Quick Book Review Update

As with movies, I've read a lot of books in the last month during baby feedings. I'm a month behind on reviews with the new baby so I'm going to do a quick summary of what I've read in the past month to catch up! I'm going to list the books I've read from the most recent to the one I had finished right before the baby was born!

Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell. I loved the Masterpiece Theatre mini-series and also read the book over the past few days. The book does not include any stories about Doctor Harrison or Lady Ludlow - they are separate novellas, which I didn't realize at first! The book is a charming picture of life in a small village during the Victorian era. I enjoyed it.

The Virgin Blue by Tracy Chevalier. This book was recommended and borrowed from my good friend Elina (she has been recommending books to me since 4th grade!). This book was about a woman who has relocated to modern day France and becomes obsessed with tracing the story of her ancestors. Her ancestors were Hugenots that had to flee France to Switzerland to avoid prosecution in the 16th century. Half of the story is about her ancestor Isabelle and the dark secret hidden in the family. It was a good book and very interesting to learn about the era.

Princess by Jean P. Sasson. Princess was also loaned and recommended to me by Elina. The book was a first person account of a Saudi Arabian Princess named Sultana for the book's purposes. It was a vivid account of life under the veil and rule of men. It gave good brief background to the history of the region and of Islam. It was a good book to read to understand women's issues in the Middle east althought it was written directly after Desert Storm so it is a bit dated. It's hard to believe that women live such restricted lives in our modern age.

The Lady and the Unicorn by Tracy Chevalier. This is another book borrowed from Elina. I enjoyed this novel a lot! It tells the tale of a beautiful unicorn tapistry and how it was designed and woven. The lives it intersects are fascinating. I highly recommend this novel to fellow lovers of historical fiction.

Time and Again by Nora Roberts. This novel is actually a combination of two older novels by Nora Roberts. They both involve handsome men traveling back in time from the 24th century and meeting the love of their lives. They were entertaining novels, but not among Roberts best.

The Perfect Summer by Luanne Rice. This book was a Mom's Club book club pick. The story is a romance/mystery involving a woman, Bay McCabe, who's unfaithful husband has disappeared, and who's teenage crush has reappeared. I enjoyed this light read, except for the excessive mention of the "boardwalk" that Bay and Danny worked on in their youth.

Change of Heart by Jodi Picoult. I thought this novel was riveting and thought provoking (although I figured out the "surprise" ending right away. It involved a murderer who was on death row and wanted to donate his heart to his victim's family. The murderer may also be performing miracles in jail.

Certain Girls by Jennifer Weiner. I enjoyed this book although it's surprise ending was a tear jerker, especially after you've just given birth. I think Ben thought someone had died when he saw my tears! This novel is a follow up to Good in Bed. I thought it was a good sequel and enjoyed getting back into Cannie's story.

The Strongbow Saga Book Three: The Road to Vengeance by Judson Roberts. This novel was another first look review from Harper Collins so the novel actually comes out in June. I enjoyed the novel. Although I hadn't read the first two in the series, I was able to grasp the story quickly and go with it. If you enjoy Viking adventure tales, this book is for you.

Quick Movie Update

I had my second son, Daniel Thomas on April 24th so I've gotten a bit behind on my blog again. I have been doing a lot of movie watching and reading, but it's usually while feeding a baby at midnight so it's hard to get to the computer and update my blog. The more I get behind, the harder it is for me to catch up so I'm going to do a couple quick postings to catch me up and then go from there! This posting is all about recent movies I've watched not including my Turner Classic Movies and Masterpiece Theatre obsession. I love old movies!

Michael Clayton. If I had to describe this movie in one word, it would be confusion. I watched this is with Mom and Kristi the day after I came home from the hospital. We were very confused at the beginning and thought it was just us so we watched it again and decided it was the movie! It was an okay movie and I liked George Clooney and Tom Wilkinson's performance, but I'm still unsure why Tilda Swynton won an Oscar. This movie didn't move or inspire me

Eastern Promises. Viggo Mortensen. Naked Fight Scene. I'll admit, I had less then pure motives for wanting to watch this movie. The movie was disturbing, yet very good. I found myself thinking about it a lot over the days after I had seen it, but I also don't think I ever need to watch it again as the violence was just too disturbing. So disturbing that I couldn't enjoy the naked Viggo Mortensen fight scene and actually closed my eyes to block out the violence. It was a very good movie though and had excellent performances. I recommend watching it, but be aware that it gets very violent and graphic.

