Two books and almost three movies

I read two wonderful memoirs recently: The Glass Castle, by Jeannette Walls, and Unreliable Memoirs, by Clive James.

Completely agree with these reviews:

For Unreliable Memoirs: “Do not read this book in public. You will risk severe internal injuries from trying to suppress your laughter. . . . What’s worse, you can’t put it down once started. Its addictive powers stun all normal decent resistance within seconds. Not to be missed.” (Sunday Times )

For Glass Castle: "probably the best account ever written of a dysfunctional family " (amazon reviewer)

And here is the best part - Clive James has written more than thirty books, including four more volumes of autobiography, and Jeannette Walls has another book, Half Broke Horses.

Such wonderful news! (Although I do feel a bit illiterate, discovering Clive James so late in the game.)

Also, recently saw two movies: Skyfall and A Late Quartet.

As for A Late Quartet, I agree with one of the reviewers at Rotten Tomatoes: ""A Late Quartet" is a magnificent film, the best I've seen in 2012 thus far. It reminds me of when "In the Bedroom" was released in 2001. From out of nowhere, a filmmaker no one has heard of explodes onto the world-cinema stage with a quiet, spectacularly artful near-masterpiece."

And that reminds me - In the Bedroom is a fantastic film I would like to see again. (Bad title, though - always makes me think of that joke about how to make any fortune you get in a Chinese fortune cookie funny - add the phrase "in the bedroom.") (This trick works, too - perhaps I'm too easily amused, but adding that phrase does make any fortune funny.) (But the film of that name is dead serious, and terribly sad, and utterly wonderful.)

I didn't expect much from Skyfall, which was fortunate, because I got even less. I'm not overly fond of Bond movies, but many of them I have liked quite a bit.

The movie has received some excellent reviews. For example, Atlantic film critic Christopher Orr says, "The film, directed by Sam Mendes, is among the most ambitious imaginings of Bond to date: dark, supple, and punctuated with moments of unanticipated visual brilliance."

I thought it was overall boring, and I thought that the whole mommy fixation was stupid. I did like the little allusions to prior films and iconic Bond memes, such as when the mixologist shakes the martini and Bond simply says, "Perfect."

But overall, dumb.

And then, for the third movie - this morning we drove to the theater to see Lincoln, sat in the dark for about thirty minutes, and finally were informed that the projector was broken and our money would be refunded. That was a first.

So - two great books, one great movie, and a couple of misses. Pretty darn good overall.