![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Media from Europe 2016
Jan. 9th, 2016 04:46 pmAnd here is my last post in this series this year.
France
Fiction
* Champion, Alexander. The Grave Gourmet (2010) - The author is not afraid of big words (First sentence: "With the consummate petulance endemic to opera divas and French chefs..."). And I hadn't even heard of the word "piaffing" (executing a cadenced trot on one spot, with a well-elevated leg action)--a woman's poodle was nerviously doing this on the banquette (booth seat) next to her. But he does often has a way with words that is super fun. "...a head that would have been handsome had the mousy brown hair not been roughly hacked off, apparently by the owner without benefit of a mirror." The police are meaner than I like, the bad guys magically talk a lot, and some of the characters are icko, but it's fun that the first and last chapter talk about one guy affected by the murder. Lots of talk about food and wine, some about cars.
* Champion, Alexander. Death of a Chef (2012) (sequel to the previous book (recommended by Robin after he happened to pick it up at the library) - This one is about food and some kind of pottery. Good writing, but with some icky people. I enjoyed a cop who ran off to pretend to be a writer and really got into it.
TV
* "Death in Paradise" (filmed in Guadaloupe, France, in the Caribbean; set in the fictional St. Marie) (recommended by Sally's mom) - fun. Season 1 is great--you can actually try to guess who the killer is. You can't do that in Season 2, but they still do tie up all the loose ends. Season 3 brings it all home; finally you feel the horror of murder. More cast changes in season 4. Shows life on a small Caribbean island with people with British, French, and Caribbean accents.
Norway
Fiction
* Nesbo, Jo. The Snowman: A Novel (2007) (translated by Don Bartlett) - Not a read-aloud book, but it sure gets exciting by the end. Pretty sick. Don't love the alcoholic detective. In this one, they figure out who did it--multiple times (they were wrong the first times). Moral: don't get the police to look into the case that interests you by pretending to be the criminal--the evidence they find will look incriminating.
(I accidentally picked up this book because it was next to the Nesser books (see Sweden, below). I enjoyed it more than many of the books I found recommended by strangers on internet book sites.)
United Kingdom, Scotland
Technically, Scotland is not a country but part of the United Kingdom. However, it's on my list of "countries" because I want to learn more about parts of the United Kingdom other than England.
Fiction
* Smith, Alexander McCall. 44 Scotland Street (2005) - Written as a newspaper series, it chronicles the lives of some people who live in a small suburb in Scotland. Not too exciting, some interesting bits, love some of the characters, but not the main ones. The second biggest character reminds me of the bad guy in "Saved!" where he thinks he's doing everything right but is actually kind of horrible.
Spain
Nonfiction
I've read bits and pieces of a lot of travel guides. Finally I found this children's book, which turned out to be really good. I'm going to check out all the other books I can find in this series at our local library.
* Somervill, Barbara A. Spain (Enchantment of the World Second Series from Scholastic Press) (2012) - There are fifty words for ham (might be exaggerating). Not a democracy until 1975, no constitution until 1978. They elect parties, not people, and the head of the majority party becomes the prime minister. There was a picture of a Visigoth church (San Pedro de la Nave) that's pretty--made with big blocks of stone on the bottom, smaller as you go up. And there's a picture of a Roman Aqueduct in Segovia, with "no mortar or any other material holding the stones in place"--yes, lots of arches. There are different "autonomous communities" sort of corresponding to earlier kingdoms. Basque Country is one of them, but they still want to separate. These autonomous communities seem to have more power than US states. For example, they have their own official regional language. "Euskara, the language of the Basques, is not related to other modern European languages." Most Spaniards speak two or more languages (besides Spanish and the local language, English and French are often studied.) Like "-son" and "-dottir," The Irish "Mc-" and the Spanish "-ez" mean "son of." Sanchez = son of Sancho, Rodriguez, son of Rodrigo. Jews were kicked out in 1492, but refugees were accepted during WWII.
