Bitey rabbit

I lurved lurved lurved The Triplets of Bellville.  It was weird and gorgeous and quirky with fantastic music.  So The Illusionist was high on my to-watch list.  And it is beautiful and a bit quirky.  However, it left me feeling so melancholy and I don't think it needed to.  It follows a traveling magician and a girl who decides to follow him on his travels and take care of him.  There's fun performers and a bitey rabbit.  But still, it left me feeling sadder than it should have.  6/10.

Apocalyptic

Good Omens got me lots of crazy looks.  These looks were due to me listening to the audio version while walking around the neighborhood, walking into work, and grocery shopping.  Listening to this book = lots of giggles and guffaws.  It's so funny!

The book follows an angel and a demon after the antichrist is born.  These two authors take a wickedly hysterical spin with a fun cast of characters.  The narrator of the audio book does an amazing job.  So much fun!  7/10.

Murmuration

Murmuration from Islands & Rivers on Vimeo.

I get to see this on my drive to work sometimes. Breathtaking.

Trite

My desire for something romantic led me to watching One Day.  What a terrible crappy film!  The best bit is this poster so just admire it and skip the film.  It tells the story of two people by showing them on the same day every year.  Great premise, right?  Stupid movie though.  1/10.

Okay so maybe reasons are necessary.  Here they are - no chemistry between the leads, bad aging makeup job, trite ending that also looked unbelievable, unlikable male lead, boring female lead, really bad dialogue.  That's the sum of it!

Strange abilities

Trash Sex Magic is a novel about a white trash family in Illinois - some of whose members have strange abilities particularly when it comes to sex and attraction.  It's an oddball book full of elements of magical realism.  I usually adore magical realism, but this didn't have much heart to it.  With so many characters, I would have thought that one or two of them would have captured my interest, but it never happened. 3/10.

Washed over

I Am Love blew me away.  It's such a beautiful film and the pacing is so spot on.  Tilda Swinton plays a Russian wife incorporated fully into a large Italian family.  It follows her as she commences an affair with a younger man.  There's not much to the story other than it washes over you.  8/10.

Pride

Pride of Baghdad is a graphic novel about a handful of lions escaped from the Baghdad Zoo in the midst of the invasion of American troops.  It's based on a true happening although the authors give voice and mythology to the escapees.  The art is amazing.  The story is moving.  7/10. 

(I have to confess that as a central Ohioan I really wanted someone to write a similar tale of the exotic animals on the loose in Zanesville.  Reading this kind of scratched that itch a bit).

Surprising

The Hobbit was a fill in the gap read for me.  It seemed like something I should have read.  So I dove into it and was pleasantly surprised.  It wasn't the oh-so-serious fantasy novel that I expected.  Instead it was full od asides from the author and funny details tossed in.  This novel was actually a lot of fun along with adventure.  One of these days, I'll work myself up to the trilogy.

Shadow side

I generally get all my books by reserving them in advance at the library (I can't afford my reading habit at all) and then picking them up.  Every now and then, I make time for browsing and discoveries outside of Goodreads and Nancy Pearl podcast suggestions. 

Payback is one I found while wandering the library.  Margaret Atwood's name caught my eye in a section that I'd never think to look for her work in.  The book s nonfiction and it is all about the history and the nature of debt.  It includes mythology, literature, and society.  It has rather little to do with the recent financial crisis.

I enjoyed the way she worked her way through the topic at least until the last chapter which felt a bit like an environmental morality play bonking me over the head.  5/10.

Jumbly

Unbroken started out pretty slow. The subject matter is fascinating - an Olympic runner thrown into WWII who survived an amazing stretch of awful situations.  All the running descriptions felt a bit Seabiscuit part 2.  However once Louie got into the war, I couldn't put it down. 

I do wish that the author had ended a bit sooner.  Towards the end, it petered out, and the timeline got jumbly.  6/10.

Tank

This is just genius.

Grows up around me like a weed