MOVIE - The Girl in the Spider's Web

R

Wide/Limited release

Viewed Monday 11/19/18 at Carlisle in a recliner...by myself....
IMBd:  6.1/10

RT Critic: 41   Audience:  46
Critic's Consensus:  The Girl in the Spider's Web focuses on the action elements of its source material for a less complex -- and only sporadically effective -- franchise reboot.

Cag:  3/Liked it somewhat

Directed by Fede Alvarez

Columbia Pictures

Based on the book by Steig Larson/David Lagercrantz

Claire Foy

My comments:  There were so many improbabilities and unreasonable happenstances in this movie that it became more than ludicrous.  However, if you didn't think about all of them, it was and enjoyable couple of hours.....  The actress that played Lisbeth Salander did NOT do it for me.  At all.

RT/ IMDb Summary:  Young computer hacker Lisbeth Salander and journalist Mikael Blomkvist find themselves caught in a web of spies, cybercriminals and corrupt government officials.

November 15th - First Snow of the Year

Okay, so I may hate winter, and snow, but I love poetry, and here's a poem that suits me really well...

A Poem for November 14th

from Sing a Song of Seasons: A Nature Poem foe Each Day of the Year selected by Fiona Waters.

POETRY - Sing a Song of Seasons: A Nature Poem for Each Day of the Year selected by Fiona Waters

Illustrated by Frann Preston-Gannon

2018, Nosy Crow

HC $40.00

333 pgs.

Goodreads rating: 4.42 - 12 ratings

My rating: 5

Endpapers: Cut out oak leaves (from different papers) on white

My comments:  A gorgeously illustrated volume of nature poetry from authors old and new.  The cover doesn't do it justice.  Outstanding addition to any library - though extremely heavy, might be a bit difficult for a younger child to hold and covet....

January

January is

A clean white sheet, newly-ironed

An empty page:

A field of freshly-fallen snow

Waiting to be mapped

By our footsteps.

                        John Foster  

Keep a Poem in Your Pocket

Keep a poem in your pocket
and a picture in your head
and you'll never feel lonely
at night when you're in bed.

The little poem will sing to you
the little picture bring to you
a dozen dreams to dance to you
at night when you're in bed.

So ---
Keep a picture in your pcoket
and a poem in your head
and you'll never feel lonely
at night when you're in bed.
       
           Beatrice Schenk de Regniers

Goodreads:  Sing a Song of Seasons is a lavishly illustrated collection of 366 nature poems -- one for every day of the year. Filled with familiar favorites and new discoveries written by a wide variety of poets, including William Shakespeare, Emily Dickinson, John Updike, Langston Hughes, N. M. Bodecker, Okamoto Kanoko, and many more, this is the perfect book for children (and grown-ups!) to share at the beginning or the end of the day.

96. The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater

#1 Raven Cycle
listened on Audible
2012 Scholastic
409 pgs.
YA Fantasy
Finished 11/14/2018
Goodreads rating:  4.06 - 198,743 ratings
My rating:  5
Setting:  Contemporary Henrietta, Virginia

First line/s:  "Blue Sargent had forgotten how many times she'd been told that she would kill her true love."

My comments:  Read on the drive home from Maine, through actual sleet and snow and rain and it was the perfect book to listen to on this particularly arduous journey, lol.  It was so good.  I loved the elements of magic, the otherwordly "stuff" that become reality.  I have really good pictures in my mind of the four boys, but the picture of Blue, the female protagonist, is hazier.  I really hope I get more insight into her in the next books - which I hope I can get my hands on asap!

