CODA (2021)

Do not miss this unique twist on an oft seen young adult romantic comedy. On the surface, it tells a pleasantly familiar coming-of-age tale, following a talented small-town girl from modest means with dreams to study music in the big city. There's an idealistic teacher, an adorable crush, some moving rehearsal montages, a high-stakes audition, and naturally, a family reluctant about their offspring’s ambitions to leave home for the big city. You do not have to dig very deep to find so much more. Ruby is the only hearing member of her family, and while the deaf depricate the hearing world, they rely heavily on Ruby to communicate for them, and it takes a toll on her. Something they do not give her credit for until she is about to go away. Emily Jones, the actor who plays Ruby, does a remarkable job, and I read that she had to learn to sing, to sign, and to fish on a trawler for this role, and she did brilliantly at them all. Well worth seeing!

Land of Big Numbers by Te-Ping Chen

The author is a reporter for The Wall Street Journal and I found her collection of short stories through Obama's reading list. I may not love everything, but I often find things that I wouldn't have found otherwise (I am not much for reading about books, even though I spend double digit hours reading every week) and his picks are always well written. This one is interesting and memorable. One of the challenges of reporting in China is to divine the human experience behind the peculiar or the political. Time is short, many interviews are done remotely, and people in China are often wary of opening up to a foreign journalist, even one who speaks their language, leaving unanswered questions. These are the imagined answers to those deeper questions about why someone does what they did, even in a totalitarian state. It opens strong and I was sorry to see it end.

Vivo (2021)

In the lead up to the Oscar nominations being announced, my movie viewing is at it's strongest, and I like to watch a few things that will probably not be nominated, but might be, and this movie falls into that realm. The story is set in Havana and the music has a decidedly Afro-Cuban beat that is really the strength of the movie. The composer is Lin Manuel Miranda, who as I have said before, is having a great pandemic year of both creativity and popularity. The music outshines the story, which is that half a century ago a singing duet parted ways, she, Marta, to be successful outside of Cuba and he, Andrés, remained a street performer in Cuba. Marta invites Andrés to join her at her last performance in Miami and he plans to go, but then dies on the eve of his departure. His kinkajou monkey, Vivo, decides to make the trip for him, bringing a song that Andrés wrote for Marta but never gave her. Quite a lot of improbably things happen on this journey, which are fun, if not likely, and the ending is bittersweet.

All That She Carried by Tiya Miles

This is a book that started as an idea, triggered by an exhibit in a museum. That is the greatest testimony to the power of exhibits and the effect that they can have on the viewer--that an object from the past inspires someone to dig deeper and we all understand a little bit more. This book started in a display case in the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture with a rough cotton bag, called Ashley’s Sack, embroidered with just a handful of words that evoke a sweeping family story of loss and of love, passed down through generations. In 1850s South Carolina, an enslaved woman named Rose gave this sack filled with a few precious items to her daughter, Ashley, as a token of love and to try to ensure Ashley’s survival as well. Soon after, the nine-year-old girl was separated from her mother and sold. Decades later, Ashley’s granddaughter Ruth embroidered this family history on the bag in spare yet haunting language—including Rose’s wish that “It be filled with my Love always.” This illuminating and moving book inspired by Rose’s gift to Ashley, the author unearths these women’s faint presence in archival records to follow the paths of their lives—and the lives of so many women like them—to write a revelatory history of the experience of slavery, and the uncertain freedom afterward, from the viewpoint of black women in the United States. The cover has some beautiful handwork on it, but the book does not explore the history or the motivation behind crafting useful things in an artful way, but rather focuses on the family history that generations of American slaves lack and why that is inevitable given the parameters of enslavement.

Velvet Underground (2021)

This movie meanders, often in a directionless manner, never with a clear purpose, but I think that might be highly reflective of the band and the time, the nature of working with and around Andy Warhol at the Factory. Also, undoubtedly, the drugs. The amazign thing is that they connected with so many powerful people when they were really doing trippy light shows, playing one chord in a neverending way, and singing about how heroin would be the death of them (it wasn't, but it certainly fortold of a time when it would be the death of many people). The music of Lou Reed has stying power, at least for me, at least some of it, and of course the art of Warhol is iconic pop art, so there were a lot of creative juices flowing along with the drugs. The thing that I learned that I did not know is that people like Jackie Kennedy and the New York Ballet company came to these intermedia presentations, where a film of the band playing would be superimposed on the band as they were playing live, and the audience were running the light shows. It doesn't make you wish you were there but rather amazed that most of them got out alive.

