Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn.

It’s time for the GOP to dust off that post-2012 autopsy, completely ignore it, and light the party on fire again.

Tick tock motherfuckers!

The worst democrat is better than the best republican.

Seems like a complicated subject, have you tried yelling at it?

“Jesus paying for the sins of everyone is an insult to those who paid for their own sins.”

In short, I come down firmly on all sides of the issue.

Fuck the extremist election deniers. What’s money for if not for keeping them out of office?

You cannot shame the shameless.

If you’re pissed about Biden’s speech, he was talking about you.

Joe Lieberman disappointingly reemerged to remind us that he’s still alive.

Not all heroes wear capes.

Second rate reporter says what?

“What are Republicans afraid of?” Everything.

Something needs to be done about our bogus SCOTUS.

You are so fucked. Still, I wish you the best of luck.

I’m pretty sure there’s only one Jack Smith.

Whatever happens next week, the fight doesn’t end.

“The defense has a certain level of trust in defendant that the government does not.”

It’s easy to sit in safety and prescribe what other people should be doing.

Let me eat cake. The rest of you could stand to lose some weight, frankly.

I’d try pessimism, but it probably wouldn’t work.

We’re not going back!

Wow, you are pre-disappointed. How surprising.

You are here: Home / Archives for Books

Medium Cool – Books That Make You Feel Like You’re There

by | 149 Comments

This post is in: , , ,

Medium Cool is a weekly series related to popular culture, mostly film, TV, and books, with some music and games thrown in.  We hope it’s a welcome break from the anger, hate, and idiocy we see almost daily from the other side in the political sphere.

Arguments welcomed, opinions respected, fools un-suffered.  We’re here every Sunday at 7 pm.

Some recent On the Road posts have taken us to New Zealand and Iceland, and other amazingly beautiful places.  And of course I think the Paris series could have gone on forever.

I know there are novels that feel like Boston, and novels that feel like Chicago.  Are there books that capture the feel of living in  New Zealand, or Iceland, or Paris, or Ireland or even a small town like Mendocino?  Books that make you feel like you know what a totally different life would be like?

To Kill A Mockingbird made me feel like I was there.

Medium Cool – Books That Make You Feel Like You’re TherePost + Comments (149)

The Daughter of Time (with Subaru Dianne)

by | 133 Comments

This post is in: , , ,

Medium Cool is a weekly series related to popular culture, mostly film, TV, and books, with some music and games thrown in.  We hope it’s a welcome break from the anger, hate, and idiocy we see almost daily from the other side in the political sphere.

Arguments welcomed, opinions respected, fools un-suffered.  We’re here every Sunday at 7 pm.

Tonight is the final chapter of the series on Josephine Tey, brought to us by Subaru Dianne.  These have been great, and I predict that BJ peeps will have a lot to say about The Daughter of Time, since it appears to be a favorite of so many people here.  I clearly have some reading to do!  Thank you, SD, for these wonderful series.

The Daughter of Time!

by Subaru Dianne

This is almost surely the portrait of King Richard III that so intrigued Inspector Grant in The Daughter of Time. Artist and date unknown, probably British or Flemish, early sixteenth century.

This week we conclude our discussion of the eight Josephine Tey mysteries with a focus on The Daughter of Time, Tey’s most famous and lauded* work by far.

On one level, it is simply a mid-20th-century attempt to unravel one of history’s most compelling true crimes — the fate of the two young “Princes in the Tower” — and to exonerate their accused murderer, their uncle, King Richard III. (This book is responsible for turning many people, myself included, into ardent and partisan Ricardians!)

Sir John Everett Millais’ sentimental and romanticised 1878 portrait of the imprisoned “Princes in the Tower,” heirs to King Edward IV. The younger lad is Richard of Shrewsbury, Duke of York, age 9; his elder brother is King Edward V, age 12. They mysteriously disappeared in 1483.

But on another level, whether you (along with Tey’s Inspector Grant) absolve Richard or prefer to remember him as one of History’s Greatest Monsters, you will be struck, I think, by the contemporary pertinence of the questions raised: How, and why, and by whom do “Big Lies” get started? Why do so many people persist in believing them long after they’ve been discredited, even hundreds of years later?

These are topics the BJ Jackaltariat talks about constantly! I look forward to tonight’s discussion and your always-insightful comments.

*In 1990, the British Crime Writers’ Association voted The Daughter of Time number one in its list of “The Top 100 Crime Novels of All Time.” Not too dusty!

