nichtszusagen: May 2007

Thursday, May 31, 2007

BTT #20

Note: scroll down for the ThursdayThirteen.

Booking Through Thursday

Paper or Plastic?

Do you read e-books?
If so, how? On your computer, or a PDA?
Or are you a paper purist? Why?

I've bought a couple, but I haven't actually read them yet.
I don't have a PDA, so they're on the computer. I kept meaning to steal my daughter's PDA, but my husband nabbed it first, dammit. An e-book reader is going on my Christmas list. Anyone have any recommendations?
I guess I'm a paper purist, but it's a practical thing, not a philosophical one. #2 is why I haven't read them yet. They're on the computer, and it's really a PIA to sit up at the computer to read, and uses up too much energy--see here or here for details. I'm doing great lately, but if I've got the energy to sit at the computer, I've got so much more stuff to do.

...more

Categories: BookingThroughThursday

Labels: BTT

// posted by Darla @ 5/31/2007 04:07:00 PM 3 comments

TT #55

Thirteen things my son wants to do/be when he grows up

My older son's birthday is in 4 days, and he'll be 17. {pause here while I hyperventilate a little} He hasn't even remotely settled on a direction yet. Here are some of the things he's said he wanted to be when he grows up.

Politician. He has mostly-liberal leanings, but would prefer to run as an independent because he thinks it would make people more receptive to his ideas.
Lawyer. Eventually, a district attorney. He's big on the idea of justice.
Physicist. Because physics is just fascinating.
Lego designer. I'm guessing this has something to do with the thousands of dollars worth of Lego in his room.
Veterinarian. Possibly in the army. Fascination with animals, growing up a military brat--it's not hard to follow the steps there.
Environmental engineer. Also possibly in the army. When he mentioned this one, you could just see Carl glow. Which was a lovely moment--shows that despite the wisecracks, he does respect his dad.
Environmental law. I think this one came up after he watched An Inconvenient Truth.
Write novels. SF/F, of course.
Write/draw comics. He's had an ongoing series, Frogo, that he's been doing off and on for about 8 years.
Write and produce a TV show, in collaboration with his brother. They've been developing it for some time now, and currently the idea is to have a permanent cast of characters, with episodes in different settings. Kind of a cross between a variety show's skits and "Quantum Leap".
Paranormal investigator. Also in collaboration with his brother. They took this one straight from "Supernatural."
Automotive engineer. Ever since he decided it might be useful to take auto-tech in school and discovered how much fun it was.
Teacher. History. Or physics. Or math. Or philosophy. A forum, in other words, in which to pass on and exchange ideas, of which he has plenty.

Oh, and there's also the plan to take over the world. There are a lot of parts to that plan--I'm sensing a future TT on that one.

Links to other Thursday Thirteens!

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!

The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

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...more

Categories: ThursdayThirteen

Labels: TT

// posted by Darla @ 5/31/2007 12:12:00 PM 30 comments

Wednesday, May 30, 2007

Luring a Lady

**** Luring a Lady by Nora Roberts. Contemporary romance. Re-read.

Little snippet of trivia about this 2nd book in the Stanislaski series: that lady in yellow there? That's Nora.

Sydney Hayward is a divorced socialite who's just inherited her grandfather's company. Everyone thinks she'll play at being CEO for a little while, then get bored with it and go back to what's really important: socializing. Sydney, on the other hand, is determined to live up to her grandfather's trust and do a good job.

Mikhail Stanislaski is a Ukranian immigrant, brother of Natasha from Taming Natasha, and a renowned sculptor.

Sydney meets Mik when he shows up at her office, without an appointment, complaining about the conditions in one of her apartment buildings. Annoyed but challenged, she visits the building, is dismayed by its condition, and hires Mik, who admitted he's "sometimes a carpenter," to oversee the necessary repairs.

There are obstacles from the other officers of the company, who think she should be thinking of the profits, and from her mother and Channing--her mother's choice of a second husband for Sydney--who think she should be focusing on planning her wedding. In the face of all this, finding out that Mik isn't just a carpenter is small potatoes.

This is a pretty standard early-90s romance (1991). The heroine has a masculine name (I got a chuckle when Mik objected to it), and she has no problem whatsoever running a pretty big company without any training that we can see. We never find out how big the company is, but it has stockholders and a board of directors, so I'm assuming it does more than just own/manage one or two apartment buildings. These things you just kind of have to accept and move on.

Sydney's mother is a fairly flat villain, as is Sydney's corporate nemesis. We don't really get motivations for either of them.

But Sydney's determination to do the right thing, and to make a difference, particularly in the face of so much resistance, is inspiring to watch. She was absolutely convincing--starting off as the confident rich woman to whom nobody says "no", she's initially offended by Mik's anger and protest, but her strength shows, and she takes it as a challenge. Then she doesn't duck the blame for the company's negligence--instead she accepts responsibility and begins to solve the problem. And when she discovers Mik's fame/talent, instead of flying into a rage like 90% of the heroines in Romancelandia would do, she swallows her initial reaction and carries on. Just lovely.

Also lovely is the Stanislaski family, and the contrast between their warmth and boisterousness (although really--why do all grown-up brothers in the Noraverse indulge in fisticuffs?) and the cold reserve of the Haywards.

It's Sydney's story, really--she has the changing to do. All Mik has to do is fall in love. Which is not to say he doesn't have a few difficult moments with it, but he's pretty much fine the way he is. Sydney will, I'm sure, smooth out what rough edges remain.

...more

Categories: Books, 4stars, ContemporaryRomance

Labels: 4 stars, books, ContemporaryRomance

// posted by Darla @ 5/30/2007 01:06:00 PM 1 comments

Tuesday, May 29, 2007

tarot card quiz

Snagged this from Tink's blog.

