Books and Random Thoughts

My Inbox is Trying to Kill Me: Email Lists Gone Horribly Wrong

2011-12-07T18:06:00.000-08:00

I am unsubscribing from every possible email list. My inbox is currently a wasteland of promotional offers, political pleas/warnings/dire predictions of the future, and probably some chain emails.

It seems harmless at the time; you sign a petition for some cause you believe in, but then in return you get approximately 7000 emails.

At one point I had close to 30,000 unread emails, dating back to 2008. Yeah, I should have just deleted them, and I actually did delete some, but I guess maybe guilt (if the email was about an important cause)and/or some deluded plan to read the things later kept me from deleting a huge amount of them.

Here is a partial list of unsubscribes--Democrats.com, Obama for America, Radio Shack, Tri-City Herald, Huffington Post, ACLU, webfetti, Friendly Planet Travel, Travel Ticker, Michael Moore, The Nation, Ticket Master, The Nation, Credo Action, meetup, Democrats.org, Live Nation, Democratic Senate Campaign Committee . . . and I am by no means done.

Note that I haven't changed my political affiliation or how I feel about any of the causes or retail outlets or news organizations, for that matter. In many cases I am following the entity in question on Facebook and/or Twitter. I just don't want any more email! I have become like a cyber extreme hoarder and it must stop!

Sitting on Cold Porcelain, by Rose A. Valenta (Book Review)

2010-07-05T14:55:00.000-07:00

Have you ever tried to do a good deed that just spiralled totally out of control? Do you have a minor obsession about which your kids harass you? Do Christmas carols drive you crazy? Have you ever tried to duplicate a pie or cake recipe and given up and gotten something from a bakery instead? Or even if none of the above applies, do you just want to read some funny stories? If so, then Sitting on Cold Porcelain, Rose Valenta's collection of humorous essays, is for you.

Valenta takes on such diverse topics as politics, holiday craziness, current events, the possible truth behind Mona Lisa's enigmatic appearance, and the general nuttiness of daily life. Essay titles include "'Frosty the Inappropriate Snowman'" or Mushroom Syndrome?", "Thanksgiving Plans--Remember the Titanic!", "Mountain Gorillas Vie to Get Looted in Facebook Mafia Wars", and "Is There a Common Sense Particle?". Fun, quirky, and relatable, with an intelligent social commentary beneath the humor, these essays will keep you laughing and also make you think. So have some fun, feed your mind, and check out Rose Valenta's Sitting on Cold Porcelain. It's available in book or Kindle format.

Red River Flood News Brings Back Bad Memories

2009-03-23T21:49:00.000-07:00

I turned on CNN a couple of nights ago just in time to hear news of major flooding in the Upper Midwest. The Red River is carving out a path of destruction in Eastern North Dakota similar to--or worse than--that of 1997. I was going to grad school at the University of North Dakota in Grand Forks at that time and thus had to evacuate. It sounds like Grand Forks is in decent shape this time even though the predicted flood crest is similar to that in 1997, due to several measures the city has taken such as building permanent dikes that can withstand such a crest. Other places in North Dakota, such as Fargo, Mott, and some other places, not so much.

This flood is earlier than the one in 1997. As I told my mother, I thought April 19 was the day the dike broke then.

I remembered the date exactly. Actually, the three worst days were over a three-day span, April 18-20, but April 19 is the day UND classes were canceled for the rest of the semester and the day I drove to Montana to stay with my family until it was safe to come back.

In 1997, I already knew I didn't much care for the weather in the Upper Midwest nor the conservatism of the area and planned to get out as soon as possible. This was before that winter's EIGHT blizzards. Before having to evacuate due to a 500-year-flood (has it been 500 years already, by the way?). Even before evacuating, we had to get used to life being constantly disrupted--not being able to do what you wanted because of a blizzard, power outages, school closures. It takes a lot to close UND. Like, serious wind speeds in a blizzard. Temperatures so cold your skin will freeze in seconds. A 500-year-flood. These types of things. I have a tendency to become seriously annoyed by weather inconveniences, rather than taking it with a hearty pioneer spirit or whatever. I am opposed to character building through weather.

But anyway. The week leading up to the evacuation, I had been helping out with sandbagging when I could. Normally I worked at the psychology clinic on Thursday nights, but on April 17, 1997, the day clerk called to tell me that all the night clients had canceled, and if I wanted to help sandbag, one of the professors could use some help. So I went over there; half the psych department was already there. He was scared to death he'd lose his house, but he was one of the lucky ones--he just had water in his basement.

On April 18, I helped sandbag during the day. Watching the news, I saw the newscasters fighting back tears as they showed footage of water up to the roofs of many houses. Just as the 10:00 news was ending I got a call from a payphone. I wondered who it could possibly be. It was two friends of mine. They'd been bussed over to East Grand Forks earlier to help sandbag but had missed the ride back. I supposed they called me because they knew I'd still be up. They asked if I could come and get them.

"Can I even get over there?" I asked. It required crossing a bridge, and I thought they might all be flooded. I was surprised they were even over there. They thought I could and told me what bridge to take. So I set out to get them, figuring if I were stopped I'd just have to explain where they were so someone--even if it had to be the National Guard or someone--could get them somewhere safe.

No one was in the streets at all, except for service trucks. I hadn't heard anything about it being illegal to be out in the streets though (I think a curfew was imposed later; also selling alcohol in Grand Forks was banned for awhile). But I was able to get over the bridge without incident. My friends were waiting by the payphone. Normally they would have been able to hang out in the nearby McDonald's or someplace while they were waiting, but now nothing was open. These same friends had been living in the first area to totally flood, so they had already been evacuated from their apartment and I dropped them off in their temporary accommodations.

On Saturday, I turned on the news. It was a nice sunny day; I remember that. No cable. Just flood news. Classes at UND (two weeks of classes plus finals) were canceled. Students were to go home. I got a call from the same friends I'd driven home the night before and they asked if I wanted to go to Nebraska with them. One of them had family there. I thanked them for their generous offer, but I realized in that instant that, instead of staring blankly at the TV, I could just go home too.

Once I'd made the decision, I couldn't wait to get out of there. I started throwing things in suitcases. The last thing I grabbed before leaving was a stuffed graduation bear I had gotten for my brother. I wasn't sure when I'd be back.

I also wasn't sure how to get out of town. I made several false starts before finally figuring it out. Another slight problem was gas. Most of the service stations weren't open, but when I found one that was, it was out of unleaded gasoline. So I just had to hope I had enough to last me for awhile. Complicating things was the fact that you couldn't get down to Fargo in the usual way on the I-29 due to flooding, so I had to take what was essentially a parade route, with all the people leaving town, while I was worried about running out of gas. But, I was lucky and made it to a gas station.

I was lucky in general. I lived in a university apartment that didn't flood. I had been worried about break-ins and looting, but that didn't happen. I had a place to go where I could wait things out and come back to a completely undamaged apartment. So when I think of the negative memories this brings up for me--fear, loss of security, having my life turned upside down--what must it be like for someone who lost everything? My thoughts and prayers are with all flood and other natural disaster victims, past and present.

Fantasy Fishing

2009-02-16T00:49:00.000-08:00

In these tough economic times, it's good to know there are still places where easy money can be had. Time magazine clued me in to just such a place in their February 16 edition, where I read an article about Fantasy Fishing. I had heard of fantasy football, baseball, etc., but I'd been completely in the dark about fantasy fishing. Apparently there are all these fishing tournaments, and all you have to do is go to fantasyfishing.com and register for free. They give you a team, and you pick the order in which you think they will finish. The better your picks do, the more points you get. The player with the most points at the end of the tournament wins $100,000. If you have the most points over all six tournaments, you win one million dollars. There are lots of other prizes too--cars, boats, gift cards. It's totally free to play, but you can pay $10 and get Player's Advantage, which provides information which helps you make your picks. Not that you need to be a skilled angler to play--as the Time article noted, 50% of fantasy players don't fish (this would include me). Apparently the reason for all the incentives is to attract more people to the sport.

You can also earn money as an affiliate--for everyone who clicks on one of my banners and then orders Player's Advantage, I get $2. You can also earn by referring people just by providing their email addresses, if you don't have a website (the people you refer do have to buy the Player's Advantage for you to earn anything).

The first tournament started just a few days ago, and my team didn't do that well, looking at the unofficial results, but there's another tournament in a few weeks. It's definitely a low-risk (you're out $10 at most, if you buy the Player's Advantage), low-energy expenditure way to possibly win some cash or prizes.

The Shack, by William Paul Young (Book Review)

2009-02-07T23:51:00.000-08:00

What an amazing book! I had resisted reading it initially, seeing that it was religious. I finally broke down and read it based on my mother's recommendation, actually. Neither of us is what anyone would consider religious, but I suppose we both have a spiritual side.

The book is one man's view of God, though it is presented through a fictional story, and I have never read anything like it.

The story is that of Mack, whose youngest child, Missy, is abducted on a family vacation. In a shack in the Oregon wilderness, there is evidence that she was brutally murdered. The four years that follow are time of great torment for Mack. He blames himself for what happened, and the killer was never found and brought to justice, nor was Missy's body found so they could give it a proper burial at least.

Then one day he receives a note in his mailbox that is supposedly from God. He is highly suspicious. The note asks him to meet at the shack. What if it's a cruel joke? But even though he is suspicious, he goes to the shack, where he has an unbelievable religious experience.

I don't want to give away too much of the plot, and it's hard to say more without doing that. I will say that I really liked Young's view of God. It's not like any other Christian writing I've seen. God appeared to Mack as a female for part of the time, because, as it was explained, God is a spirit and has no gender, but could take any form. Race lines were also crossed--the "father", son, and holy spirit all appeared as non-white individuals. God (whom Mac called "Papa" even when she appeared as a female) explained how relationships between men and women should be equal. Probably the best thing, though, was how absolutely nonjudgmental and loving Papa was. It's just a very comforting view of God, which is pretty much in exact opposition to a fire-and brimstone view. It's a book that people of all religions could get something out of, because it doesn't demand that you believe certain things. I didn't agree with all the beliefs in it, but that didn't matter.

It made me think that instead of worrying about Judgment Day, which I think many of us do on some level even if we aren't religious, we should have a Non-Judgment Day on earth. Well, more than a day, but we could start with a day. Instead of judging each other, we would try to understand each other and work on improving our relationships.

If everyone read this, I think at the very least we would be a more peaceful, accepting people. It's also a great book for people going through hard times or who have suffered a great loss.

There's a possibility that this book will be made into a movie. At the end of the book, there was a note that said that this would be pursued after a sufficient number of these books were in circulation. I got my copy at Target, so I don't think that will be a problem. Anyway, for more information, or to order a copy, visit http://www.theshackbook.com.

Capitol Conspiracy, by William Bernhardt (Book Review)

2009-01-23T23:09:00.000-08:00

In some horrible alternate universe in which there is no President Obama (still love saying that), another Republican president is elected after Bush. No, not McCain, but someone rather like Bush. This president barely escapes an assassination attempt at an Oklahoma City Memorial. In response, President Blake wants to amend the constitution so that a three-person committee in the Department of Homeland Security can declare a state of emergency and suspend most of the Bill of Rights until they decide the emergency is over. Pretty scary.

Recurring character Ben Kincaid is a freshman senator, a Democrat, and the president wants him to help get the support to make the amendment a reality. For those unfamiliar with Kincaid, he was a defense attorney before becoming a senator, but not a sleazy type. He was a true champion of the underdog, and he is hardly the type to support something like this amendment--usually. But he was at the memorial service when the president was nearly assassinated. Ben's best friend was injured in that same incident and now lies in a coma. The first lady was killed and so were several other people. Ben starts to believe the amendment might not be a bad idea. But is the threat really from a foreign source?

This book is full of interesting subplots and twists and turns. It's not predictable. So if you're in the mood for more politics, check this out.

Carpool Diem, by Nancy Star (Book Review)

2009-01-16T20:29:00.000-08:00

This is a light, fun novel, as the name implies. It pokes fun at the disturbing social trend of certain types of upper-middle class parents who push their kids too hard over things that really don't matter all that much.

Annie Fleming is the workaholic mother of a twelve-year-old daughter. Annie is under the mistaken impression that her life is totally under control under she finds herself suddenly without a job. Annie is the type of person who never settles for second best. She is not the type of person who, for example, will decide she wants a cat and pick up a cute one from the animal shelter. No. She is the type of person who would exhaustively research cats on the internet to ensure that she gets the best possible cat. And she is like that about everything. Annie might be in need of some medication.

So you can imagine Annie's angst when her daughter, Charlotte, earns a spot on a second-rate soccer team. She vows that she will teach Charlotte the importance of not settling, and that Charlotte will make the elite team.

It turns out that Charlotte has some talent, enough to get noticed by Winslow, the coach of the very best local team. Too bad Winslow is crazy. He schedules something every day--during the summer--for his team. If they aren't in a tournament, they are having practice twice a day or a scrimmage. He subjects them to training better reserved for Olympic athletes, and the only excuse for missing anything is death. He puts out newsletters for the team and parents that are quite hilarious, as is this glimpse into the world of "soccer parents" in general.

It would be good if parents like these could read this and see themselves in it and maybe back off a little (and learn to laugh at themselves). I'm not sure, though, if such parents would allow themselves to do anything so frivolous as read a novel. I mean, encouragement is great, but when you're forcing your kid to practice soccer in a thunderstorm, it's time to reassess your priorities.

11 Days Until Inauguration Day

2009-01-08T22:16:00.000-08:00

I was in Barnes and Nobles this evening after work when I heard a couple of teenagers talking about Barack Obama novels. I happened to catch the eye of one of them and smiled. I didn't think anything about it until I left the store and went out into the mall a few minutes later and passed those same kids. One gave me the thumbs up and said, "Yes we can! Hope for America!"

"That's right!" I said, smiling and returning the thumbs up.

I love little moments like that. I was exhausted from a long day at work, but I kept smiling because I just felt like it.

Only 11 more days to go!

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (Movie Review)

2008-12-28T23:56:00.000-08:00

This isn't exactly a feel-good holiday movie. If you are in need of a post-holiday pick-me-up, you might want to avoid this one.

However, if you want to see a quality movie with some depth, this is a good choice, though the overall message is a little unclear. It's based on a short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald, but in reading some other reviews, it sounds as though the only thing the movie has in common with the story is a man who is born old and ages backwards. Having never read the story, I have to take their word for it. It's also been noted that the story was much more humorous than the movie. The movie had some humorous moments, but mostly it was a drama rather than a comedy.

At the beginning of the movie, an old woman dying in her hospital bed has her daughter read aloud from a diary. The diary was written by Benjamin Button (Brad Pitt), and the story is told through flashbacks. It is the story of Benjamin's life, as well as the love story between Benjamin and Daisy (Cate Blanchett).

Benjamin was born at the end of the first World War. His mother died in childbirth, and his father was horrified by Benajmin's appearance--he was the size of a baby, but looked like an old man. He took the baby away and left him on the doorstep of a retirement home. The retirement home was run by a woman named Queenie (Taraji P. Henson), who ended up raising him.

Benjamin actually fit in quite well at the retirement home, not understanding that he was actually a child. He looked like another old man in a wheelchair, albeit a short one who was not in complete possession of his mental faculties. He eventually grew taller and didn't need to use the wheelchair anymore. He was still an old man, physically when he met Daisy, the love of his life, who was a child at the time.

Of course, he and Daisy didn't get together for years, until the point when they sort of met in the middle in age. But of course, any romance with Benjamin was doomed in the long term, and that was the tragedy of his life in general. It would have to be very lonely to be moving in the opposite direction from everyone else.

The movie is very interesting in that Benjamin had a fascinating life, and visually stunning with great special effects. But the overall themes--time is cruel, we all die in the end no matter how we get there--aren't exactly uplifting. Adding to the ominous tone is the fact that the old woman in the hospital (who turns out to be Daisy) and her daughter who is reading Benjamin's diary are in a hospital in New Orleans right before and then right as Hurricane Katrina is hitting. If there is some more uplifting message embedded in the storyline, I'm not getting it. I guess one could argue that despite a serious obstacle, Benjamin made the best of things and led the best life he could, but even considering this, I still don't consider the movie very uplifting.

Time of My Life, by Allison Winn Scotch (Book Review)

2008-12-20T02:14:00.000-08:00

What an awesome book! I love stories that involve manipulating time or involve some sort of road-not-taken scenario. In this book, protagonist Jillian Westfield is living the perfect suburban housewife and mother of an adorable 18-month-old in 2007. She loves her daughter, but she's bored to tears by her life and her marriage has definitely lost its luster.

Then one day she wakes up and it's seven years earlier. (Now, my first thought was, there's no way I could relive the Bush years, but since it was July 2000, I would have wanted alert the media that BUSH IS GOING TO STEAL FLORIDA! And beware of that stupid butterfly ballot!).

