D is for Darin Strauss, Half A Life

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Blogging from A-Z

Half a LifeFinished 3-30-13, rating 3/5, memoir, 207 pages, pub. 2010

Half my life ago, I killed a girl.

(first line)

When Darin was 18 years old he was driving his friends around and he hit a girl who was riding a bike.  The girl went to his high school.  How does Darin go on and live his life?  What about the family of the victim?  What is the price to be paid for taking a life, intended or not?  I can’t even imagine the horror and the aftermath.  How do you pick up the pieces and move on?  That’s why I wanted to read this memoir.

I’m of two minds on this one.  I wanted to like it more than I did.  I wanted feel more for Darin than I did. But, to quote Darin, “I’m not sure I can get across just how much I want to be extra generous to Celine here.  Extra-generous and, you’ve probably noticed, extra-writerly.  It’s a coward’s tactic.  I’m trying to write all the difficulty away.” (p. 58)  For me, there was too much writing and not enough depth.  The accident was not his fault, but this memoir needs to convince the reader of this fact.   It felt more like catharsis for Darin.  He mentioned more than once in the book that he was putting on a show for people, doing what he thought they expected to see and that’s how I felt about the book.  It felt less like a serious evaluation of what happened and what it did to his life than a book to absolve him of guilt.

On the other hand, there were insightful passages like this one, “Through all this, there was the courthouse threat of financial devastation-a thief taking up onious position outside every job, every apartment, rubbing his hands together.  Everything could at any moment be taken away because of the Zilkes, snatched from under me, desks pulled from my fingers.  Her parents had found a very real way, I realized, to keep Celine with me forever. (p.103) Extra-writerly or not I would have welcomed more passages like this.

Having never gone through anything remotely close to this I feel bad for my complaints.  Ignore everything I just said.

This was from my own library.

C is for Cary Grant

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Blogging from A-Z.

I love Cary Grant.  No, really love him.  I’m sure that when you looked at my stack of unread books yesterday that you noticed this one. (yes, that’s it, bottom stacks, row 10, 2nd from the bottom ;))

Complete Films of Cary Grant

A few fun facts about the suave Archibald Leach…He was born in Bristol, England in 1904.  When we was 12 his mother suffered a severe nervous breakdown and went to live in a nursing home. He ran away at 13 and joined Bob Pender’s Troupe, but his father found him and brought him home.  A year and half later he rejoined the troupe (with his father’s blessing) and travelled around England before the troupe headed to New York City in 1920. He worked as a stilt walker at Coney Island and as an audience plant with a mind-reading act before working on Broadway.  He appeared in a 10 minute short film as one of four sailors and the rest is history.  He headed to Hollywood, changed his name (thank you, Archie!), and completed seven films that first year.  He became a US citizen in 1942.  Married five times, divorced four and the father of one child.  He died in 1986 at the age of 82 of a stroke.

This is a great book for fans.  Lots of pictures and behind the scenes stories.  Here’s one from his very first short film

002And one of the many pages of photos from film shoots and his personal life 004

This book is about his life and his films.  All 72 of them.  I’ve watched 17  and have decided to go on a Cary Grant Binge and see how long it takes me to see them all.  I’m thinking of a monthly post and I welcome anyone who wants to join in.  I can make it official with  Mr. Linky and everything if you want to join me.  And no, I don’t mean you have to watch all of his movies, but you want to watch his movies and post about them, let me know.  I may try to work my way through them in order but it will really depend on what I can get my hands on first.  His first movie was This is the Night (1932).  Here’s the list of his movies if you want to see how many you’ve watched.

I know a few of you read Stories I Only Tell My Friends by Rob Lowe and I loved the Cary Grant story!  I wouldn’t have complained about watching movies in bed with Cary 🙂

My favorite Cary Grant film is The Philadelphia Story (1940) but I pretty much love him in anything.  Do you have a favorite Cary movie?