Atonement. Atonement was an excellent movie and I highly recommend it. I loved the novel and the movie does an excellent job bringing the novel to life. It followed the novel very well and I especially like how it would show scenes twice at times with how Briony interpretted it and what really happened. I cried at the end. It not only is a great movie about two star crossed lovers, but also about perception and the horrors of war.

Rush Hour 3. This movie does not belong in the same category as the previous three, that's for sure. I found it rather tame and formuliac. It was definitely not as good as the first version. As I told Ben, if you don't watch it, you didn't miss much.

Juno

Ben and I watched Juno over the weekend and enjoyed it. There were some lines in it that made us both laugh out loud.

Juno is an off-beat indie film about a 16-year old Minnesotan girl named Juno MacGuff that finds herself accidently pregnant after basically a one-night experiment in sex with her best friend Paulie. At first Juno thinks she should get an abortion, but after going to the clinic, she decides to have the baby and give it up for adoption. It is a difficult decision, especially with everyone at school making fun of her, but a very admirable one. I like the fact that she knows she is not ready as a teenager to raise the baby on her own. She finds a rich couple in the local "Penny Saver" ads and meets with them with her father. She really connects with Mark, the prospective dad, who has a lot in common with her. Vanessa is more of a cold woman, but Juno appreciates how she wants a baby and is good with kids. Unfortunately, she finds out that Mark and Vanessa are not the perfect couple that they seem and she has some hard decisions to make. Along the way Juno also finds true love.

It was an entertaining movie, but sometimes I found the dialogue to be a bit jaring and weird at times. I liked the films realistic settings and teen angst though. It took on a difficult subject and showed the trials of Juno as she grows up. It was a good movie overall.

House of Testosterone: One Mom's Survival in a Household of Males by Sharon O'Donnell

I saw this title on a recommended reading list at the library and since I'm expecting baby boy number two I thought it would be a good read. House of Testosterone was a funny true account tale of Sharon O'Donnell's struggles being the only female in a house full of sport loving supermen including her husband Kevin, three sons, and dog.

The book is set up basically as a series of articles/stories about the every day life in a household of males. From not being able to keep up with the laundry, to trying to understand the sport speak of the men, it was a humerous book to read. It gives me insight to what I have to look forward to as Kile and my ready-to-be-born-any-minute son grow older. The stories were almost bittersweet at times - there were exasperating moments, yet moments of sadness as your little boys grow into men.

I'd recommend this book to other moms of boys. It was pretty funny. Sharon O'Donnell has a website at http://www.momsofboys.org/ that is pretty interesting to look at. Enjoy!

The Loser's Guide to Life and Love by A.E. Cannon

This is another advance release young adult book that I received from http://www.firstlookteen.com/, or Harper Collins Publishers. I throughly enjoyed this book and highly recommend it.

The Loser's Guide to Life and Love is a young adult novel set in Salt Lake City. The story revolves around a young man named Ed who works at a local movie rental place. He has the old name tag on his coat identifying him as Sergio and meets a beautiful girl who has moved to town named Ellie. He knows Ed would never have a chance with Ellie, but as Sergio, he can be sauve and cool. The story is told in first person by Ed, Ellie, Scout (Ed's best girl friend), and Quark (Ed's best guy friend). Matters get complicated when Ed starts to think that Scout could be more than a pal and Quark starts to have similar thoughts.

I really liked reading everyone's take on the situation. I also thought the four main characters were all very interesting. I actually wanted to read more about them and was sad when the book ended. I hope there is a sequel. I definitely identified with the teen angst in the novel from my own teenage years. One of my favorite parts was Scout's illicit addiction to regency romance novels and how she didn't want her guy friends to find out! I also liked how they were normal teens and not the drunken, drugged out variety that seem to populate the TV airways.

It was a really good book for anyone that is looking for a light read and likes to read young adult once in awhile like me. This book comes out in this summer in July - so be on the look out for it!

