In a diary I posted yesterday, a few of our fellow members here at the Tribune suggested a place to talk books and movies. Everyone likes one or the other, don’t they?
So here’s a place to chat about any good books you’ve read, whether political or not, and movies you’ve seen that you’d recommend to the rest of us. We want to hear from you! What’s out there that we should check out? What fantastic entertainment are we missing?
I’ll start, below the fold.
I am a big Dean Koontz fan. I’ve read most of his stuff and think he’s great. His books are always so descriptive (admittedly, sometimes he goes overboard in that department) and he writes good stories. Entertaining, enthralling stories that grab you and keep you interested throughout.
I just read his latest, ‘Life Expectancy’. It’s about a man, Jimmy Tock, whose grandfather predicts he will have five special, extraordinary, and dangerous days in his lifetime.
As Jimmy is being born, his grandfather is in the ICU of the same hospital dying of complications from a stroke, and suddenly, his grandfather sits up in bed and starts talking, sounding very clear and strong. He speaks to his son, Jimmy’s father, and orders him to write these five dates down, five dates that will have an impact on his son’s life. What follows is the story of Jimmy and how these five days play out.
The book is excellent. The story is rich with character and is surprisingly humorous, and had me laughing out loud a few times. I enjoyed it so much that I finished it this past Saturday in two sittings, between cleaning bathrooms. 😉
I definitely recommend this one, not only to Koontz fans but to anyone that enjoys a well told story.
I also recently read another Koontz, ‘Odd Thomas’, that I absolutely loved. It’s about a young man who has the power to communicate with the dead, and all the problems and blessings that come with that power.
These two Koontz novels are, in my opinion, a departure of sorts from what he normally writes, but I honestly think that they’re my two favorites of his now. Try one or the other, but if I were you, I’d go with both.
Now, it’s your turn. Whatcha got?
I think, anyway, is Dr. William Pepper’s An Act of State: The Execution of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr:
Doubts raised from an initial ten-year investigation and hours of interrogations of James Earl Ray prompted Pepper to take up his case. The King family, persuaded by the growing evidence, joined his struggle in 1996. At the 1999 trial seventy witnesses under oath set out the details of the conspiracy and the jury took an hour to find for the King family. It was ruled that a wide-ranging conspiracy existed and that government agents were involved. The story was effectively buried.
An Act of State lays out, in detail, the facts of the case as it evolved. These tell a tragic story of King’s powerful and significant radicalism, government plans for his execution that involved the military and the FBI, media cover-ups, and the corporate forces that were already claiming their hold on the nation’s polity.
Frustrates me to this day that folks don’t know about this history.
You recommended this book on a thread I was reading on dKos one day. It’s definitely on my list, but I haven’t had a chance to pick it up yet due to my current obsession with Peak Oil. Soon, though.
Although my degree is in history, like you I believe, my area of concentration is antebellum black abolitionism. How’s that for obscure? I regret not studying the Civil Rights movement and the 60’s in general more while I was in college. There just wasn’t enough time!
Living through the 60’s in retrospect makes it even more incredible when I think about all that was going on then. And makes what is going on now in the country seem so much more repressive.
granny helen, I read your diary series on MLK and thought they were great, I was really impressed. They brought out so many points that I wasn’t aware of.
I find it sad that so many felt that the civil rights movement came to an end, when it was encapsulated in amber as The Civil Rights Era, mostly only highlighting on aspect of King’s work. While I can understand the need and attempt by some people to define King’s work, life and times, I am not sure that doing so in the manner it was done (by whomever, I don’t even know who) was beneficial to the overall concept of civil rights and justice in the US and elsewhere. It gave people a sense of finality, it seems to me.
Anyway, there is still lots to do and a long way to go.
wrote a little book in 1999, TIMBUKTU – the protagonist is “Mr. Bones” a dog owned by a Brooklyn down-and-out poet. It’s a look at survival from the dog’s point of view but it is NOT told in ‘cute’ dog talk. Auster is one of my favourite American writers, after Don DeLillo.
Auster wrote the book based on a dog he and his daughter rescued and rehabilitated from the streets of New York.
I am currently reading:
Acts of Meaning (Bruner)
The Language War (Lakoff)
Selected Poems (William Carlos Williams)
Born to Rebel: Birth Order (Sulloway)
Revolutionary Pedagogies (Trifonas)
This weekend I watched:
The Sea Within
Roger and Me
And my current nightly television series is:
The West Wing
Hi Tom,
One of my favorite books is “City of Night” by John Rechy
here
Good idea and hope people will talk about books/movies here. I’m ready to go out and get the books you suggested.
