bookmonsterzero

[bookmonsterzero]

Best New Experiences of 2019

Fiction

Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands by Jorge Amado

The Deeper the Water the Uglier the Fish by Katya Apekina

The Seven Madmen by Roberto Arlt

Oscar and Lucinda by Peter Carey

The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories by Angela Carter

Slave Old Man by Patrick Chamoiseau

The Cremator by Ladislav Fuks

Arabia Felix by Thorkild Hansen

The Golem by Gustav Meyrink

Miss MacIntosh, My Darling by Marguerite Young

Non-Fiction

On Revolution by Hannah Arendt

Blues People: Negro Music in White America by Amiri Baraka

Aspiration: The Agency of Becoming by Agnes Callard

The Rape of Nanking by Iris Chang

The Collected Essays by Ralph Ellison

Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics by Immanuel Kant

History of Rome by Livy

Hitler and the Power of Aesthetics by Frederic Spotts

Heimskringla by Snorri Sturluson

Gravity and Grace by Simone Weil

Biography

The Brontës: Wild Genius on the Moors by Juliet Barker

Father and Son by Edmund Gosse

Stalin: Vols. I & II by Stephen Kotkin

Sontag: Her Life and Work by Benjamin Moser

Lady Death by Lyudmila Pavlichenko

Anton Chekhov: His Life by Donald Rayfield

Film

Ariel (1988)

Asparagus (1979)

La Belle Noiseuse (1991)

BlacKkKlansman (2018)

A Brighter Summer Day (1991)

Casino (1995)

Coriolanus (2011)

Dear Diary (1993)

The Death of Stalin (2017)

Girlfriends (1978)

The Gospel According to Matthew (1964)

Man of Marble (1977)

Marriage Story (2019)

Parasite (2019)

The Quiet Earth (1985)

The Red Turtle (2016)

Reds (1981)

Requiem for a Heavyweight (1962)

sex, lies, and videotape (1989)

Suspiria (1977)

Documentary

Apollo 11 (2019)

Crisis: Behind a Presidential Commitment (1963)

Dawson City: Frozen Time (2016)

Filmworker (2017)

Free Solo (2018)

High School (1968)

O.J. Made in America (2016)

Portrait of Jason (1967)

Sherman’s March (1985)

The Zen Diaries of Garry Shandling (2018)

[bookmonsterzero]

December 2019 in Pictures and Letters

A very belated update to conclude 2019

263. ® Critique of Pure Reason by Immanuel Kant 

264. Growing Up Aboriginal in Australia by Anita Heiss 

265. Overload by Bob Schieffer

266. In Persuasion Nation by George Saunders 

267. The Egg and Other Stories by Sherwood Anderson 

268. The Secret History by Procopius

269. The Three Graces of Val-Kill by Emily Herring Wilson

270. Dereliction of Duty by H.R. McMaster

271. Tiamat's Wrath by James S.A. Corey

272. ® If on a winter's night a traveler by Italo Calvino

273. Poisoner in Chief by Stephen Kinzer

274. The Knight by Gene Wolfe

275. The Wizard by Gene Wolfe

276. ® Notes of Nursing by Florence Nightengale

277. ® Zeno's Conscience by Italo Svevo

278. ® Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin 

279. ® Good Soldier Švejk by Jaroslav Hašek 

280. The Bondage of the Will by Martin Luther 

281. ® The Physicists by Friedrich Dürrenmatt

282. Major Barbara by George Bernard Shaw

283. ® Coriolanus by William Shakespeare

284. ® Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare

285. ® Measure for Measure by William Shakespeare

286. ® Henry IV, Part I by William Shakespeare

287. ® Henry IV, Part II by William Shakespeare

288. ® The Tempest by William Shakespeare

289. ® Titus Andronicus by William Shakespeare

290. ® Macbeth by William Shakespeare

291. The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories by Angela Carter

292. Fundamental by Tim James

293. ® Glengarry Glen Ross by David Mamet

294. Upaniṣads by Anonymous

295. Freshwater by Akwaeke Emezi

296. ® Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie

297. Helen with the High Hand by Arnold Bennett

298. ® The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams

299. ® Against Nature by Joris-Karl Huysmans

300. ® Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke

The Blue Light (1932)

