fashion: A Photographic Survey, Alison
Gernsheim. I picked this up in a wonderful used book store on
Cape Cod, it's a great visual resource for fashion from the 1830's to
the 1910's. The author emphasises that what people wore wasn't
directly correlated to fashion plates in magazines (think of Vogue
today), and seeing photographs of people at the beach, the races, on
picnics, posed in ball gowns, etc was fascinating.
Included are
photos of Oscar Wilde, a young William Churchill, Lilly Langtree, and
the "personification of the Gibson Girl", as well as more royalty than
you can shake a scepter at. :) Aug 8/09
Early Review:
Half Broke Horses, Jeannette Walls.
This novel covers the life of the author's grandmother from birth to
when the author's mother is married and starting a new life. Lily was
born in a mud hut on the banks of a river, broke horses as young as 6,
was an untrained teacher during a shortage, riding 500 miles on her
horse to the schoolhouse, and another 500 miles back home after 3
years, moved to Chicago and eventually to Arizona, learning to drive
and fly along the way. Lily's a very strong woman, and I found myself
enthralled with her story and empathising with her, right up until she
started teacher her daughter the lessons that she felt were necessary.
At that point I could feel myself slipping into the daughter's shoes
and resenting the meddling, which I take as a sign of the author's
skills. Lily's story is uplifting, a series of setbacks each followed
by surging forward, standing up for herself and the women around her.
The book flows along really well, short sections reading like stories
told one by one over time, but forming a coherent whole.
I'd recommend the book if you like memoirs, and stories about living
in the southwest of America during the early to middle decades of the
1900's. Aug 6/09
Back to regular books:
Dance, Dance, Dance: A Novel, Haruki Murakami.
A freelance writer from Tokyo is drawn back to the Dolphin Hotel in
Sapporo, but the old hotel has been torn down a a new one bearing the
same name now occupies the spot. He's entangled in knots and tries to
unwind them to find some internal peace. He meets new people while
searching for a woman that he met at the old Dolphin, a receptionist
at the new Dolphin, a 13 year old girl from a broken home (mother an
artist, father a writer), his old school friend who's now an actor,
the 13 year old's family. The book has fantastical elements to it,
but they could just be his external projection of his internal
struggles. Until others are drawn into it.
It's a pretty dark book, and not a whole lot happens, but interesting
to read. Aug 18/09
Night's Edge, Charlaine Harris, Maggie Shayne, Barbara
Hambley.
Dancers in the Dark by Charlaine Harris is set in her world where
vampires are a known part of society due to synthetic blood. Rue is a
dancer who joins a troupe of vampires and humans that perform at
parties, but her past catches up to her and her new (fascinating)
partner. A bit too cave-man-y for me.
Her Best Enemy by Maggie Shayne has a wise cracking heroine who
debunks frauds teaming up with a reluctant psychic to figure out why
her new house appears to be haunted. The haunting events gave me
chills, the attraction was believable.
Someone Else's Shadow by Barbara Hambley was also dark and disturbing,
but I liked it best in terms of having the strongest heroine, she
pretty much saves her room mate and her love interest from a building
that's infused with a dark spirit.
Aug 18/09
The Sparrow, Mary Doria Russell.
The author isn't
very good at jumping between the present day of the story (the
survivor of the mission recuperating on Earth), and the past story
(finding the AI radio signal and the mission to Rakhat). The conceit
is that there is a report from the second crew that arrived years
after the Jesuit mission, and those documents, as well as the
transmitted reports from the first crew, are available to the Jesuits
investigating what happened, but we seem to randomly go into the heads
of characters that we have no way of explained way of knowing what
they're thinking.