I Am

Which tarot card are you?

Undirected Creative Force. Open, receptive, devoid of pre-conceived notions. Beginnings.
A young man holding the white rose of innocence in his left hand and grasping a vagabond's staff and satchel in the other, wanders with his gaze to the heaves, about to step into an abyss. His is the transformative journey of the spirit from innocence through experience into wisdom. His guardian and friend is the white dog symbolizing his own puppylike trust and faith, for which the world labels him The Fool.

Hmmm. I'm not sure if I agree with this or not. It doesn't sound very flattering.

Categories: AboutMe

Labels: quiz

// posted by Darla @ 5/29/2007 06:52:00 AM 2 comments

Monday, May 28, 2007

The Widow

** The Widow (La Veuve). Adult.

NSFW cover below the fold.

Directed by: Tony Del Duomo.

Starring: Claudia Rossi, Horst Baron, Jennifer Stone, Laura Lion, Monica Sweetheart, Nomi, Oksana, Remigio Zampa, Tera Bond, Tony Carrera.

We got this one from Sugar DVD. Proof that Wicked Pictures has blah porn along with the fun ones.

Oksana is a young widow whose husband was killed by the mafia. She turns to the local mob boss for help, and ends up one of a group of widows forced to be sex slaves.

Well, that's what it says it's about, anyway. Mostly, it's just a lot of long, not-very-inventive sex scenes with the various widows having sex with various clients. It's mostly anal sex, though we had to ask each other every once in a while if that's what was going on, because you could really only tell during the close-ups.

Originally in French, I suspect the actors did their own dubbing, because they had French accents in English.

There wasn't much dialogue, several of the women looked fairly similar to each other, and the men were never really introduced, so that added to my impression that the movie was just one long dull sex scene after another. Worse was that there didn't seem to be much emotion at all. Even when Oksana is introduced to her new life, she doesn't seem shocked or upset or excited or anything. The same is true of the sex scenes. Nobody seems to be really enjoying themselves.

Maybe that was intentional--I don't know. It could be a French thing. I'm assuming the artistic camera angles and the unusual close-ups (one was of a pimple caused by, I assume, an ingrown pubic hair, that looked remarkably like a nipple) were French things.

Also French, and why this got 2 stars instead of 1, was that there weren't any scary fake boobs, and some of the men were uncircumsized.

Meh. There's better porn out there, but I can see how it would appeal to some viewers.

Categories: Movies, 2stars, Adult

Labels: 2 stars, adult, Movies

// posted by Darla @ 5/28/2007 09:43:00 PM 0 comments

Second Nature

**** Second Nature by Nora Roberts. Contemporary romance. Re-read.

This is the first of a duo connected by heroines who work for Celebrity magazine.

Lee Radcliffe is a reporter, and she's determined to get an interview with reclusive horror author Hunter Brown. As you can tell from the names, this book was written in the 80s. Masculine name for the heroine, random noun name for the hero. Gak. Though this one's not quite as bad, since Lee can be female, though it's usually spelled differently (Li, Lea, Leigh, Leah)

Anyway. Lee discovers that Hunter will be at a writers' conference, so she dusts off the manuscript she's been fiddling with off and on, and goes undercover.

She meets him at the airport, where he'd gone to pick up his agent, who was a no-show. He offers her a ride to the hotel, and she assumes he works for the hotel. They're attracted to each other, and enjoy their conversation, so she accepts his dinner invitation, though she wonders why such an intelligent, insightful man has such a menial job.

Then she's seated in the front row at a workshop when he's introduced, and, well, you can guess she's pretty irritated. He makes it a dare, so she goes through with dinner, but she lets her anger get in the way of subtly interviewing him, the way she'd intended to. Making matters worse, she leaves her manuscript with him.

The situation hits bottom when, intrigued by the manuscript, he does some checking and discovers she's a reporter, and the rest of the conference is a bust.

Then, back at work, Lee gets an invitation from Hunter to go on a camping trip with him for two weeks, during which time she'll be allowed to interview him. The expected city-girl-on-a-camping-trip hilarity ensues.

If it weren't for Nora's deft hand with characters, I wouldn't have liked this one at all. Lee seemed awfully hypocritical for being angry with Hunter for not correcting her mistaken impression of him, while she was deliberately deceiving him. The saving grace was that she did eventually realize this. And she was a pretty good sport about the camping trip, though that's a pretty common plot--maybe less so in 1986?

I didn't mention Hunter's daughter. She was fairly age-appropriate, but mostly just a plot device to explain his reclusiveness. It was a little hard to reconcile the Great Dad™ with the man who left his daughter, first for a week-long conference, then shortly afterward for two weeks on a camping trip. Which is not to say that single parents don't deserve personal lives, or that it wasn't satisfactorily explained in the story--it's just one more example of why I don't really like children in romance novels--they tend to conveniently disappear quite a lot.

I also found it a little hard to believe that Lee's partial manuscript was So Great and impressed Hunter so much that he thinks she should quit her job and just finish it. I've been around too many aspiring authors to believe that it's quite that simple or easy.

On the other hand, the characters did come to life, and I very much enjoyed Hunter's dilemma of being so attracted to someone he was also angry with. Even better was Lee's conviction that she needed to return to her old life. The character who's caught between their safe, predictable, comfortable life, and the possibility of their heart's desire is a classic story, and Nora gives us all those emotions, and makes them very real.

