Viewing
1. Schindler's List
Watched this in many parts. Found the end rather cloying. But Ben Kingsley was wonderful. And the music was lovely.
2. Suite Française
I enjoyed this very much. The movie does justice to the book I think. Must go watch everything with Michelle Williams.
3. Loins of Punjab Presents
For the fourth time, and Tanya's first time. This is still one of the funniest things, and I love it so much.
4. Playing for Time
Hmm. I don't know about plays that get turned into movies, but Vanessa Redgrave was excellent.
5. Turner and Hooch
I enjoyed this very much. Also Higgs watched me almost the whole time that I watched it, so I have several excellent photos. Also Tom Hanks does a lot of leaping about in his underwear, on account of which I highly recommend this movie.
Reading
1. Cat King of Havana- Tom Crosshill
A sent me this for my kindle and I loved it. I started a series of salsa lessons last week, and had no idea this book was all about learning salsa when I started it. What fun. And such a great primer on how young people can learn to talk about places and things that they do not understand. Shall look for more things by this author.
Showing posts with label books. Show all posts
Showing posts with label books. Show all posts
Sunday, January 28, 2018
Wednesday, January 24, 2018
Week 3
January 16-22
Viewing
1. The Godfather II
Thank you Netflix.
2. The Godfather III
I didn't think Sofia Coppola was terrible. Does that mean I have bad taste? Also the pasta scene was far too sexy for an encounter between first cousins, but I guess that was the point. I may or may not have watched that more than once.
3. Spotlight
Well worth the watch. Also topical.
4. Alias Grace
I watched this and realised how little of the tv I usually watch has women narrating themselves, and narrating almost without end. I loved it. Also I enjoy an unreliable narrator very much, when there isn't Inception-style dickery.
Also contrast this murder-mystery with the sexism of at least half the European stuff on Netflix. It is possible to write a sexy murder mystery while talking reasonably about women and their bodies. I suppose Atwood would be the object lesson in this.
And the menacing quilt-making was lovely. I nearly took out my long-abandoned embroidery project.
Some Canadian tv shows are so incredibly boring. And others, maybe it's only the period ones, like this one, and Anne with an E, are delightful.
5. Aiyyaa
I'm surprised this got made but it was delightful. How nice to see a woman get exactly what she wants.
Reading
1. The Ministry of Utmost Happiness- Arundhati Roy
I need to be able to speak more Urdu. This was lovely. I suspect many people found the sections on Kashmir to be too long drawn out, but I thought it was perfect. Also there is always a cement kangaroo dustbin in a Roy book.
Viewing
1. The Godfather II
Thank you Netflix.
2. The Godfather III
I didn't think Sofia Coppola was terrible. Does that mean I have bad taste? Also the pasta scene was far too sexy for an encounter between first cousins, but I guess that was the point. I may or may not have watched that more than once.
3. Spotlight
Well worth the watch. Also topical.
4. Alias Grace
I watched this and realised how little of the tv I usually watch has women narrating themselves, and narrating almost without end. I loved it. Also I enjoy an unreliable narrator very much, when there isn't Inception-style dickery.
Also contrast this murder-mystery with the sexism of at least half the European stuff on Netflix. It is possible to write a sexy murder mystery while talking reasonably about women and their bodies. I suppose Atwood would be the object lesson in this.
And the menacing quilt-making was lovely. I nearly took out my long-abandoned embroidery project.
Some Canadian tv shows are so incredibly boring. And others, maybe it's only the period ones, like this one, and Anne with an E, are delightful.
5. Aiyyaa
I'm surprised this got made but it was delightful. How nice to see a woman get exactly what she wants.
Reading
1. The Ministry of Utmost Happiness- Arundhati Roy
I need to be able to speak more Urdu. This was lovely. I suspect many people found the sections on Kashmir to be too long drawn out, but I thought it was perfect. Also there is always a cement kangaroo dustbin in a Roy book.
Monday, January 8, 2018
Week 1
Week 1
Jan 1-7
Viewing
1. La Mante (predictable but acceptable)
2. Some episodes of Dr WHO season 10 (Not terrible)
3. High Road to China (Sexist, racist, shouty garbage but there are planes and Tom Selleck in a leather jacket)
4. Glacé (also predictable, less acceptable)
Reading
1. Association of Small Bombs
I would read Karan Mahajan's next book. The book made me miss Delhi.
