#my teacher was James Gillies

[magicsfm]

mwm for teachers / residents? preferably 35+ yo!

━    ˊ    *    Ooohh   I   love   this   I   added   some   of   my   favorite   fc's   !!  Andrew   Lincoln,   Ben   Barnes,   Henry   Cavill,   Amar   Chadha-Patel   ,   François   Arnaud,   Sam   Claflin,   Jai   Courtney,   Glen   Thomas   Powell,   Jay   Ellis,   Winston   Duke,   Peter   Gadiot,   Domhnall   Gleeson,   Henry   Golding,   Theo   James,   Joseph   Morgan,   William   Moseley,   Chris   Pine,   Harry   Shum   jr.,   Oscar   Isaac,   Tom   Hardy,   Nikolaj   Coster-Waldau,   James   McAvoy,   Cillian   Murphy,   Pedro   Pascal,   Lee   Pace,   Shemar   Moore,   Aaron   Tveit,   Regé-Jean   Page,   Bradley   Cooper,   George   Clooney,   Michael   B.   Jordan,   Charles   Michael   Davis,   Daniel   Gillies.

[veryrealimagination]

William Murdoch x Reader?

No

William Murdoch versus Reader?

Yes.

[fuckyesdobiegillis]

dwayne hickman holding the cast hostage and playing songs from the dobie! album is absolutely hilarious

[xxjewellynwatts]

The shop owner - A James Gillies x OC (you!) story

Request: Hello:))) I don't know if you still write for James Gillies... but if you do then it would really be great with some fluff or something. I'm honestly a sucker for any James Gillies x reader content! Also, you're an amazing writer and I really appreciate that you write for Murduch Mysteries!! Hope you have a great day!!:))))

Answer: Thank you so much ! I haven’t written in ages, so I hope you’ll enjoy this! @mylifecrises

Warnings: contains spoilers of Gillies’ first episode.

The sound of a bell got you out of your daydreams. A tall, confident, well-dressed ginger-head boy who seemed to be around your age got into the shop you now owned ever since the death of its owner.

His eyes paced for a while around the room, glancing back and forth from item to another, thinking fast before he at last locked eyes with you and briefly smiled.

Charming, you thought with a hint of mockery.

‘Good morning, how can I help you?’ you said politely.

He stopped walking towards you for a second, taken aback by the elegance of your voice. You were one of those people who didn’t ‘sound like they look’ but in the most flattering way.

‘I need a few tools for a physics experiment’ he said as he walked again towards you while showing you some of the said tools.

As you packed them for him, you looked curiously at him.

‘Are you a student at the Toronto university?’ you asked without sounding too intrusive.

‘Yes’ he smiled, happy you were quick to understand. ‘I’m Professor Bennett’s assistant.’

As soon as you heard that name, he could have sworn your mood shifted. Your face seemed a bit darker, and you had subconsciously furrowed your brows.

‘Oh’ you coldly said. ‘Well, have a nice day’ you quickly said as you handed him the package.

He smiled, less convincingly, very intrigued.

‘Thank you, you too’ he said slowly as he headed back to the University.

You sighed as he got out and went back to daydreaming the life you could’ve had had it not been for an unfair society.

A few days later, the young man came back to the shop. He noticed you had a different dress, nonetheless unique in the way it looked like it had been made just for you. Your (h/c) hair was tied up and your curls loosely fell around neck. You were reading a book before he interrupted you.

‘Oh, hello again’ you said with an unintentional smile. ‘How did the experiment go?’ you enthusiastically asked.

‘Quite well’ he said with the same smile. ‘If you ignore the fact one of the nails fell right when the machine was starting to work’ he sighed.

‘Oh’ you puckered your lips. ‘Isn’t it the most frustrating thing when something creating with our own hands fails us?’ you empathised.

The young man frowned and smiled at the same time, surprised by your poetic choice of words and relation to the situation.

‘Actually, yes. It’s really... frustrating. How come you know that feeling?’ he asked, curious.

‘Oh, trust me, I’ve been on both sides of the “creation”. I’ve felt the strong pride of succeeding in creating something as much as I’ve suffered from the pain of failed attempts. I like creating things, little objects to make my daily life easier like small machines just to... test a theory’ you shrugged.

‘Why, isn’t that quite surprising!’ laughed James. ‘Oh, I’m James Gillies by the way’ he said as he reached for your hand to shake.

You shook his, surprised by the sweetness of his touch as he was of your little enthusiastic roughness.

‘I’m (y/n), nice to meet you’ you smiled, suddenly shy.

‘It’s really nice to meet people who are so imaginative and creative. Sometimes I feel as though all students want is their degree, sadly missing the experience of intellectual stimulation thereby’

‘Oh, trust me I know...’ you answered, raging inside again. ‘Had it not been for this... stupid professor, I would have been experiencing things by your side, as the student I deserve to be.’

James starred in shock.

‘Wait... are you... a physicist?’

‘Officially? No, because I’m a woman. But in reality? Absolutely.’

You pointed towards the book you had left on the counter to meet him. It was a physics book, of a higher level than James’ current syllabus.

When James left your shop, he couldn’t stop thinking about you and how unfair it was that you were rejected from the University on the basis of sex. Had it been up to him, he would have gladly accepted you. You were certainly smarter than most of the students here.

It was already dark when he left. You two had been discussing Physics theories the whole afternoon and did not notice the sun setting down nor the moon coming up. James didn’t even want to leave deep down. He was eager to talk to you and discover your wonderfully unique ideas and contributions to the field. But the rage he felt could not even represent a quarter of yours. You were a passionate, determined and very curious person. And it made you sick people stopped you from showing your true potential.

Ever since that afternoon, you’d meet up occasionally in a café with James to discuss Physics or anything. You two got along so well you seemed to have known each other for years. You were even one of the very few people who could make James actually laugh.

One afternoon, as you were sitting in front of each other, leaned a bit due to your eager interest in your conversations, a silence fell between you two and you got lost for a split second in each others’ eyes.

‘It’s a shame’ said softly James. ‘I wish I could study and work with you everyday.’

By the time the words were out, James realised what he said, and got a little bit nervous. He never felt that way, it intrigued him. He starred down, and around, trying to ignore your (e/c) eyes.

‘I wish so too’ you answered, not ashamed a bit but sad. ‘If I could kill Professor Bennett, I would.’

James immediately looked back at you.

‘Wait, who?’

‘The professor Bennett. He is the one who convinced the jury of teachers I wouldn’t be able to stand the competition and would never be better than all those young men. He refused my application even though I had a perfect education and threatened to leave the University if they accepted me.’

You had spat the last words with the quiet rage and sadness you had confined within you for months. Tears rolled slowly down your face and James did not even notice his eyes were discretely tearing up too. He suddenly wanted to take you in his arms, reassure you, just like he wanted to shout at the professor Bennett he used to admire so much. He suddenly took your hand. Startled, you looked up at him, across the small table. He hesitated for a second and, too nervous from the proximity he had created, stood up. He gave you one final hesitant look before turning around and nearly running away.

After that meeting, you thought James had had enough of your conversations. After all, no matter how intriguing and curious he was, perhaps you didn’t intellectually stimulate him anymore. But your ego was not shattered yet. His absence had only brought up a feeling of longing to see him again, for reasons you couldn’t understand at this point. Weren’t you supposed to be jealous of him? After all, he was studying something you were desperate and passionate about. He wasn’t the victim of his own gender.

A few days had gone by and you were starting to really miss him. But there was no way you would ever go back to the university.

Then one day, you woke up to read a really intriguing news in the newspaper. The Professor Bennett had been killed by an ‘invisible’ murderer. Your eyes paced restlessly trying to grasp the meanings of the words printed. You felt your heartbeat accelerate dangerously as a suspicion crippled dangerously in the back of your mind. You turned around, hoping you’d see James coming running to tell you about the professor’s death and how deeply he was affected by it. But there was no one around.

You hardly fell asleep that night. And you had to say farewell to the idea of ever sleeping well when you heard a strange noise at your balcony at three in the morning. You stood up, covering yourself in your blanket on top of your nightgown, and slowly approached your balcony (you lived just above the shop you owned).

You had to cover your mouth to shut down your terrified scream once you saw James climbing on your balcony. He stood up at your window and smiled once he saw you. Startled, you didn’t move until he softly knocked on the window-door. You shook your head, trying to get a hold of yourself and ran to open the door.

It took you by surprise when James immediately punched his lips against yours in an adrenaline rush. You stood back. You immediately understood.

‘What have you done?’ you whispered, your voice shivering in terror.

James slowly smiled. He knew you would understand. He knew you would receive his love letter through a terrible - but brave - act: a revenge.

‘I love you’ he said, smiling even more. It felt good to say it. He never felt anything like that for anyone. He didn’t even care that much about his own family.

You thought, fast. James was clearly a dangerous person. Yet as twisted as it could have been, you felt touched by his act.

You kissed him, finally making your decision. He kissed your hands and forehead.

‘Don’t worry. Even if they find out, I will always get back to you’ he promised.

[rottenappleheart]

My current bookshelves, more or less in the actual order they appear! Deets below the cut. ( I really want to know what people believe about me based on what’s on these shelves...)

Top Left:

Richard Adams: Watership Down

Katherine Addison: The Goblin Emperor x2 (1 copy is signed)

Elizabeth Alder: The King’s Shadow

Svetlana Alexievich: The Unwomanly Face Of War

Hans Christian Andersen: Fairy Tales

Laurie Halse Anderson: Speak

K.A. Applegate: Animorphs: The Hork-Bajir Chronicles, Animorphs: The Andalite Chronicles

Kang Chol-hwan: The Aquariums Of Pyongyang

Margaret Atwood: Cat’s Eye

Lundy Bancroft: Why Does He Do That? Inside The Minds Of Angry And Controlling Men

Brooke Barker: Sad Animal Facts

J.M. Barrie: Peter Pan (illustrated by Trina Schart Hyman)

Peter S. Beagle: Giant Bones, The Last Unicorn x2 (1 copy illustrated by Peter B. Gillis)

Robert Jackson Bennet: City Of Stairs, City Of Blades, City Of Miracles

Allan Bérubé : Coming Out Under Fire: The History Of Gay Men And Women In World War II

Carol Birch: Jamrach’s Menagerie

Isabella Bird: A Lady’s Life In The Rocky Mountains

Pierre Boulle: The Bridge Over The River Kwai

Ray Bradbury: The Martian Chronicles

Paul Brickhill: The Great Escape

Bonus: my grandpa’s mug from the FBI, a picture book of sloth wisdom

Second Left:

Gillian Bradshaw: The Beacon At Alexandria, The Wolf Hunt

Assorted Brontës: The Tenant Of Wildfell Hall, Agnes Grey, Villette, Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights, Shirley, The Professor

Lily Brooks-Dalton: Good Morning, Midnight

Allie Brosch: Hyperbole And A Half

Carol Rifka Brunt: Tell The Wolves I’m Home

Bill Buford: Heat

Lois McMaster Bujold: The Curse Of Chalion, Cordelia’s Honor

Joseph Campbell: The Hero With A Thousand Faces

Novella Carpenter: Farm City

Susanna Clarke: Jonathan Strange And Mr. Norrell

Susann Cokal: Breath And Bones

C.J. Cherryh: Rider At The Gate, Cloud’s Rider, Rusalka, Chernovog

Bonus: two Willow Tree figures and my ABRA-CA-FUCK-YOU cross-stitch 

Third Left:

C.J. Cherryh: Alternate Realities, Foreigner, Invader, Inheritor, Precursor, Defender, Explorer

Henry Chancellor: Colditz: The Definitive Story

Evan Dahm: Rice Boy

Ellen Datlow & Terri Windling: The Year’s Best Fantasy And Horror (#16)

Tiffany DeBartolo: How To Kill A Rock Star

Gavin DeBecker: The Gift Of Fear

Tom DeHaven: Sunburn Lake

Charles DeLint: Dreams Underfoot

Seth Dickinson: The Traitor Baru Cormorant

Carole Nelson Douglas: Exiles Of The Rynth

Arthur Conan Doyle: The Lost World

Brendan Duffy: House Of Echoes

William Faulkner: The Sound And The Fury, Flags In The Dust, Selected Short Stories