Invisible Child by Andrea Elliot

The author of this book followed Dasani and her family for over eight years to gather an in depth look at the real time effect of poverty on a child growing up in New York City. Dasani is the oldest child of her mother, Chantal. Chantal grew up in poverty herself, never graduating high school, in and out of drug rehab, who had eight children and no consistent job history. Her mother helped her with child care up until her untimely death at a young age. Superior is not Dasani's father, but was Chantal's longest relationship and together they tried to keep the family together, even when it was in homeless shelter's. They both struggled with addiction, but both had limited time in jail, but both couldn't feed, clothe, or properly monitor all their kids with all the obligations put on them to keep city support. The kids were in public housing, homeless shelters, foster homes, and for a while Dasani was in a boarding school and then in a group home. The story is therefore better than it could have been and not at all good. The grinding nature of poverty is laid out in a balanced and readable story that reads like a memoir, but is based on literally hundreds of pages of documentation as well as first hand knowledge. A must read.

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings

I am not what you would call an aficionado of the Marvel Universe. I have four boys, so I have watched many, if not all, of the Marvel movies, but I would be hard pressed to name a favorite character or movie in the bunch. And I was not too wowed by Black Widow, the other big Marvel movie to grace the big screen this year, but I liked this one. It has a mournful note in the backline that struch a chord with me. Plus I love the Wushu. The basic story is one of a dysfunctional family dynamics which are even more important than the ten rings that grant such immense power to Shang Chi’s power-hungry father Wenwu, who has lived for 1,000 years and created a society called the Ten Rings that has destroyed kingdoms and swayed the events all over the world. When Wenwu found love with Jiang Li, there was peace. They married and started a family. But after Shang-Chi’s mother died, a newly monstrous Wenwu tried to make his son a killer, causing the young boy to leave behind his sister Xialing. Shang-Chi comes home when there is a disturbance in the force, and he brings with him his American friend Katy (played so ably by Awkwafina, who adds not just the outsider perspective but also the comic relief. I am a big fan), and the three of them join forces with Jiang Li's village to put an end to Wenwu once and for all (or at least put him on pause because we know dead is not dead when it comes to Marvel). The film is a mega-budget ballet, one that glides and floats over an abyss of grief. As a side note, I am happy to see that the vast majority of the cast in this movie set in Chinatown in the US and Macao is that the actors are largely Asian, and that is spectacularly important. If the stories are about a culture, a country, or a people, the actors who are employed to tell the story should be of that background--the story wouldn't be the same otherwise.

Stamped From The Beginning by Ibram X. Kendi

This really is a quite thorough history of racist ideas, going back long before the Americas were explored by Europeans, laying down the foundation upon which the institution of slavery was introduced and then perpetuated in the United States. The title of the book is drawn from a speech given in the US Senate in 1860 by Mississippi senator Jefferson Davis, who announced that the “inequality of the white and black races” was “stamped from the beginning”. The first quarter of the book looks at the historical aspects of racism, but them goes on to focus more or less solely on America. He structures his book around five historical guides, who are both usual and unusual suspects: 17th-century Puritan minister Cotton Mather, founding father Thomas Jefferson, 19th-century abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison, author and activist WEB Du Bois and 1960s radical Angela Davis. Let's just say no one is spared--there are difficulties found around every corner, and yet there are also solutions offered, alternatives to allow us to use this as a blueprint for moving forward. A very gifted writer who writes clearly about a difficult subject.

Dune (2021)

I am sure that there are a couple of great movies that came out this year that Timothée Chalomet is not in, but this is not one of them, and the film is both lucky to have him and makes good use of him. I am not a huge sci-fi reader and I never have been, but I did read Dune in high school (which was about a decade after the first book came out, but it was still wildly popular and widely read in the mid-70's), but I didn't catch them all. It left a desolate feeling, a feeling of sadness for what the future might hold, and that pervades the film. The story focuses on Paul Atreides, the heir apparent and presumed messiah in this dystopian tale. Chalomet was a great casting call for this role. Even before the battles begin he lets the grief of both what the future holds and what is expected of him seep into his body, down to the drowsed slump of his shoulders and the toneless, contemplative wariness of his voice. He is low on the charm and cranking up the latent vulnerabilities he is so talented at portraying. Paul is the heir to House Atreides and he does them proud. This adaptation has a lot to recommend it, and even if you are not a fan of the genre, it is well worth watching.

