What I Read -- The Girl Who Takes an Eye for an Eye

I've been struggling a bit with my reading lately, due to a combination of work and other activities interfering with my reading time.  When that happens, sometimes I just need to find a real page-turner that will keep me going even when I probably should be doing something else (usually sleeping).

The most recent page-turner pick was The Girl Who Takes an Eye for an Eye.  It's the fifth book in the Millennium series, started by Stieg Larsson, and taken over by David Lagercrantz after Larsson's death.

In this one, our troubled heroine ends up in -- you guessed it -- more trouble, this time with a nasty prisoner and the zealous brothers of the long-suffering girl in the cell next door.  Our can't-ever-make-up-his-mind journalist friend dives into Lisbeth's background in a story entirely unconnected to the trouble she finds herself in.  And a long-loved character is lost; that's all I'll say about that.

This one has been my least favorite of the books in the series so far.  It's disjointed.  But it accomplished the goal which I required of it, so I can't be too upset.  It's easy to not be disappointing when the bar is low.

Movies -- A Recap -- Part XXIV -- The Shoot-'Em-Up Edition

Jungle Cruise is not a particularly good movie.  It was amusing though, especially the amount of gay sexual innuendo, which I certainly did not expect.  If you have nothing else to do on a Tuesday night, this will get you through to bedtime.

When I saw The Last Boy Scout, I thought I had found the origin story for the Die Hard movies.  It turns out that Die Hard preceded TLBS by three years; even Die Hard 2 came out a year earlier.  I guess by that point Bruce Willis had been typecast into the role of lovable-loser-who-comes-through-in-the-end.  But hey, if it's working for you, why change it?  Here, he plays a PI trying to solve a murder and root out some corruption in the meantime.  What I'll say about this (and the early Die Hard movies too, for that matter) is that there's something great and simple about 80s and 90s action movies (and older).  The plots and stories were simple.  The effects were simple.  But that is kind of great.  It's not all computer-generated explosions and unintelligible techno-jargon.  Just good guys and bad guys.

I'm slowly re-working my way through The Hunger Games films.  Most recent was Catching Fire.  You can see what I wrote about it the first time I saw it here.

S cued up The Adam Project for one of our flights somewhere, and I thought it was a great pick.  I'm a sucker for Ryan Reynolds when he's doing his funny superhero thing (see also: Deadpool). The kid in this movie was funny too, which is a bonus.  Some genuine laughs. I was thrown off by the whole time-travel-movie-where-Jennifer-Garner-and-Mark-Ruffalo-are-together thing (see also: 13 Going On 30).  In case anyone is wondering what happens in this one, Ryan Reynolds accidentally comes back from the future and meets his younger self.  Together they have to save the world.  Sounds simple enough.

Unhinged was creepy because to at least some degree (and as the subtitle indicates) some version of what goes on could happen to anyone, anywhere.  Russell Crowe has the ability to look entirely and genuinely menacing.

Dirty Harry is another one of those films that had been a hole in my (and also S's) movie-viewing history.  For something that came out in 1971, it was raunchier than I expected, but nevertheless one of those straight up good-guy-versus-bad-guy films. And now at least I know what scene(s) that famous line comes from.

On our trips to/from Germany, our airline had, among its offerings, a whole slew of James Bond movies available for viewing.  I watched Goldfinger, Skyfall, and No Time to Die.  Let's face it: all these movies are the same.  But that doesn't mean they're not a rollicking good time.  It's a formula, but it works.  Goldfinger was definitely heavy on the old-school chauvinism, and I also noticed (because I was working at the time too) how much of it was just sound effects with no dialogue.  I had to do a lot of looking up from what I was doing to know what was going on.  Skyfall it turns out I had seen before.  But I like Daniel Craig so I went with it. No Time to Die is the latest addition to the franchise, and in case you haven't seen it yet, I won't spoil anything.  All good fun.

Movies -- A Recap -- Part XXIII -- The Kids' Movie Edition

I don't watch kids' movies very often, but every now and then, it's just what you need.  Here are a few that tickled my fancy lately:

I knew a few of the classic lines from Ice Age, and had seen a scene or two but never the whole thing.  It's pretty cute, it turns out!  A good old fashioned buddy story, with some animal jokes thrown in.  Too bad it took me so long to see it.  Should I see any of the sequels?

Coco is one I had wanted to see since I first heard about it.  I have missed out on a lot of the more recent Disney movies, but since my mom's family has Mexican heritage, this one seemed right up my alley.  I thought it did a nice job of incorporating the ideas of the Day of the Dead with an engaging
story for the kiddos.