Elizabeth Warnock Fernea: Guests Of The Sheik

M.K. Fisher: How To Cook A Wolf

Fannie Flagg: Fried Green Tomatoes At  The Whistle Stop Cafe

Fourth Left:

James Gurney: Dinotopia

Gillian Flynn: Sharp Objects

Anker Frankoni: Mexican Eskimo

Charles Frazier: Cold Mountain

Nancy Garden: Annie On My Mind

Maeve Gilmore: A World Away

William Goldman: The Princess Bride

Nicola Griffith: Ammonite

Marie Haskell: The Princess Curse

Frank Herbert: Dune

Victor Hugo: Les Miserables

Shirley Jackson: We Have Always Lived In The Castle

Mira Jacob: The Sleepwalker’s Guide To Dancing

Paulette Jiles: Enemy Woman

Susan Kay: Phantom

Brian Jacques: Martin The Warrior, Mossflower, The Outcast Of Redwall, Mariel Of Redwall, Pearls Of Lutra, Salamandastron

Stephen King: Duma Key, Rose Madder, Hearts In Atlantis

Bottom Left:

Stephen King: The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon, The Gunslinger x2, The Drawing Of  The Three, The Waste Lands, Wizard And Glass, Wolves Of The Calla, Song Of Susannah, The Dark Tower, Lisey’s Story

Andrew Lang: The Green-, Olive-, Yellow-, Orange-, Red-, Pink-, and Grey Fairy Books

Rudyard Kipling: The Jungle Books

Jon Krakauer: Into Thin Air

Ursula K. LeGuin: The Left Hand Of Darkness

Madeline L’Engle: A Wind In The Door, A Swiftly Tilting Planet

Gail Carson Levine: Ella Enchanted

C.S. Lewis: Til We Have Faces, Out Of The Silent Planet

Lois Lowry: The Giver

James W. Loewen: Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong

George MacDonald: The Light Princess & Other Stories, The Princess And The Goblin, At The Back Of The North Wind

Helen MacDonald: H Is For Hawk

Top Right:

Marie Manilla: The Patron Saint Of Ugly

Yann Martel: Life Of Pi

Gavin Maxwell: Ring Of Bright Water

Bernadette McCaughrean: Peter Pan In Scarlet

Patricia McKillip: The Forgotten Beasts Of Eld

Robin McKinley: The Hero And The Crown, The Blue Sword, Spindle’s End, Rose Daughter

Water M. Miller Jr.: A Canticle For Leibowitz

Herman Melville: Moby Dick x2 (1 copy is abridged and illustrated for children)

China Miéville: The Scar

Rand Miller: Myst: The Book Of Ti’Ana, Myst: The Book Of Atrus, Myst: The Book Of D’Ni

Hayao Miyazaki: Nausicaa Of The Valley Of The Wind, The Art Of Nausicaa, The Art Of Castle In The Sky

Elizabeth Moon: Remnant Population

Lady Murasaki: The Tale Of Genji

Audrey Nieffenegger: The Time-Traveler’s Wife

Bonus: “but you are not weak” embroidery, hand-painted page from H Is For Hawk

Second Right:

Sena Jeter Naslund: Ahab’s Wife: Or, The Star-Gazer

Patrick Ness: The Knife Of Never Letting Go, The Ask And The Answer, Monsters Of Men

Garth Nix: Sabriel

Naomi Novik: Temeraire, Throne Of Jade, Black Powder War, Empire Of Ivory

Ann Patchett: Bel Canto

Mervyn Peake: Gormenghast

Julie Ann Peters: Far From Xanadu

Patrick O’Brian: Master And Commander, Post Captain, HMS Surprise, The Mauritius Command, Desolation Island, The Fortune Of War, The Far Side Of The World

Bonus: pottery my dead friend made, pottery I made, slab of picture jasper, my “Fun Things To Believe In” cross-stitch

Third Right:

Edgar Allen Poe: Stories

Phillip Pullman: The Golden Compass

Lawrence Raab: The Collector Of Cold Weather

Erich Marie Remarque: All Quiet On The Western Front

Mary Renault: The Charioteer x2 (1 first edition)

Alistair Reynolds: Revelation Space, Redemption Ark, Diamond Dogs, Turquoise Days

David L. Robbins: War Of The Rats, The End Of War, Last Citadel

Mary Doria Russell: The Sparrow, Doc

Karen Russell: Swamplandia!

Alexander Afanasyev: Russian Fairy Tales

Louis Sachar: Holes

J.D. Salinger: The Catcher In The Rye

Sarah N.B.: It Begins In A Garden

William Shakespeare: Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, Macbeth

Mary Shelley: Frankenstein

Gene Stratton Porter: A Girl Of The Limberlost

Alexander Solzhenitsyn: One Day In The Life Of Ivan Denisovich

Caitlin Starling: The Luminous Dead

Noelle Stevenson: Nimona

Fourth Right:

Bram Stoker: Dracula x2 (1 illustrated by Becky Cloonan)

Elizabeth Kostova: The Historian

J.R.R. Tolkien: The Hobbit, The Fellowship Of The Ring, The Two Towers (x2), The Return Of The King, The Silmarillion, Unfinished Tales

Elizabeth Whalen Turner: The Thief, The Queen Of Attolia

Catherynne M. Valente: Deathless, The  Orphan’s Tales: In the Night Garden, The Orphan’s Tales: In The Cities Of Coin And Spice

Sheldon Vanauken: A Severe Mercy

Brian K. Vaughn: Saga (#1)

Tillie Walden: On A Sunbeam

Jen Wang: The Prince And The Dressmaker

Helene Wecker: The Golem And The Jinni

Elizabeth Wein: Code Name Verity

T.H. White: The Once And Future King

Simon Winchester: The Professor And The Madman

Bottom Right:

Gary Trudeau: The Doonesbury Chronicles

Adam Edgerton: Rediscovering Adak

Walt Whitman: Leaves Of Grass

Jane Yolen: Twelve Impossible Things Before Breakfast

Daniel Woodrell: Winter’s Bone

Patricia C. Wrede: Dealing With Dragons, Calling On Dragons, Searching For Dragons

Malcolm York: Mervyn Peake: My Eyes Mint Gold

Bonus: assorted DVDs and 1 lonely VHS tape, any manga I didn’t purge, plus some children’s books and self-published comics by high school friends

[balkinbuddies]

We’re celebrating July 4th with  the ALAN Review article entitled “Where Are They Now? Remembering Our Most Popular Young Adult Authors.”

     An article written by Don Gallo appeared recently in the Summer 2019 issue of The ALAN Review entitled “Where Are They Now? Remembering Our Most Popular Young Adult Authors.” Among those remembered were four authors with whom I worked very closely during my years at HarperCollins and, with Don Gallo's and the ALAN Review's permission, I'm including those remembrances on the Balkin Buddies blog:

     Here they are in  the order they appeared in the article:

Paul Zindel [Tied for first place with S.E. Hinton in 1988]*

    Paul Zindel's death in March 2003 ended the brilliant career of a unique individual. Not only did he win a Pulitzer Prize for Drama and an Obie Award for Best American Play in 1970 for The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds (1965), but he was also one of the earliest writers in the field of contemporary literature for young adults. The Pigman, published in 1968, is still one of the most well-known and widely taught novels in the genre. He followed The Pigman with My Darling, My Hamburger (1969); Pardon Me, You're Stepping on My Eyeball (1976), The Undertaker's Gone Bananas (1978); Harry and Hortense at Hormone High (1984); and other novels with attention-getting titles. His writing revealed how well he understood teenagers, believing that “adolescence is a time for problem-solving – for dealing with the awesome questions of self-identity, responsibility,  authority, sex, love, God, and death” (Gallo, 1990, p. 228).

     In addition to Gamma Rays, this versatile author wrote a number of other plays, including And Miss Reardon Drinks a Little (1971) and Ladies at the Alamo (1975), as well as a number of movies and television scripts that include Up the Sandbox (1972), starring Barbara Streisand; Mame (1974), starring Lucille Ball; Runaway Train (1985), starring Jon Voigt; Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking-glass (1985), with a cast of 50 stars that included Red Buttons, Ringo Starr, Scott Baio, and Shelley Winters; Babes in Toyland (1986), starring Drew Barrymore and Keanu Reeves; and A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (1989), starring Keshia Knight Pullman. During those years working in Hollywood, Zindel associated with numerous movie and television actors and became good friends with Walter Matthau who lived in the house next door.

     In his later years, Zindel, always knowing what would appeal to teen readers, turned from realistic fiction to monster/horror books, such as The Doom Stone (1996), Rats (1999), and Night of the Bat (2001) – all of them filled with suspense and action and all selected as Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Adult Readers.

     Zindel reveals a lot about himself in his 1987 autobiographical novel, The Amazing and Death-Defying Diary of Eugene Dingman, except that the fictional Eugene grows up in Bayone, New Jersey, while Paul grew up on Staten Island, New York. Of his teen years, Paul says bluntly: “I was an awkward freak.” More about Zindel's early life, family, and adventures can be found in his autobiography, The Pigman and Me (1992), which was named one of the 100 Best of the Best Books published for teenagers during the last part of the twentieth century.  In 2002, the American Library Association bestowed upon Paul Zindel the Margaret A. Edwards Award for lifetime achievement, and later that same year, he was presented with the ALAN Award for his contributions to young adult literature.

M. E. Kerr [Tied for fourth place with Robert Cormier and Katherine Paterson in 1988]*

     Writing under the pseudonym of M. E. Kerr, Marijane Meaker was one of the earliest authors to gain notoriety in the YA publishing world with Dinky Hocker Shoots Smack!, published in 1972. Among her 20 popular novels are Is That You, Miss Blue? (1975), I'll Love You When You're More Like Me (1977), Gentlehands (1978), Him She Loves? (1984), Night Kites (1986), the Fell series (1987, 1989, 1991), and Deliver Us from Evie (1990). Kerr has always chosen to write about differences in people, “understanding them....trying to make sense of it all, never losing sight of the power love lends.”

     In an interview published in Teenreads, she explains her motives: “I was very much formed by books when I was young....I was a bookworm and a poetry lover. When I think of myself and what I would have liked to have found in books those many years ago, I remember being depressed by all the neatly tied-up, happy-ending stories, the abundance of winners, the themes of winning, solving,  finding – when around me it didn't seem that easy. So I write with a different feeling when I write for young adults. I guess I write for myself at that age” (“M. E. Kerr).

     Marijane Meaker began her career in publishing after she was unable to sell any of her stories to magazines. She presented herself as Ms. Meaker, a literary agent with six clients, and sent out her own work under various pseudonyms, male as well as female. One was a middle-aged female teacher writing true confessions (at $300 a story); another was a young college woman selling to magazines, such as Redbook and Ladies Home Journal; a third “author” told a story, titled “I Lost My Baby at a Pot Party,” about her child wandering from a house where a saleslady was pitching Teflon pots. Along the way, a Gold Medal Books editor convinced her to write a novel about sorority life, for which she earned $4,000 a book at a penny a word. This very resourceful writer also published two or three adult mysteries a year under the name of Vin Packer, and other novels were penned as Ann Aldrich and Laura Winston. Her books for children are published under the name Mary James. “A lot of my stories,” she says, “sold well enough for me to enjoy trips to Europe, an apartment off  Fifth Avenue in New York City in the 90s, and a Fiat convertible.”

     M.E. Kerr's novels for teens have won multiple awards, including a Christopher Award in 1978, a Golden Kite Award from the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators in 1981, a California Young Readers Medal in 1992, the Margaret A. Edwards Award from the American Library Association in 1993 for her lifetime contribution to young adult literature, the Knickerbocker Award for Juvenile and Young Adult Literature in 1991, the ALAN Award in 2000, and the Golden Crown Literary Society Award for her groundbreaking works in the field of lesbian literature in 2013. In 1996, Long Island University awarded her an honorary doctorate.

     A collection of her short stories for teens – dealing with dating, love, race, bigotry, homosexuality, self-love, and  acceptance – titled Edge,  was published in 2015. And Highsmith: A Romance of the 1950s, a memoir recounting Meaker's relationship with famous mystery writer Patricia Highsmith, was published in 2003. Still writing at the age of 91, Meaker recently completed a novel about gay life in New York City during the 1940s and how she became a literary agent for her own work. It's titled Remind Me, based on the lyrics of an old song from that time written by Jerome  Kern and Dorothy Fields (1940): “Remind me / Not to find you so attractive / Remind me that the world is full of men.

