What I'm Reading Now -- The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

I've been all over the place with my books this year, mostly due to travel.  But I am working on another book from my 2024 Reading Challenge.  I've skipped forward in time to get to my November selection: The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy, by Douglas Adams, selected for its ugly cover. It's a UK edition, and apparently a pretty rare cover because I resorted to taking my own photo of it!

So far it doesn't really seem like my ball of wax -- I like a bit of logical plot, typically -- but it's short and amusing, so I'm sticking with it.

Movies -- A Recap -- Part XXXVI -- Something Sweet

28 Days has an impressive cast, including Sandra Bullock, Viggo Mortenson, Steve Buscemi, Dominic West, and Elizabeth Perkins.  Bullock plays an alcoholic who is forced to choose between jail or a rehab program after she drunkenly wrecks her sister's wedding. The movie takes a reasonably serious look at addiction before getting to a sweet ending.

A movie about a conservative high school summer camp, at which Alice questions her beliefs and has a few exciting moments, may not sound like something worth watching.  But Yes, God, Yes is better than it sounds.  Natalia Dyer, who plays Alice, has a wonderfully expressive face which is so fun to watch, and as someone who is just a little older than the kids in this movie were in the year 2000, it's a fun throwback to what those days were like.  It is a bit horrifying to think that children actually grow up like this, but a very cute movie nevertheless.

The Tomorrow Man is a sweet little story about two sweet but weird people who are the perfect weird for each other.  The leads are played by John Lithgow and Blythe Danner.  It's not a great movie, but those two are so sweet and odd in an adorable way, and the whole thing ends up being pretty endearing.

Steve Carell is a wonderful balance of serious and funny in Dan in Real Life.  He plays the single father of three daughters who meets a lovely woman at a bookshop while attending a family reunion, only to discover she's just started dating his brother.  Some predictable hijinks ensue, but so do a fair number of very sweet and touching conversations between the lead, his daughters, and the aforementioned woman, played by the ever-lovely Juliette Binoche.

Another Round is a weird little Scandinavian story about four teachers who all decide that they're going to try out the theory of some guy who's name I can't spell, which posits that at a blood alcohol content of 0.05%, people are more free and creative.  The project goes very differently for each of them - not always well - and there are some sad bits.  But in the way that many European movies seem to pull off, the sadness is not overwhelming and serves more as a reminder that life is short but good.  And, there's a bit about a dog.

I was destined to like The Age of Adaline because I really like Blake Lively.  As far as acting goes, she was especially good in this one, in my opinion.  She plays the titular character who, after a freak accident, stops aging.  She has to spend her life moving from place to place so people don't get too suspicious.  Eventually, as one might expect, she gets caught up in a really lovely way.

You remember My Girl, right?  Macaulay Culkin shortly after Home Alone, plus Anna Chlumsky in her first big role.  They are both adorable as kids, and the story is every bit as beautiful and sad as it was thirty-plus (!) years ago.  Part of the reason it holds up so well is probably that, since it's set in the 1970s, even when it came out it was in the past; those movies usually age better.

The Big White is a goofy Robin Williams comedy in which his short-on-funds character gets crosswise with some professional hitmen when he takes the dead body they left in a dumpster for later for himself, claiming it's his long-time-missing, now-deceased brother to get the insurance money.  Things get a bit mixed up when his brother returns to town.

Aside from the last 15 seconds, Let Them All Talk was a cute story mostly about an aunt and nephew, but also about the aunt and two of her long-time friends.  The three ladies are Meryl Streep, Dianne Wiest, and Candice Bergen.  Meryl Streep's character, Alice, is a writer, and Candice Bergen's character is bitter after years of believing that Alice's Pulitzer Prize-winning book exposed her secrets and ruined her life.  Simultaneously, Alice's agent is pressing for her next manuscript, which Alice has hinted will be a sequel to one of hear earlier books.  Alice's relationship with her nephew is the beating heart of the film.

What I Read -- The Pig War

I've gotten a bit away from writing about my travels on this blog.  Perhaps I will get back to it.  It was a good way to chronicle my adventures, and fun to look back at later.

Meanwhile, I have continued - at least mostly - my habit of reading a book about a place when I am traveling there.  And sometimes even writing about those books. 

Recently, S and I took a boat trip in and around the San Juan Islands, a small group of islands off the coast of Washington state at the Canadian border.  In his preparation for the trip, S had learned about an event called the Pig War.  A bit of light googling revealed a book of the same name: The Pig War: The Most Perfect War in History, by E.C. Coleman.

