Foucault's Pendulum

tags: conspiracies, historical fiction, mystery, satire


from GoodReads

A superb cerebral entertainment about three editors who cook up a hoax - involving the Templar Knights, Stonehenge, the Cabala, and Brazilian voodoo, among other things - that suddenly becomes all too real.

I read my favorite Eco novel almost 20 years ago and read it a second time this past week to validate my 5-star rating. A GoodReads reader didn't like the book which is perfectly fine, however, he declared on his comment that readers who loved and gave a 5-star rating are pretentious, never really understood the book, and just want to look "intellectual". He is projecting obviously, but why diminish other readers' opinion of the book. It irked me and to that reader: Ma gavte la nata.

I still love the book and maybe even more so after this second reading. It is not an easy book to read with the dizzying amount of information and heavy on foreign languages but it is also fascinating, informative, and often LOL funny.

When I first read it, I haven't read George Eliot's Middlemarch yet and now that I have, I understand and appreciate why Eco chose the name Casaubon for one of the three men who concocted an elaborate story to make fun of and probably to warn people who believe in conspiracies.

Highly recommended.

Somewhere In Time

tags: romance, sci-fi fantasy, time travel

from Amazon.com

Somewhere in Time is the story of a young writer who sacrifices his life in the present to find happiness in the past, where true love awaits him. Young Richard Collier (Christopher Reeve) is approached by an elderly woman who gives him an antique gold watch and who pleads with him to return in time with her. Years later, Richard Collier is overwhelmed by a photograph of a beautiful young woman (Jane Seymour). Another picture of this woman in her later years reveals to him that she is the same woman who had given him the gold watch. Collier then becomes obsessed with returning to 1912 and the beautiful young woman who awaits him there.

I don't watch [nor read] romance, being a fan of thrillers, sci-fi, adventure, mystery, vampires and zombies, and perhaps a little horror "cabin-in-the-woods" slasher type movies. Somewhere In Time, along with a handful, maybe 3, love story movies are the exception. I've seen it several times when it was available to stream on Netflix.

Somewhere In Time is almost perfect: the actors, cinematography, music, and location are absolutely beautiful and captivating, specially Christopher Reeve and Jane Seymour.

Highly recommended.
Currently streaming on Amazon.

The City

 tags: family, friendships, mystery-crime, thriller

Book Synopsis

A young boy, a musical prodigy, discovering life’s wonders—and mortal dangers. His best friend, also a gifted musician, who will share his journey into destiny. His remarkable family, tested by the extremes of evil and bound by the depths of love . . . on a collision course with a band of killers about to unleash anarchy. And two unlikely allies, an everyday hero tempered by the past and a woman of mystery who holds the key to the future. 

These are the people of The City, a place where enchantment and malice entwine, courage and honor are found in the most unexpected quarters, and the way forward lies buried deep inside the heart. Brilliantly illumined by magic dark and light, their unforgettable story is a riveting, soul-stirring saga that speaks to everyone, a major milestone in the celebrated career of #1 New York Times bestselling author Dean Koontz and a dazzling realization of the evergreen dreams we all share. 

excerpts from Chapter 1

"My name is Jonah Ellington Basie Hines Eldridge Wilson Hampton Armstrong Kirk. From as young as I can remember, I loved the city. Mine is a story of love reciprocated. It is the story of loss and hope, and of the strangeness that lies just beneath the surface tension of daily life, a strangeness infinite fathoms in depth.

But the city was as well a place of wonder, of magic dark and light, magic of which in my eventual life I had much experience, including one night when I died and woke and lived again."

Dean Koontz opens his new novel with beautiful prose and continues throughout until the very end. It's one of the reasons I love the book and why it is already on my favorite list.

At the present time, Jonah Kirk is a 57 year old accomplished musician. His friend Malcolm, also a musician, urged him that it's time to tell what happened from when he was barely 10 years old in the 60s (the bulk of the novel is set in the 60s). And what an amazing story he told not just about himself but also his family, neighbors, friends. 

Dean Koontz set the slow pace early on. This is not a typical Dean Koontz novel because normally when reading a new Dean Koontz thriller, I couldn't wait to finish within 2 days. Not this book. I read it slooowly to savor it like a fine chocolate candy bar. I read a few chapters, put it down to analyze what I just read, and continued reading the next day. I don't know why but I think it's to understand what Dean Koontz tried to convey in this novel. Probably this - "No matter what happens, no matter what, everything will be okay in the long run."

More noteworthy excerpts:

"After you have suffered great losses and known much pain, it is not cowardice to wish to live henceforth with a minimum of suffering. And one form of heroism, about which few if any films are made, is having the courage to live without bitterness when bitterness is justified, having the strength to persevere even when perseverance is unlikely to be rewarded, having the resolution to find profound meaning in life when it seems the most meaningless."

"Surrendering to fear can destroy your life. Indulgence to stubborn anger destroys it as well. But guilt, is no less a destroyer of lives. Fear can be overcome. You may let go of anger. And guilt can be forgiven."

*******************************************

The novel is written so vividly and the characters so well defined, it reads like a movie. If it becomes a movie adaptation, I hope the cast of protagonists will be similar to my fantasy cast. 

young Jonah Kirk - Terrell Ransom, Jr

adult Jonah Bledsoe - Denzel Washington

Jonah's mom Sylvia Bledsoe - Jennifer Hudson

Grandpa Teddy - Samuel L. Jackson
Miss Pearl - Stacey Dash

young Malcolm Pomerantz -  Preston Bailey

adult Malcolm Pomerantz - Bruce Willis or Tom Hanks

Amalia Pomerantz - Elle Fanning

Mr. Yoshioka - Tadanobu Asano

Mrs. Lorenzo - ?

Odd Thomas

Oddy and Stormy: 'destined to be together forever'

Odd Thomas

Movie Description

Small-town fry cook Odd Thomas (Anton Yelchin) is an ordinary guy with a paranormal secret: he sees dead people, everywhere. When a creepy stranger shows-up with an entourage of ghostly bodachs – predators who feed on pain and portend mass destruction – Odd knows that his town is in serious trouble. Teaming up with his sweetheart Stormy (Addison Timlin) and the local sheriff (Willem Dafoe), Odd plunges into an epic battle of good vs evil to try to stop a disaster of apocalyptic proportions. Based on the best-selling thriller by Dean Koontz, ODD THOMAS is a supernatural action thrill-ride from the acclaimed director of The Mummy and G.I. Joe: Rise of the Cobra.

I've read all the Odd Thomas novels since the first one, Odd Thomas, came out in 2003, and became a fan of Odd. [I've been a Dean Koontz fanatic before I was introduced to Oddy and Stormy.] Yes, it's been more than 10 years since I read it and had to reread before viewing the movie. I like that it follows the book closely but left out a few things such as Elvis Presley's lingering spirit which I think is clever because seeing Elvis constantly will distract the audience from Odd Thomas and the story. Dean Koontz's sense of humor is also evident in the movie which to me is essential to capture the book's character.

I highly recommend the movie to fans of Odd Thomas books. You won't be disappointed.
It's currently available streaming on Netflix and Amazon.

What I love:
The narration by Odd
The screenplay
The cast, specially Addison Timlin as Stormy Llewellyn
The bodachs, although not what I imagined, are creepy enough and moderately scary
The subtle but very funny comedic scenes
The whole movie from start to finish