The Night Watchman by Louise Erdrich

This book is a slight shift for the author--it has all the hallmarks of her other books, focusing on the lives of Dakota and Chippewa people, the lives that they lead, the combination of poverty and culture that guide thier current and future lives. In addition to that, there is a historical lesson involved, one that Erdrich's grandfather was invovled in. One review I read likened it to the modernization of Jim Crow--a more effective and malignant James Crow who operates now as well. The book is set in the "termination" era of US relations to the native nations of North America. This period does not possess the visceral dynamics of the Trail of Tears marches (1830–1838) or Sitting Bull versus Custer (1876), events of violence, open enmity, and plainly physical destruction. In comparison, the Termination era is characterized by discrimination via documents: the stuffy, dry legalese of House Concurrent Resolutions. Stultifying and dreadfully boring as they may be, the intended effects of such documents were just as devastating, if not more so, than the spectacular bloody wars and forced relocations of earlier eras. House Concurrent Resolution 108, passed in 1953, did not declare that indigenous peoples would be subject to state-sponsored violence nor that they would be forcibly relocated. In terms of pure presentation, the bill intends no harm whatsoever for native nations. What the bill does is effectively declare that Indians are not to be considered Indians anymore. According to HCR 108, Indians will be “freed” from their marginal status and made “full” citizens, “entitled to the same privileges and responsibilities as are applicable to other citizens of the United States,” so as “to grant them all of the rights and prerogatives pertaining to American citizenship.” In short, it afforded them nothing they did not already have, and took away their land. Again. The results of such supposed liberation were devastating. As Erdrich writes in her afterword to the novel: “In all, 113 tribal nations suffered the disaster of termination; 1.4 million acres of tribal land was lost. Wealth flowed to private corporations, while many people in terminated tribes died early, in poverty. Not one tribe profited.” If you don't read any other of her books, this is a good place to start.

Flee (2020)

This is a documentary about a specific thing (a refugee and his sotry) and a greater thing (what is citizenship? Who belongs and who does not? The legacy of colonialism is the gift that keeps on giving). It has the possibility of being nominated in the categories of International Film, Animated feture film, and documentary film--this is not a stretch, as it is on the short list for the two that have a short list. The Danish filmmaker became friends with a similarly aged Afghan refugee named Amin. Amin had fled Afghanistan after the Mujahideen grew more powerful during the First Afghan Civil War of the 1980s and 1990s, and arrived in Copenhagen alone. His family had previously fled Iran with the fall of the Shah, and highlighted for me that before we had colonialism we had empire building, and the shared language between Iran and Afghanistan connect them though the Ottoman Empire to this day. The two became friends, staying in touch as Rasmussen pursued filmmaking and as Amin pursued his doctoral degree. When they reconnect for this project, it’s as adults ready to look back upon the past with a mixture of honesty, wistfulness, patience and resignation on Amin's part and curiosity in Rasmussen's case. The animation is sparse but fits the story, and there is live footage interspersed throughout, reminding us that this really did happen, it isn't just a story. This is a must watch film from this year, beautifully told and memorable.

Crossroads by Jonathan Franzen

I have been impulse checking out at my local library, which means that I have been checking on the 14-Day loan shelf for something that I am well down the list to get with a traditional hold. I started with the Hilary Clinton/Louise Penny thriller, and went on at my peak to take out The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois and Cloud Cuckoo Land together one week, which landed me reading in excess of a 100 pages a day to get them back on time. This book is a different story, one that I did not intend to read necessarily, but happened upon and I am glad that I did. At it's most basic, this is a book about a family. The husband is a pastor, and he comes form a long line of pastors, so it is a habit in his family of origin. his wife is a pastor's wife, but she has her own dark past, with a father who suicided and a few unwise choices that predated her marriage, and then there are their four children, three boys and a girl. The thing that elevates this story beyond what you might expect is the meticulous attention to detail for all but the youngest child. The adults are in the midst of a midlife malaise that they do no better a job of navigating than most, and the teens are all sorts of impulsive and that lands them all in a certain amount of trouble. This is a well written wild ride that should not be missed.

