The Year in Briefest Review: Four Picks
This long strange year yielded some gems....
By Jeannette Cooperman
The Dubious Joys of Bad Movies
“Why,” I asked my husband, “would anyone want to waste time watching a bad movie?”
“Because it’s fun,” he replied, as though this should be obvious.
“No. A good movie is fun, even if it is wrenching. A bad movie is just sad. Pathetic, even. An insult…
What the Acid Queen Can Teach Us
The St. Louisan who preserved Timothy Leary's work—and should have been famous too.
Boris the Armenian Woodworker
Neighbors who had always been kind, with food and celebrations shared, went cold overnight, then flamed into a murderous rage.
The Prejudice Young People Have Made Their Own
People worried sick about bigotry used to murmur, “Our hope is the young people.” Now the opposite is true.
Keep Singing
Making sounds in unison tells the world we are united; it reminds us of what we share, not where we differ. It also releases enough endorphins to smooth over any doubts.
Fredrik Backman Foils the Critics (and Me)
He understands “the impossible human experience of just trying to get through the day with everyone you love being somewhat OK at the end of it.”
Record an Audiobook? It Sounded So Easy….
There is one blissfully egocentric, thrilling moment: I am introduced as “the talent.” Granted, I ruin the moment by snorting and warning the sound studio team that I have never recorded anything before, let alone an entire audiobook. They nod; they are already braced for an amateur. “The talent”…
Fighting with the Buddha
Why would I not desire a good Camembert, or a sweater soft as a lamb?
The Call of the Wild
More than ten thousand species are now critically endangered. Humans have clear-cut forests, paved grassland, overharvested, overfished, and overhunted. Much of the existing ground is being strangled by honeysuckle, kudzu, vetch, cheatgrass, and various exotics. Can we get a second chance?
Cast Your Fate to the Wind
Wind itself can drive you crazy. Sometimes there is a hysteria to it, a shrill tirade that goes on for days, relentless, unappeasable. Sometimes it is angry, as though Zeus sucked in his breath to roar at us. Invisible and unpredictable, wind can stroke us with a lover’s tenderness in the morning and topple our home that afternoon.
The Lie I Tell Myself Daily
It is the most underrated virtue in this culture....