I saw this film two years ago at the cinema, and thought it OK. I watched it last night on the tv and loved it! Many laugh-out-loud moments despite the serious subject matter. And it’s very quirky.
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
The Martin Beck novels
So far this month I’ve re-read from my shelves three Swedish police procedurals by Maj Sjöwall & Per Wahlöö. They wrote ten altogether and they are so good I’ve ordered the other seven! I’ll space them out so that I don’t get tired of them.
The main character in all the novels is Martin Beck and we very much enjoyed the TV series Beck which was based on the novels. Interestingly, though Maj Sjöwall & Per Wahlöö plotted and researched the stories together, they wrote alternate chapters.
In the meantime I’ve just finished reading The Offing, by Benjamin Myers. It’s set around the lovely, Yorkshire fishing village of Robin Hood’s Bay. An old man looks back to 1946 when, as a 16-year-old boy, he set off for an adventure and stumbles across an eccentric, older woman. A really lovely read. I’ll certainly look out for other novels by the same author.
I’m currently reading A Dry White Season, by André Brink. Set in apartheid South Africa, this is a step outside my usual fiction comfort zone and, so far so good.
Mr Foreigner – Matthew Kneale
I thoroughly enjoyed this short, quirky tale of a young Brit working illegally in Japan as an English teacher. An easy read that moves along very nicely.
Great fun and highly recommended.
The New Silk Roads – Peter Frankopan
The New Silk Roads, by Peter Frankopan, is a terrific look at the economic and political forces shaping the World. I’ve come away stunned at the complexity of these forces, something one just doesn’t get from ‘the news’.
A great eye-opener that I will hopefully re-read in a year or two. Trump and the US don’t come out of it well.
Highly recommended.
The New Jim Crow – Michelle Alexander
Subtitled ‘Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colourblindness’, this wonderful book describes the truly shocking level of imprisonment in the USA, brought about by the ‘war on drugs’, and of how African-Americans have been most affected. It’s an eye-opening analysis and shatters any illusions that America has a healthy political or judicial system. Is it any wonder that someone like Trump can get elected! I’ve had my eyes opened. It’s a stunning read and highly recommended.
A full review can be found in this Guardian article.
This short article “19 Actual Statistics About America’s Prison System” by Laura Dimon succinctly shows how shocking it is.
Knives Out
A terrific, fun film. A great way to spend a couple of hours. Go see it!
Let’s Kill Uncle – Rohan O’Grady
Let’s Kill Uncle is an absolutely charming tale of two 10-year-olds as they holiday on a Canadian island. There’s a lot of child naughtiness, a lot of humour, and the possibility of a very serious crime.
Suitable for adults and children alike, I hope that in a few years’ time five-year-old, granddaughter Chloe will enjoy it too.
Delightful and highly recommended.
Three Days and a Life – Pierre Lemaitre
Set in a small, French town, this is a superb tale of a 12-year-old boy’s undiscovered crime and of the guilt and fear of discovery that trail him into adulthood.
Highly recommended.
The Girl With Seven Names – Hyeonseo Lee
A fascinating and detailed account of the grimness of life in North Korea and of the author’s subsequent escape. It’s written in a rather clunky style but it’s an illuminating read and very much recommended.
The Spy and the Traitor - Ben Macintyre
What a brilliant, thrilling read this is! Non-fiction that reads as fiction. It’s a fascinating story and an illuminating insight into the world of spying and spy networks. Highly recommended.
Airhead – Emily Maitlis
Subtitled “The Imperfect Art of Making News”, this is a fascinating look at the Newsnight presenter’s best interviews, showing how the news gets to our screens.
It’s an easy read and highly recommended.
Not Amazon
I refuse to buy books from Amazon, so I’ve added menu links to three alternatives. In particular, Blackwell’s appear to be price comparable with the big A.
You may be lucky to have a local bookshop.