Neo Tokyo (1987)

Rambo: Last Blood (2019)

Out of the Furnace (2013)

Witchfinder General (1968)

Ad Astra (2019)

® Collateral (2004)

® Onibaba (1964)

Murder by Natural Causes (1979)

The Last Seduction (1994)

Joker (2019)

A Brighter Summer Day (1991)

Parasite (2019)

® Green for Danger (1946)

® The King’s Speech (2010)

The Russians Are Coming! The Russians Are Coming! (1966)

® The Unsuspected (1947)

® The Big Clock (1948)

® I Know Where I’m Going (1945)

® His Girl Friday (1940)

Widows (2018)

Marriage Story (2019)

Best experiences in bold, other recommended ones are linked. ® revisited.

[bookmonsterzero]

Art is the proper task of life.

Friedrich Nietzsche, Notebooks (1888)

[bookmonsterzero]

November 2019 in Pictures and Letters

230. Medical Ethics: A... Introduction by Tony Hope 11/01/19

231. Freemasonry: A... Introduction by Andreas Önnerfors 11/01/19

232. Autism: A... Introduction by Uta Frith 11/02/19

233. The Cremator by Ladislav Fuks 11/02/19

234. The Subterraneans by Jack Kerouac 11/03/19

235. Gravity and Grace by Simone Weil 11/03/19

236. ® Life of a Good-for-nothing by Joseph von Eichendorff 11/03/19

237. The Everything Store by Brad Stone 11/05/19

238. ® The Sibyl by Pär Lagerkvist 11/06/19

239. ® Utopia by Thomas More 11/08/19

240. Blowout by Rachel Maddow 11/10/19

241. Hotel Tito by Ivana Simić Bodrožić 11/11/19

242. Palace of the Peacock by Wilson Harris 11/12/19

243. On Language by Noam Chomsky 11/12/19

244. My Kind of Girl by Buddhadeva Bose 11/12/19

245. The Death of a Beekeeper by Lars Gustafsson 11/13/19

246. As Trains Pass By by Herman Bang 11/13/19

247. On Elegance While Sleeping by Emilio Lascano Tegui 11/15/19

248. ® Berlin Alexanderplatz by Alfred Döblin 11/15/19

249. Sontag: Her Life and Work by Benjamin Moser 11/17/19

250. The Childhood of Jesus by J.M. Coetzee 11/18/19

251. The Clue by Carolyn Wells 11/19/19

252. Human Nature and Conduct by John Dewey 11/21/19

253. Lafayette Somewhat United States by Sarah Vowell 11/22/19

254. Death Wish by Brian Garfield 11/23/19

255. Aspiration: The Agency of Becoming by Agnes Callard 11/24/19

256. Talking to Strangers by Malcolm Gladwell 11/25/19

257. Hell's Angels by Hunter S. Thompson 11/26/19

258. On Practice and Contradiction by Mao Zedong 11/27/19

259. Ashes and Diamonds by Jerzy Andrzejewski 11/27/19

260. Slave Old Man by Patrick Chamoiseau 11/28/19

261. Fish Soup by Margarita García Robayo 11/30/19

262. The Golem by Gustav Meyrink 11/30/19

® Twelve Monkeys (1995)

Judge Dredd (1995)

Kindergarten Cop (1990)

Crimson Tide (1995)

At the Meeting with Joyous Death (1973)

Cinderella (1899)

The Merry Skeleton (1898)

The X-Ray Fiend (1897)

The Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat (1986)

Annabelle Serpentine Dance (1895)

Dickson Experimental Sound Film (1894)

Blacksmith Scene (1893)

Poor Pierrot (1892)

Je Vous Aime (1891)

Monkeyshines, No. 1 (1890)

The Last Man on Earth (1964)

American Gangster (2007)

Blue Chips (1994)

John Carter (2012)

Mark of the Vampire (1935)

