This Week in Books and Media

This was an indulgent reading kind of week for me since three favorite authors came out with their newest books.  They all do fit within the parameters of my reading award but I tend to leave these authors to others since I like them too much to effectively judge the quality.  If you like urban fantasy, be sure to try Jim Butcher and Patricia Briggs. Other favorites are J.D. Robb and Gail Carriger.  Try them, you might like them:-)

Books:

Changes by Jim Butcher - There are big changes in store for Harry (hence the name Changes) this time around.  It seems like the bad guys keep getting badder and I am not sure what Jim will do for the next novel. Maybe a nice apocalypse?

Changeless by Gail Carriger - Book two in this series starts out with our newly married couple learning to live together in wedded bliss.  Of course, this being a novel, happy and carefree can't last. This time the magical beings are being affected by a strange field that is damping magic and making the ghosts go away forever. Added to that, there are werewolf pack dynamics to work through and some new quirky characters to decipher.

Freeze Frame by Peter May - I hadn't read this author before and thought that the mystery did pretty well as a stand-alone. I wouldn't have known why the main character was working his way through unsolved murders if I hadn't read a review but that didn't detract significantly from the story.  I cannot tell you what a joy it was to read a mystery with clues. Clear, well-defined clues that actually made it possible to solve the murder. I did figure out who did it but by the time I did, the clues were pretty clearly showing the way. I also liked the main character and his interactions with the townspeople. I did not, however, like the girlfriend but maybe the reason she was so awful was explained in a previous book.  I will definitely look for more in this series.

Kindred in Death by J.D. Robb - Eve and Roarke are back again in their gazillionth mystery. Robb never fails to please with her complex characters. These are sexy novels and the crimes are usually pretty brutal so I wouldn't suggest this for anyone who likes clean, cozy mysteries but I love these. 

Devils in Exile by Chuck Hogan - Home from the war, Neal Maven is working dead-end jobs and feels marginalized and unappreciated for his service to his country. When a mysterious stranger with flashy clothes offers a way to use the skills he learned in Iraq to take down drug mavens and dealers he jumps at the chance.  Soon he is living the good life and things couldn't be going better but when he falls for his boss's lady and the rest of the team starts to get careless he decides he wants out, which is when the real trouble begins.  I have said before I need my thrillers to be action packed and full of adrenaline for the entire book. This delivered from start to finish with a fully fleshed out main character who was never cliched or predictable.  

Tempest Rising by Nicole Peeler - This was a fun new series if you like paranormal fiction. It had a slightly different twist and a much more venerable heroine than one usually sees in the paranormal genre.  The heroine knows she is different from most people and after finding a dead body in the sea one night, she suddenly discovers there is a whole world of supernatural folk living in the same town.  She and the hot vampire (of course) band together to solve the mystery and also discover they have romantic feelings for each other. There are some very clear clues about the direction the next book in the series will take.

Silver Borne by Patricia Briggs - I stayed up late last night to finish this one. I love the Mercy Thompson series.  The main character is a shape shifting coyote who owns her own garage and repairs cars for a living. Her next door neighbor is a hot werewolf (of course), his teenage daughter and his pack. Also populating this world are the Fae, vampires, etc....  Mercy spends her spare time flirting with the werewolf, solving mysteries and trying to navigate pack politics.  Start with Moon Called if you want to read this series.

DVD's:

The Men Who Stare At Goats - This was an odd movie. I liked it but it didn't completely keep my attention. I had to watch this twice because I would find myself wandering off at various points to clean the kitchen or text someone. I even did it the second time when I was making a point to watch.

Movie Update

This week I finished up every currently available movie that has any kind of Oscar nomination (including best song). As always, there was plenty I didn't get to see but I managed to cover a lot of ground this year.

I made a run to Blockbusters earlier in the week and picked up Food, Inc. and Coco Before Chanel. Since I have been reading so heavily in the area of the environment and the impact large industrial farms are having on communities none of the information in Food, Inc. was particularly new. For those who have not been investigating this issue, the movie may have a profound impact on the way you purchase your food. Every piece of evidence points to the need to support local farmers, especially those who use more traditional farming methods, organic processes and minimal shipping. The major problem with this approach is that buying organic and locally grown is still a luxury for those who have money, not something that everyone can afford. Someday, I hope documentaries like this will change the system enough so that everyone can have equal access to the most healthy foods.

