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[tinyreviews]

Tiny Review: His House 2020. The horror was in us all along.

Oh, it’s more a psychological thriller horror than a horror horror.

As usual, I am scared to death of the potential scares. But once I realised it’s more of a personal horror than a malicious entity horror, it didn’t seem so scary after all.

His House is a 2020 folk horror thriller film written and directed by Remi Weekes, from a story by Felicity Evans and Toby Venables. It stars Wunmi Mosaku, Sope Dirisu and Matt Smith. 

[neowitcher]

3 Favourite Books and Films | Winter 2023 Releases

Some seasons, there’s just not enough media intriguing me, so here are three instead of the usual five favourites that released sometime this past winter.

1. For Her Consideration by Amy Spalding ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

Since a crushing breakup three years ago, Nina Rice has written romance, friends, her dreams of scriptwriting for TV, and even L.A. proper out of her life. Instead, she’s safely out in the suburbs in her aunt’s condo working her talent agency job from home, managing celebrity email accounts, and certain that’s plenty of writing—and plot—for her life. But a surprise meeting called by Ari Fox, a young actress on everyone’s radar, stirs up all kinds of feelings Nina thought she’d deleted for good… (Storygraph)

Never hurts to start the year off right with a full package enjoyable sapphic romance. Drenched in queer culture, film business and plus-sized representation, Amy Spalding brings a sweet story with interesting, fun, and very relatable, leads and side characters. Never stressing you out with over-the-top drama, it is the perfect romance to binge if you’d like to feel something, with just the slightest bit of spice to add to that. Full review can be found here.

2. Babylon (2022) dir. Damien Chazelle ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ 

A tale of outsized ambition and outrageous excess, tracing the rise and fall of multiple characters during an era of unbridled decadence and depravity in early Hollywood. (Letterboxd)

With the mixed reviews this had been getting, I had almost decided not to watch it, what with it being three hours long and all. Maybe if I’d remembered this is by the director of Whiplash (2016), I would have known not to be concerned. Despite the story being a bit all over, I was intrigued and the soundtrack had me more excited than I’d been in a while. It left me absolutely speechless by the end and the long watch was absolutely worth it! Incredible acting performances, especially by Diego Calva. Just wow, what a ride!

3. Puss In Boots: The Last Wish (2022) dir. Joel Crawford ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

Puss in Boots discovers that his passion for adventure has taken its toll: He has burned through eight of his nine lives, leaving him with only one life left. Puss sets out on an epic journey to find the mythical Last Wish and restore his nine lives. (Letterboxd)

Finally, moving away from Hollywood territory, there’s the childhood nostalgia mixed with incredible animation. Puss in Boots used to be one of my favourite characters and seeing him back on screen after all these years made me really happy. The story flew by and I was really captivated by the action sequences and the creative animation styles. Some shots actually managed to haunt me a little, which was a pleasant surprise. It was the perfect Sunday afternoon family watch!

[neowitcher]

THE WITCHERY | BOOK REVIEW

The Witchery by S. Isabelle ★★★★

Release date: 26 July 2022

Genre: YA, Fantasy, LGBTQ+

Summary:

The Haunting Season is here and the wolves are awake… Haelsford, Florida is a Hellmouth. Or at least, that’s what Logan, a young witch struggling to control her powers, thinks as she arrives to begin the new school year at Mesmortes Coven Academy. She is immediately taken under the wing of the infamous Red Three: Iris, Jailah, and Thalia. Fear and prejudice still fuel the uneasy truce between humans and witches who are forced to work together when the Haunting Season begins and Wolves rise from the swamp to feed. With this approaching, two local boys become involved with the witches’ plan to end the Wolves’ reign of terror once and for all, old dangers lie in wait. The cost to break the curse may be greater than any witch or human could ever know… (StoryGraph)

My review:

Halloween may have long passed but witchy books are an all-year round thing to enjoy. The Witchery introduces us to four incredible witches that are bound to make the reader want to ready their potions and join their world because it is truly that magical.

Magical and dark, focusing on an old curse that doesn’t shy away from taking lives. The stakes are high and the backstory deep, channelling true witch history in its overall story. Aside from the interesting plot, the characters all have equally interesting backstories and learning more about each of them throughout the book is a great delight. There’s some real surprises that keep the readers, as well as the other characters, on their toes. Sadly, though every character has an interesting personality and backstory, it could have been explored a lot better. Luckily, a sequel has been announced and I have every bit of faith that we will get to learn a lot more about everyone.

