The Case of the Love Commandos

The Case of the Love Commandos is 4th in the Vish Puri mystery series by Tarquin Hall. I came across one used, and now I pick them up as I see them. The characters are a lot of fun, and the plots of these tend to include interesting local color and information on the history and culture and traditions of India. The detective has his own website here.

from the back of the book:

Vish Puri fights for love in a modern-day Romeo and Juliet.

When Ram and Tulsi fall in love, the young woman's parents are dead set against the union. She's from a high-caste family; he's an Untouchable, from the lowest stratum of Indian society. Fortunately, India's Love Commandos, a real-life group of volunteers dedicated to helping mixed-caste couples, come to the rescue. But as soon as they free Tulsi from her father, Ram mysteriously disappears. It falls to Vish Puri to track him down. Unfortunately, Puri's having a bad month. He's failed to recover a stolen cache of jewels, and his wallet was stolen, forcing him to rely on his Mummy-ji to get it back. Worse yet, his archival, suave investigator Hari Kumar, is hot on the case as well. In the daring race to find Ram, Puri and his team must infiltrate his village and navigate the caste politics shaped by millennia-old prejudices.

I've also read these:

1) The Case of the Missing Servant (2008)
2) The Case of the Man Who Died Laughing (2010)
3) The Case of the Deadly Butter Chicken (2012)

Greatest Science Fiction Movies Ever

The Top 10 Greatest Science Fiction Movies Ever Made (from SF Signal):

1. 2001: A Space Odyssey
1968, directed by Stanley Kubrick

2. Solaris
1972, directed by Andrei Tarkovsky

3. Blade Runner
1982, directed by Ridley Scott

4. Forbidden Planet
1956, directed by Fred M. Wilcox

5. Planet of the Apes
1968, directed by Franklin J. Schaffner

6. Dark City
1998, directed by Alex Proyas

7. The Day the Earth Stood Still
1951, directed by Robert Wise

8. Her
2013, directed by Spike Jonze

9. Metropolis
1927, directed by Fritz Lang

10. Primer
2004, directed by Shane Carruth

Near-Misses
1. Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
1982, directed by Nicholas Meyer

2. Sleeper
1973, directed by Woody Allen

3. The Empire Strikes Back
1980, directed by Irvin Kershner

4. Monsters
2010, directed by Gareth Edwards

5. Videodrome
1983, directed by David Cronenberg

6. The Damned
1963, directed by James Losey

7. Invasion of the Body Snatchers
1978, directed by Philip Kaufman

8. Akira
1988, directed by Katsuhiro Otomo

9. Galaxy Quest
1999, directed by Dean Parisot

10. Melancholia
2011, directed by Lars von Trier

I've seen the ones in bold print.

I do wonder why a person who had never heard of the film Altered States could be tasked with submitting a list to Time Out London on behalf of a science fiction website, but maybe I'm just making unwarranted assumptions about the general exposure necessary before official top-10 lists make sense.

The writer states his criteria:

They had to be science fiction, or obviously recognized as such

and he left off Repo Man and Kiss Me, Deadly because he didn't consider them SF. In regards to Repo Man, I always hear it referred to as science fiction (Wikipedia describes it that way, as do the Imdb and Criterion), so I'm not sure on what grounds he found it unsuitable for consideration. In regards to Kiss Me Deadly, I've only heard it described as science fiction by one reviewer, so that it would be considered and then eliminated seems bizarre to me.

Additionally, no director could appear on these lists more than once. I easily could have included at least two other movies by Stanley Kubrick, a half dozen by David Cronenberg, and at least one other by Tarkovsky, but felt that doing so would be cheating.

whereas I consider it "cheating" to call it a Best Movies list when it's not. I mean if a director has made 3 of the best SF films ever, should 2 of them be bumped by lesser films because they share a talented director?

He also says:

Another factor I considered was seriousness of intent. By this, I simply mean that the movies I recommended either had to be made with some desire for enduring appeal (Woody Allen’s Sleeper may be of its time, but its satiric teeth lose none of their bite, even if contemporary audiences might not understand references to such figures as Howard Cosell)

What? Really? I think if it's that dated, it doesn't matter how enduring the director wanted it to be.

He mentions other criteria, including that the films did actually endure and that he personally liked them.

Our family has issues with this list, as might be expected. Everybody's top-10 list will be different, and none of the folks in our family has any formal credentials in the field. We're just fans. In light of that, this is The Younger Son's list in uncertain order:

Alien
City of Lost Children
Pitch Black
Battlestar Galactica (miniseries)
Star Wars
Brazil
Blade Runner
Book of Eli
Mad Max: Fury Road
The Matrix

I've seen all of those.

The Husband's list (in no particular order):

Metropolis
The Day the Earth Stood Still (Robert Wise)
Frankenstein
The War of the Worlds (1953)
The Time Machine
Book of Eli
The Fly (1958)
Dr. Strangelove
Independence Day
The Bride of Frankenstein

I've seen all of these.

Wings

Wings is a 1966 Soviet film, the debut feature film of Larisa Shepitko. It's the story of a woman who is dissatisfied with her life as a school principal after having served heroically as a fighter pilot.

I watched it when Hulu offered it as one of their free films. You can still see it there, but you need to subscribe to their service.

short clip:

Senses of Cinema says,

Wings follows the picaresque form in emphasising the protagonist Nadezhda’s similarly troubled movement through a world following war, a world with its own pressures and problems that appear to weigh on the ex-pilot even more heavily as she struggles with the everyday torments of family, job and relationships. It is in this respect that Wings emerges as an almost paradigmatic European art cinema text.

DVD Talk says,

This character study in war-induced ennui and inter-generational conflict engendered considerable controversy within a nation not yet ready to publicly acknowledge the lingering psychological effects of the Great Patriotic War. Despite the controversy, Wings established Shepitko's place among the contemporary vanguard of young Soviet filmmakers.

