To Future with Love

My name is Veleka Georgieva. I am from a small European country called Bulgaria. I have created this blog because I love to read and write. Here I post mostly my reviews of books and movies which I have read/watched and liked, and which I would like to share with you. However, I hope one day to become a published author. Most of my fiction pieces can be found on http://figment.com/users/46425-Veleka-Georgieva. I hope you enjoy my blog!

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Book Review: The End of Poverty by Jeffrey Sachs

The first thing that I noticed when I started reading this book was how dated the information in it was, and this almost got me to put it down and move on to another read. But I couldn’t be happier that I didn’t do that because even though The End of Poverty was published in 2005 and thus much of the statistics in it are not quite up to date, the insights it provides into the true economic issues the world faces are true even today (or perhaps even more so today).

I really enjoyed the writing of this book, as it was very comprehensible and well-argued without requiring too much background knowledge about the issues at hand. I was very impressed with the idea of clinical economics and the wide range of factors discussed as possible reasons for a country’s prosperity or poverty. I found the examples used to illustrate different points quite remarkable, as they were not focused solely on Africa’s current situation (in 2005), but looked at a range of countries and went into the historical events which have had an impact on those countries’ economies.

While the tone of the book was generally positive and hopeful, strongly focused on what we can do now to improve things, there was no sugar-coating of the seriousness of the matters discussed. I felt that while the author was very critical of the role of the United States in relation to the issue of relieving extreme poverty around the world, he was not looking for a scape-goat to simply put the blame on. Instead, this criticism was supported by relevant data and personal experience working with US officials which demonstrate why allocating a certain amount of national GNP for foreign aid can sometimes turn out to be so difficult.

In short, I think everyone should read this book, regardless of he/she is interested in economics. In my opinion, this is a book about the real world and how real people have to live because they haven’t been lucky enough to be born in a developed country, and I think the best word to describe it would be “eye-opening”.

http://velekaswritingspot.weebly.com/books/the-end-of-poverty-by-jeffrey-sachs

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Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert (Review)

I usually like to write dreamy, if somewhat ambiguous, introductions in relation to some vague idea or imagery mentioned in the book that I’m discussing before plunging in any expression of my personal opinion about it. Quite frankly though, I don’t feel capable of doing this about this book because the truth is simple: I have really mixed feelings about it.

On one hand, I don’t think there is anything particularly special in it to justify the enormous amount of publicity it’s received in the past few years. It’s simply a traveling book. I had quite a bit of troubles reading it, as for a very long time (and I mean, pretty much until I reached its final section) I found it too whiny and shallowly emotional… or maybe to an extent even not emotional at all. The writer in me was constantly struggling to ignore the obvious braking of one of the golden rules of writing – show, don’t tell – as in many cases the book only got me to hear what the author experienced rather than feel it for myself, which quite frankly was somewhat frustrating. Again for a large part of the book, the most interesting thing in it for me were the fun facts provided about the different countries, or cultures, or languages, or religions, which personally I don’t think it is a particularly good thing when we are talking about a piece of literary writing as opposed to a guide book or an encyclopaedia.

And yet on the other hand, there was something that kind of endeared me towards this book. I think the idea of such a complete personal makeover quite appeals to me, so seeing the results of this year-long journey in the final section of the book really made the whole difference for me. I wish the author had allowed me, the reader, to experience her journey along with her, but even though, disappointingly, I can’t say this happened, I was still quite pleased with its beautiful, if somewhat corny, conclusion.

I think the publicity around this book may have led me to create high expectations of it long before I even got a hold of it, and expectations undoubtedly can lead to disappointments. But if you are thinking of reading Eat, Pray, Love, just do it. It’s nothing particularly special, in my opinion, but it can be quite enjoyable nevertheless.

http://velekaswritingspot.weebly.com/books/eat-pray-love-by-elizabeth-gilbert

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Book Review: A Short History pf Tractors in Ukrainian by Marina Lewycka

Perhaps there isn’t a single thing in this book that cannot be described as at least slightly odd. The ridiculousness of the situation in which the protagonist finds herself makes this story so funny that it had me laughing out loud more than once. Yet, it is very hard to categorise this book as comedy. There is an unmistakable undercurrent of nostalgia and sadness that one cannot help but feel while reading. There is a fear of the past and still a deeply seeded yearning to find out more about it. There is a lot of history capturing the horrors of the Second World War, the Cold War, life under Stalinist communism and the hard route to an escape into liberal Britain. The fact that all this gloominess is mainly communicated through a book focused on the historical significance of tractors (because of course tractors were the real reason why the Allies won the War!) keeps the tone largely light; yet there are moments when you see the reality of what life was like in those days and you feel the ghost of the past haunting the characters even in the present.