I like that they started at Areciebo, I could
picture the radio telescope clearly after my visit. The crew mix was
appealing, with the main character, Sandoz, being a Puerto Rican
Jesuit who'd
been moved around to learn languages, and the Sephardic AI expert who
translated
his learning methods into a program, as well as their friends (the
radio astronomer who detected the signal, and the older couple of a
doctor and an engineer). The other Jesuits on the mission were barely
sketched in, which was frustrating as one was a Quebecois. :) A little
bit too much relies on "God's will" as a driving plot force, but
forgivable due to the focus on Sandoz's spiritual trials. The "first
contact" part was also sketchy, with just enough detail, and doled out
slowly enough, to feel like they were telling anecdotes, and it really
didn't matter how the alien was dressed when they could explore it's
mind. Aug 24/09
Hugo:
Rainbow's End, Vernor Vinge. Back to the author of the
dense
books,
but this was more of a near future techno thriller. Robert Gu had an
Alzheimer's treatment that worked perfectly on him, giving him the
body of a teenager. Unfortunately, his mind didn't keep up with all
the technical advances (like ubiquitous wearable computing) and so
he's in adult ed with slow teens. In his former life, he was an
irascible and famous poet, but he's lost his facility with words and
picked up an aptitude for numbers and tech. These elements lure him
into the clutches of Mysterious Stranger who promises him yet another
miracle cure. The text flows well, and despite a density of gadgetry,
the core is human interaction (familial relationships, trust,
mentorship, conspiracy). For some odd reason I kept falling asleep
while reading this, probably due to how much I was doing (I think it
came on three separate trips with me as I tried to find time to finish
it). I liked being able to picture where things were happening in La
Jolla and on the UCSD campus. I wasn't too happy with the ending, it
left a lot unanswered, but wikipedia at least has rumors of a sequel.
I liked the mentions of the localisers that are used extensively in "A
Deepness in the Sky", but in general it feels like a plausible
extrapolation from current technology. Aug 4/09.
The Yiddish Policemen's Union, Michael Chabon. While
reading this book, I read this
review of another of his books, and I can help but have the phrase
we get it Michael Chabon: you’re Jewish echoing through
my head as I stumble over copious amounts of unfamiliar words.
It's an alternate history book, where the state of Israel fell and the
inhabitants were resettled in and around Sitka, Alaska. But the lease
is about to run out and the land revert to the USA. Our hero is
Detective Meyer Landsman, stumbling through life, living in a hotel,
and called upon one night to investigate the shooting of a fellow
hotel dweller. Chabon is trying his hand at a hard boiled detective
novel, with lots of Yiddish thrown in, and his convoluted sentences
and oppressive situations made it hard to get into the book. Once the
story was set up though, the solving of the central mystery pulled me
right along. Aug 31/09.
Movies:
Wanted. I'd been warned, but I borrowed the DVD from a
friend anyway. :) Ah physics, I never knew you were so mutable. I
thought Wesley was spineless and annoying, and couldn't believe that
the assassins listened to Sloan after proof that he'd already lied. It
was nice to see a familiar face from Night Watch, as well as
The Piano, and the action sequences were fun, but overall it
just wasn't that good. Aug 8/09
Ip Man.Fantasia
catchup movie about the man who popularised Wing
Chun. This movie covers a turning point in his life, when he
stands up to the Japanese invaders in 1937. Donnie Yen was awesome
(check on YouTube for Ip Man vs 10 Black Belts), portraying a loving
father and husband (his wife's Looks were great), a martial arts
afficionado, a caring fried, and a Chinese patriot. Aug
12/09
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. It's still
playing in a decently sized theatre at the Boston Common, so after
dinner, we went out for a movie. I think I lost IQ points watching the
commercials before the film, though, last time I'm sitting in the
theatre when I get there half an hour ahead of time. Having read the
whole series, the tension in this movie just wasn't there for me. The
teenage love and relationship angst was spot on (aka uncomfortable to
watch), and the acting under the influence of various potions was
impressive. I just didn't get the rising sense of menace and darkness
in this movie that I got from the book. The movie ran fairly long, but
didn't feel like it dragged, but they obviously cut a lot from the
story to fit it into the time they had. I still laughed at the "But I
am the Chosen One" line. :) Aug 16/09
The Unseeable was this week's Fantasia catch up film.
A pregnant woman goes to an estate and is allowed to stay while she
searches for her missing husband. Ghost stories, vampires, suspicious
grannies, an eerie woman who always stays in her bedroom, and a
mysterious trunk, as well as overly ominous music, set the stage for
creepiness. They really tried to cram too much into it, I think I'll
like it more when the details fuzz out and I just remember the over
arching plot. I managed to figure out who the person hanging from the
tree was, but missed the major twist. Aug 19/09
Lust, Caution. You'd think I'd have expected the
explicit sex scenes in a movie with Lust in the title, but nope. :) I
saw more of Tony Leung than I really wanted to, and saw him acting
brutal to a woman to boot, not images that I want to keep associated
with him. :/ A student gets drawn into a drama society putting on
patriotic plays, and things escalate to planning a patriotic
assassination. She's tapped to get close to the target, and she has to
grow up fast to play her part. It was heartbreaking seeing her dealing
with everything, but worse when she's tapped again three years later
to try and finish the job. It's a pretty slow movie, everyone's
painted as morally grey, and it's very character driven. I won't say
that I enjoyed it, it's a grim movie, but I'm glad that I watched it.
