“This is my letter to the world that never wrote to me…” That is how we are introduced to A Quiet Passion, a new film that chronicles the turbulent, creative and personal life of Emily Dickinson, one of America’s finest poets and most successful recluses. A Quiet Passion features Cynthia Nixon (yeah, Miranda from Sex and the City) in the leading role, anchoring a mood-heavy film that places an emphasis on Dickinson’s ambivalence towards society from her young-adult years onward. You, like us, probably thought that a hermitic poet wouldn’t be a visually astonishing subject, but writer/director Terence Davies (of Distant Voices, Still Lives …
Parallel universes are common tropes in old-tyme sci-fi, and a common fear for high guys and gals. What if there was another world where a person similar to me is perceivably having the same life, but they have no idea that their experiences are dramatically different. Well, fears confirmed, everyone: David Mitchell, speculative fiction writer to the stars, might’ve accidentally created one inside his own book. Academic research from Birkbeck, University of London found that U.S. and U.K. editions of Mitchell’s brick-thick book Cloud Atlas were “astonishingly different”, as the paper put it. Well…close enough. Courtesy of The IT Crowd / Channel 4. …
Despite its misleading title, picture books’ sole objective is not to briefly distract kids in waiting rooms and during long car rides. Rather, they’re more like guiding lights: they can explain complicated experiences in easy terms, put relatable faces to history lessons, and remind us that it is the values and mutual respect that trump any perceived physical differences. It’s a challenge, but we’ve picked out five picture books with non-white protagonists that are as stirring for their art as they are for helping young children relate to the broader world. The Sandwich Swap by Queen Rania AlAbdullah and Kelly DiPucchio, illustrated by …
Is National Book Lover’s Day here again already? It seems like it comes sooner every year – wait, it’s our nation it’s referring to, right? Regardless of the actual answer, there’s really no excuse not to celebrate the world over. This week, we reached out to fans about their book nerdiness in our Readers of the World column, but we’re not stopping there. Here are a couple highlights from the inter-verse’s voices that are talking about the holiday: Love that book! Happy Book Lovers Day #NationalBookLoversDay pic.twitter.com/r5Yel2ZyfZ — Paul McCartney (@PaulMcCartney) August 9, 2016 Grover is a proud book lover …
Some folks like to get away, take a holiday from the neighborhood. Everyone deserves a vacation so delightful, it produces art that practically makes itself. That’s what happened when a garden-variety Canadian lawn decoration took to the open road for eight straight months to write a travelogue dedicated to his beloved owner. When her garden gnome mysteriously disappeared, Bev York of Victoria Highlands, British Columbia decided not to investigate the curious incident and assume that some young hooligans had stolen it. Weeks went by, and York did her best to carry on with the gnome-shaped absence in her heart (and garden). Then, …