French Dispatch (2021)

Where to start? Wes Anderson movies are full of intricate teeny tiny details that all fit together in an improbable way and at the end of it all I am not at all sure that I understand where he was going with it all, but I have enjoyed the ride. That is true to the nth degree with this movie, where it is like a fire hose of details in each and every scene and they just keep coming. It was filmed in Angoulême, which is a French town that is small as well as typically charming, in southwestern France, and that is just one tiny detail that is a clue to the film as a whole. Anderson, who lives in France, called this a love letter to journalism, and the cast is, as is typical of his flims, jam packed with stars. The story line is that the last volume of a magazien is being published and the audience is going through the article in real time. Each one is a bit bizarre, and at the end there is no effort to make sense of it as a whole, but you are left with a pleasant feeling none-the-less.

How Beautiful We Were by Imbolo Mbue

This book is set in the fictional African village of Kosawa and is the story of a decades-long fight for environmental justice in a former colony. The novel centers around the Nangi family, telling their story from multiple different perspectives over the course of the book. In addition to addressing the real issues of continued colonial influence to the detriment of those who live there and without them benefitting from their local resources, it bears a close resemblance to some important modern-day climate themes. People eventually act in an extreme way but they are driven to it by the combination of desperation and neglect, and the reader may squirm at the lengths that are resorted to, at no point does one feel they cannot relate to the impotence Kosawa feels in being unable to control their present of their future.

Being The Ricardo's (2021)

First and foremost, while I did not love this movie, Nicole Kidman is unbeleivable as Lucille Ball and Javier Bardem is not far behind in his portrayal of Desi Arnaz. While I Love Lucy predated my television viewing days, I saw many rereuns and have a very good idea of what they were emulating and it is a pitch perfect performance. The film focuses on a fateful week in the relationship of the couple. Lucy is outed as having once marked herself as a member of the communist party at the height of the McCarthy led Red Scare, Desi was reported to have been spotted stepping out on Lucy, and Lucy reveals that she is pregnant and wants to have a baby in the show. The network agrees to let her have the baby--which is the first time ever in television. Crazy I know. Whenever I think about how poorly women are treated I have to remember that this happened in my lifetime. J. Edgar Hoover himself spoke up on Lucy's behalf, which makes you wonder what Desi had on him, and it was the beginning of the end of Desi and Lucy because he was in fact chronically unfaithful to her, and she had had enough.

Light Perpetual by Francis Spufford

This was long listed for the Booker Prize in 2021, and I have a long standing tradition of reading some if not all the books on the list. This book is characteristic of many that are nominated, in that it has an odd twist on how to tell a story. The idea came to the author as he was walking down London’s New Cross Road past a branch of Iceland on the site of which, in November 1944, a German V2 rocket fell. A plaque commemorates the killing of 168 people, including several children, in what was then Woolworths. Thinking about the lives cut short, he decided to make his novel about five working-class children, allowing them to survive and grow up but not using their actual names and transposing their stories to the invented south London borough of Bexford. The novel opens with a poised, detailed and audacious description of the bomb itself exploding and then follows his five characters for a day each in 1949, 1964, 1979, 1994 and 2009. The book leaps through their lives, giving us jsut a glimpse of how it all came out. There is a lot said and a lot left to the imagination, but it it is unique and enjoyable at the end.

Raya and the Last Dragon (2021)

This is a lushly animated movie that has pretty standard Disney animated feature films share, but does standout in that it is the first movie with a Southeast Asian story. When I read that in a review it surprised me, but it shouldn't. Be that as it may, I think it is good to reinforce the positives, which is that they did it this year, and their other blockbuster animated feature film is set in South America. The movie is otherwise entirely recognizable, repleat with oft used Disney tropes. The story is a little complicated, as these stories tend to be. It takes place in Kumandra, an enchanted realm inspired by various Southeast Asian cultures and divided into five kingdoms named after a dragon's body parts: Heart, Fang, Spine, Talon and Tail. Before they became extinct centuries ago, dragons once roamed the land and served as friendly guardians to humanity. Their magic lives on in a jewel called the Dragon Gem, which is kept in a cave in Heart, but the other four kingdoms covet its mighty powers. One day, all five factions come together and try to reach a peace agreement, but tensions erupt, a fight breaks out and the Gem shatters into five pieces that are scattered across Kumandra. This opens the doorway to an ancient enemy called the Druun, a terrible plague that turns people to stone. Raya gathers a rag tag group of cursaders to her cause of reuniting Kumandra and off we go.

