Search

Search only in certain items:

40x40

Christine A. (965 KP) rated The Plot in Books

May 13, 2021  
The Plot
The Plot
Jean Hanff Korelitz | 2021 | Mystery, Thriller
9
8.5 (2 Ratings)
Book Rating
I was provided with a complimentary copy of this book so I could give an honest review. The opinions are entirely my own, and any quotes are taken from the ARC and may be different in the final published copy.

At what point does a good story idea become a person's own for them to write? When it is published? Merely written? Does anyone really own a plot? Those are the questions that surround the premise of The Plot by Jean Hanff Korelitz. However, The Plot is much more.

Jacob Finch Bonner, a once-promising writer, is now a failed author teaching third-rate MFA program when he meets Evan Parker, an arrogant student, who tells Jacob the plot of a story that is sure to become the next "big thing." Jacob waits for Parker's masterpiece, but it never is published. When Jacob learns Parker is dead, he writes Parker's plot. Everything is perfect, that is, until a troll posts Jacob stole the plot. Here the story becomes a mystery.

My problem with the audiobook was I wanted to finish it. However, it's challenging to listen while at work. I sat in my car to finish it before coming home and dealing with life.

The narrator, Kirby Heyborne, is considered one of the finest narrators working. Listening to him was like listening to Jacob tell his own story.

Heyborne's narration and Korelitz's plot make The Plot one of the best of 2021.

This 200-word review will be published on Philomathinphila.com.
  
Night of the Living Dead (1968)
Night of the Living Dead (1968)
1968 | Horror

"I saw this movie when it first came out and at that point I’d never see a horror film, believe it or not! I had a girlfriend at the time, she was an anthropology student, and she said, ‘I heard there’s this new film called Night of the Living Dead, c’mon lets go.’ Eventually we left and when we got there the theatre was buzzing before the film even started. And then it starts, and we’re in the cemetery with the brothers and sisters bickering and then the zombie lurches towards them! Some people are screaming, some were saying the lines of the characters and suddenly I was swept into it and jumping and laughing and afraid, and I realised that this guy Romero was incredible. “It also made me realise that with a genre film, as long as it scared you, you could say anything; about politics, about psychology. It made me realise as well that fear is one of the primary thresholds you experience things through. Fear of anything – even sex – is scary! The first time you do it you’re like, ‘Oh my God, what am I doing? Am I going to fail?’ And you get through it and you realise it’s a wonderful thing. That’s what’s great about the horror genre is that you’re getting a load of people together in the cinema at the same place and the same time, having them all experience extreme fear, and come out alive at the end. It’s an uplifting experience and there’s a sense of elation."

Source
  
First Name: Carmen (1983)
First Name: Carmen (1983)
1983 | Crime, Drama, Music
(0 Ratings)
Movie Favorite

"""What else do I like? A Godard film called Prenom Carmen, which sounds like I’m just saying that to be cool, but it’s actually one of my favorite films. I think it’s the best Godard film. It’s like his version of Carmen the opera, one of his films from the eighties. In terms of just pure filmmaking and manipulating an audience, it kind of starts out as a farce, as a complete, stupid farce, with this bank robbery; but it’s really, really…Godardian, with kind of a stupid humor that’s so random. Only he could make it, mixed up with these kinds of philosophical elements. It starts out with one of these bank robbers, these students, and she starts to sleep with one of the guards; she’s having sex with him in the bank, and he pretends to arrest her and they run away together. And he wants to be part of her gang. It’s all so completely ridiculous. And then suddenly, halfway through, it turns into the most heartbreaking, serious thing that you’ve ever seen — out of nowhere! — and you’re suddenly so attached to these characters, which you weren’t before, because it seemed like a stupid student film. They have this secondary story where they have a string quartet playing the soundtrack which runs in the other story, but they film them during rehearsal, just doing really close up things with them playing cello and stuff, and it’s about the relationship with the conductor and this girl, the cellist — and it’s completely random to the film, but it’s incredible."""

Source
  
40x40

Nancy Whang recommended World Clique by Deee-Lite in Music (curated)

 
World Clique by Deee-Lite
World Clique by Deee-Lite
1990 | Rock
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"When I was in eighth grade I ran for a student body secretary, or something like that, and all the kids would campaign for a month or so before the elections, putting up posters or whatever. And then on the election day everybody had to give a speech, or have some sort of audio presentation that got played over the school's PA. So there were periods on election day when everyone would be in the home room and you'd have to sit through all these speeches that the 13/14-year-olds were making. And I made my speech using the Deee-Lite tape. I had a double cassette boom box and I would dub different parts of the Deee-Lite tape and mix it up so that it built a speech. I didn't keep it. I feel like it must be in the possession of some member of my family, in a box somewhere. I'd kind of forgotten about that until recently but it turned up in my head recently. Unfortunately I don't really know anyone from that period in my life anymore so there wasn't anybody I could ask about it. I never really put it together that long, long before I had any knowledge of what dance music was, or what sampling or dubbing was I did this thing. But it certainly wasn't cool. I think it confused pretty much everybody in my school. I don't even remember what it said, but I remember feeling very proud of it even though everyone thought I was totally weird and a freak."

Source
  
    B Flat - Sight Reading

    B Flat - Sight Reading

    Music and Education

    (0 Ratings) Rate It

    App

    ••• Apple TV version comes free when you purchase this iOS app! ••• The B Flat app will...

40x40

Heather Cranmer (2721 KP) created a post

Aug 1, 2020  
Check out this awesome interview with Shanessa Gluhm, Author of the historical mystery ENEMIES OF DOVES on my blog. There's also a GIVEAWAY to win a copy of the book and/or a $20 Amazon gift card!

https://alltheupsandowns.blogspot.com/2020/08/book-blog-tour-and-giveaway-enemies-of.html

**BOOK SYNOPSIS**
Told in alternating timelines from World War II to 1992, debut author Shanessa Gluhm's Enemies of Doves is a tale of family secrets, jealousy, and deception perfect for fans of Kate Morton and Katherine Webb.

On a summer night in 1932, twelve-year-old Joel Fitchett wanders into an East Texas diner badly beaten and carrying his unconscious brother, Clancy. Though both boys claim they have no memory of what happened, the horrific details are etched into their minds as deep as the scar left across Joel's face.

Thirteen years later, both men still struggle with the aftershocks of that long-ago night and the pact they made to hide the truth. When they find themselves at the center of a murder investigation, they make a decision that will change everything. A second lie, a second pact, and, for a time, a second chance. In 1991 college student Garrison Stark travels to Texas chasing a rumor that Clancy Fitchett is his biological grandfather. Clancy has been missing since 1946, and Garrison hopes to find him and, in doing so, find a family. What he doesn't expect to discover is a tangle of secrets spanning sixty years involving Clancy, Joel, and the woman they both loved, Lorraine.