Zootopia 2 (2025)

If you loved Zootopia The Original, then it is very likely that you will find Zootopia 2 every bit a zany, delightful, and heartwarming. There are animal-word puns and sly references to cultural touchstones from streaming platforms like EweTube and HuluZoo, where you can watch shows like “Only Herders in the Building,” to a quick shot inspired by one of the most terrifying moments in “The Shining.” If you love that stuff, it is all here for you, only more so. Literally, the gang is all here. Those heroes are, again, the opposites-in-temperament Judy Hopps, a bunny who is bright, enthusiastic, and fiercely committed to justice, and Nick Wilde, a fox who is a former con artist, a loner, and fiercely dedicated to avoiding danger. They met on opposite sides of the law in the first film, but now Nick has joined the police department, and they are partners. They are partners with a propensity for trouble and doing good, so of course hey immediately get into trouble after ignoring orders from Police Chief Bogo and end up on a wild chase after a perpetrator in a catering van labeled “Amoose Bouche.” Bogo threatens to separate them if they get into trouble again. So, of course, they get in trouble again. It is definitely the ends justify the means sort of plot and it is pretty fun and zany along the way. There is some mob boss undertones with how that can mess up your family, and there are some not so hidden messages about trust, communication, and things that are worth putting your life on the line for. That resonated for me in the aftermath of the public execution of Alex Pretti, an ICU nurse who brought lots of joy and happiness to his work at the Minneapolis VA, who put himself on the line for his neighbors when ICE came to town and kidnapped people in violent ways without warrants as a witness and ended up murdered by villains hired by the federal government to wage a revenge war. He is a hero who paid the ultimate price, as the veterans he served would say.

They Love Each Other

Merry run around, sailing up and down---- Looking for a shove in some direction--- Got it from the top, it's nothing you can stop--- Lord, you know they made a fine connection--- They love each other, Lord you can see it's true--- Lord you can see it's true, Lord you can see it's true--- He could pass his time around some other line--- But you know he chose this place beside her--- Don't get in the way, there's nothing you can say--- Nothing that you need to add or do--- They love each other, Lord you can see it's true--- Lord you can see it's true, Lord you can see it's true--- Its' nothing, they explain it's like a diesel train--- Better not be there when it rolls over---- And when that train rolls in, you won't know where it's been--- You gotta try to see a little further---- They love each other, Lord you can see it's true--- Lord you can see it's true, Lord you can see it's true--- Though you'll make a noise, they just can't hear your voice--- They're on a dizzy ride on you're cold sober--- They love each other, Lord you can see it's true--- Lord you can see it's true, Lord you can see it's true--- Hope you will believe what I say is true--- Everything I did, I heard it first from you--- Heard your news report, you knew you're falling short--- Pretty soon won't trust you for the weather--- When that ship comes in, you won't know where it's been--- You got to try to see a little further--- The Grateful Dead were the back beat of our youth.

Come See Me In The Good Light (2025)

This is wonderful. Yes, it is about recurrent cancer. Yes, someone dies. Add to all this, as if it is not enough, that it is ovarian cancer, which is notoriously deadly and something that I have had. I am wholeheartedly recommending this, because it is deep and thoughtful, it depicts a head on approach to what is happening and there is still joy and love and a lust for life. Andrea Gibson is a spoken word poet and their wife is fellow poet Megan Falley. In 1921 they are diagnosed with ovarian cancer, which has inevitably spread. That is often, if not almost always true by the time one has symptoms. Then she has the terrible misfortune of having a platinum resistant tumor and she recurs within 6 months. This is the point at which there really is very little hope, but she wants to live. She wants to try everything, and she does. The film is as intimate as it gets, following Gibson into doctor’s appointments, curling up with them and Falley in bed, and eating meals soundtracked by the laughter of close friends. This is not fly-on-the-wall observant, but rather seat-at-the-table active. Structured also through Gibson’s reading of their poems, spliced in when narratively relevant, we come to see just how much they are synonymous with their work. There is no separation of the art and artist, as Gibson’s life is unabashedly unfiltered in their prose. So yes, it does not end well, but it is a beautiful tale well told, and as they say themself, we all face this, it is only a matter of when, not if.

Snow by John Banville

Let me start off by saying that I love John Banville. He is a Booker Prize winning author who has been in consideration for the award many times. He is cut from that cloth. This, on the other hand, is a by the book detective novel set in late 1950's in Ireland. The prose itself is beautiful, notably better than the standard fare, and the plot is not over done. There are undertones--and overtones--of societal commentary embedded within, and it is excellent for all of that, but the plot is not overly involved, what you would come for is the writing. This features a young Irish detective — earnest, a bit troubled, and a little persnicketty — called St. John (pronounced “Sinjun”) Strafford. Just before Christmas, in a ramshackle country house owned byt the Wexford family in County Wexford, south of Dublin, a Roman Catholic priest is found murdered in, yes, the library. Detective Strafford is sent to investigate. The various suspects — mostly members of the Osborne family and their staff — were all in the house the night of the murder. Pretty standard fare — except for one detail: The priest has also been expertly castrated. Then there is the social context, which is on the surface some, and some I had to read a review to know about. The Osborne family is Anglo-Irish, a colonial class of Protestant landowners who can trace their arrival in Ireland back to the time of Oliver Cromwell and have survived into the 1950s. English in their attitudes, they are a stark reminder to the Catholic Irish that for the 5 percent of the population who are Protestant in this Roman Catholic country, nothing much has changed since the 17th century. The Anglo-Irish — the Horse Protestants, as they are derogatively known — live in their crumbling stately homes, ride to hounds, go to balls and race meetings, speak with a different accent and still own much of the land, managed in a form of benign paternalistic feudalism. Strafford himself is also Protestant, which I suspect will resurface as the series continues. This is very good, especially if you have an affection for Irish authors, and I would recommend it if you like the genre. It is predictable in ways that might not appeal for those looking for something more obscure.

