The Movie I Saw 2025

***** = Must see.
**** = Really good
*** = Worth seeing
** = A waste of time, but one or two good moments
* = Not worth your time
-0 = Less Than Zero: viewing this is likely to result in a dramatic loss of IQ points.

1. Dear Santa (2024) Y'know...this wasn't a very good movie, but Jack Black (as Santa / Satan / That Demon Guy) is always entertaining to watch, and there were at least a dozen or so laughs along the way, so this wasn't the worst way to start the New Year's viewing. ** That said, this was Joe's choice, not mine. And despite the fact that he is freaking out over a weather report that says we have major incoming snow, he pretty much paid attention and even laughed a few times. (Laughter is not all that common for my Joe.)

2. Wolf Hall (2015) ***** Superb show. Waiting For PBS to get around to broadcasting the long ago completed season two.

3. Bridge of Spies (2015) Great movie, ****. Tom Hanks was Tom Hanks, which is almost always good, but Mark Rylance, who played Thomas Cromwell to perfection in Wolf Hall, was fanfuckingtastic. Such an understated, nuanced portrayal of A Russian spy who really just wanted to paint. 

4. The French Lieutenant's Woman (1981) **** Always worth a rewatch.

5. Reacher Season 1 (2022) It took me a while to get interested in this one, but my sister liked it, and the guy from iZombie was in it, so I persisted.  And? Well...***. Maybe enough to watch the next season. I don't really like the guy who plays the lead very much, though. I'm hoping that The rumors about him being the bext DCU Batman aren't true. 

6. Deadpool and Wolverine (2024) *** U think I liked this more the second time through. Really funny, with lots of great in-jokes. Could've done without the gore, though. 1/8/24 

7. Den of Thieves 2: Pantera (2025) Another heist movie. Some clever bits, but nothing "extra." 1/10/25 

8. Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl (2024) *** Not the best W & G, but still fun and worth a viewing. 1/12/25 

9. Reacher Season 2 (2024) Apparently the writers think that the way to attract a bigger audience is to up the ante on torture and cruelty.  I'm out.

10. Moomin and Midsummer Madness (2013) You kniw, I like a fair dose of weirdness in my entertainment, but this suit was just stupid. 1/17/25 

11. The Wheel of Time Season 1 (2021) Getting ready for Season 3. Enjoying the review enormously. So much so that I'm actually considering rereading the first book. 🤯 Oh, yeah: **** 1/24/25 

12. This is 40 (2012) I wasn't expecting much from this, but I didn't even get that.  It's of good actors, but to very little effect. I think I like Paul Rudd significantly less after this. (Plus it was pretty mean spirited.) 2/2/25 

13. The Brutalist (2025) **** A long (3 1/2 hours) and strange movie, with a surprising amount of vivid sex. That's not what I enjoyed about it, though. But in terms of technique and story and acting, I thought this was just brilliant. Pretty close to a must see before you die. 2/8/25

14. The Wild Robot (2024) I'd heard a lot of good things about this one...including a personal recommendation from a loved one who told me that it made her cry. But I'm sorry to say it didn't do much for me. In fact, 30 minutes in I was checking to see how much longer it had to go. I think a large part of my dissatisfaction was that it was bad science fiction. But it was more than that, too. I mean...a fox who for no reason whatsoever stops being a predator to help a baby goose? Give me a REASon, at least. This was a ** for me. Maybe even a *. 3/1/25  P.S. 96% on Tomatometer? WTF.

15. Elevation (2024) ** Actually,  a pretty exciting movie with some nice touches. Anthony Mackie did a good job as the devoted father and Morena Baccarin got to be a bad ass AND a scientist, instead of her usual, just a pretty girl roles. Unfortunately, this movie was also predictable at every single turn, and the Big Question (where'd the monsters come from) was left completely unresolved at the end. Perhaps they think there will be a sequel, but I sincerely doubt it, as this one lost almost $15 million at the box office.