But I digress. Other than a brief mention of the Bush-Gore race, there is almost no mention of politics. In 2000, Jill's life was at a crossroads. She was about ready to break up with her exciting but rather unambitious and noncommittal boyfriend, Jackson, and about ready to get together with the man she would eventually marry, Henry. She is now intent on trying to make things work with Jack, and not getting together with Henry. She now has the advantage of 20/20 hindsight; often things work out well because of this. For example, when her friend Meg has a miscarriage, Jill knows it is going to happen, and this time she thinks to call 911 in advance instead of going to Meg first and then calling 911. This is crucial since Meg lost so much blood the first time that she required a transfusion and sustained much more internal damage. Also, Jill is able to anticipate trouble spots in her relationship with Jack and deal with problems more effectively.

Occasionally things don't work out quite as well, because each new action has unintended consequences. For example, her boss Josie's marriage appears to be going south, even though as far as Jill knows, Josie and her husband were perfectly happy in 2007. Jill is upset by the possibility that her interfering in the past, trying to change things, has caused problems for Josie. Also, even though Jill doesn't want to get together with her husband, she misses her daughter, who will never be if she stays with Jack.

But things are going great with Jack, now that she knows he's the one she wants. Or are they?

Is the problem that Jill chose the wrong person? Or is the problem that she has stifled too much of herself and failed to confront her own demons?

This is a book that will resonate with anyone who has ever wished they could have gne back and made a different choice in life. How many of us have wished we could have made a relationship work (or left a bad one sooner), not dropped out of college, taken a risk instead of playing it safe, or done any number of things we felt would have made our lives better? It is a book that invites self-reflection. The book is also a real page turner. I was fascinated by the concept and couldn't wait to see what would happen next. I look forward to reading more from this author.

Is Bush Going to Set the White House Drapes on Fire as He Leaves Too?

2008-12-03T18:45:00.000-08:00

I adore Rachel Maddow's show on MSNBC. I enjoy all segments of the show, but am going to speak to the "Lame Duck Watch" portion here for a moment. This is where Rachel highlights some (disastrous) new proposal or regulation that the Bush administration is trying to push through before he (finally) leaves office, probably all of which are in direct opposition to what Obama wants to do. Here are some highlights:

* a new rule that would allow health care workers to refuse procedures due to moral objections, including, unsurprisingly, abortions, and possibly dispensing birth control. (Imagine not being able to get your birth control prescription filled because some jerk in the pharmacy had a problem with it).

* Offering parts of the Utah wilderness for oil and gas drilling.

* Negotiating a deal that would keep the troops in Iraq for three more years (if approved by the IRAQ parliament, NOT our Congress)

* relaxing regulations covering endangered species and changing how pollution levels are measured

* giving state and local agencies more spying power

* many more nefarious things

JANUARY 20 CANNOT COME SOON ENOUGH.

When his administration isn't working to bring down this country further in the time they have left, what exactly are W and company doing? Are they trying to address the economic crisis, maybe? Not so much, from the sound of it. Mostly, they are trying to recast Bush's image in a more positive light.

They should probably wait a few years for that. Like maybe 50, or 100.

I think the Obamas should do some kind of cleansing ritual when they move into the White House. The toxic energy W is leaving in his wake isn't healthy for anyone else to be around.

Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State--Yay!

2008-12-01T21:05:00.000-08:00

I'm so excited that Hillary Clinton will be our next Secretary of State! I actually wanted Hillary to get the nomination for president, though I always liked Obama as well. Part of the reason I initially chose Hillary over Obama was that I simply didn't know as much about him (and, okay, I wanted a woman president, though breaking the color barrier is equally important). Now that I'm as familiar with him as any political junkie can be, I'm really happy about him being president (especially considering the alternative, but I would be excited anyway). Still, I really like Hillary, and it's awesome that she will have such a prominent role in Obama's administration. She'll do a great job, and the Clintons are well thought of overseas.

Instead of counting the days until Christmas, I am counting the days until January 20.

Twilight, by Stephenie Meyer (Book Review)

2008-11-18T22:38:00.000-08:00

I did it! Now that my election worries are over, I can concentrate and read novels again. I had initially hesitated in reading the Twilight series because I'm not normally a fan of vampire novels. (I'm even less of a fan of vampire movies; Interview with a Vampire nearly made me lose my dinner). I decided to try Meyer's series because I had heard so many good things about it, not the least of which was that Edward, vampire and love interest of Bella, the main (human) character, is a vegetarian. Strictly speaking, this isn't true, but he satisfies his thirst for blood by drinking animal blood rather than human blood. Even so, I have to try not to dwell on it too much or I feel queasy.

Still, the book is really good, both as a suspense novel and a romance. Bella, 17, moves to Forks, Washington, to live with her dad after her mother remarries. She isn't at all crazy about moving to one of the rainiest places in the United States, especially since she's from Phoenix, but she forces herself to do so in the interest of her mother's happiness. Bella's moving in with her father leaves her mother free to travel with her new husband.

On the first day in her new school in Forks, Bella meets Edward, whose good looks border on godlike.

Too bad he seems to take an instant dislike to her.

It isn't until later that she learns the truth about Edward. Edward is a vampire, and though he's as crazy about her as she is about him, he was trying to stay away from her because he was also having to fight the urge to suck her blood. Which I guess is as good a reason for his initial behavior as any.

Bella handles the news of Edward's true nature surprisingly well. Despite Edward's warnings that he is still dangerous to be around despite his "vegetarianism" (in case he gets too tempted), she has no intention of staying away from Edward. He finds it difficult to keep his distance from her, too, and they begin a romance, albeit a cautious one.

But hanging out with vampires is even more dangerous than either one of them realizes, and Belle soon finds herself in grave danger.

The magnetism between the two main characters and the suspenseful plot makes this book a real page turner. It appeals to teens and adults alike. I read somewhere that Edward and his vampire family set an example of sorts in that they rise above their lot in life by only hunting animals. It's not an obvious point, but I do believe it's true.

The movie is due to come out in only a couple of days! I look forward to seeing it; I only hope it's half as good as the book.

What Would Obama Do? Eight Years of Slacker Hell

2008-11-10T00:25:00.000-08:00

I have developed a disturbing tendency in the last few weeks. Lately when I am confronted with a difficult situation, I find myself wondering how Obama would handle it. The answer is usually something like confronting a problem directly as opposed to studious avoidance, thinking something through before acting, or (gasp!) working harder.

This new tendency unsettles me greatly as it is unprecedented. I sure as hell wasn't asking myself what Bush would do in a difficult (or any) situation, though I suppose that could be a good reverse guide. That is, if you aren't sure what to do about something, ask yourself what Bush would do, and then do just the opposite. Politicians in general haven't been people I considered worthy of emulation, even ones I liked, until now.

Those of us who were deriving a certain portion of our self-esteem from feeling superior to the president are going to have to figure something else out.

It's rather comforting to know that I am not the only one asking myself What Would Obama Do (WWOD). Julia Moulden at Huffington Post writes about how to Unleash Your Inner Obama.

As for myself, I think that's wonderful, but am feeling somewhat less energetic after weeks of obsessively following the election, and like Lisa Earle McLeod over at Huffington Post, am feeling in the need of a detox.
I can't imagine what it would take to actually run a campaign if I'm tired from just following it.

Maybe I will head over to change.gov, President-Elect Barack Obama's new website, where they are inviting people to share their stories and ideas. I could suggest that the country institute afternoon siestas. Probably won't fly, but maybe worth a shot.

On the other hand, thinking of the fact that in 71 days, Obama is going to be our president does give me a burst of energy. Woohoo!

Post-Election Reflections

2008-11-06T22:05:00.000-08:00

Last night Jon Stewart was talking about how in New York City people had actually been looking him in the eye and smiling that day and how it was freaking him out. Since I don't live in the Seattle area (the part of Washington that makes it a blue state), the reaction to Obama's win here was more mixed. The people I surround myself with by choice were all happy, but a couple of the women at work were actually talking about how it should be a day of mourning. Their mood was so diametrically opposed to what I was feeling that it was quite jarring.

Now, let's see. These women work in low-paying clerical jobs in a school. I could see plenty of things wrong with them supporting McCain, even though of course it was their choice to do so, demented or not. But they kept going on about it, and I couldn't really just walk away because I had to be doing something in the front office for the moment, and I finally just said, "We are all so much better off with Obama!"

Quite possibly I was better off not saying anything. It's not like he needs the votes anymore. Maybe I should have just offered to help the one who wanted to move to Canada pack up her things. I don't think I convinced them, at least partly because I didn't get much chance before the phones started ringing and everyone got sidetracked. I'm always a little concerned about the status differential in situations like that. Not a power differential, as I am not in a position of authority over them, but a status differential. Not that they necessarily seemed to care about who it was who was disagreeing with them.

But anyway. Obama will do such an awesome job that they will come around, and if they don't, it's not my problem. (Maybe it's Canada's?) Seriously, though, I think it's the kind of thing where people who aren't convinced need to see how things will be. If they are ever going to be convinced (which may or may not happen), seeing for themselves will work much better than anything anyone could say.

This was just a small blight on an otherwise happy day though. I heard from a couple of people whose political opinions I'd not heard before, though maybe I could have guessed. A counselor told me how he'd helped put up signs in the community for Obama and Gregoire (another great win--this time our governor, who only beat Rossi by 129 votes four years ago, decisively beat Rossi and he's FINALLY accepted it and said he will not run again, for which around 53% of the state's population breathes a collective sigh of relief). We talked about the people dancing in Kenya and how awesome it all was.

Also, when I went to my tutoring job (which I got in an effort to help me pay off massive debt from graduate school), the little girl's babysitter was gussied up in a DNC T-shirt from this year and an Obama pin. We talked for a little bit about how great it was that Obama won.

It frustrates me that a lot of the divisions that are still out there seem to be based on low information or misinformation. But I think Obama will be a much more unifying president than McCain would have been (and certainly more so than Palin-God forbid--would have been). Some people are going to be upset now, and it might be awhile before they see how much better things can be.

As for our standing in the world, it's great to be an American again.

Does anyone besides me think that McCain's dissing of Letterman--even though he made up for it later--may have had something to do with Indiana's turning blue this year?

For anyone who--like me--has trouble deciding what to do now that we can be done obsessing about the election, 23/6 has a great article here on things you can do with your time now. I could always do the mountains of work that I have, but I'd REALLY rather not.

Never has two and a half months seemed so far away. In the words of the great David Letterman, "Does anyone mind if [Obama] starts a little early?"

President-Elect Barack Obama

2008-11-04T22:46:00.000-08:00

What an awesome day! Living in Washington State, I knew that Obama had won a couple minutes after eight in the evening. Well, actually, I knew before that even, because after they called Ohio for Obama, there was really no way for McCain to win. I loved how the whole West Coast turned blue about two seconds after the polls had closed. I had not expected things to be so "easy", despite how good things were looking in the polls. I was expecting to be up late, more states being too close to call, legal challenges, fistfights at CNN--okay, maybe not that last one. I guess after the last two presidential elections it just didn't seem possible that this one could go so relatively smoothly, though that's not to say there weren't issues with voting problems and all that.

John McCain made such a classy concession speech, though some members of the crowd weren't classy. Obama's speech was awesome and inspiring. I wish his grandmother could have lived to see him win. His campaign has been so amazing. Whenever I was worried about something (election tampering, people not understanding this or that, low-information voters defecting to the other side because of Palin, Bill Ayers, whatever), the campaign always had it covered. Of course the external event of the economy cratering helped the Democrats in general, but still, the campaign had an amazing ground game. If Obama's administration is as effective as his campaign, things will be really great. YES WE CAN!

The Secret Life of Bees and Election 2008

2008-11-01T23:28:00.000-07:00

These days the election never leaves my thoughts. I never watch any TV other than CNN and MSNBC (Oh, and Saturday Night Live). I read political articles on my computer at my desk at lunchtime. I listen to NPR in the car. I am for the most part taking a a break from my voracious reading of novels as I can't concentrate on them. Work makes a valiant effort for my attention, and I don't understand why I should be forced to go to work as if it were an ordinary day when an epic battle between good and evil is being fought.

Even when I do something relatively escapist, such as go to a movie, I view it through the lens of the 2008 election. Such was the case with The Secret Life of Bees.

Dakota Fanning plays Lily, who is 14 years old and growing up in South Carolina (red state) in 1964. She lives with her father. Her mother was killed in an accident with a gun ten years earlier, when she was trying to leave Lily's abusive father. They started fighting, and her mother got out a gun, but then dropped it in the struggle with her husband. Four-year-old Lily tried to hand it to her and it went off.

So Lily of course feels incredible guilt over this, even though it was an accident and she was only four. And of course now she's being raised by her abusive father, though really most of the raising was being done by their black housekeeper, Rosaleen (Jennifer Hudson, whose recent family tragedy with her mother, brother, and nephew being killed was the little bit of news unrelated to the election that I actually took in).

Anyway, the story really begins when Rosaleen and Lily go into town so that Rosalie can register to vote. Rosalie is accosted and beaten by three white men before she gets the chance. Then SHE is arrested for causing trouble, though she is also taken to the hospital to get treated for her injuries.

I haven't heard of anyone today getting beaten for trying to register to vote. However, I've certainly heard of HUGE problems with voter suppression--thousands of eligible voters potentially being dropped from the rolls in some states because of slight variations in the name or address, attempts to intimidate students by saying if they vote in their college towns their parents can't claim them as dependents on their income taxes (misinformation), to name just a couple of problems--how far have we come since 1964, people? It's pretty embarrassing that we hold ourselves up as an example of democracy when we can't even hold fair elections ourselves. And don't even get me started about the Diebold machines. Ask for a paper ballot if possible.

The incident causes Lily and her father to get into a huge fight, and Lily runs away. She packs a bag and leaves a note for her father, then sneaks into the hospital where Roaleen is staying and basically helps her become a fugitive.

They end up at the home of the Boatwright sisters in a nearby town. Queen Latifah is August, a successful beekeeper whose famous jars of honey have a black Madonna on the label. It was the label in a stash of her mother's things that had led Lily there. August lives in a beautiful (though violently pink) house with her two sisters, May (Sophie Okonedo), constantly sad and troubled since losing her twin sister years ago, and June (Alicia Keys, an earnest (though at times humorless) civil rights activist.

Lily learns about harvesting the honey, while Rosaleen helps out in the house. Staying in the Boatwright house is a healing experience for both of them, and Lily learns some secrets of her mother's past.

It's a heartwarming if at times a bit implausible tale. When I can read regular books again, I'll have to check out the novel by Sue Monk Kidd.

Oh, and Rosaleen does end up getting registered to vote. She tells Lily she will be casting her vote for Lyndon Johnson and Hubert Humphrey.

The Democrats ended up winning the White House by a landslide in 1964. Please, God, let the same thing happen in 2008. Let everyone who hasn't voted yet be just as excited and determined to do so as Rosaleen.

Just think how excited Rosaleen would have been to vote for an African American candidate, especially as visionary a candidate as Obama.

Thoughts on the Election

2008-10-25T21:00:00.000-07:00

1. Go Vote! If you haven't already voted and your state allows it, vote early. I mailed in my ballot casting my vote for Obama several days ago. I also voted to reelect Gregoire as governor for Washington State, George Fearing to replace Doc Hastings as my US Congressman, and Carol Moser for Washington State 8th District Representative, Position 1. And a bunch of other stuff, most of it not that interesting.

2. David Frum, a former Bush speechwriter, warns "This could look like an ideological as well as a party victory if we're not careful. It could be 1980 in reverse." (Source: The Sunday Telegraph, 10-26-08)

Woohoo! 1980 in reverse! I have been waiting for this since I was ten years old. Balance will be restored to the universe.

3. Not that I am getting complacent. I will not relax until Barack Obama is sworn in as the 44th President of the United States. If McCain somehow pulls off an upset, I will never relax again. If the latter were the case, my immediate plans would be to get a passport and pack for my move to Australia. Does anyone know how long cats have to be in quarantine if you are flying with them to Australia?

4. Has any other relatively recent election been compared to so many other elections? The 2008 US Presidential Election has been compared to (in chronological order) 1932, 1964, 1976, 1980 (with the political parties reversed), 1992 (another great year, especially the three-way debates), and of course the inevitable comparisons to 2000 and 2004. I'm sure that other elections have prompted other comparisons, but probably not this many.

5. What has been the most fun for me is watching all the prominent Republicans jump ship and come out in support of Obama and/or criticizing Palin. Here is a partial list--Colin Powell, Christopher Buckley, George Will, Scott McClellan, Ken Adelman, Matthew Dowd. David Brooks called Gov. Palin "a fatal cancer to the Republican Party." Like I said, fun, fun, fun. Unless you imagine McCain/Palin actually winning, McCain dying, and Palin taking over.

