Latest and Greatest Reads

A quick run down of books I've read since our whirlwind trip back to Canada.  I've been fortunate to read some winners.

My Name is Mary Sutter

This is a book that deserves to be read in one or two sittings.  I had actually taken it back to Canada and found that I couldn't really get into it as I was reading it in fits and starts.  Once I had time to sink into it, I really enjoyed it.  Mary Sutter is a favorite in my "females who kick butt" category.  Taking place during the civil war, Mary is a midwife who pushes hard to become a surgeon.  The war provides an interesting backdrop for a woman on a relentless quest to fulfill her dream.

The Lightening Field 

An excellent Canadian debut by Heather Jessup.  I might never have discovered this book, but a fellow Kiwi-Canadian brought a copy along to her book club.  It turned out she had attended the same academic institution as Heather and was keen to read a book by her friend.  I'm glad she did as this book tells a fantastic tale of family trials, alongside the Canadian airplane the Arrow.  This plane is a legend in Canada as it was an engineering marvel that fell victim to budget cuts (allegedly--though there are other suspicions).  I loved learning more about the story of the Arrow and its dramatic fall.  

Still Life 

Loved this book and am so happy to know that I've got heaps of Louise Penny books ahead of me.  This is a mystery novel that takes place in a small Quebec hamlet, with all the quirks that go along with small town life.  The characters are vivid, the mystery well described, and with a great twist at the end.  Run, don't walk to the library and/or bookstore and get this book.  Perfect for a rainy weekend or a beachy holiday.

Denniston Road

I was talking to a co-worker about visiting the west coast of New Zealand's South Island and she asked if we'd visited the old coal mining town of Denniston (which I hadn't).  That got us on to the topic of this book and she kindly lent me a copy.  This is a fantastic history of life in a bleak New Zealand coal mining community.  Patrick's descriptions really made me feel like I was right there and I enjoyed reading the story from multiple viewpoints.  Worth a read to get a feel for New Zealand's mining history.

No Great Mischief - Alistair MacLeod

A modern Canadian classic that I have finally tackled!  It describes the MacLeod clan from their early days in Cape Breton through to modern day Toronto.  The family's fierce loyalty to one another was the dominant theme and spoke to the character's actions and choices.  Definitely a good read, but I couldn't help comparing it to Galore.  In Galore, I found an even more intriguing family. 4/5 Stars.

The Kitchen House - Kathleen Grissom (continuing the colossal catch-up)

The Kitchen House describes the story of a white servant (Lavinia) on a plantation in the deep south of the US.  It explores her relationship with the black slaves and the white landowners, as well as her inability to fit comfortably within either society.  This book was well written and I made my way through it quite quickly.  I did find the character of Lavinia to be a bit weak at times, but this didn't detract too much from the book. It's still worth picking up!  4/5 stars

The Ides of March

Politics is a dirty, stinking, putrid game of backstabbing, shady deals, lying and cheating. And that is from the people on the same team!

The Ides of March follows the campaign of democratic governor Mike Morris' (George Clooney) race for the presidency. The head of his campaign is Paul Zara (Philip Seymour Hoffman) who values loyalty over absolutely anything else, hence when his lieutenant in the campaign, Stephen Meyers (Ryan Gosling) takes a meeting with, Tom Duffy (Paul Giamatti), the campaign manager of a rival democratic hopeful...well, lets just say that the stinky results of a bowel movement really hit the rotary blades of a device designed to cool a room.

There are many ins and outs in this movie, tonnes of back room dealing, selling out friends, and just selling your soul...But it pretty much shows that politics is just as dirty as you would believe it to be.

I give Ides of March four stars out of five.

Moneyball

I went into this movie with a skeptical attitude. Generally, I don't care for movies about sports, but we had some discounted tickets to use up before expiry, and this was one of the only movies that was appealing. I've got to say that I was pleasantly surprised by how much I liked this movie. Don't get me wrong, it is still a movie about sports, and while I didn't LOVE it, I did like it.

The movie is about the Oakland A's which are a small market baseball team, which I didn't know. I knew of the Oakland A's, but I didn't know they were a small market team. The movie follows the A's through a rebuilding year after the loss of three of their best players to free agent status. Instead of going the tried and true route of using scouts to find players on the cheap, the general manager, Billy Beane (Brad Pitt) hires Peter Brand (Jonah Hill) as an assistant GM; Peter believes that the old method of finding ball players is the wrong way to go. He thinks that by using science rather than scouts, you can analyse player statistics scientifically, and put together a winning team.

Moneyball is based on a true story, and while Peter's strategies didn't work out for the Oakland A's, the same strategy did work for the Boston Red Sox who implemented the same strategy, two years later.

I thought the movie was pretty well acted, I really liked Phillip Seymore Hoffman as the manager, even though he had a smaller role.

