John Wilson shares the B&C picks… What’s the best book YOU read this year? Share this:Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)Click to share on Pocket (Opens in new window)Click to print (Opens in new window)Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)Book Awards Books and Culture Related Steven Greydanus Finds a Fundamental Flaw in "Brokeback Mountain"The CT Mailbag: Brokeback Mountain
My one-word answer to everything now is:
Gilead!
I think I would have to say Crime and Punishment.
If you want your book in the top 10, the cover must bear an image of a bird facing to the left. Don’t ask me why.
I recently read Walter McDougall’s “‘Freedom Just Around the Corner’: A New American History, 1585-1828” (2004) and loved it. McDougall (the author of one of my all-time favorite non-fiction books, “Let the Sea Make a Noise”) does a wonderful job walking readers through the first couple hundred years of the American story. Why couldn’t I have been assigned a book like THIS in my high school U.S. history class? He ends with a cliffhanger, as the boisterous and uncouth supporters of Andrew Jackson pour into “civilized” Washington after the election to the White House of America’s first “backwoods” president — what will become of the American experiment now? I can’t wait for the next installment. Read this if you want to rediscover the history of your country told as a ripping good yarn.
I recently read Walter McDougall’s “‘Freedom Just Around the Corner’: A New American History, 1585-1828” (2004) and loved it. McDougall (the author of one of my all-time favorite non-fiction books, “Let the Sea Make a Noise”) does a wonderful job walking readers through the first couple hundred years of the American story. Why couldn’t I have been assigned a book like THIS in my high school U.S. history class? He ends with a cliffhanger, as the boisterous and uncouth supporters of Andrew Jackson pour into “civilized” Washington after the election to the White House of America’s first “backwoods” president — what will become of the American experiment now? I can’t wait for the next installment. Read this if you want to rediscover the history of your country told as a ripping good yarn. (The book’s title is taken from a Bob Dylan song, by the way.)
But — but — they thanked Jesus!
LOL!
Jeffrey,
Hopefully when you get a chance to see the movie “God Help Me” you will like the totally unexpected Hip-Hop song “Hands High” that is in it. In fact, if you have just a couple of minutes, you can watch the scene at our website at
http://www.godhelpmemovie.com/media.html
Just imagine what it would be like to have this song as the first dance at a wedding because the band didn’t show up!
More proof that the Academy is totally without a clue?
I’m thinkin’ so.
But in the context of the film, it worked — was I the only one moved when the timid pregnant prostitute began to sing the chorus in a way that said ‘Nothing beautiful could ever come out of me’ and ended with ‘something beautiful just came out of me’?
Couldn’t care less who sang it — it worked in the film.