2021 Reading and Movie Challenges
The last time I updated, I had read thirteen books since 1 January 2021 and had watched six movies in the eight months since 1 June 2020. What's wrong with this picture? Well, no point tracking movies if you watch at a rate of less than two a month. I reversed both trends with this post. In the six weeks since I last posted, I finished one...one!...book and watched seven movies. The emphasis on the movies was deliberate, but while I was still reading, I was reading only one book: Doris Kearns Goodwin's Team of Rivals. It's well written, of course, and comprehensively researched (at least from the perspective of someone with no background in Lincolniana), but it's 757 pp of mostly new information. I've read 63% of the book; I hope to be able to list it as finished the next time I post...but don't count on it. FanSee
2021 Reading Challenge
1.) A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab.
2.) Dark Voyage by Alan Furst.
3.) Ravenwood, 4.) Zypheria's Call, and 5.) The Hermit of Lammas Wood by Nathan Lowell.
6.) A Difficult Truce by Joan Wolf.
7.) Storm Front by John Sandford.
8.) Paladin's Grace by T. Kingfisher.
9.) Paladin's Strength by T. Kingfisher.
10.) A Promised Land by Barack Obama.
11.) The Watergate Girl by Jill Wine-Banks.
12.) Margarita and the Earl by Joan Wolf.
13.) Outlawed by Anna Worth.
14.) Faro's Daughter by Georgette Heyer. A reread, and one that, according to my notes on the title page, was just about due: I read it in 1996 and again in 2001. In fact, I probably read the Free Library of Philadelphia's (FLP) copy a couple of times before I bought the paperback, so the reread was a very comfortable experience and one I enjoyed. Mr. Ravenscar and Miss Grantham are both adults with adult responsibilities...neither are an impressionable 17-year-old...so seeing them fall in love makes for a nice read for another grown up.
FY2021 Movie Challenge
1.) Athlete A, directed by Bonnie Cohen and Jon Shenk.
2.) Ad Astra with Brad Pitt and Tommie Lee Jones.
3.) Harold and Lillian, A Holiday Love Story, directed by Daniel Raim.
4.) First Cow with John Magaro and Orion Lee.
5.) My Octopus Teacher produced and presented by Craig Foster.
6.) Sherlock Holmes directed by Guy Ritchie.
7.) Inherit the Wind with Frederick March and Spencer Tracy. The 1966 film is a classic and for good reason. The film preserves solid performances by its principals, playing William Jennings Bryant for the prosecution and Clarence Darrow for the defense, respectively, in the trial of a high school teacher who dared to teach the theory of evolution in the U.S. south in 1925. As usual, the courtroom setting works well as a stage as the clash between science and the Bible unfolds. I saw the film when it came out; it passed the test of time. Note: A very young-looking Dick York who later starred in "Bewitched," plays the teacher under indictment.
8.) Enola Holmes with Millie Bobby Brown, Henry Cavill, and Sam Claflin. Enola Holmes is the younger sister of Sherlock and Mycroft Holmes, still in her teens and being home-schooled by her mother. Her lessons include badminton and fencing which, rather strangely, take place indoors in their Victorian parlor. On her 16th birthday, she wakes up to find that her mother had left home, leaving her in the custody of her two much older brothers. She is not pleased with Sherlock and Mycroft's decision to place her in a boarding school for proper young ladies and soon leaves to go find her mother. On the train trip to London, she encounters a young Lord, played by Louis Partridge, also on the run. The two adolescents have good chemistry and make an attractive pair. In fact, all the ingredients mix well, and the result is a light and tasty flic.
9.) My Fair Lady with Rex Harrison as Professor Higgins and Audrey Hepburn as Eliza Doolittle. You know how, on Netflix, if you finish watching a movie, Netflix will load another movie automagically unless you cancel it? That's how I ended up rewatching "My Fair Lady." I enjoyed it all over again. When the movie first came out in 1964, our family had had the record for years already and played it until we knew the lyrics of every song, so even the first time, when I saw the movie in a theater, it was already a beloved treat. As it still is today. So I may quibble that Audrey Hepburn isn't my Eliza Doolittle, but she'll do until the next Julie Andrews comes along.
10.) News of the World with Tom Hanks and Helena Zengel. Captain Jefferson Kyle Kidd (Tom Hanks) is a Civil War veteran who now, five years after the war ended, travels the West, giving dramatic readings of the newspapers at small towns, admission one dime apiece. He comes upon the scene of a massacre: a Kiowa raiding party has been killed to a man, leaving behind a ten-year-old child. Johanna (Helena Zengel) was taken by the Kiowa when she was four; she is now ten and only speaks Kiowa. After some pressure from the leader of the Army unit, Kidd agrees to take the traumatized child to her aunt and uncle across some of the roughest terrain on the continent. The dead-on restrained and believable performances of the two principal characters made this the most enjoyable movie I've seen this fiscal year. I'll watch again, soon.
