rose_griffes

FILMS and TV:
There was a new Wallace and Gromit movie, Vengeance Most Fowl. Apparently the studio made a deal with Netflix, but the film itself was in movie theaters for a brief window. During which I saw it! It wasn't up to the level of, say, The Curse of the Were-Rabbit. Still a fun and entertaining film, though. Next time I sign up for Netflix, I’ll be sure to rewatch it.

Later I rewatched Jurassic Park, which housemate A had never seen. We both enjoyed it, although some elements didn't age very well. I’m thinking specifically of the whole “Dr Grant doesn't like children but Dr Sattler wants him to like children.” Also, still can't quite believe they cast someone 20 years younger than Neil what's his face as his love interest. I mean, I can, but… Anyway, the special effects held up well, and the overall story was still super entertaining.

(Neil whatsisface is a babe, don’t get me wrong. And Dr. Sattler is obviously a consenting adult, and yadda yadda yadda - but generally speaking it’s not a romance that works for me within the story, so I’m happy to nitpick it.)

Oh! And I rewatched beloved film Arrival with housemate A - another movie she’d never seen. A. noticed Denis Villeneuve’s distinct lack of ANY HUMOR AT ALL, which is accurate to all of his films that I’ve seen so far. A bit of levity wouldn’t go amiss, Villeneuve! But we both (still) loved it.

Finally finished rewatching Rings of Power, which works even better on its second round: the story arcs are more perceptible now that the story is more complete. Good cast, good visuals, interesting takes on the source materials.

[edited to add: I haven't had time for Andor, season two yet! Hoping to watch it in June.]

BOOKS:
Seanan McGuire published book 18 (!!!) in her Toby Daye series - The Innocent Sleep. This one differs from previous books – the story is told from Tybalt’s POV rather than Toby’s. It worked well for me, and was a good change of pace.

I’ve read and/or listened to all of the novellas and novels in the Murderbot series by Martha Wells. Lots of fun even though I accidentally read them out of order. I’ll give the new show on AppleTV+ a try once I have any time for TV. Maybe next month? I have no idea when that's gonna be.

Alison Goodman has a trilogy that can be loosely described as Regency-Era Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Fewer quips, more anguish about maintaining social standing in a highly stratified (and dangerous) society. I enjoyed all three. The first book is called The Dark Days Club.

Ben MacIntyre wrote The Spy and the Traitor, about Oleg Gordievsky, who worked for the KGB and then began feeding information to the West, due to ideological differences. His escape from Russia was thrilling–a nice sustained gallop within the story. I then read MacIntyre’s Rogue Heroes, about the history of Britain's SAS. Both worthwhile books.

T. Kingfisher continues to create both creative fantasy romance and the most hair-raising dark fairytales. Paladin’s Faith was the former and A Sorceress Comes to Call the latter. I’ll keep reading Kingfisher for both. (She also writes straight-up horror, which I sometimes have to avoid due to general squeamishness.)

Common theme in this post: revisiting familiar media. I re-read a couple of novels by Dick Francis, and listened to audiobook versions of two more novels by him. They’re very much centered in the time frame when they were written, which is… both good and bad, I guess. But Francis always did his homework for story settings and details, and while there are commonalities between the male protagonists, he also managed to make them distinct enough to feel worth reading. And hey–sometimes you want to read about a morally good guy dealing with bad situations.

Oh hey! It's another update! Go me!

MEDIA: The movie Thelma is worth seeing in a theater, if you're able to do so. It disappeared quickly from the closest theater, so we had to drive to the next town to see it. I would guess that nonagenarian June Squibb had a fun time in her first leading role; her character was flawed yet sympathetic, and the script took great care in the family relationships. Oh, and surprise Agent Coulson Clark Gregg! I wasn't expecting him. There are some other casting surprises, about which I'll say nothing in the post itself. Feel free to chat about the film in the comments if you've seen it.

GARDEN: This has been a good year for the cucumber plant, weirdly enough. Not sure if it's because housemate A got a bit generous with the bone meal or because of the wildflower patch right next to it, or the copious rains in late May/early June. Or all of it, which is the most likely explanation. At any rate, after plentiful rains came oppressive heat, so the cucumber plant is unlikely to produce much more fruit. At least, not that we'll actually eat. (If it gets hot enough, cucumbers taste bitter.)

