The Film Noir Experience

Speaking of Percy Jackson, I have recently finished the third book in the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series. In this novel, we follow Percy and Co. on a quest to save a goddess and keep the titan Kronos from coming into full power. This is the first adventure with Thalia, a daughter of Zeus. We meet the virgin Goddess Artemis and her hunters led by her lieutenant, the mysterious Zoe Nightshade.

The heroes have to go across the country in order to rescue one of their own in addition to the Goddess. Throughout the adventure, Percy, Grover and Thalia discover an inconsistency about the newest hunter Bianco and her brother’s Nico past that may turn out to be dangerous for the whole world.

In the end, as one would expect, there is an excellent battle between a Titan and the heroes and I was shocked, shocked! (well…not that shocked) by some of the decisions which the characters make. They are still fighting to save Luke from his own decisions and we know a little bit more about the prophesy and who it is about. This was a good little read. As exciting as the first two. It made me want to pick up the next one.

Back in the day (it feels like I’m saying that a lot lately), I went through this phase in which when I read a book, as a little review of it I would put together a mix CD. It was a fun little exercise that brought together two of my favorite activities, reading and listening to music.

Right now, I’m reading Constructions for a class (this is not likely to receive mix tape treatment), The Battle of the Labyrinth, and The Crimson Petal and the White. These last two may very well get their own mix tapes. Percy Jackson is a demigod, the son of Poseidon, and quite the little badass. His adventures are fast reads (reading teen fiction will do that for you) and are terribly entertaining. This one is book four. And, the Crimson Petal and the White is a look at Victorian England from multiple perspectives. Its seven hundred…thousand (hyperbole) pages long but so far its been terribly interesting. It starts off following a prostitute and then moves its way up through society. The mix tape potential is astounding. I could possibly do a song for each person that is followed!

Now, why am I bringing this up now? Well, when the NaBloPoMo people sent me an email to say that February’s topic for anyone up to the challenge of blogging everyday of the shortest month of the year was “love”, I thought, “Hey, wouldn’t it be interesting to come up with a mix tape representation of the many different kinds of love at there in the world?” (Even more interesting when one considers how odd and awfully awkward I am when it comes to any kind of human interaction.)

You may have noticed that I’ve been ending entries with songs. I am collecting these things into a list so that I can put them together as a mix. So, you’ve been warned.

So, a soundtrack can really make (or break) a film. Love Actually is one of my favorite films (and, yes, I realize its a Christmas film, but I could watch it at any time in the year). And, I was thinking about it the today; it would be a completely different film without its soundtrack.

I love the film because you are so happy when Sam (played by Thomas Sangster) and Jamie (Colin Firth) triumph in love. You’re touched by Daniel’s (Liam Neeson) devotion to his recently passed spouse. You want to smack Sarah (Laura Linney) for letting Karl’s (Rodrigo Santoro) hot, mostly naked (Brazilian) personage go. You feel a sense of catharsis when Mark (Andrew Lincoln) finally says what he needs to say and moves on. You’re touched when Billy Mac tells his manager, whom he calls Chubs, that he’s come to realize that he’s spent his whole life with his fat employee, and in truth, “The People I love is, in fact, you.” And, you are devastated when Karen (Emma Thompson) is herself devastated after discovering her husband’s possible infidelity. (Oh, and the Prime minister/Natalie stuff is hilarious and wonderful.) But, you feel all of these things because of the soundtrack.

Karen tells Harry near the beginning of the film, after he asks why she still listens to Joni Mitchell, “I love her and true love lasts a lifetime. Joni Mitchell is the woman who taught your cold English wife how to feel.” And, Joni Mitchell sets the tone of their relationship. Her heartbrokenness is set against the background of Mitchell’s hauntingly beautiful “Both Sides Now” (which by the way, if you’re never actually listen to the lyrics, I really recommend it). Her heart breaks and so does yours while Joni Mitchell croons about having looked at love from both sides and after this coming to realize that she really doesn’t know love at all.

Karl and Sarah are set to Eva Cassidy’s “Songbird”. This was apparently the filmmaker’s second choice. He had imagined the scene to Mary Chapin Carpenter’s “Come on Come on”. But, this tune really does end up being perfect and fitting in completely with the feel of the scene.

And, the ending of the film gets me every time, calling back to its beginning with the arrivals at Heathrow while “God Only Knows” plays on in the background. “God Only Knows what I’d be without you” the Beach Boys tell us as we see image after image of husbands, wives, daughters, sons, brothers, mothers, sisters fathers, friends reunite. Its such a powerful and all encompassing sentiment, What would we be without the people in our lives who love us? What would we be without the people in our lives that we love?

Its a good film, but how the music plays into the action really makes it remarkable.

Song: Both Sides Now
Performer: Joni Mitchell
Album: Both Sides Now

Song: Songbird
Performer: Eva Cassidy
Album: Songbird

Song: God Only Knows
Performer: The Beach Boys
Album: Love to Love

The first book off of my booklist this year was for my book group. We read Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson. The book follows the main character Melinda through her first year of high school. It becomes painfully obvious in the first chapter that something awful has recently happened to her. You find out that at a party during the summer, she called the cops and is now hated by everyone at school. Throughout the book, she grows and develops and eventually, confronts the incident.

Anderson does an excellent job of portraying the tension created by the feelings Melinda is having (or trying not to have) and the image she is trying to project to the world. This book was heartbreaking but it was beautiful. And, the climax… well, it was thrilling and a little frightening. This was a wonderful book and I wholeheartedly recommend it.

I can’t believe its taken this long for me to upload the booklist. I fell down on the job in regards to my reading list last year. It is a sad state of affairs when a girl can’t sort herself out long enough to read fifteen non-school books.

So, this year I have decided that I will not fall down on the job! I will succeed! So, I’ve added a number of things that have been recommended to me in the past year (along with a number of things that my book group has selected) to last year’s list in order to come up with this year’s list. There is only one change I am making. Last year, Ivanhoe was on the list because I thought that was something I already owned. Turns out, what I own by Sir Walter Scott is actually Rob Roy.
It will be replacing Ivanhoe on the list this year.

So, starting with Last year’s books first:

• Silas Marner by George Eliot
• Ivanhoe by Sir Walter Scott
• Compassionate Carnivore by Catherine Friend
• On the Wealth of Nations by P.J. O’Rourke
• Sexing the Cherry by Jeanette Winterson
• Break, Blow, Burn by Camille Paglia
• The Eight By Katherine Neville
• Begin Anywhere by Frank Gianpietro
• The Horse, The Wheel and Language by David Anthony
• How Language Works by David Crystal
• The Ode Less Traveled by Stephen Fry
• The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper
• The Crimson Petal and the White by Michel Farber

And, then adding:

• Alphabet Juice by Roy Blount Jr.
• The Long Walk to Freedom by Nelson Mandela
• Ibid by Mark Dunne
• The Last Olympian by Rick Riordan
• The Titan’s Curse by Rick Riordan
• The Battle of the Labyrinth by Rick Riordan
• Speak by Laura Halse Anderson
• Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi
• Jaws by Peter Benchley
• Aimée & Jaguar: A Love Story, Berlin 1943 by Erica Fischer
• Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke
• Grave Peril by Jim Butcher
• Written on the Body by Jeanette Winterson
• Rob Roy by Sir Walter Scott
• In the Shadow of Young Girls in Flower by Marcel Proust
• The Stuff of Thought by Stephen Pinker

And, four more books to be determined. So, the rules are as they’ve always been. I can read whatever I want, on the list or not. But, I am challenged to make it through at least these 30 books. (Which, yes, I still realize, includes Ivanhoe.)