Utah Blaine

Book:  Utah Blaine
Author:  Louis L'Amour
Like/Don't Like:  Like.  Mostly for circumstantial reasons, but enjoyable all the same.

My grandpa loves Louis L'Amour and has a vast collection of his books.  So a few months ago when he moved and had to get rid of his books I made sure to snag one - for sentimental reasons.  I've never had any interest in the genre.  But I've been in a reading funk and when I get this way I will pick anything up in the hopes of finding something worth my time.  This did the trick.

The plot is just like any western movie you've ever seen.  There are bad guys and good guys and one really good guy and some ladies who are mostly just lips and hips.  And there are shoot outs and saloons and horses and fist fights.  There's lychin' and fightin' and ridin' and shootin' - because everyone drops the g, ya' cityslicker.  There are men described as, "short and blocky with a beefy red face."  Is there a better description than beefy?  I doubt it.  How about this one, "He was a hatchet-faced cowhand."  And it even teaches you how to challenge someone to a fight, "Come on, you big lug, stack your duds and grease your skids.  I'm goin' to tear down your meat house!"

Pretty fun stuff.  As I was reading I could feel the funk liftin'. 

A Flaw in the Blood

Book:  A Flaw in the Blood
Author:  Stephanie Barron
Like/Don't Like:  Nah.  Not much.  Sigh.

Is it me?  Or is it Winter?  Is it my reading ennui that has tainted everything I pick up?  Or is it just plain mediocre writing?  Because it's been ages since I've enjoyed a book.  And I specifically picked this one up because I love Stephanie Barron's Jane Austen Mystery series.  They're fantastic reads.  But this one?  It was like hearing a sad trombone while eating unbuttered toast.

The plot centers around Patrick Somebody (it's been a few weeks since I've finished.  It's all pretty hazy.), an Irish barrister living in London, and Some Girl Whose Name I Can't Remember Because She Was So Underdeveloped Even Though She Was a Central Character, and Queen Victoria, of all people.  Prince Albert has just died and the Queen is a wreck, and Patrick and the Girl have some clues to Albert's death that Victoria doesn't want the public to know of so she sends some German henchman out to kill them.  They must unravel the mystery before that happens.

The plot sounded interesting and I've always thought that Barron was a gifted writer when it comes to pacing a mystery. But this was was pretty weak all around.  It switched between several POVs (a pet peeve, as you well know) and it just didn't go anywhere.  Sure, it traveled all over London and the Alps but the story just dragged without any real revelations until the very end and by that point it didn't seem so revelatory or earth shattering as it should have. 

There's supposed to be a new Jane Austen Mystery (and I really do recommend them, which is rare because I don't normally sign on for knock-offs of classics) and I'll have to give that a try to get this one out of my head.

The Graveyard Book

Book:  The Graveyard Book
Author:  Neil Gaiman
Like/Don't Like:  I wanted to reread it as soon as I finished

I would like to state for the record that it is a great comfort to me that Neil Gaiman exists.  More to the point, that he exists and writes.  Everything I've read of his has been an absolute delight.  I could stop right here by saying he wrote Good Omens and be done with it.  Because my love of that book is fairly well documented.  But that wouldn't be very fair to The Graveyard Book - which is masterful.

No, I mean it.  Masterful.  It felt like a master class in writing.  It is a solidly crafted book.  He has such a handle on giving you characters and stories that feel like they've been around forever - that feel like they've already been formed and written and he just plucked them out for you and gives them shape and form.  Which is saying something because this story is composed mostly of ghosts and ghouls and other things that aren't alive.

It opens with a baby, later named Nobody Owens, who barely escapes being murdered by toddling into a graveyard and gaining the protection of the ghosts who live there.  He is taken in by a ghostly couple and given a guardian, Silas, who is neither dead nor alive and who teaches him the ways of the world as best he can despite all the dead people wandering around.  The story goes along in several vignettes over the first 14 or so years of Bod's life that all wind together in the end that is both a little sad but also very hopeful and exciting.  Which is such a satisfying way to end a book.

Cairo Time

Movie:  Cairo Time
Like/Don't Like:  Like

I watched this on my way home from Tunisia and it reflected my own experience in an arab country that I was bound to like it.  I don't know how I would feel if it didn't seem so familiar but we all judge movies by what we know.

Patricia Clarkson plays a magazine editor who is in Egypt to meet her husband, a UN official who is stuck fixing a problem in the Gaza Strip.  He sends his Egyptian friend to pick her up from the airport and show her around the city until he gets there.  I was a little nervous that this would turn into an adulterous tale, which I hate, but it just skims the surface.  It's really about how these two people connect in and through the city.  It's a very quiet movie, and at times a bit slow but worth watching.

Get Low

Movie:  Get Low
Like/Don't Like:  Like

I watched this on the flight from Rome to New York, which, for the record, is a very long flight, so I don't know if it was a lack of sleep of my giddiness on returning home, but this one really got to me. 

It's based on the true story of a recluse who staged his own funeral so he could be there to hear the stories people told of him.  Which is a genius idea, by the way.  Wouldn't we all love to do that?

I love Robert Duvall in this.  Really, I love him in anything, but he played this guy with so much humanity.  I loved it.  Bill Murray was a little wrong for the part.  He seemed from another time period all together.  But I have a hard time not adoring Bill Murray so we'll just drop it.  There were some really beautiful moments to this story and I was really touched by how it unfolded.  So much so that I started to cry and my seat mates, Maureen and Al, were a little concerned.  But Al ended up watching it a few hours later and loved it too.

Tangled

Movie:  Tangled
Like/Don't Like:  Cute.  And clever in some parts.

I went with the Blessed Nephews to see this so I was distracted by their cuteness through a lot of it.  But this was a pretty good flick.  I didn't know it was Mandy Moore doing the voice of Rapunzel until the credits, which was a blessing because I normally find her to be really annoying.  But if that was her doing the singing, she has lovely voice.  The story was clever and a few of the songs were pretty funny.  It had some of the old school Disney charm, which I appreciate.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part I

Movie:  Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part I
Like/Don't Like:  Knights of Columbus, I LOVED IT!!!!!

Here are a few complaints I've heard about this movie:  It's too long.  It's too truncated.  It just feels like a build up for the final one.  It's slow in the middle. 

And to all of this I say:  BALONEY.  And not just any baloney but old baloney that has been sitting in the fridge for months and has turned green.  Truth be told, I haven't actually eaten baloney in years but it was a staple of my childhood so I know baloney and all that whining about this movie is baloney.  Because have you seen it?  It's rad.

(Side note:  the only criticism I will allow is on that bit with Harry and Hermoine making out when Ron is trying to kill the horcrux.  On that they are all right to whine.  And also, give me a break.)

The whole thing just felt right.  All the technical aspects clicked, from the music to the locations to the direction and angles of the camera.  They all just worked.  And the kids have improved leaps and bounds with their acting. It was true to the book without being a copy of it and it captured the dark tone perfectly.  And that animated part in the middle was genius.  As was the casting of Rhys Ifans at Xenophilius Lovegood.  I felt like it paced itself really well.  There is a whole lot of story to get in and a lot of that is spent wandering the forest but it did a good job at keeping the action moving.  And in defense of cutting it in half - let's get real, it had to be done.  They cut it in the perfect place and give you a little resolution to tied you over until July.

July! I'm so relieved that I loved it this much.  Except that now I have to start on my paper chain until the next one.