Unpop Culture

At the start of another year, I thought it would be fun to list my ten favorite books from 2012. “Favorite” might be a bit of a stretch, simply because I only read fifteen books. However, I don’t need to bore my audience with a review of Buying and Selling a Home by the editors of Kiplinger’s Personal Finance Magazine (although I would actually recommend that book to first-time home buyers). Because Shannon and I enjoy reading to each other, some of the books on this list were read to me. Hence, my occasional reference to “our” thoughts and responses in some places. Due to its length, my list of top ten reads from last year is divided into two posts. The first five books are below. The second five will be featured in next Tuesday’s post, accompanied by my highly coveted* Book of the Year Award. Note that this list is not numbered—and is most certainly not listed in order of importance. The Hunger Games , Suzanne Collins Suzanne Collins’ writing draws you in and k...

You may have noticed some changes taking place around here lately. Several weeks ago, I updated the layout and design of the blog. It is slightly more modern, but without completely abandoning the ancient, historical feel I intended at the beginning. Now the big revisions have taken place: switching the URL from 4scores.blogspot.com to capstewart.com, and replacing the original blog title, Four Scores and Seven Films Ago , with a new title, Happier Far . When I first created this blog in January of 2006, I decided on a title that incorporated my love of American history and my affinity for instrumental motion picture scores. The lengthy subtitle of the blog gave me practically unlimited freedom to write about whatever I wanted: Art. Life. Joy. All find their greatest expression in and through one Source: the Creator of the universe, the Savior of the spiritually dead, the Fountain of lasting pleasure. Apart from Christ, art is a mere distraction, life a mere triviality, ...