Brat Farrar

tags: mystery, ugly

goose🥚

From Goodreads 

What begins as a ploy to claim an inheritance ends with the impostor's life hanging in the balance. In this tale of mystery and suspense, a stranger enters the inner sanctum of the Ashby family posing as Patrick Ashby, the heir to the family's sizable fortune. The stranger, Brat Farrar, has been carefully coached on Patrick's mannerisms, appearance, and every significant detail of Patrick's early life, up to his thirteenth year when he disappeared and was thought to have drowned himself. It seems as if Brat is going to pull off this most incredible deception until old secrets emerge that jeopardize the impostor's plan and his life. Culminating in a final terrible moment when all is revealed, Brat Farrar is a precarious adventure that grips the reader early and firmly and then holds on until the explosive conclusion.

This is the worst mystery novel written by Josephine Tey and the worst I have read this year. She made an impostor, criminal, and thief an honorable character and made a 13 year boy murder his twin brother right after their parents were killed. Just because he didn't like his brother. No other explanation and not believable at all. This was an awful read.  

Tey had a habit of telling instead of showing. Throughout the short novel, now 21 year old adult Simon, never showed that he is an evil Cain. It was all in the mind of the impostor who was always sure it was Simon, at age 13 who killed his brother, without explaining why he thought so. Just a hunch. What?? Simon confessed to him when got drunk and justified the impostor's suspicion. 

The author never showed any sympathy for the fictional family who lost the parents at the same time, just told what happened., as though in real life she abhored the landed gentry. Anyway, the parents left 13 year old twin brothers Patrick and Simon, 11 year old Eleanor, and 1 year old twin babies, Ruth and Jane. I was so annoyed when out of the blue, the impostor Patrick thought that 9 year old Ruth probably has never been spanked. She hadn't done nor showed anything to make an adult spank her. She was a well behaved and spoken young girl. That's lazy crazy writing. Tey was not a talented writer or she was absolutely bonkers when she wrote this book. 

Not recommended.

The Jealousy Man and Other Stories

tags: Jo Nesbø, short stories, mystery, The Jealousy Man

⭐⭐⭐ 

From Amazon  

A detective with a nose for jealousy is on the trail of a man suspected of murdering his twin. [adapted into a movie, Killer Heat.]

A bereaved father must decide whether vengeance has a place in the new world order after a pandemic brings about the collapse of society.

A garbage man fresh off a bender tries to piece together what happened the night before.

A hired assassin matches wits against his greatest adversary in a dangerous game for survival.

An instantly electric connection between passengers on a flight to London may spell romance, or something more sinister. 

From Goodreads

Five stories set in the near future.

 

Welcome to Rat Island and a post-pandemic America, where the upper-class elite is waiting atop a skyscraper to be evacuated while the masses fight for survival down in the streets. 

In Shredder, a scientist researching eternal life has finally found a memory shredder that will help him forget everything, before it’s too late. 

Cicadas tells the story of two best friends on their way to the bull races in Pamplona when they fall in love with the same girl. 

The Antidote follows an estranged son with an agenda as he goes to visit his father at a snake farm in Africa. 

Lastly, in the epic and vicious Black Knight, we meet a psychologist who also happens to be an assassin contracted by big business.

All the stories have a common theme: jealousy. Some are very good but some are mediocre at best. The movie adaptation of The Jealousy Man has just 2 similarities to the story - the murder and the location. Everything else is skewed. The role played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt is a 60 years old Greek, still active police detective. He is not a lousy poser that the producer made him in the movie. Movie adaptations from books are always annoying. 

J and K Drama OST

Collecting original music from Japanese and Korean dramas started with Japanese Hana Yori Dango and Korea's version, Boys Over Flowers. I downloaded songs from several dramas until I got tired of it. Most are from 2012 series. I recently downloaded a couple from 2 newer Korean dramas. Netflix also added several of my favorite romance dramedy series, some from 2009, and I rewatched You're Beautiful. Park Shin Hye was just 19 years old and not very good but I still love her and the series, and the songs. This is another gender bending theme, with Shin Hye's character playing her twin brother invading the boys' house. So much fun and crying in this drama. LOL

The latest from Korea, Dynamite Kiss, is currently airing on Netflix, Wednesday and Thursday, on the  US Top Ten every Thursday. 

