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Books Editor (673 KP) shared own list

Oct 9, 2017

We’ve made it through the dog days of summer, and now it is time to start preparing for autumn in the best way, adding to your "To Be Read" list.

No matter what your book-lovin’ heart desires, you should consider the non-fiction books below:

List

Bustle's Top Non-Fiction Books This Fall

The Autumn's new releases in nonfiction are even more exciting than the return of the pumpkin spice latte.

Tales of Two Americas: Stories of Inequality in a Divided Nation

John Freeman

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Book

America is broken. You don't need a fistful of statistics to know this. Visit any city, and evidence...

The Not So Subtle Art of Being a Fat Girl

Tess Holliday

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Book

Plus-size supermodel Tess Holliday’s passionate plea for modern women, whoever they are, is to...

Biography

After the Eclipse: A Mother's Murder, a Daughter's Search

Sarah Perry

7.0 (2 Ratings) Rate It

Book

A fierce memoir of a mother's murder, a daughter's coming-of-age in the wake of immense loss, and...

Biography memoir true crime

Paperbacks from Hell: The Twisted History of '70s and '80s Horror Fiction

Grady Hendrix

7.8 (6 Ratings) Rate It

Book

Take a tour through the horror paperback novels of the 1970s and ’80s . . . if you dare. Page...

Horror Reference

Reading People: How Seeing the World Through the Lens of Personality Changes Everything

Anne Bogel

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Book

and 10 other items

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Daniel Boyd (1066 KP) rated Blade Runner 2049 (2017) in Movies

Oct 9, 2017 (Updated Oct 13, 2017)

One of the most visually stunning movies I have ever seen. (8 more)

Awesome production design.

Brilliant direction.

Beautiful cinematography.

Solid performances.

Incredible SFX.

Great score.

Good use of lighting.

Well written script and dialogue.

Jared Leto. (0 more)

Villeneuve Strikes Gold Yet Again

Wow, this movie is a feast for your eyeballs. I won't go on about the visuals too much, as I'm sure that you have already heard how good looking this movie is, all I'll say is this; the movie deserves to be seen in the biggest screen possible. What is even better though, is unlike a Zack Snyder film, Blade Runner 2049 has more to it than just surface level, pretty visuals.

Somehow, Denis Villeneuve has achieved the impossible. He has directed a movie every year for the last five years and they have all been absolutely incredible, also he has managed to pull off a fantastic sequel to a 35 year old classic.

I loved almost every part of this movie. The direction was masterful to watch, with the movie being moved along at a deliberate, purposeful pace, rather than rushing through from action scene to action scene. The sets in this were out of this world, some props were really cool to look at and the use of mostly practical backdrops made a huge difference as opposed to using an abundance of green screen. Rodger Deakins' cinematography was astonishing, you could honestly screen grab an image from any time stamp in this movie and it would work perfectly as a beautiful desktop background.

I also thought that the performances were fantastic and everyone did a great job. Although Ford doesn't appear until the movie's third act, when he does he is great. Gosling commands his leading man role as we've come to expect him to. Robin Wright and Dave Bautista were the other standouts for me in terms of their performances.

The more technical elements of the movie worked perfectly in tandem with the story being told as well. The special effects were beautifully implemented and the lighting in the movie added a whole other layer of visual depth as well. The score also worked for the tone that the movie was aiming to achieve. The script was also solid and tightly woven.

The only thing I will say is; if you are going into the film expecting a sci-fi action blockbuster, you will come out disappointed. This is a slow paced, sci-fi noir, detective story. There are a few sparse moments of action and it does feel impactful when it occurs, but it is not the focus of the movie at all.

The one small element that bothered me was Jared Leto's performance. He took me out of the movie and was the only cast member who didn't feel like a real character within this world. Maybe I'm just being biased, as Jared Leto has always annoyed me in general, but for me he was the one bad part of this near masterpiece. Thankfully he doesn't get that much screen time, so it could have been worse. Also, the fact that David Bowie was originally cast in that role adds an extra sprinkle of salt in the wound.

Unfortunately, much like the original movie, this hasn't done great at the box office on its opening weekend. If like me, you are sick of mindless sequel cash cows that are total garbage such as Jurassic World, go and see this movie and vote with your wallet. If you don't, we are telling Hollywood that as a collective, we don't want sequels with depth and integrity, we want dumb, rushed, forgettable nonsense and that is what we will end up getting. Support this movie for the betterment of filmmaking and cinema, even if you haven't seen the original.

Overall I loved the movie, but I can see why people are finding it divisive. For me though, the vast majority of this movie's parts were absolutely fantastic and come together to form a journey that you must experience for yourself.