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Mother Daughter Widow Wife
Mother Daughter Widow Wife
Robin Wasserman | 2020 | Fiction & Poetry
6
6.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Wendy Doe is found in Philadelphia without an ID and no memory of who she is. She becomes a patient at Dr. Benjamin Strauss' Meadowlark Institute--basically her only alternative for being cast out on the streets. Dr. Strauss and his young student, Lizzie, study Wendy, fascinated by her fugue diagnosis. Meanwhile, years later, Wendy's daughter Alice is looking for her mother, who has disappeared again. Wondering if her mother's past disappearance--which she never knew about--could be tied to the current one--Alice searches out Benjamin Strauss and Lizzie. She discovers Lizzie is now a young widow and begins a journey into both her mother's past, and Lizzie's.


"Every daughter became a mother, every mistress a wife--every wife a widow."


This is a hard book for me to rate, even several weeks after finishing it. Is it a brilliant work examining womanhood and love or a frustrating tale that leaves you feeling unresolved? This is certainly a complex book that features complex science, emotions, and feelings. Wasserman has done her research, and there are pages and pages devoted to the science of dissociative fugue, amnesia, and more. I won't lie: it's a lot. There were times I found myself just skimming those sections, because it was a bit much for me.

I didn't care much for the character of Alice, and I'm not entirely sure why, because her mother is missing (presumed dead by suicide by everyone except Alice), and she's worried. But there's something about Alice that just didn't make her particularly sympathetic to me. As for Lizzie, even though she didn't make the best of choices, I liked her more. Maybe I identified better with her. We get to see Lizzie in the past and present, and Wasserman does a good job of capturing the yearning of loving someone who doesn't deserve you and the idea of becoming someone else for love. Even Wendy is hard to care about sometimes, because she just doesn't seem care herself. To her, her memory is a thing she's lost, but because she can't remember, she doesn't seem too concerned.


"'You don't get it: I don't not want it back, and I don't want it back. There is no it. You can't miss what never happened.'"


What was so hard with this book is that there were just so many words. Oh the words. Words about science, words about feelings, words, words, words. It just felt long. I wasn't entirely invested in the story, but I did want to find Alice's mother, but then everything just felt sort of eh and unresolved, and yeah. I don't know. So much thinking, not much happening. I think this novel probably presents some brilliant ideas and representations, but they went over my head. 2.75 stars, rounded to 3 here.
  
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Faris Badwan recommended track Mass Production by Iggy Pop in Idiot by Iggy Pop in Music (curated)

 
Idiot by Iggy Pop
Idiot by Iggy Pop
1977 | Rock
9.0 (1 Ratings)
Album Favorite

Mass Production by Iggy Pop

(0 Ratings)

Track

"The Horrors were recently on the tour bus discussing which is our favourite Iggy Pop song. It didn’t even have to be an Iggy song, just a song that he was involved in. My mind went instantly to The Stooges, who are one of the all-time great bands. The Horrors played Rock The House Festival with The Stooges years ago, back in 2007. I was only 21 years old and I got to interview Iggy Pop for NME. I loved The Stooges and talked about them with Iggy Pop for the whole interview. Looking back on it I would have wanted to talk to him about his solo records, because The Idiot is just a brilliant piece of music and interesting in that it’s kind of an early incarnation of industrial music. 'Mass Production’ is so warped, the synth at the end comes in perfectly out of tune – it just sounds brilliant. The first time I heard it I was going through the Bowie in Berlin book shortly after I interviewed Iggy Pop. I’d listened to The Stooges loads, MC5 were one of my favourite bands as a kid and I was looking for something that had this sort of factory made heaviness to it. The song is so dystopian, and dystopian music is definitely something The Horrors do. Most of the songs coming out around that time were emotion led, but ‘Mass Production’ is bleaker. It’s the kind of song you’d listen to at the end of the night when things start to go a bit south. In just one song it sounds like a full body of work and I still listen to it frequently now. Although The Idiot isn’t necessarily representative of Iggy Pop’s work, it does feel just like him to me. If I was to pick something representative of Iggy Pop then I would probably choose the Stooges’ song ‘I’m Sick of You’. In some ways maybe ‘Mass Production’ is more of a Bowie expression, but they clearly built up an amazing rapport and these two creatives made something that perhaps they couldn’t have made on their own and that makes it unique. It feels like a once in a lifetime pairing. I just think Iggy Pop is one of the greatest of all time. He’s an all-time icon of music and expression. And he’s also a great guy, you can get that just by listening to his radio show. People always say things like ‘Don’t meet your heroes’ or whatever, but I don’t need the musicians I respect to be nice people or people I can be friends with. It just so happened that Iggy Pop was a kind guy. And that made it really enjoyable."