6. We are not a center-right nation! Certain idiots in the MSM (that's mainstream media for the uninitiated) keep saying that, but it's not true, especially of younger voters. Some people may still shy away from the word "liberal", but if you question Americans on such issues on health care, education, what role the government should play in getting our economy back on track, and social issues such as abortion rights and banning gay marriage, center-left is probably closer to being accurate. If you still think this is a center-right nation, you're either too old or out of touch. Maybe both. Much like McCain. Not that he is in any way a centrist (right or left) anymore. McCain 2000 might have done much better in 2008.

7. Go vote! Help make history.

Voters' Rights--Link to my Associated Content Post

2008-10-13T22:10:00.000-07:00

Below is a link to an article I wrote on Associated Content about a really important issue, especially in certain states. Make sure your right to vote is protected.

Check out my recently published content on AC:

Protect Your Right to Vote

Death Perception, by Victoria Laurie (Book Review)

2008-09-19T23:43:00.000-07:00

Abby Cooper, my favorite psychic and amateur sleuth, gives me something to look forward to every September, which is good, since it's usually not one of my favorite months. Summer ends, I'm back to work, and it's usually a really crazy month for me. But I digress.

This latest installment in the Abby Cooper series takes place in Las Vegas. Abby and her boyfriend, FBI agent Dutch Rivers, travel to Las Vegas after he learns that his cousin, Chase, is missing.

It turns out that there is quite a bit more to her boyfriend than Abby has realized. It turns out that Chase was hired as a bodyguard through the security firm that Dutch owns as a sideline to his work with the FBI. Abby knew about the security firm, but not that his cousin worked for it, or how lucrative it really was. Anyway, both Chase and the man he was hired to guard are missing. The evidence points to Chase being dead, but Abby's intuition insists otherwise. Oddly, though, Dutch is reluctant to involve the FBI. Dutch is also ill, and Abby continually dreams of his gravestone. Can she prevent something terrible from happening? And is her boyfriend really the good guy she's always thought him to be?

Laurie's books tend to give me the heebie-jeebies, in a good way. They are unpredictable, and I don't know what it is exactly, but they just want me to make extra sure the door is locked at night. And it's not as though I scare easily; I read murder mysteries all the time. The character Abby is quite down-to-earth, though, unusual profession or not. Some of the situations in which she finds herself are quite hilarious, so you do get the comic relief before you get too freaked out. All in all, this series is pure fun.

Escape, by Carolyn Jessop (Book Review)

2008-09-07T00:59:00.000-07:00

Stumble It!

This is the second book I have read by a woman who has escaped from the Fundamentalist Latter-Day Saints (FLDS), a polygamist cult that was categorized as a hate group in 2005. Actually, I hope I will be able to read more stories from people who have managed to escape its grasp. It's a really scary group. This is a group that splintered from the Mormon church and is renounced by them.

Carolyn Jessop was 35 years old when she managed to do what most women in her situation would find unthinkable. She rounded up her eight kids and with them escaped from the home where they lived with her husband, Merril Jessop, and his other wives and their kids. By the way, these were kids who didn't want to go. She then became the first woman ever to win full custody of her kids in a contested suit involving the FLDS.

Most of Carolyn's 35 years in the FLDS cult were spent in Colorado City, AZ, a small town on the border of Colorado and Utah. She was born in 1968, into the sixth generation of a polygamist family. For the first few years of her life, her father had only one wife, her biological mother. Her mother suffered from depression and volatile mood swings and frequently beat her kids, but this is an accepted part of FLDS culture, as is wife-beating (I'm not going to call it spousal abuse here. It's wife beating). Her parents' marriage was not a strong one, with her father always criticizing her mother, especially when her mother actually, God forbid, wanted to have fun with the kids.

Carolyn's grandmother, Jenny, provided a buffer for her against her mother's volatility, and she explained the importance of plural marriage in their culture. In the FLDS faith, a man must have multiple wives if he wants to do well in Heaven. I think most of us on the "outside" think of Heaven as more of an end goal in itself, but in the FLDS faith, a man who does well in Heaven can become a god himself and get his own planet. It kind of reminds me of Greek or Roman mythology, but only the afterlife part of it, not the oppressive restrictions on earth. They also believe that men in Heaven have spirit wives and father spirit children. Those born into the FLDS believe that they are God's elite, and that they are better than anyone else in the world because of it. Carolyn felt special to be among the chosen ones.

Carolyn was more fortunate than many in her faith, especially those that were younger (as was Elissa Wall, whose memoir I reviewed in an earlier post). Carolyn graduated high school and actually got a college degree, which was almost unheard of.

Unfortunately, her college degree came with a price. She had wanted to go to school to become a doctor, but the prophet at the time (this was before Rulon Jeffs took over) wouldn't let her do that. He would let her go to college to become a teacher, but only on one condition--that she marry Merril Jessop.

Carolyn wasn't thrilled with the prospect. He was 50 years old while she was only 18. But she wanted to go to school, and she hadn't exactly been brought up to question the prophet or marry for love, so she became Merril's fourth wife.

They remained married for 17 years. Home was far from domestic bliss. Carolyn got some respite from it at first since she got to go to school, but the wives were jealous of each other, and one wife in particular wanted to dominate all the other wives, and Merril let her get away with treating the rest of them horribly, as well as beating the children of the other wives. Carolyn had eight children in 15 years, which was actually on the low end. Most would have had more like 12 or 13 in that amount of time. Merril controlled the money she earned as a teacher, the way her children would be treated, and their sex life. On top of everything else, one of their children was severely disabled, and Merril believed that this was because God was punishing Carolyn for being disobedient. I think he even hoped that their son would die to further punish her.

Life got stranger and stranger too as Rulon Jeffs and then his son Warren took over and made life more restrictive for everyone. They began to preach the apocalypse, and Carolyn feared that eventually there might be a mass suicide.

The story of how Carolyn finally managed to break free from her husband and the cult and then win custody of her kids is an amazing story of courage and hope. Carolyn is an amazingly brave and strong woman. Her story is one that everyone should read. It's scary to think that such a group, with its horrific treatment of women and children, could operate right here in the United States and get away with it. Carolyn pointed out that all the cops in her community were FLDS members, so it wasn't as though there was any place for domestic violence victims to turn to for help. Also many of the women drove cars with expired license plates, and while they wouldn't be stopped in the community, they would be if they tried to leave it.

I see the stories of those who have escaped the FLDS as serious cautionary tales. Religious freedom is one thing, but it's not okay if it involves mistreating others who don't have the freedom to walk away (I'm talking psychologically as well as in terms of the law). Even in the United States, we can't just take our rights for granted.

House Bunny (Movie Review)

2008-08-23T22:03:00.000-07:00

Once upon a time, Shelley Darlington (played by Anna Faris) was a lonely orphan. She grew up to be a great beauty and moved to the Playboy mansion at age 18. There she lived happily for nine years, considering the friends she made there to be her family.

Then she's kicked out of the house the day after her 27th birthday for being "too old." She doesn't exactly have a great education or job skills, but she manages to land a job as a house mother to an unpopular sorority on a college campus. The sorority is about to lose their house unless they can get 30 new pledges.

Here's where Shelley's area of expertise comes into play. She helps the girls--all socially awkward misfits--look sexy and learn to flirt. They start attracting the attention of guys and potential pledges.

Shelley, meanwhile, falls for Oliver (Colin Hanks), a nursing home administrator and perhaps the only straight guy on earth who is immune to her more bunny-like charms. To his credit, he wants to be with someone he can actually have a conversation with, which leaves her at a loss. So now the girls help her improve her knowledge base, a rather formidable task.

The basic premise of the movie is to be yourself, but it's not exactly a movie you go to for its redeeming social value. It's fun, though. Faris is wickedly funny as Shelley. Also great is Emma Stone as Natalie, the leader of the sorority girls.

It Only Takes a Moment, by Mary Jane Clark (Book Review)

2008-08-13T02:30:00.000-07:00

Those of you who read Mary Jane Clark's novels may remember Eliza Blake. All of Clark's novels center around the staff of the fictional KEY news team, including Eliza. I have some trouble keeping all of the characters straight, since usually too much time passes before I read another book of hers, but generally it doesn't matter. The stories stand on their own and you don't really need to remember details of the previous books.

Eliza is a single parent of a seven-year-old daughter, Janie. Her husband died some years before. She has a boyfriend, Mack, but he is overseas. She has just been re-assigned to do the morning show, which will enable her to spend the summer afternoons with her daughter. She is basically content with her life, but then one day the unthinkable happens. Janie is kidnapped, along with their housekeeper, Carmen Garcia. Terrified and guilt-ridden for allowing her daughter as much public exposure as she has, Eliza and her friends, not wanting to sit around and wait for the FBI and local authorities to find Janie, launch their own investigation. Eliza even gets some help from a psychic, though the authorities are rather disinclined to trust what the psychic says, and her intuitions do seem to be pretty vague.

The story alternates between different points of view, including that of the kidnappers, and the reader learns that money isn't the motive for Janie's kidnapping, but what is it? Clark also does a wonderful job of making everyone look guilty, so even though you get an idea of what the kidnappers are thinking, you don't know who they are until the end, at which point there is a surprising twist. It's a great book for mystery lovers.

Book Review--A Wolf at the Table, Augustin Burroughs

2008-08-05T01:19:00.000-07:00

The universe sure didn't do Augusten Burroughs any favors in assigning him parents. Running with Scissors details his mother's mental illness and how she gave guardianship of him to her crazy psychiatrist when Augusten was 13. His life at the psychiatrist's house was truly chaotic and was actually painful to read, though very well done and very funny at times.

A Wolf at the Table is a prequel to Scissors, in which the focus is Augusten's life with his parents before he and his mother left and he started living at the psychiatrist's house. This is a departure from his earlier books in that it is very serious. While Augusten's mother may have been mentally ill, his father seems to have been truly evil. I'm not sure if it was alcoholism that made his father that way, or maybe something in his genes or early life experiences. Probably some combination of all three. Augusten's father actually had a pretty good life until he was about eight or so. He was born to teenage parents, and to help them out, his paternal grandfather and three teen-aged aunts took him in and took very good care of him, which was great until the teen-aged parents, now in their 20s, reclaimed him. Then things weren't so great. His father, Augusten's grandfather, was a very angry man, though no one was sure what caused the anger. He also drank to excess. Augusten's grandmother, Carolyn, was terrified of her husband's anger and thus not much help in protecting her son.

The cycle was repeated with Augusten's parents. Augusten and his mother would sometimes move out of the house because his mother believed they weren't safe there. While his mother had some serious problems of her own, she was right in believing that her husband was capable of violence. In reading this, I was only sorry that it took them as long as it did to make a clean break. With Augusten, there was a complete lack of an emotional connection, and it was heartbreaking to see the little boy rejected time and again by his father.

This was a difficult book to read because it was so disturbing, but very readable and well done.

Movie Review--Wall-E

2008-08-03T12:36:00.000-07:00

When I am visiting my family, which includes my 5-year-old niece and 8-year-old nephew, I sometimes see movies I wouldn't otherwise see. Wall-E was one I probably wouldn't have thought of seeing on my own, but the kids wanted to see it. When I heard it was about robots, I hoped it would be a short movie.

However, I was pleasantly surprised. Yes, the main characters are robots, but the movie is clever and engaging, for adults as well as kids.

We first meet Wall-E, a solar-powered robot, several hundred years into the future. He is back on planet Earth, apparently by himself, cleaning up garbage. Since he doesn't speak at first, the viewer learns what is going on indirectly. A stray newspaper indicates that the Earth is covered with garbage, and indeed Wall-E is surrounded by garbage to clean up. Skyscrapers around him are actually constructed out of garbage. He has a big storage area where he retires at night which has electricity and is festooned with Christmas tree lights. He watches old movies on TV, and at one point we see an old advertisement, from which we learn that all the people on earth went aboard a giant spaceship while the garbage was being cleaned up.

Wall-E's world changes dramatically one day when a spaceship lands and dispatches another robot named Eve. Wall-E is instantly smitten and tries to impress her by showing her his few treasures. The tiny green plant he found one day and and transplanted into an old shoe gets the biggest reaction. Eve takes the plant and both of them end up aboard the spaceship Axiom, where they find many extremely overweight and lazy humans who are used to having everything done for them, waiting to one day be able to go home again. Wall-E and Eve get caught up in a plot regarding the fate of the plant and the people aboard the spaceship.

The story is just so clever that it is difficult to do it justice in describing it. Much of the story of the robots is told through their actions rather than dialog. It's a science fiction story with a message, and one that is important for adults to see as well as children.

Stolen Innocence, by Elissa Wall with Lisa Pulitzer (Book Review)

2008-07-23T22:33:00.000-07:00

In reading about Elissa Wall's experiences, it amazed me to think that this sort of thing goes on in America. I had heard of her case and other stories of polygamous sects, of course, but still.

Elissa is the child of Douglas Wall and his second wife. She is the 11th child of her mother, who eventually had 14 kids. Her father had more kids with other wives as well. In the household where Elissa spent most of her childhood (an abbreviated childhood due to her forced marriage at age 14), Elissa had two mothers, her biological mother as well as her father's first wife, Audrey. A third wife was added later as well. They belonged to the Fundamentalist Latter-Day Saints (FLDS), a group that broke away from the Mormom church. The kids all went to a private academy for FLDS kids. FLDS members wore long church undergarments that covered their entire bodies from neck to ankle, and the girls and women wore long pioneer-style dresses all year long, even in the heat of summer.

Elissa's was not a happy home. There was much discord, possibly because her father and his first wife had not grown up in polygamous families. Her mother had and knew they could work, but the discord worsened until finally the sect leader had her mother and all her mother's children placed with another man, as was the custom in the church. If there were problems at home, the man was blamed for not controlling the wives. There was no such thing as dating in the sect either. The sect leader would supposedly get a revelation from God about whom someone belonged with.

Elissa was very upset about having to leave her father. She did get to go to a public school for a year when she moved into her new father's home, and there she discovered a love of learning and a sense of life outside the FLDS. However, this was short-lived, as the sect leader Warren Jeffs ordered church members to take their kids out of public schools.

Elissa had a lot of rebellious siblings, which may be why Jeffs decided she needed to be married early, at age 14. Elissa did not want to be married so early and was horrified at his choice, her first cousin, 19-year-old Allen. She and her mother and some other family members tried to talk to Jeffs about it, but he wouldn't change his mind. After the marriage took place, Elissa had to endure repeated rapes at the hands of her husband.

It wasn't easy for Elissa to break free and find a life for herself outside the FLDS. She is a tremendously courageous individual who had to make some really tough decisions. She had to go against everything she'd been taught to believe in order to break free.

I found this book hard to put down because I wanted Elissa to escape the awful situation she was in already. The story was very interesting, though. Not exactly your typical American childhood. Elissa Wall is using part of the profits from this book, money from a lawsuit she brought against the FLDS system, and donations to set up a fund called the MJ fund, which will help former FLDS girls and women start lives for themselves.

Movie Review--Mamma Mia!

2008-07-19T21:41:00.000-07:00

If ABBA music makes you want to get up and dance, you will love this movie. With cast members bursting into Abba songs and breathtaking scenery, it hardly needs a plot. So it gets by with a skimpy one, but the movie is so much fun, who cares?

The movie opens right before the wedding of Sophie (Amanda Seyfried), a 20-year-old American who was raised in the Greek Isles by her single mother, Donna (Meryl Streep). Donna runs a charming hotel that is falling apart. Sophie has never known who her father is, but by reading an old diary of her mother's, she finds three possibilities, tracks them down, and invites them to the wedding. She is ecstactic when they all reply that they will be there, sure that she will know which one is her father right away, but when she meets them she has no idea. Furthermore, her mother is not at all happy about seeing these three guys again.

When Donna met Sam (Pierce Brosnan) 21 years ago, she thought she had met the love of her life. Unfortunately, he was engaged to someone else and left her to get married. The other two guys (played by Colin Firth and Stellan Skarsgard) were rebound guys, and she doesn't know who Sophie's father is either. It's best not to pay too much attention to the timelines. They talk about being involved in the era of flower children, which would make Sophie closer to 40 rather than 20. I guess the movie wouldn't necessarily have to have taken place in 2008, but they also talk about developing a website for Donna's hotel, so it couldn't have taken place too many years ago. As I said, best not to pay too much attention.

Both Streep and Seyfried have good voices. Christine Baranski, in the role of one of Donna's friends, does a rendition of "Does Your Mother Know" that is lots of fun as well.

Professional reviewers tended not to like this one too much, but unless you're not an ABBA fan, I wouldn't pay too much attention to them.

How to be Lost, by Amanda Eyre Ward

2008-06-21T23:16:00.000-07:00

I must admit, part of the reason I bought this book was the Montana references. I am from Montana originally and it is rare to find book characters outside of westerns (which I hate)who are from there or even visit there. A good part of the book takes place in Missoula, MT. I am from Great Falls, MT, originally and went to school in Missoula, and I enjoyed reading about all the familiar places there.

