I read "Still Alice", though I haven't yet seen the movie.  However, as Julianne Moore won best actress, it did serve to advertise the book for me.

I found the book somewhat difficult to put down - haven't had a good read in a little while.  I think the story "worked" as the main character, named Alice, was a university psychology professor, though at Harvard, not sessionally at the University of Windsor.  

Having someone who has made a career with her ideas and speech going through dementia was a very good choice to be made.  It made the loss more "quantitative" than might be otherwise, and enabled Alice to be eloquent and detailed about what was happening, until she couldn't any more.

I'd highly recommend it.  Though the progression is predictable, though faster than I'd have imagined, it does paint a more positive picture from the perspective of the patient than the nightmare it appears from the "outside".  The title "Still Alice" fits, there is a core that remains, and some of the stages seem to be freeing, to some degree, as you are able to see things from a unique perspective - an outsider in your own life.  Her opinions of her children, particularly the youngest whom, by her own pre-morbid admission, admits to not having bonded as much with, are very positive - the beautiful young woman or the powerful actress -it would be nice to assume that your parents would like you if you met, not "stuck" loving you because you were born there.

Liking "Agent Carter" - Marvel Comics TV Series (and the other comic book series)

Agent Carter is a nice addition to the TV - Comic Book universe that seems to be in play at the moment.

As the series is set in the post-WWII era, I'm not sure how long it will last.  It does get a little old having Carter sent out for coffee every time something interesting is being discussed.

I like that Tony Stark (Iron Man)'s dad (Howard Stark) is a character, and that Jarvis (originally introduced as the Avengers butler in the comics) is having a more active role (he's Stark's butler, but with Stark off hiding, he's getting to be Carter's co-spy).  Jarvis (along with Alfred in Gotham) are being portrayed in a more 3-D way - not just "butlers" in the background - both have military experience and get to do heroic things, which helps explain how they stay in their roles with their odd employers.

With "Gotham" (the early DC comics Batman series - Batman is a 12 year old, or so, Bruce Wayne) the timing is not stressed.  If you look, you don't see cell phones and computers, but otherwise it is a cop show with organized crime folks and interesting guests (much of the interest is who they will eventually become).

In Agent Carter, the timeframe seems much more pronounced and obvious.  Not sure if this will play out well, or not.  I think the initial '70's Wonder Woman started in as a 1940's (or 1920's) but ended up in current times.

If I had to rank the current comic book series I'd pick:

1) Arrow (fleshed out characters, the Green Arrow powers aren't so extreme as to make the need to create powerful villains every week).  They've done a good job with casting the support crew, and having the "same world" as Flash, the "universe" feels bigger.  All the supporting characters becoming "powered" is a trend that has to stop, as it becomes too unbelievable (Arrow, his sister, his ex-not-dead-girlfriend, his living-ex-slept-with-her-sister girlfriend, his best buddy and his dad all became powered or soon to be so).  Marvel did this with Spider-Man for a while - everyone Peter Parker had coffee with or saw on the bus become a villain or hero - linked coincidences lose power after a while. The link to Ras-al-Gaul is great as well, as that links over to the whole Batman world, and has potential power.

2) Gotham - I like the "Gordon" character (which helps as he's 90% of the series).  Good supporting characters (multiple mobsters running around, politics in their world provides sub-plots), good previews of characters, not being pushed forward too fast (Ed Nigma - the future Riddler, is an odd character on the police force, socially awkward, but not an immediate villain - primarily wants to solve problems and make friends).  They do a good job of keeping Bruce Wayne in the background as well - he doesn't even appear each episode, and when he does, he's not perfect (still learning, somewhat naive, exactly what a young orphaned child from a wealthy family would be like).

3) Flash - very optimistic, particularly compared to Gotham.  They've done a smart job of keeping most of the storylines on the non-uniformed characters.  This might suffer from the "too many threads back to the same source" problem that seemed to invade the series "Heroes" with the "white event" and Smallville "meteor storm".  Lots of characters seem to have powers derived from the accident that gave the Flash his powers.

4) Agents of Shield - really liked the first few episodes, as it has been off the air for a few months, find I don't miss it as much as I thought.  The "dissolution" of SHIELD at the end of season 1 might have been too early - it might have played off to have the "all powerful world spy agency" continue for a while longer, and perhaps more crossover ideas with the Avengers characters.  Really liked what they did with Deathlok.  It might be a nice vehicle to bring the less powerful Marvel characters forward (e.g. overseas to Wakanda to see the Black Panther; Black Widow would be an easy fit, but Johanssen might be too big for that role on the TV series; Luke Cage might be interesting, as they can overlap during some investigation, James Rhodes (Iron Man's buddy) and Sam Wilson (Falcon, Cap's buddy and a decent stand-alone character from the Cap movie) might serve to keep the main Avengers in mind without using the actual Cap and Iron Man).  Shield does have to be careful - too many guests might make the main case less interesting, and thus doom the series.

