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forfoxessake · 10 months

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JULY (2023) - movies

VERTIGO (1958) Directed by Alfred Hitchcock

Kim Novak - James Stewart - James Stewart

I read the novel before watching the movie, I can't remember now it got recommended to me and I decided to read it, and I recall really enjoying it. But it's been a while so the plot felt familiar but I'm not sure we have the same ending. It's still a banger of a movie. I'm obsessed with his friend's living room/studio.

Palm Springs (2020) Directed by Max Barbakow

Andy Samberg - Cristin Milioti - J.K. Simmons

Funny and silly, a different take on the stuck repeating the same day over and over trope. It's a refreshing romcom when we have become so used to whatever is on Netflix.

Sex and the City (2008)

Sarah Jessica Parker - Kim Cattrall - Kristin Davis - Cynthia Nixon

It's over two hours long when it didn't really need to go over the 90-minute mark. It's like it's a tv season compressed into a movie, so we get some good moments and lots of plot and storylines that it would only work on a weekly 20-minute thing. I just spaced out for a good half an hour after the not-honeymoon.

Sex and the City 2 (2010)

Sarah Jessica Parker - Kim Cattrall - Kristin Davis - Cynthia Nixon

It’s a completely unnecessary and racist film. I get that they were trying to make a point that women everywhere deserve a voice (Miranda’s barely talked about workplace harassment does that better) but they ended up being racist, still a bit homophobic, and in complete disregard of cultural changes.

Going to the other side of the world and expecting that everyone will think like Americans because that’s the right way it’s so “Karen-White-Cis” coded that it could have been a good thing for the movie if they were more self-aware. Instead, they make a joke about Miranda actually trying to learn and respect the culture. I sure hope the new TV series is trying to do better.

Close (2022) DIrected by Lukas Dhont

letterboxd user commented on this film with just this:

"silence has rarely been this loud"

And I could not agree more. The silence here screams so loud, it makes our ears ring and our heartache with all of the pain.

Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One (2023) Directed by Christopher McQuarrie

Tom Cruise - Hayley Atwell - Ving Rhames - Simon Pegg - Rebecca Ferguson

Always that film that you want to see on the big screen. I wasn't expecting to laugh so hard but the driving scenes with Hayley Atwell are just comedy gold. RIP the best character.

Ma vie de courgette (2016) - Directed by Claude Barras

My heart could barely handle this. Kids being kids in extraordinary situations.

Barbie (2023) - Directed by Greta Gerwig

Margot Robbie - Ryan Gosling - America Ferrera

I enjoyed it just as much as Mission Impossible the week before, it's a fun blockbuster, very pink and female-oriented, a rarity in a male-dominated scene. They try and mostly achieve to talk about all of that and Mattel's own problems, it's not perfect, but its a lot more self-aware than it needed to be.

#LIST #movies #100 movies #vertigo #Alfred Hitchcock #movies seen in 2023 #july #Palm Springs (2020)#Close (2022)#sex and the city #Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One #Mission: Impossible #Ma vie de courgette #Barbie

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jordankennedy · 4 years

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gay people: jude perry

men who are shorter than 6’: mike crew

people who are preheating their ovens: raymond fielding

vampires who refrain from drinking human blood for moral reasons: daisy tonner

apex predators: julia montauk

people who gave The Room (2005) 5 stars on letterboxd: michael and helen

classical oil painters: simon fairchild

people who cut their own hair: agnes montague

lead and secondary vocalists: nikola orsinov

Microsoft excel users: elias bouchard

the fashionably late: annabelle cane

thom Yorke from radiohead: jan kilbride

people who drive shitty cars: john amherst

skateboarders: tim stoker

mall kiosk employees: sarah baldwin and daniel rawlings

David the cashier from the smiths by my house: sasha james

my chemical romance enthusiasts: gerard keay

crustaceans from the cambrian period: maxwell rayner

men who know nothing about sports: jonathan sims

people with radiation poisoning: adelard dekker

girls with insect like appendages: jane prentiss

tea drinkers: martin blackwood

city slickers: karolina gorka

people who drink oat milk: peter lukas

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cinenthusiast · 5 years

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WARNING: The following contains heavy semantics. This is the equivalent of letterboxd users breaking down their dumb rating systems. OK, not as bad, but still! You have been warned!