16. Drowned Out (2002) ***** A heartbreaking story about people displaced and impoverished by a dam project. Arandhati Roy narrates. 3/7/25 

17. The Pirates of Penzance (1983) ** Alas, this was a pretty wretched version of this operetta...but it's worth watching for Linda Ronstadt, who has one of the greatest voices of our times...and who is just so lovely.... 3/9/25 

18. Paddington (2014) *** and maybe half of another *. A fun movie with more than a little bit of heart on it. Though the ear wax bit was pretty disgusting. 3/10/25

19. The Gorge (2025) * An absurd premise, and it just gets worse from there. Not worth your time...or mine, for that matter...though I have to admit there were a few good moments...as long as logic isn't too important to you. 3/11/25 

20. The Last Supper (2025) ** Some nice bits here and some good acting, but poor writing sank this movie for me. Part if this was corny voice overs, part melodramatic scenes, and part the absurd rewriting of the Biblical story. Don't pay for this one. 3/15/25 

21. Wicked Part 1 (2024) -0 Couldn't finish it...it was just so awful. Why do people like this?

22. A Brief History of Time Travel (2018) Hey, it's not great, but it's free and it's got some Ted Chiang bits. I call that a win. **

23. Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris (2022) The 3rd or 4th time for this one. Still ***** for me.

24. Arrival (2016) 4th for this one. Still ***** Every time I watch this film it hits me how intelligent it is. There is no attempt to condescend to the lowest common denominator, even though some pretty heavy concepts are discussed. And those aliens...so much more alien than most O.S.M.s. 

25. Warrior Nun Seaon One (2020) **** I love this show. Funny, I told one of my friends about it, and I only got to "Then they put the angel's halo into a dead girl's body to hide it from the bad guys" before he said "I'm out." Talk about things and nobody cares, wearing out things that nobody wears."

The Book I Read 2025

***** = Must read.
**** = Really good.
*** = Worth reading.
** = A waste of time, but one or two good moments.
* = Not worth your time.
-0 = Less Than Zero: a book so bad that you actually lose several IQ points from the reading experience.

1. Orthodox Study Bible--published by Thomas Nelson, New King James VersionThe New Testament 4/17/23 to 1/10/25

2. The Teachings of Don Juan: A Yaqui Way of Knowledge by Carlos Castaneda Finished 1/14/25 Quite an interesting read. I'm going on to the second book, A Separate Reality. 

3. The Adolescent by Fyodor Dostoyevsky 12/30/24 to 1/16/24 A fair novel. Not one you need, but not one you'll hate, either.

https://songsofinnocenceampexperience.blogspot.com/2024/12/ddr-adolescent-by-fyodor-dostoyevsky-by.html?m=1

4. Daredevil: Born Again by Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli *** Read this again thinking I'd get primed for the new Disney+ series. Now hoping that Disney+ did a LOT of rewriting. Finished 1/28/25.

5. A Separate Reality: Further Conversations With Don Juan by Carlos Castaneda **** I actually liked this one even more than the first book. Maybe in part because Carlos' writing skills had improved. And there was no "second oart" where he tried to bust out all anthropologist, which was good. Finished 1/30/25 

6. The Lone Wolf #4: Desert Stalker **** by Mike Barry (Barry Malzberg) It's sleazy, it's typo ridden, there are plot holes a plenty...and I just ate it up. Want more, too. Finished 2/11/25 

7. The Dog Who Followed the Moon by James Norbury ***** A wonderful, magnificent book. I read this to my granddaughter and ended up loving it myself. As with the best children's books, this is an adult fable pretending to be a children's book. Lots of most excellent messages reference life and how to live it. Should be required reading for all human beings. 2/11/25 to 2/11/25 

8. Great Expectations (Great Illustrated Classics) by Charles Sickens adapted by Mitsu Yamamoto The 49th book Joe read to me. 5/9/24 to 2/11/25. It didn't actually take that long to read. We had a long pause.

9. Last on His Feet: Jack Johnson and the Battle of the Century ***** Superb, must read book.

10. Blaise Cendrars Complete Poems One Great poem and a bunch of other stuff. Skip it and just read "Easter Morning." 2/11/25 to 2/17/25 

11. Norby's Other Secret by Janet and Isaac Asimov 5/9/24 to 2/23/25 Another Long Pause book. This, by the way was a truly terrible book. I have no doubt that Isaac had either very little or nothing to do with the writing of it. It was clumsy, boring, and trite. I'm hoping not to read anymore Norby books.