Jan 1-7
Viewing
1. La Mante (predictable but acceptable)
2. Some episodes of Dr WHO season 10 (Not terrible)
3. High Road to China (Sexist, racist, shouty garbage but there are planes and Tom Selleck in a leather jacket)
4. Glacé (also predictable, less acceptable)
Reading
1. Association of Small Bombs
I would read Karan Mahajan's next book. The book made me miss Delhi.
Tuesday, July 25, 2017
The Book of Gold Leaves and a small rant
I just finished reading Mirza Waheed's The Book of Gold Leaves (no points for a forgettable, pointless title).
I read The Collaborator earlier in the year and thought it was lovely. This was also. I spent four days in Srinagar one summer some years ago, and I wished it could have been longer. I also spent a couple of days in Kargil. Just enough to have developed a taste for Tabak Maas (ribs), not long enough to have made friends or gotten to know the place.
The odd review had white women, reading this as art of a book club, no doubt, complaining that there wasn't enough explanation of the context, or that the names were all too similar for them to keep track. I didn't think either of these were pertinent. 1. Use Google. 2. Literally every second white person is named Jack or John or Jason. Somehow the rest of the world is managing to keep up. Don't be so fucking lazy. As if anyone really uses that gigantic list of names at the beginning of War and Peace. You blunder through until you learn who is who, or you give up half way and miss out on one of the loveliest books written.
There were just enough references to food in The Book of Gold Leaves to keep me hooked. It was a very moving description of people trying to live their lives in a really complicated situation. I want to find more books set in Kashmir, and a decent history of the area. I hope I can go back some time, and travel more in the region. The Himalayas are really incredibly beautiful.
I read The Collaborator earlier in the year and thought it was lovely. This was also. I spent four days in Srinagar one summer some years ago, and I wished it could have been longer. I also spent a couple of days in Kargil. Just enough to have developed a taste for Tabak Maas (ribs), not long enough to have made friends or gotten to know the place.
The odd review had white women, reading this as art of a book club, no doubt, complaining that there wasn't enough explanation of the context, or that the names were all too similar for them to keep track. I didn't think either of these were pertinent. 1. Use Google. 2. Literally every second white person is named Jack or John or Jason. Somehow the rest of the world is managing to keep up. Don't be so fucking lazy. As if anyone really uses that gigantic list of names at the beginning of War and Peace. You blunder through until you learn who is who, or you give up half way and miss out on one of the loveliest books written.
There were just enough references to food in The Book of Gold Leaves to keep me hooked. It was a very moving description of people trying to live their lives in a really complicated situation. I want to find more books set in Kashmir, and a decent history of the area. I hope I can go back some time, and travel more in the region. The Himalayas are really incredibly beautiful.
Monday, September 28, 2015
The Farthest Field
I am currently reading The Farthest Field: An Indian Story of the Second World War, and am not enjoying it as much as I had hoped. It pains me to say this, but the prose might be too florid for me, I didn't think I would ever say such a thing but my tastes in literature appear to have changed. Too many curlicues, and similes, and flowers. Too much ponderous description. It is starting to feel like too little substance wrapped up in a whole bushel of shiny, complicated bows.
I feel a bit sad because I like war stories, and World War II stories in particular. The author was a couple of years ahead of me in school, so I am predisposed to love his work. And yet I cannot because there is just too much flourishing about, and clever use of words (I do not want to be looking up more than one archaic word per page- this is non-fiction not a Scrabble game). It is tiring.
I believe I shall go and read some Nora Ephron. She is not as evocative about Calicut, or Madras, but that is ok. We will get to the point sooner, and there might be fewer idlis, but there will be greater comprehension.
Okbye.
I feel a bit sad because I like war stories, and World War II stories in particular. The author was a couple of years ahead of me in school, so I am predisposed to love his work. And yet I cannot because there is just too much flourishing about, and clever use of words (I do not want to be looking up more than one archaic word per page- this is non-fiction not a Scrabble game). It is tiring.
I believe I shall go and read some Nora Ephron. She is not as evocative about Calicut, or Madras, but that is ok. We will get to the point sooner, and there might be fewer idlis, but there will be greater comprehension.
Okbye.
Sunday, July 12, 2015
Ab ki baar America yaar
So I find myself moving house one more time. I've not lived all over the world like some of my friends, but I feel like I do a fair bit of shifting house, and this time it is the furthest away from my old house that I have ever moved.