I’m starting a new (and final) iteration of something I’ve done my whole life. A single list of my 50 Favorite Actors, covering the full scope of era and gender. I’ll make a new one from scratch each year as a kind of record. 50 doesn’t leave too much room for sudden or drastic evolution, but the long game is what I’m playing at.

All of my old lists (of any kind) used to be ranked. Frankly, fuck that. I’m all for ranking within narrow frameworks (Top Ten By Year, etc) but general lists like favorite actors and movies? Why do it? Numbers make the whole thing an arbitrary assessment, isolating the actors and films into a misguided hierarchy that doesn’t add any insight or clarity. Lists and rankings are such an oversaturated aspect of culture content as it is, and I’d like to avoid this feeling like just another ranking. The collective group is the thing, the totality of taste, interest, and meaning. Keeping this a singular entity (with one or two caveats) preserves this as a personal journal entry of sorts, a snapshot and not the end-all be-all. It’s a way of capturing my taste in film and the people in it. I’ve put a star next to my ten favorites, and I’ve got a separate long list of people I considered but ultimately didn’t add, and that’s the extent of it.

Growing up, I made favorite actor lists obsessively. When I was around six or seven I would play ‘School’. I was the teacher. My students? The likes of Tony Danza, Christopher Lloyd, Danny DeVito, and John Travolta. I had pages and pages of any actor whose name I knew (the entire casts of Angels in the Outfield and Addams Family Values were represented). I took very careful attendance to make sure everyone was present, calling out each name and imagining that yes, they were there. Each actor received a little check in their row of squares (I made sure I had the checkered graph paper to keep everything orderly and precise).

age 11

all of these were made at age 11

Then there were the dark days, the days when tween Katie made lists like Top Ten ‘Cutie-Patootie’ Actors (a reference to the Rosie O’Donnell Show, yes, the Rosie O’Donnell Show, seen above). As you can see, the kid from Dennis the Menace topped that one. I also had my constantly revised Top Ten Favorite Actors & Actresses. Five actors from the lists pictured above are also on this current one: Nicole Kidman, Jim Carrey, Winona Ryder, John Travolta, and Michelle Pfeiffer. They were major icons for me then, and they remain so now, 20 years after the fact. They are forever favorites.

the four quadrants, from 2006 (age 18)

What followed were continuously updated versions of this, covering half my lifetime: Top Blank (at varying points it was 20, 30, and 50) Modern Actors, Modern Actresses, Classic Actors, and Classic Actresses (‘Classic’ accounted for the Hollywood studio era). They were always divided into those four quadrants. I can timestamp the years by who was on them. Simon Pegg at the top? Must be 2008. Katee Sackhoff near the top? I must have been watching “Battlestar Galactica” then. You can find the 2012 versions on this site: here and here.

These categories created considerable grey area, swaths of actors that never really fit comfortably in their group. Those who either featured in films from both eras (Jack Lemmon) or were technically of the ‘Modern’ era but with careers that didn’t really transition into the current (Faye Dunaway). And those ‘Modern’ lists were always much more about the now. I never made room for these actors who qualified as ‘Modern’ but who could be pinpointed to the past. I wanted to feature the up-and-coming, people whose careers I was excited about now! Filmographies I could follow along with as they progressed.

This factor, which meant so much to me then, means nothing re: this new list. For one, I don’t follow current stuff to the degree I used to. 21st century film is less interesting to me (current TV far less so). But I’m really fond of a lot of actors working today, from relative newcomers to tried-and-true character actors to cemented A-listers. The group there was no room for, not by a long shot, were the relative newcomers. I’m an easy lay when it comes to loving actors. But with over a century of performers to choose from, it doesn’t leave much room for the young “oooh I love him/her/them, I can’t wait to see what they do next” ones.

