Two Great Satires - Best Laid Plans and The Sisters Brothers

Terry Fallis writes a wonderfully funny political satire, while Patrick Dewitt takes on the old west.  Both are funny, clever, and well worth picking up!

The Artist

!!!!

See what I did there? It's a silent movie, so I simply put some exclamation marks!

Huh? Huh?

5/5

Hugo

We saw this movie a little while ago, and I'm just getting to the review now.

First of all, this is NOT something you generally think of when you think of Scorsese directing. Shutter Island, Cape Fear...sure, Good Fellas, or The Aviator...ok. But this is something completely different, and utterly fantastic. It was both visually stunning and wonderfully acted...and I guess to his credit, well directed.

The story is about a Clock Maker's son, Hugo Cabret (Asa Butterfield), who is orphaned and is adopted by his drunkard of an uncle, who also works with clocks. Hugo is forced to ensure the clockworks at the railway station are always functioning, while is uncle is off getting drunk.

Before his death, Hugo and his father are working on a project to reconstruct a clockwork automaton that his father found in a museum. Unfortunately, his father died before they completed it and Hugo views it as a mission to complete the work in honour of his father.

In an effort to complete this quest, hugo must steal parts from a railway station shop keeper, Georges Méliès (Ben Kingsley). The same Georges Méliès who made the film: A Trip to the Moon, among many others. Through his interactions with Mr Méliès, he meets his young neice, Isabelle Méliès (Chloë Grace Moretz) and have various adventures as they try to evade capture by Station Inspector (Sacha Baron Cohen) and also try to solve the mystery of the Automaton and its connection with Mr. Méliès.

This was a wonderful, feel good movie that was not treacly at all.

5/5

Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time

Longitude is one of the books I purchased for my Kindle, but actually started reading the hard copy.

Kristie and I were on our Christmas holiday, and I had finished my book before she had finished hers; I was going to read The Chimps of Fauna Sanctuary after her. So while we were up at the cabin, I noticed that one of the books that they had on the shelf was Longitude; so I started reading. Wow! What a great book!

Dava Sobel takes a really could have been a dry story, and makes it incredibly interesting.

As the first word in the title suggests, the book is about how mariners managed to calculate longitude while they were on the high seas. The hero of the story, because there are heros and villains in the story, is John Harrison (My new hero). John wanted to create a special time piece that would help sailors keep proper time while out at sea. Up until this point (the late 1700's), clocks and watches were very unreliable as they often gained or lost time due to various issues such as temperature, friction, etc. But John had a vision of creating the perfect time piece.

Like I mentioned before, the hero was John, but there are many other characters that help weave this story into no only a good non-fiction book, but what could have been a story out of Hollywood: Villians (Maskelyne), Side kicks (William Harrison, Issac Newton, Edmond Halley), and Conspirators (The Board of Longitude).

I think that this book could actually easily be retooled to be a screenplay, and even a wonderful movie. Even if you're not interested in Longitude or any type of science, I think you will find this book a delight to read.

5/5

The Chimps of Fauna Sanctuary - Andrew Westoll

I am loathe to say too much about this book as Leo hasn't read it yet.  I will say that this is a fantastic book that explores the nature of invasive chimp research and even more importantly, how they are treated in their "retirement" years.  While providing useful facts, the book also retains a strong narrative which I enjoyed.  Furthermore, the character development (chimp and human) was also robust.

It is a testament to the quality of this book that I raced through it over the Christmas holidays.  I am usually much more plodding with my non-fiction reads.  Even people who don't typically read non-fiction are likely to enjoy this book and I therefore recommend it without qualification.

The Iron Lady

Let's forget for a second that I really don't like Margaret Thatcher's politics, and let's forget for a second that a movie that condenses the life of a historic figure into about two hours is going to leave a lot on the cutting room floor. What we can't forget about this movie is the performance that will pretty much guarantee Meryl Streep a Best Female Lead award at the Oscars. She was absolutely flawless in this movie.

As you might have guessed by the blog title and the poster accompanying it, this movie is about Margaret Thatcher; where she came from, and who she is now. It is a very interesting portrait into the life of The Iron Lady. The movie goes back and forward through time to try to give to context to each story, but it works really well in this movie.

Aside from the fact that in her political life, she became tough as nails, one of the things that I enjoyed about this movie is her relationship with her husband Denis Thatcher, played with characteristic excellence by Jim Broadbent. I came away from this movie believing two things:

1. Maggie was a hard ass that wanted nothing for the best for her nation.
2. Maggie love her husband more than she loved Britain.

