My reviews of three Oscar-nominated films that I can recommend:
* Small Things Like These
* The Apprentice
* Anora
Plus two films that were so bad I couldn’t get through them.
I’ll take a quick look at a film I never heard of that has won a ton of accolades and awards. (I’ll review that one next month.) And I’ll finish up with a list of Oscar-nominated shorts that you might want to watch prior to the awards ceremony on March 2.
* Clippings from my January Journal
* News that you probably missed because the mainstream media didn’t cover it
* I tackle the RFK Jr. nomination and the roundup and deportation of illegal immigrants
* Reading recommendations on getting into AI, getting out of NATO, the end of DEI, and corn syrup
* Bourbon!
* Questions, thoughts, and recommendations from your fellow readers
* And a fun little PS
From my newly invented Quick & Easy Video University
Today: Take Part 1 of the course (“The Basics”) by watching just 10 videos in about three hours.
With the “Works in Progress” issues, my goal is to include three chapters a month. But one of the chapters that I had planned for this month – another one from The 7 Natural Laws of Wealth Building – needed a lot of rethinking and I couldn’t get it done in time. So in this issue, you’ll find these two:
* Chapter 3 of The Challenge of Charity – discovering how a wealth gap is also a learning and responsibility gap. In this chapter, I talk about all the “noble” but naïve ideas I had about how to interact with the very poor (and sometimes sick) Nicaraguans who came to me for help when I first began building out Rancho Santana.
and…
* Another excerpt from The Art of Collecting Art – the “accidental” collection that really got me started. You don’t have to begin with a million dollars in the bank to build a million-dollar art portfolio. In this chapter, I explain how I did it from scratch.
Note: These are not final drafts. So if you see anything that I got wrong, or if you want to suggest something I didn’t think of, please leave a message for me here.
In this, the first monthly “Review” issue of 2025, I’m introducing a new feature – a rating system. It’s something I’ve been cooking up in recent years to explain and justify my judgements on the quality of books and films and other works of art that tell stories. These are obviously abstract notions about subjective experience, but they work for me – and I hope they work for you.
My Rating System for Most Books/Films
* Horizontality: How much and how well did the book/film provide a sense of a particular place, time, community, and/or culture?
* Verticality: How deeply did the book/film go in mining the depths of the human experience?
* Stickiness: How tightly did the book/film keep me glued to the story?
* Literary/Visual Richness: How well did the written descriptions/cinematography enhance the story?
For some non-fiction works that need a slightly different approach – e.g., Stoic Paradoxes and The Last Lecture (reviewed below) – I’ll be using this…
My Rating System for Some Non-Fiction Works
* Vertical Knowledge: How much did the work elucidate what is essential to the human experience?
* Horizontal Knowledge: How much did the work teach about the details of the subject matter investigated (history, science, psychology, etc.)?
* Depth of Thinking: Were the insights and revelations deep? Did the work leave me feeling that I’d learned something important?
* Literary Quality: Was the writing itself engaging and entertaining?
One More Thing
There will be occasions – rare occasions – when I will add a half-point or a point to my rating. When, for example, the book or film changes the way I think or feel about something in some important way (I’m thinking of Schindler’s List or Walter Isaacson’s biography of Elon Musk, which I’m reading now) or when, even though it doesn’t score very well on the analytics, I enjoyed it so much that I still want to recommend it strongly (e.g., my rating today of What We Do in the Shadows).
In this issue, I’ll be applying my new system to three books and four films/TV series that I’ve enjoyed.
The books:
* Stoic Paradoxes by Cicero
* The Blue Hotel by Stephen Crane
* The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch
The films/TV series:
* Maria
* Emilia Pérez
* Conclave
* What We Do in the Shadows
Plus… I’ll be sharing my list of 46 more books that I’m thinking of reading in 2025.
