Merlin BBC

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Kat Reads Books

Jakob by Satu Rämö - Third in the Hildur series. A mysterious series of assaults and murders themed around an Icelandic Yule poem, all tied to illegal trade in horse blood, are occupying Hildur and Jakob's time. Jakob's custody hearing in Finland gets an unexpected end and Hildur has to travel to help him, all the while back in Iceland the solution to case starts to hit closer to home than anticipated. I continue to be impressed with how the different plot points are intertwined, both within a book and between them. There really is a strong sense that the author has an arching storyline in mind that she's revealing bit by bit. 

Rakel by Satu Rämö - Fourth in the Hildur series. A young man with knife wounds stumbles out of a luxury cruise ship, a baffling series of burglaries, discovery of old skeletons and a suspicious death of Hildur's old friend all turn out to be connected in one way or another... Add in family worries for both Hildur and Jakob, and you get another intricately woven story that picks up and adds to the threads started in previous books. Book also teaches you about tourism and fishing industry in Iceland without once sounding like a textbook. The characters are all very real, as are their relationships. 

Tinna by Satu Rämö - Fifth book in the series and the last one so far published. This one focuses on a murder of a young woman, and the link it has to Hildur's first case. Throw in Hildur's aunt's (the titular Tinna) quest to find out why her oldest sister left and never came back, the dark legacy of a nearby children's home, and surprise return of Hildur's first love and (separately) a character we got to know in one of the earlier books and you get a by now delightful mix of history, mythology, social commentary and interesting characters that have realistic relationships. I continue to be impressed with how the different threads are weaved together. 

Curious Wine by Katherine V. Forrest - Lauded as a classic of its genre, this romance 'written for lesbians by a lesbian' was an interesting read, and actually provided a nicely blurred view of sexuality illustrating neatly how 'lesbian' was an inclusive label for female to female attraction that encompassed people we'd now label bi or pan for example. Anyway, the story focuses on two women who discover an unexpected connection, emotional and physical alike, with each other during a skiing holiday. There are some sharp and humourous but ultimately empathetic observations about women and women's friendships with the larger group of the holiday makers, but the main story is very much Diane and Lane falling passionately in love, making passionate love, and then a little bit about the practical implications of deciding to transition from an affair to a relationship in the context of 1980s US. I liked the book, though the writing style didn't always work for me (a bit jumpy at times) and I was entertained by the sex scenes that weren't purple prose as such but were definitely euphemistic enough at times I couldn't quite tell what exactly, in physical terms, was happening. The word orgasm was used several times but no sexual organs below waist were actually named. Anyway, it was a sweet story and I did finish it with rooting for the couple to make it and have their happy ever after. 



Kat Watches Things

Naruto season 1 - LISTEN. I KNOW. But Anime was not a thing that a kid in 80s in Finland could feasibly grow up with. But apparently BBC iPlayer currently has all of this (and also all of One Piece...), so this is now my current watch project. I'm actually not fully through with even the season 1 but turns out I have a Surprising Amount Of Opinions, so like, uh... A separate post will turn up at some point, maybe that will be amusing to some of you? 

Project Hail Mary - Sun and all the other stars are dimming. A disgraced academic now a mid school teacher Ryland Grace gets involved in an international effort to find a solution. How that ends with him waking up in a spacecraft full of dead bodies very far from Earth is a tale that unfolds in flashbacks and the effort to succeed in the mission he's on. Luckily, humans aren't the only ones who've sent a team to find a solution. Cue the most adorable interspecies friendship since E.T. I loved this. I LOVED it. The level of chemistry between Gosling and what is essentially a puppet that looks like a collection of rocks was off the charts. Shout out also to  Sandra Hüller as Eva Stratt, the head of the international task force, #career goals. If I ever need to *spoilers* I can only dream of doing so with such well balanced humanity. And the ending. Absolute gold standard. I love a good 'peril in space' movie but I was getting so fucking bored with the depressing endings whereas this was exactly what I wanted. 

The Magic Faraway Tree - I have not read the books. They didn't really reach Finland to the level that would've made it to my (pretty broad) childhood reading list. I'm guessing that if you approached the movie primed with childhood nostalgia you probably got more out of it. I... Enjoyed it? Like I've definitely seen worse children's movies but I've also seen better ones. No idea how much was changed from the books but the movie plot goes that down on their luck family moves to the country side to restart their lives by growing tomatoes, kids find a magical tree and make friends with its equally magical occupants, and have adventures in the everchanging land on top of the tree. Mild peril and rescue mission happen when a birthday wish goes awry. Something something family is the best and kids and magic go together hurray? The best part of this was Rebecca Ferguson as Dame Snap. 


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