![]() ![]() I went up to the stage, and made my very first speech as a political activist. ![]() stood for Free the Army, or Fuck the Army, depending on how angry you were.) Trumbo’s words moved me so much that day I wanted to speak out, and I was able to. Sutherland and his partner Jane Fonda were traveling around the country on their famous F.T.A. The first time I heard Dalton Trumbo’s words was at an antiwar demonstration in Los Angeles in the spring of 1971, when I heard actor Donald Sutherland read from Johnny Got His Gun. Page after page I read, drawn deeper and deeper into the story and identifying with every page, every paragraph, every word. I was immediately drawn to it, the way I had been drawn to Kerouac’s On the Road, and could not put it down. ![]() Dalton Trumbo’s classic antiwar novel was written simply and honestly in a language that I understood. Martin Luther King-but there has been nothing out of that body of great literature to compare to this book. Upon my return from the war, and all these twenty-two years spent in a wheelchair, paralyzed from the mid-chest down, I’ve read many writers that have influenced my life profoundly-Hemingway, Conrad, Tolstoy, Gandhi, Dr. J ohnny Got His Gun still remains the most powerful piece of writing to influence me after Vietnam. ![]()
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![]() No focus guys in Peoria rode off on bicycles.” Needless to say, the movie went on to win best actor and supporting actor Oscars for Sean Penn and Tim Robbins.Ģ. ![]() ![]() ‘I’ll make it my way.’ Clint Eastwood makes it his way because he has final cut. “The studio didn’t like the ending, cuts half the budget and Eastwood goes and gets the other half. “I wouldn’t want some pain-in-the-ass author breathing down my neck,” he says. ![]() “ Mystic River (2003) was made by somebody who comes along and says, ‘I’m going to make this film,'” says Lehane, who kept his distance from writer Brian Helgeland. “My three films were made in odd non-conformist ways within the system.”ġ. “I’m still not sure I’ve capitulated to Hollywood per se,” he says by phone from his native Boston. The second weekend will tell the tale.Īfter initially resisting Hollywood–it took Clint Eastwood calling him on the phone to land Mystic River–Lehane has settled in for a pretty smooth movie ride. Earning diverse, mixed reviews (here’s The New Yorker) and a B+ Cinemascore, the question remains how well Shutter Island actually played for audiences. Shutter Island delivered a boffo $40-million weekend, the best ever for both DiCaprio and Scorsese. Paramount obviously made the right call pushing the HItchcockian suspenser into February–and selling the movie as a nasty R-rated psycho-thriller. Building the ‘Dead Ringers’ Prosthetic Babies Wasn’t an Easy Delivery ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Stemming from a long tradition of Christian apocalyptic thought, we now have the idea that the beginning was a golden age. Humans have always used such 'fictions' to impose structure on the idea of eternity, including Homer, Augustine of Hippo and Plato. In order to make sense of our lives we need to find some 'consonance' between the beginning, the middle, and the end. We look for a 'coherent pattern' to explain this fact, and invest in the idea that we find ourselves in the middle of a story. So much has gone before us and so much will come after us. Kermode claims that humans are deeply uncomfortable with the idea that our lives form only a short period in the history of the world. The book originated in the Mary Flexner Lectures, given at Bryn Mawr College in 1965 under the title 'The Long Perspectives'.Īfter epigraphs from William Blake and Peter Porter, Kermode begins: "It is not expected of critics as it is of poets that they should help us to make sense of our lives they are bound only to attempt the lesser feat of making sense of the ways in which we try to make sense of our lives." This is what he then sets out to do in the book. It was first published in 1967 by Oxford University Press. The Sense of an Ending: Studies in the Theory of Fiction is the most famous work of the literary scholar Frank Kermode. ![]() ![]() Guided through the chaos by an unlikely leader named Evan Whitesky, they endeavor to restore order while grappling with a grave decision. Frustrated by the building chaos, a group of young friends and their families turn to the land and Anishinaabe tradition in hopes of helping their community thrive again. Tensions rise and, as the months pass, so does the death toll due to sickness and despair. The community leadearship loses its grip on power as the visitors manipulate the tired and hungry to take control of the reserve. ![]() While the band council and a pocket of community members struggle to maintain order, an unexpected visitor arrives, escaping the crumbling society to the south. Panic builds as the food supply dwindles. ![]() Cut off, people become passive and confused. With winter looming, a small northern Anishinaabe community goes dark. ![]() "A daring post-apocalyptic novel from a powerful rising literary voice. ![]() ![]() She's a little firecracker of a woman with a very decisive, sassy nature and a "do no harm, take no shit" persona that carries her through some pretty chaotic life turbulence. Ellie West is our main female protagonist. I enjoyed my time with this story for the most part. It straddles a few different genres, mainly dark fantasy, historical fiction, and maybe a touch of magical realism. I don't want to create any false hope or expectations. New Year, New Fear!