Book Of Souls - Glenn Cooper

Book of Souls - Glenn Cooper (2010)

I read his earlier book, Library of the Dead last week, and wanted to follow it up with this sequel. In this one the last missing book of the Vectis Library comes up for auction. Hired by two ex area 51 workers to find the secrets associated with the book, ex FBI agent Will has to leave his new wife and baby and puts every one in danger once again.

I enjoyed these books, which intertwine action with history much better than Mr Brown has lately, and sets it at a fast pace, and with a satisfying ending. I'll be thinking of this book if I am lucky enough to live til 2027. 3/5

Four Lions

Four Lions (2010)

It is hard to describe this movie without using words that will land you on some FBI watchlist around the world. Maybe just mentioning the movie will do that - who knows. It was a very British watch, one in which I could never see the Americans making any sort of remake.

Four English guys, who lets say are very religious decide that they should go the distance and make themselves martyrs. Like any group of chaps who get together, they can seldom agree on anything and their bickering and indecison often supply many of the comedic moments in this movie. The audience lauged throughout, and it was one of the few movies I have seen lately that manages to mix comedy and drama together well, without turning into cliched boy humour, or sour dramedy when neither works .

The two sixty year old ladies next to me chuckled the whole way through, which was surprising and even in its saddest moments it still managed to hold together well.

4/5 - for this truly modern British tale.

Departures - DVD

Departures - DVD (2008)

This was one of the movies at last years film festival that I intended to go and see, and somehow it never happened. Daigo finally has his dream job of being a cellist with a Tokyo orchestra, when lack of audiences force the owner to dissolve the group. So, with his wife he ends up returning to his late mothers home and making a life in a small town.

Replying to an advertisement in the local paper, he attends a job interview and finds himself working with a boss, preparing dead bodies for the undertaker. Rather than being gruesome, the Japanese traditions of washing and clothing the body for their placement in the coffins is gentle and beautiful and involves the whole family and friends. Something we in the west have lost, and I think are poorer for, as we have forgotten the rituals of mourning, of letting go and saying goodbye and accepting death as an inevitable part of living. 3/5

I didn't expect to be quite as moved as I was by this movie. My own mum had planned her own group of girlfriends, including her hairdresser to go to the funeral home and get her dressed, do her hair and makeup which I thought was nice. We then had her at home in her coffin for the four days preceding her funeral which was comforting.

Movies about dying and funerals always get to me, and there are always tears. There were also tears looking at the choice of tv I get on the two channels I could see, Adam Sandler as Zohan or more CSI - grrrrrrrrrrr!!

Music Monday - The Cure

Awwww - I still love the Cure 26 years later. It makes the 15 year old in me smile to still hear them today. I have never heard them unplugged before, sounds different with the bongo drums. Dig the hair too Robert. Looks like you need some straightners buddy.

The Forest makes me go week at the knees. I LOVE this acoustic version more than any other, even if it has a long self indulgent guitar solo.

Sunday Shopping on ETSY

These pictures are from my new fave ETSY artist Sarah Wyman. I LOVE this one - so much that I might have to treat myself. Bittersweet 5 x... - this Bittersweet angel just sings to me. I am touched by her contemplative glance at the lotus flower, her small wing and her drapey dress. Perfection.


Wood Mount Print -... - Twinkle draws me in with the perfect coloured backdrop. A dreamy girl set against a dream star filled sky. Perfect art for beside the bed.




Wood Mount Print -... - Impossiblity, I love the blue/mauve/grey sky and the floral dress with the tears of rain falling down.

Subterranean 5 x... - I love her green grey dress, the lace collar and the bob and her spidery hands.

Their fragile female beauty and sadness just pulls at my heart and it was hard to choose some faves to show here, for they all are just beautiful.

Oh and she has a blog at http://sarahgreenweeds.blogspot.com/

Hope you have a lovely weekend!!

Women Without Men

Women Without Men (2009)

I don't know how I feel about this one, I guess slightly confused describes it best. This movie focuses on the stories of four women in Iran in 1953. As the shah rises to power, there is unrest in the community and these ladies find their lives changing.

Each is trapped into a life that they don't want, a marriage to a senior soldier, a prostitute and a single woman whose brother is forcing her to get married and her best friend who secretly yearns for her friends betrothed brother.

For me I didn't really follow the stories, although each of the main characters was compelling, they all seemed sad and depressed, and for me that just ended with me feeling down and confused. 2/5

So it was nice to come home and watch Kevin McCloud doing his Grand Tour through Europe on TV. Of course you may know he is my secret boyfriend, in fact so secret that he did not invite me to go travelling with him.

Now that his show has finished, the TV has turned into Channel CSI, woe is me. More model victims and cliched murders, all solved and wrapped up in an hour. Luckily I have a pile of books to read.

I Killed My Mother

I Killed My Mother (2009)

Tonight was the start of this years film festival. I'll admit to being a bit wiped out from work and did my usual nod off to sleep a couple of times. Tonight was the first of a collection of movies that will entertain or depress us.

This one was a bit of a strange one. A self indulgent spoilt French boy begins to detest everything about the single mother who raised him. He hates her driving, how she decorates the house, her makeup and clothes and how she eats. So he shouts at her, and demands that she let him move into an apartment. As things begin to fall apart, he begins to reavaluate their relationship.

I don't know, it seemed to try and project this cooler than cool dope smoking, homosexual, 80s hairstyle, arty wine drinking teenager full of poetry and angst. Not the most endearing of main characters and all a bit too cool for school for me. 2/5

Lovers and Newcomers - Rosie Thomas

Lovers and Newcomers - Rosie Thomas (2010)

A group of friends who hung out together in their twenties, get together in their late fifties to live together in a large country house. As they come together they all begin to look differently at their relationships, and some partnerships end and others begin as they all respond to each other. We also get to meet some locals, and the children who all bring new people to the story.

It was a nice ensemble piece, but in the end I didn't feel invested in the characters and found it a bit too long. 2/5

Music Monday - Elevator Love Letter

This one came courtesy of reading Dooce this weekend, which I had about a months worth of posts to read. Loaded it up on my ipod and repeated it a bijillion times on my Sunday walk in the crisp sun.

Spooks - Series 4

Spooks 4 - DVD (2005)

Seeing the 12 years olds have chosen the tv selections at the moment with reruns of every horrid Adam Sandler/Will Ferrell movie and banal choices like Desperate Housewives and the fiftieth reruns of Friends. The only NZ shows are police 10/7 and horrid rescue programs, things that don't float my boat.

So I am continuing to watch series of Spooks that I started with a year or two ago. It's intense viewing and I love the characters and their interactions and the stories seem to have gotten better by this their 4th series.

I'd be no good at lying, I couldn't keep the stories straight and would press the wrong buttons on the gadgets, I could be a good Ruth though, better stuck in the office checking on the computers, not so much running around, I'm no good at the running stuff.

3/5