nichtszusagen: August 2007

Thursday, August 30, 2007

TT #63

Anniversary Reminiscing

Well, this seems unreal--a year ago, I did an anniversary TT, too. Tomorrow is our 23rd wedding anniversary. Can't believe I've been doing TTs this long... can't believe I've been married this long. Can't believe that in the book I'm currently reading, the couple has been married almost 20 years, and they're thinking that's a long time. Silly. It doesn't seem long at all. Guess time flies when you're having fun.

Carl and I met in AIT. We had a small class, and he got there a couple of days later than the rest of us. It was late in the afternoon, we were done for the day, and a bunch of us were hanging around the picnic tables outside the dayroom. Somebody introduced me to him, saying he was from Germany. I said "oh? I took German in college." He said, "sprichst du Deutsch?" I said "ein bißchen" (only I pronounced it "bishen"). He said "ein bißchen?" and I was miserably embarrassed because I thought he was correcting my pronunciation. I didn't actually speak German to him again for... oh, at least a year, maybe longer. And it was years before I explained it to him.
When we first met, Carl had his head shaved. Well, all the guys did--they were required to before leaving basic training. Whenever we had a break in classes, he would go to the men's room. We always teased him that he was going there to comb his hair and that it wouldn't make it grow any faster.
Not long after the beginning of AIT, we had a three-day-weekend. Carl went home with Vince from basic training to pick up Vince's truck. A girl in our class, Lori, was furious that Carl had left without her, and said they'd made plans that she was going to go along. I got the impression that they knew each other from before. I found out later that she was a pathological liar--she told people all sorts of outlandish stories, like that she was in a secret special forces basic training (she wasn't--she was in basic training with me), that she was recruited for the army softball team (nope), etc., etc.
The first time we kissed, we'd been sitting on the hill next to the shoppette, talking with a couple of friends. They pointed out to us that we were obviously smitten, then left us alone.
When his hair did start growing back, Carl initially started combing it to the side, which made him look exceedingly preppy. We were an item by then, but I started having doubts--I could not see myself with a preppy guy. When it got long enough, he started combing it straight back, and then it was okay.
As if the preppy hair wasn't bad enough, he told me about his ex-girlfriend in Germany, who was a model, and looked like Daryl Hannah. Years later, he explained that he was trying to impress me, and admitted he was an idiot. I loathed Daryl Hannah for years.
Carl had Lori following him around, I had Pierre. I'd gone out with a group from our class before Carl arrived, and was friendly with Pierre. He decided we were an item, and later told Carl I was a big slut, and kept warning him that I'd drop him the way I did Pierre.
Both Lori and Pierre followed us around for a couple of months. Carl and I spent hours outside of class walking and talking. Lori and Pierre would walk along with us for probably half an hour, getting more and more bored, more and more irritated because we weren't talking about anything they were interested in. I've no idea why they didn't give up sooner.
The first time we had sex was outside, under some old bleachers beside a stream. Which is where everybody from our barracks went to have sex, though we didn't realize that at the time. It was oral sex, which didn't help him to discount Pierre's assertions. After that, every weekend we had off, we'd go into town and get a motel room for the weekend.
The first time we said "I love you," we were on an FTX. Specifically, we were sitting in a GP medium tent (I still remember the musty smell of the canvas), listening to a lecture by "Major Hypnotic." (Okay, that wasn't his name, but he was a major, and he had a monotone speaking voice that was hypnotic.) We had styrofoam cups of hot chocolate, and when we finished drinking, we amused each other by drawing little pictures and notes on them with our fingernails. I wrote "I love your eyes". Carl wrote back "I love you." That was the end of the note-writing. My heart was pounding, I couldn't breathe, I definitely couldn't look at him. I just sat there until the lecture was finished, probably 3 and a half years. We left the tent, and I dragged Carl off for some privacy and asked him "did you mean it?"
I still have the cup.
Despite spending all our free time together, Carl and I were the top two students in the class--by far. He had the highest score ever in the course... except that mine was 3 points higher. This really irritated the instructors, because they loved Carl. He'd already started his direct commission paperwork, and he was their superstar. They were not happy with me for screwing things up. So instead of just awarding one honor grad, I got "distinguished honor grad" and Carl got "honor grad." I never let him forget those three points.
After AIT, Carl got stationed at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico, and I went to Fort Carson, Colorado. The original plan was to meet in Santa Fe every other weekend, but it immediately changed to every weekend. But my first weekend in Colorado Springs, Carl drove up with a new colleague whose family lived in the area. I got a room at the Rodeway Inn, and had fallen asleep by the time he got there, about 2 or 3 in the morning. He'd brought a little bitty ring with him, and spent a long time explaining that it was just a friendship ring, that it didn't mean anything. A couple of hours later, he said "maybe you could consider it an engagement ring?" Whereupon I informed him that he hadn't asked me to marry him. So he did.
Contrary to what I'd always thought, I didn't live with Carl before marrying him. That had always seemed eminently sensible to me. In fact, we'd been married 4 1/2 months before we were living together, sort of, going from one couple's spare room to another for a month before we got our own apartment. I'd also figured on never having kids, or at the very least, waiting a few years before starting a family. But by the time we moved in together, I was a couple of months pregnant (and horribly, viciously afflicted with morning -hah!- sickness). And I'd also been a big believer in long engagements, and long courtships. It was only 6 1/2 months from the time we met until our wedding. It seems to have stuck, anyway.

