Sita
Book
A wrenching and intimate autobiography, "Sita" is an unsparing, moment-by-moment record of the...
Clara's Legacy
Book
One September day in New York, Clara Reinecke gives her grandson, Jonathan, a composer and lecturer...
Living with Strangers
Book
Living with Strangers is a family drama set in England, France and Germany between 1963 and 1978. It...
The Best Horror of the Year: Volume eight
Book
A town is held hostage by an unholy bargain made by some of the inhabitants; a party game on...
Domestic na Kanojo (Domestic Girlfriend)
3.0
Rate It
TV Show
Natsuo Fujii is hopelessly in love with his teacher, Hina. Trying to move on, he agrees to a mixer....
Moshi Moshi
Banana Yoshimoto and Asa Yoneda
Book
In Moshi-Moshi, Yoshie’s much-loved musician father has died in a suicide pact with an unknown...
Fiction
Erika (17789 KP) rated Wonder Woman 1984 (2020) in Movies
Dec 29, 2020 (Updated Dec 29, 2020)
The story itself isn't bad, but it is wayyyyy too long. I have an issue with how long the first section of the film was, taking place on Themiscyra. It didn't really add to the story, other than showing the gold armor that's worn later. I think it was just an excuse to have Robin Wright and crew in the film.
Kristen Wiig, of course, as horrible as every. Normally, I avoid everything with her like the plague, she's not funny, nor is she a good actress. She was highly annoying, and the CGI at the end was SO BAD. There is absolutely NO EXCUSE for bad CGI for these delayed films, they had an extra six months to make sure it looked good.
I loved that Chris Pine returned in WW84, I'm always up for some Chris Pine in movies. I did find Diana's unwillingness to give him up initially a little off for the character. It just wasn't Wonder Woman, and coming from a woman writer, it was weak.
The climatic speech was not the strongest, not unlike the climatic speech in the first film (Seriously, the improper grammar during the climactic speech in WW haunts me). It was just kind of lame.
Now, good ol' Pedro Pascal, I liked his character overall. I wish they'd have shown more of the little snippets of his history prior to the climax, i.e. being made fun of due to being Hispanic, changing his name to something anglo. That was the only point in the film where I actually felt something.
I did like it in general, and I would watch it again. It just wasn't as strong as I wanted.
ClareR (5996 KP) rated The Other People in Books
Feb 9, 2020 (Updated Feb 11, 2020)
Gabe drives up and down a motorway for three years, looking for his daughter. His supposedly dead daughter. Except on the day that she died, he saw her in the back of a car on the motorway. When he got home, it was to find out that his wife and daughter had been murdered in a botched burglary. But Gabe saw his daughter in the back of that car...
Two other stories become intertwined with Gabe’s: Katie, a woman who works in a coffee shop on the motorway, a single mother struggling to support her two children. She sees Gabe regularly and knows his story. She knows something of how he feels, because her father was murdered in another, unconnected, botched burglary nine years before. And then there’s Fran and Alice. A mother and her child, permanently on the run, knowing that if the people who are chasing them actually catch them, they will be dead. Quite how these people are connected is at first a mystery.
And then there’s the girl that Alice sees in the mirror, and the Other People...
Boy this was creepy. I LOVED how creepy it was. And there’s an underlying menace throughout the book. This is precisely my kind of book - and it’s well worth a read!
Many thanks to NetGalley and Penguin for my copy of this book to read and review.
Swiss Army Man (2016)
8.1
Rate It
Movie Watch
Hilarious yet deeply affecting, SWISS ARMY MAN tells the tale of Hank (Paul Dano); stranded on a...
ClareR (5996 KP) rated While Paris Slept in Books
Feb 23, 2023
Jean Luc Beauchamp is put in an impossible situation as soon as the Nazis occupy France. He has a deformed hand, and if he shows any kind of weakness it could mean his death. But to stay working on the railways brands him as a collaborator. Someone who has facilitated the Holocaust.
So when a woman thrusts a tiny baby at him as she is put on a cattle truck, Jean Luc does the only thing he can do.
He and his girlfriend (and later, wife) begin a perilous journey , eventually settling in 1950’s California. In 1953, Jean Luc is questioned about his role in the war, and is told something that will change his life and that of his family forever.
We switch between the two timelines of wartime France and and the present day (1950’s) California and Paris.
It’s an unforgettable story of resilience, secrets and survival. All actions on both sides of the story were all for the love of a child. Oh, how I cried (this seems to be becoming more and more frequent lately!)!
Wonderful storytelling ❤️