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Book Recs/Movie Recs, 2/7/09
Saturday, February 7th, 2009 05:22 pmIn books:
The Stepsister Scheme, by Jim Hines: I heartily enjoyed Jim Hines' other book, Goblin Quest and knew that I would probably enjoy this book, too, especially when I heard about the premise. Cinderella is trying to get used to her "happily ever after" at the palace when one of her wicked stepsisters appears and tries to murder her. Fortunately, Cinderella has the aid of Snow (a witch) and Sleeping Beauty/Talia (a martial arts expert) who quickly sort out that the assassination attempt was a distraction while the stepsisters kidnapped Cinderella's Prince Charming and whisked him away to the World of the Fairies. What unfolds after this is a combination of the "fractured fairy tale" type of story and just enough "real life" gravitas to lend a serious undertone to the book. (The real life implications of the original Sleeping Beauty story are, in fact, pretty disturbing.) I like Hines' narrative approach throughout the story; he has a keen eye for satire and detail that a lot of other writers gloss over, like the fact that a pegasus would certainly get our heroines to their destination faster, but riding them is a difficult and painful experience. There are also lots of great parts about bargaining with fairies, who are mostly trying to get ahold of the heroines' firstborn. This is not an entirely fluffy read, but it's an entertaining one, and a great antidote to the general passivity of princesses on the part of a certain animation giant.
Greywalker, by Kat Richardson: Stellar urban fantasy with a strong heroine and affectionate descriptions of its Seattle setting... what's not to love? There was even an interesting take on the vampire myth that I hadn't expected, and that's saying something, given how popular vampires are these days. The villains in this book are especially well described and creepy to boot. I'm really impressed with this one, actually--every character was vivid and well-rounded, even the one-note subjects who barely make an appearance. Highly recommended. This book is precisely why I love being in a book group--I might have picked it up on my own, but this meant that I really did pick it up and read it carefully, and for that I am grateful.
In manga::
Sunshine Sketch, Volume 2, by Ume Aoki: This is so adorable I may just about melt from the cute. There's more of the same from the first book; Yuno is still a shy art student with wacky, fellow art student neighbours, and they go on every-day adventures, develop their artistic skills, and generally hang out and say silly things. The only thing I want to know about this manga is whether the artist/writer is a man or a woman. Depending on the answer, I may have to revise my opinion of the sexual tension between two of the main characters. I also want to give the translators a lot of credit for leaving in Japanese set phrases like tadaima and okaeri which help set the tone for the characters' communication in Japanese.
In movies::
The Reader: A while back, I wrote about why "The Dark Knight" was so exhausting, and this movie was tiring in a similar fashion. However, instead of giving you a different moral dilemma every five minutes, "The Reader" concentrated on two of the major moral dilemmas of the 20th century:
1) If the German people *knew* about the Holocaust, they *should* have done something to stop it.
2) If you have evidence/know something that could exonerate someone in a criminal trial, you *should* present it to the court, despite your personal feelings about the person on trial.
There is no easy answer to either of these two issues, and thinking about either one for a prolonged period of time is draining. It's a lot easier to damn the main male character for the second one, as he does nothing to exonerate the woman he loves (or at least, thinks he loves) when she confesses to a crime that she wasn't entirely responsible for, but did take part in committing. The first dilemma is a lot harder to confront, and there is no way a definitive answer can be reached in the space of a two-hour movie, or a short book, or a novel, or even an encyclopedia, really. This isn't an easy or fun movie, and there were parts of it that were beautiful, but it tries to tie together things a little too easily for my taste. I am somewhat curious about the book it was based on now, but wary of reading something that will undoubtedly be more difficult that the film.
In Oscar nods, now, I need only to see "Slumdog Millionaire" and "Frost/Nixon" to get all the best picture category done. I am not entirely crazy about "Frost/Nixon" and may substitute "Frozen River" instead, as I hear that Melissa Leo is amazing and the screenplay sounds great.
In the meantime,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
yebisu9 and I very much enjoyed Push, which is pretty much the opposite of any Oscar-nominated films, but highly entertaining. I would play the RPG based on it, although there's not enough clear material in the story to support an entire role-playing world. There were only two things that rankled with me about this film; a prolonged fight scene towards the end (which got really boring), and the disturbing sexualization of Dakota Fanning's character (who I thought was all kinds of awesome, really, except that I didn't want to see as much of her thighs as I did.) Still, more bad than good, and visual style to spare.
