tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-216137042009-11-09T19:31:30.147-05:00Boring hundreds of perfect strangers with my musings on books, movies, and television since 2007.Muse of Irehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05332467174431277149noreply@blogger.comBlogger126125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21613704.post-68750312726030783122009-08-10T20:01:00.005-04:002009-08-10T20:42:30.295-04:00

It's with some surprise that I learn that someone over at Rotten Tomatoes is posting movie reviews under the handle "museofire" (cuz I thought I was so clever and original and everything). For the record, it's not me. I do use "MuseofIre" in places like Twitter that don't allow spaces in screen names, but always with capitals.Y'know, the idea of personal branding is suddenly starting to make a

Muse of Irehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05332467174431277149noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21613704.post-39145882288169523212009-08-07T16:28:00.002-04:002009-08-07T16:31:47.791-04:00

Victory of Eagles, Naomi NovikA great entry in the Temeraire series -- the best, I think, since His Majesty's Dragon. The choices made by Will and Temeraire in the last book have devastating consequences for both them and England, and although the book ends with a victory, those consequences are not thereby wiped out. Will continues to be a thoroughly decent and likeable hero, while Temeraire is

Muse of Irehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05332467174431277149noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21613704.post-84363412249009418432009-07-07T21:07:00.003-04:002009-07-07T21:56:34.752-04:00

The ARC gods at LibraryThing have been extraordinarily good to me recently, but before I get to those books, it turns out I have a few from earlier I need to acknowledge.Dreamers of the Day, Mary Doria Russell. The first two-thirds of this book, describing Agnes's early life and travel to Cairo, are well-written and entertaining, and Russell's portraits of the real-life figures of Churchill,

Muse of Irehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05332467174431277149noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21613704.post-68178891364332132009-05-08T19:15:00.002-04:002009-05-08T19:29:32.627-04:00

Excuse me. . . hello . . . is this thing on? Whoa, wicked feedback.There, that's better.I just wanted to pop in for a moment to say that the medical issues that have sidelined me for most of the last year seem to be pretty much fixed (crossing my digits and knocking wood repeatedly). I'm going to have some minor unrelated surgery in a couple of weeks. When I recover from that, I fully hope and

Muse of Irehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05332467174431277149noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21613704.post-83502716437134826202009-01-12T16:03:00.001-05:002009-01-13T21:31:57.913-05:00

Mindful of my obligation to review this book for LibraryThing, I struggled valiantly to finish it, but despite my best efforts, I could only get halfway through. It would take a doughtier warrior than myself to conquer Whitfield's leaden prose, abysmal dialog, complete absence of characterization, and predictable plotting.Except for the heroine Lysandra, there's not a single character with a

Muse of Irehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05332467174431277149noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21613704.post-91569074196591598012008-09-27T12:21:00.004-04:002008-09-27T12:31:04.306-04:00

Murder on the Eiffel Tower, by Claude IznerI received this as an ARC from the LibraryThing Early Reviewers group, and if I hadn't been obligated to review it, I would never have finished it. This book is a very weak historical thriller set in the heady atmosphere of the Paris Exposition of 1889. It has the stiff prose I associate with bad translation, but translation alone can't account for its

Muse of Irehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05332467174431277149noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21613704.post-4378381119108266882008-08-25T16:11:00.003-04:002008-09-27T12:31:59.969-04:00

Remember how I mentioned last time I'd been having some health problems? Well, they're ongoing. Nothing too serious, but debilitating enough that basically all I've got the energy for is working, reading, and sleeping. Lots of sleeping. Blogging? Not really on the agenda right now. So while I may pop in now and again, you can consider me on the dreaded hiatus until I get my innards seen to.As

Muse of Irehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05332467174431277149noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21613704.post-75540758944945911282008-08-01T22:38:00.006-04:002008-08-02T14:45:36.276-04:00

I didn't intend to take off the whole month of July. But first I went on vacation and then I went on vacation again and then I had some health problems. So before I knew it, boom! it was August.So anyway, I have lots of cool things to say about books I've read (and by the way, I'm so hopelessly behind tracking my reading that I've given up trying to catch up) and movies I've seen (three of 'em!

