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Showing posts from December, 2013

Happy New Year 2014

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Happy 2014 to all those casual visitors of my site and those assiduous visitors along the year. Your support has made me appreciate writing for you all the more.
Thanks from the bottom of my heart and please keep on visiting. Hopefully there will be plenty of more things to say in the years to come.
May 2014 be a healthy, joyous and prosperous year for you all!
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Best Books I Read in 2013

The following is a compilation of the books I read and liked best in 2013.

A Death in Vienna by Daniel Silva (♦♦♦♦½):  This bookis a heart pounding adrenaline ride and the best novel among the first four books in the series. This book is part exposé and overall a terrifying account of the horrors experienced by Jews during the Holocaust and the guilt and the sense of abandonment of the survivors who in many cases didn’t know how to keep on living.
Prince of Fire by Daniel Silva (♦♦♦½): It starts already in the middle of the action and what follows is not only a great detective story but a tale of betrayals, rebellions, murders and double-crosses. Despite being an adrenaline ride is not as intense as it should be given the topic. Still, Silva knows his history and makes ample use of it to deliver a very convincing case against Arafat and company.
The Messenger by Daniel Silva (♦♦♦♦½): Nail-biting suspense and international intrigue of the highest order are the hallmarks of The Messenger.
T…
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Frances Ha (♦♦♦½)

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Frances (Greta Gerwig) is a 27 year-old dancer in NY City aspiring to become a professional with a dancing company. She lives with her best friend Sophie.
When their lease is about to expire, Sophie tells Frances that she is moving in with her friend Lisa whom, according to Frances, Sophie despises. So begin Frances troubles because she cannot afford to live alone. Frances moves in with two guys but she loses her place in the dancing company and she's forced to improvise to make ends meet.
I liked Frances Ha. It's the coming-of-age story of an adult, or rather an adult finding herself at last. I think that Frances Ha is a reflection of the times we're living in which young people finish college and find themselves either criminally underemployed or unemployed and unable to forge a destiny for themselves. It's sad but a reality nonetheless.
To all adults who have fibbed to fit in or to those that are talented yet can't find a way to make it, this movie is for you.
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Prisoners (♦♦♦½)

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Two young girls vanish in front of their house in the suburbs in midday. The only clue pointing to their whereabouts is a white van parked in the street but no one knows to whom it belongs.
Early on in the investigation an unlikely suspect emerges, one supposedly with the IQ of a ten year-old. A young detective with a perfect record assigned to the case divides his time between following the limited leads and trailing the father of one of the girls after the main suspect disappears.
As I was watching, the plot of Prisoners kept reminding me of the novel Down the Darkest Road by Tami Hoag, among other things because of the unassuming nature of the suspects and ultimately of the killer. I have to say that the screenplay was successful in not giving much away. I couldn't figure out the culprit before the end but I'm glad they didn't make it up; the killer was there all along.
Despite a star-studded cast composed by Hugh Jackman, Maria Bello, Viola Davis, Terrence Howard, Paul Da…
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