A sinking ship of a drama that managed to be neither monstrous nor deep"Thar she blows!" said one of the crew as a whale came to the surface. The cetacean wasn't the only thing blowing heavily in The Whale (BBC1), a 90-minute dramatisation of the sinking of the Essex, a Nantucket whaler, by a sperm whale in the Pacific. This was the shipwreck that inspired Herman Melville to write Moby Dick; the BBC film was so laboured it only served to unintentionally remind me of Melville's genius.The Whale felt like a big-screen movie epic trapped inside a relatively small-budget TV programme; the vastness of the ocean, skies and the whales got hopelessly lost. Worse still, it was structurally flawed, unable to make up its mind whether it was a rite-of-passage story for the young Tom Nickerson on his first voyage, a clash of wills between the two leads – the smouldering First Mate Chase and the even more smouldering Captain Pollard – talking in pirate-speak or Orca Strikes Back. Inevitably, it fell between every stool.The biggest disappointment was the whale itself. The whale scenes had been filmed by the BBC's natural history unit and they looked like it. They were beautiful, precise and graceful and wouldn't have been out of place in a David Attenborough film. What there wasn't was any sense of the menace or personality that had captured Melville's imagination and was supposed to be present here.When the whale attacked the boat, it came from out of the blue rather than from the... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2013-12-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
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A sinking ship of a drama that managed to be neither monstrous nor deep"Thar she blows!" said one of the crew as a whale came to the surface. The cetacean wasn't the only thing blowing heavily in The Whale (BBC1), a 90-minute dramatisation of the sinking of the Essex, a Nantucket whaler, by a... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2013-12-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
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In a new book, the journalist and science fiction writer Annalee Newitz shows how we have used narrative to manipulate and coerce. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2024-06-05 09:05:03 UTC ]
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The anthology “Burn Man” selects from decades of Mark Anthony Jarman’s work, bringing the writer’s lush and searing stories to new readers. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2024-01-14 10:00:16 UTC ]
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A new collection of her novels and stories is a showcase for a science fiction pioneer. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2023-10-08 09:00:34 UTC ]
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Decades after “Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret,” an anthology and a novel let readers see periods through the eyes of diverse protagonists. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2023-06-02 09:00:39 UTC ]
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Daredevil can't see you, but he knows you're coming. His new show is so good, it might catch comic book fans by surprise. Continue reading at Baltimore Sun
[ Baltimore Sun | 2015-04-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
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For book lovers and politics fiends, 2018 has gotten off to a bang with the early publication of “Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House” by Michael Wolff. Welcome to the new year! I’m Carolyn Kellogg with this week’s books newsletter. THE BIG STORY Excerpts from “Fire and Fury” that... Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2018-01-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The ‘story’ being told by FEP book industry data, says Enrico Turrin, shows a stable, post-pandemic book market across Europe. By Brianna Robles | @breesharraine uring the opening day (October 16) of the Frankfurt Book Fair, the Federation of European Publishers (FEP) presented key data about... Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2024-10-17 07:37:57 UTC ]
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The Englewood Review of Books (ERB), the online review publication started in 2008, has announced that it will restart its book publishing program, thanks in part to a grant from the Lily Endowment. “We wanted to think differently about how we are prepared to contribute to the larger work,” said... Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2024-09-03 04:00:00 UTC ]
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In August, the Book Review Book Club will read and discuss “My Brilliant Friend,” the first book in Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan quartet. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2024-07-31 09:04:25 UTC ]
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Patricia Highsmith’s classic thriller mixes glamour, betrayal, self-invention and murder. What’s not to love? Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2024-07-26 17:08:57 UTC ]
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In July, the Book Review Book Club will read and discuss “The Talented Mr. Ripley,” Patricia Highsmith’s classic 1955 thriller about wealth, status, obsession and murder. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2024-07-02 09:03:17 UTC ]
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Picture book writers whose works look different from one another because they’re illustrated by different artists are less apt to be on your radar. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2024-05-31 09:04:00 UTC ]
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The editor and essayist Joseph Epstein looks back on his life and career in two new books. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2024-04-22 09:03:39 UTC ]
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In “The Book of Love,” the Pulitzer finalist and master of short stories pushes our understanding of what a fantasy novel can be. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2024-02-12 10:00:46 UTC ]
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Book review podcasts are an engaging way to discover new books. Check out these podcasts across different genres, including All The Books! Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2022-11-30 11:32:00 UTC ]
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BookLooks, RatedBooks, and more biased online rating systems getting books banned. That, plus this week's book censorship news. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2022-11-04 10:40:00 UTC ]
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David Ulin read four of the recall candidate's books, from the jeremiad "Showdown" to the memoir "A Lot Like Me," and found not a writer but a brand. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2021-09-08 13:00:05 UTC ]
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In August 2019, The Bookseller reported that children's books accounted for just 4.9% of review space, despite making up a third of the market. Latest figures from Books in the Media shows that this figure has dropped to 4.3%, when looking at reviews from the past 12 months. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-08-24 01:05:09 UTC ]
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The 'New York Times Book Review' will now add excerpts from the first chapter of books being reviewed to a select number of reviews it publishes digitally. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2019-10-24 04:00:00 UTC ]
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