Coco Before Chanel was not a particularly in-depth treatment of Coco Chanel's life during her teens and early twenties but I did like it. Since I didn't know anything about her, I enjoyed the biographical details and the slice-of-life depictions of France during that time period.

I took time off this week to watch some movies only showing during the day and managed to catch the last four still in the theaters. Invictus is the story of how Nelson Mandela used rugby to try to take the first steps to uniting South Africa after the fall of apartheid. The elements of a good underdog sports story are all there and done well but for me, the most fascinating parts of the movie are those that showed Nelson Mandela's struggles as president. Besides, I could watch Morgan Freeman eat soup and still be charmed and entertained. Also, Matt Damon was the character to such an extent that for a good part of the movie I thought he was a South African actor who just happened to look like Matt.

I recruited a friend and her daughter to go with me to The Princess and the Frog which turned out to be a typical Disney and I have to admit I was a little disappointed with this effort. The most fun part of the movie was watching my friends daughter dance around to the admittedly catchy musical offerings.

The Last Station is about the last days of the life of Tolstoy and I love the details about the Tolstoyan movement and how it changed in good and bad ways with the addition of zealots. The dynamics between Tolstoy and his wife felt a little overacted but overall it was an interesting movie.

Jeff Bridges has a lot of guts acting in a movie that made him look like a broken down alcoholic country singer and he did a outstanding job with this role. Crazy Heart was very good, which is saying a lot considering my aversion to country music.

On Saturday I finished up the part 2 of the AMC Oscar Showcase.

Up is my choice for best animated feature of the year. It was touching but not overly sentimental, it had great humor and enough action to keep you interested throughout the movie. Pixar did an outstanding job with this movie.

A Serious Man was an odd movie. It started off pretty well portraying a man whose life is falling apart around him but at about the halfway mark it started to drag and by the end, it had completely derailed. Added to that, it never really explained the opening snippet about the dybbuk and what it had to do with the rest of the movie. Any thoughts on that?

The Hurt Locker is my choice to win the Oscar. It is a strong realistic portrayal of what Iraq is really like and what our soldiers are going through over there. I liked that it presented the story in a relatively unbiased way, telling a story and not beating us overhead with a message. I do think it was an elegantly constructed, finely wrought movie.

An Education is a difficult one for me to assess. I disliked the main character immensely and could not get past the fact that he was, for all intents and purposes, a pedophile. It made it very difficult for me to appreciate the technical aspects of the movie. Having said that, it was a fairly typical British movie.

I saw District 9 on DVD so did not stay to see it on the big screen. For the most part, I enjoyed this but I do feel that a little more work and editing would have turned this into one of the great SF classics. It was good but didn't quite reach the outstanding mark. As a side note, it is a bit distressing to realize how universal the theme of humans destroying anything different or profitable to them is in the movie making business.

At the movies....

Every year, some dear friends get together to watch the Oscars (or more accurately, look at all the sparkly attire and make fun of the fashion disasters.) Although I don't tend to be overly competitive, this addition of a ballot and voting has switched on my competitive OCD and I MUST watch each and every nominee even if all they only were nominated in the Best Song catagory.

So, this weekend I went to the AMC Oscar Showcase. I have been attending these since AMC started doing them and I always have a great time in spite of the hours of sitting that are required. This year, because the Oscars now have 10 nominees, AMC has split the movies between two weekends. Unfortunately, that means that my group of 10+ friends who spent the day with me last year decided not to do it again this year. Luckily a small group still joined me for week #1. Next weekend I will attend alone. (I think)

Avatar was surprising good and in fact, I got a little teary during the tragically romantic parts. The dialog and story were clunky and could have used some work but the cinematography was out-of-this world. Even if you are not a SF geek, I suggest you try to make time to see this one. This just wouldn't be the same on a small screen and the idea that this might change the way movies are made is not as outlandish as I previously thought. This should be a shoo-in for all of the cinematography and special effects Oscar awards.

Up in the Air was an interesting choice for an Oscar nomination. It was the polar opposite of Avatar. The movie is set primarily in airports, hotels and offices and the gray tonality of the film matched George Clooneys characters personality. It was interesting to explore the idea of losing the baggage and people from your life and reducing your life to a suitcase and a hotel room. This would be a good one to rent since this is a movie more about ideas than action and aventure. No big screen theatrics are needed to explore ideas about what makes a life worth living.