...more

Categories: Books, 4stars, ContemporaryRomance

Labels: 4 stars, books, ContemporaryRomance

// posted by Darla @ 5/28/2007 03:14:00 PM 3 comments

Sunday, May 27, 2007

Link of the Week #35

http://www.earlyink.com/

This is like Movies.com for books. Previews, promos, and buzz for new and upcoming books. It's a brand new site, and I'm pretty excited about it. Even with only a few books up at the moment, I found one from a favorite author that I hadn't known about yet, and two that looked interesting from new-to-me authors.

Categories: LOTW

Labels: cool links

// posted by Darla @ 5/27/2007 11:24:00 AM 5 comments

Saturday, May 26, 2007

TBR Challenge for May

The challenge for May is to read a book with a name in its title.

To participate, leave a comment here or on your blog.

I chose:

**** George Washington's War by Robert Leckie. Non-fiction.

I've had this for a very long time, but never read it. Several years ago, I bought a random handful of history books, because it's a subject I don't know much about, but I'd started to become curious. Oddly, though, instead of putting them in my TBR pile, I put them in the bookcase with all the reference books, and there they sat. So about a year ago, I started putting unread nonfiction in the TBR pile. This was the first book in the pile with a name in the title.

This is the second book I've read this month that took over a week to read. May's total is going to be shockingly low.

Despite the length of time it took me to read, I thoroughly enjoyed this history of the American Revolution. I'm not sure how it would stand up for someone with a strong background in American history, but for me, the blend of a fresh look at things I already knew and a lot of things I didn't know at all was the Baby Bear's porridge of history books.

Interestingly, one thing that irritated me so much about my last long read worked very well in a nonfiction setting: every major character that's introduced gets his life story told. The narrative is interrupted for a brief but fairly thorough biography, then resumes. If it were fiction, or if I'd been reading for the story, it would have driven me up a wall. But when it comes to understanding history, and why things happened the way they did, it helped immensely to have a portrait of the major actors.

Where the book really shines, I think (again, coming from a terribly limited background in history), is in showing the motivations and backgrounds for both sides. For example, in high school American History, I'd learned that the Americans won because the British were too short-sighted (stupid was implied, but not said) to learn to fight guerilla-style. In a nutshell, this isn't idealized as my education had been. (Unsurprisingly--my American history teacher was really the high school football coach, who was the history teacher because in my small school, coaches all had to be teachers as well. Guess which was his priority?)

Even to my untutored eye, some of the book, particularly toward the end, gets a bit opinionated, but I'm cynical anyway, so I read it as fact colored by opinion, which is more interesting than dry facts, anyway.

...more

Categories: TBRChallenge, Books, 4stars, Nonfiction

Labels: 4 stars, books, nonfiction, tbr challenge

// posted by Darla @ 5/26/2007 01:38:00 PM 2 comments

Friday, May 25, 2007

Taming Natasha

**** Taming Natasha by Nora Roberts. Contemporary romance. Re-read.

This is the first in the Stanislaski series about a family of Ukranian immigrants.

Natasha Stanislaski owns a toy store. She meets Spencer Kimball, composer and professor of music at the local college, when he brings his daughter Freddie into the store. Then they're thrown together again when Natasha takes a music appreciation course and discovers that Spence is the instructor.

Since this is a re-read, I tried to separate my remembered impressions of the book from my current reading. Initially, Natasha believes that Spence is married, and so she's angry and disgusted with him when he asks her out. I remembered being annoyed with her for jumping to the conclusion that a man with a child must perforce be married, but I must have read more quickly the last time, because it's quite clear that he and Freddie were with his sister, and seeing a man, woman, and child obviously together, it would be natural to think that the adults were the child's parents.

What was annoying was that Natasha continued being angry even after she learned the truth. It was realistic--residual first impression, embarrassment at being wrong--but it wasn't very appealing. And later on, when they develop a relationship, Natasha refuses to commit to it, for reasons I won't spoil. Again, it was realistic, but not admirable, and basing present day decisions on a tenuous resemblance to a past trauma is something that pushes my buttons. The heroine who distrusts all men because her junior high school sweetheart done her wrong is one of my least favorite romance heroines. It doesn't make it any better that I know people like this in real life. Granted, Natasha's past is a little more traumatic than this, but we don't learn that until near the end of the book.

Spence, on the other hand, I really liked. A single father, he had past traumas of his own with his ex-wife. But where Natasha's past made her want to avoid relationships to prevent future sadness, Spence's past made him want to do better at relationships in the future. That difference actually made them a good match, and the contrast between the way they dealt with their pasts made it an interesting story. I think it was easier for Spence to try again because he hadn't tried very hard the first time, so he still felt he could succeed, while Natasha had given her all before and failed.

Normally, I dislike children in romance novels. Freddie was okay. She was pretty age-appropriate, and her presence was a major part of the plot.

Best line in the book, that still makes me smile: Spence, referring to Natasha's accent: "Say 'get moose and squirrel.'"

...more

Categories: Books, 4stars, ContemporaryRomance

Labels: 4 stars, books, ContemporaryRomance

// posted by Darla @ 5/25/2007 01:01:00 PM 5 comments

Thursday, May 24, 2007

BTT #19

Note: scroll down for the ThursdayThirteen.

Booking Through Thursday

Parlez Vous?

Here’s an idea from Julie:

I had an idea for a BTT question when I was taking a peek at one of my bookcases yesterday and spotted my old copy of the Aeneid in Latin sitting there. Maybe this question has already been done—but if not… Do you have any foreign language books and if so can you (still) read them?

I have a handful of books in German, but I haven't tried reading one in a long while. When the kids were small, I used to read children's stories to them in German, and that wasn't a problem at all. I suspect if I pulled one of them off the kids' shelves, I could still read it okay. I keep meaning to try, but...

