Recent reads July 2014.

Unless you don't know me at all then you will realise that it is a miracle if I can find time to do anything other than survive most days what with chasing after the hunter of electrical wires... so when the diminutive terror is asleep I mainly attempt to contain the chaos. (As well as other mundane but sadly necessary activities.) In spite of all this I have managed to find some time to write a few blogs and even read a couple of books!

One of the books I managed to read was World War Z by Max Brooks which I got out of my local library whilst grabbing a few family/baby recipe books to help me feed my little monkey.

Now I guess I'm a bit weird because I'm a bit squeamish about the idea of death and dismemberment but I do enjoy a good zombie book.  I don't know why but I guess it's the idea of surviving insurmountable odds and impossible situations.  That and I find the status-quo of modern life a bit boring so I prefer the drama of dragons, space battles or just a load of reanimated corpses.

One of the things that I liked about this book is the narrative style as it is not just told from one point of view you end up finding out how people experienced the outbreak in China, America, Cuba, Japan and a lot of other places. Some stories seemed a bit boring where as others were a little close to home for me and made me sit up thinking what I would do with my little one in a crisis situation like a civil war. (My brain hates me and wants to think about all the things at the wrong times of night. Annoying brain!)

After I worked out how this book's narrative worked I ended up getting hooked and reading it in a few days which is a lot faster than I have managed to read anything recently.  I would recommend this book as it is interesting to look at the idea of a zombie apocalypse from a number of different perspectives and it's always good if a book makes you think. Probably not so good if it gives you nightmares but swings and roundabouts, eh?

The next book I read was The Long War by Stephen Baxter and Terry Pratchett which is a sequel to their previous collaboration The Long Earth.

This story is set 25 years from the start of the previous novel and the events of step day are still being felt in the original or Datum Earth and across the stepwise Earths.

This book tells the story of the mistreatment of sapient natural steppers known as the Trolls, tensions between the Datum and the colonists who have stepped away to other Earths and the people exploring even further into the long Earth than has previously been managed. While I enjoyed this book I didn't find it quite as engrossing as World War Z but then again it is a different type of improbable/impossible scenario... none the less as the book follows at least four possibly more different characters it takes time for the situation to be explained.

I enjoyed the different ways the characters we follow saw the long Earth and how their adventures intertwined so I carried on reading despite it seeming like it was taking a long time for the war in the title to actually happen.  I felt like the main event which was foreshadowed was reserved for the last few chapters to get the readers hooked just like in the last book, so you will need patience if you're waiting for the action.  Despite the slow pace of this book I want to know what happens next and read The Long Mars! I wonder how long it will be until the library gets that in?

So whilst I wait for the library to get The Long Mars in I'm reading Raising Steam by Terry Pratchett which I could describe as a guilty pleasure but I'm not po faced.

I love Terry Pratchett's writing style even if it isn't considered literature. Then again James Joyce's Ulysses is still sitting on my bookshelf... I tell myself that I'll finish reading it one day.  So that's what I've been reading other than Tabby McTatt & What the Ladybird Heard x 100.

Movie Monday: Europa Report.

This week I didn't get to Kino Bambino at the showroom due to a sudden attack of hypochondria... but worry not I don't have scabies! So instead of heading to the cinema I switched to netflix and watched Europa Report instead.

Now the Europa Report is a film about the first manned trip to Jupiter's moon Europa in the search for water and life.  Obviously this isn't as straight forward as they first thought and the story is partially told in the aftermath of the mission from the point of view of the organisers and one of the astronauts.  It is mainly set in the rocket which is where we learn about the crew's roles and relationships with each other but it does venture outside of the rocket into space and onto Europa.

Now as a Doctor Who fan this story reminded me a bit of a story called The Waters on Mars; however, it was darker and less supernatural than that tale, it also does not include David Tennant.  If you want a quite realistic story about space travel in the near future then this might be for you but I will warn you it contains scenes of sadness and existential questioning.

Movie Monday: The 100 year old man who climbed out of the window and dissapeared.

I decided that I wanted to watch this film because it had a catchy title... only kidding! It was shown at Kino Bambino and sounded a bit different so I thought that I'd give it ago.

I'll admit right away that I missed the beginning as I set off late, struggled parallel parking and was just generally a tad disorganised. Due to this I didn't see the moment that the main character Allan escaped the nursing home but came in at the moment that his disappearance was discovered. It turns out missing the start didn't spoil my enjoyment of this film.