12. The Gods Themselves by Isaac Asimov 11/13/24 to  2/24/25. A very, very bad middle section, but the first and third parts were okay. All and all, not even close to Asimov at his best, though.

13. Herovit's World by Barry Malzberg *** A bit of a tired concept--the good old doppelganger shtick--but with enough Malzbergian tints to make it interesting. But nowhere near to Malzberg at his best. Which kind of surprised me. I feel like I have read many references to the excellence of this novel. Then again, I can't seem to agree with many reviews.

14. My Seditious Heart by Arundhati Roy ***** A superb (and big    --1,000 pages) collection of essays. I don't know if this included all of Arundhati Roy's political writings, but I'm going to try to find out. 2/18/25 to 3/12/25 

15. Mrs. 'Arris Goes to Russia by Paul Gallico 11/24/24 to 3/17/25 The last if the Mrs. 'Arris books, I'm sorry to day. Its been an entertaining series.

16. Work Song: Three View of Frank Lloyd Wright by Jeffrey Hatcher and Eric Simonson. 3/13/25

17. Dutchman & The Slave by LeRoi Jones 3/14/25

18. A Moon for the Misbegotten by Eugene O'Neill 3/15/25 to 3/16/25 

19. The Iceman Cometh by Eugene O'Neill 3/17/25 to 3/18/25

20. The Hairy Ape by Eugene O'Neill 3/19/25

21. Long Day's Journey Into Night by Eugene O'Neill 3/20/25 to 3/22/25

22. The Fatima Secret (Whitley Streiber's Hidden Agendas) by Michael Hesemann 12/22/24 to 3/25/25 A pretty fascinating book, actually. In addition to Fatima, it covers several other Marian apparitions. Impressive details. 

23. Cloud Nine by Caryl Churchill 3/24/25 to 3/25/25 Well...so much for following a friend's recommendation. This play was just awful. And I bought two collections of this woman's plays! At least they were cheap.

24. Three Little Shepherds of Fatima by Sister Lorella 3/27/25 to 3/30/25

25. Ah, Wilderness by Eugene O'Neill 3/30/25 to 4/1/25 Kind of thin, kind of soap opera-y. Not unpleasant, but definitely not the caliber of the great plays. (Not a comedy, either!)

26. Advance Man: Part One of The Honeycomb Trilogy by Mac Rogers 4/2/25  Not my cup of tea...probably *. 

27. Our Lady of Fatima: The Graphic Novel (no author listed) 3/31/25 to 4/6/25. S'aright.

28. A Touch of the Poet by Eugene O'Neill 4/5/25 to 4/7/25 Meh.

29. Warrior Nun Alea Book One by Ben Dunn 4/7/25 Bought it because of my love for the Netflix show. There were a few points in common, but sorry to say that the original is far inferior to the imitation this time around. In fact, the comic is pretty crudely drawn and written...and unnecessarily emphasizes the sexuality of the female characters (huge boobs, scanty clothing...even for the nuns). Stick to the show and forget about this book...which goes for some outrageous prices on eBay.

In Progress:

The Philosopher's Handbook: Essential Readings from Plato to Kant by Stanley Rosen 1/8/22 to  

Now reading with Jacqueline:

Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption by Bryan Stevenson 10/14/24 to 

MacMillan Book of 366 Bible Stories by Roberto Brunelli 3/18/2405 to  

Fatima in Lucia's Own Words: Sister Lucias Memoirs, Vol. 2: 5th and 6th Memoirs by Lúcia Of Fátima Finished      

The Immaculate Heart of Our Lady of Fatima by Anna Garavitt 4/7/25 to 

Now reading with Joe:

The Action Bible: God's Redemptive Story Illustrated by Sergio Cariello 3/21/24 to 

Wolf Hall: Not Starring Tom Holland

Watching Slow Dogs made me remember how much I loved Jonathan Pryce, so I went looking for some of his other stuff at the LFPL. I found something called Wolf Hall which looked interesting: a historical drama set around the court of Henry VIII, with Mr. Pryce playing the part of Cardinal Wolsey. I put in a request for it, and venisoon after it was in my hot little hands, and shortly after that it was in my hot little DVD player. 