Katherine Paterson [Tied for fourth place with Robert Cormier and M. E. Kerr in 1988]*

     Born in Qing Jiang, China, in 1932, the middle daughter of missionary parents, Katherine Paterson has lived in a variety of places, from Tennessee, Virginia, Maryland, and New York City to China and Japan, where she was a Presbyterian missionary. She now lives in Montpelier, Vermont.

     Her highly regarded novels include The Sign of the Chrysanthemum (1973), Of Nightingales That Weep (1974), Master Puppeteer (1975), and Rebels of the Heavenly Kingdom (1983), but she is known best for Bridge to Terabithia (1977), which won the Newbery Medal in 1978; The Great Gilly Hopkins (1978), which won the National Book Award in 1979; Jacob Have I Loved (1980), which won the Newbery Medal in 1981; and Park's Quest (1988), which made The Horn Book Fanfare Honor List in 1988. Published in 1996, Jip, His Story won the Parents' Choice Story Book Award and the Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction in 1997. In 2006, Bread and Roses, Too won the Christopher Award and was a Bank Street Best Children's Book of the Year, a Notable Social Studies Trade Book for Young People, a Parents' Choice Gold Medal historical fiction book, and one of Voice of Youth Advocate's Top Fiction for Middle School Readers.

     Paterson has also authored several autobiographical books about her writing, including Stories of My Life (2014), and is a coauthor of Consider the Lilies (Paterson & Paterson, 1986), a nonfiction book about various plants of the Bible that she wrote with her husband, John.

     Over her long writing career, Paterson has also received a long list of awards for her body of work. Among them are the Kerlan Award from the University of Minnesota (1983), the ALAN Award (1987), the Hans Christian Andersen Medal for Writing (1998), the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award (2006), the Laura Ingalls Wilder Award (2013), and the Massachusetts Reading Association Lifetime Award, along with writing awards from Germany, France, and Sweden. In 2000, she was declared A Living Legend by the Library of Congress, and for 2010-2011, Paterson was the US Ambassador for Young People's Literature. She is also the recipient of more than a dozen honorary degrees, including ones from Vermont College of Fine Arts, the University of Maryland, Hope College, and Washington and Lee University.

     Paterson's latest novel is My Brigadista Year (2017), set in Cuba in 1961 during the literacy campaign that made Cuba a fully literate nation in  one year.

Robert Lipsyte

     The author of The Contender (1967) turned 80 years old this spring, as his ground-breaking novel passed the 50-year mark in print. Lipsyte is also the author of One Fat Summer (1977), Summer Rules (1981), The Brave (1991), The Chemo Kid (1992), The Chief (1993), and Raiders Night (2006) for teens, and for young readers, The Twinning Project (2012). Lipsyte's list of publications for teenagers isn't especially lengthy when compared to those of some authors who have been writing for the same length of time, but that's because writing books for and about teenagers is only one kind of work he has done especially well. He has also published a number of short stories, essays about sports issues, and biographies of several sports celebrities, such as Muhammad Ali, Jim Thorpe, and Michael Jordan, as well as several nonfiction books for adults, including Nigger, with Dick Gregory (1964), the African American satirist; Sportsworld (1975/2018); and Idols of the Game (1995). As the author of The Contender, one of the very first realistic novels about contemporary teenagers, Robert Lipsyte was honored with the Margaret A. Edwards Award by the American Library Association in 2001.

     And that's not all. Among other things, Robert Lipsyte has been a highly respected columnist and prize-winning sports reporter for The New York Times, a correspondent for the CBS television program Sunday Morning with Charles Kuralt; the host of his own award-winning television interview program, The Eleventh Hour, on New York City's public television station, WNET Channel 13; author of a television documentary series about sports; and the Life (Part 2) series for PBS-TV on subjects of interest to older people. He is also the author of an entertaining memoir, titled Accidental Sportswriter (2011).

     In addition to speaking at a lot of high schools, Lipsyte recently has been flying to North Carolina for a week at a time to teach at Wake Forest University, which he says he enjoys very much. He continues to write a monthly column, mostly on local politics, for his hometown weekly, The Shelter Island Reporter, which he says “gives me as much pleasure as the old Times' column.” He also occasionally writes about sports and politics for a site called Tomdispatch, which distributes to a batch of leftish publications like The Nation and The Guardian. If that's not enough, after his cameo on the O.J.: Made in America documentary film (Edelman, 2016) that won an Oscar, he gets called often to pontificate on various TV documentaries, most recently on one about Sonny Liston, three on  Muhammad Ali (including one by Ken Burns), and another on that “hard year” 1968.

     Meanwhile, this very busy author has been promoting the film, Measure of a Man (Scearce, 2018), starring Donald Sutherland, based on One Fat Summer, Lipsyte's 1977 novel about a bullied teen. View the trailer at https://trailers.apple.com/trailers/independent/measure-of-a-man/. “I have toyed with a new YA novel,” he claims, but where will he find the time?

     *Based on the list of 169 authors' names Mr. Gallo sent to 41 present and past officers of ALAN in 1988, asking them “to identify the most important and popular YA fiction writers of the time and to add other names of writers they felt were as important.” Due to space limitations, he “limited this investigation to the top 30 authors included on that 1988 list.”

     The ALAN Review   Summer 2019

     Reprinted with permission from the ALAN Review and Don Gallo.

     I hope you enjoyed this excerpt and get to read the entire article. Personally, I feel honored to have worked with such incredibly talented authors as well as with all the amazing people at ALAN.

     For information on Balkin Buddies, be sure to visit our website or blog.

Catherine Balkin, Balkin Buddies

[gazzhowie]

My Top 25 Movies of 2021.

It has most certainly been a ‘funny old year’ with the “traditional release strategy/format” all but kicked to pieces due to the global pandemic, but keeping things ‘ongoing and normal’ it is time… or at least tradition… for me to dust off the cobwebs from my Tumblr account and post my Top 25 movies of the year. This time for 2021.

Years 2008 through to present are available in the archive.

Frequent visitors know that I’ll throw out a few special mentions to all the films that I wish I could’ve included but couldn’t make them fit yet believe they deserve a shout out regardless and then I get stuck in to what I think are the 25 best films of the year.

As always, films listed are based on their UK release date whether that’s in the cinema or on DVD, VOD etc. Anyway, without further ado, here’s the ‘also-rans’ and ‘near-misses’ separated per genre that very nearly made the final list:

Documentaries that I enjoyed this year included Class Action Park, Tina, Assassins and Val. And animated movies I liked that deserve mention are Away, Luca and Raya & The Last Dragon.

Within the realms of big action blockbuster and b-movie fare, the likes of Space Sweepers, Without Remorse, Black Widow, No Time To Die, Boss Level, Force of Nature, Copshop, Love & Monsters, Beckett, Gunpowder Milkshake, The Paper Tigers, The Ice Road, Below Zero and Those Who Wish Me Dead all deserve a shout-out.

Comedy-wise, I liked Free Guy, The Climb, Werewolves Within and 8-Bit Christmas all proved likeable. And in terms of horror movies I very much enjoyed Run, Boys From County Hell, Come Play, The Boy Behind The Door, Halloween Kills, The Forever Purge, Freaky and The Djinn.

And in terms of dramas the likes of No Sudden Move, The Dry, Hunter Hunter, Enforcement, Finch, The Power of the Dog, News of the World, Promising Young Woman and Sound of Metal are all worth seeking out.

And finally, I don’t know what on earth you’d categorise Prisoners of the Ghostland as, but I know that I very much enjoyed it.

Anyway, with all that out of the way, here’s my Top 25 favourite films of 2021:

25. Coming Home In The Dark.

I was legitimately caught unaware by the sneak attack this film bestows upon you. The atypical psycho/cat-and-mouse horror you're expecting in the vein of say THE HITCHER or WOLF CREEK from this story of a school teacher being forced to confront his past when a pair of drifters take him and his family on a road-trip actually gives way to something darker and more meditative.

It settles under your skin somewhere between BLUE RUIN and RED HILL. It's clever and unsettling with brilliant performances. Both Daniel Gillies and Matthias Luafutu are outstanding, bringing texture to "villain" roles you've possibly never considered in movies of this ilk. James Ashcroft, in his debut as director, shoots this thing with an eye to capturing New Zealand's inherent natural beauty whilst framing and lighting his film in ways this type of white-knuckle survivalist ride has not been presented before.

This is not a film languishing in the stalk-and-slash tropes of the genre. It's a film that uses the form to present a more quite type of study on abuse, complacency, culpability and the empty futility of vengeance - and not necessarily drawing the conclusion you'd expect from it all!

24. Four Hours In The Capitol

I got the same feeling watching this as I did watching Jules and Gedeon Naudet's 9/11 documentary - the level of access and resultant immersion is equal parts awe-inspiring and distressing.

You're not just seeing footage from within the riot that is so much the 'eye of the storm' that in one harrowing moment you, as a viewer, are inches away and unobstructed in viewing a woman die. You're also being presented with interviews with the very insurrectionists who attacked Congress. It's the fucking true crime documentary that actually has the criminals rock up to brag about their crimes. It's not only shocking how brazen and unapologetic these talking head insurrectionists are, it's jaw-dropping how casual and self-reasoning they are about their actions. There's no regret or remorse on show here.

And that's what's possibly most terrifying - based on how the documentary lays it up there's no reason for these scumbags to reflect on their actions and think differently because, for a large contingent of Americans, January 6 was just the beginning of a very dark time ahead for the country.

23. A Quite Place: Part II

I was really, really impressed by this if I'm honest. I'm a massive fan of the first movie but the reverence with which it left John Krasinski being spoken of as a filmmaker had me worried the dude would fall into 'the hype machine' and end up overcooking any sequel.

And whilst it takes the tradition of getting more money (a $61 million budget this time round versus the first movie's $22 million, which is the reward you get when you spin that $22 million into $350.3 million!) to go bigger and bolder, it manages to keep the "big" and the "bold" in perspective: It's an equally nerve-wracking continuation even with its more spectacular set-pieces (the "Day One" prelude sequence at the start of the movie is •sensational•!) without ever losing sight of its 'heart'; this is about one family's plight... not a mass international military fight back!

It’s a really effective and engrossing follow-up to the out-of-nowhere "little movie that could". It's all for this franchise to fuck itself up now with spin-offs, side-movies and continuations that lose sight of what really works.

22. Don’t Look Up

I really think the vast majority of reviews are doing a disservice to this; Adam McKay's satirical allegory to climate change and the government, media and our own indifference towards it for the crisis it is. To McKay's credit he absolutely spotlights the apathy, incompetence and financial self-interest of the people in power in the face of such a crisis. He may well be symbolically using an "asteroid" for his narrative but the most interesting/barbed/shocking moments are when he has his characters saying things that actual government figures, lobbyists, TV anchors, etc have actually said about climate change but utilised in a different context here. It suddenly feels less funny. And he's assembled a truly stupendous cast too - eclectic doesn't quite cover it really; Jennifer Lawrence, Cate Blanchett, Rob Morgan, Leonardo DiCaprio, Meryl Streep, Jonah Hill, Himesh Patel, Timothée Chalamet, Ariana Grande, Kid Cudi, Tyler Perry, Melanie Lynskey, Ron Perlman, Mark Rylance, Michael Chiklis and Paul Guilfoyle!

The film's biggest issue lies in the fact that it has not one ounce of self discipline. It's wildly self-indulgent and insanely overlong. There's a legitimate darkly comedic satirical comedy masterpiece hiding instead this near 2½ hour monster. One in which McKay drives home the points he's making again and again... and again. For example, are we really getting anything more out of Blanchett and Perry's vapid TV anchors in their fourth 'bit' that we didn't get out of their first? Could Lawrence and Chalamet's "romance" have felt less rushed if we'd had just maybe one less go-around with Jonah Hill's 'diminishing returns' Trump Jr shtick? It's all well and good having an audacious ending like this one has. But not when you've got a viewer rolling their eyes / checking their watches by the time it arrives.

