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Monthly Archives: July 2013
August Preview
July has flown by and now it’s time to see what new releases are coming out in August. There’s quite a few novels by veteran authors that I have my eye on (see list at the right), notably those by Thomas Keneally, Ivan Doig, Andrea Barrett, James McBride, Edwidge Danticat, and Jojo Moyes.
Perhaps on top of that list, I’ll have to get my hands on Thomas Keneally’s latest one “The Daughters of Mars,” which has been out for a year in Australia getting great press and is now finally coming to the States. It’s about two Australian sisters whose lives are transformed by World War I, and should be an epic saga, perfect for a trip to the beach so don’t miss it.
If you are looking for something good that’s shorter, check out Andrea Barrett’s latest collection “Archangel,” which includes five stories about pivotal moments in science and its pioneers. Her short story collection “Ship Fever” won the National Book Award in 1996 and is also a great read along with her novel “The Voyage of the Narwhal” in case you haven’t read them.
If you are looking for a quick read you might pick up Jojo Moyes latest one “The Girl You Left Behind” about two women separated by a century, both fighting for what they want out of World War I. This is Moyes’ tenth novel after publishing “Sheltering Rain” her first in 2002, and finds her on a popular roll with a lot of praise after her last one “Me Before You.”
Another page-turner looks to be Marisha Pessl’s new one “Night Film” that centers on a father and daughter’s relations and begins with the daughter’s death in Manhattan, which is ruled a suicide but that a veteran journalist believes is otherwise. “Night Film” is being called a literary thriller and one that might raise a lot of talk this summer. Look for it.
For more reading, don’t miss James McBride’s new one “The Good Lord Bird” about a slave who joins John Brown’s antislavery campaign and winds up at the raid on Harpers Ferry, or Ivan Doig’s latest “Sweet Thunder” about an editorial writer’s efforts to help miners in 1920s Butte, Montana, or moreover Edwidge Danticat’s new one “Claire of the Sea Light” about a young child who goes missing in a small seaside town.
As for movies in August (see list at the left), my interest is piqued by the historical drama “The Butler,” which is based on the real-live account of Eugene Allen who served as a White House butler under eight American presidencies from 1952 to 1986. The film explores many of the notable events of the 20th century that he was an eyewitness to and stars a large ensemble cast, which includes Forest Whitaker, Oprah Winfrey, Robin Williams, Jane Fonda, and many others. I won’t miss it.
But if you need a thriller-type movie, you might want to check out “Closed Circuit” at the end of the month. It’s about two lawyers who put their lives at risk defending a suspected terrorist at an international trial. It looks a bit creepy from the trailer and stars Eric Bana, and I’ll usually see anything he’s in. After he was in Steven Spielberg’s “Munich” in 2005, I became quite a fan, wow what a role!
Lastly in albums for August (see list at the bottom right), I’m curious about a couple, notably the new one from Scottish singer KT Tunstall is supposed to be good. It was released in Europe earlier this year and is due out this month in the States. Also the sixth studio album from John Mayer is due out called “Paradise Valley,” whose title is that of the Yellowstone river valley in southwest Montana. This album is following quite closely after his album “Born and Raised” came out last year, and I hear it’s somewhat similar musically. We will see how many good tracks are on it.
That’s all for now. What about you … Which new book, movie or music releases are you most looking forward to this month? Continue reading
Posted in Top Picks
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The Coldest Night
Quite an alluring book jacket cover eh? I had not read author Robert Olmstead before but I was intrigued that “The Coldest Night” was a love story set in the 1950s at the backdrop of the Korean War. What could be more tragic than intense young love and war? And on the 60th anniversary of the armistice that ended the Korean conflict, I was curious to know more and pay tribute to the Vets who fought to keep the peninsula free. “The Coldest Night” looked like a good read, so I was game.
The story is broken into three parts. The first part introduces a boy named Henry Childs, 17, who has been raised by his single mother in the hills of West Virginia on not a lot of money. He starts working at a ranch caring for horses in his spare time when he falls for a judge’s daughter named Mercy who takes riding lessons there. They end up falling passionately in love and decide to run away to New Orleans in a state of young bliss, that is until Mercy’s father and brother track her down and force them to part ways, letting Henry know he’s not on par with their kind of people.
