Depression and Disaster

Kirsten Dunst gave an award winning performance in the film Melancholia.  This 2011 psychological disaster movie about a planet called Melancholia was hiding behind the Earth's sun and is now on a collision course with Earth to destroy it.  Justine, played by Dunst has everything going for her in life however, she is going through depression.  Her sister Claire (Charlotte Gainsbourg) and her husband John (Keifer Sutherland) start off by throwing a lavish reception for Justine and her new husband Michael (Alexander Skarsgard).  Director Lars von Trier demonstrates two sides of this movie through the eyes of Justine and Claire.  The comparison of how an extremely depressed woman and a woman that's in control of her life deal with the end of the world is ambiguous and fascinating. The still life photography and the cinematography is absolutely brilliant.  You will either love this story for its symbolism and psychology or dislike it because of it.  Either way, its a beautiful and mesmerizing story.

Witches and baked goods

Trick or Treat (A Corinna Chapman mystery) by Kerry Greenwood is the 4th book in the Chapman series. Corinna is a baker who owns Earthly Delights and works and lives in a building in a small town in Australia with a cast of very interesting characters. She has a gorgeous boyfriend, Daniel, a former junkie apprentice named Jason and a host of cats two of which are the mouse patrol and keeps the area clear of mice and juicy rats. Daniel has a friend, Georgina, who has a devious secret and is causing trouble for Corinna. A new bakery, Best Fresh, opens and is direct competition to Corinna's bakery. People start turning up hallucinating and acting crazy in Corinna's alleyway and trouble starts heading in the way of her witch friends and a long lost treasure. This series is fun and relaxing.

A Duty to the Dead

A Duty to the Dead is a historical fiction mystery set during the Great War in Europe.  A nurse, Bess Crawford was on the Britannic (a hospital ship) and the sister ship to the Titanic when it hit a mine on November 21, 1916 and sank.  A lieutenant who was dying under the care of Sister Crawford asked her for a favor.  He wanted her to relay a message to his brother in England.  “I did it for mother’s sake.  But it has to be set right.”  With this in mind and her “duty to the dead”, Bess Crawford comes across many mishaps and shameful secrets and murder to deliver this message.  Charles Todd draws you into one of the world’s most deadliest and devastating wars and also into this soldier’s family secrets.  It’s hard to put this book down.  

Recommended author is Jacqueline Winspear who wrote the Maisie Dobb series.


You can find this book at Amazon.com by clicking on this link

http://www.amazon.com/Duty-Dead-Bess-Crawford-Mystery/dp/0061791768

You can also find this book at Barnesandnoble.com by clicking on the link below:

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/books/product.aspx?r=1&isbn=9780061791765&cm_mmc=Shopzilla-_-Category-_-Title-_-9780061791765&mr:referralid=36518586-22b5-11e0-af68-001b2166becc