For those of you who knew me back in junior high/high school you might remember my first website was called the Music and Movie Review Board, which delved into my favorite tunes, flicks, and reads and served as training for writing for my student newspapers in high school and college. (To say nothing about my award-winning career as an amateur blogger…) Since I’ve exclusively been focusing on the music side the last fifteen-plus years, I thought it was worth sharing some of my favorites from those other unheralded categories, as well. (Just in case you’re sick of hearing me babble about bands, but yet strangely wanting to know what I think about other things…)
This is an extreme work in progress as I just recently started writing these down at work to try and get folks talking/sharing and have about fourteen years’ worth of stuff undocumented thus far, but figure no harm in shaming what we’ve got so far. Can always add more as I remember old faves and/or find new things worth sharing. So take a look below — books are on top, TV and movies on the bottom — and we’ll keep filling in the gaps as we go. Enjoy!
Reading Rainbow – Worthwhile Books
Fiction
- Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez – a story of love over the generations. Unrequited love, married love, and love at the end of life, all told in Garcia Marquez’s poetic prose. Not the best example of his “magical realism” style (I hate that term – 100 Years of Solitude would probably be the best place to start for that) but still a lovely, lyrical read. [Second helpings: 100 Years of Solitude, Of Love and Other Demons]
- Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell – a total chameleon of a read. Part historical fiction, part detective thriller, part futuristic sci-fi, it’s Mitchell’s masterpiece that finds him hopscotching genres and styles with gleeful, almost reckless abandon. It takes five (or six – I can’t remember) seemingly unrelated stories and hops from them one after the other, carrying a single thread across each of them before doubling back on them and returning to the start. Incredibly vivid and super creative – one of my best from the past five/ten years. [Second helpings: Ghostwritten]
- American Gods by Neil Gaiman – probably my favorite from a consistently excellent storyteller. This one tells the story of the war between the old world’s gods/goddesses (think Odin, Anubis, Anansi, etc) and those of the modern world (TV, internet, etc). Caught in the middle is former convict Shadow trying to make sense of everything and reunite with his wife. The first season of the TV adaptation was pretty good, but nothing tops the book. (As always.) [Second helpings: The Sandman series of graphic novels (TV adaptation was pretty good here, too)]
- Needful Things by Stephen King – one of my faves from another of my faves, it’s usually the book I suggest folks start with if they’ve never read any King. It takes place in King’s favorite small town, Castle Rock, and tells the story of a shop that opens up and turns the town upside down. The shopkeeper (Leland Gaunt, one of his best bad guys) sells trinkets – things that are perfectly suited for each of the town’s inhabitants, thus provoking the titular sense of need – and in order to have them they only have to do a small task for Gaunt in addition to paying a small fee. This being King, the tasks obviously come with increasingly high costs, and it’s endlessly fun to watch him/Gaunt spin the town into a frenzy before exploding at the end. [Second helpings: almost too many to mention, but other faves include It, The Stand, Misery, the Dark Tower series, the Green Mile, Insomnia, Lisey’s Story, Under the Dome, 11/22/63…]
- Station Eleven by Emily St John Mandel – great post-apocalyptic story that I happened to read right as COVID was settling in, which was both perfect and not (at least in terms of making me want to leave my house). Takes us back and forth across time periods with a handful of characters, charting their experience as the world collapsed and then fast forwarding to see how they’re faring in the after times. I’m a huge post-apocalyptic story/movie fan and this is one of the better ones – really vividly written. (The HBO adaptation was pretty good, too, but I much prefer the book.)
