Due out this week from Anansi Press is this beautiful collection of stories, the first fiction to come out of North Korea. They say write what you know, and while I recognise that these stories are fiction, they have their roots in the real world, and as such, give the reader a fascinating glance inside…
Tag: heartbreaking
A Monster Calls (2011) – Patrick Ness
It’s been a long time since a book has reduced me to tears, but Ness’ powerful, and beautiful young adult books, A Monster Calls has done just that. Inspired by an idea from Siobhan Dowd who passed before she could tell it herself, the story is a singular experience that is heartbreaking in its truth…
Quantum Leap (1990) – The Great Spontini and Rebel Without a Clue
After the heavier subject matter last week, The Great Spontini is a bit lighter fare (partially, though it does deal with a heartbreaking reality for families, divorce and custody battles) for Sam (Scott Bakula). Written by Cristy Dawson and Beverly Bridges, this episode first aired on 16 November, 1990. Sam finds himself as a magician, Harry Spontini,…
Quantum Leap (1990)- The Leap Home: Part 2 – Vietnam and Leap of Faith
Sam (Scott Bakula) finds himself still in his brother, Tom’s (David Newsom) life in the Leap Home: Part 2 – Vietnam. This intense, and yet another important piece of the Quantum Leap universe first aired 5 October, 1990, and was once again written by Bellisario. Sam is Magic, one of the SEALs in Tom’s unit…
Crash (2004) – Paul Haggis
Walking away with the Academy Awards for Best Picture (controversially – as Brokeback Mountain was the presumptive winner), Best Original Screenplay and Best Editing, writer/director Paul Haggis’ tale of a cross-section of denizens of Los Angeles, tied together by race, loss and redemption come together in Crash, my next recommendation from the Great Movies…
Quantum Leap (1989) – Disco Inferno and The Americanization of Machiko
Sam (Scott Bakula) may have his hands full with this week’s pair of episodes! Up first is Disco Inferno, penned by Paul Brown, this episode aired 27 September, 1989. Sam finds himself in the body of Chad, a bit of a charmer and stunt person, on 1 April, 1976, working on a terrible disaster…
Quantum Leap (1989) – Star-Crossed and The Right Hand of God
Sam’s (Scott Bakuka) leaps really get under way this week with Star-Crossed. Penned by Deborah Pratt with an air date of 31 March, 1989, Dr. Beckett finds himself leaping into an English Lit professor, Gerald Bryant, in an Ohio college on 15 June, 1972. The professor has a drinking problem, and is involved amorously…
Illuminae: The Illuminae Files Vol. 1 (2015) – Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff
This week’s trip to the Book Shelf found me reading a fantastic science fiction novel, that keeps it’s humanity with a pair of wonderful characters, Kady Grant, and Ezra Mason. Kady is not having a good day. She’s broken up with her boyfriend, Ezra, and on the same day, her planet, which is housing…
Hot Docs 2015: Help Us Find Sunil Tripathi – Neal Broffman
Screening today at the ROM theatre at 7:00pm is this amazing, important, and emotionally involving film that introduces us to the Tripathi family. In the early months of 2013, their youngest son, Sunil, a Brown University student left his home in Providence one night, and disappeared. The family was distraught, but organized, and welcoming the help of friends and volunteers…
Hot Docs 2015: The Queen of Silence – Agnieszka Zwiefka
Screening today at the ROM theatre at 7pm, is this beautiful, joyous and heartbreaking film… With an objective eye, Zwiefka plunges into the reality of an illegal, tiny Roma slum on the outskirts of a Polish suburb. Families struggle to survive, living in their shanty town, their children dumpster-diving for clothes and toys, while their parents…
The Mind Reels 