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tubegeek's reviews
104 reviews
The Confession by John Grisham
dark
emotional
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
The Queen's Gambit by Walter Tevis
emotional
inspiring
tense
medium-paced
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Tough to avoid comparisons to the excellent miniseries made from the book. Both have their merits - the series is quite faithful to the book overall. Beth's inner world is more detailed in the book but she is not a character given to much introspection.
The strength of both versions is Beth's survival instinct, and its deployment in service of her extraordinary gift for playing chess. Anna Taylor-Joy was lucky to find the character Beth and Beth was lucky to find A T-J to play her.
All the secondary characters support the story well and are well-drawn and evocative.
I enjoyed this book (I loved the miniseries and saw it first.)
The strength of both versions is Beth's survival instinct, and its deployment in service of her extraordinary gift for playing chess. Anna Taylor-Joy was lucky to find the character Beth and Beth was lucky to find A T-J to play her.
All the secondary characters support the story well and are well-drawn and evocative.
I enjoyed this book (I loved the miniseries and saw it first.)
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Drug abuse, and Forced institutionalization
Made Men: The Story of Goodfellas by Glenn Kenny
Glenn Kenny has taken aim at a popular film by a popular filmmaker and a (mostly) well-known cast, and hit the target he was aiming for: an energetic, stylish stream of pop-culture consciousness that is both personal and broad. Kenny sidesteps the conventional wisdom for an idiosyncratic 360ยบ view of a film that is familiar and loved by many.
At the same time as he considers the film, he also considers the career of Martin Scorsese (pronounced "Scor-seeze" by the true cognoscenti) and this film's place in that career - what led up to it, what was going on during its construction, and where it led afterwards.
In addition, fully fleshed-out pictures of a skilled crime writer (Nicholas Pileggi) and his bullshit-factory subject (Henry Hill) are detailed with all due respect and enough grains of salt to fill a Sanitation Dept. spreader truck.
In all these ways I felt like the book opened up a serious/unserious spreadsheet of What Is Worth Discussing About "Goodfellas." With digressions and tangents galore, we get a rich serving of opinion, fact, opinions about opinions, and facts about facts. (I use "rich" in the comedic sense "That's pretty rich!")
Wherever you start from at the outset, you will be somewhere else at the end, and the destination will be more fun than where you began. As examples, Michael Imperioli's stock rose quite high in my personal index as a result of reading his thoughtful discussion of what it meant to be in this film as a rookie mook, and the mystery of Joe Pesci is well-described though not solved.
Ultimately it's enough to say that Glenn Kenny has done right by the various egos and personalities that make up this story's story. A straight-up guy from whom I expected no less, and the result is a very enjoyable read for minutia nerds and casual cinephiles alike.
Disclaimer: I have met Glenn and talked shit with him about movies and other topics upon a fair few occasions. Even so, I am unerringly objective about his book, as well as everything else.
funny
informative
medium-paced
5.0
Glenn Kenny has taken aim at a popular film by a popular filmmaker and a (mostly) well-known cast, and hit the target he was aiming for: an energetic, stylish stream of pop-culture consciousness that is both personal and broad. Kenny sidesteps the conventional wisdom for an idiosyncratic 360ยบ view of a film that is familiar and loved by many.
At the same time as he considers the film, he also considers the career of Martin Scorsese (pronounced "Scor-seeze" by the true cognoscenti) and this film's place in that career - what led up to it, what was going on during its construction, and where it led afterwards.
In addition, fully fleshed-out pictures of a skilled crime writer (Nicholas Pileggi) and his bullshit-factory subject (Henry Hill) are detailed with all due respect and enough grains of salt to fill a Sanitation Dept. spreader truck.
In all these ways I felt like the book opened up a serious/unserious spreadsheet of What Is Worth Discussing About "Goodfellas." With digressions and tangents galore, we get a rich serving of opinion, fact, opinions about opinions, and facts about facts. (I use "rich" in the comedic sense "That's pretty rich!")