But for the record, the fresher (2010 to present) faces that I’m most invested in are Adam Driver, Elizabeth Debicki, Tom Hardy, Lakeith Stanfield, Kristen Stewart, Jesse Plemons, Nicholas Hoult, and Jonah Hill (whose career trajectory I’m endlessly intrigued by, a man funnier than most of his peers, with the unstable depths of a Chris Penn, whose hyper-sensitivity about being taken seriously and joining the ranks of the prestigious show up on the screen).

The old lists, especially the 50-each ones that totaled to 200 actors, were actually more challenging than this list. Because with so much room, you’re fooled into thinking everyone can be represented. But they can’t; even those lists fill up quick. And now, with just 50 total, it gets down to essentials. There are the favorites, and then the ones who matter most. Oh, I love them? Cool, next! Oh, I love them a lot? Cool, next! Omgtheyaresoamazing? Cool. Next!

There are so many actors whose performances I consistently love or enjoy, that I always look forward to seeing and am often moved by. But there’s a difference between actors who frequently deliver great work, and actors who make something inherently more just by being there, that make me sit up in my seat because what they give either draws out extra engagement from me or they are so distinctive a presence that the fabric of the film/show is thereby altered. But none of this exists without the secret ingredient: that chemical thing that just draws you to one person’s talent and onscreen life more than another.

The factors are endless. Above is my next tier of favorites, the ones that I didn’t go with but thought about and in some cases agonized (yes, agonized) over whether to include or not.

What do you do when a specific stretch of someone’s work means more to you than most people’s entire careers? Most don’t make it (Patty Duke, Diane Lane, Juliette Lewis, Marlon Brando, etc) But a few do: pre-Dick Tracy Warren Beatty, Eric Roberts in the 1980’s, and Sandy Dennis in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s.

What do you do with the actors who are still alive but not working regularly, at all, or at the same caliber they used to? Most don’t make it (Nancy Allen, Tim Curry, Kathleen Turner, Fairuza Balk, Sheryl Lee, etc). But a few do: Jim Carrey, Shelley Duvall, Theresa Russell (a spot that could have been occupied by many that mean just as much to me, but I went with Theresa this time because it felt right), Eric Roberts, and John Travolta.

What do you do with the actors who mean a lot to you but whose careers were so brief that it’s hard to justify adding them over others? Unfortunately, almost all of those actors didn’t make it (Linda Manz, Paula Sheppard, Laird Cregar, Zoe Lund, James Dean, Pamela Franklin, etc). One does: Louise Brooks.

What do you do about the actors you love watching more than most but whose work you aren’t familiar enough with yet? None of them make it (Natasha Lyonne, Yaphet Kotto, Silvana Mangano, Helmut Berger, Dagmar Lassander, Tuesday Weld, etc). There are plenty of films from the 50 I’ve yet to see, but I’ve at least seen enough.

Then there are all the others, the really tough ones. I think about James Gandolfini more and more as the years go by. Harvey Keitel’s performances resonate a lot more as I get older (those defiant eyes, I can often feel him). I can’t believe I didn’t make room for Christina Ricci. Julia Louis-Dreyfus is the defining comedienne of my lifetime. There is only one Carol Kane, Donald Sutherland, Nicolas Cage, Joan Cusack, Parker Posey, Lily Tomlin, Crispin Glover. I get distinct pleasures from watching each of them. Some of my favorite immortals are Marlene Dietrich, Alain Delon, Judy Garland, Bette Davis, Buster Keaton, Cate Blanchett. I’m pretty sure I talk about Jude Law all the time. I will, and have, watched Jean-Claude Van Damme in anything I can find. In recent months I’ve rewatched a lot of key Samuel L. Jackson performances (Jackie Brown, Pulp Fiction, Black Snake Moan, Django Unchained), and was newly reminded that he is one of our most compelling living actors. His pervasive and phoned-in presence in every imaginable franchise had led me to forget that. I’ve been hooked on Gene Wilder, Charles Laughton, Eva Green, Cillian Murphy, and still am. It goes on and on and on.