Heh. I'd envisioned writing little reminiscences from the past 23 years... but I had to leave out a bunch just to get to the proposal (such as it was). Ah, well. Maybe next year.

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Categories: ThursdayThirteen, AboutMe

Labels: about me, TT

// posted by Darla @ 8/30/2007 09:08:00 AM 32 comments

Wednesday, August 29, 2007

Dakota Dreams

***½ Dakota Dreams by Madeline Baker. Western historical romance.

As I said the last time I read a Madeline Baker book, this really isn't my genre.

Nathan Chasing Elk has been in the brutal Yuma prison, wrongly convicted of killing his wife, for over four years, when he escapes, his only thought to see his daughter Leah again and to get revenge on the real murder.

He's seriously injured in the escape, and is found by Catherine Lyons, who takes him in.

Catherine is a young woman, living alone since her parents died and her younger brother abandoned her. Nathan frightens her, but he's also a solution to her most immediate problem: the Apache Marteen is determined to take her for his bride. Catherine has been putting him off, saying that her man is coming for her, but Marteen is losing his patience. Now Catherine can point to Nathan as her husband.

After Catherine nurses him back to health, Nathan's eager to be on his way to find his daughter, and Marteen is still determined to get Catherine by whatever means necessary, so Catherine accompanies Nathan on his quest.

And of course, they fall in love (this is a romance--it's a foregone conclusion).

It's not all that simple, however. Nathan is still a wanted man, still bent on revenge, and, most heartbreakingly, Leah believes he killed her mother.

The historical aspects of the story are interesting, and the emotional dilemmas Catherine and Nathan have to face are compelling. There are no easy answers for these two, and that makes it all the more satisfying when they earn their happy ending. I'd definitely recommend this if you're a fan of the sub-genre, but it's not quite enough to make me love it enough to overcome my sub-genre prejudice.

...more

Categories: Books, 3.5stars, WesternHistoricalRomance

Labels: 3.5 stars, books, HistoricalRomance

// posted by Darla @ 8/29/2007 01:01:00 PM 0 comments

Tuesday, August 28, 2007

The Invisible

**½ The Invisible. Drama.

Directed by: David S. Goyer.
Starring: Justin Chatwin, Margarita Levieva, Marcia Gay Harden

We saw this at the Hercules, after being very intrigued by the previews. Unfortunately, as it turns out, the previews had absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with the movie. Okay, that's an exaggeration. The premise shown in the previews is what has nothing to do with the movie. "How do you solve a murder when the victim ... is YOU?" has nothing to do with the movie. There's no murder, there's no mystery. What there is, is a heavy-handed metaphor: kids feel invisible.

Nick Powell (Justin Chatwin) is a high school senior from a wealthy family. Oddly, he attends a public school, where he has a run-in with violent juvenile delinquent Annie Newton (Margarita Levieva), but he's so very cool that he defuses the situation.

Meanwhile, his mom (Marcia Gay Harden) has been smothering and controlling since his father's death, and she's so mean she won't let him go to London for a writing workshop. Because, as everybody knows, London is the only place to learn to become a writer. And if he doesn't go, his life is over.

Then Annie's out with her boyfriend and robs a jewelry store window. Her boyfriend warns her she's out of control, but she doesn't listen, so he turns her into the cops. Except she decides it must have been Nick who did it. So she and her henchmen attack Nick and when it appears they've killed him, they dump him in a manhole in the woods (?), cover it up, and run off.

Nick then is literally invisible, and nobody can hear him except Annie, eventually, and he has to convince her to save him.

There are some pretty clever scenes when he first realizes he's invisible, first showing some action on his part and its consequences, then showing that nothing really happened. That was actually my favorite part of the movie.

Both of our boys (ages 12 and 17) went with us, and they both liked The Invisible much more than Carl and I did. Unsurprisingly--it's aimed at teenagers. And no, I didn't try to change their minds. We did, however, discuss the fact that Hollywood's version of high school doesn't bear a lot of resemblance to Curran's experiences.

I got the distinct feeling that the filmmakers changed the movie's focus halfway through--after they'd shot the trailers. It wasn't until halfway through the movie that it became clear that it wasn't a paranormal murder mystery, and the movie seemed a lot more forced after that point. The ending/rescue scene(s) dragged on and on, apparently to hammer home the point that Annie needed to redeem herself, apparently by revealing... her hair. (She wears a knit cap through most of the movie, and amazingly, when she removes it--pointing out that now she's good--she doesn't have hat hair, she has lovely, wavy, quite long hair.)

*sigh* Freshman film classes are going to love this one. All that wonderful symbolism, easily identified. They can write whole essays on the meaning of Annie's hair alone.

...more

Categories: Movies, 2.5stars, Drama

Labels: 2.5 stars, drama, Movies

// posted by Darla @ 8/28/2007 06:58:00 PM 0 comments

Played

****½ Played by Barbara Freethy. Romantic Suspense.

I think the first book I ever read by Barbara Freethy was Summer Secrets. After that, she became a must-buy author for me. I do have a couple of her backlist in my TBR pile, but haven't bought them all yet.

Played is about a jewel theft. The Benedetti diamonds, including a legendary 97-carat yellow diamond, are set to be auctioned by Barclay's auction house in San Francisco, and the night before the auction, they're displayed at a party--worn by art historian Christina Alberti.

Christina is uneasy--she's responsible for the diamond, but hasn't had a chance to examine it personally, and if anything goes wrong, she'll lose the last of her professional reputation--most of it already lost because of her father, notorious thief Marcus Alberti. And that's before FBI agent J. T. McIntyre warns her that the man he's tracking, Evan Chadwick (who first showed up in Taken), is a master of disguise and intends to steal the diamond.