Here is a short list of all the places I have lived, which means all the places I have boxed up my books and clothes for, and unpacked them in.I don't know which is more tiresome. It is possible to procrastinate more about the packing, because you can only last so long without unpacking your undies, and once you've begun you might as well empty the suitcases and hide them till the next time.
1. Home (Blr)
2. Boarding School
3. Home (Blr)
4. Hostel (LSR)
5. Home of kindly granduncle who let me crash at his pad while prepping for finals
6. Home (Blr)
7. Home of a kindly uncle in Dwarka (D.U in it's infinite wisdom had begun classes but not allotted hostel seats)
8. Hostel (DU)
9. Home (Blr)
10. Delhi- Apartment in Alaknanda
11. Home of kindly friend who let me stay even though everything prompted either a rant about men or tears, sometimes both together
12. Home (Blr)
13. Delhi- Room in N Campus
14. Delhi- Apartment in Jor Bagh
15. Home (Blr)
16. Geneva- Room in student housing
17. Geneva- Flat with 2 Francophones
18. Geneva- Flat with Spanish, Danish and French flatmates
19. Geneva- Flat with Dutch girl, then 2 Italian boys
20. Geneva- Flat with 2 Italians
21. Home (Blr)
22. Home- USA- in less than a week.
How scary, how tiring, how far, how fun. At least this time there will be two of us unpacking.
Here is a short list of all the places I have lived, which means all the places I have boxed up my books and clothes for, and unpacked them in.I don't know which is more tiresome. It is possible to procrastinate more about the packing, because you can only last so long without unpacking your undies, and once you've begun you might as well empty the suitcases and hide them till the next time.
1. Home (Blr)
2. Boarding School
3. Home (Blr)
4. Hostel (LSR)
5. Home of kindly granduncle who let me crash at his pad while prepping for finals
6. Home (Blr)
7. Home of a kindly uncle in Dwarka (D.U in it's infinite wisdom had begun classes but not allotted hostel seats)
8. Hostel (DU)
9. Home (Blr)
10. Delhi- Apartment in Alaknanda
11. Home of kindly friend who let me stay even though everything prompted either a rant about men or tears, sometimes both together
12. Home (Blr)
13. Delhi- Room in N Campus
14. Delhi- Apartment in Jor Bagh
15. Home (Blr)
16. Geneva- Room in student housing
17. Geneva- Flat with 2 Francophones
18. Geneva- Flat with Spanish, Danish and French flatmates
19. Geneva- Flat with Dutch girl, then 2 Italian boys
20. Geneva- Flat with 2 Italians
21. Home (Blr)
22. Home- USA- in less than a week.
How scary, how tiring, how far, how fun. At least this time there will be two of us unpacking.
Friday, April 4, 2014
Things I have read in the last few months
What I Loved- Siri Hustvedt- 2003
I loved this. I shall be looking for more of her books.
The Commitment: Love, Sex, Marriage and My Family- Dan Savage- 2005
This was what I read in the month before I got married myself. It sat in the bathroom where all three of us in the apartment read it simultaneously, with three bookmarks marking our different spots in it.
Battle for Bittora- Anuja Chauhan- 2010
I like Anuja Chauhan. I think she's very funny.
Bride Flight- Marieke Van Der Pol- 2011
I read this while on a plane. It seemed like good theme reading. It wasn't very good, and was about some terrible relationships. So in the 1950's at some point a plane full of young brides for immigrants in New Zealand took part in an air race that KLM went on to win. That part of the story is based in fact. Hopefully the tangled and painful lives of three of the girls on board are mostly fiction. I did not have a lot of patience for this book. But I was stuck on a transatlantic flight with not much else to do.
Blood of Tyrants- Naomi Novik-2013
If it has dragons I will read it. There was a long break between the last book in the Temeraire series that I read, and this one, so I had forgotten a lot of the detail. Much like one of the principal characters in the book.
The Berlin Noir Trilogy- Philip Kerr- 1993
I read these over less than a week and enjoyed them thoroughly. In general I wish there had been a bit less anal rape, over all three books. It would also have been nice if some of the women survived. They are not as ghastly as this short review makes them seen. There are four other Bernie Gunther books and I will be starting the next one this evening as soon as I can put it on my Kindle.
Oh yes. I caved and bought a Kindle. It is lovely, light, and has turned up the dial on how much I read and when.
I loved this. I shall be looking for more of her books.
The Commitment: Love, Sex, Marriage and My Family- Dan Savage- 2005
This was what I read in the month before I got married myself. It sat in the bathroom where all three of us in the apartment read it simultaneously, with three bookmarks marking our different spots in it.
