I realized that I haven’t posted anything recently; this is due largely to lack of funds prohibiting my perusal of the live scene … such as it is. So here’s a review thing I did for my Master’s course.
The week’s question was interesting; though I have an extensive library of my own that I […]

This book was really good.
The Book Thief is narrated by death, which is only suitable as a lot of dying happens in the book. The death is only suitable as well considering it’s set in the early 1940s in Nazi Germany. The scenes are pretty vivid, but in a funny pastel that draws you […]

This has to be the best action movie of the year. Hands down.
There are a couple of reasons for this. Firstly, the cinematography is unique and the sepia-toned Ancient World symbolizes the connectivity of man and his beliefs of the cosmos - the Gods, Nature, the forces of passion and warfare, etc. Whoever came […]

I’d like to personally clarify the reason for poor reviews on the recent Bond film - the filmakers were deliberately steering away from the tried-and-true formulaic gadget-encrusted Bond; and that did not sit well with the tried-and-true audience. The formula is so infective even reviewers were saying, ‘lacks the true Bond vibe’ and all the […]

Wool embroidery on linen in eight colours, this is not actually a tapestry – that is, a patterned woven cloth – but an example of embroidery or needlework. During festivals in Bayeux, France, its 231 feet was draped around the nave walls of the Cathedral.
Ostensibly, this work of art gradually reveals the vivid story […]

I had to have two stabs at this one, the first lacking any real enthusiasm at all really, and the second charged with it. While I found the first few chapters utterly boring the first time around when I tried again a few months later I stayed up much later than my drooping eyelids and […]

This one was suprisingly good. Told chapter by chapter in a staggered chronology from the perspective of all the members of a family, it gives a nice rounded appreciation of the main storyline; a girl with lukemia and the sister born specifically as a donor to keep her alive.
Anna - the latter - is the […]

A story about the ‘one honest man’ - set in and around the business of selling and buying race horses - was pretty terrible. The direction of the thing felt incredibly manufactured, almost staged at points. Despite being a thrill-less thriller, it was easy to read and not too difficult to wander through.
I would’ve liked […]