TCM has an article calling it "remarkable" and "superbly crafted in every way".

Wednesday the Rabbi Got Wet

Wednesday the Rabbi Got Wet is a 1976 novel, the 6th of the 12-book Rabbi Small mystery series by Harry Kemelman. The series was adapted for television: 1) the first book was adapted as a made-for-tv movie in 1976; 2) using that as a pilot, a series of 4 90-minute movies were aired in 1977 as part of the NBC Sunday Mystery Movie series. Both of these adaptations starred Art Carney as the chief detective. I'd never even heard of these, much less seen them, and they don't seem to be available either on DVD or online.

I don't read them in order, just picking them up as I come across them. This was one of two The Younger Son picked up for me in the used book section at our local bookseller. He remembered how much I'd enjoyed them. The characters are intriguing, the plots interesting, and I learn so much about Conservative Judaism just in passing.

from the dust jacket:

Rabbi David Small has become one of the most endearing sleuths in modern fiction. Irascible and compassionate, innocent and worldly wise, Rabbi Small can see the third side of any question, an exceptional talent he employs, along with Talmudic reasoning and insight, to solve the high crime of murder.

Now, in his latest novel in this spectacularly successful series, Harry Kemelman once again portrays the all-too-human world of Barnard's Crossing, the New England town where Rabbi Small serves as the religious leader of the temple.

This time the rabbi becomes involved in the mysterious death of an old man with many enemies, a death that intrigues and eventually fascinates both him and the town's chief of police, Hugh Lanigan.

But finding the solution to a puzzling death is not the only matter that concerns Rabbi Small. He is involved in saving the innocent from disgrace and the charge of murder, while also fighting the temple's well-intentioned but erring board of directors over a question of high principle.

One of the great appeals of Harry Kemelman's novels is the way he skillfully weaves the teachings of Judaism into the plot. In Wednesday the Rabbi Got Wet the author presents, through Rabbi Small, a fascinating view of the Jewish attitudes toward meditation, mysticism, religious retreats, and Christianity.

Those who have read Harry Kemelman's earlier novels will find Wednesday the Rabbi Got Wet among his very best. Those who have yet to become acquainted with Rabbi Small and Barnard's Crossing have a delectable treat in store for them.

I've read the following in this series:

1. Friday the Rabbi Slept Late (1964) (read in January, 2006)
3. Sunday the Rabbi Stayed Home (1969)
7. Thursday the Rabbi Walked Out (1978)
10. One Fine Day the Rabbi Bought a Cross (1987) (read in March, 2006)

The author died in December of 1996, at the age of 88.

President #42

Bill Clinton is the 42nd president of the United States. How has it taken me so long to realize that?

A Nice Cup of Tea

A Nice Cup of Tea:

sung by Binnie Hale who died on January 10, 1984 at age 84. In addition to being a singer, she was a star of stage and screen.

Lyrics excerpt:

I like a nice cup of tea with my dinner,
And a nice cup of tea with my tea,
And when it's time for bed,
There's a lot to be said
For a nice cup of tea!

Some folks put much reliance
On politics and science;
There's only one hero for me!
Its praise we should be roaring,
The man who thought of pouring
The first boiling water onto tea!

I will most likely read while I drink my tea. Although I won't be starting any of these yet, I wanted to share what I recently picked up in the used book department of my local book store:

I need to quit going to book stores! I buy 'em faster than I can read 'em.

This post has been scheduled in advance, and I won't be around to visit or share this week.

The Woman in the Window

The Woman in the Window is a 1944 film noir directed by Fritz Lang and starring Edward G. Robinson, Joan Bennett, and Raymond Massey. A well-respected film since the time of its release, it makes it onto most of the best-of film noir lists. Wikipedia has a plot summary which begins with this:

After criminology professor Richard Wanley sends his wife and two children off on vacation, he goes to his club to meet friends. Next door, Wanley sees a striking oil portrait of Alice Reed (Joan Bennett) in a storefront window. He and his friends talk about the beautiful painting and its subject. Wanley stays at the club and reads Song of Songs. When he leaves, Wanley stops at the portrait and meets Reed, who is standing near the painting watching people watch it. Reed convinces Wanley to join her for drinks.

Complications of an unpleasant nature ensue, of course.

via Youtube:

Senses of Cinema has an article. DVD Talk says it's "Considered a top noir and one of Fritz Lang's very best American films" and is "considered Lang's most pure investigation of the nature of guilt and conscience." Rotten Tomatoes has a critics score of 100%.

Star Trek: Into Darkness

Star Trek: Into Darkness is a film I saw a while back but never posted about. I'm not a fan of this alternate universe Star Trek, where we get the same characters only not. I'm tired of re-hashing the same original series plots. And, as much as I love Benedict Cumberbatch, I'm disappointed in his casting as Indian Sikh Khan. It's a fine action/adventure/science fiction movie. Star Trek it ain't, except for the character names.

trailer:

The Atlantic calls it "a more recognizable heir to George Lucas than to Gene Roddenberry." Empire Online has a positive review. Moria says, "It is certainly the most action oriented Star Trek film we have had to date. .... I’ll set my misgivings and loyalty to the original Trek aside and largely embrace the show that Abrams and co have put to say that they have for the most part done a rather entertaining job."

Wil Wheaton calls it "a damn entertaining film that may just provide an infection vector for a whole new audience — the next generation if you will — to explore the existing Star Trek world."

Rotten Tomatoes has a critics score of 87%.

Payload

Payload is a 2011 science fiction short film directed by Stuart Willis. It is about the sacrifices we are willing to make for family. In a dystopian future, a poor family has difficult choices to make. The film has a website here.

view the film:

Payload from Stu Willis on Vimeo.

io9 has drawings that led to the film's space elevator.

