Author Archives: Duff

Short Stories: The Ugliest House in the World, by Peter Ho Davies

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I’ve been wanting to try out some Peter Ho Davies ever since his novel “The Welsh Girl” was longlisted for the Booker prize (I am generally a fan of lots of stuff on the Booker long and short lists). Just happened to see this collection while in the library checking out Robertson Davies (for our March challenge) so I decided to check them out.

Intriguing and unusual mix of stories, representing his unusual background of 1/2 Welsh, 1/2 Chinese. Some of the Welsh stories felt very Australian to me — if you’ve ever been to Australia, after having spent time in England, it’s an interesting mix of British & Asian influences. These were entertaining, interesting and some really nice language choices. My favorite story was “A Union.”

SciFi: The Walls of the Universe, by Paul Melko

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Totally fascinating multiple universe / devices that enable travel between them / doppelgangers appearing / exploiting technology that wasn’t developed in the “then” that you’ve gone to…sometimes being caught powerless, and choosing which life is the one you want to stay in.

Liked the characters and the twists and the physics connections. Really intriguing!

DadReaction: Cop Out!

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Hilarious!! Tracy Morgan interrogates a suspect using nothing but rapid-fire movie quotes. Very tough woman victim in it, too–keeps screaming at the bad guys in Spanish no matter what they do to her. Willis staring at the insane partner he has is worth the price of admission.

EW saying Smith’s direction is flat-footed is SO off-base!!!! Some great visual jokes, lots of funny stuff. Also, EW is off-base just as badly when it talks about the (absent) racial tension!!!! It wasn’t about that!!!!!! COULD NOT believe Gleiberman’s review.

Highly Recommended.

So the top of my list right now!!

Family(minusGirl)Reaction: Lovely Bones

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I didn’t go see this b/c of an irritation I had with the book. Reading how much my parents liked it made me decide to check out showtimes…and it’s already left Chicago completely. Must not have done that well, but as you can read below, they thought it was great.

DadReaction: Did not read book. Thought it sounded too creepy. Must say though: this movie is transcendent. You’re really upset at the start and it takes you on a journey of reconciliation that’s so odd, so unusual–I thought, anyway–i just don’t get why only Tucci got a nomination (for a NOTHING part). Peter Jackson must wonder what he has to do anymore. I mean, King Kong was the movie of the year when IT came out. Not that this one is tops, but c’mon, guys, it’s so well done, so unusual, so powerful, it deserves a nod. A lot of the movie was the kid, though–really good casting. But everybody was good.

MomReaction: Your Dad would put it in the top 10 of the year. I liked the way it used horror movie techniques, music that makes you think something is going on, anticipation, really well and it was never a trick, something did happen. I also thought that you went from something that tore your heart out and then saw redemption–hard won. The family did get back to being able to love each other and live, even though something terrible had happened. And the bad guy was identified and died in a very fitting way. The between world was very interesting too.

This movie was complete. It expressed real pain and hurt as well as love, abiding love. And it had a depth that nothing else I saw this year had. So, much as I loved Julie and Julia and Avatar and Inglorious Bastards, I think this had everything they had and more. It was at a completely different level. I think it was too bad only Stanley Tucci got nominated. Although it would be fair to call this an ensemble. Peter Jackson deserved a nomination.

And the setting/background, and special effects ( maybe the category was visual effects) deserved mention in nomination. Your dad just mentioned adapted screenplay as well. Mark Wahlberg was as good as I’ve ever seen him, lots of emotional depth and even a kind of beauty. Maybe even Susan Sarandon as best supporting actress.

Big Screen: A Single Man

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Oh so very arty, Tom Ford.

But unfortunately not enough plot and sense to back that art up. Pretty to look at. But lots of holes. (Every gay male is an adonis. Oh wait, that’s true, right? Haha. The bar down the street has the same bartender now that it had 16 years ago. Colin Firth ages but his partner doesn’t. Etc, etc.) And the whole “he’s grey with misery” but “now he pinks up, alive with life” camera/film technique got old, pretty fast.

But there was lots of nice grain and soft light. And pretty pretty boys. Mmmmmm Matthew Goode. (I highly recommend the film “Imagine Me & You” (available on DVD. a very favorite.) if you want to see him get to do more than he does here.)

It vaguely reminded me of the book “The Line of Beauty” by Alan Hollinghurst (read back in 2004 so my memory of it is quite vague indeed) but that may just be b/c of the whole gay melodrama more than anything else (set in totally different times).

Fantasy: Wizard’s First Rule (Sword of Truth 1), by Terry Goodkind

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Re-read.

Wow, I had totally forgotten about the crazy masochistic torture stuff in this book. I also forgot about that whole whiney mcwhinerson section with Kahlan. I would like a clearer picture of how old Richard and Kahlan are supposed to be as this series begins.

Love the rules around magic in this book. All the use of webs. And Kahlan’s power. ESPECIALLY in Con Dar.

Mystery/Fiction: The First Rule; a Joe Pike Novel, by Robert Crais

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I got too bored with Elvis Cole to read anymore of those* but good grief I love me some Joe Pike. It’s possible I love Joe Pike more than Jack Reacher^ even because it just seems like while Jack Reacher would be my big brotherly uncle type, Joe Pike would be you know more interesting to me in the sack. Plus I TOTALLY want his tattoos. Totes.

He’s hot, and also the coolest customer out there (never lets himself lose his temper which you do occasionally see from Reacher), the mystery is interesting, there’s some lies/twists/turns but not so many that you want to hang yourself. And at the end, as in the first Joe Pike-centered book, there’s that hint of more humanity than one would guess…

Oh, Joe.

p.s. I read this in bed on my iPhone when I couldn’t sleep. 🙂 Then I couldn’t sleep because I couldn’t stop reading.

*Joe Pike was originally the sidekick in the Elvis Cole series. This is the second Joe Pike-focused book. I don’t remember Elvis appearing in the first book (did he?) but in this one he gets to be Joe’s sidekick instead.

^The Jack Reacher series is by a different author, Lee Child. If you type either of their names into that search box on the right, you’ll get a few hits.)