Source
  
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Sarah (7800 KP) rated Stargate SG-1 in TV

Dec 5, 2017  
Stargate SG-1
Stargate SG-1
1997 | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
9
7.8 (86 Ratings)
TV Show Rating
Sci-fi tv at its best
I’m finding it hard to believe that this show has been over since 2007. You’d find it hard to believe that a fairly good but not brilliant film could provide the basis for a fantastic series, but Stargate has done just that.

It’s an action packed sci-fi adventure, full of humour and intrigue with some surprisingly good special effects for the time it was made. The cast and characters are well written and loveable, with Richard Dean Anderson as Jack O’Neill being by far my favourite, full of razor sharp wit and sarcasm. Better played by far than Kurt Russell in the film. The rest of the characters too though are hard not to like despite their differing personalities, and they all make for such a fun and endearing dynamic. Personally I think the characters are what kept this going for so long.


It isn’t without its faults, as sadly i think towards the end it went slightly downhill with some of the main characters disappearing and it’s probably good that it ended when it did.


Still, I have a very fond nostalgic memory of this show as it used to be on Channel 4 on Sunday evenings and I’d sit down to watch it every week without fail with my dad. Fantastic show.
  
Sing Street (2016)
Sing Street (2016)
2016 | International, Drama, Musical
10
8.8 (5 Ratings)
Movie Rating
Great music (1 more)
Great acting
Feels too short (0 more)
The new commitments
This unashamedly small but brilliant movie set in 80s Ireland was the film of 2016 for me. Due to the size and marketing of this movie it sadly didn't receive the audience in cinema it deserved. Thank God for Netflix.

This follows the tale of Connor who's struggling working class parents pull him from private school and into the harsh reality of 80s public school run by a hard nosed priest and bullys. He meets a young beauty Raphina and convinces her he has a band to try and win her over.

This movie does not try and be something it's not and almost having a small budget and unknown cast helps make everything seem real. the acting is fantastic which is something indie films usually lack performances are great especially from Brendon the older brother.

the real star of this film however is the original music used by the titular band. It is 2 parts 80s nostalgia and 1 part genius. I truly belive the song Drive it like you stole it is Oscar worthy and deserves a nod in the least.

I would recommend this film to anyone and suggest people of all ages to watch this film with lots of heart and lots of great music.
  
Arrival (2016)
Arrival (2016)
2016 | Drama, Mystery, Sci-Fi
Great Direction (1 more)
Brilliant cast
Lack of Deakins' cinematography (0 more)
Not your typical alien invasion flick.
Arrival is the most recent movie from one of my favourite directors working today, Denis Villeneuve. This guy’s track record has been incredible so far, with my personal favourite of his being 2013’s Prisoners. Since then I have been following this guy’s career and although in my opinion he hasn’t since replicated the masterpiece that was Prisoners, he has came very close several times with Enemy, with Sicario and now with Arrival as well. The cast are also solid here; Jeremy Renner does what he does best, plays a supporting role and shines in a backseat position. Whittaker is, as always great in the film and is engaging throughout the runtime. This is also probably Amy Adams best role, I don’t hate Adams as an actress, but I do feel that she is extremely overrated and is never anything more than functional in a role. Here though, she actually has a character arc and gives a decent performance. Rodger Deakins’ cinematography is missed though, Bradford Young does sell the tone of the movie consistently through his shots, but for me no one comes close to Deakins behing the camera. Overall my hype for this movie was met and it is a solid addition to Villeneuve’s filmography and doesn’t let down his consistently great track record.
  
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Rhia (20 KP) rated Truth or Dare in Books

Jul 23, 2017  
Truth or Dare
Truth or Dare
Non Pratt | 2017 | Young Adult (YA)
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Excellent but shame about the flip book!
I'd like to get something off my chest: I do not like the flip book format. I do not see the point in it because it doesn't add anything to the story. In fact, stopping halfway into a book to turn it over and start again is disruptive to my reading process. As is having people ask you why you're reading your book upside down, or why you seem to have read the last half of the book first, or why your book has two fronts.

I have no problem with multiple POV stories, and I think in some cases - especially this novel - it's good to see both sides of the story. However, I don't want to read the exact same story from two different points of view.

The actual story here is brilliant. I did like reading both Sef and Claire's reasoning for starting the youtube channel and the story was fascinating. There's a great cast of supporting characters as well although some of them are certainly fleshed out better than others (Claire's friends Seren and Rich, for example, and Sef's younger brother, but others, like Sef's friends, are little more than a name and a line or two of dialogue.)

All things considered though, I would definitely recommend this book. And I'll be reading more of Non Pratt's work.