If the 'Extended / Unrated / Wild Director's Cut' of the DVD boom of the noughties could be reversed, I would like to see the 100 minute version of this. Because THAT could honestly be a real modern comedic great. And, look, whilst I’m defending the shit out of this here let me be perfectly clear: THAT end credits scene? That’s as painfully unamusing as everyone is saying. I will go with you on that.

21. Pig

I can't quite think of another example whereby a particular actor's professional decline would serve to both accentuate for some and damage for others their newest (and best in a long time) endeavour. You look at the straight-to-VOD schlocky action shite Nicolas Cage has been making these last 10 years and then you look at the logline for this (a truffle hunter who lives alone in the Oregonian wilderness must return to his past in Portland in search of his beloved foraging pig after she is kidnapped) and you think you know *exactly* what you're getting; an off-kilter black comedy of sorts about a man and his pig mixed in with a rip-roaring exploitation flick with Cage carving his way through a load of disposable goons to rescue his pet pig, where his wife / girlfriend has stood in other movies. And this thing just steps right over your expectations, for a start. Absent of any bombast or octane whatsoever, it's actually anti-revenge and anti-violence in its standpoint.

But what it is REALLY about is loss - the pain it generates in all of us yet also how each of us choose to deal with it in different ways. Sure, it's also about the rejection of materialism and capitalism too. Really though, it's about loss and grief; how we process it and how we fill the void created by it. You weren't expecting THAT with this, were you?

Cage is magnificent here. If he weren't an industry 'outlier' and moviemaking 'figure of fun' nowadays, we'd be hyping this up as the Best Actor Oscar performance to beat. In one particular scene, with 3 little words ("I love her!") when talking about his missing pig he manages to talk about so much more - all without saying another single word!

20. Palm Springs

On the one hand this suffers from that thing I thought we'd long since moved past whereby a little film pops and buzz builds, then it gets sat on outside the US for an ungodly amount of time whilst international distribution rights are negotiated and the hype machine rolls relentlessly on.
On the other hand though, it is a film that more than lives up to the hype by just being so thoroughly delightful.

It's so good that not even Andy Samberg's creepy yellow milk teeth can turn you off (... seriously though dude, you've got all that BROOKLYN 99 'bank', pay to get them sorted for Christ's sake!).


Films that follow the GROUNDHOG DAY 'model' live or die by the tone they take and/or the originality they can muster within the concept. PALM SPRINGS' tone is a massively appealing one but its secret weapon is Cristin Milioti.
Milioti gives a performance here so great - so funny, moving, real and sexy - that the Academy Awards were immediately destabilised the minute they shortlisted "best" actresses for this last year and none of them were her for her work here.

19. The Beta Test

I've drank from the "Kool-Aid" and I'm a full blown acolyte at the altar of 'The Church of Jim Cummings', who's proven enough by now that his interesting 'point of view' in cinema is definitely worth following. THE WOLF OF SNOW HOLLOWwas one of my favourite films of last year. Whilst that film took the idea of a "horror comedy", as you THINK you know it, and infused it with Cummings' own very specific sense of humour to give us something that was very much delightfully off-kilter this time round he's gone bolder but also so *incredibly* idiosyncratic:

This is Cummings' (and co-writer/co-director PJ McCabe) "ode" to shitty low-rent late night Showtime/HBO soft porn erotic thrillers by way of an updated insider-industry take on Stanley Kubrick's EYES WIDE SHUT, told in a decidedly up-to-the-minute post Harvey Weinstein landscape. You never know where this thing is going and you're delightfully captivated to find out. But like many a sexual-thriller of the 1990s, which this openly homages, the end point is not as satisfying as the journey there.

Reveals and revelations feel rushed, cluttered and in a lot of ways anticlimactic. Maybe in hindsight that's because we're so used to thinking lazily and conventionally (It's his assistant! It's his wife-to-be! It's a massive inter-celebrity conspiracy to wipe out agents!) that we're not recognising the filmmakers' purposeful intent to always keep things off centre? It's enthralling. It's sexy. It's dryly funny. And its got a good handful of those tremendous 'Jim Cummings losing his shit' moments that we all secretly love coming to his films for.

18. Spider-Man: No Way Home

I had a whole heap of fun with this - despite myself, really. It's quite churlish of me to complain about this ~now~ as a [waning] MCU obsessive but, as the teaser trailer for DR STRANGE IN THE MULTIVERSE OF MADNESS finished up I found myself fondly recalling a time when this whole "MCU" thing was a two-times a year blockbuster 'event' you could look forward to. Now it's so unwieldy I came away realising that it's starting to feel too much like homework - with the 23 main movies, 2 alleged 'side' movies, 4 Disney+ shows, 5 - 6 Netflix shows and 5 additionally added films all subsequently now considered "part of the narrative".

It's possibly TOO extravagant in some ways and decidedly messy as a result - as messy as you'd expect for a film that ostensibly has 3 protagonists, 5 antagonists and expects you to walk into this with knowledge of not just the last two SPIDER-MAN movies in this franchise but also the other 21 main movies, the 2 VENOM movies that no one can seem to decide on whether they're narratively "in" or not, all 4 of the current Disney+ shows, 1 of the Netflix shows and films of this 'ilk' from 17 years and 9 years ago respectively.

Anyone at this point wanting to throw out this particular film as being "Fan Service: The Movie" has absolutely lost sight of ALL of them being nothing BUT 'fan service' through and through from the minute THE AVENGERS premiered. Everything is thrown up on screen here, sometimes coherence be damned. And as detrimental as that is in some regards, in other ways it means that when one element flounders something else comes along that excels fairly quickly. It's enormously entertaining and enjoyable as a blockbuster 'event' but as a film it's a decidedly weird beast whereby it wants you to invest emotionally in the seriously SERIOUS drama (its ending is profoundly sad when you think about it) whilst putting it up alongside some incredibly, incredibly stupid and silly hokum.

17. The Last Duel

I've absolutely no time for y'all trying to pin this film down under the weight of its dreadful (and rocket-fast, gun-it-and-done-it) cinema run where it only pulled in an 'embarrassing' $29 million return against a budget of $100 million - and drew an admittedly disastrous $4.8 million opening weekend. If motherfuckers aren't going to show for an absolute master craftsman like Sir Ridley Scott tackling the themes of today resultant from the 'Me Too' movement within the wheelhouse of his historic epics, whilst reuniting my beloved "Matt & Ben" both on the screen and on the page then... you know what? Fuck 'em. It's their loss. (Rather interestingly, in the same year where Scott - 84 years of age and still killing it professionally - made double impact with both this and House of Gucci no one is saying SHIT that the latter is currently at the time of writing sitting on a paltry $37.6 million worldwide return on a $75 million budget. No, they're too busy wittering about Lady Gaga. Whereas this film's underperformance is the focal point of every piece currently.)

And it's infuriating that the box office returns are the lead here because this is really frickin good, man. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Not all of the 'chapters' are equal to each other in effectiveness. The last part for example, which hands the narrative over to Marguerite de Thibouville is intriguing and well-meaning but very overcooked. It would be hurtful to the film overall were it not for the fact its the lead in for the magnificently staged 'duel' we're ultimately here for.

Overall though, it's a very well-acted and thought-provoking drama. Damon and Driver are both excellent. Affleck is having a complete blast with this. And whilst Jodie Comer teeters dangerously close to going OTT with the 'face-actoring', overall she manages to hold her own with her most high profile role to date. The whole thing barrels along with the epic visual grandeur you've come to expect from Ridley Scott. It doesn't feel like a 155 minute movie at all, and that's saying a lot for a film that essentially reboots/repeats itself every 40 - 50 minutes.

16. The Suicide Squad

There's a great time to be had here. Yeah, it's overindulgent - the film has natural end point opportunities at the 95, 100 and 110 minute marks - but sometimes it's okay to have too much of a good thing... and this is a very good thing! And very, very good is ALL it is. And that's enough. Not that James Gunn would've had you believe this... for the last exhausting 18 months! And in turn the Internet's ~thirst~to treat this movie as the "rebirth of the whole of all of cinema" along with James Gunn as "the second coming of Christ" (something Gunn himself actively endorses and seeks to propagate) does the ACTUAL FILM a total and utter disservice.

Taken as a big, broad piece of coarse action extravagance it is immensely enjoyable. It's a really good ensemble of people. Idris Elba finally delivers something akin to the promise that he's a 'movie star" and not just a "television actor" here, but what's most interesting is that all of the 'tier one' hires (Elba, Cena, Robbie, etc) can even get close to Daniela Melchior and David Dastmalchian who steal the whole movie effortlessly.

The gratuitous violence and cavalcade of profanity work a treat. It's frequently funny (the whole "Who the fuck is Milton?" bit is very well played with a great secondary punchline later) and the action set-pieces are clean and well executed. It just isn't the "visionary" experience from a "visionary" director that we've been relentlessly and ridiculous forced to chew on for a year plus. And maybe its poisonous box office numbers had little to do with its tandem HBO Max debut and more to do with everyone was pig fucking sick of it before it had even landed?

15. The Empty Man

I had read all the 'blah' on this - last film to ever have the 20th Century Fox fanfare at the start, lost amidst the Fox/Disney merger, abandoned onto screens with a misleading ad campaign, better than its reputation suggests, etc. etc. To be honest, I only watched it because I'm an enormous supporter of James Badge Dale's work.

And I was really, really impressed by it. This is not at all the movie you'll think your getting. It's a messy, shaggy, unruly fucking movie at 130+ minutes and it doesn't land the execution of everything it's trying to pull off. But, by God, when it lands its borderline brilliant. Seriously. There's a couple of genuinely terrific scares tucked away in there and James Badge Dale, as always, is fully committed which really lends the film some extra gravitas.

The marketing leads you to believe you're getting a throwaway Dimension-esque release circa 2003 or something. Instead it's a early Cronenberg type of Lovecraftian PI procedural. Though maybe that is even saying too much? Seek it out for yourself. It's a bit of gem.

14. I Care A Lot

I absolutely adore Rosamund Pike and think she's the finest actress of my generation that this country has produced. I'd heard great things about this too and was excited to give it a go. But by the time it hit the 30 minute mark I was worried whether I could stick with it because it was just SO unrelentingly nasty and gleefully so. It just felt borderline perverse in projecting sociopaths winning out for the most horrendous cruelty...


... and then in a RED ROCK WEST style spin it sort of becomes a whole other thing. It's kind of hard to describe because it does admittedly get VERY silly and hokey but just when you think it's a jet black, bleak satire on the realities of the US guardianship system it becomes a modern femme fatale driven noir, a twisted Coen Brothers esque crime caper, and a one-upmanship comedy thriller.


Pike is truly exceptional. If there's any justice whatsoever then the Oscars this year will be a righting of the GONE GIRL wrongs by giving her and Ben Affleck (for THE WAY BACK) the acting Oscars they inarguably deserve. It's also enormously pleasing to see the wondrous Dianne Wiest be given a meaty enough platform to shine again these days too.

13. Time To Hunt

I was really impressed by this. It made me kinda miss my days of putting on 'thematic triple-bills' for a select few - because this sandwiched between KILLING THEM SOFTLY and NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN would •really• be something.

It could be considerably tighter. That's seemingly a common trait in Korean cinema nowadays though, with most films tapping out at 135 minutes as 'standard' regardless of whether they ~need~ to be that length or not. The only thing actually working against this film is its own length. There's a LOT of padding going on within. It neither needs as much lay-up as it takes nor requires as much repetition of sorts once the "hunt" begins.

But the general execution of it all outside of its length is solid, putting forward a near-dystopic OCEAN'S 11 then mixing it up with some (and here's a hard geek deep cut for you) NIGHT OF THE RUNNING MAN vibes. It's one of the strongest thrillers of the year.

12. Nobody

Many, many years ago screenwriting-cancer-in-human-form, Ehren Kruger, once apparently pitched a movie to Jack Black that would've been a parody of the [then] massively popular BOURNE movies - with Black getting a knock on the head and coming to assume he's an undercover spy on a secret mission, when really he's a buffoon who no one gives a shit about. Apparently that project died when Black rightly pointed out Kruger was just walking in THE WRONG GUY's shadow. I thought about that (thankfully) lost project whilst watching this for the second time. The easy and totally disposable version of this would've been the one that leant right in on Bob Odenkirk's comedy background to parody the new age of everyone trying to ape 87Eleven's JOHN WICKian approach to action - have Odenkirk as a useless fuck-up who goes on a rip-roaring but thoroughly incompetent campaign of violence.

