Books and Culture: The Top Ten Books of the Year

But in the context of the film, it worked — was I the only one moved when the timid pregnant prostitute began to sing the chorus in a way that said ‘Nothing beautiful could ever come out of me’ and ended with ‘something beautiful just came out of me’?

Couldn’t care less who sang it — it worked in the film.

Jeffrey,

Hopefully when you get a chance to see the movie “God Help Me” you will like the totally unexpected Hip-Hop song “Hands High” that is in it. In fact, if you have just a couple of minutes, you can watch the scene at our website at

http://www.godhelpmemovie.com/media.html

Just imagine what it would be like to have this song as the first dance at a wedding because the band didn’t show up!

But — but — they thanked Jesus!

I recently read Walter McDougall’s “‘Freedom Just Around the Corner’: A New American History, 1585-1828” (2004) and loved it. McDougall (the author of one of my all-time favorite non-fiction books, “Let the Sea Make a Noise”) does a wonderful job walking readers through the first couple hundred years of the American story. Why couldn’t I have been assigned a book like THIS in my high school U.S. history class? He ends with a cliffhanger, as the boisterous and uncouth supporters of Andrew Jackson pour into “civilized” Washington after the election to the White House of America’s first “backwoods” president — what will become of the American experiment now? I can’t wait for the next installment. Read this if you want to rediscover the history of your country told as a ripping good yarn.

I think I would have to say Crime and Punishment.