What I'm Reading Now -- Kindred

I'm pretty substantially behind on my 2023 Reading Challenge, but I have to take a break from it to read my next Postal Book Club book.  When there are these conflicts, what's a girl to do?

The book on offer, chosen by K, is Kindred, by Octavia Butler.  I've been wanting to read this one for a few years now, so I'm glad it's up next!

Movies -- A Recap -- Part XXXII -- The Biopic Edition

I have to give Spencer credit for being better than I expected.  It was intensely psychological and Kristen Stewart performed extremely well.  I don't typically care for her as an actor, but she was exactly the right amount of dark and moody and whiny to tackle this role.  I will say that I didn't realize it covered such a limited timeline in the Charles-Diana story, but regardless, it was well done.

I was on a flight when I saw House of Gucci.  I was disappointed.  It had such potential to be good, so many good actors, such a wild story, but it just ... wasn't good.  Compared to paying attention to the people around me on the airplane, it won out, but in other circumstances it would have been painful.  Also, I just don't like Adam Driver; I don't know why.  I recognize that he's a pretty good actor, but he just seems like sort of a slimy human and I can't get over that; maybe it's the hair.

It's hard not to love a movie like Hidden Figures.  It's a forgotten piece of some of America's favorite history (the Space Race), and it stars a trifecta of today's Black lady stars in Octavia Spencer, Taraji P. Henson, and Janelle Monae -- who of course save the day.  Of course there are also Kevin Costner, Jim Parsons, Kirsten Dunst, and Mahershala Ali.  When you put that many phenomenal people in a movie, how can it not be good? (Unless it's House of Gucci.).

As a random Hidden Figures aside, it's based on a book.  During the Pandemic when nobody could see anybody, E ordered me a delivery from a local bookstore.  The package had a book, a coaster, a postcard, some pencils, and other gifts.  The book that was included in my package was Code Girls.  For a while, I thought that this was the book the Hidden Figures movie was based on; it's not.

I'm predisposed to like anything Amy Adams does, and Hillbilly Elegy is no exception.  I can't give this film credit, though, without also giving credit to Glenn Close, who's grumpy-old-lady persona was something for the record books. She really is the star of this show.

I have been wanting to watch All the President's Men for years, and finally got around to it. The good thing about the details that are portrayed in the film is that they were minute enough that I had overlooked them in the broad stroke histories that I had learned in school.  That meant that, even though I knew broadly how it was going to go, I didn't know the ins and outs that the movie would follow.  It was a win.

I didn't know quite what to expect from Colette.  I like Keira Knightly and Dominic West, so I watched it.  I like a good period drama.  And generally I liked the movie, even more once I realized that it was based on a true story.  I loved Keira's character, who was a total boss lady, not to mention a writer and actress to boot.

What I Read -- Charm City: A Walk Through Baltimore

When I travel, I like to read a book about or set in or somehow related to the place where I am going.  S and I recently spent a week in Baltimore.  We were working remotely during the day, but we had afternoons, evenings, and a weekend to explore the city, specifically Fells Point, where we were staying.

I love walking.  I miss having my downtown condo and being able to walk to the dry cleaners, the grocery store, the library, and restaurants. 

Imagine my delight when I discovered that my library had a book all about walking around Baltimore: Charm City: A Walk Through Baltimore.  I started out reading it thoroughly, and the introduction gives some good background and city history.  I got through the first or second chapter when I realized that I wasn't really enjoying it.  It felt like I should be enjoying it, but I just wasn't into it.

Rather than giving up entirely, I skipped ahead to the chapter on Fells Point and the Inner Harbor.  That was a good move.  All the sudden, it was interesting again and I was fascinated to hear the details of the neighborhood in which we were staying.

I only skimmed through the rest of the book after that, but my experience with the Fells Point chapter made me believe that if I had more experience with Baltimore, I might have enjoyed the whole thing the way I enjoyed the Fells Point chapter.

I was interested to learn that this book is part of a series about walking.  I can't recall the name of the series now, but I added several other books from it to my reading list: On Island Time: A Traveler's Atlas: Illustrated Adventures on and Around the Islands of Washington and British Columbia, Hallowed Ground: A Walk at Gettysburg, and Time and Tide: A Walk Through Nantucket.

Brave New World -- Take 2

It was a long time coming, but I finally finished reading my May 2023 Reading Challenge book, Brave New World.

In case you also managed to skate through life without reading it, here's a brief synopsis: we're in a future in England where people are genetically modified from birth to fall into certain predefined roles in society.  Because they are conditioned, they are happy with their lot in life and unwilling to challenge the status quo.  Along comes The Savage, who grew up on a reservation in America for reasons you'll learn in the book.  It is through his eyes that we get the critical analysis of the governing social order.

I found this an easier read than I expected; in the way that so many "classics" are sort of tedious, this one was not. I did not, however, do the full scope of possible background research that I could have done.  Though I don't have a substantial enough base of knowledge to appreciate the full depth of naming various characters after famous totalitarian dictators and thinkers -- Marx, Lenina, Benito, Bonaparte -- I certainly did pick up on use of their names and the references (and reverence) conveyed thereby.  And of course, there's Ford.  The whole society is built on and continues to be inspired by the efficient mechanization of Henry Ford's assembly line, only now they're doing it with people.

The luddite in me loved much about the critique advance in this book. I feel for The Savage, just wanting a simpler, slower-paced life and not a fan of the forward march of "progress."

Also, What Happened to September?

How are we in October already?  Time to get out the Halloween decorations, I suppose. 