- The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon — the opening of what would turn out to be four entries in the Cemetery of Forgotten Books series, a love letter to both Barcelona and books (and the somewhat sacred places that store or sell them). This one starts things in captivating fashion, telling the story both of the aforementioned Cemetery, a secret labyrinth of a place hidden in the backstreets of Barca that houses rare and banned books (it takes place in 1940s Spain, so we’re just coming out of the civil war and heading into the long slog of Franco’s dictatorship) and the Sempere family, who in some form or fashion will be our primary travel mates across the subsequent three novels. The main focus of this one revolves around a rare book found in the Cemetery and its missing author, a mystery which has tendrils into the darker side of the city/country and bounces us back and forth between the early 1900s/10s as Daniel dives into the disappearance and the impacts those events/characters have in the 40s. It’s a beautifully written book (there are elements of Marquez here in both tone and language) and a wonderfully vivid escape to old Barcelona. The massive closer Labyrinth of Spirits is a close second to this one. [Second helpings: Labyrinth of Spirits]
- Chocolat by Joanne Harris –another opening chapter in what turned out to be a four book series — the lovely quartet of novels following fictional chocolatier Vianne Rocher — this one does for small town France what Ruiz Zafon’s books do for Barcelona. The plot of this one has Rocher moving to the tiny town of Lansquenet-sous-Tannes and opening her chocolate shop in the middle of Lent, which sets into motion a battle with the local priest who views her temptations as ruinous to the the town’s character and he preys upon people’s fear of outsiders to bring thing to a boil. There are even more Marquezian influences here (Harris has an equally lovely way of writing and has more than a touch of Marquez’s magical elements on display — Vianne may be something of a witch and several characters (as well as her daughters) have a touch of the mystical to them over the course of the series, too) and the themes of food and wind (both of which are written about in vivid, lyrical ways) weave throughout the four novels. (As well as side stories Blackberry Wine and Five Quarters of the Orange) All four books are lovely little reads, as intoxicating as one of Vianne’s cozy cups of cocoa. [Second helpings: the rest of the series, Five Quarters of the Orange]
- The Informers by Juan Gabriel Vasquez — the entry point to what has quickly become one of my favorite authors, this one tells the tale of a son who releases his debut book, has his father tear it apart in a scathing public review, and then the latter mysteriously dies. This event sets the son off on a hunt into his father’s life, the circumstances of his death, and what might have been behind his actions — both in writing the review and leading up to that point. Vasquez’s writing immerses you in Colombia the same way Ruiz Zafon and Harris do for Barcelona and rural France, respectively, and he does so even more potently in the subsequent gem The Sound of Things Falling (which details Bogota in the midst of the battle with its drug kingpins in searing fashion). Great book, great author. [Second helpings: The Sound of Things Falling, The Shape of the Ruins]
Non-Fiction
- Radical Candor by Kim Scott – had to read this for work, but it’s a pretty solid/quick read. Two things I thought were most valuable were for the need for free-flowing, fair, honest (even sharp) feedback rather than avoiding/intimating and for the need to distinguish between rock stars and superstars (one being the high flying folks who want to progress/rise/change quickly, the other who want to go slower/deepen and stay on projects/positions for a long time.) The companies that recognize/value the difference between the two and incentivize both tend to be the strongest (because you can’t succeed/scale if you only have one!)
- Say Nothing by Patrick Radden Keefe – I studied political violence/terrorism for my master’s and the Troubles was one of my academic obsessions. This book does one of the best jobs talking about the issues I’ve seen, focusing on the impacts on a bunch of regular folks rather than simply on the factions’ leadership (though they’re in here as well). Really well sourced and explained, this is a great starting point for anyone interested in knowing more about this topic w/o delving into a bunch of partisan and/or overly academic material.
- Spain in Our Hearts by Adam Hochschild – as noted in the movie section below, the Spanish Civil War has been one of my rabbithole obsessions off and on for years and I’m always looking for new material to help try and make sense of it. This one does a really nice job personalizing it and bringing out some of the more human details (vs battlefield strategies and impact, which I find less interesting). It does so by focusing on a range of regular Americans who ended up volunteering and joining the fight, as well as more famous names like Ernest Hemingway. By focusing on the regular folks it brings the material to life in a way that other books just can’t quite manage. (Like Paul Preston’s We Saw Spain Die, which focuses on members of the foreign press and is a good complement to this one, but not as resonant.) It also highlights the egregious and appalling support Texaco gave to the war, essentially giving Franco’s troops critically needed fuel for free, which coupled with the more well-known support of Germany and Italy dramatically impacted the outcome as the western world sat on the sidelines. Really interesting read — watch it with the documentary series by Our History (it’s got loads of great rare footage) to make this critical era come to life.