The other, and main, reason I bought it was just that it sounded really intriguing. The book is written from the point of view of Caroline, whose sister disappeared at age five. Caroline was 15 at the time, and they had another sister, Madeline, who was in middle school then. Since that time, their father more or less drank himself to death. Their mother had never really been able to move on. Madeline and Caroline had drifted apart.

Now Caroline is 32 and has never really gotten her life together. She ran away to New Orleans and became a cocktail waitress (the story is pre-Katrina). She drinks way too much. She dreads going home for the holidays. On her last visit, her mother showed her a photo from a magazine, of a girl she was sure was her long-lost sister Ellie.

Then Caroline's mother dies and she loses her job, and she decides to search for Ellie. In the course of her search, you tend to wonder who is really lost here. The story is fairly gripping in that you want the sisters to reunite already. The back story of who took Ellie and why is pretty interesting as well. Caroline does grow quite a bit as a person over the course of the story, but I still felt she had a ways to go--Alcoholics Anonymous might be a start.

I look forward to reading more by this author. She has written one other book so far, Sleep Toward Heaven, and I plan to check that out.

Book Review--The Memory Keeper's Daughter, by Kim Edwards

2008-05-31T23:06:00.000-07:00

This is an amazing book. In 1964 Dr. David Henry has to deliver his twins himself due to a freak snowstorm in Lexington, Kentucky. His son is healthy, but he realizes right away that his daughter has Down Syndrome. He hands his daughter over to his nurse and tells her to take the baby girl to a nearby institution. Instead, the nurse, Caroline, takes the baby away and raises her as her own in another city.

It sounds from this like David is a monster or that he just can't be bothered with raising a child with disabilities. But I think maybe he had just already known too much pain. He had lost his sister when she was only twelve due to heart problems, and it had just about destroyed his mother. They'd had a difficult life anyway due to poverty. He was worried that the baby would have heart problems, as people with Down Syndrome sometimes do, and apparently was worried that Norah, his wife, would be destroyed in the same way his mother had been when his sister died. In 1964 people didn't know as much about Down Syndrome as they do today

Still, obviously, he didn't do the right thing. He had to tell Norah something about the other baby, and he told her that she died. Norah and he both grieved the loss of their daughter and were never the same afterwards. The secret was destructive to both of them and their son.

The story alternates between their story and the story of Caroline and Phoebe, the daughter. Phoebe turned five a few years before Public Law 94-142, the law that guaranteed an education to every child. So Caroline had to fight to get the public schools to allow Phoebe to go to school there. She sent David pictures from PO boxes in different cities, but she was afraid that David might eventually try to take Phoebe away from her, so she wouldn't let him know where they lived.

This book really illustrates the destructive power that secrets can wield. Also interesting to me was how far we've come in our understanding of disabilities. This is not to say that there aren't plenty of small-minded and cruel people out there, unfortunately, but now most people wouldn't think that a baby with Downs should be sent to an institution. Caroline wouldn't have to fight to get the public schools to accept her child.

Another theme is the role of women--David was incredibly paternalistic in deciding--without consulting his wife--that their baby should be sent to an institution. In the course of the story, Norah evolves from the stay-at-home wife and mother who defers to David on everything to an independent and accomplished career woman.

This book has many layers to it. It is a family drama and a page-turner--you keep wondering if and when Norah and Paul, the son, will find out that Phoebe didn't really die. I look forward to reading more by Kim Edwards.

Book Review--Death by Chick Lit, by Lynn Harris

2008-04-15T18:33:00.000-07:00

Lola Somerville has a great husband and a great apartment. She's even published a novel. But her first novel isn't getting quite the attention it deserves. On the other hand, her best friend, who readily admits she's not even a "real" writer, has been approached by someone who wants to turn her blog into a novel. Lola can't even take a cab drive or walk into a bar without running into someone who's writing a book. Or someone whose book is being turned into a major motion picture. It's all very irritating.

But then Lola stumbles upon the dead body of an author friend of hers at said friend's book party. As if this weren't bad enough, she dog-sits for another author friend and ends up finding this friend's body, too. Lola does some sleuthing on her own (as do most of the people in the books I read) and nearly ends up dead herself. But if she can solve the mystery, what a great book deal she could get!

This is a totally fun murder mystery, satire at its best. It is intelligent without being overbearing.

Book Review--School of Fortune, by Amanda Brown and Janice Weber

2008-04-10T21:33:00.000-07:00

Pippa Walker's mother has spent the last six months attending to every last detail of her daughter's wedding. She has spared no expense. She even held a mini-beauty contest among Pippa's friends in order to select ten perfect bridesmaids and three alternates, all of whom had to sign contracts agreeing to stay slim and beautiful. And how does Pippa repay her? By backing out of the wedding at the last minute.

Pippa has a really good reason to back out, but to protect her ex-fiance, she keeps it to herself. Her enraged mother disinherits her. Her father never stands up to her mother.

But Pippa can get her own share of the family fortune. Her grandfather provided for her through his will. The only thing is, she needs to get a diploma from a school (ANY school) to receive the bulk of his estate. She will receive an allowance of $60,000 a MONTH while she is in school.

Now personally, if this were my situation, I would have sucked it up, re-enrolled in college, and worked toward getting a college degree. I figure I could probably have managed to survive on $60,000 a month, given that I still don't make that much in a year, even after being out of graduate school for several years now and having earned two graduate degrees.

But Pippa takes advantage of the fact that the wording in her grandfather's will was rather vague, and she figures she will just get a diploma from a school less, shall we say, taxing, than college. She starts with driving school, then moves on to matchmaking school, then an extremely alarming circus academy, of all things. But it isn't until she enrolls in the Mountbatten-Savoy School of Household Management that things finally begin to turn around for Pippa--both school-wise and in finding true love.

This is a hilarious book. Pippa's world (or at least, the world from which she has recently been expelled) is populated be ridiculously rich individuals, and the authors do a great job of making fun of them. The schools Pippa attends are also full of extremely interesting and hilarious people, and I laughed out loud in reading about her misadventures in trying to earn a diploma.

Book Review--Carrot Cake Murder, by Joanne Fluke

2008-03-21T20:27:00.000-07:00

Our heroine Hannah is back, with her extraordinarily-bright cat, her two suitors--exciting cop Mike and dependable dentist Norman, and a new whodunit to solve. Personally, I would never ask Hannah to look for people, given the number of dead bodies she's stumbled upon. This is a fun mystery series though, especially if you like mysteries that contain recipes to try.

Hannah's business partner, Lisa, and Lisa's husband Herb are getting ready for a big family reunion. Herb's mother, as well as the rest of the family, gets a pleasant surprise when Herb's long-lost uncle, Gus, makes an appearance. Gus had disappeared thirty years previously and had not been heard from since.

Unfortunately, they aren't graced with his presence for too long. The morning after he arrives, Hannah goes looking for him at her mother’s request and stumbles on his dead body. Of course, Hannah immediately puts her amateur sleuthing skills to the test, with some help from her mother and sisters. She is surprised and suspicious when Mike gives his blessing and even offers to share information, as long as she'll share her information with him. Personally, I thought it was a smart move. He knows her well enough to know she'll investigate no matter what, and this way she will come to him with crucial information.

In her investigation, Hannah discovers that many people had reason to hate Gus, and she is putting herself in danger with her nosing around.

On a personal level, Hannah seems to be leaning toward choosing one of her suitors. . .will she finally choose one, or move off in a different direction altogether?

As always, these mysteries are fun and leave me looking forward to the next one.

Book Review--This is How it Happened (Not a Love Story) by Jo Barrett

2008-03-15T23:30:00.000-07:00

This is a great girl-power book. Our heroine, Maddy, was dumped by her boyfriend over email. This would be one thing if they'd only gone out a few times or something. But no. He was her live-in boyfriend, and they'd been together four years. Not only that, but they started a company together, and Maddy did everything you're not supposed to do if you don't want someone to steal your ideas and be able to oust you from a company you helped found that was based on your idea. Carlton, her ex, had a rich and sociopathic dad who said he'd only fund their venture if Carlton was CEO and Maddy didn't get any shares in the company.

So anyway, Maddy is left with no boyfriend and no career (another downside to working with your significant other. You can't console yourself about the breakup by saying at least your career is going well. Two life spheres down in one shot). She decides she needs to take revenge on Carlton. Actually, she decides he needs to die. She experiments with some different methods--poison brownies, carbon monoxide. The main problem is that she is more suicidal than homicidal at this point and nearly offs herself. With the connections of her formerly drug-addicted brother she hires a hit man.

While I obviously don't advocate more illegal and violent forms of revenge, certain other types of revenge can be fun and won't land you in jail. This book is loads of fun to read for anyone, but especially if you are in need of a feeling of solidarity (and revenge ideas, of which this book has several). There is even a section at the back where people sent in their ideas.

Book Review--Lost and Found, by Jacqueline Sheehan

2008-01-25T21:52:00.000-08:00

I am much more of a cat person than a dog person, but Lloyd, the dog in this novel, is very endearing. Rocky, his new human, found him with an arrow sticking out of his shoulder. Both Lloyd and Rocky are grieving. Lloyd lost his previous human companion, and Rocky, aged 38, recently lost her 42-year-old husband to a heart attack. No kids to worry about, so Rocky quits her job as a psychologist and goes to live on a tiny island off the coast of Maine, where she takes a part-time job as an animal warden.

If it were me, going to such an isolated place when I was grieving a loss would be the absolute worst thing I could do, but everyone deals with grief in their own way. Rocky meets Lloyd, adopts a cat (which would help the grieving process) and meets Tess, a retired physical therapist who has this really amazing condition called synethesia.

Synethesia is a neurological phenomenon "in which stimulation of one sensory or cognitive pathway leads to automatic, involuntary experiences in a second sensory or cognitive pathway" (this according to Wikipedia). In all my studies of psychology, I had never heard of this. Tess sees letters and numbers as inherently colored. She also saw parts of the body as having their own colors, and days of the week had their own color and shape (Tuesday was a blue cube to her, while Wednesday was a red globe). Now that I know about synesthesia, I am jealous because I don't have it.

Rocky also meets Melissa, an anorexic teenager. Interestingly, though Rocky had been a psychologist at a counseling center on a university campus, this was not one of her areas of specialty, though she immediately knew the girl had it. Melissa also bonds to the dog. The dog, honestly, should have had his own license to practice therapy. He just seemed to have such a healing effect on those around him.

It seems to be characteristic of psychologists to personify the animals they keep as pets. Rocky had been a psychologist, and the author also is. I am a school psychologist, and it has been suggested to me more than once that I ascribe human characteristics to my cats. But, they are like family to me, in the same way that Lloyd becomes part of Rocky's new little family.

This is a wonderful novel about dealing with loss and moving on. There is also some mystery in it, as Rocky tries to solve the mystery of Lloyd's accident. So there is something for everyone--people who like stories with character development, mysteries, and animals.

Blogcharm is Dead

2008-01-06T15:23:00.000-08:00

Well, I'm moving my blog back to blogger. I moved it over to blogcharm awhile ago because they said they were going to pay people to blog. Anyone who might have been following the forums over at Blog Explosion knows that they weren't paying their bloggers for a very long time. They said it was something to do with taxes (even if that's true, why would it take so long to fix?). They didn't answer support tickets and generally appeared to be ignoring frustrated bloggers. I also thought they should stop advertising that they were paying people to blog until they fixed whatever problems there were with payment.

I figured I'd probably never see the $20 they owed me, but miracle of miracles, I did get it through Paypal yesterday. This though was after an abrupt announcement that they were shutting down blogcharm, supposedly on January 1st, but a friend emailed me before that, asking if I was going to move my blog or what. It was then that I realized that my blog had already been disabled. It does not appear to me that anyone was given warning before they actually disabled the blogs. We can get to the content through cached content in Google, and also I had cross-posted some things (some things I had published first on this blog, and others are on Associated Content). There were also a few things I saved in word documents. Still, I don't think it was worth the $20 to go to the trouble of moving it.

Movie Review--Eight Below

2006-02-26T19:02:00.000-08:00

This was a great Disney movie. Okay, so the director altered the original incident on which this story was based in order to give it a happier ending, but one doesn't go to movies for a starkly depressing reality; at least I don't. It's based on a 1983 Japanese movie, which was based on an actual incident which occurred in 1958.

In this story, set in 1993, a dogsled team of eight dogs is left alone in the Antarctic when the humans have to beat a hasty retreat. One person had a broken leg, another had severe frostbite, and there was a bad storm. They intend to go back for the dogs, but the weather is too severe, and since it is the start of winter down there, the weather would remain severe for months.

The guide, Jerry, (Paul Walker) is absolutely distraught but is unable to get back to Antarctica for nearly six months. I could identify with his angst. I know if I had to leave my cats somewhere where they probably wouldn't survive on their own, I would be inconsolable. Jerry clearly loved his dogs.

One of the best scenes in the movie occurs before they actually leave, when a scientist falls through the ice and Maya, the leader of the dogsled team, helps Jerry rescue him. It is the fact that the dogs saved his life that finally gets the scientist to help Jerry return to Antarctica.

There aren't really any surprises here. You know at the start of the movie that all or most of the dogs will survive, but the story is still good. It's a lot better than what really happened in 1958; then seven of the nine dogs died (though I was amazed that any could live through that). Much of the focus is on the dogs and how they help each other survive. I don't know how realistic that is, but of course I believe that animals care for and help each other.

We had our own little drama a week ago here, when one of my cats jumped down behind some plastic file boxes. She was pretty much trapped, because the sides of the boxes were too smooth for her to gain a foothold to climb out, and she had so little room back there that I don't think she would have been able to get into the right position to jump out. But the other cat caught my attention, because she was frantically pawing at the carpet on the other side, trying to rescue the first cat. It cracked me up, but I was glad I was home and she didn't have to be trapped there too long (and that the other cat didn't damage the carpet). I moved the boxes so that they are now flush against the wall and there is no room to get between them and the wall.

Anyway, not quite as dramatic as being in the Antarctic, but I feel safer knowing that I have a rescue kitty living with me.

Book Review--Murder One, by William Bernhardt

2006-02-21T20:34:00.000-08:00

This is a book in a series featuring defense attorney Ben Kincaid and his partner, Christina McCall. Ben tends to take cases that are vastly unpopular in terms of public opinion. It's not like he takes them for the money either; most of his clients are poor. His belief is that everyone is entitled to a good defense. He's very dedicated and doesn't come across as a sleaze.

In this book, his client is a 19-year-old stripper named Keri Dalcanton. Keri has been accused of murdering a police detective and then chaining his nude body to a public fountain in downtown Tulsa, OK and scrawling the word "faithless" across his chest in blood. Police, media, and the general public have all convicted her in their minds and are out for blood.

The case doesn't look good for Keri. She was involved in a kinky affair with the married police detective. The prosection has a powerful circumstantial case against Keri, and conviction is all but guaranteed until Ben uncovers a major procedural violation on the part of the police. The case is overturned and Keri is set free, but things don't end there.

The police are furious about this turn of events and put the "Blue Squeeze" on Ben. A bloodstained knife that Ben has never seen is found in his office. It is a part of a blatant attempt to get to Keri by discrediting her lawyer. Ben is charged with conspiracy and murder and a new trial for Keri is launched as well.

This book was hard to put down. It is full of twists and turns that will keep the reader guessing until the last second. I am looking forward to reading more in this series.

Book Review--Blessings, by Anna Quindlen

2006-02-19T17:42:00.000-08:00

I first listened to this book--or part of it--on audio. I checked it out of the library, and the librarian seemed momentarily puzzled; there were just four CDs and she thought maybe there wre supposed to be more. She must have decided there weren't, but it turned out that she was right the first time. I noticed this when the book seemed to end in an odd spot. It seemed that there were more loose ends than there usually are when a book ends. So I checked out the actual book, and of course there was more to it. The only thing is, I would have preferred that it had ended where it did in the incomplete audio version. The real ending was more realistic, but not as happy (not bad, just not as happy).

Skip Cuddy, caretaker of the Blessings estate, finds a newborn baby in the garage one day, left there by a teenage couple. He decides to keep her himself, at first managing to hide her presence from Lydia Blessings, the matriarch of the estate. When Lydia does learn about the baby, rather surprisingly, she decides to help Skip keep her.

Skip doesn't know anything about babies and never had to care for one before, but he learns and does a very good job taking care of the baby, whom he names Faith. Faith seemed to help him turn over a new leaf. Skip had been associated with some rather unsavory characters in the past. He was more of a follower with them than a leader, but Faith and his job at the Blessings estate, which he obtained right after getting out of prison, seem to give him the strength to leave all that behind. Not surprisingly, Lydia had not known about Skip's prision stint when she hired him, but by the time she found out, she had gotten to know him and decided that he was okay. Things go quite well at first, until Skip's past catches up with him.

