Recomendations 8/22/06

Best book of the summer:
"Joshua Son of None" by Nancy Freedman
A book about an intern that was at the hospital the day that John F. Kennedy was shot. The intern takes some of the cellular matter from JFK, puts it on ice, and finds a financial backer to create a clone of JFK. Ultimatley as the clone "Joshua" grows up her realizs that his life is fabricated and struggles with seperating himself from the former president.

I give it four and a half stars out of five. It deals with morality, questions if a clone is still human, and toys with the idea of genetics vs. environment.

"We" by Yevgeny Zamyatin

We is what has inspired books such as Anthem, 1984, and Brave New World. It is about a society in the future that considers free thought and creativity a disease and society tries to cure this disease. The main character is a man, known only by his number, who is building a ship to send off into space to show the pefection of an efficient society to all the other planets. You as the reader are reading the logs and this is how you understand their society. The man begins to grow free thought and is ultimately "fixed" by the government.

Again I would give it four and a half stars. It brings up the moral question of what true happiness is. Is true happiness the freedom of free thought where people die of diseases, murder, and suicide? Or, is true happiness ignorance? Quite an interesting tale, particularly since it was written in 1921.


Films to see:


"Three Iron"

A movie about a drifter who breaks into people's homes when they are on vacation. But he does this in order to eat a meal and have a place to sleep. Before he leaves he takes a picure of himself standing in front of pictures of the people who live there and then does their laundry for them.

This film was so unique in style and story that it is hard to not like. It has interesting characters, smart humor, and allows one to think about the world around them. I would give this film four and a half stars because it is not brilliant but it is very good and charming.



Films to not see:

"The Decent"

If there is a movie out there called "Snakes on a Plane" this movie should be called "Spelunking for Cannibals". The story is quite ridiculous, though there are some fun moments, and the payoff is awful. But some people like these kinds of films so to each their own. I give it two and a half stars.


"A scanner Darkly"

Not a bad film per se but just dissappointing. I expected a little more out of it and it was too preachy. But as my pal Patrick stated it is quite a poor year for movies. I give it three stars.