What a great show. So great that after Cardinal Wolsey died, I kept watching. That Thomas Cromwell (expertly played by Mark Rylance...and I'll be looking for more of his stuff, for sure) was one amazing guy. Might have to read up on him later on.

As I was watching Episode 5, I caught a glimpse of a familiar face:

 Yep, Tom Holland himself. He had a tiny part, mostly non-speaking...which is probably why I hadn't sighted him earlier, as he'd been in it pretty much from the get go. 

And all I could think was, "He sure came a hell of a long way in nine years!"

DDR: The Adolescent by Fyodor Dostoyevsky / Подросток by Фёдор Михайлович Достоевский

 

Back to Dostoyevsky. And back to Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky, because (1) I wanted to read a book book, (2) I didn't want to pay anything, and (3) this translation was the only one the LFPL had. 

So 🤞.

xxvii + 580 = 607 pages. And I guarandamntee ya that I won't be reading 100 pages per day, so this is going to take some time...probably 20 days. Maybe even more.

Day 1 (DDRD 2,618) December 30, 2024

Read to page 10. (So 37 pages including the preferatory material.) Seems ok...but not very compelling. Then again, what would be after 9 Slough House books in 27 days?

Might read a bit more later today. (Though I'm more interested in Seth's Clyde Fans.)

Day 2 (DDRD 2,619) December 31, 2024

Read to page 41. The story is starting to tug at me, I'm glad to say. Mostly because the narrator, Arkady Dolgoruky, is such a motherfucker. He is definitely in the same camp as the Underground man, as RP noted in his introduction.

There are two things that I like about this translation: (1) when there is a note, there's a number. End bigoted are used rather than footnotes (which I think are superior), but at least you aren't expected o intuitive when here's a note, as has often been true in other texts. (2) When a foreign phrase us used, there's a footnote for it.

And I'm happy to say that thus far there have not been any of the irritating translation slip-ups that I've noted in previous books books translated by RP and LV. 🤞

Now for more Clyde Fans!

ADDENDUM: Which ↑ I finished. Amazing book.

Day 3 (DDRD 2,620) 👶January 1, 2025 👶

Read to page 70.

"The present time is a time of the golden mean and insensibility, a passion for ignorance, idleness, and an inability to act, and a need to have everything ready-made. No one ponders; rarely does anyone live his way into an idea." (63)

Well, I guess the times they aren't a-changin' as much as we thought.

Day 4 (DDRD 2,621) January 2, 2025

Read to page 101.

This Arkady fellow is DEFinitely a future Underground Man. He practically (but not literally) boils with anger and hatred.

Day 5 (DDRD 2,622) January 3, 2025

Read to page 112. Yeah, busy day. And it's already 8:40, which us dangerously close to this old man's 🛌  ⏰️ . But I might try to put away a few more pages.  (To be honest,  though,  I'd rather read some more Castenada. 🙊)

Later....

"If the matter of marriage depended on women alone, no marriage would stay together." (125)

As an unwillingly twice-divorced man, I have to say I see some truth in that one. 😞 

And...9:33...FINally got to page 130. Actually,  this section was pretty gripping: mostly ab argument between Arkady and Versilov (his mostly absent) daddy.

Day 6 (DDRD 2,623) January 4, 2025

Read to page 160.

Reference in an endnote to Pushkin's poem "The Bronze Horseman" made me go looking for it. So:

Oh...I was hoing to paste it here, but it's quite long. Here's a picture instead:

Public Domain

You can read the whole thing HERE if that picture's not worth 1,000 words.

Day 7 (DDRD 2,624) January 5, 2025

Read to page 190.

Day 8 (DDRD 2,625) January 6, 2025

Read to page 220. 

Day 9 (DDRD 2,626) January 7, 2025

Read to page 250. What a fool Arkady is. Sitting with a woman, he goes on and on about her beauty, including her "high bosom." For fuck's sake!