Movies
* "Atame" aka "Tie Me Up, Tie Me Down" (1989) (recommended by Robin) - guy kidnaps gal to convince her to love him; this actually works somehow. I love her sister who makes everything work.
* "Pan's Labyrinth" - gal follows fairy into labyrinth and must pass three challenges to re-take her rightful place as princess. On the one hand, her mother really does get better when she puts the weird plant under her bed. On the other hand, it's probably just all in her head to help her get through her days in that horrible place in 1940s Spain. The bad guy is so terrible that I never want to watch this again.
Other
* Vistas, Panorama, “El Festival de San Fermín” - In Pamplona is the running of the bulls. There are 17 bulls and hundreds of crazy people running through the narrow streets with only a rolled-up newspaper to defend themselves. The film shows them just moving to the side when the (faster) bulls come up from behind. There are also parades with gigantic figures.
Sweden
Fiction
* Nesser, Haken. Mind’s Eye, An Inspector Van Veeteren Mystery (as are all of the following) (1993) (translated from the Swedish by Laurie Thompson, as are all of the following) - read-aloud quality writing, many very nice scenes, but probably not enough information to figure out the murderer since the inspector can just feel things. Don't love it, but will try to read more from this author.
* Nesser, Haken. Borkmann's Point (1994) (won the 1994 Swedish Crime Writers' Academy Best Novel Award) - more read-aloud writing; serial killer victims seem to have nothing in common, which messes with some of the usual assumptions. Van Veeteren isn't as good as in the first book, but other characters are and I'm glad one resisted cheating on his wife.
Here is the point in my reading where I wrote this review.
* Nesser, Haken. The Return (1995) - my favorite so far because Van Veeteren goes for surgery; don't quite understand how something could bother someone for “all the remaining nights of his life” when he has only seconds to live.
* Nasser, Haken. The Inspector and Silence (1997) - the one with the religious camp; I totally fell for two red herrings.
* Nasser, Haken. Woman with Birthmark (1996) - "Whatever you do, don't stand there bawling at my funeral. ... No, do something, my girl! Take action! Do something magnificent that I can applaud up there in heaven!" That leads to a mystery that the police never figure out until it's all over.
France
Fiction
* Champion, Alexander. The Grave Gourmet (2010) - The author is not afraid of big words (First sentence: "With the consummate petulance endemic to opera divas and French chefs..."). And I hadn't even heard of the word "piaffing" (executing a cadenced trot on one spot, with a well-elevated leg action)--a woman's poodle was nerviously doing this on the banquette (booth seat) next to her. But he does often has a way with words that is super fun. "...a head that would have been handsome had the mousy brown hair not been roughly hacked off, apparently by the owner without benefit of a mirror." The police are meaner than I like, the bad guys magically talk a lot, and some of the characters are icko, but it's fun that the first and last chapter talk about one guy affected by the murder. Lots of talk about food and wine, some about cars.
* Champion, Alexander. Death of a Chef (2012) (sequel to the previous book (recommended by Robin after he happened to pick it up at the library) - This one is about food and some kind of pottery. Good writing, but with some icky people. I enjoyed a cop who ran off to pretend to be a writer and really got into it.
TV
* "Death in Paradise" (filmed in Guadaloupe, France, in the Caribbean; set in the fictional St. Marie) (recommended by Sally's mom) - fun. Season 1 is great--you can actually try to guess who the killer is. You can't do that in Season 2, but they still do tie up all the loose ends. Season 3 brings it all home; finally you feel the horror of murder. More cast changes in season 4. Shows life on a small Caribbean island with people with British, French, and Caribbean accents.
Norway
Fiction
* Nesbo, Jo. The Snowman: A Novel (2007) (translated by Don Bartlett) - Not a read-aloud book, but it sure gets exciting by the end. Pretty sick. Don't love the alcoholic detective. In this one, they figure out who did it--multiple times (they were wrong the first times). Moral: don't get the police to look into the case that interests you by pretending to be the criminal--the evidence they find will look incriminating.
(I accidentally picked up this book because it was next to the Nesser books (see Sweden, below). I enjoyed it more than many of the books I found recommended by strangers on internet book sites.)
