Category: Review

Baudolino Umberto Eco (2000) [av_image src=’http://jayruud.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/3-12.jpg’ attachment=313′ attachment_size=’square’ align=’left’ animation=’left-to-right’ link=” target=” styling=” caption=’yes’ font_size=” appearance=’on-hover’] Three Tennysons/Half Shakespeare[/av_image] [av_textblock size=” font_color=” color=”] The historical Baudolino was an early eighth-century saint who lived in the Piedmont area of northwestern Italy. A hermit reputed to have prophetic powers, Baudolino eventually became the patron saint of the… Continue reading Baudolino

The Art of Racing in the Rain Simon Curtis (2019) [av_image src=’http://jayruud.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Tennyson-180×180.jpg’ attachment=’77’ attachment_size=’square’ align=’left’ animation=’left-to-right’ link=” target=” styling=” caption=’yes’ font_size=” appearance=’on-hover’] The Art of Racing in the Rain was a huge bestseller for author Garth Stein in 2008, the sort of novel that cries out to be made into a movie, since it will have… Continue reading The Art of Racing in the Rain

Wonder Boys Michael Chabon (1995) [av_image src=’http://jayruud.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Shakespeare-180×180.jpg’ attachment=’76’ attachment_size=’square’ align=’left’ animation=’left-to-right’ link=” target=” styling=” caption=’yes’ font_size=” appearance=’on-hover’] Ruud Rating 4 Shakespeares [/av_image] A lot of readers know Michael Chabon mainly for his epic 2001 Pulitzer-Prize tour de force The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, the kind of book that gets permanently in your head… Continue reading Wonder Boys

Once Upon a Time… In Hollywood Quentin Tarantino (1969) [av_image src=’http://jayruud.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/3-12.jpg’ attachment=313′ attachment_size=’square’ align=’left’ animation=’left-to-right’ link=” target=” styling=” caption=’yes’ font_size=” appearance=’on-hover’] Three Tennysons/Half Shakespeare[/av_image] [av_textblock size=” font_color=” color=”] Most moviegoers these days think of 1969, if they think of it at all, as a vague time in the distant past when men first landed on… Continue reading Once Upon a Time…In Hollywood

The Perfect Nanny Leïla Slimani (2018) [av_image src=’http://jayruud.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/3-12.jpg’ attachment=313′ attachment_size=’square’ align=’left’ animation=’left-to-right’ link=” target=” styling=” caption=’yes’ font_size=” appearance=’on-hover’] Three Tennysons/Half Shakespeare[/av_image] [av_textblock size=” font_color=” color=”] Leïla Slimani won France’s most prestigious literary award, the Prix Goncourt, for her 2016 novel Chanson Douce (literally “Sweet Song”).  She is the first Moroccan woman to be so honored, and… Continue reading The Perfect Nanny

Catch-22 Hulu (2019) Okay, I know this is my week to review a book, but I’m putting a bit of a twist on it and reviewing a currently streaming miniseries made from a book. And not just a book: the novel that in my own humble (well, not all that humble) opinion is the greatest American… Continue reading Catch-22

Spider-Man: Far from Home Jon Watts (2019) [av_image src=’http://jayruud.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Tennyson-180×180.jpg’ attachment=’77’ attachment_size=’square’ align=’left’ animation=’left-to-right’ link=” target=” styling=” caption=’yes’ font_size=” appearance=’on-hover’] Jake Gyllenhaal was at one time tapped to replace Tobey Maguire in Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 2 because Maguire’s health problems threatened to scuttle the film, and Raimi wanted someone who resembled Maguire to take over the part.… Continue reading Spider-Man: Far From Home

Mr. Catherine Stacey Margaret Jones (2019) [av_image src=’http://jayruud.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Shakespeare-180×180.jpg’ attachment=’76’ attachment_size=’square’ align=’left’ animation=’left-to-right’ link=” target=” styling=” caption=’yes’ font_size=” appearance=’on-hover’] Ruud Rating 4 Shakespeares [/av_image] Mr. Catherine is a contemporary thriller about a woman who has gone missing from a jogging path in Little Rock, written in the vein of Gone Girl or Girl on a Train, and there is… Continue reading Mr. Catherine

Toy Story 4 Josh Cooley (2019) [av_image src=’http://jayruud.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Shakespeare-180×180.jpg’ attachment=’76’ attachment_size=’square’ align=’left’ animation=’left-to-right’ link=” target=” styling=” caption=’yes’ font_size=” appearance=’on-hover’] Ruud Rating 4 Shakespeares [/av_image] “There is but one truly serious philosophical problem, and that is suicide,” Albert Camus began his book The Myth of Sisyphus. “Judging whether life is or is not worth living amounts to… Continue reading Toy Story 4

Odes Sharon Olds (2016) [av_image src=’http://jayruud.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/3-12.jpg’ attachment=313′ attachment_size=’square’ align=’left’ animation=’left-to-right’ link=” target=” styling=” caption=’yes’ font_size=” appearance=’on-hover’] Three Tennysons/Half Shakespeare[/av_image] [av_textblock size=” font_color=” color=”] In 2010, the poet, critic, and blogger Anis Shivani wrote on the Huffington Post of Sharon Olds: she writes about the female body in a deterministic, shamanistic, medieval manner. Infantilization packaged in pseudo-confession is… Continue reading Odes, by Sharon Olds