“I Won’t Be Found” – The Tallest Man on Earth
Hear it here in its original and daytrotter versions (the daytrotter is the one I put on repeat). (Found via this post on Fuel/Friends, my all-time favorite music blog.)
Quite lovely.
I feel like I’ve seen a zillion movies about Elizabeth so it was nice to visit with a different monarch for a while. Emily Blunt was fantastic.
And I loved that she got to have a love story (and not a salacious one), even if it that meant I cried through a lot of it. Very nice interplay between the couple.
Another fantastic duo, I would recommend these just as highly as the Kristin Cashore books, but note that they are very, very different.
The dystopian universe here is almost Dickensian in its shadings (although with fewer of the finer details) and it definitely makes you, the reader, long for escape for these characters, for survival, for even just the littlest bit of hope.
Unexpectedly cruel with odd kindnesses. And, as in much YA, some growing up and self discovery along the way.
An adventure of endurance… You’ll want to block off a day for these as you will find yourself unable to do anything else.
And if you’ve read the story “Wealth” in Margo Langan’s “White Time” collection, it almost seems like they come from the same world. In fact, I drove myself insane for an entire afternoon trying to figure out where that story was from as they felt so much of a piece.
I absolutely loved these books; they sucked me right into their world and I didn’t really ever want to leave. (A third book is being written…. Wahoo.)
A world where people have “talents” or “graces.”
Graceling: a novel of growing up, of standing one’s ground, of discovering the hidden layers, of coming to know oneself.
Fire: a different sort of animal, a story of someone already grown but not always allowed to grow, already knowing oneself, but coming to better know others.
Lyrically written, they both made me cry at points. They both made me yearn.
Note: Fire is a prequel but I’d say DEFINITELY read it second as it gives away something that you want to figure out more slowly as you read Graceling.
Even though I am waaaay behind on movie reviews (which is odd considering I haven’t even seen very many this year, I’m going to tell you about last night’s flick anyway! I’ll get all caught up on Snip over my “winter break.” I’m sure you were concerned heh…
So last night I saw the new Clooney movie (I believe it’s set to come out 12/25 [per IMDB] but I have connections…)… It was a really good solid flick. My friend Steve is calling it, at this point, his #1 of the year. I don’t feel quite as strongly as him, but I did really enjoy it.
As Jason Reitman movies are (Juno, Thank You for Smoking), it’s chock full of dialogue and witty interplay. Clooney is really charming for a character with some very fucked up ideas about how to live life, and the interplay with Vera Farmiga is pretty great.
It’s quite bittersweet and the ending is either really sad or sorta hopeful depending on which members of our group you ask. We all enjoyed it. We also enjoyed that they credited someone as playing “Makeout Dave.” I plan to introduce myself as Makeout Carolyn in the future. Hahahaha.
I oddly happened to be with a group of people who mostly have not seen “The Departed”* and was really weirded out the whole movie by how different Farmiga’s face looked from her (awesome) performance in The Departed. Lo and behold, she was pregnant (or had just been pregnant?) during the filming. That must’ve been a body double in the one, fairly gratuitous, random look at her nekkidness.
*I didn’t think those people existed. Watch The Departed. It’s good!
Wow. Just…WOW. If you only go to one movie this year, make it this one. (If you go to two movies, make it this one and District 9.)
Really breathtaking filming in how much it puts you right into the minds and hearts of these soldiers and into the insane tense unknown world that is this war right now. There were so many scenes where I was on the edge of my seat…and the choice NOT to explain everything, and NOT to tell you whether something that appeared dangerous really was as dangerous because they went away and never saw the resolution of it… So good.
Well-acted, well-directed. Tour de force. This is brilliant filmmaking. And some other piece of crap is going to win the Oscar for Best Picture and I’m going to keep telling you: Hurt Locker is the movie that should win and that you should be watching and talking about and watching.
If I was going to send out my Christmas packages this year (which most likely I won’t be due to lack of any income), this is the movie I would choose.
You may be a little paranoid after seeing it the first time. And the second. You may be noticing every car that’s weaving on the streets, and every passerby who looks at you and then seems to signal to someone else across the road, and every window that suddenly closes right as you walk by it…
But it’s so worth it.
[I liked it so much…I accidentally reviewed it twice! Turns out I told you about it months ago already!
Woodrell’s later book “Winter’s Bone” was one of my very favorite books read in 2007 and I’ve finally gotten around to reading one of his earlier works.
This novel has a similar focus on a downtrodden, lonely teen in a harsh poverty-struck landscape. But this book is a LOT creepier than Winter’s Bone and you are not (at all) left with the same sense of hope. That’s not a denigration / more of a gentle warning.
Lovely lyrical rhythm to his writing. But woah to come to that end…
I’ve talked a LOT about Patricia Briggs here, all of whose books I love, particularly the Mercy Thompson series.
These books take place within the same universe, concentrating on events in Bran’s pack instead, particularly his son Charles. While I think they discussed the concept vaguely in the Mercy books, these books also focus on Anna, who is an “omega”, a sort of “powerful submissive” who can stand up to alphas in a way no other wolves can.
Just as with the Mercy books, the action is great, the romance is great, they feel very real and believable and oh my god I cannot wait for her to write another one!!!!!
The BEST Potter movie. Some very nice moments, stunning scenery, great visuals.
[He kept it short, knowing I am not a Potter Person.]
First of all, god I am so glad space movies are back. With Sunshine a couple years ago and now Moon, things are looking up for space movie lovers like me.
That said, this is so different than most space movies, being that there is basically one dude in this movie. No big crew of lonely astronauts and their inevitable small-living-space conflicts. No scary aliens. Just Sam Rockwell at his (insane, quirky, bizarre, disturbed) best.
Really unique story. Really nicely filmed. Really creepy, in the best (and not too scary) way.