Celebrating favourite things.

Favourite things.

If you ask most people what their favourite book/movie/TV show/etc… is, they often say ‘oh, I can’t pick, there are too many’.

I can pick. Yes, yes I can. I have favourite books, movies, TV shows, chocolate … you get the picture. And for no good reason, other than I haven’t finished my book yet and so can’t write a review, I decided to do a post of my top five favourite favourite things.

Let’s start with movies because … I can.

1)     All About Eve – this is my all-time favourite movie ever. I don’t know how many times I’ve watched it, but Bette Davis is perfection always, and basically my queen. Trailer:

http://youtu.be/u3IONdE15vQ

2)     And okay, yes, this is probably cheating but I’m counting The Lord of the Rings as one movie. Because … I can. I’ve loved the books for years, and as Emma Thompson says in Love, Actually, true love lasts a lifetime.

SUPERTRAILER:

http://youtu.be/LtKuUPK2BfQ

3)     The Avengers. I cannot express how much I love this movie. It basically has everything I love, and nothing I hate, even after repeated viewings.

Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eOrNdBpGMv8

4)     Some Like it Hot. Marilyn Monroe! Dudes in dresses! Singing! Shenanigans! One of the best movie endings ever!.

Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2OhdD5n405I

5)     The Matrix. Yes, I know, by now it’s been often imitated in style and suchlike, and the sequels were, quite frankly, pants but  let’s take a moment to appreciate its innovation.

Trailer: http://youtu.be/yRjhQf2ZTCo

Honorable mentions:

The Women.  Unusal in that the entire cast is women – not a man in sight. It’s deeply catty, but also deeply witty and I’ve always harboured a secret desire to shop in one of those department stores even though they went out with the dinosaur. *sigh* http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0032143/?ref_=sr_3

Terminator 2: Judgement Day. Arnie! Cyborgs! Morphing! Linda  Hamilton kicking ass and not even bothering to take names! I love it. Trailer: http://youtu.be/eajuMYNYtuY

Pan’s Labyrinth. Trailer presented without comment, because http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RbffV5LZfZI

Pitch Perfect. Forget Bridesmaids (which for the record I thought was kind of terrible) – this is the lady-centric movie that you should be watching. Also, Anna Kendrick is flawless. Trailer: http://youtu.be/siEHekc-1oE

Rise of the Guardians. It’s a shame that this movie didn’t seem to make any noise anywhere, because it is as near to perfect a kid’s movie as I’ve seen in a very long time. Trailer: http://youtu.be/yd71LWhCO4s

Books!!!

My top five favourite books are:

1)     The Lord of the Rings by J R R Tolkien. Yes. Second-favourite movie but all-time favourite book(s). I inhaled the whole thing when I was about 14-15 and it was my gateway book for epic fantasy which I also inhaled for a while, and I will love it forever.

2)     One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. I’ve read this three times, the last time being when I was home with Patrick just after I had him – heh. :D It follows the fortunes of one family in the fictional South American town of Macondo. Be warned, though, you need to pay close attention to the family tree, because some of the names are repeated.

3)     The Dark is Rising Sequence by Susan Cooper. I’m cheating again, really, because this is five books, but hey, semantics. I read this a lot as a youngster, when I was about 11 or so. The library had an omnibus of all five books and I remember borrowing it, and borrowing it, and … well, now I have my own copies. I re-read them last year, and they hold up brilliantly. Arthurian legend mixed with a kind of Famous Five feeling, The Dark is Rising makes for great reading at nearly any age.

4)     The Stand by Stephen King. It’s a doorstopper for sure, but it doesn’t even matter because King has such a way with words that you fall into the story of a world gone horribly, badly wrong after  a catastrophic virus is released. There are good guys, bad guys and lots of Big Thoughts.

5)     Persuasion by Jane Austen. My absolute favourite Jane Austen. It’s followed pretty closely by Pride and Prejudice but Anne Elliot and Captain Wentworth – for me – trump Elizabeth Bennet and Mr Darcy. Anne is so quietly competent, even though she’s been taken for granted for years, and I love the fact that, at 27, she’s older than your average Austen heroine. I love it. I do.

Honourable mentions:

Tigana by Guy Gavriel Kay. This is the only novel I’ve read by Gavriel Kay so far, but I love it so much. This is totally cheating but here’s a review I prepared earlier: http://justaddbooks.blogspot.co.nz/search/label/Tigana

Every Day by David Levithan. ‘A’ wakes up every single day in a different body, inhabiting a different life. When ‘A’ meets Rhiannon, however, ‘A’ starts to want more … ugh, this book broke my heart. It’s so good and so very shattering.