Lots of snow (10 inches or so) so, you'd think I'd have plenty of reading time, but I have Joe with me, and Joe ❤️s to talk, so...not so much. Got up at 5 to have some reading time, but Joe got up at 5:01. 😃 

Day 10 (DDRD 2,627) January 8, 2025

Read to page 280. 

Arkady to Katerina: "You are now imprinted on my soul forever." (255) 

Arkady says this to the "high bosom" lady, but even so, this seems to me to be one of the most romantic things one human being can say to another. (Constance Garnett translates it as "Your image is imprinted on my heart for ever now." I don't think that's as good, actually...even though it's pretty close to being the same thing.) 

The first person I thought of when I read this line was Clare. Isn't that odd...and sad? There have been other women in my life...dear, kind women... and yet my mind immediately goes to the one who nearly crushed the life out of me. I guess it goes to show that the heart (or soul) goes it's own way, is not bound my reason or any form of utilitarianism. 🤔 But nothing is truer than truth: Clare is imprinted on my soul (and heart), and neither pain nor time nor my decline into old age will cause that imprint to fade one jot. 😒😔

Day 11 (DDRD 2,628) January 9, 2025

Read to page 311.

Day 12 (DDRD 2,629) January 10, 2025

Read to page 341. So many parallels to Karamazov in this novel....

Day 13 (DDRD 2,630 January 11, 2025

Read to page 370.

Chapter One of Part Three begins, "Now about something completely different." (347) Say what??? Let's see how Constance did this one. Hmm...ah. "Now for something quite different." Yep, there you have it. Irrefutable proof that Dostoyevsky invented Monty Python. I rest my case.

I'm thinking that it might be time to get back to non-fiction for my DDR project. Maybe "religious" non-fiction. Like, say, Summa Theologica. The full version. There is a beautiful hardcover set available, but it runs around $250, and I don't think I'm THAT committed. Sure is purty,  though.

Day 14 (DDRD 2,631 January 12, 2025

Read to page 400.

"It's impossible for a man to exist without bowing down.... If he rejects God, he'll bow down to an idol--a wooden one, or a golden one, or a mental one. They are all idolators, not godless, that's how they ought to be called." (373)

"...before you go to sleep, pray for the sinner tenderly; at least sigh for him to God: even if you didn't know him at all--your prayer for him will get through the better.

"So when you stand and pray before you go to sleep, add at the end: 'And have mercy, Lord Jesus, on all those who have nobody to pray for them.' ...'Lord, who knowest all destinies, save all the unrepentant'--that's also a good prayer." (384)

Thus is an idea that has come up a lot on my readings about Our Lady of Fatima. In fact, the Fatima orater in The Rosary specifically asks for the same thing: "...lead all souls to heaven, especially those most in need of Thy mercy."

It's a concept foreign to (and baffling to) my ears. How could praying for someone else--someone who is not even aware that you are praying for them--be of any help at all? 

Day 15 (DDRD 2,632 January 13, 2025

Read to page 430.

Day 16 (DDRD 2,633 January 14, 2025

Read to page 462.

"No, you know if I could, I'd have done something! Only I can't do anything now, but only keep dreaming. I keep dreaming and dreaming; my whole life has turned into a dream, I even dream at night." (438) 

And I was dreaming when I wrote this. (So forgive me if it goes astray.)

"...women love despotism." (448)

Well...that would be scanned. But (I'm sorry to say) I have seen some flickers of truth in that, depressing as that might be. The whole "Why does she stay with a guy who treats her like that?" thing which I've seen more than a few times. The whole "bad boys" thing. 😕 

Day 17 (DDRD 2,634 January 15, 2025

Read to page 490. So only 74 pages to go. 

Today would have been my 42nd anniversary if my first marriage hadn't dissolved. 😔 

"...I didn't believe very much, but still I couldn't help yearning for the idea [of God]." (470)

Day 18 (DDRD 2,635 January 16, 2025

Read to page 535. Which leaves 30 pages. And I might do some damage there, since it's Sit In The Car & Wait For Joe Day. 

🎉🥳🎉

And...yep. Read to page 580 (which includes all the the notes), = The End. Not a great book, but not a bad one, either. It was never a chorse to read it, at least. On the other hand, the plot is pretty thin, and many times there were echoes of other Dostoyevsky novels. So all in all, I'd say this one is skippable.