As mentioned earlier, Meryl Streep was outstanding in this movie, and Jim Broadbent was excellent as well. While the movie may only gloss over her life, it was still very interesting to watch.

5/5

Hen's Teeth - Manda Kelly

I loved this book for what it was!  Thrillers are my guilty pleasure and this one had it all, including a health angle.  In this book, the main character is a doctor who is unofficially tasked with solving the murders of her former lover and her former mentor.  Her trusty sidekick is a "gothy" pathologist and together they solve the very unusual puzzle. It was a quick read and one that would be perfect for someone with a holiday in front of them.  Indulge in this smart thriller--you won't regret it.

The Muppets

Last week Kristie won two tickets to an advanced screening of The Muppets.  As I was pretty much raised on Cartoons and The Muppets as a child, I was very anxious to go. Even before winning the tickets, I was hearing really good things about the movie, especially from The Morning Stream podcast, which discussed the movie over the course of three separate days in one form or another.

We got to watch it in a new cinema, within The Embassy theatre. The Embassy might be familiar to those who know of The Lord of the Rings, as it is where the world premiere took place as well as will be the premiere for The Hobbit as well.

Ok, this isn't a review of the cinema, but I'll just quickly say that it was absolutely amazing! Small theatre, huge leather chairs, intimate setting...amazing. And now, back to the movie review.

WE LOVED IT!

I'll be honest, the last Muppet movie that I watched was The Muppets Take Manhattan; I had seen bits and pieces of some of the later ones when they aired on television, but I thought that they had jumped the shark. It seemed to be all about Rizzo the Rat and Gonzo...Kind of like when Bloom County became all about Opus, Bill The Cat, and Milquetoast the cockroach.  Sure it had some funny bits, but it seemed to have lost its edge. This movie however, despite not having the Late Jim Henson or even Frank Oz as the puppeteers, seemed to dig way back into its roots and come up with a story that was both funny, heartwarming and filled with jokes that would appeal to both children and adults.

After the movie, Kristie and I were talking, and she mentioned that there are many films/television shows from our youths that we use to love, but wouldn't pass the test when it came to relevance now-a-days. The Muppets, thankfully are just as relevant now as they were when we were kids. So, go to the movie, take your kids, and enjoy a bit of nostalgia.

5/5

Don't you know what the night can do?

Oddly, I recently read two books back-to-back with the word night in the title...one was titled Night Wakings and the other was called The Night Book.  Each focused (somewhat) on the theme of disrupted sleep, though there was obviously more going on in each.

The first book was entitled Night Wakings and it is centered around Anna, a mother/academic who was spending the summer on an isolated island (near Scotland) with her husband and children.  The author, Sarah Moss, adeptly manages the tension between comedy and drama.  The comedic elements play out in Anna's relationship between her husband and children.  Anna is clearly sleep deprived, all the while trying to finish a book in order to honour her commitment as a research associate.  Her reaction to insomniac children and a somewhat ambivalent and/or ignorant husband are classic.  I love her dry wit.  The drama arrives with the discovery of an infant's skeleton and the subsequent attempts to discern how this skeleton came to be buried outside Anna's house on this remote island.  The story is layered with letters from the past that help to shed light on the mystery of the baby's remains.  All in all, a fantastic read that I appreciated for its keen intelligence.  Highly recommended!

A friend bought me this book to help kick start my immersion into New Zealand literature.  On the whole, a great introduction.  Charlotte Grimshaw is a very good author and the story arch is an interesting one.  In a nutshell, it looks at the wife of a man who is going to be the next Prime Minister of New Zealand.  However, as you'd expect, there is a fly in the ointment.  This woman has a secret that is eating her up inside and is causing her to make questionable decisions.  Added to this story is a Doctor with an unknown connection to this wife and his own ennui.  The one difficulty I had with this book is that all the characters were extremely wealthy and it was hard to relate to the life they led and to feel the full extent of their plights.  Still, a good back that kept me turning the pages.

Project NIM

As it turns out, I already saw this movie earlier this year. Of course they had a different title for it then: Rise of the Planet of the Apes.

The similarities of the fictional account of a chimp that was taken into a human's home to learn sign, and the true to life version of Project NIM are uncanny. Granted, there weren't as many explosions in Project NIM (spoiler alert), but some of the fallout regarding the chimpanzee are quite heart wrenching in both movies.

Basically, Project NIM is the story of a bunch of frigging idiots that decide take an ape into a human household and see what happens. If you asked the researchers of the study, they may say that it was a scientific experiment to see if an ape could learn human language and grammar. But I think my idiot comment stands.

