Every cloud...

I hadn't even heard about the movie until I was nosing around the 2013 Oscar nominations. The Silver Linings Playbook - best movie, best director, best actor, best actress, best supporting actress, best supporting actor and a few more besides. I was impressed with Argo and that movie had nowhere near as many nods. I am a movie fan. I keep myself informed. Where had this one been hiding? I still don't have the answer to that but folks I went to see it with my girls on Saturday evening and I am so glad the Oscars brought this to my attention. After an 8 month court-appointed stay in a mental institution following a violent breakdown Pat is out and back home with his Mum and Dad. Obsessed with getting back together with his wife who has a restraining order out against him, Pat's path crosses with that of recently widowed Tiffany who agrees to help Pat connect with his wife if Pat partners Tiffany at a dance competition. You have to admit aspects of this storyline sound lame but it all makes perfect sense in the movie and is ultimately very satisfying. Mental illness was, I thought, honestly depicted - the stigma, the fears and concerns, the manifestations, the denials, the lows and the misunderstandings. The humour was real life humour, not inserted funny lines, and the acting was gob-smackingly good. Bradley Cooper is not just a pretty face. Nor is Jennifer Lawrence. If you want to know how to tell a good story, go see this movie. It is an excellent and most enjoyable lesson.

Meanwhile I have been racing through reading some more books - I am now on to book 3 of the Demon's Lexicon Trilogy by Sarah Rees Brennan. I can see occasional problems with the writing (although I think the awkward rhythm of the first book has lessened), and switching to a different main character for each book also presents a few difficulties and awkward moments (how can it be orchestrated that she overhear that conversation between the two previous MC's?) but you will have noticed people that I am still keeping on reading. I'm not that keen on the main character of the third book. She wasn't that appealing in the first two books so its hard to embrace her in the third. And my favourites from previous books are too distant. There are some plot inconsistencies in this third book. For example I didn't get how one character could have been violently ill when travelling over water because of the proximity to water (it's a magical thing) and yet choose to be swimming in the third book. And it is not 'ironic' for a solution to be obvious to the reader and for every character in the book to not see it until the end. But I am still reading. What's with that. For all the things that annoy me, there is still something very compelling. That's the nature of books I guess. I am a romantic at heart and want to see how it all ends for the characters I do like. I will be surprised if I am surprised though but that's okay; the best surprise was in the first book - its hard to pull that off again. And in the end I am learning something from this too.

If you were hoping for part two of my digital journey, never fear, I will be posting this soon. I am just waiting on some things to be sorted before I mention them. In the meantime go check this out - one author's reasoning for her switch to DIY (thank you to Jane Bloomfield for alerting me to this link).