For many years now, I try to watch as many Oscar nominees as possible. Some years I took things more seriously or was more successful than others. In 2019 I started reviewing the films here on this mostly-defunct blog. In 2021, we were knee-deep in a pandemic, which meant most films were available for streaming, … More The Official Helga Without the H 2023 Oscar Awards
Three star review, originally posted here on April 44, 2022. According to two minutes of extensive Wikipedia research, Dostoevsky himself thought this book was a failure. As did virtually every contemporary critic. Which makes me feel better for just not getting into this. I saw someone as on the discussion board when this book starts … More Goodreads Review: The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoevsky
Three star review, originally posted here on January 27, 2021. For a linguist, this author sure seems to use a lot of words to not really say much. Her core ideas are interesting enough. I enjoyed learning about language tricks used by charismatic leaders, and I enjoyed the idea of applying these concepts to other … More Goodreads Review: Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism by Amanda Montell
Four star review, originally posted here on January 27, 2021. Well holy cow this book was violent!Reading this felt like trying to read Shakespeare. It’s kinda technically in English, but not quite. And so I spent a lot of time, especially at the beginning, not quite understanding what was happening, or coming up with my … More Goodreads Review: A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
Three star review, originally posted here on December 27, 2021. The title and description are both misleading for this audiobook. This is not a transcript of the trial; this is a carefully curated selection of excerpts from the trial transcript. I expected this much going in, since the trial lasted all day every day for … More Goodreads Review: The Trial of the Chicago 7: The Official Transcript
Five star review, originally posted here on December 27, 2021. Nearly perfect! Defoe somehow manages to present complex histories in under 3 pages each. Every bite-size history is a funny and entertaining without being disrespectful. It takes serious skill to balance these elements effectively. It’s even more impressive that Defoe manages to make each history … More Goodreads Review: An Atlas of Extinct Countries by Gideon Defoe
Last year I was binging Christmas movies, and I came to the realization that virtually no supposed Christmas movies are actually about Christmas. Meaning there’s an entire genre out there dedicated to the holiday celebrating the birth of Christ… that rarely ever even mention the birth of Christ. I wound up developing a highly-scientific Christmasyness … More Assorted Christmas Movie Binge, Year 2: Still Searching for the Elusive “Real” Christmas Movies
Four star review, originally posted here on December 23, 2021. Wow. Just wow. This book was soooo funny. It’s amazing how well humor and wit can age. Did everything in the book hold up? No, of course not. But so much of it did. I do have one complaint, though. I feel like a big … More Goodreads Review: Don Qixote by Miguel Cervantes Saavedra
4 star review, originally posted here on December 22, 2021. Hey, this Dickens guy can write. Just in case you didn’t know. I’ve been trying to read more classics recently, and naturally I find myself grappling with the question of what allowances we make for the author and the characters based on the time period … More Goodreads Review: Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
Three star review, originally posted here on December 20, 2021. There are two halves to consider here: the epic of Beowulf, and this particular translation. I remember really liking Beowulf in high school. That was, admittedly, a VERY long time ago, so my memory isn’t the clearest. Did we even read the entire poem, or … More Goodreads Review: Beowulf: A New Translation by Unknown and Maria Dahvana Headley
Helga without the H 