Movies -- A Recap -- Part XXXI -- All About the Characters

Still Life is set in London, so I was of course predisposed to like it.  Eddie Marsan plays a low-level civil servant whose job is to track down friends and family members of people who died alone.  It seems a thankless task, but it's one he takes seriously and treats with the respect it deserves.  A great little hidden gem, sweet and sad, which I loved.

In Croupier, Clive Owen plays an aspiring novelist who, in lieu of success as a writer, takes a job as a dealer in a high-end casino.  A visitor to the casino piques his attention, but she may be a bit more than he bargained for.  In a very Stranger Than Ficton-type realization, his life becomes his novel.  I enjoy the noir-style filmmaking, and I was surprised that this movie is as old as it was and I had never heard of it.

Jake Gyllenhaal turns The Guilty into a one-man-show as a police officer who is demoted and has to work a job as a 911 dispatcher.  He takes a call from a woman who has been kidnapped by her estranged husband.  Their telephonic interactions are brief and tense, and most of the movie plays out in the responses of the disgraced officer.  (Overall, the movie was less than the character that Jake played, but it's worth seeing just for him.)  This is a remake of a Danish original, which I have yet to see, but I'll let you know if I can track it down!

The Tomorrow Man is a weird little story about two weird old people.  It stars John Lithgow and Blythe Danner as a pair of sweet, weird old people.  His quirk is that he's a disaster prepper; hers is that she's a bit of a hoarder.  Their families don't understand them, but they can understand each other.

I don't know what you know the lead actor in Saint Ralph from, but I bet you'll recognize his face. His name is Adam Butcher, and he plays -- you guessed it -- Ralph. Ralph is a boy who gets the wild idea that he's going to race in the Boston Marathon ... and win.  Ralph's motivation is to save his mother, who is in a coma; Ralph is living alone, under the ever-closer radar of social services.  Ralph gets support and coaching from one of the priests at his Catholic high school, and I appreciated the references to all of the obscure patron saints.

The Good Shepherd stars my boyfriend, Matt Damon, so I'm going to love it.  And it's set in England, so I'm doubly going to love it.  The styling is fantastic.  Really, this movie could do no wrong after these two points were established.  But the tension that is conveyed, the stress of living every day in the early days of the CIA, is so well-portrayed that I felt like I had aged 20 years just for watching the movie, much less living that life.

A Man Called Otto is another sweet, sad, darling little jewel.  It stars America's favorite good guy, Tom Hanks, as an old curmudgeon.  The cast of characters who surround him in this film are simply wonderful, and it's a reminder that there are deep, touching, human stories in every little corner of every little town.

Eddie Redmayne and Jessica Chastain are excellent in The Good Nurse.  Jessica begins to suspect that her co-worker has caused the death of several patients, but has to put her own career and health at risk to find out the truth.  It's especially horrifying when you realize it's a true story.

What Happened to August?

All the sudden, it's September.  The heat wave has broken.  It's not yet cool in the mornings, but it's no longer stifling; the hints of cooler weather to come hang in the air with the morning fog.  Labor Day is in a few days.

What, may I ask, happened to August?  There was one lovely (albeit hot) weekend when my family was in town for my cousin's wedding.  Other than that, much of the month was lost on me.  I (yet again) blame work for taking over all my free time and then some.  And I give big thanks to S for picking up the slack.

But I am reminded, yet again, of the wonder of the change of seasons.  It's one of my favorite things about living where I do.  Each season brings new adventures.  It may also bring a new list of to-do items (many of which will wait around again until next year), but who cares?  For now, I'm just going to enjoy the optimistic moment that exists right now. 

The Song I'm Loving Today

Older (Ben Platt)

I don't remember where I heard this song, but I wrote down the singer and the title and set them aside.  As is often the case with little notes jotted down, I couldn't remember what exactly "Ben Platt Older" meant or why I had written it down.  Finally I decided to search the all-knowing internet and see what I could come up with.

The first result was a link to the YouTube video (also linked above):

I heard the first couple of lines and knew immediately why I had saved this little scrap of paper. 

Music's ability to evoke emotions is astonishing.  The idea of looking back on life as you age is certainly not a rare subject, but every now and then something just hits you in the right way -- perhaps because of how it's written or conveyed, perhaps because of where you are in your own life, perhaps just because you're having one of those days.  This song did that for me.

A selection:

"When you are younger, you'll wish you're older;
Then when you're older, you'll wish for time to turn around.
...
Have I killed my thoughts right before their prime?
Have I bit my tongue one too many times?
Have I said it all the way I really meant to?
If I wait 'til my tomorrow comes,
Is the waiting all I've ever done?"

What I'm Reading Now -- Brave New World

Brave New World is one of those books that I can't believe I made it all the way through school without reading.  This is all the more true because the particular edition I have (not the one pictured here, but I couldn't find a good version of the one I have) I bought as a summer reading book when I was in my teens.  I ended up reading something else instead, but I've been toting Brave New World around with me ever since, trusting that I would get to it eventually. 

All of that made it the obvious selection for my 2023 Reading Challenge book for May: a book you should have read in high school.

Our Own Devices: The Past and Future of Body Technology -- Take 1.5

In my life, I have been reluctant to give up on books once I start them.  This is a psychological hangup I'm trying to break myself of.  There are too many books out there to keep reading one that just isn't doing it for me for whatever reason.  

Our Own Devices, like Jack last year, is one I decided not to finish.  This one seemed like it was going somewhere that I could eventually have gotten on board with, but it wasn't getting there fast enough to keep me interested.  Will this be an ever-more-common hangup for those of us who are members of the internet generation, used to tiny blurbs and sound bites rather than long-form prose?  Probably.  And I'll try to keep that in mind rather than just closing a book on page 3.  I made it nearly 100 pages into this one before I threw in the towel.

So much for my February 2023 Reading Challenge selection.