Anyway, I thought the ending was rather sad, though not without hope. I do really enjoy Anna Quindlen, but sometimes her endings are more realistic than I need, as I tend to like happy endings, even if they aren't as likely to happen in real life.

Book Review--The Midnight Before Christmas, by William Bernhardt

2006-02-13T21:36:00.000-08:00

Okay, I am slightly out of season with this, but oh well. This is a holiday thriller, not all that festive, but good. With this book, the author has taken a break from his Ben Kincaid series, but this is also a legal thriller.

Lawyer Megan McGee doesn't have much of a Christmas planned for herself, so she agrees to see a client with an emergency on Christmas Eve. The client, Bonnie Cantrell, is seeking legal protection against her husband, an ex-cop who tends to drink too much and get violent. Bonnie reports that he has threatened to kill their 7-year-old son rather than be separated from him.

Megan asks where her son, Tommy is, and Bonnie tells her that he is at the daycare run through his school. Megan gets a bad feeling and asks Bonnie to call and check on him. When she does, she discovers the worst has happened; a substitute caregiver who didn't know the situation had allowed Tommy to go with his father.

Megan and Bonnie spend their Christmas Eve searching for Tommy, praying to find him before the unthinkable happens. And Megan discovers that there is quite a bit more to this case than Bonnie is telling her.

The book isn't long and it's easy reading, but there are some twists and turns that really make it interesting.

Book Review--The Five People You Meet in Heaven, by Mitch Albom

2006-02-12T21:22:00.000-08:00

I actually listened to this on audio, which I think I liked better than I would have liked reading it; the audio just really added something somehow (how's that for eloquent?). Anyway, this was really an amazing book, sad in a lot of places, but with an uplifting ending.

The story begins at the end of the life of an 83-year-man named Eddie. Eddie was the head of maintenance for an amusement park called Ruby Pier. His job was fixing things and making sure the rides were safe. He died trying to save a little girl when one of rides malfunctioned.

When Eddie gets to Heaven, he discovers that it is not as he expected. Instead of landing in some sort of paradise, he is to encounter five people who will explain his life to him. Some were people who were close to him, while some he barely knew or perhaps never knew at all, but they were people who knew who he was and had touched his life in some way. With each person he meets, Eddie learns about some part of his life and also takes away a specific lesson.

As I said, the book is sad in lots of places. Eddie had quite a lot of tragedy in his life. He was a war veteran, and the war really changed him, especially his experience of being a prisoner of war. It made him a more bitter person, especially since his leg had been injured and he walked with a limp afterwards. He had a very difficult relationship with his father, and he lost his wife at quite a young age. He had planned on studying engineering, but life circumstances and perhaps in own difficulty in adjusting after the war interfered with that. He ended up being head of maintenance at Ruby Pier just like his father, and he ended up feeling like he had done nothing with his life. I thought that, among other things, he was missing one very obvious point, which was that he was saving lives by making sure the rides were safe (that accident at the end wasn't something he could have forseen, from the sound of it).

Anyway, the book was very uplifting. Eddie comes to realize that his life did have meaning and that he touched more people than he ever knew. A simple message, but important and one that people often forget or never realize.

Book Review--Predator, by Patricia Cornwell

2006-02-02T17:07:00.000-08:00

This is the latest book in Cornwell's series featuring Kay Scarpetta, one of my favorite characters. Once the Chief Medical Examiner in Virginia, Kay is now freelancing with the National Forensic Academy in Florida. The academy is the brainchild of Lucy, Kay's genius niece (and also one of my favorite lesbian characters in literature, actually). Benton, Kay's boyfriend and a forensic psychologist, is doing a research study of violent, sociopathic males through Harvard University. One of the study participants tells Benton about a woman he supposedly killed (not one for whom he was convicted), at a Christmas shop in Florida. The team (Benton, Lucy, Kay, and Pete Marino, a former cop who worked with Kay in Virginia) investigate and tie this to a missing persons case. There seems to be a connection between this case and the disappearance of four people who were abducted from their Florida home.

Meanwhile, Lucy has a brief involvement in Provincetown with a woman named Stevie, who, oddly, has tattoos of red handprints on her breasts and upper inner thighs. Then Benton sits in on an autopsy (most forensic psychologists don't do this, by the way) of a Massachusetts woman with similar tattoos.

Lucy is not herself lately. She has gained weight, seems to have lost interest in the academy, and she made a careless security mistake with disastrous consequences.

This book is rather hard to summarize, because there are a lot of details and several different cases that connect in a strange way. It's gripping, though; the details don't seem tedious. Cornwell just keeps getting better and better.

Book Review--Hate Crime, by William Bernhardt

2006-01-31T20:36:00.000-08:00

This is a legal thriller, which is one of my favorite genres. This is the first book I've read by Bernhardt, but apparently he has written at least one other book besides this one featuring attorney Ben Kincaid, so I'll have to check that out.

Tony Barovick, a gay man and the manager of a bar near a college campus, was badly beaten and killed on his way home from work, the victim of a hate crime. The perpetrators were two young fraternity brothers. At their trial, one of them is gunned down by a member of a fringe gay-rights group, and their lawyer is injured. The mother of Johnny Christensen, the surviving sadistic bigot, comes to see Ben to beg him to take her son's case. Ben turns her down, but his partner, Christina McCall, takes the case. Christina is puzzled by Ben's refusing to take the case. She knows it isn't because Johnny Christensen is vastly unpopular. Ben takes cases of vastly unpopular (and broke) clients all the time. So she figures there has to be some personal reason, but it is awhile before she manages to find out what that is.

Johnny's defense is that he and his friend badly beat Tony Barovick, but left him alive. This doesn't make Johnny more likeable, especially since even if someone else did kill Tony, he wasn't exactly likely to survive after Johnny and his friend finished with him. However, Christina is committed to putting on the best defense she can for her client (as she should, even though he's hardly one to garner sympathy), and digs for evidence that what her client said is true.

The book has some interesting twists and turns. It raises the possibility that perhaps Tony was involved in something sinister; I won't say whether or not that's true, but it sure doesn't fit with his wholesome image. Christina and Ben (who is eventually dragged into the case) are themselves the targets of violence. The case definitely brought out violent extremists on both sides.

I really liked the characters of Christina and Ben. This sure wasn't a case I would want if I were a lawyer, but they didn't seem like sleazy defense lawyers who were just trying to twist the law to get their client off. They seemed committed to finding the truth.

I also really liked what the author said in the dedication of his book: "For Theta Juan, my mother, who taught her children that all hate was a crime."

Book Review--Raining Cats and Dogs

2006-01-24T19:14:00.000-08:00

This is another series mystery that I have picked up on somewhere in the middle. I like this, because if I like the series, I have lots to read before the next one comes out. The title of this one caught my eye. It turns out that the protagonist is actually a dog lover. I have a very hard time understanding this, but I can understand devotion to one's pet. So I can relate to this character on that point.

At the beginning of this book, Melanie Travis has just gotten married. The tiny house she shared with her son and two Standard Poodles is now bursting at the seams, as her new husband brought his own three Standard Poodles with him (Standard Poodles are the big ones, by the way). Both Melanie and her husband's Poodles are very well-behaved, but their patience is tested by the seven cats who moved in next door. Their owner, who is way too gorgeous for Melanie's taste (and with a husband who is largely absent), doesn't seem too concerned. It's true that cats don't stay reigned in as well since they can climb, but if I were her, I'd have been very worried about the big dogs next door and kept a closer eye on the cats.

Anyway, Melanie is really into dog shows and all that, and she wants one of her Poodles, Faith, to get more obedience training. So she enrolls her in the South Avenue Obedience Club. They feel a little out of place (well, at least Melanie does; I'm not sure about the dog) because everyone knows everyone already and Faith hasn't had as much obedience training as most of them. The group has an unofficial program where they bring the dogs to visit a nursing home, and Melanie and Faith are invited to come along. The visits were initiated by Paul, a Club member whose Great Aunt Mary, a dog lover, lives there.

Faith and Melanie's first visit goes very well at first, but it ends in tragedy. Paul's Great-Aunt Mary is found suffocated in her bed. As the police investigate, club members learn of Melanie's amateur sleuthing and urge her to look into Mary's murder. There are plenty of suspects for Melanie to check out, from Mary's black-sheep son to some of the group members and nursing-home staff.

Anyway, if you like amateur-sleuth type books, you will like this one. If you also love dogs you'll like it even more, but I don't think that's necessarily required.

Movie Review--Last Holiday

2006-01-21T22:04:00.001-08:00

I can't help it. I love so-called feel-good movies. In this one, Queen Latifah plays a meek sales associate (Georgia Byrd) who is afraid to really live. She works in a department store in New Orleans (pre-Katrina, of course) selling cookware. She is an amazing cook herself, but she doesn't try to pursue her dream of becoming a chef. She feeds a neighbor boy (whom I assumed was her son at first; the movie didn't do a good job of identifying him) a fabulous meal but eats a Lean Cuisine herself. She is crazy about a coworker named Sean (LL Cool J) but is too shy to let him know how she feels.

Then one day she is told that she has a fatal disease, and her HMO won't cover an operation. She quits her job, cashes in her retirement plan, and checks into the Presidential Suite ($4000 a night) in a posh resort hotel in Central Europe, chosen because a chef she idolizes works there. Also at the hotel are the CEO of the department store where Georgia recently quit her job, his assistant, a senator, and a congressman. They think that Georgia must be someone "important" because she's staying in the Presidential Suite and is apparently very rich. She wins all of them over, with the exception of the CEO (Timothy Hutton), who is jealous of the attention she's getting. She also wins over the hotel staff and especially the chef.

This is a remake of the 1950 movie starring Alex Guinness. I never saw that one, but what made this one so good is Queen Latifah's charm. The movie is not exactly unpredictable, but it's enjoyable because she is just so much fun.

Book Review--The Escape Artist, by Diane Chamberlain

2006-01-15T21:29:00.000-08:00

This book is so-named because the protagonist, Susanna Miller, has a habit of running away from her problems. Not that this isn't understandable. When Susanna developed this habit, she was running from her abusive, alcoholic parents.

Now Susanna is sure that running away is the right thing to do again. She has just lost custody of her 11-month-old son to her ex-husband and his new wife. Having been afraid this would happen and unable to bear the thought of giving Tyler up, Susanna had been plotting her escape for weeks. Without even letting her boyfriend, a man whom she has loved for years, in on what she is doing, Susanna slips away in the night. In leaving Boulder, she leaves behind the only city in which she has ever lived.

Susanna dyes her hair, changes her name, and makes a new life for herself in Annapolis, Maryland, but it is difficult. She is afraid to trust anyone. She does befriend a local artist and his sister, both of whom are haunted by tragedy. But even when she becomes romantically involved with the artist, she is unable to forget her previous boyfriend, Linc, back in Boulder. And her new life may turn out to be even more dangerous than she feared it might be.

Though it's really Susanna's story, part of the book are from Tyler's stepmother Peggy's point of view. I wanted to dislike Peggy, but really, I think she honestly thought Tyler would be better off with her and his father. Her perceptions were tainted by her husband's unfair criticism of Susanna and her own desperate wish for a child, but it took her awhile to realize that. She was way too quick to believe her husband, who was a first-class jerk.

The books I've read by Diane Chamberlain are exceedingly difficult to put down. I think I've read most of them already, but I must read more.

Movie Review--Brokeback Mountain

2006-01-14T22:49:00.000-08:00

What an awesome movie. I'm just glad it came to the conservative Tri-Cities. This was the first weekend it was here, and it's been out for several weeks.

It's the story of a romance between two cowboys who meet in 1963 when they spend a summer watching sheep on Wyoming's Brokeback Mountain. First they are friends and then they become romantically involved. We only lost seven or eight people in the theater at that point, their seats snapping up like minds snapping shut. Did they actually not know what this movie was about? I don't see how anyone could have missed hearing or reading about it by now.

Anyway, the men go their separate ways after the summer. They both get married and don't see each other again for a few years. When they do reunite, Jack (Jake Gyllenhaal) wants to make a life together with Ennis (Heath Ledger), but Ennis' fears prevent him from doing this. So for years they meet on the sly for brief flings.

Ledger is great as a rather stereotypical cowboy, a man of few words, stoic, remote. Gyllenhaal's character is more brash and enthusiastic. The scenery in this movie is beautiful, making me rather homesick for Montana, where I grew up and still frequently visit.

I don't want to say too much about how it ends, but bring your Kleenex.

I Got Tagged

2006-01-12T20:37:00.000-08:00

I got tagged by Marti from Enter the Laughter with a meme.

The rules/procedures are as follows: The first player of this game starts with the topic "five weird habits of yourself," and people who get tagged need to write an entry about their five weird habits as well as state this rule clearly. In the end, you need to choose the next five people to be tagged and link to their web journals. Don't forget to leave a comment in their blog or journal that says, "You are tagged" (assuming they take comments) and tell them to read yours.
Okay, five weird habits:

1) Way back in May, I wrote a blog entry about my obsessive-compulsive tendencies, which are still present. I check and recheck things. Mostly, I check several times to make sure I turned off the curling iron before I go to work. Locking the door (either at night before I go to sleep or upon leaving the apartment) is another big one.

2) In a similar vein, I sometimes put on deodorant twice, because I cannot remember with 100% certainty that I put it on, and it's something I don't want to be wrong about. I do too many things on autopilot.

3) I keep bowls of cat food on my bed and futon. My cat Carmela had a problem with UTIs for awhile, and I had to replace the futon mattress twice. I wanted to make sure both cats remembered that the bed and futon were not bathrooms, and cats don't like to pee where they eat (makes sense). The was quite awhile ago, but I'm still afraid to take the bowls of food away.

4) I can spot change on the ground from a mile away, and I always pick it up, even pennies, unless I'm in immediate danger of being run over by a car or something if I do. I think this comes from being a poor graduate student for so long. One might assume from reading this that I am an extremely frugal person. One would be wrong in assuming that.

5) I am addicted to computer Boggle.

Here are the people I am tagging:

Rich--Championable: Fatherhood, Politics, Kids
Barbara--A Rich Tapestry of Barbara-isms
Celestial--She Talks to Angels
Stacey--Stac Space
Cris--That Side of the Moon

Have fun!

Book Review--Burned, by Carol Higgins Clark

2006-01-11T20:46:00.000-08:00

This is the latest Regan Reilly mystery. I must confess, I first got checked out Carol Higgins Clark's books because I had been reading her mother's books forever (Mary Higgins Clark). In fact, I think the first book I read by Carol Higgins Clark was a holiday mystery coauthored with her mother. That one featured Regan Reilly, and I decided I wanted to read more books about her.

Regan Reilly is an LA-based private detective. She has a fiance, Jack, in New York, and at the beginning of this book she is planning to fly out to see him and her family there, but a blizzard had hit the East Coast. Her friend Kit is in Hawaii, and she can't get home to Connecticut, so she convinces Regan to fly out there for a girls' weekend. But for a girls' weekend, they really don't end up spending much time together. Kit is spending a lot of time with a new guy, a 35-year-old millionaire who may be too good to be true. And though Regan had intended to relax, she ends up helping to solve a case.

Will Brown, the manager of the resort hotel where Kit and Regan are staying, asks for Regan's help. A hotel employee, Dorinda Dawes, had recently died in what police believed to be an accidental drowning. Will isn't so sure her death had been an accident, especially since not too many people were terribly fond of Dorinda. Adding to the mystery is that when Dorinda's body washed ashore, a very valuable shell lei was around her neck. The lei had belonged to a Hawaiian princess, and been stolen from a museum 30 years earlier. So the question, of course, is how Dorinda, a relative newcomer to Hawaii, ended up with it.

More minor things have been happening as well, pranks such as full tubes of suntan lotion being dropped into toilets and food being tainted. And the leaders of a tour group from a town called Hudville, where it rains 89% of the time, certainly seem as though they could be up to something. They and the other citizens of Hudville were left a lot of money by a very rich man to take Hawaiian vacations. Every three months, five Hudville citizens were chosen by lottery to win a trip to Hawaii. The leaders, twin sisters in their 60s, went on every trip. There should have been plenty of money, but the twins are pinching pennies.

Like all of the Regan Reilly books, this one is a lot of fun. I look forward to reading more.

Book Review--Blue Twilight, by Jessica Speart

2006-01-09T18:31:00.000-08:00

This book is part of another series upon which I have stumbled; it's what the Pittsburgh Post Gazette called a wildlife mystery thriller. Rachel Porter is an agent for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Recently assigned to Northern California, she receives a call from a professor specializing in endangered butterflies. First he tells her that someone was illegally netting butterflies and digging up plants in San Bruno MountainSate Park. Then he tells her that a biologist hired by Fish and Wildlife to search for a rare and possibly extinct butterfly has disappeared.