...more

Categories: BookingThroughThursday

Labels: BTT

// posted by Darla @ 5/24/2007 02:30:00 PM 2 comments

TT #54

Thirteen Romance Novel Clichés

Disclaimer: I love romance novels. And to be fair, I've mostly encountered them in older romances, so maybe rather than calling them clichés, I should just say "thirteen things you used to find too often in romance novels but don't anymore," but that's just not quite as catchy.

But please, please, please, do not use this list to dismiss an entire genre of fabulous books.

Historicals.
1. The hero and heroine will be "strangely addicted" to bathing. This is regardless of the customs of the times, and they'll frequently be criticized for this addiction. They'll even break the ice in a river when they're exhausted, injured, already half-frozen, and on the run from murderous bad guys, in order to bathe before going to bed. It never has anything to do with the plot, and there's rarely any reason to mention it. It pulls me out of the story every time, like whapping me over the head to say "this is added for you contemporary readers because otherwise you'll be thinking they're all stinky."
2. Similarly, heroines will find a way to depilate, whether it's with the hero's straight razor, sharp shells, candle wax, or sugar syrup. Hair thus removed takes a very long time to grow back, if it grows back at all.
3. The hero and heroine will always be ahead of their times, in tune with current mores, again, whether or not it has anything to do with the plot. They'll always be anti-slavery, feminist, democratic, and even environmentalist. Again, it's like sticking a commercial in the middle of the book: "we interrupt this story to remind you that it's important to conserve trees." I'm fine with this if there's a point to it--a Regency heroine who's starting a school for lower-class children, perhaps. But too often, it just pops up out of nowhere.
4. The heroine always makes The Fluffiest Biscuits™ out of nothing more than some flour, water, and lard. This happens in westerns, and sometimes medievals. I've made biscuits. Flour, water, and lard ain't gonna make fluffy biscuits--I don't care how culinarily talented you are.
5. It takes about 15 minutes to dry waist-length hair in front of a fire. Well damn. Why bother with an electric blow-dryer, then? No wonder these historical heroines are washing their hair daily.Similarly, it takes about 5 minutes to make tea, including running down to the river to fetch water in the kettle.
6. A heroine will find it necessary at some point to disguise herself as a man. She'll be incredibly proficient at manly arts, particularly with swordplay and archery, and the hero will never realize it's her, except that he'll be strangely drawn to the young squire.
7. Willow bark tea is way stronger and faster acting than any modern painkillers. The same is true with all folk remedies. Except for leeching and bleeding. All historical heroes and heroines know that leeches are bad, unless you've got a big giant bruise. Then they're okay.
Contemporary
1. The hero and heroine will be at the very top of their professions. This is regardless of whether the heroine is only 22 and appears to be a bimbo. She's not--she's a prodigy. She's the best CEO/doctor/pilot evah. Ignore all the evidence to the contrary.
2. The heroine's greatest desire is to become a baby factory. Regardless of her personality or previously stated desires, for her, love = babies. Lots and lots of them. There'll frequently be an epilogue listing their names and genders.
3. The heroine is Strong and Independent™. This is frequently demonstrated by rushing blindly into danger, and more subtly by having a masculine name.
Romance in General
1. At some point in the story, the heroine will have to borrow clothing. It will inevitably be too tight in the bosom and too loose at the hips. It will also be either far too short or far too long.
2. The hero will be the biggest man the heroine has ever seen. Yes, I meant that, but also that he'll be the tallest, and have the widest shoulders as well. He'll also have a 6-pack, regardless of whether he has the time or inclination to work on his abs.
3. The romance version of Murphy's Law: if anything can be misunderstood, it will be misunderstood. A corollary: any secrets or misunderstandings that Character A intends to explain to Character B will be revealed by a third party just before Character A can explain.

Links to other Thursday Thirteens!

Labels: TT

// posted by Darla @ 5/24/2007 09:41:00 AM 25 comments

Wednesday, May 23, 2007

The Witching Hour

**½ The Witching Hour by Anne Rice. Horror.

I mentioned before that I have a love/hate relationship with Anne Rice's books. This one falls into the latter category.

Where to begin? Well, to start with, it took me over a week to read. Granted, it's over 1000 pages long, but that normally doesn't happen. It should have taken 3 days, maybe 4. Too bad I'm unable to put a book down once I've started reading it.

It's the start of the Witches of Mayfair series, about a family of witches, and the main story, to the extent there is one, is about the most recent descendant coming into her inheritance, but it's nothing as straightforward as that. Not even close.

I'll try to synopsize. Rowan Mayfair is a brilliant neurosurgeon, with a magic sense that, combined with her medical experience, allows her to know which seemingly hopeless cases can be cured. She was adopted at birth and knows nothing at all about her birth family. A man who restores old houses, Michael Curry, drowns while Rowan's on her boat. She rescues and revives him, and they fall in love.

Then there's Deirdre Mayfair, who's in a sort of vegatative state, and it turns out she's Rowan's mother, and the whole family are witches.

Enter Aaron Lightner, a member of the Talamasca, a group that studies supernatural phenomena, and has a big long file--mostly in the form of letters--on the Mayfair family.

Problem #1: Dr. Rowan believes that stem cell research is Coma with fetuses. This one happened early on, well before I was irritated with the book, and when I still expected to enjoy it. And every time I'd gotten over it, up it pops again, making my nutshell impression of the book a 1000+ page diatribe about the evils of stem cell research. It's perfectly fine to use magic to kill people who irritate you, but you're going to hell if you take some cells from an aborted fetus. Whoops. Sorry about that. As you can tell, it pushed my buttons. Particularly since Dr. Rowan is pointedly pro-choice.