The Daughter of Time (with Subaru Dianne)Post + Comments (133)

Medium Cool – Have You Ever?

by | 163 Comments

This post is in: , , , ,

Medium Cool is a weekly series related to popular culture, mostly film, TV, and books, with some music and games thrown in.  We hope it’s a welcome break from the anger, hate, and idiocy we see almost daily from the other side in the political sphere.

Arguments welcomed, opinions respected, fools un-suffered.  We’re here every Sunday at 7 pm.

So, have you ever read a book, or seen a movie, or heard a story, that made you wish you could live in that time or that place or in that setting?  Have that challenge or experience that adventure?

I have no sense of what year the movie Witness came out, but I do know that was a very stressful period in my life.  I was really drawn to that movie, and sometimes I wished I could have a simpler life, or could live in a simpler time.  (I feel (fairly) certain dancing in the barn with Harrison Ford had nothing to do with it!)

When I was young, I would hear stories from my uncle and others who had worked on the railroads when they were booming – and it seemed like it would have been exciting to have been a part of something like that.

Perry Mason definitely made me want to become a lawyer.  It can be interesting sometimes to think about the road not taken.

Anyway… how about you guys?  Have you ever read a book, or seen a movie, or heard a story, that made you wish you could live in that time or that place or in that setting?  Did any of those stories change your path?

 

Medium Cool – Have You Ever?Post + Comments (163)

Medium Cool – Three by Tey! (with Subaru Dianne)

by | 74 Comments

This post is in: , , ,

Medium Cool is a weekly series related to popular culture, mostly film, TV, and books, with some music and games thrown in.  We hope it’s a welcome break from the anger, hate, and idiocy we see almost daily from the other side in the political sphere.

Arguments welcomed, opinions respected, fools un-suffered.  We’re here every Sunday at 7 pm.

Three by Tey!

by Subaru Dianne

Josephine Tey in the late 1940s, about the time she wrote Pym, Franchise, and Brat.

This week, we’re concentrating on three wonderful stand-alone mysteries by Josephine Tey. Along with her extraordinary The Daughter of Time, which we’ll discuss on August 27th, these three are longtime favourites — eminently re-readable!

Miss Pym Disposes (1947) — when is it moral and appropriate to take action, no matter who may be hurt? Or is it better to take no action, no matter who may benefit? Miss Pym’s Hamlet-like waffling is central to the way this mystery unfolds.

The Franchise Affair (1948) — although the book is 75 years old, it resonates today with its exploration of mob mentality and malicious media misinformation. (Yes, for the purists, Inspector Grant is present, but in a minor and adversarial role, so I’m categorising it as a stand-alone.)

Brat Farrar (1949) — this is the story of a charming imposter who insinuates himself as heir into a prosperous county family. A criminal action, yes — but he uses his assumed persona to expose and bring to justice the far more serious crime of murder.

In all, Tey gives us richly-drawn settings, engaging and memorable secondary characters, and thought-provoking moral challenges. I look forward to a lively discussion!

Medium Cool – Three by Tey! (with Subaru Dianne)Post + Comments (74)

Medium Cool – Josephine Tey, Part I (with Subaru Dianne)

by | 58 Comments

This post is in: , , , ,

Medium Cool is a weekly series related to popular culture, mostly film, TV, and books, with some music and games thrown in.  We hope it’s a welcome break from the anger, hate, and idiocy we see almost daily from the other side in the political sphere.

Arguments welcomed, opinions respected, fools un-suffered.  We’re here every Sunday at 7 pm.

As you no doubt recall, the last series with Subaru Dianne was a huge hit, so we have brought her back for an encore.  Hopefully, the first of many!

So it’s Josephine Tey night on Medium Cool, with Subaru Dianne!

I’ll let SD take it from here!  Let’s give her a warm welcome!

Josephine Tey, Part I

discussion with Subaru Dianne

Medium Cool – Josephine Tey, Part I (with Subaru Dianne)
Scottish-born Elizabeth MacKintosh (1896-1952) wrote stage plays, radio and television dramas, short stories, poems, and non-mystery novels under the pseudonym Gordon Daviot. But her lasting fame is as mystery author Josephine Tey.

Slight schedule change, my fellow Medium Coolios. At Water Girl’s suggestion, we’re expanding the Josephine Tey discussions from two sessions to three, so we can devote an entire evening to her masterwork The Daughter of Time and its lasting influence.

