Books and Movies 2020

January
Moonlight (gay black, Netflix)
The First Temptation of Christ (Netflix)
Love Lettering by Kate Clayborn (Meg and Reid)
Star Trek Picard U

March
Continental Divide by Alex Meyer (trans in Wyoming)
Writers and Lovers by Lily King
The English Teacher by Lily King (overdone, too much consciousness, end sudden and unconvincing)
Self Made: Inspired by the Life of Madam C.J. Walker (first episode on Netflix with Mom)
Crip Camp: a Disability Revolution (Netflix documentary)

April
Paris in the Present Tense by Mark Helprin (Audible from Randy about Jules Lacour)
The Mirror and the Light by Hilary Mantel (3/3 in Wolf Hall series about Thomas Cromwell and Henry VIII)
The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz by Erik Larson (Churchill, some interesting material, writing and reading OK)
A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles (Audible about Count Alexander Rostov)

May
You Have Arrived at Your Destination by Amor Towles (Audible about designer kids from Forward)
The Last Conversation by Paul Tremblay (Audible about pandemic cloning from Forward)
The Half of It (modern Cyrano with Mom on Netflix)
Emergency Skin by N. K. Jemisin (Audible, Founders rely on Earth for cells, from Forward)
Randomize by Andy Weir (Audible on quantum gambling from Forward)

June
Dark Mirror: Edward Snowden and the American Surveillance State by Barton Gellman (Audible, great story, well written, adequately read; cf. Permanent Record by Snowden; filmmaker Laura Poitras and Glenn Greenwald of The Guardian)
The Night Clerk (Netflix, with Mom)
I’m Your Huckleberry by Val Kilmer (unfinished)
The Index of Self-Destructive Acts by Christopher Beha (Audible, FrankKitEddieMargo Doyle, Sam&Lucy, Justin)

A Bit of a Stretch: The Diaries of a Prisoner by Chris Adkins. “I’d strongly recommend donating to the Samaritans, who run the Listener scheme, and the Shannon Trust, which manages the excellent Toe by Toe literacy programme.” (I donated £100 ~ $125 to Samaritans July 5, 2020.)

July
Insights on Bridge: Moments in Bidding I by Mike Lawrence
Mucho Mucho Amor: the Legend of Walter Mercado (Netflix astrologer++)
Memories of the White House: The Home Life of Our Presidents from Lincoln to Roosevelt (1911) by William H. Crook

The Invisible Bridge by Julie Orringer (Audible via Randy) Too many coincidences: Andres meets letter recipient Klara, encounters daughter Elizabet at nephew’s, early met Klara’s lover Zoltan

His Master’s Voice by Stanislov Lem, recommended by Filip Niewinski

August
Word Freak by Stefan Fatsis (Scrabble at the Flanders)
Lost in the Funhouse by John Barth (Ambrose in Ocean City, recommended by David Dobrin)
Black Swan Green by David Mitchell (Jason faces bullies)

September
I Have Something to Tell You By: Chasten Buttigieg Voiced By: Chasten Buttigieg
The Flight Portfolio: a Novel by Julie Orringer

October
Set for Life by Judith Freeman (from library of Cape House, 1500 Boardwalk, where I stayed in Sid Yeung’s room 106).
Chasing The Light: How I Fought My Way into Hollywood – From the 1960s to Platoon by Oliver Stone
The Trial of the Chicago 7 (Netflix; Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin, Tom Hayden of SDS)
The Queen’s Gambit (Netflix)

November
The Tiger and the Horse by Robert Bolt (Oliver Stone worked for him)
The Cubans by Anthony DePalma (rec’d by Ginny Gray)
Snowden (Netflix)
The Crown (Season 4, Netflix, with Mom)
Humans by Brandon Stanton
The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett

December
Black Holes and Time Warps by Kip S. Thorne (black hole sizeable and very quickly almost round; singularity whether a point or curve takes forever to form).
Anxious People by Fredrik Backman
A Promised Land by Barack Obama (mentioned by Randy)

One Comment

  1. joan:

    Lovely to see your beach pictures, and reading lists. You might also enjoy the book– CASTE: The Origins of our Discontents
    by Isabel Wilkerson. Cheers, Joan