First off there is a booksite called abebooks.com that is wonderful. You can find old, used books there. You can even narrow down the field of a particular book with list of first editions(and some are only a few bucks-thats what so cool), signed copies, with or without original dustjacket, hard or soft cover and if it has photo’s.
The description will state how used the book is, if binding is bad even if it is mildewed or not.
For any book lover out there I think this is just a way cool site.
I read mostly mystery genre and seem to also like books with protaganists as a lawyer. One of my favorite series is by Marcia Muller who has written about 16 or more books with her character Sharon McCone. Her character, a dectective, has grown over the last 20 years into one the best characters ever in my opinion. All the characters in this series are so well written it’s like you know them all personally or would like to.
A book that had a huge influence me when I was around 17 was a book called ‘Black Like Me’ by John Howard Griffin. A white man in Texas in the late 50’s who decided to temporarily stain his skin color to black and pass as a Negroe and travel in the south to see what it was really like to be treated as a Negroe.(I’m using that term as that is what was used at the time). Reading that book cemented my belief in how inhumane and wrong racism of any kind is.
I also think no self respecting liberal should be without Jon Stewart’s book, “America(the book) A Citizen’s Guide to Democracy Inaction”. if for nothing else than for the page called Dress the Supreme Court with pictures of the Justices naked-ewwwwwwwww, and the fact that his book was banned by Wal-Mart for awhile.
That site is great! I once remembered a book I read years ago that I wanted to read again, but I couldn’t find it anywhere – except at Abe Books! Cheap, too. I think, all told, I wound up paying less than $10, shipping included.
I definitely agree with the recommendation of Jon Stewart’s book. Good stuff. As for your others, I haven’t read those, so there’s a few new ones to check out. I love recurring characters, and have never heard of the Marcia Muller books. Thanks, chocolate!
The mother of the female dectective genre. Her series starts about 20 years ago and only gets better. I believe she is also married to the writer of the ‘Nameless Detective’ series, Bill Ponzini, something like that.
I imagine she inspired many female writers like Sue Grafton with her Kinsey Milhone series(the alphabet books)which are fun to read.
When I was in high school (mid-60’s) we listened to Griffin read passages from his book in one of my classes. Absolutely life-changing. I followed up by reading the book itself and still remember passages. Probably has a lot to do with why I’ve been a liberal ever since. I should re-read.
All these serious books on people’s lists . . . sigh. I get all the seriousness I can stand online, though I’ve got a pile of “should-reads” waiting for me.
Lately, I’ve been making my way through Steven Havill’s Posadas County mysteries. Highly recommended for mystery lovers. Small town and sparsely populated county in southern New Mexico along the border. Very laid back, but excellent writing and character development. From a reader review at Amazon:
“One of the things I liked best about Heartshot was the relationship between the older Gastner and the younger, greener detective, Estelle Reyes. The author could have easily used the stereotype of grouchy misogynist/rabid feminist or gone the May-December romance route. Instead, I found it refreshing to note their mutual respect of each other’s talents. Reyes’ quiet, thoughtful approach to a problem complements Gastner’s plodding, relentless style.”
I especially liike the way Havill knows how to end a book in a satisfying, suspenseful way without making the climax another formula ohmygodrunchaseshootkidnap, womaninperil, etc, etc. I was getting pretty tired of that approach.
And I’ve bookmarked AbeBooks. Trying to wean myself from Amazon, but can’t always find what I want at B&N. Thanks for the tip.
…is half.com. You can get anything from brand new hardcovers to used textbooks for fairly cheap, from people just like yourself: readers who have too many books and not enough space. 😉
Man, I’m jealous. Having Griffin read from his book must have been even more intense than simply reading the book by yourself.
Speaking of ‘womeninperil’ and being simply side interest for a lot of men writing detective mysteries is one reason why I started seeking out woman writers and got lucky that the whole female mystery writers pretty much exploded. I think there are many more woman writing mysteries/detective/lawyer fiction than men now. Could be wrong but that’s my impression.
There’s a good series set I think in Arizona or New Mexico with a women as a Sheriff-Joanna Brady, can’t remember the authors name off hand. Small town, western area theme. Her husband was a cop who got killed and she somehow ends up running for sheriff. Good series also.
If you want a ‘fun’ history book, those books in the ‘Complete Idiots Guide’ has one of Women’s History. Which has serious stuff in it but also all kinds of fun little know facts. Easy to just pick up and browse a page here or there.
