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Firekeeper's Daughter
Firekeeper's Daughter
Angeline Boulley | 2021 | LGBTQ+, Mystery, Young Adult (YA)
10
9.3 (3 Ratings)
Book Rating
Debut author Angeline Boulley crafts a groundbreaking YA thriller about a Native teen who must root out the corruption in her community, for readers of Angie Thomas and Tommy Orange.

As a biracial, unenrolled tribal member and the product of a scandal, eighteen-year-old Daunis Fontaine has never quite fit in, both in her hometown and on the nearby Ojibwe reservation. Daunis dreams of studying medicine, but when her family is struck by tragedy, she puts her future on hold to care for her fragile mother.

The only bright spot is meeting Jamie, the charming new recruit on her brother Levi’s hockey team. Yet even as Daunis falls for Jamie, certain details don’t add up and she senses the dashing hockey star is hiding something. Everything comes to light when Daunis witnesses a shocking murder, thrusting her into the heart of a criminal investigation.

Reluctantly, Daunis agrees to go undercover, but secretly pursues her own investigation, tracking down the criminals with her knowledge of chemistry and traditional medicine. But the deceptions—and deaths—keep piling up and soon the threat strikes too close to home.

Now, Daunis must learn what it means to be a strong Anishinaabe kwe (Ojibwe woman) and how far she'll go to protect her community, even if it tears apart the only world she’s ever known.
  
Citizen Kane (1941)
Citizen Kane (1941)
1941 | Classics, Drama, Mystery
Orson Welles' Citizen Kane is the Citizen Kane of modern movie-making. That doesn't make a lot of sense, but it tells you everything about the place of this film in our culture. Amoral narcissist inherits a huge fortune, accrues even more wealth and power by peddling fake news, but finds his political ambitions thwarted by a sex scandal (which just goes to show you how different life is from the movies).

Trying to ascertain the extent of Citizen Kane's influence on the movies is a bit like trying to map the coastline of the USA without leaving Kansas: the film is packed with so many narrative and technical innovations it's impossible to conceive of the impact it had on the industry. Terrific performances and a clever, serious script about the dangers of choosing the love of power over the power of love, and many moments and images of throwaway genius. You might have expected Welles to make more of the possibilities for unreliable narration in the movie, plus some of his technical virtuosity seems more geared towards showing off than thought-through storytelling, but this is still a genuine classic. One wonders what else Welles might have achieved, had he been allowed to continue to make films with all the resources of Hollywood behind him - but it wasn't to be. Still, this film alone guarantees him immortality.
  
40x40

Andy K (10823 KP) May 24, 2020

Well said

The Morning Show
The Morning Show
2019 | Comedy, Drama
A show that I wasn’t sure I was going to like , but giving it a chance I ended up watching all 10 episodes in under a week. An interesting and topical storyline that explores many weighty and contemporary issues following the aftermath of the Harvey Weinstein scandal and relating to the me too movement. The show is very well written and keeps you coming back for more.

The performances from Reese Witherspoon and Steve Carell (playing very much against his usual nice guy persona) are both very good but the one who really surprised me was Jennifer Aniston. I had only ever thought of her as a pretty lightweight comic actress but she really was outstanding here.

I really enjoyed the whole season overall but the final episode was the best by far and has set up some very interesting storylines for season 2.

The only thing that did get on my nerves a bit was the constant product placement of Apple products. I know they produced it but absolutely everyone has an iPhone, the only computers used were Apple Mac and the only tablets IPad. I suppose it was to be expected but it would have had a bit more authenticity if you had a bit more variety on display.

A minor distraction really and the show is still well worth watching.