There’s characters aplenty, as are the POVs. The reader gets perspectives from all four of the witches as well as the boys who are intertwined in their story and although this gives a nice view in everyone’s mind, it was not fun to follow. Ideally, it would only on the four girls because that’s enough POVs to take in and technically, the story was more about them than anyone else. Still, for anyone who enjoys multiple POVs, this might be a plus!

As mentioned above, the old curse takes lives and the overall story is definitely a dark one. There’s death and betrayal and not for the faintest of heart amongst our younger readers (the book opens with content warnings for self-harm) but anyone with a heart for witchcraft and magical schools will be sure to fall in love. The book really takes you in with its friendships and though it took me a while to really feel like Logan was part of the group, in the end I really appreciated the witches for their own bright personalities as well as their love for one another.

[wehavethoughts]

Interior Chinatown Review!

Media Title:  Interior Chinatown Author: Charles Yu Media Type: Hardcover large print book Published: Pantheon Books, 2020 Genre: Literary Fiction

Reviewed By: MargeMod Content Warnings: Racism, Discrimination

This review contains spoilers for Interior Chinatown 

Rating: Full bouquet out of a full bouquet

Summary: Written mostly in a screenplay-type of format, this relatively small book is the fictional life story of Willis (Ming-Chen) Wu. A promising young man who has his academic career cut short when he decides to decline his acceptance into UCLA's doctoral program to go home to care for his ill mother. His life is further redirected when he can't find any job in his field because, as one recruiter tells him, his accent is the problem. Funny thing, Willis doesn't have an accent. The recruiter agrees and tells him that is just weird, an Asian-looking man should not speak unaccented English. So Willis accepts a job as an actor in Chinatown where among other things, he must become fluent in accented English. His roles include: Disgraced Son, Delivery Guy, Guy Who Runs in and Gets Kicked in the Face, Striving Immigrant, Background Oriental Male and Generic Asian Man.

Review: In my journey to combat racism and become a better ancestor (see previous review of Me and White Supremacy: Combat Racism, Change the World, and Become a Good Ancestor by Layla F. Saad) I want to read stories told by other Americans in their own voice. This month, I selected this award winning novel by Charles Yu. The story takes us along as a young Asian man tries to live his best life only to remain slotted to a very narrow set of options simply because of how he looks.

Using the screenplay-type of format, the author visually sets the story as this family's scripted existence. I had never read a book that used this format. At first it was a little confusing, but I eventually recognized that the format itself was helping to tell the story. This book is interesting visually and in its heart is simply the story of family love and ambition in a racist society.

In America if you look a certain way you are expected to sound a certain way and play specific roles. Until the mid-1900s, State and Federal laws severely limited Asian citizen rights and liberties. Adding to this tragedy, the white-dominated society in the US continues to pigeonhole and limit it's Asians sons and daughters long after these horrific laws were overturned. I gave this book my highest rating because it is written well, is in an interesting format, and has much to teach us non-Asians.

[wehavethoughts]

Darryl Carter Review! Part 1: The New Traditional

The New Traditional by Darryl Carter With Trish Donnally Photographs by Gordon Beall Clarkson Potter Publishers, 2008

I’m venturing out of my comfort zone in both form and function. This book is from 2008, so not the freshest on the interior design scene. Additionally, the sophisticated style is far from my personal taste. Regardless, I also thought it’d be fun to have a two-part review, rating Darryl Carter’s two books. Carter is Black and male, and I’m trying to include non-white cis-female authors in my reviews. I was going to do two books in one post, but I think each one stands on it’s own. This post will address The New Traditional and next time, I’ll review The Collected Home. Welcome to Part 1. 

This large-scale, hardcover volume is fit for a coffee-table, with impressive photos and a very intimate writing style. Carter lauds a classic and calm sensibility, as he describes it, and repeatedly refers to logic. When I took a breath from the fantasy, the book did feel out-of-reach. Old money vibes. Overall, I award this book 5 out of 6 worldly geese. 

The New Traditional is a very refined aesthetic catalog guided by precise and thoughtful prose. Three subtitular key phrases span the top of the front cover: reinvent, balance, and define your home. The book really carefully details a design philosophy, pulling from anecdotal experience and the discipline of craft. Carter does an excellent job articulating this new approach to a traditional style, emphasizing in particular a mix of modern and antique. Elegant images of dining rooms and studies, in the limited color palette of warm neutrals, free from clutter or disarray, upon closer inspection, reveal a very intentional composition of old and new, worn patina and sleek smooth surfaces. 