11.) The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society with Elizabeth McKenna and Michiel Huisman. Guersey, an island off the west coast of Britain, was invaded and occupied by the Germans during WWII. Set in 1946, immediately post-WWII, Juliet Ashton (Elizabeth McKenna) becomes interested in Guernsey's wartime experiences through her correspondence with an islander, Dawsey (Michiel Huisman). She decides to visit the island with the thought of using it for the setting of a novel and to meet some of the people she has 'met' via her correspondence. The island proves to be quaint, lush with foliage, and home to a host of friendly natives, willing to accept her into their homes and daily routines. Even though Juliet is newly engaged, it's no surprise when she notices Dawsey's rugged build and craggy face. An enjoyable movie and the best advertisement for visiting Guernsey I've ever seen.
12.) Ma Rainey's Black Bottom with Viola Davis and Chadwick Boseman takes place in a shabby recording studio in Chicago in 1927. The day starts with the four-man band rehearsing dilatorily while they wait for Ma Rainey (Viola Davis) to arrive. Three of the four are old hands, all in their forties or fifties, if not sixties, while the fourth, Levee (Chadwick Boseman) tells us he's younger--in his thirties--and planning to put together his own band and make it big. Finally Ma arrives, accompanied by two younger companions, a boy she is promoting as a singer and a girl with curves in all the right places and no apparent reason to be there except as decoration. All the pieces are now in place for the recording session. Even though the movie is an adaptation of an August Wilson play, it is done so well that I never felt I was watching a movie of a play. There is a lot of content here and some great jazz riffs: I may watch again; I feel I missed some of the less obvious notes being played.
13.) Tom Clancy's Without Remorse with Michael B. Jordan and Jodie Turner-Smith. Turns out that if a movie's title includes the name of the author who wrote the series it's based on, you probably will see an unremarkable but tidy film. Apparently, this is the beginning of a series of movies: the origin story for John Kelly, a recurring character in the Jack Ryan series. In this version of realpolitik, Russia is still The Menace in our world, and Kelly is sent on a mission to Murmansk to thwart something. Guns rattle off shots, the wounded are rescued, getaways occur in the knick of time. Me, I found the character of Lt. Commander Karen Greer (Jodie Turner-Smith) the most interesting and original element of the movie. I'll look for her, going forward.
2021 Reading Challenge
1.) A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab.
2.) Dark Voyage by Alan Furst.
3.) Ravenwood, 4.) Zypheria's Call, and 5.) The Hermit of Lammas Wood by Nathan Lowell.
6.) A Difficult Truce by Joan Wolf.
7.) Storm Front by John Sandford.
8.) Paladin's Grace by T. Kingfisher.
9.) Paladin's Strength by T. Kingfisher.
10.) A Promised Land by Barack Obama.
11.) The Watergate Girl by Jill Wine-Banks.
12.) Margarita and the Earl by Joan Wolf.
13.) Outlawed by Anna Worth.
14.) Faro's Daughter by Georgette Heyer. A reread, and one that, according to my notes on the title page, was just about due: I read it in 1996 and again in 2001. In fact, I probably read the Free Library of Philadelphia's (FLP) copy a couple of times before I bought the paperback, so the reread was a very comfortable experience and one I enjoyed. Mr. Ravenscar and Miss Grantham are both adults with adult responsibilities...neither are an impressionable 17-year-old...so seeing them fall in love makes for a nice read for another grown up.
FY2021 Movie Challenge
1.) Athlete A, directed by Bonnie Cohen and Jon Shenk.
2.) Ad Astra with Brad Pitt and Tommie Lee Jones.
3.) Harold and Lillian, A Holiday Love Story, directed by Daniel Raim.
4.) First Cow with John Magaro and Orion Lee.
5.) My Octopus Teacher produced and presented by Craig Foster.
6.) Sherlock Holmes directed by Guy Ritchie.
7.) Inherit the Wind with Frederick March and Spencer Tracy. The 1966 film is a classic and for good reason. The film preserves solid performances by its principals, playing William Jennings Bryant for the prosecution and Clarence Darrow for the defense, respectively, in the trial of a high school teacher who dared to teach the theory of evolution in the U.S. south in 1925. As usual, the courtroom setting works well as a stage as the clash between science and the Bible unfolds. I saw the film when it came out; it passed the test of time. Note: A very young-looking Dick York who later starred in "Bewitched," plays the teacher under indictment.
