We just returned home from a long weekend in Washington DC to find that our computer no longer works and this laptop keeps disconnecting, so I will post tomorrow when I have access to a better computer! We spent our 10 year wedding anniversary on Friday in Arlington, Virginia, where we first met, fell in love, and made 2 1/2 years of wonderful memories. More tomorrow.
Month: October 2008
Capote, 2005 movie
I’ve never read In Cold Blood, but it is in my ‘to read’ pile, so I thought I’d see this movie about Truman Capote during the 4 1/2 years it took him to reasearch and write the book. In Kansas, two young men murder a family of four and Capote asks his childhood friend, Haprer Lee, to help him research in Kansas. Once he meets the prisoners he becomes very attached to one of them. He was there when the two were hanged for their crimes. An interesting note – it was during this period that Lee had To Kill A Mockingbird published.
Okay, I thought Philip Seymour Hoffman was excellent as Capote and Catherine Keener did an outstanding job as Harper Lee, but I did not care for the movie. It was slow and a little erratic. Some parts were interesting, like that Capote never wrote another book after this one and he never took notes from interviews, but on the whole I thought it was a yawner. I do think it will make In Cold Blood more interesting when I get around to reading it.
I would only recommend this movie if you are a fan of Truman Capote or In Cold Blood.
How I Found the Perfect Dress, by Maryrose Wood
Finished 10-13-08, rating 3.5/5, young adult, pub. 2008
This is the sequel to Why I Let My Hair Grow Out.
I won this book last month over at Writerspace after being entered into a drawing with 200 books to be given away. I had no idea that Writerspace authors included young adult writers, so, when I received the book I was intrigued by the funky cover, but not sure about reading it. But, Maryrose wrote a nice note to me the front page and I felt enough guilt to give it a shot.
Morgan is also half-goddess Morganne and is still in love with Colin, the 20 year old boy she met last summer in Ireland. Morgan is just a normal 16 year old girl with fighting parents, a kid sister, and a relationship to repair with her best friend, while also being Morganne who pals around with faeries and has seen the Tooth Fairy. It’s been six months since she’s seen Colin and his emails have become almost nonexistent. Morgan is ecstatic when she learns that Colin will be coming to Connecticut for a few weeks in March, but will soon learn that being loved by a half-goddess is doing harm to Colin.
I have not read a young adult romance since I was a teen and I was surprisingly enchanted with this whimsical tale of magic and love. I would recommend this book and the rest of the series about Morgan for teen girls. I’m tempted to read the rest of them myself!
My Obsessions
I’ve been tagged by Don to confess my obsessions/addictions. Today I turn 37 and since I’m feeling contemplative I think I’ll list one for every year.
Flavored coffee, black is my favorite way to start the day. And continues until the afternoon begins.
Red wine is my relaxation in the evening. I probably like it a little too much, but it’s healthy, right?
Buying books seems like a healthy addiction, but it can override common sense. I can go to a bookstore and purchase 10 books for a $10 and not have time to read any of them before more books find their way into my shopping bag a few days later. I do have a reading and writing addiction which seem to fit in with my book problem.
My grandparents passed onto to me the puzzling gene. Working on jigsaw puzzles is a good way to work out stuff in your head. If I’ve got a problem I need to work out, doing a jigsaw is the best medicine. I am currently finishing (600 pieces or so) a 5,000 piece jigsaw puzzle of Florence, Italy. I will include a picture when I get it done because it is a much anticipated achievement.
Chocolate and cheesecake at the Cheesecake Factory are two addictions. I am currently eating a piece of Chocolate Raspberry Truffle Cheesecake and it is heavenly.
Ohio State football season is my favorite season of the year! And that explains my favorite color, red.
I love my family and they are my rock. On a related note I frequently become obsessed with genealogy when I find a new branch in my family tree. Which leads me to trees – I love them and never feel more at peace with nature than when I am surrounded by them. I also feel very much at peace when I am surrounded by my wonderful friends. Cleveland has made me appreciate and look forward to snow. On the other hand, I adore saunas. This time of year always reignites my interest in politics (just ask my dad who was here this weekend). I have become more interested in my blog- and in yours- than I thought I would when I started. I check email constantly. But I love getting snail mail. I also love to send letters and cards. I love meeting new people and going to parties, which go together very nicely, thank you. My only fashion addiction is Kathy Van Zeeland bags (I’ve given away everything else!) and I won’t confess to how many I own. I love romantic movies and can watch my favorites over and over. On the TV front…I can spend too much much money at QVC, I tape The View everyday, if I’m home I watch General Hospital with only a little guilt, and when the tv is on, its default station is CNN. I love to play board games and am a bit competitive. Especially during March Madness when I become completely obssessed with beating my husband on our brackets. I go to New York City as often as I get the opportunity (which isn’t often enough!). I love getting into the hot tub on a cool night with my husband.
Which leads me to my obsession with getting my cat, Scout, to gain weight and getting my dog, Max, to lose the pounds. Of course, my best obsession is my husband, Jason. And for #37 I asked Jason what he thought my obsession was. He thought about for a few minutes and said, “You like to make other people happy.” Maybe I should just make him addictions 1-36 🙂
I’m tagging Kathy & Elena to confess their obessions/addictions.
