Books, podcasts and a movie...
Apr. 15th, 2021 08:36 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowkat1. Just because Kate ‘Middleton’ McGrath, wants a man to call ‘daddy’ in bed doesn’t mean—
Oh, you stopped reading. Cool.
LOL! Yep, I did.
That was blurb from Smart Bitches.
2. On reading, I'm actually really enjoying the audio book version of A Gentleman from Moscow. Currently an old Count is babysitting? Or just taking care of? A small girl. This is Sophia, the daughter of Nina, a young girl he befriended several years ago. Nina had to follow her husband, who has been sent to a work camp up in Siberia. She's getting a job nearby, and needs someone to take care of her daughter while she's gone. Meanwhile, the Count is working for a restaurant, a tutor, and living in an old Hotel in Moscow. He returned to Russia because of the Revolution, he'd been exiled prior due to a duel.
Some of it - I'm missing of course, because audio book, but it's not plot heavy so doesn't really matter.
[writing this post inspired me to write an email to college buddy who rec'd it.)
3. Finished Becoming by Michelle Obama - which was okay. I liked aspects of it. I think it was too long in places, and kind of repetitive.
Also I wish she talked more about the last years in the White House, then again maybe not - they were depressing, and anything regarding Trump set my nerves on edge.
Also finished Renegades - the Spotify podcasts with Barack Obama and Springsteen, which served as a nice chaser to Becoming. Barack comments on some of the same things Michelle does in her book.
Of the three - Promised Land, Becoming, and Renegades - I think I got the most out of Promised Land. Becoming felt a bit on the preachy side, and I got annoyed with the writer at various points. Although overall its a good book and I recommend - gives some interesting insights into the White House, and what it is like from the First Lady and first family's perspective. Not a cake-walk that's for certain.
4. The flick Promising Young Woman won't quite let go of my head. It's the kind of flick you want to discuss after you've seen it. Very dark black comedy. I didn't find it funny so much as haunting. With that gut punch of an ending.
It kind of puts it in high relief - the raunch culture - and lambasts it. The whole "walk of shame" bit. Where the woman gets drunk, has a night of sex that she can't quite remember, and creeps out the next morning? Well this film kind of underlines how that is date rape. And no, the woman being too drunk to remember is not an excuse for you to have sex with her. Or anyone who is really drunk.
But...what is haunting about it, and kind of disturbing, is how it subverts so many of the myths and preconceptions. The guys aren't hunks. They are just kind of boy-next-door types. The sort you go to college with. Adam Brody from the OC. And the raunch talk is the type you'd hear in frat houses or bars.
Also all the excuses are highlighted and derided. It's a haunting and disturbing film on multiple levels. Did I like it? I don't know. But unlike a lot of flicks it stuck with me.
Actually four of the five Oscar nominated films I've seen stuck with me:
Nomadland, Sound of Metal, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, and Promising Young Woman. (I can't remember Trial of the Chicago 7 quite as well - although it does have a resonance, but it was no where near as good as the other four. And I couldn't get into One Night in Miami - gave up half-way through (I was bored) or Judah and the Black Messiah - gave up after twenty minutes - also bored.)
Oh, you stopped reading. Cool.
LOL! Yep, I did.
That was blurb from Smart Bitches.
2. On reading, I'm actually really enjoying the audio book version of A Gentleman from Moscow. Currently an old Count is babysitting? Or just taking care of? A small girl. This is Sophia, the daughter of Nina, a young girl he befriended several years ago. Nina had to follow her husband, who has been sent to a work camp up in Siberia. She's getting a job nearby, and needs someone to take care of her daughter while she's gone. Meanwhile, the Count is working for a restaurant, a tutor, and living in an old Hotel in Moscow. He returned to Russia because of the Revolution, he'd been exiled prior due to a duel.
Some of it - I'm missing of course, because audio book, but it's not plot heavy so doesn't really matter.
[writing this post inspired me to write an email to college buddy who rec'd it.)
3. Finished Becoming by Michelle Obama - which was okay. I liked aspects of it. I think it was too long in places, and kind of repetitive.
Also I wish she talked more about the last years in the White House, then again maybe not - they were depressing, and anything regarding Trump set my nerves on edge.
Also finished Renegades - the Spotify podcasts with Barack Obama and Springsteen, which served as a nice chaser to Becoming. Barack comments on some of the same things Michelle does in her book.
Of the three - Promised Land, Becoming, and Renegades - I think I got the most out of Promised Land. Becoming felt a bit on the preachy side, and I got annoyed with the writer at various points. Although overall its a good book and I recommend - gives some interesting insights into the White House, and what it is like from the First Lady and first family's perspective. Not a cake-walk that's for certain.
4. The flick Promising Young Woman won't quite let go of my head. It's the kind of flick you want to discuss after you've seen it. Very dark black comedy. I didn't find it funny so much as haunting. With that gut punch of an ending.
It kind of puts it in high relief - the raunch culture - and lambasts it. The whole "walk of shame" bit. Where the woman gets drunk, has a night of sex that she can't quite remember, and creeps out the next morning? Well this film kind of underlines how that is date rape. And no, the woman being too drunk to remember is not an excuse for you to have sex with her. Or anyone who is really drunk.
But...what is haunting about it, and kind of disturbing, is how it subverts so many of the myths and preconceptions. The guys aren't hunks. They are just kind of boy-next-door types. The sort you go to college with. Adam Brody from the OC. And the raunch talk is the type you'd hear in frat houses or bars.
Also all the excuses are highlighted and derided. It's a haunting and disturbing film on multiple levels. Did I like it? I don't know. But unlike a lot of flicks it stuck with me.
Actually four of the five Oscar nominated films I've seen stuck with me:
Nomadland, Sound of Metal, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, and Promising Young Woman. (I can't remember Trial of the Chicago 7 quite as well - although it does have a resonance, but it was no where near as good as the other four. And I couldn't get into One Night in Miami - gave up half-way through (I was bored) or Judah and the Black Messiah - gave up after twenty minutes - also bored.)