On this day in music history - Butterfly, by Natalie Merchant (2017):

Butterfly

Album by Natalie Merchant,
released July 14, 2017.

Track list:

Butterfly; She Devil; Baby Mine; Frozen Charlotte; Ophelia; The Worst Thing; The Man in the Wilderness; My Skin; Vain & Careless; Andalucia.

On this day in movie history – Dunkirk (2017 movie & books):

Dunkirk

directed and written by Christopher Nolan,

released in the United Kingdom on July 13, 2017.

Music by Hans Zimmer.

Cast: Fionn Whitehead, Damien Bonnard, Aneurin Barnard, Lee Armstrong, James Bloor, Barry Keoghan, Mark Rylance, Tom Glynn-Carney, Tom Hardy, Jack Lowden, Luke Thompson, Michel Biel, Constantin Balsan, Billy Howle, Mikey Collins, Callum Blake, Dean Ridge, Bobby Lockwood, Will Attenborough, Kenneth Branagh, Tom Nolan, James D’Arcy, Matthew Marsh, Cillian Murphy, Adam Long, Harry Styles, Miranda Nolan, Bradley Hall, Jack Cutmore-Scott, Brett Lorenzini, Michael Fox, Brian Vernel, Elliott Tittensor, Kevin Guthrie, Harry Richardson, Jochum ten Haaf, Johnny Gibbon, Richard Sanderson, Kim Hartman, Calam Lynch, Charley Palmer Rothwell, Tom Gill, John Nolan, Bill Milner, Jack Riddiford, Harry Collett, Eric Richard, Sam Aronow, Simon Ates, Sander Blom, Michael Caine, Sam Dacombe, Ross Donnelly, Dennis Eleveld, Paul Riley Fox, Jack Gover, Austin Head, Benjamin Hodder, Drew Neal Horton, Nick Howden-Steenstra, Sander Huisman, Christian Janner, Jedediah Jenk, Davey Jones, Robin Lee, Han Leopold, Samuel Louwagie, Valiant Michael, Thomas Millet, Conor O’Dowda, Johnny Otto, Robby Prinsen, Christian Roberts, Jan-Michael Rosner, Connor Ryan, Reinier Tetteroo, Pierre Valle, Michiel van Ieperen, Bram Vlot, Nick Vorsselman, Merlijn Willemsen, Nirman Wolf.

Recommended reading:

Dunkirk:

The History Behind the Major Motion Picture

By Joshua Levine.

Published by William Morrow Paperbacks.

Published 2017.

ISBN-10: 0062792148

ISBN-13: 978-0062792143

Description:

The epic true story of Dunkirk – now a major motion picture, written and directed by Christopher Nolan, and starring Kenneth Branagh, Tom Hardy, and Mark Rylance.

The Battle of Dunkirk, in May/June 1940, is remembered as a stunning defeat, yet a major victory as well. The Nazis had beaten back the Allies and pushed them across France to the northern port of Dunkirk. In the ultimate race against time, more than 300,000 Allied soldiers were daringly evacuated across the Channel. This moment of German aggression was used by Winston Churchill as a call to Franklin Roosevelt to enter the war. Now, historian Joshua Levine explores the real lives of those soldiers, bombed and strafed on the beaches for days on end, without food or ammunition; the civilians whose boats were overloaded; the airmen who risked their lives to buy their companions on the ground precious time; and those who did not escape.

The Miracle of Dunkirk:

The True Story of Operation Dynamo

By Walter Lord.

Published by Open Road Integrated Media, Inc.

Published 2017.

ISBN-10: 1504047540

ISBN-13: 978-1504047548

Description:

In May 1940, the remnants of the French and British armies, broken by Hitler’s blitzkrieg, retreated to Dunkirk. Hemmed in by overwhelming Nazi strength, the 338,000 men gathered on the beach were all that stood between Hitler and Western Europe. Crush them, and the path to Paris and London was clear.

Unable to retreat any farther, the Allied soldiers set up defense positions and prayed for deliverance. Prime Minister Winston Churchill ordered an evacuation on May 26, expecting to save no more than a handful of his men. But Britain would not let its soldiers down. Hundreds of fishing boats, pleasure yachts, and commercial vessels streamed into the Channel to back up the Royal Navy, and in a week nearly the entire army was ferried safely back to England.

Based on interviews with hundreds of survivors and told by “a master narrator,” The Miracle of Dunkirk is a striking history of a week when the outcome of World War II hung in the balance (Arthur Schlesinger Jr.).

On this day in music history: Moon Goes Missing, by Carolyn Wonderland (2017):

Moon Goes Missing

Album by Carolyn Wonderland,

released June 9, 2017.

Track list:

Moon Goes Missing; Open Eyes; Hellfire Bitters; Can't Nobody Hide From God; Swamp; Leopard Skin Pillbox Hat; She Wants to Know; To Be Free; Every Time You Go; Come Together; Bad to the Bone.

On this day in movie history - Good Time (2017):

Good Time

directed by Josh Safdie and Benny Safdie,

written by Ronald Bronstein and Josh Safdie,

was released at the Cannes Film Festival in France on May 25, 2017.
Music by Oneohtrix Point Never.