The story is mainly set in Sweden and is about 100 year old Allan and his life. He tells of the central events of his life and his philosophy of not thinking too much which makes him seem a tad simple, it also shows the situations he finds himself in as he makes his escape.

It might sound like it might be a boring film the ramblings of an old man and his opting out of sheltered care but I found it quite funny, although much of the comedy is dark comedy. I must admit I loved the explosions and matter of fact way most of the deaths were handled but I realise that for this reason it won't be everyone's cup of tea. Then again some people don't even like tea so there's no accounting for tastes is there?

National Trust Adventures!

This year for my birthday I decided that I don't need lots of new things and instead to ask for things that I could go to or do like tickets to shows, gym memberships and national trust memberships. So my Mum kindly obliged and bought me a year's National Trust Membership.

My membership card came with this exciting handbook and free parking sticker!)

For the first use of my card I headed down the M1 with Dylan to Hardwick Hall to look at the impressive architecture, friendly squirrels and metaphor riddled tapestries.

We had a lovely time and I'm now contemplating where to head next, any suggestions?

Movie Monday: Chinese Puzzle.

This week I went to another Kino Bambino film screening at the Showroom with my offspring. We went to see Chinese Puzzle which I guess is the French version of Chinese Whispers.

The film is about the complex life of writer Xavier, his family and friends. It starts off in New York then skips back in time to Paris and the end of Xavier's relationship with the mother of his children as he explains the situation he is in to his book editor.

While the film deals with the serious issue of Xavier's fight for access to his children it also has light hearted moments like when he is at a clinic donating sperm for his lesbian best friend.  This is one of the reasons I liked this film as you feel for the central character wanting to be able to see his children and have a say in their lives but it is not too heart warming and sentimental because of some of the more farcial elements of the films.  This is a film with a multitude of languages spoken so if you can't handle subtitles then this isn't for you but you'll be missing out. (I enjoyed it even if I spent half of the film watching from the cinema floor as I kept an eye on my crawling son...)

After watching this I found out that Chinese Puzzle is the last film in a trilogy by this director so I think I will be hunting these down to see if the previous films were as good or better as well.

Movie Monday: Dark Shadows.

We got this film just after we decided to cancel our Lovefilm subscription as we're finding it a tad harder to watch films these days... funny that! We popped this on the list as we quite like Tim Burton films and thought we'd give this ago.

This film is about Barnabas Collins a seventeenth century man who is cursed after rejecting the love of a witch and the ramifications of this curse. Obviously bad things happen to his family, then worse things and before he knows what's hit him he ends up as a vampire confined in a coffin. Fast forward a few centuries later he's released, feeds and tracks down his descendants who are also down on their luck. So he decides that he needs to help turn their run of luck around.

Dark Shadows is what happens when Tim Burton decides to venture into the cash rich vampire film genre and set the main part of the film in the seventies. There are a few laughs in this film mainly from Barnabas's archaic language but I did find the plot a bit forced and a few supernatural elements added in there with little foreshadowing. Maybe I missed some things as I was chasing my baby around the living room trying to stop him unplugging the tv aerial or turning off the dvd player.... I just didn't find it as enjoyable as Sleepy Hollow or Edward Scissor Hands.

Movie Monday: Frank.

So once more I decided to venture back to Kino Bambino with Dylan to see the film Frank and to be honest before seeing it I didn't know much about it.  Normally when I think about the name Frank I think about Frank the bunny from Donnie Darko.

It wasn't about some creepy person wearing a weird bunny suit and destiny though... this was about a man wearing a weird fake head and music.

Well it started off with a ginger guy trying to come up with songs and tweeting in a seaside town if I'm honest. You don't meet Frank until a bit later but it does help you to see the film through an outsiders eyes.  It goes from the mundane to the sublime/ridiculous and a few places in between.

I think that this is one of those films that everyone will interpret differently. I quite liked it in that it shows the struggles people face to create, I enjoyed some of the music and farcical elements but a few bits were quite uncomfortable. Dylan seemed to like the music and watching some of it but a baby isn't really the target audience here...

I would definitely recommend this if you've ever struggled to create whether it be music or writing as it explores the idea that creative people are all mentally ill pretty well.