Literary Pick (****)

Post Office
-Charles Bukowski

Poetry

He is almost a god, a man beside you,
enthralled by your talk, by your laughter.
Watching makes my heart beat fast
because, seeing little, I imagine much.
You put a fire in my cheeks.
Speech won't come.  My ears ring.
Blind to all others, I sweat and I stammer.
I am a trembling thing, like grass,
an inch from dying.

So poor I've nothing to lose, I must gamble... 

(6th century BCE)

-Sappho

Literary Pick (****)

What Remains
-Carole Radziwill

Allow me to preface my review by expressing that Carole's narrative surrounding the deaths of JFK Jr., Carolyn and Lauren Besset, and the death of her own husband Anthony Radziwill, 3 weeks later was quite fascinating. But of course, any book that discusses the last days of JFK JR. and his young wife Carolyn Besset, is going to be an instant New York Times best seller, regardless of who wrote it. Take those two out of the equation, and it wouldn't be such an interesting read. It's like she wrote the book to prove to people who've never heard of her or her husband, that she was very good friends with Kennedy Jr and his wife Carolyn.

Literary Pick (**)

Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children
-Ransom Riggs 

 

RIP

James Garner 
Born: April 7, 1928, Norman, OK

Died: July 19, 2014, Brentwood, Los Angeles, CA

Actor James Garner, best known for his prime-time television roles as the wisecracking frontier gambler on "“Maverick" and as an ex-con turned private eye on "“The Rockford Files," has died at age 86, Los Angeles police confirmed early on Sunday.
Garner, who built a six-decade career playing ruggedly charming, good-natured anti-heroes and received the highest honor of the Screen Actors Guild in 2004, was found dead from natural causes on Saturday night at his Los Angeles home, according to police.
There were no further details immediately available on the circumstances of his death. Garner underwent surgery for a stroke in 2008, two years after appearing in his last big-screen role as a wealthy grandfather for a film adaptation of the best-selling book "The Ultimate Gift".
An Oklahoma native, Garner entered show business in the 1950s after serving in the Korean War and first rose to fame on the TV western "“Maverick," a sardonic alternative to the more serious frontier shows then popular on American prime time.
He was Bret Maverick, a cardsharp and ladies man who got by on his wits instead of a six-gun and would just as soon duck a fight as face a showdown. Co-star Jack Kelly played his more straight-laced brother, Bart.
Garner left the ABC show in 1960 in a contract dispute with producers but brought his "“Maverick"-like alter ego to a series of films, including "“Thrill of It All," "“Move Over, Darling," “"The Great Escape" and “"Support Your Local Sheriff!"
Garner once said his screen persona as an easy-going guy smart enough to steer clear of a fight actually ran only so deep.
“"At times it's like me, but I used to have this temper," he told Reuters in a 2004 interview. “"I used to get in a fight in a heartbeat. But that was many years ago."
With his wry, low-key presence, good looks and thick dark hair, Garner was hailed by some as Hollywood's next Clark Gable or Cary Grant.
But he ended up scoring his next big hit on the small screen in the 1970s, starring as canny private detective Jim Rockford, a wrongly accused ex-convict starting life over in a beachfront trailer home, on “"The Rockford Files."
The show ran on NBC from 1974 until Garner abruptly quit the series in 1980. He reprised Rockford for several TV movies in the late 1990s.
BACK TO THE BIG SCREEN
The role earned Garner an Emmy Award in 1977. He received his sole Oscar nomination for his work opposite Sally Field in the 1985 feature comedy “"Murphy's Romance."
Garner said his favorite role was as the cowardly U.S. soldier who falls for Julie Andrews before being sent on a dangerous wartime mission in the 1964 film "“The Americanization of Emily."
He teamed up with Andrews again in the 1982 film “"Victor/Victoria."
He returned to the big screen in 2000 in Clint Eastwood's astronaut adventure "“Space Cowboys" and two years later in “"Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood."
In a spate of late-career TV work, Garner played a recurring role as a hospital chief executive on "“Chicago Hope" in 2000 and starred as a conservative Supreme Court chief justice in the short-lived 2002 series “"First Monday."
In 2003, he joined the cast of the ABC sitcom “"8 Simple Rules," playing a grandfather after the untimely death of series star John Ritter.
The following year, Garner showed off his big-screen acting chops again, starring opposite Gena Rowlands as the devoted elderly husband of an Alzheimer's disease sufferer in Nick Cassavetes' adaptation of the bestseller "“The Notebook."
(Reporting by Steve Gorman; Editing by Rosalind Russell and Raissa Kasolowsky)

-Reuters

Literary Pick (***)

The King of Cuba
-Christina Garcia

Literary Pick (****)

Rarity of the Century
-Fawzy Zablah

Last night I had to tear myself away from this book because I had to wake up early for work, I promised myself I had to absolutely stop reading it by 11:00 pm, so at 11:01 I took my Ambien, but kept reading until I started feeling funny. I woke up half an hour early just so I could finish the book, and I re-read the last two pages of the chapter where I left off, just in case.
Honestly, this story captured me from the very first sentence to the last page, and left me feeling like I wished there were at least 3 full pages more. This is the second time I find myself in a conundrum in how to word my review of Zablah's books without spoiling it for the next reader, because it's almost like he places little Easter eggs in his story for you to find, and I don't want to ruin it for anyone, but I have to say that my favorite part of the whole story, and I thought this was absolutely brilliant, was that it was told from each characters own perspective, but what was even more unique was that it was almost hilarious to witness what each of them really thought of certain situations that they had experienced together, how almost clueless Chucho was, and how aware on the other hand Shiraz was, when at the beginning of the story one thought the total opposite. I thought that part was especially crafted so perfectly.
You know, when I first read the word "alien" in the description of the book, I thought, oh no, I'm not a sci-fi person at all. I shun all sci-fi, and will continue to do so, but this wasn't one of those kind of "sci-fi" stories, it wasn't about aliens, or any of that shit, it was about the relationship of the people in the story, not so much about the events, actually, but about the realism of their relationships.
What I loved even more was Benito's whole back-story, just when you thought it couldn't get better, you start reading a whole new dimension to the story, adding just a dab of historical fiction to the mix. The story continued to culminate into such a cohesive apocalyptic tale. I would've never imagined such a small book would've been filled with so much thought-provoking circumstances.
I started my book challenge in January, and so far it's the best book I've read all year, and I'm pretty much a hard-grader when it comes to rating books. I don't easily give books 4-5 stars. This really is a must-read. It's one of those subtle thrillers that keeps you thinking long after you've finished it.