Why? Because not one of the multitude of people who were involved in this study (save one: the drug smoking hippie...no, not that drug smoking hippie, the other one) had any knowledge about chimpanzee behaviour, and what might (would most definitely) happen when you bring a wild animal into a house or academic setting. No one involved in the study thought it might be a good idea to do a bit of reading into chimpanzee behaviour before hand; virtually every one of them admitted in interviews that they knew almost nothing about "monkeys".

Without spoiling the entire movie, lets just say that people were bitten, poop was flung, and a chimpanzee was mistreated.

I thought this movie was outstanding and I encourage anyone reading this (except for that one guy...you know who you are) to go and see this movie.

5/5

Contagion

Holy Crap, I'm never using another public bathroom, or even opening a door again

We just watched the movie Contagion, and as movies go, this is a true to life horror movie that could actually happen! I don't want to put too many spoilers in this review, but here's the plot: one person gets sick and as a result, the whole world pretty much goes to crap! I don't think I'm giving too much away; it is a story about a contagious disease after all.

Virtually every scenario they presented in this movie could very easily happen in real life: the spread of the disease, the panic among citizens, the crackpots pushing bogus cures, and of course the horrific death toll. What I found really interesting in this movie was how in the theatre, you suddenly became acutely aware of people sneezing or coughing.

The movie stars...people, they act, but that isn't the point of this review. This is a movie that everyone should see simply from a public health perspective. Go see it, and then go drink a bottle of Purell!

5/5

Nemesis - Philip Roth

After a less than stellar run of books, I was pleased to pick up this one.  I'd been a bit intimidated by Philip Roth in the past, but the review of this book by one of my favorite bloggers had been so stellar and the topic was so compelling, that I couldn't resist.

Roth tells the story of the polio outbreak in Newark during the blazing summer of 1944.  His prose evokes the fear felt by children and their parents that they may contract polio.  The novel focuses in particular on one of the children's instructors (a playground coordinator) and his reaction to this epidemic.  It hones in on how polio influences his faith and how this equips him (or not) with the tenacity to cope in such a difficult time.  Roth also flashes forward in his novel to explore the fallout of polio many years later.  He speaks to the fact that polio need not make one a permanent victim and that for some, there is hope.

I found this book interesting in that this was a point in history that I knew little about.  I was fascinated by the fact that polio spread most rampantly during the summer.  I'd had  no idea and this pattern lies in contrast with other communicable diseases, like influenza.  I found myself wanting to read more of the medial literature to find out why.

All in all, I highly recommend this book and it has compelled me to pick up more Phillip Roth novels.

Galore - Michael Crummey

I take a great deal of time choosing the ideal holiday book and this must be one of the bests EVER.  I loved the story of this small Newfoundland community, with all its quirks.  It was really interesting to follow the generations through time.  And one of my favorite parts was when a doctor from the outside joined the community and was able to talk about them (at first) as a scientific observer.  He noted all of the genetic defects that resulted from the in-breeding that had gone on.  The characters were all sharply written and distinct.  There was a woman who had all her teeth pulled to keep the males at bay, a seeming narcoleptic, and a man who emerged from the belly of a whale.  I can't recommend this book enough...you will find yourself submerged in this sea community until you're done.  And even then, bringing yourself above water will be difficult.  This community is still with me, two months on...

Cold Earth - Sarah Moss

This is the first book I've ever read about Greenland...but if they are all as good as this one, I can see a new reading trend coming.  I found this book fascinating.  Moss captured the bleakness of the environment so well, along with the desperation of the characters.

This story revolves around an archaeological dig in Greenland, and is told from the perspective of each character (though some get more play than others).  One character in particular is plagued by "ghosts" of Greenland-past, which worries her team members for a range of reasons.  As the summer moves on, the time for them to be picked up arrives--however, nobody comes.  The cold and lack of food makes things increasingly dire.  I hurtled towards the end of the book, desperate to find out their fate.

All in all, an excellent book and a great introduction to the Greenland landscape.

Emperor of All Maladies - A Biography of Cancer

This was an amazing book.  I learned so much while reading it, finding it very accessible, but at the same time it doesn't talk down to you.  Mukherjee roughly divides his book into sections describing cancer treatments, prevention, and origins.  I enjoyed the section on prevention a great deal and found his explanation of how tobacco became a known carcinogen to be fascinating.  However, learning about some of the early cancer treatments was also disturbingly compelling as well.  I just could not fathom some of the treatments that were in place.  The genetics/origin section was a bit tougher going as the technical terms became more ubiquitous.  Nonetheless, it was still done in a manner that was not difficult to follow (you simply had to concentrate on the terminology a bit more).  Overall, this book was amazing and should be a must read for most.  Even if you are fanatical fiction reader like myself, I believe that this book will appeal.

