The Intangible

tags: broken people, soap opera

⭐

from GoodReads

Amanda Jackson has always longed to be a mother. The early weeks of her first pregnancy are a mixture of joy, anticipation, and uncertainty as she and her husband prepare for the journey ahead.

Then comes a devastating loss. Even though her doctors tell her otherwise, Amanda believes she’s still pregnant. Her diagnosis is a rare, mysterious condition called pseudocyesis. Betrayed by her mind and body and her marriage strained, Amanda turns to neuroscientist Patrick Davis for answers.

Patrick understands the strange twists and turns of the human mind better than anyone. But as he spirals ever deeper into Amanda’s illness, his own homelife crumbles as his wife, Marissa, struggles to cope with her own loss. Marissa’s unique and, some may think, macabre work is her salvation, but it’s pulling her further and further away from Patrick.

As the two couples confront the fraught intersection of science, death, and human emotion, they venture into the darkest corners of each other’s lives. What they find there could change them forever.

*Sigh* I never learn. Once again I got tricked by glowing comments on Amazon, and the science aspect convinced me to download the book from Amazon First Reads for January 2022. What a huge disappointment and complete waste of my time! The book, inhabited by broken people, is nothing more than soap opera disguised as science-y. There are extremely long paragraphs on science and mathematics that bored me to death. The math theory that Marissa is working on is supposed to discover parallel universes but it never came to fruition. Nothing. So what was the point? SMH

Spoilers

Magdalena Bay

I'm liking the music of Magdalena Bay, an American synth pop duo. Their songs are catchy and they have their own style unlike someone pretending to be country singers *cough* Taylor Swift*cough*.

Their first album, A Little Rhythm and a Wicked Feeling, came out in 2020 and they have a new album, Mercurial World, released in October 2021. You can download both EP and album from Freegal.

Secrets (Your Fire) from Mercurial World

Killshot from A Little Rhythm and a Wicked Feeling

Her voice and their sound remind me of several Japanese female music performers for animes and of course the Danish pop music group Aqua. Who can forget their cute and fun Barbie Girl?

Silverview

tags: mystery, spies, thriller

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

From GoodReads

In his last completed novel, John le Carré turns his focus to the world that occupied his writing for the past sixty years—the secret world itself.

Julian Lawndsley has renounced his high-flying job in the city for a simpler life running a bookshop in a small English seaside town. But only a couple of months into his new career, Julian’s evening is disrupted by a visitor. Edward, a Polish émigré living in Silverview, the big house on the edge of town, seems to know a lot about Julian’s family and is rather too interested in the inner workings of his modest new enterprise.

When a letter turns up at the door of a spy chief in London warning him of a dangerous leak, the investigations lead him to this quiet town by the sea . . .

Silverview is the mesmerizing story of an encounter between innocence and experience and between public duty and private morals. In his inimitable voice John le Carré, the greatest chronicler of our age, seeks to answer the question of what we truly owe to the people we love.

Silverview is the last novel by John le Carré published in 2021. I can tell that the book was written many years before he died in December 2020. The book is very short, a novelette, but packed with espionage mystery that has a distinct le Carré voice and style. I hated Agent Running In The Field so I was wary that Silverview might be the same. Thankfully, it is not and I loved it!

Highly recommended for John le Carré fans. 

Warriors Of God

tags: fantasy, historical fiction, Polish, religious wars

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

From GoodReads

WARRIORS OF GOD, the second volume of the Hussite Trilogy by Andrzej Sapkowski, author of the bestselling Witcher series, depicts the adventures of Reynevan and his friends in the years 1427 to 1428 as war erupts across Europe.

Reynevan begins by hiding away in Bohemia but soon leaves for Silesia, where he carries out dangerous, secret missions entrusted to him by the leaders of the Hussite religion. At the same time he strives to avenge the death of his brother and discover the whereabouts of his beloved. Once again pursued by multiple enemies, Reynevan is constantly getting into and out of trouble.

Sapkowski's deftly written novel delivers gripping action full of numerous twists and mysteries, seasoned with elements of magic and Sapkowski's ever-present - and occasionally bawdy - sense of humour. Fans of the Witcher will appreciate the rich panorama of this slice of the Middle Ages.

There is no shortage of dead bodies in this bloodier second volume of The Hussite Trilogy. The book has more magic, witchcraft, shapeshifting, and dark humor. Most interesting is the almost complete revelation of the true nature of my favorite character, the half-wit looking giant, Samson Honeypot.

Space Trilogy

tags: Christian, fantasy, philosophy, science fiction-ish 

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

From Goodreads

The Cosmic Trilogy (The Space Trilogy) relates the interplanetary travels of Ransom, C.S. Lewis's ill-informed and terrified victim who leaves Earth much against his will and who, in the first book of the trilogy, Out of the Silent Planet, published by the Bodley Head in 1938, encounters the imaginary and delightful world of Macalandra.