The Quest

The Quest is a 1963 short film inspired by the Ray Bradbury story Frost and Fire, which can be read online here. It's directed by Saul and Elaine Bass. This is definitely a trippy period piece, but fun.

On Youtube (via Open Culture):

Reviews are scarce.

The Gate of Angels

The Gate of Angels is a 1990 novel by Penelope Fitzgerald. I am always on the look-out for books by this author, who wrote 9 novels and several other works before her death at age 83 in 2000.

from the back of the book:

It is 1912, and at Cambridge University the modern age is knocking at the gate. In lecture halls and laboratories, the model of a universe governed by the Mind of God is at last giving way to something wholly rational, a universe governed by the Laws of Physics. To Fred Fairly, a junior fellow at the College of St. Angelicus, this comes as a great comfort. Science, he is certain, will soon explain everything. Mystery will be routed by reason, and the demands of the soul will be seen for what they are -a distraction and an illusion.

Into Fred's orderly life comes Daisy, with a bang —literally. One moment the two are perfect strangers, fellow cyclists on a dark country road; the next, they are casualties of a freakish accident, occupants of the same warm bed. Fred has never been so close to a woman before, surely none so pretty, so plainspoken, and yet so -mysterious. Who is this Daisy Saunders? he wonders. Why have I met her? Is this a manifestation of Chaos, or is it a sign of another kind of Order?

As the smitten Fred pursues these questions, Penelope Fitzgerald suggests that scientists can still be mistaken -and that the soul must still be answered- even in this age of the atom.

The book begins:

How could the wind be so strong, so far inland, that cyclists coming into the town in the late afternoon looked more like sailors in peril? This was on the way into Cambridge, up Mill Road past the cemetery and the workhouse. On the open ground to the left the willow-trees had been blown, driven and cracked until their branches gave way and lay about the drenched grass, jerking convulsively and trailing cataracts of twigs. The cows had gone mad, tossing up the silvery weeping leaves which were suddenly, quite contrary to all their experience, everywhere within reach. Their horns were festooned with willow boughs. Not being able to see properly, they tripped and fell. Two or three of them were wallowing on their backs, idiotically, exhibiting vast pale bellies intended by nature to be always hidden. They were still munching. A scene of disorder, tree-tops on the earth, legs in the air, in a university city devoted to logic and reason.

How can you not love that writing? Plus her books have character development and plotting worth the reading. You can't do better than Fitzgerald!

I've read:

The Bookshop (1978)
Offshore (1979)
The Blue Flower (1995)

Passing On

Passing On is a 1989 novel by prolific author Penelope Lively. I enjoy her writing. This book explores the aftermath of the death of a mother of three grown children. The mother's presence continues to occupy Helen's thoughts, and it's Helen's story we get. Parts of the tale are quite unpleasant, but parts of life are unpleasant.

from the back of the book:

Booker Prize-winning author Penelope Lively is that rare writer who goes from strength to strength in book after perfectly assured book. In Passing On, she applies her distinctive insight and consummate artistry to the subtle story of a domineering and manipulative mother's legacy to her children. With their mother's death, Helen and Edward, both middle-aged and both unmarried, are left to face the ramifications of their mother's hold on their lives for all of these years. Helen and Edward slowly learn to accept what has been lost in their own lives and embrace what can yet be retrieved.

favorite quotes:

At the time, fatal steps are seldom recognized as such.

=======

[When asked by the lawyer after the funeral if they needed more advice] Helen racked her brains. Advice? Surely they needed advice? Of course they needed advice; she reviewed, in a flash, the whole unsatisfactory condition of Greystones, of her state of mind, of life itself. How can we stop the drain flooding whenever it rains? Why do I have to feel guilty because my mother has died? How can I achieve a comforting complacency?

"I can't think of anything."

=======

Distant, hazy, dead Daddy. Long since drowned out by other voices, other opinions; bleached now to a faded outline, a few mannerisms, a vague remembered preference for anchovy paste as opposed to jam. Could a lifetime be reduced to that?

=======

[after a reflection by Helen on what their mother was like] The others stared at her. "I'm not sure you should say all this," said Edward rather wildly.

"What's the difference between saying it and thinking it. And it's true. And it can't hurt her now because she'd dead. Also, it doesn't mean I feel any differently about her.

There was a silence. Louise, eventually, spoke. "What did you feel about her?"

"I loved her, I suppose," said Helen. "One does, willy-nilly."

"Sometimes I hated her," said Louise.

"Oh, that too."

=======

The NYT closes its review with this:

On the surface, certainly, ''Passing On'' reads like a fine piece of miniaturist work, depicting the course of two circumscribed lives within a small, circumscribed community. Yet at the same time, it subtly opens out into an evocative examination of familial history; it shows the reader how the geometry of childhood emotion affects and alters the arc of grown-up lives; how temperament conspires with circumstance to shape individual choices, how the past may be made to yield clues about the present.

Kirkus Reviews describes it as "An exquisitely patterned and witty tribute to pacific souls indecently victimized -who ""make do"" firmly through psychic crises in a world of ""making it."

I've also read Moon Tiger and The Photograph.

Just for Lunch

The Daughter and I went to Just for Lunch yesterday and enjoyed our time together. The restaurant is located inside a small mall which was still decorated for Christmas. The prices were higher than we remembered, and our total with tax and tip was over $27. The daughter had a bowl of tomato soup. You can see it in the corner of this photo:

My quiche came with tomato aspic (which I don't like at all) and a small fruit cup drizzled with something. Since the fruit cup was actually cubed melon decorated with a bit of blueberry and a piece of a strawberry, that wasn't much of a draw either. The quiche was good, the service was excellent, and the mall was pretty, but I'm thinking I've been to this restaurant several times over the years and going back will not be at the top of my list.