B is for Book Problem, Year 6 QUIZ

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Before I started blogging I had spent 5 years working for Barnes & Noble so I was no stranger to books (and book discounts!).  I had a sizeable library and was happy with my reading to book ratio.  Then I started blogging and all tomes broke loose!  Every year in May I would stack up my unread books in one place and take and inventory of sorts.  Here’s my picture from that first year in 2008…

At the time I didn’t even do a count.

New motherhood being what it was I skipped last year’s wall building.  But then I felt like my books have slowly been taking over every room in the house so I decided it was time to rebuild the wall.  I always rebuild the same way every year so I can find all of the books. (yes, this is silly, but I sometimes get a little OCD about my books).  Two years ago my stacks looked like this

A little bigger at 604.  So, in a marathon of book balancing done while my little one was sleeping I rebuilt the wall minus the 20 some books I read and the 20 odd books I gave away…

Janet 088

And then added in the books I’ve acquired in the last two years.  Needless to say, I got a great workout hauling all these books around the house, but worry about next year’s wall of books if I don’t start reading more!

Janet 090

Okay, now for the QUIZ -Open to anyone- Guess the number of unread books I have in my house by looking at this last picture.  The person who comes closest by Sunday will help me out by choosing one book from the picture as a gift.  (I did at least give you a few numbers from two years ago :))

For all my regulars – I will be awarding points based on how close you get to the real number.

Leaderboard here.  Last weeks’s Florida Quiz here.

A is for Animated Movies

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Blogging from A-Z Challenge. I’m participating in the A-Z Challenge this month. I just decided to do it today so I hope I can organize myself enough to get through the alphabet.  There’s no telling what each new letter will bring around here so stay tuned 🙂

Gage will be 2 1/2 this month and his attention span is short, however, there is one thing that will keep him mostly engaged for a while.  It’s that big, green ogre we all know and love, Shrek.  I am not sure how many times we have seen the first and second movies and yet he never tires of them.  Shrek, Donkey and Cat (Puss) are his friends.  He doesn’t seem to care one way or the other about Fiona at this point.  As far as movies that can satisfy a toddler and parents at the same time this series is a good one, but I’m ready to branch out.  He saw and liked Ice Age, but Jason doesn’t care for it and I think a few viewings was enough for me.

I love the old Disney movies, The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, The Lion King and I am looking forward to sharing them with him.  But aside from Wall-E, Finding Nemo, and Ratatouille I am woefully behind in the animated movie department.  What are some of the new ones that Gage, Jason, and I might all love?  And when you see an animated movie do you ever see it because of who is narrating the characters?

Oh, and please don’t recommend Bambi.  That movie made me so upset as a kid that I’m not sure I ever even saw the whole thing.  I won’t do that to Gage.  At least until he’s a teenager 🙂

Happy Easter Eggs :)

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Yesterday we tried the extra cool Easter eggs we found on Pinterest here.  We only had the pictures for directions so here’s how we did it.

005Gage helped Grandma crack the hardboiled eggs.

007We added food coloring into the cracks and let them dry in the frig overnight.

010Then Gage helped peel of the shells (since he only did one and ran away I didn’t get a picture).  We skipped one step in the directions, rinsing off the shells, and wonder if it would have prevented the color from going all the way to the yolk.  Gage licked one and I ate the yellow one and it was delicious 🙂

Happy Easter everyone!

The Peach Keeper by Sarah Addison Allen, I’m all caught up :(

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The Peach KeeperThe Peach Keeper.Finished audio 3-25-13. 4 stars, pub. 2011

Unabridged audio 7 hours, 35 minutes. Read by Karen White who did an excellent job.

When I read Allen’s first novel, Garden Spells, I fell in love with this writer who embodies lightness and magical realism in such a beautiful way.  I love the southern charm and those moments of the supernatural in her books.  I always finish satisfied.  Once I got past that expectation I enjoyed the book for what it was, a great story of friendship among women, from one generation to the next.  Some of the whimsy was missing, but only missing because I expected it.