Rachel checks out the professor's tip about the illegal butterfly collector. When she finds the man, Mitch Aikens, she learns all about his business breeding and selling butterflies, including endangered ones, (before she tells him where she works) and decides to turn him into an informant who will help her catch some big-time butterfly dealers. She talks to her boss about the missing biologist, but he tells her it wasn't their division that hired him and thus not their problem. So Rachel decides to investigate on her own time. The investigation leads her to Mendocino and to Bill Trepler, a former director of conservation biology at a university who now has switched sides and hires himself out to private developers as a consultant. He tells her about the butterfly for which the missing biologist was searching--the Lotis Blue Butterfly, last seen in 1983 and possibly extinct. The missing biologist's car is found abandoned but provides no other clues, and the sheriff isn't terribly interested.

Then a teenage girl--the daughter of a friend of Rachel's--also goes missing. When Rachel--who apparently missed her calling as a private investigator as opposed to a Fish and Wildlife Agent--helps search for the girl, her case intertwines with that of the missing biologist and the world of butterfly collecting in a most bizarre way.

This book meanders quite a bit, but I still found it engaging. I wasn't sure how much I'd like it since I don't have a huge interest in wildlife (other than being generally pro-environmentalist). But actually, the environmental information was interesting. I learned that butterfly populations are rapidly decreasing due to habitat loss and poaching, and that butterflies are the most important pollinator of crops, after bees. Butterflies were even described in this book as a barometer for the health of the planet, rather like a canary in a mineshaft. Kind of scary when you consider their decreasing populations.

Book Review--Dark Angel, by Karen Harper

2006-01-08T17:09:00.000-08:00

This was a rather unique romantic suspense novel in that one of the main characters is Amish. Actually, I guess it's part of a series, but I haven't read the others in the series yet.

Leah Kurtz is a single Amish woman in her 20s who teaches school in the Amish community where she lives. She was engaged to be married when she was younger (Amish women usually marry very young), but her fiance ran off during their rumspringa, the traditional teenage running-around time. (Amish teens are supposed to come to their own decision in deciding whether or not to stay with the Amish faith as adults, so they are allowed freedom to experience more of the world during this time). Leah longs for her own family. Her best friend is terminally ill, and she and her husband (who travels around helping to build churches) decide that they want Leah to raise their baby, Rebecca (Becca) as her own.

Leah is thrilled to raise Becca, even as she grieves the loss of her friend. She is also happy with her new job with Dr. Mark Morelli. Dr. Morelli studies genetic illnesses that are common in Amish communities due to intermarrying and a small gene pool. One of these hereditary illnesses killed her best friend. Another causes accelerated aging, an illness from which three children in her community suffer. Leah is to serve as Mark's liaison to the Amish community. However, the competition to find a "cure" for aging, which Mark's work could lead to, might make this a very dangerous job. Someone is trying to scare them off.

Then one morning when Leah goes to wake up Becca, she discovers she has been switched with another baby! She doesn't trust the sheriff, partly since in general, people in the Amish community don't trust authority figures in the outside world. She also distrusts this sheriff due to personal experience with the man. So she investigates on her own and enlists Mark's help. They aren't sure whether Becca was stolen because a rival of Mark's wants to study her or to scare Leah so that she will quit working with Mark. But Leah will stop at nothing to get her daughter back, and in their search, she and Mark uncover a deadly conspiracy.

To further complicate matters, Leah is starting to fall for Mark, though he is off-limits to her since he isn't Amish.

I always like to read fiction books in which I learn something new. I learned a lot about the Amish faith in reading this book, though I think Leah was somewhat atypical in being older (at least for her community) and single. I also enjoyed the medical-thriller angle. And of course, forbidden romance is always good. I'm going to read more books in this series.

Book Review--The Bay at Midnight, by Diane Chamberlain

2006-01-07T22:40:00.000-08:00

This book was one of those books that I am sorry to finish, because it is so interesting.

At 53, Julie Sellers still feels guilt over what she sees as her part in her sister's murder 40 years earlier. Every summer she and her family visited the New Jersey shore, where they have a bungalow. In 1962, when she was 12 and her sister Isabel was 17, Isabel was murdered. The past is dredged up again when the daughter of Ethan Chapman (the next-door neighbor boy back then), pays Julie a visit. Ethan's older brother and Isabel's old boyfriend, Ned, had recently died. In cleaning out Ned's town house, Ethan and his daughter had found a note saying that the wrong person had gone to jail for Isabel's murder and that he wanted to set the record straight. The note provides no other details. They take the note to the police, who reopen the case.

Julie had never thought that George Lewis, the man who had gone to jail for murdering Isabel, was actually guilty. She believes that Ned was the killer. Ethan, who reenters Julie's life in a new way after a 40-year absence, is equally certain that his brother was not responsible for Isabel's murder.

The book alternates between Julie's point of view and those of her younger sister, Lucy, and her mother, Maria. It alternates between 1962, the present, and times in Maria's past, where a dark secret is revealed. Somehow it does this without being confusing; it couldn't have been easy to write. It's part mystery and partly a character development type of novel, with some romance thrown in, so there's something for everyone.

Book Review--Immoral, by Brian Freeman

2006-01-02T21:03:00.000-08:00

Another great debut novel. I have a particular fondness for thrillers, and I really enjoyed this one. Lieutenant Jonathan Stride, still grieving the death of his wife, is trying to solve two missing-person cases, both involving teenage girls. Both went to the same high school and lived fairly close to one another, but in terms of personality, the two couldn't have been more different. Kerry McGath was a sweet, well-behaved sixteen-year-old. Rachel Deese, seventeen, was a promiscuous, angry wild child. Fighting extreme guilt for failing to solve Kerry's case, Stride vows to do right by Rachel. When the investigation reveals a sexual relationship between Rachel and her stepfather, Graeme, suspicion focuses on him. When other evidence is found as well, Graeme is arrested for Rachel's murder, though her body is never found. But questions remain. Did Graeme really murder Rachel, who had no shortage of enemies, or did someone else do it? Or is Rachel really still alive, as Graeme seems to believe?

What I liked best about this book was that it was not predictable. There were several twists and turns that I just did not expect. This is not easy for a book to accomplish just because I read so many thrillers. I look forward to reading more from Brian Freeman.

Movie Review--Fun with Dick and Jane

2005-12-29T14:30:00.000-08:00

This movie was more political than I expected. I went to see it just knowing that it was a comedy about a couple that had fallen on hard times and turned to a life a crime. That's accurate, but it's more than that. Dick (Jim Carrey) worked for a company called Globodyne. He had just been promoted to vice president and convinced his wife to quit her job when the company dramatically collapsed. The parallels to Enron were pretty clear. As with Enron, the employees' pension plans consisted of company stocks, so Dick and Jane (Tea Leoni) lost everything. Neither one could find another job. Jane took part in a cosmetic study to earn a whopping $14 and has a really bad reaction. Dick got a job at Kostmart, where he lasted about a day. In the employees' training room, there was a huge anti-union sign. As he was leaving after being fired, Dick yelled something about them not paying enough to support a family anyway. The parallels to Wal-Mart were pretty clear. Dick then tries to get work in jobs that mostly fall to illegal aliens and gets deported. His wife has to help sneak him back over the border.

Dick and Jane sell everything they can, but they don't sell their house. With the collapse of Globodyne, property values had fallen, and they would have actually ended up owing money if they sold. Nearing foreclosure, they turn to a life of crime out of desperation.

Anyway, all of this doesn't really sound like much of a comedy, but it's actually pretty funny. There is the physical comedy, of course. Dick and Jane also get themselves into some highly amusing situations, like trying to rob a bank and running into other former Globodyne employees trying to do the same thing. I really enjoyed this movie, but I would imagine politically conservative individuals would not.

Random Thought #12: Baking Cookies with your Cat

2005-12-26T23:11:00.000-08:00

I just realized that it has been over three months since I have posted a random thought. This one isn't actually all that random. My mother showed me an email that she got and since it is absolutely hilarious and cat-related, I decided to post it here. Obviously I didn't make this up myself; I don't know who did. If anyone out there does know, let me know and I will be happy to give proper credit.

Baking Cookies with your Cat:

1. Look in cookbook for cookie recipe.
2. Get cup of coffee.
3. Get cat off cookbook.
4. Find that special recipe.
5. Get cat's nose out of coffee mug.
6. Go the fridge and get eggs.
7. Get dry ingredients from cupboard.
8. Break eggs in small bowl.
9. Sift dry ingredients in large bowl.
10. Answer the phone.
11. Cat ate eggs; get more from fridge.
12. Get cat out of flour bowl and dust cat off.
13. Get Band-Aids for scratches on hands.
14. Throw flour out and get more.
15. Preheat oven for cookies.
16. Looking at cat and wanting to bake cat now. Cat runs for cover into bathroom.
17. Flour the counter to roll out cookie dough.
18. Big crash in bathroom; run to see what happened.
19. Cat has TP all over floor, stuff spilled and knocked over on top of bathroom counter.
20. Yell at cat. Cat falls in toilet bowl.
21. Can sense cat is angry.
22. Take cat out of toilet to dry cat off.
23. Get bandages to cover more scratches on arms and legs.
24. Clean up bathroom.
25. Hear a thump in kitchen. . .oh golly, now what?
26. Get cat off floured counter in kitchen.
27. Try to pick out cat hairs from flour.
28. Step on cat's tail and get bitten.
29. Get coat, car keys, and go to store to buy cookies!!!

Book Review--Prep, by Curtis Sittenfeld

2005-12-25T23:11:00.000-08:00

I seem to be reading a lot of first novels lately, all good. Prep is about a middle-class girl's experience at a boarding school. Bored at her public junior high school in South Bend, Indiana, Lee Fiora takes it upon herself to send away for boarding school catalogues and apply. Both she and her parents were surprised when she got in. Her parents couldn't afford such luxury, but when the Ault School in Massachusetts offered her a scholarship that paid for three-quarters of her tuition, they let Lee go.

Lee finds the experience to be more than she bargained for. The teenagers at Ault are rich and sophisticated. As a scholarship student, Lee feels like an outsider. Furthermore, good grades don't come as easily to her at Ault as they did when she was in junior high in South Bend. Still, she never seems to seriously consider going home (I think I would have lasted about a week). She stays for her entire four years of high school.

It's unclear to me whether Lee was better off for the experience or not. It seems to me that the experiences of adolescence--massive insecurity, the intensity of her relationships, peer and academic pressure--are greatly amplified by her boarding school experience. I can so clearly remember thinking many of her thoughts when I was in high school, but being so far from home and among students of a different social class would have to make things so much harder. Plus, it didn't get her into a more prestigious college, and even if it had, I'm not sure it would have been worth it. As the character herself points out, you have your whole life to leave your parents.

I loved this book; as I mentioned, I can remember thinking many of Lee's same thoughts and thus really identified with her, though I never went to boarding school (actually, I entertained thoughts of boarding school for about a week in eighth grade; my parents correctly figured that it was just a phase and waited for it to pass). But the painful experience of adolesence is pretty much universal, and Sittenfeld does a wonderful job of capturing it.

Book Review--Twins, by Marcy Dermansky

2005-12-23T23:44:00.000-08:00

Talk about a dysfunctional family. Neglectful, workaholic parents. Twin daughters, one of whom thinks she owns the other and acts like a jealous lover whenever the other makes a friend, and their older brother, who gives them a book on twin experiments conducted in Nazi Germany for their 13th birthday. The story is told from the point of view of the twins, in alternating first-person accounts. Sue, the jealous twin, truly scared me for quite awhile with her jealousy and violent tendencies. And I felt sorry for Chloe, who wanted friends and boyfriends and basically a normal adolescence, which was essentially denied her by Sue. Their largely absentee parents were no help at all. When they were present, they tended to use a tape recorder and note pad when talking to their kids, basically acting as though they were clients in their law firm.

Both girls had trouble with eating disorders, and Sue abused pills. Their choices for friends and lovers usually were not terribly wise. Their brother, Dan, took an interest in Sue and was somewhat of a source of support for her, but he didn't really know how to help her either. The books spans the ages of 13 to 18 for the girls, and their parents basically give up when they are 16 or 17. Sue runs away from home to stay with an ex-girlfriend of her brother's, and the parents pull back completely and give Dan money to give to her. They also pretty much abandon Chloe, leaving her to live in their house all alone while they spend their time in a Manhattan apartment (after which Chloe immediately chooses inappropriate housemates). Giving money is no problem, but forget about guidance and emotional support. They just amazed me with their incompetence. The twins struggle to find heir way, which only happens when they can forge their own separate identities.

The book is amazingly good. It pulls the reader in from the very beginning. This is Dermansky's first novel, and I hope to see many more from her.

Movie Review--The Family Stone

2005-12-18T00:22:00.000-08:00

I expected to like this movie more than I did. I also expected it to be funnier. While it did have some very funny moments, in general, I would consider it more drama than comedy. Sarah Jessica Parker plays the part of Meredith, an uptight, conservative woman who comes to spend the Christmas holidays with her soon-to-be-fiance, Everett Stone (Dermot Mulroney) and his family. His family doesn't like her at all at first, and they are quite mean to her. Mean enough, in fact, that I had trouble reconciling the fact that they were supposed to be easy-going liberal sorts with how horribly they treated her. It is true that Meredith made an ass of herself at times. Her comments one night at dinner indicating that Everett's gay brother and his partner shouldn't adopt a child because becoming gay might be partly due to environment stand out most starkly to me. But, they'd already treated her pretty badly before that and never really gave her a chance or tried to help her feel more comfortable.

Meredith feels so uncomfortable that she invites her sister, Julie (Claire Danes) to spend the holidays with them. This is when things get really interesting. Everett had never met Julie before that and finds himself drawn to her. Meanwhile, his older brother Ben (Luke Wilson) tries to befriend Meredith.

Anyway, like I said, more drama than comedy. It would have been better the other way around. I'm not sure it was necessary to have the mother be terminally ill, either. I don't really think it made the story better, though it sure made it sadder. The movie does have its moments, though, as well as an impressive cast.

Book Review--What to Keep, by Rachel Cline

2005-12-16T21:56:00.000-08:00

This book examines the life of protagonist Denny Roman at three different stages--ages 12, 26, and 36. The daughter of two divorced, remote neuroscientists, Denny is facing adolescence without a whole lot of guidance from them. Her parents are very busy with their careers, and several years previously, they hired Maureen to manage many of the details of their lives. Maureen is a 35-year-old agoraphobic who serves as a sort of surrogate parent to Denny. Besides her busy career, Denny's mother, Lily, is coping (poorly) with her 41st birthday and an unintended pregnancy.

At 26, Denny is an actress, wondering if her career is ever going to take off. She now has a stepfather named Phil. Phil and her mother are moving to New York, and Denny has two days to decide which of her childhood possessions to keep. Oh, and she and her stepfather kiss, on the lips.

At 36, Denny is a playwright living in New York, near her mother again. She is grieving the loss of Maureen, who died at age 59 from a stroke. Maureen's son, Luke, aged 13, shows up on her doorstep one day. Maureen had been a single parent, and when she died, Luke was sent to live with his grandmother in Phoenix. Feeling uncomfortable there, Luke saves his money and runs away to see Denny in New York, hoping he might find a place with her there.

I actually thought the most interesting character was Maureen. The book does get into what led up to her agoraphobia, and how she pulls herself out of it for Denny's sake. Despite having a debilitating anxiety disorder, she came across as the sane one of Denny's parents.

This is Cline's first novel, and pretty good, in my opinion. I look forward to seeing more from her.

Book Review--Devil's Corner, by Lisa Scottoline

2005-12-09T19:19:00.000-08:00

This book begins with the protagonist, Vicki, an Assistant US Attorney, staring down the barrel of a gun. She had been going to visit a confidential informant on what she believed to be a minor case, that of a woman who had bought two guns at a gun shop and illegally resold them. But things turned really ugly really quickly. Vicki and her partner, Morty, a dedicated Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF) agent, arrive upon the scene of a burglary in progress. Vicki narrowly escapes being shot to death, but Morty and the confidential informant aren't so lucky. Devastated, Vicki seeks justice for her murdered partner. Her search and her grief lead her into some problematic behavior, and she is suspended at work. She does have an ally at work, a fellow AUSA named Dan who agrees with her that Morty's killing was not simply a matter of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Vicki is crazy about Dan, but unfortunately he's married. Furthermore, her search for Morty's killer becomes too dangerous for her to want to let Dan know what she's really doing. She teams up with an unlikely ally who helps her explore a dangerous drug underworld.

This is a great book for anyone who loves legal thrillers, as I do.

Movie Review--Just Friends

2005-12-05T19:33:00.000-08:00

Lots and lots of physical comedy in this movie, but it was very funny. Ryan Reynolds stars in the role of Chris. In high school he was an overweight "loser" who was in love with Jamie (Amy Smart), a beautiful cheerleader. When he finally gets up the nerve to confess his feelings to her, she tells him she just wants to be friends.