After we finished eating and shopping at the mall, we went across the parking lot of the main branch of our city's public library system. They have a used book shop there, and I came away with these:

Not bad for $11, right?

We had coffee and chocolate candy for dessert once we got back to the house, but I somehow neglected to take a photo of that. I got distracted by The Daughter, who was on the computer going through her Facebook friends list with an eye towards cutting dead wood. She had texted one of her old school chums, and this was how that phone text exchange went:

The Daughter: Hi! This is [first name]. Is this the [name redacted] I went to school with?

School Chum: Yes. Who is this?

The Daughter: This is [full name redacted]. I was just remembering our time together in school and thought we might have coffee sometime.

School Chum never responded. Days later, still no response. And then The Daughter realized the two of them were Facebook friends. This meant the School Chum had not responded to any of The Daughter's life events of the past several years, including sad ones like the death of her grandmother and news of her daddy's cancer and happy ones like her daddy's full recovery and her wedding. The Daughter has decided to cut the Facebook friends who have no interest in any personal contact, and she began that process yesterday.

I enjoy Facebook and use it mainly to stay in touch with old high school friends who've moved far away, but I have "met" new people there I enjoy. It's not a matter of whether or not I've met them in real life; it's a matter of whether or not we have mutual interests and a desire to share that. I think The Daughter has turned a page in her use of Facebook. It's a tool, after all, and different people use it in different ways -or don't use it at all, for that matter. It's not a matter of judging whether or not you use Facebook or how you use it. It's a matter of using it or not as it suits you. To each his or her own.

Please join in the weekly T party hosted by Bleubeard and Elizabeth. As it suits you, share your own thoughts -and a beverage- with us.

Death at La Fenice

I ran across a couple of Donna Leon's Inspector Brunetti mysteries in the used section of a local bookstore and enjoyed them, so when I came across several more I bought all they had. This one, Death at La Fenice, was written in 1992 and is the first in the series.

from the back of the book:

There is little violent crime in Venice, a serenely beautiful floating city of mystery and magic, history and decay. But the evil that does rear its head on occasion is the jurisdiction of Guido Brunetti, the suave, urbane vice-commissario of police and a genius at detection. Now all of his admirable characteristics must come into play in the deadly affair of Maestro Helmut Wellauer, a well-renouned conductor who died painfully from cyanide poisoning during intermission at La Fenice. But as the investigation begins to unfold, a chilling picture begins to take shape -a detailed portrait of revenge painted with vivid strokes of hatred and shocking depravity. And the dilemma of Guido Brunetti will not be finding a murder suspect... but, rather, narrowing the choice down to one.

Viktoria at One Sketch a Day reviewed this back in August and called it "a very enjoyable read".

Favorite quote:

Brunetti closed his notebook, in which he had done no more than scribble the American's last name [Lynch], as if to capture the full horror of a word composed of five consonants.

*******

I'm linking this post at Bluebeard and Elizabeth's T Tuesday gathering at the Altered Books blog because many of the conversations in this book take place over coffee or tea. Here's an example from early in the book:

The kettle shot out a burst of steam, and Paola went to pour the water into the chipped pot. As always, he found her mere physical presence comforting, found solace in observing the easy efficiency with which she moved and did things. Like many Venetian women, Paola was fair-skinned and had the red-gold hair so often seen in portraits of the women of the seventeenth century. Not beautiful by any ordinary canon, she had a nose that was a bit too long and a chin that was more than a bit too determined. He liked both.

"Any ideas?" she asked, bringing the pot and two mugs to the table. She sat opposite him, poured out the aromatic tea, then went back to the cupboard and returned with an immense jar of honey.

"It's too early," he said, spooning honey into his mug. He swirled it around, clicking the spoon against the side of the mug, then spoke in rhythm with the clicking of the spoon.

Reviewing the Evidence highly recommends it. Kirkus Reviews closes with this: "Deftly plotted and smoothly written in the Ngaio Marsh cultural mode, but recommended even for readers who, like Brett Lynch, don't care for Verdi."

The other 2 I've read so far:

#3) Dressed for Death
#18) About Face

Not Dead Yet

Not Dead Yet is one in the Peter James Roy Grace series. It's 8th in a series I've only read the 1st one of, but that worked out fine. I'd intended to read these in order, but someone gave this one to me. This detective reminds me strangely of Adam Dalgliesh (and I'm not saying that as a compliment), and I don't like the feeling that Roy Grace is just a bit too much like a detective I've known much longer. There is a plethora of subplots, and at times the book felt disjointed. The main detective has two different subplots going on, neither of them at all connected to the crime and neither of which is resolved. The main assistant detective also has a romantic subplot that is unresolved at the end of the book. The plot is just a bit busy for my taste. As when I read the first in the series: I like the detective just fine, but the plot doesn't suit me. I have so many books in my TBR stack that I think I won't add any more by this author to it.

from the dust jacket:

Days before one of Hollywood's hottest stars, Gaia Lafayette, leaves her Bel Air home for a movie role on location in Brighton, England, there is a bungled attempt on her life. The whole city of Brighton awaits Gaia's arrival, including her dangerously obsessive number-one fan looking for revenge and an anxious Detective Superintendent Roy Grace, charged with protecting Gaia.

When a mutilated torso is found on a chicken farm miles away in the countryside, Grace has no reason to connect this to the star's visit to the country. But as events rapidly begin to unfold, Grace and his team find themselves in a desperate race against time to save Gaia's life from a clever maniac who will stop at nothing to kill her.

Eurocrime closes a generally positive review with this: "it is becoming more the case that you will appreciate it much more if you read the series in sequence." Kirkus Reviews notes that criminals are unbelievably "thick on the ground". Publishers Weekly calls it "unnecessarily complicated".