The yellow tomato plant has done okay, the cherry tomatoes are abundant, and the plant that's supposed to produce those purple tomatoes (Cherokee purple, a heritage plant, NOT a genetically modified purple tomato plant) has done absolutely nothing. It's tall, but hasn't set any fruit. This is my second attempt at Cherokee purple, and it's been, er, fruitless. In the literal sense.

Didn't remember to plant any squash of any kind, and not sure if I will now, given how early the hot weather showed up.

TRAVEL and REAL LIFE: I've already visited two siblings, one on east coast time and the other on west coast time. Sprained my ankle right before the easterly trip, which was unfortunate. For July I'll do a bit more traveling, but not by plane. And I may start an online course related to teaching, as well as painting (walls and ceilings) a bit. Should probably make a priority list for all of that.

Media update Jan-Mar 24

Audiobooks! I still find them a bit frustrating at times, especially when I miss a word or don’t know how to spell a character’s name. But I’ve listened to a few of them lately.

Ben Aaronovitch has a collection of short stories set in the Rivers of London universe. I enjoyed them; Kobna Holbrook-Smith is widely appreciated for his work on the Peter Grant novels, and most of these short stories were from Peter’s point of view.

I listened to a Miss Marple novel. Given my frustration with not knowing how to spell character names, or the occasional missed word, I figured I would go with a story that would be slightly familiar to me. A good plan, it turns out: I wasn’t so distracted by “how is that spelled” and it was ok to drift away from the story for a few seconds now and then.

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Book-books. E-books in this case. I’ve read several historical romance novels by Grace Burrowes, and she’s a “yay” for me. Meredith Durant was more frustrating, given the good plot mixed with ABSOLUTELY TERRIBLE anachronisms.

Rachel Aaron’s By a Silver Thread trilogy is, well, complete with three books. Her stories don’t have the depth of prose that, say, Seanan McGuire can achieve, but the plots are coherent, the action works well within those plots, and I was rooting for the lead character. So: future Detroit with magic and gods. If that seems intriguing, give her books a try.

Lois McMaster Bujold has an eleven novella / twelfth book in her Penric & Desdemona series. Still consistently enjoyable!

One of y’all mentioned Barbara Hambly’s novels recently, and the name struck a chord. The last time I looked for her books, my local library had ZERO e-books of hers. That has changed, so I read the first of her vampire novels, set in the early 1900s. Hambly is a dedicated researcher, and one of her goals is to achieve a certain level of period appropriate characters and behaviors–even with the vampires, whose attitudes and comportment align well with their original cultures and languages. Book one of the vampire series is called Those Who Hunt the Night. I plan to read more, but I may have to go to the ACTUAL library (*gasp*)--they have books 1, 3 and 7 available as e-books, but not the others.

Hambly’s series featuring protagonist Benjamin January begins with A Free Man of Color. January, or rather Janvier, is a black man living in 1800s New Orleans. I’m in the middle of book three, so this is also a successful-for-me series. Both this series and the vampire novels have a mystery at the heart of each book; solving, or at least mitigating, the problem is essential to at least one character’s survival in each story. They’re not, however, classic whodunits. Characters clash and there’s usually not a clean-cut happy ending. Just people moving forward, sometimes carrying scars.

Didn’t finish: A Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, by Suzanne Collins. Not due to a lack of quality in the writing; it was more about not necessarily wanting to read through a villain arc, especially knowing in broad strokes where the story would go.

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With the current Disney+ subscription, I rewatched the Narnia films from the 2000s. All enjoyable, although the third one had a lower budget, which was visible in the FX quality. Also, just and less-effective writing. But still good enough.

Ahsoka series: I’ve made it through most of the episodes of season one. So far my grade is “mixed”.

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FINALLY: Dune, part two: aaaaaah! The narrative loves Paul Atreides. It made a Paul-shaped space JUST FOR HIM. He says he doesn’t love the narrative back, but he’s lying to himself. LINK ME TO YOUR POSTS ABOUT DUNE!