* Crazy busy, overtipping & other clippings from my Journal
* News you should have seen but didn’t & five stories I (almost) missed
* The Good, Bad, and Ugly – my January report on the state of the US economy
* Five edifying and unsettling essays I wanted to share with you
* Interesting, Serious, and Fun – 13 video clips I think you’ll appreciate
* A quiz on the “weird science” of 2024
And finally…
* Ten quotes to lift you up and get you going in 2025
Welcome to the December issue of “Just One Thing,” my monthly attempt to tackle a biggish story or issue in some depth.
I was planning to write about COVID this week, both the disease and the vaccines, and to go through several of the “conspiracy” claims from two years ago that have since been proven true. But I’m going to hold that essay for another time.
Instead, I’m going to give you my take on the November election, addressing the questions and claims that have ranked highest in social media, such as:
* Was it a landslide or was it much closer than the Republicans claim?
* Was I right in predicting in the Aug. 16 issue that the decision would be made by undecided voters?
* Was I also right when I predicted in that issue that abortion would not be a deciding factor?
* Was it really all about immigration and the economy – or were there “softer” factors that turned out to be more important?
* And what can we expect from Trump – and the media – after he takes office in January?
It’s all about money this week. In this, the “Works in Progress” issue of the month, you’ll find:
* More from The 7 Natural Laws of Wealth Building
* An excerpt from The Art of Collecting Art
* The “Introduction” to Wealth Culture, a new book I’ve just started to work on
Plus…
* a quick video course I put together on Keynesian Economics
Note: These are not final drafts. So if you see anything that I got wrong, or if you want to suggest something I didn’t think of, please leave a message for me here.
Last month, I read four books and watched four films/TV series that I wanted to bring to your attention. I can wholeheartedly recommend all but one of them. The exception is a book from a heralded author, so I thought you might be interested in hearing what I have to say about it.
The books:
*A Ladder to the Sky
* The Message
* Excellent Advice for Living
* Fanny Hill
The films/TV series:
* Documentary Now!
* Hamilton: Building America
* LaRoy, Texas
* Preacher
After reading the November issue – the first monthly issue in the “long format” that I had planned to use going forward – I received this from CF:
Mark – I am impressed and surprised by this monthly edition. My only critique would be that many people like me may not find the time to digest it all in one sitting. So may I humbly propose that you split the difference and make it a bimonthly.
Just a thought from a fan. (If not, I will find the time to read it as it comes.)
I’d already come to the conclusion that what I was sending out was too much to read in one sitting. So, my current plan is to continue with the monthly, but to send it in four parts. More specifically:
* I’ll be starting the month with most of what you’ve come to expect in a full issue.
Today’s issue is an example of what it’s going to look like. It will include clippings from my Journal (mostly personal accounts and perspectives), News & Views (political, social, and cultural news stories about which I have an opinion that I think stands apart from what the rest of the media – right or left – is saying), a section on The Economy & Investing(self-explanatory), Recommended Reading/Watching (brief introductions to essays, articles, videos, etc. that I think you will find worthwhile), a Quiz (meant to deliver answers to important – and sometimes surprising – topical questions), a Photo of the Month (something I found particularly interesting), and Readers Write (a selection of letters from readers).
* The second weekly issue of the month – the Review issue – will consist of critiques of books, movies, and streaming series that I’ve enjoyed over the previous month.
* Works in Progress – the third weekly issue – will feature two or three chapters of books I’m currently writing and lessons from courses I’m putting together.
* And Just One Thing – the fourth weekly issue – will be a single essay on a topic that I feel the need to write about.
How does that sound?
This month, I’m going to test out this new idea. Read on, and this is some of what you’ll find in this first weekly issue for December:
* Why I fear a global war could be weeks away
* My take on the Jake Paul/Mike Tyson “event”
* The best – and worst – Christmas movies of all time
* A selection of news items you probably didn’t hear about from the corporate and government media
* David Stockman on how the Trump administration can cut $2 trillion from the federal budget
* A warning about overly regulating AI
* Four quick reads that I think will interest you