But this is the challenge of it, and the fun of it. My 50 favorites capture my fascination with stardom and long-range careers with eras & reinventions (ex. Crawford, Cruise, Fonda, Monroe, DiCaprio, Farrell, Taylor), physicality (ex. Chan, Ball, Phoenix, Reeves, Olyphant) & commanding physical presence (ex. Reed, Kidman, De Niro, Mitchum), blue moon charisma (ex. Pfeiffer, Russell, Walbrook, Cagney, Reed, Nicholson), the ones I feel a deep connection to (all of them but especially Carrey, Brooks, & Hoffman) & offbeat god-tier character actors (Dennis, Dourif, Roberts, Black, Duvall) I would take a bullet for.

I start to realize some of the people that aren’t even on this second list: Tilda Swinton, Kate Winslet, Robin Williams, Ingrid Bergman, Cary Grant, Humphrey Bogart, Gloria Grahame, Katharine Hepburn, Michael Shannon, Al Pacino, Meryl Streep, Jeanne Moreau, Saorsie Ronan, Brad Pitt, Gena Rowlands, Dirk Bogarde, James Mason, Jeff Bridges, Ethan Hawke, Jeff Goldblum, Steve Buscemi, Julianne Moore, Catherine O’Hara, Catherine Deneuve, Juliette Binoche, Charlize Theron, Robert Redford, Julie Christie, Michael C. Hall, Michael Caine, Malcolm McDowell, John Hurt, Paul Newman, Anjelica Huston, Sigourney Weaver (every time I watch her in something I think about how much I love her. Her work in Alien 3 means a lot to me), Elliot Gould, etc etc etc. Hell, Peter Mullan is the only person on either list who appears in any Harry Potter film, and that franchise employed basically every British actor you can think of. Most of these actors have been on other lists in the past. Some you’d always be guaranteed to find there (Binoche, Deneuve, etc). As I type this I am realize I forgot Michael Stuhlbarg and John Hawkes in that second group. At the end of the day it just becomes about knowing who there was never any question about, and going with your gut on the rest.

But these 50 (ok, 52, I cheated, the truth is out!), the ones I ultimately chose, are the actors whose work collectively means more than the rest, my ultimate favorites: the ones I can lose myself in, and then find myself in. Who are yours?

1st Annual 50 Favorite Actors list WARNING: The following contains heavy semantics. This is the equivalent of letterboxd users breaking down their dumb rating systems.

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a-sea-of-ink · 3 years

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What I do in a pandemic (wasting my time)

I’m currently trying to make my way through different musical artists discography. So this blog is a place for me to list what I’ve been listening to, watching, reading to help me remember and feel like I’m accomplishing something. Who know if I’ll keep this blog updated but that’s fine.

* for ended shows, book series, etc

I’ve recently finished watching these tv shows:

Community* - All Seasons

Locke & Key - Season 1

A Letter for the King - Season 1

Warrior Nun - Season 1

Umbrella Academy - Season 1

The Mandalorian - 1-2

iZombie* - All Seasons

Brooklyn Nine-Nine - Season 7

Deadbeat* - All Seasons

A.P. Bio - 1-3

Carmen Sandiego* - All Seasons

I am currently watching:

W.I.T.C.H* - Season 1

Deadly Class* - Ep 3

Queen’s Gambit* - Ep 4

Future Man* - Season 2

Search Party - Season 3

Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist - Season 1 (rewatching)

Buffy the Vampire Slayer* - Season 3

Bones* - Season 8

New Girl* - Season 3

Chuck* - Season 4

Wizards of Waverly Place* - Season 3

12 Monkeys* - Season 2

Lie to Me* - Season 2

Scooby Doo Mystery Incorporated* - Season 1

Umbrella Academy - Season 2

Wanda-Vision - Ep 4

The Owl House - Ep 2

X-Files - Season 3

(these are the main shows, there are many I never finished and therefore are still kinda watching)

if you are interested in the other shows I watch here is link to my tvtime account: https://www.tvtime.com/en/user/16978531/profile