J. A. Jance is the one who writes the Joanna Brady stories, and has another series with a male detective in Seattle, I forget his name.
Another writer with a recurring character is Nevada Barr, she is very good and usually combines a bit of local history in with the story.
Sara Paretsky is another, set in Chicago with investigator V.I. Warshawski and although her books are not usually political (though they may touch on important themes) I think she pretty much changed that format with the last one I read of hers, Blacklist, where she dealt with the Patriot Act fallout and other issues.
Thanks Nanette, that was driving me crazy and now I won’t have to go look it up. And I can’t remember the name of the male detective either.
I picked up a Nevada Barr book at a thrift shop, another good place to look for cheap books.
Sara Paretsky does good work. One of her books was made into a movie years ago with Kathleen Turner and didn’t do the book or character justice.
well-known women mystery series. Nevada Barr is a favorite, but especially Janet Evanovitch. She just cracks me up. Sometimes I’m laughing so hard I can’t even see the page. But even some of the women writers seem to veer over into the womeninperil thing – the formula frantic climax – and it’s begun to annoy me. Writerly laziness, I think. That’s one reason I’ve been enjoying Steven Havill. Also nice to find a male writer that writes such a great female character as Estelle Reyes-Guzman. And great Latino/Latina characters.
“Hearing” Griffin was from a tape, btw, an old reel-to-reel, I think. I have no idea where my teacher got the recording. But it was impressive to hear it read in his own voice. I found this biography of Griffin, The Man in the Mirror that seems from the reviews to be a little uneven, but probably worth reading. And yep, they have it at AbeBooks.
Currently reading:
The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldrich (Philip K. Dick)
Teddy Roosevelt’s Autobiography (which is also online at Bartleby’s)
Books I’m reading out of order (skipping around):
Robert Kennedy : His Life — Evan Thomas
RFK: A Candid Biography of Robert F. Kennedy — C. David Heyman
The Conscience of a Liberal: Reclaiming the Compassionate Agenda (Minnesota)– Paul Wellstone
Just finished:
Dune: Battle of Corrin Brian Herbert/Kevin Anderson
The last movie I saw was a horror movie — “The Grudge”. It is a remake of a Japanese movie called “Ju-On”. The grudge is not a bad movie and some elements reminded me of “The Ring”, but it did make me want to see the original.
I have a habit of starting books that I feel I need to read, then putting them down and picking them up later on. I’m doing this with Kitty Kelley’s ‘The Family’ (that would be the Bushes, of course) right now.
I usually have a few going…one for fun and one or two of more serious vein. Drives some people crazy.
As for movies: Just about anything with Johnny Depp in it cause if you don’t like the movie you still get to look at that face for several hours. If you happen to like Brando, he did a movie with Depp called Don Juan de Marco…also had Faye Dunaway in it. A fun movie.
A movie called “Tigerland” with Colin Farrell is a terrific movie. During Vietnam era-Tigerland is so called for a training camp in Louisiana that was supposed to resemble Vietnam where soldiers were sent to train. Ensemble cast with Joel Schumacher as director.
“Punch-Drunk Love” with Adam Sandler was a very,very offbeat love story with Emily Watson that was just pretty cool I thought.
A documentary that won an Oscar several years ago about Muhammad Ali called “When We Were Kings” is pretty amazing and is billed as the untold story of the Rumble in the Jungle, and a dvd that I own.
I could go on all day about movies and books but I need to act productive and get some things done.
My adult daughter and I saw “Finding Neverland” and afterwards we both looked at each other and sighed, “I love Johnny Depp.” Have you ever seen “Cry Baby”; it’s hysterical.
I don’t often go to movies in the theater anymore. They come out pretty fast on DVD so, why bother? The exception to that rule is what I call big-screen movies like the LOTR where you want to get absorbed into the pixels.
Couple of weekends ago, the real estate agent pushed us out for an Open House, so we went to see “Constantine” and it was pretty damn good. Keanu Reeves is almost a real actor now and expressed a lot of complexity and subtlety into his role. The movie was true in tone and art direction to the comics but startled me a lot. Graphic illustrations just don’t make loud noises and jump out at you like movies do. har.
The other night, we watched “Collateral” and it was really good. Jamie Foxx and Jada Pinkett Smith just stole that movie right out from under Tom Cruise. Cruise was a surprisingly convincing bad guy and shoulda gotten more props for that. But, who could notice with Foxx stealing every scene?
