I finally saw Kingsman: The Secret Service, which I've meant to see ever since fandom went mad about when it first came out, and I enjoyed it while I was watching it for all the snazzy ridiculous spy stuff - weaponized umbrellas! Exploding lighters! - and Samuel L. Jackson as the bizarrely perky megalomaniac. Really all the actors were excellent ( Read more... )

Choo Waihong’s The Kingdom of Women: Life, Love and Death in China’s Hidden Mountains absolutely fascinated me, because it’s a sort of memoir/ethnography of the Mosuo people in Yunnan province, who are one of the last remaining matrilineal groups on Earth - and that matrilineal heritage is fast eroding as better roads, radios, and televisions bring ( Read more... )

What I’ve Just Finished Reading

Progress on the Unread Book Club! I finished reading The Collected Raffles, which turns out to be only the first three Raffles books, but fortuitously it turns out that the fourth is available freeeeeeeee on Kindle so of course I shall read that. I find these books awfully charming.

What I’m Reading NowStill ( Read more... )

I really enjoyed this week's Caldecott winner, Ashanti to Zulu: African Traditions. This is perhaps a bit surprising, given that it's illustrated by Leo and Diane Dillon, who illustrated Why Mosquitos Buzz in People's Ears, about which I felt rather lukewarm - but the Dillons contain multitudes, it seems, and I really like the art style they chose ( Read more... )

To the illustrious President Snow ( Read more... )

We went to see Beauty and the Beast last night! (I think this is the first time I've been to a movie premiere since... the third Lord of the Rings movie... wow, that was a while ago ( Read more... )

I found Nora Murphy’s White Birch, Red Hawthorn irritating for three main reasons ( Read more... )

What I’ve Just Finished Reading

Diana Pavlac Glyer’s The Company They Keep: C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien as Writers in Community, which I quite enjoyed. I am a total sucker for books about writers groups/writers friendships in general, and the Inklings in particular, and I recommend this for people who are interested in either ( Read more... )

At last the library got me a copy of the 2017 Caldecott Medal Winner! Javaka Steptoe's Radiant Child: The Story of Young Artist Jean-Michel Basquiat, a charming book about, well, what it says on the tin. The illustration style is unique & intriguing: Steptoe paints on boards, so each part of the picture is on its own board and they're all fitted ( Read more... )

To the illustrious President Snow ( Read more... )