Author: stacybuckeye

Best Fathers in Film

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It’s the weekend to celebrate fathers so I thought I’d share my favorite dads on the big screen and hope you’ll share yours in the comments (or write your own post and I’ll link it to this one).  And yes, I did cheat with #6, but it’s my list so you’ll have to live with it 🙂

#1 Atticus Finch (To Kill a Mockingbird)  I don’t think too many people will disagree that this widower was evrything a father should be.  He loved his children and wanted to instill good values.  He didn’t just tell his kids how to be a good human being, he showed them in everything he did.  He wasn’t perfect, but as close as you can get.

#2 George Banks (Father of the Bride)  I have a soft spot for poor George.  He’s trying to come to terms with his little girl all grown up and ready to marry and his love for her is so obvious.  Every girl wants a dad who loves her so much.

#3 Daniel (Crash) Who didn’t fall in love with this dad who played a game with his daughter at night to make her feel safe in a city that wasn’t.  His devotion to her was tear worthy.

#4 Chris Gardner (Pursuit of Happyness) You don’t need a home or money to have the most important thing in life, the love of a parent struggling to do right.

#5 Richard Hoover (Little Miss Sunshine) Putting his daughter’s dream first, no matter the circumstances or motivations, makes this dad an easy pick.

#6 Leon (The Professional) Okay, so this assassin wasn’t really Mathilda’s dad, but he was better than her dad.  He was willing to protect her life with his own.

#7 Daniel (Love Actually) A stepdad becomes sole provider when his wife dies and his grace and humor win the boy, and us, over.

#8 Furious Styles (Boyz ‘N the Hood) Furious is trying to keep his son on the straight and narrow in a neighborhood that can be anything but.  I loved his devotion to raising his son, and any other boy, well.

So tell me, who are your favorite movie dads?

The Diary, by Eileen Gouge

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The DiaryThe Diary, Finished audio 6-14-12, rating 3/5, pub. 2009

Unabridged audio 6 hours 30 minutes. Read by Susan Ericksen

Elizabeth Marshall lies in a nursing home after a stroke has left her unresponsive.  Her two grown daughters discover her old diary as they prepare for the worst and pack up their childhood home.  As they read the diary together they discover a mother they never knew, one with hopes, heartbreak, passion, and strength.  The diary describes the two loves of Elizabeth’s life and the ultimate moment when she had to choose between the two.

First, let me quibble with the description provided by the publisher.  The last line is, It’s also the story of the unshakable bond between a mother and her daughters.  Um, no, it’s really not.  The daughters, obviously, knew very little about their mother as a person and there was really no chance for them to recover that lost time except through a series of diary entries that covered only a small portion of their mother’s youth.

This book had three viewpoints, the daughters in current day, their mother’s written entries, and then the detailed story behind each entry which was not in the first person.  I found the jump between the three off-putting.  I liked Elizabeth’s story, but the jumping in and out of it left me less than fully engaged.  I actually started to resent the daughters for intruding on their mother’s story with their boring and clueless observations.  Yes, that seems harsh, but it’s true.  If they had been more compelling characters it may have worked  better for me since Elizabeth was a great character and I’d have rather heard the story straight from her.

Elizabeth’s story was a good one, even if there wasn’t anything terrible original.  The only thing that set it apart is how it was told and while I disliked the jumping between viewpoints it did allow for some much needed suspense at the end. The end was not a complete surprise to me (as it was to those silly daughters) but there were enough questions to want me to keep listening.  Why did Elizabeth end up with stable Bob and not passionate AJ?  Inquiring minds want to know.

I thought it was a solid and enjoyable audio book, but I wasn’t totally into it.  I borrowed the audio book from the library.

Cinder Giveaway

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Cinder (The Lunar Chronicles Series #1)Last month I reviewed Cinder by Marissa Meyer.  I listened to the cds and I’d like to pass them on to a lucky blogger.  It was a fun story and has been getting rave reviews around the blogoshere.  I am looking forward to the sequel!

If you’d like to win (Unabridged, 8 cds, 10 hours) just leave a comment with an email address.

If you want an extra entry or two all you need to do is participate in my Tuesday Quiz here and/or in my 5 Word Movie Reviews here.

A winner will be randomly chosen on June 30th.  Good luck!

Which is Older? Quiz – guessing closed

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This week I thought I’d see if you can figure out the order in which these books were published.  Please list them from oldest publication date to newest.