Cast:

Robert Pattinson, Benny Safdie, Buddy Duress, Taliah Webster, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Barkhad Abdi, Necro, Peter Verby, Saida Mansoor, Gladys Mathon, Rose Gregorio, Eric Paykert, Astrid Corrales, Rachel Black, Hirakish Ranasaki, Maynard Nicholl, Ben Edelman, Laurence Blum, Jason Harvey, Robert Clohessy, Michael Kaufman, Goran Spadina, Michael McClard, Eloisa Santos, Bryan Seslow, Craig muMs Grant, George Lee, Kate Halpern, Christopher Kirk, Leticia Ortega, Souleymane Sy Savane, Mahadeo Shivraj, Dorothi Fox, Ratnesh Dubey, Tessa O’Conner, Jim Handley, Cliff Moylan, Peter Linari, Chris Breslin, Evonne Walton, Lewis Dodley, Tara Lynn Wagner, Jim Dzurenda, Roy James Wilson, Brendan M. Burke, Jordan Valdez, Laura Sledge, Jerome Frazier, Javaughn Swindell, Dion McBean, Sean Miller, Benny DeVincenzi, Joey McDevitt, Daniel Chung, Afro, Azul Rodriguez, Jarvis, Mavrin Kirill, KJ Rothweiler, Michael Shershenovich, Mr. Green, Roi Cydulkin, Scrooge, Terrance Williams, Kim Carter, Gianluca Cirafici, Megan Dodd, Samantha Elisafon, Melissa Gonzalez, Rodney Hankins, Carol Hoverman, Andrew Kader, Marissa Lelogeais, Michael Lorch, Michael Melendez, Christian Patane, Ari Sloan, Bakari Williams, Aubrie Therrien, A-F-R-O, Sebastian Bear-McClard, Phil Cappadora, Francisco De Arriba, Luca De Massis, Lucas Elliot Eberl, Marcos A. Gonzalez, Jibril Goodman, Edgar Morais, Shaun Rey, Sacco Sarkis.

On this day in movie history - Skinjob (2017):

Skinjob

directed and written by Steve Simmons,

released at the Cannes Film Festival in France on May 22, 2017.
Animated short based on Blade Runner (1982).

On this day in movie history - Filmworker (2017):

Filmworker

documentary directed by Tony Zierra,

was released at the Cannes Film Festival in France on May 19, 2017.
Music by David Ben Shannon.

Cast:

Leon Vitali, Ryan O'Neal, Brian Capron, Mike Alfreds, Nick Redman, Brian Jamieson, Danny Lloyd, Stanley Kubrick, Matthew Modine, R. Lee Ermey, Tim Colceri, Julian Senior, Colin Mossman, Warren Lieberfarb, Lisa Leone, Steve Southgate, Phil Rosenthal, Jacob Rosenberg, Max Vitali, Vera Vitali, Masha Vitali, Stellan Skarsgård, Pernilla August, Beverly Wood, Tim Vitali, Maria Hayward, Chris Vitali, Marie Richardson, Treva Etienne, Margaret Adams, Ned Price, Chris Jenkins, Janet Wilson, Adam Baldwin, Marisa Berenson, David Bowie, Scatman Crothers, Tom Cruise, Kirk Douglas, Keir Dullea, Shelley Duvall, Michael Gambon, George Harrison, Arliss Howard, Mick Jagger, John Lennon, James Mason, Paul McCartney, Malcolm McDowell, Jack Nicholson, Slim Pickens, Gordon Ramsay, Peter Sellers, Martin Sheen, Rita Wilson, Shelley Winters.

Recommended reading - The Ross Macdonald Collection, by Ross Macdonald (2017):

The Ross Macdonald Collection

By Ross Macdonald.

Edited by Tom Nolan.

Published by Library of America.

Box edition.

Published 2017.

Hardcover.

ISBN-10: 1598535528

ISBN-13: 978-1598535525

Description:

“The finest series of detective novels ever written by an American.” – The New York Times Book Review.

“Macdonald brought a new method of psychological construction to the hard-boiled novel … he was in line with many of the important mid-century movements of American literary fiction, and deserves to be seen as a worthy addition to them.” – The Times Literary Supplement.

Ross Macdonald transformed the detective novel into a literary expression of unique psychological depth and drama. Here, for the first time in a deluxe three-volume Library of America boxed set, are eleven of his classic Lew Archer mysteries.

Contents: The Way Some People Die; The Barbarous Coast; The Doomsters; The Galton Case; The Zebra-Striped Hearse; The Chill; The Far Side of the Dollar; Black Money; The Instant Enemy; The Goodbye Look; The Underground Man.

On this day in movie history - Ghost in the Shell (2017):

Ghost in the Shell

directed by Rupert Sanders,

written by Jamie Moss, William Wheeler and Ehren Kruger,

based on the Manga comic book series by Masamune Shirow,

was released in the United States on March 31, 2017.
Music by Clint Mansell and Lorne Balfe.

Cast:

Scarlett Johansson, Kaori Yamamoto, "Beat" Takeshi Kitano, Michael Carmen Pitt, Andrew Morris, Pilou Asbæk, Chin Han, Lasarus Ratuere, Juliette Binoche, Peter Ferdinando, Kaori Momoi, Danusia Samal, Anamaria Marinca, Michael Wincott, Yutaka Izumihara, Tawanda Manyimo, Daniel Henshall, Rila Fukushima, Chris Obi, Adwoa Aboah, Pete Teo, Hugh Han.