For The Book Obsessed
[ad_1] Martin Ritt’s 1976 film The Front delivers a vivid re-creation of the 1950s Red Scare in which many of Hollywood’s most talented writers, actors, and directors found themselves blacklisted and prevented from working in the film and TV industry because of past or present Communist associations and their refusal to name names. In the … Read more
[ad_1] I proudly call myself a fan of Old Hollywood, but until this year I had never seen a Rita Hayworth movie. I’d seen her famous pinup image for LIFE magazine, known vaguely of her as a 1940s “love goddess,” and watched clips of her in Gilda, but I’d never actually viewed any of her … Read more
[ad_1] “My name is Tetley Abednego, and I am the most hated girl in Garbagetown.” From this very first sentence of The Past is Red by Catherynne M. Valente, Valente ensures her readers know where Tetley stands. Tetley knows too, but it doesn’t bother her. “Everyone says they only hate me because I annihilated hope … Read more
[ad_1] Auga, a wandering sorcerer, follows his brother’s fate-thread into the village of Ormsfjoll, where he expects to deliver good news and continue his travels. What he doesn’t anticipate is that to meet his brother he must first contend with the truth at the heart of the volcano that wreaks havoc on Ormsfjoll. … Read more
[ad_1] To believe colonialism is a relic of the past is as absurd as believing we live in a post-racial society. This is one of the lessons learned in Andrea Lee’s Red Island House, a novel set in the villages and on the beaches of Madagascar. Reading this book reminded me at times of the … Read more