Educated - Tara Westover

This biography tells the story of Tara Westover, who is bought up on a rural Utah mountain with her family.  Her father has a mistrust of the government, hospitals and doctors,  and schools and instead the kids are sent to work  in the family business on the scrapyard.  So Tara is 17 before she sets foot in a school, and has to question all the things that her family have taught her.

After studying for herself, she applies to college and  enters a whole new world, while life on the mountain continues, and every time she returns she is thrust back into the turmoil.  Most of the story is about the conflict between Tara and her father and one of her brothers, who is often unpredictable and violent.  I really struggled with how the mistrust of medicine and doctors, meant that the family treated all their injuries with oils and tinctures.  That they would not seek assistance even when the mother had a brain injury and the father suffered significant third degree burns.  Pure craziness.  3/5

Coming Soon

There are some good movies and shows coming up in the year.  For those of us grown ups who could care less about super heroes and car chases and reality shows it is nice to see that there is some adult fare. 

Walking the Dog

Usually when I walk to and from walk and around town, I usually listen to podcasts.  I have just about exhausted my favorite Desert Island Discs, and so am often looking for more shows to listen too.  My new favorite is Walking the Dog.  Emily Deans goes on a walk with various UK celebrities, actors and comedians and they chat as they walk along, running into strangers and describing the countryside. I think the informal setting allows the interviewee to open up in a way that they don't seem to in other situations.  I have enjoyed listening to Russell Kane and Sarah Millican.  I usually listen on itunes, but found most of the latest podcasts on acast, which you can get to by pressing the Walking the Dog link above.

Music Monday - Africa - Angel Choir

I keep hearing this song in the past week or two, and found this cool version on youtube sung by a choir.  Africa by Toto is on many a playlist and easy listening songs like this and Fleetwood Mac must fill hospital operating  rooms the world over day after day.

A Good Life To The End - Ken Hillman

Ken Hillman a Intensive Care Specialist Dr working at a large Australian hospital. In this book, he talks about aging and how modern medicine fails many of our elderly family members. As we age and become more frail, Drs may still insist on continuing treatments and offering surgery that may not help patients. Many elderly do not want a hospitalized end to their lives, but rather would have help to live well at home as long as they are able, rather than undergoing unnecessary and painful tests and procedures.

I am not sure that the book has all the answers, but is maybe a good read for raising discussion with family and doctors about what options we should consider as we age. 4/5

Middle Aged Lady Movie Night ln - Murder On the Orient Express

It was raining outside this evening, and after a longish day at work my plan was to come home and plant myself on the couch after a few small chores were done.  I had skipped this one at the cinema, but thought it would be a good sit alone treat. 

Stylish it certainly is.  The 30s interior style and fashions were beautifully done, and I liked the combinations of actors in the movie.  Dame Judi Dench makes everything better, Kenneth Branagh looks  aged with his big creepy mustache, Johnny Depp looks old, Penelope Cruz looks constipated, Michelle Pfieffer looks glam and the all the others do a great job of looking worried or like Joey on friends suggested - they look like they are wondering who farted.

Sill my extreme tiredness made me a bit distracted, and I can't say that I was stunned by the story, but that could also be because I have seen a couple of versions over the decades, but still could not remember who the killer was.  3/5

The Immortalists - Chloe Benjamin

This novel tells the story of the four Gold siblings.  One summer in 1969, they sneek away to visit a fortune teller who will give them the date of their death.  So begins their stories.  It was nice to be able to follow each sibling,  without all the confusing switching around that many authors play with.  I just didn't feel any magic, any moment that made me draw my breath, and I kept waiting to be surprised. 3/5

Denial

Itunes does a special each week, where they offer a couple of movies for 99c, which for me saves a few pennies and stops me whining about the price of a cinema ticket - $17 at our arthouse cinema.  In the  efforts to save a few dollars, I like to stock up on a few movies for a middle aged lady night in.

I had heard about this movie a couple of weeks ago, when the story popped up on some news site.  It is a real life story about Deborah Lipstadt.  She is an American Professor of Holocaust studies.  In one of her books, she talks about David Irving, a Holocaust denier.  He then takes her to court for libel, and it is on her team to prove that the Holocaust happens. 

I must say that I was a bit distracted watching the movie, but I found it dull and boring.  Although the three main actors are always stellar - I was a bit distracted by Rachel Weiszs hairdo and accent.  2/5

Music Monday - Time Of Our Lives - James Blunt

Sweet song, and I like the video too.b

Casablanca

This is one of those movies, that I had only seen bits of over the years, and those viewings mostly took place over 20 years ago.  So when I say they were screening the movie at the cinema 10 minutes away from my house, it seemed like a perfect opportunity to watch.

I knew the gist of the story.  Rick has escaped the Nazis who had invaded Paris by opening an American bar in Casablanca where ex pats, crooks, police and refugees gather, seeking a way out and safe passage to Lisbon, and onto America.  When the Germans arrive, the pressure increases as people become more and more desperate to escape. 

One evening in walks a renowned fugitive and his beautiful wife Ilse, Ricks lover who he last saw before he fled Paris.  Can she use their history to secure herself and her husband a ticket out of Casablanca?  Will they be trapped by the Germans?  Will she get back together with Rick?  So many questions.

I enjoyed the movie very much - it was nice to watch the entire thing and it was a marvel in  that I kept thinking it was quite the time capsule.  The fashions, the music, everyone smoking, the drinks and cocktails,  how they walked was different, the way they spoke seemed  so old fashioned too.  Yet it is only one lifetime since the movie was made.  Still a good story still is able to hold it's own and even though attitudes to affairs may have changed I wonder if it was quite a scandalous story for wartime viewing?  It is interesting to google actors from the time period, many of which have been married and divorced several times .  We like to think of divorce as a modern thing, but actors seem to have been participating for decades.

