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very-grownup · 2 years ago

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Best Books of 2022

Best "I think you wrote Lois McMaster Bujold fanfic and I respect that" Novel: WINTER'S ORBIT.

Best "Oh shit THAT'S how foot binding works?!" Novel: IRON WIDOW.

Best Whale Ranking Novel: MOBY DICK.

Best Novel About Sperm: MOBY DICK.

Best Novel About a Cannibal: MOBY DICK.

Best Novel About Forced Self-Cannibalism: THE GRANDMASTER OF DEMONIC CULTIVATION.

Best Novel Recommended By A 10-Year-Old: THE GIRL WHO DRANK THE MOON.

Best Re-read of a Novel First Read as a 10-Year-Old: I WANT TO GO HOME!

Best End of the World Novel: THE LAST POLICEMAN.

Best Lesbian Romance Novel: HOW TO FIND A PRINCESS.

Best Romantic Accounting Novel: THE RUIN OF A RAKE.

Best Romance Novel With a Disaster Bi Lead: CHEF'S KISS.

Best Romance Novel Where the Protagonist Doesn't Know It's Romance: THE SCUM VILLAIN'S SELF-SAVING SYSTEM.

Best Fantasy Trilogy First Novel: THE STARDUST THIEF.

Best Fantasy-ish Trilogy: SON OF A TRICKSTER, TRICKSTER DRIFT, and RETURN OF THE TRICKSTER.

Best Fantasy Standalone Novel: THE SPEAR CUTS THROUGH WATER.

Best Use of Ringo Starr: THE EINSTEIN INTERSECTION.

Best Book You Read In High School But I Didn't: THE GREAT GATSBY.

Best Unionization Novel: SILK AND INSIGHT.

Best Story of a Complicated Man: THE ODYSSEY.

Best Short Story Collection Containing a Cake Recipe: MOIRA'S PEN.

Best Meta-non-fictional Fictional Review Collection: A Perfect Vaccuum.

Best Book By Someone Who Used To Live Nextdoor: HALFBREED.

Best Book Adapted Into An Orson Welles Film: THE TRIAL.

Best Use Of Dick Jokes: IF THIS BOOK EXISTS, YOU'RE IN THE WRONG UNIVERSE.

Best Rotting Nightmare Novella: NOTHING BUT BLACKENED TEETH.

The full list of competitors below.

Mister Impossible

Whispers Under Ground

The Serpent's Secret

Sabriel

Game of Stars

Lirael

Once Ghosted, Twice Shy

Abhorsen

A Snake Falls to Earth

Across the Wall: A Tale of the Abhorsen and Other Stories

Winter's Orbit

The Best of Gene Wolfe: A Definitive Retrospective of his Finest Short Fiction

Iron Widow

Tar Baby

Moby Dick

The Marrow Thieves

Popular Hits of the Showa Era

Heaven Official's Blessing (volume 2)

The Prince and the Puppet Thief

The Empress of Salt and Fortune

The Truth Is a Cave in the Black Mountains

When the Tiger Came Down the Mountain

The Door Into Summer

Spoiler Alert

The Great Gatsby

Wicked As You Wish

Halfbreed

Never Let Me Go

Can't Escape Love

In the Miso Soup

The Girl Who Drank the Moon

The Björkan Sagas

Artificial Condition

Starship Troopers

The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System (volume 2)

The Turn of the Screw and Other Stories

The Beautiful Ones

Every Living Thing

A Prince on Paper

Broken Homes

Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation (volume 2)

The Last Policeman

Split Tooth

Lost in the Never Woods

The Three-Body Problem

Flip the Script

Bitter Gold Hearts

It All Comes Back to You

Mistress Masham's Repose

How to Find a Princess

I Want to go Home!

Woman Running in the Mountains

The Little Warrior (Jill the Reckless)

Son of a Trickster

The Einstein Intersection

Captive Prince

The Trial

Trickster Drift

Six German Romantic Tales

Return of the Trickster

If Beale Street Could Talk

Heaven Official's Blessing (volume 3)

Japanese Tales

Akata Warrior

Foxglove Summer

The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System (volume 3)

The Loophole

The Ruin of a Rake

Complicity

The Stardust Thief

The Hanging Tree

Beauty and the Besharam

Some Do Not ...

Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation (volume 3)

The Joining of Dingo Radish

Prince's Gambit

The Spear Cuts Through Water

Chef's Kiss

Monkey Beach

The Hourglass Throne

She Who Became the Sun

The Strange Journeys of Colonel Polders

Heaven Official's Blessing (volume 4)

The Sunbearer Trials

The Toynbee Convector

Kings Rising

The Odyssey

Moira's Pen

Revenge

The Changeling

The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System (volume 4)

If This Book Exists, You're in the Wrong Universe

The Wolf and the Woodsman

The Husky and his White Cat Shizun (volume 1)

A Perfect Vacuum

It Takes Two to Tumble

Silk and Insight

In Deeper Waters

Nothing but Blackened Teeth

I Will Fear No Evil

#best of #books #i have posted some variant of this on every social media site #because i'm very obnoxious

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anthrotographer · 3 years ago

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If Beale Street Could Talk (2018)

Thoughts on the film and novel. I read it before I saw it.

It's a different type of love story, one where the love is absolute. Usually you have a love story where one or more of the characters have to question "is this the one for me"? There is no room to question Tish and Fonny's love for each other. They have truly loved each other since they were kids. The real drama in the story is whether the world is gonna love them back and let them be together. Whether they'll get lucky or not, because it takes luck not to get fucked over by a system that excludes you. Will the racist, white-dominated society ever let up; and if not accept their existence, then at least be uninvolved/unaroused by it? No, they are aroused by it. The white men depicted in the film are just a reflection of reality in 1970s America and present-day. Their superiority complex is so baked into them by historical coincidence that many of them can't sit still nonviolently if a black person comes into their line of sight. And that's exactly the situation Fonny has to deal with in If Beale Street Could Talk. He was arrested by a white cop for a crime that he didn't commit, all because of his actual offense; walking home while black. It is as simple and cold as that. This might be James Baldwin's fictitious story but it's informed by a well sourced history of black oppression.

The big dilemma in the story is Fonny's imprisonment. To make matters more dire Tish informs her love that she is pregnant during one of her first visits at Fonny's jail. As stated before he was just minding his business one night when a cop decided Fonny fit the description for a suspect in a recent rape case. A young Puerto Rican woman was the victim of this heinous crime, but since it happened in the dead of night she didn't get a good look at who did it. The police department rounded up guys off the street and convinced young Victoria that Fonny was the one who did it. Part of the tragedy of Beale Street is the state pitting these two persecuted minorities against each other. The state has no 'real' proof to link Fonny to the crime. Unfortunately, as Tish's sister puts it in the book "We have to disprove the state's case. There's no point in saying that we have to make them prove it, because, as far as they're concerned, the accusation is the proof." Guilty until proven innocent. James Baldwin would probably be depressed but not surprised to find out not much has changed about the justice system in America.

What I find most gripping is the realness of the characters. Not just the young adults Tish & Fonny, but their families too. Tish's family has a crude vocabulary and domineering attitude towards anyone not in their corner. They, like many in their community, are jaded by the world they grew up in. They are just finding ways to cope and not explode. Not explode just for their families sake. For Fonny and the baby's sake. They love one another and to them that means speaking uncomfortable truths, like holding no punches when talking about the sins of white people. And sins not in the religious sense because their family justifiably has lost faith in any grand fairness that religions so often preach. Fonny's biological 'family' on the other hand drinks the Christian cool-aid hard. Well his mother and sisters do. They don't see Fonny's incarceration as an injustice, but as a consequence of his impurity. Impurity of having a child so young, marrying so young, not being pious enough, etc etc. The only family member that truly supports him is his father Frank. Baldwin is showing us through his characters that we're all imperfect. We are products of our circumstances and environment, like the wood Fonny crafts into sculptures. What perfect symbolism by Baldwin.

The innocence of this couple's love is something that really comes through in both the screen and the original novel. I did feel the film relied too heavily on its long silent stares between the protagonists. They're meant to evoke a love that is so powerful it needs no words, but after a while these scenes get too tedious and uninteresting. I think the film adaptation kept close to Baldwin's work though, but since I inevitably compare it to the novel I just feel it came short of being as powerful. Part of it could be just simply that this is James Baldwin’s story, not the director Barry Jenkins' original work (Like Moonlight was, and which I think is a 10 of 10 film). There was however one semi-big detail the film didn't adapt, and that's the presumed suicide of Fonny's father at the end of the drama. In my opinion that omission is very significant. It softens the power of the story. A thought I think now that describes the film overall. Jenkins himself hints at at in an interview with IndieWire that his film was more about the love story. I think Baldwin's original story is about hurt, hurt, and more hurt with love trying to survive it all. And Fonny's father committing suicide after facing the fact that his son is not getting out of prison is a crucial moment of that hurt. Baldwin obviously thought it was crucial because it’s literally the last thing that happens in the book. Presumably Baldwin's final reminder that historically a black life in America never really gets a happy ending.

P.S. My comments ended up being more on the book than the movie because at the moment that I'm writing this I recall the book more.

Also I thought the soundtrack was great and stood out as one of the best things about it.

https://www.indiewire.com/2018/11/if-beale-street-could-talk-barry-jenkins-james-baldwin-1202023517/

Rating: 6/10 (Just the film)

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snowbunnywatching · 3 years ago

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"I think all of us white girls should take to heart your advice about studying Black culture and Black history. Do you have anything in particular to recommend?"

Ok, I'll bite.

A great first book would be

Nell Irvin Painter's "Creating Black Americans: African-American History and Its Meanings, 1619 to the Present".

Also check out Angela Davis, WEB Du Bois, etc. Better yet, every white girl should go join a Black History class. Great place to meet black folk and if you shut up and listen, you'll learn a thing or two.

For novels, check out "Full Circle: The Road to Redemption" by Shawn Cole, Jean Toomer's "Cane" (a classic from the Harlem Renaissance), Chinua Achebe's "Things Fall Apart", anything by Richard Wright, Toni Morrison, James Baldwin.

Not gonna touch music except to say Elvis Presley wasn't the first or last big white artists to steal from black musicians. Otherwise, go find black songs to your taste. Oh, and listen to Tupac. Always Tupac.

In movies, check out anything by Jordan Peele and Spike Lee ("Da 5 Bloods" is a perfect antidote to any bros who think "Apocalypse Now" is all that). "If Beale Street Could Talk" is an underrated modern classic imo. Go proper classic and find out how old all these dating issues are "Look Who's Coming to Dinner". If you like thrillers, check out the amazing "In the Heat of the Night". Classics like "Shaft" (not the godawful remake) and "Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song" are fun but probably beyond you (I think white folk misunderstand these films without cultural context). Watch "Dolemite Is My Name" first maybe. Oh, and if you like quirky hipster comedies, check out "Sorry to Bother You".

The main thing though is not to assume you know shit. Especially when you inevitably meet black folk who don't know all the "black culture" you do. Shut the fuck up already. We don't have to read up on it because we're fucking living it.

And don't give me that whiny white girl "oh but there aren't any classes where I am" or "oh but they're too expensive". You can take a FREE online course in African American history from fucking Yale university right here: https://oyc.yale.edu/african-american-studies/afam-162 All white folk (boys and girls) should start working through that course right now.

Thank you very much for putting this list together. Reposting it so my followers (boys and girls) can get inspired.

#cultural africanization #white guilt

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365days365movies · 4 years ago

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February 12, 2021: If Beale Street Could Talk (Review)

This one was tough emotionally...and a very good movie!

Fact of the matter is, this movie was not only topical, but also very well-made and acted. Makes me want to read James Baldwin’s novel one of these days, if I’m honest.

This film, at its very core, is a film about young love. And it does that VERY well, I gotta say. It captures the emotions and benchmarks of relationships, but is able to effectively balance that with the environment and politics of the times. It’s a downright masterpiece on that front. Oh, and by the way: NO INFIDELITY!!! WHOOOOOOOOOO! Hopefully THAT trend continues. Anyway, lemme get into my full thoughts on this movie, in the Review! Recap is here and here, if you wanna take a look!

