Products |
The Best of Butler: August 2008
By
Published: Aug 01, 2008
Category:
Beyond Classification
You can feel the remnants of summer now. If you’re like me, you want these gorgeous days to linger. At the same time, you can feel excitement in the air: the humming of finely tuned engines as the culture industry gears up for fall. Soon New York and Hollywood will try to seduce us with their big-ticket items — the books, movies and music that are, they pray, award winners and monster hits.
“New” is different at HeadButler.com. Because almost every book, movie or record ever released is available online, I’m not chained to any industry calendar. If it’s new to you, it’s new. And in that way, as the song goes, “everything old is new again.”
If I were picking from an all-time “best” list, you’d see Jean Rhys, and The Extraordinary Adventures of Arsene Lupin, and James Salter, and Nick Drake, and Spanx, and SIGG bottles, and many more.
But that’s too daunting a list to consider in mid-August.
What follows is what I consider the best of the “new” reviews published on Butler — that is, published here in ’08, so far.
Want to enrich summer’s end? Find a sturdy chair, a cool drink. And, if I may serve you some cultural protein and fun, some of these…
BOOKS
Fiction
Cassandra at the Wedding – Dorothy Baker’s tale of twin sisters
Childhood’s End – Arthur C. Clarke on the arrival of the aliens
Death in Venice – unsettling stories of sex by Thomas Mann
Selected Stories – the best of Andre Dubus
Shining City – a family man becomes a pimp in LA
The Art of Racing in the Rain – a dog narrates a family saga
The Driver’s Seat – in 100 pages, Muriel Spark freaks you out
The Guernsey Literary & Potato Peel Pie Society – surviving the Nazis
The Price of Salt – Patricia Highsmith on a ‘forbidden’ love
The Silver Bear – a hit man takes care of business
The Spies of Warsaw – Alan Furst’s latest World War II intrigue
The Unknown Terrorist – The bomber is the least of the terrors
Non-Fiction
Aristotle and an Aardvark Go to Washington – explaining political BS
Girls Like Us – Carole King, Joni Mitchell and Carly Simon
Havana Nocturne – the Mafia and Cuba: sin, sex and surrender
Nemesis – Aristotle Onassis, Jackie O, Jack and Bobby
The Perfect Summer: England 1911 – they danced all night
The Trillion Dollar Meltdown – where the money went, and why
Writers in Paris – who, where, when, what and even why
Memoir
One Writer’s Beginnings – how Eudora Welty became Eudora Welty
First Comes Love – drugs, marriage, AIDS and redemption
My Stroke of Insight – a brain scientist’s near-death experience
The Night of the Gun – a New York Times reporter’s drug years
Food
French Women for All Seasons – live better, lose weight
In Defense of Food – eat natural, live healthier
Park Avenue Potluck – recipes from New York hostesses
Children
Beatrice’s Goat – the animal that changed an African kid’s life
Big Fat Little Lit – smart comics for cool kids
The Hundred Dresses – poor girl, rich imagination
Self Help
How Not to Look Old – survival techniques for “realists”
The War of Art – crucial help if you’re having trouble getting it done
What Your Mother Never Told You – guiding the teen daughter
MUSIC
Blues and Soul
R.L.Burnside – for those who like it rough and real
Otis Spann – magic fingers, a voice to match
Ryan Shaw – Otis Redding, Wilson Pickett, and now…
Country
All I Intended to Be – Emmylou Harris at her most distilled
Tift Merritt – tinged with Nashville, created in Paris
Rock and Pop
Home Before Dark – Neil Diamond (yes, Neil Diamond)
Matthew Ryan – a contender for Poet Laureate
Teddy Thompson – too catchy to be so under-appreciated
World
Manu Chao – Bob Marley would approve, and dance
The Garifuna Women’s Project – an endangered language, timeless beauty
Classical
Jacqueline du Pré – a brilliant cellist, a tragic life
Four Last Songs – breathtaking music from Richard Strauss
MOVIES
Wristcutters – easily the funniest movie ever made about suicide
Before Sunrise/Before Sunset – young love in Paris, then not so young
Forbidden Hollywood Collection – “racy” films from the Golden Age
Manufactured Landscapes – images of China, worth a billion words
State of Play – must-see British mini-series
PRODUCTS
Cambodian Market Bags – made from Vietnamese rice bags, both chic and green
Head Sets for Cell Phones – safety is a factor; health may be as well
Kill A Watt – in case you want to save money on electricity
As they say in bad restaurants: Enjoy!
