Reading, Listening & Watching Stuff

Rachel Joyce is the author of the fiction book "The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry" which was one of the best books I read last year. I just finished another of hers called "Perfect" and I'm on a waiting list at the library for her new one "The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessy". Actually I did "Perfect" as an audio book and I'm glad I did because it was heavy at times but the narrator was great. He was  a very English, theatrical man who I looked forward to listening to each day. Perfect follows a boy, Byron, and a man ,Jim, and each of their stories keep you intrigued. When I was on the last disk and nearly at my house I actually pulled into a school parking and sat listening till the end. I really enjoyed it.

My new audio book is "A Long Way Home" by Saroo Brierley. It's a true story of a 5-year old Indian boy who got lost, ended up on a train to Calcutta and then lived on the streets until he was found and adopted by an Australian couple. He finds his Indian family after 25 years and goes back to meet them. It's already got me hooked and I'm trying not to watch too many YouTube videos about his story until I've finished. I definitely see a movie coming with this story.

I love Oscar season and try to watch as many films as I can. This year there's a few I have no desire to watch : The Grant Budapest Hotel and Birdman to name two, but so far I've watched:
Theory of Everything
The Imitation Game
American Sniper
I thought American Sniper was great and I liked his character. There's a lot of negative and quite nasty stuff about him and the film on the Internet right now, mainly by people disgusted in the Iraq war and his part in it. I didn't agree with the war either and certainly wouldn't want my boys to be in the military. But the film didn't glorify the war or gloss over the nastiness of it. It dealt with the horror and then the way veterans feel when they come home.  So I liked the film and I actually watched some interviews on YouTube with Chris and his wife and brother and feel like Clint Eastwood did a good job of making the film authentic. I did have some discussion with a friend who is totally against the film and that's ok. Each to their own.