Title: The Three Musketeers
Author: Alexandre Dumas
Thoughts: This book was read to me over the course of several months. My husband reads to me every night before bed, because I have a long history of insomnia...and his voice puts me to sleep, apparently. It was an amusing book, in desperate need of an editor---I know this is because it was orginally written as a serial, meaning readers might need a long catch-up paragraph every other chapter. Boy-oh-boy does that get old when you're reading it straight through, though.
The best thing about it were the sarcastic additions by my husband. I'll just leave it at that. But there were times when he would do a character voice or make a sideways comment that had me in STITCHES.
Wednesday, 30 January 2008
Tuesday, 22 January 2008
Movie: 27 Dresses
As no one should be surprised to hear, given my chick lit tastes, I am a sucker for a romantic comedy. I am always willing to overlook the bad in favour of the good. 27 Dresses is a perfect example. I loved just about everything, except for the younger sister (I disliked the character and I disliked the actress playing her) and some pacing issues (usually involving long speeches by the aforementioned sister). It was clever and cute and exactly what I wanted to see. (Exactly what I always want to see, more or less.)
As a side note: all of my bridesmaids have worn their dresses again since my wedding. This is because I let them wear pretty little empire-waisted pink silk voile. (I have one in white. It wasn't my wedding dress.) Some of the dresses in the movie were beyond hideous.
As a side note: all of my bridesmaids have worn their dresses again since my wedding. This is because I let them wear pretty little empire-waisted pink silk voile. (I have one in white. It wasn't my wedding dress.) Some of the dresses in the movie were beyond hideous.
Friday, 18 January 2008
Book: Local Girls
Title: Local Girls
Author: Alice Hoffman
Thoughts: Yeah, I'm on one of those Alice Hoffman kicks again. I started a different one of hers and couldn't get into it, so I set it aside for this one. Local Girls is interesting because it's about the same few characters living in the same small town, but it spans many, many years, and each 'chapter' is actually a short story. I didn't know this when I started--though I did wonder at the in and out of different chapters written from different POVs and in different tenses. It made sense when I realized they were all connected in a linear way, but that each story could be read separately. I loved the story. There were so many beautiful moments. That's the thing about short stories-as-chapters...you can't be lazy. Each chapter/story has it's Big Moment. I think it's probably a good way to write a book, quite frankly. No lazy storytelling allowed.
Author: Alice Hoffman
Thoughts: Yeah, I'm on one of those Alice Hoffman kicks again. I started a different one of hers and couldn't get into it, so I set it aside for this one. Local Girls is interesting because it's about the same few characters living in the same small town, but it spans many, many years, and each 'chapter' is actually a short story. I didn't know this when I started--though I did wonder at the in and out of different chapters written from different POVs and in different tenses. It made sense when I realized they were all connected in a linear way, but that each story could be read separately. I loved the story. There were so many beautiful moments. That's the thing about short stories-as-chapters...you can't be lazy. Each chapter/story has it's Big Moment. I think it's probably a good way to write a book, quite frankly. No lazy storytelling allowed.
Saturday, 12 January 2008
Book: 5 Minutes Ago
Title: 5 Minutes Ago
Author: Hilary de Vries
Thoughts: Hmm. Not too long ago, my husband and I had a long conversation about the name-dropping of real things/places/people in fiction. He hates it completely and utterly. I dislike it, but can see how, especially in chick lit, it is acceptable. A woman wearing head-to-toe Gucci or Armani means something more than a woman dressed in a nice suit. Those names stand for something, and basically act as a placeholder. If the reader is told a woman wears Armani, you know she is rich, you know she's classy, you suspect she might be pretentious... etc, etc. That said, I hate sentences like this "The woman, dressed head-to-toe in Gucci, strode into the Starbucks on the corner of Bleeker and 4th, ordered her standard venti quad espresso, pulled a twenty from her Louis Vuitton handbag and waved at Charlize Theron, who happened to be picking up her grande non-fat, half-caf mocha." Too much!! TOO MUCH!! And, for me, 5 Minutes Ago was simply too much. Too much name dropping, too many almost-libelous references to real celebrities, too much.
And not just because I'm writing my own Hollywood-kinda-sucks-doesn't-it novel ;)
Author: Hilary de Vries
Thoughts: Hmm. Not too long ago, my husband and I had a long conversation about the name-dropping of real things/places/people in fiction. He hates it completely and utterly. I dislike it, but can see how, especially in chick lit, it is acceptable. A woman wearing head-to-toe Gucci or Armani means something more than a woman dressed in a nice suit. Those names stand for something, and basically act as a placeholder. If the reader is told a woman wears Armani, you know she is rich, you know she's classy, you suspect she might be pretentious... etc, etc. That said, I hate sentences like this "The woman, dressed head-to-toe in Gucci, strode into the Starbucks on the corner of Bleeker and 4th, ordered her standard venti quad espresso, pulled a twenty from her Louis Vuitton handbag and waved at Charlize Theron, who happened to be picking up her grande non-fat, half-caf mocha." Too much!! TOO MUCH!! And, for me, 5 Minutes Ago was simply too much. Too much name dropping, too many almost-libelous references to real celebrities, too much.