In a sense, the story is rather frustrating. All the accidents in it evoke pity and an angry urge to get involved and somehow help out. Perhaps it was the age of the characters that got me to associate them with my own grandparents while reading, which only made my desire to do something and help them stronger. The slight element of mystery was enjoyable, but it was really the piling up of accidents one after the other that ultimately kept me turning the pages.

Overall, it’s an enjoyable book, but because of my personal background – coming from a post-Socialist country myself – I can’t quite say if it is the perfect read for everyone. Yet, what I can say is that at least despite the title it is not actually a book about tractors – what a relief!

http://velekaswritingspot.weebly.com/books/a-short-history-of-tractors-in-ukrainian-by-marina-lewycka 

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Lucy (2014)

There has been so much written about this film that I will be very brief in expressing my opinion.  Is it scientifically backed up? No. Does it need to be scientifically backed up? No. It is fiction. To be honest, this is not a terribly bad movie that exploits a common misconception. If you don’t readtoo deeply into it, it’s just the product of an idea that was indeed quite phantasmagorical but in the end of the day served its purpose of telling a story. To be honest, I think its only fault is that it came out too late. Not only is it proven now that we don’t use only 10% of our brain, but also everybody knows that. If the movie had come out some years ago, I suspect that its reception would have been a bit warmer and maybe some people might have even believed in what it suggests. Now clearly, we don’t need to believe it to enjoy it, and I didn’t mind it that much really. Personally, if we go with the same idea, I like movies that are bit more realistic like Limitless (2011), for example, but that still doesn’t make this movie as bad as the internet portrayed it when it first came out

http://velekaswritingspot.weebly.com/movies/lucy-2014

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Interstellar (2014)

I love science fiction, but it’s really hard for me to say whether I liked this movie or not. It is very long and I don’t think it needed to be, and there were some breath-taking moments, but the science fiction of the events in space contasted way too violendtly with the crude reality presented on Earth, which was hard to swallow and made the movie not all that enjoyable.  Overall, for me this movie had three stages. The first one was Earth and life on Earth and why the protagonist needs to leave it. For me that part was too long and a little bit boring even though it did set the stool for the rest of the story nicely and eventually explained what the movie was all about. I know they needed to set their story and the reality in which their characters live, but I still think they could and should have been a bit shorter in doing so. Then, we had Space and all the difficulties there. This part was very beautiful to watch on a cinema screen and I definitely recommend it, as it was beautifully made, and even though I am not too much of a space-related sci-fi person, I enjoyed it much more than any other part of the movie. The character of Anne Hathaway really made this part count  and got me on the edge of my seat a couple of times. I really liked how they had played around with all the different options of what an Earth-like planet could be like, which was very imaginative and kind of scary. And then there was the real science fiction and the going inside the black hole and everything that happens there. I know that it is fiction, but I was a littble bit annoyed at how far out they had gone to create this reality inside the black hole and how glorified the Human was in supposing that a future race of us would be knowledgeable enough to control all the dimensions. This went a bit too far out for me. Regardless of all those little flaws on the way, though, I just loved how in the end everything was tied in together in a way that kind of made sense, and it wasn’t exactly a happy ending but it wasn’t sad either, which is something I just love.  The personal story inside the bigger picture of saving the human race wasn’t the main thing in the movie, which is something I definitely appreciate, and I really liked how they had incorporated emotions and feelings and love but logic and reason were the main driving powers regardless, because in my opinion, this made the story that much more believable - when you have a handful of scientists and cosmonauts who have to  save the world, you would be hoping they would be thinking with their brains when making decisions, right? But it was also nice that there were little personal stories to get you engaged on the way.  Did I enjoy this movie? Yes, but not all the time. Is it worth watching? Definitely. Will I watch it again? Probably not. But hey, I still recommend giving it a go.

http://velekaswritingspot.weebly.com/movies/interstellar-2014

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Exodus: Gods and Kings (2014)

