Author: Jay Ruud

The Blind Assassin Margaret Atwood (2000) Margaret Atwood is one of the best-known current novelists in the English language, due in no small part to the popularity of the TV series based on her 1985 novel The Handmaid’s Tale, which also fueled her 2019 sequel to that novel, The Testaments that won the coveted Booker Prize. If you’re… Continue reading The Blind Assassin

No Sudden MoveSteven Soderbergh (2021) Facts for You: Where to Watch: HBO Max Length: 1 hour 55 minutes Names You  Might Know: Don Cheadle, Benicio Del Toro, Matt Damon, Brendon Feraser, Jon Hamm, Ray Liotta Language: English Rating: R (for violence, language, some sexual references) He Said: It is the mid-1950s. Three criminals invade a family’s suburban home and hold the… Continue reading No Sudden Move

The Mysterious Benedict Society James Bobin (2021) Facts for You: Where to Watch: Weekly on Disney + Length: 51 minutes per episode Names You Might Know: Tony Hale, Kristen Schaal, Ryan Hurst Language: English He Said: We’ve known this project was in the works for some time and have been eager to see what the end result was… Continue reading The Mysterious Benedict Society

In Cold Blood Truman Capote (1966) It’s now more than fifty-five years since Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood created a sensation seldom equaled in the history of American letters. The book made six million dollars in the mid- 1960s—the equivalent of, say, $48 million today. It’s hard to argue with that kind of success. But although the… Continue reading In Cold Blood

Atonement Ian McEwan (2001) If you have read much of acclaimed contemporary novelist Ian McEwan’s work, you are well aware that Atonement, which did not win the Booker Prize, is a much better novel than his Amsterdam, which did win it. (Shortlisted in 2001, Atonement lost out to Peter Carey’s impressive True History of the Kelly Gang.) A wider ranging… Continue reading Atonement