United Kingdom, Scotland
Technically, Scotland is not a country but part of the United Kingdom. However, it's on my list of "countries" because I want to learn more about parts of the United Kingdom other than England.
Fiction
* Smith, Alexander McCall. 44 Scotland Street (2005) - Written as a newspaper series, it chronicles the lives of some people who live in a small suburb in Scotland. Not too exciting, some interesting bits, love some of the characters, but not the main ones. The second biggest character reminds me of the bad guy in "Saved!" where he thinks he's doing everything right but is actually kind of horrible.
Spain
Nonfiction
I've read bits and pieces of a lot of travel guides. Finally I found this children's book, which turned out to be really good. I'm going to check out all the other books I can find in this series at our local library.
* Somervill, Barbara A. Spain (Enchantment of the World Second Series from Scholastic Press) (2012) - There are fifty words for ham (might be exaggerating). Not a democracy until 1975, no constitution until 1978. They elect parties, not people, and the head of the majority party becomes the prime minister. There was a picture of a Visigoth church (San Pedro de la Nave) that's pretty--made with big blocks of stone on the bottom, smaller as you go up. And there's a picture of a Roman Aqueduct in Segovia, with "no mortar or any other material holding the stones in place"--yes, lots of arches. There are different "autonomous communities" sort of corresponding to earlier kingdoms. Basque Country is one of them, but they still want to separate. These autonomous communities seem to have more power than US states. For example, they have their own official regional language. "Euskara, the language of the Basques, is not related to other modern European languages." Most Spaniards speak two or more languages (besides Spanish and the local language, English and French are often studied.) Like "-son" and "-dottir," The Irish "Mc-" and the Spanish "-ez" mean "son of." Sanchez = son of Sancho, Rodriguez, son of Rodrigo. Jews were kicked out in 1492, but refugees were accepted during WWII.
Movies
* "Atame" aka "Tie Me Up, Tie Me Down" (1989) (recommended by Robin) - guy kidnaps gal to convince her to love him; this actually works somehow. I love her sister who makes everything work.
* "Pan's Labyrinth" - gal follows fairy into labyrinth and must pass three challenges to re-take her rightful place as princess. On the one hand, her mother really does get better when she puts the weird plant under her bed. On the other hand, it's probably just all in her head to help her get through her days in that horrible place in 1940s Spain. The bad guy is so terrible that I never want to watch this again.
Other
* Vistas, Panorama, “El Festival de San Fermín” - In Pamplona is the running of the bulls. There are 17 bulls and hundreds of crazy people running through the narrow streets with only a rolled-up newspaper to defend themselves. The film shows them just moving to the side when the (faster) bulls come up from behind. There are also parades with gigantic figures.
Sweden
Fiction
* Nesser, Haken. Mind’s Eye, An Inspector Van Veeteren Mystery (as are all of the following) (1993) (translated from the Swedish by Laurie Thompson, as are all of the following) - read-aloud quality writing, many very nice scenes, but probably not enough information to figure out the murderer since the inspector can just feel things. Don't love it, but will try to read more from this author.
* Nesser, Haken. Borkmann's Point (1994) (won the 1994 Swedish Crime Writers' Academy Best Novel Award) - more read-aloud writing; serial killer victims seem to have nothing in common, which messes with some of the usual assumptions. Van Veeteren isn't as good as in the first book, but other characters are and I'm glad one resisted cheating on his wife.
Here is the point in my reading where I wrote this review.
* Nesser, Haken. The Return (1995) - my favorite so far because Van Veeteren goes for surgery; don't quite understand how something could bother someone for “all the remaining nights of his life” when he has only seconds to live.
* Nasser, Haken. The Inspector and Silence (1997) - the one with the religious camp; I totally fell for two red herrings.
* Nasser, Haken. Woman with Birthmark (1996) - "Whatever you do, don't stand there bawling at my funeral. ... No, do something, my girl! Take action! Do something magnificent that I can applaud up there in heaven!" That leads to a mystery that the police never figure out until it's all over.