The Darjeeling Limited: For people (like me) who like this sort of thing, this is the sort of thing they like.
Lars and the Real Girl: Really, really good. Well written and beautifully directed. And Emily Mortimer and Patricia Clarkson are amazing.
Midnight, The Talk of the Town: Pair the first one with The Palm Beach Story and the second with Holiday for maximum enjoyment of these classics.
Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day, Greenfingers, Penelope (woohoo! Burn Gorman!), and Tristram Shandy: Hello, British people! How do you make everything better? Because you do. (Usually, anyway. See below.)
Northanger Abbey and Sense and Sensibility: Both Masterpiece Theatre productions were actually pretty good, in stark contrast to the similarly new versions of Persuasion and Mansfield Park, which were terrible, terrible, terrible, ow my brain, awful.
Show Business: The Road to Broadway and Company: Fwoop. That's the sound of me collapsing in dedication to the splendor of Raul Esparza.
Shut Up and Sing and Young @ Heart: Freaking documentaries convinced me to buy music I normally wouldn’t.
State of Play: Enjoy it now before Hollywood ruins it. Yes, ruins it.
Friday, January 2, 2009
(Some of) The Best of 2008—Books
The Penelopiad, Margaret Atwood: The sort of thing Atwood does very well. As with any retellings of classic tales, you know it’s good when you can’t imagine it being another way. This is one of those.
The Uncommon Reader, Alan Bennett: The Queen of England becomes a reader. Consequences!
You Must Be This Happy to Enter, Elizabeth Crane: Most of the stories are fantastic and remind me a bit of the best of George Saunders. And they only vaguely frighten me.
The Bachelor, Stella Gibbons: Why, why, why are you out of print? You are delightful! From the author of Cold Comfort Farm.
Through the Children’s Gate, Adam Gopnik: After Paris to the Moon. The family is back in New York City, now with two children. And an imaginary friend named Mr. Ravioli.
A Spot of Bother, Mark Haddon: Some quite good bits, like when Jamie wishes that, instead of trying to explain his feelings for boyfriend Tony, he could just lift a lid on his head and say, “Look.”
Told By an Idiot, Rose MacAulay: The novel follows a family from the Victorian period through the 1920s. A perfect book to read in this time and this place.
Symposium and A Far Cry from Kensington, Muriel Spark: In Symposium, a posh London dinner party is interrupted by murder. In A Far Cry from Kensington, Nancy Hawkins gives good advice, loses weight, and gets fired from job after job because she insults a hack. Both are funnier than these descriptions make them sound.
The Good Children, Kate Wilhelm: The book that fooled me into thinking that the rest of this author’s work would be as good. It isn’t. Too bad, because this is a solid, rich, full novel.
Jill the Reckless, P.G. Wodehouse: Proof that Wodehouse understands female characters beyond their divine profiles. Pitch-perfect.
The Uncommon Reader, Alan Bennett: The Queen of England becomes a reader. Consequences!
You Must Be This Happy to Enter, Elizabeth Crane: Most of the stories are fantastic and remind me a bit of the best of George Saunders. And they only vaguely frighten me.
The Bachelor, Stella Gibbons: Why, why, why are you out of print? You are delightful! From the author of Cold Comfort Farm.
Through the Children’s Gate, Adam Gopnik: After Paris to the Moon. The family is back in New York City, now with two children. And an imaginary friend named Mr. Ravioli.
A Spot of Bother, Mark Haddon: Some quite good bits, like when Jamie wishes that, instead of trying to explain his feelings for boyfriend Tony, he could just lift a lid on his head and say, “Look.”
Told By an Idiot, Rose MacAulay: The novel follows a family from the Victorian period through the 1920s. A perfect book to read in this time and this place.
Symposium and A Far Cry from Kensington, Muriel Spark: In Symposium, a posh London dinner party is interrupted by murder. In A Far Cry from Kensington, Nancy Hawkins gives good advice, loses weight, and gets fired from job after job because she insults a hack. Both are funnier than these descriptions make them sound.
The Good Children, Kate Wilhelm: The book that fooled me into thinking that the rest of this author’s work would be as good. It isn’t. Too bad, because this is a solid, rich, full novel.
Jill the Reckless, P.G. Wodehouse: Proof that Wodehouse understands female characters beyond their divine profiles. Pitch-perfect.
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