Freaky as hell, compulsive reading. I could not put the book down as I approached the ending.

While the characters are by no means as lovable as the quotes on the book cover make them out to be, their racism in particular is just a matter of fact when it comes to history. As much as we would all like to believe that the Allied forces fought WWII with the emerging genocide in mind, plenty of people were unsympathetic and anti-semetic even AFTER the details of the concentration camp were revealed.

So this is an excellent publicised, easily accessible historical document. For example: they detail the post-war rationing excellently, and give us an otherwise unseen day to day insight into just how uncomfortable it was being British and at the behest of the rest of Europe/in debt to the US. Worth reading, worth bearing in mind as we look to the future.

Airport novel, badly written, but because there were no easily found spoilers on the internet, I just couldn’t stop reading to the end.

I absolutely loved this book! The stories weren’t too long, they are wonderfully written (or translated here, I guess) and made me laugh on occasion. Favorite stories… well, I love them all!

Jude Law overwhelmingly ruined this film. Poor understanding of Wong Kar Wai’s dialogue, he had either never seen one of the director’s previous films, or just fails at life. If you can get through the first half an hour or can just project a better actor into the role, this film is a little American gem.

But once you get to the real actors, now we’re talking. Rachel Weisz was made for this style of film, David Strathaim is strong in such a desperately sad role, and Natalie Portman walks the walk she always walks so well. Fabulous style, fabulous cinematography, My Blueberry Nights is wistful, dreamy and complicated.

Just get the hell past Jude Law. Ugh.

The artwork, the sadness, the honesty.

A fairly comprehensive history of why gang conflict came to be, how it arose from oppression, and how it now exists for the sake of it, rather than for any end achievement. Frustrating in many ways, but very very important to know and understand, because that is one step towards helping it come to an end.

As a human being amidst billions, it’s easy to walk past one another and not really understand a single person’s life or suffering. It’s even easier to bypass news stories of other’s taking their own lives. So I don’t think it’s a terrible thing to document and dedicate an hour and a half (or so) to a handful of people who were drawn to such a landmark in America, to do the same thing. This is a treasure of a film, a great memorial to those that chose to end their lives, and an even greater resource for us to learn from.

The last (and first) Ray Bradbury book I read was The Martian Chronicles, so this was a great departure from that genre. The one thing that struck me about this book was that how often it’s about small incidences – small frustrations, small connections, small loves between families. Favorite story overall was “The Enemy in the Wheat”.

Absolutely surreal, insane hilarity. Kelly brings us a believable future of anarchist drunken multiscreened Californian chaos. Justin Timberlake is better than you think he could ever be – and takes part in a musical number. Bai Ling continues to be underrated – like in Dumplings, she plays the crazy/dangerous female so well and always keeps me interested. I never thought I would see Dwayne Johnson embrace such a comedy macho role. And there are many many other faces you will recognise. Didn’t understand half of the storyline, but it honestly doesn’t matter the first time around, because it’s so much fun. I’ll be doing some reading and look forward to rewatching it for greater understanding.

And the megablimp at the end? Convinced me that this is the director that should be bringing William Gibson novels to the screen.