St. Swithun’s Day mid-year reviews 2015

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I consider this Feast Day of St. Swithun (15 July) to be the calendar year’s mid-point. It was about the midway point in public school summer vacations, vacations which I considered the high holy days of freedom when I was both a student and later a teacher.

So, this is a good time to pause and record things about the last half-year. I started recently listing the books I’ve read and the movies I’ve seen, mainly so that I could keep track of all of them and possibly give them as recommendations to those few (if any) who read my blogging. I’d like to review them all, but that might be too much. From New Year’s Day to St. Swithun’s Day, here they are:

Books Read:

Ira Levin – This Perfect Day (1970) [libertarian SF] [reviewed on Zenwind]

Marc Headley – Blown for Good (2009) [reviewed on Zenwind]

Victor Koman – Solomon’s Knife (1989/2014) [libertarian SF]

Elie Wiesel – Night (1958/2006)

Lawrence Wright – Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, and the Prison of Belief (2013) [reviewed on Zenwind]

Steven Pressfield – Gates of Fire [great novel of the Spartans at Thermopylae]

Basho – Narrow Road to the Interior [master of haiku]

Richard Flanagan – Narrow Road to the Deep North (2013)

Nancy Many – My Billion Year Contract: memoir of a former Scientologist (2009)

Tony Ortega – The Unbreakable Miss Lovely (2015) [Wow!]

J. Neil Schulman – Alongside Night (1979) [libertarian SF]

E.M. Forster – The Machine Stops (1909) [libertarian SF]

Jefferson Hawkins – Counterfeit Dreams (2010)

Amy Scobee – Scientology: Abuse at the Top (2010)

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Movies Seen:

Predestination

Into the Woods

Blackhat

Guardians of the Galaxy (DVD) [recommended]

American Sniper [reviewed on Zenwind]

The Imitation Game [recommended]

Still Alice [recommended]

The Theory of Everything

Birdman

Lost River

Child 44 [reviewed on Zenwind]

Tomorrowland

Mad Max: Fury Road

Wild (DVD) [recommended]

Crazy, Stupid, Love (DVD)

Nightcrawler (DVD)

Unbroken (DVD)

The Voices (2014)

Spy (2014)

Inherent Vice (2014) (DVD)

Jurassic World

Love & Mercy [recommended]

The Kingsmen (2015) (DVD)

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I hope to recap the next half-year’s books and movies at New Year’s next. Let me know what books and movies you have experienced.

As far as our family, we are still doing well. I am still under treatment for chronic Deep Vein Thrombosis, blood clots in my legs. But I'm trying to stay fit and exercise whenever possible.

Swithun lives!

-Zenwind.

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