Unfortunately, Christina can't be sure her father won't also be tempted. She wants to trust him, but can't. And J. T.'s suggestion that Marcus might be working with Evan doesn't help.

Of course, the diamond does go missing, impossibly, and J. T. and Christina end up working together, though at somewhat cross purposes, to find it. They fall in love, complicated by suspicion and Christina's need to clear her father's name. And then things turn deadly.

There are wonderful twists and turns in this story, including sleight-of-hand, myriad culprits and motives, family secrets and curses, and both J. T. and Christina have hard choices to make: J. T. between love and revenge, and Christina between her father and J. T. Whodunit isn't all that easy, either, and Freethy's talent for complex storylines really shows here.

I can't wait for her next book, Silent Run, next March.

...more

Categories: Books, 4.5stars, RomanticSuspense

Labels: 4.5 stars, books, RomanticSuspense

// posted by Darla @ 8/28/2007 05:37:00 PM 3 comments

power element quiz

Your Power Element is Wood

Your power colors: green and brown

Your energy: generative

Your season: spring

Like a tree, you are always growing and changing.
And while your life is dynamic, you are firmly grounded.
You have high morals and great confidence in yourself and others.
You have a wide set of interests, and you make for interesting company.

What's Your Power Element?

This sounds great--I'm not sure how accurate it is, though.

Categories: AboutMe

Labels: quiz

// posted by Darla @ 8/28/2007 09:14:00 AM 0 comments

Monday, August 27, 2007

The Fugitive

***** The Fugitive. Action/adventure.

Directed by: Andrew Davis
Starring: Harrison Ford, Tommy Lee Jones

I watched this one piecemeal on video while exercising. Let me tell you, it was effective. Between taking my mind off what I was doing, and raising my adrenaline levels, it made for some intense workouts.

It was based on the TV series, which I never saw, so I don't have a basis for comparison.

The plot is fairly simple. Vascular surgeon Dr. Richard Kimball (Harrison Ford) returns home and finds his wife murdered. He's arrested, tried, and convicted of the crime, but ends up escaping when a prison transport bus crashes. U.S. Marshal Samuel Gerard (Tommy Lee Jones) is in charge of the task force hunting for him. Dr. Kimball realizes that the only way to help himself is to discover who really killed his wife--the one-armed man--and who's behind it.

There's a perfect balance here between chase scenes, suspense, and unraveling clues. The chase scenes and the more static suspense scenes didn't drag on until (as happens far too frequently) I got fatigued, and the detective work by both sides wasn't a series of boring sitting-and-thinking scenes, either.

Aside: note to filmmakers: regardless of the type of scene, if it goes on too long, it gets boring (yes, including sex scenes--I've watched enough boring porn movies to know).

It doesn't hurt that the movie stars Tommy Lee Jones, either. Or that he fit the role perfectly. As did Harrison Ford. Though Dr. Kimball was a less exciting character, it made sense that he'd behave the way Ford portrayed him--bewildered, angry, completely out of his depth, but smart and determined. So much so that for a space of time I could believe it wasn't a movie at all.

It's one of my favorites, and one I don't mind re-watching over and over again.

...more

Categories: Movies, 5stars, ActionAdventure

Labels: 5 stars, action, Movies

// posted by Darla @ 8/27/2007 06:29:00 PM 0 comments

The Crime at Black Dudley

****½ The Crime at Black Dudley by Marjorie Allingham. Mystery.

I bought this first Albert Campion mystery after being wowed by Mystery Mile (#23).

Sadly, Albert isn't the main character in this story, though it's his first appearance, so I'm glad I read it.

The Crime at Black Dudley is an English country house mystery. There's an odd assortment of guests at Black Dudley, and during the evening, they decide to reenact an old ritual game involving an odd family heirloom--a sinister dagger. The lights get extinguished, the servants are all banished, and the idea is to wander around the mansion in the dark while the dagger passes from hand to hand.

Well, it's pretty evident what's going to happen in a case like this: somebody will be stabbed to death. It turns out to be the host's uncle, a wheelchair-bound invalid who wore a mask to cover severe scarring.

Except that the guests are initially told that he's just been taken ill, until one, a young new doctor, is asked to falsify a death certificate citing natural causes. He refuses, but the hero of the story, Dr. George Abbershaw goes along with it until the authorities can be notified.

Unfortunately for everyone, the murder only complicated things. Albert Campion was at the house party to retrieve a set of secret plans from the uncle, but Dr. Abbershaw found them and burned them, prompting one of the guests, who turns out to be a criminal mastermind, to hold the entire party hostage until the plans are returned to him.

There are wonderful twists and turns and even a sweet romance. Secret passages, spies, uneasy alliances, entertaining and eccentric characters, a decrepit-looking old car hiding a Rolls Royce engine under the hood... er, bonnet... Just a nice, complex yet light mystery with a surprise ending.

I wasn't nearly as impressed with Campion in this book, but then again, he wasn't the star. I'm sure he'll acquit himself admirably in the next one. It's on my to-be-bought list.

...more

Categories: Books, 4.5stars, Mystery

Labels: 4.5 stars, books, mystery

// posted by Darla @ 8/27/2007 06:20:00 PM 0 comments

Theory #36: Readerly Theories: Timing Is Everything

I was thinking, as I was writing down my thoughts about Lean Mean Thirteen, how important timing is to my enjoyment of a book. As I said there, I still enjoy the Stephanie Plum series, and I think it's in no small part due to the fact that I read just one (or two) a year, that there's a long period of time between installments.

