Book: A Rogue of My Own by Johanna Lindsey

This romance novel "A Rogue of My Own was disappointing. I expected more romance and intrigue with this period. Characters: Lady Rebecca Marshal who goes off to court as a maid of honor and the charming marquis, Rupert St. John. Lord Rupert is supposed to be involved in spy mastering and intrigue but the book really doesn't offer much of this intrigue to interest me. However, he does seduced Rebecca who is forced to marry him . However, they are at odds with each other and sparks do fly. Only lovers of romantic novels will probably read the book. I have read several of Johanna Lindsey's books and found this one to lack substance.

Grade: C

Book: Tea Time for the Traditionally Built

As with most series, the "No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency" series is starting to run down. The tenth (and latest) is TEA TIME FOR THE TRADITIONALLY BUILT by Alexander McCall Smith and shows signs of being produced more because it is expected than out of the inspiration of a story. There are more--and more flagrant--red herrings than in the earlier books, as if it needed padding out. And the editing has gotten sloppy (assuming it has not been dropped altogether). For example, on page 20, Mma Ramotswe's appointment with Mr. Molofololo is at eleven o'clock; on page 29 it is at ten o'clock. (And why are some men "Mr." and some men "Ra"?) And who is writing the blurbs? "Irrepressible" is not an adjective I would apply to Mma Ramotswe--it is far too frivolous for her. On the plus side, McCall Smith does finally give the younger apprentice a name. But the thinness of the plot makes me think it may be time for McCall Smith to put this series on hiatus, at least until he has a stronger basis for a book.

(By the way, on page 48 it is "Mafeking" and on page 52 it is "Mafikeng", but this is *not* a typo--the first (on a tea tin) was the old British spelling, the second is the current South African spelling.)

Grade: C

Movie: Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince

This movie was a disappointment because nothing really happens. The focus is on relationships and there is no fight scene. The main character, played by Radcliffe, is devoid of emotion. His expression remains the same whether he is angry, sad, or in love. Maybe I'm judging too harshly because I liked the book, but I just wasn't satisified with the movie.

Grade: C

Book: The Book of Mom by Taylor Wilshire

OK book about a mom going through therapy with her husband.

Grade: C

Book: The Greatest Minds and Ideas of All Time

Will Durant is best known for his eleven-volume "Story of Civilization". THE GREATEST MINDS AND IDEAS OF ALL TIME (ISBN-13 978-0-743-23553-2, ISBN-10 0-743-23553-3) is a collection of his essays from various sources. Unfortunately, many of the things Durant says do not enhance his reputation as an historian. For example, he says that reason allowed us to defeat the dinosaur. We
did not defeat the dinosaur, by reason or otherwise. While he wrote before the discovery of the KT layer that led us to the knowledge of the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs, he should have known that they died off millions of years before reason arose. He also extrapolates from the idea that general intelligence is required for progress to the idea that genius is required for progress, which is not necessarily true. (Durant definitely subscribes to the "Great Man" theory of history.)

He also says things such as "[Bach] also had time to have twenty children." This is hardly an accomplishment per se. Now if Mrs. Bach had written all the music as well as having twenty children.... (My point, in case it is not clear, is that merely to
father twenty children requires very little time.) He talks about "the educated man" and "masculine poetry" as an ideal, and so on. He rhapsodizes ancient Greece was a glorious civilization, but then talks about how Rome was defeated by slavery without ever explaining why slavery was okay in Greece.

His list are at times idiosyncratic. His "Ten Greatest Geniuses" are Confucius, Plato, Aristotle, Thomas Aquinas, Nicolai Copernicus, Francis Bacon, Isaac Newton, Voltaire, Immanual Kant, and Charles Darwin. His "Ten Greatest Poets" are Homer, King David, Euripides, Lucretius, Li Po, Dante, William Shakespeare, John Keats, Percy Bysshe Shelley, and Walt Whitman.

When talking about the "Ten Greatest Achievements", he says that measuring progress should be objective, not subjective, so we cannot define it through happiness. Then he defines progress as "increased control over the environment/external world." It is not clear that this is any less subjective. (The achievements are speech, fire, the conquest of animals [both domestication and the
ability to kill predators], agriculture, social organization, morality, tools, science, education, and writing/printing.)

The audiobook version has a whole set of additional problems. The reader mispronounces many words and names, including Flaubert, Goethe, and As(h)oka. But even more, listening to an essay which is primarily a list of "the hundred books necessary for a good education" does not give one much chance to retain the information. These turn out to be mostly texts and overviews--not "The Great
Books"--and one suspects many of them are either outdated, unavailable, or both.

As I said, although the brief biographies et al are somewhat informative, I do not think that this book enhances Durant's reputation.

Grade: C

Book: The Book of Mom

OK, book about a mom going through therapy with her husband.

Grade: C

Book: A Year Without Made in China

A YEAR WITHOUT MADE IN CHINA by Sara Bongiorni is Bongiorni's description of trying to go an entire year without buying anything made in China. Her reasons seem a bit vague--she claims not to be opposed to Chinese goods per se, and was willing accept them as gifts. Indeed, at times she basically *asked* people to give her children specific things that they wanted that were made in China. And she spent a lot of time explaining to her children, and friends, and us, that it was not that she disliked China, or that China was bad. Also, her efforts were mostly at the end-product level, because it became obvious that one could not always tell where the parts for something were made (though she did try). Bongiorni seems to vacillate between spending a lot more money to avoid something made in China and conniving to get as a gift something she (or more often, her son) wants that is made in China. It is also not clear how much buy-in she had from her family on this project that they were involved in. While there are interesting anecdotes about trying to find children's shoes or
sunglasses, it mostly seems like an undirected experiment, sort of like deciding not to buy anything made with plastic. (Or perhaps even less directed than deciding not to buy anything made with
plastic.)