The Serious Eater by Ed Levine

This is a memoir by the founder of Serious Eats, who started out writing about the things that he loved, that made new York City so special from a food stand point. Pizza and bagels were early subjects, and then he got big dreams and some talented people working with him who have been really big, Kenji Lopez-Alt being the superstar, with his incredible attention to detail and his talent for teaching people to care about it as well. There is also Stella Park who went on to write the iconic book about classic American desserts. The book, however, is a business book more than it’s a food book, and while that’s okay, it is not my jam. Levine has a lot to say about the scramble for survival among the food sites and blogs. There’s a fair amount to learn here about acquisitions and deal structuring and scaling up and monetizing content, but I would have preferred something leaning more heavily on food.

The Rescue (2021)

December through March is my documentary binge season. I watch one or two each year outside of this time period, but I really lean heavily on the Oscar shortlist, and try to watch as many of the movies that I can find. This is a National Geographic documentary about the rescue of the boys soccer team that was trapped in a cave in Thailand by rising water with their coach. The situation was very tricky because the caves are so long that there were very few people on the planet who had the expertise requried to pull of a rescue, and they were all middle aged hobby divers, who outstrip navy Seals when it comes to this sort of work. The story is an incredible one, whereby they use extreme means to extricate everyone, and in a nick of time. It really is an amazing story.

The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky

I read this with a group of people who were all in a group on Facebook led by the inimitable Anna Barker, a Russian Literature professor and an all round enthusiastic teacher. We read it over 100 days, whoch is about 7-8 pages a day, which sounds extremely reasonable as a pace to read at, but this book is slow. I mean molasses slow. The hardest part about this is that I read the book initially as a teenager, and I loved it. I am now somewhat afraid to reread previously loved books because my older self has a totally different view. I was so much older then, I am younger than that now. There was so much I did not know, which made the book simpler and more compelling. Now it is a twisted mess. The themes of spiritual malaise, Faustian bargains, and philosophical paradigms are ever present. What you see is not exactly what you get, as so much is hidden somewhere between the lines as his characters showcase different beliefs and ethics, leaving us to pick up the pieces. The storytelling is tense and replete with drawn out buildups, that are usually redeemed by deeply poignant payoffs. The plentiful and fairly diverse cast of characters act as case studies of societal ills that remain today, and we are left to grapple with them. Dostoevsky leaves us sad and reconciled to our human state.

Encanto (2021)

Disney can be counted on for feel good, family friendly animated movies that you do not have to scratch your head too long to figure out what the underlying take home messages might be, and this movie is no exception. Except for one thing, it centers on a Spanish speaking culture and ideas and beliefs that are outside of the mainstream western norms that Disney has been slowly but consistently breaking out of. This story is a Colombian magical realist tale of a family that received special powers after surviving a tragedy. Now, a few generations later, they live together in a magical house and each member develops their own talent, like the ability to control the weather, shapeshift into other people, and talk to animals. Their house responds to the family’s requests and responds to their moods. Each bedroom is magically tailored to the relative and their magical gift. All except for one, Mirabel--she is pointedly without magic, and even her grandmother--especially her abuela--holds against her. Well, you can see where this is going from all angles and a mile away, but it does so against a magnificently rendered animated landscape that is breath taking to behold.

Le Vallon de Cherisy, Cherisy, France

This was our last meal in France from our trip last fall, and I am writing about it on the occasion of the anniversary of my spouse's birth, an event I missed but am quite grateful for it. The overlap is that the adventures we have had together are greater than what we would have had apart, and this meal from this trip contains some of the elements of that love of travel and food that I most value. The French have been locavores for century's and this restaurant is typical of that, sourcing it's food and wine locally and highlighting both traditional French cuisine as well as the value in eating things that haven't come far to be on your plate. These principles are good for the French but also good for the planet.