Problem #2: The book starts with the POV of a doctor who's suspicious of Deirdre's care. It gives his whole life history (another problem--I'll be getting to it). Then nothing at all comes of it. Nothing. Ever. The doctor never shows up again. The plot thread is just completely dropped. It's bad enough when this happens in the middle of the book, but when it's what starts the book?

Problem #3: We get detailed life histories about every single person introduced in the book, whether it has anything to do with the plot or not. Some of them are interesting, but they're huge tangents, and I lost track of the plot for hundreds of pages at a time.

Problem #4: The book jumps back and forth in time. Part of this is caused by #3, but even within an individual character's story, there's jumping back and forth in time. It's disorienting, and not in a way that serves the story.

Problem #5: There's very little discussion, explanation, or demonstration of the witches' magical powers. Rowan has a little healing power, and other than that, their main magical power seems to be that they can see "The Man," Lasher. Oh, and when they die, it storms. That's pretty much it, except that they're very good at intrigue, manipulation, and shady business dealings. I'm quite possibly more demanding on this score because I've read an awful lot of fantasy, but I expect more than just "they're scary witches"--I'm not going to believe it unless you show me.

Problem #6: The History of the Mayfair Witches--the epistolary file introduced by Aaron Lightner. It's dull, dull, dull. Not only that, but it's prefaced with a note basically saying "I don't care what you think, it's not anachronistic!" accompanied by, in my head, the sound of a foot stomping. And the "letters" are really unconvincing as letters. At one point, someone's running for his life, and he stops to write a letter. Okay, I can buy that he wants to get the word back to the Talamasca. But you cannot convince me that he would take the time to describe the foliage or any of the other things that are depicted in excruciating detail that have nothing to do with the plot.

Problem #7: I did not buy the romance between Rowan and Michael Curry. You'd think that, in over 1000 pages, there'd be space to develop it convincingly, but no. She saves him, they reunite, then they have hawt secks and voila. They're in lurrrvve. Not buying it. I'm particularly not buying that they've instantly got a relationship that's stable enough to weather everything that'll get thrown at them.

Problem #8: Michael's psychic ability. It's quite cool, actually, that it showed up without warning, but that's when I expected it to be explained eventually. It wasn't.

Problem #9: Too much just wasn't explained. And some things that were huge problems just disappeared without being solved.

Problem #10: Rowan ends up being TSTL. Well, I guess that could have been predicted, given #1, but it was still an annoying surprise.

The thing is, this could have been a pretty good story if it were about 400 pages long. Cut out the life histories of every single character. Cut out the flashbacks. Cut out that damn history. Focus on the story in the here-and-now and develop it better. *sigh*

I've got at least 2 more Anne Rice books in my TBR pile. I'm approaching them with trepidation.

...more

Categories: Books, 2.5stars, Horror

Labels: 2.5 stars, books, horror

// posted by Darla @ 5/23/2007 07:03:00 PM 6 comments

Tuesday, May 22, 2007

City Watch Quiz

Discworld: Which Ankh-Morpork City Watch Character are YOU?

Lord Havelock Vetinari
Take this quiz!

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| Make A Quiz | More Quizzes | Grab Code

Ooooh. I like this result.

Categories: AboutMe

Labels: quiz

// posted by Darla @ 5/22/2007 12:22:00 PM 2 comments

Monday, May 21, 2007

Fiddler on the Roof

***** Fiddler on the Roof. Musical.

Directed by: Norman Jewison.
Starring: Topol, Norma Crane, Leonard Frey, Paul Michael Glaser.

I'd never seen this, or at least never seen the entire film. I knew all the songs already, and Carl says we saw it as a play, but if we did, a lot of stuff was cut out. We got this from Netflix--it was in my "classics" queue. It's not the only classic I've never seen.

Milkman Tevye (Topol), his wife, and five (!) daughters in pre-revolutionary Russia. I remember my parents going to see this at the theater, probably back in 1971, when it was released, and listening to my mom and some of her friends swooning over Topol. I have to say, I can see their point. It's not the appearance, it's the character.

One by one, his older daughters buck tradition and choose their own husbands by falling in love: a penniless tailor, a revolutionary teacher, and a local, non-Jewish Russian boy. And despite his bluster at not being obeyed as the head of the household, one by one they twist him around their little fingers. (The last one almost doesn't succeed.) One of the sweetest moments in the movie comes when all this romance gets to Tevye and he asks his wife of many years if she loves him.

It's a wonderfully emotional snapshot of the setting--the time and the place, but it's not just historical drama. It's about the struggle to find, accept, and hold on to one's roles in the family and in society, something everyone can relate to.

The historical parts--the anti-Semitism that forced these people from their homes--were hard to watch, but important, especially if the thinking they provoke extends beyond the specific people, time, and place. The lesson is all the more powerful for being surrounded by warmth and humor.

The music is, of course, the first thing I think of, and is just perfect. Even the boys liked it, and I've heard warped versions of "If I Were a Rich Man" around the house a few times since we finished watching the movie.

...more

Categories: Movies, 5stars, Musical

Labels: 5 stars, Movies, musical

// posted by Darla @ 5/21/2007 12:46:00 PM 5 comments

Sunday, May 20, 2007

Link of the Week #34

http://noonebelongsheremorethanyou.com/

Oh, this is just too hilarious. I got the link via the Cherries. It's a promotional site for this book of short stories. I've never heard of the author, and I'm not a fan of short stories in general, but I'm really tempted to put this book in my next order. If you've read it, please let me know how it is. I'm just very, very amused.