I hadn’t seen the trailer before I went in to watch this movie, and when it began, I honestly thought, “the same story all over again,” horrified at the prospect of spending the following two hours of my life watching the same legent I knew oh so well from The Prince of Egypt. But surprisingly enough, I liked the movie. I definitely don’t think that very religious people would be too fond of it, but for the reasons I don’t imagine they would have enjoyed it, I did.  Exodus took a much more critical stance on the well known legent, making Moses the voice of modern day logic and reason. He clearly asked the awkward questions such as “Why help 400 years later and not earlier?”, “Who is this punishing?”  and “Isn’t this too cruel?”, which, to be honest, have to be asked in relation to this legent. There was no slipping into blind worshipping, and this more questioning and reasonable stance is what really appealed to me.  Also, it’s hard to make a movie that includes so many miracles without throwing it right into the fantasy genre, but somehow this was avoided in Exodus. The sequence of  the miracles was made in a very logical order so as to seem that there is almost nothing miraculous about them… simply, poor luck. Even the great splitting of the sea waters was made somewhat realistically, as it took some time and its threat of closing was there and possible for Hebrews and Egyptians alike.  Of course, the story was somewhat Americanised with its emphasis of Moses as a warrior, which strolls away from the original legend, but I guess it was to an extend essential to the story that he knows how to fight and strategize. It was definitely something I could have done without, but it didn’t really spoil the story for me.  Lastly, I think the directors really pushed their boundaries by portraying God as a child. It was fine by me, but again, I don’t think that religious people  would be too fond of the movie as a whole, and this detail just adds to it. Personally, I enjoyed it. I have recommended it to many friends and would recommend it to anyone who wouldn’t be offended by the different viewpoint that the movie presents.

http://velekaswritingspot.weebly.com/movies/exodus-gods-and-kings-2014

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Movie Review: Six Degrees of Separation (1993)

Six Degrees of Separation is by far one of the most extraordinary movies I’ve seen in my life. It starts off in utter confusion and clatter, the lines run fast, the characters change quickly, increasing in number, and just when I thought I got it, a naked man ran into the picture and took me back to my initial state of confusion. Developing into a sort of mystery or rather a detective story, as the number of “victims” increases, the film leaves you wondering along with the main characters about what is happening and why. More and more people join in the story, entering its audience or joining its narrators, and take you to the conclusion that the film is just that – a succession of narratives, all single-blinded, and all lacking the knowledge as who is the mystery boy who entered their lives and brought them into his little game. I don’t think there’s only one interpretation as to what actually happens – I call it a game but for some it could be something very different. You think that something is revealed towards the end, but is it really? – you can’t be sure. And the movie really makes you think if not anything else.

The title is somewhat straight forward – you never know what kind of person may enter your life and for what purpose. The idea is that there is a chain of six people connecting us to each person on the planet: the trick is to find the connection between the right six people in the first place. I do not know if this is true, but I know that a theory about it exists. While it is not heavily emphasized in the movie, the theme is underlying the events in a clever way that is worded for more clarity in a few lines somewhere in the middle. And that is that.

Six Degrees of Separation is complicated, or confusing at the very least, but it’s worth the time and once you get into it, you couldn’t let a line slip away. It knows how to attract attention and how to keep it. And, as pointed out earlier, it makes you think. 

http://velekaswritingspot.weebly.com/movies/six-degrees-of-separation-1993

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Book Rivew: Goodbye to Berlin by Christopher Isherwood

What does pre-Nazism Berlin look like through the eyes of a British writer? Goodbye to Berlin didn't impress me with a strong storyline or too many memorable characters.  Its real value lies in its simplicity. It carries the charm of its time and borrows some from Cabaret, and it's fantastic because it illustrates the human interactions and understanding from that time. The political references are brought down to plain minimum, which highlights the personal story and how detached it can be from the events happening around. It comes to show that it's the people we meet, know, and love that make up our story - not the times in which we live.  At one point the book seems almost silly - there are all the tensions from the fraction between Communism and Nazism, there are the economic difficulties following the Wall Street crash, there are the foundations of the killing anti-semitism that will later lead to the Holocaust, and there is the narrator, who's impressed by a cabaret singer and a wanna-be actress. It's almost ridiculous. But then you continue reading, and you reach the last chapter, and you start to understand a truth about people, which is hard to explain. It's never told out right, but it's there - underlining every word and outlined in a frame of laughter. And then you remember the whole story that History tells and how only History will finish this book, which ends all too quickly. 

http://velekaswritingspot.weebly.com/books/goodbye-to-berlin-by-christopher-isherwood

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Petty God is by far one of the most abstract books that I have read. With strong extended metaphors derived from the Bible this books offers a much more modern read of this ancient text. Separately...

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Don’t watch this movie. Spare yourself the time, the philosophy and the heartache. Perhaps your life would be way easier without it. Gave up yet? How can I convince you to do so? This is not your...

