Why Taiwan Matters by Kerry Brown

I am thinking of going to Taiwan and there is a dearth of information about the island nation as a tourist destination. Ergo I resorted to learning more about it's history and the complex triangular relationship between Taiwan, China, and the United States. The author asserts that the road to Taiwan’s peace and security runs through Beijing. The better the world understands this, the better informed we are to make decisions regarding this highly sensitive affair. This isn’t to say that Taiwan has no input in the matter – in fact, Taiwan is increasingly becoming detached from China as the generations pass on. Even though the native population of the island is dwarfed by the Han Chinese descendants, which is true on the mainland as well, they are not aligned with China culturally. A distinct Taiwanese identity, which has always existed in different forms, has emerged with greater vigor, especially after the pro-democracy reforms which started in the late 1980s and flourished in the mid-nineties with the election of Lee Teng-hui, frequently referred to as Taiwan’s “father of democracy.” This is an entry point to getting to know Taiwan.

Jane Austen's Period Drama (2024)

This is nominated in the category of Short Live Action for the 2026 Oscars, and it is very short (about 11 minutes--don't miss the blooper though so hang on a few seconds in to the credits), very funny, and available to watch on Kanopy, so free if your local public library subscribes. The opening scen is all too reminiscent of a scene straight out of Pride and Prejudice. A young woman, Estrogenia, is walking with Mr. Dickley on a gorgeous green hillside. He is telling her that his intended has run off with another man and he is therefore free to ask for her hand. He gets down on one knee, and mid proposal he realizes that she is bleeding from her nether regions. He is convinced that she is in need of a doctor and carries her home. Her sisters, Labinia and Vagiana, recognize the problem immediately. Where Estrogenia wants to explain, her sisters are adamant that talking to a man who intends to marry you about menstruation is off limits--rather they kill a chicken, play up the severity of the condition with additional carnage and celebrate when she survives than to reveal the real reason for the bleeding. The names are changed from an Austen classic to increase the hilarity, and it is all good clean biologically appropriate fun. Happy Valentine's Day!

Helm by Sarah Hall

I found this book through the New York Times Notable Book list, and while I enjoyed it, I am not quite sure that I completely go it. One thing is that the main character is wind, Cumbrian wind to be exact. The second is the time span, which is Neolithic times to the present, which is hard to fathom, but again, the wind is timeless. It changes in both quality and quantity over time, it is constant. Every era in the book has its own seeing; the same land, the same wind filtered through time-specific fears and hopes and work, time-specific attributes as well, from a neolithic world interpreted through animal behavior to the present with social media, pub menus, emails and the like. There is an undertone of what has changed and a little bit of why that would be, but it is the undercurrent of the story, not the story itself. It is wildly innovative, easy to read, and something to think about.

Sentimental Value (2025)

This movie is nominated in 9 categories for the 2026 Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Director, and Best Screenplay, which is an accomplishment in and of itself, and a rarity for an international film that is largely not in English. Joachim Trier has a reputation as an auteur director and this film expands on that—there is an Ingmar Bergman feel to it, which we would now call depicting the effects of generational trauma and in Berman’s time we called it Scandinavian noir. Nora and her sister Agnes have an absent father, Gustav, who is a faded but famous film director. Their mother has died, and Gustav comes home to settle the estate and tries to reconnect with his daughters. He has written a part for Nora—it is an olive branch that she pushes angrily away, and so he tries to go another way with it. Everyone is so clearly damaged and so unwilling to compromise, all to their collective detriments, and while it is painful, oh so hard to watch, it is also brilliant and that is the feeling that stays with you days later after watching this and letting it settle with you for a bit.

Sipsworth by Simon Van Booy

I read this because it was a Parnassus book recommendation, and while I have not read all of them--afterall, there are a lot of Fridays in the year, it is hard to keep up, and while I read quite a lot, it seems that I have almost never read the thing that they are recommending. The added thing to love about this is that it has some shades of The Correspondent about it. They center on elderly women who have lost a spouse and a child. The women are unexpected and that unfurls across the novel. Helen Cartwright returns to the village of her childhood to grief the loss of her family and her youth. She leads a monotonous life by design: it keeps her from dwelling on the past and she is waiting for the end. Then, she encounters an unwanted visitor in her home—a mouse, a mouse that she inadvertently brought home and, after some unsuccessful and half-hearted attempts to get rid of the creature, she grows attached to him. Naming him Sipsworth, she thinks she has finally found someone to listen to her. She has something to focus on, and after she establishes that there is no one but her who will care for him, she has something to live for. Much of Helen’s backstory comes out via her stories to Sipsworth, revealing snippets of a life well lived. And the gaps in Helen’s tales reveal as much about her character as the parts that she chooses to state. The prose is simple yet lovely; the story sneaks up on you and gains your affections, as does the folly of befriending a field mouse. It’s a tale of aging, grief, and the mundane details that make up a person’s existence after great losses. These pieces reveal something profound about the human need for connection and how to savor our connections. It is a generous, vibrant, and quiet novel.

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.