Saturday, July 13, 2019

June

  1. Thanks a Thousand by A. J. Jacobs
    • Usually I like the fact that TED books reduce large topics into easily digestible introductions that allow you to do further research if desired, but I kind of wish this was a full-fledged book from the start rather than part of a mini-series. I like the concept, but I feel like the book lost momentum somewhere along the line, and then the end was unexpected, somehow? Anticlimactic?
  2. Nothing by Annie Barrows
    • It was... I feel like things weren't entirely explained (like how'd Charlotte get the dress with her being broke and all? Or how did she purchase that many gifts with her $50?? Or why text Frankie's mom asking for the dress if Charlotte was going to buy it???), and the writing was otherwise sloppy in places. It might be that I misread or misunderstood parts of it (especially towards the end?) but overall I didn't really enjoy it much.
    • One thing that I did like was that Sid and Charlotte didn't have an immediate connection in real life, kind of like a reality check: sometimes it be like that.
  3. Les Chats du Louvre by Taiyo Matsumoto
  4. Lemonade (Beyonce)
  5. The Sullivan Street Bakery Cookbook by Jim Lahey & Maya Joseph
    • I'm not usually one for putting cookbooks here under books I've read, or keeping track of which I have and haven't, but I made good use of this one here, so I figured it deserves a spot on my list.
  6. Who Can Kill a Child? (1976)
    • How this movie has a 7.3 rating on IMDb is beyond me
  7. Generations by Flavia Biondi
    • This one made me cry, somewhat unexpectedly.
  8. Tomatoland: How Modern Industrial Agriculture Destroyed Our Most Alluring Fruit by Barry Estabrook
    • Well I guess I'll never be able to eat another winter tomato without a stab of guilt ever again. Good thing I'm trying to plant tomatoes this year for the first time.
    • Now that I've actually read it to the end, I do kind of wish Estabrook hinted at the eventual and hard-won success of the coalition and its fight for working standards and the rights of tomato workers earlier on in the book. It's also a bit unclear whether there are still the same issues of debt slavery, mistreatment of workers, etc. on tomato farms - just that there were no more cases of slavery in Florida when the afterword was written (but the incidents were being under-reported from the start, so this could mean a number of things). I was reading it a little at a time rather than in large swathes, so perhaps I missed something here?
  9. The Guardians/Les gardiennes (2018)
    • Despite the slow pace and the absence of theatrical or extraordinary plot, this portrayal of everyday difficulties faced by a family - a community - during WWI was touching, beautiful, and very human. Even in its unresolved "end", the result is very satisfying, as sometimes, situations really don't get resolved with any sort of direct confrontation, rather just a slow, passive acceptance of the consequences of your actions. Knowing this takes place during the Great War, this was nothing like what I expected, especially with the portrayals of soldiers on leave, and it surprised me in the best of ways.
  10. No Beast So Fierce by Dane Huckelbridge
    • Found this one a while back reading an excerpt of it from Lithub, and it finally came in for me!
    • Very enjoyable read overall, though I could probably have done without some of the "we can imagine that..." sort of fictionalized depiction of details of events (though not the major details). A lot of this is actually an overview of what factors most likely combined to lead to the Champawat tiger's preying on human populations.
  11. Destination Wedding (2018)
    • It started off at a good beat, establishing the fun, sharp banter between Lindsay and Frank, but as it went on and both of them continued to... not really change, it got a bit grating. You knew how it was going to end, and I guess it's kind of nonsensical fun? But I was hoping it'd have a bit more depth to it. (Tall order?)
  12. The Little Stranger (2018)
    • The synopsis sounded awfully familiar when I first read it, but I didn't realize until a few weeks after, right before I actually watched the film, that I own the novel off which this was based. I enjoyed the movie quite a bit, and am looking forward to reading the novel to see how different they are one from the other.

Quite a busy month as far as stage performances go, what with the end of the 18/19 seasons, the start of the 19/20 one, and the Luminato festival all happening at once - June is a happening month!
  1. By Heart, directed & acted out by Tiago Rodrigues (Canadian Stage)
    • Having attended this at the beginning of the month, I still know Sonnet 30 by heart at the end of the month. It's quite a feat.
    • I'm pretty sure the only reason I decided to choose this show in my subscription package last year was because the director is Portuguese, and as I was more actively trying to learn Portuguese at the time, I really wanted to watch and listen to as much Portuguese as I could - I'm so glad I did! Rodrigues did an amazing job tying together all the disparate threads into a cohesive story and keeping the audience, both on-stage and off, fully engaged.
  2. Pomegranate Opera (Buddies in Bad Times)
  3. 88 Keys (Soulpepper)
  4. Kiinalik (Luminato)
  5. Obeah Opera (Luminato)
  6. The Black Drum (Soulpepper)

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