   

Korea, 2009, You're Beautiful with Jang Keun Suk and Park Shin Hye, newly added on Netflix. The song is performed by the blonde one, Lee Hong-Ki with his band F.T. Island. All 3 boys are musicians. 

Japan, 2005, Hana Yori Dango, 2 seasons, theme song by Arashi, member Jun Matsumoto plays the male lead,Tsukasa Domyoji. This is way better than Korea's Boys Over Flowers. The video was made in 2007 and has nothing to do with the drama.

Korea, 2024 - 2025, Iron Family, 50 episodes

Japan, 2012, Rich Man, Poor Woman with Oguri Shun 

 

Korea, 2012, To The Beautiful You, Korean version of Hana Kimi. It has more drama and romance and cuter leads, Minho and Kang Haneul. Sulli, the actress who pretended to be a boy sadly passed away in 2019.

 

Korea, 2009, Boys Over Flowers, Korean version of Hana Yori Dango. It made Lee Min-ho an international star. Still on Netflix.   

Japan, 2012, Sprout, with really young actors ;

Korea, 2012, Love Rain, with Jang Keun Suk and Im Yoona, coming to Netflix soon.

Nouvelle Vague

 

tags: Jean-Luc Godard, movie about a movie (breathless), Netflix, Nouvelle Vague

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐out of five

A playful, poignant love letter to cinema, Nouvelle Vague reimagines the making of Jean-Luc Godard’s Breathless in an exuberant exploration of the youthful rebellion and creative chaos that shaped the French New Wave. Directed by Richard Linklater, starring Zoey Deutch, Guillaume Marbeck, and Aubry Dullin.

Zoey Deutch who played Jean Seberg's role as Patricia is the daughter of Lea Thompson.  

Last Samurai Standing

tags: Japanese dorama, Netflix

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

From Wikipedia

Last Samurai Standing is a 2025 Japanese Netflix original live-action television series adapted from a Japanese manga series of the same name, which is also based on the novel of the same name written by Shogo Imamura and illustrated by Katsumi Tatsuzawa. Starring Junichi Okada, Yumia Fujisaki and Kaya Kiyohara, and set in the late 19th century during the Meiji period, the series takes place at the Tenryūji monastery in Kyoto. 

292 fighters came together at Tenryū-ji Temple in Kyoto after sunset, drawn by the chance to win a grand prize of ¥100,000. The challenge was clear: take each other's wooden tags and make it all the way to Tokyo. The winner would get the prize. One of the warriors, Shujiro Saga, joined the dangerous contest with a personal mission: to help his sick wife and child.

All 6 episodes are streaming on Netflix. It's action packed period series - a mash up of Battle Royale,  Alice In Borderland, and of course Squid Game. 

Game host/master Enju is played by Ninomiya Kazunari whom I recently watched in Ties Of Shooting Stars. He was also the voice of the animated Kurosensei.

Hana Kimi

 

Ore Wa Homo Janai~!!

Hana Kimi is my favorite Japanese dorama, a live version of the anime. This was filmed in 2007 and has never been equaled. I think it is funnier and better than Hana Yori Dango. There are Korean (To The Beautiful You, which I also like and still have the OST in my iPod) and Taiwanese (never saw and liked Chinese language dramedies) versions. It has a gender bending theme a la Shakespeare's Twelfth Night and As You Like it but with the Japanese style silliness. I watched this series in 2010 and watching it again on Netflix. I still love it specially Nakatsu. 

Nakatsu thought he was gay because he felt a spark and is attracted to the girl pretending to be a boy. I believe he set the trend in second lead syndrome in dramaland. I love the first couple, though, and the first series I've seen with Oguri Shun. He is also in Hana Yori Dango and numerous movies. He has a new dorama currently streaming on Netflix, Romantics Anonymous. I have seen probably half of all his TV series and movies. One of my favorites is live action movie, Lupin the Third. 