Contagion

Contagion is a 2011 thriller starring Marion Cotillard, Matt Damon, Laurence Fishburne, Jude Law, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Kate Winslet. Steven Soderbergh directs. Beginning with the initial infection, the film follows the spread of the disease from patient 0 to worldwide pandemic with millions dead. I found the movie fascinating.

trailer:

Moria gives it 3 1/2 out of 5 stars and says,

Steven Soderbergh’s treatment of the outbreak drama is, as always, cool and soberly intellectual. While there are plenty of scenes where he could have done otherwise, Soderbergh focuses on the drama in ways that avoid cliches.

The New York Times has a positive review. The Guardian gives it 3 out of 5 stars.

Roger Ebert gives it 3 out of 4 stars. Rotten Tomatoes has a critics score of 84%.

Dr. Mabuse

Dr. Mabuse (usually divided into parts 1 and 2 due to its 4-hour run time) is a 1922 silent German film directed by Fritz Lang. It is based on novels written by Norbert Jacques. The title character is a criminal mastermind/con artist/hypnotist/master of disguise/psychoanalyst who is involved in counterfeiting and gambling operations in Berlin.

The movies are available online. Part 1:

part 2:

DVD Journal says, "Even if this is your first exposure to the German silent cinema, Dr. Mabuse dishes up a fine paperback potboiler of a story filmed with a sense of style and craft that, like Dr. Mabuse himself, is often hypnotic." DVD Talk calls it "a special treat for people who love movies". Slant Magazine gives it 3 out of 5 stars, and likes the sequel better. Rotten Tomatoes has a critics score of 92%.

The Good, the Bad, the Weird

The Good, the Bad, the Weird is a 2008 self-described "Oriental Western" we gave The Younger Son for Christmas. A South Korean film directed by Kim Jee-woon, it premiered at Cannes and had only limited theatrical release here in the U.S. We got a big kick out of this, loving the Good/Bad/Ugly homage and enjoying the whole big extravagant experience.

trailer:

The Washington Post calls it "cracking good fun, especially if your love of the genre is tempered by a healthy irreverence for its conventions." NPR says, "Sergio Leone learns to speak Korean in The Good, the Bad, the Weird, an exuberant tale of greed, vengeance and, well, weirdness." The Guardian calls it "extremely enjoyable".

Rotten Tomatoes has a critics score of 84%.

The 2015 Read Harder Challenge

I found this Read Harder Challenge at the beginning of the year and decided I'd try it. There are types of books on the list I either don't read at all any more or that I have never been much attracted to. I thought the challenge might encourage me to branch out some. Wherever possible, I chose works available online. Here are links to the books I read for this challenge:

A book written by someone when they were under the age of 25:
Queen Mab, by Percy Bysshe Shelley

A book written by someone when they were over the age of 65:
The Marienbad Elegy, by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

A collection of short stories (either by one person or an anthology by many people):
The Garden Party and Other Stories, by Katherine Mansfield

A book published by an indie press
I've found this a horribly perverse category. When I look for indie publishers, they are mixed in with other publishers. Finding a book I want to read that also is published by an indie publisher took more effort than I was willing to devote to the task. I have yet to find a usable list, much less a consistent list across sources. I decided to count The Twelve Kingdoms: Sea of Shadow, from TokyoPop.

A book by or about someone that identifies as LGBTQ
Vathek, by William Beckford

A book by a person whose gender is different from your own
Kiss of the Spider Woman, by Manuel Puig

A book that takes place in Asia
The Silent Cry, by Kenzaburo Oe

A book by an author from Africa
The Tale of the Two Brothers

A book that is by or about someone from an indigenous culture (Native Americans, Aboriginals, etc.)
The Life of Joaquin Marieta

A microhistory
I didn't read a microhistory

A YA novel
Waverley, by Sir Walter Scott

A sci-fi novel
Probability Moon, by Nancy Kress

A romance novel
The Black Moth, by Georgette Heyer

A National Book Award, Man Booker Prize or Pulitzer Prize winner from the last decade
I didn't read any this year that were from the last decade.

A book that is a retelling of a classic story (fairytale, Shakespearian play, classic novel, etc.)
I've read such things and do not care for them. I love the originals. Let people get their own ideas.

An audiobook
I listened to some stories and poems but not many. I don't care for audiobooks.

A collection of poetry
The Children of the Night: A Book of Poems by Edwin Arlington Robinson

A book that someone else has recommended to you
I have so many books I haven't read that are on my shelf waiting that I tend to ignore other people's recommendations.

A book that was originally published in another language
Fountain and Tomb

A graphic novel, a graphic memoir or a collection of comics of any kind (Hi, have you met Panels?)
Girl Genius

A book that you would consider a guilty pleasure (Read, and then realize that good entertainment is nothing to feel guilty over)
I don't understand the concept of "guilty pleasure" where books are concerned.

A book published before 1850
Tirant Io Blanc

A book published this year
I don't remember having read anything published during 2015. That's odd, because last year I read a few published in 2014. I was surprised at not having accomplished this.

A self-improvement book (can be traditionally or non-traditionally considered “self-improvement”)
The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying

Closely Watched Trains

Closely Watched Trains is a 1966 film, a Czechoslovak coming of age story about a young man who begins work at a train station in German-occupied Czechoslovakia during World War II. Jiri Menzel directs. It won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language film. Coming of age films aren't a favorite for me, and I only watched it because I found it on several lists of must-see foreign language films, but I enjoyed this one. It's sweet, but not too sweet. It's dark, but with humor.

part 1:

Closely Watched Trains (1966) pt. 1 by karimberdi

part 2:

Closely Watched Trains (1966) pt. 2 by karimberdi

Senses of Cinema calls it "strikingly understated film with its bitter-sweet humour, its earthy imagery, and its unassuming heroism." Bright Lights Film Journal says, "director Jiri Menzel has not been called the Czech Woody Allen for nothing". It's included in the book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die.