The Alabama Solution (2025)

This documentary is nominated for an Oscar, and is a revelatory new documentary about the long-simmering humanitarian crisis in Alabama’s state prisons. About 15 minutes into the movie that they were filming, they got a tip about an incarcerated man who had been beaten so badly he was taken to the ICU at an outside hospital.By the time the film makers arrive, Steven Davis was dead. Uncovering that Davis had been killed by a guard is only part of the focus of the documentary, which is now streaming on HBO Max. Death is increasingly common in Alabama’s prisons. Since 2019, roughly 1,380 incarcerated people have died or been killed while in custody of the state. The documentary — which features footage shot on cell phones by several incarcerated men — zooms out to explore why, despite federal inquiry and a lawsuit brought by the U.S. Justice Department, officers are still able to neglect, harm and kill incarcerated people with seeming impunity. The Marshall Project has a review of the film on their web site, and note five take aways from the doculmentary, which is mostly filmed by inmates themselves on illegal cell phones within the prison. 1. Alabama’s prisons have reached a “humanitarian crisis level,” as one of the men featured described it, with unchecked violence and deaths. Scrutiny from the U.S. Department of Justice has failed to improve conditions. 2. Drug use is rampant in prison, and so are overdose deaths. Alabama has failed to stem the flow of illicit substances and doesn’t provide adequate substance abuse treatment to incarcerated people who need it. 3. The emotional and financial cost of Alabama’s prison violence is staggering. Families struggle for years to get answers about the deaths, and the state has spent millions on lawyers and settlements. 4. Incarcerated people have risked their lives to expose conditions behind bars, filming the chaos inside on cell phones furnished by corrections officers. 5. Alabama’s economy is powered in part by incarcerated people, who are employed by corporations in industries such as poultry processing. Many also provide services like sanitation and groundskeeping for the state, often working alongside the public. None of this is new, and it appears that while this is widely known, nothing is able to be done to change it.

Know My Name by Chantel Miller

This is yet another version of what rape does to those who it is perpetrated on, and how our culture works very hard to excuse the men who are the perpetrators. The read this for a Goodreads challenge, and once again it is a book I would have been unlikely to pick up if not for that. Chanel Miller she writes about her life, including her now highly publicized sexual assault in January 2015 and the events that unfolded after that. The memoir focuses on the day of the assault as well as the court case, People vs. Turner. Turner was convicted of three charges of felony sexual assault. He was sentenced to six months in jail followed by three years of probation. However, he was released after serving half of his sentence for good behavior. Miller’s victim statement was widely published across the world as is a power piece of standalone writing. Miller was known as Emily Doe and her memoir shows her side of the event and how her life was completely transformed by that night. This is a powerful book. I had followed the court case and read the statement but this memoir shows what Miller went through. From being a young adult who worked at a startup to a complete and drastic transformation after the assault, the book does not leave out any detail. We see how Miller pieces together the assault, her despair and anger at the court proceedings, her activism, her day-to-day challenges and victories, her relationships, her mistakes and victories, and the inside view of the legal system. She is very angry at having been made a vicitm--in the eyes of the public, but also in reality, that the person who did that is never going to pay an appropriate price for that damage, and also how she is trying to come to terms with that.

Peter Byrne, Modern Quilter

My quilt guild had Peter Byrne do a trunk show and wow, what amazing quilts he has made--and quite varied. He was a hair stylist in Toronto for 30 years, retired and was looking for a new creative outlet. In 2017, he joined the Toronto Modern Quilting Guild and when he walked into his first guild meeting, he had never quilted a quilt. He has come a long way since then--and after seeing his work, I am considering taking one of his virtual weekend quilt workshops to do a deeper dive into his process.

Peter’s quilt Starring You won Best in Show at QuiltCan 2020. It is an amazing feat on so many levels. First, it is full of negative space. Composed of white and black fabric, the central eight-pointed star is machine appliqued onto an all-white background. Three of the star points were cut away and sliced further into 90 bits and pieces each, appliqued – again by machine – in a way that mimics an explosion. All of the quilting was done on a home machine, and the black lines you see? Those are quilted with black thread. Think about it: with that kind of contrast, you just can’t make a mistake.

American Mermaid by Julia Langbein

I found this through the Parnassus Bookstore Friday vlog "If You Haven't Read It It Is New To You"--which as an aside, I continue to love and often read books that are recommended that I both enjoy and would not have found another way. This is a story about a high school English teacher, Penelope, who writes a novel about a disabled woman, Sylvia, who discovers she is a mermaid. When Penelope’s book is optioned for a movie, she moves to LA to adapt her book with two seasoned male screenwriters. We get some of the backstory through sections of Penelope's book throughout--a book withini a book. As a baby mermaid, Sylvia, who washes up on shore and is taken in by two married billionaire scientists who can’t have children of their own. Through sketchy medical procedures they split her tail, which leaves her in near-constant pain and confined to a wheelchair. This decision comes back to haunt them when Sylvia grows up and discovers the painful truth about her origin story, and dedicates herself to taking down her father’s company. The story of Penelope is less enchanting, but her trip though some of the shallowest corners of Los Angeles’s vanity, power, and money-obsessed culture is what you would expect and some of the best moments come from her interactions with Murphy and Randy, the two screen writers. They desperately want to turn into a sexy teen romp complete with low-cut bikini tops and a waterlogged prom. Penelope’s attempts to fight back are usually fruitless, leading to the table read to end all table reads. But you know who else isn’t on board with Randy and Murphy’s writing plans? Sylvia. Or someone who seems to be Sylvia — mysterious events involving changes to the movie script, Penelope getting dragged underwater in a Malibu riptide, and luring another character into an accident with her siren song start happening. So a smidge of magical realism as well as an interesting read.

Sinners (2025)

This was the winner in the category of most Oscar nominees in 2026, and also for the most nominees ever. Even considering that one of them is in a new category, it is an impressive showing. I haven't watched every movie in every category as of yet, and I haven't seen what might have made it but didn't (although a number of them are in categories for which there is a short list, so we can see some of what are the "Also Rans"), but it is a good movie. Is is also A LOT. It has a lot of violence, a lot of murder, a fair amount of sex, a lot of music, some romance, and a lot of symbolism all turned up to the loudest level. It is about black people in the Jim Crow South, so it is set in a time where racism is also a lot. Set in 1932 Mississippi, Sinners follows two twin brothers known as Smoke and Stack as they return home after working for the bootleggers in Chicago. Both twins are played by Michael B. Jordan, who plays the brothers in such a way that it becomes easy to tell the two apart based on their subtle mannerisms. The costume department helps with the visual cues, with Smoke wearing blue and Stack red, but by the halfway point, you don’t need the visual cues to help know which twin is which. Huge testament to Jordan’s acting is that tell them apart. I am not going to go in to the horror aspects of the plot beyond saying I pretty much never watch horror movies and this was well done. Music plays much more of a key role than I was expecting. It’s not only there to set the tone and mood of the era, but it’s actually a plot device. This is a romping, stomping ode to the 30s era Southern Blues, and the composer, Ludwig Göransson, really tapped into its spirit both with his score and the compositions heard within the film itself. A lot of the music was recorded on-camera, giving it a raw and unfiltered feel. The highlight of this musical talent is for sure Preacher Boy, played by first-time actor Miles Caton. Wow, what a discovery. Not only can the man sing, but his character, cousin to the twins, was the heart of the film in a way as an ambitious youth who yearns to play music, something that his preacher father does not approve of. This is worth seeking out, it is very very good.