Wall of Water, North Carolina, is home to Willa, Paxton, and Sebastian.  Though none of them were friends in high school, Paxton and Sebastian are inseparable now.  Willa own her own store and lives a happy but quiet life.  When Paxton restores the Blue Ridge Madam, an old home important to Willa’s family, it brings a mystery that leads them both to their grandmothers, looking for answers.

I loved the friendship that forms between Willa and Paxton, much like the one their grandmothers shared many years ago.  By the end of the book I was ready to look up some of my friends from high school to see if we could be BFFs again.  I also loved how the story showed how much where and how we grow up influences who we are as adults, and not just in the obvious ways.  I moved away from home when I went to college and, except for a 5 month pit stop after I graduated, I’ve never moved back.  So, I understood when Paxton’s brother didn’t want to move back to Wall of Water, afraid he’d forever be labelled ‘Stick Man’.  And Paxton, who had never lived anywhere else, lived the opposite life, always struggling with the expectations placed on her.  There was was much to like about this story.

SAA delivers once again.  She can’t write fast enough for her fans 🙂

Eyes Wide Open by Andrew Gross

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Eyes Wide OpenEyes Wide Open. Finished 3-21-13, rating 3/5, fiction, 340 pages, pub. 2011

Jay Erlich’s nephew has been found at the bottom of a cliff at Morrow Bay. It’s all just a tragic suicide, until secrets from the past begin to rear up again. Did a notorious killer, jailed for many decades, have his hand in this?

Years ago, Jay Erlich’s older brother, Charlie, a wayward child of the sixties, set out for California, where he fell under the sway of a charismatic but deeply disturbed cultlike figure. Tragedy ensued and lives were destroyed, but as the decades passed, Charlie married and raised a family and lived a quiet, secluded life under the radar. Yet the demons that nearly destroyed him never completely disappeared.

When Jay heads out west to help his grieving brother, he is pulled back into Charlie’s past–and begins to suspect that his nephew’s suicide may not have been that at all. With eyes wide open, Jay puts his own life at risk to uncover the truth, a quest that goes beyond the edge of madness and a family haunted by a secret past . . . and into the depths of evil.

from Goodreads

There was non-stop action and creepy characters, complicated sibling relationships and inequality in the way society deals with mental illness.  One of the main characters was even suffering with organ transplant issues.  I loved the exploration of Jay and Charlie’s relationship.  I thought it was spot on.  I was heartbroken, along with Charlie and his wife about the way that the cops and hospitals dealt with their troubled son.  This was a big storyline in the beginning and I wish Gross had followed up with it.

The story itself deals with a crime decades old and it was a little hard for me to get into even though it provided a Charles Manson like villain.  I thought the book was average.  It had high points and low points, but it was good enough for me to give this author another try someday.

I bought this book for my Nook.

Spring Break Fever Quiz – guessing closed

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I’m guessing I’m not the only one looking out my window at a yard full of snow.  In spring.  (sigh)  It’s Spring Break time around here and most of the kids I know head south and don’t stop till they hit a beach in Florida.  So, let’s head to Florida.

I hope that you’ll try your hand at my (mostly) bookish quizzes every week, but it’s okay if you just want to play when the quiz interests you.  If you play you are eligible for a prize at the end of the round (sometime in June).  For all of the details, click here.  Submit your answers in the comment section – I will stop by and hide them throughout the week but try not to copy off anyone else :)   You have til Sunday to guess.

No Googling:)

1. Before Scout Finch there was Jody Baxter, the ten year-old hero of The Yearling by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings.

2. Duma Key by Stephen King

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3. ZNH’s eyes were watching from Florida.  Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston

4. What J MacD series is set in the Sunshine State?  Travis McGee

5. Demi Moore showed off her implants on the big screen in this tease of a movie based on Elmore’s novel.  Striptease

6. Which one of Grafton’s alphabet series was is set in Florida?  B is for Burglar

7. This tragic novel of two desperate souls looking for a better life in Florida was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 1986.  Continental Drift by Russell Banks

8. This colorful Oprah’s Book Club pick from Quindlen way back when takes place in Florida.  Black & Blue

9. In Florida this home is a tourist attraction.  Who lived here?  Ernest Hemingway

10. Can you recognize this Florida son by his signature?  Carl Hiaasen

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Last week’s Tall Guy Quiz here.  Leaderboard here.

