Well, I got 4 right, not bad!! I've only read
Swimming Home
. I definitely am going to read
The Garden of Evening Mists
and
The Lighthouse.
Not sure if I'll get to the others.
Tan Twang Eng,
The Garden of Evening Mists
Deborah Levy,
Swimming Home
Hilary Mantel,
Bring Up the Bodies
Alison Moore,
The Lighthouse
Will Self,
Umbrella
Jeet Thayil,
Narcopolis
I don't like war movies. At all. I had to stop this movie about every 1/2 hour or so and go back to it later because it was so intense. This went on for weeks at a time. Is it deserving of the Academy Award for best film? Yes, probably. It's just extremely difficult to watch.
I've spent time in the Middle East so it was a little more personal to me than for most.
Is it sexist to say that I'm very surprised that this film was done by a female director? I admire her work. I just find it difficult to watch, no matter the quality. All in all, though, an A+ rating cannot be denied.
I've only read one of the longlist titles, and that is
Swimming Home
by Deborah Levy, which I will review shortly -- it was a 4 or 4.5 star book for me, I haven't decided yet. However, I still have an opinion on the shortlist titles and would like to share it here. I know that the shortlist will consist of 6 titles but I would like to predict the 5 titles that I think or hope, based on my interests, will be on the shortlist:
Ned Beauman,
The Teleportation Accident
Tan Twan Eng,
The Garden of Evening Mists
Deborah Levy,
Swimming Home
Hilary Mantel,
Bring up the Bodies
Alison Moore,
The Lighthouse
The announcement of the shortlist will come today. Do you have any predictions?
This had been on my tbr list for soooooo long. My real life book club selected it for August so that gave me the push to finally read it. Actually, I listened to it on unabridged audio narrated by Linda Stephens. It was absolutely fantastic. The narration was excellent, and the story was so much more than was depicted in the movie, which I also love.
If you didn't already know, there is so much more to Scarlett than is in the movie. More marriages, more children, and more selfishness and immaturity. At the same time, we also learn that despite her emotional immaturity, she is a very savvy business woman. In addition, I learned quite a bit about the Civil War that I didn't know, but at the same time, also learned more about the attitudes that doomed the South to failure. What I really want to know but couldn't really grasp from the novel or the film was how Margaret Mitchell herself actually viewed the issues facing the South in the Civil War.
All in all, this Pulitzer novel is a must read for every American. I can't believe it took me so long to read it, but I'm very grateful that I finally did and encourage anyone and everyone to read this American masterpiece.
Gregory Hill won the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award for
East of Denver
in 2011.
Disclaimer: I grew up near the area where the story takes place.
Due to that fact, I was especially interested in reading this novel. I'd been disappointed in the past by books set in northeastern Colorado -- most notably, Kent Haruf's
Plainsong
(though I'm still willing to give his other books a chance.)
I was impressed, though, by
East of Denver
. There were still a few elements I didn't like that I won't go into; but overall, I enjoyed the book tremendously. I very much related to the themes of the book involving the decline of the family farm, which is intense and personal for the people who are or were attached to these communities. Hill illustrated this theme very well.
There are so many things I could go into that I felt were spot on: declining farming communities, the 'plight' of the people who have stayed there, and the struggle of dealing with aging parents or grandparents who were once the stalwarts of their families and communities.
No question about it, I'm looking forward to reading Hill's next book about a rancher (and basketball?) that takes place in the same general setting as this novel.
If you have an interest in small town life or farming, I highly recommend Gregory Hill's books.
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Please note: I was provided an electronic copy of this book from Netgalley as well as a physical copy from LibraryThing Early Reviewers.
2012 Pieta
2011 Faust
2010 Somewhere
2009 Lebanon
2008 The Wrestler
2007 Lust, Caution (Se, jie)
2006 Still Life (Sanxia haoren)
2005 Brokeback Mountain
2004 Vera Drake
2003 The Return (Vozvrashcheniye)
2002 The Magdalene Sisters
2001 Monsoon Wedding
2000 The Circle (Dayereh)
1999 Not One Less (Yi ge dou bu neng shao)
1998 The Way We Laughed (Cosi ridevano)
1997 Fireworks (Hana-bi)
1996 Michael Collins
1995 Cyclo (Xich lo)
1994 Vive L'Amour (Ai qing wan sui) (tie)
1994 Before the Rain (tie)
1993 Three Colours: Blue (Trois couleurs: Bleu) (tie)
1993 Short Cuts (tie)
1992 The Story of Qiu Ju (Qiu Ju da guan si)
1991 Urga
1990 Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead
1989 A City of Sadness (Bei qing cheng shi)
1988 The Legend of the Holy Drinker (La leggenda del santo bevitore)
1987 Au revoir, les enfants
1986 The Green Ray (Le rayon vert)
1985 Vagabond (Sans toit ni loi)
1984 The Year of the Quiet Sun (Rok spokojnego slonca)
1983 First Name: Carmen (Prenom Carmen)
1982 The State of Things (Der Stand der Dinge)
1981 Marianne and Juliane (Die Bleierne Zeit)
1980 Gloria (tie)
1980 Atlantic City (tie)
1969-79 No award
1968 Artists under the Big Top: Perplexed (Die Artisten in der Zirkuskuppel: Ratlos)
1967 Beauty of the Day (Belle de jour)
1966 The Battle of Algiers (La battaglia di Algeri)
1965 Sandra of a Thousand Delights (Vaghe stelle dell'Orsa)
1964 Red Desert (Il deserto rosso)
1963 Hands Over the City (Le mani sulla citta)
1962 Ivan's Childhood (Ivanovo detstvo) (tie)
1962 Family Diary (Cronaca familiare) (tie)
1961 Last Year in Marienbad (L'annee derniere a Marienbad)
1960 The Crossing of the Rhine (Le passage du Rhin)
1959 The Great War (La grande guerra) (tie)
1959 General della Rovere (Il generale della Rovere) (tie)
1958 Rickshaw Man (Muhomatsu no issho)
1957 The Unvanquished (Aparajito)
1956 No award
1955 The Word (Ordet)
1954 Romeo and Juliet
1953 No award
1952 Forbidden Games (Jeux interdits)
1951 Rashomon
1950 Justice Is Done (Justice est faite)
1949 Manon
I don't like war movies. At all. I had to stop this movie about every 1/2 hour or so and go back to it later because it was so intense. This went on for weeks at a time. Is it deserving of the Academy Award for best film? Yes, probably. It's just extremely difficult to watch.
This had been on my tbr list for soooooo long. My real life book club selected it for August so that gave me the push to finally read it. Actually, I listened to it on unabridged audio narrated by Linda Stephens. It was absolutely fantastic. The narration was excellent, and the story was so much more than was depicted in the movie, which I also love.