- The Bomber Mafia by Malcolm Gladwell — I’m a big fan of Gladwell (Tipping Point and Blink are equally excellent reads, and his podcast Revisionist History is an aural expansion of his written stuff and super addicting), so when he decided to focus on WWII it was almost too good to be true. This one tells the consistently unbelievable series of events that helped lead to the Allied victory in the war — the battle between air power and more traditional infantry/artillery-led incursions, between carpet and precision bombing and how/if the latter was even possible, between how/if we could attack the Japanese and slow their wildfire advances through the Pacific. As with most things in WWII I’m continually amazed that it turned out the way it did, thanks in no small part to the tremendous ingenuity and perseverance of the participants, as well as significant doses of good fortune. Gladwell test drove this in the podcast first (still worth a listen as he adds context to what ends up in the book) and gives us yet another fascinating read.
The HBO/Spielberg/Hanks series Masters of the Air, the third in their WWII trilogy, focuses on this, as well, looking at the harrowing life of a bomber pilot prior to D-Day. (As with most things related to this war, I continue to be astonished that a) anyone was able to push forward in the face of such ridiculous odds and b) that we ultimately prevailed in spite of them. In the long list of things you probably don’t wanna be reincarnated as, “WWII bomber pilot” is probably high up there alongside “outspoken Russian dissident” or “Taylor Swift critic” today. The other two entries in their trilogy, Band of Brothers and The Pacific (along with one of the books that inspired the latter, With the Old Breed by EB Sledge) are also outstanding, focusing on the bruising European campaign (the excruciating Battle of the Bulge episode remains seared in my brain) and its somehow even worse Pacific one, respectively. (Take the aforementioned battle, move it to a tropical island where it’s 100 degrees, constantly raining, you’re covered in mud/rain, have no water or ammo, and are similarly getting shelled relentlessly and you’ll have the horrors of Peleliu…)
[Side note — similar to the Spanish Civil War series mentioned above, the End of the War in Color series on YouTube is a great at showing rare, day in the life footage of the war — in this case focusing on its aftermath — that is really helpful in humanizing the impact (in part because it’s in color vs all the black and white footage we’ve seen over the years), while also driving home the enormous task of rebuilding these countries after years of decimation and deprivation. Really powerful stuff that’s worth a watch. Other notable WWII watches/reads include Erik Larson’s tandem of The Splendid and the Vile and In the Garden of Beasts, which focus on London during the Blitz and the US Ambassador’s family in Berlin, respectively, really personalizing the events by focusing on the lives of ordinary humans during these incredible moments. WWII From the Frontlines also does a nice job covering the highlights of the war from start to finish (roughly one year’s worth per episode), giving novices a great place to start trying to understand this enormous topic while looking at rather startling on-the-ground footage to drive those events home.]
ViewTube – Worthwhile Watches
TV
- The holy trinity for me are Deadwood, The Wire, and Breaking Bad — the best by a long shot. If I’m going to expand to include incomplete runs of a series then I’ll add the first three seasons of The Sopranos and the first four of West Wing as the next ring out. (The rest of the seasons being good, but not great.) Mad Men is probably somewhere between the two sets and highly worth watching. After that, here’s some newer ones that make the grade:
- Peaky Blinders – focuses on a family of Birmingham bookies in the interwar years and how they slowly grow their empire. Fantastic cast (Cillian Murphy is outstanding as the blank stared lead amidst an equally excellent supporting cast – which includes GUEST stars along the lines of Sam O’Neill, Adrian Brody, Tom Hardy, and more), solid mostly-UK music (honestly my only knock on the show is that the songs are not of the time they’re representing, so it can be pretty jarring to hear Radiohead, IDLES, Nick Cave, PJ Harvey and others over 1920s scenes), and a serious knack for cliffhangers. It’s basically the UK version of the Sopranos – real good.
- Slow Horses – focuses on a band of rejects from MI5, Britain’s domestic intelligence agency. The first season focuses on a kidnapping by domestic terrorists and the second on the extraterritorial excursions of the Russians, both done in pretty compelling fashion (the amount of eye rolling it caused someone who lived in that world was remarkably low, for whatever that’s worth). Gary Oldham is great as always, this time as an alcoholic, disheveled mess. Really quick/enjoyable watch (only six eps per season).
