Featured Reviews

Christmas at Thompson Hall (1877) - Anthony Trollope  (Grade:A-)

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Hollow (short story) (1982) - Breece D'J Pancake  (Grade:B)

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A Political Philosophy of Conservatism: Prudence, Moderation and Tradition (Bloomsbury Studies in the Aristotelian Tradition) (2021) - Ferenc Horcher  (Grade:A-)

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The Christmas Day Kitten (story) (1986) - James Herriot  (Grade:A+)

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The Little Match Girl (story) (1845) - Hans Christian Andersen  (Grade:B)

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The Birds' Christmas Carol (1886) - Kate Douglas Wiggin  (Grade:B+)

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A Christmas Classic
A Christmas Carol (1843) - Charles Dickens  (Grade:A+)

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The Gift of the Magi () - O. Henry  (Grade:A+)

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In God We Trust : All Others Pay Cash (1966) - Jean Shepherd  (Grade:A)

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The Greatest Gift: The Original Story That Inspired the Christmas Classic It's a Wonderful Life (1943) - Philip Van Doren Stern  (Grade:B)

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MOVIE REVIEWS:

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F1; The Movie (2025) - Joseph Kosinski  (Grade:A+)

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Phantom Thread (2017) - Paul Thomas Anderson  (Grade:A-)

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Brothers Judd Daily

Brothers Judd QuasiDaily Bookmarks:
12/23/25:

Joseph Smith (1805-44), founder of the Church of Christ of Latter Day Saints, was born in Sharon, VT on December 23, 1805. You can check out the Book of Mormon online and Brothers Judd recommends American Prophet: The Story of Joseph Smith (1999) (Heidi S. Swinton), the companion volume to the recent PBS film.

Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa (1896-1957) was born in Palermo, Sicily on December 23, 1896. He is remembered for his posthumous novel The Leopard (1958).

Edwin Arlington Robinson (1869-1935)was born in Maine on December 22, 1869. Read Orrin's review of Selected Poems of Edward Arlington Robinson (1869-1935) (Grade: C+)

Heinrich Boll (1917-) was born in Cologne, GER on December 21, 1917. Brothers Judd recommends The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum: Or How Violence Develops and Where It Can Lead (1974)

Anthony Powell (1905-75) was born in London, ENG on December 21, 1905. Read Orrin's review of A Dance to the Music of Time (Grade: B-)

Cicily Isabel Fairfield (Rebecca West), (1892-1983) was born in London, ENG on December 21, 1892. Brothers Judd recommends her classic travelogue Black Lamb and Grey Falcon: A Journey Through Yugoslavia (1941) and read Orrin's reviews of 1900 (1982)(Grade: A-) andThe Return of the Soldier (1918) (Grade: A+)

Steven Spielberg (1946- ) was born in Cincinnati, OH on December 18, 1946. Read Orrin's review of Artificial Intelligence: AI (2001)

Alfred Bester was born December 18, 1913. Brothers Judd recommends The Demolished Man (1953)(Alfred Bester 1913-87).

William Safire (1929-) was born in New York, NY on December 17, 1929. Brothers Judd recommends Freedom: A Novel of Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War.

Penelope (Knox) Fitzgerald, was born on December 17, 1916. Brothers Judd recommends Offshore (1979)(Penelope Fitzgerald 1916-2000).

Ford Madox Ford (Ford Herman Hueffer)(1873-1939) was born in Surrey, UK on December 17, 1873. Read Orrin's review of The Good Soldier (1915) (Grade: B-)

Philip K. Dick (1928-82) was born on December 16, 1928. Read Orrin's review of Blade Runner (Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep) (1968)(Grade: B-)

Ludwig Van Beethoven was born December 16, 1770 in Bonn, Germany.

Jane Austen was born in 1775 in Steventon. UK on December 16, 1775.

Betty Smith (1904-) was born in Brooklyn, NY on December 15, 1904. Brothers Judd recommends A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1943).

Theodore Weiss (1916-), poet and editor of the Quarterly Review of Literature, was born in Reading, PA on December 15, 1916. Read his poem: An Everlasting Once

Shirley Jackson (1919-65) was born in San Francisco, CA on December 14, 1919. Read Orrin & Guest reviews of The Lottery (1948)(Grade: A) & Orrin's reviews of The Sundial (1958) (Grade: B-) and We Have Always Lived in the Castle (1962)(Grade: A+)

Gustave Flaubert (1821-80) was born in Rouen, France on December 12, 1821. Read Orrin's review of Madame Bovary (1857)(translated by Lowell Bair) (Grade: B+)

Frank Sinatra was born in Hoboken, New Jersey on December 12, 1915.

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (1918-) in Kislovodsk, Russia on December 11, 1918. Read Orrin's review of One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich (1963)(Grade: A+)