Featured Reviews

The Portage to San Cristobal of A. H.: A Novel (1981) - George Steiner  (Grade:C+)

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The Sunflower: On the Possibilities and Limits of Forgiveness (1969) - Simon Wiesenthal  (Grade:B+)

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Compulsion (1956) - Meyer Levin  (Grade:B-)

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The American Cause (1957) - Russell Kirk  (Grade:A)

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The Whig Interpretation of History (1931) - Herbert Butterfield  (Grade:A)

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AUTHOR SUBMISSIONS:
Benjamin Franklin (2002) - Edmund S. Morgan  (Grade:A)

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The Beach (1997) - Alex Garland  (Grade:C+)

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The Lessons of Terror : A History of Warfare Against Civilians: Why It Has Always Failed and Why It Will Fail Again (2002) - Caleb Carr  (Grade:C-)

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Shakespeare's Language (2000) - Frank Kermode  (Grade:A-)

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Barabbas (1951) - Par Lagerkvist  (Grade:A+)

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Paul Auster's City of Glass : A Graphic Mystery (1994) - Paul Auster  (Grade:A)

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Wait Till Next Year: A Memoir (1997) - Doris Kearns Goodwin  (Grade:B+)

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MOVIE REVIEWS:

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Metropolitian (1990) - Whit Stillman  (Grade:A+)

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Zodiac (2007) - David Fincher  (Grade:A+)

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The Passion () - Mel Gibson  (Grade:B)

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MOVIE REVIEW:
Amélie [Le Fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain] (2001) - Jean-Pierre Jeunet  (Grade:B+)

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Brothers Judd Daily

Brothers Judd QuasiDaily Bookmarks:
05/01/24:

Happy Birthday to Sue Herzog (May 1)

Ignazio Silone [Secondo Tranquilli] (1900-78) was born in Pescina, Italy on May 1, 1900. Read Orrin's review of Fontamara (1933)

Arthur Wellesley, Duke of Wellington, (1769-1852) was born on May 1, 1769. He is best remembered for winning the Peninsular campaign & defeating Napoleonat Waterloo. We recommend Christopher Hibbert's excellent one-volume biography Wellington: A Personal History and Alan Schom's delightfully harsh Napoleon Bonaparte: A Life.

Joseph Heller (1923-2000) was born in Brooklyn, NY on May 1, 1923. Read Orrin's review of Catch-22(Grade: A)

Annie Dillard (1945-) was born in Pittsburgh, PA on April 30, 1945. Read Orrin's review of Pilgrim at Tinker's Creek (1974)(Grade: A)

Willie Nelson was born in Abbott, TX on April 30, 1933. Try one of his Greatest Hits collections.

Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington (1899-1974), son of a White House butler, was born in Washington, DC on April 29, 1899. Dryfoos recommends his Blanton Era recordings and the Ellington bio Beyond Category: The Life and Genius of Duke Ellington by John Edward Hasse.

Harper Lee (1926-) was born in Monroeville, AL on April 28, 1926. Her great novel, To Kill a Mockingbird (1960), is the most flagrant ommission from the Modern Library Top 100. (read Orrin's review, Grade: A+)

James Monroe (1758-1831), 5th President of the United States, was born in Westmoreland County, VA on April 28, 1758. He is best known for the Monroe Doctrine, which was actually a product of his Secretary of State, John Quincy Adams. Monroe died on the 4th of July, one of three founding fathers to do so.

Ulysses S. Grant (1822-1885) was born in Point Pleasant, OH on April 27, 1822. His Memoirs, written while he was dying, in order to save his family from debt, are one of the only real literary achievements penned by a president. Read Orrin's review of Ulysses S. Grant: Soldier & President (1997)(Geoffrey Perret)(Grade: A+)

Edward Gibbon (1737-1794) was born in Surrey, England on April 27, 1737. His masterpiece is The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.

Frederick Law Olmstead (1822-1903) was born in Hartford, CT on April 26, 1822. Read Orrin's review of A Clearing in the Distance: Frederick Law Olmsted and America in the Nineteenth Century (1999)(Witold Rybczynski) (Grade: A-)

Daniel Defoe (1660-1731) was born in London, ENG on April 26, 1660. Read Orrin's review of The Life & Strange Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe (1719) (Grade: A)

Anita Loos (1893-1981) was born in Sissons, CA on April 26, 1893. Read Orrin's review of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1925)

Bernard Malamud (1914 - 1986) was born in Brooklyn, NY on April 26, 1914. Read Orrin's review of The Fixer (1966)

Ella Fitzgerald (1918-1996), First Lady of Song, was born in Newport News, VA on April 25, 1918. Dryfoos recommends her Louis Armstrong collaborations.

Mark McCormick reminds us: National Arbor Day is April 24. Connecticut (state tree - white oak) celebrates on April 30. New Hampshire (state tree - paper birch) is more generic, marking Arbor Day on the last Friday of April. Arbor Day varies by state so it coincides with a region's tree planting season.

Anthony Trollope (1815-1882), one of the three Great English novelists of the 19th Century (along with Austen & Dickens), was born on April 24, 1815. The Palliser novels are especially good, try Phineas Finn.

Sue Grafton (1940-), the best of the women Private Eye novelists, was born in Louisville, KY on April 24, 1940. Read Orrin's review of 'A' is for Alibi (1982)(Sue Grafton 1940-) (Grade: A)

William Shakespeare (1564-1616) is assumed to have been born on April 23, 1564. Read Orrin's review of The Tragedy of Julius Caesar (1599)(William Shakespeare 1564-1616) (Grade: A+)