BOOK TIP

I Am Not Who You Think I Am

Eric Rickstad

Reading this thriller is like strapping yourself to one of those missiles Kim Jong-un is always setting off. The title refers to the note 8-year-old Wayland Maynard finds when he comes home from school early — just in time to see his father commit suicide with a shotgun. Not surprisingly, Maynard is traumatized beyond measure and, after his mother removes all traces of dad and refuses to discuss him, Maynard marinates in his own stew of loss, hurt and anger. Eight years later, he discovers something that makes him believe it wasn’t his father he saw take his own life. The subsequent investigation he undertakes accelerates to a relentless pace of one horrifying plot reveal after another. As brilliant as it is heartbreaking.

— Rick Koster

MOVIE TIP

She Said

There was a time when no one expected Hollywood producer — and serial sexual harasser/attacker — Harvey Weinstein would be brought down. But he was, thanks to the bravery of his victims and the tenacity of reporters, particularly two journalists at the New York Times. Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey broke the story of Weinstein’s history of misconduct and cover-ups, and it led to a sea change in how sexual harassment is treated. “She Said” follows the reporters, played by Carey Mulligan and Zoe Kazan, through their investigation and their efforts to get victims to go on the record. “She Said” isn’t quite as well made a movie as “Spotlight,” but the truth about what happened helps make this an incredibly compelling film. “She Said” focuses great attention and care on the victims. Every performer is good, including Ashley Judd in a cameo as herself, but Samantha Morton deserves special notice. She plays a woman whose friend and co-worker was abused by Weinstein; her scene is a masterclass in understated but fiercely felt acting.

— Kristina Dorsey

MOVIE TIP

The Automat

I was stuck in a living room chair with one of our dogs asleep on top of me. God forbid I’d wake the tender animal, and so I was forced to endure a documentary my wife was watching called “The Automat,” about a chain of Philly and New York City restaurants exceedingly popular in the early-to-late-mid-20th century called Horn and Hardart. The concept was that you selected your food from a massive array of dishes behind small glass windows. Put nickels into a coin slot, the window opens, you remove your food — and sit down in the vast communal dining room and dig in. No less than Mel Brooks, Ruth Bader Ginsberg and Colin Powell are featured interviewees who wax nostalgically about the greatness of H&H, and the film also explores the evolution of fast food, the complex mechanics behind the functionality of the automat, and much more. The dog woke up and moved long before the doc was over but I remained, fascinated. I wish we had an automat.

— Rick Koster