Categories: LOTW

Labels: cool links

// posted by Darla @ 5/20/2007 09:42:00 AM 0 comments

Saturday, May 19, 2007

Jesus Christ, Vampire Hunter

**** Jesus Christ, Vampire Hunter. Comedy/horror.

Directed by: Lee Demarbre.
Starring: Phil Caracas, Murielle Varhelyi, Jeff Moffett, Ian Driscoll, Josh Grace.

I bought this for Carl for Christmas (heh) on the recommendation of the ~~lunatics~~ savvy folks at the Jim Butcher forums. I'm not sure what I expected, but I don't think anyone would have expected this.

Suppose that there are vampires in Canada. And suppose that they have a preference for lesbians. Just who would you get to fight them? Why, Jesus Christ, of course, who's been living pretty quietly these days.

He teams up with Mary Magnum and, later, the Mexican wrestler El Santos (who I initially thought was the Holy Ghost--hey, it could have been--God was in a bowl of cherries, after all), gets a new look, and kicks butt.

The whole movie looks like a student project--very low budget, very amateurish on pretty much every angle you can think of: the acting, the stunts, the sets, the sound quality, you name it. But I love that sort of thing. I mentioned before that I prefer amateur theater. But this is more than that. This is like the small circuses you can see here. (The link isn't one of the smallest circuses--unsurprisingly, they don't generally have websites, and I've spent enough time trying to find a more descriptive link.) Anyway, there are circuses here with maybe a dozen people total doing everything from setting up to selling tickets to 3 or 4 different acts each. I love those. That's what Jesus Christ, Vampire Hunter was like. It was to a Hollywood movie what the small traveling circus is to Ringling Brothers/Barnum & Bailey.

Granted, I'm pretty much a-religious (even anti-Religious, if it's with a capital "R"), but I have a really thorough fundamentalist Christian background, and other than the audacity of portraying Jesus in a modern setting and a story that's not overtly Religious, it's not sacreligious at all. That is, the Jesus in the movie sticks pretty close to the one in the bible. He may kick the vampires around, but he ends up healing them, too.

And then there's the musical/dance number. The entire movie is worth watching just for that alone.

The kids enjoyed it, too. Yeah, I know. I should be going to hell for exposing my kids to something like this. Not to worry. I've got my Get Out of Hell Free card.

...more

Categories: Movies, 4stars, Comedy

Labels: 4 stars, comedy, Movies

// posted by Darla @ 5/19/2007 02:36:00 PM 1 comments

Friday, May 18, 2007

The Gods Must Be Crazy

***** The Gods Must Be Crazy. Comedy.

Directed by: Jamie Uys
Starring: Marius Weyers, Sandra Prinsloo, N!xau

I thought I'd seen this when it was new (1980, but not out in US theaters until 1984), but either I'd forgotten a lot of it, or I'd only seen portions of it. We rented this one from Netflix.

A Coke bottle falls from an airplane and is found by Xi, a bushman, who takes it back to his family. They find it useful, but as it's the only one, they begin to fight over it, where they'd been only peaceful before. So Xi sets out to return the cursed object to the gods.

Meanwhile, a new teacher, Miss Thompson, arrives in Botswana, and is picked up by a scientist, Dr. Steyn, who's both enamoured and nervous around her. And there's a crazy revolutionary running around.

All three threads come together as Xi is on his quest.

There's humor--Dr. Steyn's difficulties with the land rover they call the anti-christ had me in stitches; action--mostly with the revolutionaries and the authorities trying to catch them; and romance--a very sweet romantic triangle with Miss Thompson caught between the earnest but tongue-tied Dr. Steyn and the slick bus-driving tour guide. The Gods Must Be Crazy is also part nature documentary on the Kalahari, and part sociological study.

The clash of cultures provides most of the humor and the serious moments--not only between primitive and civilized cultures, but also between men and women. And the narration prompts you to look at things, whether it's a familiar-seeming man making a fool of himself around a beautiful woman, or a bushman not understanding what was wrong with killing and eating a sheep, from the outside, as a scientific study perhaps. Which makes some things even funnier, and others more poignant or even profound.

It's a fairly low-budget, amateur-looking film, which only makes it feel more authentic and adds to its charm.

The unusual style took a bit of getting used to, but once they did, Carl and the kids loved this as much as I did.

...more

Categories: Movies, 5stars, Comedy

Labels: 5 stars, comedy, Movies

// posted by Darla @ 5/18/2007 06:19:00 PM 2 comments

Spring Reading Challenge

The Reading Challenge for spring is to revisit a favorite children's author, or an author you loved in the past but haven't read in a long while.

I chose:

***** The Thurber Carnival by James Thurber. Humor.

Not a children's author, but I remember reading all the books of his they had in the library when I was a kid--inspired by the short-running TV show "My World and Welcome to It" which was based on his work. Surprisingly, I was younger than I'd thought I was--8 or 9, rather than the 12 or 13 I'd guessed.

Amazingly, I found him just as entertaining as I did as a child. The Thurber Carnival is a hodge-podge of essays, stories, and drawings culled over several decades and from several other collections. Some are better than others, of course, and quite a few of them are very dated--unsurprisingly, since the book was originally published in 1945, and compiled at that time from earlier sources.

It doesn't really seem to matter. Even though I can't really relate to the early days of the automobile, it didn't stop me from laughing aloud at "Recollections of a Gas Buggy." Human nature hasn't changed all that much in the past 60 or 70 years.

There are quite a few classic stories in here, including "The Catbird Seat," which is a delicious story of revenge, and "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty," which I hadn't even realized was Thurber's.

