Title: Persuasion

Title: Persuasion
Author: Jane Austen
Thoughts: I haven't read this book in years. Probably about... seven or eight. And why not? It may not be quite as lovely as my beloved Pride and Prejudice, but it is a great novel. I loved it. I got all kinds of warm fuzzies at the end. Ahh, Jane. I wish you'd written fifty books.

Title: Certain Girls

Title: Certain Girls
Author: Jennifer Weiner
Thoughts: I enjoyed this one. It's been a while since I read one of her novels, and this one made it home from the library only to be returned without having been read. Then, a day or so later, I found it at the library again. I'm glad I picked it up and brought it home. At times I wanted to shake all the characters (I was fortunate to have a great mother, and my mother was fortunate because I was the easiest teenager in the world, so some of these conflicts felt very foreign to me), but the ending was genuinely beautiful and moving.

Theatre I Have Seen

It occurs to me that I should be keeping track of live theatre, too, while I live in New York.
Top Girls, Avenue Q, The Blue Man Group, MacBeth, The Nutcracker, The Homecoming. I think that's it. Hmm. I should see some more!

Book: Thursday Next: First Among Sequels

Title: Thursday Next: First Among Sequels
Author: Jasper Fforde
Thoughts: It is not without sadness that I write this, because I have reached the last of the Thursday Next books. I really enjoyed this one, and was pleased with the way it jumped ahead so many years, but retained the familiarity of the earlier books. I will be waiting with baited breath for the next to come.

Book: How to Sleep with a Movie Star

Title: How to Sleep with a Movie Star
Author: Kristen Harmel
Thoughts: I read another of Harmel's books not too long ago and even though I really enjoyed it, I think I liked this one even better! It helps that it was exactly the kind of book I was in the mood for -- a love story with twists, but not too much neuroses. It was clever and fresh and did an admirable job of making the first two hours of a five hour bus ride fly by. I will be keeping an eye out for more by Harmel.

Movie: Sex and the City

Yeah, yeah... I'm a girl in my twenties. Obviously I was going to have to see this film. I'm only sad I don't have girlfriends here in New York, because this is obviously a movie you should see with your nearest and dearest ladies. Preferably with cosmos. Sex and the City has always been about finding moments and nuggets of truth, even while set in the most melodramatic, crazy city in the world. When I first moved to New York, all my twenty-something girlfriends went into raptures about how my life would be "just like Sex and the City." Alas, I don't own a single pair of Blahniks, I never wear labels, I couldn't tell you the name of the hottest (wait... any...) club in town if you paid me. But it was lovely to revisit these fictional women in their fictional New York, and to fall in love with them all over again. I think if you liked the series, you'll like the movie.... because the movie was, more or less, an entire season packaged for the big screen.

Book: The Enchantment of Lily Dahl

Title: The Enchantment of Lily Dahl
Author: Siri Hustvedt
Thoughts: This was a lovely book--clever but real, and beautifully realized. I love Hustvedt's way with words. She uses only the ones necessary to paint the picture she's going for, but she doesn't pull any punches. This story was beautiful and heartfelt. I love the way the main character thinks -- I love her views on life. Looking forward to reading more of Hustvedt's work.

Movie: Roman de Gare

This was a "well, let's see a movie--which one?" choice I'm glad we made. We'd been a little too intensely involved with the summer blockbusters, and this French whodunit/drama was a breath of fresh air. I won't give away anything, because a lot of the story depends on the audience going in cold, but it was a brilliant film. I've been thinking about it for days. The acting was spot-on, and, as my husband pointed out... it's not very often in Hollywood you get to see a 50-something woman in a starring and awesome role. More's the pity.

Book: Night Child

Title: Night Child
Author: Jes Battis
Thoughts: I found the beginning a little slow, mostly because there was a lot of description about forensic techniques I didn't particularly care about (or need to know about in such detail!) but once the story was fully underway I enjoyed it quite a bit. I look forward to the next in the series.

Book: Don't Hex With Texas

Title: Don't Hex With Texas
Author: Shanna Swendson
Thoughts: I know, from lurking over at her blog, this is the 4th in a series of 5. I also know the publisher has passed on the 5th book. This makes me sad. To be honest, I kind of felt the last book (Damsel Under Stress) was the weakest (with the caveat that it was still very good... just the weakest in the series up to that point). If this is so, Don't Hex With Texas more than makes up for it. I really, really enjoyed this one. I liked the change of scene, I liked the interactions between people, I liked the new cast of characters. I felt this one was more tightly written, and I read it in one sitting.

Also, I really love Owen. I really, really love Owen.

So my fingers are crossed in the hopes Book 5 will somehow come to be.