Books and Film

I am writing a blog on another website about cavewomen. Looking into it, one book about the general subject that I found was The Invisible Sex: Uncovering the True Roles of Women in Prehistory. As suggested in this review, it's a mixed bag, including a lot of "filler" that is not about women particularly. The writing style also was a bit chunky or something. But, it had some interesting details. Among the stuff I found is this interesting piece.

I enjoyed Crucible of Faith: The Ancient Revolution that Made Our Modern Religious World more. This is a look at the developments in Palestine from Greek times until the early Common Era. It arose from my interest in the time period of the first Hanukkah. I would still like a book focused on that, but this as whole is a good account. A few times, going into the weeds of the beliefs is a bit tedious, but even there, it is mostly very readable.

Our new film (I will re-watch Walking on Sunshine, a fun 1980s pop hits musical), new to me, is Mama. The executive producer is behind the very good Pan's Labrinth, where a girl used fantasy to deal with WWII horrors. The fantasy was more reality here. Jessica Chastain has a very good supporting role as sort of the "new" mama. The ending is kinda dumb. 

ETA: I enjoyed Walking on Sunshine again, catching a bit more on a second watch.  (Much more than second, but usually listen only to the songs.)  The DVD extra is a bunch of cast interviews.  One big issue: there is no closed captioning.  This is particularly problematic for this movie, which is very good to sing along to.  When I had it available via a t.v. viewing, I could access the captions/lyrics.  

One thing that all the new platforms (which I don't personally have though I temporarily registered for Hulu last year to check out a Christmas movie involving lesbians) provide is reboots of old shows.  Sometimes, you can get a taste of them on regular television, such as a new Star Trek series.

Nickelodeon aired the premiere episode of the iCarly reboot (with the main characters, minus Sam -- the actress moved on from acting at the moment; Gibby also does not seem to be involved). "Mosby" from Suite Life directed the episode.  "Harper" is not THAT one (that's Disney).  Anyway, nice to see everyone, but the episode itself was rather blah.  It is basically set-up, so maybe the later ones are better.  It was renewed already.