fauxklore | 4th Quarter 2022 - Books and Movies

Here are the lists of books I read and movies I saw in the last quarter of 2022. The run-down on goals will be part of my year in review post, which will get done sooner or later.

Books:

I managed to read 12 books this quarter. I had forgotten how little I manage to read while traveling.

Don White, The Hitchhiking Years and Other Stories. As a teenager, Don White and his then-girlfriend (now wife) hitched rides throughout the Western U.S., Alaska, and Canada. There are two separate trips, but the overall point of the stories is their transformation from blue-collar Massachusetts to various hippie meccas. The rest of the book has Don back in the blue-collar work world of Lynn, Massachusetts, which, frankly, is enough different from my upbringing to feel more exotic than the hippie life.
H. Norman Wright, Making Peace With Your Past. This was part of a box from a friend of my mother’s. It’s standard self-help / pop-psych advice about dealing with ways your parents screwed you up, with Jesus talk thrown in. Blah. I was also deeply offended by his take on OCD (which he thinks of as being “oversuspicious” and he ignores the scientifically proven chemical nature of depression. Ugh.
Alison Golden, Chaos in Cambridge. This novella is part of a starter set you can get free from Alison Golden, introducing four mystery series. In this series, Annabelle Dixon leaves her lower-class London home to study theology at Cambridge and gets involved in a mystery about a book stolen from one of her professors. This is part of a plot to keep the professor from giving a conference presentation some other theologians consider heretical. But there are other twists, making this reasonably interesting and I would try another in this series.
Joannie Winters, House of Joy. An alleged autobiography of a prostitute, this book is remarkably tame, as well as unconvincing. I don’t for a minute believe in her financial success, for example. I’m also skeptical about how many female clients the brothel she worked at apparently had. Boring.
Alison Golden, The Case of the Screaming Beauty. A country inn. A woman screams, but denies having done so. She turns up murdered the next day. It’s a good thing Detective Inspector David Graham is on the case. Add in a school girl on a work experience program in the forensics lab, who realizes the significance of a bit of evidence, and you end up with a cozy mystery in the classic style. I am, however, doubtful about the emphasis on Graham’s personal life, making me less inclined to read more of this series.
Jean Kerr, How I Got to be Perfect. This was a reread. It’s a collection of essays, with a mixture of the domestic and intellectual. The two realms combine as she and her theatre critic husband force their children to memorize poetry and listen to classical music. She’s rather too self-deprecating for my tastes, but she is also capable of being very funny as she tackles raising six children while writing plays and running in pretty lofty social circles. Essentially, think of Kerr as a Scarsdale version of Erma Bombeck.
Alison Golden, Mardi Gras Madness. Suspended from her job and dumped by her boyfriend, Roxy Reinhardt packs up her cat and goes to New Orleans on a whim. You know this is fiction because she easily finds a room in an affordable guesthouse during Mardi Gras at, essentially, no notice. The place is falling apart and the owner decides to sell to a real estate developer, who promptly turns up dead. Roxy investigates, but really solves the case by accident. The characters are likable, but, overall, the story is unconvincing
Stephen Spingesi, J.F.K., Jr. This was written before JFK Jr. died, though his plane crash is thrown in at the end. Overall, it’s basically a mix of tabloid features, e.g. a rundown of every woman he was associated with. There’s a fairly decent record of the published issues of his magazine George. And there are a lot of paparazzi photos. Pure trash.
Jeffrey Hudson, A Case of Need. Another reread. This book, written pseudonymously by Michael Crichton in 1968, may take on new relevance in the post-Roe era. A pathologist investigates the abortion-related death of the daughter of a prominent doctor, with various asides about medical culture in Boston at the time. The complete lack of female doctors, for example, is notable, as is a level or racism. At any rate, it’s an interesting read, despite being so dated.
Alison Golden, Hunted. This novella was the final book in Golden’s free starter pack. It introduces Diana Hunter, a brilliant teenager who is starting Oxford when her mother dies. Her father is a detective and doesn’t believe the verdict of suicide. He and his partner spend a few ears investigating, with help from Diana and her gay friend / protector. Then the two cops get killed… There isn’t any solution since this is really a teaser for future books in the series. I’m torn between wanting to read those and being offended at that tactic.
Mark Haddon, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time. This is a fascinating book, exploring the world through the eyes of an autistic teenager. He sets out to figure out who killed a neighbor’s dog and ends up learning both some uncomfortable things about his father and, more importantly, that he is capable of doing a lot more than he realized he could. I read this for my book club and it was a rare book that everyone liked. Highly recommended.
Helen Van Slyke, The Mixed Blessing. This was written in 1975, which makes some of the obsolete language - and, frankly, obsolete ideas on the parts of some characters - more understandable. Toni is a “mulatto” and urged by her father to keep her racial background a secret so as not to suffer the racism he has experienced. That includes her aunt’s rejection of her mother because of her marriage to a black man. That becomes more significant when Toni falls in love with her first cousin. But she ends up marrying another man to avoid dealing with her aunt - and goes to some effort to avoid his finding out about her father. Inevitably, he does find out and their marriage falls apart. Basically, this is a formula romance, with a slightly more significant problem keeping a couple apart than is typical of the genre. It’s the sort of book that is distracting enough to read on an airplane, but not as deep as its author wanted it to be.

Movies:

I saw two movies in theaters and one on an airplane this quarter.

The Banshees of Inisherin. I went to see this pretty much as soon as it opened nearby because I am a huge fan of Martin McDonagh. And it was about what I expected - funny and violent, with great performances by the entire cast. The basic plot has to do with the end of a friendship and its impact on all of the residents of a small town in Ireland. If you liked, say, In Bruges, you will love this.
The Menu. I had seen the trailer for this and it looked interesting. So, when my friend, Cindy, called and asked if I wanted to see it, I agreed. The premise is that a dozen people are going to a fancy restaurant for a tasting menu. Then things get weird. This is another movie that is both very funny and very violent. It’s probably too over-the-top for many people, but I enjoyed it.
Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris. The plot of this feel-good movie has to do with a cleaning woman who wants a Dior dress and, having come into some money, sets off to Paris to get one. She’s completely out of her element, but charms several people into helping her get her way. She also manages to fix a lot of other things in various people’s lives along the way. You have to suspend a lot of disbelief, but it’s still very sweet. Which made it a good movie to watch on an airplane.

4th Quarter 2022 - Books and Movies

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