I think I'm going to have to shelve some of my favorite books under "Cry at the Ending." Haven't read the Pullman yet, but I've got The Plague Dogs and The Incredible Journey.

I did see a "Ruby" dramatization starring Billie Piper and thought it was really good stuff.

Last book that made me cry was Richard Price's "Freedomland"...it ought to, it was essentially an urban recasting of the Susan Smith case.

Wasn't that made into a movie? I fell asleep.

The movie got the *story* right, but didn't capture all the internal stuff or all the history of Dempsy or...which is weird, as Price is a screenwriter, and a good one. I don't know why the adaptation was so disappointing, but then I'm a Price fan also and think his writing is, to use a technical literary term, the shit.

I really liked Clockers, though. We watched that in my film class.

Now that I read the plot description, I see it was quite Wire-esque.

Excellent film. Very different than the book, but both are most excellent.

[link]

Publishers Weekly 10 best books of the year, the list is beig slammed - no women , no small press books.

The only book on that list I've even heard of is Await Your Reply, which a friend recommended to me and sounds like something I'd like.

DH read Shop Class as Soulcraft.

It was a confusing book for him. Mainly because Matt does believe that working with your hands does feed your soul. However, the author made a bunch of assumptions that Matt really couldn't buy into. Unfortunately , I only vaguely remember that there was a more conservative spin on things.

eta: I knew of Cheever and The Lost city of Z. I knew none of the fiction. So odd that I knew so little

Hmmmm, nothing I recognize on the list. [looks at books scattered on every horizontal surface] I sure thought I read a goodly number of good books.