Shut Up and Deal – Jesse May
Shut Up and Deal, by Jesse May, is a gritty, relentless exploration of what it’s like to be an addicted, professional, poker player. Sometimes it got a bit wearing but I kept on being drawn back into this fascinating tale of hopelessness and addiction.
Recommended, for some.
Machines – an astonishing documentary
This astonishing documentary about life in an Indian textile factory is available once again on the BBC iPlayer, but only until Tuesday (now expired): https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b09g8cc9/machines
At the very least, these workers deserve 65 minutes of your time.
“A mesmerising and unflinching look behind the doors of a textile factory in India, as director Rahul Jain observes the life of the workers and the oppressive environment they seldom escape from. Machines tells a story of the human cost of mass production in a globalised world, showing the gulf between rich and poor from both perspectives.”
Stories of the Law and How It’s Broken – The Secret Barrister
Read this wonderful book if you want to know and understand how our legal system works / doesn’t work. Highly readable and absolutely brilliant.
Written by an anonymous barrister, he / she also has an interesting blog https://thesecretbarrister.com/ and on another website they’ve posted an interesting letter to my younger pupil-self.
Chernobyl: History of a Tragedy – Serhii Plokhy
Chernobyl: History of a Tragedy by Serhii Plokhy is a magnificent examination of the World’s worst nuclear accident, covering the technicalities, the people involved and the politics of the old Soviet Union.
A history book that reads as easily as a good novel – I read it in a couple of days. Highly recommended.
The Second Coming – John Niven
God sends his son, Jesus, down for a second go.
A fabulous, funny read. Highly recommended.
Visages Villages (Faces Places)
What a delightful film Visages Villages is. It’s a documentary by, and starring film director and photographer Agnès Varda and photographer JR, who travel through France visiting villages, taking photos of the people and then plastering large images of them on walls and buildings. The two artists form a warm bond whilst engaging with the villagers. The film looks terrific, from the opening credits to the very end. We watched it on Netflix and is highly recommended.
The Tiger – John Vaillant
What a magnificent read The Tiger by John Vaillant is.
A long, detailed examination of everything to do with tigers in their natural habitat. But more than that it’s an investigation of tiger killings, the communities affected, life in the Soviet Union and animal conservation.
There’s so much in this book. I’ll probably read it again in future years. A great read.
The Dawn Wall
The Dawn Wall is a wonderful and astonishing documentary following the attempt to climb the Dawn Wall, a 3,000 foot rock face in Yosemite National Park.
Informative, exciting and emotional – don’t miss it. You can watch it on Netflix. Continue reading “The Dawn Wall”
Affliction – Russell Banks
What a great read this is! A violent, childhood-brutalised man, fumes in an American, snow-covered, rural town. Superb.
At the end of last year I read another of Russell Banks’s novels, Lost Memory of Skin, which I described as a fantastic novel about a young sex offender in America.
Clearly a writer I should read more of.
Calibre
Calibre is an extremely taut and tense film set in a remote village in the Scottish Highlands. At the first major scene I wondered whether I would be up to dealing with the shocking development, but my motto is “it’s only dots on a screen”, so I stuck with it and I’m glad I did. A terrific, tense thriller, though not suitable for all.
I viewed this on Netflix using my free, 1-month, introductory offer. Thank you Netflix.
Cold War
We watched the 2018 award-winning Polish film, Cold War, via Curzon Home Cinema, a first for us. Shot in black-and-white, it’s a visually stunning love story inspired by the director’s own parents. It looks and sounds great and well worth a viewing.
Face-Time – Erik Tarloff
What a terrific novel this is – I raced through it in a couple of days.
A first novel, written 20 years ago, it’s the story of a US president’s extra-marital affair involving a young couple working in the White House. It’s about power rather than politics and is an easy, well-written tale. Fabulous.
I’m on the lookout for his two later novels – I think I’ve tracked down one of them.
For the past week I’ve been undercover in the Mafia
What a terrific book this is!