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Divergent is perhaps one of the oddest dystopian stories that I have encountered because as bad as a system of putting people into only five factions is, suppressing all individuality and divergence,...

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  After the long, long waiting, finally Veronica Mars the movie is out! And I don’t think anyone was expecting a better continuation of the legendary TV series. The story of the creation of the...

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The Great Gatsby is such an interesting history lesson on the ‘roaring twenties’ in the States. Even though I personally like the story of the movie, I don’t think that’s what’s most...

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Boy is one of the most touching stories that I have seen in a very long time. It reminds me of those simple childhood days when all that matters is fun and games. The atmosphere of the movie is just...

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Hey, guys! Here's my review on The Wolf of Wall Street. Check it out on my website.

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Чанг Май, Тайланд

Не вярвах в машини на времето, докато не дойдох в Чанг Май. тук хората са различни и колите са от миналото. Сградите са стари и социалистически без действително да са нито стари, нито социалистически. Чанг Май е хладен и бавен, и отпуснат, и невероятен. И не обичам Чанг Май, както обичам Барселона или Берлин, но го обичам по един по-спокоен, по-естествен начин. Тук мога да дишам, а дъждът е тропически. И не оценяш колко е силен и опасен, и обсебващ, докато не започнеш да яздиш слон във водите на бързата кафява река. И няма водопади, когато вали, защото няма реки и няма пътища, а всички се движат във водата. Хората са малко луди и малко пияни, и може би дори малко... нещо друго. Но няма да го разбереш, докато не те избутат от рафта или не хвърлят змия по теб. Добре че поне животните са с всичкия си! Иначе целувките с крокодила или питона, или тигъра биха били твърде опасни. Но всичко ще е наред, ако си намериш един Антъни, който да те заведе до върха на планината или до храма, някъде там, и да те нахрани с пържени червеи. Намери си един Антъни - струва си. После се качи на мръсните стъпала на изоставена сграда, за да оцениш спокойствието на света от един покрив и през музиката на тези, които никога няма да напуснат. Не се напивай в Чанг Май, защото си заслужава да го запомниш. И си отваряй очите, защото салфетките ще ти казват да спасиш света, захарчетата - да се усмихваш, кафенетата - да продължиш напред, а банкоматите - да опростиш живота си. Философия има във всичко, предполагам. А когато идеш на някой от нощните пазари и базари, забрави най-добре за парите - там те и без друго нямат сила над желанията и покупките. И не забравяй да оцениш рибите и хората, които те забелязват. И макар че можеш, не пиши по всички стени в Чанг Май - остави място и за тези, които ще дойдат след теб. 

Научи се да псуваш. Научи се да псуваш и изплюй всичката горчивина, която си събрал - тя не ти трябва тук. Псувай на воля и се отпусни, и слушай дъжда, и се наслаждавай на живота. Припомни си регето и изпий една вода на площада. И не се страхувай, ако искаш да се усмихнеш или ако не си се усмихвал от много време. Усмихни се на непознатия и се влюби в него и всяка мисъл за него остави да те ощастливява, докато накрая не се почувстваш у дома. Да живееш в Чанг Май не е най-лошото нещо, което може да случи, дори и да е само за седмица.

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Movie Review: Across the Universe (2007)

Director: Julie Taymor

Across the Universe is so much more than the ordinary musical. The music implemented in it is not simply a means of expressing a character’s words instead of mainstream lines – the music goes much deeper than that. It sets the moods, shows the viewer an insight to the character’s thoughts and feelings, and, what is most impressive, weaves additional, smaller stories into the big picture. It is hard to say whether the Beatles’ songs complement the plot or the other way around, but in the end of the day the combination of the two is spectacular.

This movie gave me goose-bumps, made me cry, and laugh, and dream. It is beautiful beyond limitation while describing a very contrasting part of the American history – the war in Vietnam. It also gives very different aspects to the story showing the lives not only of the soldiers or the hippies fighting for peace, but also of all the different people around them, each with his own story and each somehow involved in those events although not directly. Even though some of the characters portray stereotypes of the time, each of them is somehow surprising and showing himself as different and free to follow his own path instead of the mass movement.

Another thing that particularly appealed to me was that even though there is strong love story, it is not the main topic of the movie and it’s not what everything revolves around. The balance between the different themes is fantastic, and I believe that the Julie Taymor has done an amazing job directing this movie, focusing in a unique way on all of its issues.