2019 Oscar Nominees

-->

Weaker than average crop, but here goes, worst to first:

Black Panther – Interesting premise, but got silly—bloodshed seemed avoidable. They probably could have talked through their problems rather than engage in more black-on-black violence. Maybe I’m just too old for this. Grade: C+

Vice – Christian Bale was amazing as Cheney, and Steve Carrel was hilarious as Rumsfeld. It had some great scenes, but few revelations. Grade: B-

Bohemian Rhapsody – Entertaining, but full of inaccuracies. They took the formula for a rock star bio-pic, plugged in a few details from Mercury’s life, and overdramatized the rest. Grade: B-

Green Book – Great acting, good story, but I’ve seen a lot of ‘white hero in the face of racism tales’, and so have you. That shouldn’t take away from the story, but, Grade: B

Roma –This was borderline-boring at times, and I think filming in black and white is a cop out, but ultimately it was unique and memorable. Grade: B

The Favourite – I had no idea what to expect, and was pleasantly surprised by its humour. Grade: B+

Blackkklansman – I enjoyed it, and from what I read after, it is faithful to the real story. Grade: A-

A Star is Born – I didn’t realize this was the 8,000^th remake, but it’s the first I’ve seen. I suppose you can argue it follows the rockstar biopic formula too, but at least it didn’t pretend to be a true story, and was contemporary, and had good original songs, and great directing—I especially loved the opening scene. Grade: A

notable books I read last year

-->

Here are my favorites:

Asymmetry – This was probably my favorite of the year. Knowing that the author dated Phillip Roth in her 20’s (while he was in his 70’s) makes the fictional relationship so much more interesting. The structure is also unique and effective.

I Wrote This Book Because I Love You – I preferred Kreider’s previous collection, We Learn Nothing, but these are pretty good too.

The Sun Does Shine – Memoir by a man who spent a majority of his life on death row for a crime he clearly didn’t commit. Absolutely infuriating, but important read.

Such a Long Journey – Rohinton Mistry probably resonates more with me because he’s a Parsi from the same area of Bombay as my mom. I don’t often get to read Parsi Gujarati slang.

My Year of Rest and Relaxation – Definitely unique, funny, and well written. If this were a page longer, it would have been too long. 

Americanah – Novel about a Nigerian woman coming to America and going back. More of a vehicle for commentary and observations about race, relationships, status, and immigration through a collection of shorter pieces, but the writing is great and it all works together.

Not quite with the favorites:

There There – This was really hyped. And the urban Native-American perspective is unique. And the book is good, and it’s short, and it’s searing, so I’d recommend it just to get the perspective, but it didn’t quite live up to the hype for me. 

These were all very good: 

Everything I Never Told You – Novel about a mixed-race (Chinese/white) family in suburban Ohio.

The Nest – Novel about a white adult family in New York City.

The Storied Life of AJ Fikry – A nice little novel for book lovers.

Where the Crawdads Sing – Memorable. It’ll get you where you need to be.

If you're in the mood for something different:

The Windup Bird Chronicle – I just finished this, and it’s weird, but surprisingly readable for how weird it was. I need to think about it some more before recommending strongly. But it’s definitely very interesting.

On the fence about recommending:

Happy City – On one hand, I found myself talking about this more than anything I read last year; but like most non-fiction of this type, it is in desperate need of an editor. Maybe repetition is the point for some of this stuff, but man, it really needed a proper editor. Maybe just read a review of it. 

Killers of the FlowerMoon – David Grann wrote my favorite from last year, and this was good, but not sure I recommend it. 

Ok, I'm cutting it off here.

warning about Google accounts

I've used gmail and blogger for a while and they've been great, but:

When signing up for blogger years ago, I didn't have a gmail account, so I used my student email address instead. Last month I tried signing in, but after entering my password, google didn't recognize my computer and wanted to send a verification email to make sure it was me trying to log on. Reasonable, I suppose, except that I no longer have access to my student email account.

There is no solution to this problem. If I cannot enter the verification code, I cannot log-in to the account.

And google does not employ customer service reps who can fix it.

So I emailed the school, paid for an alumni email account for a year, had them forward emails from my student account to my alumni account, and got the verification code. And here I am.

This was a minor issue, but what if an unforeseen error happens with my primary gmail account? I guess it was a little unnerving to realize that I entrust so much information with an entity and have absolutely no chance of speaking to a human about fixing a seemingly minor error that could have locked me out of my account forever.

Anyway, make sure you set a backup/recovery email address. (Which at the moment, this google account is not allowing me to do.)