Gone Baby Gone

Ben and I watched Gone Baby Gone over the weekend and we both found it to be a riveting, really good movie. I wasn't sure what to expect, but I thought it was an excellent film. In fact, Ben and I were just going to watch half an hour of it, but found that we couldn't turn it off as we wanted to see what would happen and stayed up too late watching the entire movie through. I think that says something!

Gone Baby Gone is not a cheerful movie and it is definitely not a movie with a cut and dry ending. The overall story involves two detectives, Patrick Kenzie (Casey Affleck) and his girlfriend Angie that are hired to track down a missing girl by the girl's aunt and uncle. They discover that the girl's mother, Helene (Amy Ryan), is a crack-ho that had left the girl home alone while she went out to a bar to do drugs with her boyfriend. It also turns out that Helene and her boyfriend had double-crossed a drug dealer and had stolen some money. There is much, much more to this story, but you will have to watch to find out. Will they find the little girl?

I really liked this movie and thought it was the best movie I have seen in a long time. Why wasn't this movie nominated for the best picture oscar? Although I was skeptical going into watching this, I thought Ben Affleck did an excellent job at directing this movie and all of the actors were also excellent in their parts. I highly recommend this movie. There is a lot of swearing and violence though - so don't watch it with kids around!

The Nanny Diaries by Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus

The Nanny Diaries is a satire about the experience of being a nanny to a rich Upper East Side couple in New York City. Nanny is a NYU student and takes a part-time job for Mr. and Mrs. X to watch their young son Grayer as she finishes up school. Mr. and Mrs. X are struggling in their marriage and neglect their son. They also treat Nanny not so nicely. She wants to quit, but stays for Grayer's sake. This look into the Upper East Side culture is definitely a glimpse into a whole other world. I felt really sorry for Grayer and just wanted to smack the X's. I guess it's true what they say - money doesn't buy happiness!

Compared to the movie, I liked the novel better. If you liked the movie, I definitely recommend this novel!

Two Old Women: An Alaskan Legend of Betrayal, Courage, and Survival by Velma Wallis

This is my April Kewaunee book club pick. Kathy and I liked the title and decided to pick it. It was a very short read (only takes a couple of hours) and I found it to be very interesting.

Velma Wallis wrote down this legend that had been passed down to her through oral traditions by her mother, a Athabascan Native American in the Alaskan Yukon. During hard times and starvation, two old women are left behind in the middle of winter to die as the tribe moves on. The women are inspired to remember how to survive according to the skills they had possessed as youth and decide to fight on instead of accepting death. It was a very interesting and inspiring tale. I highly recommend it!

The Secret Adventures of Charlotte Bronte by Laura Joh Rowland

I also saw a review of The Secret Adventures of Charlotte Bronte by Laura Joh Roland online and thought it sounded interesting so I checked it out from the library. It was an interesting mystery read and I really liked how it had the people and facts of Charlotte Bronte's life wrapped throughout it.

Charlotte and Anne Bronte make a trip to London to visit their publisher and reveal their identies after it is thought that they are the same author. They meet the mysterious Isabel White on the train who is later murdered outside their lodgings. Charlotte seeks to discover who murdered Isabel and stumbles across a plot that could destroy the British nation.

While it was a good mystery, I didn't like how Charlotte seemed to think every man was in love with her. At the first part of the novel, it made her seem rather silly. I also thought many of the events were highly improbable for Charlotte, but I did like her spunky spirit and the thought that she had a chance at love, but chose her art instead. If you like mysteries and the Bronte sisters, it is definitely worth a read.

Mistress of the Revolution by Catherine Delors

I read an excellent review of Mistress of the Revolution by Catherine Delors and it inspired me to check it out from the library. I found that this was an excellent historical fiction novel and I would highly recommend it to fans of the genre.

Mistress of the Revolution is the story of Gabrielle de Montserrat a young aristocratic woman in eighteenth century France. Her family is aristocratic, but impoversed. She falls in love with a non-aristocrat who proposes marriage, but her brother forbids it and marries her off to an old, abusive cousin. Gabrielle ends up in Paris right before the revolution and becomes a part of Marie Antonette's court. She experiences the harsh realities of the French Revolution first hand and finds that her first true love is now a judge in the tribunal. Real life characters abound and it was a gripping novel that also brought to life the horrifying events of the French Revolution.