That it didn't... That it went all in instead in this direction? With Bob Odenkirk in the lead? That's ballsy as fuck, man. I can't think of another film who's pre-release attitude from people was actually beneficial to how the film itself ended up being received. We treated this as a bit of joke when it was first announced, underestimated what it could actually be and jibed away with the "JOHN WICK's Dad" and "BETTER CALL SAUL An Ambulance" zingers... and then it lands in front of us and shows itself to be a •legitimate• action movie about an underestimated bit of a joke who's actually better and more of a threat than he's given credit for.

Odenkirk is fantastic here. The whole thing lives and dies by his performance. Forget the aforementioned slapstick comedy version of this. There's the poe-faced Liam Neeson version of this that would've been stale before the opening credits finished. Then there's ~this~ version: It may well walk the JOHN WICK line a little TOO closely but its such an easily forgivable act of semi-laziness from that team to have lifted all the best component parts of that movie and dropped them into... *checks notes* ... suburbia.

It's forgivable because it's bullet-fast, lean as hell, violent bit of pulp that holds tight to the precariously balanced tone it's executing, managing to be darkly funny as fuck and thrilling. It's huge amounts of fun in a snack-sized package. I thoroughly enjoyed this even more a second time.

11. The Rescue

I was equal parts impressed and enthralled by this recounting of the 2018 mission that saved a kids football team from an underwater cave in Thailand. More so because as a claustrophobic, this played like the most effective horror movie ever made to me.

Born from a complicated production process whereby filmmaker Kevin Macdonald signed on with National Geographic Documentary Films a year after the events to make a documentary feature only to flee once 'rights issues' became "difficult". And that's saying something: National Geographic could secure the rights to the *British divers'* story but the Thai government were wanting to do their own piece about their Navy SEALS. And Netflix had acquired the life rights to the soccer team which prevented their story from being covered in any film that wasn't streaming there. Eventually in February 2021 Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin (the team behind FREE SOLO) replaced Macdonald as director and delivered this; a documentary no less powerful or potent for the restrictions applied to it.

In fact, with the restricted focus, Vasarhelyi and Chin deliver a lean feature that has a truly unique angle other films on this subject will only be able to ape - that this monumental achievement was executed not by the greatest combined military might but actually a handful of nerdy, 'weekend hobbyist', middle-aged Brits!

10. The Mitchells Vs. The Machines

Maybe I'm going through the 'manopause' or something but this resonated much deeper / harder. Growing up in an abusive household where my passion for creativity was stemmed with a smack, the initial scenes of "Do you expect to make a living from stuff like this?" parental whine resonated effectively. This thing is ~layered~ man. It's got your high energy blockbustery blast of enjoyably bonkers mayhem. And then it's got your big dollops of heart and sweet messaging.

You can resist against this as much as you like but it's going to 💯% beat you into submission and cuddle the shit out of you until you come round to loving it. It's a joyous, relentlessly inventive, wonderfully visualised, very very funny little film that's going to sneak right up on you with that aforementioned emotional core hidden away amongst the hilarity and knock you for six a little.

It's a lovely, warm delight of a family film that - I must state this again - is frickin hilarious. All those people "outraged" at the notion ''queer representation'' has been 'trojan-horsed' really don't seem to understand the covert nature of 'trojan-horsing'. There's a difference between natural representation and beating you over the head with "LGBTQ wokeness". If there's any flaw the film should be called out for its in staking a belief in Chrissy Teigen and John Legend being able to scrape by as supporting comedy actors... they can't!

9. The Harder They Fall

I had a fabulous amount of fun with this. Five minutes in you're concerned that this is going to be one of those wanky, over-stylised "the directing is the star" Edgar Wright type ultimately empty endeavors. Five minutes later your concerns are abated as you realise the style is tied to the tone - and you're in for a grand old time.

Key here is that as much as this is absolutely an irreverent, revisionist, left-of-standard genre entry, it's made by Jeymes Samuel with as much an honour to the traditions of these movies as a thirst to 'jazz up' the tropes. Samuel clearly is someone who intricately knows and unashamedly loves Westerns. He's not making an off-kilter Western. He's making his own legitimate version. What's rather brilliant is that with not a white person in sight and an African-American principal cast (all characters are based on real 19th-century lawmen and outlaws), their "blackness" is never once used as a 'beat' or as characterisation. DJANGO UNCHAINED this is not.

And what a cast: Jonathan Majors, my beloved Zazie Beetz, Regina King, the mighty Delroy Lindo, Lakeith Stanfield, RJ Cyler, Danielle Deadwyler, Edi Gathegi, Deon Cole and Idris Elba - who, by sharing scenes with Majors and King, is really forced to step up his game and stop lazily phoning it in like he normally does. The template it all plays out within may be well-worn but it still manages to inject proceedings with very much its own style, energy and a fabulous soundtrack.

8. Another Round

I genuinely adored this, even more so on learning how it was born from being recalibrated out of the filmmaker Thomas Vinterberg's own personal tragedy: This is a deeply tragic and moving ode from Vinterberg to his daughter Ida, who the film is dedicated to - she pushed her father to adapt a play of his and helped him update it by telling him stories of the drinking culture within her friendship group and together they developed the intended film into "a celebration of alcohol based on the thesis that world history would have been different without alcohol". Vinterberg rewarded her by casting her as Mads Mikkelsen's daughter. Four days into filming, Ida was killed in a car accident. Vinterberg paused filming before channelling his grief back into this film, reworking it away from being a broader comedy and into something deeper.

"It should not just be about drinking. It has to be about being awakened to life" said Vinterberg of the newer version of this, which ended up being partially filmed in Ida's classroom with her classmates and friends as Mikkelsen's students. The end result is exactly that; a celebration of one's awakening from the stupor of a life in stagnation, a hangover from complacency and a lack of appreciation for what we have... life! The alcohol element is the "tool". It's symbolic, don't you see?

Mikkelsen is atypically tremendous. But he's at the forefront of a uniformly brilliant cast. It's funny - until it doesn't need to be. It's deeply and profoundly moving - because its earned the right to be. That final "dance" works both ways because of what we've cathartically gone through with Vinterberg and his characters.

7. Sheep Without A Shepherd

Blighted only by Chinese cinema's continued semi-insistance on portraying moral consequence upon a 'conflicted' protagonist (thus locking them in on only one of two narrative outcomes, time and again), this is an otherwise outright delight.
Definitely one of my favourite films of the year.
I was obviously predisposed to love any film that puts up the art of investigating against a passion for cinema. Like, come ON?


Li Weijie is a movie obsessed family man desperate to protect his family from the dark side of the law represented by the corrupt career-obsessed Laoorn, after his loved ones commit an unexpected crime. Laoorn believes her expertise in policing will bring about justice on her terms. Li Weijie believes his knowledge of movies and story structure will save him and his family. Let the battle commence.


This was probably one of the most enthralling, witty and genuinely well-constructed thrillers I've seen this year. It seems to delight in managing to deliver first-rate drama in its own right, whilst expertly playing off the tropes and conventions of these 'type' of investigatory procedurals - building out constantly in directions that are always a surprise.

6. Riders of Justice

I knew I was going to like this. I could tell from the trailer. I didn't know just how much I was going to love it though - so much so it's taken a hammer to the draft list of my end of year Top 10, which has felt fairly formalised for the last 4 months.

Mads Mikkelsen, a man incapable of giving anything less than an excellent performance, affirms his place once more as one of the great working actors here. As great as he is though, it's the script and its execution that is the major selling point. Taking the tired notion of a "Liam Neeson esque aged star slumming it in some mid-budget Euro-actioner", the film spins itself from a revenge movie into a darkly comedic treaty on coincidence, chance, statistical anomalies, friendship, family and the correct pixilation of a computer monitor.

It is quite simply a thoroughly enjoyable right angle swerve of a film - you go in thinking it's a Louis Leterrier or Pierre Morel action movie and you come away realising you've just watched the equivalent of Joel and Ethan Coen make a TAKEN movie.

5. The Eight Hundred

This is an unashamedly sprawling film (the opening title isn't raised until 20 minutes in) and doesn't stay focused on any one character long enough for you to get emotionally attached to anyone but it doesn't hurt the overall impact one jot.

I absolutely adored this. It's a massive, unwieldy epic of a film full of big, grand, tremendously captured action set-pieces filmed on IMAX cameras by a director who rarely keeps the camera still; sweeping and gliding the camera in amongst the brutal war sequences.

It's a genuinely fascinating and enthralling piece of history conveyed brilliantly, displaying the relentless determination to survive and endure in the face of completely insurmountable opposition.

4. Greenland

I was genuinely taken aback by how bloody great this was. When the director and star of ANGEL HAS FALLEN reunite for this sort of movie you kind of assume it's going to be a certain 'type' of action movie pish. But it isn't that. It leans away from "Gerard Butler saves the world" bollocks and into a societal breakdown movie that's played completely straight, with the film itself constantly ramping up the more the craziness does.

The casting masterstroke is in someone FINALLY looking back to what made Butler so wondrous in DEAR FRANKIE and moving away from trying to push him into the "great actor" or "action hero" mould with accompanying ill-fitting accent, and instead have him play the 'everyman' in the way Sean Connery would've done in such a role. He's really, really good here playing to his abilities for once.

The film keeps itself so grounded that you remain wholly invested and the tension soaks into you. It's such a surprise how incredibly effective it is in this regard. It earns such goodwill by being so legitimately great that by the time it sort of slides towards convenient silliness in its final 10 minutes or so you're way more forgiving.

3. Barb & Star Go To Vista Del Mar

This is fast becoming one of my favourite comedies of the last decade. Seriously. I love it even more than BRIDESMAIDS. And that's saying a lot because, Jon Hamm aside, that is a near perfect comedy confection.
This is the film we •need• right now; a joyous, unabashed, full lean into pure unadulterated, completely committed absurdity that sets its stall out within mere minutes, letting you know you need to climb on board for the ride or take the exit ramp straight away.
I laughed loud and frequently and a lot of that came from the fact the trailer(s) did a terrific job of hiding what the film •truly is• and, as a result, a lot of the best jokes.


It's definitely not going to be for everyone nor does it seem to want to be - and those coming to it because it's from the ladies who wrote BRIDESMAIDS are going to be very disappointed / surprised / appalled / etc. If that movie birthed hundreds of 'fatty fall down' comedies for its break-out star Melissa McCarthy that slowly slid into mediocrity and awfulness then, if there's any justice in the world, Annie Mumolo should be getting a 6 picture deal somewhere for her to be the blockbuster comedy star she deserves to be. And not just someone who David O. Russell fucks over for the ego trip. She is fabulous here and pitch hits 100 out of 100 with every line of dialogue or physical gag.
Close behind Mumolo is Vanessa Bayer who nearly walks away with the whole movie off just a couple of tiny scenes. She is genuinely hilarious and leaves you screaming for a 'Talking Club' spin-off movie or streaming show.


Not every element works (the whole thing with Damon Wayans Jr doesn't work at all, for example) but that's the genius of this movie. It stacks itself so sky high with care-free comedic effort that when something clunks its only a matter of seconds before something ~brilliant~ comes along. Okay, Andy Garcia as "the real life Tommy Bahama" playing 'Tommy Bahama' is no high point but would you sacrifice it to lose Barb's 'journey of independence'?
This is definitely one of the best modern comedies. #ByThePowerOfTrish

2. Let Him Go

I knew I was predisposed to ~like~ it because of the actors involved but I was not prepared for how good... nay, grrrr-eat it actually was.
Costner and Lane are severely underappreciated and consistently excellent actors and they're absolutely all in here. It's been a long time since you've seen two actors standing across from each other who's singular goal is to elevate the other. Possibly knowing that they're reap the ancillary benefits from the other actor soaring.


