Day 19 - My Xmas Month Countdown - A Book, a Song and now a TV Show

Jo and I are watching an interesting movie on TCM as we relax this morning; The Victim from 1961, starring Dirk Bogarde and Sylvia Syms. We got a few more things accomplished yesterday, quite a busy day. We sure slept well last night. LOL.

Now to move onto my Top 7 book, song and TV show.

Book 7

John Christopher

John Christopher - The Death of Grass.

Sam Youd lived from 1922 - 2012. An English writer, he was best known for his Science Fiction stories that he wrote under the pseudonym of John Christopher. He also wrote under a number of other pseudonyms. His best known SciFi novels included The Death of Grass, The Possessors and a young adult novel series called The Tripods. I've also read another of his young adult books, The Lotus Caves. My review of The Death of Grass is below.

"The Death Of Grass by John Christopher was written in 1956 and in some ways reminds me of John Wyndham's The Day of the Triffids and The Road by Cormack McCarthy.

It's a grim, tense dystopic story. A virus, the Chung Li virus, has affected the grasses (read rice, grass, etc) of China and other Asian countries. The story is told from Britain where the main group that we will follow track the disaster that is occurring from the comfort of their lives. 100's of millions are dying in China, there are riots, panic. John and David Custance and John's friend Roger Buckley follow the news and try to prepare for the future. Roger is a government spin doctor so has inside information and tries to guide John. David lives in a valley in northern England and wonders what to do with his grain crops.

Of course, efforts to contain the virus fail and threaten the whole world. This begins a journey by John and Roger and their families to get to David's sanctuary. For the shortness of the story, there is a lot of impact and Christopher packs a lot of punch into the story. The characters are transformed by the events and once again Christopher tries, and I think successfully, to show their attitudes and how they are forced to change them to the new situation.

Everything happens in a very short time frame once the disaster strikes but don't let that fool you. The story is tense, at times scary and will leave you somewhat uncomfortable. Very powerful and worth reading. (4.5 stars)"

Song 7

Halsey

Halsey - Graveyard.

Born Ashley Nicolette Frangipane, Halsey is a singer / songwriter from New Jersey. Jo and I saw her earlier this year when she hosted Saturday Night Live. She was lovely, funny, intelligent and a pretty good singer as well. She has said that her parents music interests were a great influence on her, music by artists such as Alannis Morissette, The Cure, 2Pac, etc. Lady Gaga give her the courage to just be herself. Since 2015, she has released two albums, 4 EPs, 17 singles. Graveyard was released in 2019 from a pending third album, Manic.

TV Show 7

Emergence.

I do enjoy a good Science Fiction show and Emergence is one of those. It was a new series released this Fall season and it grabbed me and Jo right away. It stars Allison Tolman (Jo Evans) as a small town sheriff who finds a young girl, Alexa Swinton (Piper), who seems to have survived a plane crash. Of course, everything is not as it seems. Was Piper in the plane crash? Who are all the strange people running around hiding the evidence? Does Piper have unique powers? It's a common theme for a TV series, but this one is presented so very well. And Tolman and Swinton are fantastic actors. There is a great supporting cast as well; Donald Faison as the es-husband, Robert Bailey as Tolman's loyal deputy, Clancy Brown as her father and Ashley Aufderheide as her daughter, another super young actress. I just hope it doesn't get cancelled. I need to know how it will resolve itself!

So there you go, the countdown continues as we head to the Top 5. Have a great day!