Wherever you start from at the outset, you will be somewhere else at the end, and the destination will be more fun than where you began. As examples, Michael Imperioli's stock rose quite high in my personal index as a result of reading his thoughtful discussion of what it meant to be in this film as a rookie mook, and the mystery of Joe Pesci is well-described though not solved.
Ultimately it's enough to say that Glenn Kenny has done right by the various egos and personalities that make up this story's story. A straight-up guy from whom I expected no less, and the result is a very enjoyable read for minutia nerds and casual cinephiles alike.
Disclaimer: I have met Glenn and talked shit with him about movies and other topics upon a fair few occasions. Even so, I am unerringly objective about his book, as well as everything else.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Blood, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, and Violence
The Sun & The Moon & The Rolling Stones by Rich Cohen
informative
fast-paced
4.0
This is one of the better books on The Rolling Stones I've read - and there have been quite a few. The author has a great rapport with the band members, and he has a very perceptive way of lookimng at their career and adventures. For example, this is the only book I've read which points out that their early-career trip to Chess Records' studio was a very special invitation: Chess' studio was not open to outside sessions and the Stones are one of the only bands to record there that weren't Chess/Checker/Cadet artists. And the reason why: Marshall Chess was the one who answered the phone when the call came in, and he knew more about the band than the elder Chess generation did.
It might seem like a small detail, but it's a fresh spin on an anecdote that has been rehashed thousands of times. And it's not the only example.
It might seem like a small detail, but it's a fresh spin on an anecdote that has been rehashed thousands of times. And it's not the only example.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Drug use, Grief, Infidelity, Mental illness, and Physical abuse
The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court by Jeffrey Toobin
4.0
I enjoyed this book. I'm finding it helpful in understanding the importance and issues behind a whole slew of the major decisions the Supreme Court has engaged with, for about the past 20 years.
I described this book to my wife and she said, "Sounds like work." But I'm not finding it that way - Jeffrey Toobin is a very clear and organized writer with a gift for adding personal details that bring the often-mysterious Justices to life.
I had no idea Clarence Thomas was such a total whacko.... I guess I haven't been paying enough attention.
-j
I described this book to my wife and she said, "Sounds like work." But I'm not finding it that way - Jeffrey Toobin is a very clear and organized writer with a gift for adding personal details that bring the often-mysterious Justices to life.
I had no idea Clarence Thomas was such a total whacko.... I guess I haven't been paying enough attention.
-j
Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience and Redemption by Laura Hillenbrand
4.0
Here again as in [b:Seabiscuit: An American Legend|110737|Seabiscuit An American Legend|Laura Hillenbrand|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1171644213s/110737.jpg|17572], Hillenbrand demonstrates her ability to select a better-than-fiction true story and write it like crazy.
Naturally the story gets less interesting when the unsinkable Louie Zamperini finds God and stops hating the evil Bird, but certainly the first two-thirds or more rivals Robert Louis Stevenson's [b:Kidnapped|325128|Kidnapped (Scholastic Classics)|Robert Louis Stevenson|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1283641200s/325128.jpg|963266] for nonstop edge-of-the seat thrills.
Louie was a wild, rambunctious, delinquent young man between the wars, and he escaped from a destiny that at first seemed like a lock - prison - by throwing his energy into becoming the best schoolboy middle-distance runner in prewar Torrance CA. He made the team for the '36 Olympics, came face to face with Hitler, and distinguished himself in very fast company despite immaturity.
Next stop, bombardier in a B-24 over the Pacific. He survives an attack by japanese Zeros that leaves his ride punctured with almost 600 holes, only to end up in the drink on a raft a few days later. After a month and a half at sea, he finds himself imprisoned, facing a POW camp that is just a little slice of hell.
And then his troubles really begin.
I dropped it a star for the slightly fizzled ending section but really, any book that starts as strong as this one does can't really be faulted for being unable to keep up its pace from gun to tape. It'd be impossible (although Hitler did recall Louie as "the one with the fast finish.")