On to the meal. As is our preference, we had the meal of the day, eaten in a leisurely manner over lunch. The soup contained autumnal gourds, probably Vitamixed today, but traditionally would have been pushed through a chinoix to achieve the silky smooth texture, and to this was added some local trout, which was poached in the soup before serving. An unusual idea (for me at least), but it was delicious. The entree was a long braised chicken dish with root vegetables that had all the great elements that such a dish can bring to the table. May this year and many years to come be filled with meals as satisfying as this one!

Spencer (2021)

This movie is about Princess Diana, but not an overview of her life, but rather focuseing on one extremely painful moment in it. Much like Jacki focused on Jackie Kennedy's response to the assasination of her husband, this film zeros in on the end of Diana's marriage to the Prince of Wales. It is Christmas 1991, which Lady Diana is spending with the royal family in Sandringham even as her loveless marriage is unravelling. There is a protocol, there are expectations to be met, and nothing is her own, not her choice of clothing nor her husband, who is now known to be having an affair. She is humiliated and spied on from every corner of her day. She is close to a nervous breakdown with bulimia attacks and episodes of self-harm. From the beginning, where she deliberately arrives late to trying to entering her family home and picking a jacket off a scarecrow, Diana feels like a barely tolerated stranger in Sandringham, where the Royals are celebrating Christmas. Apart from her sons, the rest of the royal family are largely indifferent and cold towards her. Only the help, and we the audience, are rooting for her--but it is a painful thing to watch.

Rodham by Curtis Sittenfeld

Let me start off by saying that I very much enjoy every book that I have read by this author (this book makes five, so I am not such a fan that I devour every book as it emerges, but enough of a fan to keep coming back for more), so weigh that in as you decide whether this book is for you. It asks the question "who is Hilary without Bill?" and what might have happened it she left him when she found out that he had a deep seated compulsion to cheat. In telling that story, the author very directly and accurately examines the prevalent sexism that women face in literally every professional field, and it is oddly comforting to see it so expertly flayed ouIt is a voice we recognize, the voice of countless hours of TV interviews and debates, the voice of several best-selling memoirs, the confident, carefully modulated voice of a woman who has been telling her story for decades. Indeed, the first third of the book, which is what actually happened, feels comfortably familiar. There’s bright young Hillary speaking at her Wellesley graduation in 1969, already burdened by the discontinuity between “how I seemed to others and who I really was.” Looking back over half a century, she realizes that the intertwined conditions of her life were set early: “my competence, my loneliness.” The standards that are routinely applied to women and completely ignored for men are glaringly obvious and yet somehow a happy ending is attained. This is the alternate universe where the right thing happens in 2016.