Battle for Bittora- Anuja Chauhan- 2010
I like Anuja Chauhan. I think she's very funny.
Bride Flight- Marieke Van Der Pol- 2011
I read this while on a plane. It seemed like good theme reading. It wasn't very good, and was about some terrible relationships. So in the 1950's at some point a plane full of young brides for immigrants in New Zealand took part in an air race that KLM went on to win. That part of the story is based in fact. Hopefully the tangled and painful lives of three of the girls on board are mostly fiction. I did not have a lot of patience for this book. But I was stuck on a transatlantic flight with not much else to do.
Blood of Tyrants- Naomi Novik-2013
If it has dragons I will read it. There was a long break between the last book in the Temeraire series that I read, and this one, so I had forgotten a lot of the detail. Much like one of the principal characters in the book.
The Berlin Noir Trilogy- Philip Kerr- 1993
I read these over less than a week and enjoyed them thoroughly. In general I wish there had been a bit less anal rape, over all three books. It would also have been nice if some of the women survived. They are not as ghastly as this short review makes them seen. There are four other Bernie Gunther books and I will be starting the next one this evening as soon as I can put it on my Kindle.
Oh yes. I caved and bought a Kindle. It is lovely, light, and has turned up the dial on how much I read and when.
Wednesday, September 5, 2012
Summer reading
This has been my reading list since I received my thesis grade last week. I now feel free to read again, now that I have a second M.A.
1. The Midnight Palace by Carlos Ruis Zafon- what a small silly book.
2. The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters.
I love all things Sarah Waters, but Fingersmith was her best. This was alright, but not amazing like that. I did enjoy reading her version of a middle aged man though- I thought she might have gotten that part right. But what do I know, I will never be one.
3. The Winter Rose by Jennifer Donnelly
I loved this. I adore stories about female doctors at times when female doctors were a rarity. The characters here were lovely. Except for the annoying insistence only One True Love forever I enjoyed the book a great deal. Which is why I galloped into the sequel. Big mistake.
4. The Wild Rose by Jennifer Donnelly
I hate books that make me despise the women in the book, while ignoring the sins of the men. This book did that to me. The cast of characters got too unwieldy, and she didn't establish the primary woman as a sympathetic sort- not early enough, in fact not at all. I found her character to be completely unrelatable, and inconsistent with the way she appeared in the previous books. This One True Love Forever business got very tiresome as well. It would be nice if not everyone behaved like tragic lovers a la Romeo and Juliet- there is a reason they are so young- it is behaviour best suited to teenagers. Presumably when you get a bit older the world forces you to pull your head out of your ass.
I should have loved that the main character was based on Gertrude Bell, but instead of making the book about her work the book was about her pining away and doing all manner of silly things because she lost her leg and wouldn't communicate with her boyfriend or her family. Bah. As you might have gathered the book annoyed me. It took up 700 pages of my life and left me bugged.
1. The Midnight Palace by Carlos Ruis Zafon- what a small silly book.
2. The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters.
I love all things Sarah Waters, but Fingersmith was her best. This was alright, but not amazing like that. I did enjoy reading her version of a middle aged man though- I thought she might have gotten that part right. But what do I know, I will never be one.
3. The Winter Rose by Jennifer Donnelly
I loved this. I adore stories about female doctors at times when female doctors were a rarity. The characters here were lovely. Except for the annoying insistence only One True Love forever I enjoyed the book a great deal. Which is why I galloped into the sequel. Big mistake.
4. The Wild Rose by Jennifer Donnelly
I hate books that make me despise the women in the book, while ignoring the sins of the men. This book did that to me. The cast of characters got too unwieldy, and she didn't establish the primary woman as a sympathetic sort- not early enough, in fact not at all. I found her character to be completely unrelatable, and inconsistent with the way she appeared in the previous books. This One True Love Forever business got very tiresome as well. It would be nice if not everyone behaved like tragic lovers a la Romeo and Juliet- there is a reason they are so young- it is behaviour best suited to teenagers. Presumably when you get a bit older the world forces you to pull your head out of your ass.
I should have loved that the main character was based on Gertrude Bell, but instead of making the book about her work the book was about her pining away and doing all manner of silly things because she lost her leg and wouldn't communicate with her boyfriend or her family. Bah. As you might have gathered the book annoyed me. It took up 700 pages of my life and left me bugged.
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