I'd give Moneyball 4 out of 5 stars.

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

This was a really good movie! So here's the deal: During the Cold War, it is discovered that MI6 (you know the British version of the CIA) has a mole.

Hmmm...kind of a strange tangent here, but other than the head of MI6 just knowing about the mole, they really don't get into how he found out. Huh? Oh wait, I think they found out about the mole as a result of a spy being killed earlier, and as a result the head of MI6 and his second in command were sacked. At least I think his second in command, George Smiley (Gary Oldman) was sacked. Well, they actually didn't really say George Smiley was sacked, the head of MI6 simply said that "Smiley is coming with me." Which to me means that he was either sacked, or there was some strange homoerotic thing going on that they didn't delve too much further into during the movie...Not that there's anything wrong with that.  Ok, never mind, I remembered how they knew about the mole now.

So anyway, before dying, the head of MI6 tells his fears of the mole to the only one he trusts, George Smiley, that there is a mole in MI6. Oh wait...actually, he died before actually telling him that there was a mole, and it was George that found out about his suspicions afterwards while ransacking the apartment of the dead guy.

Ok, you know what? In this review, I'm only about 20 minutes into the movie and I'm already confused about the plot. Look, it is a really good movie, and although there aren't gratuitous explosions or car chases, there are a couple guns that were fired, and a really cool head shot at the end. Spoiler alert!

Oh and Colin Firth is in it!

4/5

Paul

I originally didn't want to see this movie as I thought the previews looked juvenile and crass. But what I found while watching the movie was...that it was juvenile and crass. But I still liked it!

Paul is an alien that is trying to get home...think ET, but voiced by the expletive loving Seth Rogan (There isn't that much swearing). On his journey to get back to his home, he bumps into Graeme Willy (Simon Peg) and Clive Gollings (Nick Frost). The three form a fast, if uneasy friendship, while being pursued by the G-man Agent Zoil, his boss The Big Guy (Sigourney Weaver), Two inept policemen, homophobic red necks, and a shot gun toting father of an unsuspecting hostage victim of the trio, Ruth Buggs (Kristen Wiig).

The movie, despite being a mashup of ET and Every Which Way But Loose actually works really well.

4/5

The Art of Fielding - Chad Harbach

After a bad run a couple months back, I seem to be on a winning streak again (at least with books; oh, and the Muppet Movie).  I guess it helps when you read a book that has been on so many end-of-year top 10 lists.  At any rate, I really enjoyed the world that Chad Harbach created in the Art of Fielding.  It reminded me of Skippy Dies in that you became a part of the characters' world and it's one that I would never otherwise experience.  For a few days I was immersed in and inhabiting the world of baseball players at a college in the US.

To put it in broad terms, this book tracks the life of several baseball players (and other members of the college community) throughout the course of a single season.  It touches on a range of interesting issues: the pressure that athletes are put under by themselves and others, the toll that athletics can take on a body, the perils of alternative lifestyles in a conservative environment, depression, and a myriad of others.  Because many of these issues are quite universal, it doesn't matter if you're a baseball fan, the book still resonates.  I don't think it would make my list of top-10 books of the year, but I did really enjoy it.

What is Left the Daughter - Howard Norman

I read this book very quickly, which for me, can be a sign of a good book.  This book is told in letter-form from the perspective of a father (Wyatt) who is essentially telling his daughter the story of his life and all that went wrong in it.  The story begins as the lead character copes with the suicides of both his parents and then his subsequent move to live with his aunt and uncle in rural Nova Scotia.  World War II provides the back drop for the story and although the story takes place in Canada, the reader is keenly aware of how the war has affected everyone.  In particular, the paranoia and prejudice against any and all Germans was vividly illustrated (and had a profound impact on the novel's outcome).  All in all, this book held my interest because of the strong narrative that guides readers through Wyatt's life.

The Time Machine

Title: The Time Machine
Author: H. G. Wells
Publisher: Yale University Press (October 26, 2010)

ISBN-10: 0812505042
ISBN-13: 978-0812505047


A while back, I read a supposed classic of science fiction: Fahrenheit451 which I didn't care for...at all. Recently however, I read another classic of science fiction: The Time Machine, by H.G. Wells.  What a great book!

I'm kind of a physics enthusiast, so whenever I happen upon a book/movie/story that incorporates time travel, I will generally have a bit of a problem with how it stacks up to the idea of time travel in physics. I'm not saying that this one doesn't have its issues, but one of the things that I thought made the story easier to imerse myself into was the fact that H.G. Wells didn't go into the details of how the protagonist built the time machine. Instead, he pretty much just said that he built a time machine; didn't explain how he did it, didn't explain the science behind it, nope! Basically said: Insert time machine here.

