Film and A Couple Books

I watched various movies from works of Nick Hornby, including his adaptation of another work (Wild).  I saw Juliet, Naked a few years ago and enjoyed it again a second time.  

Even if the Roger Ebert website only gave it two stars.  Rose Byrne is charming, and Ethan Hawke is good as a long-ago rocker who her boyfriend is obsessed with and (sure) she in fact winds up hooking up with.  I can see how it can be labeled "rambling," but it works for me.  That's the sign of a good three-star movie, I guess. 

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I saw the book The Cabinet about the creation of the in the past, but just wound up reading it.  The book is somewhat comparable -- it's an easy read. The author provides an extended prelude, arguing Washington prepared for it by his wartime service.  

The book then is basically early U.S. history stuff that is familiar such as the Whiskey Rebellion. But, it provides some good stuff on the various principles he followed and so on.  

And, as usual in such familiar books, there are a few more tidbits, like a bit on the second Attorney General and details on how Edmund Randolph had a fall from grace.  

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I also found a book on the free rack at the library based on a podcast about serial killers.  This is like the second book on such a subject, the other based on a podcast of two British women.  This one is apparently a bit light, since mixed in are jokes.  

The book: The Last Book On The Left: Stories of Murder and Mayhem from History's Most Notorious Serial Killers.  I actually read it while waiting to be called for jury duty, which is fitting, perhaps.  The book seems to be a takeoff of a movie title that wasn't really about serial killers.  

Fairly interesting; one chapter was about a Soviet murderer that was the basis for an HBO movie (that apparently changes things around a bit since the book doesn't highlight a single detective as in the film).  I finished it and was picked for a case the next day.