Review

Cast and Acting: 9/10

Right off the bat, KiKi Layne and Stephan James have perfect chemistry. I mean it, this might have set my bar for perfect chemistry in film that’s actually consummated. Their past, while largely unseen, carries a lot of weight, and you can feel that every time the interact on the screen. What I’m saying is, they’re cute together, and I ship them hard. Yeah, I just said that, sue me. Here’s the things, though...individually, they’re only OK. Yeah, sorry, neither of them get a big chance to shine alone, and when they do, the film does most of the acting for them. When I say that, I think back to the perfume counter scene. It’s not KiKi’s acting that sells it for me, it’s the environment, the setting, the situation. Sorry to say it...but I kind of get why they weren’t nominated for Best Actress and Actor. NOT THAT THEY AREN’T GOOD. THEY ARE GREAT. But they aren’t really stellar alone, is what I’m saying.

Most of the supporting cast is also fantastic, even if some of them don’t get nearly as much time. Teyonah Parris, whom I’ve been enjoying THOROUGHLY in WandaVision, does a great turn as Ernestine, while Colman Domingo and Michael Beach are great as the fathers, even if their plot line sort of drops off. Even Aunjanue Ellis is good in her brief appearance as Fonny’s mom, and Brian Tyree Henry’s monologue about prison, and Emily Rios’ about rape are...hauntingly good. Ah, but wait...I’m forgetting someone, aren’t I?

REGINA FUCKING KING EVERYBODY. This woman ABSOLUTELY deserved Best Supporting Actress, and was WITHOUT A SINGLE DOUBT the best actor in the film. My Lord, she was amazing, and I’m really happy that she’s finally been able to carve an illustrious career in the 2010s. Seriously, she’s been acting since the ‘90s, and I feel like she’s only come to prominence in the last 10 years or so. Which sucks, because I’ve known about her since WAY before that, and it’s really nice to see her in the spotlight. WHOO!

Plot and Writing: 10/10

Y’know, the plot was a legitimate surprise to me. I guess that, after this month, I’ve been expecting happy endings and all that. But this ending was...bittersweet, and not even really that. Which is by absolutely no means a bad thing, just to be clear. No, this film was a touching diatribe on young love’s intersection with an unfair society, while also serving as a look at racial politics in the past, and serving as a harsh lens on today’s world as well. Barry Jenkins is the one who adapted James Baldwin’s novel into the screenplay, and...yeah, it’s fantastic. Moving, insightful, affecting, hertbreaking, you name it.

Directing and Cinematography: 9/10

Barry Jenkins, man. I was going to watch his other film Moonlight this month, but I’m putting off for another month to make room for some other films. But this film LOOKS gorgeous. There’s too much to go into in terms of how many good shots there are here, but one of these scenes was good enough to win Regina King the Oscar. Which does bring something up, though. HOW DID THIS FILM GET SNUBBED SO HARD

Look, I liked Black Panther as much as the next guy, BUT IT WASN’T BETTER THAN THIS MOVIE. And yet, it got nominated for a Best Picture Oscar, and THIS MOVIE DIDN’T? Not just that, but it didn’t get nominated for Best Director OR Best Cinematography (by James Laxton)? The Oscars are BULLSHIT, full stop.

Production and Art Design: 8/10

But I will say, this film wasn’t as good as Black Panther in Production and Art Design, but that’s because those categories were basically perfect in Black Panther. I tell you, if that movie had NOTHING ELSE going for it (and it did, hello Eric Killmonger), it had the look. But, that said, Beale Street still deserved a nomination at least! I mean, this film looks fantastic, no complaints. Well...one complaint. It really wasn’t very ‘70s to me. It was, sure, but it could’ve passed for other time periods easily. Definitely very good...but not perfect.

Music and Editing: 9/10

Fun fact! Nicholas Britell was brought on to this project after previously working on Moonlight with Barry Jenkins. This score took a lot of tinkering, but was meant to revolve around the ideals of love. In fact, some of the pieces are named after the Greek forms of love. You know, philia, agape, etc.? Neat, right? Anyway, the work shows, as not only did it get nominated for Best Original Score (which it lost to...Black PantherCOMEON), but it’s also quite an impactful score on its own. While it’s nt soundtrack-worth for me, it’s still extremely memorable, and I’d recognize it upon hearing it. So, yeah, nice one, Britell!

90%! And it’s well-deserved.

This was a beautiful movie, and it really did move me. I mean, it’s not like it’s changed my opinions about anything; in fact, it’s really just strengthened them, but it’s still a gorgeous movie. And outside of the sociopolitical folderol, this film has a gorgeous portrait of love that I can’t ignore, and won’t forget for a while. Fantastic.

And as for period romances...let’s take a break, huh? Let’s go for something set while the film was made, but also along the lines of a traditional love story. We are getting close to Valentine’s after all.

February 13, 2021: Before Sunrise (1995)

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jisssooyah · 4 years ago

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Hi you... if you were going to curate a little season of films for me, which ones would you choose and why? They don't need to be horror, I'm just curious what you would choose 🌸

I don’t know if you’ll like these movies, or if you’ve already watched them, but after i watched these films, i felt like they might need to belong to you now. i hope they make you smile, roll your eyes, and cry just as much as i did.

1. city of god (2002): this is one of the most immersive and gorgeously shot films i’ve ever seen. it’s set in rio de janeiro during the 60s and spans decades exploring the drug culture in the slums and how this can affect kids just as they are trying to figure their own selves out. the way this film is shot, feels like you were at the sea with them as the sand crunched underneath your feet. but the way that the director captures these individuals, makes you so fucking relieved that you don’t live through any of the circumstances that they go through.

2. the dreamers (2004): set in 1968, this film follows three students in Paris who come of age and explore one another and their limits during the revolution. while these students prop themselves up as individuals obsessed with sex, running underneath themselves is a current of jealousy, obsession, and blurred familial relationships that made me increasingly uncomfortable. you find yourself feeling bad for the children, and ultimately upset at their upbringing because of their parents.

3. if beale street could talk (2018): this movie is based off of james baldwin’s titular 1974 novel. in it, the director expertly and vigorously explores love: a love that feels so real that it hurts. the cast is what sold this film to me. the way they talk, laugh, cry, and smile at one another is achingly beautiful and terrifyingly sad. i wanted to transport myself back to their time period and watch the main characters fall in love because the film didn’t seem like enough.

4. the neon demon (2016): this film follows an emerging model who sacrifices herself to the demands of the industry in order to be attractive and beautiful. there are so many stunning colors in this film that it makes you dizzy, like you’re in a trance and that’s what this world is for the main character: a trance. as she oscillates between reality and fantasy, her world and the characters in it, increasingly seek out to alter her personality.

5. death becomes her (1992): a deliberately ultra-campy parody of trashy, pandering "women's pictures," soap operas and paperbacks from the '80s and '90s. The three leads all do some of their best work - it's hilarious watching Meryl Streep play a terrible actress, Goldie Hawn is particularly hilarious during her character's cat lady phase, and all around just a really fun and eccentric film.

6. princess cyd (2017): i can’t think of anything to write for this but i just wanna say that this is literally one of the most pleasant movie experiences i’ve ever had. so much light and genuine interaction in warm sun rays radiating positive energy and an openness that is far too uncommon in movies nowadays. people talk, people connect, people grow bonds and are allowed to be sexual or intimate or personal without an air of shame or judgement. just pure kind and curious human association.

7. spiderman: into the spiderverse (2018): the message of Spider-Verse is not "gentrify yourself! stop expressing your personality and just conform to what society wants you to be!" After all, what makes you different makes you Spider-Man, and Miles' final expression of himself as a superhero still retains much of his personality and individuality...they're just being used in more productive and fulfilling ways. It's the little things that drive the point home, like noticing that the title page for Miles' finished Great Expectations essay has been stylistically doodled and colored like street art. Rather than seeing his artistic gifts as an opposition to his schoolwork, Miles infuses them together to make the best of the hand he's been dealt.

8. my life as a zucchini (2016): initially heartbreaking and sad, but slowly becoming more joyful and heartwarming as the plot moves along. The film really feels like it captures the essence and child like wonder of these kids, all of them going through hardships but managing to find something to help each other out. It’s so refreshing to see the actual orphanage portrayed in a more positive light, not the usual horrid dump that a lot of lesser movies play them out as. The animation is stunning. One of the best uses of stop motion I’ve seen, everything is so colourful and detailed. There’s some moments set in snowy mountains and these look incredible. There’s clearly been so much love and care put into each and every scene here. The music too, sounds spectacular, it really works well with each scene.

9. lovesong (2016): Mindy and Sarah have that type of relationship where they don't need words because they speak in a language made out of glances and touches. This movie is about the fear of ruining a meaningful friendship and losing an important person, about love that is so complicated that one might not even try because the outcome seems to be so obvious.

10. her (2013): Heartbreak is formative: it changes you heart side out, and leaves your muscles a little stronger, your skin a little thicker, your bones easier to repair. Before this film, I’d never seen anything constructive in having your insides pulled apart by the seams by another person, but this film taught me how. Being in love and then being forced out of it is an experience that changes you fundamentally, but Her taught me its purpose – you don’t need them to leave you so that you can find someone who’s a better fit, because perhaps you never will. You need it to participate in humanity. The common denominator is being hurt, and without it, you’re barely alive.

11. shoplifters (2018): bittersweet and richly transportive, Shoplifters is a film that nonchalantly eases you into its tragic beauty in a way that doesn't punch you hard until the end. It simultaneously made me want to be part of the film's world and also very glad that I'm not. The setting the characters live in is messy and cluttered and full of dysfunction and lies, but it's also got family, and laughter, and fist-bumps, and slurping warm noodles while rain pings on the tin rooftop. So nuanced, so many tiny moments of delicate beauty and unassuming heartbreak, so many people making terrible decisions with good intentions.

12. god’s own country (2017): though it is a love story between two men, this aspect is only addressed briefly in a single scene. Rather, the film is about finding someone who makes you want to be a better person, someone who comes into your life just when you needed it most. Gheorghe helps Johnny open up and realize the beauty of the simple life. From this relationship, Johnny begins to feel comfortable with expressing himself, and his love and gratitude towards others. He also begins to appreciate life in the country, surrounded by stunning landscapes and the beauty of simplicity. Addressing the Yorkshire countryside, Gheorghe says "It is beautiful, but lonely." Johnny is presented with the notion that he doesn't have to be cold and miserable, slaving and drinking his days away. He is presented with the possibility of no longer being alone and finally finding happiness and contentment - and it is more than gratifying to see him accept it.

13. disobedience (2017): a tender star-crossed daydream. the three main character dynamics are special enough on their own, but the romance that blooms at the center is cathartically intimate and even magical: a reunion that feels so inevitable. catching glimpses of a past life, details we aren’t privy to. all the stolen kisses and whispers and promises. a bond so strong that they fall back in sync with each other like second nature, even if they try to fight against it. even if it won’t work. and yet they choose each other, even if for a few minutes.

14. raw (2016): this film is so gross and I like that. There is tons of blood and unique body horror and it all works perfectly for the tone the film is attempting to set. The use of color, specifically neons, creates a constant feeling that you are traveling through some sort of weird ghost world, which I really like. Overall, it's a very well put together film with flashes of brilliance.

15. the night is short, walk on girl (2017): what an absolutely magical adventure of a film. Essentially this is a heavily episodic look at a night in the lives of several people, centered on a woman and a man as she gleefully floats from event to event while he neurotically obsesses over how to "coincidentally" talk to her. The storytelling is incredible; while the overarching narrative is simple there are countless threads woven together to connect everyone in the story to each other. That in itself is a big theme: connections between people, how everything is interrelated, and what a large impact seemingly insignificant things people do can have an impact on everyone around them.

16. coraline (2009): Coraline is the best stop motion movie ever made in my opinion. Before the film released in 2009, I read the book and was completely blown away by its creativity and story. It’s a pretty dark tale featuring many scenes of fright that work well in both a horror setting and an animated kids setting. On surface value, this film is quite horrifying, which is something I’ve always loved about it. While it does make a few minor changes to the book, it improves upon a piece of art that was already jaw-droppingly good. Coraline feels like a real little girl with some real problems. She’s selfish but likable which is something most films cannot translate well. Of course, she has a pretty awesome arc as well which brings this movie to a perfect close for her character. The other-mother is also perfectly done. She is almost exactly how I imagined her in the book and the animation on her is spookily gorgeous. There is not one dull moment in this film. It is literally a perfect piece of cinema.