Chaos Walking trilogy by Patrick Ness: I recommend this series to everyone. Everyone. The premise is clever and Viola is forever one of my favourite YA heroines.

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman. Oh, God, how I love this book. how I love this book I cannot count the ways.

Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf. Honestly, I tracked this down because I was curious to read it after seeing The Hours and I’m very glad I did. I’ve read some of Virginia Woolf’s published diaries, and they’re fascinating reading of a clever woman who battled her inner demons as hard as she could. And hey, look, a review I prepared earlier: http://justaddbooks.blogspot.co.nz/2009/03/mrs-dalloway-by-virginia-woolf.html

Songs:

1)     More Than One Way Home by Keb Mo’ – I love the lyrics and the message of the song. It’s uplifting no matter what my mood is.

Video:

http://youtu.be/1GjHJjnjUKk

2)     I Think I Love You Too Much by Jeff Healey ft Mark Knopfler. I can’t even tell you why I love this so much. It speaks to me somehow, on all kinds of levels.

Video:

http://youtu.be/OVMbk7OvgpQ

3)     Shady, by Adam Lambert, ft Nile Rodgers and Sam Sparro. I’m putting two videos of this song here – the album track, and the only version of it live with all three of them performing at the We are Family Foundation celebration thing.  I love the vibe of this song. It’s fun and a little bit filthy and pretty much demands to be turned up up up.

Videos:

(Live): http://youtu.be/soT2tZSV5wc

(Studio): http://youtu.be/R9jv1DyJOOI

4)     Down the Rabbit Hole, Live acoustic version, by Adam Lambert. Two Adam Lambert songs? Yes, hush, this is my list, go make your own ;p. This song is ridiculous. Like. Actually ridiculous, the lyrics make no sense, but it’s so much fun, it’s impossible not to like. Have a listen, judge for yourself:

Video:

http://youtu.be/7-Z7d2KMoNU

5)     Girl in a Catsuit by Dave Stewart, ft Orianthi. I wasn’t sure if I liked this song on first listen, because it’s a little bit unusual, but on  a second listen, it really started to grow on me and now it’s a never-go-past when I’m shuffling my ipod (high praise). It’s kind of sly and kind of joyful and it totally has the feel of a song that’s just got away with something.

Video:

http://youtu.be/sTuOL-qreJc

Honorable mentions:
God’s Gonna Cut You Down by Johnny Cash: http://youtu.be/eJlN9jdQFSc

Little Talks by Of Monsters and Men: http://youtu.be/ghb6eDopW8I

Talk Show Host by Radiohead: http://youtu.be/mcYu5Vg_YH8

Highway Unicorn by Lady Gaga: http://youtu.be/-Q0m-48Sjok

Similar Features by Melissa Etheridge: http://youtu.be/b6hy5L82nQY

Yo, 2011 Imma let you finish

 … actually, you know what? Just fuck off. You’ve been a shit year, thanks very much. Or, you know – thanks for nothing.

Anyway.

This happened, in April: http://justaddbooks.blogspot.com/2011/04/just-add.html

Good times were had by all.

The year tripped along. My mother – who had had heart valve replacement surgery last year – wasn’t doing well. She was in and out of hospital, and struggling. She finally went into a home after being admitted to hospital in June (on my 40^th birthday actually) with a massive infection.

The last member of my Dad’s family – my aunty Alice – died not very much later than that (which I found out by virtue of reading the death notices on the page I was checking at work that night) and then my mother died in early July: http://justaddbooks.blogspot.com/2011/07/things-and-life.html

So … yeah. I mean, the rest of the year was … okay. But, honestly, I’m just so ready for 2011 to be over.

Even though the world is going to end in 2012. ;p

I’ve read 54 books this year (funnily enough I slowed down after I started watching Merlin/mainlining Merlin long!fic. I need to redress that balance). My goal for next year is to read 75. It’s realistic, I think.