Aaaaand this post has been in progress for weeks, so I’m stopping now. Whatever I missed, I can write about next time whenever I come up for air again.

I've seen all three Disney+ Doctor Who episodes. Not much sticking in my brain after them--as in, I've forgotten details and I don't have time to refresh my memory before typing this--but the villain in the 3rd episode was a delight. As was Ncuti Gadwa as the new doctor. I'm not cutting for that as a spoiler, given that the news has been out for... a year, maybe? At any rate: if episodes continue to show up on Disney+ when I'm still subscribing to that platform, I'll probably watch. But Doctor Who is unlikely to be the show that motivates me to keep / resubscribe to Disney+.

Housemate A and I watched the 80s movie Ladyhawke. I'd forgotten that Matthew Broderick was in it, which is hilarious, given his key role in the film. Still a delight, if extremely dated due to its soundtrack.

I reread almost all of Lois McMaster Bujold's World of the Five Gods series. Ista, my beloved! Penric, my darling! And, er, those other two novels that aren't about Ista or Penric, which I therefore didn't re-read. At any rate: WHAT A TREAT. AGAIN. In fact, I'm listening to the audiobook of Paladin of Souls, even though I just re-read it. (Thinking about it: reading a text and then listening to it may be the way to get me to enjoy audiobooks. Hm.)

And now it's time to work again. Bah, humbug.

Rushing to make a post before July is finally over. Summary: I was traveling quite a bit during June (Europe!) and July (the US). I fully intend to annoy everyone with lots of photos. But that will be another day.

Stuff I have watched! And read! Let’s start with Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse.

two things you should know that I don’t consider spoilery, but I’ll be overly cautious

First: the movie is A LOT. I don’t get sensory overload easily, but I was in a daze after watching. So maybe don’t watch right before, I dunno, some big party, if that’s something that could bother you as well.

Second: this film is the first in a two-part story. So the ending is, well, not. An ending, that is. I figure it’s useful information; expecting the story to have a complete arc would be frustrating.

I really enjoyed this. If I had to grade the film, I’d say A minus: it was a bit too long.

I saw the Barbie portion of Barbenheimmer with a sister-in-law, two nieces, and a nephew. It was liked or loved by all!

positive opinion with a mild spoiler or two

I wanna watch it again! The middle was a bit saggy for me, though obviously not so much that it became unenjoyable. The “real world” was a bit too unreal, particularly the bits with the Mattel executives. But it was relentlessly fun and an excellent homage to both the iconic doll and several classic movies.

My extremely conservative s-i-l loved it and cried at Gloria’s speech.

(Not sure if/when I'll watch Oppenheimer. Possibly this weekend?)

For US Independence day, Housemate A and I watched The Muppet Movie (the original from 1979). We had enormous and scary thunderstorms the night that our city was supposed to do a fireworks display, so this was an adequate substitute. The film is very patriotic: a roadtrip across America (even if they do accidentally veer into Canada at some point, according to some song lyrics), a classic American dream realized (making it big in Hollywood!) and Fozzie Bear even sings a patriotic song.

Anyway: still a delight! A must-watch for any Muppet fans.

TV: I didn’t watch anything noteworthy. In fact, I don’t think I watched anything at all.

BOOKS: I read all of the remaining available books by Rachel Aaron: all five books in the Heartstrikers series (it starts with Nice Dragons Finish Last), plus the first book in a planned duo (DFZ Changeling), and I’ve pre-ordered the next one. Safe to say that I’m a fan. A magical near-future with dragons: it’s very much my jam.

Chelsea Abdullah’s The Stardust Thief was excellent and I’m looking forward to reading the next one. Apparently she has a trilogy planned. Jinns, evil princes, good princes, a merchant of magic, and a lot of classical fairy-tale / mythology references make for a fun blend. FYI, book two doesn’t have a release date yet.

TV: Before unsubscribing from Disney+ (and then resubscribing a few days later), I watched Moon Knight. After the first episode I was uncertain about continuing because I felt so sorry for poor Steven. Which is highly amusing in retrospect. At any rate, it was a strange trip, but still fun and funny.

