For my Birthday...

[emandink]

Please to be recommending the following:

1. A book.
2. A movie.
3. Someone I should follow (can be here or DW, on twitter, a blog I should add to my blogroll, etc).

Comments

[kakiphony.livejournal.com]

A book: When Fox is a Thousand by Larissa Lai. When Fox is a Thousand is a lyrical, magical novel, rich with poetry and folklore and elements of the fairytale. Larissa Lai interweaves three narrative voices and their attendant cultures: an elusive fox growing toward wisdom and her 1000 birthday, the ninth-century Taoist poet/nun Yu Hsuan-Chi (a real person executed in China for murder), and the oddly named Artemis, a young Asian-American woman living in contemporary Vancouver.

With beautiful and enchanting prose, and a sure narrative hand, Lai combines Chinese mythology, the sexual politics of medieval China, and modern-day Vancouver to masterfully revise the myth of the Fox (a figure who can inhibit women's bodies in order to cause mischief). Her potent imagination and considerable verbal skill result in a tale that continues to haunt long after the story is told.

A movie: The Linguini Incident because I always recommend it and because David Bowie is just drool-worthy in it. Plus, the interior of the restaurant (and Cecil and Dante) always makes me laugh out loud.

Someone you should follow: Of Blog of the Fallen At first glance it's just another fantasy/sci-fi book review site, but Larry also reviews foreign language texts, classics I've never heard of, and "literary" fiction. In other words, it's a mix of all the things I love, not just the genre works. He also has some nice interviews and I've been finding his reassessment of Tolkien really interesting.


And Happy Birthday!!!!

[ayun.livejournal.com]

I love the shit out of The Linguini Incident. "Now darling, I've been a real friend to you. I mean, I untied you and everything."

[kakiphony.livejournal.com]

It has the best one liner's in movies. "god, you're alive. I thought that rabbit was eating your face."

"You don't just make out with someone in a meat locker who you're indifferent to"

and my favorite conversation of all time:
Vivian: You need to get laid.
Lucy: YOU need to get laid!
Vivian: I don't need to get laid. I stored it up before me and Hector broke up.
Lucy: Stored up? What are you, a chipmunk?

Not to mention the self defense bra and two bikes I still covet.

[ayun.livejournal.com]

YES! Eszter Balint's delivery is so great.

I've gotta go dig through my pile of VHS tapes tonight - haven't watched it in years.

[ayun.livejournal.com]

1. The last novel I really enjoyed was Sharp Teeth by Toby Barlow. It's a blank verse novel about LA werewolves and a dogcatcher. You can get a sense of the author from his Book Notes post on Largehearted Boy:
http://www.largeheartedboy.com/blog/archive/2008/02/book_notes_toby.html

2. I saw The Brothers Bloom over the weekend - it's written and directed by Rian Johnson, who did Brick, that hyper-stylized high school noir a couple of years ago. This one is about con artists and the urge to create a narrative for your own life. Really great production design and costumes. Will make you want to construct a pinhole camera out of a watermelon and/or learn how to build explosives out of doll parts. It reminded me in some ways of The Lady Eve.

3. The last blog I added to my RSS feed was Zoo Borns - pictures of baby animals from zoos around the world. Total fluff: occasionally hilarious, reliably cute:
http://www.zooborns.com/zooborns/

[girfan.livejournal.com]

The new China Mieville The City and the City was very good. I also liked Michael Marshall's Bad Things.

I don't go to films often, but really like Let the Right One In and Coraline. Older films: Harvey, Lola Rennt, The Orphanage, Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid, My Favourite Year

Neil Gaiman? I don't know who else would fit.

[alicia-stardust.livejournal.com]

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

These are probably not new to you, but:

1. Memory and Dream by Charles de Lint
2. Things to do in Denver When You're Dead
3. Margaret and Helen http://margaretandhelen.wordpress.com/

[kakiphony.livejournal.com]

I didn't know M&H! I've added them to the reader. Thank you!

And thanks Em for a terrific thread from which I can poach!

[st-theodora.livejournal.com]

happy birthday, darling!

1. if on a winter's night a traveler, by italo calvino
2. hamlet 2
3. http://spearsstudies.wordpress.com/
by my former student, it lets you indulge in britney-watching while criticizing popular cultures and mores. and her hair.

[cielamara.livejournal.com]

Happy Birthday!

1) Book: A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth. It's HUGE--about 1400 pages--but so far, it's very good.
2) Movie: Mistress of Spices. The book is also very, very good. Very dreamy and romantic and Indian-flavored.
3) Blog? I dunno. I could recommend that you start reading a webstory. http://www.talesofmu.com/story

[sh1mm3r.livejournal.com]

1. Ghostwritten by David Mitchell.
I'm in the middle of a Mitchell reading spree, but this is the one I keep returning to, to think about the characters, what happened, etc.

2. The Jane Austen Book Club
Okay, normally I hate silly movies, particularly those based on books that felt mediocre. But something about the movie is just magical to me. I adored it.

3. I'm not sure if you read food blogs, but Tartelette is amazing. You can also follow her on Twitter, but she's pretty prolific there, almost too much for me.