Ruby Chicken

This is the version of Chicken Tickka Masala from the ravishing new cookbook Dishoom. I really like it and am only sorry that my youngest son, who has only a handful of dishes that he truly loves, thinks this is inferior to the Madhur Jaffrey version that he prefers. 700g skinless, boneless chicken thighs 20g unsalted butter, melted 50ml double cream For the makhani sauce 35g garlic (7–8 cloves) 175ml vegetable oil 20g fresh root ginger 800g chopped tomatoes (fresh or good-quality tinned) 2 bay leaves 6 green cardamom pods 2 black cardamom pods 2 cinnamon sticks 2 tsp fine sea salt 1½ tsp deggi mirch chilli powder 30g butter 1 tsp garam masala 20g granulated sugar 1 tbsp runny honey 1 tsp ground cumin 1 tsp kasoori methi powder, crushed to a powder between your fingers ½ tsp fresh dill fronds 80ml double cream Advertisement For the marinade 10g chopped fresh ginger 20g chopped garlic 5g fine sea salt 1 tsp deggi mirch chilli powder 1½ tsp ground cumin ½ tsp garam masala 2 tsp lime juice 2 tsp vegetable oil 75g full-fat greek yoghurt For the garnish Ginger matchsticks Coriander leaves, chopped 1 tbsp pomegranate seeds First make the makhani sauce. Peel and finely dice 15g of the garlic. Warm a large saucepan over a medium-high heat and add the oil. Toss in the chopped garlic and fry until light golden brown and slightly crisp – about seven to eight minutes. Remove with a slotted spoon and drain on kitchen paper. Grate the remaining garlic and the ginger to a fine paste on a microplane (or grind in a mortar). Using a blender, blitz the chopped tomatoes to a fine consistency. Put the saucepan containing the oil back on a medium-high heat and add the bay leaves, green and black cardamom pods, and the cinnamon sticks. Let them crackle for one minute, stirring regularly, then turn down the heat and add the garlic and ginger paste. Cook for five minutes, allowing the paste to brown but not burn. Add the tomatoes, salt and chilli powder to the pan. Bring to a rapid simmer and cook until reduced by half, stirring regularly so it doesn’t catch – this should take about 30 minutes. Add the butter and simmer for a further five minutes. Add the garam masala, sugar, honey, cumin, crisp garlic, kasoori methi powder and dill fronds, and cook for a further 15 minutes. Add the cream and simmer gently for five minutes. The sauce is now ready to use. For the marinade, blitz all the ingredients to a smooth paste, then transfer to a bowl. Cut the chicken into 4cm chunks, add to the marinade and turn to coat. Cover and leave to marinate in the fridge for six to 24 hours. Heat the grill to medium-high. Put the marinated chicken on a rack in the grill pan, brush with the melted butter and grill for eight to 10 minutes, until cooked through and nicely charred. To finish, warm a large saucepan over a medium-low heat. Add the makhani sauce, cream and grilled chicken, and simmer very gently for 10 minutes. Serve the curry garnished with ginger matchsticks, chopped coriander and pomegranate seeds, with a bowl of steamed rice on the side.

Jungle Cruise (2021)

I know, yet another Disney movie that has the defining feature that it is based on a ride. I am a huge skeptic of this concept, but the same was true of The Pirates of the Caribbean, and at least the first movie was hugely enjoyable. That said, the Pirates of the Caribbean ride is a way better ride than the Jungle Cruise, and the same comparison can be made about the movies. This is simply not good. Another disappointment is that Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt, both actors that I very much enjoy, are not able to salvage anything particularly good or entertaining out of it. The only good thing I can say is that the same cheesiness that the ride has, with mechanical animals and carefully constructed scares is well preserved in the movie. If you can't get to a Disney theme park with this ride, the movie will give you a very good idea of what it is like.

China Room by Sunjeev Sahota

There are two threads in this novel that weas long listed for the 2021 Booker award. The first is n unhappy addicted youth who returns to Punjab, where his great-grandmother lived, and the more substantial part of the story is that of the woman herself. The bulk of the story involves Mehar, a 16-year-old bride who finds herself living in the “china room” – a small, seldom used building on a farm, its nickname derived from the willow-pattern plates that adorn it – that looms largest in the novel. Mehar shares the room with Harbans and Gurleen, two women she has only recently met; the three of them have been married, in a single day, to three brothers. Now, they spend their days doing chores and waiting for the matriarch to tap one of them on the shoulder, thereby summoning her to a bedroom to meet her husband and, it is hoped, become pregnant with a son. The brothers knows which wife is which, the veiled young women do not, and so a deception that is ultimately corrupting begins.

Belfast (2021)

Kenneth Branagh was born in Belfast and lived in a neighborhood much like the one depicted in this film. His family emigrated to England when he was a boy to escape the surging violence and this is a story very much like his own. It is a story beautifully told and acted, all of it seen through the eyes of a nine year old boy, filmed in black and white, wtih a score written by Van Morrison. The actors are largely Irish, and the depiction of escalating violence that evolves along the lines of religion, but at heart it is aided and abetted by bullies who are looking for a cause. The result is to fracture people into one of two sides, and then wreck havoc on them all. The movie is lovingly rendered, and so amidst the senselessness of it all, there is a sweetness, a love song for a place that was worth saving, with the kids from all different backgrounds playing in the streets and in each other's yards, getting into trouble, sometimes serious trouble, but nothing like what followed. Everyone should watch this, regardless of your politics, and see if we are in fact perpetuating what is depicted here, judging people based on something that is one dimensional, and whether it has to be that way.

