The Blind Side
I read (and loved) The Blind Side a few years ago. It's a great piece of sports writing with a great story in the middle of it. That story makes up the core of the movie adaptation. And generally, the movie stays pretty true to what actually happened. The biggest change from the book, and the hardest for me to get past, is the focus on the adopting mother (Sandra Bullock) as opposed to Michael. This is like watching the story of Hamlet through Gertrude's eyes–the most interesting character is not the focus. Even so, it's an affecting story and Read more…
I need to cull the herd a bit before checkout …
But I want them all!
Rebecca always wins in the end
I read Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca recently, which was adapted into the wonderful Hitchcock movie of the same name with Laurence Olivier. The book is from 1938 and holds up tolerably well. The narrator is twenty but for a long time she's as annoying as a 12 year old. She's a lot easier to take in movie form where you don't have to be inside her head. But the book is still pretty good. There's definitely a few more plot twists and turns than in the movie. The biggest downside was the romance-novel-style cover. It's hard to take any book Read more…
Next up in the Presidential series
I've decided to skip over Jefferson for now. I've already read Hitchens' biography of him in the Eminent Lives series and I will eventually get to American Sphinx. But he features prominently in both the biographies of Washington and Adams and I know he is Madison's mentor, that I think I'll just skip on up to the 4th President and cycle back to Jefferson later.
John Adams
via whitehouse.gov I was moved by the Adams biography. Having seen the mini-series last year, I enjoyed the re-tread of his life and the greater detail. I thought he was a fascinating man, and his stamp on the country rather large. He nominated George Washington to lead the army (apparently Hancock wanted it); he wrote the Massachusetts constitution, in many ways a preliminary document for our own; he negotiated and won a loan from the Dutch at an incredibly important time to keep the revolution afloat; then negotiated peace with the British; he kept us out of a war with Read more…
Scattered thoughts: The Arts
I've been negligent on posting here as well. MusicJust discovered the Robert Plant/Alison Krauss album. What an odd combination of musicians! And with a pretty great result. I've been listening to their cover of Gone Gone Gone by the Everly Brothers. Here's the Everly Brothers performing it. It's a really fun pop song, though in this case the highlight is definitely the dancers. [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=35YKLemYPtM?wmode=transparent] TelevisionMary's been watching Weeds and whenever I drop in for a few episodes I've really liked it. I've been interested in Glee and FlashForward but have decided to save both for DVD. The only TV Read more…
More adventures in the Amazon
As part of my recent Presidential biography reading, I read River of Doubt, the story of Theodore Roosevelt descending an unexplored Amazon river after his Presidency. The book pretty well convinced me that I don't want to spend a lot of time exploring the Amazon. The Lost City of Z did the same thing. I don't think I've ever read the line, "The men were never heard from again" more frequently than in this book. Z is very well written; it tells two stories. The first story is that of PH Fawcett, an explorer who set out to find evidence Read more…
Modernist Movie Posters (and 7 alternate Harry Potter covers)
via mymodernmet.com Some great modernist posters here. The Dark Knight is pretty great, especially how it alludes to Two-Face without showing him. And I really like Rain Man, Star Wars, and Ratatouille too. Plus the Harry Potter covers are pretty great too. (via Andrew Sullivan)
^