Ten years later, Chris has transformed himself. He has lost weight and become a successful music executive in LA. Circumstances bring him back home to New Jersey (with an extremely self-absorbed musician, Samantha, in tow), and he encounters his high-school crush for the first time in ten years. So again he tries to win her over, and again it's not easy. Many obstacles present themselves. Samantha is anxious to get to Paris, and Chris keeps trying to distract her with the help of his younger brother, who is only too happy to spend time with the gorgeous Samantha. Chris also has competition, another would-be suitor from high school who has recently moved back to town. His rival, Dusty, is a paramedic who encounters Jamie and Chris when Chris injures himself playing ice hockey (he had wanted to show Jamie just how much his ice skating had improved, but it didn't quite work out like he had hoped). So Chris is in the ambulance with Dusty on one side and Jamie on the other, barely able to move or speak, while Dusty and Jamie are exchanging phone numbers. Talk about frustrating.

So like I said, there was lots of physical comedy, of which the injury on the ice is one example. Chris is generally a clutz, and then there are the regular pummelings he and his brother give each other. I don't always like physical comedy, but Reynolds makes it work. The movie isn't terribly deep, but funny enough to make up for that.

Book Review--Harvesting the Heart, by Jodi Picoult

2005-11-29T20:37:00.000-08:00

This book, as Picoult's generally do, alternates between different points of view and periods in time. In this case, the story is told by Paige (in the first person) and from her husband, Nicholas's point of view, but in the third person. Since Paige's parts are told in the first person and Nicholas's in the third, I personally felt a lot closer to Paige's character. I also didn't like Nicholas particularly, and I'll get to why in just a minute.

Paige has some significant demons in her past to overcome. When she was five, her mother disappeared. An only child, she was raised by her father. When she was 18, she had an abortion. This led to a breakup with her boyfriend, and, worried that her father might somehow discover her secret, she chose to run away instead of waiting just a few months until leaving for college. I had a really hard time understanding that. She had been accepted by the Rhode Island School of Design and wanted to study art. Her interest didn't seem to have really waned, and I didn't think she was even having doubts about college. So, she'd had the abortion because she wasn't ready to handle motherhood and wanted to go to college, but then she didn't end up going to college anyway. She ran away to Massachusetts (from Chicago) and got a job in a seedy diner, where she worked as a waitress but also drew pictures of the customers. She was very good at drawing, and also had a uncanny ability to include things about the person in the drawing that she had no real way of knowing, as if drawing a person gave her a glimpse into their subconscious.

Paige met Nicholas at the diner. His life had been one of privilege. He and Paige hadn't known each other very long at all when he asked her to marry him. They got married and several years later had a kid, which was basically when Paige's life fell apart. She quickly became overwhelmed with the demands of motherhood, and Nicholas wasn't at all understanding. He didn't really help at all. In fairness, he worked very long hours as a heart surgeon, so he didn't have a whole lot of time to help, but his lack of understanding was basically why I didn't like him. He didn't understand that while he got few breaks, Paige got NO break, since mothering is a 24/7 job. He would play with the baby a little bit (maybe) and think it was easy and why was Paige bitching so much?

The other reason I didn't like him was that he would do things like insist she entertain a bunch of snobby people and say he was doing it for her, which was bullshit. He was doing it for himself, to further his own career, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but I thought he should at least be honest about it. If he were really doing it just for her, he would have quit, since she didn't want to do it and would rather have had more of his time. She was not materialistic or hung up with status.

Anyway, Paige eventually couldn't take it anymore and ran off. I think post-partum depression was likely a major factor. She searches for her mother and tries to deal with her past. She does find her mother and spends some time with her. In the process learns more about herself and her own motives. In the meantime, Nicholas learns that it's not so easy trying to raise an infant. He ends up asking his estranged parents for help. Paige eventually returns, but Nicholas, understandably angry at her for leaving, isn't particularly inclined to forgive her. Even though anyone would be mad about that, I thought he was particularly unforgiving, but maybe that's just because I didn't like him in the first place. Interestingly, his parents are more understanding, especially his mother. His mother, while she had not left her family, had had her own rather difficult quest for her own identity, so she could empathize with Paige more than Nicholas could.

Don't get me wrong; I don't really think it was right for Paige to just leave her baby like that. I don't understand how she could. But I guess I really believe that she just couldn't take it anymore and didn't see another way out. She even believed that she was a bad mother and that her baby would be better off without her. It wasn't true, of course, but I do think she really believed that.

It's fair to say that the book is really gripping. It brought out strong emotions in me--anger toward Nicholas, for example, and identification with Paige. I am not sure why I identified with her since my life isn't like hers (I'm single with no kids), but I suppose I can relate to sometimes feeling overwhelmed by life. And the search for one's own identity is pretty much a universal theme.

Movie Review--Walk the Line

2005-11-28T21:08:00.000-08:00

This was an awesome movie. Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon were great as Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash. I'm not really a Johnny Cash fan, so I hadn't read his autobiography and didn't know anything of his life story. However, one doesn't have to be a Johnny Cash fan to enjoy this movie. The movie begins with a turning point in Cash's life. When they were kids in Arkansas, an accident killed Cash's older brother. Cash's father never really forgave him for being the surviving son. From here, the story jumps ahead several years. After serving in the military, Cash marries his first wife and works briefly as a door-to-door salesman. His desire of course is to be a singer, and he forms a band. He manages to get them an audition, which doesn't go too well when they perform one of their gospel tunes. Things turn around when they perform a song that Cash wrote, and they get a record deal. From there they climb the charts.

His first wife isn't terribly supportive; in fact I read somewhere that one of Cash's daughters was not at all happy with how her mother was portrayed in this movie. It is true that she was angry at him, at first for being more interested in his music than in earning money as a door-to-door salesman, and then because she knew of his attraction to June Carter. But I felt that her anger was justified; I didn't think she was portrayed as being excessively bitchy or anything like that. Upon hearing the gospel tunes that Cash and his band were working on at first, I might have found it difficult to keep the faith as well in the beginning, and obviously he was in love with June Carter, so that was a threat to her.

Cash met June Carter, who along with her singing family had been famous since she was a child, while touring. Both were married to other people at the time, and it is awhile before they actually get together, years in fact. During this time, Carter goes through a bitter divorce, Cash's first wife finally leaves him, Carter briefly marries again, and Cash loses several years to pills and alcohol. But when they do get together, it is forever.

The actors actually sang rather than lip-synched; interestingly, those cast in the lead roles were not singers. The music was very good, though. Both Phoenix and Witherspoon were impressive in their roles, but Reese Witherspoon was especially good in the role of June Carter.

Happy Thanksgiving

2005-11-23T21:24:00.000-08:00

I just want to wish everyone who reads this a happy Thanksgiving! If you're traveling, have a safe trip, and I wish everyone good times with family and/or friends.

Book Review--White Lies, Anna Salter

2005-11-21T17:38:00.000-08:00

This is the third book in Salter's series featuring forensic psychologist Michael Stone, and probably my favorite.

Reginald Larsen is a noted anthesiologist who may have just made an important discovery regarding adverse reactions to anesthetics. He has been suspended from his hospital pending an investigation of claims of sexual impropriety. He is confident that he can fight the charges against him and wants Michael to do an evaluation as soon as possible. Michael has dealt with the lies of too many sexual offenders to be so sure of his ability to fight the charges.

While Michael is dealing with the Larsen case, a fellow psychologist, Marv, consults with Michael about a case of his where his client has recovered memories (unaided by him) of sexual abuse by her father. She wants to confront her father in a therapy session, which Michael is sure is a very bad idea, since it's unclear if the memories are real and the client has had mush time to work through this in any case. She tries to discourage Marv from allowing this to happen, but Marv says that his client is going to confront her father with or without Marv's help, and Marv feels that he needs to be there for his client. So Michael gets permission from all parties for her to observe behind a one-way mirror, so that at least she can be a witness for Marv if the family sues.

Michael's involvement in these two volatile cases proves to be quite dangerous. Michael has to protect not only herself, but those around her. Michael is brave to the point of being a little crazy, but maybe you'd have to be in her line of work.

Book Review--Fault Lines, by Anna Salter

2005-11-20T20:17:00.000-08:00

In this second book featuring forensic psychologist Michael Stone, Michael's worst fears have come true. Alex B. Willy, sadistic child molester, has been released from prison. When Willy was still incarcerated, Michael had visited him to gain insights on child molesters. The insights were valuable, since much of Michael's work involves working with child molesters and victims. However, the information Willy provided may have come at far too high a price. When Willy and Michael had talked, neither had thought he'd ever get out of prison. He was in his early 60s and starting a 30-year sentence. He had spoken freely of how pedophiles operate and even boasted of his crimes on audiotape. Now he has been released on a technicality, and Michael is in possession of lots and lots of information Willy would rather she didn't have. Worse, Willy doesn't have anything resembling a conscience, and Michael shudders to think of the plans he might have for her.

Her friends--Adam, a police chief and Michael's sometime lover, and Carlotta, a lawyer, want her to hide, but Michael is too stubborn for that. So she keeps seeing therapy clients and gets a disturbing email from Willy suggesting that he knows who her clients are and what they are saying during their sessions. She has a friend, a former FBI agent, who educates her about bugs and gives her a bug detector, but it doesn't seem to help. Willy is always two steps ahead of her in a game she has to win. Her life depends on it.

Anna Salter's books are always gripping and hard to put down. She is herself a forensic psychologist and the cases portrayed in the books are chillingly realistic.

New Link for Cat Lovers

2005-11-19T21:24:00.000-08:00

I just added a new link to my list of links: Sir Ryder of Cupp. It's a must read for any cat lover--lots of cute cat pictures, a long, distressing step by step account of giving a cat a pill (hilarious if you're not the one doing it), that type of thing. I can definitely relate to the pill thing. When I first got my cat Moonie from a shelter, she had lots of health problems. I had to give her lots of pills, and though we had had pets while I was growing up, I certainly hadn't had to do that kind of thing before and wasn't in fact known for having a great love of or skill with animals. It took awhile but now I am a pro at giving pills to cats.

Anyway, I love cat blogs, so when I saw this, I knew I had to add this link.

Movie Review-Prime

2005-11-19T21:00:00.000-08:00

The first thing I am wondering is unrelated to the movie itself. Why is it that movie theaters are never a comfortable temperature? The movie theater in which I saw Prime was freezing. I had my winter coat on the whole entire time. It was like they had the air conditioning on or something.

Comfort aside, I did enjoy this movie. It was absolutely hilarious. Uma Thurman plays Rafi, a woman in her mid-30s who has just gone through a divorce and is seeing a therapist, Lisa (Meryl Streep). Rafi meets a great new guy, David (Bryan Greenberg) and they hit it off right away. Rafi is ecstatic in her new relationship, but at the same time a little unsure if he's the right person, as he is quite a bit younger than she is. Lisa encourages her to go for it and enjoy herself.

Neither therapist nor patient realize right away that Rafi is dating Lisa's son. I loved the moment of dawning horror when Lisa realized whom Rafi had been talking about (in intimate detail) in all those therapy sessions. It was far more than a mother would want to know about her son's sex life; that's for sure. And Lisa is far different as a parent than a therapist. Where she had encouraged Rafi to go for it and not worry about whether the relationship was going to go anywhere, she had strongly encouraged her son not to start something with someone who wasn't Jewish and was older than he (she didn't know at first that it was Rafi he was talking about).

Lisa goes to her own therapist and asks for advice on how to handle the situation. In my opinion, she gets some bad advice, although if she'd gotten better advice the movie wouldn't have been as good, I guess. Lisa's therapist said that if she thought this was just going to be a fling, then she wouldn't be serving her client's best interest by terminating therapy with her. The reason I thought this was bad advice was that it would only work if Lisa was right about it turning out to be a brief fling, and she had no way of knowing whether or not it would be. Hoping it would be a fling wasn't the same thing. And the longer the relationship continued, the harder it would be to tell Rafi that she needed to find another therapist and why. But anyway, Lisa follows the bad advice and ends up hearing more and more details that she really doesn't want to know.

Meryl Streep is great as the therapist and mother to David. Rafi and David are a great couple and the viewer really hopes they will be able to work things out. The movie did drag a little in spots, but mostly it was funny.

Book Review--Shiny Water, by Anna Salter

2005-11-18T18:19:00.000-08:00

Anna's Salter's books are rather addictive to me. They just really sweep you along. Shiny Water is the first in a series featuring Dr. Michael Stone, a forensic psychologist (female, despite the man's name). I've actually read all of her books before, but I enjoy rereading them.

This book is about a nasty custody case. Michael is asked to testify because one of the children, aged six, told a teacher that his father was sexually abusing him and his younger sister. The children confirm this in Michael's office. Oddly, though their mother thinks her soon-to-be-ex is a horrible person, she does not believe that the children were sexually abused. She has some problems with paranoia (big problems, actually), and thinks that their father coached the children to say this, that the court would decide it wasn't true, blame the mother for encouraging her children to make up stories about their father, and award custody to the father. Michael is very experienced in sexual abuse cases and believes that the children really were molested, and says as much in court. However, the mother's fears about what the judge would think about the charges of sexual abuse turned out to be accurate, and Michael's testimony was ignored. The father was given full custody, the mother limited visitation.

But then the children are found murdered in their beds when visiting their mother, who is arrested for the crime. Though she knows that the children's mother has mental health problems, she doesn't believe for a second that she murdered her children. She embarks on her own personal quest to find the real killer. It is a quest that may threaten her life, as the killer is much closer than she expected, and someone she never suspected.

Anyway, this book wouldn't appeal to some people, since the subject matter is pretty upsetting. But I love Michael's determination to do what she can to right a wrong. Obviously whatever she does won't bring the children back to life, but she can at least help bring their real killer to justice, even if it's at great cost to herself.

Book Review--Dating is Murder, by Harley Jane Kozak

2005-11-17T20:42:00.000-08:00

This is the second book in the series featuring Wollie Shelley, greeting card designer and amateur sleuth. Wollie is also a contestant on a cheesy reality show called Biological Clock, featuring three women in their 30s and three men. Each of the three women has on-camera dates with each of three men, and then the audience votes on which combination should produce a child (with or without romantic involvement). Like I said, cheesy. Wollie is more or less participating for the $500 per week, for only two nights worth of work.

Her main concern is her missing friend Annika, a college exchange student from Germany who is also Wollie's math tutor. Wollie becomes concerned when Annika misses a tutoring session and then Annika's mother calls from Germany, saying that she hadn't heard from Annika for awhile, that her host family wouldn't return her calls, and that she was sure something was wrong.

Annika frequently hangs out on the Biological Clock set, so Wollie asks others on the set if Annika had said anything recently that might shed light on her disappearance. Disturbingly, she finds out that Annika had wanted to know how she could get a gun. Upon visiting Annika's host family, Wollie learns that Annika may have been involved with drugs. Both pieces of information are shocking to Wollie; Annika had hardly seemed like the type of person to want a gun or be involved with drugs.

Reporting Annika's disappearance to the police doesn't really do much good, and in investigating on her own, Wollie finds herself being followed. Actually, she is being followed by more than one person, some of whom have to do with the television show and trying to fix the results. You might say that Wollie's life has become rather scary on several levels.

This book was a lot better than the first book in the series, as I mentioned in my last post. Wollie is a very likeable character. Despite her tendency to get involved in some rather ridiculous projects (the TV show in this one and the dating "research" in the first book), she is actually quite intelligent and creative. I actually rather enjoyed the Biological Clock angle just because the show was so bad it was funny. Anyway, I imagine that there will be another book about Wollie, and I will most likely read it.

Book Review--Dating Dead Men, by Harley Jane Kozak

2005-11-14T20:28:00.000-08:00

This is the first book in a new series starring Wollie (short for Wollstonecraft, if you can believe it) Shelley, a greeting card designer and amateur sleuth. I actually read the second book in the series first, but decided to review them in order. It's a good thing I read the second book first, though, or I probably would not have read on.

In Dating Dead Men, Wollie is concerned about the card shop she manages. If her shop is upgraded she can buy it. The shop also carries some greeting cards she designs, as well as cards from many other sources. Wollie is also involved in a "research" project. A radio talk-show host is writing a book, How to Avoid Getting Dumped all the Time, and Wollie is helping out with the research by dating 40 men in 60 days.

After receiving an urgent call from her brother Wollie is driving to see him at the state mental hospital (he's paranoid schizophrenic) when she stumbles across a dead body. She gets to the hospital and sees that her brother is all right and in fact, fast asleep. So she leaves, but if briefly taken hostage by a "doctor" who is on the run from the mob. Fortunately his only desire was to escape and not to harm Wollie, and by the time they have driven together for a ways, they have become friends of sorts. Wollie is worried that her brother, who somehow knew about the corpse before she came across it, is involved in the crime, so she tries to solve it herself rather than going to the police. This involves encountering some rather sinister types, to say the least. The dead body and "Doc's" run from the mob are connected, and Doc keeps trying to keep Wollie out of harm's way, which doesn't work because she doesn't take his advice.