It's not so much a war over a pig, but that the shooting by an American of a British pig (or at least a pig owned by a British person) brought attention to the dispute over the boundary between the US and then-British-owned Canada.

Some years prior, an agreement had been reached placing the land boundary at the 49th parallel.  When the land ran out, the boundary ran, "to the middle of the channel which separates the continent from Vancouver's Island; and thence southerly, through the middle of said channel, and of Fuca's Straits to the Pacific Ocean...."  The trouble was that the agreement didn't say which channel it meant.  The Americans took the position that it meant the Straits of Haro, which would place San Juan Island itself on the American side of the line.  The Brits took the position that it meant the Rosario Strait, which would place San Juan Island on the British side of the line.  So when the San Juan pig wouldn't quit rooting around in the American's garden and was shot, a decades-long detente ensued.

It was 1854.  Both sides were busy with either internal or other external concerns.  In a bilateral show of restraint, diplomacy, and common sense which seems rarely demonstrated in global politics of late, both sides sent small military detachments to San Juan Island under instructions to protect their own country's interest without provoking the other until a final determination of ownership was made.

Despite a road bump here and there, it worked remarkably well.  [SPOILER ALERT!]  The "war" came to an end in 1872, when the Emperor of Germany found in favor of the Americans' claim.  The British force, upon receiving the news, peaceably withdrew, turning over the keys to their fort with kind words: "I now beg to express to you personally my warmest thanks for your ready co-operation with me at all times, and permit me to subscribe myself with feelings of the highest order."

The author does a nice job of placing this litter territorial squabble in the context of bigger national and global events.  Without that, this story might have been an interesting long article, but a book might have been a bit much.  He also has a decent sense of humor.  It's not often that a book of history makes me laugh out loud or read passages to my companions, but this one did.  The author has a clear belief, which becomes more evident as the book goes on, that the final decision was an incorrect one; frankly, the final chapter - which speeds through everything from the Boer War to the War on Terror - should be skipped entirely.

But until that point, it was a thoroughly enjoyable read.

Happy 4th of July!

Movies -- A Recap -- Part XXXV -- British Leads

Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery is the second in the Knives Out series.  I watched the first one, but I don't recall whether I wrote about it.  Regardless, I enjoyed this one more; it had some genuinely funny moments.  Daniel Craig stars (again) as Detective Benoit Blanc, with a pretty good supporting cast behind him.

I was surprised that I had never heard of Croupier.  It came out in 1998 and stars Clive Owen in the lead role.  I love the film noir style of storytelling, and it was a pretty decent story to boot.  A bit dark, but I like that. Also imagine my surprise to find ER's Dr. Elizabeth Corday (played by Alex Kingston, who is also British) with a role in this one. What a treat that was!

The Dig has two British leads: Carey Mulligan (whom I love) as Edith Pretty, the landowner, and Ralph Fiennes as Basil Brown, the archaeologist.  Despite her failing health, Ms. Pretty engages Mr. Brown to excavate a portion of her property.  Things do not seem to be going well, but turn around with a huge discovery.  It's based on the true story of the discovery of the Sutton Hoo treasure in the 1930s.

Little Women is a mixed bag in terms of where folks are from, but there are enough who are British or British-adjacent that I'm counting it.  Here's who we've got: Emma Watson (British, but French-born) as Meg; Saoirse Ronan (Irish, but American-born) as Jo; Eliza Scanlen as Beth (Australian); and Florence Pugh (British) as Amy.  Nothing, for me, will top the 1994 version of this movie, but S has a crush on Saoirse, so we needed to see this one; his description of her with short hair, though, was priceless: "She looks like a pencil eraser." I did not like that the story was told out of order; I know it well and still had trouble following it.

The Electrical Life of Louis Wain is a strange story about an eccentric artist.  Obviously, Benedict Cumberbatch (another one I love) was perfect for the role. Claire Foy (who plays Queen Elizabeth in a season or two of The Crown - how much more British can you get?) plays his wife.  I don't really remember the details of this one, but I do remember that I was impressed by my boy Benedict.

I loved Still Life.  It was sad, but also oh-so-sweet.  It stars Eddie Marsan as a quiet bureaucrat whose job is to track down the next-of-kin of people who died alone.  London, though the backdrop, is visible throughout, which of course I adored. It was a quiet little jewel, with the pleasant surprise of Joanne Froggart (Anna from Downton Abbey) as an added bonus.

