Dinara Tengri

Hello all and welcome to Weekly Small Talk, an original series, that gives me an excuse to talk about anything even remotely related to books and popular culture. Ever since I went back to school, maintaining an active life here, on this blog, has been more of a struggle than I wanted to admit to myself. The last time I was studying full time was five years ago, and even then, I didn't have any hobbies or side projects that required this amount of time and attention. Needless to say when I plunged into this thing called college last September, I had a bad grasp of what I was getting into. And it wasn't just the school itself, but the full list of extra-curricular stuff that our wonderful Faculty of Odontology at Malmö University has to offer. I'm not complaining. I haven't had this much fun since... well, ever. That being said, something had to give. For instance, I had to quit my tutoring job, which was bringing me a lot of joy. And then there was this blog whi...

Welcome to this very special edition of Weekly Small Talk . It's an original meme where I usually talk about anything that is remotely related to books and popular culture.  Warning : this post contains spoilers for X-files season ten.   This week, I already talked about my rescue book haul . But when I woke up this morning, my Twitter and Facebook feeds had a surprise for me:  The X-files is coming back for a new season. "Did I get it right?", I asked myself. The X-files is coming back. The filming is scheduled this summer, and the new season will most likely premiere in 2018. To be completely honest, the news wasn't that much of a surprise. We all saw it happen. And by "we all" I mean the "we, the fans". The way Fox and the creators were talking about it, it was a question of "when", not "if". Obviously, both David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson have busy working schedules, and making a new season happen, e...

Welcome to Weekly Small Talk , an original feature where I talk about anything related to books or popular culture. This week it's time for another book haul. But not just any book haul. My school library is having a major book purge, getting rid of the so called "expired" books, and as soon as I saw this abomination take place, I could not just walk by. I mean, what kind of a person would I be if I let a perfectly good copy of Fahrenheit 451 be thrown out and recycled into wrapping paper, just because nobody wants to loan it?                                          Never in my life have I brought home this many used books. Ten books, to be specific. I also took an old biochemistry text book, but I'm stashing it in my locker (it's very heavy). So, without further ado, here are the books that I have "rescued" from the great purge:  Tusen och en Natt (Arabian Nights) ...

Welcome to Weekly Small Talk, where I catch up on the books, movies and other fine/pop culture I have consumed in the past week. This week, I want to talk a little bit about Bill Paxton , who passed away a week ago. So much has already been said about this talented and charismatic actor and director, and I cannot say anything that hasn't been said before. Most of the movie fans remember Paxton from movies like Aliens, The Terminator and Predatpr 2. And even though his resume was far more impressive than just his roles in the cult sci fi franchises , for many of us who grew up in the 1980/90's, Bill Paxton will always be remembered as that badass who wasn't afraid to face off with the most dangerous alien monsters. When I was a kid, we had a bootlegged VHS copy of Predator 2 in our home, and naturally the quality of that tape was so atrocious, that for years I didn't even know that it was Paxton who played Jerry, the cocky cop with a heart of gold. Not until I fin...

Welcome to Weekly Small Talk, a new feature that I started because I'm both too swamped and too lazy to come up with fresh and original material. This is where I talk about books movies and other cultural stuff that I've consumed in the past week. This week I want to talk about Youtube, and some of the channels that make you happy that you have wifi. There are so many Youtube channels dedicated to movie reviews, book reviews, and just pop culture in general, that sometimes you need to seep through a lot of material to find the channel that really speaks to you. Here are some that speak to me in particular, and I want to share them with you. The Nerdwriter is the most popular channel on this list. I only discovered it a few months ago, but its creator, Evan Puschak has been making videos for years now. What makes The Nerdwriter stand out in the crowd is that Puschak isn't just making videos, he's making video essays . Now, he's far from the only video essayist ou...