Featured Reviews

The Gray Man (2009) - Mark Greaney  (Grade:B-)

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The Good Soldier Švejk, or The Fateful Adventures of the Good Soldier Švejk During the World War (1921-22) - Jaroslav Hašek  (Grade:A+)

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The Turn (essay) (1993) - William Langewiesche  (Grade:A)

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Machines of Loving Grace: How AI Could Transform the World for the Better (essay) (2024) - Dario Amodei  (Grade:B+)

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Reading the Rocks (essay) (2024) - Jenny Odell  (Grade:B+)

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Pure Heart: The thrilling life and emotional death of Secretariat (essay) (1990) - William Nack  (Grade:A+)

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Dover One (1964) - Joyce Porter  (Grade:A)

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Patsy & the Princes (1935) - Archibald Rutledge  (Grade:B+)

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Reservoir 13 (2017) - Jon McGregor  (Grade:A-)

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The Murderbot Diaries: All Systems Red (2017) - Martha Wells  (Grade:B+)

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MOVIE REVIEWS:

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The Wild Bunch (1969) - Sam Peckinpah  (Grade:B-)

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Life on Mars (2006) - S. J. Clarkson  (Grade:A+)

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

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Brothers Judd Daily

Brothers Judd QuasiDaily Bookmarks:
08/01/25:

Herman Melville (1819-91) was born in New York, NY on August 1, 1819. Read Orrin's reviews of Bartleby, the Scrivener: A Story of Wall Street (1853) (Grade: A-) & Billy Budd, Foretopman (1891) (Herman Melville 1819 - 1891) (Grade: A)

Francis Scott Key (1779-1843) was born in Frederick County, MD on August 1, 1779. He wrote The Star Spangled Banner on September 14, 1814 about the American flag that remained flying over Fort McHenry despite a whithering British bombardment.

William Clark (1770-1838) was born in Caroline County, VA on August 1, 1770. Read Orrin's review of Undaunted Courage: Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson, and the Opening of the American West (1996)(Stephen E. Ambrose 1936-) (Grade: A-)

Richard Henry Dana (1815-82) was born in Cambridge, MA on August 1, 1815.

Madison Smartt Bell (1957-) was born in Nashville, TN on August 1, 1957. Read Orrin's review of All Soul's Rising (1995)

Milton Friedman (1912-) was born in New York, NY on July 31, 1912. Author of such pivotal free market texts as A Monetary History of the United States, 1867-1960 with Anna J. Schwartz (1963), Capitalism and Freedom (1964) and Free to Choose (1981) , he won the Nobel Prize for Economics in 1976.

Emily Bronte (1818-48) was born in Yorkshire, ENG on July 30, 1818.

Archer Mayor (1950-), author of the Vermont based Joe Gunther mystery series, was born in Mount Kisco, NY on July 30, 1950.

Edwin O'Connor (1918-68) was born in Providence, RI on July 29, 1918.  Read Orrin's review of  The Last Hurrah (1956)   (Grade: A+)

Booth Tarkington (1869-1946) was born in Indianapolis, IN on July 29, 1869.  Read Orrin's review of  The Magnificent Ambersons (1918) (Grade: A)

Chester Himes (1909-84), creator of Grave Digger Jones and Coffin Ed Johnson, was born in Jefferson City, MO on July 29, 1909. Read Orrin's review of The Crazy Kill (1959) (Grade: B)

Alexis De Tocqueville (1805-59) was born in Paris, FR on July 29, 1805. Read Orrin's review of The Old Regime and the French Revolution (1856)(Grade: B+)

Kenneth Fearing (1902-61) was born in Oak Park, IL on July 28, 1902.  Read Orrin's review of  The Big Clock (1946)  (Grade: A)

Beatrix Potter (1866-1943), author of The Tale of Peter Rabbit (1902), was born outside of London, ENG on July 28, 1866

Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-88) was born in Essex, ENG on July 28, 1844.

Joseph Mitchell  (1908-96) was born in Iona, NC on July 27, 1908.  He worked at The New Yorker for thirty years, despite having writers block for most of his later life.  Read Orrin's review of  Up in the Old Hotel and Other Stories (1992) (Grade: A+)

Aldous Huxley (1894-1963)  was born in Surrey, England on July 26, 1894.   Read Orrin's review of  Brave New World  (1932)(Grade: A)

Stanley Kubrick  (1928-1999) was born in the Bronx, NY on July 26, 1928.  Brothers Judd  recommends checking out his earlier movies The Killing (1956), Paths of Glory (1957) and Spartacus (1960)

Jean Shepherd (1929-99)  was born in Hammond, IN on July 26, 1929.   Read Orrin's review of  In God We Trust : All Others Pay Cash  (1966) (Grade: A)