Born In Flames by Bench Ansfield

I was really surprised by the story that this book tells--which is really about my naivete and lack of education rather than that it is surprising. This is the first book by a historian who debuts with a riveting and meticulous chronicle of the wave of arsons-for-profit that burned through America’s cities in the 1970s. The book focuses on the Bronx, which notoriously lost around 20% of its housing stock, though they argue that the borough is more of an example of a lesser-known arson epidemic that devastated neighborhoods of color across the country. Dispelling the racist myth that residents set the fires themselves, the author traces the confluence of financial factors that motivated absentee landlords to burn their neglected, deteriorating properties. These factors included high-cost, low-coverage state-sponsored insurance policies that debuted following the racial uprisings of the 1960s (when insurance companies abandoned riot-affected areas); insurance companies’ newfound practice of investing customer premiums for profit, which further inflated premiums to astronomical heights; and city budget cuts that decimated the FDNY. They chronicle not just the landlords who profited but also the tenants who, as they tracked the conflagrations’ block-by-block progress, fearfully went to bed with their shoes on; some were even burned out of more than one apartment. The book also unearths the tenant-organized activism, in collaboration with local officials and even some of the insurance companies themselves, that finally ended the fires. The result is an outstanding exposé of the predatory capitalist machinations behind the “Bronx is burning” saga. This is not so much a page turner as a book that raises the level of awareness of exactly how bad slum lords treated their tenants and how they maximized profits.

Elio (2025)

Pixar's latest is classic animated material, sugary sweet and almost no surprises, and I was surprised to see it nominated in the Feature Length Animated Movie category--there were two other movies we saw, maybe three that I thought were better. Be that as it may, Elio Solis is an orphaned child cared for by his childless aunt, Major Olga Solis. At an air and space museum, a grieving Elio stumbles on a “coming soon” exhibition about the Voyager spacecrafts (the probes launched in 1977 carrying gold discs with messages from Earth) and begins to dream about finding solace beyond our solar system. Olga sets aside her dreams to care for her relative and Elio isn’t exactly grateful for that sacrifice. He begins cutting school, absconding to the beach to carve messages in the sand, and even begins accumulating the basic tech to contact potential aliens, partly it seems because he is having so much trouble relating to Earthlings. The more Olga sacrifices (including her desire to become an astronaut), the more Elio seems to resent her, believing he’s to blame for her dashed desires. Despite the odds, Elio manages to contact aliens, thereby opening the door to discovery. Ta dum! Turns out Olga is pretty excited about that discovery as well, and they both get to spend some time in outer space after all.

The Wilderness by Angela Flournoy

This was long listed for the National Book Award and while I do not 100% read that list, I do pay attention to it. I think if I had read this in one or two settings I would have rated it higher--it was a little confusing in the shifting between time periods if you read it over a longer time interval--I just kept being a little disoriented, but the writing is rock solid and the story is very well constructed. Over several decades, from the early 2000's to the near future, this book follows the lives and evolving friendships of four Black women in America—Desiree, Nakia, January and Monique. We meet the women in their early 20s as they kickstart careers and navigate romantic relationships; we see them through their late 20s and early 30s, reassessing and reconfiguring jobs, values and how to best support each other; we ease with them into midlife, which is at times calmer waters and at others heavy with unforeseen tragedy. Desiree’s sister, Danielle, steps in and out of the narrative as well. The strength of this novel is getting to experiencthe protagonists’ thoughts as they handle problems—social discomfort, jealousy, conflict avoidance—and the minor strains introduced to friendship due to differing sexual orientations, socioeconomic statuses and mental health conditions. The novel seems to espouse that friendship is about overcoming and about changing with individuals as they change. It has an ending that is very hard to read in 2026 America where American citizens are being gunned down by the government.

Weapons (2025)

I was able to watch this on a recent flight with an excellent in flight screen, and while I am not a fan of the horror genre, this was very well done and genuinely creepy. I may be in a decided majority, but I love watching movies in the air, especially when I score a seat with a large screen. It just makes travel so enjoyable. One thing is that it’s not overly difficult to read the inciting incident of the movie as a school shooting allegory. In this case, 17 children got out of bed at 2:17 a.m. and ran into the night, their arms slightly outstretched and look identical. They are captured on doorbell cams, which is a great way to see that they wer not led away by someone, but rather that they seem possessed. It’s a chilling image, one that tears a neighborhood apart, revealing the rage and horror behind the picket fences. So the teacher Justine Gandy, who is young and earnest, comes into school the next morning to find her entire classroom absent. Well, not entirely. One child, a quiet kid named Alex , didn’t leave his house that night. Why? Instead of going down that investigative avenue to its end, the town chooses to weaponize its hatred for Gandy herself, labeling her a witch. She must have done something. Or she must know something. The movie unfolds in a kind of controlled chaos, and comes to a surprisingly unexpected end. It is both terrifying and enjoyable simultaneously.

Boustany by Sammi Tamimi

This is a love letter to Palestinian food and the Palestinian people-- the author, who I first discovered when he co-authored a book with Yotam Ottolenghi called Jerusalem, lives in London, but his food is firmly rooted in the Middle East. This is a bit of a love letter as well as a book full of food--there are stories to go with every recipe, and also at the beginning of each section. This is a deeply personal book, laced with longing and a loving nostalgia. You can almost picture the author's grandparents’ boustan, or garden, and feel the joy he experienced spending time there as a child. He shares cherished family recipes, offers up dishes from the various ethnic communities in Palestine, and expresses enormous pride in his people’s culinary heritage. It is all vegetables all the time. There are a lot of dairy products used, but they can often be eliminated or replaced with plant based alternatives if that is how you roll.

