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Mark @ Carstairs Considers (2165 KP) rated Something’s Knot Kosher in Books

Apr 29, 2021

Bank Robbery or Murder?

Martha Rose is shocked when she learns that her good friend Birdie Watson’s husband, Russell, was killed in a robbery at the bank he managed. Even more surprising are the questions the FBI and local police are asking Birdie. They are making it sound like Russell was a target. Martha and her friend Lucy are concerned that, if Russell was a target, someone might go after Birdie next, so when Birdie announces that she intends to take Russell’s body to his home in Oregon to be buried, they are happy to think she will be out of town. Being the supportive friends they are, they plan to go along. Martha can’t help but start nosing around, and what she learns about Birdie and Russell surprises her. But are the authorities right? Was Russell a target and not an innocent bystander?

Since Birdie is one of the main characters in the series, we’ve met Russell before, but he’s never spent much time on the page. Here, he’s dead on page one. Still, over the course of the book, we learn quite a bit about him, and he becomes much more fleshed out than he has been before. The main characters are also strong. Some of the supporting players are stereotypes, but some of those characters also provided some comic relief, so it’s hard to complain too much. The mystery itself is solid. The pacing lags a bit when the characters are on the road, but I still appreciated how the author was able to pull off a mystery with two different main settings without the book feeling too disjointed. There’s just enough talk of quilting to whet my appetite, and we get some tips for caring for a quilt at the end of the book. I continue to be glad I gave this series a chance, and I look forward to my next visit with the characters.

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Natasha Khan recommended Words Of Wisdom And Hope by Teenage Fanclub and Jad Fair in Music (curated)

"[sings] "I got a crush on us!" He's like "vampires came and vampires went, I won't forget this magic feeling", just so geeky, fucking brilliant lyrics, full of cliches, but done in the most hilarious way: "not stupid stuff like your cousin wrote". What the fuck are you talking about? I remember at the time seeing American Splendor, which is this film about Robert Crumb and Harvey Pekar who's this comic book drawer in America, and I was listening to Jad Fair, and there's the whole [adopts nasal American accent] "nerd" thing that's a big part of my teenage music taste. The awkwardness of being in love and the geekiness of American culture. Terrible B-movies with Nicolas Cage, that was a big part of my university life, the trashiness and the shitness. I just really like how he talks about falling in love, the whole album's immersed in Halloween party punch, you're just at this geeky Halloween party he's talking about, and he's like "I love you more than soda pop", "you pop on my tongue and I'm so happy", loads of amazing American cultural references, that as an English kid, it's so cool. You get it. I like the hybrid of Teenage Fanclub and Jad Fair, because I couldn't say I was really into TF, but something happened, I just discovered that album and being in love with someone, my boyfriend at the time, we just loved that album because it's just so happy as well. It's innocent and happy and unashamedly geeky and loved-up. There's so many times you listen to that record and it makes you smile, and there's a lot of darkness and heaviness in my list, so I would recommend that album to anyone. First thing in the morning, summer in your car. It's got a real identity, that record, more than any other, it's a real thing in itself, you totally know what you're going to get and you totally love every moment."

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LeftSideCut (3778 KP) rated Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014) in Movies

Oct 15, 2020

This first sequel to Captain America: The First Avenger is everything a sequel should be. It has bigger and better set pieces, it has a bigger emotional centre, it brings in already established MCU characters and introduces new ones, and is arguably one of the best entries into the MCU to date.

Chris Evans does nothing more than tighten his grip around his most famous role. He joins Robert Downey Jr. in the category of irreplaceable actors for these characters.
Scarlett Johansson is once again great as Black Widow, and newcomer Anthony Mackie as Sam Wilson/Falcon provides Cap with a likeable new ally. The three of them as a sort of mini Avengers in this movie are fantastic.
Sebastian Stan plays The Winter Soldier with aplomb, and gives us a truly dangerous antagonist. The dude is fucking terrifying, yet his relationship with Steve Rogers gives us the heart of this movie. It's a tragic story which of course will be further explored in Civil War further down the line.
The cast is rounded off with Samuel L. Jackson returning as Nick Fury, Robert Redford as Alexander Pierce, Emily VanCamp as Agent 13, Frank Grillo as Brock Rumlow, and some smaller roles for Cobie Smulders and Hayley Atwell.
It's a really solid cast all in all, an area that Marvel Studios rarely missteps.

The set pieces are hugely high octane and thrilling. The opening scene on the barge is a highlight, as well as the teams fight with the Winter Soldier midway through. Even Nick Fury gets a banger of an action sequence. Also, this film boasts probably the biggest plot twist gut punch in the whole MCU with the SHIELD/Hydra reveal. It's an extremely well crafted, ballsy narrative that impacts the shape of the MCU going forward.

There's honestly nothing bad to say about this one. It's top tier comic book cinema.