FilmReference.com concludes,

In the 1960s, this picture was one of the most successful Czech films, both at home and abroad. This is demonstrated by many honors at both domestic and international festivals. It remains in the repertory of Czech movie theaters and still has not lost its audience.

The Guardian says,

the triumph of the film is to show us that our petty destinies are inextricably linked to bigger events outside our lives and that we can never escape them. That he does this with such tenderness, charm and guile, as well as producing an extremely funny film, is a measure of the longevity of its appeal.

DVD Talk says, "the majority of the film did provide strong characters, dialogue and beautiful cinematography". Entertainment Weekly gives it an A- and says, "Menzel's generosity of spirit toward his characters lends the film a sweetness that is accomplished and rare." Roger Ebert gives it 3 1/2 out of 4 stars and calls it "a quiet, charming, very, human film." Rotten Tomatoes has a critics score of 100%.

Ancillary Sword

Ancillary Sword is the 2014 sequel to the science fiction novel Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie. I was afraid this would be a disappointment. I couldn't imagine it would be as good as the first one, and yet it was. The characters are brought to life so that you care about them. The plot draws you in and carries you steadily through to the end. The ending is satisfying, not a cliff-hanger, and yet it leaves you wanting that 3rd book to come out already. I can highly recommend this series (so far). I am loving it!

You can read the first chapter of this book online at the publisher's site here.

These books should definitely be read in publication order.

Because the action has connections with rich tea plantations, and the serving of tea is an integral part of the book, I'm linking this post to the T(ea) Tuesday gathering at Bleubeard and Elizabeth's blog, where Elizabeth is looking over T Tuesday posts from the past year.

As the author explains on her website:

I’ve been asked if Radchaai “tea” is really tea, or if it’s perhaps just a convenient term for some sort of Space Caffeine. In fact, it’s tea. As in made from the leaves of Camellia sinensis. We sometimes call nearly any sort of vegetable matter steeped in hot water “tea” but technically speaking, if it’s not Camellia sinensis, it’s not tea. It’s probably a tisane. Many of which are quite nice! But they’re not quite, you know, tea.

and Leckie recommends a particular tea to go with the book:

There’s a named tea in Ancillary Sword: it’s called Daughter of Fishes, and best I can tell you is, it’s something like a really good oolong. So try some Ti Kuan Yin.

Leckie suggests using loose tea and provides instructions for its preparations, but concludes, "Or, you know, not, if that’s too fussy for you. The important thing is to end up with a cup of tea that you enjoy, so whatever works." I like her attitude.

*******

from the back of the book:

Breq is a soldier who used to be a warship. Once a weapon of conquest controlling thousands of minds, now she has only a single body and serves the emperor.

With a new ship and a troublesome crew, Breq is ordered to go to the only place in the galaxy she would a agree to go: to Athoek Station to protect the family of a lieutenant she once knew -a lieutenant she murdered in cold blood.

*******

NPR has a positive review. The Book Smugglers says, "I bet everybody is thinking: will the sequel be as good as the first novel? Well, the answer is a resounding HELL YES." Eyrie calls it "an amazing book," says both books are "some of the best science fiction I've read" and rates it 9 out of 10.

Staffer's Book Review says it's "a worthy follow-up to the widely praised Ancillary Justice." Kirkus Reviews opens a positive review with this: "Leckie proves she’s no mere flash in the pan with this follow-up to her multiaward-winning debut space opera, Ancillary Justice (2013)." SF Signal closes by saying, "Ann Leckie has shown herself more than capable, and I trust that she will enthrall and amaze to round out the trilogy."

Entertainment Weekly concludes, "fans of space operas will feast on its richly textured, gorgeously rendered world-building." There are many reviews at Youtube here.

The Sound of the Mountain

The Sound of the Mountain, a novel by by Yasunari Kawabata, was originally published in serial installments between 1949 and 1954. This translation has a 1970 copyright date.

from the back of the book:

By day, Ogata Shingo, an elderly Tokyo businessman, is troubled by small failures of memory. At night he associates the distant rumble he hears from the nearby mountain with the sounds of death. In between are the complex relationships that were once the foundations of Shingo’s life: his trying wife; his philandering son; and his beautiful daughter-in-law, who inspires in him both pity and the stirrings of desire. Out of this translucent web of attachments, Kawabata has crafted a novel that is a powerful, serenely observed meditation on the relentless march of time.

favorite quote:

[at the funeral of Toriyama] There were no longer many people who knew about Toriyama and his wife. Even though a few might survive, the relationship had been lost. It had been left to the wife, to remember as she pleased. There were no third parties to look back upon it intently. (p.68)

I was particularly struck by the passage describing the painting A Stubborn Crow in the Dawn: the Rains of June by Watanabe Kazan. I can't find that art work online, but I think it may have looked a little like this:

The Sound of the Mountain was adapted for film in 1954. The film is lovely, a delight to watch. I've also read Snow Country by this author and enjoyed it.

Jupiter Ascending

Jupiter Ascending is a 2015 space opera, an American/Australian production directed by The Wachowskis and starring Channing Tatum, Mila Kunis, the great Sean Bean, Eddie Redmayne, Douglas Booth, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, and Terry Gilliam. This film is a delight! A couple of hours of great, playful fun, and the most gorgeous space ships you'll ever want to see. If you'd like deep philosophy or intricate plotting and character development then move on along. But I'll be keeping this one around to watch again.

trailer:

Moria says, "Of all The Wachowskis’ films to date, Jupiter Ascending ranks as the most unpretentiously enjoyable, the least concerned with the epic meaning of it all and just a determination to create a rollicking good adventure." The Mary Sue loved every second and says, "Jupiter Ascending Is The Worst Movie Ever Go See It Immediately."

io9 opens with this:

Jupiter Ascending has some of the most stunning visuals we've ever seen in a space opera. The movie's spaceships are just stunning, and unlike anything else in movies or elsewhere.

