Movies - Instead of partying with the masses, we chose movies last night. Liz found both at our library.
- On A Clear Day - with Brenda Blethyn - If you liked Saving Grace, she was the master gardener in that. I thought this was charming.
- Girl with a Pearl Earring - Colin Firth, Scarlett Johansson & Tom Wilkinson - Mom recommended this to me some time back and last night was second time I watched it. Good story, excellent photography, lighting and color.
Email from Kelly - says she just purchased the following. Let us know what you think, Kel.
- Botany of Desire (Michael Pollan)
- No-Impact Man (Colin Beavan)
- Eating Animals (Jonathan Safran Foer)
From Dennis -
"Here's one of my all-time favorite science books, Les The Beak of the Finch: A Story of Evolution in Our Time. Yale researchers Rosemary and Peter Grant have spent 20 years on Daphne Major in the Galapagos, studying natural selection. They recognize each individual bird on the island, when there are four hundred at the time of the author's visit, or when there are over a thousand. They have observed about twenty generations of finches -- continuously."
Dennis also recommends the author Harlan Coben. "Harlan Coben is a funny detective-thriller writer. Virtually anything he writes is pretty great stuff." See Jim's December 28th post for some titles by him.
Long time favorites...
- The Iliad - Homer
- The Odyssey - Homer
- Tale of Genji - Murasaki Shikibu
- Shogun - James Clavell
"My all time favorite author is Homer. I have a half-dozen translations of the Odyssey and Iliad and one in Greek which I gave away (I was made to study the poems in Homeric Greek for two years while in high school). I am also a very big fan of Murasaki Shikibu's Tale of Genji--much more difficult than the Greek poems but an astounding, evocative tale, often credited as being the world's first novel."
Currently reading...
"Right now I'm reading The Secret Land of Z but haven't read it enough to recommend it."