Last Sunday I went to a local indie bookshop. As I walked in, I found something potentially more dangerous to my wallet than shelves of books: A Girl Scout cookie stand run by a bunch of cheerful Girl Scouts. Naturally, I bought some cookies, but I kept my purchase to a mere two boxes of Thin Mints. If I’d had more cash on hand, I might have bought more. Girl Scout cookies are hard to resist. What I’ve Been Reading: The Valley of Vengeful Ghosts by Kim Fu It feels weird to say, “I did not like this book but I acknowledge that it was well-written”. Let me start by saying that I was expecting this to be a horror novel, which it might be if the horror comes from environmental degradation, climate change, or a disregard for building codes. In The Valley of Vengeful Ghosts, we meet Eleanor, an online-based therapist adrift in the world after her mother’s death. Because her mother, Lele, ran Eleanor’s life from her finances to her meals, Eleanor doesn’t know how to function as an adult. Lele’s final gift (and order) to Eleanor was to take the money she had saved and buy a house. In a competitive and expensive housing market, there isn’t much that she can afford so she settles on a model home in a remote valley recently clear cut for a development that was never finished. At first, everything seems wonderful, but when it begins to rain and does not stop for days on end, the water starts pouring in and cracks form in the walls. Eleanor grows ever more haunted by visions of her mother and the stories of her therapy patients and soon her past and present begin to dissolve in the endless rain. Now I’m back to what I originally stated: this is a well-written book with a compelling story, but I found Eleanor to be an immensely frustrating viewpoint character. Because she never learned how to make her own decisions, Eleanor drifts through her life in a numb state of “whatever” because she expects other people to solve her problems for her. I didn’t enjoy being in that kind of mindset for so long. I spent the majority of the book begging for Eleanor to wake up and take action– any kind of action– to improve her life, even if it was just to buy more substantial groceries. Ultimately, this book wasn’t for me. It’s an intense character study that delves into an ailing woman’s psyche, and that’s not the kind of story I generally enjoy.
What I’ve Been Watching: Over the past few years, I’ve been replacing my old standard definition DVDs with BluRay copies of my favorite movies. Last week, I found a 40th anniversary 4K restoration of Amadeus on sale so I bought it and started watching it the next day. I’ve loved Amadeus since I was a nerdy teenager. The movie’s one-sided rivalry between Salieri and Mozart has always intrigued me. It’s such a compelling portrayal of creativity and the desire to live forever through your work, though, that I don’t really care that it’s not perfectly accurate to history. It’s a good story, thoughtfully told with gorgeous sets, costuming, and music that is used pretty much perfectly. Milos Forman made a masterpiece with this film. There’s always discourse about historical accuracy in historical dramas. I don’t usually mind if costumes and settings aren’t accurate to the time or place. Sometimes, non-accurate costumes help tell the story better than exact replicas of historical garments (though I wish directors would spare us the endless gray or brown color palettes we’ve been getting lately), but the dedication the Amadeus crew had to costumes and especially the incredible wigs that were popular in Europe at the time gives the film a wonderful sense of time and place we wouldn’t have gotten if they’d used more modern hair and makeup (like the beach waves in the Showtime series The Tudors). F. Murray Abraham’s performance as Salieri is top tier, and I both love and am endlessly annoyed by Mozart’s laugh. Tom Hulce pulled out all the stops when it came to bringing the character of Mozart to life.
Other Things I’ve Been Doing My local art museum has an excellent collection for being a little museum on the prairie. It is made up of mostly US artists or people who either immigrated to the United States or spent a significant amount of time here. Most of the collection is from the twentieth or twenty-first centuries, but there are some earlier works, too. There are two smaller galleries that cycle through various exhibitions through the year, as well as the permanent collection which keeps its most famous works on display while refreshing things now and then with new acquisitions or older gems from the archives. No matter what I’m there to see, I always have to say hello to the Rothko.
I brought my current film camera, a Canon FTb, with me when I went to the museum, figuring I would walk around downtown and take a bunch of photographs. I ended up using just four frames, and two of those were of a bookstore cat. I assume they will come out, but I’m never quite sure. That’s partly because I’m using film and sometimes you just don’t get the exposure right, and partly because I don’t like the light meter of the Canon FTb. I will often deliberately over- or underexpose a shot, and when I’m shooting on the fly (as often happens with street photography) I don’t always have time to ponder what’s what on my settings as they relate to the light meter’s readout. Once I finish the roll in the FTb, I might just go back to my trusty Canon AE-1. It’s basic and it has its problems, but I’m accustomed to the way it works and I can adjust my settings without thinking twice about them. I will also be sure to remember to bring my earbuds next time I go out to take photos. I feel self-conscious when I’m out with my camera though I know no one actually cares about what I’m doing. If I have music, I feel slightly disconnected from the world– enough that I don’t notice if anyone is looking at me. I can focus on light and composition instead. My go-to album for photography is Silkidrangar by the Icelandic trio Samaris. It’s a blend of Þórður Kári Steinþórsson’s atmospheric electronica, Áslaug Rún Magnúsdóttir’s bittersweet clarinet, and Jófríður Ákadóttir’s haunting vocals. Silkidrangar is a cold and often ominous album that takes its lyrics from nineteenth century Icelandic folktales. Sometimes it sounds up close and personal, and sometimes it sounds like it’s echoing down from the glaciers. Articles That Have Caught My Interest Recently: ‘Why We Rush Toward the Dark’ by C.J. Cooke: about our desire to seek out dark things in dark times  ‘this is not an essay about Emerald Fennell’s “Wuthering Heights”’ by Heather Parry: about the new movie based on the classic book, how shallow said movie is, and how women are expected to uncritically accept the vapid things made for them. It also discusses the complex themes and events in Emily Brontë’s 1847 novel that inspired the new movie  ‘Wyrd Hair - The Otherworldly Feminine’ by colleen anderhub : about women’s long hair, braiding, spinning, and the folklore it has all inspired  Traveling in Books is free today. But if you enjoyed this post, you can tell Traveling in Books that their writing is valuable by pledging a future subscription. You won't be charged unless they enable payments.
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