Here in six hours or so, the 2009 Booker Prize winner will be announced. I'm almost 200 pages into Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall -- and it has my vote. I've never correctly predicted a winner, but she's the odds-on favorite to win, and it's a smashing good read: prose like stained glass, plot that crackles with tension, characters one loves and characters one hates, a world that feels real down to the cuts of its jewels and the salt in its sweat. Not to mention how moved I've been at certain of its passages (indeed, I'm reminded at times of Sigrid Undset's Kristin Lavransdatter, which is about as high a compliment as can be paid a novel).
About Me
My name is Jason Cooper, and I am many things: a former college and university English instructor, a former bookseller, a former newspaper columnist, an ad copywriter, a once-published poet, a never-produced screenwriter, an academic, a book club moderator.
Favorite First-Time Reads in 2016
Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic and Madness at the Fair that Changed America, The (Erik Larson)
Geek Love (Katherine Dunn)
Hologram for the King, A (Dave Eggers)
Then We Came to the End (Joshua Ferris)
Wake, The (Paul Kingsnorth)
Read in 2017
Firewall (Henning Mankell)
People's Act of Love, The (James Meek)
Things They Carried, The (Tim O'Brien)
On Chesil Beach (Ian McEwan)
Executing Grace: How the Death Penalty Killed Jesus and Why It's Killing Us (Shane Claiborne)
People's Act of Love, The (James Meek)
Things They Carried, The (Tim O'Brien)
On Chesil Beach (Ian McEwan)
Executing Grace: How the Death Penalty Killed Jesus and Why It's Killing Us (Shane Claiborne)
By Light Alone (Adam Roberts)
Big Burn: Teddy Roosevelt and the Fire that Saved America, The (Timothy Egan)
Gray Mountain (John Grisham)
Swamplandia! (Karen Russell)
Finkler Question, The (Howard Jacobson)
Storm, The (Frederick Buechner)
Handmaid's Tale, The (Margaret Atwood)
Finkler Question, The (Howard Jacobson)
Storm, The (Frederick Buechner)
Handmaid's Tale, The (Margaret Atwood)
Fallen (David Maine)
Silkworm, The (Robert Galbraith)
Windup Girl, The (Paolo Bacigalupi)
Meadow, The (James Galvin)
Wind in the Willows, The (Kenneth Grahame)
Broken Monsters (Lauren Beukes)
Before the Frost (Henning Mankell)
Benediction (Kent Haruf)
Secret History, The (Donna Tartt)
Favorite Five 2016 Films
Jackie (dir: Pablo Larrain)
La La Land (dir: Damien Chazelle)
Last Days in the Desert (dir: Rodrigo Garcia)
Loving (dir: Jeff Nichols)
Silence (dir: Martin Scorsese)
2017 Films Seen (rated)
Battle of the Sexes (dirs: Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris) 8/10
Beauty and the Beast (dir: Bill Condon) 9/10
Blade Runner 2049 (dir: Denis Villeneuve) 10/10
Dunkirk (dir: Christopher Nolan) 9/10
Dunkirk (dir: Christopher Nolan) 9/10
Foreigner, The (dir: Martin Campbell) 8/10
Going in Style (dir: Zach Braff) 7/10
Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2 (dir: James Gunn) 7/10
Landline (dir: Gillian Robespierre) 9/10
Lego Batman Movie, The (dir: Chris McKay) 7/10
Little Hours, The (dir: Jeff Baena) 7/10
Logan (dir: James Mangold) 10/10
Lost City of Z, The (dir: James Gray) 10/10
Maudie (dir: Aisling Walsh) 9/10
Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected), The (dir: Noah Baumbach) 8/10
mother! (dir: Darren Aronofsky) 9/10
Murder on the Orient Express (dir: Kenneth Branagh) 8/10
Our Souls at Night (dir: Ritesh Batra) 9/10
Quiet Passion, A (dir: Terence Davies) 7/10
Song to Song (dir: Terrence Malick) 6/10
Song to Song (dir: Terrence Malick) 6/10
Spielberg (dir: Susan Lacy) 9/10
Star Wars: The Last Jedi (dir: Rian Johnson) 7/10
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (dir: Martin McDonaugh) 9/10
Trip to Spain, The (dir: Michael Winterbottom) 8/10
Wind River (dir: Taylor Sheridan) 9/10
Wonder Woman (dir: Patty Jenkins) 8/10
Wonder Woman (dir: Patty Jenkins) 8/10
Blogs and Friends
Booking a Room with a View was created, and is maintained, by Jason Cooper. All written material on this blog has been written, and is copyrighted, by him, unless expressly stated otherwise.
If I've captured an image online to use as an accompaniment to text, I'll always provide attribution if possible. Should the artist or photographer given attribution like me to remove the image, I ask that he or she please let me know, and I'll take the image down at once. If I've not provided attribution, it is because I could not find the name of the photographer or artist.
No comments:
Post a Comment