Muse of Irehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05332467174431277149noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21613704.post-9595298599725570972008-07-03T10:46:00.004-04:002008-07-03T11:04:44.671-04:00

Patriot Hearts, by Barbara HamblyI've read damn near everything Barbara Hambly's ever written, and while there were a few of her books I didn't like so much, I never thought she could write anything so BORING. This story of the first four First Ladies (counting Thomas Jefferson's slave mistress, Sally Hemings) is a rambling, episodic collection of flashbacks -- and often, flashbacks within

Muse of Irehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05332467174431277149noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21613704.post-49465998092884567802008-06-30T15:50:00.006-04:002008-09-27T12:58:43.087-04:00

It took me two tries to get into this historical mystery about a murder in the snowy Canadian wilderness in the 1860s. Once I did, I enjoyed it, but it's almost breathtaking in its loose-endedness, leaving plots unresolved and characters scattered across the landscape. So herewith, the list of things I still want to know:Whatever became of Amy Seton?With Moody dead, how are the Knoxes going to

Muse of Irehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05332467174431277149noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21613704.post-11229463343405076692008-06-18T19:59:00.002-04:002008-06-18T20:46:01.496-04:00

It's no use getting too bent out of shape about the lists published by the AFI. Tastes differ; also, they're an institution that depends at least partly on donations and they're not above pandering to certain films because they were popular or made a lot of money. But their broadcast last night of the 10 Top 10 was very badly done (each segment way too short, then wasting time on recaps; dubious

Muse of Irehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05332467174431277149noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21613704.post-11622555899872055492008-06-14T11:39:00.002-04:002008-06-14T12:09:46.108-04:00

I used to have a razor-sharp memory for everything I had read or watched, but as time goes on I find myself losing my grasp on the details. So, as it now often happens, I remembered that I really hated the movie True Lies, but not why. Thus, having nothing in particular better to be doing last night, I watched it again.And then I remembered. Because this is the movie where THE HERO (Arnold

Muse of Irehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05332467174431277149noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21613704.post-83672928264897025552008-06-13T16:32:00.002-04:002008-06-13T16:38:24.986-04:00

Garden Spells, by Sarah Addison AllenI am in love with this book, which is all about love and loss and hurt and happiness. It's about families, about small towns where you carry the baggage of all your ancestors, and about sisters. It's about wanting to belong, and what happens when you don't. It's about magic, and some seriously tasty-sounding food. Go read it.

Muse of Irehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05332467174431277149noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21613704.post-25977531098404394542008-06-03T17:36:00.002-04:002008-06-03T17:41:56.381-04:00

This post also got started and lost in the shuffle a good while ago.I watch Mr. Smith Goes to Washington almost every time I run into it. There's a lot to admire in this 1939 Frank Capra classic, notably the acting from almost everyone involved: Jimmy Stewart as the idealistic young Jefferson Smith; Jean Arthur as Clarissa Saunders, the hard-boiled secretary who's transformed by Smith's sincerity

Muse of Irehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05332467174431277149noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21613704.post-29741116607880840502008-06-03T14:40:00.002-04:002008-06-03T17:46:11.442-04:00

I started to write this post quite a while ago, and for some reason never got around to finishing.By coincidence, the same night I watched To Catch a Thief (1955, Alfred Hitchcock), I also happened to finish Lisa Scottoline's Dirty Blonde. At first glance these two works, one of Hitchcock's most famous movies and a better-than-average paperback thriller, would seem to have very little in common.

Muse of Irehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05332467174431277149noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21613704.post-74172421916031214122008-06-03T13:24:00.002-04:002008-06-03T13:31:23.095-04:00

Keeping up my movie diary has become more of a chore than a pleasure, so I'm giving it a rest until further notice. If I've got an observation about a movie that's absolutely dying to be made, I'll make it. Otherwise, you can just imagine me watching Notorious and Now, Voyager for the kajillionth time each.