17. the third wife (2019): haven’t seen a film this visually delicate in a while. Ash Mayfair works with the looming mountain surroundings to make her characters —these women, these girls— as small as possible, as isolated as possible. Uneasiest of all is the protagonist May, so young and so weighed by responsibility, her position blurs between being one of the wives and being one of the daughters. It’s an extremely bleak tale of circumstance. An old tale, certainly, but so beautifully crafted it doesn’t matter. Mayfair holds a fearful tension throughout, and it only ever shatters in the cruelest of ways.The abundance of women and display of sisterhood begin as a comfort, but horror takes over as we realize how conditional and fragile that comfort is. Even the daughters are subconsciously aware, one of them praying to the gods to grow up and become a man, shearing her hair off in naive triumph. It’s a doomed cycle of girls performing roles which are unfortunately their best option, right up until the final scene of May with her daughter, still in their mourning clothes. She, like the older wives, finally realizes they’re the same as the cattle laying on their side for too many days.

#asks #shortcake-kaspbrak

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theepoetspoet · 5 years ago

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Tell us your three most favorite writers please

Following you was one of my greater tumblr moments 🙏🏾

I can’t give you three, and I can barely limit it to five, but I’m going to give you five instead.

1. Amiri Baraka

Amiri’s voice is the voice that consistently pushes me when I’m writing poetry and that internal voice says “that might hurt some feelings of folks you don’t know.” His voice is what pushes me past that. In any class I can, I try to weave in Somebody Blew Up America into the curriculum.

2. bell hooks

bell hooks, to me, is the perfect model of what it means to be able to write accessibly for the people but also withstand and thrive in writing for academia. I think any course, education, lesson in feminism that doesn’t include work and words from bell hooks is not a course in feminism at all. bell is one of the most moving writers I have been able to experience. Her words are the equivalent of drinking slightly chilled water - it’s crisp when it initially hits you, but it is so smooth when you take it in and you don’t even second guess needing more.

3. James Baldwin

My mentor told me once that were I to go get my Ph.D from a PWI, there are tons of universities that will question your legitimacy in black literature if you’re not studying Baldwin. I think that’s both indicative of white exclusion but also his power. I think The Fire Next Time should be required reading and stories like Sonny’s Blues and If Beale Street Could Talk have a beautiful way of depicting love and suffering without a typical narrative arc to end it. He defies a lot of grammatical rules and does so fluently and eloquently. I love his voice.

4. Patrisse Khan-Cullors

I’m including Patrisse because When They Call You a Terrorist is probably the best book I’ve read in this decade. It’s her only book, and she subscribes to being an activist more than a writer, but I think her book should be required reading. For tons of reasons. She does something similar to Baldwin with how she manipulates clauses and grammar rules, and she does it seamlessly. Her story is so powerful that I find a way to teach it in any class I have - basic skills or advanced.

5. Ken Follett

The white dudes start weaving themselves in at this point lol But if you haven’t read Pillars of the Earth, I think you are missing out on what it means to experience character development in a novel. I have read a lot of books. Pillars of the Earth is somewhere around 1,250 pages, depending on which version you get. I have never read a book that long that had the level of character development, scene building, narrative arc disruption, and thematic exploration all so well done in that long of a book. Usually books that long drag. It’s like a 4 hour movie. At some point, they drag. But Pillars of the Earth doesn’t drag. It grips. And Ken has this way with his words that can hold you in ways you didn’t think was possible. It’s a beautiful thing.

Obviously, I could go on and on. But this is a start. ☺️🙏🏾

#thank you you beautiful soul

20 notes · View notes

whatisthiswitchcraft · 5 years ago

Text

books I read in 2019 (not including rereads, favorites are bolded!)

Come Close - Sappho

Shanghai Baby - Wei Hui

Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair - Pablo Neruda

Bad Feminist: Essays - Roxane Gay

The Mother of Black Hollywood: A Memoir - Jenifer Lewis

Sula - Toni Morrison

Reinventing the Enemy’s Language: Contemporary Native Women’s Writings of North America - ed. Joy Harjo and Gloria Bird

How to Write an Autobiographical Novel - Alexander Chee

Night Sky With Exit Wounds - Ocean Vuong

If They Come For Us - Fatimah Asghar

Heart Berries: A Memoir - Terese Marie Mailhot

Less - Andrew Sean Greer

The Astonishing Color of After - Emily X.R. Pan

Goodbye, Vitamin - Rachel Khong

Darius the Great is Not Okay - Adib Khorram

Exit West - Mohsin Hamid

Homegirls and Handgrenades - Sonia Sanchez

Heavy: An American Memoir - Keise Laymon

All You Can Ever Know - Nicole Chung

Unaccustomed Earth - Jhumpa Lahiri

The Wife Between Us - Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen

The Way You Make Me Feel - Maureen Goo

A Very Large Expanse of Sea - Tahereh Mafi

Water By the Spoonful - Quiara Alegría Hudes

I Can’t Date Jesus: Love, Sex, Family, Race, and Other Reasons I’ve Put My Faith in Beyoncé - Michael Arceneaux

Bury It - Sam Sax

White Dancing Elephants - Chaya Bhuvaneswar

Pulp - Robin Talley

Shit is Real - Aisha Franz

Silencer - Marcus Wicker

Forget Sorrow: An Ancestral Tale - Belle Yang

Bestiary: Poems - Donika Kelly

Monster Portraits - Sofia Samatar

No Matter the Wreckage - Sarah Kay

Violet Energy Ingots - Hoa Nguyen

Olio - Tyehimba Jess

The Kane Chronicles: The Serpent’s Shadow - Rick Riordan

There Are More Beautiful Things Than Beyoncé - Morgan Parker

Nylon Road: A Graphic Memoir of Coming of Age in Iran - Parsua Bashi

The Wedding Date - Jasmine Guillory

Fruit of the Drunken Tree - Ingrid Rojas Contreras

An American Marriage - Tayari Jones

Family Trust - Kathy Wang

Not That Bad: Dispatches from Rape Culture - ed. Roxane Gay

Little & Lion - Brandy Colbert

A Girl Like That - Tanaz Bhathena

Suicide Club: A Novel About Living - Rachel Heng

The Disturbed Girl’s Dictionary - NoNieqa Ramos

My Old Faithful: Stories - Yang Huang

Crazy Rich Asians - Kevin Kwan

Girls Burn Brighter - Shobha Rao

Moon of the Crusted Snow - Waubgeshig Rice

Kingdom Animalia - Aracelis Girmay

Happiness - Aminatta Forna

Devotions - Mary Oliver

The Proposal - Jasmine Guillory

The Kiss Quotient - Helen Hoang

When Katie Met Cassidy - Camille Perri

Heads of the Colored People - Nafissa Thompson-Spires

Friday Black: Stories - Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah

The Word is Murder - Anthony Horowitz

Miles from Nowhere - Nami Mun

The Lost Ones - Sheena Kamal

All the Names They Used for God - Anjali Sachdeva

Confessions of the Fox - Jordy Rosenberg

Love, Loss, and What We Ate: A Memoir - Padma Lakshmi

On the Come Up - Angie Thomas

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society - Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows

The Love & Lies of Rukhsana Ali - Sabina Khan

See What I Have Done - Sarah Schmitt

Convenience Store Woman - Sayaka Murata

I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter - Erika Sánchez

For Today I Am A Boy - Kim Fu

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo - Taylor Jenkins Reid

Conflict Resolution for Holy Beings - Joy Harjo

They Can’t Kill Us Until They Kill Us - Hanif Abdurraqib

Mongrels - Stephen Graham Jones

If Beale Street Could Talk - James Baldwin

Death of Innocence: The Story of the Hate Crime that Changed America - Mamie Till-Mobley and Christopher Benson

The Gilded Wolves - Roshani Chokshi

To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before - Jenny Han

The Perfect Nanny - Leila Slimani, translated by Sam Taylor

The Travelling Cat Chronicles - Hiro Arikawa, translated by Philip Gabriel

Things We Lost in the Fire - Mariana Enríquez, translated by Megan McDowell

Sunburn - Laura Lippman

The House of Impossible Beauties - Joseph Cassara

Freshwater - Akwaeke Emezi

A Private Life - Chen Ran, translated by John Howard-Gibbon

Invisible: The Forgotten Story of the Black Woman Lawyer Who Took Down America’s Most Powerful Mobster - Stephen L. Carter

Undead Girl Gang - Lily Anderson

They Both Die at the End - Adam Silvera

The Friend - Sigrid Nunez

Severance - Ling Ma

Tiny Crimes: Very Short Tales of Mystery & Murder - ed. Licoln Michel and Nadxieli Nieto

Mapping the Interior - Stephen Graham Jones

Give Me Some Truth - Eric Gansworth

How to Love a Jamaican - Alexia Arthurs

All of This is True - Lygia Day Peñaflor

Swimmer Among the Stars - Kanishk Tharoor

The Wicked + the Divine, Vol. 7: Mothering Invention - Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie

This is Kind of an Epic Love Story - Kheryn Callender

Gingerbread - Helen Oyeyemi

Where the Dead Sit Talking - Brandon Hobson

The Ensemble - Aja Gabel

My Education - Susan Choi

More Happy than Not - Adam Silvera

Nobody Cares: Essays - Anne T. Donahue

Kiss and Tell: A Romantic Résumé, Ages 0 to 22 - Marinaomi

Oculus: Poems - Sally Wen Mao

Let’s Talk About Love - Claire Kann

History is All You Left Me - Adam Silvera

Opposite of Always - Justin A. Reynolds

The Crown Ain’t Worth Much - Hanif Abdurraqib

The Weight of Our Sky - Hanna Alkaf

If You See Me, Don’t Say Hi - Neel Patel

Girls of Paper and Fire - Natasha Ngan

What if It’s Us - Becky Albertalli and Adam Silvera

The Map of Salt and Stars - Jennifer Zeynab Joukhadar

October Mourning: A Song for Matthew Shepard - Lesléa Newman

The Big Smoke - Adrian Matejka

Dissolve - Sherwin Bitsui

The Woman Next Door - Yewande Omotoso

The Refugees - Viet Thanh Nguyen

White Tears - Hari Kunzru

Electric Arches - Eve Ewing

The Black Maria - Aracelis Girmay

Bloodchild and Other Stories - Octavia Butler

Soft Science - Franny Choi

The White Card - Claudia Rankine

Mad Honey Symposium - Sally Wen Mao

The Care and Feeding of Ravenously Hungry Girls - Anissa Gray

Next: New Poems - Lucille Clifton

The Marvelous Arithmetics of Distance: Poems 1987-1992 - Audre Lorde

Quilting the Black-Eyed Pea: Poems and Not Quite Poems - Nikki Giovanni

The Arab of the Future - Riad Sattouf

Ghosts in the Schoolyard: Racism and School Closings on Chicago’s South Side - Eve L. Ewing

Gruel - Bunkong Tuon

Marriage of a Thousand Lies - SJ Sindu

Parable of the Sower - Octavia Butler

Good Night, Willie Lee, I’ll See You in the Morning - Alice Walker

That Kind of Mother - Rumaan Alam

Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows - Balli Kaur Jaswal

Hera Lindsay Bird - Hera Lindsay Bird

Queenie - Candice Carty-Williams

And Still I Rise - Maya Angelou

The Man Who Shot Out My Eye Is Dead - Chanelle Benz

Everyone Knows You Go Home - Natalia Sylvester

Naming Our Destiny: New and Selected Poems - June Jordan

The 100* Best African American Poems (*But I Cheated) - ed. Nikki Giovanni

The Haunting of Tram Car 015 - P. Djèlí Clark

Bury My Clothes - Roger Bonair-Agard

Selected Poems - Langston Hughes

Their Eyes Were Watching God - Zora Neale Hurston

Sonata Mulattica - Rita Dove

Winnie - Gwendolyn Brooks

Bicycles: Love Poems - Nikki Giovanni

The Black God’s Drums - P. Djèlí Clark

Kid Gloves: Nine Months of Careful Chaos - Lucy Knisley

Annie Allen - Gwendolyn Brooks

Parable of the Talents - Octavia Butler

After Disasters - Viet Dinh

Passing for Human: A Graphic Memoir - Liana Finck

Teeth - Aracelis Girmay

A Surprised Queenhood in the New Black Sun: The Life & Legacy of Gwendolyn Brooks - Angela Jackson

Peluda - Melissa Lozada-Oliva

A Map to the Next World - Joy Harjo

Magical Negro - Morgan Parker

Corpse Whale - dg nanouk okpik

Hawkeye: Volume 1 - Matt Fraction

Cenzontle - Marcelo Hernandez Castillo

Don’t Let Me Be Lonely: An American Lyric - Claudia Rankine

Selected Poems - Gwendolyn Brooks

She Had Some Horses - Joy Harjo

The BreakBeat Poets: New American Poetry in the Age of Hip-Hope - ed. Kevin Coval, Quraysh Ali Lansana, and Nate Marshall