As I mentioned, many of the rooms portrayed aren’t my particular style. Carter enjoys antique mechanical tools and centuries old figurines, for example. The rooms are also pretty sparse and formal. I still was able to enjoy him narrating countless examples of his design reasonings, what he did when a challenge presented itself, how he put a fun twist on a found piece of furniture. This book is generous in sharing knowledge, but I must be clear: he fancy. But he comes from traditional arts schooling (and law!) rather than a scrappy, DIY ambition. So yes, he’s dealing with nicer homes and nicer stuff, but the tone of the text (which can also get pretty fancy) is warm and insightful. And, I mean, the pictures look like they’re from a museum!

I think the reason I’m okay (I think) with this clearly well-funded designer’s interiors is because the written content expresses a tremendous amount of care and appreciation for the materials of the objects in the home. Carter is keen to preserve antiques and to experiment on pieces that aren’t. He hopes that any furniture piece or any room is not too precious to go unused, which is a very precious insight. He consistently encourages his readers to lean into their own style, to find harmony and use cooperation to achieve balance. I love how he playfully uses pieces outside of their intended function: using a dining table as a desk, altering a couch arm to hinge down for more lounging space, putting shuttered doors in front of windows for the illusion of a terrace. One of my favorite nuggets of his advice is to use the reverse side of a rug, as it preserves the rug and shows more muted, abstract colors which is to my taste. His philosophy does not seem to identify with excess, but rather with having a hand in making home feel like home for those living there, for the things they actually do… his clients just have money. 

Small critiques here. Firstly, most of the pictures were not on pages nearest the text describing them. Carter would paint such a vivid picture, I would think to myself, wow that would look cool, and then 20 pages later there it’d be: the picture he was describing! So I don’t know what the editing team was doing there. A second thing is a question: there were like 800 (hyperbole) ancient Chinese figurines mentioned, and I hope those clients were Chinese. Rich Westerners just hoarding artifacts from non-Western cultures is whack. More on this in Part 2, as The Collected Home goes into more depth about obtaining collections. 

Finally, I just wish someone who seems to be ridiculously classy would also care about using more sustainable resources. So many times he’d suggest using synthetics and other machine-made materials because of all the benefits that technology has come to provide (mostly durability). I feel a little sad, thinking, of course he can recommend that. That’s why people pay him a lot! For the result! Even if getting there isn’t green. 

In the end, 5 of 6 sumptuous geese for Darryl Carter: Part 1. I was very pleasantly surprised and actually enjoyed The New Traditional even though it wasn’t ‘my’ style. On the surface, Carter’s other book, The Collected Home, looks like more of the same, but I could be surprised again. Let’s see what more there is to see in Part 2!

With loving curiosity,

DesignMod

[wehavethoughts]

The New Bohemians Review!

The New Bohemians: Cool & Collected Homes By Justina Blakeney Photos: Dabito Abrams, 2015 

This year I am committing my exploration of interior design books to non-white authors. I noticed that last year I reviewed media only authored by white women. The industry in the US is dominated by this demographic, but that doesn’t mean that there aren’t any other voices to be heard! Justina Blakeney describes her multiculturality through her parents: her father is African American and Native American of the Cherokee and Chickasaw tribes; her mother descends from Eastern European and Jewish peoples. Blakeney is one of many talented creatives, and I look forward to correcting my narrow view and sharing her work.

The New Bohemians depicts a design and lifestyle that is truly cool and collected, as the subtitle suggests. This heavy hardcover is full of vibrant photographs and just begging to find home on a coffee table. The organization of the content is smart and neat, and the details are creative and inspirational. Bohemians is a personal collection, an anthology of select homes and their residents. I really liked this book, and with one tiny critique, I rate it 5 of 6 free-spirited geese. 

In her introduction, Blakeney vividly describes the philosophy behind the book and the new bohemian style she captures within it. I appreciate how she first roots the conversation in the roots of 19th century French bohemia, in which artists and other creatives would reject bourgeois standards for cheaper Romany housing and impassioned investigations of beauty. When I hear the word “bohemian,” I personally think of the region Bohemia or Čechy, today a part of the Czech Republic, from which many different peoples have been displaced. Regardless, I was pleased to hear that there was substance behind her understanding of the word, too often appropriated simply as eclecticism by those who never confronted poverty or never thought about rejecting convention. 