There's a film here on the face of it - a modern-of-sorts western that's two parts family drama struggling to stay in control to keep the third part (a violent, spiralling eye-for-an-eye confrontation) unsuccessfully at bay. And then there's the film... or even a THOUSAND films... that exist in the silent glances and tender spaces between Costner and Lane's characters.


And because this is a film that acts like •great• isn't enough, Lesley Manville gets added into the mix in a role that should you wish to look up "against type" in lieu of an explanation you'd just find a photo of Manville staring back at you.
I completely loved this film and hope more of you will seek it out.

1. The Kid Detective

I got my arse well and truly handed to me by what a terrific, dark thriller this turned out to be. I went in thinking it was going to be a broad comedy leaning heavily on a one-note concept - and it's certainly not that at all.

It's a legitimate and effective PI investigatory procedural on one hand, an acerbic black comedy on another and somewhere in between a surprisingly deep study on self-worth and depression; knowing you're better than the joke you're made out to be by those around you but 'lost at sea' emotionally in knowing how to prove it. To say it resonated haaaaaard with me personally right now is an understatement.

Adam Brody - long held as the guy to turn up and knock a zinger out the park in projects vastly beneath his level of talent - finally gets the right project to show what he's truly capable of and, by Christ, he kills it. That final dining room table conversation is phenomenally well-played. And that last scene as the credits roll? Heartbreaking.

And that is that...

ME: “See you same time, same place next year!”

YOU:

[poisonouspilots]

ask, tagged by @queentozier

star sign: libra

height: 4'9

sexuality: um...eddie's mom

phone wallpaper: sad lil egg yolk

ever had a teacher crush: once, actually. ew.

where do you see yourself in 10 years: tbh dead

if you could be anywhere else right now where would it be: at my best friends house hanging out with them

coolest halloween costume: i was richie tozier last halloween

favorite 90s show: pokemon

last kiss: nah, never been kissed

ever been to las vegas: no but i want to go

fav pair of shoes: my hella beat-up black nikes

favorite fruit: starfruit

favorite book: the great gilly hopkins

stupidest thing you’ve ever done: i make a lot of dumb mistakes and there's just too many to choose from

i'm gonna tag: @cade-james @thecloakedflea @teasingtozier @reginawashere15 @thecreativeangel @multi-parker @all my lovely cuties that i'm too lazy to tag

[justpeachy--keen]

Excerpts from the Diary of Daisy Juliet O’Hara

Dated: October 21, 2016 - August 11, 2017

[tw - talk of noncon kissing (pretty tame) and murder (also pretty tame)

October 21, 2016 Dear Diary,

Can you take back a first kiss? I want to. I think I’m going to, because mine was gross. That’s because Devon is gross. I don’t know why I let him kiss me. Well, I didn’t really let him. He just kind of did it! It was there and over so fast I didn’t know what to do. I don’t even remember anything about it. What did it feel like? I dunno. What did it taste like? Ugh, that awful vodka stuff.

*Note One: does all vodka taste that awful? Why do grown ups drink it? Especially if it makes you do stupid things like kiss your sister!!

It was even more dumb because he yelled at me afterwards for pushing him. He was all: “Daisy!! What was that for?!” And then Mark sided with him, saying I shouldn’t have pushed him in the first place and that they were just messing around. Boys are so dumb.

Anyway, I feel much better now that I have decided to pretend it didn’t happen. That means when I get my real first kiss with Malik, it will be amazing. Maybe my foot will even do that pop thing like Mia talks about in Princess Diaries! That would be super cool. Then I’ll know it is my first real kiss.

*Note Two: Ask Malik if he wants to go see the Great Gilly Tompkins this weekend!

That’s all for now. Hopefully I’ll have something more interesting to report tomorrow when I hear back from Malik.

Adios! Daisy Juliet O’Hara

December 25, 2016 Dear Dairy,

I love Christmas, don’t get me wrong. BUT THIS MORNING!!! Oh, I could’ve killed Veronica. She came into my room and started bouncing on my bed at like 7 in the morning! What is the point of having my own bedroom if people just barge into it all the time? I was sooooo annoyed and I yelled at her and then I made her cry and then Mark yelled at me and Angelica and Thomas weren’t even awake yet.

But, oh well! The rest of the day was really fun.

Angelica and Thomas (or “Santa Claus” as they still pretend since Veronica and Rachel are still babies who believe in that kind of stuff) gave me a new computer! It doesn’t have internet access, but that’s okay because I don’t really #surftheweb anyway. I’ve got my phone for that.

*Note One: do Angelica and Thomas even know I have internet on my phone? Best not to mention it, just in case. What would I do without Instagram?!

My laptop was really my only gift because it was soooo expensive, but that is okay because it is all I really wanted anyway!

I gave everyone stories, you wanna know what they were about?

Well, Angelica got a story about a lady that couldn’t have kids adopting a bunch with all these special abilities and then one day this bad guy comes along and all her kids like totally protect her from the bad guy. It was really cool, it made her cry.

Thomas got a story about this guy who just made all these wood carvings and they were like so good that they came to life and started wreaking havoc in the town! He told me it was really creative and funny.

Mark got a story about a jock who secretly loves theatre a la HSM—he didn’t like it but that’s just because I exposed his secret. But!! Angelica thought it was really cool he wanted to start a band that, like, specifically toured around at old folks home and like—hospitals. I think that sounds really dumb and boring but he is a good singer.

Devon got a superhero story, it was pretty cliché but I got to work on my action scenes, which is important. So, that’s good. He liked it. Kissed my cheek for it.

Rachel got a story about a girl who finds out she’s a princess but her family was like—banished and everyone had died but her and she had to reclaim the throne. It was super cool because I made sure the girl was like a bad ass and like knew kung fu.

Veronica got a story about dogs. I’m not really good at anthropomorphic stuff and it wasn’t my favorite, but I think she liked it! I made sure the main dog was her favourite kind, even though I think that bull terriers are really funny looking.

Okay!! I’m getting called down for supper!

Adios! Daisy Juliet O’Hara

January 23, 2016 Dear Diary,

Today, someone moved in two houses down and on the other side of the street. Angelica brought him coffee cake, but she told Thomas that he was really weird. She didn’t think I was listening, but I was. Sometimes I sit with my headphones in and not playing so that I can hear what people are saying and they think I’m not.

This is how I found out Mrs. Howell was cheating on her husband with the Geometry teacher. Ohmigosh that was so funny. Her husband still doesn’t know but I’m not going to be the one to tell him, of course. Though, most of the school knows by now. That’s not my fault. I only told Malik and Patrick and Melanie and James and Marta, it’s up to them who they tell. Not me.

Anyway, I think I’m curious, so I’m gonna go investigate tomorrow.

Adios! Daisy Juliet O’Hara

February 5, 2017 Dear Diary,

Woooooooooooow, okay, so I was supppppper busy these last few days (which is why I haven’t written in you!) and I’m super sorry about that. But! This girl went missing from down the street. She was like my age-ish. I think she was 18? Her name was Sally and she was super cool, like—she dyed her hair funky colours and she invited these men who had like beards or like, wore suits, over allllll the time when her parents weren’t home and she smoked weed too.

I think she ran off with some man. I told Angelica and Thomas this and they sent me to my room for joking around, but I’m not!! I really think she did. Sometimes her parents got in really nasty fights and then she would leave to go stay at her friend’s house.

She’s not there, though, so that means that she just ran away. Seems pretty simple to me. The police are so stupid.

Adios! Daisy Juliet O’Hara

March 25, 2017 Dear Diary,

IT’S MY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

SWEET SIXTEEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I’M PRACTICALLY AN ADULT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh my gosh, I had such a good day!! Having your birthday on a weekend is like soooooo much better than having your birthday during the week. I didn’t have to worry about homework or anything like that! All my friends were free and we went to the Australian zoo which was just sooo cool. Oh my gosh, we tried to steal this adorable baby goat from the petting zoo and we got so close too, I’m so mad! It’s all Marta’s fault, she started laughing and broke my concentration and I dropped the invisibility around the goat in the middle of the parking lot!!

Everyone saw it. I was so mad at her. But, well, I dunno what I would do with a baby goat anyway. I just thought it was super cute and if I could get it for free, well! Why not?

The zoo keepers were pretty mad and so were my foster parents but I think it’s going to be okay. They gave me a pass since it is my birthday and they’re not going to ground me so that’s really cool of them. Thomas said something along the lines of “gosh, I can’t imagine what she’s going to do for her eighteenth birthday!”

And I said: “I don’t know either! But it’s gonna be GREAT!”

They started laughing at me. I dunno why but I could tell they just thought it was funny. Angelica shook her head at me but Thomas gave me a big kiss on top of my head.

I kinda hope they adopt me before then. I love them a lot.

Adios, Daisy Juliet O’Hara

May 9, 2017

The girl sat on a bench in the quad at her high school. It was lunch time and she was very nervous. Not because of lunch, but because of the boy walking towards her. She had put her make up on very carefully today, and she had had her outfit picked out for like a whole week. It was a pair of black jeans and bright pink and yellow trainers, her shirt was a soft yellow, not too obnoxious, and frilly—a spaghetti strap, and she was wearing a cool leather jacket over it because it was a little breezy (she was glad she put her hair in a ponytail.)

The boy sat down next to her and gave her a hug. “Hey, Daisy Rose! You look nice!”

“So do you,” she complimented.

And he did. He was wearing a leather jacket too, and he looked even cooler in it than she did. He’d styled his jet black hair and he kind of looked like a person from that movie Greece that Angelica Amy liked to watch sometimes.

“Thanks!” he said. “So, uhhhh—Patrick Peter told me that Marta Martha told him that James John said that you’d told him in first period you wanted to talk to me?”

“Oh, yeah!” Rose said, “I was wondering if you wanted to be my boyfriend?”

“Ohmygosh! I thought you’d never ask me,” Malik Waseem exclaimed and leaned in to kiss her. They totally made out with tongue and everyone in the cafeteria clapped.

*Note One: that’s not what happened. Apparently, Malik has been dating Melanie for like two months and he didn’t tell any of us until today.

Adios, Daisy Juliet O’Hara

August 11, 2017 Dear Diary,

They found Sally from up the street’s body today.

Someone murdered her but no one can figure out how. She was just—dead. There were like no stab wounds or bruises or anything. Her eyes were like—wide open? Have you ever seen a dead person’s eyes before? It’s super creepy. They just—stare at you but like you can tell nothing is there and that they are dead.

I probably shouldn’t have snuck up to the crime scene but it was like right by our house and in my defense I didn’t know that was what it was. I just saw the cop cars.

No one knows who killed her but I guess she didn’t run away after all.

Adios, Daisy Juliet O’Hara

[sunofsicily]

Nickname: None that I know of. Star sign: Pisces. Height: 6′2 Last thing you googled: I don’t remember. Favourite music artist: James Everingham, Anathema. Song stuck in my head: Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious from Mary Poppins. Last movie you’ve seen:  I believe it was The Prince of Egypt. What are you wearing right now:  Pajama pants and no shirt. When did you create this blog:  February of 2016. What kind of stuff do you post: Food, cats, cathedrals, sunshine, and some jokes here or there. Why did you choose your URL: My name is Sicily, and I’m associated with the sun. Gender:  Male. Hogwarts house:  Hufflepuff. Pokemon Go team: Instinct. Favourite colour:  Gold. Average hours of sleep: 8 to 10. Lucky numbers:  24. Favourite characters: Newt Scamander, Hermione Granger. How many blankets do you sleep with: One, or none. Dream job: An elementary school teacher, or a college English professor.

I was tagged by @kanehon, and I tag @gillys-world and @sunsetbunny

[allisonswrittenwords]

We’re reading all the books for National Reading Month!  And that’s the theme of the month (and a mini reading challenge for yours truly!)

“A Reader of Books”

I am what you would call a “reader for life.”  I love books, and always have.  Ever since I first started reading The Cat in the Hat prior to starting Kindergarten, I have loved the idea of words telling a story.

I should probably back up a bit, before the time I learned to read.

My mom told this story about a time when my dad had a newspaper open on the floor, and in the Job Classifieds, there was an advertisement that says “Macy’s.”  I was two years old, walking by the paper on the ground, and looked down and said “Macy’s.”  No, I couldn’t read yet, but apparently I could identify store logos, which either said I was going to be a world class shopper (which I’m not), or a reader (which I am).