5/5 stars

The Paris Wife - Paula McCain

This fictionalized book tracks the love affair and subsequent marriage between Ernest Hemmingway and his first wife Hadley Richardson.  They married when Hemmingway was very young (early 20's) and Hadley was approaching 30.  They live in a world that it is hard to imagine inhabiting if you are not an artist.  There is the obvious drinking, but also the affairs and betrayals. Hadley herself is much more traditional than the other artists (who include F. Scott Fitzgerald and Gertrude Stein) and believes in true love.  This will be put to the test through their bohemian lifestyle.

It was some of the little things in this book that I found particularly fascinating.  Hemmingway and Richardson were seemingly dirt poor and yet had a nanny to look after their baby.  They also seemed to take epic vacations; although these seemed to occasionally to be funded on the backs of other "trust fund" artists.

I thought that this book was a great read, one that I found it difficult to put down (also fun to learn a little more about the early Hemmingway and how his work evolved).  This is an all-occasions book! Do give it a go--it won't disappoint.

5/5 Stars

The Sea Captain's Wife - Beth Powling

What a great book!  It was a rollicking good time on the open sea.  This book takes place during the late 1800's, when a young wife and her daughter take off on an excursion with her Sea Captain husband around the Horn of South America.  They experience everything you might imagine...wicked storms, the doldrums, hunger, pirates, and more.  If you want a book with a great narrative, and a compelling heroine, I would encourage you to give this book a try.

Stanley Park - Timothy Taylor

I used to think that vacation reads had to be lighthearted romps.  Over time, I am finding this to be less true.  While they can be lighthearted, what is most important to me is a strong narrative.  Timothy Taylor's Stanley Park was a perfect choice for my trip to Doubtless Bay (New Zealand).  Taylor tackles what is obviously a very tough issue in this book: homelessness (which as a Canadian ex-pat, I am aware is a huge issue in Vancouver).  He does this with great sensitivity, pointing to the unique stories that each person has to tell and also their unique relationship to Stanley Park.

It's actually quite a hard book to describe as it has many layers.  Essentially, it is told from the perspective of a young chef (Jeremy) in Vancouver.  He is struggling to keep his restaurant afloat, while also dealing with this anthropologist father, who has been living in Stanley Park in an effort to tell the stories of its homeless inhabitants.  As the book progresses, Jeremy's struggle to keep his restaurant is juxtaposed against Jeremy's growing relationships with his father's homeless friends.  Through his cooking, Jeremy tries to stay connected to the land (i.e., through cooking local).  His father compares Jeremy's role to his own as his father is trying to understand how the inhabitants of Stanley Park are connected to the land.

While growing his restaurant helps to progress the story, it is Jeremy's interactions with his father's friends that makes this book something quite special.  An excellent book that compels and makes you think (and at points, makes you hungry).

5/5 Stars.  

Hearts and Minds - Amanda Craig

I totally loved this book!  I felt that one of its strengths was that it had a little bit of something for everyone.  It had a serious side, looking at issues relating to immigration in London.  There was a mystery that ran through it; and for the softies, it also had a romantic side.  Seriously, this book has something that will appeal to almost everyone.

On a personal note, I think I also related to the book as I'm an immigrant to New Zealand.  While there were the sad cases of the refugees in Hearts and Minds, there were also more typical immigrants as well.  Although I'm Canadian, I could relate to the case of the American living in London.  There's something about trying to find your way in a culture that's similar in many ways, but also very different.  It is really about finding your comfort zone and being true to your identity.  I think back to my years in the Intercultural Communication Lab, and Berry's model of acculturation.  It's about integration--keeping the Canadian part of yourself intact, but incorporating what it means to be a New Zealander (though no, I still don't do rugby).

By all means, grab this book.  As I've said, it's got something for everyone.

5/5 Stars

Old City Hall - Robert Rotenberg

This book was exactly what I needed, having come off the reading of two fairly literary novels.  I need a rousing page turner and this book delivered.  The book is set in Toronto and is about a sensationalized murder trial.  The host of a CBC radio program has confessed and been charged with the murder of his partner.  The interesting part of this book is that nothing is quite what it seems, and you tag along as the officers attempt to construct what actually happened.  The characters in this book are all very likable, which adds to the story--you enjoy going on a journey with Detective Green, Officer Kennicott, Nancy Parish, and Albert Fernandez.  I also enjoyed the setting, bringing back recollections of times that I've spent in Toronto.  Perfect for someone wanting an intelligent, readable book.

5/5 Stars