Roger Ebert's site gives it 2 stars. Rotten Tomatoes has a critics score of 26%, and I can't believe they could watch the same film I did and score it this low..

The Twelve Kingdoms: Sea of Shadow

I'm using this to meet the 2015 Read Harder Challenge under the Indie Press category. I had a lot of trouble discerning what was and was not a small/indie press but saw TokyoPop referred to as such on some web sites. That's good enough for me. I came across this used, and it's currently out of print. It's available for as little as $2.50 on Amazon.com, and I'd have definitely sought this series out when my kids were of an appropriate age.

Sea of Shadow is the 1st volume of The Twelve Kingdoms, a series written by Fuyumi Ono and illustrated by Akihiro Yamada. I find in distinctly young-adulty, but I enjoyed it even so. I'd definitely recommend it for young people who like adventure stories that feature magic and other worlds, especially for females seeking a female protagonist. It's a quick, easy read with striking black and white full-page illustrations. Here's a sample picture:

from the back of the book:

More than just a fantasy story filled with horrific monsters, half-beasts, and magicians, The Twelve Kingdoms centers around a world reminiscent of Chinese mythology and rife with political and civil upheaval. Sea of Shadow, the first volume of this ongoing seven-volume epic, takes you on a wild ride that leaves you questioning the bounds of reality and fantasy.

Wikipedia has this plot synopsis:

Yoko Nakajima's life had been fairly ordinary until Keiki, a young man with golden hair, tells her that she is his master, and must return to their kingdom. With the help of a magic sword and a magic stone she fights against the demons on her trail. Yoko begins her quest for both survival and self-discovery in her new land.

Christmas Open House

Welcome!

Consider this a virtual Open House, and if you'd like to hang around and visit in the comments please feel free. Turn on some Christmas music to help the mood. I have a lot of cds, but I also listen to Christmas music at Spotify. Please feel free to use our selfie prop station idea. (See it in the basket under the tree?) We're getting a kick out of it. If you're in the mood for a Christmas movie, check out my list here. Some of them -especially the older ones and the shorts- are freely available online. There are seasonal books, too, including this copy of Clarence Moore's A Visit from St. Nicholas, which is the copy my Daddy used to read to us on Christmas Eve when I was little:

Perry Como will read the story to you here (with illustrations from a different book):

There are a lot of Christmas stories you can read online if you're in the mood for seasonal reading. I have a list of books that take place during the Christmas season, but few of them are available to read online. Here's a list from AmericanLiterature.org of links to stories online by famous authors from Hans Christian Andersen, Leo Tolstoy, The Brothers Grimm, L. Frank Baum, Willa Cather, Henry Van Dyke, Dylan Thomas, Washington Irving, Mark Twain, Lucy Maud Montgomery, Anton Chekhov, Louisa May Alcott, and others.

I have some decorations:

new and old, religious and secular.

The stockings are hung by the stairs in our house:

We have refreshments on offer, with your choice of hot beverage (coffee, varieties of teas, spiced cider, mocha...) and Christmas-themed cups:

Or perhaps you'd prefer something cold? Boiled custard or ginger ale?

We have a couple of breakfast casseroles, plenty to share:

plus fruit (grapes, oranges, pears, bananas, orange juice), nuts, and sweet rolls (store-bought, I'm afraid). If you come by later in the day, we'll have turkey breast and dressing, baked ham, green bean casserole, and various other dishes. We're being informal today, so we can serve anytime folks happen by.

Merry Christmas! and may you enjoy the season. We're just getting started and will be celebrating the 12 Days of Christmas and then Epiphany. There's some sadness mixed in with the joy on any special occasion as we acknowledge our losses, but spending some time in person or "virtually" with friends and family helps me recognize my blessings.

Talking God

Talking God (1989) is 9th in Tony Hillerman's Joe Leaphorn/Jim Chee Navajo Tribal Plice series. I enjoyed the book as a mystery, but I prefer the ones in this series that take place on tribal lands. This one has some action early on that takes place in Navajo territory, but the bulk of the book centers in Washington, D.C. Not that the Smithsonian isn't interesting, not at all, it's just that I like the Western setting better for these characters. There's a healthy-sized stack at the foot of my bed, and I'm working my way happily through all of the Leaphorn/Chee books.

from the back of the book:

A grave robber and a corpse reunite Navajo Police Lt. Joe Leaphorn and Officer Jim Chee. As Leaphorn seeks the identity of a murder victim, Chee is arresting Smithsonian conservator Henry Highhawk for ransacking the sacred bones of his ancestors. As the layers of each case are peeled away, it becomes shockingly clear that they are connected, that there are mysterious others pursuing Highhawk, and that Leaphorn and Chee have entered into the dangerous arena of superstition, ancient ceremony, and living gods.

The L.A. Times calls Hillerman "one of America's best storytellers" and says, "Tony Hillerman's new novel takes the reader through a crescendo of characters, locations, plots and subplots." Kirkus Reviews calls it "far-above-average crime fiction: vividly peopled, forcefully told."

I've read the following:

Dance Hall of the Dead (1973)
The Jim Chee Mysteries, which includes:

• People of Darkness (1980)
• The Dark Wind (1982)
• The Ghostway (1984)

Skinwalkers (1986)
The Sinister Pig (2003)

Smilla's Sense of Snow

Smilla's Sense of Snow (or Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow) is a 1992 Danish mystery novel. I have mixed feelings about this one. I liked the main character and the ones most closely related to her, but the other characters all ran together for me. I also found it dragged, and for me the part of the plot that took place on the ship seemed interminable. I was tempted to skip entire pages when I noticed that she was still on that ship and that effectively the plot hadn't advanced at all. I didn't. But I was sorely tempted. When it was finally over, I didn't even care any more.