SeinLanguage, by Jerry Seinfeld
Finished 10-9-08, rating 3.5/5, humor, pub. 1993
“There are many things you can point to as the proof that the human is not smart. But my personal favorite would have to be that we needed to invent the helmet. What was happening, apparently, was that we were involved in a lot of activities that were cracking our heads. We chose not to avoid doing these activities but, instead, to come up with some sort of device to help us continue enjoying our head-cracking lifestyles. The helmet. And even that didn’t work because not enough people were wearing them so we had to come up with the helmet law. Which is even stupider, the idea behind the helmet law being to preserve a brain whose judgement is so poor, it does not even try to stop the cracking of the head it’s in.” -The Thing is the Thing chapter
Jerry Seinfeld makes me laugh. I loved his tv show. I am amazed at how many times I catch myself or my husband referencing that show. We’ve seen every episode more than once because it’s on all the time now and when I’m aimlessly flipping through channels I’ll always stop at Seinfeld.
This is a book of full of his observations, sometimes witty, sometimes sarcastic, but usually entertaining. If you’ve ever seen his stand up then you have heard some of these nuggets of wisdom before. It’s been in the family room for a month now and every few days when I needed the lighten my mood I’d read a few pages and it worked. It’s 15 years old, but still capable of being relevant. I loved it.
I Married A Communist, by Philip Roth
Finished 10-8-08, rating 2.5, fiction, pub. 1999
Nathan Zuckerman, the narrator from American Pastoral, is back and this time he is tackling the McCarthy era. Nathan reconnects with his high school English teacher, Murray Ringold, after many years and the two reminisce about that turbulent time in their lives. Murray’s brother, Ira, was a famous radio actor back in the day and took Nathan under his wing. Now that Ira is dead Nathan gets to find out everything he had not known about his mentor when he was younger.
Ira was a Jewish communist and marries a beautiful actress in hopes of living the American dream. He had money, a beautiful wife, an expensive home, fans who loved him, and hopes for a child one day. Instead he was thrust into an unsatisfying marriage that came with a troubled and spiteful step daughter. When the marriage went south, his wife fingered him as a communist.
I really didn’t like this book much. It lacked a story I cared about it. I wasn’t drawn to the characters. It made some fine points about that period in American history, but I found myself skimming paragraphs at a time. I much preferred American Pastoral. The next book for the class is The Human Stain.
Tell No One, the movie
Yesterday Jean and I went to see the French film, Tell No One, adapted from Harlan Coben’s wonderful thriller. Both Jean and I read the book a few years ago and we didn’t remember every detail so it is hard to say for certain how much was changed for the movie. The most obvious change is the film takes place in Paris and the book in New York.
The premise is childhood sweethearts and now happily married Alex and Margot Beck are separated by murder. Alex cannot get over Margot’s death and eight years later he is still suspected of being involved. Then he receives an anonymous email with a link to a video that shows a very alive Margot looking at the surveillance camera.
I loved the book and really enjoyed the movie. I didn’t even mind the subtitles. If you watch carefully author Harlan Coben makes a cameo appearance. Francois Cluzet and Marie-Josee Croze were Alex and Margo. The only actor I recognized was Kristin Scott Thomas who played Alex’s best friend.
Ohio State vs. Wisconsin
OSU 20 Wisconsin 17
Last night we had 3 couples over to play cards, so I didn’t get to watch the game until there was about 5 minutes left in the game. And I’m glad I got to see the last Ohio State drive. I cannot say enough good things about our freshman quarterback Terrelle Pryor. He’s only going to get better. And Beanie Wells was back in form rushing for 168 yards. Ohio State snapped Wisconsin’s 16 game home winning streak.
Highest Paid Authors
The new Forbes just listed the world’s 10 best-paid authors (from July1, 2007 to June 30,2008 ).
1. JK Rowling – $300 million – I have nothing but the highest respect for her (and a special wizard named Harry). Good for her.
2. James Patterson – $50 million – I’ve read several of his books this year. I think he may be a bit overpaid, but hey, I’m sure that comes from jealousy.
3. Stephen King – $45 million – Good for him. Well deserved!
4. Tom Clancy – $35 million – I’ve only ever read The Hunt for Red October, so okay.
5. Danielle Steel – $30 million – She writes the same book over and over and women love it. If it ain’t broke…
6. John Grisham – $25 million – Seems about right since many of his books are made into movies.
7. Dean Koontz – $25 million – He deserves every penny.
8. Ken Follett – $20 million – Oh, the power of Oprah who chose Pillars of the Earth for her book club (and I reviewed it here).
9. Janet Evanovich – $17 million – I like her books and it’s nice to see another woman on this list.
10. Nicholas Sparks – $16 million – That’s why there was a four hour wait to meet him, Kathy 🙂
Banned Books Week, day 6
I wrote a post on Sarah Palin’s involvement/noninvolement in banning books as mayor of Wasilla. I thought it would be a timely post during Banned Book week and on the eve of the Vice-Presidential debates, but after reading it was not sure if I wanted to open up a political can of worms on my tame book blog.
I am editing myself to this…Palin did not ban books. Palin may have wanted to ban books, but it never progressed that far. This issue is very important to me because there is no more basic freedom than the access to information. I think the fact that it was brought up as an issue is a good thing. I think it made more people aware that libraries are always fighting off the threat of censorship and we all need to be aware of the dangers of erasing opinions that are not our own.
Stacy's Books 