8.) Enola Holmes with Millie Bobby Brown, Henry Cavill, and Sam Claflin. Enola Holmes is the younger sister of Sherlock and Mycroft Holmes, still in her teens and being home-schooled by her mother. Her lessons include badminton and fencing which, rather strangely, take place indoors in their Victorian parlor. On her 16th birthday, she wakes up to find that her mother had left home, leaving her in the custody of her two much older brothers. She is not pleased with Sherlock and Mycroft's decision to place her in a boarding school for proper young ladies and soon leaves to go find her mother. On the train trip to London, she encounters a young Lord, played by Louis Partridge, also on the run. The two adolescents have good chemistry and make an attractive pair. In fact, all the ingredients mix well, and the result is a light and tasty flic.
9.) My Fair Lady with Rex Harrison as Professor Higgins and Audrey Hepburn as Eliza Doolittle. You know how, on Netflix, if you finish watching a movie, Netflix will load another movie automagically unless you cancel it? That's how I ended up rewatching "My Fair Lady." I enjoyed it all over again. When the movie first came out in 1964, our family had had the record for years already and played it until we knew the lyrics of every song, so even the first time, when I saw the movie in a theater, it was already a beloved treat. As it still is today. So I may quibble that Audrey Hepburn isn't my Eliza Doolittle, but she'll do until the next Julie Andrews comes along.
10.) News of the World with Tom Hanks and Helena Zengel. Captain Jefferson Kyle Kidd (Tom Hanks) is a Civil War veteran who now, five years after the war ended, travels the West, giving dramatic readings of the newspapers at small towns, admission one dime apiece. He comes upon the scene of a massacre: a Kiowa raiding party has been killed to a man, leaving behind a ten-year-old child. Johanna (Helena Zengel) was taken by the Kiowa when she was four; she is now ten and only speaks Kiowa. After some pressure from the leader of the Army unit, Kidd agrees to take the traumatized child to her aunt and uncle across some of the roughest terrain on the continent. The dead-on restrained and believable performances of the two principal characters made this the most enjoyable movie I've seen this fiscal year. I'll watch again, soon.
11.) The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society with Elizabeth McKenna and Michiel Huisman. Guersey, an island off the west coast of Britain, was invaded and occupied by the Germans during WWII. Set in 1946, immediately post-WWII, Juliet Ashton (Elizabeth McKenna) becomes interested in Guernsey's wartime experiences through her correspondence with an islander, Dawsey (Michiel Huisman). She decides to visit the island with the thought of using it for the setting of a novel and to meet some of the people she has 'met' via her correspondence. The island proves to be quaint, lush with foliage, and home to a host of friendly natives, willing to accept her into their homes and daily routines. Even though Juliet is newly engaged, it's no surprise when she notices Dawsey's rugged build and craggy face. An enjoyable movie and the best advertisement for visiting Guernsey I've ever seen.
12.) Ma Rainey's Black Bottom with Viola Davis and Chadwick Boseman takes place in a shabby recording studio in Chicago in 1927. The day starts with the four-man band rehearsing dilatorily while they wait for Ma Rainey (Viola Davis) to arrive. Three of the four are old hands, all in their forties or fifties, if not sixties, while the fourth, Levee (Chadwick Boseman) tells us he's younger--in his thirties--and planning to put together his own band and make it big. Finally Ma arrives, accompanied by two younger companions, a boy she is promoting as a singer and a girl with curves in all the right places and no apparent reason to be there except as decoration. All the pieces are now in place for the recording session. Even though the movie is an adaptation of an August Wilson play, it is done so well that I never felt I was watching a movie of a play. There is a lot of content here and some great jazz riffs: I may watch again; I feel I missed some of the less obvious notes being played.
13.) Tom Clancy's Without Remorse with Michael B. Jordan and Jodie Turner-Smith. Turns out that if a movie's title includes the name of the author who wrote the series it's based on, you probably will see an unremarkable but tidy film. Apparently, this is the beginning of a series of movies: the origin story for John Kelly, a recurring character in the Jack Ryan series. In this version of realpolitik, Russia is still The Menace in our world, and Kelly is sent on a mission to Murmansk to thwart something. Guns rattle off shots, the wounded are rescued, getaways occur in the knick of time. Me, I found the character of Lt. Commander Karen Greer (Jodie Turner-Smith) the most interesting and original element of the movie. I'll look for her, going forward.