Is hysterical! It’s so campy and cheesy that I try to catch it every time it comes on.
I’ve yet to see ‘Finding Neverland’ but heard it was terrific.
I’m the same way about the movie theater – with an elementary-aged child, it’s hard to find the time, and a sitter. Netflix rocks. We finally saw ‘Ray’ last week, and God, it was like watching Ray Charles play himself. Jamie Foxx was superb in that movie. ‘Collateral’ is in my queue at Netflix, so I’ll be checking that one out soon.
I’m so glad to hear that you liked “Ray” as that’s what I’m watching tonight. I’ll let you know how I liked it!
I really wanted to see it because I’ve been a Ray Charles fan since I was a child. Some of my earliest memories are of my grandparents dancing around the house to his music. Jamie Foxx did such justice to the role. He definitely deserved the Oscar for his performance, I think.
Yes, ‘Collateral’ was definately Jamie Foxx’s movie. Cruise was good but I’m not a fan of his.
Finding Neverland comes out on video today so will be getting it tomorrow.
I think Keanu Reeves is very underrated by critics. I can remember way back when when Clint Eastwood started out and was not liked at all by critics(said he couldn’t act/was wooden/didn’t talk, etc) and look how that turned out. I thought ‘Million Dollar Baby’ was perfectly directed by Eastwood also and one of his best acting jobs.
I remember watching “Rawhide” and thinking Clint was really dreamy but I knew he couldn’t act — at all. I mean, he had trouble even saying his lines without mumbling and looking embarrassed about it. It was very endearing. Over the years, he developed into a fine actor. I see the same thing with Keanu — sort of on the job training. These guys both rose quickly to being stars based on their personal charisma and later learned their craft.
If you’re watching “Finding Neverland” tonight, be sure to have a box of tissues handy. It’s a sobber, full blown.
Last night, I watched “Network” for the first time in many years and it blew my mind yet again. It was damned near prophetic! Ned Beatty’s speech is still the best part, “Mr. Beal, you have interfered with the primal forces of nature! … There are no countries… only global corporations.”
Thanks for the idea and the implementation, Mindmouth! Just wondering, what did people think of F 9/11? I ask this because I really liked Roger & Me, but I didn’t find anything in F 9/11 that I viewed as new and interesting, and that I hadn’t already seen covered in a variety of media long before the movie came out. I also thought the movie was far too long.
Just curious to hear the opinions of individuals who are politically astute.
I agree it was too long and dragged at the end and for the informed, well not much there, but it was good for people who knew nothing or very little about the political scene such as my son-in-law, very eye opening for them.
I would like to add pc video games to the list of favorites.
I like to spend my down(political) time playing games like Age of Empires, Warcraft, Starcraft and my current favorite Lionheart.
A bit strange for a grandmother, but it allows for releasing the agression after hours of scanning news services and blogging and its a lot of fun too.
Never too old for fun! I’m in that age bracket myself, um, a woman of a certain age?, and my stress relief is reading manga, lovely artwork, interesting stories and just pure escape.
And then there is gardening, for me such a pleasure, especially the flowers and my staghorn ferns. I think we need a diary on stress relievers that bloggers use to “drain the tank” so to speak.
I agree is a great stress reliever.
Did you ever play Master of Magic? Game was more addictive than crack cocaine.
Roger and Me impressed the hell out of me and I loved Bowling for Columbine but I agree about F/911, although parts of it were excellent. It seemed rushed to me but my husband, who was not very interested in politics at the time, liked it a lot.
My sister bought me 9/11. Also had seen it in the theater. Nothing particulary new to me but seeing everything I’d been reading about all together was great and pissed me off even more. Imagine someone who didn’t know much of anything and seeing bush talking about his ‘base, the have-more’s’…
I understand his new movie(not bush,ha) is on the medical/insurance industry and might be called ‘Sicko’.
Maybe I’m naive but I enjoyed this movie. Here he was: George W. Bush! Really saying and doing those stupid, phony, cynical things. 9/ll made me determined to become more politically astute.
I was so sure that if everyone saw it, they would change their Republican minds forever, because here was the TRUTH! I believed every bit of it;have never been so uncritical of a movie in my life.
Now, the only part that confuses me a bit is the departures of the Bin Laden families after 9/ll. Moore says one thing; 9/11 Report says another.
When I saw this movie, I was just starting to learn how completely evil Bush really is, so the movie just blew me away. I kept hollering, ‘Ah-HA!’ throughout the entire thing. I also kept thinking what balls Michael Moore had to do the movie in the first place. I really enjoyed it.