Ms. Marvel had an adorable lead, but the show needed the strength of its older cast members for me to finish. I did like how the story quickly widened out to historical events of the twentieth century and how they impacted / continue to impact the families within the show.

Books: I re-read five Agatha Christie books over the winter holidays. My mother had bought a 5-in-1 hardback with Jane Marple novels. Fun to re-immerse myself in that world decades later, although the classism, racism, and misogyny stand out even more now.

Film: M3GAN is not my usual movie fare, but we wanted to see something, and that was the most palatable option for our group. The trailer will give you a good sense of whether or not this movie is for you; it’s PG-13, so the violence is generally tinged with comedy and the camera doesn’t linger when the fatal moment arrives. I’d say that the movie’s tone is uneven, but overall an entertaining ride. Best movie with a killer doll that I’ve ever seen! (...I’ve only seen one movie with a killer doll, however. I'm not a horror movie fan.)

And then we watched Emma - the 2020 adaptation with Anya Taylor-Joy. The music! The acting! The clothes! The cinematography! A delight! I would say that I’m not sure why it took me this long to watch it, but I know exactly why: COVID. At any rate, well worth a look if you haven’t seen it already. FYI, it's currently available for free with ads on Amazon Prime, at least in the US.

I have survived the summer travels! Still in recovery mode, but I shall persevere.

Summer movies:
Thor: Love and Thunder was mostly amusing, occasionally annoying, and chock-full of eye candy of all kinds. Pretty men and women! Interesting non-people visuals! It also doubled down on the distinct version of Thor that Taika Waititi wrote for Thor: Ragnarok, which should give most people a big hint if this movie is for them. As for me: well, mostly? Waititi’s style doesn’t always mesh well with my own tastes, so there were definitely some things I would have skipped. But still fun overall.

Top Gun: Maverick was also entertaining, in a well-executed, over-the-top way. I went into it having already read this review, which goes with the theory that ( spoilers )

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No TV to report. I canceled my Netflix membership without even starting season four of Stranger Things, even though I think I’d probably like it. Just not enough time this summer.

Summer books:
Jodi Taylor’s Just One Damned Thing After Another lives up to its title. The subtitle might be “The amazing debut adventures of the BEST time traveler-historian to ever exist!” Or something of the sort. I will say that the narrative does NOT lack forward momentum. What it does lack: nuance and a richness of language.

Mikaella Clements and Onjuli Datta wrote The View Was Exhausting. It’s a romance novel featuring a leading actress of color and her wealthy and famous sometimes fake boyfriend. It delves into some of the pitfalls of big money and of celebrity while being a person of color. Absorbing and gratifying, but not soothing.

Elizabeth Lim’s Spin the Dawn feels very linked to fairytale origins. Young girl dresses as a boy to save her family, but instead of going to literal battle, she enters a contest to become the royal tailor. Compelling but a bit too easy to forget. To be fair, I read it early in the summer.

I read book 7 of Melissa McShane’s The Extraordinaries series, Soaring Flight. McShane is fast becoming a “just buy it” author for me, at least for this series. Just FYI, ( brief spoilery content notice )

The big summer read was Larry McMurtry’s anti-western classic, Lonesome Dove. I write anti-western, but McMurty himself thinks he felt short of the mark. The novel was published in 1985; in a 2000 edition, McMurtry wrote:

It's hard to go wrong if one writes at length about the Old West, still the phantom leg of the American psyche. I thought I had written about a harsh time and some pretty harsh people, but, to the public at large, I had produced something nearer to an idealization; instead of a poor man's Inferno, filled with violence, faithlessness and betrayal, I had actually delivered a kind of Gone With The Wind of the West, a turnabout I'll be mulling over for a long, long time.

For myself, I think he hit the mark... mostly. But the characters, in all their deeply tragic flaws, were still human, and some even “larger than life” heroic. Maybe someday we’ll un-learn our romanticization of America’s western history; until then, McMurtry’s novel is going to be misread by many.

One thing to note: a stylistic evolution in the last few years made the novel a bit of a hard read for me. We don’t often see multiple jumps in point of view within a small section nowadays, at least not with some kind of marker to hint that the point of view has changed. McMurtry slides from one character’s POV to another without anything to note the switch.