Devastated to lose Mercy, Henry joins the Marines (in the second part of the novel) and is sent to Korea in time to fight in the brutal battle of the Chosin Reservoir. Here he experiences war atrocities and suffering that are unimaginable. His dreams of Mercy and their times together seem to pull him through in the darkest of these times.
In the final part, Henry slowly makes his way back home, though he’s changed and literally scarred by the war. He can’t seem to forget the horrendous things he’s seen and experienced in Korea, and is also shattered by his mother’s passing while there. Will he reconnect with Mercy, you wonder, or will both be too changed to be together now? What has happened to her in the meanwhile? These are questions mostly resolved in the novel’s final pages.
It may seem a straightforward love/war story with a familiar premise yet the writing in “The Coldest Night” is quite beautiful, notably the descriptions and the coming of age of the boy Henry, who’s quite sensitive to the world and his first love. I especially thought the author, Robert Olmstead, wrote the war scenes amazingly well, and the falling in love parts aren’t too shabby either. His descriptions of the Korean battles really blew me away, and were more effective to me than another war novel I read recently called “The Yellow Birds,” which I know is about a different war but on the whole didn’t grasp me like this one did. Olmstead has a beautiful command of words, which makes “The Coldest Night” a stark but moving book that’ll simmer through you long after the pages float by.
What about you, have you read this novel? What did you think? And what are the best war stories you’ve ever come across? Continue reading
Zombies & Domes
I seem to average one action blockbuster movie per summer. For some reason if I see a good one, it fills the void for awhile. But would it be: “Iron Man 3,” “Man of Steel,” “Star Trek: Into Darkness” or “Pacific Rim”? No, ultimately it was none of them. Instead I was lured to Brad Pitt and the zombies last Friday night in the apocalyptic movie “World War Z,” and luckily it did the trick, filling my fix of action packed adrenaline for awhile with some whopping special effects.
Of course it has hardly anything to do with the book by Max Brooks, or so says my husb who read it and told me not to bother since he didn’t think it was very good. In the book, they interview survivors after a long war with zombies, while the movie captures a zombie pandemic in full swing and the worldwide pandemonium that ensues.
Some readers are displeased it didn’t follow the book, others are happy the movie went its own way. I think it does a pretty good job for a summer action flick. It has suspense, it has scary zombies, it has Brad Pitt as a U.N. worker trying to save the day before the whole world becomes infected. It held my attention like a decent zombie movie should do.
But I probably had set a pretty low bar for “World War Z” going in because of all the problems I heard the filmmakers had in production. The film was way over budget, it had to be delayed and re-shot, and rewritten. Gosh it sounded like it nearly imploded judging from the June article in Vanity Fair. I think it was pulled back from the brink. Despite all that, the movie’s done well and is better than most expected. It’s pulled in $170 million in 3 weeks and likely will re-coop its budget. It’s been quite a surprise after all.
But then I had faith since I like zombie stuff in general, and Brad, too, for that matter. I’ve seen three seasons of “The Walking Dead” (oh Andrea, what happened?!) and I’ll watch the apocalyptic zombie movie “I am Legend” whenever it’s replayed on TV, which it is quite often. I think “I am Legend” is scarier and better than “World War Z,” though “Z” is more of a 3D extravaganza. In both films, the zombies can run fast! Whereas in “The Walking Dead” and the original “The Night of the Living Dead” the zombies are dawdlers in comparison. The new zombies just won’t stand still to have their heads bashed in. They’re getting smarter and they’re hungrier, too. Hiding out behind locked metal doors is your best bet, or finding that darn cure pretty lickety-split.
Like most summer features “World War Z” didn’t stay with me long. Its action and suspense are good, but I mostly forgot about it not long after I left the theater. The zombie outbreak only took me so far without too much depth. And Brad’s hair was ready for a shampoo and change by the end.
Meanwhile I’ve watched a few episodes of the new TV series “Under the Dome” based on the 1,088 page sci-fi novel by Stephen King about a small town that finds itself cut off from the world by a mysterious barrier that suddenly surrounds it. I think my husb thinks the show’s pretty weak so far, and is like a soap opera. The characters are a bit stereotypical I admit, but I’m willing to keep with it for awhile at least. It’s pretty entertaining in a mindless TV kind of way. But it probably doesn’t hold a candle to the book, or does it? I guess I’ll have to plow through King’s Dome sometime to find out.
Until then, what do you think? Have you liked any action flicks this summer? Or what do you think of “Under the Dome”? Continue reading
Posted in Movies, TV
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