Muse of Irehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05332467174431277149noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21613704.post-50090247742608797922008-05-30T16:22:00.000-04:002008-06-03T13:49:05.186-04:00

The Duke and I, by Julia QuinnDespite my earlier post on romance, I keep TRYING to like the books recommended by Smart Bitches, Trashy Books. However, not even for free could I persist past the second chapter or so of this Regency. Quinn's prose is flat and her ear for dialog tin.

Muse of Irehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05332467174431277149noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21613704.post-54910721718900597162008-05-29T13:48:00.000-04:002008-05-30T12:11:26.576-04:00

In the wake of consolidating my and my mother's mystery collections, I discovered some appalling gaps in the collection and promptly set about replacing some cherished favorites via BookMooch. Among these were some of the best titles in Dick Francis's oeuvre.Nerve is the story of Rob Finn, an up-and-coming young jockey, who learns that someone is systematically destroying jockeys' careers and

Muse of Irehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05332467174431277149noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21613704.post-24014453766443130212008-05-29T11:18:00.002-04:002008-05-30T12:25:29.309-04:00

American Fried and Third Helpings, by Calvin Trillin*Trillin is one of my favorite food writers, and these books were just what I needed to wash the sour taste out of my mouth from some of the other terrible things I had been reading. A foodie before there was even a word for such a thing (his wife Alice politely referred to the species as "food crazies"), Trillin writes humorously and

Muse of Irehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05332467174431277149noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21613704.post-1724372711397468862008-05-24T22:51:00.001-04:002008-05-24T22:53:26.347-04:00

Well, I feel for you, but I'm consumed by apathy.Walter Brennan, Bad Day at Black Rock

Muse of Irehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05332467174431277149noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21613704.post-57723033090863649032008-05-23T15:45:00.006-04:002008-06-03T18:04:42.305-04:00

Daughters of the North, by Sarah HallA young woman runs away from a city run by an oppressive authority that controls every aspect of its citizens' lives, including their fertility. She heads into the mountains in search of a place she's heard about that has rejected the regime, living off the grid in a self-sustaining agrarian community. Close to her destination, she's attacked, from behind and

Muse of Irehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05332467174431277149noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21613704.post-88084351601117782412008-05-22T23:05:00.004-04:002008-05-23T14:34:28.722-04:00

Summer of the Big Bachi, Naomi HiraharaThere are certainly some interesting aspects to this book. It never occurred to me, for example, that there had been American-born Japanese living in Hiroshima when the atom bomb fell on the city. Nor was I aware of the lingering tensions in the Japanese-American community between those who cooperated with the Government and served in WWII and those who

Muse of Irehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05332467174431277149noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21613704.post-46619083855984650832008-05-22T16:19:00.003-04:002008-05-22T16:30:23.666-04:00

Grimspace, by Ann AguirreNot terrible, but after 50 pages or so, failed to hold my interest. Since those pages covered a jail break, a dangerous cross-galaxy jump, and a firefight, I think that gives a fair indication of the author's inability to dial up the excitement.Aguirre also tripped over two of my science fiction pet peeves:If you're going to make up a swear word, don't make it sound just

Muse of Irehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05332467174431277149noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21613704.post-39180399322431660192008-05-21T10:36:00.005-04:002008-05-21T10:48:16.807-04:00

I've never watched Dancing With the Stars [be warned; if you click, video starts playing automatically], and would be hard-pressed to find a show or concept to which I am more indifferent. But really, without knowing anything about her competitors, the level of competition on the show, or ballroom dancing in general, how astounded can I be by the announcement that Olympic figure-skating champion

Muse of Irehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05332467174431277149noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21613704.post-76022169542326663562008-05-19T16:14:00.004-04:002008-05-19T16:32:34.278-04:00

Thistle and Twigg, by Mary SaumsBuying a new cosy mystery is always something of a risk, since they more than other types of mysteries tend toward the overly cutesified. And buying one online is even more of a gamble, because you don't get the warning signs you can pick up by holding a book in your hands and scanning the first few pages.Case in point: Exhibit A. On the one hand, we have a polite,

Muse of Irehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05332467174431277149noreply@blogger.com2