As for me...I've now read all of Dostoyevsky's novels, all of his novellas, and some of his shirt stories--enough to know that I don't want to read the rest of them. So...

Here Endeth the Dostoyevsky Project. 

The Image of Our Lady of Guadalupe

I'd heard of Our Lady of Guadalupe previously,  but I didn't know anything about this Marian Visitation until last night, when I was reading Whitney Streiber's introduction to The Fatima Secret. Streiber went on for a bit about a cloak which had been imprinted with an image of Our Lady...kind of akin to the Shroud of Turin, but in color. The details Streiber included were pretty impressive, but...well, it was Whitney Streiber, after all. So today, after watching the Bills filled the Jets, I remembered to Google this. Here's the astonishing information I found about the tilma (cloak) associated with the appearance of Our Lady:

...what Modern Science has to say about the tilma:

The image, to this date, cannot be explained by science.

The image shows no sign of deterioration after 450 years!  The tilma or cloak of Juan Diego on which the image of Our Lady has been imprinted, is a coarse fabric made from the threads of the maguey cactus. This fiber disintegrates within 20-60 years!

There is no under sketch, no sizing and no protective over-varnish on the image.

Microscopic examination revealed that there were no brush strokes.

The image seems to increase in size and change colors due to an unknown property of the surface and substance of which it is made.

According to Kodak of Mexico, the image is smooth and feels like a modern day photograph.  (Produced 300 years before the invention of photography.)

The image has consistently defied exact reproduction, whether by brush or camera.

Several images can be seen reflected in the eyes of the Virgin. It is believed to be the  images of Juan Diego, Bishop Juan de Zummaraga, Juan Gonzales-the interpreter and others.

The distortion and place of the images are identical to what is produced in the normal eye, which is impossible to obtain on a flat surface.

The stars on Our Lady's Mantle coincide with the constellation in the sky on December 12, 1531. All who have scientifically examined the image of Our Lady over the centuries confess that its properties are absolutely unique and so inexplicable in human terms that the image can only be supernatural!

https://olg.cc/about/about-our-patroness/our-ladys-image-on-the-tilma/

 🤔 

DDR: Bad Actors by Mick Herron

The Good News: I've got 344 pages of Slow Horses action in my 🔥 little 👐.

The Bad News: This is it. No more Slough House novels until Monday, September 8th, 2025. And it's not even the new year yet.

😕 

I'd say I was going to read slowly and savor these last drops of story, but we both know THAT'S not going to happen...so....awaaaay we go.

Day 1 (DDRD 2,615) December 27, 2024

Read to page 132. And though s/he has been referred to a few tumes, there's been no actual appearance if that character. Talk about stretching things out, FF'sS.

The dedication page:

My name is Thomas Paul. I have a kud whose middle name is Matthew. And I have thought if changing my name to Emily.

Coincidence...or something else?

The state of the modern world, with respect to cyber warfare:

"Keyboards were weaponized, trolls emerged from under bridges, and somewhere along the way free elections turned into free-for-alls, as if democracy were a shaggy dog story to which a joke president was the punchline. All those decades of the arms race, and it turned out there was no greater damage you could inflict on a state that ensure it was led by an idiot." (48)

Day 2 (DDRD 2,616) December 28, 2024

Read to page 288.

Earlier...

200 pages in, and still no _____. Though there have been a few more references. Mick is really facking with us on this one. On the other hand, it's been a thrill ride, so no complaints. We'll, one complaint: I've only got 144 more pages of new Slough House in front of me.

And I'm about to knock back some of them.

Later....

Well. 

"Every national panic permitted a government to lace its boots tighter, which was why every government needed a visionary unafraid to sow chaos." (208)

And that is undoubtedly one of the three key reasons the Republican Party has embraced Donald Trump.

Later...

100 pages to go, and _____ has still not appeared. Fackin' hell, mon.

Meanwhile, back in the jungle...