The next classic movie being shown is Gone With The Wind -  I'm not sure if I want to sit through a few hours of that, unless it is a rainy afternoon and I need a bit of an escape from sitting at home.

Eddie the Eagle

It was a quiet Friday night at home, so time to catch up on the $1 dollar movies from itunes.  I had never seen Eddie the Eagle and I must admit to quite enjoying this classic story of the underdog doing good.  Eddie is just a young boy with difficulty walking when he sets his sights on getting an Olympic medal. 

So he ends up being a Olympic ski jumper - a pretty scary sport, especially when he was mostly self trained.  You can't help but cheer for him and it made me want to read more of his real life story.  4/5

Everything Happens For a Reason - Kate Bowler

Kate Bowler is just 35 when weight loss and stabbing stomach pains lead to a stage 4 cancer diagnosis.  A professor and a young wife and mother to a young son, she has to face the horrible prognosis, and in this small book teaches us about what it is to live one day at a time, and treasure the time with our loved ones.

I did enjoy her insights into living and love, but felt a lot of the book was about her studies looking at different religions, and mainly those who used their religious teaching for monetary gain to live in big houses and drive flash cars.  3/5

How To Stop Time - Matt Haig

Tom Hazard has a secret, although he looks 41 he has actually been alive for over four centauries, and in this book he tells us his story, shifting through different time periods to explain what he is living through now and the stories about his past.  I enjoyed all the different periods he lived though and the interesting people he had met over the years.

I did wonder how you could afford to live for so long - and how you might get a bit of tired of having to have a job for 300+ years.  4/5

The Laws of Medicine - Siddhartha Mukherjee

Dr Siddhartha Mukherjee is a renowned Oncologist and cancer researcher who has won a Pulitzer Prize for his book The Cancer of All Maladies.  In this small book, he considers the evidence asking if Medicine is a Science?

I have a fondness for books about medicine, and I liked the personal aspects about the book, the authors own experiences.  Maybe the principals and philosophy got a bit over my head and I ended up skipping through the second half of the book.  3/5

Sometimes Amazing Things Happen - Elizabeth Ford

Elizabeth Ford brings us some stories about her long history working at the Bellevue Hospital Psychaitric Prison Ward in New York.  From walking in as a junior doctor with little experience to effectively running the unit, she lets us hear about the challenges of dealing with the mentally ill patients in the prison system.  Patients who are suicidal or too unwell to be in prison will be transferred to the hospital for treatment, and then taken back into the prison when they are more settled or the threats subside.

I felt touched by many of the stories about her patients - it was hard not to feel sorry for them, and how they came  to be in prison and you wonder about the level of care that they receive while incarcerated.  I do admire her perseverance in staying in the same field for so many decades - it must be at times exhausting  and scary to care for so many disturbed individuals.  3/5

Music Monday - Don't Dream It's Over - Neil Finn

An oldie but a goodie for this music Monday.  I love Neil Finn, and have been lucky enough to see him play live 6 times.  Sometimes you realize that you haven't listened to the songs for years and hear them on the radio or in the supermarket and it reminds you of the love you have for them and how it swings you back into a different time in your life.  This one always reminds me of living in London in the mid 90s and a couple of fun years living in Hamilton. 

The Tattooist of Auschwitz - Heather Morris

Lale is just a young man, who steps forward to volunteer to go to what he believes is a labor camp in order for his family to be protected during the second world war.  This of course is a lie, and he is taken to Auschwitz where every day and every hour he struggles to survive.

While he tells the stories about the horrors that he witnesses around him, the essence of this story is a love affair, how he meets his true love Gita as he tattoos her number on her arm.  Based on a true story told to the author this is quite the tale - I see a movie in the future.  Haunting and unforgettable. 5/5

We Are Here - Fiona Harari

The years have gone on and now we are 70+ years since the end of the Second World War, and many of the survivors are 90+ years old.  The author talks to a group of holocaust survivors who emigrated to Australia after the war, about their experiences during the war and the new life they made in their new homes.

Each story is pretty harrowing, it is hard to imagine enduring so much loss, and yet their is hope as they make new families of their own and beat the odds by surviving. 4/5

Music Monday - Hurt Somebody - Noah Kahan

I saw this on the television and liked the simplicity of the song.  A new one for my Music Monday.  Noah Kahan with Hurt Somebody.

Enid

I don't really know how I wandered across this movie, but on itunes I looked at the trailer and thought it might be an interesting watch.  It is the story about Enid Blyton, author of Noddy and the Famous Five which was my favorite as a child.  It is an older movie, made for tv starring Helena Bonham Carter as the author.

I have to say that I found it somewhat boring and even nodded off on the couch half way through.  She came across as a snobbish horrible woman, who was not very nice to her husband and her children.  She seemed manipulative  and conniving, and generally unlikable and I wish in some ways that I hadn't ruin the illusion of who I thought she might have been.  I had visions of her writing in some chocolate box cottage on the coast surrounded by happy children and puppies.  2/5

I Found My Tribe - Ruth Fitzmaurice

I recently read the book written by Ruths husband Simon - Its Not Yet Dark and was blown away by the beauty of his book.  It shared about his journey with Motor Neurone Disease but was filled with the love for his wife and children as movement left his body and he was trapped in a wheelchair with a breathing tube.

Now in this small book his wife Ruth vividly pulls us into their world, filled with nurses and carers and that she escapes with her group of friends in their Tragic Wives Club by swimming on the wild Irish shores.  The solace she finds in spending times with these women helps to ease the tension that she often feels at home as her husband becomes more trapped by his disease.  Like his book her book exudes the love for him and the children, and it is this passion that just flows out from the first page to the last.

Such a joy and testament to the years they got to spend together. 5/5