In the second book, Perelandra (1943), Ransom is transported to a world of sweet smells and delicious tastes, a new Garden of Eden in which is enacted, with a difference, the story of Temptation.

That Hideous Strength (1945) completes the trilogy and finds Dr Ransom returned from his travels in space and living in an English university town - where the Senior Common Room is given a mysterious depth, a more than earthly dimension which such things, in the author's view, always have in life.

The Trilogy should be required reading for all specially High School students, IMHO, for the message. The books are not really science fiction but more about deep ideas. I like that C. S. Lewis is never preachy and tells a great story that will make the reader think. 

Highly recommended. 

Zombie Movies

My all-time favorite zombie movies

Versus starring Tak Sakaguchi

action, comedy, martial arts, Yakuza

Dead Snow

action, comedy, Nazi zombies

Shaun of the Dead

comedy

28 Days Later

drama

Train to Busan

drama, Korean movie

Kingdom

historical drama series, Korean, Netflix streaming

#Alive

Korean movie, Netflix streaming

The Evil Dead

the 80s 

Aimee Mann and Susanna Hoffs

 

Aimee Mann has a new album Queens of the Summer Hotel. Susanna Hoffs of The Bangles also has a new album Bright Lights and one of the songs, a cover of a Badfinger song Name of the Game, features Aimee Mann. Great cover from two great musicianss. Both albums can be downloaded from Freegal.

I can't believe Aimee Mann is over 60 years old and she still sounds amazing. I read that she suffered a neurological disorder last year that distorted the way she heard music including her own. As a result she can only listen to Steely Dan songs. She said in an interview

Steely Dan's music have an enormous amount of feeling. The characters are sad, and pathetic, and despairing, and drug addicts, mostly involved in these terrible dead-end relationships. What's not to like? I feel like people have a serious damage and then I always relate to that.

Aimee always has a dark sense of humor IMHO. I own all of her solo and 'Til Tuesday albums, Bachelor No. 2 is still my favorite.

Jirisan

Jirisan

16 90+ minute episodes

Saturdays and Sundays starting on October 23, 2021

with Gianna Jun and Ju Ji-Hoon

tags: action, drama, fantasy, folklore, Korean, mystery, supernatural

Jirisan is a Korean action drama series about mountain rangers at Jiri Mountain National Park. Seo Yi-Gang (Gianna Jun) is the best ranger who knows virtually everything about the area at Jiri Mountain National Park including where to climb the mountain. Kang Hyun-Jo (Ju Ji-Hoon) is a rookie ranger who graduated from the military academy and was once an army captain. They become partners in rescuing hikers who get lost around Jiri Mountain National Park.

I've seen the first episode and I loved it already including the OST by Jin of BTS. This is high-octane action drama with superb cinematography, even the CGI, and top-notch cast. Clairvoyant newbie Kang Hyun-Jo isn't given time to change clothes nor brief orientation and dives right into action. 

The Great British Baking Show

The 9th season of Great British Baking Show's first episode started streaming today with new bakers. Something to look forward to on Fridays. The show opened with the judges and hosts wearing tacky Billy Ray Cyrus mullet wigs and singing their baking version of Achy Breaky Heart. Prue is even wearing moustache and cowboy hat. So. Much. Cheese. I like it.

You can have your fun

Make brownies by the ton

You can fill your donuts up with jam

You can ice your bun

And then when you are done

You can load your quiche with cheese and ham

You can do a choux

And then whip up a roux

Then produce a few nice cookies you can chew

You can sit and watch the muffins rise

You can make a cream puff and some pies

But don't bake my tart

My flaky pastry tart

I just don't think you understand

You'll over bake my tart

And that will break my heart

And then you'll never shake my hand...

My favorite baketestants so far are the funny Lizzie and the pretty Crystelle. I don't care if they are not the best bakers in the first episode. Lizzie and Crystelle have bright sunny personality and I hope they don't get eliminated quickly. Not only do Lizzie and Noel have matching pink smiley clothing, they have matching sense of humor and are very entertaining together.

Noel and Lizzie wearing matching clothes with pink smiley design

Jaguar

Jaguar

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

6 episodes

tags: 1960s, action, Nazi survivors, Netflix streaming, revenge, Spanish series, thriller

From IMDB

In the 1960s, Spain became a home to hundreds of survivors of the Mauthausen camp. Isabel, a young Spanish woman, is one of them. She is looking for Skorzeny, Europe's most dangerous man, but she is not alone.

Jaguar is a highly entertaining and binge worthy 6 episodes European Spanish thriller series set in the 1960s about a group of Nazi survivors trying to capture, shame, and punish Nazis sneaking into Spain and other European cities. The lead female actress Blanca Suarez as the title character Jaguar is enough reason for me to watch when the series started streaming yesterday. I first saw Blanca when she was just 18 years old together with Ana de Armas who was 19 in the 2007 Spanish melodrama El Internado. 

Highly recommended. Watch in European Spanish with English subtitles.