Hmmmm. Internet Archive has

Reconstruction https://archive.org/details/reconstruction0000herr_l6f3/mode/1up

Nobody Walks  https://archive.org/details/nobodywalks0000mick

All the Livelong Day https://archive.org/details/alllivelongdayot0000herr

And the Louisville Free Public Library has

This is What Happened

The Secret Hours

Down Cemetery Road

The Last Voice You Hear

Why We Die

Smoke and Whispers

Dolphin Junction

So it looks like The Complete Mick Herron  is easily within reach. And according to Wikipedia, there's some Slough House related stuff in there....

Day 3 (DDRD 2,617) December 29, 2024

Read to page 344.  The End. And surprise surprise surprise 😮,  _____ never appears. So I suppose we'll have to wait and see what happens in the next book. 9 months from now. 

Meanwhile,  I'm going to steer myself back to some more serious reading. I'm thinking it might be time to finish that last Dostoyevsky novel.

DDR: Slough House by Mick Herron

 

Eine Kleine A.I. Music there (⇑).

A bit of trepidation before cracking this one open. The first 7 Slough House books (6 novels and one compendium of novellas) were so entrancing, so compelling...2,367 pages in 20 days--an average of over 118 pages per day every day for three weeks in a not very empty schedule...but at couple of the novellas (the last two) and a few spots in the last novel curdled a bit in my mouth. So I'm hoping that those weren't cracks preparing a collapse. So few series things seem to hold up as they extend through time. Jo Nesbø's Harry Hole novels, which start out brilliant and turn to sludge. Marvel movies. Every comic book ever. Entropy takes hold. The horse falters, staggers, drops, gasps, rots.

So, yeah. Trepidation. I want this book to be good. REALLY good.

🙏 

🤞 

Day 1 (DDRD 2,612) December 24, 2024

Read to page 79. Busy day.

Well, here's a great epigraph: "The simplest way to explain the behavior of any bureaucratic organization is to assume that it is controlled by a cabal of its enemies." --Robert Conquest's third law of politics.

Having spent 1/3 of my life working for Jefferson County Public Schools, I can attest to the truth of this supposition.

"...political fog, as history has illustrated, is best dispelled by the waving of flags and banners, which usually foreshadows the use of truncheons and sticks." (30)

I Facebook-messaged Mick Herron. Yeah, I know, but I felt like giving it a shot. I may have been slightly high at the time. After the usual, I asked him if the (back) door to Slough house was ever locked. It's been bugging me. Don't expect an answer,  but hey...nothing ventured etc.

Day 2 (DDRD 2,613) 🎅🎄December 25, 2024🎄🎅

Read to page 163. Wouldn't have minded reading more, but hey, it's Christmas. 

Read more. To 174. Merry Christmas.

Day 3 (DDRD 2,614) December 26, 2024

Read to page 302, The End. And my trepidation (see above) have been dispelled. This novel really kicked 🫏 . And ended on a note that has me so fraught that I'm going to have to start Bad Actors immediadamntely.

So enough here.

A long time ago...1978-ish...I was sent with a team from the 101st Airborne Military Intelligence unit (yeah, yeah, I know) to Camp Hood, near Watertown, New York. In the depths of winter. The mission was overstaffed, though, so most of our team of Signal Security specialists had nothing to do for a week or two...other than stay in our barracks...which were unheated. I'd brought my boxed set of The Lord of the Rings trilogy with me, and I spent many an hour underneath all the blankets I could find, immersing myself in Tolkien's world. * At one point a friend and fellow useless Signal Security specialist,  Dave Turner, interrupted my reading to ask me a question. In my response, I referred to him as "Bilbo"--as in Bilbo Baggins. He looked a little hurt, and asked me why I'd called him a dildo. I explained, and we both had a good laugh. 

Ah, memories...pressed between the pages of ice cold sheets.

* Your tax dollars at work.

Pen & Ink

I was reading Mrs. 'Arris Goes to Moscow (page 448 in the four book omnibus) when I came upon these lines:

And my brain ground to a stop. Pen AND ink. And I found myself thinking about two pens and inks from the days of my youth.

The first was a pen that you actually inserted into a jar of ink. (Presumably the kind Paul Gallico was referring to.) Apparently these pens still exist, since Walmart advertises them:

The second pen looked pretty much like the first, but it had an ink cartridge--also availableat Walmart:

I really liked that one. When you put the cartridge into the pen, it made a sexy little pop.

