Smashbomb

"I don’t know how controversial it is in Beach Boys fan circles but I really like the Brother years. It’s as if they’ve all spent years with a genius, learning how to do it, soaking up musical know-how like sponges and then just gone for it themselves. There are some great songs – The Trader is one of my favourites, and Sail On Sailor is one of my wife’s all-time favourite songs. I’m drawn to beauty in music. You can put three chords together and it does something weird to me. It feels a little bit like magic."

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John Berendt recommended The Magic Christian in Books (curated)

The Magic Christian

Terry Southern | 2019 | Fiction & Poetry, Humor & Comedy

(0 Ratings)

Book Favorite

"I include this quirky novel in my list, because it is a satiric gem and one of the guiltiest of guilty pleasures. Terry Southern was a comic genius (Dr. Strangelove, Candy) who has never quite been given his due. The argument of The Magic Christian is a simple one, namely: There is no limit to what you can make people do, if you give them enough money. Everyone has his price. In this slim volume, Southern illustrates this point in a story that becomes increasingly outrageous and culminates in one of the most absurdly comic scenes in the American literary canon."

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Lena Dunham recommended Days of Heaven (1978) in Movies (curated)

"Little Linda Manz’s voice-over is enough of a reason to watch this film. Forget the perfect performances by Richard Gere and Sam Shepard, or Brooke Adams’s twisted damsel in distress, or the way the wheat blows at magic hour making you forget the specter of murder that hangs over it all. I’m obsessed with the fact that production designer Jack Fisk built the farmhouse, which is meant to look as old as time and it really does. Also, while shooting Badlands (the previous Malick), Fisk wooed his future wife, Sissy Spacek, by leaving gifts for her in her character’s drawers. Swoon."

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Liz Phair recommended The Mists of Avalon in Books (curated)

"My mother gave me this book to read in high school when I was sick with malingering cold and missing out on social events. But it was absorbing, unlike any other historical fantasy I’d read. Viewing Arthurian legend through the eyes of the female characters upended my sense of history altogether, showing me that even real world events can be viewed through many lenses. I loved identifying with the enchantress turned crusader. So dramatic! The heart strings it plucked—sexual frisson, jealousy, courage, betrayal, magic power—perfectly aligned with my turbulent emotional state as a restless young woman."

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The Chocolate Lady (94 KP) rated The Kitchen Daughter in Books

Oct 7, 2020

It isn't often that I say "I couldn't put this one down" but its the truth about this one! The author grabs the reader at the very start, with her main character Ginny. And while the "magic realism" part could have been too much, it is tempered nicely with the reality that Ginny is trying to cope with. That, together with the recipes that Ginny cooks up (which bring on the ghosts) would make one think Joanne Harris meets Mark Haddon. You can read my full review here https://tcl-bookreviews.com/2013/07/25/comfort-foods-and-curious-phenomena/