If I were to read the series one right after the other, the similarities between the books would undoubtedly drive me nuts. But since I have such a break between the books, the similarities, while I do recognize them when others point them out, aren't as glaring because they're masked by the haze of several months worth of other reading.

Case in point: Christine Feehan's Carpathians. When I first discovered her books, I bought the first four and read them straight through. Then I bought the next two or three, but by the time I got through them, I was much less enthralled with the series. It seemed like they were all alike.

But it takes me a long time to give up on an author once I'm hooked, so I kept buying, but stashing the books in my TBR pile. By the time I got to Dark Symphony, I was hooked again. I'd been attributing my two changes of heart to changes in the quality of the books, but I'm beginning to suspect that it had at least as much to do with taking some time between the books so that the similarities didn't bore me.

Which is not to say that either Evanovich or Feehan writes formulaic books, or the same book over and over with just the names and small details changed. But there is, inescapably, I think, a sameness in a series. If you have a series with the same cast of characters or the same type of characters, there's only so much you can change before it's not the same series anymore.

And if it doesn't make me bored, they still blur together. When I first discovered Laurell K. Hamilton, I bought her first 9 Anita Blake books in omnibus editions and read them straight though. I still can't tell the first 8 apart. Even though I re-read them a few times and discussed them thoroughly, it's like it's just one long book.

It's not just a problem within series, either. If I read two unrelated fantasy books back-to-back, my enjoyment of at least one of them will suffer from the genre similarities.

That's why I make such an effort to vary my reading. I don't read two books from the same genre or sub-genre back-to-back. It seldom turns out well if I do.

Something else that I've noticed is that the first time you encounter something in a book makes a big difference. I've read so many secret baby romances at this point that no matter how well-written one is, I still cringe. I may end up not hating the book, but because I've seen the plot device so many times before, I'm probably not going to love it. And yet, the first time I encountered it (which I'm nearly positive was in Honest Illusions (#24) by Nora Roberts), it wasn't by any means the first time anyone had written such a thing, but it was the first time for me, so I loved it.

Now, Honest Illusions is one of my favorite Nora books, and it goes against the grain to think that I'd ever not love it regardless of the circumstances, but I'm afraid that if I read it for the first time today, I might only like it very much because I've seen that secret baby thing too many times.

And that sounds like a contradiction. Stephanie Plum blowing up cars in book after book doesn't bother me, but a plethora of secret babies does. I still think it's timing. I only encounter those cars once or twice a year--15 times total. The secret babies show up a lot more frequently. And too, the later Evanovich books don't grab me nearly as much as the first ones did. I don't think it's because they're less well written--I think it's the timing. I think it's because I've seen it already--not just specific things, but the style, the tone, the Stephanie-Plum-ish-ness of it all.

And that sounds like a complaint or criticism. It's not, really--it's like a love affair. At the beginning, it's all new and exciting simply from the newness. Later on, it's still exciting, but in a different way--it's exciting because you know just what that person (or that book series) can do for you.

...more

Categories: Theories, Reading, SBD

Labels: reading, sbd, theories

// posted by Darla @ 8/27/2007 09:52:00 AM 4 comments

Sunday, August 26, 2007

Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer

**** Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer. Science fiction, action/adventure.

Directed by: Tim Story.
Starring: Ioan Gruffudd, Jessica Alba, Chris Evans, Michael Chiklis.

We saw this at the Hercules. Okay, let me just get this out of the way: Jessica Alba should never again dye her hair blonde. It looks idiotic. And I like Jessica Alba.

Sue Storm (Jessica Alba) and Reed Richards (Ioan Gruffudd) are trying to have a wedding. But fame and Weird Stuff Going On (caused by the arrival of the Silver Surfer) keep interrupting their plans.

The military demands that Reed solve the problem, and Sue demands that he give their wedding all his attention, so he keeps his work on the problem secret from her. Which of course causes more problems than just admitting it.

I have to admit I'm not even remotely familiar with the FF comics, so I'm just along for the ride.

We've got the 4 of them, dealing variously with their fame, which I liked very much.

We've got Reed keeping secrets from Sue and the two of them trying to get married but getting interrupted, which I also liked very much.

We've got a wonderful sequence when the Silver Surfer causes them all to switch powers, that's both funny (Sue gets her brother's fire) and poignant (Ben's temporarily himself again, and not The Thing), which I liked very much.

We've got the return of Dr. Doom (Julian McMahon), who's conned the military, which I liked very much.

And we've got the 4 superheroes fighting--not only the bad guys, but fighting ignorance by being smart and trying to figure out who the Silver Surfer is and why he's doing what he's doing. And I liked that very much as well.

Fun special effects, too.

It's not a perfect movie--it's over-the-top and cheesy--but it's supposed to be--it's a comic-book movie. Great fun. I enjoyed it.

...more

Categories: Movies, 4stars, ScienceFiction

Labels: 4 stars, Movies, ScienceFiction

// posted by Darla @ 8/26/2007 08:29:00 PM 3 comments

Lean Mean Thirteen

****½ Lean Mean Thirteen by Janet Evanovich. Mystery.

This is.... duh.... the thirteenth book in the Stephanie Plum series. Or actually, the 15th, if you include the two between-the-numbers books.