Precious was good but exceptionally grim. I had already seen this movie and thought this held up well with a second viewing. It is definitely a movie that celebrates literacy as a way out of an awful situation and made me want to go to Literacy Kansas City to sign up to be a tutor. Realistically, with the part-time job I would have very little time to spend two or three days a week tutoring but someday it will be on my ever expanding to-do wish list.

The Blind Side was not a movie I was looking forward to since I get very grumpy when I have to sit through a movie designed to play on my sympathies in overly sentimental ways but in spite of myself, I was charmed. I would love to have to the courage to take a stranger into my home and immediately treat them like family. This is worth watching for the feel good factor but in my opinion, not really a viable Oscar contender.

Inglourious Basterds is Tarantino at his best. Certainly it was bloody but it entertaining as only he can be. This rewrite of Hitler's WWII felt completely fresh and new and even if it was a work of complete fiction, it was nice to see the Jewish people fight back. Tarantino is not for everyone but if you can stand the violence, it was a spectacular movie.

Other movies I watched this week:

In the Loop - An Office-type movie in a British political setting. I should have liked this better than I did but I ended up getting distracted and wandering off a lot. Maybe it would have played better on the big screen for me.

Bright Star - Romance between poet John Keats and next door neighbor Fanny. Interesting setting and time period but I could not for the life of me see why she would fall for him other than his romantic poetical demeanor. This was directed by the same woman who directed The Piano, another movie with "romantic" elements I failed to appreciate.

The Cove - a scathing diatribe against the dolphin entertainment industry and Japan for encouraging the fishing of dolphins. Not a balanced look, but a passionate one and for anyone who loves animals and finds dolphins appealing, this is a horrifying and radicalizing look at a practice that is deadly for dolphins and humans alike.

Paris 36 - I haven't cared much for any of the more musical offerings this year and this movie was no exception. In spite of the main character's rather sad life, apparently the driving force for the plot, I couldn't bring myself to care that much about the characters or want to know what was going to happen next. I do tend to like French movies but this one just didn't do it for me.

The White Ribbon - my movie watching friend loathed this one but I found it to be oddly compelling. I had originally thought this would be a horror movie but instead it was a study of "man's inhumanity toward man". It was very dark and dour and very, very German. I do wonder if I would have stuck with it if I had been watching it at home on DVD however.

The Young Victoria - I liked this one very much in spite of its rather slow pace. It made me want to find some good biographies on the the couple and find out if the movie accurately represented this rather charming love story.

The Oscars - Repost from myspace blog

This weekend was movie weekend...well, except for Friday night when I won free tickets to the Mystery Train Dinner Theater. Fun, free and tasty...All that and Janet for company! How much better can an evening get?

On Saturday, bunches of people flocked to AMC theaters to watch all of the Oscar Best Picture nominees. And yes, that is a whopping 12 hours of movie watching. My least favorite movie was a tie between Michael Clayton and If There Be Blood. They were "egh" movies, not horrible, but not fabulous. I liked Atonement, especially the cinematography. There were some incredibly beautiful shots and a truly great sex scene, oddly enough with no nudity.

Juno was my happy movie and boy, did I need it after those three movies. I loved it and would sit through it again. The last was No Country For Old Men. Wow! It really had one of the best psycho hit-men I can remember seeing in a while. When I was driving home from the theater I kept looking at the people in other cars to see if there were any psycho hit-men/killers driving by. The ending was a tad weak but I really liked this move and NEVER want to see it again. It creeped me out big time! If it weren't for the fact that I was then traumatized by reading gonemild's blog entry when I got home that night, it would have been a perfect day.

Sunday was tiara day...ok, it was actually my Oscar/Kaite's Birthday month party but much tiara wearing occurred. See...

I even had a few brave boys venture out with their ladies to attend. Well, it may not have just been the thrill of being with Ms Spyder but the lure of free books that got Kanga to a tiara wearing party. We trashed gowns, kept my friend Sheryl (from the librarian friend pool) busy making every flavor of martini known to man AND we had birthday cake. I didn't do very well guessing which movies would win but I had to many martinis to care. Ahhh, martinis and movies...does life get any better than this?

Movie: Jesus Camp

Just a little freaked out tonight after watching the movie Jesus Camp. I am not even sure what to say about it except that I can't even begin to relate to this mindset even though there were very mild versions of this that made their way into church when I was growing up. They actually have children pray for a cardboard cutout of George Bush. Ok, they believe that global warming doesn't exist but they went too far when they trash talked Harry Potter.

Since I don't want this to turn into a rant I am going to stop now.