Movies I have watched in 2021 as of 29/01/2021:

We Can Be Heroes (2020)

Canvas (2020)

Rhys Nicholson: Live at the Athenaeum (2020)

Michelle Buteau: Welcome to Buteaupia (2020)

Donald Glover: Weirdo (2012)

Joyful Noise (2012)

Clue (1985)

If you are interested in the films I watch and review visit my letterboxd: https://letterboxd.com/dreamingpoet/

I am attempting to write a review for every movie I have watched this year. No matter the length I will be attempting one.

Books I’ve read recently:

Umbrella Academy: Apocalypse Suite 1# and #2 by Gerard Way

Phantom by Leo Hunt

Here There Be Gerblins by The McElroys

Girls of Paper and Fire by Natasha Ngan

Poemsia by Lang Leav

Closed Casket by Sophie Hannah

The Monogram Murders by Sophie Hannah

Truly Devious by Maureen Johnson

Various Sherlock Holmes Cases* by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/15314166-cheyanne

Artists I’ve been listening to recently:

clipping.

Taylor Swift

Olivia Rodrigo

Ariana Grande

Tate McRae

Hailee Steinfeld

Troye Sivan

5 Seconds of Summer

Podcasts I’ve been listening to recently:

My Brother, My Brother and Me

The Adventure Zone

Not Another DnD Podcast

Sleepy

Off-Menu with Ed Gamble and James Acaster

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khalilhumam · 4 years

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Banned for 30 years, Singapore’s only martial arts film is now on YouTube

New Post has been published on http://khalilhumam.com/banned-for-30-years-singapores-only-martial-arts-film-is-now-on-youtube/

Banned for 30 years, Singapore’s only martial arts film is now on YouTube

For years lead actor Peter Chong kept the only copy inside a refrigerator

One of the scenes in the movie Ring of Fury. Screenshot from YouTube

Singapore’s first and only martial arts film, Ring of Fury, is now available for viewing on YouTube. The film was made in 1973 but was not approved for public screening because of its “portrayal of gangsterism and vigilantism at a time when Singapore was aggressively ‘cleaning up’ its national public image.” It was finally shown at a local film festival in 2005 and restored by the Asian Film Archive in 2017. Despite its limited distribution, it is recognized as “a gem of Singaporean genre cinema.” The film was inspired by Bruce Lee’s Fist of Fury which was released in 1972. It tells the story of a noodle seller who learned kung fu to avenge his family and fight a gang of thugs.

This is historically significant in the story of Singapore film *and* a ton of fun. Bone-crunching combat, masks under masks, dogs looking at the camera, Satay Club in colour, Jurong Bird Park, sleazy gangster parties – it’s got it all! Thanks @AFA_archive !!! https://t.co/1EBOZLTB9t — ben slater (@gonetopersia) May 7, 2020

The main actor is Peter Chong, a real karate master who kept the only copy of the film inside a refrigerator before it was restored. Asian Film Archive’s archivist Chew Tee Pao interviewed the movie’s co-director James Sebastian in 2019 about the challenges in producing Ring of Fury. The archivist wrote:

As a film that portrayed gangsterism in 1970s Singapore, the filmmakers encountered real gangsters just like those who intimidated the local hawkers on set and had to tread carefully not to overstep certain boundaries. Filmed in a guerilla manner, the filmmakers did not obtain official permits to shoot at all the locations.

The actor Peter Chong explained in a 2017 media interview why censors rejected the film in 1973:

It's a real story of Singapore in the late 1960s when we still had gangs around collecting protection money. (But the censors) said that you can't take the law into your hands.