This time, Stephanie's ex, lawyer Dickie Orr, goes missing, not long after Stephanie fought with him while planting a bug in his office for Ranger. And everyone--but most particularly Joyce Barnhardt, thinks Stephanie's responsible. Thing is, he never changed his will after their divorce, and it's not just Dickie that's missing--there's also a LOT of money missing. So Joyce becomes Stephanie's shadow, hoping Stephanie will lead her to Dickie or the money.

Meanwhile, Joe's busy on a hush-hush assignment, Ranger's keeping an eye (and a GPS tracker) on Stephanie, and Steph and Lula are busy tracking down FTAs, including a hilariously wacky taxidermist with an explosive inventory.

I agree with all the reviewers who complain about a lack of character development (or rather, character change--I think the characters are pretty well developed at this point), and the repetitive nature of the books--cars getting destroyed, the love triangle, Grandma Mazur will do something wacky at the funeral home, etc., etc. The thing is, though: I just don't care. I read a Stephanie Plum book maybe once a year (twice, if there's a between-the-numbers book), so there are generally 300 or more books in between. So if it's exactly what I expected, I don't mind. It's become a formula, yes, but I enjoy the formula--once a year. I expect if I read them all back to back, it would drive me batty. But I don't, so I'm happy.

...more

Categories: Books, 4.5stars, Mystery

Labels: 4.5 stars, books, mystery

// posted by Darla @ 8/26/2007 05:55:00 PM 5 comments

Link of the Week #43

http://www.straightdope.com/index.html

The title continues "Fighting Ignorance Since 1983 (it's taking longer than we thought)."

Ever wonder where hamsters come from (besides mommy hamsters, that is), how far bullets will travel underwater, why Peggy is a nickname for Margaret? These and hundreds of other questions are tackled and answered on The Straight Dope.

There's also a weekly newsletter, which generally has two new questions and one classic, so you don't have to spend all day reading the archives. What's so fun are the sheer variety of questions--from serious to goofy, on every subject from physics to urban legend, and the humor and intelligence with which they're answered.

Categories: LOTW

Labels: cool links

// posted by Darla @ 8/26/2007 02:32:00 PM 0 comments

Saturday, August 25, 2007

Ocean's 13

****½ Ocean's Thirteen. Comedy, Action/Adventure.

Directed by: Steven Soderbergh.
Starring: George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Elliott Gould, Bernie Mac, Al Pacino.

We saw this at the Hercules with the kids. We'd intended to re-watch the first two, but got caught up watching Dr. Who DVDs instead.

Reuben (Elliott Gould) has been scammed out of what he expected to be his retirement fortune by Willie Bank (Al Pacino). As a result, Reuben has a heart attack and ends up bedridden and ill, too depressed to fight back.

So Ocean (George Clooney) and pals decide to get back at Bank in revenge, and to perk Reuben up.

Bank is opening a new casino, and really, really wants the Five Diamonds Award. He's even got the diamonds on display. Ocean's plan isn't to steal from the casino this time, so much as it is to make sure that the casino loses money. A lot of money. And to ensure that he doesn't get the Five Diamonds Award.

There's a lot of high-tech scheming and running around to rig all the games, including a trip to a Mexican factory that makes dice that launches a hilarious subplot, but eventually they run into a snag and have to bring in Terry Benedict (Andy Garcia). The price for Benedict's help? The diamonds. Which they've already concluded they can't steal.

So it's impossible--business as usual for this crew.

It's a very fast-moving film, and I just gave up on trying to catch everything. I'll watch it again on DVD and catch more of it. I did miss Julia Roberts's character from the first two movies. Ellen Barkin didn't really fill the same niche.

The little things really made the movie for me--the sentimental letters sent to Reuben, the running joke through the film of Danny and Rusty watching Oprah, and the myriad ways they torment the poor guy who's judging the casino for the Five Diamond Award.

And then there's the ending. It's full of poetic justice, and made me leave the theater with a huge grin on my face.

...more

Categories: Movies, 4.5stars, Comedy, ActionAdventure

Labels: 4.5 stars, action, comedy, Movies

// posted by Darla @ 8/25/2007 06:09:00 PM 0 comments

Cat in a Hot Pink Pursuit

***** Cat in a Hot Pink Pursuit by Carole Nelson Douglas. Mystery.

This is the 17th book in the Midnight Louie series. There are two more still in my TBR pile.

Temple's petite stature and youthful looks work in her favor for a change, as, at Lieutenant Molina's behest, she enters a Teen Idol contest--a reality show. Molina's daughter Mariah entered behind her mom's back, and there've been some creepy threats targeting the show, so Molina wants someone close by to keep an eye on Mariah. In exchange, she promises to lay off on her investigations of Max.

Meanwhile, Matt Devine is off to Chicago at his mother's request, to find out information about his biological father's family, and Max is back undercover again.

There's a theme in this book of family and connections--Molina struggles as a single mother of an adolescent, Temple ends up bonding with Mariah and--horrors!--understanding Molina, and mentoring Mariah.

Mariah's unsuspecting (and unsuspected--by Mariah, at least) biological father is at the show as a bodyguard, and there's some tension there as those in the know try to keep him and Mariah apart and Molina worries about whether, when, and how she should tell the two about each other.

And Matt's search for his relatives leads him to his father, and the resulting dilemmas, emotions, and lack of emotions.

Max, too, has his emotional concerns as he worries about whether his current quest (for his surrogate father) will cost him his place in Temple's life.

Even Midnight Louie joins the theme, admitting that Midnight Louise is his daughter.

