Stay True by Hua Hsu

I read this book solely based on the hoopla around it, that it was one of the five best non-fiction books of 2022 according to the New York Times. I did not know what the memoir was about, and if you want the same experience, to be surprised, then stop reading now. When a meandering story about a first generation immigrant whose parents are toying with the idea of going back to Taiwan veers suddenly into senseless violence I was taken by surprise. The murder of a college friend lies at the heart of this story. The friend, Ken, was shot dead at 20 years old in Vallejo, Calif., early one Sunday morning in July 1998, after a party in Berkeley. In the lead up to this tragic event we get to know Ken and see why he was so important to the author on many levels. The murder itself was an inept robbery that devolved into violence, and Ken’s assailants were quickly apprehended and jailed. The book describes both the buildup and the aftermath with devastating emotional precision, questioning the possibility of meaning in tragedy and the value of the stories we tell while attempting to find it. It is a thoughtful, affecting book--I was thinking not at the tippy top of the 2022 heap, but it has left me thinking about it, so maybe I am wrong about that.

Tar (2022)

This is an intense movie about an intense person, who is also very likely neurodivergent. Lydia Tár (played with fierce and seamless commitment by Cate Blanchett) is one of the wonders of the classical realm. She is a virtuoso pianist, an earnest ethnomusicologist, and a purposeful popularizer—she is apparently a member of the Emmy-Grammy-Oscar-Tony (EGOT) club, which isn’t a common achievement for a classical person. And as a protean conductor about to conclude recording a cycle of Mahler symphonies, Lydia needs to get away from noise to do the work to which she almost stridently commits herself. She is noise sensitive and has trouble being around people and other living things. The movie is set up in the opening scenes. A nervous Lydia walks out onto the stage of a concert hall to rapturous tribute. She’s not there to perform, but to be interviewed, as a feature of one of those culture festivals major metropolitan centers hold every so often. Her interviewer is New Yorker writer Adam Gopnik, who plays himself, is a self-satisfied know-it-all who lays it all out for the rest of us. The sum total of what we learn here sets Lydia’s cultural status in a kind of stone, so the viewer looks forward to a film that will show how it all comes together. And how it all falls apart. Blanchett is so convincing in the role that you forget it is acting.

The Bomber Mafia by Malcom Gladwell

This is much like Gladwell's other books, which are well told stories that have an element of journalistic investigation, but are not scientific treatises or history textbooks, in this case. I really enjoyed this, which is designed as an audiobook with original interviews and broadcasts included, but it is not for a WWII history buff I would imagine. It is short, maybe not 100% accurate, and skips over parts that are important but not part of the story he wants to tell. He tries to explain how the U.S. Army Air Forces (USAAF) came to conduct firebombing raids over Japan in spring 1945. These raids, which preceded the atomic bombs, resulted in significantly more damage to the Japanese homeland but are often overshadowed by the atomic bombs. The central topic of Gladwell’s thesis is the firebombing effort and the relief of Gen. Haywood Hansell as commander of the XXI Bomber Command with his replacement, airpower icon Gen. Curtis E. LeMay. He begins with addressing how the Air Corps Tactical School (ACTS) at Maxwell Field, Alabama, developed the idea of precision daylight bombing. This untested doctrine became a mantra for true believers in airpower, especially when combined with the emerging technology of the time. As aircraft performance increased in speed, range, and payload, framers of the precision bombing doctrine became increasingly convinced their ideas held great promise. The author also includes a lengthy discussion of how the irascible Carl Norden developed his famous bomb sight that, when merged with aircraft performance, seemingly enabled marksmanship-like precision for the USAAF. Convinced that this marriage of technology and airpower would be decisive in an upcoming war, ACTS acolytes looked to validate their ideas with almost religious zeal. He veers off a bit far on the parallels between religion and belief in other things for my taste, but he does ably demonstrate the dangers of not having an open mind. The book veers off course several times, but it is what Gladwell does best, which is following his interests and taking us along with him.

Chili Garlic Shrimp Noodles

The original recipe calls for udon noodles but I used lo mein noodles and it was very popular. I also stir fried some broccoli and onions to boost the vegetable count, and it was quite good. I would suggest a little more heat too, if you are so inclined. 500 grams udon noodle 1/2 lb. Shrimp 3 tbsp green onion finely chopped 1 tbsp vegetable oil or any neutral tasting oil 1 tsp garlic minced Sauce : 2 tsp sesame oil 1 tsp gochugaru or 2 tsp for spicy (or sub with red chili pepper flakes) 1 tsp white granulated sugar ½ tsp chicken bouillon powder (aka chicken stock powder) ½ tsp Chinese black vinegar 2 tsp dark soy sauce 2 tsp regular soy sauce not light or dark! Optional: ½ tsp sesame seeds optional garnish Chicory logo INSTRUCTIONS Soak your frozen udon noodles in hot boiling water JUST until loosened, about 30 seconds. Strain immediately and set aside. In a pan set over medium heat, add vegetable oil. Once oil is hot, fry shrimp until pink, curled and cooked through. Remove shrimp from pan. Repeat if you are adding vegetables of any sort. Lower to low-medium heat. In the same pan, add garlic and green onions. Then quickly add in all Sauce ingredients premixed together: sesame oil, gochugaru, sugar, chicken bouillon powder, black vinegar, regular soy sauce and dark soy sauce. Add in the noodles, and once they are warmed and coated with sauce, mix back in shrimp, and vegetables if using. Remove off heat. Serve with sesame seeds and more green onions (both optional). Enjoy!