The book is organized into “types” although Blakeney insists that there are no boxes. I wasn’t bothered by the sectioning, I think it’s helpful to readers who may have approached the book with certain design-terms in their minds, or perhaps for those already nuanced with the style and looking to articulate their own working vocabulary. The six iterations are: modern, earthy, folksy, nomadic, romantic and maximal. Each features 3 or 4 homes, a sampling of photos and testimonials, objects and stories behind the lifestyle. Residents’ names, occupations, ages, zodiac signs, and spirit plant or animal are shared. (I don’t know if spirit beings are a part of Cherokee or Chickasaw culture, but I always hesitate when these words are used, for fear of appropriation.) Blakeney also includes short DIY tutorials and other resources such as a plant dictionary.

The overall collection successfully defines Blakeney’s concept of “new Bohemian,” which exists at the intersection of play, creativity, resourcefulness, layering, and a strong sense of freedom. I only have two minor critiques. 

Firstly, the narrow geography of the homes surveyed. Los Angeles boasted 8 homes; there were 3 in Portland, Oregon; 2 in Manhattan and 1 in Brooklyn; 2 in Venice Beach, CA; and one each in Las Cruces (NM), Dallas (TX), as well as Joshua Tree and Berkeley (both CA). I wish Blakeney stated explicitly that the homes featured would be only from the US-- although even then, a huge acreage remains untouched. All of these cities host a lot of wealth, except for perhaps the two in the desert: Joshua Tree and Las Cruces. Even with an intended American audience, it’s important to not assume that the US is the default.

My second note is on the description of the objects of the home. Of course, being about decor and design, the book includes examples of possessions that particularly suit the new Bohemian style. It may have just been evident in the people Blakeley interviewed, but I’d be good if I never had to read the word kilim again (as beautiful as it is). At first, it was cool to hear about different types of textiles and other pieces from around the world, including: Mexican sarapes, Turkish fouta, Bengali kantha, Central Asian suzani, Indonesian ikat, and Japanese shibori dyeing and boro textiles. But then these italicised ‘exotic’ pieces were paired with West Elm and IKEA in the same sentence. I guess everyone traveled to the same places and got the same thing. Especially Morocco: there was a Moroccan table, Moroccan kilim, Moroccan pouf, Moroccan basket, and it kept going. Again, maybe those selected for the book all met in Morocco, and so of course they would all have things from there. One person conducts her business with Berber women. It still felt weird to hear the same materials in each home, as if they were products for consumption, rather than personal mementos. I wonder if we would have gotten a different perspective on these remarkable artisanal pieces by showcasing them in the homes of their indigenous creators, or at least by those with ethnic, geographic, linguistic, or familial connections to those places. 

Ultimately, I did enjoy the book a lot. I personally walk the line between collecting and hoarding, and I understand the importance of having physical things in your home, the impact they have on your mood and outlook. Bohemians does an excellent job of showcasing this design aesthetic in its many wonderful variations, incorporating elements of lifestyle, thus making the connection between people and space that makes home.

With loving curiosity, 

DesignMod

[wehavethoughts]

We made it !!!

Thank you for helping us celebrate one full calendar year of blogging with WHT! Congratulations to our darling Mods for all their excellent posts. We very much look forward to hearing Everyone’s Thoughts this upcoming trip around the sun. 

A special virtual hug of appreciation to our audience. Every like, comment, and reblog makes us feel validated. Our goal is to not only share our thoughts, but create a space of dialogue to hear your thoughts as well. Thank you for helping us build that community!

Stay safe & be well.

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[image description: We Have Thoughts! logo with Blogiversary in a balloon font below. At the bottom, two smiling emojis and hearts of rainbow and black and brown colors. The entire gif has a floating heart filter.]

[wehavethoughts]

Bonus Thoughts! By CinnaMod

One of the greatest joys of cooking comes from how creative I can be after finding a basic recipe like the oatmeal pancake recipe by The Kitchn/ Sheela Prakash. I am not a breakfast person, so although I enjoyed the pancakes, I did not expect to make them again for a few months. Surprisingly, these oatmeal pancakes have made it to my meal rotation thanks to their versatility and how well they keep in the refrigerator. It’s as easy as a slice of plain toast, but much more satisfying and having any sort of pancake just seems to enhance the breakfast experience for me.

Although it takes a just little more effort, one of my favorite ways to make these pancakes is to make them savory by replacing the butter with olive oil, omitting the sugar, and adding a little bit of black pepper and cheese. I served my savory oatmeal pancakes with a side of spring greens and a sunny side up egg. Sweet or savory, I highly recommend this recipe!