Beyond Uhura: Star Trek and Other Memories - Nichelle Nichols

The Past and Other Things that Should Stay Buried - Shaun David Hutchinson

Difficult Women - Roxane Gay

The Woman Who Fell From the Sky - Joy Harjo

The Collected Schizophrenias: Essays - Esmé Weijun Wang

Go Ahead in the Rain: Notes to A Tribe Called Quest - Hanif Abdurraqib

The Frolic of the Beasts - Yukio Mishima

Hawkeye Omnibus - Matt Fraction

Good Talk: A Memoir in Conversations - Mira Jacob

Karamo: My Story of Embracing Purpose, Healing, and Hope - Karamo Brown

Tipping the Velvet - Sarah Waters

When My Brother Was an Aztec - Natalie Diaz

Toxic Flora: Poems - Kimiko Hahn

Virgin - Analicia Sotelo

Easy Prey - Catherine Lo

Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up With Me - Mariko Tamaki and Rosemary Valero-O’Connell

Saints and Misfits - S.K. Ali

Intercepted - Alexa Martin

Love from A to Z - S.K. Ali

Gemini - Sonya Mukherjee

The Atlas of Reds and Blues - Devi S. Laskar

My Brother’s Husband Vol. II - Gengoroh Tagame

Black Queer Hoe - Britteney Black Rose Kapri

Internment - Samira Ahmed

Dothead: Poems - Amit Majmudar

With the Fire On High - Elizabeth Acevedo

Sabrina & Corina: Stories - Kali Fajardo-Anstine

Milk and Filth - Carmen Giménez Smith

The Key to Happily Ever After - Tif Marcelo

If You’re Out There - Katy Loutzenhiser

Farewell to Manzanar - Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston

New Poets of Native Nations - ed. Heid E. Erdrich

Bodymap: Poems - Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha

Wolf by Wolf - Ryan Graudin

Tell Me How It Ends - Valeria Luiselli

Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood - Trevor Noah

Down and Across - Arvin Ahmadi

The Tradition - Jericho Brown

About Betty’s Boob - Vero Cazot and Julie Rocheleau

Fake It Till You Break It - Jenn P. Nguyen

Storm of Locusts - Rebecca Roanhorse

Silver Sparrow - Tayari Jones

Pride, Prejudice, and Other Flavors - Sonali Dev

Mongrel: Essays, Diatribes, Pranks - Justin Chin

When I Grow Up I Want To Be a List of Further Possibilities - Chen Chen

The New Testament - Jericho Brown

Fumbled - Alexa Martin

If It Makes You Happy - Claire Kann

Brave Face - Shaun David Hutchinson

Words in Deep Blue - Cath Crowley

Lost Children Archive - Valeria Luiselli

Care Work: Dreaming Disability Justice - Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha

We Were Eight Years in Power: An American Tragedy - Ta-Nehisi Coates

Anger is a Gift - Mark Oshiro

The Bride Test - Helen Hoang

Not Your Backup - C.B. Lee

Prelude to Bruise - Saeed Jones

The Night Wanderer: A Graphic Novel - Drew Hayden Taylor and Michael Wyatt

Naturally Tan - Tan France

Bloom - Kevin Panetta and Savanna Ganucheau

Like a Love Story - Abdi Nazemian

I’m Afraid of Men - Vivek Shraya

Juliet Takes a Breath - Gabby Rivera

On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous - Ocean Vuong

Let Me Hear a Rhyme - Tiffany D. Jackson

I Wanna Be Where You Are - Kristina Forest

Hurricane Season - Nicole Melleby

Split Tooth - Tanya Tagaq

Hungry Hearts: 13 Tales of Love and Food - ed. Elsie Chapman and Caroline Tung Richmond

The Night Tiger - Yangsze Choo

Long Live the Tribe of Fatherless Girls - T Kira Madden

Miracle Creek - Angie Kim

Ayesha at Last - Uzma Jalaluddin

Shout - Laurie Halse Anderson

The Breakbeat Poets Vol. 3: Halal if You Hear Me - ed. Fatimah Asghar and Safia Elhillo

The Tenth Muse - Catherine Chung

This Place: 150 Years Retold - various authors

Kings, Queens, and In-Betweens - Tanya Boteju

Midnight Chicken (& Other Recipes Worth Living For) - Ella Risbridger

Library of Small Catastrophes - Alison C. Rollins

Natalie Tan’s Book of Luck and Fortune - Roselle Lim

No Ashes in the Fire: Coming of Age Black and Free in America - Darnell L. Moore

The Book of Delights - Ross Gay

The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle - Stuart Turton

Speak No Evil - Uzodinma Iweala

How We Fight White Supremacy - Akiba Solomon and Kenrya Rankin

A Love Story Starring My Dead Best Friend - Emily Horner

Here and Now and Then - Mike Chen

The Ghost Bride - Yangsze Choo

Red White and Royal Blue - Casey McQuiston

Becoming - Michelle Obama

The Wedding Party - Jasmine Guillory

Magic for Liars - Sarah Gailey

I’ll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman’s Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer - Michelle McNamara

Brain Fever - Kimiko Hahn

Life on Mars - Tracy K. Smith

Notebooks of a Chile Verde Smuggler - Juan Felipe Herrera

Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude - Ross Gay

Tentacle - Rita Indiana

Hapa Tales and Other Lies: A Memoir About the Mixed Race Hawai’i That I Never Knew - Sharon Chang

Loose Woman - Sandra Cisneros

Duende - Tracy K. Smith

Mostly Dead Things - Kristen Arnett

1919 - Eve L. Ewing

Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race - Reni Eddo-Lodge

Negroland - Margo Jefferson

For Black Girls Like Me - Mariama J. Lockington

Super Extra Grande - Yoss

Home Remedies - Xuan Juliana Wang

You Can’t Touch My Hair: And Other Things I Still Have to Explain - Phoebe Robinson

An Anonymous Girl - Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen

The Abundance - Amit Majmudar

I Shall Not Be Moved - Maya Angelou

Helium - Rudy Francisco

Teaching My Mother to Give Birth - Warsan Shire

Tomie - Junji Ito

Everything’s Trash, But It’s Okay - Phoebe Robinson

This Time Will Be Different - Misa Sugiura

Junji Ito’s Cat Diary: Yon & Mu - Junji Ito

Stag’s Leap - Sharon Olds

Black Card - Chris L. Terry

It’s Not Like It’s A Secret - Misa Sugiura

Washington Black - Esi Edugyan

From Here To Eternity: Traveling the World to Find the Good Death - Caitlin Doughty

I’m Telling the Truth, But I’m Lying: Essays - Bassey Ikpi

A House of My Own: Stories from my Life - Sandra Cisneros

The Terrible - Yrsa Daley-Ward

The Black Tides of Heaven - JY Yang

The Red Threads of Fortune - JY Yang

Little Fish - Casey Plett

Trick Mirror: Reflections on Self-Delusion - Jia Tolentino

The Black Condition ft. Narcissus - Jayy Dodd

The Goldfinch - Donna Tartt

Dealing in Dreams - Lilliam Rivera

The Tiger Flu - Larissa Lai

The Island of Sea Women - Lisa See

America is Not the Heart - Elaine Castillo

Feel Free - Zadie Smith

Walking on the Ceiling - Aysegul Savas

My Time Among the Whites: Notes from an Unfinished Education - Jennine Capo Crucet

The Unpassing - Chia-Chia Lin

Maurice - E.M. Forster

Permanent Record - Mary H.K. Choi

The Downstairs Girl - Stacey Lee

Red Dust Road: An Autobiographical Journey - Jackie Kay

The Ungrateful Refugee: What Immigrants Never Tell You - Dina Nayeri

I Married My Best Friend to Shut My Parents Up - Naoko Kodama

Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI - David Grann

Ordinary Light - Tracy K. Smith

Cantoras - Carolina De Robertis

Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness - Susannah Cahalan

How to Be Remy Cameron - Julian Winters

The Marriage Clock - Zara Raheem

Moon: Letters, Maps, Poems - Jennifer S. Cheng

Where Reasons End - Yiyun Li

Pet - Akwaeke Emezi

Meddling Kids - Edgar Cantero

A Lucky Man - Jamel Brinkley

Maiden, Mother, Crone: Fantastical Trans Femmes - ed. Gwen Benaway

What is Obscenity? The Story of a Good for Nothing Artist and her Pussy - Rokudenashiko

The Umbrella Academy Vol. III: Hotel Oblivion - Gerard Way

Who Put This Song On? - Morgan Parker

The Souls of Yellow Folk: Essays - Wesley Yang

Wave - Sonali Deraniyagala

Love War Stories - Ivelisse Rodriguez

Baby Teeth - Zoje Stage

A Fortune for Your Disaster - Hanif Abdurraqib

Eyes Bottle Dark with a Mouthful of Flowers - Jake Skeets

Dear America: Notes of an Undocumented Citizen - Jose Antonio Vargas

The Marrow Thieves - Cherie Dimaline

Polite Society - Mahesh Rao

Patron Saints of Nothing - Randy Ribay

The Body Papers: A Memoir - Grace Talusan

A Woman is No Man - Etaf Rum

Travelers - Helon Habila

Trust Exercise - Susan Choi

The Silent Patient - Alex Michaelides

The Intuitionist - Colson Whitehead

A People’s History of Heaven - Mathangi Subramanian

The Buddha of Suburbia - Hanif Kureishi

This is Paradise: Stories - Kristiana Kahakauwila

Brood - Kimiko Hahn

Don’t Look Now - Daphne du Maurier

How We Fight for Our Lives - Saeed Jones

I Hope You Get This Message - Farah Naz Rishi

Unmarriageable - Soniah Kamal

Bad Endings - Carleigh Baker

The Water Dancer - Ta-Nehisi Coates

The Lady from the Black Lagoon: Hollywood Monsters and the Lost Legacy of Milicent Patrick - Mallory O’Meara

Shapes of Native Nonficton: Collected Essays by Contemporary Writers - ed. Elissa Washuta and Theresa Warburton

Harley Quinn: Breaking Glass - Mariko Tamaki

Even the Saints Audition - Rachel Jackson

Slay - Britney Morris

#NotYourPrincess: Voices of Native American Women - ed. Lisa Charleyboy and Mary Beth Leatherdale

The Starlet and the Spy - Ji-min Lee

North of Dawn - Nuruddin Farah

Daisy Jones & The Six - Taylor Jenkins Reid

The Drowning Boy’s Guide to Water - Cameron Barnett

They Called Us Enemy - George Takei

Dear Girls: Intimate Tales, Untold Secrets, and Advice for Living Your Best Life - Ali Wong

The Right Swipe - Alisha Rai

Full Disclosure - Camryn Garrett

Searching for Sylvie Lee - Jean Kwok

Gideon the Ninth - Tasmyn Muir

Stubborn Archivist - Yara Rodrigues Fowler

The Wicked + the Divine, Vol. 8: Old is the New New - Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie

Never Grow Up - Jackie Chan

“All the Real Indians Died Off”: And 20 Other Myths About Native Americans - Roxanna Dunbar-Ortiz

In the Dream House - Carmen Maria Machado

Blame This on the Boogie - Rina Ayuyang

It - Stephen King

Sea Monsters - Chloe Aridjis

My Fate According to the Butterfly - Gail D. Villanueva

The Wicked + the Divine, Vol. 9: “Okay” - Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie

The Deep - Rivers Solomon

I Hope We Choose Love: A Trans Girl’s Notes from the End of the World - Kai Cheng Thom

Mooncakes - Suzanne Walker

BTTM FDRS - Ezra Claytan Daniels and Ben Passmore

Hot Comb - Ebony Flowers

Notes from a Young Black Chef - Kwame Onwuachi

Bunny - Mona Awad

The Twisted Ones - T. Kingfisher

Shuri, Vol. 1: The Search for Black Panther - Nnedi Okorafor

I Was Their American Dream: A Graphic Memoir - Malaka Gharib

Thick: And Other Essays - Tressie McMillan Cottom

Royal Holiday - Jasmine Guillory

Boxers - Gene Luen Yang

Saints - Gene Luen Yang

Fox 8 - George Saunders

The Memory Police - Yoko Ogawa

Last Day - Domenica Ruta

Wakanda Forever - Nnedi Okorafor

The Revisioners - Margaret Wilkerson Sexton

The Future of Another Timeline - Annalee Newitz

We Have Always Been Here: A Queer Muslim Memoir - Samra Habib

Somewhere in the Middle: A Journey to the Phillipines in Search of Roots, Belonging, and Identity - Deborah Francisco Douglas