The Stepsister Scheme, by Jim Hines: I heartily enjoyed Jim Hines' other book, Goblin Quest and knew that I would probably enjoy this book, too, especially when I heard about the premise. Cinderella is trying to get used to her "happily ever after" at the palace when one of her wicked stepsisters appears and tries to murder her. Fortunately, Cinderella has the aid of Snow (a witch) and Sleeping Beauty/Talia (a martial arts expert) who quickly sort out that the assassination attempt was a distraction while the stepsisters kidnapped Cinderella's Prince Charming and whisked him away to the World of the Fairies. What unfolds after this is a combination of the "fractured fairy tale" type of story and just enough "real life" gravitas to lend a serious undertone to the book. (The real life implications of the original Sleeping Beauty story are, in fact, pretty disturbing.) I like Hines' narrative approach throughout the story; he has a keen eye for satire and detail that a lot of other writers gloss over, like the fact that a pegasus would certainly get our heroines to their destination faster, but riding them is a difficult and painful experience. There are also lots of great parts about bargaining with fairies, who are mostly trying to get ahold of the heroines' firstborn. This is not an entirely fluffy read, but it's an entertaining one, and a great antidote to the general passivity of princesses on the part of a certain animation giant.
Greywalker, by Kat Richardson: Stellar urban fantasy with a strong heroine and affectionate descriptions of its Seattle setting... what's not to love? There was even an interesting take on the vampire myth that I hadn't expected, and that's saying something, given how popular vampires are these days. The villains in this book are especially well described and creepy to boot. I'm really impressed with this one, actually--every character was vivid and well-rounded, even the one-note subjects who barely make an appearance. Highly recommended. This book is precisely why I love being in a book group--I might have picked it up on my own, but this meant that I really did pick it up and read it carefully, and for that I am grateful.
In manga::
Sunshine Sketch, Volume 2, by Ume Aoki: This is so adorable I may just about melt from the cute. There's more of the same from the first book; Yuno is still a shy art student with wacky, fellow art student neighbours, and they go on every-day adventures, develop their artistic skills, and generally hang out and say silly things. The only thing I want to know about this manga is whether the artist/writer is a man or a woman. Depending on the answer, I may have to revise my opinion of the sexual tension between two of the main characters. I also want to give the translators a lot of credit for leaving in Japanese set phrases like tadaima and okaeri which help set the tone for the characters' communication in Japanese.
In movies::
The Reader: A while back, I wrote about why "The Dark Knight" was so exhausting, and this movie was tiring in a similar fashion. However, instead of giving you a different moral dilemma every five minutes, "The Reader" concentrated on two of the major moral dilemmas of the 20th century:
1) If the German people *knew* about the Holocaust, they *should* have done something to stop it.
2) If you have evidence/know something that could exonerate someone in a criminal trial, you *should* present it to the court, despite your personal feelings about the person on trial.
There is no easy answer to either of these two issues, and thinking about either one for a prolonged period of time is draining. It's a lot easier to damn the main male character for the second one, as he does nothing to exonerate the woman he loves (or at least, thinks he loves) when she confesses to a crime that she wasn't entirely responsible for, but did take part in committing. The first dilemma is a lot harder to confront, and there is no way a definitive answer can be reached in the space of a two-hour movie, or a short book, or a novel, or even an encyclopedia, really. This isn't an easy or fun movie, and there were parts of it that were beautiful, but it tries to tie together things a little too easily for my taste. I am somewhat curious about the book it was based on now, but wary of reading something that will undoubtedly be more difficult that the film.
In Oscar nods, now, I need only to see "Slumdog Millionaire" and "Frost/Nixon" to get all the best picture category done. I am not entirely crazy about "Frost/Nixon" and may substitute "Frozen River" instead, as I hear that Melissa Leo is amazing and the screenplay sounds great.
In the meantime,
yebisu9 and I very much enjoyed Push, which is pretty much the opposite of any Oscar-nominated films, but highly entertaining. I would play the RPG based on it, although there's not enough clear material in the story to support an entire role-playing world. There were only two things that rankled with me about this film; a prolonged fight scene towards the end (which got really boring), and the disturbing sexualization of Dakota Fanning's character (who I thought was all kinds of awesome, really, except that I didn't want to see as much of her thighs as I did.) Still, more bad than good, and visual style to spare.