As mentioned, this made for a much richer story as you could simply enjoy the characters and not worry about the minutia of how things could have gone.

As you might have gathered, The Time Machine is about a time traveler and his adventures travelling through time.

I should point out that before reading the book, I watched the 2002 movie with Guy Pearce. While I enjoyed the movie, they took some serious artistic license with the book. What? Hollywood doesn't stick to the original story? I'm so surprised!  <--That was sarcasm!

As I mentioned, the book is really quite impressive, and while it doesn't leave a nit-picker like me without things to rail against, it does make a great page turner.

4/5

Arthur Christmas

Ever since I was a kid, I have always loved cartoons! Whether it be The Simpsons, Toy Story, or even old Bugs Bunny cartoons. Kristie would say that my tastes aren't discerning enough, but I would disagree. I think that while I would enjoy a bad cartoon, I can still appreciated that it should be scaled.  Which brings us to the newest cartoon we saw this weekend: Arthur Christmas.

Arthur Christmas is the new CG cartoon from Sony pictures. Nope, not Pixar, not DreamWorks, not even Disney, but Sony.

The movie is about the Clause family; the current Clause family.

• Malcolm: The current Santa
• Grand-Santa: The father of Malcolm who is often spouting off about the glory days
• Steve: Son of Malcolm and the Santa apparent
• and Arthur: The fish out of water, who loves Christmas with all hiis heart, but is a bit of a...well, a fish out of water, I guess.

The story is about the current Santa coming to the end of his days, as he has been Santa-ing for 70 years, and how Steve is getting ready to take over the family business.  Well, on what is suppose to be Santa's final ride, Steve, who basically is in charge behind the scene, managed to miss a single child's gift; which he thinks is an acceptable error rate.  Arthur disagrees, and it is up to Arthur, Grand-Santa, a plucky little wrapping elf, and a moth-eaten old reindeer to save Christmas for the little girl.

The story is suitable for both young and old, and there are some great jokes that will delight everyone peppered throughout the story. The only thing that I would criticize about the movie is that for a British film, it seemed pretty Americanized in its humour...a little less Wallace and Gromit, and a little too Shrek.

On the whole, even though it is a cartoon, and I'd rather watch a bad cartoon than a good movie, I'd give Arthur Christmas 4 out of 5 stars.

Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter - Tom Franklin

After a raft of fairly literary novels, I was in the mood for something more action-oriented.  With that in mind, I picked up Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter by Tom Franklin.  I was heartened by the fact that David Wroblewski (of the awesome Edgar Sawtelle-fame)  had endorsed it highly.

The book is essentially something of a mystery novel, with the main character (Larry Ott) having been accused of a heinous crime 25 years earlier. However, he was never convicted as the police could never pull together the requisite evidence.  Flash forward and another similar crime has occurred in this small Mississippi town.  Larry is once again a suspect.  The book goes back and forth in time to help readers understand what really happened 25 years ago, as well as in the present day.  Interspersed with Larry's story is that of the local constable (Silas "32" Jones), a former friend of Larry's.  The book describes Silas' criminal investigation during the present day, but also explores the relationship between these two men all those years ago.

I won't go into much more depth as I don't want to spoil the mystery, but I will say this is a well written book that provides some insight into the tensions between blacks and whites in Mississippi, while also providing readers with a compelling story.

Interesting side note: apparently, students in Mississippi learn to spell Mississippi like this: M-I-Crooked Letter-Crooked Letter-I-Humpack-Humpback-I.  An interesting approach to literacy indeed.

The Trip

Picture you and a friend on a one week road trip. Think of the places you'd stop, the food you would eat, the songs you sing, the endless bad impressions you would do in each other's company. Also think about the conversations you may have. The off the wall "What If" conversations, the explanations of topics that you consider yourself an expert in.  Think of how much fun you would have, but also think about how might get on each other's nerves a bit.

Well that, in a nutshell, is what The Trip is all about. You may think that this would  be the most boring movie ever, but luckily, this trip had a well paid editor who took only the best bits and left the rest on the cutting room floor.

The Trip should have you laughing from almost the first moment when Steeve Coogan clumsily invites his friend Rob Brydon along for a road trip tour of high class restaurants through out England. From pretty much then on in, the trip is nothing but their conversations, sing alongs, observances, etc. and it is hilarious!

This movie isn't for everyone as there are no car crashes, explosions, or even plot for that matter, but if you want to watch a good "Day in the life" comedy, I would totally recommend this.

4/5 Stars.

Gillespie and I - Jane Harris

This book was a fair bit of fun.  I went into it expecting a bit of a page-turner and on the whole it delivered.  Though it may have taken a little bit longer to get to the point than I expected.  That said, the narrator was engaging and the world she created was an interesting one.  Set across two points in time (the late 1800's and the early 1930's), this book tells the story of the narrator's relationship with an artist's family and the fallout from a heinous crime. Worth a read.