Aug 20/09
Accuracy
of Death. I think I have a crush on Takeshi Kaneshiro's
dimples. :) He's very charming as a supernatural being who's set to
observe people for a week before he decides if they will "proceed"
with their death, or "suspend". His dispatcher is a dog that
communicates via text on the screen; the dog is never humanised nor
made cute, nor threatening for that matter, just a bit bloodthirsty in
that he always seems to push for "proceed". Chiba is shown working in
three time periods, the 80's, the present, and the near future. The
dating is done nicely, using ubiquitous gadgets. The first part
concerns a lonely young woman who is surrounded by death, the second a
group of yakuza, and the third a 70 year old hair dresser (living on a
coastline that looked a lot like Yakushima to me). It's surprisingly
funny in parts (the other Grim Reapers, a trading card, Chiba's
cluelessness) for a movie about death, and, really, it's about life. I
liked the sentiment that death, like the sun, isn't special or out of
the ordinary, but it's very very important. Aug 26/09
Thirst. I finished my chores early on Sunday and
decided to make it a double feature day, riding over to the Kendall to
see Thirst before meeting up with mishak to see Ponyo. I'd
read a review
that put it on my radar and I jumped at the chance to see it in a
theatre (huh, it played at Fantasia
too, I missed it on the calendar). My viewing was heavily
influenced by reading The Sparrow about Jesuits, and The
Yiddish Policemen's Union about an alcoholic cop. I think that
Father Sang-Hyun wanted to commit suicide but the last vestiges of his
faith push him to become a martyr instead, so he volunteers to test a
vaccine for the fatal Emmanual virus. It doesn't work and as the
doctors struggle to save him, he's transfused with some strange blood
(I want to see a follow up movie about how that blood got there). He
dies but comes back to life, and finds that he needs more blood to
keep the EV symptoms (blisters and vomiting blood) in check. He tries
to stick to willing donors (or ones in a coma that he justifies would
be willing to feed him), and is started to be treated as a saint,
asked to pray over people. He's caught up in the family of a boyhood
friend when after praying over Kang-woo, the cancer goes away.
Kang-woo's wife, Tae-ju, gets her hooks into him. She's suffocated
with her submission to the family that took her in as an orphan. And
when she gets power over them, her true nature comes out. Sang-Hyun
also begins to abuse his power over those who once had power over him,
while trying to keep Tae-ju in check, but the downward spiral speeds
up. He eventually gives up his hopes of being a martyr and kills all
respect that anyone might have for him, before setting up a suicide
scenario. It's a visceral movie, there are no pointy teeth making neat
pin holes, human teeth worry at necks, and scissors are used to stab
spurting holes in victims. Tae-ju revels in the blood and violence,
while you can see Sang-Hyun sliding into acquiescence of his new
situation, his soul deadening - when he gives Tae-ju tips on how to
get more blood out of a body in which the heart has stopped beating,
you see the weight that the gaining of the knowledge has placed upon
him. Aug 30/09
Ponyo. Thank goodness this was the second part of my
double feature, Miyazake brought the goodness and light back to the
world. The only problem is that it's aimed at about 5-10 year olds. The
environmental messages are clubbed into your brain (the visuals were
enough to get the point across, so I'm wondering how the subtitled
version handled it) and the 5 year olds in the film are unrelentingly
cute. There's a slow spot near the end, it felt like it went on too
long, and it wraps up way too quickly. That said, it's beautiful and
heartwarming and I'm glad that I saw it, if nothing else for Liam
Neeson yelling "Respect your father!" in his lovely (if totally not
geographically appropriate) accent. :) A lot of observation when into
depicting the mother and son, there's one scene where she's going
through a door with her bags of groceries and her movements are so
true to life, it's eerie. Aug 30/09