So the new schedule is:

July 30 — four mystery novels featuring Detective-Inspector Alan Grant

August 13 — three (more-or-less) “stand-alone” mysteries

August 27 — the enduring legacy of The Daughter of Time

Tonight, let’s talk about four of her Alan Grant mysteries:

The Man in the Queue, 1929 (originally published under the pseudonym Gordon Daviot)

A Shilling for Candles, 1936

To Love and Be Wise, 1950

The Singing Sands, 1952 (published posthumously)

(I don’t include The Franchise Affair here — Grant is a minor character in that book, and we’ll discuss it in two weeks along with the non-Grant Miss Pym Disposes and Brat Farrar).

Alan Grant is an agreeable character with some very human flaws, making him much more relatable than, say, Christie’s Hercule Poirot. And all of Tey’s works (like Sayers’s) explore character and human relationships, sometimes relegating plot to a secondary consideration.

Have you read any of Tey’s mysteries? If so, please tell us what you admire (or don’t) about her books. And if she’s new to you, I hope you’ll be intrigued enough to give her a try!

Medium Cool – Josephine Tey, Part I (with Subaru Dianne)Post + Comments (58)

Medium Cool – Walked Out, Turned It Off, Or Stopped Reading

by | 288 Comments

This post is in: , , , ,

Medium Cool is a weekly series related to popular culture, mostly film, TV, and books, with some music and games thrown in.  We hope it’s a welcome break from the anger, hate, and idiocy we see almost daily from the other side in the political sphere.

Arguments welcomed, opinions respected, fools un-suffered.  We’re here every Sunday at 7 pm.

Let’s dedicate tonight’s Medium Cool to the subject of movies we walked out on (in the theater), movies or TV shows that we stopped watching before the end, and books we stopped reading before we got to the end.

Don’t just tell us which book / movie / show you didn’t finish.  I’m especially looking forward to hearing the why!

Medium Cool – Walked Out, Turned It Off, Or Stopped Reading!

I think the hardest movie I have ever watched was Schindler’s List, but I never thought about walking out.  Thank goodness for the music in that film or I never would have made it through!

If you feel like it, we can also talk about really tough books / shows / movies we have made it through, and why.

Announcement:

The first part of Subaru Dianne’s two-part series on Josephine Tay will be in two weeks, on July 30.  Then we’ll skip a week and come back to it on Aug 13.  I asked SD to share a bit of her plan for us in this series.

Scottish-born Elizabeth MacKintosh (1896-1952) wrote in various genres under several pseudonyms, the best known of which is Josephine Tey. Although Tey published only eight mystery novels, she occupies a prominent spot in the Golden Age pantheon thanks to her 1951 masterpiece The Daughter of Time.

I suggest we discuss Tey and her works in two Medium Cool sessions. On July 30, let’s go over the five books featuring her detective Alan Grant: The Man in the Queue, A Shilling for Candles, To Love and Be Wise, The Daughter of Time, and The Singing Sands.

On August 13, let’s get into Tey’s three stand-alone mysteries: Miss Pym Disposes, The Franchise Affair (Grant appears briefly in this, but he is not the protagonist), and Brat Farrar. These books introduce elements of profound moral/ethical ambiguity.

I love Tey’s writing, and I can’t wait to read your thoughts and comments in a few weeks!  ~ SD

Okay, back to our previously scheduled event for tonight, talking about books we closed, shows we turned off, and movies we walked out on.

 

Medium Cool – Walked Out, Turned It Off, Or Stopped ReadingPost + Comments (288)

Medium Cool – Do You Stop Reading, Watching, Listening?

by | 303 Comments

This post is in: , , , , ,

Medium Cool is a weekly series related to popular culture, mostly film, TV, and books, with some music and games thrown in.  We hope it’s a welcome break from the anger, hate, and idiocy we see almost daily from the other side in the political sphere.

Arguments welcomed, opinions respected, fools un-suffered.  We’re here every Sunday at 7 pm.

Medium Cool – Do You Stop Reading, Watching, Listening?

Last week’s Medium Cool left me thinking.

Times change, social mores change, culture changes.  And certainly some of the people who create films and TV shows and art are a disappointment on a personal level. Does that change how you feel about an author?  An actor?  A performer?  Do you still feel the same way about Woody Allen movies, for instance, than you might have felt decades ago?

What about books like Huckleberry Finn, where there’s language that is no longer acceptable?  I would argue that although I cringe, they capture a moment in time and I don’t find them offensive.  What do you guys think about that?

Is Woody Allen dead to you?  Can you no longer feel the same way about the Harry Potter books? What about all the actors who were outed as part of the Me, Too movement?

Or are you able to separate the work from the person?

Are you consistent in your response?  Or does it depend on the particular case?

Medium Cool – Do You Stop Reading, Watching, Listening?Post + Comments (303)