Allison at 5 1/2 years old (also in 1988). Image: Venezio Family Collection

Brilliant, probably not, but smart – yeah, I’ve always been a little smart.  I’ve always been the type to just read whatever was in the house.  If a magazine was on the coffee table, then it was fair game.  I loved library day at school, and don’t get me started on the Scholastic Book Fair.  I missed a book fair in third grade and was devastated – the one and only book fair I ever missed in school (stupid sinus infection!).  My mom made it up to me by taking me to a local bookstore while I was recuperating from the sinus infection (I missed almost two weeks of school because of that infection!) to pick out some of the books I wanted from the book fair that year.  It was the time Ramona Quimby and The Baby-Sitters Club made their debuts in my reading life, and they’ve never left.

That was the same year I met Peter Hatcher and his little brother Farley Drexel (but you know him as Fudge), and Peter’s arch-nemesis (if only because she was a girl) Sheila Tubman (my mom bought me Sheila’s story that year).  The following year, in fourth grade, I was introduced to Mrs. Frisby and some rats from a secret organization, Charlie Buckett and his trip to some chocolate factory, as well as Ellen Tebbits (she lives in the same town as Ramona Quimby).  There was a Light in the Attic, and it was the one time I’ve ever loved poetry.

Fifth grade meant reading a few years above my level, when I discovered the horror of R.L. Stine’s Fear Street.  Yes, I admit it – I skipped over the Goosebumps series and went right for the high school-age stuff, while keeping up with the Baby-Sitters Club (and Kristy Thomas’s younger stepsister, Karen, whom I met in fourth grade when I got one of her books for Christmas).

By the time sixth grade ended, I left behind Ramona and the babysitters (Karen too) for pretty much non-stop reading of Fear Street novels (but I met “The Great” Gilly Hopkins that year).  I gave all of my books to a younger cousin (except for my copy of A Light in the Attic – I kept that for a few more years).  My love of reading grew from there, and expanded into Stephen King, Michael Crichton, and anything and everything about pop culture, humor, film, and television.  I read Dennis Miller’s books of rants in high school, even enjoyed some political reading in college.  Since high school and college was all about required reading, I did the assigned books.  They sorta became priority, so when college was finally done, I got back into doing my own reading.

As an adult, I’ve followed SG-1 on their adventures through the Stargate (still do once in a while), read a story about the horrors of rabbits relocating (and saw the movie about it, which is terrifying), and finally read the story of a young girl who was also “a reader of books.”

And that young girl is the subject of the first article in my themed “National Reading Month” articles.

At long last.

Matilda Wormwood, The Reader of Books

Image: archive.org

One children’s literature character I had the pleasure of meeting as a kid (both in written and movie form) was Matilda Wormwood.  I saw the movie when I was in eighth grade (a few years after I read the book, which would have been in fourth or fifth grade), when one of my cousins bought it over to watch.  The following day, I went over to my best friend’s house, and she received VHS copy of it from Christmas.  She was waiting to watch it with me, so we did.  A few months after that, I got my own copy of Matilda.  My grandmother bought it – my mom used to try to discourage her from buying us videos because she usually bought ones that my brother and I were too old for, but I loved this particular one.  This was the exception – I loved the story.

In 1997, I would never have expected a kids movie to have such an impact on so many.  Maybe it was the story, but I’d like to think it was Mara Wilson’s depiction of Matilda Wormwood that gave the story of a little girl with a love of books – and a rather interesting ability – such depth.

Matilda’s story actually begins almost a decade earlier, in 1988, which was right after the young lady that brought her to life was born.

Matilda

Image: archive.org

Matilda is a 1988 novel by Roald Dahl, the same author who brought Charlie Buckett, the BFG, and James’s adventures in a Giant Peach to life.  The story focuses on the eponymous character, a five-and-a-half year old girl with an “unusual prococity.”  Ignored by her parents and older brother, Matilda ventures to the local library beginning at the age of four, in search of books.

Matilda’s family, such as they are. Image: archive.org

By the time she is five-and-a-half, she has read all the children’s books, tackled Great Expectations, and loved Charles Dickens.  She is enrolled in a school run by Miss Agatha Trunchbull, a tyrannical sort who rules with an iron first.  Despite that, Matilda forms a bond with her teacher, Miss Honey.

Matilda discovers she has telekinetic abilities, when she causes a water glass containing a Newt to spill onto Miss Trunchbull.  When she reveals this to Miss Honey, her teacher confides to her about her upbringing at the hands of an abusive aunt after her father dies suspiciously.  The aunt, it turns out, is Miss Trunchbull, who is withholding Miss Honey’s deserved inheritance.  Matilda uses her abilities for sweet, sweet revenge (you know, the kid-appropriate kind), by raising a piece of chalk to the chalkboard during a lesson by Miss Trunchbull.  She writes a message with the chalk, in the guise of the ghost of Miss Honey’s father, demanding that Trunchbull hand over Miss Honey’s home and inheritance, and leave forever.

Trunchbull obliges (in a horrified way – abandoning the home and leaving no indication of where she was going), Miss Honey gets her house, and in a hesitant moment while trying to leave town due to  Mr. Wormwood’s less-than-honorable profession (turns out those cars he sells are stolen), her parents give Matilda permission to live with Miss Honey.  Things improve with the school, and advances in Matilda’s education result in losing her telekinesis, but she now has everything she wanted.

A sweet story about a sweet but very misunderstood young lady.

Allison Meets Matilda

As I said, I saw the movie first, when I was in eighth grade, with my younger cousin, but over a decade before I actually (finally!) read the book. I love both and the differences in the story, which had more of a British element, whereas the film is definitely Americanized.  I love the names of the characters – even the hard-edged Miss Trunchbull has such a great name – so perfect for someone of her stature.

Man, did the movie get her so right! Image: archive.org

I love that Matilda was finally able to channel her extraordinary intelligence in a productive manner – more advanced learning, but the film’s ending and Matilda being able to keep her powers, is equally fun.  She’s a protagonist that no matter what, exudes optimism, and finally gets everything she needed.  No overtly terrible measures were necessary…unless you think ghostwriting on a chalkboard terrible.  Which you probably don’t.

I’m re-reading Matilda again, ten years after I read it the second time, and the story just resonates with me.  It makes me feel good that a young girl could have such an incredible ability and intelligence, and use it for good.

As for my VHS copy (in the clamshell box!), I still have it – it’s in my giant container of videocassettes in my home office.  For nostalgia’s sake, I’m going to have to watch it some point.

By The Way…

  I’ve read Mara Wilson’s autobiography, which touches on her time as Matilda – a role that typecast her, but also one she learned to embrace many years later.  Her stories of a life before and after fame are pretty funny, and dare I say it, she’s alot like us…if we had found fame early on in our lives, and landed that One Huge Role that made us, and then caused us to shy away.

I also featured Matilda as the featured photo for a Music Monday article about the song “Send Me On My Way,” which was featured in the movie.

And Now, You!

Have you ever read Matilda, or any of Roald Dahl’s books?  Have you seen this or any other film adaptations of said books?  As always, I’d love to hear your stories.  What I love about National Reading Month is that we all have that one special character, that one special book or book series that drew us in and has never let us go…if we allowed that to happen.

That’s what this month is going to be about – five very special instances of my young reading life that have shaped my enjoyment of reading and made it a lifelong commitment. I promise the stories about their impact aren’t nearly as long-winded as how I met my these characters.  Always remember, when you first read about a character, you’re meeting them.  It’s your choice to see them through their series, or read about them again (if their story stands alone).

Have a great day!

Image: archive.org

A Girl of Unusual Precocity: The Story of Roald Dahl's "Matilda" - A little girl with a love of reading - and amazing abilities - is the subject of my kickoff for saluting National Reading Month! We're reading all the books for National Reading Month!  And that's the theme of the month (and a mini reading challenge for yours truly!)

[thats-definitelynot-raven]

2019 Reading List

One of my favorite things since rediscovering reading for fun as a form of self-care is reflecting on the books I’ve read over the course of a year. In 2018, I read 69 books because I have the sense of humor of a 15-year-old boy. This year, I set a goal of 70 books (one more than last year) and was pleasantly surprised to have surpassed it. I think the majority of the surprise stems from the fact that I read some really bad books at the beginning of the year and got stuck in a rut. But then a few good books came along and reminded me that reading can help clear my mind and allows me to see the problems plaguing my lab work from a different perspective. I’m also incredibly proud because this year marks the first year that I have chosen to read so many non-fiction novels.

If last year was twenty-gay-teen (based on my reading list), this year continued in much the same vein. The general unifying theme for most of the books that I read this year is the intersectional nature of our identity. While lot of the books I read (unintentionally) mainly centered around explorations of cultural, gender, and/or sexual identity, many also included the intersection of mental health (directly or indirectly). The books I read this year challenged my perception of how others view their identities while also prompting me to reflect on my own identity and how I fit into the context of our larger society. I wish many of these books had been published when I was younger because they would’ve helped me feel less alone and given me a sense of community. Despite this, I’m glad I have had the opportunity to read these books now because they have prompted and supported enormous personal growth. I can’t wait to see what is in store for reading in 2020!

Here are my favorites from the year, sorted by category (fiction vs. non-fiction):

Fiction:

1.    Hollow Kingdom, Kira Jane Buxton

2.    What if It’s Us, Becky Albertalli and Adam Silvera

3.    More Happy Than Not, Adam Silvera

4.    Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch, Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman

5.    Autoboyography, Christina Lauren

6.    Red, White & Royal Blue, Casey McQuiston

7.    History is All You Left Me, Adam Silvera

8.    The Dangerous Art of Blending In, Angelo Surmelis

9.    The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue, Mackenzi Lee

10.  Catwoman: Soulstealer, Sarah J. Maas

11.  Hope and Other Punchlines,Julie Buxbaum

12.  Infected, James Schannep

13.  The Place Between Breaths, An Na

14.  Teen Titans: Raven, Kami Garcia

15.  Chaotic Good, Whitney Gardner

16.  The Hate U Give, Angie Thomas

17.  P.S. I Still Love You, Jenny Han

18.  Four Three Two One, Courtney C. Stevens

19.  As You Wish, Chelsea Sedoti

20.  So Yesterday, Scott Westerfeld

21.  Otherworld, Jason Segel

22.  Impostors, Scott Westerfeld

23.  The Love & Lies of Rukhsana Ali, Sabina Khan

24.  Dear Rachel Maddow, Adrienne Kisner

25.  Harley Quinn: Breaking Glass, Mariko Tamaki

26.  The Bane Chronicles, Cassandra Clare

27.  The Frame-Up, Meghan Scott Molin

28.  None of the Above, I.W. Gregorio

29.  Whatever: or how junior year became totally f$@ked, S.J. Goslee

30.  Carry On, Rainbow Rowell

31.  Elevation, Stephen King

32.  The Word Is Murder, Anthony Horowitz

33.  A Darker Shade of Magic, V.E. Schwab

34.  Not Your Sidekick, C.B. Lee

35.  I’m Not Dying with You Tonight, Kimberly Jones, Gilly Segal

36.  Three Sides of a Heart: Short Stories about Love Triangles, ed. Natalie C. Parker

37.  Black Widow #1, Mark Waid

38.  The Gifted School,Bruce Holsinger

39.  On a Pale Horse, Piers Anthony

40.  Always and Forever, Laura Jean, Jenny Han

41.  Five Feet Apart, Rachael Lippincott

42.  The Museum of Intangible Things, Wendy Wunder

43.  The 7 ½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle, Stuart Turton

44.  Moxie, Jennifer Mathieu

45.  Less, Andrew Sean Greer

46.  All the Names They Used for God, Anjali Sachdeva

47.  Renegades, Marissa Meyer

48.  The Chemist, Stephenie Meyer

49.  One Dark Throne, Kendare Blake

50.  A Perfect Life, Danielle Steel

51.  Sweetbitter, Stephanie Danler

52.  Life and Death, Stephanie Meyer

53.  Supreme Courtship, Christopher Buckley

Non-Fiction:

