Books, Fiction

And the birds rained down

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I am not sure how I became the owner of this book. I found it on my bookshelf this summer. The only thing that was clear is that it was bought in my local bookshop because of its label on the back cover. Did I buy it? I typically do not buy contemporary novels because I want novels [Read More]
Comedy, Movies

Ticket to Paradise

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The best thing about this rather uninspired romantic comedy is the destination: I wanted to buy a ticket to Bali as I was watching “Ticket to Paradise.” The second best thing is the chemistry between Julia Roberts and George Clooney. You can sense that the two genuinely like each other. As they tell [Read More]
Astute Observations, Books, Diary

When Novels Mattered

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Important article by David Brooks in NY Times. He writes: I’m old enough to remember when novelists were big-time. When I was in college in the 1980s, new novels from Philip Roth, Toni Morrison, Saul Bellow, John Updike, Alice Walker and others were cultural events. There were reviews and counter-reviews and arguments about the reviews. It’s [Read More]
Movies, Phantasy

Companion

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In the past couple of weeks, I’ve been reading more and more alarmed voices calling for a moratorium on the development of advanced AI models. Even researchers who were previously enthusiastic about the positive potential of AI are growing concerned that we may be stumbling into building systems that could turn against humanity—like in one [Read More]
Drama, Movies

Anora

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Early on in watching Anora, I had the idea that this was a remake of Pretty Woman with a lot more skin than my grandmother would’ve appreciated. But the film then moved far away from a romantic comedy when the friends of the Russian billionaire’s son, Ivan, who plays the Richard Gere character in [Read More]
Books, Fiction

Inkheart

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I was researching how many copies of the Swiss children’s book Heidi have been sold worldwide, as I once heard it was the most popular German-language book ever. During this process, I came across Cornelia Funke, who is listed as a bestselling children’s book author from Germany. I had never heard of her, and my [Read More]