Blogging from A to Z

Under the Tuscan Sun, 2003

Frances finds out her husband is cheating and to cheer her up her two friends offer her a 10 day vacation in Tuscany traveling with a gay bus tour.  Frances goes and falls in love with the house Bramosole which she impulsively buys and plans to restore, leaving her life in San Fransisco behind.  She throws herself into the renovation, making friends as a way to heal her broken heart.

Why I love it – This is a story one woman’s heartbreak and the strength that led her to healing.  I love Diane Lane, she can do little wrong in my eyes and this is one of my favorites.  She shows Frances’s emotions in a way that we can all recognize.  She was mad, hurt, sad, funny, endearing, and full of life.

Who hasn’t imagined (even just for a second) leaving everything behind to start over somewhere new?  And what better place to do this but in Italy?  I love the boldness of her decision, egged on by the exuberant Catherine who encouraged her growth at every turn.  It was the eagerness to live the life she always imagined that had me rooting for her happy ending.

The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett

The Queen is out with her dogs one day when she discovers the bookmobile parked by the palace.  So begins her discovery of the joys of reading for pleasure.  Always one to take her duties seriously, reading somehow begins to creep into her schedule, making her mundane duties most unpleasant since she must leave her book behind.  And as the staff becomes more put-off by the reading, the Queen takes a hard look at her obsession.  She is a doer, and ultimately, a choice must be made.

This delightful story enticed me with its lightness, but captured me with its unabashed love of reading books.  As the Queen notes, reading is a generally solitary pursuit and many of her thoughts on this stuck with me, especially as I was passing out books to strangers for World Book Night.  Thankfully, we can and do find ways to connect through reading.  This will make you take a look at your own reading life, and most likely, you’ll identify with the Queen’s discovery of the new worlds books open and her eagerness to share what she’s read.  I don’t think the general public is as unread as this author seems to think, but maybe they are and I just don’t want to see it.

Lisa Unger

I’ve only read three of Unger’s twelve books and especially enjoyed the two Ridley Jones books (Beautiful Lies & Sliver of Truth).

Uma Thurman

I like her in the few movies I’ve seen her in (Kill Bill, The Truth About Cats & Dogs, Dangerous Liaisons) and her name starts with U 🙂

Blogging from A to Z

The Sound of Music, 1965

Most of the songs that I sang to Gage when he was a babe were from this movie.  During college I watch this movie to help me fall asleep (yes, I know, weird).  It remains one of my all-time faves and such a comfort movie.  I did not like what they did to it when they translated it to tv last December.

TIE! The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell AND The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd

The Sparrow is a must read! This book is not only highly entertaining, but also very thought provoking. What would your reaction be if you learned that NASA had just discovered music being sung from a planet four light years away from earth? Would it shake your belief in God or make it stronger? What if you were chosen with six others to travel to this planet, knowing that by the time you returned back (if you did) those important to you would probably be dead? What if you were the only one from the mission who made it back to earth alive?  Russell blows me away with her first novel.

The Secret Life of Bees, it’s 1964 in South Carolina and Lily is a fourteen year old living with her abusive dad and the knowledge that she killed her mother.  All she has of her mother is a photo and a picture of a black Mary with the words Tiburon, South Carolina written on the back.  When she chooses to spring her nanny, Rosaleen, from jail they hitchhike to Tiburon so Lily can find the memory of her mother.  What she finds are three African-American beekeepers that live in a pink house.  The three sisters take  in Lily and Rosaleen.  Not a faulty note in this southern novel.

Anita Shreve

I first read The Pilot’s Wife and loved the complexity of it.  I’ve read three more and really liked each of them.

Ben Stiller

Can you believe I’ve seen 25 Ben Stiller movies?  I can’t!  Some people don’t think he’s funny, but I love him and he makes me laugh every time.  My favorites are  There’s Something About Mary and Meet the Parents, but Gage loves the Madagascar movies so I get to hear him as Alex the lion quite often.

Blogging from A to Z

Aidan Quinn

I first laid eyes on Quinn in 1984 when he played bad boy to Daryl Hannah’s golden girl in the movie Reckless.  He was such a hottie 🙂  I loved him in Benny & Joon (1993) and Legends of the Fall (1994) too.  In both he played big brothers who took that responsibility very seriously.

Anna Quindlen

I read Every Last One and liked it quite a lot.  I’ve also read a book of her essays but prefer the fiction.  I’m hoping to read a few more by her this year!  Do you have a favorite Quidlen book that I should start with?

The African Queen, 1951

I cheated a bit with this title, but when I went through the Q movie list there were only two I had seen and neither of them were worthy of any favorite list.  This classic is Katherine Hepburn and Humphrey Bogart at their cantankerous best.

The Quilter’s Apprentice by Jennifer Chiaverini

This is the first book in the Elm Creek Quilts series and liked it quite a bit even if I am a failed quilter.  The story of friendship is a heartwarming one and I hope to continue with the series someday.

I’ve had a love affair with postcrossing the last few years (even receiving a postcard from Ukraine this week and going on to exchange a few emails about the state of affairs there, more on that when we come to U).  I’ve received 175 postcards from around the world and two of them fit this month’s challenge very well.

The first was sent to me by an ER doctor in Israel and the second was sent from the Netherlands.  I love sending and receiving cards and think it is a hobby that Gage could participate in soon.