Crier’s War - Nina Varela

Something in Between - Melissa de la Cruz

The Secrets We Kept - Lara Prescott

The Tao of Raven: An Alaska Native Memoir - Ernestine Hayes

One of Us is Lying - Karen M. McManus

Piecing Me Together - Renee Watson

Binti - Nnedi Okorafor

The Nickel Boys - Colson Whitehead

Recursion - Blake Crouch

Supper Club - Lara Williams

#books #2019 #my lists #year in books

15 notes · View notes

fictionz · 5 years ago

Text

New Fiction 2019

Previously: 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013

Novels

Geek Love by Katherine Dunn (1989)

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon (2003)

Short Stories

"The Geranium" by Flannery O'Connor (1946)

"The Barber" by Flannery O'Connor (1947)

"Wildcat" by Flannery O'Connor (1947)

Video Games

Super Mario Bros. 3 dev. Nintendo EAD (1988)

The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening dev. Grezzo (2019)

The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask 3D dev. Grezzo (2015)

Movies

Mary Poppins Returns dir. Rob Marshall (2018)

The Bone Collector dir. Phillip Noyce (1999)

American Gangster dir. Ridley Scott (2007)

Glass dir. M. Night Shyamalan (2019)

Escape Room dir. Adam Robitel (2019)

Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday dir. Adam Marcus (1993)

Alita: Battle Angel dir. Robert Rodriguez (2019)

Captain Marvel dir. Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck (2019)

Us dir. Jordan Peele (2019)

The Grand Budapest Hotel dir. Wes Anderson (2014)

Dragged Across Concrete dir. S. Craig Zahler (2018)

The Favourite dir. Yorgos Lanthimos (2018)

Creed II dir. Steven Caple Jr. (2018)

If Beale Street Could Talk dir. Barry Jenkins (2018)

A Private War dir. Matthew Heineman (2018)

The Spectacular Now dir. James Ponsoldt (2013)

Shazam! dir. Peter Safran (2019)

Avengers: Endgame dir. Anthony Russo and Joe Russo (2019)

El Chicano dir. Ben Hernandez Bray (2019)

Pokémon Detective Pikachu dir. Rob Letterman (2019)

John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum dir. Chad Stahelski (2019)

Brightburn dir. David Yarovesky (2019)

Booksmart dir. Olivia Wilde (2019)

Godzilla: King of the Monsters dir. Michael Dougherty (2019)

Kill the Irishman dir. Jonathan Hensleigh (2011)

Lord of War dir. Andrew Niccol (2005)

Always Be My Maybe dir. Nahnatchka Khan (2019)

Toy Story 4 dir. Josh Cooley (2019)

Armour of God dir. Jackie Chan and Eric Tsang (1986)

Armour of God II: Operation Condor dir. Jackie Chan (1991)

Spider-Man: Far From Home dir. Jon Watts (2019)

Midsommar dir. Ari Aster (2019)

1922 dir. Zak Hilditch (2017)

The Book of Eli dir. The Hughes Brothers (2010)

Crawl dir. Alexandre Aja (2019)

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood dir. Quentin Tarantino (2019)

The Farewell dir. Lulu Wang (2019)

Burn After Reading dir. Joel Coen & Ethan Coen (2008)

Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark dir. André Øvredal (2019)

Ready or Not dir. Matt Bettinelli-Olpin & Tyler Gillett (2019)

It dir. Andy Muschietti (2017)

It Chapter Two dir. Andy Muschietti (2019)

Hustlers dir. Lorene Scafaria (2019)

Rambo: Last Blood dir. Adrian Grunberg (2019)

Ad Astra dir. James Gray (2019)

Scream 3 dir. Wes Craven (2000)

Candyman dir. Bernard Rose (1992)

El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie dir. Vince Gilligan (2019)

Ex Machina dir. Alex Garland (2014)

Under the Skin dir. Jonathan Glazer (2013)

Taking Lives dir. D. J. Caruso (2004)

Mystic River dir. Clint Eastwood (2003)

Mandy dir. Panos Cosmatos (2018)

The Lighthouse dir. Robert Eggers (2019)

Terminator: Dark Fate dir. Tim Miller (2019)

Fallen dir. Gregory Hoblit (1998)

Cam dir. Daniel Goldhaber (2018)

Executive Decision dir. Stuart Baird (1996)

Fracture dir. Gregory Hoblit (2007)

The Pelican Brief dir. Alan J. Pakula (1993)

16 Blocks dir. Richard Donner (2006)

The Brave One dir. Neil Jordan (2007)

Perfect Stranger dir. James Foley (2007)

The Game dir. David Fincher (1997)

Enter the Dragon dir. Robert Clouse (1973)

Gothika dir. Mathieu Kassovitz (2003)

The Interview dir. Craig Monahan (1998)

The Captive dir. Atom Egoyan (2014)

Parasite dir. Bong Joon-ho (2019)

Doctor Sleep dir. Mike Flanagan (2019)

Jojo Rabbit dir. Taika Waititi (2019)

It’s a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood dir. Marielle Heller (2019)

Ford v Ferrari dir. James Mangold (2019)

Knives Out dir. Rian Johnson (2019)

Queen & Slim dir. Melina Matsoukas (2019)

21 Bridges dir. Brian Kirk (2019)

Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale dir. Jalmari Helander (2010)

Jumanji: The Next Level dir. Jake Kasdan (2017)

Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle dir. Jake Kasdan (2019)

Richard Jewell dir. Clint Eastwood (2019)

Frozen II dir. Chris Buck & Jennifer Lee (2019)

The Long Kiss Goodnight dir. Renny Harlin (1996)

Fractured dir. Brad Anderson (2019)

The Lake House dir. Alejandro Agresti (2006)

Imagine That dir. Karey Kirkpatrick (2009)

Daddy Daycare dir. Steve Carr (2003)

Eat Pray Love dir. Ryan Murphy (2010)

The Angel dir. Ariel Vromen (2018)

Klaus dir. Sergio Pablos (2019)

Dolemite Is My Name dir. Craig Brewer (2019)

Cats dir. Tom Hooper (2019)

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker dir. J. J. Abrams (2019)

Uncut Gems dir. Josh Safdie & Benny Safdie (2019)

A Nightmare on Elm Street dir. Samuel Bayer (2010)

Death Becomes Her dir. Robert Zemeckis (1992)

Casino Royale dir. Martin Campbell (2006)

TV Episodes

What We Do in the Shadows - "Pilot" (2019)

Hanna - “Forest” (2019)

Bob’s Burgers - “Brunchsquatch” (2017)

Bob’s Burgers - “The Silence of the Louise” (2017)

Bob’s Burgers - “Sit Me Baby One More Time” (2017)

The Simpsons - “Holidays of Future Passed” (2011)

Star Trek: Discovery - "The Vulcan Hello” (2017)

The Simpsons - “Treehouse of Horror XXX” (2019)

The Simpsons - “Thanksgiving of Horror” (2019)

TV Series

Parks and Recreation (2009-2015)

The Punisher - Season 2 (2019)

Luther - Series 5 (2019)

Tuca & Bertie (2019)

Jessica Jones - Season 3 (2019)

Black Mirror - Seasons 4 & 5 (2017, 2019)

Mindhunter - Season 2 (2019)

Penny Dreadful (2014-2016)

The Haunting of Hill House (2018)

The Good Place - Season 4 (2018)

Disenchantment - Part 2 (2019)

American Horror Story: Apocalypse (2018)

Unbelievable (2019)

Cheers (1982-1993)

The Mandalorian (2019)

#new fiction #2019

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romanticsuspense · 5 years ago

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These are the 43 books I read in 2019 (full list under the “keep reading”). The books with gold stars are the ones I rated 5-stars. The books with hearts are 4-star reads, which means I really loved them and would recommend them. Here are some highlights...

Outstanding Audiobook Narration

Perdita Weeks reading Circe by Madeline Miller & Christian Coulson reading The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue by Mackenzi Lee

It’s a tie! I can’t decide which of these narrators I loved more. Finding the right voice for a character is difficult, but Weeks and Coulson were perfect matches for Circe and Monty. When the narration is just right, an audiobook can feel immersive, and that’s what these books were for me - immersive experiences. I didn’t write a review for Circe (what can I say except it was amazing!), but you can read my short review for The Gentleman’s Guide here.

Worthy of Its Critical Acclaim and Many Awards

Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward

Ward, a Mississippi author, has been on my radar for years, but this is the first of her books I’ve read. I gave only four books 5-star ratings this year, and this was one of them. I didn’t get around to writing a full review, but in my ‘notes’ I wrote: This was haunting in a strangely uplifting way.

Out of My Comfort Zone

It by Stephen King

In 2018, I stepped out of my comfort zone when I read a couple of contemporary Romance novels. This year, I stepped out of my comfort zone with Horror. I have avoided the Horror genre in the past because I’m easily scared. But, It was not that frightening and 5-stars good. Read my review here.

Notable Nonfiction

Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari, Period Repair Manual by Lara Briden, & Cozy Minimalist Home: More Style, Less Stuff by Myquillyn Smith

All three of these books stand out for different reasons. Sapiens was surprisingly fascinating and engrossing. Period Repair Manual was an eye-opening read with helpful, actionable advice (my review here). Cozy Minimalist Home was an attitude-changer and I really appreciated Smith’s design-conscious approach to minimalism.

Comforting and Cozy

A Breath of Snow and Ashes, An Echo in the Bone, & The Fiery Cross by Diana Gabaldon

In 2018 I reread Drums of Autumn and fell in love with Outlander again. This year, I continued the series with books 6 & 7 and started rereading book 5. I haven’t finished The Fiery Cross, yet, so technically it shouldn’t be included here. But, I did read more than 80% of it in the last quarter of the year. I’m loving being in this world, with these characters, again. These books are long and it takes me forever to read them, but there’s something comforting about all the details and descriptions of the seemingly mundane. Written in My Own Heart’s Blood & Go Tell The Bees That I Am Gone are in the pipeline for 2020.

Honorable Mentions

Nine Perfect Strangers by Liane Moriarty & Muse of Nightmares by Laini Taylor

It saddens me that Moriarty’s books are pigeonholed as ‘Chick Lit’ (a genre classification that I abhor). Her books are so, so good and all genders should be reading them. I personally don’t understand why so many of her devoted readers didn’t like Nine Perfect Strangers as much as her other novels. It was different, but I still thought it was hilarious, entertaining, and heartfelt—descriptors that could be used for many of Moriarty’s books.

Muse of Nightmares is Taylor’s follow-up to Strange the Dreamer, one of my favorites from 2017. This young adult, fantasy duology is so colorfully and beautifully written. If you’re looking for fantasy books, but don’t want to commit to a long series, I highly recommend these. The world-building is amazing, the characters are multi-faceted, and the story’s conclusion is satisfying.

Best Cover Art

The Full List of Books (Titles and Authors) I Read in 2019:

Note: This list is in chronological order, starting with the book I finished first this year. The graphic at the top of this post is in reverse chronological order, starting with the book I finished last.

A Breath of Snow and Ashes by Diana Gabaldon ♥

The Free State of Jones: Mississippi’s Longest Civil War by Victoria E. Bynum

A Room with a View by E.M. Forster

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson

The Hike by Drew Magary

Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates ♥

If Beale Street Could Talk by James Baldwin ♥

Stillhouse Lake by Rachel Caine

Nine Perfect Strangers by Liane Moriarty ♥

Circe by Madeline Miller ★

Always and Forever, Lara Jean by Jenny Han

The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants by Ann Brashares

A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms by George R.R. Martin

Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are? by Frans de Waal

Queen of Attolia by Megan Whalen Turner

Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward ★

An American Marriage by Tayari Jones

Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari ♥

The King of Attolia by Megan Whalen Turner

Period Repair Manual by Lara Briden ♥

The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue by Mackenzi Lee ♥

The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller ♥

The Bride Test by Helen Hoang

Cozy Minimalist Home: More Style, Less Stuff by Myquillyn Smith ♥

An Echo in the Bone by Diana Gabaldon ♥

The Lady’s Guide to Petticoats and Piracy by Mackenzi Lee

Muse of Nightmares by Laini Taylor ★

Red, White, & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston ♥

The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah

Practical Magic by Alice Hoffman

Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens

The Duke and I by Julia Quinn

Bittersweet by Sarina Bowen

Truth or Beard by Penny Reid ♥

The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick

The Viscount Who Loved Me by Julia Quinn

Steadfast by Sarina Bowen ♥

Romancing the Duke by Tessa Dare

Bird Box by Josh Malerman

It by Stephen King ★

When a Scot Ties the Knot by Tessa Dare

A Cosmology of Monsters by Shaun Hamill

Grin and Beard It by Penny Reid

#books #reading #goodreads #2019 reading challenge

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charlotteloveandfilm-blog · 5 years ago

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If Beale Street Could Talk

Barry Jenkins’ If Beale Street Could Talk (2018) is one of the most stunning and heartbreaking movies I have seen in a long time. I was struck by how well it tied in with a lot of the big concepts we have been talking about thus far in the course, most clearly with the ideas of Platonic love and the ladder of love. The film is explicitly concerned with physical love and how sex factors into a relationship.

