Featured Reviews

Bambi: A Life in the Woods (1923) - Felix Salten  (Grade:A)

---

The Long Night Of The Watchman: Essays 1977-1989 (2018) - Vaclav Benda  (Grade:A-)

---

Inverting the Pyramid: The History of Football Tactics (2008) - Jonathan Wilson  (Grade:A-)

---

Where Men Hide (2006) - James B. Twitchell  (Grade:B)

---

The Aquariums of Pyongyang: Ten Years in the North Korean Gulag (2000) - Kang Chol-Hwan  (Grade:A)

---

The Anatomy of Fascism (2004) - Robert O. Paxton  (Grade:B-)

---

Yes I Can: The Story of Sammy Davis, Jr. (1965) - Burt Boyar  (Grade:A+)

---

The Conservative Mind: from Burke to Eliot (1953) - Russell Kirk  (Grade:A+)

---

The Education of Henry Adams : An Autobiography (1918) - Henry Brooks Adams  (Grade:B+)

---

The True Believer : Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements (1951) - Eric Hoffer  (Grade:A)

---

American Pastoral (1997) - Phillip Roth  (Grade:B+)

---

The Man Without a Country (1863) - Edward Everett Hale  (Grade:A+)

---

The Killer Angels (1974) - Michael Shaara  (Grade:A+)

---

MOVIE REVIEWS:

---

The Game of Their Lives (Miracle Match) (2005) - David Anspaugh  (Grade:C+)

---

Ruggles of Red Gap (1935) - Leo McCarey  (Grade:A)

---

Grand Illusion [La Grande Illusion] (1937) - Jean Renoir  (Grade:A+)

---

The Apostle (1997) - Robert Duvall  (Grade:A)

---

Brothers Judd Daily

Brothers Judd QuasiDaily Bookmarks:
08/18/18:

Meriwether Lewis (1774-1809) was born in Charlottsville, VA on August 18, 1774. Read Orrin's review of Undaunted Courage: Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson, and the Opening of the American West (1996)(Stephen E. Ambrose) (Grade: A-)

V.S. [Vidiadhar) Surajprasad] Naipaul (1932-) was born in Trinidad on August 17, 1932. Read Orrin's reviews of A House for Mr. Biswas (1961) (Grade: B-) and A Bend in the River (1979) (Grade: C)

Davy Crockett (1786-1836) was born in Eastern TN on August 17, 1786; of course, he died at the Alamo. One of the saddest days of my life was when a kid threw my coonskin cap in our local brook in 2nd Grade.

Marcus Mosiah Garvey (1887-1940), who began the back to Africa movement, was born in St. Ann's Bay , Jamaica on August 17, 1887.

Maureen O'Hara (1920-) was born in Dublin, IRE on August 17, 1920. Hollywood's all time most fabulous babe, she appears in numerous great movies including: The Quiet Man (1952), How Green Was My Valley (1941) and Miracle on 34th Street (1947).

Charles Bukowski (1920-1994) was born in Andernach, GER on August 16, 1920.

Menachem Begin (1913-92) was born in Brest-Litovsk, Russia on August 16, 1913. He and Anwar Sadat shared the Nobel Peace Prize in 1978.

Ted Hughes (1930-98) was born in Mytholmroyd, Yorkshire, ENG on August 16, 1930. Read Orrin's review of The Iron Giant: A Story in Five Nights (1968) (Grade: B+)

Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821) was born in Ajaccio, Corsica on August 15, 1769. Brothers Judd recommends the biography Napoleon Bonaparte by Alan Schom.

Robert Bolt (1924-95) was born in Manchester, ENG on August 15, 1924. Read Orrin's review ofA Man for All Seasons (1960)(Grade: A+)

Steve Martin (1945-) was born in Waco TX on August 14, 1945. Read Orrin's review of Shopgirl: A Novella (2000) (Grade: C)

Alfred Hitchcock (1899-1980) was born in London, ENG on August 13, 1899. By any measure, he is one of the great movie directors of all time, Brothers Judd especially recommends: Vertigo and The 39 Steps, both available at Amazon's Hitchcock Centennial site.

[William] Ben Hogan (1912-97) was born in Stephenville, TX on August 13, 1912. Read Orrin's review of Power Golf (1948)

William Goldman (1931-) was born in Highland Park, IL on August 12, 1931. Read Orrin's review of The Princess Bride : S. Morgenstern's Classic Tale of True Love and High Adventure: The 'Good Parts' Version, Abridged (1973)

Alex Haley (1921-92) was born in Ithaca, NY on August 11, 1921. In addition to the bestseller Roots (1976), he was the coauthor of The Autobiography of Malcolm X (1965)(see Orrin's review; Grade: A+)

Andre Dubus (1936-99) was born in Lake Charles, LA on August 11, 1936. Read Orrin's review of Selected Stories (1988) (Grade: A) & try his online story If They Knew Yvonne.

Herbert Clark Hoover (1874-1964), 31st President of the United States and the first born west of the Mississippi, was born in West Branch, IA on August 10, 1874.

Izaac Walton (1593-1683), was born in Stafford, ENG on August 9, 1593. He wrote the first great treatise on fishing, The Compleat Angler.

Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings (1896-1953), author of the Pulitzer Prize winning classic The Yearling (1938), was born in Washington, DC on August 8, 1896.

August 8 is Benny Carter's birthday. The remarkable multi-instrumentalist/composer/arranger/bandleader/quiet-but-effective civil rights leader was born in NYC in 1907 and died in 2003, so this would have been #98. Until my collection of his music is completed, the following CD's give a good overview of his music:
Further Definitions
Montreux Live - 1977
1929-1940
More about Carter can be found in the definitive biography Benny Carter - A Life in American Music, or in an essay contained in Gary Giddins' "Weather Bird" collection of essays