So there you have it. Pen and ink.

Better cover here ⬆, but an incorrect spelling on the title.

BTW, the Mrs. 'Arris books have been quite delightful. I wish they'd made movies of the second, third, and fourth.

ADDENDUM; A few (night) hours after writing the above, iread this in Mick Herron's Joe Country:

To quote Bob Dylan, "Wow-ee, pretty scary."

DDR: Joe Country by Mick Herron

 

338 pages. Also a 15 page preview if the next novel, Slough House. 

Day 1 (DDRD 2,609) December 21, 2024

Read to page 30.

Have / Sorry to admit that as much as I've enjoyed Mick Herron's writing, I was getting tired of the "following a cat, rat, the sun, etc." opening and closing sequences. It's  like when you realize that every song on an album is structured verse verse chorus verse bridge chorus. You just start longing for some variation, some deeds of day wing do. I guess Mick heard my cries as they filtered through the time anomaly and took a different approach with the opening of Joe Country. We start with a disturbing scene of a barn burning, which closes by telling us that two of the all horses--a man and a woman--are dead. Say what? I can see I'm going to gave a hard time not reading this book the way a duck eats*: without chewing.

ADDENDUM: So...left the house at 7 am to pick up the kids. Brought them home and watched a movie (The Killer's Game) with Joe, then two shows, then did prayers and stories (from four different books) with Jacqueline, then went for a walk with her. Took the kids to their mom's house, came home and watched the Chiefs beat the Texans, did a load if laundry, ate dinner. Then thought: I really want to read some more of Joe Country. So I did.

Read to page 85.

"As for River, he was still young enough to take the knocks and stay standing, or get back on his feet afterwards. A nice trick, soon lost. River would learn." (68)

Another of the seemingly casual, throwaway lines that hits me in the heart.When I look at my life now, I see that I haven't been able to stay standing after the knocks that I've taken. I try, I struggle, but it's like I'm living with the gravitational pull of Jupiter pulling at me, making even the simplest tasks difficult. It's wonderful to think that you're Cool Hand Luke, that no matter how many times you're knocked down you'll still manage to stagger to your feet and raise your fists to continue the fight. But that's just a movie. That's just bullshit. "There are storms we cannot weather." 

* According to The Simpsons, anyway.

Day 2 (DDRD 2,610) December 22, 2024

Read to page 147.

Woke up shortly after 2 AM this morning and immediately knew that I was not going to go back to sleep. So I had a bowl of cereal, and I started to read, hoping to read myself back to sleep. Seems like I was awake for an hour or two, but my Fitbit says otherwise. Still, I put a pretty good dent in Joe Country, so at least there's that. Clearly this holding back to thirty pages a day is not going to work, so without further ado, "I renounce thee, pledge. I renounce thee, I renounce thee, I renounce thee." 

There. All official now. And I can get back to reading.

Later....

Well, there was that hour and a half before church. And an hour before today's opera. So I got to page 192. Got home and the Lions and Bengals games were both over...so I suppose I'll just have to read a little  bit more, won't I?

Even Later....

Hate to say it, but this is just a cheat: "When she looked up, everyone around her was dead." (212) Because it implies that the people Emma Flyte was following were dead, but they weren't. It was referring to the fact that Emma was in a grave yard. It's a cheat, Mick. Not clever. Hence the spoiler.

Read to page 239.

Day 3 (DDRD 2,611) December 23, 2024

Read to page 338, The End. 

On the one hand, this was an exciting, compelling read. If not for a fairly bust weekend, I'd probably have knocked it out in two days instead of three. And now, A minute after finishing it, I feel the urges which I might yield-- to start in in the next novel, Slough House. 

However...I'm not feeling as good about the writing as I did before. The "cheat" mentioned above. The opening pages, which told that two Slow Horses would die, which was not foreshadowing so much as lap dancing. And there were a few "cute" turns of wordplay which runs bed merge wrong way. If this had been my first Slough House book, I don't know that I'd have been compelled to read another.

But it wasn't, so I am. On to Slough House.