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Last reviews of 2016!
Dec. 29th, 2016 11:36 amPassengers somehow turned out to be completely different to what I was expecting and also really good. Chris Pratt and Jennifer Lawrence were both excellent in quite difficult parts, the story was very much a slow build but all the more effective for it, and the film raised some very interesting questions about moral relativism. There are plenty of things I could criticise about the characterisation, plotting and other aspects, but I was gripped throughout, and thoroughly enjoyed the whole experience, so I think on the whole the film stood up to scrutiny very well. There were some lovely touches, some amazing CGI, some rather tense bits, and a very well developed relationship that went through multiple ups and downs. So, overall, recommended.
Magic for Beginners is a collection of short stories by Kelly Link. I bought it because she was an author mentioned by my bibliotherapist, though not part of the official prescription. The stories are very weird, and very little is actually explained in any of them, but they all transported me to an interesting place, where I was very happy to spend time. Some were a bit unpleasant, and some were more bizarre than others, but they were generally very immersive, and it didn't bother me that they had no rationale. I was quite content for these worlds to be as they were, living by their own strange rules, and I felt quite privileged to be able to glimpse them and wonder at them. I particularly enjoyed the first story in the collection, which was about a magic handbag that contained an entire world of its own, which ran on different time. The only thing that jarred with me was the seemingly arbitrary changes between past and present tense, but this was presumably more calculated than I could fathom, and didn't detract enough from the narratives to be a real problem.
The Incarnations by Susan Barker was another book mentioned by my bibliotherapist that didn't make it onto the official recommended list, but I bought it anyway because it sounded interesting - and it was. I read it in five days over Christmas and was enthralled throughout. It tells the story of a Beijing taxi driver, Wang, who receives letters from someone claiming to have shared his past lives. The book moves between the present-day struggles of Wang (his relationships with his father, his stepmother, his wife and his daughter are all complex and explored in detail) and the letter writer's descriptions of their lives in various parts of China's rich history. The past lives are all brutal and full of violence and betrayal, and the way in which they eventually tie into Wang's present and own personal history are intricate and surprising. There's a lot of unpleasantness in this book, and I didn't feel particularly connected to any of the characters, but it kept me coming back at every opportunity to read more. It also employed two writing aspects that my own writing is often criticised for - telling rather than showing, and overuse of the passive voice. I noticed them because my mind has been trained to, but they didn't strike me as faults in this particular book, which has been widely praised. So, I'm not sure what to make of that. I think it was the richness of the storytelling, and the unfamiliarity of the lives described that engaged my interest so completely - I certainly found the storytelling impressive and the subject compelling.
Two new games played over Christmas:
Sushi Go - a fun, quick card game where you have to collect different combinations of sushi, whilst passing the hands of cards around to the other players. It's definitely more strategic with two, but perhaps more fun with five. A good time-filler.
Istanbul - this is a worker placement game with an interesting twist. The board tiles can be reconfigured to make it easier or more difficult to move around. You also have a limited number of minions and you have to leave one behind or pick one up at each stop in order to use the action on the tile. So, it's important to keep track of where your minions are and how quickly you can collect them back up again. I found the game appealed to my style of gameplay - it was very difficult to plan ahead as the other players would likely get in the way, so it was useful to be able to change plans at a moment's notice when it came to your turn. There were many different ways to obtain the resources to win the game, so the options of where to go each turn were numerous, and the reconfiguration of the tiles allows for endless re-playing. We played five times in the course of three days, which suggests that everyone really enjoyed it! I did worse on each play, but still had fun, which is another sign of a good game.
Magic for Beginners is a collection of short stories by Kelly Link. I bought it because she was an author mentioned by my bibliotherapist, though not part of the official prescription. The stories are very weird, and very little is actually explained in any of them, but they all transported me to an interesting place, where I was very happy to spend time. Some were a bit unpleasant, and some were more bizarre than others, but they were generally very immersive, and it didn't bother me that they had no rationale. I was quite content for these worlds to be as they were, living by their own strange rules, and I felt quite privileged to be able to glimpse them and wonder at them. I particularly enjoyed the first story in the collection, which was about a magic handbag that contained an entire world of its own, which ran on different time. The only thing that jarred with me was the seemingly arbitrary changes between past and present tense, but this was presumably more calculated than I could fathom, and didn't detract enough from the narratives to be a real problem.
The Incarnations by Susan Barker was another book mentioned by my bibliotherapist that didn't make it onto the official recommended list, but I bought it anyway because it sounded interesting - and it was. I read it in five days over Christmas and was enthralled throughout. It tells the story of a Beijing taxi driver, Wang, who receives letters from someone claiming to have shared his past lives. The book moves between the present-day struggles of Wang (his relationships with his father, his stepmother, his wife and his daughter are all complex and explored in detail) and the letter writer's descriptions of their lives in various parts of China's rich history. The past lives are all brutal and full of violence and betrayal, and the way in which they eventually tie into Wang's present and own personal history are intricate and surprising. There's a lot of unpleasantness in this book, and I didn't feel particularly connected to any of the characters, but it kept me coming back at every opportunity to read more. It also employed two writing aspects that my own writing is often criticised for - telling rather than showing, and overuse of the passive voice. I noticed them because my mind has been trained to, but they didn't strike me as faults in this particular book, which has been widely praised. So, I'm not sure what to make of that. I think it was the richness of the storytelling, and the unfamiliarity of the lives described that engaged my interest so completely - I certainly found the storytelling impressive and the subject compelling.
Two new games played over Christmas:
Sushi Go - a fun, quick card game where you have to collect different combinations of sushi, whilst passing the hands of cards around to the other players. It's definitely more strategic with two, but perhaps more fun with five. A good time-filler.
Istanbul - this is a worker placement game with an interesting twist. The board tiles can be reconfigured to make it easier or more difficult to move around. You also have a limited number of minions and you have to leave one behind or pick one up at each stop in order to use the action on the tile. So, it's important to keep track of where your minions are and how quickly you can collect them back up again. I found the game appealed to my style of gameplay - it was very difficult to plan ahead as the other players would likely get in the way, so it was useful to be able to change plans at a moment's notice when it came to your turn. There were many different ways to obtain the resources to win the game, so the options of where to go each turn were numerous, and the reconfiguration of the tiles allows for endless re-playing. We played five times in the course of three days, which suggests that everyone really enjoyed it! I did worse on each play, but still had fun, which is another sign of a good game.
