Whatta Fiasco

The only reason I picked this book up at the library was because Weetabix has been gushing about how Jincy Willett is her favorite author, enough so that she named her new cat Jincy. Great literature it isn’t, but it’s very well written. (Can’t you just hear the reluctance of a genre fan to admit that a different genre might be worth cracking open? Ha.) And if Weetabix mentions any other favorite writers, I’ll be whipping out my library card without hesitation. (Oh, this one is a murder mystery set in a writing class with the instructor as the protagonist. As if that really matter? It’s a good read.)

[powells]

I still like the first book, The Privilege of the Sword, better, but I prefer this one to the second, Swordspoint, even though there’s barely sight of a sword in this one. Here the duel is academic and I thought it worked remarkably well.

[powells]

Another film about the making of a film. This time it’s about Werner Herzog’s Fitzcarraldo. And unlike Lost in La Mancha, about one of Terry Gilliam’s failed projects (alas!), the subject of this documentary was completed and released. In spite of everything. And everything in this case is quite a lot, and a lot of it is created by Herzog himself.

This popular science book lives somewhere between Carl Zimmer’s Microcosm and John Kuoma’s The Hidden Forest. If you like any of them, you’ll probably enjoy the others. Under Ground is the least technical of the three and suffers a little from using each chapter to peek at a different subsurface ecosystem and its problems, from Antarctic wastelands to sea floor farming to Yellowstone grazing and more. I really would have liked just a little more meat on all of the subjects touched on because they were all interesting. (Earthworms as invasive pests? Really.) But it succeeded admirably in giving me just enough easily digested stuff to whet my appetite for more.

[powells]

A Danish film centered around accusations of witchcraft. Yes, it’s a black and white film, in Danish with subtitles, is a depressing morality tale, and is paced like a film from the 40s. It’s also quite a bit better than you probably think it will be. On the other hand, none of the women fare well at all and the whole thing is depressing.

Telepathy between siblings is not always a good thing. And sometimes we have to be cruel to be kind, but sometimes we’re just cruel. I really liked the way she set up a number of situations to reflect and mirror one another.

[powells]

Interesting. I like the characters and the themes a lot but this is two (good) stories shoved together and the seams are a little distracting. (Your mileage may vary.) Yes, the two stories do go together and interleave, but my brain keeps tripping on the edges. But it’s Emma Bull and, as usual, I rather like her writing. And I was sucked into the story enough that the stubbed brain cells were only a minor annoyance.

[powells]