Frankenstein (2025)

No matter how you feel about Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, this rendition of an all too familiar story is a triumph. Somehow Guillermo del Toro manages to make something that feels almost new, and definitely rich and strange, and yet it is crafted out of a story we all thought we knew well. I haven't read the original in quite some time, but my son who has both a photographic memory and a recent reading was very impressed with the adherence to what Shelley wrote. The 21st-century movie does veer off the 19th-century source however. Mary Shelley’s novel was complete as of 1818, and the movie is set in 1857, which, because the author died relatively young (brain tumor) is several years after the author’s own death. Placing the tale squarely in the Victorian era grounds it in period trappings more sumptuous and therefore consistent with the over-the-top tastes of the director, it also allows its visionary scientist Victor Frankenstein (Oscar Isaac) to place electricity more fully at his disposal when animating his creature. This is a half hour too long, but otherwise amazing.

Seascraper by Benjamin Wood

This book, longlisted for the Booker Prize in 2025, is a quiet book looking at inner life. It is a compact story that depicts two days in the life of Thomas Flett, a young man who earns his living as a shanker –which I did not know what that was, but it is a man who rides a horse and cart up and down the beach netting for shrimp. It is a hard life, and it has taken its toll. At just twenty years of age, he looks and acts like a man who is considerably older. His bones ache, his mind aches, and he shambles. And while he more or less accepts his lot, there is more than a small part of him that yearns for something more, something better. He has dreams, small managable dreams that seem attainable to the reader and yet we lose hope that he will take the plunge. This is an insight into this sort of poverty and the toll it can take on your spirit. It doesn't make Thomas mean, but you could see where that would happen, and it is certainly happening in the 21st century, where there is no chance of a better life and the blame is sorely misplaced. This is a look inside a psyche and it is a quiet one at that.

The Perfect Neighbor (2025)

This is a familiar story with an inevitable tragedy, this one told almost exclusively through police body cameras. In 2022, a white woman named Susan is living in a predominantly Black neighborhood in Florida began frequently calling the police to complain about children playing near her house. Each time the police come, the other adults and children in the neighborhood inform them that the allegations are either exaggerated or completely false. The police give some warnings, make notes on the situation, and leave. They are know what is going on, they name it amongst themselves, but they are unfailingly polite to both the complaintant and the community they serve. Although the police never make any arrests or notice any issue with the children being accused or their parents, the calls continue and there is a lot of sighing about the situation. This white woman will not let up. And then, one day, she acts. It is a familiar enough story, one that rarely makes anything or anyone change thier mind, but occasionally justice is served.

Next Year In Havana by Chanel Cleeton

This is one of Reese Witherspoon's Book Club choices and I am in the midst of slowly reading all of those, which is a fun endeavor. It is also the first in a series of books that look at this family across family members and over decades. The book shifts between present day and the time of the Cuban Revolution. The past focuses on Elisa, who is the daughter of a sugar plantation owner who falls in love with a revolutionary. The present is Marisol, who is her granddaughter. After the death of her beloved grandmother, she travels to Havana, where she discovers the roots of her identity–and unearths a family secret hidden since the revolution. The past is Havana, 1958. The Perez family supports Batista and is forced to leave Cuba for Miami, but hope to return one day. Elisa believes her lover has been killed, but she leaves Cuba pregnant with his son. Miami, 2017. Freelance writer Marisol Ferrera grew up hearing romantic stories of Cuba from her late grandmother Elisa, who was forced to flee with her family during the revolution. Elisa’s last wish was for Marisol to scatter her ashes in the country of her birth. Arriving in Havana, Marisol comes face-to-face with the contrast of Cuba’s tropical, timeless beauty and its perilous political climate. When more family history comes to light and Marisol finds herself attracted to a man with secrets of his own, she’ll need the lessons of her grandmother’s past to help her understand the true meaning of courage.

Little Amélie (2025)

I read in a review of this sumptuous animated movie--which is nominated for an Oascar--is based on the autobiographical novel by artist Amélie Nothom, who was born in Japan to Belgian parents. It is a story that is marked by threes. Amelie is the third child, and the story takes us from her birth to age three. This is the age at which, in Japanese culture, a child descends from the realm of the gods into the world of the everyperson. The word for this infantile holiness is okosama, or “lord child,” and the movie takes us through the spirit of this very earliest coming-of-age with whimsy, cross-cultural commentary, and sometimes fantastical time. Baby Amelie is slow to develop and she is a bit of a worry for her parents: she is slow to walk, slow to talk, and hard to sooth. But once she does, prompted by a bite of Belgian white chocolate from her grandmaman, she does so with an almost instant proficiency. The film takes the idea of early childhood awareness, the phenomenon that children are far more privy to the dynamics of reality than they are able to voice, and provides its lead with the vocabulary to match. She operates out of loving obligation, immeasurable curiosity, and even spite, refusing to speak her brother’s name due to the ever-so-typical brotherly hassling. Amelie also sees visions of things that are not and cannot be, in a way that adds a magical quality to this gorgeously animated film.

An Unfinished Love Story by Doris Kearns Goodwin

This is a detailed review of the 1960's through the eyes and experience of the author and her husband, who recently died. Let me start by saying that while I did not love this book, most people I know who have read it did. The author is an excellent writer, and her husband of 40 plus years and she had non-overlapping but equally impressive careers that involved the presidents for a bulk of the decade, so it is an intimate look behind the scenes at government in action at a time of great change for the country. My first bone to pick with this is the title--this may have been motivated by trying to tell a story about the love of your life, but that is not at all what it is. It is a recounting of the Kennedy and Johnson presidencies from the inside. Dick Goodwin worked with the Kennedy campaign, and then within the White House as Kennedy's speech writer, but also spearheading some of the major public policy projects of the Kennedy administration. There are some fascinating behind-the-scenes insights and observations that are definitely one of a kind perspectives. She went through her husband's voluminous boxes of memorabilia from this era to write this book, and she did so while he was alive, so he could both comment on an clarify as she developed and evaluated the material for the book, and the uniqueness of that comes through clearly. I would recommend it and I might have liked it better if I hadn't just read Robert Caro's The Passage of Power, which minutely covers this era as well.