You have until noon Sunday to submit your answers as a comment.  Comment will be hidden until I post the answers.  No Googling!

This round will last til August.  The person with the most points will win a B&N gift card (total $ based on # of total participants, so please play) and a randomly selected participant will win a fun prize from me.

Have fun and Good Luck!  Last week’s What Book is That? Quiz here .  Leaderboard and rules here.

1 C. Woman in White by Wilkie Collins 1859

  A. White Fang by Jack London 1906

  B. The White Plague by Frank Herbert 1982

   C. Woman in White by Wilkie Collins 1859

2  B. Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut 1969

   C. High Five by Janet Eveanovch 1999

  A. The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom 2003

3 B. Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison 1977

   A. The Executioner’s Song by Norman Mailer 1980

   C. Dicey’s Song by Cynthia Voigt  1983

4 A. The House of Spirits by Isabel Allende  1982

   B. A Painted House by John Grisham  2001

   C. Blackbird House by Alice Hoffman  2004

5 C. These Happy Golden Years by Laura Ingalls Wilder  1943

   B. The Golden Notebook by Doris Lessing  1962

   A. The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman  1995

6  C. The Hours by Michael Cunningham  1998

   B. Odd Hours by Dean Koontz  2008

   A. The Distant Hours by Kate Morton  2010

7 A. Little Men by Louisa May Alcott  1871

   C. Of Mice & Men by John Steinbeck  1937

   B. All the King’s Men by Robert Penn Warren  1946

8 C. Einstein’s Monsters by Martin Amis  1987

   B. Monster by Walter Dean Myers  1999

   A. Monsters of Men by Pateick Ness  2010

9 A. Bridget Jones’s Diary by Helen Fielding  1996

   C. Suzanne’s Diary for Nicholas by James Patterson  2001

   B.The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie  2007

10 B. The Sands of Time by Sidney Sheldon  1988

    A. House of Sand and Fog by Andre Dubus III  1999

    C. Sand in My Eyes by Christine Lemmon  2010

Sundays with Gage – The difference a year makes

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Last May I wrote a post on my munchkin being so short.  At the time he was in the 7th percentile.  Jason’s dad isn’t here but I thought we’d see the difference as year can make…

He had a growth spurt this week and is now just over 32 inches (that’s over half of my 62 inches).  He’s somewhere in the 20-somethings for percentile, but more importantly, I think he’s starting to look more like daddy, don’t cha think?

Can you believe how big he’s getting?!

 

 

 

 

 

 

And I’m adding this one just because I think it’s cute…

Stay cool!

We have a winner!

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On Tuesday 32 people guessed in my What book is that? quiz and that makes 32 people eligible for a prize when this round ends in August.  I hope everyone comes back and plays every week since each week is a different kind of quiz.  I’ve posted the answers and will be scoring you all sometime this weekend.  After that you’ll show up on the Leaderboard.

What?  You’re just here to see if you won?  Okay, okay.  Here’s how the winner was chosen…

  And the winner is …

Alyce from At Home With Books! 

A $15 B&N giftcard is on the way!! Congratulations!! 

Thanks for playing everyone, hope to see you on Tuesday.

Last day of Armchair BEA – Ask the Experts

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This week has flown by and I’ve logged extra hours of blog hopping due to the awesomeness that is Armchair BEA.  The last topic is about offering expert advice and/or asking the experts for advise.  I’ll do both.

I have been at this blogging thing for 4 1/2 years and still I’m not qualified to consider myself an expert at anything.  What I will offer is that trying new things, whether they be a new feature or a new meme, will invigorate you and keep things fresh.  And keeping things fresh is good for you, your readers, and potential readers.  I’ve tried many features and quite a few have become permanent fixtures on the blog.  There have also been things that have fallen by the wayside and that’s okay.  Don’t put too much pressure on yourself.  This is supposed to be fun!

Now for my question.

What are the benefits/advantages to switching to a self-hosting blog?  I know I can do this through WordPress for a small yearly fee, but I haven’t felt the need yet. Keep in mind I am fairly clueless about the design and coding.  Someday I would like to have the time to change that, but it’s not going to happen now.

Want to visit the other Armchair experts, click here.

And just for all of you Armchairers who may have missed my quiz on Tuesday, I’m giving away a $15 B&N giftcard to one random participant.  I’m leaving it open until tomorrow at noon.  I hope you’ll give it a shot.  Quiz here.