Benediction stars Jack Lowden as Siegfried Sassoon.  Those folks who are interested in the niche area of World War I poetry will immediately recognize the name of Mr. Sassoon.  The film is clever, even - dare I say? - poetic at times.  It's the backstory about the poet's family, how he came to serve in WWI, and his experiences, but also who he was after the war, the impact that it had on him, and the impact that he had on government and policy.  Not the best movie I've seen, but good enough and tells a little-known piece of history.

Another British-ish lead, Hunger stars Michael Fassbender as Bobby Sands.  The actor's father was German and he was born in Germany, but his mother was from Northern Ireland.  This film was recommended to S and I during our recent visit to Northern Ireland, as a way to get a little more perspective on the Troubles. It was dark - though not in a fun way like Croupier - but with some more artistic shots.  The film really turns Bobby Sands into a hero, which is quite how the Catholics in Northern Ireland appear to view him.  What he - and anyone else who goes on a hunger strike - did, is quite astonishing.  And also horrifying.

Laundry Love -- Take 2

I finished reading Laundry Love, which S says is now the most expensive book I've ever read.  I'm not sure he's fully right about that, but I see why he says so:

- I have bought new laundry soap;
- I have bought new stain remover;
- I (by which I mean K) have painted my laundry room a sunshiny yellow.

Regarding the last item, this is something I have wanted to do/have done for some time, prior to even knowing about (much less reading) Laundry Love.  The book was just the final kick in the pants that I needed to make it a priority.

I have attempted one radical washing experiment since getting this book.  I washed a many-years-old (and accordingly many-years-soiled) goose down sleeping bag.  It had gotten a touch mildewed in our basement, so my choices were either (1) trash it right now, or (2) attempt to wash it and see what happens.

It did not start out promising. First of all, the bag was so dirty that gray water was coming out of it after even several rinses.  But bedtime approached, the bag was still soaked, and it of necessity became a project for tomorrow me to deal with. 

I squeezed as much water out of it as I could, but I had to go to work when it was still dewy outside.  S obliged me by spreading it out in the hot summer sun to bake when the dew cooked off.  He turned it over midway through the day.  He put it in the dryer with some dryer balls for hours to try to break up the clumps.  We went to bed.

I went back to work the next day.  To hear tell, the dryer smelled like a moldy dead animal, and the bag wasn't much better.  

But, we repeated this cycle for several days.  Ever so gradually, the smell decreased.  And once enough water dried out, the clumps broke up, the dryer balls did their magic, and the bag was fluffy again.  I'm not sure it's fluffed quite to its original level -- or perhaps more to the point, I think due to the age of the bag, many of the internal baffles are busted and so the down shifted around quite a bit during this process.

But the takeaway is that -- though this was a much longer and much more complicated process than the book makes it sound like it should be -- it worked.  I have a home-washed goose down sleeping bag.  I always thought it couldn't be done.

I'll count that as a win.

What I Read -- Listen for the Lie

On the recommendation of a friend, I read Listen for the Lie.  The friend is a fellow true crime lover, and though this is a novel, it pulls in the whole podcast world.  Between podcasts and Netflix shows, I think we can explain most of the current fascination with true crime, so despite being not true, it certainly pulls on those same strings.

This is a quick, easy whodunit.  The writing is not great but it's good enough to keep things moving along.  What I can say about it, and part of the reason I kept on with it, is that it has an unreliable narrator.

I love an unreliable narrator.

What you learn quickly is that the narrator is suspected for, though was never charged with, the murder of her best friend.  She has no memory of the event.  As the story unfolds, you -- and she -- figure out how everything went down.

What I'm Reading Now -- The Ultimate Journey

I have skipped a few months of reading, and also skipped ahead a few months in my 2024 Reading Challenge, by beginning The Ultimate Journey: Canada to Mexico Down the Continental Divide.  I may explain my reasons for skipping ahead later (or not).

I read Eric Ryback's first book, The High Adventure of Eric Ryback, as part of my 2022 Reading Challenge.  As I said in my post at the time, I found it more readable and less and-then-this-happened than many travel books are.  Plus, controversy always makes things interesting to talk about, even if it's the second book.  We'll see if it's as interesting.

How Did That Happen?

So, it's summer.  Somehow it went from April to June.  I missed all of May lost in a fog of work.  June is better.  July will be better still.  

Also, Happy Father's Day!

Happy Birthday, K!