- Patria – focuses primarily on two families in the Basque region and how ETA/the independence movement there impacts them – one on each side. Another of my academic obsessions, this one does a phenomenal job laying out the issues in a way that’s remarkably resonant. Similar to ‘71 in the movie category, this one keeps it close to home and succeeds all the more for doing so. Gutwrenching, really well acted, and informative without being preachy – this one will haunt you for a good long time. One of the best things I’ve watched in a while…
- Chernobyl — recent rendition of the Soviet nuclear disaster from the 80s done in harrowing detail by HBO. It’s got an excellent cast (including Jared Harris from Mad Men and Stellan Skarsgard from Good Will Hunting, Ronin, etc) and deals with the aftermath of the meltdown and some of the heroic efforts of first responders who helped prevent it from being even worse. (The scene where the guys go into the reactor knowing they’re going to die, sacrificing themselves to avert a bigger crisis, was excruciating, as were the ones dealing with the impacts of the disaster on the civilians.) Not an uplifting watch, but a necessary one nonetheless, as inept government and unscrupulous urges to cover things up are sadly something not too far in our rearview mirrors…
Movies/Docs
- All Quiet on the Western Front – I’ve been going down the rabbit hole on WWII stuff lately – specifically foreign perspectives of it – and even though this one is on WWI it’s a pretty fantastic/grueling watch. Told from the German perspective this one follows a small group of childhood friends thru their experience enlisting and fighting in the trenches (honestly – how the fu#$ did people do this for as long as they did in these conditions? It boggles my mind…) and the slow dissolution of their faith/optimism.
- The Bombardment (aka The Shadow in my Eye) – another war pic, this time from the Danish perspective during WWII. It tells of Op Carthage, the British attack on the Gestapo HQS in downtown Copenhagen when the resistance was near failing (several key figures were being kept as human shields in the attic to prevent bombing). As so often happens in war, things go awry and a nearby Catholic school gets targeted as well, so this deals w both the impact of that as well as the decision to potentially kill resistance leadership in an effort to protect the broader organism.
- Operation Mincemeat – more war, this time from the British perspective. This one tells the somewhat bananas (yet true) story of an effort to plant a dead pilot in the hands of the enemy with conveniently placed pocket litter to misdirect German defense efforts from the real site of invasion. (In this case Sicily.) Colin Firth and Co do a good job acting out a pretty extraordinary tale. The book’s worth a read, too.
- The Resistance Banker – more WWII, this time from the Dutch perspective. This one tells the tale of that country’s resistance and a pair of brother bankers who apparently had a huge hand in bankrolling the years-long effort, funding an extremely well-organized underground bank. They financially support displaced Jewish families, the armed movement, and striking workers, first through surreptitious donations and then by robbing the central bank – it’s a pretty amazing tale. Was nominated for that country’s best picture award, for good reason.
- Anthropoid — still more WWII, now from the Czech perspective! This one’s based on the resistance there (I told you I’ve been obsessed with these movements and how they actually survived/operated — just boggles my mind) and the wild true story of the operation to assassinate the top Nazi official there. It’s a thrilling, heartbreaking story, one that raises the question of whether certain things are worth it in the long run (as the impacts of this operation had a severely imbalanced outcome). It stars Cillian Murphy (who even if I don’t believe his accent remains eminently watchable) and a solid supporting cast that will have you invested until the final agonizing moments.
- ‘71 – back to the Troubles. This one takes place in the titular year as a British soldier’s unit is deployed to Belfast. They’re going door to door looking for weapons, things go sideways and he’s separated from his unit, and everything goes to hell. (As they had a tendency to do.) This is one of the better “on the ground” depictions of what a mess this was and the impact it had on everyday lives.
- Argentina, 1985 – another movie that hearkens back to my grad school days. This one’s on the fall of the junta in Argentina in the titular year and how they attempted to hold those leaders accountable for the hundreds of kidnapped/tortured/murdered from during the dictatorship. It’s a pretty amazing true story – disgruntled lawyer and his ragtag group of aspiring baby birds take on the entire leadership structure in the face of pretty serious threats/obstacles. The lead character is played by the fabulous Ricardo Darín, which makes it even better.