Anyway. While the book has a slow start, it’s a haunting and worthwhile read. I’ve been thinking about it for weeks. I may track down the 1989 miniseries. Or not; I rather like the characters as I see them in my mind.

I was on the phone for 30+ minutes with an IKEA customer service rep who was trying to arrange a fix for the company’s mistake. This meant lots of time on hold, which eventually led to me re-starting the novel Hench, by Natalie Zina Walschots.

I had abandoned it at some point a few days earlier, but once I read a bit more I was interested enough to finish. My first instinct was right, though: this was not a me story. Creative, visceral, and angry, Hench is going to stick with me, even though I don’t actually care about the characters. So… sort of recommended? If you can deal ok with body horror, which is part of why it wasn’t for me.

Beth O’Leary’s The Switch is a very twee contemporary romance / family drama, but it’s quality twee. I’d read more O’Leary in the future.

Ages ago I read the first of the Lady Sherlock books by Sherry Thomas. Recently I added books 2-4 to my “finished” pile. They’re not favorites, but they do have entertainment value–enough that I’ll probably read more at some point. Maybe. It’s been a few days since I finished book 4, and I already can’t recall what that thing was that annoyed me about it…

Amongst Our Weapons is book 9 of the Rivers of London novel series, and it’s a delight to re-immerse myself in that world. I think it was beatrice_otter who said that Peter Grant’s superpower is his compassion, and I would agree.

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Movies:
Doctor Strange and the Multi-Verse of Madness falls into the category of sadly mediocre. Good actors, compelling (and horrifying) visuals, but the storytelling was lacking. More specifically: ( slight spoilers )

As both a Marvel film and a Sam Raimi movie, the pacing was non-stop, so I wasn’t bored. But it wasn’t good. Fun =/= good.

Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore also suffered from poor writing, although it lacked the panache of Raimi’s Marvel outing, and its visual effects were less interesting. So if I had to choose between these two meh movies, I’d go with the new Doctor Strange.

food
I got my COVID-19 booster yesterday and today I have a headache, achiness, and a fever. So obviously it’s time for comfort food: this keto-friendly mug cake is tasty, although I used sugar instead of whatever alternative sweetener they listed.

streaming movies
Super-late to watching Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, but it was a delight. Simu Liu and Awkwafina were charismatic, and I had a blast. I’ve already watched the bus scene a second time, and will probably rewatch the whole film soon.

Encanto was also a pleasure, although there was a LOT going on. So much so that I found a rewatch helpful for noticing small but relevant details. The visuals are fantastic, and the music about as ear-wormy as you’d expect.

streaming TV
I finally finished hate-watching both seasons of Emily in Paris. It’s not as terrible as a whole than it is in some parts, but still a mess. ( it’s sort of like Wuthering Heights )

Anyway. Not sure what I’m going to watch next; maybe seasons 5 and 6 of The Expanse. I did start a rewatch of Avatar: The Last Airbender, but I’m not in a rush to finish that.

books
I’m amused at myself for posting a survey about what to read next, and then completely ignoring y’all’s top choices. (I’ll get there sooner or later!)

Mira Grant’s Square³ was a solid story, although the ending felt a bit abrupt to me. The world-building was really cool, and I wouldn’t mind more in this setting. But the main reason the story worked was because of the two sisters at the heart of it: their bond, even when they’re torn into different dimensions, gives richness to the tale.

Kudos to Simone St. James for doing the unexpected with The Broken Girls. I wouldn’t say “I loved it!” but I will say that I was fooled multiple times by narrative tropes that got tweaked into something different. I liked how the story centered on a wide variety of female characters, and how grounded (and messed-up) our protagonist was. There was a section near the end that I found frustrating, but overall worth reading, and I’ll probably try something else by St. James sooner or later.

A lovely gift from goodbyebird: a paid Dreamwidth account for 6 months! Which means... ICONS! Or userpics or whatever one calls those tiny squares nowadays. Among other things; I also plan to post pics of recent projects and write polls again, huzzah.

Spider-Man, yaaah. ( SPOILERS for Spider-Man: No Way Home )