I suppose you could read Cat in a Hot Pink Pursuit as a stand-alone story. The mystery of who is targeting the teen contest and why, and the pursuit of the killer is complex enough and compelling enough to carry the story. But there's also so much emotional punch to this book, and I doubt you'd get the full effect of it without having read the previous books.

...more

Categories: Books, 5stars, Mystery

Labels: 5 stars, books, mystery

// posted by Darla @ 8/25/2007 03:44:00 PM 0 comments

Friday, August 24, 2007

Never a Bride

****½ Never a Bride by Amelia Grey. Historical romance.

I first discovered Amelia Grey with A Little Mischief, and proceeded to collect her backlist. Unfortunately, it's taken me until now to get to one of them. And this is another one that could be my August TBR challenge (read a book that contains your name or the name of someone you know), because, and this is highly unusual, the hero's name is Camden (also the name of my younger son). However, I read it in July. *sigh* I will catch up eventually. Maybe.

Mirabella is on a quest to discover who seduced and abandoned her cousin Sarah, which led to Sarah's suicide. Unfortunately, all Mirabella knows is that the man in question was a member of Society, and that he has a scar on his neck. This is the Regency era, however, and gentlemen don't go around with their necks bared. So she's been allowing them to kiss her, and using that excuse to feel their necks.

This being the Regency era, she's risking ruin, but Mirabella expects to remain unwed anyway, so it's not a big loss. She's betrothed--that is, a betrothal was arranged--but her prospective bridegroom has been... gone... for six years, and even should she be released from the agreement, her prospects would be poor after such a rejection.

Then, of course, who should show up but her betrothed, Camden Brackley, Viscount Stonehurst, and puts a monkey wrench in her plans.

Since they are the hero and heroine, and this is a romance, they fall in love. What complicates that is that Camden's had his heart broken before--by a woman who cheated on him. And here Mirabella is, with a reputation for kissing anyone who asks.

My only complaint is that Mirabella took too long to explain to Camden why she was doing what she was doing. Otherwise, I loved her schemes, and her determination to right a wrong, even at the expense of her own happiness, and I thoroughly enjoyed watching Camden battle his knee-jerk response and learn that all women aren't alike.

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Categories: Books, 4.5stars, HistoricalRomance

Labels: 4.5 stars, books, HistoricalRomance

// posted by Darla @ 8/24/2007 06:50:00 PM 0 comments

The Gods Must Be Crazy II

****½ The Gods Must Be Crazy II. Comedy.

Directed by: Jamie Uys.
Starring: N!xau, Lena Farugia, Hans Strydom.

Since we really enjoyed the first movie, we got the sequel from Netflix. As one might expect, it's not quite as good as the original, but it was still very enjoyable.

We're back in the Kalahari, and Xixo, the father from the first movie is looking for his kids, who were exploring an ivory poacher's truck and water wagon. As he follows the tracks, his path crosses that of the other story lines:

There's a pair of scientists--Ann and Stephen--who get stranded when their light plane runs out of fuel, and two soldiers from opposing sides who are trying to capture each other.

As with the first movie, the laughs come from the clash between the modern world and the primitive.

The children discovering what amounts to a swimming pool (they've lived their lives in the desert, remember) is absolutely adorable, and Ann trying to defend her water supply from mischievous monkeys had me laughing aloud.

Also the same as in the first movie, there's a bit of a romance--the two scientists in the plane--but this time it's played with a little more slapstick and a little less poignancy. Ann has an annoying habit of running up trees whenever anything startles her, something that's made even more slapstick because the film speeds up whenever she does so.

It's a small complaint, though, and if I hadn't seen the original first, I'd likely have given this one five stars.

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Categories: Movies, 4.5stars, Comedy

Labels: 4.5 stars, comedy, Movies

// posted by Darla @ 8/24/2007 06:13:00 PM 0 comments

Brigadoom

**** BrigaDOOM by Susan Goodwill. Mystery.

I bought this book with no expectations at all to read for the Cherry Forums Book Club. Well, okay, I was pretty sure it wouldn't suck. But that's about all I knew about it. FYI: the archived book club discussion can be found HERE. That'll give you a hint of how long it's been since I read this--that is, how far behind I am.

Kate London's life just got very complicated. Her eccentric aunt announces they'll be reopening the old Egyptian theater with a production of Brigadoon in one month, not the three months she'd anticipated. And the Egyptian needs a lot of work--more, now that vandals have targeted it.

Then she discovers her fiance, Mayor Ronnie Balfours, cheating on her, and reacts in a perfectly rational way... or rather, she reacts the way we'd all like to react: she attacks him with a golf cart.

Adding anger management classes to her already busy schedule seemed like a lot... until the dead bodies started showing up, including Mayor Ronnie's in the trunk of her car. And being busy suddenly doesn't seem so bad, now that she's a murder suspect.

It doesn't help that the sheriff is an ex-lover, or that they still strike sparks off each other.

And did I mention the Naked Bandit?

Brigadoom is a fast-paced, fun story full of humor, twists and turns, unusual characters, emotion, and a touch of romance. I'm looking forward to the next Kate London mystery.