- The Secret in their Eyes – speaking of the great Darín, this is one of the classics of Argentine cinema, a fantastic story of a retiring detective (Darín) who’s plagued by a cold case from early in his career that he sets about trying to solve. Things go awry from there as he (and his colleagues, including the wonderful Soledad Villamil) try to bring about justice several decades later, culminating in a doozy of an ending. Great flick, great cast – and it won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language film, if you needed any extra motivation.
- Nine Queens – sticking w the theme of Darín and Argentine classics, this is probably the granddaddy – previously the biggest movie in their country’s film history (before being supplanted by Secreto). It’s their version of a Usual Suspects-style thriller/mystery, one that follows a veteran con man (Darín) and a young protege trying to pull off one more score. The only thing you know is that someone’s going to be screwed, but it’s a hell of a ride trying to figure out who and how. This one’s payoff is a blast…
- The Endless Trench (La Trinchera Infinita) – diving down my Spanish Civil War rabbit hole again, this one looks at a couple right at the outbreak of hostilities as the Caudillo’s crews systematically eliminate resistance in their small village, killing/arresting the majority of the men. The husband escapes (harrowingly) and returns home, where he then proceeds to spend the next THIRTY YEARS hiding out in a trench he dug out behind a false wall in his house. There were apparently dozens of folks who did this (called topos/moles) and the film shows in excruciating detail what life would have been like – not just for the husband, but for the wife/son as well. (Increasing isolation/paranoia/claustrophobia/fear/etc) It’s a really powerful/painful watch, but really well done.
- The Challenge (El Desafio): ETA – another of my grad school obsessions, I spent a lot of time studying the Basque separatists/terrorists and this eight episode doc (available on Amazon) does a really nice job charting the group’s increasing violence over the years. It shows how they morphed from somewhat pure (maybe semi-defensible) separatists calling for Basque independence and self-rule to increasingly violent and indiscriminate terrorists, shifting from targeting Guardia Civil members to civilians and politicians. (Somewhat oddly, the doc doesn’t really mention one of their initial goals – fighting Franco and his fascists – which is where the semi-defensible part could come in. Probably a minor point because of how quickly they shifted to targeting police and then civilians, eradicating that defensibility, but worth mentioning.) It culminates with the group’s dissolution, asking the question “what was it all for/was it worth it?” Really solid, painful watch.
- Becoming Champions – since you can only watch so many serious/sad documentaries/movies, wanted to throw a couple lighter ones in here, the first being this eight part doc on the eight World Cup champions we’ve had. Each champ gets their own hour, diving into the country’s soccer culture, their previous performance in the tournament over the years, and the team(s) that finally hoisted the cup. It sports interviews with a range of former players and coaches, so you get some really candid insights from the folks who know it the best. It’s a fantastic watch, particularly for early champs like Uruguay or some of those early Italian teams that are less heralded than the Brazilian teams of Pele or other modern winners like Germany and France.
- Facing Nolan – here’s another lighter sports one – in tone, not in the excellence of what is being discussed – which in this case is the tall Texan flamethrower, Nolan Ryan. I loved Ryan when I was a kid – he was just such a ferocious, intimidating pitcher you couldn’t help but be enthralled by the guy, whether he played for your team or not. He was a towering 6+ feet (the sturdy precursor to lanky modern giants like Randy Johnson, who’s interviewed), one of the first 100+ mph throwers (a pitch he juxtaposed with a ridiculously vicious curve ball that dropped something like seven nautical miles from the time he released it), and always willing to drill you if you pissed him off (and/or pound you in the face if you happened to charge the mound after the fact – just ask Robin Ventura). He played for an amazing 27 years – well into his 40s – and has an arsenal of accolades – most no hitters of all time (7), most strikeouts of all time (5714) and most in a season (383), best opposing batting average (.204), etc etc etc. 51 in total (although somehow NO Cy Youngs), many of which will never be broken. It’s a great watch about a childhood hero – filled with interviews w/a ton of other faves, as well. Really solid…
- Break it All — an outstanding Netflix documentary on the history of Latin American rock, this covers all the majors — Mana, Soda Stereo, Cafe Tacuba, etc — as well as a ton of ones I was less familiar with. It’s a great guide to your listening pleasures — I’d almost guarantee you’ll find at least a couple acts to obsess over once you’re done.