Singapore became independent from Malaysia in 1965. The ruling People's Action Party (PAP) has been in power since the founding of the state up to the present. PAP is credited for turning Singapore into one of the richest countries in the world, although it is also accused of employing strict social controls that undermine free speech and democracy. Some of those who watched the restored film in 2017 immediately recognized the cultural significance of Ring of Fury. Commenting on the Letterboxd, a global social network for grassroots film discussion and discovery, a user called celeste noted that the film offers a surreal version of Singapore, far removed from its present.

some really incredible cinematography and surreal shots of 60s/70s singapore, a place that is almost another country to me. this had the makings of a classic… it's such a huge piece of sg chinese cinema history a real tragedy that it was banned on release until 2005, can you imagine the iconic status this film would have now.

Writer Ben Slater explained how the film might have affected Singapore's movie industry had it not been censored:

…it's an attempt in the early seventies to make a commercial genre film. It was kind of like other things happening in Hong Kong. And it didn’t work because it was banned, obviously didn't get a chance in Singapore. And I think, if let’s say in a parallel universe, the film had been released and it had been a huge commercial hit, there could have been 20 or 30 martial arts films that came out of Singapore. It could have, who knows, kickstarted a new studio or whole proliferation of other filmmaking that could have happened at that time. It's very very sad, in fact, in some ways a great tragedy that it didn’t.

A reviewer for The Last Word described the film as entertaining in its absurdity:

As a film “Ring Of Fury” is terrible but as something that you can sit back and laugh at the pure absurdity that is being displayed on screen, the film is great. Everything about the film was outdated and over the top, from the training montage to the villain, but to be honest I had a blast watching it.

And the review ended with an important question:

…the film shows the viewer a completely different side of Singapore. It’s almost as if the film is a time capsule into Singapore’s past. After watching the film one question still remained. Why was the film only being shown to us now?

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y8QOPmIk8tQ?feature=oembed&w=650&h=366]

Written by Mong Palatino · comments (0) Donate · Share this: twitter facebook reddit

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illustir · 6 years

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Reading 2017

Most unexpectedly I read 52 books in 2017. These last couple of months I’d been gunning for it but nothing about the first half of this year indicated that I would even hit my challenge of 26 books.

The first half of the year was marked by some decidedly slow reading as well as becoming a twin dad. The long and regular naps of young babies along with my parental leave made that a period where I caught up on watching a lot of movies (see the 50 movies in my Letterboxd diary).

Then halfway through the year, a shift happened where the kids underwent sleep regressions and we went through figurative hell. Watching video became impossible. The sleepless nights sitting up for 30-45 minutes at a stretch with a baby falling into deep sleep turned out to be a catalyst for reading.

I wanted to see how dramatic this shift was so I retrieved my year’s reading from Goodreads, filled in the page counts and made a bar chart of pages racked up per month.

That is indeed more or less where the kids started to become difficult sleepers (month 4-5) where my first peak starts and from there on it’s a steady pace until the end of the year bang.

What this has taught me more than anything is how relative reading velocity is and how with a bit of time and a slight change in attitude you can easily read 2-5x more than you normally thought possible. One of my tricks is to read about five books simultaneously and to cycle through those to keep up the energy.

For a normal month 1500 pages seems sustainable which would be about five books per month or sixty a year if I’d kept that up from the start. And 1500 pages per month is only 50 a day something that anybody with a bit of dedicated time should be able to do.

The books are listed per category below and the recommended ones are marked bold.

Engineering

A meagre year but I feel that in my current engineering practice I know mostly what I want to know and I’m looking more to branch out. I’m still open to reading books about engineering, but the bar is rather high since both of the UX books below did not add much to my knowledge. Alexander’s Notes… is seminal and should be a required exercise for anybody designing anything.

Lean UX: Applying Lean Principles to Improve User Experience

Notes on the Synthesis of Form, Christopher W. Alexander

Advanced Swift

UX for Lean Startups

Leadership

This has been one area where I branched out and tore through a decent stack of standard works. I’ve enjoyed most of the things I read here a lot. Some books did not teach me that much as much as reinforce and recontextualize things that I already knew. It’s nice to be confirmed about things you found out yourself, but let’s hope my reading prevents me from making as many mistakes as well.