5) Agent Carter - still new, need to see how it plays out and whether there is enough going on to keep the series fresh.  I think the character is usable, but being "trapped" in the '50's limits crossover with the other series (they did mention her reverently in SHIELD, but aside from some time travel one-off, or meeting an aged present-day Carter, there's not many opportunities for Avengers or Shield crossovers).  What might be nice is to bring up some Timely folks - Cap is around (but on ice), but so is the original Human Torch (the android, not the Fantastic Four guy) and the Sub-Mariner.  Even as newspaper headlined or backstories, this might open things up a little.  They might be able to have flashback stories from WWII, with the "present" Carter dealing with the aftermath.

Finished (E-Reader): "So Anyway...The Autobiography" - John Cleese

I finished the John Cleese autobiography.  Not a particularly noteworthy read.

I was impressed, and a little jealous, of how job opportunities seemed to fall into Cleese's lap.  It seemed that he was offered opportunities whenever he neared the end of whatever thing he was currently doing - "Oh, you play is finishing up, want to do a movie script?", "got any time? we're starting a new TV series on BBC".  Even thing outside his professional scope (e.g. movie scripts).  A nice time to be around.

This book is not the definitive "Monty Python" history, though the players seem to float around in the same circles as Cleese, so they do interact throughout the book.

Cleese comes across as likable, and lucky, but there aren't any particular miracles or barriers to make any of the events "epic".

I think it might be better as an audiobook.

Finished (E-Book) - "Revival" - Stephen King

I read a few Stephen King novels when I was younger (Cujo, Pet Sematary, The Shining, Carrie) and have sporadically read since ("11/22/63" being the most recent and best one in memory).

I picked up "Revival" after seeing it in the bookstores while Christmas shopping.

The story starts in the early '60's with a young boy in a small town playing in his yard when he meets the new town preacher, a young man on his first placement.  The story doesn't go in the necessarily obvious direction - the preacher isn't a child predator, but there are precursors to later weirdness.

The preacher has a wife and son, and has a hobby playing with electricity, which he uses to demonstrate lessons in his religious classes for the kids of the town.  He also uses electricity and placebo-psychology to cure a lost voice of the young boy's brother who was injured in a skiing incident.  A family accident and a loss of faith spell the end to the preacher's time in the small town.

All in all, the book builds across time - ends in the present time from the 1960's, with the young boy meeting the preacher in several different times and places over the next 40 years or so.

As with other King novels, you do get dragged into the story, and the characters are fleshed out enough to be interesting.

Unfortunately, I didn't find the climax of this book to be interesting enough to support the entire book - there is a few pages of occult-type action, but it doesn't explain the book incidents well enough to make the story cohesive.  What the "force" actually is, and why the narrator character is involved remains vague to me, partially to keep the force mysterious, but not in what I'd consider a consistent manner.

SPOILERS

What I really found odd, was that the use of the "force" through the book was a cure for many ills (not all of them), with side-effects (depression and visions, enough to cause occasional suicides and incarcerations at mental institutions) in small numbers of the "cured".  The climax was using the "force" to bring someone back from the dead to see what was on the other side, which is substantially different.  It wasn't clear why this experiment caused the suicide-murder spree of the "cured" victims (except the narrator).

Maybe a more fleshed out explanation of the "banned" book might have helped, or some history of experiments in trying to bring back the dead would have rounded out the story (maybe some sub-plot of uncaught serial killer, all victims having terminal illnesses and bodies found with odd burns - a serial mercy-killer would have made great 24 hour news headlines).

Though I am not motivated to go back and look, it wasn't at all clear to me what the narrator's role was and why he was critical to the success of the experiment, not why (aside from greater understanding than the other "curees") he was able to survive.  I was quite disappointed in how "weak" the climax was and how relatively easy it was to stop.

Not high on my recommended list.

Finished (TV Series) - UK version of House of Cards (3 seasons, 12 episodes total)

I found the U.S. version of House of Cards a few months ago - liked it.  Looked for and found the BBC version (1990-1994) which was the first series based off a set of books.
Aside from the series being 20+ years old, the storyline is as compelling as the U.S. version, though, as some of the storylines are parallel, it is possible to guess some of the plot points.  The other issue is that the characters are, on the whole, older than the U.S. version, so it takes a little getting used to.

Definitely worth the watch, but you might want to wait until the conclusion of the U.S. series should there be other parallel outcomes.