Garbo Talks (1984)

Blue Steel (1990)

Black Mass (2015)

Hitsville: The Making of Motown (2019)

Silent Hill (2006)

Man on Fire (2004)

Flash Gordon (1936)

Ragtime (1981)

The Lego Movie 2 (2019)

Airport 1975 (1974)

Eyes of Laura Mars (1978)

Run for Cover (1955)

High Anxiety (1977)

Sneakers (1992)

Clash of the Titans (2010)

Family Guy: Blue Harvest (2007)

Family Guy: Something... Dark Side (2010)

Family Guy: It’s a Trap! (2011)

The Racket (1928)

Dream Street (1921)

The Bourne Legacy (2012)

Taken 2 (2012)

Taken 3 (2014)

Oblivion (2013)

Strange Days (1995)

Lucy (2014)

Official Secrets (2019)

Zero Hour! (1957)

Guava Island (2019)

The Sum of All Fears (2002)

Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit (2014)

Dolemite (1975)

Spy Game (2001)

The Human Tornado (1976)

Chi-Raq (2015)

Lions for Lambs (2007)

Coriolanus (2011)

Death Becomes Her (1992)

No Home Movie (2015)

The Old Man & the Gun (2018)

Days of Thunder (1990)

® Blazing Saddles (1974)

Kubo and the Two Strings (2016)

That Certain Woman (1937)

20,000 Years in Sing Sing (1932)

Duet for Cannibals (1969)

White Bird in a Blizzard (2014)

Margin Call (2011)

Joe Kidd (1972)

The Aftermath (2019)

Domino (2005)

The Way We Were (1973)

Buchanan Rides Alone (1958)

Colette (2018)

Steve (2010)

Isle of Dogs (2018)

The Other Boleyn Girl (2008)

Best experiences in bold, other recommended ones are linked. ® revisited.

[bookmonsterzero]

Society is the cave. The way out is solitude.

Simone Weil, “The Great Beast,” from Gravity and Grace (via theotreptos)

[bookmonsterzero]

Buchanan Rides Alone | Budd Boetticher | 1958

L.Q. Jones, Randolph Scott

[bookmonsterzero]

October 2019 in Pictures and Letters

211. The Nibelungenlied by Anonymous 10/01/19

212. The Deeper the Water the Uglier the Fish by Katya Apekina 10/03/19

213. The Most Good You Can Do by Peter Singer 10/04/19

214. A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs 10/06/19

215. I, Juan de Pareja by Elizabeth Borton de Treviño 10/07/19

216. Father and Son by Edmund Gosse 10/09/19

217. Death by Water by Kenzaburō Ōe 10/11/19

218. Blenheim by Charles Spencer 10/14/19

219. The Will to Power by Friedrich Nietzsche 10/16/19

220. ® Foundation by Isaac Asimov 10/22/19

221. ® Foundation and Empire by Isaac Asimov 10/22/19

222. ® Second Foundation by Isaac Asimov 10/24/19

223. Druids: A Very Short Introduction by Barry W. Cunliffe 10/25/19

224. Sikhism: A... Introduction by Eleanor Nesbitt 10/26/19

225. Immensee and Other Stories by Theodor Storm 10/26/19

226. Postcolonialism: A... Introduction by Robert J.C. Young 10/27/19

227. Mormonism: A... Introduction by Richard L. Bushman 10/28/19

228. American Legal History: A... Introduction by G. Edward White 10/29/19

229. International Migration: A... Introduction by Khalid Koser 10/30/19

Lady Frankenstein (1971)

Crawl (2019)

Crippled Avengers (1978)

Arctic (2018)

Immortal (2004)

The Furies (2019)

Wicked City (1987)

Astonishing X-Men: Gifted (2010)

Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948)

The Lost Boys (1987)

The Tell-Tale Heart (1953)

A Monster Calls (2016)

Flash Gordon (1980)

Bone Tomahawk (2015)

Phantom of Paradise (1974)

The Zen Diaries of Garry Shandling (2018)

Fortune is a Woman (1957)

