San Antonio has the Alamo. Austin has the capital. Dallas has the assassination of John F. Kennedy. I grew up in a suburb of Dallas; besides the eponymous TV show, the assassination of our 35th president is our biggest claim to “fame.” I’ve visited the 6th Floor museum on a couple field trips and seen my city’s stamp on history with my own eyes. While the museum has lost its sense of wonder for me, the assassination itself still interests me. I was a bit […]
A bit too much mommy-bashing for me
So I’ve read two other books by Stefanie Wilder-Taylor. One was written prior to her starting a family — it’s all stories about boys and drunken nights and celebrity encounters. It’s cute, but nothing special (I reviewed it at one point this year on CBR). Then I read another of her books, written after she came to terms with her drinking problem, which struck in earnest while she struggled with three kids, two of whom were preemie twins. That one was pretty good –frankly written and funny. Sippy […]
A Different Kind of Memoir
I was kind of expecting to like this more than I did. My familiarity with Lena Dunham is completely based on her presence on social media — I’ve never watched Girls or any of her movies. But I like her — she’s smart, she’s bold, she’s trying to change things. But I just didn’t feel much for this book. “There is nothing gutsier to me than a person announcing that their story is one that deserves to be told, especially if that person is a woman.” One thing […]
I’ve seen Fire and I’ve seen Reign
It is only fitting that perhaps the most contentious presidency of my lifetime gets a second look in my quest to read a biography for every president in US history. And while Decision Points was shockingly insightful and somewhat changed my opinion of George W. Bush, Days of Fire is far deeper and considerably more thorough. In many ways, this is for Bush what Doris Kearns Goodwin’s Team of Rivals was for Lincoln: an interwoven narrative exploring the characters of the particular administration being studied. […]
Behind the scenes of one of my all-time favs
Oh, this was so good. I love love love The Princess Bride. My dad introduced it to us as kids and I’ve watched it over and over. Then I discovered the book a couple years ago, and loved it even more. I enjoy the humor, the romance, the sword-fighting, the framing of it as a story told to a sick child. Much is made in this book about how the film’s marketing department didn’t know what to do with it — is it a fairy tale for […]
SCTV, SNL, Broadway & Hollywood
I didn’t know too much about Martin Short before listening to the audio version of his autobiography, I Must Say. His time on SCTV and SNL came before I started watching those shows, and his late night talk show on Comedy Central — Primetime Glick — made me crazy (he has created a lot of intentional obnoxious characters — Jiminy Glick, Ed Grimley, etc.). But he’s been in a few of my favorite movies, The Three Amigos, The Father of the Bride movies and Jungle 2 Jungle (Mimisiku!), so I’m familiar […]
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