I’m also contemplating re-running the Kiwi YA challenge that I failed so hard on. Oh, and someone on Twitter during one of the #spbkchats said someone should run a challenge for NZ Women writers. Apparently there’s an Aussie challenge. So …………….. watch this space ;)

Here’s the list of my books, if you like:

1 Ash by Malinda Lo

2 The Fall by Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan

3 Dreamhunter by Elizabeth Knox

4 Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green and David Levithan

5 King of the Murgos by David Eddings

6 Quillblade: Voyages of the Flying Dragon Bk1 by Ben Chandler

7 My Life in France by Julia Child with Alex Prud’homme

8 Murder at the Laurels by Lesley Cookman

9 Dreamquake by Elizabeth Knox

10 The Changeover by Margaret Mahy

11 The Screwed-up Life of Charlie the Second by Drew Ferguson

12 We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver

13 The Raven’s Heart by Jesse Blackadder

14 Genesis by Bernard Beckett

15 True Grit by Charles Portis

16 August by Bernard Beckett

17 The Scarecrow by Ronald Hugh Morrieson

18 Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone by J K Rowling

19 Rosebush by Michele Jaffe

20 The 10pm Question by Kate De Goldi

21 Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J K Rowling

22 The Two Towers by J R R Tolkien

23 Full Dark No Stars by Stephen King

24 Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan

25 Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J K Rowling

26 The Sea-wreck Stranger by Anna Mackenzie

27 City of Fallen Angels by Cassandra Clare

28 The Silent Land by Graham Joyce

29 Tender Morsels by Margo Lanagan

30 A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness

31 The Larnachs by Owen Marshall

32 Stories I Only Tell My Friends by Rob Lowe

33 The Windup Bird Chronicle by Harukai Murakami

34 Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J K Rowling

35 The Shattering by Karen Healey

36 City of Pearl by Karen Traviss

37 Ebony Hill by Anna Mackenzie

38 Elfland by Freda Warrington

39 The Order of the Phoenix by J K Rowling

40 Finder’s Shore by Anna MacKenzie

41 A Game of Thrones by George R R Martin

42 The Devotion of Suspect X

43 The Return of the King by J R R Tolkien

44 The Emerald Atlas by John Stephens

45 Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy by John LeCarre

46 Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman

47 Across the Nightingale Floor by Lian Heard

48 Autumn by David Moody

49 Before the Poison by Peter Robinson

50 The Facts of Life by Graham Joyce

51 Death of Kings by Bernard Cornwell

52 Kraken by China Mieville

53 The Accident by Linwood Barclay

54 Snuff by Mr Sir Terry Pratchett

Not many of those books have reviews because I kind of let that slide for a bit, but I want to get back into the swing of blogging, as much as I was ever in the swing of it so … we’ll see.

I also started having movie nights on Sunday – just me, a movie and some cross stitching (and, usually, a cat or three).

As far as my shocking memory can recall, this is the list of the movies (in no particular order):

A Single Man
The Runaways
Inception
Murder by Death
Centurion
Designing Woman
The Picture of Dorian Grey
Sucker Punch
The Last Station
The Ghost Writer
Romeo + Juliet
The Tempest
The Oxford Murders
Key Largo
Jurassic Park
Lolita

It’s a mixed bag, yes? The Romeo+Juliet is the Baz Luhrmann one and the Tempest is the one with Helen Mirren as Prospero. (LOVED.)

But it’s nice, you know? Park up on a Sunday night with a movie, some stitching … yeah.

Roll on 2012. I’m ready.

Read; reading

Time for an update to the "what I've read this year list:"

Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
Antony and Cleopatra by Colleen McCullough
The Light Fantastic by Terry Pratchett
The Darkest Evening of the Year by Dean Koontz
Beowulf by Caitlin Kiernan
The Reading Group by Elizabeth Noble
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly by Jean-Dominique Bauby
Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
Storm Front: Book 1 of the Dresden Files by Jim Butcher
Shattered Dreams: My Life as a Polygamist Wife by Irene Spencer
Equal Rites by Terry Pratchett
Nefertiti by Michelle Moran
Blood is the New Black
Star Trek: Resistance
Star Trek: Q & A
CSI: Sin City
Daughter of the Blood by Anne Bishop
Belladonna by Anne Bishop
This Charming Man by Marian Keyes
Duma Key by Stephen King
Mister B. Gone by Clive Barker
A Sandwich Short of a Picnic by Felicity Price
Definitely Dead by Charlaine Harris
American Gods by Neil Gaiman
Mort by Terry Pratchett
Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
Heir to the Shadows by Anne Bishop
Queen of the Darkness by Anne Bishop
Murder in Mesopotamia by Agatha Christie

Not a bad list.
As for what I'm reading now ... No Country For Old Men, which I may not get finished as it's due back at the library, and 1984. I have four nights off (woo hoo!) so I'll probably pick up something else as well; maybe The Monsters of Templeton. :)