Halloween 5 (1989)

Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers (1995)

Halloween: Resurrection (2002)

Halloween (2007)

Halloween II (2009)

Friday the 13th: A New Beginning (1985)

Friday the 13th Part Vi (1986)

Walk Softly, Stranger (1950)

Friday the 13th Part VII (1988)

Friday the 13th Part VIII (1989)

Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday (1993)

Jason X (2001)

Friday the 13th (2009)

Hostiles (2017)

The House of the Devil (2009)

Pulse (2001)

Opera (1987)

Grandmothers Recharge Well! (1984)

Aftermath (2017)

Frenchie (1950)

Alibi (1929)

Theater of Blood (1973)

The Return of the Living Dead (1985)

Alien: Alone (2019)

Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon (2006)

Near Dark (1987)

The Descent (2005)

Best experiences in bold, other recommended ones are linked. ® revisited.

[bookmonsterzero]

“[For Walter Benjamin] the deep transactions between the melancholic and the world always take place with things (rather than with people); and that these are genuine transactions, which reveal meaning. Precisely because the melancholy character is haunted by death, it is melancholics who best know how to read the world. Or, rather, it is the world which yields itself to the melancholic’s scrutiny, as it does to no one else’s. The more lifeless things are, the more potent and ingenious can be the mind which contemplates them.” –Susan Sontag, Under the Sign of Saturn

[bookmonsterzero]

We are always getting ready to live, but never living.

Ralph Waldo Emerson, Journals (via philosophybits)

[bookmonsterzero]

September 2019 in Pictures and Letters

190. Leviathan Wakes by James S.A. Corey

191. The Butcher of Anderson Station by James S.A. Corey

192. Caliban’s War by James S.A. Corey

193. Gods of Risk by James S.A. Corey

194. Abaddon’s Gate by James S.A. Corey 

195. The Churn by James S.A. Corey 

196. The Orchid Thief by Susan Orlean

197. Cibola Burn by James S.A. Corey 

198. Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics by Immanuel Kant 

199. The History of Mary Prince by Mary Prince

200. Nemesis Games by James S.A. Corey 

201. The Vital Abyss by James S.A. Corey 

202. Oscar and Lucinda by Peter Carey 

203. History of Britain by John Milton

204. Babylon’s Ashes by James S.A. Corey 

205. Strange Dogs by James S.A. Corey

206. ® Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston 

207. Persepolis Rising by James S.A. Corey 

208. The 101 Dalmatians by Dodie Smith

209. ® Discourse on Method by René Descartes

210. ® The Meditations by René Descartes

Lady Killer (1933)

® Dirty Harry (1971)

® Magnum Force (1973)

The Enforcer (1976)

Sudden Impact (1983)

The Dead Pool (1988)

Jill Bilcock: Dancing the Invisible (2017)

Bedlam of Beards (1934)

So This is Africa (1933)

Best experiences in bold, other recommended ones are linked. ® revisited.

[bookmonsterzero]

What kind of philosophy one chooses depends upon what kind of human being one is. For a philosophical system is not a dead utensil which one could reject or accept as if it were arbitrary. On the contrary, the philosophical system is enlivened by the human soul that one possesses.

Johann Gottlieb Fichte, First Introduction to the Wissenschaftslehre (via philosophybits)

[bookmonsterzero]

August 2019 in Pictures and Letters

168. Deep Rivers by José María Arguedas 

169. The Seven Madmen by Roberto Arlt 

170. The Collected Fantasies, Vol. 1 by Mœbius 

171. The Collected Fantasies, Vol. 2 by Mœbius 

172. The Collected Fantasies, Vol. 3 by Mœbius 

173. The Collected Fantasies, Vol. 4 by Mœbius

174. Arabia Felix by Thorkild Hansen 

175. ® Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell

176. ® Under the Glacier by Halldór Laxness 

177. Against the Inquisition by Marcos Aguinis 

178. ® Manon Lescaut by Antoine François Prévost 

179. The Liar by Stephen Fry

180. Free Will by Sam Harris (literally, cannot recommend)

181. No Name by Wilkie Collins 

182. Timbuktu by Paul Auster

183. The Knowledge Illusion by Steven Sloman

184. Women of Trachis by Sophocles 

185. ® A Good Man Is Hard to Find.... by Flannery O'Connor 

186. The Tragic Muse by Henry James 

187. Andromache by Euripides

188. The Overstory by Richard Powers

189. ® Ninety-Three by Victor Hugo

Filmworker (2017)

