WildaBookBeast

is bullish on the written word.

[willywaldo]

My latest review for First Clue is a Book of the Week. "Writing with verve and flair, DeLozier, in her sophomore outing (after Eleanore of Avignon), offers a fresh take on the Jack the Ripper mythos and adds a paranormal twist."

[willywaldo]

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/02/books/review/terry-tempest-williams-still-has-her-copy-of-valley-of-the-dolls.html?searchResultPosition=1

What book might people be surprised to find on your shelves?

Let me go look: maybe “Valley of the Dolls,” by Jacqueline Susann, published in 1966. It belonged to my mother and I saw it on her bookshelf every day of my childhood. That white cover, with its scattered pills, has become like familiar wallpaper, a comfort; the memory of my mother reading it, her legs stretched out on an ottoman, a Coke on her side table, complete with a lemon slice. When I asked why she loved these thick novels about women, she said, “I read to escape the mundane details of my life.”

[willywaldo]

The Leningrad Public Library remained open throughout the siege and became a place for people to congregate. "People came to the library to read, even when weak from cold and exhaustion," one of the librarians explained. "Some died in their places, with a book propped in front of them. We would carry the bodies outside, hoping that the truck would take them away, but increasingly, they were simply left in the snow." --M.T. Anderson, Symphony for the City of the Dead.

Among the many astonishing things I learned from Anderson's magnificent National Book Award-winning history of how Dmitri Shostakovich came to write his Seventh Symphony during the three-year Nazi siege of Leningrad was the vital role librarians played in maintaining the spirits of the city's starving residents. Not only did they provide a place for Leningraders to congregate, but they also continued to acquire books for their collections, buying books from the starving, desperate to sell anything for food, and scouring bombed-out ruins for volumes.

Librarians rock!

[willywaldo]

Hold on, Mother dear, to all that is joyful. For there is so much joy that sometimes we don't see it. Joy must be everywhere.

--Dmitri Shostakovich (quoted in M.T. Anderson's Symphony for the City of the Dead)

[willywaldo]

My latest review for First Clue is a compelling, ripped-from-the-headlines thriller about Russia's abduction of Ukrainian children.

[willywaldo]

In poetry, every syllable counts. That's just as important in prose, especially if you aspire to humor--a punchline delivered in five syllables is more than twice as effective as one that takes ten. Rhythm and brevity are among poetry's lessons.

Mick Herron,By the Book interview

[willywaldo]

The Librarians

An anonymous librarian in The Librarians (Amy Bench/8 Above) The trouble began in 2021 when Matt Krause, a member of the Texas House of R

It’s #BannedBooks Week, and librarians are on the front lines of the culture wars, as this well-meaning documentary reveals. Check out my review for film-forward.com.

[willywaldo]

Orwell: 2 + 2 = 5

George Orwell, as seen in Orwell 2 + 2 = 5 (Neon) Given Raoul Peck’s background as a child refugee from Haiti’s brutal Duvalier dictators

Happy #filmfriday! My latest review is of Raoul Peck's very timely documentary about George Orwell. "With the cooperation of the Orwell Estate, Peck skillfully blends a portrait of the British writer, born Eric Arthur Blair in India in 1903, with a chilling look at the autocratic movements emerging around the world."

[willywaldo]

Architecton

The Baalbek temples in Architecton (A24) Toward the end of Victor Kossakovsky’s latest film, an intertitle claims that, after water, conc

Happy #filmfriday! My latest review for film-forward.com Director Victor Kossakovsky has created an austere spectacle of sight and sound that must be viewed on the biggest screen with the finest sound system.

[willywaldo]

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/26/books/man-died-book-list-thousands.html?unlocked_article_code=1.Zk8.p-dJ.jvmH6klvUFbK&smid=url-share

He Read (at Least) 3,599 Books in His Lifetime. Now Anyone Can See His List.

After Dan Pelzer died this month at 92, his children uploaded the handwritten reading list to what-dan-read.com, hoping to inspire readers everywhere.

The only constant was that most of the books came from the public library — more specifically, the Whitehall Branch of the Columbus Metropolitan Library.

[willywaldo]

Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight

Lexi Venter in Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight (Coco Van Oppens/Sony Pictures Classics) Given Embeth Davidtz’s childhood in 1970s apar

Happy #filmfriday! My latest review for Film-Forward.com. Embeth Davidtz's adaptation of Alexandra Fuller's 2001 memoir about growing up in White-ruled Rhodesia marks an impressive directorial debut and features a powerhouse performance by eight-year-old Lexi Venter.

[willywaldo]

Materialists

Dakota Johnson and Pedro Pascal in Materialists (Atsushi Nishijima/A24) As in her acclaimed debut feature, 2023’s Past Lives, writer/dire

Happy #FilmFriday! My latest reiew for Film-Foward.com. Celine Song's sophomore effort takes a witty, gimlet-eyed view on modern romance and dating.

[willywaldo]

Trump Administration Fires Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden

Dr. Carla D. Hayden was the first African American and the first woman to serve as the head of the Library of Congress. Her firing drew a fu

I hate this fucking administration even more. Carla Hayden has been a transformative library leader since she became the first female and Black Librarian of Congress in 2016. I assume Little Marco Rubio, who is already acting Archivist will assume her role.

Representative Rosa DeLauro, the top Democrat on the Appropriations Committee, said Dr. Hayden was widely admired by members of Congress. “Her dismissal is not just an affront to her historic service but a direct attack on the independence of one of our most revered institutions,” Ms. DeLauro said in a statement.

[willywaldo]

It is incomprehensible to me, the fear that can affect men in political offices. It is shocking the way they submit to forces they know are wrong and fail to stand up for what they believe. Can their jobs be so important to them, their prestige, their power, their privileges so important that they will cooperate in the degradation of our society just to hang onto those jobs?--Shirley Chisolm, Unbought and Unbossed

Fifty years after Chisolm's memoir was published, nothing has changed.

[willywaldo]

From the jazz age to the Trump age: The Great Gatsby at 100

Newly minted millionaires, corruption, nostalgia ... Fitzgerald’s novel has never felt more relevant. Jane Crowther explores its resonance i

Published April 10, 1925, F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel still resonates a century later. One of my favorite books.

[willywaldo]

Men always underestimate women. They underestimated me, and they underestimate women like me.--Shirley Chisolm, Unbought and Unbossed

[willywaldo]

https://film-forward.com/book-adaptation/the-penguin-lessons

Happy #filmfriday . Here is my latest review of The Penguin Lessons for Film-Forward. "Director Peter Cattaneo (The Full Monty) and screenwriter Jeff Pope (Philomena) have loosely adapted and transformed Michell’s heartwarming i[memoir] into a middling and predictable tale of personal redemption and political awakening during a brutal period in Argentine history.