Left Handed Girl (2025)

This entry into the International Film category by Taiwan was shortlisted for an Oscar, but learned today that they did not make the cut. It is well worth watching, none-the-less. The title centers on a cultural superstition, that left handed people are sinister. I-Jing, an angelic appearing five-year-old who has just moved back to Taipei with her mom and older sister, gets literal firsthand experience when her grandpa admonishes her for using her left hand for everything – it’s not natural; it’s the devil at work, he says. ‘The left hand is the devil’s hand’. I-Jing, a sweet five-year-old who has just moved back to Taipei with her mom and older sister, gets literal firsthand experience when her grandpa admonishes her for using her left hand for everything – it’s not natural; it’s the devil at work, he says. The scenery, all shot on an iPhone shows both a glitsy and a gritty Taipei. It summons the frenetic energy and sensory experience of Taipei. There are bright red Chinese characters overtaking the glass windows of a pawn shop; the pleasant melody of trash-collecting trucks; lush trees against grimy buildings that can nearly make you smell the specific essence of a bustling, wetter city. It pairs the kaleidoscopic fragments of the city with the splinters of imperfect people – poignantly and tenderly showing what it means to be a family in Taiwan. The story goes like this. Shu-Fen has set up a night market noodles stand, and her volatile daughter I-Ann left high school and works at a betel nut stall, where she’s sleeping with her boss. I-Jing, played by a very charming Nina Ye, starts a new school and, with the wonder only a child can have, tests out the potential of this newly anointed devil hand. The story that unfolds is a familiar one, but the telling of it is what makes this stand out.

Awake by Jen Hatmaker

I picked this up because it is on the New York Times 100 Notable Books from 2025. It is a memoir about the author's public break up of her marriage in 2020 after she discovered that her spouse of 20 years was having an affair. There are some things that made this a bit different. The first is that Meanwhile, both Jen and Brandon Hatmaker were Christian celebrities. Brandon Hatmaker was a pastor, and Jen Hatmaker was a frequent speaker at the church they planted together. They starred in an HGTV show about their home renovation, and spoke publicly about international adoption (two of their five children were adopted from Ethiopia). Jen Hatmaker became a popular speaker and writer in her own right, as well as her podcast, For the Love. She wrote about the Bible, marriage, and parenting in a breezy, humorous voice. Her books attracted a following among Christian women seeking a faith that was honest and authentic rather than rigid and rules-focused. Jen Hatmaker had a loss of confidence in her faith after a marriage that was very much rooted in the church blew up in a spectacular and unexpected way, but it wasn't her first public struggle. She suffered from backlash within the evangelical world in 2016 when she began publicly questioning the policies of the first Trump administration and speaking out about racism among white American Christians like herself. Her reputation took a further hit when she talked about fully affirming LGBTQ people and relationships. But in return for cancelled speaking engagements and books pulled from the shelves of religious bookstores, she attracted a new audience of people open to a broader, more inclusive vision of Christianity. In this memoir she acknowledges she is no longer engaged in formal religion but chronicles all the way she has grown and recovered from what her husband did. It is an interesting and well written read.

The Smashing Machine (2025)

The true story of mixed martial arts and UFC fighter Mark Kerr, whose obsession with greatness drove him to be a legend, and he ehlped create what the sport became. He is also largely unknown, and this is an attempt to rectify that. Let me start off by saying two things--I am not a fan of MMA and I did not like this movie. The two might be related, so I am putting that on the table up front. That said, this is kind of the antithesis of a sports legend movie. It is gritty and it doesn't step away from the hard stuff. A couple of reviews that I read pointed out things that make it different. Whereas most films about sports icons reach for immersion, this film takes an observational approach. Notice that almost every fight scene in this film is shot from outside the ring, the ropes often breaking the image into chunks, or from above, giving us the POV of a camera instead of putting us into the action. The music is either pop/rock tunes or a non-stop jazzy score, both serving to remind you consistently that you’re watching a movie. Dwayne Johnson plays Kerr with some heavy make-up—which both hides The Rock nd draws attention to its setting in the years 1997 to 2000. Fans of the currently robust sport will marvel at the lack of structure and profile it had in its early days, known more for its brutality than its athleticism. The UFC wasn’t popular, and there is what happened, which is that Kerr's coach became a figher again in order to pay the bills and they came close to fighting each other. The film also highlights the steroids, the recreational drugs, the risk of opiate addiction in a sport that invovles a lot of pain, and the chaos both in and out of the ring.

The Serviceberry by Robin Wall Kimmerer

I read this as a fulfillment of one of the 2026 Goodreads reading challenges--it fulfilled a category that was hard for me because I had read about 80% of the books that qualified already. Otherwise I would likely not have found this. It is about looking inwards, building with what you have and being grateful and appreciative for what you have. When you look at a berry, the serviceberry is featured here, but any wild berry will do--what do you see? In her latest book, the US botanist and author views a tiny fruit through all of these that it does--it feeds the wild life around it, who in turn help it to spread when you expel the seeds, all the interconnected ways a berry becomes an integral part of our world. Then she goes on to illuminate the much bigger questions about how we humans relate to plants, to the natural world and to each other. The author is a university professor, a botanist, and a citizen of the Potawatomi nation, and she is becoming one of the best known environmental writers working today.

One Battle After Another (2025)

This is the movie of the year so far. It opens with the kind of momentum usually reserved for the climax of an action film and barely slows down from there. A revolutionary group known as French 75 is initiating an operation on the Mexico-U.S. border, where they take the officers hostage and release the immigrants awaiting processing. The group is led by Perfidia Beverly Hills (Teyana Taylor), a confident force of rageful nature who finds the leader, Colonel Steven J. Lockja, and sexually humiliates him before walking him out of the base. The encounter launches a psychosexual obsession with Perfidia, someone whom he sees as beneath him because he’s a racist monster, but someone who he also wants to sexually control him. He essentially stalks Perfidia as she continues to lead the resistance with her partner Bob Ferguson. When the two eventually have a child named Willa, Bob sees that they have to get out to protect the baby and Perfidia instead stays, gets caught, and burns everybody after Bob is safely put away in a small town. Cut to 16 years later, Willa is a teenager, and Bob is a single father, still doing what he can for the revolution but equally worried about taking care of his daughter. Lockjaw remains obsessed with the pair, initiating a series of raids and operations on French 75 members that forces Perfidia’s former ally Deandra into action, exfiltrating Willa from a high school dance. The end becomes a kind of chase scene, with excellent cinematography and a score to match. There is a lot to unpack here in terms of the culture clashes in present day, which seem remarkably similar to the days of old, and it is very well done.