Cutting for Stone - Abraham Verghese

For those with an interest in Ethiopia, this book is a great introduction.  It tells the story of two twins born and who reside on the grounds of an Ethiopian hospital.  They will both grow to be medical professionals (and are born to medical professionals), and so much of this book is viewed through a health lens.  However, it also touches on the culture of Ethiopia--from the food to its rich history.  The characters are all quite compelling and the portrayal of the twins' differences is fascinating.  After loving Galore, I felt lucky to pick up another enjoyable book so soon.

Jane Eyre

First Point of Order: This isn't a book review!

In addition to book reviews, we've decided to start reviewing the movies that we watch too!  And lets be honest, I don't think that I could ever get through the flowery language of Bronte.  Kristie could, but I couldn't.

Point Number Two: I liked it!  Actually we both liked it!  I do have a question about it however:

Was England really that bad back then?

Dickens, Bronte, Austin, et al, they all seem to basically say that unless you had money, you were pretty much treated like crap!  Its like living in Reagan's America in the 80's!  ZING!

Anyway, the movie starred and was brilliantly acted by Mia Wasikowska, who also played the daughter of two lesbian parents in The Kids are All Right.  The role of Rochester was played by Michael Fassbender.  I thought that he came across quite well as a grumpy aristocrat.  Rounding off the top roles was Judi Dench as Mrs Fairfax.

Without giving too much away to those who have never read the novel, or seen the BBC series, or watched this movie, or any other version...well, you get the point, there were a lot of adaptations of this novel.  It is a rags to riches story (actually, riches to rags to riches) of a girl named (spoiler alert!) Jane Eyre.  It follows her from her younger years where she is taken in by her aunt following the death of her parents (no, it isn't Batman).  The Aunt, being the child hater you'd expect in any Dickensian/Bronte novel, cast Jane out into an orphanage where she is beaten, deprived of food, scorned and ridiculed; again, very much like the Reagan years.  After leaving the orphanage, she takes a position as a governess for Rochester Fairfax, the romantic lead.

Not knowing anything about the story of Jane Eyre, I thought the story was, while depressing, very interesting.  And as I said earlier, I thought it was very well acted.

We give Jane Eyre 4/5 stars.

Lost Highway - David Adams Richards

I've been remiss in my posting and am now catching up...  While David Adams Richards is unlikely to ever top the amazing Mercy Among the Children for me, Lost Highway is a an excellent read.  It's filled with all sorts of ethical dilemmas that keep you thinking.  Essentially, it stems around the idea of what happens when someone discovers the presence of a winning lottery ticket (not their's) and all the fallout that ensues when they try to claim it.  If you enjoy books with thought-provoking arguments, I think you'll enjoy this book.

The Siege - Helen Dunsmore

A while back, I read the wonderful Cellist of Sarajevo and was taken into a world of which I had been largely unaware--it took place during the siege of Sarajevo.  Dunsmore's book tells a similar tale (though in a very different way).  Dunsmore shares with us the story of a family trapped in St. Petersberg during the siege during WWII.  She describes the hardship and the starvation in such a way that you almost feel that you are there.  The Siege is a compelling window into an era that I was fascinated to learn more about (though, it is also very horrific at points).

Glass Harmonica - Russell Wangersky

This book takes place in one of my favorite places on earth...St. John's.   It starts out kind of as a murder-mystery, but essentially what Wangersky seems to do is peel the layers of a local community to see why this murder might have taken place.  It's told from the perspective of the residents (primarily) of Mackay Street and I found it fascinating.  It was a window into a micro-community and I think it really worked.

Treasure Island

Title: Treasure Island
Author: Robert Louis Stevenson
Publisher: Public Domain Books

ASIN: B000JML7EC

I remember reading this way back in elementary school. But it had been so long since I read it that as it turned out it was one of those stories that you know, but don't really know.

Over the many years since reading the story, I had lost virtually all of the finer plot points as my memory gets filled with other day-to-day junk, and I have to make room by getting rid of the old junk.  Hence, my loss of everything up until about grade six.  I figure, by the time I reach 80, I'll only have about a 30 second recall of memory left in my head.

I quite enjoyed reading this book again, and while it is a book for the younger reader, I could totally appreciate the time and dedication that Stevenson put into the writing.  The dialogue, while not Shakespearean, seems to capture what life was like in Jim's world.  One thing that I found quite surprising, is the description that Stevenson writes for Long John Silver, does not match (at all) how many actors seem to portray the character.  The Long John of the book a very commanding character, and in many ways a chameleon; morphing in order to fit the situation he was in at any given time.  Many actors seem to take quite a comedic tone with the character, often oafish.  I like the literary character much better.

I give Treasure Island 4 out of 5 stars.