His drawings are just as entertaining, which is even more startling after reading in the biography what poor eyesight he had. With just a few lines, he manages to do the same thing he does in the stories and essays with just a few words.

Most of the humor has to do with human nature--specifically, with the way people communicate, or don't. One of the best (i.e. most hilarious) examples is "What Do You Mean It Was Brillig?" in which he lampoons both his housekeeper's accent and his own misunderstanding of and reaction to it. There's also a darkly humorous story, "The Breaking Up of the Winships," about a couple who divorces over a disagreement about Greta Garbo. Change a few minor details, and these stories are as true today as they were when they were written.

I'm really happy about this reading challenge. Not only was it wonderfully nostalgic, and still entertaining today, but I've got this lovely book of very funny, very short pieces that are easy to share with my family. I don't even begrudge the 3 days it took me to read.

...more

Categories: ReadingChallenge, Books, 5stars, Humor

Labels: 5 stars, books, humor, reading challenge

// posted by Darla @ 5/18/2007 12:38:00 PM 0 comments

Thursday, May 17, 2007

BTT #18

Note: scroll down for the ThursdayThirteen.

Booking Through Thursday

Bookless:

It happens even to the best readers from time to time… you close the cover on the book you’re reading and discover, to your horror, that there’s nothing else to read. Either there’s nothing in the house, or nothing you’re in the mood for. Just, nothing that “clicks.” What do you do?? How do you get the reading wheels turning again?

That's where having a huge TBR pile and a random selection system comes in handy. The TBR pile is so big--over 400 books--that I never run out of books. And because I pick my next reads randomly, I don't end up with that frozen feeling of not feeling like reading anything in the pile.
In fact, that's why I started choosing my reading stack randomly. I used to look at this big TBR pile and not be able to find anything to read. Turns out, I just kept looking at the same books over and over, and overlooking the same ones time after time. The TBR challenges help, too, to get me to read something I'd have otherwise overlooked.

...more

Categories: BookingThroughThursday

Labels: BTT

// posted by Darla @ 5/17/2007 03:43:00 PM 4 comments

TT #53

Thirteen Questions About Vacations for You to Answer

I stole this from Carmen. Answer the questions in comments so I can get to know you better. My answers in italics.

Where are you going on your next vacation? Back to Italy.
How many vacation days do you get a year? Zip. None. I'm a SAHM, so I'm always on the job, so to speak.
What's the best vacation you've ever taken? A long weekend in Budapest.
Are you a beach vacation person? Oh, yeah.
Have you ever taken a Disney vacation? I went to Disney World for one day in college, as part of a family vacation to Florida. Not sure if it would hold true today, or if it was just a result of me being rebellious, but I liked Cedar Point better.
How long will it be until your next vacation? About 2 months.
What is your dream vacation? Currently, a quiet, relaxing, romantic getaway with my husband. A mountain cabin would be nice.
Are you a light packer, or a pack rat? I pack a lot, but I'm very good at packing it. Case in point: one time we were in the middle of a trip when our Expedition got totaled. The insurance company paid for a rental car for us, but all we could get at the time was a Taurus. I managed to fit everything from the Expedition into the Taurus's trunk.
Do you have a passport? Well, yeah. I live in a foreign country. I kind of have to have one.
Do you like to fly? I can't say I like being squashed like a sardine for 9 hours, but I don't really mind flying. I don't get nervous about it or anything.
Have you ever taken a train trip? Yep. Took a train trip from Kaiserslautern to Venice. It would have been nicer if I hadn't been pregnant and nauseated the whole way.
What's the most expensive trip you've ever taken? I don't think I've ever taken an expensive trip.
What's the most adventurous thing you've ever done on vacation? Windsurfing in Holland, which we did fairly frequently for 3 or 4 years.

Links to other Thursday Thirteens!

Labels: about me, TT

// posted by Darla @ 5/17/2007 10:14:00 AM 12 comments

Wednesday, May 16, 2007

Without a Clue

***** Without a Clue. Comedy/mystery.

Directed by: Thom Eberhardt.
Starring: Michael Caine, Ben Kingsley.

I watched this with the boys on video when Carl was away from home. I'd forgotten how much I love this movie.

Ben Kingsley is Dr. Watson, a man of science and logic who uses those skills to solve crimes and then writes stories about them. He's hired an actor, Reginald Kincaid (Michael Caine) to play his fictional detective, Sherlock Holmes.

But "Holmes" is getting on Watson's last nerve. He's getting cockier, not following instructions, and on the verge of blowing the whole scheme with his profligate ways. So Watson fires Kincaid and styles himself as "the crime doctor," but the public wants Sherlock Holmes, and even Inspector Lestrade (Jeffrey Jones), who's suspicious of Holmes's techniques, won't listen to him.

It's particularly bad timing, as the financial fate of the country depends on the swift resolution of a case that the Queen herself asks Holmes to solve.

Then Watson disappears and Kincaid/Holmes is left to solve the case himself, with the help of Mrs. Hudson (Pat Keen) and Watson's Baker Street Irregulars (street urchins, in case you aren't familiar with the Sherlock Holmes stories).

This is a film in which everything just comes together so perfectly that it seems effortless. The comic timing is genius--in fact, Holmes & Mrs. Hudson on the stage is a classic piece of physical comedy with impeccable timing. Caine and Kingsley play off each other very well--neither upstaging the other--and there's more depth to the characters than just the surface frustrations with each other.

Caine's Holmes is a frustrated actor, drinking and womanizing because he knows he's nothing special. When he's called on to prove himself, it's lovely to watch his self-esteem grow. The same is true of Kingsley's Watson. He's a man of science, true, but he's tired of being in the shadows, and needs recognition and appreciation--like we all do.