Fave Movie #7 – There’s Something About Mary

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There's Something About Mary POSTER.jpg1998

Cast-Ben Stiller, Cameron Diaz, Matt Dillon, Chris Elliott, Lee Evans

Directed by the Farrelly brothers, Bobby & Peter

Mary was the It girl in her Rhode Island high school and geeky Ted was lucky enough to catch her eye when he stood up for her mentally disabled brother.  They made a date for prom that ended in a hospital stay and then Mary disappeared.  It’s 13 years later and he hires Healy to find her for him.  Mary is in Florida, but Healy decides to throw Ted off the scent by lying to him and then moving to Florida to pursue her himself.

Why I love it- I saw this at the theater when it came out and I was scandalized.  This raunchy, perfect-for-teen-boys humor was not my thing at all.  I remember feeling embarrassed at some of the crude things I laughed at.  It was not in my comfort zone, and yet at its heart it was a love story between two characters that I loved and was rooting for the whole way.  It made me laugh and it satisfied my goofy heart.

There is something about Ben Stiller that I find charming and usually funny.  He has this awkward, neurotic way about him that I always seem to respond to in a positive way.  He was perfect in this role.  I’m not sure how many actors could have pulled off the iconic zipper scene with such intensity.  Even as I was cringing I was laughing out loud.  For me, the Farrelly brothers almost always go too far, but in this movie, it is Ben Stiller and the luminous Cameron Diaz that  keep the movie centered.

The two scenes with the dog, Puffy, being abused by Mary’s boyfriends are so outrageous that they are only funny because Puffy somehow manages to live another day.  And I love the reveal at the end.  It makes the movie end on a fun note for me.  I’ve seen this movie countless times and it always makes me laugh.

As of this year this is the 5th highest grossing romantic comedy of all-time and Cameron Diaz was nominated for a Golden Globe for her role as Mary. Irreverent, tasteless, and very funny.

The rest of my Top 100 List.

You Know When the Men Are Gone by Siobhan Fallon, breaking my ban on short stories

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You Know When the Men Are GoneYou Know When the Men Are Gone. Finished 3-19-13, rating 4.5/5, fiction short stories, 226 pages, pub. 2011

I read this because it was on JoAnn’s year end favorite list in December and I had it on my shelf.  I don’t often read short stories, so how this one ended up in my library is a mystery, but I’m so glad that it did and even happier that JoAnn loved and recommended it.  This may mean more short story collections in my future.

The stories-

1.You Know When the Men Are Gone, a married woman who is awaiting the homecoming of her husband feels drawn to life of her neighbor and children. My least favorite.

2. Camp Liberty, probably my favorite, the story of a deployed soldier who has a hard time reconciling life back home with the one he is living in Iraq.

3. Remission, a mom’s two kids go missing on base.

4. Inside the Break, a wife discovers her husband’s infidelity while he’s deployed.

5. The Last Stand, this one is a heartbreaker. A soldier returns home after being wounded in Iraq and spending months recovering at Walter Reed.

6. Leave, creepy story of a soldier sneaking home on leave to see if his wife is cheating.

7. You Survived the War, Now Survive the Homecoming, a new mom dealing with her husband’s ager after returning home.

8. Gold Star, a widower’s life on base after her husband is killed.

These stories are a gritty look, at the reality of what most of us will never have to face.  Although I finished this book with a heavy heart  I thought it was a book full if incredible insight.  I gained a deeper appreciation for the sacrifices of the enlisted men and their families.  Fallon speaks from experience and her concise writing engaged me.  Surprsingly, I loved this one.