On Juneteenth by Annette Gordon-Reed

The author of this memoir is a historian who most famously wrote about the relationship between Thomas Jefferson and his wife's half-sister, Sally Hemmings, a slave that he owned. In this she is grappling with her inetensely felt mixed emotions about Texas. Austin, the blue capital of the red state, is named for a Southern slaveholder, the who brought 300 families and their human chattel with him to extend slavery to the American Southwest. And the Texans who fought at the Alamo died not to free themselves from despotic Mexican rule, but to make their newly occupied land forever unfree for slaves. Texaa is a place that once subjugated, segregated, and lynched Black people (including in her home county) and remains ruled by politicians determined to suppress the hard-won votes of minorities and maintain their own power even as demographics inevitably shift. This is a thoughtful and affectionate meditation on the state in which, despite its dualities, she still feels most at home. Where others might see a simple picture of unreconstructed racism, the author unpacks the complexities that largely defy stereotypes. Along the way, she dispels such foundational myths as those that equate Jamestown with Plymouth Rock: The former was strictly a mercantile venture, while the latter related to a quest for religious freedom. And throughout, she seeks to communicate a simple truth: Our history — whether in Texas specifically or in America at large — is complicated.

Unforgivable (2021)

This has been panned by many a film reviewer, and I do agree that the moniker "Mirthless in Seattle" isn't far off the mark. Sandra Bullock gives a stoic, stern performance in a grim and yet largely underwhelming tale of a woman seeking out her younger sister after being released from a 20-year prison stint for murder. At times, there's a noble grimness to the film, which is apparently based on a 2009 British miniseries, but the journey is stilted, the outcome fizzles, and the overall choices made by the protagonist are questionable or hard to understand--which has a way of undercutting much of the story. Here is the back story, which is flashed back to with some frequency. Decades previous, Bullock's Ruth was sent away for killing a kindly local sheriff when officers came to her home in an attempt to evict Ruth and separate her from her much younger sister, Katie, in the wake of their father's suicide. What she didn't understand, but comes to, is that she will forever be a cop killer, and moving beyond that is at best unlikely. The movie reveals why it happened but not why she was so wildly unrealistic about the consequences.

Chana Chaat Salad

This comes from Dishoom, a lovely cookbook and also an Indian restaurant in London. I subbed quinoa for the cous cous and sprouted lentils for sprouted grains, which worked well. The pomegranate seeds are key, don't eliminate them. 40g couscous 1 tsp olive oil 100g mixed sprouted grains 20g pumpkin seeds 2 tsp sesame seeds 1 x 400g tin chickpeas, drained and rinsed 1 medium tomato, deseeded and finely diced 40g raisins 70g pomegranate seeds (about ½ pomegranate) Flaked sea salt 1 small handful coriander leaves, finely chopped For the dressing ½ tsp cumin seeds 20g coriander leaves and stems 20g mint leaves 15g granulated sugar 25g pickled jalapeños (drained weight) 25g sunflower seeds ¼ tsp ground turmeric 50ml lime juice 1 small ripe avocado, halved, stoned and peeled Put the couscous into a microwavable container (a large mug is ideal). Add 60ml boiling water and the olive oil, and microwave on high for one minute. Leave to stand for five minutes, then fluff up with a fork. (The couscous can be cooked in a small pan over a medium heat, but it’s just a very small quantity.) Once forked through, leave the couscous to cool. Put the sprouted grains into a bowl and pour on boiling water to cover. Tip straight into a sieve to drain, and refresh under cold running water. Shake dry and set aside. Warm a dry frying pan over a high heat and add the pumpkin seeds. Toast for two minutes, or until golden brown, shaking the pan to keep the seeds moving so they don’t burn. Add the sesame seeds and toast for a further minute, then remove from the pan and set aside. In a large bowl, combine the couscous, chickpeas, diced tomato, sprouted grains, raisins and pomegranate seeds. Season generously with sea salt. To make the dressing, warm a dry frying pan over a medium-high heat. Add the cumin seeds, toast for two to three minutes, then tip on to a plate and leave to cool. Using a mini food processor or stick blender, blitz the first seven ingredients with half the lime juice and 25ml water until smooth. Add the rest of the lime juice and avocado, and blitz again to a smooth paste. Advertisement Add the dressing to the bowl, along with the chopped coriander and three-quarters of the toasted seeds. Mix well, then taste for seasoning, adding more salt if you wish. Garnish with the remaining toasted seeds to serve.