The Containment by Michelle Adams

This is subtitled: Detroit, The Supreme Court, and The Battle For Racial Justice In The North. I was interested in this topic--when I was in 6th grade in the early 1970's my school district in Pasadena, California desegregated, and not without challenges. There was a lot of negative energy around it, but my parents sat me down and asked me what I wanted to do, and we agreed to give it a try. For three years I was bussed to a school that was majority black and brown students and I had a life changing science teacher who lit a fire under me about just how cool the subject was and changed the course os my life. This book takes place years after Brown v. Board of Education was decided in 1954 and looks at the effort to change Detroit, the first northern locale to be brought to court. The U.S. Supreme Court remained committed to integration in the face of widespread protests, administrative game playing and other forms of resistance deployed throughout the South. Fed up with the region’s intransigence, it unanimously declared, in 1968, that such delays are no longer tolerable. The court went a step further in 1971. Granting federal judges broad discretion to desegregate schools — including busing, if necessary — the justices unanimously affirmed that their support for desegregating schools. The book’s section on institutional racism is most illuminating and paints a telling picture of why, without judicial intervention, integration was out of reach in many metropolitan areas. In contrast to the easily identifiable Jim Crow mandates prevalent in the South, bigotry in the North occurred largely out of sight, where public and private actors fueled the discriminatory housing practices that underpinned educational segregation. Real estate agents concealed listings in White neighborhoods from Black home buyers. Many houses included racial covenants, and federal housing agencies redlined Black neighborhoods. This dynamic hid in the gray areas of law and politics. And most tellingly, all of this seems very relevant and not that different 50 years on.

Mr. Nobody Against Putin (2025)

This documentary is short listed for the 2026 Oscars and is an easy way to see just how destructive to a society totalitarian regimes are. Putin is putting a generation of Russians at risk, and for what? Much like his American counterpart, it is all about his ego and nothing about his country. This is an easy way to see that. It is a clandestine collaboration between high-school video-maker Pavel “Pasha” Talankin and Copenhagen-based American director David Borenstein. Talankin clearly loves his job as a teacher, events organiser and official videographer at the biggest high school in Karabash, a remote industrial town nestled in the Urals around 1100 miles east of Moscow. Although Karabash is infamous for its toxic climate and short life expectancy, Talankin expresses only deep fondness for his shabby home town and its citizens. Already a compulsive video diarist, Talankin is well-placed to document the official wave of pro-military propaganda that sweeps Russia following Putin’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. These Kremlin-imposed changes heavily impact the school routine, where a new “patriotic education” curriculum forces glum-faced students to take part in daily flag-waving ceremonies, study revised pro-Russian history books, join paramilitary youth clubs and even attend lectures by Wagner Group mercenaries. If these methods sound familiar, most are throwbacks to the darkest days of the Soviet Union. Children are once again being brainwashed to blindly obey a ruling party elite. In the case of adolescent boys, they are also being groomed for imminent military conscription. This timely documentary offers a highly personal, emotional charged insider’s view of how Putin’s ongoing imperial aggression is proving corrosive and divisive on the domestic front, destroying young lives and forcing even mild-mannered educators to risk everything by speaking truth to power. Talankin is now living in exile for his own safety.

Taiwan Travelogue by Yáng Shuāng-zǐ

I took this out of the library because I was looking for a travel memoir about Taiwan. My spouse and I are in the early stages of planning a vacation there, and thought this would be perfect--but in fact it is not so much a travelogue as a work of fiction that is set in Taiwan, to be sure, and there is a fair amount of travel and food described, but it is not a memoir. It did, however, win the National Book Award for translated fiction, and was interesting, set in the 50 years when Taiwan was part of Japan. Here is the story: Aoyama Chizuko is a young Japanese writer whose book has been adapted for film and has therefore become relatively successful. She is invited to run a sort of lecture tour, introducing the film for schools and associations throughout Taiwan, known as the Island during Japanese expansionist times, while Japan is referred to as the Mainland. She also has to write some articles about her travels throughout Taiwan, although she does her best not to get coopted into the glorification of Japan’s Southern Expansion policy. She has a reputation as a bit of a glutton, and she soon wants to explore all the sights, smells and tastes that the colourful Island has to offer. After initially being escorted by the rather stiff government official Mishima, she is assigned an interpreter, a former schoolteacher, whom she soon befriends and addresses as Chi-chan. Chi-chan has no qualms about travelling around the island and introducing Chizuko to all the delicacies of the local cuisine, as well as some of the culture and history of Taiwan. And so it goes, each chapter covering a dish and a bit of history of the island.

Homebound (2025)

This movie is short listed for the International film category for the 2026 Oscars, and it is well worth watching--I really loved it. It is a story of friendship and tragedy. Chandan Kuma is a Dalit from what used to be called the “untouchable” caste, and his best friend Mohammed Shoaib Ali is a Muslim. The both come from dirt poor families and are facing few options to improve their lot unless they migrate to a city or go abroad. Indeed, Shoaib has just turned down a chance to work in Dubai. Chandan and Shoaib take the exam to qualify for the police academy on the same day, but bureaucracy being what it is they have nearly a year to wait for their results. They face limited choices for success which is based not on their talents but on their station at birth--the message is very clear that while there has been some movement on that front in India, the chances are still quite slim for success. The two of them part and come back together for a variety of reasons, and then COVID strikes and it all changes quite dramatically. The script is excellent, the cinematography equal to the task, and it is worthy of watching--also it is streaming on Netflix.

The British Are Coming by Rick Atkinson

This book is the first of a trilogy to go step by step through the Revolutionary War, this volume covering 1775-1777. What it does not do is the preambe, what exactly happened over time that led to open defiance of the British, mostly in New England, but also in the Southern states when slavery was threatened. The South couldn't survive without it. What it does do is walk through the decisions made once there was war and what their consequences were. This is not the good part if you are an American, and it doesn't reflect well for the British either. It is a book full of mistakes that were made. The first two years of the Revolutionary War harrowing. New England’s early fights at Lexington, Concord, and Bunker Hill receive fresh attention. But lesser-known engagements at Moore’s Creek, Great Bridge, and Sullivan’s Island were watershed events. Such Patriot victories proved to be crushing setbacks to the King’s cause in the southern colonies, ensuring that the region would remain largely untouched by the war until 1780. Then there is America’s ill-fated attempt to wrest Canada from British control.. This is given lengthy attention here (really, that characterizes much of the book--brace yourself if you are looking for the Cliff Notes version). The entire campaign was a major undertaking during the first critical year of the war, but with the hindsight of over two centuries, it’s apparent that the affair was ill conceived, poorly supplied and, ultimately, badly led. The effort likewise siphoned tremendous resources and manpower from the Continental Army at a time when it could ill afford such diminution of its strength. British efforts would be narrowly focused in the north, and led to a year of disaster for the Patriot cause. From the pages of Atkinson’s book, George Washington clearly emerges as the “indispensable man” of the Revolution, but a commander who nonetheless faced an embarrassing string of battlefield drubbings subsequent to the British invasion of New York during the summer of 1776. After the near collapse of the Continental Army – and the Patriot war effort – during the retreat across New Jersey, Washington gambled big, and won, during his desperate attacks on Crown detachments at Trenton and Princeton. Atkinson’s closing chapters offer a riveting account of the legendary winter campaign that turned the tide of the war.

