You say goodbye, I say hello.

Hello fellow blogees and blogettes. Once again apologies but it has been a crazy few weeks and, unfortunately, this has fallen by the wayside. Anyway, I'm back now and will crack on regardless.

TV, Films and Books this week. I watched the trailer for Scott Pilgrim the other day and found my interest peaked. A colleague had been talking about the movie for ages and I finally broke and watched the very brief trailer and was pleasantly surprised. Definitely interesting.

Finished Stolen by Lucy Christopher this week and, considering it was a book I picked up on a whim, I really enjoyed it. The main character, Gemma, is kidnapped and the novel is comprised of a long descriptive letter to her captor. However, because Gemma's dialogue remains squarely in the past, we are unaware how her life has progressed; whether she has escaped, been rescued or learnt to accept her life. By the end of the novel, we are of course treated to the outcome, and I'm pleased that Christopher doesn't give away any of the plot before we need to know it.

I'm attempting, at the moment, six novels. Small Island by Andrea Levy, We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver and A Lion Among Men by Gregory Maguire are all so close to being finished and hopefully I'll have reviews for you next week. A Lion Among Men I've had for much too long and it's just getting ridiculous.

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro was one I did finish though. And I am so glad I did. Ishiguro brings to life an impossible alternate reality that, although steeped in our own history, focusses on a entirely different future. Like I said before, parts of it truly are spine tingling and Kathy, the main character, makes us question completely what it means to be human. If you haven't already, it is a novel that deserves to be read.

My final book thought is on Push by Sapphire. The basis for the film Precious, it is simply sensational. Whatever your preconceptions about the book or the film, it is an essential novel for our times. Precious Jones is a beautiful yet destroyed young woman and it is amazing to watch her progress and her gaining of independence through her education. Sapphire is a truly spectacular writer and her characters jump off the page until you want to carry all of them away and to safety.

So it's been quiet on the book front for a while. Films and TV have been thriving however. I saw Alice in Wonderland the other day for example, and I must say I was very underwhelmed. Such a big hype, so many big names but such a small film. Burton seems to be walking a line between the absurd and the traditional and it, unfortunately, doesn't work in this particular film. Burton is a master of his craft but I think his style has become slightly stale. His films no longer shock because we expect the weird and the wacky. The films that shock now have to break different boundaries. Take Kick Ass for example (a film I am still dying to see). Seeing a child swear THAT profusely and kill without regret makes us sit up and pay attention. Not much else does.

I did say last time that I had almost finished In Treatment Season 1. I am now on the final two episodes of Season 2 and am still enjoying it so much. It's great mostly because you feel like you really shouldn't be hearing what these people are saying, witnessing their breakthroughs and breakdowns. It feels illicit, watching their private lives unfold and for this reason I would recommend watching it alone. If you're with someone else, it breaks the spell.

I'm going to leave it there for today. Until next time.

Day Two in the Big Brother House

Isn't that supposed to start soon? The last one ever? Thank God, but you realise they will find another way to rehash it and bring it out as something else. Brilliant, just another new reality TV nightmare.

Talking of reality TV, I caught a glimpse of Project Runway today, for the first time ever. It was nowhere near as bad as I imagined. Next Top Model on the other hand...

Anyway, so this week. Not been a big week on the media front, I've been re-watching some old films and so reviews are pretty thin on the ground. Book wise, I'm almost finished Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro and We Need To Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver. Both are novels, I have to admit, I only started because of the fact that they're best sellers, not that that's always a bad thing. But I genuinely barely even read the summaries before borrowing them from the library (Yes, I'm a big borrower. To be honest, when you read as much as I do I'd go bankrupt if I tried to buy everything that even vaguely interested me) and I've been pleasantly surprised. Never Let Me Go is nothing like what I expected (It's a Sci-Fi Novel in Drama clothing) and it reminds me a lot of 1984, Children of Men and, well, basically every dystopia future novel I've read. Also, Repo! The Genetic Opera the film because it some parts it feels actually quite spine-tingling, perhaps because a lot of the novel is looking back at the memories of a child.

We Need To Talk About Kevin is great. I love the letter format, especially when most of the text is focussing hugely on the past because it really makes you feel like the husband; you're the reader, remembering the shared past with the characters. I do feel that since reading Sixteen Minutes by Jodie Picoult (I know, I'm sick of her too now) that the idea of school shooting as the main plot device is extremely overdone. Obviously it's a topic many authors and film makers want to cover as it's hugely important and, unfortunately, is becoming more prevalent in American culture, but it is difficult to find a unique and yet still sensitive perspective on a devastating crime. Shriver has managed to interject something new into the old nature vs. nurture argument however, and this does add to the novel. As Picoult would say, What Would You Do?

DVD wise, It's been a quiet week. I finally bought a copy of Batman: The Dark Knight and watched that for the first time on DVD. I still maintain that film has around three endings and is much too long but the performances are outstanding and I'm hoping that there are plans for another. I did get a little free comic in the DVD as well though, which was nice.

New things I've watched this week...mostly I've been catching up on Survivors Season Two. I loved Season One but managed to miss all of Two on TV and on BBC IPlayer so had to rent it. Not as thrilling as number One but still with some great cliffhangers and once again leaving me yelling "NOOOOO!" at the Computer screen as episode six (the finale) finished. Why, I ask you, can the BBC not make a series longer that about thirteen episodes? Just because it goes on longer than a few weeks doesn't mean we'll all lose interest. American shows goes on for much too long (*cough* 24) yet they still drag in the ratings. Please give us a show we can really get invested in. It takes you at least three episodes to get into a show and then a good while after that to actually begin to care about the characters. I promise that if the BBC produce a decent drama/sci fi show lasting for more than a week, I will stick with it for at least seven episodes, just to prove a point.

So quick little update over. Hopefully, I will have a media filled week and will have much more to say next week. Also, I promise a big old review of In Treatment (I'm on episode 40, we're almost there!) and hopefully, a look at some more recent books.


Until next week.