Reading And Watching Joyously

 At first I wasn't sure if I was going to finish this book, the style of writing didn't flow easily for me and it felt like it was a bit of an effort to read. I came back to it after a couple of weeks and was quickly swept up in the story - I really enjoyed seeing a well known history told from a different point of view, focusing on the humanity of Jesus and giving an incredible glimpse into the world of Galilee and Egypt in the early 1st century AD. It was also a wonderfully feminist text, exploring the idea of ways women can have a voice even if their culture makes it difficult.

 I enjoyed this book, although I found it took me a long time to read - I didn't ever get absorbed and read it for long periods at a time. I related to the main character's anxiety, and liked the use of and comparisons of language (Irish, English, colonial English, Cantonese). It was an unusual setting (an Irish woman in Hong Kong) and dealt with a lot of issues surrounding identity, which I always enjoy.

 Quite enjoyable - fairly simply written but touched on some deep issues.  It was also stressful at times, I was quite worried as to how the main character was going to recover from some of the setbacks she encountered. I used to read a lot of books set in India, it was nice to return to the culture - I don't remember reading any set in the 1950s as this was. It gave an insight into a time I know less about, and I loved the glimpse into Indian life, especially from a woman's point of view. It showed how life is so different for women depending on their wealth, caste and status, and how standards of behaviour were so vastly different for men and women.

 This book was in one of the boxes sent to me by the library, and I wasn't sure if I wanted to read it. The cover didn't appeal (it reminded me of a book I borrowed and didn't read once before, by the author of The Book Thief) and it was a detective story, which is not my favourite. It was set in a fantasy world though, one with parallel universes and ways between them, and I'd been coming across that concept a lot lately so decided to give it a go. There was an introduction that talked to reader about them potentially having doubt about whether to read the book, but that it would definitely be worth it - so that seemed to be talking to me!  I kind of liked it - I was never fully sure whether I was enjoying it or not. The parallel world concept and the way sorcerers operated was pretty cool - and there were Fae (fairies) which I always like. But the world was pretty confusing and I wasn't entirely sure how things worked through most of it. The main character was not

 Caitlin really wanted to watch this because she's a fan of Millie Bobby Brown, and she thought I'd like it too. I wasn't sure as I'm not always a fan of detective stories - I really loved it! (So did Caitlin). The cast was excellent - Millie Bobby Brown was awesome, Helena Bonham Carter was quirky and enjoyable as always, and Henry Cavill was excellent (I didn't like him as Superman, but loved him in this). The rest of the cast were great as well. The storyline was interesting and not obvious, and it turned out to be a detective story that I was enthralled with. The use of the fourth wall by Enola made her even more interesting. There were themes of friendship, duty, family responsibility, personal responsibility - I was impressed by everything about this movie. It was also cool to watch it just before Caitlin turned 16, as Enola turns 16 at the start of the film.

 Caitlin and I watched this during the week on a day where we had no motivation and wanted something fairly mindless and fun to watch. It delivered exactly what we were after, with a slight variation in the basic dance movie theme but nothing that involved too much thinking. It was enjoyable, not too unbelievable (although we had a couple of complaints - I felt the timeline was inconsistent, there wasn't enough time for the main characters grades to get really bad and then recover again, and Caitlin was concerned at the speed at which the romantic relationship developed given the (undisclosed) age difference, and she noticed that they didn't bother to flesh out the personalities of a couple of the characters) and quite a feel good movie all around. The girls were excited to see Liza Koshy in the cast - a YouTuber they used to watch. The dancing was good, the music was good, it was fun to watch.