And not just because I'm writing my own Hollywood-kinda-sucks-doesn't-it novel ;)
Thursday, 10 January 2008
Movie: There Will Be Blood
I figure this blog may as well be devoted to the films I watch, too---I've always wanted to keep track of them.
Last night we went to see There Will Be Blood, which I knew nothing about except a) oil was involved b) Daniel Day-Lewis has been lauded for his performance c) it took place in California d) it was period.
It was the kind of film you think about afterward--I'll probably think about it for days. It was also, I felt, an excellent example of film using itself to actively be a part of the story, rather than blending the story together. Maybe that doesn't make much sense, but what I'm getting at is the sense I had, while watching the film, that is was definitely a film I was watching. I didn't pretend I was 'in' the story. The score, in particular, was used so strangely it couldn't help but stand out. And not in a bad way. I realized, later, the music was likely very strongly tied to the symbolism of the main character's soul. More than anything, the film was an intense, intimate portrait of one man--the choices he makes, the hubris that drives him; the neuroses, the ambition.
The entire long walk home, my husband and I kept up a running conversation about the film--things we liked, things we didn't, things springing to mind only then--and I have to say... any film that can keep us talking for nearly an hour afterward gets a solid thumbs up from me.
Last night we went to see There Will Be Blood, which I knew nothing about except a) oil was involved b) Daniel Day-Lewis has been lauded for his performance c) it took place in California d) it was period.
It was the kind of film you think about afterward--I'll probably think about it for days. It was also, I felt, an excellent example of film using itself to actively be a part of the story, rather than blending the story together. Maybe that doesn't make much sense, but what I'm getting at is the sense I had, while watching the film, that is was definitely a film I was watching. I didn't pretend I was 'in' the story. The score, in particular, was used so strangely it couldn't help but stand out. And not in a bad way. I realized, later, the music was likely very strongly tied to the symbolism of the main character's soul. More than anything, the film was an intense, intimate portrait of one man--the choices he makes, the hubris that drives him; the neuroses, the ambition.
The entire long walk home, my husband and I kept up a running conversation about the film--things we liked, things we didn't, things springing to mind only then--and I have to say... any film that can keep us talking for nearly an hour afterward gets a solid thumbs up from me.
Sunday, 6 January 2008
Book: What Men Want
First read of 2008!
Title: What Men Want
Author: Deborah Blumenthal
Thoughts: I liked the story, as much as I like most read-it-and-forget-it chick-lit novels. However, a few things stood out that bear mentioning.
1. Typos are bad. She 'died' her hair? Justdeserts.com instead of justdesserts.com? It was meant to be a reference to revenge, not the Sahara.
2. This book had a serious, life-threatening case of 'Cover art? WTF?' as well as the most misleading summary on the back I've probably ever come across. Both the cover art and the back-flap blurb belonged, it seemed, to a different book. (Perhaps a book that bore a slight resemblance to the one contained within these lying covers, but only slight.)
3. Show, don't tell. Please.
I sometimes think my chick-lit addiction is just that: unhealthy.
Title: What Men Want
Author: Deborah Blumenthal
Thoughts: I liked the story, as much as I like most read-it-and-forget-it chick-lit novels. However, a few things stood out that bear mentioning.
1. Typos are bad. She 'died' her hair? Justdeserts.com instead of justdesserts.com? It was meant to be a reference to revenge, not the Sahara.
2. This book had a serious, life-threatening case of 'Cover art? WTF?' as well as the most misleading summary on the back I've probably ever come across. Both the cover art and the back-flap blurb belonged, it seemed, to a different book. (Perhaps a book that bore a slight resemblance to the one contained within these lying covers, but only slight.)
3. Show, don't tell. Please.
I sometimes think my chick-lit addiction is just that: unhealthy.
Wednesday, 2 January 2008
The New Year and I'm already behind...
Placeholder for three books (all read in 2007, not 2008)
Alice Hoffman, The Ice Queen
Lee Nichols, Hand-Me-Down
Hmm. Even though I thought there was another one, I can't seem to remember it. See? This is why I need to record AS I READ!!!
Alice Hoffman, The Ice Queen
Lee Nichols, Hand-Me-Down
Hmm. Even though I thought there was another one, I can't seem to remember it. See? This is why I need to record AS I READ!!!
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