1.    Beautiful on the Outside, Adam Rippon

2.    Brave Face, Shaun David Hutchinson

3.    (Don’t) Call Me Crazy, ed. Kelly Jensen

4.    Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup, John Carreyrou

5.    Dear Ijeawele, or a Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

6.    The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting Up a Generation for Failure, Jonathan Haidt

7.    The Body: A Guide for Occupants, Bill Bryson

8.    How Not to Get Shot: And Other Advice From White People, D.L. Hughley

9.    Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong, James W. Loewen

10.  Women, Race, and Class, Angela Y. Davis

11.  The Edge of Every Day: Sketches of Schizophrenia, Marin Sardy

12.  How To: Absurd Scientific Advice for Common Real-World Problems, Randall Munroe

13.  Real Queer America: LGBT Stories from Red States, Samantha Allen

14.  Dear Girls: Intimate Tales, Untold Secrets, & Advice for Living Your Best Life, Ali Wong

15.  Dear Heartbreak: YA authors on the Dark Side of Love, ed. Heather Demetrios

16.  Bad Feminist, Roxane Gay

17.  American Like Me: Reflections on Life Between Cultures, ed. America Ferrera

18.  Open Mic: Riffs on Life Between Cultures in Ten Voicesed. Mitali Perkins

19.  Men Explain Things to Me, Rebecca Solnit

20.  Americanized: Rebel Without a Green Card, Sara Saedi

21.  Shortest Way Home: One Mayor’s Challenge and a Model for America’s Future, Pete Buttigieg

22.  The Only Woman in the Room, Marie Benedict

23.  Minority Leader: How to Lead from the Outside and Make Real Change, Stacey Abrams

24.  Weapons of Math Destruction: How Big Data Increases Inequality and Threatens Democracy, Cathy O’Neil

25.  Deep Change: Discovering the Leader Within, Robert E. Quinn

26.  She Has Her Mother’s Laugh: The Powers, Perversions, and Potential of Heredity, Carl Zimmer

27.  Inferior: How Science Got Women Wrong—and the New Research That’s Rewriting the Story, Angela Saini

28.  100 Questions You’d Never Ask Your Parents: Straight Answers to Teens’ Questions About Sex, Sexuality, and Health, Elizabeth Henderson

[fuckyesdobiegillis]

core four in class CORE FOUR IN CLASS

[nxrecords-blog]

NX Mixtape 2017

Presenting the NX Records Mixtape 2017, our fifth annual mixtape giving you a taste of 30+ brand new tracks from the best that Goldsmiths has to offer, creatively weaved together by La Leif. Over an hour of free, downloadable, new music.

Goldsmiths alum La Leif is an incredible composer and producer, plays in the duo ORKA as well as the Nomadic Female DJ Troupe and co-runs a collective for female and non-binary music producers/sound enthusiasts called Omnii.  She was the perfect choice to mix together this year’s amazing selection of new music and she hasn’t let us down with our most exciting mix yet.

TRACKLIST

Tracks featured: 1. Luxes- Birds 2. Remi- Grief 3. Gillie Ione- Clouds Today 4. Mar- Who 5. Genevieve Dawson- Running 6. Charles Vaughan- Green Leaves 7. Francesca Ter-Burg- Into the Woods 8. Gaspar Narby- Drawing Lines 9. Tony Njoku- Once Again 10. Fille- Queens 11. Funeral for Bird- Over Now 12. YANNA A- My Love (runs from me) 13. Journeyperson- In the Business Lounge 14. Jay Hammond- Silky White Skin 15. Rosie Everett- 60 16. Calluna- The Drop 17. NX Panther- Oh Industry 18. Insect in Plexiglas- Agressive Adoration 19. Worm Hears- Only Wanted 20. Penny Churchill- ATA 21. Gus White- Ballroom 22. bRAt- Ur Heart 23. John García Rueda- City Trails 24. Sian Miriam- Paid 25. D Parks- The Pain We Feel 26. Hol- Best Dad 27. Ordinary Noise- Pale Blue Dot (You Are Here) 28. VUDA- Bateman 29. Keúk- Water 30. CYANA- Constant MRI (feat Sam Wilkinson) 31. Amy Hollinrake- Fade Into This 32. Catherine Okada- Fix This up 33. Megan Tuck- Let Me Apologise

Artists in detail

LUXES Luxes is a London based music duo, formed by current Goldsmiths BMus Popular Music students Marco Spaggiari and Penny Churchill. Both engineers, producers and musicians, they start to collaborate on various studio based projects in November 2016. Their main aim is to explore sound in a very textural visual sense and like to create ambient sonic worlds.

REMI

19-year-old singer/songwriter from Bexleyheath currently studying his first year of popular music at Goldsmiths. Soul/R&B/Gospel-inflected music.

GILLIE IONE

Gillie Ione is a producer/ singer-songwriter, centering around an experimental pop sound, with an undercurrent of folk influenced narrative. Originally from rural South Wales.

MAR

GENEVIEVE DAWSON

Genevieve Dawson is a singer-songwriter originally from Edinburgh and now based in South-east London. At the heart of her songs is an arresting honesty, a directness and warmth that has caught the attention of London’s alt-folk scene.

CHARLES VAUGHAN

producer, musician, performer, DJ, programmer and technician and current Goldsmiths Music Computing student. Charles has been producing music for 6 years now, first being signed at 16 introducing EDM, and now moving on to more intricate electronic music, hip hop and also ambient and experimental music.

FRANCESCA TER-BERG

Francesca Ter-Berg is a cellist, composer and sound recordest based in London. She is one of the leading Klezmer cellists of her generation and has studied with internationally renowned teachers including Ahmed Mukhtar, Tcha Limberger, Dr. Alan Bern and Dr Jyotsna Srikanth. She has collaborated with many of the UK’s top artists including acclaimed folk singer Sam Lee, The Unthanks, Talvin Singh, Portico and the BBC Symphony Orchestra, Francesca has recently completed her Masters Degree in Popular Music at Goldsmiths where she started developing her interests in film composition, phonography and electroacoustic composition, resulting in her developing a live performance approach that encompasses some of these elements with playing the cello.

TONY NJOKU

Tony is a British-Nigerian electronic music producer and singer-songwriter from London. His self-penned and produced songs have been described as ‘strikingly evocative soundscapes, managing to make even the shortest pop songs sound like epic adventures.’

FILLE

Fille (‘girl’ in French) is a third-year Goldsmiths pop music student originally from Northern Ireland, a project started when she lived in Marseille - becoming influenced by French electronic music there, producing her own tracks after mainly playing classical music before. She likes to merge her classical background with electro and pop influences and also composes music for film.

FUNERAL FOR BIRD

An 18 year old singer/songwriter. It’s indie folk, but with elements of electronic and and rock, and more ecclectic influences from soul, ambient music and hip hop.

YANNA A

DARK/ALTERNATIVE, 20 yr old songwriter/musician based in North London. Currently studying at Goldsmiths and influenced by artists like Pj Harvey, Tori Amos and Hole.

JAY HAMMOND

Singer, musician and visual artist using foley and manipulating sounds of found objects alongside creative vocal techniques. ROSIE EVERETT

Starting as an acoustic singer / songwriter Rosie Everett’s soulful voice has always been at the forefront of the mix. Even as her sound has developed we can still expect to be captivated by her melancholic melody lines and deeply emotional lyrics. Now creating mesmerising dark pop, Rosie’s voice demands your attention by pulling onyour heartstrings and singing into your ear with a catchy and beautiful sound. Her Debut E.P. ‘A Change of Perspective’ is now available on Spotify and iTunes

NX PANTHER

NX Panther is the pseudonym of singer, songwriter, rapper and visual artist Alia Pathan. Fusing hip-hop/grime with world samples and home-made beats about cinema, dead technology, legacies and sightings of a mythical panther.

INSECT IN PLEXIGLAS

I am a 19 year old songwriter from Belfast currently living in South East London, I like making songs in my bedroom using old keyboards and cassette tapes.

WORM HEARS

A Three piece queer punk/noise pop band based in South East London, influenced by bands like Beat Happening, Pixies and Weezer. Writing songs about a lot of different things but often they are at least partly influenced by experiences of growing up as a transgender person.

PENNY CHURCHILL

A conceptual Producer, Artist, Sound creator (Musician?). Explores and uses songwriting as a medium, platform to reflect and create the internal thoughts of the ‘glass thinker’/human as a vessel. Their purpose is to create sonic worlds which bring to life the storyline narratives which their lyrics carry. Penny creates surreal moments within the music as a way of reflecting how thoughts, ideas and processing may sound in a musical context connecting the music and the body together in performance. Music as an extension and amplifier of the limbs, reflecting sonically the thoughts encountered by a human being.

GUS WHITE

Growing up in a small village in wiltshire, Gus began his career as a choir boy. He studied sonic arts at Queens University in Belfast and is influenced by Jeff Buckley, Joni Mitchell and Nick Drake.

bRAt

“Classically trained musician writing pop music”

John García Rueda

Colombian producer, improviser and tiple performer exploring cultural heritage from contemporaneity.  He has composed music and designed sound for film documentaries, dance works and multimedia installations.

SIAN MIRIAM

From the Isle of Anglesey in North Wales, a combination of darkly comic and openly emotional stories are brought to life through song and spoken word in both Welsh and English. The focus is on honest and brave direct storytelling developed through insecurity. Unaccompanied singing is integral to this work. However a string quartet enhances the various textures, dissonances and clashes in the stories - but the empty space of just one voice tells bold truths.

D PARKS

Until now, D has been sweet, humble, trusting, passionate, patient and kind. Now that she has finally grown up, been through shit, opened her eyes, D is now officially vexed. In her music, she reveals some home truths, empowers, and stir up some emotions, using her creativity as the tool.

HOL

Hol is the project of Luke Jackson, working within the creative community of South East London. His songs explore stories of confusing, lonely romance with explicit sexuality and blunt introspection.

ORDINARY NOISE

Colchester indie 4 piece, as heard on BBC 2, BBC 6, and BBC Introducing Essex and Suffolk.

VUDA

VUDA is a singer, songwriter and producer based in East London. She fuses electronic synth sounds with trip-hop inspired beats to create haunting and ethereal pieces of work. She has been likened to Banks, FKA TWIGS and Lana Del Rey and her visuals and her live shows are just as haunting and mysterious as her music. VUDA has also been writing for other artists over the last few years and has written four short films to accompany her solo debut EP VOLUME I to be screened this Summer. She will be releasing VOLUME II this Autumn.

KEÚK

British born Kyle Fairhurst AKA Keúk is the pseudonym of 21 year old Goldsmiths student in London. These are experimental projects inspired by the juxtaposition of electronics and nature. Before studying Creative Writing, Keúk has been writing and producing their own tracks since the age of 14. Even though ‘Water’ was recorded on a phone, it has recently received airplay on BBC Radio Introducing in 4 different locations. Keúk is in the middle of recording their debut EP named ‘Vessels’.

CYANA

This is CYANA’s first piece exploring sound design and is inspired by her epilepsy and the disorientation pre and during having a seizure. The sounds are from the machines in hospital used after having a seizure (EEG machine) and the harmonies and form play with the confusion and dream state the brain goes into to recover after the ordeal of a seizure.

AMY HOLLINRAKE

Vocalist and songwriter.

Session vocalist. 

City University BMus.

Goldsmiths University MMus (current).

Debut EP ‘fade into this’ 2016.

CATHERINE OKADA

Catherine Okada, an independent artist, supported James Blake for numerous dates in 2011 in London and Japan, as well as collaborating with Airhead on “Callow”, featured on his debut album “For Years”. Expect to hear scatterings of nostalgia and strong hooks married with contemporary, alternative songwriting, often with dark lyrical undertones and powerful imagery. Having recently self-released her debut EP “Hourglass” in 2016, she has more releases lined up in the year ahead.

MEGAN TUCK

Megan Tuck is a singer-songwriter based in London, who’s powerful vocals are accompanied by her band and electronics which are also inspired by her EDM background. She also records and produces her own alternative pop tracks, while her band sets have more of a rocky vibe. Inspired by a vast amount of genres and people, her influences range from Beyonce and Lady Gaga to FKA Twigs and Bon Iver.

[fuckyesdobiegillis]

[fuckyesdobiegillis]

zelda mouthing the “oh no” backup vocals is absolutely killing me