- From Russia with Love – Ian Fleming: check out our James Bond: Here and There podcast for a closer look at all of the Bond books!
- What the Dog Saw and other Adventures – Malcolm Gladwell (AB): TOP PICK! Like Joseph Campbell, I suggest reading anything and everything you can find by Malcolm Gladwell. This work is a collection of some of his own favorite stories, originally written for The New Yorker. His full-length non-fiction books like Outliers, Blink, David and Goliath, and The Tipping Point have all been eye-opening with a general MO to challenge our assumptions about how the world works by showing us…well how the world really works. Some of the implications of his work have been challenged, and I don’t think he is an infallible sage, but he is the first name I give to people who are looking for good books to read. Also, he narrates his own audio-books, and does so very well.
- Grapes of Wrath – John Steinbeck: I was not looking forward to this one, but it surprised me pleasantly. Coming in at over 450 pages, it took me only a little over a week to finish (with some personal pushing necessary). Many had actually tried to dissuade me from reading it, but I’m a stickler when it comes to getting in “the greats.” Like Hemingway, Steinbeck’s style is accessible, and this book tells the story of a farming family, “simple folk,” trying to survive The Dust Bowl which hit the plains during The Great Depression (so overall, not a great time to be a farmer). I found myself caught up in the story and in a lot of the folk wisdom (which has been criticized along with Steinbeck’s sentimentality). Unless you are an avid reader though, I would save this book for after completing the challenge. Also, its infamous ending is really divisive and may leave you feeling unsatisfied.
- Food: A Love Story – Jim Gaffigan (AB): I checked out this audio-book, read by the author, as a pleasant break from the headier stuff. Like pretty much everyone I’ve met, I love Jim Gaffigan and his stand-up comedy, and this book was great. As the title suggests, it’s all about food, and though he recycles a lot of his stand-up material, the jokes hold up.
- Oh Crap! Potty Training – Jamie Glowacki: So, we were potty training our kid and I read this book…
- Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man – James Joyce: Oh Joyce. Joyce, Joyce, Joyce. This giant of an Irish author is best known for Ulysses, his behemoth novel about a single day in 1904 Ireland. Most of his work is so abstruse that you have to use smart words like ‘abstruse’ to describe it, and be a scholar to enjoy it. Although Portrait is a little more accessible than Ulysses, I would never suggest it as a book to curl up with under the sheets. Don’t get me wrong, he was a genius, but he was the kind of genius who wanted you to really work to understand his genius.
- What the Buddha Taught – Walpola Rahula: This was a great little book for an introduction into Buddhism. As a human being, I’m trying to learn about all the major religions, and this book was perfect for the spiritual layman. Highly suggest.
- Treasure Island – Robert Louis Stevenson: One of the most iconic, pirate adventure stories that I really should have read at some point during my first thirty years of life. I enjoyed it, and can see why it has been, and continues to be so popular. Buried treasure? Check. Back-stabbing pirates? Check. Deserted island? Check.
- In Other Worlds – Margaret Atwood (AB): If you’re into sci-fi and fantasy, I suggest this non-fiction book. It presents Atwood’s thoughts and studies of the genres, and ends with a few sci-fi sketches she wrote herself. Pretty interesting stuff by an established author about genres people don’t consider as important as perhaps they should.
- The Incredible Journey – Sheila Burnford: I have a large collection of young adult books, and this was among them. I picked it up largely because it was short but also because I liked the movie Homeward Bound which was based on it. A quaint story about three pets who think they’ve been abandoned and so journey through the Canadian wilderness to find their owners. Will they survive?! (Spoiler: they do.)
That’s it for now. Get out there and keep reading!
The post 100-Book Challenge (Part 3) first appeared on It's Just Awesome DOT com.]]>I’m sorry to say it, but I really didn’t enjoy this movie very much. It is a combination of all the worst aspects of ’50s movies: it’s supremely cheesy, xenophobic, flimsy in plot, and just plain boring. It isn’t horrible, or even BAD, necessarily…but it definitely does not stand the test of time. I fell asleep at least twice while watching, and then had to rewind to be sure I hadn’t missed anything. Spoiler alert: I hadn’t.
It might be fun to see with friends at the drive-in for a cult movie night or something, but ultimately It Came From Outer Space is just another goofy alien flick. Or, to put it another way, it’s like a mashup of all the least popular episodes of Star Trek, The Twilight Zone, and The Andy Griffith Show. Read into that what you will.
The movie begins with young couple John Putnam (Carlson) and Ellen Fields (Rush) enjoying a candlelit dinner at their home in Arizona, making carefree jokes about living together “in sin”. They go out onto the terrace for a little late-night stargazing (Putnam, as an amateur astronomer, has a massive telescope set up there), when they see what they believe to be a meteor streaking across the sky. It crashes into the desert nearby, and the two lovebirds race to the scene of the collision. John skitters down into the bowels of the crater to get a closer look (casting aside the frantic remonstrations of schoolteacher Ellen), and what he sees astonishes him. It’s not a meteor at all, but instead an alien spacecraft! Naturally, no one believes him–not even Ellen at first.
Putnam butts heads with Sheriff Matt Warren (who is clearly in love with Ellen as well) time and time again over his theories regarding the crash, to no avail. Even after Putnam has seen and talked with the aliens (which takes a ridiculously long time to occur), Sheriff Warren and the townspeople refuse to believe in their existence. It’s a classic mob mentality situation–they don’t believe in the aliens until they suddenly do, and once they do, they charge in with guns literally blazing, despite Putnam earnestly beseeching them to do the opposite. The filmmakers are pretty heavy-handed with the “humans fear that which they do not understand” metaphor, and, while true, it is incredibly frustrating to watch.
The aliens themselves are pretty hilarious-looking, though. They’re kind of these amorphous blob shapes, with a long, protruding eyeball and…hair? It’s extremely bizarre, and makes me appreciate the lack of screen time they have in their “true” form. I think the sight is intended to be frighteningly grotesque (even the stoic Putnam cheesily recoils in horror), but it’s just funny to me. The aliens also leave a glittering, slug-like trail (reminiscent of bedazzled jeans) everywhere they go, which is pretty much a drinking game waiting to happen. Every time you hear the theremin accompany a slow camera pan along the bedazzled alien sludge, finish your drink. See you in the E.R.
Again, this movie could be worth checking out under the right circumstances…as long as those circumstances involve friends, the ability to throw popcorn at the screen, and a setting where nobody is taking things too seriously. Otherwise, I do not suggest you rent this movie on a Saturday night, hoping for a good time. If you’re a contrarian and want to prove me wrong, however, you can find it available for streaming on Amazon Video and Apple TV.
Tomorrow, Charles will be continuing our journey through 1950s horror with 1954’s Gojira. Stay tuned for this and all the rest of our October reviews during the 31 Days of Horror!!
The post Day 10: It Came From Outer Space (1953) first appeared on It's Just Awesome DOT com.]]>Happy Back to the Future Day!!!!!!!!
The post Episode 23 – Time Travel Movies first appeared on It's Just Awesome DOT com.]]>(Originally recorded live and broadcast on Periscope on August 31, 2015)The post Episode 20 – First Year Anniversary first appeared on It's Just Awesome DOT com.]]>