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Categories: Books, 4stars, Mystery

Labels: 4 stars, books, mystery

// posted by Darla @ 8/24/2007 01:45:00 PM 2 comments

Thursday, August 23, 2007

TT #62

Thirteen Sniglets*
Part Two
*a word that's not in the dictionary, but should be

I'm sure you've heard of the Intaxication (n.): Euphoria at getting a refund from the IRS, which lasts until you realize it was your money to start with. Here are some more words in the same vein:

Impotience - eager anticipation by men awaiting their Viagra prescription.
Inebrionics (ĭn-ē'brē-ŏn'ĭks) - (n.) A nonstandard form of American English spoken by individuals under the extreme influence of mind altering chemicals, usually indigenous to certain stretches of sidewalks and public establishments.
Java-vu (jah' vah-voo) n. - Phenomemon of constantly adjusting the sugar/cream level of your coffee to y our liking, only to have a waitress come along and ruin it again.
JB point- (J B/ just because- poynt' ) - n. The point at which the parent of a child within the midst of a pediquerey is pushed to shout "Just because!" or, "Because God made it that way!"
Kawashock (kah wah shahk') - n. Pulling into the last remaining parking spot only to discover a motorcycle there.
Kinstirpation - A painful inability to move relatives who come to visit.
Lodgecombing (loj' coh ming) - n. Final reconnaissance before vacating a motel room.
Lullabuoy - An idea that keeps floating into your head and prevents you from drifting off to sleep.
Magnocartic - n. Any automobile that, when left unattended, attracts shopping carts.
Mummabolic Chorus (mum uh bah' lik ko' rus) - n. When three or more people are singing along to a tune and suddenly discover they are all faking their way through the unintelligible lyrics.
Ninjury (nĭn'jə-rē) - (n.) An injury, usually a pulled groin muscle, sustained while trying to show off a cool martial arts move.
Obliviot (ə-blĭv'ĭ-ət)- (n.) Someone who is completely unaware of their idiocy.
Prestofrigeration: The peculiar habit, when searching for a snack, of constantly returning to the refrigerator in hopes that something new will have materialized.

Links to other Thursday Thirteens!

Labels: TT

// posted by Darla @ 8/23/2007 09:52:00 AM 20 comments

Wednesday, August 22, 2007

48 Hrs.

*** 48 Hrs. Action/Adventure.

Directed by: Walter Hill.
Starring: Nick Nolte, Eddie Murphy.

I watched this video in bits and pieces while exercising. No doubt that contributed to my lukewarm reaction.

Nick Nolte is Jack Cates, a worn-out cop who gets Reggie Hammond (Eddie Murphy) out of prison for 48 hours to try to catch Reggie's old partner.

It's the classic misfit partners action/adventure story with a good dose of humor thrown in (it is Eddie Murphy, after all).

And actually, both actors do really well, and are very convincing in the roles. I completely buy Nolte's character as a cop who's seen it all and isn't very happy about it. And Murphy is classic Eddie Murphy--the Eddie Murphy from SNL, not the sanitized Eddie Murphy who makes children's movies. You know, the one whose standup routine broke records for the most frequent use of the word "fuck."

It's just that they seemed to be in two different movies--Nick Nolte in a serious action/adventure, and Eddie Murphy in a comedy. There wasn't any chemistry between them. And that might be just me, because I just read a bunch of reviews on the IMDB that said otherwise. I know I liked it enough back in 1982 to buy the video.

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Categories: Movies, 3stars, ActionAdventure

Labels: 3 stars, action, Movies

// posted by Darla @ 8/22/2007 06:56:00 PM 0 comments

Waiting for Nick

***** Waiting for Nick by Nora Roberts. Contemporary romance. Re-read.

This is the 5th book in the Stanislaski series, and my favorite of that series.

Freddie Kimball is the daughter of Spence Kimball from Taming Natasha. Nick LeBeck is the brother of Zack Muldoon from Falling for Rachel. They met back in Falling for Rachel, when Freddie was 13 and Nick was 19.

Back then, Nick was trouble, but becoming part of the Stanislaski family straightened him out, and he's now a respected composer. In fact, he's been asked to write the songs for a new musical for Maddie O'Hurley (Dance to the Piper). Unfortunately, his usual lyricist can't work with him.

Which is fortunate for Freddie, who offers her services, and after quite a bit of arguing, she convinces him to work with her.

What Nick doesn't know is that writing lyrics is just the tip of the iceberg of Freddie's plans. She's been in love with him for years, and has decided that it's time to do something about it.

Nick has trouble initially thinking of Freddie as someone other than a young girl, a sort-of-cousin. He's also troubled by his past, feeling that a former gang member is definitely not good enough for Freddie. And then there's the whole family looking over their shoulders. But Freddie's nothing if not determined.

There were the expected appearances of other family members from the series, as well as the O'Hurleys from another of Nora's series, but in this case, it didn't seem remotely forced. Freddie and Nick were members of the same extended family, so it would have seemed odd if the family hadn't shown up. And the O'Hurleys were a nice bonus, but also logical.

I always like the books where the h/h have known each other a long time. Something about them knowing each other so well & falling in love with the whole person. Odd, because I was married within 6 months of meeting Carl, and I wouldn't have it any other way. Maybe it's the contrast with real life that appeals to me.

Surprise, surprise, I don't have any complaints with this one. It's just a sweet, feel-good book that leaves me smiling:

I smiled when Freddie came to New York with her 3-fold plan.
I smiled through all their bickering about the songs.
I smiled at Nick's reaction to meeting Chantal O'Hurley (Skin Deep).
I smiled when Nick wanted to get her some brandy or a glass of water "for the shock" after the first time they made love (well, okay, I laughed).
I smiled when the family discussed Freddie & Nick's budding romance after the anniversary party.
I smiled when Spence gave Nick a hard time & said it was his duty as a father.

etc., etc.

