The Kingdom

tags: Jo Nesbø, mystery, thriller

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

from GoodReads 

In a rural village deep in the mountains, mechanic Roy leads a quiet, simple life, but when his little brother Carl, an entrepreneur, returns with a proposal for a grand hotel to revive the struggling town, dark secrets from their childhood threaten to resurface. As children, Roy defended his little brother against schoolyard bullies and vicious rumors, but his loyalty to family is tested when greed and betrayal saturate Carl's plans--not to mention when Roy's sister-in-law Shannon catches his eye. The farther he goes to protect Carl, the more Roy finds himself dredging up the town's shocking past. And when the town sheriff starts looking into Roy and Carl's parents' tragic deaths, Roy will have to reckon with how far he will go to protect his brother.

A tale of the worst family dysfunction I've ever read. Roy and Carl have a sort of love-hate relationship. Roy loves his younger brother and will do everything to protect him, including murder, but he also envies and covets whatever Carl has, almost like a Cain and Abel jealousy. But they stick together for better or for worse like a married couple.

Jo Nesbø again delivers with this new stand-alone novel which has lots of twists and turns. Roy gets out of all unfortunate situations with lots of luck and brilliant planning. 

Highly recommended for Jo Nesbø fans.

Space Sweepers

Coming to Netflix streaming February 5, 2021. Sci-fi movie from South Korea. 2 hours 16 minutes.

Chasing after space debris and faraway dreams in year 2092, four misfits unearth explosive secrets during the attempted trade of a wide-eyed humanoid.

Can't wait to see Song Joong-ki, nae sarang. 💘 

The Vanished

tags: Netflix streaming, psychological thriller

⭐

An idyllic family vacation turns into a living nightmare for parents Paul and Wendy when their young daughter disappears without a trace. When the local sheriff fails to chase down any new leads, the frantic parents have no choice but to take matters into their own hands. As tensions mount and the list of suspects grows, the search for the truth leads to a shocking revelation where nothing is what it seems.

I can't remember if I've seen any movies with Anne Heche. 13 minutes into the movie, I awarded her The Worst Actress In The Whole Universe. I was not wrong after watching the train wreck in its entirety. 

When the couple find their child is missing, she keeps shouting the name of the child in one spot and again in 1 or 2 feet away from the initial spot, instead of going around the whole area which is open space with just a few RVs. Bad acting seems contagious. Thomas Jane as the husband is also a poor actor. Jason Patric is fine as the sheriff, but why make him wear a fat suit and waddle like a duck when it's obvious he is not fat and far from obese? 

The twist at the end is not bad but the script and acting ruined the whole movie. Peter Facinelli is a lousy writer and director of psychological thrillers. 

 Not recommended.

The Last Samurai

tags: favorites, genius child, mother and child

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

from GoodReads

Helen DeWitt's extraordinary debut, The Last Samurai, centers on the relationship between Sibylla, a single mother of precocious and rigorous intelligence, and her son, who, owing to his mother's singular attitude to education, develops into a prodigy of learning. Ludo reads Homer in the original Greek at 4 before moving on to Hebrew, Japanese, Old Norse, and Inuit; studying advanced mathematical techniques (Fourier analysis and Laplace transformations); and, as the title hints, endlessly watching and analyzing Akira Kurosawa's masterpiece, Seven Samurai.

But the one question that eludes an answer is that of the name of his father: Sibylla believes the film obliquely provides the male role models that Ludo's genetic father cannot, and refuses to be drawn on the question of paternal identity. The child thinks differently, however, and eventually sets out on a search, one that leads him beyond the certainties of acquired knowledge into the complex and messy world of adults.

The novel draws on themes topical and perennial--the hothousing of children, the familiar literary trope of the quest for the (absent) father -and as such, divides itself into two halves: the first describes Ludo's education, the second follows him in his search for his father and father figures. The first stresses a sacred, Apollonian pursuit of logic, precise (if wayward) erudition, and the erratic and endlessly fascinating architecture of languages, while the second moves this knowledge into the world of emotion, human ambitions, and their attendant frustrations and failures.

I read this novel when it came out in 2000 and have reread it 2 more times. I read it for the fourth time on Kindle to mark its 20 years of being on my top 5 favorite books. Its position hasn't changed. 

4 words to describe this book: brilliant, fascinating, funny, heartbreaking. 

LOL: Ludo brought home a video from Blockbuster thinking his mother will like it because Seven Samurai is referenced. Sybilla said she loved the film, sarcastically, I suppose. She said "OHHH, Tall Men in Tight Jeans!" I'm sure you know which movie she's making fun of. 

The Tower Of Fools

tags: adventure, dark humor, fantasy, historical fiction, medieval, Polish, religious wars

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

from GoodReads

Reinmar of Bieława, sometimes known as Reynevan, is a doctor, a magician and, according to some, a charlatan. And when a thoughtless indiscretion finds him caught in the crosshairs of powerful noble family, he is forced to flee his home.

But once he passes beyond the city borders, he finds that there are dangers ahead as well as behind. Strange mystical forces are gathering in the shadows. And pursued not only by the affronted Stercza brothers, bent on vengeance, but also by the Holy Inquisition, Reynevan finds himself in the Narrenturm, the Tower of Fools.

The Tower is an asylum for the mad, or for those who dare to think differently and challenge the prevailing order. And escaping the Tower, avoiding the conflict around him, and keeping his own sanity might prove a greater challenge than Reynevan ever imagined.

I've watched and liked but never read Andrzej Sapkowski's The Witcher. After reading the synopsis of the newly translated from Polish to English The Tower Of Fools, I got the book because I love novels set in the Middle Ages. It became an instant favorite and I'm eagerly awaiting for the second book, Warriors of God.

This book is the first of a trilogy set in Silesia during the late Middle Ages Hussite Wars - Christians against Christians. The names and places are Polish and it took me longer to finish reading because I had to familiarize myself with the correct pronunciations. For example, the city of Wrocław is pronounced Vrotswahf. There are also plenty of passages in Latin and other languages with no English translations, much like Umberto Eco's novels. The passages are not that hard to understand if read in context. I didn't spend too much time in understanding songs and poems in Latin or German as they don't affect the overall story. The language in the book is a bit modern for the period and it has a tolerable amount of cussing.

Reynevan is a 23 year old doctor of medicine [studied in a university in Prague] who also dabbles in herbal medicine and simple magic. Reynevan, because of his age, is very foolish falling in love with a married girl, got caught by her husband's brothers who vowed to capture Reynevan in order to torture him to death. He tries to elude them, yet he continues acting irresponsibly throughout the whole novel putting his two companions/protectors and himself constantly in peril. He always gets rescued by the two and twice by the fair and beautiful Katarzyna of Bieberstein who insists in calling him "my Aucassin" and herself Nicolette. Reynevan is a male Damsel in Distress. 😏

I love that the novel is bursting with action and gore, a little magic, plenty of dark humor, fantasy, satire, witches, real historical people such as Johannes Gutenberg and Master of the Playing Cards, plus a scary creepy shapeshifter assassin and some odd characters. One of his companions, Samson Honey-Eater, is a giant who looks like a half wit. He at first reminds me of the characters the giant Turk Fezzik in The Princess Bride and the monk Salvatore in The Name of the Rose. The difference is, Samson actually is erudite, knows several languages, and is agile. He pretends being dumb when necessary. The most interesting are the inmates in The Tower of Fools, one in particular reminds me of Umberto Eco's weird characters. 

Highly recommended for historical fiction and fantasy readers.

You'll Never Walk Alone

You'll Never Walk Alone performed by Gerry and The Pacemakers. RIP, Gerry Marsden.