I think that's why I enjoy Without a Clue so much--it has layers. There's the twist of the Sherlock Holmes story, which is fun, then there's the mystery/adventure plot itself, which is intriguing and exciting, and then there's the emotional story of the main characters, which is... er... emotional. In other words, it's satisfying on several levels, making it a movie I can watch more than once.

The boys enjoyed it, too.

...more

Categories: Movies, 5stars, Comedy

Labels: 5 stars, comedy, Movies

// posted by Darla @ 5/16/2007 02:47:00 PM 1 comments

Yellowbeard

*** Yellowbeard. Comedy.

Directed by: Mel Damski.
Starring: Graham Chapman, Peter Boyle, Cheech Marin, Tommy Chong, Peter Cook, Marty Feldman, Eric Idle, Madeline Kahn, James Mason, John Cleese.

This silly pirate movie, that I bought on recommendation from the ~~wackos~~ clever folks at the Jim-Butcher Forums, was in my younger son's Easter basket. (Now that they've ~~got too many stuffed animals already~~ outgrown stuffed animals, they get DVDs for occasions like Easter and St. Nicholas Day.)

Ruthless pirate Yellowbeard (Graham Chapman) discovers that his son Dan (Martin Hewitt), on whose head he'd tatooed the map to his treasure, is an intellectual. Everyone from the Navy to his old crew is on a race to find the treasure, leading to the classic "stagger, stagger, crawl" directions.

Madeline is in her usual hilarious form as Dan's mother, and Cheech & Chong outdo themselves in silliness as El Segundo and El Nebuloso, respectively. In fact, all the vast cast of comedic actors seem to be just as amusing as usual.

So I'm not sure why it fell flat for me. Look through my movie reviews--I love silly and cheesy. The all-star cast should have done the trick, and certainly most of the Amazon reviewers thought it worked. I think it was the plot, of which there wasn't much.

I love silly, but I need there to be a point to it. Otherwise, it's just a bunch of people running around doing silly things, and that's entertaining for a while, but then it just gets boring.

I am glad I saw it, if only so I can repeat and paraphrase those treasure map directions ad nauseum. I just would have been happier if I'd rented it rather than purchasing it.

As for the son whose gift it was, he got impatient with it before I did. I think that's because he wasn't as familiar with the all-star cast, and thus wasn't as willing as I was to give them the benefit of the doubt at the beginning... at least I think he did. He's 12. Sometimes he'll forego an honest critique in favor of scathing sarcasm just because he finds the latter more amusing.

...more

Categories: Movies, 3stars, Comedy

Labels: 3 stars, comedy, Movies

// posted by Darla @ 5/16/2007 08:38:00 AM 0 comments

Tuesday, May 15, 2007

Total Constant Order

***** Total Constant Order by Crissa-Jean Chappell. Young adult.

I wasn't sure what to expect from this book, though I knew I was intrigued. The back cover blurb calls it "a haunting exploration of one teen's experience with OCD and Paxil," which kind of makes it sound like an informercial.

I think that's selling a wonderful story very short.

Fin is a high school student. Her parents are divorced, and she and her mother have moved to a new town in a new state. But her outside world isn't all that's out of control. Her mind is, too. She finds herself obsessed with numbers, with counting, with doing things in a precise pattern, and she feels helpless to stop.

Then she meets Thayer, who's even weirder than she is, and the unlikely pair begin a friendship that helps both of them.

Yes, Fin has OCD, and yes, she ends up taking Paxil and we see the effects it has on her, but Total Constant Order is about so much more than that. It's about growing up, about being a teenager--and let's face it, teenagers with or without OCD feel that their lives are beyond their control. It's about facing the problems of life with a friend, about learning when to ask for help, and about discovering that parents are fallible people, too.

In other words, it's a coming-of-age story, not unlike a fairy tale. Only Fin's battling OCD instead of a dragon.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and couldn't put it down. The descriptions of what was going on in Fin's head were so vivid and clear that the lines between "normal" and "crazy," never very distinct to begin with, were blurred, reminding me of the hero's POV from Tod Goldberg's Living Dead Girl. I felt with her the frustration as she tried to get help, and fell a little in love with Thayer along with her.

And at the same time, Fin's mom in particular made me think about parenting and trying to do our best with imperfect knowledge and difficult situations, while being imperfect ourselves.

All in all, a wonderful, relatable story that applies to everyone who is or has been a teenager.

...more

Categories: Books, 5stars, YA

Labels: 5 stars, books, YA

// posted by Darla @ 5/15/2007 03:27:00 PM 0 comments

nichtszusagen

Thursday, May 31, 2007

BTT #20

TT #55

Wednesday, May 30, 2007

Luring a Lady

Tuesday, May 29, 2007

tarot card quiz

Monday, May 28, 2007

The Widow

Second Nature

Sunday, May 27, 2007

Link of the Week #35

Saturday, May 26, 2007

TBR Challenge for May

Friday, May 25, 2007

Taming Natasha

Thursday, May 24, 2007

BTT #19

TT #54

Wednesday, May 23, 2007

The Witching Hour

Tuesday, May 22, 2007

City Watch Quiz

Monday, May 21, 2007

Fiddler on the Roof

Sunday, May 20, 2007

Link of the Week #34

Saturday, May 19, 2007

Jesus Christ, Vampire Hunter

Friday, May 18, 2007

The Gods Must Be Crazy

Spring Reading Challenge

Thursday, May 17, 2007

BTT #18

TT #53

Wednesday, May 16, 2007

Without a Clue

Yellowbeard

Tuesday, May 15, 2007

Total Constant Order

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