Books, Movies

Just finished another Lindsey Davis, Didius Falco mystery -- Last Act in Palmyra -- a pleasing romp through lands east of Judea in the 1st century AD.

Read and now reading aloud to Liz Inkheart, which is fun to read and fun to read aloud.

Sacred Sea, by Peter Thomson, a former audio producer for Living on Earth, Thomson travels around the world to visit Lake Baikal. I enjoyed much of the book immensely, because having passed Lake Baikal on the Trans-Siberean train, I was immensely curious about it, and to this day having sensed I had missed a grand opportunity by not going. The book confirmed it, (although I would have missed other things I am sure). It was also fun to read about such a grand adventure, traveling around the world with your brother traveling only on the surface. But the book bogs down in the middle section, a little too maudlin, and well at the end of the day not very interesting.

Miracle at St. Anna - this movie had a lot of potential but whatever it was was lost in its ultimate inscrutability. For one, early on in the movie, a character (40 years on) cries "I know who the sleeping man is," but I never did find out (or why it was important), and more importantly I'm not quite sure what the Miracle at St Anna ever was. Add on a couple characters who do things out of character, and one ends the movie with a gentle, "WTF?"

Tropic Thunder - like most comedies this day, much of the good stuff is shown in the trailer, but there was still enough to make it enjoyable to sit through -- I especially enjoyed Tom Cruise as the crazy executive producer.

Traitor - an action espionage thriller worth a look. It's plot is not necessarily anything new, but Don Cheadle is great, and it has a bent similar to that of the Kingdom, not letting the world be set in black and white.

Nick and Nora's Infinite Playlist - ditto with Tropic Thunder and trailers, but again there's enough left, plus good acting, and sweet romance to not feel totally robbed.