The Trial of the Chicago Seven Aaron Sorkin (2020) Just in case 2020 hasn’t given you enough images of civil disobedience, police brutality, and governmental abuses of power, Aaron Sorkin’s new film takes us back to the good old days of half a century ago, which, in case you’ve forgotten, were filled with civil disobedience, […]
The Wolf of Snow Hollow Jim Cummings (2020) Director Jim Cummings made a splash in 2018 with his first full-length feature film, Thunder Road, an independent film that won the “best feature” prize at Austin’s prestigious South by Southwest (SXSW) film festival as well as other awards. In that film, which Cummings wrote, directed and starred […]
Death Comes for the Archbishop Willa Cather (1927) If you’re a fan of Willa Cather, you most likely were introduced to her through her early novels that invoke pioneer life on the great plains of Nebraska where she grew up: O Pioneers (1913), The Song of the Lark (1915), and My Antonia (1918). Even her Pulitzer-Prize winning 1922 […]
Enola Holmes Harry Bradbeer (2020) A couple of years ago, Millie Bobby Brown, best known for her acclaimed portrayal of the character Eleven on the popular Netflix series Stranger Things, joined her older sister Paige in reading a six-book YA series of novels by Nancy Springer about Sherlock Holmes’ irrepressible teenaged sister Enola, and decided […]
Howard’s End E.M. Forster (1910) When E.M. Forster was four years old, he moved with his mother into a country house north of London called “Rooksnest.” He later wrote that from the time he moved in, “I took it to my heart and hoped…that I would live and die there.” Forster only lived in the […]
Go Tell It on the Mountain James Baldwin (1953) James Baldwin’s debut novel Go Tell It on the Mountain, the semi-autobiographical story that culminates in 14-year-old John Grimes’ born-again experience as he physically struggles on the floor of his stepfather’s storefront church, is generally considered his masterpiece. It comes in at No. 39 on the […]