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Kirk Bage (1775 KP) rated Angels with Dirty Faces (1938) in Movies

Mar 3, 2020 (Updated Aug 6, 2020)  
Angels with Dirty Faces (1938)
Angels with Dirty Faces (1938)
1938 | Action, Classics, Drama
7
7.0 (1 Ratings)
Movie Rating
Cagney was gangster movies in the early days of Hollywood. No one did it better, though many tried. Bogart is in this one too, so what more could you want? Iconic in every sense, with a final scene often paid homage to. Some prefer The Roaring Twenties or The Public Enemy, but the direct showdown of corruption vs the priesthood, plus some incredible black and white photography, make this golden oldie the one for me.
  
    iScan Pro: Scanner For Docs

    iScan Pro: Scanner For Docs

    Business and Productivity

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    iScan Pro: turns your device into an unmachted mobile scanner. With many editing features such as: ...

Lady In The Lake
Lady In The Lake
Laura Lippman | 2019 | Fiction & Poetry
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
This is an engrossing mystery set in 1960’s Baltimore. Madeline Schwartz has left her husband, desperate to make something of her life house and kitchen. After 20 years, she finds herself (mostly) free to make her own decisions and she decides to try and find her dream job - that of a journalist. But this is the 1960’s, and the closest she gets is as a PA at the newspaper.

Addie puts herself in the path of danger in order to solve the deaths of two women: one black, one white. The police are all in in their crusade to find the murderer of the white woman, not so much the black woman. And the newspaper centres around the white woman’s story too.

This book looks at themes of racism, classism, gender discrimination and ageing. Maddie is 37 years old, attractive, yet ageing. She’s looked down on by the men for her gender, and by the women because they think her looks scored her the job. No-one seems to appreciate her capabilities, or even give her the chance to show them.

I loved the chapters from other characters points of view - people Maddie had met in her investigation - and the way that we learn a bit more about her background. I was equally interested to see that the murders were based on real life cases from the same period, and the media coverage was the same as in the story.

An absorbing mystery that I’d recommend!
  
Small Great Things
Small Great Things
Jodi Picoult | 2016 | Fiction & Poetry
10
8.7 (19 Ratings)
Book Rating
Here lately we hear a different story every week where a person of color has been wrong by the police or another authoritative figure in their community. Jodi Picoult tackles this issue head on. Telling the story of Ruth Jefferson, the only black nurse in the Labor and Delivery Unit at Mercy-West Haven Hospital in New Haven, Connecticut. When she is removed from the Bauer case because of the color of her skin, she's upset but continues to to do her job. When something horrible happens to the baby, Ruth has to choose between doing the job she was trained to do and fulfilling the wish of the white supremacist parents. When tragedy strikes, Ruth finds herself in the middle of a murder trial.

This book was amazing. I have been a fan of Jodi Picoult for a long time. Her books have a way of grabbing at your heart strings and make you look at the world from a different perspective. This book was no exception. I literally read this book from cover to cover. Rarely do I read the Author's Notes, but this time I did. I had to know where the inspiration for this book came from and what would make a white woman write a book about such an explosive topic in our society today. As a woman of color I felt a lot of emotions while reading this book.

Ruth Jefferson is a highly educated nurse at Mercy-West Haven Hospital. Despite being the only black woman in her department and one of the few in her neighborhood, she gets along well with her colleagues and neighbors and considers some of them friends, or so she thinks. As Ruth tells her story, I can relate to some of the struggles she faces. I was always taught not to judge people by the color of their skin. With part of my family descending from slaves and another part who owned slaves, my family is quite a mix of cultures. But when Ruth is put on trial or murder, these colleagues and neighbors were no longer her friends, they were now people who saw her as the black woman who killed a white baby.

This is an important book for everyone to read. Told from three points of view; Ruth's the nurse on trial for killing a baby; Turk, the white supremacist father of that baby; and Kennedy, the white, female public defender who is Ruth's attorney. Each character learns about themselves and the people around them over the course of this book.

I commend Jodi Picoult for tackling this difficult subject, especially during this time in our country when the subject is so relevant. As she mentions in her Author's Notes, most white authors write historical fiction about the black community, but this book fits right with today's headlines and some are even mentioned. This book helps to confirm why Jodi Picoult is one of my favorite authors.
  
    Make Dice Lite

    Make Dice Lite

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    You can make dice anywhere anytime on the iPad, iPhone & iPod touch. Where should we go? Who should...

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Mark Arm recommended Black & White by The Stranglers in Music (curated)

 
Black & White by The Stranglers
Black & White by The Stranglers
1978 | Punk
8.7 (3 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"I just love that record. I love the early Stranglers. The bass always sounds so good. It just drives everything. It's almost the lead instrument. The Stranglers were such a weird band. They've got this sort of Rick Wakeman-esque classical keyboard going all over the place but sometimes, like on Black And White, it's more synthesiser stuff which is cool. It's got my favourite Stranglers songs on it culminating in the last song 'Enough Time'. I think that's just a brutal and great song. I love 'The Tank', 'Toiler On The Sea', 'Do You Wanna', 'Sweden (All Quiet On The Eastern Front)', 'Outside Tokyo' the whole thing about the watches with a strap to sell is really funny. 'Nice 'N' Sleazy' has a really great groove. The bad pun bugs me a little bit but it's still pretty great. Rattus Norvegicus was a great record too, but No More Heroes, of the first three albums, seems the weakest. Or maybe it's the one I haven't listened to as much. Black and White just feels more brutal than the first two records."

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