Jocko Willink’s Extreme Ownership is simple but extremely (!) effective. Reinertsen’s is a seminal tome that formalizes a lot of (what I think to be) common sense when it comes to product development and project management. Never split the Difference is a thrilling read and I’m already looking forward to applying the haggling it taught. The Coaching Habit is a laser precision book that teaches you exactly what you need to know and when/how to apply it. More books should do that.

Extreme Ownership: How U.S. Navy SEALs Lead and Win, Jocko Willink

Personal Kanban: Mapping Work Navigating Life

The Principles of Product Development Flow: Second Generation Lean Product Development, Donald G. Reinertsen

Managing Humans: Biting and Humorous Tales of a Software Engineering Manager

Developer Hegemony: The Future of Labor

Reinventing Organizations: A Guide to Creating Organizations Inspired by the Next Stage of Human Consciousness

What Got You Here Won’t Get You There: How Successful People Become Even More Successful

Financial Strategy for Public Managers

Never Split the Difference: Negotiating As If Your Life Depended On It, Chris Voss

The Coaching Habit, Michael Bungay Stanier

Literature

Seven out of nine (78%) of these authors are non-white/non-male and that is a worse score than I was hoping for. Toer’s book on life in the Dutch East Indies should be essential reading for all Dutch people. Nelson has shown me parenting from a non-cis/-male perspective and for that I’m grateful.

Água Viva

Open City

The Name Of The Rose

Aarde der Mensen, Pramoedya Ananta Toer

The Goldfinch

The God of Small Things

The Argonauts, Maggie Nelson

Blood Meridian: Or the Evening Redness in the West

The Underground Railroad

Genre fiction

Five out of nine (56%) books here are by non-white/non-males which is somewhat better than one could hope for in speculative fiction. Blue Mars was a lovely end to a huge journey and both the trilogy and the planet did grow on me. The second Inheritance book was the best of the lot which does not mean the series is bad in any way.

The Lathe of Heaven

Blue Mars (Mars Trilogy, #3), Kim Stanley Robinson

The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms (Inheritance Trilogy, #1)

The Broken Kingdoms (Inheritance, #2), N.K. Jemisin

The Kingdom of Gods (Inheritance, #3)

The Forever War (The Forever War, #1)

The Dispossessed

Blindsight (Firefall, #1)

Echopraxia (Firefall, #2)

Non-fiction

Not that much outstanding here other than Scott’s book about Zomia. Reading a lot of the other books here felt like work even if they were short.

The Holocaust Industry: Reflections on the Exploitation of Jewish Suffering

We Have Never Been Modern

The Art of Not Being Governed: An Anarchist History of Upland Southeast Asia, James C. Scott

Homage to Catalonia

Rules for Radicals: A Pragmatic Primer for Realistic Radicals

Discontent and Its Civilizations: Dispatches from Lahore, New York, and London

Alibaba: The House That Jack Ma Built

Metaphors We Live By

Pedagogy of the Oppressed

Kids

Kids’ books are terrible and Karp’s book on kids was one of the few I read that wasn’t totally useless.

Mann Und Vater Sein

Babys brauchen Väter

The Happiest Baby on the Block and The Happiest Toddler on the Block 2-Book Bundle, Dr. Harvey Karp

The Baby Whisperer Solves All Your Problems: Sleeping, Feeding, and Behavior–Beyond the Basics from Infancy Through Toddlerhood

Was machst du kleiner Bagger?

Wie kleine Tiere schlafen gehen

Die kleine Raupe Nimmersatt

Mein erstes Buch vom Körper

Schlaf gut, Baby

Poetry

A very slim year with Darwish the sole representant of this category, lovely but overly long in this selection.

Unfortunately, It Was Paradise: Selected Poems, Mahmoud Darwish

Spirituality

Trungpa’s style is highly accessible while maintaining a lot of jargon. This is one of the first times things have clicked for me.

The Truth of Suffering and the Path of Liberation, Chögyam Trungpa

via English – alper.nl http://ift.tt/2Chl3tL

#IFTTT #English – alper.nl

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