A Dangerous Business by Jane Smiley

And now for something different, at least from this author. It is like Moo, which followed A Thousand Acres. This is an entertaining, light murder mystery set in Monterey, California, in 1851 during the Gold Rush. Eliza turned to sex work after her husband died in a bar brawl. She finds it preferable to the miserable marriage her Covenanter parents pushed her into to nip her budding romance with an Irish Catholic laborer back home in Kalamazoo. Why a man over a decade her senior who brutalized her physically, emotionally, and sexually, was preferred over an age congruent man she liked is beyond me, but you could see getting paid for sex might be preferable than being essentially raped every day, but you can easily figure out why she had no interest in going back. When several women in their dangerous line of work disappear and neither the sheriff nor the local vigilantes seem to care, Eliza and her cross-dressing friend decide to investigate themselves. It is a dangerous business, but they are matter-of-fact as they go about uncovering a killer.

The Flying Sailor (2022)

This movie is based on a real event. On the morning of December 6th, 1917, the steamship Mont-Blanc, inbound from the Atlantic with war material for France, entered the Halifax Harbour Narrows. The Norwegian ship Imo left Bedford Basin, outbound for New York to load supplies for occupied Belgium. In homes, schools, and factories lining the shores, people started a new day in a busy wartime port. When Imo crossed The Narrows into the harbor in Halifax and struck Mont-Blanc’s bow, Mont-Blanc’s main cargo of bulk high explosives met the barrels of petrochemical on deck, it triggered the blast and the ship was transformed into a three-kiloton bomb in a busy modern port. 1700 were killed and 9,000 were wounded in the blast. commands the right balance of poignancy and levity. It’s undeniably funny--the unsuspecting sailor has his clothes blasted off, and his naked form is catapulted into the air, where he somersaults over the town that he was strolling down the streets of seconds before. The short animation employs a wealth of techniques (3D, 2D, live action, and photographs), along with a bold mix of comedy, suspense, philosophy and playful abstraction, and is an exhilarating meditation on a few seconds of a life, and a celebration of the wonder and fragility of being.

Dead Wake by Erik Larson

This is a detailed look at the last ocean crossing of the Lusitania, jockeying between the perspective of the ship's captain, the U-boat commander that ultimately sunk the ship, and then the perspective of the US government and the president, Woodrow Wilson. This author is a master storyteller, who after having amassed the history, weaves it all together into a tale that is both easy to follow and to understand the significance. Here is the gist of it. On 7 May 1915 the Cunard liner Lusitania, the fastest ship of its day, steaming from New York to Liverpool, was torpedoed by a German submarine 12 miles off the coast of southern Ireland, not far from Cobh. It sank in 18 minutes: 1,198 passengers and crew, including three German stowaways and 123 Americans, perished. Only six of 22 lifeboats were launched. Many passengers drowned because they donned their life-jackets incorrectly and could not keep their heads bobbing above water. There were 764 survivors. This unprecedented attack on civilians caused a storm of indignation, particularly in the US, which expected its citizens to be immune from international violence. Putin is by no means the first and he won't be the last leader to target civilians in the name of advancing a war cause. The Germans targeted any ocean going vessel, and in this case, that practice was one of the dominoes that fell and led to America's reluctant involvement in WWI.

Ice Merchants (2022)

This animated short film by João Gonzalez, which won a prize at last year’s Cannes Critics’ Week and is short-listed for an Oscar, opens with the stark image of a child playing on a swing outside a house affixed to a sheer rock face. A chasm yawns beneath the child’s feet. Clearly, the kid has nerves of steel (it makes me dizzy just to watch it, much less be there), and so does his Father, who doesn't intervene in thisveritginous play. Every day, father and son harvest ice from their mountain perch and then parachute off their deck to deliver it to the valley dwellers far below. Then, coins in hand, they return to their altitudinous home by means of an ingenious contraption. The value of hard work or the senselessness of it all? It is hard to tease apart. In any case, the absurdity of repetitive labor, as well as the comfort of such work, is not the central theme. The filmmaker describes this as a family drama about loss and family connection. Someone is missing from the ice merchants’ home in the cold mountain air. The absence is symbolized by a yellow mug, one that is never used but often contemplated. Toward the end of the story, as the film dives into the magical and the sublime, the missing family member plays a surprisingly active role in the drama. The animation is beautiful and the film is essentially silent.

On Black Men by David Marriott

This is a researched and footnoted academic volume that was an alternative read for my book group one month. I finished the book we chose and started on this, and got stalled because it is populated by mutilated, dying or dead, black men, and it was so brutal in the way that it portrayed the way that black men play a role in the psychic life of American culture in general to southern culture in particular. This is a reflection on the persistent imagining of what black men must be, a demand that black men perform a script, become interchangeable with the uncanny, deeply unsettling, projections of culture. It is a powerful and compelling study that explores the legacy of that role, particularly its violent effect on how black men have learned to see themselves and one another. David Marriott draws upon a range of examples, from lynching photographs to recent Hollywood films, as well as the ideas of key thinkers including Frantz Fanon, Richard Wright, James Baldwin and John Edgar Wideman, to reveal a vicious pantomime of the predominant culture taking a look at itself through images of black desolation, and of blacks intimately dispossessed by that self-same looking.

The Boy, The Mole, The Fox, and The Horse (2022)

This beautifully animated movie is taken from a children's picture book, and the animated characters imintate the illustrated ones from the book. A boy, a mole, a fox, and a horse share a series of heartfelt and profound conversations about the meaning of life, universal truths and friendship. The story is peacefully told, and explores our innermost feelings with delicate sensitivity and candor. All four characters represent different parts of the same person: the quiet and endlessly inquisitive boy, the mole who’s enthusiastic but a bit greedy, the fox who’s been hurt so is withdrawn from life, slow to trust but wants to be part of things, and the horse who’s the wisest bit, the deepest part of you, the soul. Together they attempt to make their way in life.