Grade: C

Book: Kiki Strike: The Empress's Tomb

A fantastic fantasy good for the younger audiences full of giant squirrels, a haunted mansion, and friends.

Grade: C

Book: Rebel Angels

It’s not my type of genre but I actually enjoyed it.

Grade: C

Movie: Repo: The Genetic Opera

This is a Grand Guignol science fiction rock opera starring Alexa Vega, Paul Sorvino, and Anthony Head. Rotti Largo, the man who supplies the world with synthetic transplant organs, became the most powerful man in the world during a strange epidemic. As he nears death there is a struggle for who will inherit his empire after he dies. The plot is minimal and for a rock opera, there is too little real melody. Visually the film is a little nauseating but otherwise very inventive. Darren Lynn Bousman, director of three sequels to SAW, helms this film with what I would guess is the same sensitivity.

The time is somewhere around the middle years of the 21st Century. The world has been ravaged by a strange plague that attacks by destroying internal organs. There are not enough natural organs to go around for all the transplants that are needed. But a company named GeneCo has fulfilled the demand. They have perfected artificial organs that function like the real thing. That is the good news. The bad news is that like any medical technology these days, the artificial organs are very expensive. When it is a question of living or dying, many are willing to pay the price and GeneCo offers easy credit. GeneCo has become the wealthiest company in the world. But large numbers of organ recipients are deeply in debt to GeneCo. When they cannot pay GeneCo sends the Repo Man to legally repossess the organs from their living bodies and leave them bleeding and dying.

The owner of GeneCo is the ruthless medical industrialist Rotti Largo (played by Paul Sorvino). He has three has three children vying to be the most cold-blooded to prove they are worthy to run the empire. Meanwhile we meet Shilo Wallace (Alexa Vega) is a teenager with blood disease that keeps her at home. She is discovering that her dead mother has a history with Rotto Largo. And Nathan, her father ("Buffy"'s Anthony Head), may also have had other involvements with the most powerful man in the world. This is all told in a world in which the smart set lives ignoring the gruesome violence in their society that they pass every day. By the time the story is over everybody seems to be awash in the spilt blood. The plot does have some interesting concepts behind it somewhere deep in the bloody organs.

The color palette is usually very controlled with strong colors suited to the mood of the scene. That also enhances the graphic novel feel of the film. The film uses the gimmick of having all the expository lumps presented as comic book panels.

Reader Susan de Guardiola, who recommended the film to me, said that she could not get the music out of her head. The reason she is still humming the music is what is most wrong with the movie. It may be a question of musical taste, but the music is all short repetitive note combinations without more than a rudimentary melody. You can find some of that style in JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR, but that also has longer and more engaging melodies such as "I Don't Know How To Love Him". In REPO: THE GENETIC OPERA someone will be saying things in a five-note theme repeated three times, then will get a response to the same five-note theme. Pretty soon you cannot get that five-note theme out of your head. The Top-40 stations work by the same principle of repetitions. But there are no longer engaging melodies. Much of the music is not so much sung as yelled to the sound of a heavy beat. That makes the music all the less appreciated when it overstays its welcome and becomes an earworm.

Along for the ride in lesser roles are Sarah Brightman and Paris Hilton. The screenplay is by Darren Smith and Terrance Zdunich based on their own stage play. (Smith has a role as a bandleader and Zdunich plays the film's host and the grave robber.) There are numerous borrowings (or perhaps homages) to other musicals. However, the screenplay is probably more timely today than when it was first produced on the stage with themes of credit problems and corporate malfeasance, both on people's minds right now.

It is hard to get excited about songs of ecstasy over getting kidney transplants or people who rip out their own eyes.

Film Credits:
http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0963194/

What others are saying:
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/repo_the_genetic_opera/

Susan de Guardiola's extensive blog on the film:
http://www.rixosous.com/2009/02/repo-the-genetic-opera.html

Grade: C

Movie: Grilled

Different. It took 45 minutes to have some action but it was actually funny! Men bonding. Cute…

Grade: C

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Movie: War, Inc.

Should have been better considering the cast. Unusual plot.

Grade: C

Book: This Island Earth

The book/movie discussion group I'm in chose THIS ISLAND EARTH by Raymond F. Jones for this month. One person claimed claims that everything good in the book was in the movie, and vice versa, and he may be right. What is true is that the second half of the movie is very different from the book. In the movie, it turns out that the recruiting on Earth is to help the planet Metaluna fight an interplanetary war against another planet. In the book, the war is more widespread, and in fact Earth itself is going to be involved. This makes the title of the book--a reference to South Pacific islands that found themselves caught up in World War II knowing nothing about the war except that one side has landed on their island and told them to build an airstrip for them. Unfortunately, although the premise is better imagined in the book, it is not very well-developed. On the other hand, the movie may not hold together as well, but it is very interesting visually.

Grade: C