Reviews

On this quiet Sunday morning I thought I might share some book and movie reviews.

In the Young Adult department I enjoyed "Princess Academy" by Shannon Hale but had to fight my way through most of "Goose Girl" by the same author. I just felt so sorry for Princess Isi- everything seem to go badly for her so much of the book but I was happy in the end. Did I just give it away? This is the first in the Books of Bayern trilogy; I will most likely read the next one now that I got started.

For a true story:

I enjoyed "Dewey, the Small-town Library Cat who touched the World" by Vicki Myron and Bret Witter. A cute story about a kitten adopted by a library in rural Iowa. I know the book store cats I have met are very soothing.
Maybe more libraries need cats?

I also read "Julie and Julia: My year of Cooking Dangerously" by Julie Powell. I did enjoy Julie writing about all the cooking which was amazing for someone who works full time! Some of it sounded so good and very fattening, other recipes, well, let's just say, didn't appeal to me but most were just too much work for this semi-lazy cook. I was proud of her though for finishing what she set out to do. Warning: in my humble opinion, the language in this book is atrocious! Do people really talk like that in real life? Not in my small world . I also got very tired of Julie whining in both the book and the movie. I just wanted to slap her! There is very little about Julia Child in this book I should also warn you- they added a lot more in the movie. I did enjoy the movie,`Julie and Julia -well, at least the Julia parts - didn't Meryl Streep do such a great job as Julia Child?! Stanley Tucci was a wonderful Paul Child. If you want to read more about Julia Child, try "My Life in France" by Julia Child. She had an amazing life!

One of my top ten favorite books of all time is "Tuesdays with Morrie" by Mitch Albom. I haven't liked his others since then but I asked for his newest "Have a Little Faith" for Christmas (thank you Mary!) and enjoyed it very much.

I am currently reading "The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game" by Michael Lewis because I enjoyed the movie so much. Loved it in fact! No offense to Mr. Lewis but I have to admit I have skipped several chapters that are completely about football; I'm more into the incredible story about Michael Oher and the wonderful Tuohy family. I'm not a huge Sandra Bullock fan but she does a great job as the indomitable Leigh Anne Tuohy.

Last but not least, Mary brought me Stuart's copy of Dan Brown's newest "The Lost Symbol" while she was here. Ok, I have to say that this: like all Brown's books, this is a real page turner, and I really enjoyed all the trivia about Washington DC but the bad guy is really bad, borderline just plain evil, and that got to me after a while. I was reading it one evening and Roy walked into the room - I jumped a mile! Roy said, "no more reading that book after dark!"

What else is on my book shelf? hmmmm..... a couple of long overdue classics: Persuasion by Jane Austen and Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte. The Robe by Lloyd C. Douglas in time for Easter and Mao's Last Dancer by Li Cunxin. This was recommended to me as well as a gift by a wonderful Aussie friend - thank you Adele!