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Phantom Thread
I LOVE a movie that makes me think and wonder. Maybe everyone does, but only certain things make me wonder. One of those is people behaving in ways authentic-seeming but unusual. This film kept me enthralled and guessing until the very end. I'm going to tell you the non-spoilery things about Phantom Thread above the cut, then those who have seen it ( Read more... ) -
Cleaning Up the Old Flist
I went through my friends list and deleted accounts not heard from in many a long year. If you are still reading mine and want to be added, just speak up. I think I've got it right, so I don't expect to hear from anyone. There was someone who disappeared about eight years ago, and I've always missed her, isn't that silly? -
The City & the City, by China Mieville
I am in transports of happiness over this book, and have been telling everyone to read it.
The City & the City is a detective novel that takes place in two cities occupying the same space, separated only by social custom and rigorous individual policing of perception. Beszel, the home of the detective Tyador Borlu, is a slightly run-down Eastern ( Read more... ) -
"Where I'm From"
After the service at church this morning I went to a workshop on writing a "Where I'm From" poem. Here is the original, by the Poet Laureate of Kentucky, George Ella Lyon. The Worship Associates have all written them; there's a sort of rubric, like a Mad Lib, but they tell me that it comes out different each time. You don't have to focus on your ( Read more... ) -
Chasing Chaos: My Decade In and Out of Humanitarian Aid,and Sideways on a Scooter
I decided to review these two books together because I've read them both recently, and I see that they represent a trend in my reading.
I read a review of Chasing Chaos, by Jessica Alexander, and decided to get my hands on it because being an aid worker is a sort of "no, never" fantasy of mine - like, if I were a somewhat different person, less ( Read more... ) -
Night Falls Fast: Understanding Suicide, Kay Redfield Jamison
I bought this book by looking up "Best Books on Suicide" on Amazon. I've read Jamison's other, famous, book on bipolar disorder, An Unquiet Mind, which was a pleasure of silky, elegant, apt writing - and so was this ( Read more... ) -
Weird Dream Night
Went to bed at about 11:30, woke up at 1:30 with this dream:
I was in a small house, upstairs, and it was getting to be dusk outside. It might have been David and Dan's house, or similar. I stood at a desk and looked out the window.
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The Passage and The Twelve by Justin Cronin
Someone here on LJ recommended The Passage to me, probably when I read The Road some years ago, as an antidote to that terribly grim post-apocalypse vision. I got it on Paperbackswap and saved it for when when I needed an engrossing read, because the recommender (was it you?) said it was a page-turner. Then came the butt-end of the winter and I ( Read more... ) -
A High Wind in Jamaica, by Richard Hughes
I searched this book out because I saw, by chance one time when I was a young teen, the movie version on television and remembered it ever after. I wasn't able to find it anywhere again, but I found the book.
A High Wind in Jamaica was published in 1929 but takes place in the late 19th century, after Emancipation, in Jamaica and on the high seas. ( Read more... )
