Songs: Budapest

Song to brighten up your Friday:

Book Reviews: These Happy Golden Years

This one is possibly my favourite of the Laura Ingalls Wilder books.   It's the book in which Laura leaves home to be a teacher for the first time, starts spending more time with Almanzo, and at the end of the book Laura and Almanzo get married.   It's a very sweet and old-fashioned courtship.   They have their first kiss only after they get engaged.   But what makes Laura such a likeable character is how she doesn't just fall into his arms.   She resists his advances for months, and when she thinks he prefers someone else she gets angry and tells him to sod off, rather than dissolving into tears.   She's so feisty!   The first few chapters are truly painful to read too.   When Laura is stuck staying with a highly unpleasant woman and she feels so trapped and homesick we feel her despair.   It's great writing.  

What always strikes me about these books is how different everything was back then.   Laura becomes a teacher even though she really doesn't want to, to please her mother.   The idea that my mother would tell me what job to do is very alien to me.   As is Laura's becoming a schoolteacher at fifteen, and teaching pupils older than herself.   Mad.   These books have taught me so much about the past, and Laura is possibly one of my favourite book characters ever.   And it's even better than she was real.

Songs: Wetsuit

I love the Vaccines.   They're a great band with a lot of very original songs.   This song is one of my favourites.   It reminds of fun summers and exciting adventures, but there's something very melancholy about it too.   Seems very pertinent when we're all so busy growing up.

Book Reviews: The Bride's Farewell

I have to say I find Meg Rosoff a bit hit and miss.   I loved How I Live Now, hated Justin Case, quite liked What I Was and didn't think much of There is No Dog.   This one falls firmly into the Loved It category.   It seems to be a more grown-up novel than the aforementioned others.   The pace is slower, the writing less frenetic, but it still has the Meg Rosoff twists and turns and rambling adventure in which the characters are buffeted to and fro by Life.   It's about a young woman called Pell who runs away from home on the night before her wedding.   Her little brother follows her, and it looks like the two are setting off on a glorious adventure together.   But then her brother is kidnapped, and her horse is stolen.   Pell begins a meandering, often disastrous journey to get her brother and horse back.   It's a totally unpredictable book.   I'm usually a slow reader, but I got through this in a day.   Well worth it.

Film Reviews: Star Trek, Into Darkness

I was a huge Star Trek fan when I was younger, but haven't watched the series in years.   The original series is the one I've seen the least of, so I went to see the previous Star Trek film without much idea of what to expect.   I loved it!   It was very different to the Star Trek I remembered, and I loved the new incarnation.   So I was very eager to see this sequel when it came out, and overall I was impressed.   It had the same sort of flavour as the last film, with impressive visuals, spunky characters, great jokes and lots of nods to the original series for the fans.   Like its prequel, it was also a film for everybody, not just one for the fans, which I thought was great.   The plot is slightly on the forgettable side, but the visuals, script and acting more than make up for it.   Again, Kirk, Spock, Sulu, Chekov, Bones and Scotty are brilliant, and Benedict Cumberbatch is, of course great as Khan.   He's everywhere at the moment, isn't he?   And I loved Spock yelling Khan! at the end!   Even someone like me who has never seen Wrath of Khan knows what a famous scene that is and can appreciate what they did with reversing Spock and Kirk's roles.   I do think, though, that it isn't quite as good as its predecessor.   Still great though, and I hope they make lots more!

Songs: Les Fleurs

I'm not the world's biggest Minnie Riperton fan, but this is gorgeous.   Sweet and unusual.   And I've still got absolutely no idea what it's about.