The Truth Is Stranger Thanksgiving Recommendations

The Moth via NYTimes

So grateful to my readers, the cool folks I interact with on Twitter, the creative nonfiction community. I hope you are having a lovely Thanksgiving. Here are some recommendations:

Film

Rivers and Tides. If ever there was a more beautiful meditative film about an artist than watching Andy Goldsworthy work with nature, I haven't a clue what it is. If you do, let me know. Andy does things with leaves and rocks and icicles that will leave you breathless (and cold). Gorgeous.

Print

It is NOT nonfiction, but it IS about a creative nonfiction class (fiction about nonfiction): Generosity by Richard Powers. I'm in the middle and eating it up.

Podcast

The Moth NYC: This American Life pulls some of its programs from The Moth which features unknown storytellers like neurosurgeons and police officers and as well as famous folks like Moby and Ethan Hawke. You can get this podcast in all the usual ways. Prepare to be stunned by your fellow humans...again.

Patti Smith: Dream of Life

I'll be honest. I've always known who Patti Smith was, was vaguely aware of her relationship with, and to, Robert Mapplethorpe and of her music. But she was never hugely on my radar. Why, at the library today, I was compelled to pick up a documentary about her is a mystery, a serendipitous mystery. Dream of Life is brilliant, one of the best documentaries (I even hate calling it that as it has qualities of a fictional art house film) I've seen. Part black and white, part color, old footage and new, overlapped with Patti's music and poetry, Robert's art, family photos, it plays like a photo collage but more. Honestly, it is so good, I'm not actually done with watching it as I write this...

The Truth is Stranger Recommends

Here are our Sunday recommendations for you nonfiction creatives and fans.

Online

InvisiblePeople.tv for putting a human face on the problem of homelessness. The internet/blogging provides such a freakin' powerful outlet for everyone's voice. Terribly moved this morning. Also check out: Live From the Left Coast (wish I'd thought of that name!) podcast.

Film

I need a recommendation for a recent documentary you've seen! For myself, I love How to Draw a Bunny. But then I'm an art whore and you may not be. What documentary moved you recently?

Print

Made to Stick, while formally a business book, is similar in tone and information as The Tipping Point. VERY readable, chock full of information for anyone who wants to get any type of idea to take off. Highly recommended.

Television

A documentary of Michael Pollan's bestseller, The Botany of Desire, was on PBS on 10/28. If you missed it, you can watch it here.