F1 (2025)

Brad Pitt is not someone that I am hankering to have dinner with, and his love life seems messy at best, but I have enjoyed him as an actor over the years, and this is no exception. Sonny Hayes was a Formula One driver with talent and the right amount of nerves of steel and talent to make it big, until he was in a devestating accident that still haunts him. After that he quit, and while he races often, it is never with an eye to join a team and get back in the game. That is up until he’s recruited by his former rival Ruben Cervantes (Javier Bardem) to make one last run at it. With most of the racing season finished, Ruben’s ramshackle APXGP racing team hasn’t earned a point because their talented but conceited young driver Joshua Pearce lacks the experience necessary to grind out wins. His manager is more of a hindrance than a help to him, and he is irritatingly juvenile about his role in the woes of the team. Even worse, their cars, designed by their technical director Kate McKenna, lack innovation and endurance and can’t compete with the likes of Ferrari and McLaren. Ruben hopes Sonny can shape up APXGP and Joshua enough to eke out one win out of the team’s final nine races, thereby holding off squeamish investors from taking away Ruben’s ownership. Sonny does several things besides driving like a crazy man. He thinks outside the box as a driver and he gets the team to start thinking that way too. He builds teamwork where it didn't exist before he got there, and he gives Kate the driver input on her car that help her to make it better. It is a feel good race movie that even if you have zero interest in Formula One specifically or racing in general, it is enjoyable.

August Lane by Regina Black

This book, another romance that made it to the New York Times Notable Book list, but this one is worthy of that. It is messy and passionate, you know where it is headed from the beginning but all the fun is in getting there. August was abandoned by her superstar mother, Jojo, raised by her grandmother and betrayed by the boy she loved. That boy, Luke Randall, stole a song they’d co-written and became a country music star himself. And now Jojo’s being inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame, and has asked Luke to sing his signature hit as a duet onstage in Arcadia, their hometown. Way to go, Jojo--no nominations for motherof the year for her. She knows the pain she herself has caused, and add on to that brinigng back August's long ago romance who she loved passionately and was abandoned by. As with all good romances, we do not exactly know how the story is going to get over the finish line, but we know where it is going, and this one is not exception. It is a well written and engaging story well told.

Ishikawa Prefectural Museum of Art, Kanazawa, Japan

The National Craft Museum was moved from Tokyo to Kanazawa, but was closed when we were there—luckily we were able to see the Ishikawa Prefectural Museum of Art, which has an excellent permanent display of Kutani pottery.

Kutani ware is a pottery produced in the Kaga region of Ishikawa Prefecture, with a history spanning over 350 years. It is characterized by the heavy brilliance of the five colors of navy blue, red, purple, green, and yellow that are applied to the bold and daring lines. Its long history has evolved through the tireless efforts and enthusiasm of people who have sought innovation while maintaining tradition. These are Edo era mostly but this type of pottery is still made in this region.

Miracle and Wonder by Malcolm Gladwell

Firstly, this must be listened to. The author, Malcolm Gladwell, is interviewing the singer-song writer Paul Simon about his decades long career, and as you might expect, the music can be talked about, but it should really be listened to. There are numerous points where it is not just better, but more like essential to hear it rather than read it. That said, it is only 5 hours long, so it is not like a traditional biography in terms of length--also, you will be a little sad when it ends because the journey is so enjoyable. Then there is the intimacy of the various interviews--it almost feels like you are eavesdropping on a conversation rather than hearing an interview, the mood feels so warm and cozy. There is talk of his childhood, his musical collaborations, his early success, his parents, and his musical process, and it is all fascinating. He is a guy for whom things marinate over time--he is still stung by things each of his parents said to him 70 years ago, for example. His musical explorations take months if not years to come to fruition, and for a while, he is able to put one to bed before tugging on another thread and following that for a time. All in all, it is just lovely, and I cannot recommend it enough.

K Pop Demon Hunters (2025)

This is the first time that I have watched an animated movie that is widely belowed and really not liked it. The music is cloying, predictable, and ever present, which is possibly one thing that people like about it, but it made it hard for me to watch. Here is the story. The movie opens with a burst of energy, introducing viewers to the hit girl group Huntr/x: Rumi, Mira, and Zoey. The are one of the most popular trios in the world, and their group, Huntr/x, rocks the charts on stage and destroys demon bad guys when they’re off. This may seem like something you have seen before, the Power Puff Girls vibe, but it is grounded in Korean mythology too. Huntr/x maintains something called the Honmoon, a protection against a centuries-old demon ruler known as Gwi-Ma, who has a legion of otherworldly creatures to unleash on humanity, and is working behind the scenes to sabotage them. The excellent opening scenes of the movie features Huntr/x combating demons who try to keep them from performing a show that night—of course, they vanquish their foes and hit the dance choreography too. The story unfolds with a few plot twists, and comes to what is and should be a predictable animated adventure movie ending. I suspect it will be nominated in the Best Animated Feature category, but it would not be my choice.

Dark Renaissance by Stephen Greenblatt

The subtitle is a bit melodramatic: The Dangerous Times and Fatal Genius of Shakespeare's Greatest Rival. On the other hand, the rise of Christopher Marlowe was so improbable and ended so dramatically, it is probably deserved. In this riveting reassessment of the short, turbulent life of the Elizabethan dramatist and poet Christopher “Kit” Marlowe, the author argues that Marlowe, with his dazzling eloquence, “offered poetic liberation” to an English culture that had been stifled by onerous government censorship. He managed to gain his position through his talents, and if this account is to be believed, through reading the room and making politically correct connections that furthered his ability to stay in Oxford without having to join a religious order. This argues not that Shakespeare stole from Marlowe (which has been asserted before, or that that these was a third author who wrote anonymously) but that Marloww was actually more of a trailblazer than a competitor of Shakespeare. In 1587, 23-year-old Marlowe moved to London, where he wrote “Tamburlaine,” the first of the seven plays he would produce in what turned out to be his last six years. He delighted in shocking his audiences with dramas which, like the times in which he lived, were rife with violence. He took stories from history and made them his own, in ways that were both clever and popular. The time of Marlowe and Shakespeare was set against the backdrop of Queen Elizabeth I’s brutally repressive regime. It was a society in which dissent of any kind was met with imprisonment, torture, hanging, or beheading. Punishable offenses included blasphemy, heresy, homosexuality, and any suspicions of Roman Catholic leanings (or a desire to replace Queen Elizabeth with her Catholic cousin, Mary Queen of Scots). In all liklihood Marlowe was caught up in that and probably led to his murder, but we do know the time was ripe for plays that would laast for the ages.