Blogging from A to Z

Susan Elizabeth Phillips

I first read Dream a Little Dream in 1998 and quickly went on to read the rest of her backlist and then eagerly await her new releases.  Do yourself a favor and try one of her quick-witted and sassy romances.

a tie…The Philadelphia Story, 1940  AND Planes, Trains, and Automobiles, 1987

I’ve looked at this choice a few times over the last week and I’ve decided that I can only take the easy way out.  I love both of these movies.

Pull of the Moon by Elizabeth Berg

The first Berg book I read and so far it’s my favorite.  I recommend this book highly to women who want to see glimpses of themselves in a flawed but, oh-so-recognizable, heroine.

Christopher Plummer

He will always be Captain Von Trapp to me (The Sound of Music), but he’s had a lot of great movies in the past 10 years or so.

Blogging from A to Z

Outlander by Diana Gabaldon

In Outlander we are introduced to Claire and her husband Frank as they are taking a second honeymoon in Scotland. In 1945. After viewing a Druid ceremony at a formation of standing rocks, Claire finds herself by the same formation of rocks, but in the year 1743 and in the middle of an English/Scottish skirmish that leaves her thought a whore and kidnapped by a powerful clan. So begins her adventure across the Highlands in a time of turbulent unrest. She is forced to marry Jamie, tried (and almost hung) for being a witch, and is forced to answer the difficult question of “what do you do if you know the future”? This book is full of folklore and political intrigue. Gabaldon really knows her history. As long as you can stomach the rape scenes you’ll love this book.  And probably the rest of the series too.

Only You, 1994

Faith believes in destiny and when the Ouija board and then a crystal ball at a carnival tell her that her soul mate is Damon Bradley she takes it to heart.  Fast forward more than a decade and Faith is about to marry a podiatrist when she takes a message for her fiance from Damon Bradley.  Convinced that it is fate she takes the next plane to Italy to find him.  Only she is always one step behind and must rely on her best friend and a new love interest to help her track down Damon.

This movie was pure romantic escapism.  It was about destiny and finding that one other half of yourself.  Faith’s belief was magical and innocent and it was nicely offset by Peter’s belief that they were meant to be together.  I love stories like this when they are done well and the leads perfect in their roles, like this one.   Robert Downey Jr. and Marisa Tomei were great together.

Karen E. Olson

She is the author of the Tatoo Shop mystery series, one that I very much enjoyed even though I would never get a tatoo myself.  I was able to meet her at Bouchercon when it was in Cleveland in 2012 and she was lovely.

Gary Oldman

Whether he plays the good guy or the bad guy he is always compelling  to watch.  He was in one of my favorite movies, The Professional, with the young Natalie Portman, and I also liked him as Gordon in the latest Batman trilogy and as Sirius Black in the Harry Potter films.  He’s been on so many movies, do you have a favorite?

Gage is still fighting the stomach bug 😦

Blogging from A to Z

Paul Newman

Old Blue Eyes brought class to every movie he was in and by all appearances proved to be a class act off the screen as well.  We need more of that these days!  Loved him most in The Sting, Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid, and Road to Perdition.

Native Son by Richard Wright

This is one of those classics that no matter how I describe it, I am not going to do it justice and will be hard-pressed to convince you to read it unless you are already inclined.  Here’s the synopsis from Goodreads…

“Right from the start, Bigger Thomas had been headed for jail. It could have been for assault or petty larceny; by chance, it was for murder and rape. Native Son tells the story of this young black man caught in a downward spiral after he kills a young white woman in a brief moment of panic. Set in Chicago in the 1930s, Wright’s powerful novel is an unsparing reflection on the poverty and feelings of hopelessness experienced by people in inner cities across the country and of what it means to be black in America.“

Unflinching and brutally honest this is not one to miss.  I listened to the audio in 2001 and would like to tackle the print someday.

No Way Out, 1987

This movie had everything a great thriller should have with the addition of limousine sex!   It’s fast, and twisty, and made me so nervous to find out if Kevin Costner would escape.  Loved the Pentagon setting and the great acting.

Carla Neggers

This romantic suspense author was a surprise to me when I ran into her book signing at a local bookstore in 2008.  I’ve gone on to read a handful of  her 60+ novels and enjoyed them all.    I also did a short interview with her in 2009.

Blogging from A to Z

Judith McNaught

from my personal library 🙂

I’ve read all thirteen novels and reread quite a few of them more than once.  Her historicals are my all-time favorites.  The two I’ve reread the most over the years are Almost Heaven and Paradise, but there are others that I should take the time to read more often because they are such comfort reads to me.  Her last two books were romantic suspense and were good, but it’s the romances that make me a real fan.

Meet the Parents

I find Ben Stiller funny and he has never been better than in this comedy.  Robert De Niro as the scary future father-in-law is perfection as well.  I watch this every time it comes on tv – and that’s a lot!

Miracle of Mindfulness:An Introduction to the Practice of Meditation by Thich Nhat Hanh

I first read this in the late 90’s and it still holds a place in my everyday life.  There are things about being totally present and awake in the moment that speak to me.  It’s 160 pages of spiritual self-help written by a Buddhist monk and I can’t recommend it enough.  Doing this list this month I have been reminded of so many books I want to reread and this is at the top of the list.

Steve Martin

Like Stiller, Martin is another actor that I find funny pretty much every time I see him.  I did like him in his older movies (The Jerk, The Man with Two Brains) but my two favorites are Planes, Trains and Automobiles and Father of the Bride.  I read his first book, Shopgirl, and didn’t love it, but I like that he’s talented writer and musician too!