 

 

 

I cracked up watching the first Peter Rabbit, so of course I was going to watch Peter Rabbit 2.  The second one wasn't as funny as the first, but it was still decent viewing.  I especially appreciated a couple of specific American English / British English comedic references.

The Mighty Ducks was a staple of my childhood.  For a few brief and shining moments I thought I might even want to learn to play hockey.  Then I realized that what I really wanted to do was rollerblade in places that I wasn't supposed to, and decided perhaps The Mighty Ducks wasn't a good influence on me.  As with so many older movies, too (did you hear me call the 90's "older"?), they don't play quite the same these days -- you remember that line where Emilio Estevez's character calls his line of two black kids and white kid his "Oreo line"?  Ouch.

Finding Dory is pretty darn funny, and a totally adequate sequel to Finding Nemo.  Dory, as a character, isn't quite as adorable as little Nemo was, but she's funny and lovable in her own dopey, Ellen DeGeneres way.

Movies -- A Recap -- Part XXII -- The Banff Edition

For the first time since before the pandemic, S and I ventured to The Sheldon for two nights of the traveling edition of the Banff Mountain Film Festival.  Here's what we saw:

Day 1

Never in the Way (full film) gave me all kinds of crazy ideas for things to do on my bike.  It follows a Chicago bike messenger as he takes a break from the city and ventures on his bike from Flagstaff to Phoenix. Beautifully shot, but as a story, there's not much there.

Always Higher profiles a Canadian high diver -- and when I say "high," I mean high -- who leaves competition to focus on some recreational dives.  The diving piece was interesting.  I really could have done without all the bits about her kids.

A Foreign Native was a bit different.  Fabian is a ski pro in Austria.  He wants a change of pace, including the ability to explore and ski off the beaten path, so he decides to spend some time in Iran.  When the pandemic breaks out and it turns out he's stuck there, he really dives in.

The Ultimate Run (full film) was another ski movie.  There's not much plot, but some incredible footage of even more stunning ski moves.

Izembek (full film) was beautiful, but also a slow-motion train wreck in the making.  The filmmaker paints a picture of the necessary and productive Izembek National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska.  This includes the current people and practices that are threatening its existence, as well as the wildlife that rely on it.  A tragedy in the making.

Reel Rock 15: Deep Roots closed out the first night.  I had mixed feelings about this one.  There was certainly some incredible rock climbing, which is always cool to see.  It was also refreshing to see young people embracing their native heritage.  But for whatever reason I just wasn't into the story and didn't care about what motivated (or didn't motivate) our lead climber.

Day 2

The opening with Follow the Light (full film) mirrored the prior night.  It's an adventure bike riding movie, this time through Turkey rather than Arizona.  Again, the scenery was beautiful and the lighting amazing, but there's not much in the way of story to care about.

For some more wild skiing, we then had FINALLY (full film). Ben Buratti is a lifelong skier.  After a few months of being closed in as a consequence of the pandemic, he seeks a different type of solitude, and purpose, on the mountain he grew up on.

In the grand tradition of Grizzly Man (but thankfully not as tragic ... yet), was Bear-Like.  Set in Alaska, it is of course beautiful, but also nuts.  People make strange choices in life.

If You Give a Beach a Bottle was a colorful deviation from most of the films in the festival.  Except it was also set in Alaska, but other than that, it was different.  Our main character heads off to Kayak Island to participate in some beach clean-up operations.  Shocked by the amount of debris he sees, he takes to making surprisingly interesting paintings about it.  The activism continues.

Dream Mountain is a better attempt at a mother-who-loves-wild-adventures than Always Higher was.  The lead is Pasang Lhamu Sherpa Akita, a high mountain guide who grew up in alpine country but still struggles with all the normal dilemmas of a working mom. 

Because we can't have a night without a climbing movie, Day 2 brought us Em.  Emelie Pellerin is an amazingly skilled climber.  If you like climbing, the attempt profiled in this short is totally worth watching.

My Midsummer Morning (full film) was another deviation from the norm, but a totally fun way to end the festival. Alastair Humphreys (how perfectly British!) has built a career on wild outdoor adventures.  Wanting to do something a bit different, he takes inspiration from an earlier Brit and, despite not knowing how to play the violin, decides to walk across Spain, earning the money he needs to live by -- you guessed it -- playing his violin.

Movies -- A Recap -- Part XXI -- The War Movies Edition

These run the gamut from a traditional action movie to heavier, psychological stuff.  Choose what suits you:

Enemy at the Gates is a relatively old one.  It stars Jude Law and Joseph Fiennes as two snipers -- one German, one Russian -- stalking each other during the Battle of Stalingrad.  I wasn't impressed by the acting, but the movie kept my interest, despite requiring an unusual amount of suspension of disbelief and knowing who was ultimately going to win.