It’s been a fun week meeting everyone 🙂

What Book Is That? Quiz w/ a Special Armchair BEA Giveaway – CLOSED

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Welcome to another Tuesday quiz.  You have until noon Saturday to submit your answers as a comment.  Comment will be hidden until I post the answers.  For more details and the leaderboard, go here.

This week will still be a part of the current round of quizzes, so you will be adding $ for the round winner and be eligible for a prize BUT today, for Armchair BEA, one lucky recipient will win a $15 Barnes & Noble giftcard. On Saturday, Gage will randomly choose one quiz participant to win.  To be eligible, you only need to guess, you don’t have to get any right 😉  The guessing is the fun part!

For all of you bookish people stopping by today, see if you can identify these books.  Just tell me the title (and author for extra points) in a comment.  And for one extra entry in today’s giveaway tell me what they all have in common.  Good luck!

You can click on the photo to enlarge.

ANSWERS-1.The Chosen by Chaim Potok   2.How to Buy a Love of Reading by Tanya Egan Gibson   3.Things I Want My Daughters to Know by Elizabeth Noble   4.Wench by Dolen Perkins-Valdez   5.The Writing Circle by Corinne Demas   6.Murder is Binding by Lorna Barrett   7.The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett   8.The Reader by Bernhard Schlink   9.This Book is Overdue by MArilyn Johnson  10. The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield   11.Bridget Jones’s Diary by Helen Fielding   12.Villette by Charolotte Bronte

What do they all have in common?  They all have books on the cover!

Armchair BEA – More than you need to know

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Armchair BEA begins today and I’m excited to participate for the first time.  We’re doing a meet and greet today with some preset questions.  I hope to meet some new book buddies and see a few old friends 🙂

  1. Please tell us a little bit about yourself: Who are you? How long have you been blogging? Why did you get into blogging?  Well, as you may have guessed from my so very creative blog name, I’m Stacy and I’ve got lots of books.  I’m guessing I have around 900 unread books in the house.  I’ve also got a little guy running around and I post about him every Sunday.  I started blogging in January 2008 as a way to keep track of what I was reading.  My reading is so much more consistent now that I blog about it!  I’m also an Ohio State alum so I might be obnoxious during football and/or basketball seasons.
  2. What are you currently reading, or what is your favorite book you have read so far in 2012? Currently, I’m on a home state Ohio tour.  I’ll be starting The World We Found by Thrity Umrigar or Beloved by Toni Morrison this week.  As for my favorite this year, Violets of March by Sarah Jio, is one that took me too long to finally read.  Loved it.
  3. What is your favorite feature on your blog (i.e. author interviews, memes, something specific to your blog)? I love doing my Tuesday quizzes and am always looking for new participants.  I’ve been doing them for about 3 years and they are book or movie related.  I hope you’ll stop back tomorrow to give it a try.  I give away prizes every few months (details here).  I also like my 5 Word Movie Reviews because I want participation from you.  Every time you add your own 5 words $1 goes to charity (details and movie list here).
  4. Where do you see your blog in five years?  I don’t even know where I see my life in 5 years, but I think it will be interesting to see how blogging changes during that time.
  5. What literary location would you most like to visit? Why?  I would love to visit the Cemetery of Forgotten Books from The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon.  A place where no book is lost to the world?  I want to go and choose my book.  I mention it a little more in my review, but there’s a better description here.

Looking forward to meeting you!

Sundays with Gage – Good babysitters are hard to find

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Good babysitters are hard to find and when you do find them, they are tough to keep!  When you live away from family babysitters become necessary.  Necessary if you want to keep your sanity and maintain a healthy marriage.  For the first year we mainly went out when my parents came to visit or we went home.  Then I found two neighbor girls to come once or twice a week for a few hours and in February I found a great babysitter who I trusted completely, but she stopped showing up last month.  And the neighbor girls couldn’t help out any more because they were both working full-time at Dairy Queen.

I was sad and back to feeling the overwhelming need for a break.  Fortunately, my prayers were answered by not one, but two new babysitters this week 🙂

When My Gym closed the manager needed to make some money before she moves back to Pennsylvania in  October.  Sign me up!  And then the daughter of a friend quit her job at Panera  and needed to make some money before she moves to Utah at the end of August.  I’ll take two, thanks!

Both of these are short termers, but I’ve come the realization that babysitters are a fairly nomadic lot, moving in and out of your life whether you want them to or not!

If you have family close that wants to spend time with your kid and give you a much needed break, thank your lucky stars.  You are blessed!