Tish, in her narration as well as in her normal dialogue, talks about the connection that she and Fonny share—both emotional and physical. Early on, she talks about how they had bathed together as children, how she had “dumped water over Fonny’s head.” This image is so interesting to me because it calls up the concept of baptism. Baptism is an act of purification and it often accompanies name-giving when performed on children. It is as though Tish purified Fonny in that moment as kids, just as she does now. She spends the film trying to clear Fonny’s name. It is also, obviously, a religious ceremony. The sharing of this religious moment between them points to Tish’s feelings of emotional connection to Fonny—a connection far more profound than the physical. She goes on to say “I don’t remember that we had any curiosity concerning each other’s bodies. Fonny loved me too much. And that meant that there had never been any occasion for shame between us.” Their emotional connection is not only more profound than their physical connection, it also precedes it. We live in a world in which the opposite is often true, and even in the ladder of love, it is the love of beautiful bodies that comes first. For these two, they start at the top of the ladder. This is reinforced by the idea that Fonny loved her too much to be curious about her body—as though they are already beyond that kind of love. Tish also ties shame to physical love. This is another Biblical reference—Adam and Eve ate from the tree of knowledge and realized they were naked, and they were ashamed. Fonny and Tish are like Adam and Eve before they eat the apple. They are unashamed, but also ignorant. Naïve. I think that continues throughout much of the film. They live in their own perfect world, but when other people invade that world, that is when things start to go wrong. More on this later, I want to talk about all the 4th wall breaks, but first I want to finish talking about the scene at hand.

Tish goes on to say, “We were a part of each other, flesh of each other’s flesh, which we so took for granted that we never thought of the flesh.” This is a clear reference to Aristophanes myth of the origin of love—Tish and Fonny are two halves of a whole. But, they are somewhat divorced from their bodies. They are soulmates. Their love transcends the physical altogether, to the point that they are simply unconcerned with. However, this is not always the case. When they do finally have sex, Tish seems afraid. Fonny consoles her by telling her, “I belong to you.” This is a very interesting inversion of the typical attitude around virginity (and Tish is a virgin before Fonny)—that for a man to have sex with a woman is to take something from her, to possess her in some way. But, in this moment, it is Tish who takes a part of Fonny (which, not to be crude, is a more accurate rendering of what happens during the action of sex, isn’t it?). He later asks her if she likes it when he makes love to her, and she dodges the question. When he presses the issue, she responds, “I just know that I love you.” She does not seem particularly enthused by sex, perhaps because she sees it as unnecessary or secondary to loving Fonny. It is Fonny who is more interested in sex and in the physical generally. After all, he is a sculptor. He communicates through the physical, through objects he can make with his hands. In fact, Tish first knew Fonny was in love with her when he gave her mother and sculpture he had made. Baldwin, in most of his novels, is extremely concerned with sex and how people engage with each other physically. In the article we read this week, “Baldwin and the Occasion of Love” by Christopher Freeburg, Freeburg brings up a quotation from Soren Kierkegaard, “Love’s hidden live is in the innermost being, unfathomable, and then in turn is an unfathomable connectedness with all existence” (191). This is a sort of Platonic take on love: the idea that love eventually extends to all beautiful things, namely the forms. Freeburg claims that “Baldwin fashions a similar vision through a relentless commitment to the individual’s materiality—through nakedness, sex, and a mysterious vulnerability. Baldwin’s version of ‘all existence’ is materialized as the texture of history…” (191). I think Jenkins is extraordinarily true to this Baldwinian view of love in his adaptation. Tish and Fonny are at once ethereal and physical. Fonny, in particular, seems able to access the ethereal via the physical. And, of course, it is crucial that we, the audience are able to access the internal lives of these characters via film, an inherently physical medium.

So! To loop around to what I wanted to talk about earlier: the dozens of times this film breaks the 4th wall. As I mentioned earlier, things go wrong for these characters when other people, situations, circumstance invade their private world—when the serpent enters Eden, as it were. But, we are invading their private world just by watching this movie, and Jenkins wants us to feel that. These characters are constantly talking to the lens (and, by extension, us) during otherwise typical moments of dialogue. This places the audience, quite literally, in the character’s shoes. The first instance of this happens when Tish tells her mother that she is pregnant. We are not made to simply watch Tish as she tells her mother this news. We, too, must look into Tish’s anxious eyes. We, too, are forced to endure her mother’s expectant gaze.

This kind of camera work is an exercise in empathy, but also in voyeurism. It forces us to ask ourselves: what right do we have to bear witness to this story? To these private moments between characters? Another example that stands out to me is when Tish looks into the camera over Fonny’s shoulder while the two have sex. It is extremely uncomfortable, and it also makes us consider why normal sex scenes without 4th wall breaks don’t bother us. Shouldn’t that be just as uncomfortable to watch? But no, it is only when someone looks back at us that we become aware of our position as voyeur. In that way, the movie is emphatically confrontational. It is refusing to sit back and be watched. It watches us back.

To conclude, If Beale Street Could Talk is a movie interested in questions of physicality, spirituality, and intimacy, among many, many other things that I, unfortunately, do not have the time or space to cover. It is always a joy to watch such a rich and carefully constructed film. I will not be forgetting it soon.

#week 5 #if beale street could talk

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ethenell · 6 years ago

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Best Films of 2018: Honorable Mentions

The time, once again, has come. The Oscars nominations are out there, and they’re ... puzzling ... But anyone interested in an alternate take can look no further.

The cinema of 2018 offered too many notable treasures to whittle down to a simple list of ten, so before we get into the meat of my countdown, here is an alphabetical list of ten films that just missed out on making my list, but are essential viewing for anyone looking to take in the best that 2018 had to offer.

Enjoy!

Blindspotting (dir. Carlos López Estrada)

I’m still waiting for the moment when the world collectively discovers the thing at which Daveed Diggs is not amazing. He had already garnered acclaim as a part of the experimental hip-hop group clipping. before reaching a wider audience and netting himself Grammy and Tony Awards for his role in the paradigm-altering musical, Hamilton. To that already distinguished list, we can now add co-writing and co-starring in one of 2018’s most original films. Blindspotting, set in Digg’s hometown of Oakland, CA, is a searing take on gentrification, racism, and police brutality that show off a deep understanding of the myriad political problems in the rapidly-changing Bay Area, while displaying an equally deft touch with the characters who find their lives irreparably damaged as a direct or indirect result. It’s impressive work from Diggs and co-writer/co-star Rafael Casal that first-time director Carlos Lopez Estrada brings to life with singular vision. Something tells me we’ll continue to see more of everyone involved, but Diggs is undoubtedly headed for greatness.

The Death of Stalin (dir. Armando Iannucci)

You’d be forgiven if you thought the creator/director of Veep, The Thick of It, and In The Loop had already mined politics’ deepest, darkest depths for the pitch-blackest comedy that one could possibly generate from the toxic combination of bureaucratic incompetence and egotistical narcissism. However, as The Death of Stalin shows with brutal precision, you would be wrong. The Death of Stalin is at times so bleak its difficult to even describe as a comedy without a bit of a cringe on your face, but it revels brilliantly in the theater of the absurd and probes ruthlessly at the ruling class with chilling contemporary resonance. And that’s all without mentioning that it features one of the best ensemble performances of the year. In a time when its easy to despair how much our everyday political reality has started to resemble a particularly discomfiting episode of Veep, Iannucci makes a triumphant return with an even more discomfiting message - never forget, things can always get much, much worse.

Hereditary (dir. Ari Aster)

Another year, another Sundance horror breakout. Even if it doesn’t quite match up with some of its more distinguished predecessors (I wouldn’t quite put it at the level of It Follows, The Babadook, or The Witch) Hereditary is clearly the year’s best horror film, featuring a handful of sequences sure to push you to the edge of your seat, and then keep you up at night. The perennially under-appreciated Toni Collette delivers a performance of such vast emotional range that it deserves mention among the absolute best performances of the year – which, of course, meant that it was doomed to be ignored by the Oscars. Nevertheless, any fans of the genre should stop what they’re doing (including, presumably, reading this list) and watch this film immediately. You won’t be sorry.

If Beale Street Could Talk (dir. Barry Jenkins)

A pairing like Barry Jenkins and James Baldwin makes so much sense, and has such immense creative potential, that it’s generally something that could exist only in cinephile dreams. It simply makes *too* much sense. Yet, here we are, and Jenkins’ follow-up to the critically-revered Moonlight, an adaptation of one of Baldwin’s lesser-known novels, If Beale Street Could Talk, is very much real. Does it measure up to the immense expectations thrust upon it, due in no small part to Moonlight’s rapturous reception and the much-hyped pairing of Jenkins and Baldwin? In some important ways, no. Is Jenkins’ script at times overly-reverent of its source material? In some important ways, yes. But when Jenkins filters Baldwin’s story of the redeeming power of love in the face of oppression through his own unique cinematic voice, the results are breathtaking. Jenkins remains one of cinema’s greatest emerging artists.

Mission: Impossible – Fallout (dir. Christopher McQuarrie)

At the very least, this latest installment in the M:I franchise was the most balls-to-the-wall fun I had in a theater this entire year, hurtling at a breakneck pace from one jaw-dropping set piece to the next with one of the world’s biggest stars carrying the screen from the first frame to the last. But at most, you could call it one of the decade’s best action films, with some of the most breathtaking stunt work ever put to film with an absolutely singular star who continues to push his penchant for cheating death and tempting fate for our entertainment to daring new heights. The truth probably lies somewhere between the two extremes, but either way, the Cruise’s latest ride as Ethan Hunt is undeniably one of the most thrilling yet.

Private Life (dir. Tamara Jenkins)

With 11 years having passed since her Oscar-nominated feature debut, The Savages, hit the silver screen, news that Netflix was financing and developing a new film from Tamara Jenkins was met with nearly unbridled optimism. More than delivering on that promise, Jenkins once again delivered a film that delves deeply into all-too-common but dramatically under-explored modern adult experiences. While The Savages followed two adult siblings dealing with the mental decline of their elderly parent, Private Life details a couple in their 40s going through fertility treatments. Like her debut, Private Life uses this trying, even destabilizing experience to explore the ways in which our long-established adult lives can be uprooted as much by our own choices as by external, unforeseeable events. With two sterling performances from Kathryn Hahn and Paul Giamatti at its center, Private Life is rife with incisive observations about overlooked truths of aging together. It’s beautiful work, and undoubtedly one of Netflix’s best “original” offerings.

The Rider (dir. Chloe Zhao)

Using a cast of untrained actors to spin a poetic tale lost opportunity by way of the American rodeo, director Chloe Zhao’s sophomore feature has keyed her as a rising master of cinematic realism. The film follows the struggles of a former rising rodeo star dealing with the fallout of a traumatic head injury suffered during a bronc riding competition, and mirrors the real-life experiences of its star, Brady Jandeau. who Zhao befriended while shooting her debut feature, Songs My Brothers Taught Me. Drawing out brilliant performances and setting them against the perma-golden picturesque of the Badlands, The Rider is a testament to what truly independent cinema is capable of and is sure to springboard Zhao to greater heights.

Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse (dir. Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey, Rodney Rothman)

The most unexpected triumph of the year, Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse is not just a high watermark in the Spider-Man film series, it is almost certainly the best film to ever come out of Marvel Studios, and possibly the greatest superhero film since The Dark Knight. With an airtight script that spans several universes (literally) with ease, and featuring some of the most glorious and inventive animation ever to grace the big screen, Into the Spiderverse is a rare and perfect marriage between the words on the page and the visual language employed on screen. It a testament to what’s possible when talented artists with an original vision take big risks - it’s a breath of fresh air.