What a wonderful idea! Lately I’m reading Breaking the Chains, African-American Slave Resistance by William Katz and Crusade, Chronicles of an Unjust War by James Carroll and as an escape I’m reading Hands Off by Kasane Katsumoto and Gravitation by Maki Murakami.
Watched Neverland last weekend and loved it, a good cry is good for the soul and Johnny Depp is good for everything.
When I really like a movie, I want to see it again in case I missed something. Two movies I plan to see again
“I Heart Huckabees”
“Ray”
Did not see “Million Dollar Baby” in spite of friends urging me. I can’t stand boxing. The sounds of someone pummelling someone else gives me the creeps.
while set in the boxing world isn’t so much about boxing as how the characters of Clint Eastwood and Hilary Swank progress in their relationship. I think that the few actual boxing scences of her in the ring are almost beside the point. Except for what does happen to her.
I’ve seen it twice, just a terrific movie and does make you think also. Slightly added bonus for subject matter seeming to piss off the far right.
I usually end up reading several books at once so right now I’m in various stages of: Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy, Wealth & Democracy by Kevin Phillips, The Plague by Albert Camus, One-Dimensional Man by Herbert Marcuse, Autobiography by Mohandas K. Gandhi, and a book on meditation.
I just finished Blood and Oil by Michael Klare, Collapse by Jared Diamond, and Crossing the Rubicon by Michael Ruppert.
As for movies, I watch a ton of movies (comes from not having cable). Some of my most recent favorites have been I Heart Huckabees, Garden State, The Motorcycle Diaries, and 10,000 Black Men Named George.
If y’all haven’t heard about 10,000 Black Men Named George, do yourself a favor and go rent it. It’s about Phillip Randolph, the organizer of the Pullman Rail Company porters which was the first black union in America. Watching that movie made me realize (again) that it takes a helluva lot of hard work and persistence to accomplish social change. Changing the world is not an activity for the faint of heart.
please, please watch Human Traffic if you have the opportunity. Also, the Big Lebowski is clearly a must see. I will write more tomorrow about my book selection, but as I just got into a conversation about Lebowski and am ALWAYS thinking about Human Traffic, I have to pimp those for now. goodnight, y’all.
I usually push the serious political nonfiction books, so I’d like to make a couple of novel recommendations this time, as well as a TV miniseries and a movie, both out on DVD.
Books:
The Time Traveler’s Wife,
Audrey Niffenegger
The kind of achingly beautiful first novel that makes you want to give up even trying to write, it’s so good. Indescribable and remarkable. A great book for a couple to read and both enjoy and talk about, and that is quite rare in my experience. (Despite the title, you don’t have to like or care about science-fiction at all to love this book)
The Ice Beneath You,
Christian Bauman
If you really want to understand how combat changes you forever, read this haunting book about an American soldier in Somalia.
Pattern Recognition,
William Gibson
If you are a Gibson fan, you’ve probably already read it. If you aren’t, you probably never heard of it. While Gibson is known as a revolutionary science-fiction author (who, among other things, coined the term “cyberspace” and inspired the virtual reality industry), with each new book he has moved closer and closer to the current day – which is where Pattern Recognition is set. It is basically about cool-hunting, and culture-hacking, but, like most Gibson novels, it is about a lot more. Loss, meaning, connections, amidst the detritus of lost empire and the shadow of 9/11. You figure it out.
Neverwhere
Neil Gaiman
What can you say, A Neil Gaiman Novel. A kind of wierd contemporary mix of Alice in Wonderland, the Wizard of Oz, and Douglass Adams, with a little Milton thrown in. What a trip! My 15-year old daughter loved this one too.
DVD:
Angels in America
The play by Tony Kushner as directed by Mike Nichols. Hands down, bar none, the best thing ever made for television. Al Pacino, Meryl Streep, Emma Thompson, May-Louise Parker, Jeffrey Wright, and on and on.
I own the script, too, so I can read and reread certain passages over and over:
“The white cracker who wrote the national anthem knew what he was doing. He set the word ‘free’ to a note so high nobody can reach it.”
Movie:
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Charlie Kaufman script, Michel Gondry direction, Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet (luminous), Kirsten Dunst, Elijah Wood, Mark Ruffalo, Tom Wilkinson. ‘Nuff said. See it with someone you love. Ah, hell, just see it!
I’ll be back with the dour readings next time. It’s good for you!