Goodreads synopsis:  “There are only two reasons a non-seer would see a spirit on St. Mark’s Eve,” Neeve said. “Either you’re his true love . . . or you killed him.”
          It is freezing in the churchyard, even before the dead arrive.
          Every year, Blue Sargent stands next to her clairvoyant mother as the soon-to-be dead walk past. Blue herself never sees them—not until this year, when a boy emerges from the dark and speaks directly to her.
          His name is Gansey, and Blue soon discovers that he is a rich student at Aglionby, the local private school. Blue has a policy of staying away from Aglionby boys. Known as Raven Boys, they can only mean trouble.
          But Blue is drawn to Gansey, in a way she can’t entirely explain. He has it all—family money, good looks, devoted friends—but he’s looking for much more than that. He is on a quest that has encompassed three other Raven Boys: Adam, the scholarship student who resents all the privilege around him; Ronan, the fierce soul who ranges from anger to despair; and Noah, the taciturn watcher of the four, who notices many things but says very little.
          For as long as she can remember, Blue has been warned that she will cause her true love to die. She never thought this would be a problem. But now, as her life becomes caught up in the strange and sinister world of the Raven Boys, she’s not so sure anymore.
          From Maggie Stiefvater, the bestselling and acclaimed author of the Shiver trilogy and The Scorpio Races, comes a spellbinding new series where the inevitability of death and the nature of love lead us to a place we’ve never been before.

MOVIE - Bohemian Rhapsody

PG-13 (2:14)

Wide Release 11/2/18

viewed 11/12/18 in Bangor with Fran

RT Critic: 62   Audience:   91
Critic's Consensus:  Bohemian Rhapsody hits a handful of high notes, but as an in-depth look at a beloved band, it offers more of a medley than a true greatest hits collection.

Cag:  5.5 I loved it AND it was awesome

Directed by Bryan Singer

20th Century Fox

Rami Malek!

My comments:  What a fantastic movie.  Great casting, fantastic music (pretty much all the original Queen). I could see this over and over- totally delightful. Rami Malek was EXCEPTIONAL!

RT/ IMDb Summary:  Bohemian Rhapsody is a foot-stomping celebration of Queen, their music and their extraordinary lead singer Freddie Mercury, who defied stereotypes and shattered convention to become one of the most beloved entertainers on the planet. The film traces the meteoric rise of the band through their iconic songs and revolutionary sound, their near-implosion as Mercury's lifestyle spirals out of control, and their triumphant reunion on the eve of Live Aid, where Mercury, facing a life-threatening illness, leads the band in one of the greatest performances in the history of rock music. In the process, cementing the legacy of a band that were always more like a family, and who continue to inspire outsiders, dreamers and music lovers to this day.

95. The Dry by Jane Harper

#1 Aaron Falk
listened on Audible
2016 MacMillan Australia
352 pgs.
Adult Murder Mystery
Finished 11/9/2018
Goodreads rating: 4.04 - 88,986 ratings
My rating: 4
Setting: Contemporary Australian boonies

First line/s:  "It wasn't as though the farm hadn't seen death before, and the blowflies didn't discriminate."

My comments:  It was fun being transported to Australia - and I must admit it took a bit of time to get used to the reader's Aussie accent.  Excellent story, mostly dark and sad.  This is Aaron Falk's story - the story of his childhood, his friendships, his past.  That he also becomes the chief investigator, the mystery-solver is a nice plus.  I look forward to reading the next in the series because we've gotten to know Aaron Falk so well, where does his life go from here?

Goodreads synopsis:  A small town hides big secrets in this atmospheric, page-turning debut mystery by award-winning author Jane Harper.    
          In the grip of the worst drought in a century, the farming community of Kiewarra is facing life and death choices daily when three members of a local family are found brutally slain.          
          Federal Police investigator Aaron Falk reluctantly returns to his hometown for the funeral of his childhood friend, loath to face the townsfolk who turned their backs on him twenty years earlier. 
          But as questions mount, Falk is forced to probe deeper into the deaths of the Hadler family. Because Falk and Luke Hadler shared a secret. A secret Falk thought was long buried. A secret Luke's death now threatens to bring to the surface in this small Australian town, as old wounds in bleed into new ones.