The lead female enrolled in an all boys high school where intelligence and wealth are not necessary. The boys just have to be ikemen and apparently weird. Word got out that there is a girl in the school and the boys set up tests to determine who is female among the students. The tests were weird but hilarious.

Highly recommended for Japanese dorama fans.

Escape From New York

Streaming on Amazon 

The film, set in a then-near-future world of 1997, concerns a crime-ridden United States, which has converted Manhattan Island in New York City into the country's sole maximum security prison. Air Force One is hijacked by anti-government insurgents who deliberately crash it into the walled-off borough. Former Special Forces and current federal prisoner Snake Plissken (Russell) is given just 24 hours to go in and rescue the President of the United States, after which, if successful, he will be pardoned.

Wealthy and average New Yorkers are now trying to flee the city. Just like in this movie. Well, you voted for the communist, so don't try to escape to RED states, you morons! 

Nobody Wants This

tags: Netflix, romance, sitcom

goose🥚

Sparks fly when an agnostic podcast host and a rabbi connect at a party, navigating the complexities of modern love. Their families, however, may prove to be the biggest obstacle. Will their differing worldviews and meddling relatives derail their budding romance?

I tried watching this series on Netflix. I really did try but I just can't continue watching after the first episode which was already a torture. Dialog, acting, situations are too forced and cliched. Contrived. Contrived Contrived. The last time I watched a Hollywood produced sitcom and drama was probably 15 years ago and this series reminds me why I stopped. 

Nobody Wants This most especially me.

The Lifted Veil

tags: clairvoyance, gothic, horror, mystery, sci-fi

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

From Goodreads

The tale of a man who is incapacitated by visions of the future and the cacophony of overheard thoughts, and yet who can’t help trying to subvert his vividly glimpsed destiny, it is easy to read The Lifted Veil as being autobiographically revealing—of Eliot’s sensitivity to public opinion and her awareness that her days concealed behind a pseudonym were doomed to a tragic unveiling (as indeed came to pass soon after this novella’s publication). But it is easier still to read the story as the exciting and genuine precursor of a moody new form, as well as an absorbing early masterpiece of suspense.

George Eliot managed to insert several genres in this 100 page novella: gothic, horror, attempted murder, mystery, science fiction. Utterly brilliant. The novella reminds me of Edgar Allan Poe's bizarre stories.

The novelette opens with a dying man, the first person narrator Latimer, on his death bed predicting his household servants will not come to him as he died, explaining where they will be instead.. I thought he was having a pity party, He then proceeded to tell his story as the son from his father's second marriage. He has an older brother from the first wife. Latimer felt his father neglected and compared him with the brother who was 8 years older, wiser, and more manly than his androgynous and weak looks. He was only 16 after all. 

He was sent to Vienna to study and became friends with a nerdy type (who later became a famous doctor). His happiness was cut short due to an illness and he was bedridden. He then developed a precognitive ability, he became a clairvoyant, seeing things, people, and places that are about to materialize. That's when he became fascinated with his brother's fiancee whom he thought was manipulative and cunning beneath her blonde beauty.

Highly recommended.

A Shilling For Candles

tags: Josephine Tey, mystery

⭐⭐⭐⭐ out of 5

From Goodreads

A woman's body lay limp on the beach. And while the waves lapped gently at her scarlet-tipped toes, twisted in her hair was an article which screamed murder. For Inspector Alan Grant, the case would become a nightmare of too many clues and too many motives. For the woman was the famous screen actress, Christine Clay. And the world was full of people who wanted her dead.

 I revisited my Josephine Tey Kindle collection of novels for lack of books to read. I was pleasantly surprised I liked this one published in 1939, the second novel featuring Scotland Yard Inspector Alan Grant. I didn't like him in the novel The Daughter Of Time. I will read the rest of the novels in the collection soon.

IMHO, Josephine Tey wrote a great mystery story and I liked her humor also, but I am still not convinced that her Alan Grant hero is a likeable character.  I find him slow and lacks oomph. But it's just me. 

Recommended for mystery novel readers.