...more

Categories: Books, 5stars, ContemporaryRomance

Labels: 5 stars, books, ContemporaryRomance

// posted by Darla @ 8/22/2007 03:52:00 PM 0 comments

Tuesday, August 21, 2007

And the Desert Blooms

*** And the Desert Blooms by Iris Johansen. Contemporary romance.

Another 20¢ flea-market find. Not as impressive as the last (In Their Footsteps), but it was worth what I paid for it. And the Desert Blooms is a book that you really have to suspend all disbelief for. If you don't, the fact that our sheikh hero isn't remotely Arabic will make you want to throw the book against the wall. There's also a bit of a Sleeping Beauty mythos to it--the heroine disappears from the hero's world from the time she's 15 until she's 21--just like Sleeping Beauty, she's out of touch until she's grown up. Ah, I knew that fairy tale seminar I took in college would come in handy some day.

Pandora grew up under the protection of shiekh Philip El Kabbar and fell in love with him. But she knew he would never see her in a romantic way, so she ran away from home at the age of 15... and became a world-famous rockstar. Now, six years later, she's back, and offering him a deal: she wants to be his Khadim--his mistress--for three months, in exchange for the usual financial rewards he gives his various mistresses.

Of course, Pandora is gambling that she can convince Phillip he can't live without her, despite the fact that he's famous for never keeping a mistress for more than a few months. And of course it works.

Then comes the doubt and mistrust--they're both upset because they think the other one doesn't want a commitment, and only wants sex, but their solution is just to have more sex, and then to avoid rejection by being the first to push the other away.

Despite the parts that are hard to swallow--the complete absence of any sort of cultural authenticity, the transition from destitute runaway to international rockstar in 4 years, and the transformation of Mr. Promiscuity into Mr. Monogamy--it is a readable story. I did find myself enjoying the characters' predicaments, and the subplot of Pandora's problems with her father.

And it's a nice object lesson in the hazards of substituting sex for verbal communication.

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Categories: Books, 3stars, ContemporaryRomance

Labels: 3 stars, books, ContemporaryRomance

// posted by Darla @ 8/21/2007 11:40:00 PM 0 comments

Dante's Inferno test

The Dante's Inferno Test has banished you to the Second Level of Hell! Here is how you matched up against all the levels:

Level	Score
Purgatory (Repenting Believers)	Very Low
Level 1 - Limbo (Virtuous Non-Believers)	Low
Level 2 (Lustful)	Very High
Level 3 (Gluttonous)	Very High
Level 4 (Prodigal and Avaricious)	High
Level 5 (Wrathful and Gloomy)	High
Level 6 - The City of Dis (Heretics)	High
Level 7 (Violent)	High
Level 8- the Malebolge (Fraudulent, Malicious, Panderers)	High
Level 9 - Cocytus (Treacherous)	Moderate

Take the Dante Inferno Hell Test

Categories: AboutMe

Labels: quiz

// posted by Darla @ 8/21/2007 01:54:00 PM 1 comments

Monday, August 20, 2007

Love on the Dotted Line

**** Love on the Dotted Line by David E. Talbert. Contemporary romance.

I bought this book a few months ago when I was looking for interesting new-to-me authors in Amazon's bargain bin. (It's not in there anymore, in case you're wondering.)

Morgan works at a law firm, so it makes sense that when she catches her boyfriend cheating on her (by way of a tennis bracelet she found in his closet that turned out to be a present for the other woman), she turns to the law for a solution.

Egged on by her best friend Altima, and Ophelia, the outspoken woman nobody likes, but who's somehow become part of their threesome, Morgan comes up with a dating contract, in which she promises great sex in return for honesty.

When she starts dating a sexy car dealer, she gets him to sign the contract. When she catches him cheating, she sues him.

This was a fun, fun read. Despite the occasional predictability (did anyone not know that the tennis bracelet in the closet was not for Morgan?), and the legal implausibility, which knocked it down to a 4-star read for me, it was fast-paced, funny, occasionally poignant, and sexy.

The characters were interesting, women you could relate to--well, hopefully not to Ophelia, but even she was three-dimensional, and we learn what's behind her prickly exterior. Mostly, it was a story of fun revenge, about sticking up for yourself and not settling for less than you deserve, and about the power of friendship.

I'll keep an eye out for more of David E. Talbert's books.

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Categories: Books, 4stars, ContemporaryRomance

Labels: 4 stars, books, ContemporaryRomance

// posted by Darla @ 8/20/2007 11:33:00 PM 0 comments

Nanny Ogg's Cookbook

***** Nanny Ogg's Cookbook by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Briggs. Fantasy.

I suppose you could call this a cookbook, but it's much more about Nanny Ogg than it is about the recipes. And let's face it--I bought it for the fantasy, not for the food.

There are "recipes" for a lot of the foods you'll find in the Discworld books: dwarf bread, rat onna stick, dried frog pills... You could even quite possibly make some of the recipes in here for a lovely Discworld party and invite some of your savvier friends.

But it's mostly lovely little tidbits about various Discworld characters--primarily Nanny Ogg, but a few other characters get some space here, too.

If you're familiar with the Discworld, you won't find it at all surprising that it's been heavily edited--they tried to take out the innuendos, but I think they found that was a losing proposition, and settled for taking out just the blatant stuff.

And if you're not familiar with the Discworld, and happen to find a copy of this at your library, go ahead and pick it up, and see if it doesn't just convince you that the Discworld is a place you'd like to visit.

...more

Categories: Books, 5stars, Fantasy

Labels: 5 stars, books, fantasy

// posted by Darla @ 8/20/2007 05:27:00 PM 2 comments

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