A Star is Born (dir. Bradley Cooper)

Even with an improbably underwhelming Oscar campaign sputtering its way to the finish line, it’s hard not to peg A Star is Born as the year’s most-talked about film. Bradley Cooper brought his gestating passion project to life with scope and vision rarely seen from a first-time director and Lady Gaga turns in an absolutely electric performance that elevates the film whenever she’s on screen. From the spine-tingling live concert scenes to the beautiful on-screen chemistry between Cooper and Gaga, there’s an awful lot to love about this latest iteration of this long-tenured Hollywood classic. Sure, there’s also plenty to nitpick at - obviously more than enough to fuel a backlash against the once-assumed Oscar frontrunner - but when this film is firing on all cylinders, it’s right up there with the greatest cinema of 2018. Cooper is officially a filmmaker to watch, and A Star Is Born looks every bit like a directorial debut that will stand the test of time.

You Were Never Really Here (dir. Lynne Ramsey)

One of the year’s most boldly-directed films, Lynne Ramsey’s latest is a lean thriller that goes for your throat but takes up permanent residence in your gut. Ramsey and star Joaquin Phoenix (delivering yet another show-stopping performance) bury you deep inside the mind of killer for hire, traumatized by his abusive childhood and haunted by his military past, as he embarks on a job to rescue a young girl from sex traffickers. If this premise seems familiar, believe me, the execution is anything but. Ramsey’s direction is unerringly brilliant, elevating You Were Never Really Here well beyond it’s pulpy origins to bracing, almost hallucinogenic heights. Oh, and did I mention it boasts one of Jonny Greenwood’s most adventurous scores to date? If that’s not enough to get it in your Amazon Prime queue (hint hint), then I don’t know what to tell you ...

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idontrememberthetitans · 6 years ago

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The Best Films of 2018

Top 10 Films of the Year:

1. ROMA (Netflix)

If I harbored any doubt that Alfonso Cuarón was among the greatest filmmakers/storytellers of this (or last) century, it was forever dispelled with Roma. Cuarón’s hyper-naturalistic memoir reveals the thorny relationships between employers, caregivers, and those who receive care. It possesses a kind of clarity, maturity, and tenderness that only comes with distance and time. As it communicates the innumerable intersections of and parallels between ethnicity, class, and gender, it neither rushes nor exaggerates and romanticize, which is quite commendable considering just how visually rapturous Cuarón’s execution is. Moreover, he does so without pontificating or criticizing. Some of the film’s detractors claim it’s an elitist exaltation of domestic workers; I find that assertion unfair, for it would require a larger conversation about who is able to represent whom. I believe Cuarón respectfully illuminates and savors the mundane for therein lies the clandestine miracles of life. It’s clear he has so much love for the ghosts of long ago. Roma is a paean celebrating and lamenting all the pains and pleasures that usher us through any given year. (Watch the trailer.)

2. COLD WAR (Amazon Studios)

Sexy, sad, and everything in between, Paweł Pawlikowski’s Cold War chronicles a nearly two decade-long love affair between Wiktor - an accomplished music director - and Zula - a rising singer - in a world in threat of extinction. The film examines the violation of cultural identity and the mechanism of war which thwart any attempt to preserve authenticity. Epic and tactfully sparse in equal amounts, the film is comprised of unbearably terse episodes peppered over fifteen years. Thus, we are only privy to fragments of the characters’ tumultuous timeline together. Within the interlude – between each passionate episodes - Pawlikowski brilliantly employs subtext and chilly atmospheric tension to sustains the pair’s longings – and subsequently preserves our infatuation with them. Cold War is a rich love story swathed in bitterness. By the end, we can’t help but envy, pity, and mourn each part of Wiktor and Zula’s hot-blooded romance. (Watch the trailer.)

3. THE TALE (HBO Films)

The Tale is a work in progress. I say this without insult but unrestrained admiration. Documentarian Jennifer Fox’s devastating filmic memoir about childhood sexual assault is personal exercise in understanding deeply entrenched trauma. Much of the film’s approbation notes its nuanced handling of difficult thematic material and Dern’s towering yet understated performance, but Fox’s haunting lyricism – the way she manifests a cinematic conversation between her present self and her younger self from dispersed memories – makes this film a formal and aesthetic triumph just as much as a cultural watershed.

Initially, I questioned how “accurate” the film’s conclusion was. Did the events unfold with the same amount of understated poetic justice? Did Fox have the opportunity for confrontation and vindication as depicted? I realize that asking for explication undercuts the power of Fox’s investigation and exemplary subjectivity. The film itself is an act of introspective healing. As harrowing as The Tale is, it is essential viewing. (Watch the trailer.)

4. THE FAVOURITE (Fox Searchlight Pictures)

I’m still quite ambivalent towards the film’s nauseating photography, but make no mistake; The Favourite is the best writing and acting you’ll witness this year. While Lanthimos other films (Dogtooth, The Lobster, and The Killing of a Sacred Deer) are the superlative statements on the auteur’s résumé – perhaps in part because he also penned them – his dark, stomach-churning talents certainly lend themselves well to this gleefully filthy farce. The deliciously dicey sexual politics between the characters provides a scathing critique of class, decorum, regal period pieces, and the current political climate on a grand scale. The trio’s absurd antics keep the film alive with color and candor, but film’s lasting impact comes with the glimmers of profound sadness laced within Olivia Colman’s performance as the sovereign. Colman, one of the finest living actors, carefully vacillates between her character’s illogical command and her surprising frailty. The Favourite typifies the best kind of satire: deliciously catty as it plays out with a melancholic sting in its aftermath. (Watch the trailer.)

5. HEREDITARY (A24)

Balance is key in life – and because we’ve relished the delectable delights of Mary Poppins Returns and Paddington 2, a hearty dose of uncompromising nihilism is also imperative. Hereditary more than excels in that role. It is a grotesque descent into unimaginable horror led by Toni Collette in a game-changing performance. Following films like Antichrist (2009), Babadook (2014), The VVitch (2015) and this year’s equally terrific and terrifying The Haunting of Hill House series, Hereditary marks an apex in the horror subgenre exploring the connection between loss and dread. It’s aware of the genre’s robust history. Consequently much of its success lies in its perceptive ability to draw from other classics like Rosemary’s Baby, Don’t Look Now, and The Exorcist while continuing to probe the complexities of grief and unconscious shame. (Watch the trailer.)

6. YOU WERE NEVER REALLY HERE (Amazon Studios)

Had the titles not already been taken, You Were Never Really Here could have easily be called “Making a Murderer,” “Gone Girl,” or “Vengeance Is Mine.” Lynne Ramsay’s follow-up to We Need to Talk About Kevin follows a damaged antihero hired to rescue trafficked girls. Her The story’s presentation is so lean and alienating that it’s difficult to ever form a comprehensive understanding of merciless world the characters inhabit. The violence is graphic, however Ramsey rarely shows the actual acts as they are committed. Instead, she takes us through static terrains in the wake of horrific brutality. Her juxtaposition of overwhelming ambient noises creates a particularly affecting cacophony. Surreal, distressing, yet oddly tender and uplifting, You Were Never Really Here confirms once again that Ramsay is an artist of the highest order. (Watch the trailer.)

7. EIGHTH GRADE (A24)

Bo Burham’s Eighth Grade a wonder to behold – that is, if you can endure an utterly distressing experience to endure. Eighth Grade’s young heroine, Kayla, navigates the frightening contours of adolescence. During my initial viewing of Eighth Grade, it felt like a slideshow of memories from the most repellent stages of childhood. I only allowed myself to recognize it all at a distance – perhaps a self-induced safety mechanism – as if all of it existed in a half-remembered past. Revisiting the film months later, it felt startlingly indicative of not only my eighth grade year but every year of life. If we cut through the handful of distinct aches of puberty, I’m really not so different now than I was at age thirteen – though Kayla is perhaps a bit less polished. What’s more, Kayla’s anxieties, comforts, and hopes function the same way mine do now. Burham’s film brims with compassion, so it’s easy to see - and feel - that eighth grade wasn’t that long ago. (Watch the trailer.)

8. IF BEALE STREET COULD TALK (Annapurna Pictures)

Fear begets fear... until it eats the soul. Barry Jenkins’ adaptation of James Baldwin’s novel is a exquisite study of how fear - internalized and externalized - leads to systematic racism and discrimination. As Baldwin and Jenkins reveal, the only remedy to combat this fear is love – and there’s so much of it in and around Beale Street. (Perhaps Donnie Darko’s Jim Cunningham and his simplistic binary theory were actually prophetic?) It’s difficult to examine Jenkins’ expertise without acknowledging his stylistic and thematic influences – specifically Wong Kar-wai and his intoxicating visual romanticism and Douglas Sirk and his flair for weepy melodrama. Yet even as glimmers of other great works shine through Beale Street, Jenkins contributes his own unique voice to the pantheon of Cinema. Using Baldwin’s poignant prose as a template, he blends the conventions of great American stage plays with docudrama tenets to craft a vast universe of feeling. Furthermore, If Beale Street Could Talk is evidence that Moonlight certainly wasn’t a fluke. (Watch the trailer.)

9. MARY POPPINS RETURNS (Disney)

It feels inappropriate to include such an imperfect movie among intimidating achievements like Roma and Cold War. Even with all its excessive schmaltz, saccharine sentiment and scenery-chewing cameos, Mary Poppins Returns represents a kind of homage I feared was entirely lost. Not so; I learned nothing’s gone forever, only out of place. Sure, the film’s nostalgic structure (or lack thereof), design, quips and songs are all aggressive imitations of a perfect cinematic and cultural touchstone, but the whole ordeal is just so beautifully flattering it’s impossible not to melt in its warmth. It reverently and earnestly reminds us just how lucky we are to have a classic like Mary Poppins to return to. It sends up and throws back to the pinnacle of the expansive (and now unforgivably carnivorous) Disney kingdom. As demonstrated here, indulging nostalgia from time to time can be quite healthy. Unlike most current family movies that pander to the lowest common denominator, Mary Poppins Returns transcends cynicism, pop iconography, and humor ingrained in the present moment. Although much of the film’s success is due to the collaboration of a surplus of talent, the film belongs to Emily Blunt. She, in fact, IS practically perfect as she evades mimicry and adds nuanced wit and benevolence. (Watch the trailer.)

10. MADELINE’S MADELINE (Oscilloscope Laboratories)

Madeline’s Madeline, an experimental coming-of-age thriller, is a film for those who care deeply about grueling and convoluted “artistic process.” It deftly walks a tight rope between satire and an earnest exploration of psychosis and performance – not unlike Bergman’s Persona or Lynch’s Mulholland Drive. Co-Writer/Director Josephine Decker fashions a platform for the fascinating newcomer Helena Howard; she reveals a rare kind of brashness and vulnerability in the title role. Alongside Howard, Molly Parker and the ever-brilliant Miranda July put their trust in Josephine Decker’s peculiar process. As such, they elevate and legitimize Madeline’s nightmare. There is palpable malice woven through the confounding narrative, though it is impossible to discern its primary source. Thematically, the film picks up the baton where Charlie Kaufman’s Synecdoche, New York left it, but Decker uses a film language loaded with obtuse codes and metaphors. Aesthetically, the film is something else entirely – more dangerous and anomalous than we’re comfortable seeing. And for that reason, it’s quite difficult to shake. (Watch the trailer.)

Another Praiseworthy 10 (in alphabetical order):

BEN IS BACK

BLACK PANTHER

BLACKkKLANSMAN

BURNING

CAN YOU EVER FORGIVE ME?