Deadwood: The Movie (2019)

Under Siege (1992)

The Post (2017)

Tolkien (2019)

The Intouchables (2011)

Prudence (1927)

The Long Kiss Goodnight (1996)

Astrix the Gaul (1967)

Atrix and Cleopatra (1968)

The Hosue that Jack Built (2018)

Colors (1988)

O.J. Made in America (2016)

The Owl Service (1969)

Jack Reacher: Never Go Back (2016)

The Beyond (1981)

Diplomatic Courier (1952)

Love Me or Leave Me (1955)

Madonna of the Seven Moons (1945)

Crooked House (20117)

Agatha and the Truth of Murder (2018)

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019)

Constantine (2005)

Robinson Crusoe on Mars (1964)

Best experiences in bold, other recommended ones are linked. ® revisited.

[bookmonsterzero]

Julio Cortázar

[bookmonsterzero]

July 2019 in Pictures and Letters

141. Camilla by Fanny Burney 

142. On Revolution by Hannah Arendt 

143. A Higher Loyalty by James Comey

144. ® The Theory of Moral Sentiments by Adam Smith 

145. No Sweetness Here and Other Stories by Ama Ata Aidoo 

146. Tirra Lirra by the River by Jessica Anderson

147. The Kama Sutra by Mallanaga Vātsyāyana

148. Civil War by Lucan

149. The Few by Hakan Günday

150. Alien 3 by William Gibson

151. T Singer by Dag Solstad 

152. Black Leopard, Red Wolf by Marlon James

153. Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands by Jorge Amado 

154. ® Nausea by Jean-Paul Sartre 

155. ® A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway

156. ® Demian by Hermann Hesse 

157. The Argonautica by Apollonius 

158. ® Nog by Rudolph Wurlitzer 

159. ® Frankenstein by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

160. Blues People: Negro Music in White America by Amiri Baraka

161. ® The Man Who Was Thursday by G.K. Chesterton

162. Insel by Mina Loy 

163. Dusklands by J.M. Coetzee

164. N*gger Heaven by Carl Van Vechten 

165. The Folded Clock by Heidi Julavits 

166. Political Theology by Carl Schmitt 

167. Heimskringla by Snorri Sturluson 

Girlfriends (1978)

The Long Memory (1953)

Storm Warning (1951)

A Tale of the Wind (1988)

The Rapture (1991)

Bend of the River (1952)

I, Tonya (2017)

Dangerous Davies (1981)

Lucia (1968)

Live Free of Die Hard (2007)

Peacock Alley (1930)

A Good Day to Die Hard (2013)

The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane (1976)

The Lives of a Bengal Lancer (1935)

Serenity (2005)

Pet Sematary (1989)

Battlestar Galactica (2003)

At the Circus (1939)

Battlestar Galactica: Razor (2007)

Good Morning, Vietnam (1987)

Monkey on My Back (1957)

Apollo 11 (2019)

48 Hrs. (1982)

Jack Reacher (2012)

Atomic Blonde (2017)

Krakatit (1948)

Reds (1981)

La Belle Noiseuse (1991)

Avengers: Endgame (2019)

Alita: Battle Angel (2019)

Best experiences in bold, other recommended ones are linked. ® revisited.

[bookmonsterzero]

Girlfriends (1978/Claudia Weill)

[bookmonsterzero]

At any street corner the feeling of absurdity can strike any man in the face.

Albert Camus, The Myth of Sisyphus (via philosophybits)

[bookmonsterzero]

Ivan’s Childhood (Ivanovo detstvo) 1962, dir. Andrei Tarkovsky.