Īfter finishing this book last night, I would conclude that it's horror-adjacent. ![]() ![]() It came highly recommended to us by some authors who write urban/dark fantasy/horror: Alan Baxter, Chuck Wendig, and Seanan McGuire. Ashley and I picked this book out as a read along for our curated horror book club, Night Worms. Photo Cred: is my very first reading experience with Molly Tanzer. ![]() Book Review: CREATURES OF WANT & RUIN by Molly Tanzer ![]() ![]() ![]() He is also the recipient of the highest degree in philosophy and human sciences from the Sorbonne, the University of Paris, as well as of the coveted Artist Diploma of the Franz Liszt Academy of Budapest. Laszlo is generally recognized as the founder of systems philosophy and general evolution theory, and serves as the founder-director of the General Evolution Research Group and as past president of the International Society for the Systems Sciences. Twice nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, he has authored more than 70 books, which have been translated into nineteen languages, and has published in excess of four hundred articles and research papers, including six volumes of piano recordings.ĭr. He is also the recipient of the highest degree in philosophy and human sciences from the Sorbonne, the University of Paris, as well as of the coveted Artist Diploma of Ervin Laszlo is a systems philosopher, integral theorist, and classical pianist. Twice nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, he has authored more than 70 books, which have been translated into nineteen languages, and has published in excess of four hundred articles and research papers, including six volumes of piano recordings. Ervin Laszlo is a systems philosopher, integral theorist, and classical pianist. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Stellaluna will be on released on Digital HD on Novemand DVD, Blu-ray on Decemby Universal Pictures Home Entertainment. Janell Cannon 679 Hardcover 211 offers from 1.48 MerryMakers Stellaluna Plush Doll, 8-Inch 596 12 offers from 9.99 National Geographic Readers: Bats Elizabeth Carney 911 Paperback 105 offers from 1.34 A Bad Case of Stripes (Scholastic Bookshelf) David Shannon 4,451 Paperback 164 offers from 1. ![]() Show more Show more Try YouTube Kids Learn more The Case of the Missing Carrot Cake read by Wanda Sykes. The movie will be released on July 2, 2025. Stellaluna is written and illustrated by Janell Cannon and read by Pamela Reed. The film is rated PG by the Motion Picture Association of America for some rude humor and mild peril. But when the same owl, along with three marabou stork goons, plans to destory Stellaluna and the baby birds, they get lost in the African savanna and make new friends while Stellaluna tries to find out who she truly is. In an African forest, an owl knocks Stellaluna out of her mother's safe embrace, falls into the forest and ends up in a sparrow's nest where the mother bird will let Stellaluna be part of her family and learn how to fly. ![]() ![]() This fantasy series contains many of my favourite fantasy elements: lots of magic, coming of age themes, dragons, secret passages and rooms, time travel, and a smidgen of light romance. ![]() ![]() Septimus is close friends with the Princess-in-Waiting, Jenna, and also with one of the Manuscriptorium scribes, who goes by the name of Beetle. But who is this mysterious baby girl, and what really happened to their beloved son Septimus?”Īs the series progresses, Septimus becomes the apprentice of the Extraordinary Wizard, who is head of all the wizards and lives in the Wizard Tower. The Heaps take this helpless newborn into their home, name her Jenna, and raise her as their own. That same night, the baby’s father, Silas Heap, comes across a bundle in the snow containing a new born girl with violet eyes. “The seventh son of the seventh son, aptly named Septimus Heap, is stolen the night he is born by a midwife who pronounces him dead. It’s difficult to say too much here without giving spoilers! But here’s the blurb: Septimus as a character isn’t fully revealed until near the end of the book. The first book is about the origins of Septimus himself, separated from his family as a baby. The books follow the Magykal Heap family – parents and seven children – through the trials and tribulations of their life in The Castle. ![]() ![]() The Septimus Heap books are a young adult fantasy series written by Angie Sage. ![]() ![]() The moment I cracked open Roxane Gay’s “Bad Feminist,” I knew this book of essays was exactly what I needed to read. All of the books I’ve read have been enjoyable, but not necessarily what the universe ordered. Others had been on my radar and when they popped up, I didn’t hesitate to crack them open. Some of them I saw in my roommate’s collection of books, so they were added to my to-read pile. I either came across the title in one of the library branches or on the Chicago Public Library Overdrive. Many of the books I’ve read so far this year were chosen at random. That series was what I needed, and some days still do in a security blanket kind of way (read: it’s a part of my DNA at this point). ![]() I began reading the book shortly before my family moved to the Twin Cities in the middle of my grade school years. ![]() ![]() This happened to me with the Harry Potter series. The books you need to read the most present themselves to you when you are ready. ![]() ![]() ![]() Building on the core tenets laid out in his speech, McRaven now recounts tales from his own life and from those of people he encountered during his military service who dealt with hardship and made tough decisions with determination, compassion, honor, and courage. Taking inspiration from the university’s slogan, “What starts here changes the world,” he shared the ten principles he learned during Navy Seal training that helped him overcome challenges not only in his training and long Naval career, but also throughout his life and he explained how anyone can use these basic lessons to change themselves-and the world-for the better.Īdmiral McRaven’s original speech went viral with over 10 million views. ![]() McRaven addressed the graduating class of the University of Texas at Austin on their Commencement day. If you want to change the world, start off by making your bed. Based on a Navy SEAL’s inspiring graduation speech, this #1 New York Times bestseller of powerful life lessons “should be read by every leader in America” ( Wall Street Journal). ![]() |