Prior to Last Flag Flying, I had only seen Steve Carell in one serious role that I can recall (Beautiful Boy).  This one is every bit as sad, and also a little bit sweet.  A group of Vietnam vets reunites to bury the son of one of them who was killed in Iraq.  Plus, special props have to go out to the starring role given to the Bob Dylan song, Not Dark Yet, which was such a perfect choice for this film.

Greyhound is a fun chase movie.  Tom Hanks plays himself -- the tortured hero.  In this particular film, he's the captain of a destroyer and leader of an American convoy of ships which is trying to outrun a pack of Nazi submarines through an otherwise unprotected section of the north Atlantic.  I know the movie (and The Good Shepherd, by C.S. Forster, the book it's based on) are fiction, but it's nevertheless amazing what those destroyers could do.

A Midnight Clear is a classic.  I am surprised I hadn't seen it.  It has a great cast.  It's heavy -- very heavy -- and weird, almost to the point of being funny.  Definitely recommend this one if you're interested in a WWII story.

A Private War is a PTSD story from told through a war correspondent.  For reasons I mostly cannot explain, I have always been fascinated with war correspondents.  They do incredible work under the worst of circumstances.  But, back to the matter at hand -- A Private War is about Marie Colvin.  She was American journalist who worked for the very British Sunday Times through some nasty business all over the world, including the Middle East.  Rosamund Pike delivers a great performance.

 

Le Chant du Loup (The Wolf's Call) is a submarine movie.  And it's French.  Who knew the French had submarines?  Anyway, the version of this that we saw was unfortunately dubbed, to the point of being distracting; subtitles would have been better.  Nevertheless, this near-future film is a creepy reminder that subs are always out there, spying, lurking, probably up to no good.  It was more intense than I anticipated.  A good pick if you needed more cause for paranoia.

 

Since we're already underwater, how about Das Boot?  It's another classic, and a tad on the long side; something like two and a half hours if I remember correctly.  We were watching some German movies before our trip to Germany, and this one consistently came up as one of the best.  It's the tale of one U-Boat crew during the Battle of the Atlantic, being asked to do the impossible with a creaky old sub, when all they really want to do is go home.  The length of the film is an asset to the plot, because it really illustrates how long and fraught the journey back towards Germany was, and how claustrophobic the sub gets.  Definitely worth the time.

While we were in Germany, we found a movie theater in Frankfurt showing the original release (aka English language) version of Top Gun: Maverick.  Fans of Top Gun are pre-programmed to like this movie.  Because it's almost the same.  It has a good cast, and generated some genuine chuckles.  It's not as good (and how could it be without Goose?), but quality is different from likability.  Enjoyable.

In a real change of pace, how about Glory?  Yet another classic, which I had not seen.  (I'm filling in a lot of holes in my movie-watching, it appears.)  It is, as one probably would guess, terribly sad.  But also inspiring, and amazing.  It boasts a fantastic cast.  The only thing that troubles me a bit -- but this is often the case with black ensemble movies -- is that that hero is a white guy.  (See also: The Help, Hidden Figures, and others.)  To some degree, I suppose that was the nature of the times.  Regardless, it was a great one.

The Railway Man falls squarely into the category of films which also holds Unbroken, Memphis Belle, and Empire of the Sun.  They are psychological profiles of people who were put through the absolute worst the world has to offer during wartime and come out on the other side, not unscathed but alive.  In this particular case, our hero (Colin Firth) was captured in Japan and forced into labor building a railroad in impossible conditions.  Years later, he discovers that the man who tortured him when he was a prisoner is still alive, and he travels back to the Far East to confront him.

What I Read -- Recitatif

Prior to reading Recitatif, the only Toni Morrison I had read was The Bluest Eye -- and that was ages ago, either in high school or college.  I probably never would have even encountered Recitatif, except that it was one of Levar Burton's picks on his short story podcast, Levar Burton Reads.

Since one of our rules for our Postal Book Club is that our books are supposed to be 250 pages or fewer, this one seemed like a good pick for that, so I bought a copy and re-read the paper version. 

It is an astoundingly thoughtful work.  On my first listen, I identified (as the written introduction by Zadie Smith suggests most people do) with the first-person narrator.  

What makes that interesting is that the two main characters in the book -- the narrator Twyla and her friend Roberta -- are black and white, but there is no indication which one is which.  On my second go-through, since I was able to see the letters on the page, I made a point to pay special attention to the word choice that make it so difficult to discern which character is which.  Or, more to the point, that make my theories about the girls' identities flip-flop throughout the whole reading.  It was fascinating reading.

A Candy Question

Does a king-sized bag of mini candy equate to a regular-sized bag of regular candy?