It was adapted for film in 1997. I hadn't even heard of the movie until I started reading about the book.

from the back of the book:

She thinks more highly of snow and ice than she does of love. She lives in a world of numbers, science and memories -a dark, exotic stranger in a strange land. And now Smilla Jaspersen is convinced she has uncovered a shattering crime....

It happened in the Copenhagen snow. A six-year-old boy, a Greenlander like Smilla, fell to his death from the top of his apartment building. While the boy's body is still warm, the police pronounce his death an accident. But Smilla knows her young neighbor didn't fall from the roof on his own. Soon she is following a path of clues as clear to her as footsteps in the snow. For her dead neighbor, and for herself, she must embark on a harrowing journey of lies, revelation and violence that will take her back to the world of ice and snow from which she comes, where an explosive secret waits beneath the ice....

favorite quotes:

I feel the same way about solitude as some people feel about the blessing of the church. It's the light of grace for me. I never close my door behind me without the awareness that I'm carrying out an act of mercy towards myself.

*******

There's a widespread notion that children are open, that the truth about their nner selves just seeps out of them. That's all wrong. No one is more covert than a child, and no one has a greater need to be that way. It's a response to a world that's always using a can opener to open them up to see what's inside, wondering whether it ought to be replaced with a more useful sort of preserves.

*******

The knives in my apartment are only sharp enough to open envelopes with. Cutting a slice of course bread is on the borderline of their ability. I don't need anything sharper. Otherwise, on bad days, it might easily occur to me that I could always go stand in the bathroom in front of the mirror and slit my throat. On such occasions it's nice to have the added security of needing to go downstairs and boror a decent knife from a neighbor.

*******

I'm not crying about anything or anyone specific. The life I live I created for myself, and I wouldn't want it any different. I cry because in the universe there is something as beautiful as Kremer playing the Brahms violin concerto.

:

*******

People hold their lives together by means of the clock. If you make a slight change, something interesting nearly always happens.

*******

Nothing in life should simply be a passage from one place to another. Each walk should be taken as if it is the only thing you have left.

*******

What complicates life is having to make choices. The person who is pushed forward lives simply.

*******

Nothing was more reassuring to me than the knowledge that I would die. In these moments of clarity -and you see yourself clearly only when you see yourself as a stranger- all despair, all gaiety, all depression vanish and are replaced by calm. For me death was not something scary or a state of being or an event that would happen to me. It was a focusing on the now, an aid, an ally in the effort to be mentally present.

*******

The NYT says, "If "Smilla's Sense of Snow" is an indication of what Peter Hoeg has in store for us, he may yet be offered a provisional chair in the corner of literary heaven reserved for great suspense novelists". Kirkus Reviews has a positive review.

Literary Traveler says,

Smilla’s Sense of Snow is an incredibly entertaining novel, and I’m sure anyone who is a fan of mysteries would enjoy it. But for me, the best part was learning about the history and culture of Greenland. Hoeg deftly explores the many problems of the colonization of the island nation, weaving social critique and historical context into his text in a masterful way.

Mystery Scene says it "dramatically explores alienation, the loss of identity, cultural diversity, exploitation of the environment, science and the intricacies of love." Publishers Weekly calls it "A dark, taut, compelling story, it's a real find."

The Quiet Hour

The Quiet Hour:

is a 1913 painting by Albert Chevallier Tayler, who was born on April 5, 1862, and died on December 20, 1925. This painting brings together the table setting with a cup of something hot, fresh flowers, and a woman reading, which adds up to such a pleasant domestic scene. I'm drawn in. I think I'd like to sit there.

You can see more of his work online at The Athenaeum.

I'll share my own quiet hour featuring our Christmas tree:

Oh, and by the way... If you have any fond memories of the original trilogy and you haven't seen the new Star Wars: The Force Awakens movie yet, get out there! Tonight! And see it before some pagan spoils it for you. I saw it yesterday afternoon and can't praise it highly enough.

Bleubeard and Elizabeth host a lovely gathering every week at the Altered Book blog. Please join us, and share a drink.

Art Exhibits at the Dixon Gallery

photo from Dixon.org

The Dixon Gallery is beautifully decorated for Christmas, but I don't take photos inside where I run the risk of attracting the ire of staff. The photo above came from the Dixon web site. The Husband and I went to see the Scenic Impressions: Southern Interpretations from the Johnson Collection exhibit. The Dixon web site description:

The Johnson Collection is a private art collection based in Spartanburg, South Carolina that boasts an extensive survey of artistic activity in the American South from the late eighteenth century to the present day. This unique collection illuminates the rich history and diverse cultures of the region. Scenic Impressions: Southern Interpretations from the Johnson Collection will highlight the influence of the Impressionist movement on art in the American South through landscapes and genre scenes created between 1880 and 1940.

When the kids were little it was our practice to choose a favorite from exhibits we saw, and I still find myself doing that. My favorite here was Winter in the Forest of Fontainebleau (c. 1905) by George Charles Aid.:

Another exhibit on view was Painting American Progress: Selections from the Kattner Collection and More, and this was an interesting complement to Scenic Impressions. Here's the label on the back of a promotional piece from that exhibit:

While we were there we found an exhibit by local artist Martha Kelly.

image from MarthaKellyArt.com

My favorite of her pieces was Poplar Grove, 2015. They had a card available which I tried to picture in a way that avoided copyright infringement:

The print is available for sale for $145, listed at her web site. Kelly is an active urban sketcher, and some of her notebooks were part of the display. There is a section of her site devoted to sketch journalism, and she shares some of her work there. You can see some of her sketches of Memphis here.

This was my first time back in the building following their recent renovation. To be honest, I couldn't tell much difference. It always looks beautiful to me.