Tōdaiji Temple Complex, Nara, Japan

The Buddhist temple Tōdaiji in Nara Prefecture is a priceless trove of history and culture. Founded some 1,300 years ago, the UNESCO World Heritage site is home to the Great Buddha of Nara and other national treasures. The Great Buddha of Nara stands 15 meters high, making it one of the largest such images in the world. It is a depiction of the Roshana Buddha, also known as Biroshana or Vairochana in Sanskrit, the so-called cosmic Buddha or “great illuminator” who shines mercy upon the earth. The statue is normally hidden from view from the outside, but at certain times of the year a special window overlooking the sandō and central gate is opened to reveal the face of the Buddha.

Tōdaiji’s roots are with the temple Kinshōsanji, which was built in 728 for the repose of the spirit of the son of Emperor Shōmu (701–56). In 743, following several years of natural calamities and political turmoil, Shōmu issued a proclamation for the erection of a great Buddha in the hope of returning peace to the land. The colossal image represented an unprecedented undertaking, but Kinshōsanji’s head priest Gyōki used his influence to solicit money, materials, and labor from around the country. The image was completed in 749, followed by the Daibutsuden Hall in 752. It was around this period that the temple also came to be known as Tōdaiji.

There are some guardians in the temple, as well as outside guarding the Buddha. The Great Buddha that stands today represents reconstruction work spanning four periods of Japanese history. The chest and base are part of the original image cast in the Nara period, while the waist dates from the Kamakura period (1185–1333), the upper body from the Warring States period (1467–1568), and head from the Edo period. A careful observer will notice that the bronze making up the face of the Buddha is in better condition than the chest, which is several centuries older.

One Day In December by Josie Silver

I read a lot of lists, and am not often at a loss for what to read next. That said, it is nice to have a list that is less brainiac and more enjoyable, and I find the Reese Witherspoon book club picks to to be a nice balance of that--some of them are amongst the best books I read all year, and some are romantic fluff. This is the later. Laurie and Sarah are roommates and friends going back to college. Laurie lost her sister when she was young and Sarah fills the role of sibling and BFF. They share everything up until something life changing happens. It goes (improbably) like this: Laurie has a "love at first sight" moment one December with a guy at a bus stop. She spends a year scouring the city looking for him with no luck, until one day Sarah brings the very same guy home as her boyfriend. It goes about how you would predict it would, but the story winds around long enough to have all sorts of options come up and overall I would say the Reese Witherspoon romance selections are above average for the genre.

Sirāt (2025)

This movie is a wild ride from start to Finish. It opens at a rave. An array of battered speakers is being assembled in the Moroccan desert by people who look practiced at it, but why here? It has a Burning Man vibe. They are dwarfed by the spectacular dusty canyon walls nearby, and between the two, the sound they produce, with a growling bassline that grinds like tectonic plates massing against each other — matches them in grandeur. against this backdrop, htere is this subwoofer language of pulsing beats and techno drones. Suddenly the empty desert is filled with people, all of them writhing, gyrating bodies, their old tattoos and sunburnt scars, their braids and studs and ragged tees emphasizing that these are no Coachella selfie-takers, they are seasoned, esperienced. These are not kids eitherm and there is a blissed-out, drugged-up vibe of acceptance and bacchanalian euphoria reigns. The only thing you could do to stick out here would be to show up looking normal--which is what happens. A father brings his young son to look for his missing daughter, and when they don't find her, they decide to join the parade to the next rave spot. The whole thing is a slowly but steadily unraveling disaster right up to the very end.

The Improbable Victoria Woodhull by Eden Collinsworth

The subtitle is more revealing as well as more sensational: Suffrage, Free Love, and The First Woman To Run For President. Here's what I have to say about this: It is a great story about a woman that I never heard of, and fills out some of the mid-19th century American history that I am fuzzy on. Victoria Woodhull was a contemporary of Mark Twain, even had some overlap with him when they both lived in England, and I had just finished that highly detailed and voluminous biography earlier this fall, so even though up on some things, there was a lot to learn here. Woodhull pushed the limits in everything she did, from her hardscrabble upbringing in Ohio to her death in 1927 at age 88 as a wealthy widow on an inherited estate in England. Her father, Buck Claflin, was a classic con man, a swindler, and a cheat--he used his children, and everyone else he could, for personal gain, and they learned those skills well. Victoria and her sister were raised to perform as child clairvoyants, and between their beauty and their charm they were able to scam Cornelius Vanderbilt, and with his backing, the two women parlayed their connection to him and opened the first women-owned stock brokerage in America. Victoria managed to accumulate great wealth and unlike her father, she managed to hang on to it. She also sought fame in addition to fortune and allied herself with high profile causes in pursuit of that. She became, in 1871, the first woman to speak before a House of Representatives committee to promote women’s suffrage and she improbably also ran for president as a candidate when she herself could not vote. This is a pretty quick one and quite interesting, if not riveting, to read.

Yoshikien Garden, Nara, Japan

May the New Year bring new beginnings. Last year was a very rocky ride, but here is to new beginnings. Here is a bit of history of gardens in Japan (spoiler alert--they were influenced by China, which is very clear to see ). During the Asuka period (538–710), Japanese merchants were inspired by gardens in the imperial courts of China. The first gardens in Japan were created using Chinese building methods and designed to channel Buddhist beliefs through an appreciation of the natural world. Few gardens still exist from this time, but many modern versions echo Buddhist principles. Each following period has influenced garden design in its own way, reflecting the society of that time. Some of the best-known gardens are for strolling, made popular by the nobility of the Edo period (1603–1868), where society’s elaborate social structure encouraged a patronage of the arts.

Here is what they say about the garden’s history: An old illustration of Kohfukuji Temple reveals that the "Manishuin," a branch temple of Kohfukuji used to be on the Yoshikien premise. This site was privately owned during the Meiji period (1868-1912) and then its current structures and garden were designed and built in 1919 during the Taisho period. At the end of the Showa period (1926-1989) ownership of the property was transferred from a corporate guest house to Nara Prefecture. With the intent of having it be widely used for viewing the garden and tea ceremony, it was opened to the public on April Ist, 1989.