Naturally the story gets less interesting when the unsinkable Louie Zamperini finds God and stops hating the evil Bird, but certainly the first two-thirds or more rivals Robert Louis Stevenson's [b:Kidnapped|325128|Kidnapped (Scholastic Classics)|Robert Louis Stevenson|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1283641200s/325128.jpg|963266] for nonstop edge-of-the seat thrills.
Louie was a wild, rambunctious, delinquent young man between the wars, and he escaped from a destiny that at first seemed like a lock - prison - by throwing his energy into becoming the best schoolboy middle-distance runner in prewar Torrance CA. He made the team for the '36 Olympics, came face to face with Hitler, and distinguished himself in very fast company despite immaturity.
Next stop, bombardier in a B-24 over the Pacific. He survives an attack by japanese Zeros that leaves his ride punctured with almost 600 holes, only to end up in the drink on a raft a few days later. After a month and a half at sea, he finds himself imprisoned, facing a POW camp that is just a little slice of hell.
And then his troubles really begin.
I dropped it a star for the slightly fizzled ending section but really, any book that starts as strong as this one does can't really be faulted for being unable to keep up its pace from gun to tape. It'd be impossible (although Hitler did recall Louie as "the one with the fast finish.")
Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game by Michael Lewis
5.0
Just read this in preparation for the (EXCELLENT!) movie.
This book, though probably a snooze for folks who don't care about economics, baseball, or math, is fascinating for those that do.
Background: starting in the 1980's, and using rigorous statistical analysis, a few obsessed fans proved that much of the accepted wisdom surrounding baseball strategy and player assessment was wrong.
In the early 2000's, Billy Beane, a former can't-miss prospect/just-missed, non-star ballplayer, became General Manager of the cash-strapped Oakland A's. He saw opportunity in the mismatch between what baseball greybeards THOUGHT was true and what had been PROVEN to the contrary. He reasoned that he could form a team much more cheaply than his competitors if he could find players with "winning" qualities that had remained unnoticed, in many cases obscured by meaningless attributes that the "conventional wisdom" took to be deal-breaking flaws.
This book is the story of what happened when Beane put this theory into practice, and found tremendous success despite having a player-personnel budget that came to a small fraction of his competitors'.
Along the way he had to confront challenges from within the A's organization and ridicule from the mainstream media. He had to manage the egos and doubts of these ballplayers who had had their flaws thrown in their face constantly as they pursued a career playing pro ball. And he had to continue his faith in the wisdom of his decision despite some building evidence that it wasn't working out.
This all makes for a terrific story, which features all the above plus keen insights into Beane himself and why he would make such a move.
This book, though probably a snooze for folks who don't care about economics, baseball, or math, is fascinating for those that do.
Background: starting in the 1980's, and using rigorous statistical analysis, a few obsessed fans proved that much of the accepted wisdom surrounding baseball strategy and player assessment was wrong.
In the early 2000's, Billy Beane, a former can't-miss prospect/just-missed, non-star ballplayer, became General Manager of the cash-strapped Oakland A's. He saw opportunity in the mismatch between what baseball greybeards THOUGHT was true and what had been PROVEN to the contrary. He reasoned that he could form a team much more cheaply than his competitors if he could find players with "winning" qualities that had remained unnoticed, in many cases obscured by meaningless attributes that the "conventional wisdom" took to be deal-breaking flaws.
This book is the story of what happened when Beane put this theory into practice, and found tremendous success despite having a player-personnel budget that came to a small fraction of his competitors'.
Along the way he had to confront challenges from within the A's organization and ridicule from the mainstream media. He had to manage the egos and doubts of these ballplayers who had had their flaws thrown in their face constantly as they pursued a career playing pro ball. And he had to continue his faith in the wisdom of his decision despite some building evidence that it wasn't working out.
This all makes for a terrific story, which features all the above plus keen insights into Beane himself and why he would make such a move.