THE DEATH OF STALIN

LEAVE NO TRACE

SHOPLIFTERS

SPIDER-MAN: INTO THE SPIDER-VERSE

A STAR IS BORN

Best Direction:

1. Alfonso Cuarón for ROMA

2. Paweł Pawlikowski for COLD WAR

3. Lynne Ramsay for YOU WERE NEVER REALLY HERE

4. Barry Jenkins for IF BEALE STREET COULD TALK

5. Yorgos Lanthimos for THE FAVOURITE

Best Adapted Screenplays:

1. IF BEALE STREET COULD TALK

2. BLACKkKLANSMAN

3. BURNING

4. CAN YOU EVER FORGIVE ME?

5. BLACK PANTHER

Best Original Screenplays:

1. THE FAVOURITE

2. SHOPLIFTERS

3. EIGHTH GRADE

4. THE DEATH OF STALIN

5. EIGHTH GRADE

Best Leading Actors:

1. Bradley Cooper in A STAR IS BORN

2. Ethan Hawke in FIRST REFORMED

3. Joaquin Phoenix in YOU WERE NEVER REALLY HERE

4. John David Washington in BLACKkKLANSMAN

5. Lucas Hedges in BEN IS BACK

Best Leading Actresses:

1. Toni Collette in HEREDITARY

2. Olivia Coleman in THE FAVOURITE

3. Emily Blunt in MARY POPPINS RETURNS

4. Laura Dern in THE TALE

5. Yalitza Aparicio in ROMA

Best Supporting Actors:

1. Timothee Chalamet in BEAUTIFUL BOY

2. Steven Yeun in BURNING

3. Richard E. Grant in CAN YOU EVER FORGIVE ME?

4. Adam Driver in BLACKkKLANSMAN

5. Josh Hamilton in EIGHTH GRADE

Best Supporting Actresses:

1. Natalie Portman in VOX LUX

2. Emma Stone & Rachel Weisz in THE FAVOURITE

3. Regina King in IF BEALE STREET COULD TALK

4. Amy Adams in VICE

5. Emily Blunt in A QUIET PLACE

Best Cinematography:

1. ROMA

2. COLD WAR

3. IF BEALE STREET COULD TALK

4. AT ETERNITY’S GATE

5. SUSPIRIA

Best Film Editing:

1. SUSPIRIA

2. BLACK PANTHER

3. FIRST MAN

4. ASSASSINATION NATION

5. WIDOWS

Best Sound Design:

1. YOU WERE NEVER REALLY HERE

2. FIRST MAN

3. A QUIET PLACE

4. ROMA

5. SUSPIRIA

Best Production Design:

1. SUSPIRIA

2. MARY POPPINS RETURNS

3. THE FAVOURITE

4. BLACK PANTHER

5. READY PLAYER ONE

Best Costume Design:

1. MARY POPPINS RETURNS

2. SUSPIRIA

3. THE FAVOURITE

4. BLACK PANTHER

5. IF BEALE STREET COULD TALK

Best Original Scores:

1. Marc Shaiman for MARY POPPINS RETURNS

2. Ludwig Göransson for BLACK PANTHER

3. Alexander Desplat for ISLE OF DOGS

4. Justin Hurwitz for FIRST MAN

5. Nicholas Britell for IF BEALE STREET COULD TALK

Best Original Songs:

1. “The Place Where Lost Things Go” from MARY POPPINS RETURNS

2. “Shallow” from A STAR IS BORN

3. “Suspirium” from SUSPIRIA

4. “All the Stars” from BLACK PANTHER

5. “Treasure” from BEAUTIFUL BOY

Best Animated Features:

1. SPIDER-MAN: INTO THE SPIDER-VERSE

2. ISLE OF DOGS

3. THE INCREDIBLES 2

4. MIRAI

5. RALPH BREAKS THE INTERNET

Best Acting Ensembles:

1. MARY POPPINS RETURNS

2. SHOPLIFTERS

3. BALCKkKLANSMAN

4. THE DEATH OF STALIN

5. A STAR IS BORN

2018′s Most Important Films:

1. THE TALE

2. SPIDER-MAN: INTO THE SPIDER-VERSE

3. BLACK PANTHER

4. INSTANT FAMILY

5. CRAZY RICH ASIANS

To commemorate Ingmar Bergman’s 100th Birthday (and a sold-out Criterion Collection boxset of 39 of his films), let’s recall his greatest works:

1. PERSONA

2. THE SEVENTH SEAL

3. CRIES & WHISPERS

4. WILD STRAWBERRIES

5. SHAME

6. FANNY & ALEXANDER

7. AUTUMN SONATA

8. THROUGH A GLASS DARKLY | WINTER LIGHT | THE SILENCE

9. SCENES FROM A MARRIAGE

10. THE VIRGIN SPRING

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proseandpalettes · 6 years ago

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Bite-sized reviews

Brief thoughts on a few books that I wrapped up in the last month or so, with a quick portrait of the author!:

Wide Sargasso Sea, by Jean Rhys

I appreciate what this novel is meant to do–the alternate view of Bertha, the madwoman in the attic–but ultimately I was indifferent. I struggled to feel invested because there was honestly little of the protagonist to invest: things only happen to her, she never causes things to happen. I understand her past circumstances are an explanation of her present in Jane Eyre, but that fails to overcome my indifference given Jane’s own difficult circumstances, yet she still possesses an individual spark that allows her to overcome.

Rochester is appropriately creepy though. Gross.

If Beale Street Could Talk, by James Baldwin

An absolutely beautiful and exquisite portrait of fortitude and strength in the face of what seems to be too much to bear. I love how each line was so simple but articulated so much heart. I could feel the warmth, which was honestly perfect for the winter season. I initially read this to prepare for the movie, and now I MUST see it!! Someone come with me!!

1984, by George Orwell

I finally got around to reading this classic; I can totally understand why it has left such an indelible mark on our culture. I keep getting asked what I think about it compared to Brave New World, and while I personally enjoyed BNW more, 1984 IS STILL AN AMAZING WORK. It’s much more explicitly philosophical and doesn’t leave any interpretation up to the reader. It is staunchly and unashamedly presenting a view, which I’m about. I probably wouldn’t re-read it, but again, I appreciate the cultural education it provided.

Lincoln in the Bardo, by George Saunders

This was an interesting read, solely for the questions around unreliable narration, collage, interview styles, etc., and you know how much I love the debate of what IS a novel. I found the collective interview narration fascinating and really useful for sharing the stories of the characters, and expanding the world beyond Lincoln and his son. It is superficially about The President, but underneath it’s more like an incredible scrapbook of the things life is worth living for, and the things that make life hard to let go.

#prose #jean rhys #wide sargasso sea #james baldwin #if beale street could talk #george orwell #1980s #lincoln in the bardo #george saunders #bite sized book reviews #book reviews

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theresabookforthat · 6 years ago

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FRIDAY READS: GOLDEN GLOBES BOOKS

Nominations for the 76th annual Golden Globe Awards were announced on Thursday morning, December 6th, from the Beverly Hilton Hotel. Many of the nominees, in both television and film, are adaptations of Penguin Random House books. You can access the entire list of nominees at Variety.com. Sandra Oh and Andy Samberg will host the 2019 Golden Globes Awards on January 6th. Before then, we highly recommend reading the writing that gave rise to your favorite viewing:

FEATURE FILMS

IF BEALE STREET COULD TALK (Movie Tie-In) by James Baldwin

Nominated for: Best Motion Picture/Drama; Best Actress (Regina King); Best Screenplay

From one of our greatest writers, James Baldwin’s If Beale Street Could Talk is a profoundly moving novel about love in the face of injustice that is as socially resonant today as it was when it was first published. Told through the eyes of Tish, a nineteen-year-old girl, in love with Fonny, a young sculptor who is the father of her child, Baldwin’s story mixes the sweet and the sad. Tish and Fonny have pledged to get married, but Fonny is falsely accused of a terrible crime and imprisoned. Their families set out to clear his name, and as they face an uncertain future, the young lovers experience a kaleidoscope of emotions—affection, despair, and hope. In a love story that evokes the blues, where passion and sadness are inevitably intertwined, Baldwin has created two characters so alive and profoundly realized that they are unforgettably ingrained in the American psyche.

CRAZY RICH ASIANS (Movie Tie-In) by Kevin Kwan

Nominated for Best Motion Picture/Musical or Comedy

When Rachel Chu agrees to spend the summer in Singapore with her boyfriend, Nicholas Young, she envisions a humble family home and quality time with the man she might one day marry. What she doesn’t know is that Nick’s family home happens to look like a palace, that she’ll ride in more private planes than cars, and that with one of Asia’s most eligible bachelors on her arm, Rachel might as well have a target on her back. Uproarious, addictive, and filled with jaw-dropping opulence, Crazy Rich Asians is an insider’s look at the Asian jet set; a perfect depiction of the clash between old money and new money; and a fabulous novel about what it means to be young, in love, and gloriously, crazily rich.

THE OLD MAN AND THE GUN AND OTHER TALES OF TRUE CRIME by David Grann

Nominated for: Best Actor in a Motion Picture/Musical or Comedy (Robert Redford)

“The Old Man and the Gun” is the incredible story of a bank robber and prison escape artist who modeled himself after figures like Pretty Boy Floyd and who, even in his seventies, refuses to retire. “True Crime” follows the twisting investigation of a Polish detective who suspects that a novelist planted clues in his fiction to an actual murder. And “The Chameleon” recounts how a French imposter assumes the identity of a missing boy from Texas and infiltrates the boy’s family, only to soon wonder whether he is the one being conned. In this mesmerizing collection, David Grann shows why he has been called a “worthy heir to Truman Capote” and “simply the best narrative nonfiction writer working today,” as he takes the reader on a journey through some of the most intriguing and gripping real-life tales from around the world.

BOY ERASED: A MEMOIR OF IDENTITY, FAITH, AND FAMILY (Movie Tie-In) by Garrard Conley

Nominated for: Best Actor in a Motion Picture/Drama (Lucas Hedges)

The son of a Baptist pastor and deeply embedded in church life in small town Arkansas, as a young man Garrard Conley was terrified and conflicted about his sexuality. When Garrard was a nineteen-year-old college student, he was outed to his parents, and was forced to make a life-changing decision: either agree to attend a church-supported conversion therapy program that promised to “cure” him of homosexuality; or risk losing family, friends, and the God he had prayed to every day of his life. Through an institutionalized Twelve-Step Program heavy on Bible study, he was supposed to emerge heterosexual, ex-gay, cleansed of impure urges and stronger in his faith in God for his brush with sin. Instead, even when faced with a harrowing and brutal journey, Garrard found the strength and understanding to break out in search of his true self and forgiveness.

TELEVISION

SHARP OBJECTS (Movie Tie-In): A Novel by Gillian Flynn

Nominated for: Best Television Limited Series or Motion Picture Made for Television; Best Performance (Amy Adams); Best Performance/Supporting (Patricia Clarkson)

Fresh from a brief stay at a psych hospital, reporter Camille Preaker faces a troubling assignment: she must return to her tiny hometown to cover the murders of two preteen girls. For years, Camille has hardly spoken to her neurotic, hypochondriac mother or to the half-sister she barely knows: a beautiful thirteen-year-old with an eerie grip on the town. Now, installed in her old bedroom in her family’s Victorian mansion, Camille finds herself identifying with the young victims—a bit too strongly. Dogged by her own demons, she must unravel the psychological puzzle of her own past if she wants to get the story—and survive this homecoming.

A VERY ENGLISH SCANDAL: SEX, LIES AND A MURDER PLOT AT THE HEART OF ESTABLISHMENT by John Preston

Nominated for: Best Television Limited Series or Motion Picture Made for Television; Best Performance (Hugh Grant); Best Performance/Supporting (Ben Wishaw)

The behind-the-scenes look at the desperate, scandalous private life of a British MP and champion manipulator, and the history-making trial that exposed his dirty secrets. With the pace and drama of a thriller, A Very English Scandal is an extraordinary story of hypocrisy, deceit and betrayal at the heart of the British Establishment.

VULGAR FAVORS: THE HUNT FOR ANDREW CUNANAN, THE MAN WHO KILLED GIANNI VERSACE by Maureen Orth

Nominated for: Best Performance (Darren Criss); Best Performance/Supporting (Penelope Cruz and Edgar Ramirez)

Two months before Andrew Cunanan murdered the iconic fashion magnate Gianni Versace on the steps of his Miami Beach mansion, Maureen Orth was investigating a major story on the serial killer for Vanity Fair. Here, the award-winning journalist tells the complete story of Cunanan, his unwitting victims, and the moneyed, hedonistic world in which they lived and died—now the basis for the second season of American Crime Story, the FX television series.

THE HANDMAID’S TALE (Movie Tie-in) by Margaret Atwood

Nominated for: Best Performance (Elizabeth Moss)

A gripping vision of our society radically overturned by a theocratic revolution, Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale has become one of the most powerful and most widely read novels of our time. Offred is a Handmaid in the Republic of Gilead, serving in the household of the enigmatic Commander and his bitter wife. She may go out once a day to markets whose signs are now pictures because women are not allowed to read. She must pray that the Commander makes her pregnant, for in a time of declining birthrates her value lies in her fertility, and failure means exile to the dangerously polluted Colonies. Offred can remember a time when she lived with her husband and daughter and had a job, before she lost even her own name. Now she navigates the intimate secrets of those who control her every move, risking her life in breaking the rules.

For more information on these and related titles visit Golden Globes

#golden globes #friday reads #there's a book for that #penguin random house

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