Anyway, I didn't like this book as much as I liked the second one (which I will review in a later post) because I thought this book was confusing. It was just hard to follow in spots, and I am not sure if this is because of the writing, or if I kept getting lost because it failed to hold my interest. But like I've said, the second book is better, so I do think there is hope for this particular series.

Movie Review--Dreamer: Inspired by a True Story

2005-11-13T12:08:00.000-08:00

This was just a touching story. It's a tearjerker in spots and a great family movie. Kurt Russell plays a horse trainer, Ben Crane. His daughter, Cale (Dakota Fanning) loves horses. She accompanies her father to work one day when one of his favorite horses, Sonador (Spanish for Dreamer), breaks her leg during a race. The breeder, Ben's boss, wants the animal to be put down immediately, but Cale is there watching, and Ben argues with his boss and manages to save Sonador's life. He also manages to get fired, but he takes Sonador with him. He figures that he can nurse Sonador back to health, and though she'll never race again, he could breed her and sell the colt for a lot of money. And Cale is delighted to have the horse with them, the only horse on what was once a large horse farm. There is only one problem with Ben's plan: the horse is infertile.

Faced with financial ruin, Ben tells his wife that he would have let the vet put Sonador down the day she broke her leg if Cale hadn't been there that day and he'd still have his job. Cale overhears and plans to run away with the horse (a bold plan, to be sure). She gets on the horse, who gets spooked when Ben's truck pulls up. The horse runs out of open gate with Cale, who can't get her to stop. Ben manages to drive up alongside them, gets out of the truck, and gets Cale to jump off of the horse and into his arms. It was then that they realized the horse could run, and run fast. So they start training her to race again.

As one can surmise from the title, this is based on a true story. I read online (on the MSN movie info; the synopsis is by Mark Deming) that it's based on the story of Mariah's Storm, a horse who broke her leg in 1993, but who made an incredible comeback. In 1994 she won the Arlington Heights Oaks, and in 1995 won the Turfway Breeder's Cup.

Another New Link

2005-11-12T23:04:00.000-08:00

I have added another new link to my list: The Rubin Review. Check it out, it's really funny.

Book Review--Better Read than Dead, by Victoria Laurie

2005-11-11T21:57:00.000-08:00

This book is the second in the "Psychic Eye" mysteries. Very light reading, but lots of fun, in my opinion. Abby makes her living doing psychic readings for people. I guess one has to suspend disbelief if one doesn't believe in that sort of thing. However, her gift comes in handy outside of her work, especially since she tends to get into dangerous situations.

Abby is eagerly awaiting her reunion with her new boyfriend, Dutch, who is just getting back from FBI training when she gets a call from a fellow psychic, Kendal. Kendal's timing in calling in a favor that Abby owes him could not be worse, but she cancels her date with Dutch and reluctantly agrees to help Kendal do psychic readings at a wedding (interesting choice of reception entertainment, but then the wedding is on Halloween).

Kendal and Abby belatedly discover that the wedding is actually a mob wedding. They decide to leave early--and quickly--but not before Abby's psychic gifts catch the attention of a mob boss who wants her help. Abby tries to stand up to him, being way braver than I could probably be in those circumstances, but he doesn't exactly take no for an answer.

Meanwhile, the police recruit Abby to help out on a case involving a masked man who's attacking women. Her sister makes an unannounced visit, and Abby has prevent her from finding out about the mob boss and keep her out of harm's way. Dutch's new partner in the FBI makes it clear to Abby that she wants Dutch, despite rules against her dating a subordinate. You might say Abby's life has gotten rather difficult to manage, even with her psychic gifts, which can be impressive but seem to be rather selective (it's not like she saw this coming).

I really like Abby; she's very no-nonsense and straightforward, despite her unusual profession. The psychic angle is really interesting. Anyway, this is just a fun book, and a fun new series.

Movie Review--The Weatherman

2005-11-07T22:21:00.000-08:00

This was a rather dark movie, but with an overlay of humor that kept it from being depressing. The story centers on a middle-aged divorced man, David Spritz (Nicholas Cage), who is a TV weather forecaster in Chicago. His father is a famous author who is terminally ill. Both of his kids are troubled. Feelings of inadequacy are definitely an issue for David. He can't measure up to his Pulitzer-prize-winning father, who gives him a hard time about getting divorced and about the kids. He doesn't have a degree in metereology and thus doesn't truly understand a lot of what he is saying on the air. Sometimes people who recognize him on the street throw things at him. Things are possibly looking up on the job front, though. David is in the running for a network job in New York. When he has to drive his dad to the doctor, David places a letter about the job where he thinks his dad is sure to see it and comment on it. First his dad sits on it, so when they get in the car after the appointment, David places the letter on the passenger side of the dashboard. His dad falls asleep without ever noticing it.

David contemplates his life, his career and his relationships. He's a likeable, sympathetic character. Who among us has not experienced at least some of these things--feelings of inadequacy or not feeling respected in our careers, worry about kids, grief over failed relationships, etc. It's easy to relate to his character.

The movie is kind of hard to characterize; I guess I'd call it a comic drama. David's character narrates his thoughts, and he has a kind of dark sense of humor. So if you like movies that are rather deep but with some humor to lighten things up, you'll probably like this.

Another New Link

2005-11-03T20:06:00.000-08:00

I just wanted to draw everyone's attention to another new link that I just added: Bond Hunter's Guide to Internet Counseling. Lots of good resources and interesting entries to read. Check it out.

Book Review--The Wonder Spot, by Melissa Bank

2005-11-01T21:56:00.000-08:00

This book begins when Sophie, the protagonist, is 12 years old. Then she is struggling in Hebrew school and trying to convince her parents that she doesn't want a bat mitzvah. In Hebrew school, she befriends a former enemy from school.

The book is in several sections, different slices of Sophie's life over a span of about 25 years. There is a section from when she is in college and critiquing her roommate's love life, a section from when she is just out of college and trying to teach herself to type (in the days of the typewriter). Attempting to find lasting love is a common theme of many of the sections, as is her career satisfaction (or lack thereof). All involve her search for identity in some way.

I liked the book, but it's kind of hard to review in that it's more character development than plot. One thing I didn't necessarily like was the way it jumped around to different parts of her life; sometimes I was wondering whatever happened with a certain person or situation, and then the book jumps ahead several years. But it was all quite interesting, and I liked how Sophie didn't let other people's warnings about how a certain guy might be her last chance (to get married and have a family) sway her into marrying someone she didn't want to marry. I just thought, You go, girl! I think if people were only in relationships because they truly wanted to be with that person, and not because they think they need the security or are afraid to be alone or are worried about missing their chance to have a family or whatever--well, I think there would be a lot more single people in this world.

New Links

2005-10-30T00:29:00.000-07:00

I finally put some links on my blog. These are blogs that I enjoy; there's a little bit of everything. There are some other sites pertaining to books (I Love a Good Mystery, Gay and Lesbian Books); humor (Whoopity Doo, Digital Doorway, Wasted Blog); Personal Diaries (No Bravery, A Rich Tapestry of Barbara-isms, She Talks to Angels, All Things Jennifer, Championable: Fatherhood, Politics, Kids); politics (The Martian Anthropologist, Princess Wild Cow). Anyway, check them out.

Book Review--Case of Lies, by Perri O'Shaughnessy

2005-10-26T21:19:00.000-07:00

Nina Reilly is one of my all-time favorite characters. I tend to like legal thrillers, and Reilly is an amazing lawyer who actually has a heart.

Nina's latest case comes her way when her massage therapist, Chelsi, asks Nina to talk to her uncle. Chelsi's aunt, Sarah had been murdered nearly two years previously while she and Chelsi's uncle Dave had been staying at a motel. It seemed to be a case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Sarah had been shot while some other motel guests were being robbed. Even more tragically, Sarah had been pregnant with her first child at the time.

The shooter has not been found, and the Dave's civil case against the motel for negligence, having languished for two years, is about to be thrown out. Dave is broke, but Chelsi and her father are willing to pay the bills so that the case can go forward.

Nina has to race against the clock to gather more evidence before the judge tosses the case out. She searches for the robbery victims who were also witnesses to Sarah's murder, three brilliant MIT students who came to Tahoe to gamble. The students, master card counters, had won a lot of money the night they were robbed. The IDs they had provided were fake, so Nina has to figure out who and where they are, as well as try to find the shooter.

The student most central to the story is Elliott, a brilliant but unstable mathematician who is working on solving the mystery of prime numbers (numbers that are divisible only by one and themselves, such as 2, 3, 5, 7, 11, etc. As yet, no one has discovered a formula for predicting the location of prime numbers. This means that really large composite numbers cannot be factored, due to the difficulty of finding the prime numbers of which they are composed. Interestingly, encryption based on this fact is the best method of encryption on the Internet at this point, thought there are other possibilities such as quantum encryption. These other possibilities will have to be further explored when someone does figure out the formula for locating prime numbers.

Anyway, that's what I like about O'Shaughnessy's books; they are highly readable, but I learn a lot. In reading this book, for example, I learned more about math, while in another I learned a more about Russian history. The only thing I regret is that they can't write and publish faster; I'm always so anxious to read their next book.

Book Review--Peach Cobbler Murder, by Joanne Fluke

2005-10-25T21:42:00.000-07:00

I love books in a series that feature the same character/s. Once I've gotten to like a character, I want to read more about them. This book is Fluke's fifth Hannah Swenson mystery. Hannah owns a small bakery called the Cookie Jar and is an amateur sleuth.

I will admit, one does have to suspend disbelief with these amateur-sleuth-type mysteries. For one thing, amateur sleuths in these books tend to do things in the course of investigating that I would think a private citizen would have difficulty doing. Also, these books tend to take place in small towns, and if there is at least one murder per installment of the series--well, that would make the murder rate in a town of 5000 people or so alarmingly high.

It doesn't matter, though; I always really enjoy these types of books. In this book, Hannah faces a serious threat to her business when a new bakery opens up right across the street. The new bakery is operated by two sisters, one of whom, Shawna Lee, is after Mike, Hannah's sometime-boyfriend. Since Shawna Lee is a rival of Hannah's in both business and love, she is a prime suspect when Shawna is murdered. So let's just say Hannah has a strong incentive to solve this particular case.

I really like all the characters in this series, but my favorite is Hannah's cat. He is far more intelligent than I think a real-life cat could probably be (not that my own little darlings aren't brilliant :-), but he has the greatest personality (cat-ality?). This is a cat who doesn't like Hannah's mother and so will puff up like a porcupine and hisses when her mother calls, even before Hannah answers the telephone. He also refused to kill a mouse in Hannah's mother's house, as if he just couldn't stand doing her a favor. On the other hand, he loves Hannah's other sometime-boyfriend, Norman, and will do anything Norman asks, including allow Norman to put a harness on him. The cat has strong opinions about people.

Each installment also has lots of recipes to try, mostly desserts. I haven't tried any yet, but, well, they all look really good, so these are a bonus that you get with each book.

Movie Review--North Country

2005-10-24T22:14:00.000-07:00

One thing I can definitely say about this movie is that it gives one perspective. Anytime that I think that I hate my job, I'll just think about what it would have been like to work in the hellhole portrayed in this movie. I think working in a mine would be bad enough, never mind working there when one is subjected to daily harrassment. I'm talking feces smeared on the walls of the women's locker room, sex toys in their lunch boxes, ugly rumors and name calling, and generally having to go to work every day in fear.

The movie is inspired by a true story involving a class-action sexual harrassment suit against a mine in 1989. It centers on a character named Josie (Charlize Theron) who moves back to her hometown with two kids in tow when she leaves her abusive husband. She moves in with her parents and gets a job washing hair in a beauty salon, but one can't exactly support oneself and two kids on those wages. A female mine worker and union representative suggests that Josie get a job working for the mine, which pays six times what she makes washing hair.

Josie's dad also works for the mine, but he is far from supportive. And from day one, Josie is subjected to an incredible amount of harrassment, as are the other women who work for the mine, who are outnumbered 30 to 1 by men. Most of the women try to brush it off, but Josie has a much harder time doing so. The final straw occurs when she is attacked by one of the men. She gets a lawyer (Woody Harrelson) and sues the mine.

Theron does a wonderful job as Josie. The character is an amazing person, someone who has really been through a lot and is amazingly strong. Since the movie is "inspired by" a true story, I am not sure how much of her character is based on an actual person, but the real life women in this case must have been incredibly courageous as well, to take on the mine like that and make history.

I'm glad I saw the movie, because it is really good and it portrays an important piece of history. However, it was really intense and hard to watch in places, so I'm not sure it's the kind of thing I'd want to see again. Not a good date movie, that's for sure. It's the type of movie to see with someone capable of providing good emotional support.

Book Review--Mercy, by Jodi Picoult

2005-10-20T18:39:00.000-07:00

I've mentioned before that I love Jodi Picoult. I love the way she writes about pressing social issues and the way she treats them with such sensitivity and depth.

Mercy is about a mercy killing. A man, Jamie, kills his wife, whose body is riddled with cancer, by smothering her with a pillow. He confesses immediately to the police chief, who happens to be his cousin, Cam. Cam then has the difficult job of arresting his cousin, and then aiding in his prosecution.

Meanwhile, Cam's wife, Allie, is doing her best to help Jamie. She seems to feel a kinship with him in that they both have or had an extraordinary devotion to their spouses. Allie is impressed that Jamie loved his wife so much that he would go so far as to kill her when she asked. But while Allie helps Jamie and Cam helps the prosecution, the distance between them grows. Complicating matters further, Cam finds himself thinking about Allie's new assistant, Mia.

Did Jamie really agree to kill his wife because he loved her so much that he only wanted to end her suffering? Or was it because it had become too hard for him to watch her suffer? Or was it because she had changed from the person he had loved so much into one he no longer wanted to be around? These are the questions that the book raises. As with her other books, Picoult provides no easy answers, but compels the reader to consider the questions.

Book Review--Your Cat's Just Not That Into You, by Richard Smith (Illustrations by David Sipress)

2005-10-12T19:28:00.000-07:00

I always thought my cats were pretty into me. They greet me at the door. They sleep with me at night. Sure, they're a little friendlier when I'm trying to eat dinner in peace, but for the most part, I thought they loved me unconditionally.

Clearly, I was living in a dream world.

Last night I was at Hastings, looking for an audiobook to rent, when I saw Your Cat's Just Not That Into You. Feeling sorry for people who clearly have settled for a less-than-optimal cat-human relationship, I picked it up and thumbed through it.

It's always a shock when you think everything is perfect in a relationship and then reality hits you in the face.

I was reading about myself and my cats.

Being all sweet and cuddly and then suddenly bolting away? My cats do that! Separation anxiety if I close the bathroom door and then ignoring me when I open it, clearly meaning that they are only into me when I am not there? My cats do that! And forget about coming to me when I call them. Then of course there is the physical abuse. They are always supposedly "just playing" when they scratch me, like they didn't realize their claws weren't retracted.

I sobbed for hours.

Dramatics aside, the book is hilarious. It is of course a take-off on He's Just Not That Into You, that book which helps women face the truth about their jerk boyfriends. From what little I've seen of that book, this one is laid out in the same way, with letter from people and advice. It's a must-have for any cat-lover.

Movie Review--In Her Shoes

2005-10-10T21:21:00.000-07:00

Another great movie. In Her Shoes is about two sisters who are complete opposites. Rose is an uptight lawyer, very responsible and good at her job. Her younger sister Maggie (Cameron Diaz) is beautiful, irresponsible, can't hold a job, and mooches off of Rose. The sisters lost their mother when they were young. They don't always get along, but they are close.

However, their relationship is severely tested when Maggie sleeps with a man who is sort of Rose's boyfriend. Rose kicks Maggie out of her apartment. Fortunately for Maggie, she has a place to go. She has a tendency to snoop through other people's things, looking for cash to steal. It was when she was snooping through her father and stepmother's things that she discovered the whereabouts of her maternal grandmother, with whom their father had cut off contact years ago.

Maggie goes to visit her grandmother (Shirley MacLaine) in Florida for the first time in her life. Her grandmother is delighted to meet her granddaughter at long last, but less happy about her granddaughter's mooching tendencies. When she discovers Maggie looking through her things for cash, she strikes a deal with Maggie: Maggie can stay with her, but she needs to get a job. Maggie's grandmother promises she will match the money Maggie earns through her job in order to help Maggie go to New York so she can study acting.

In staying with her grandmother and developing a relationship with her, Maggie begins to gain a sense of responsibility. Meanwhile, back in Philadelphia, Rose is learning to loosen up. She takes a leave of absence from her job and takes a job walking dogs. She starts dating a new man (not the one who slept with her sister). But she and Maggie miss each other terribly. In Florida, their grandmother (whom Rose has still not met) encourages Maggie to contact Rose. Meanwhile, their father doesn't even know that Maggie is no longer in Philadephia.

The sisters have to come to terms with their relationship and their past. They are both lost in their own way and need to find themselves.

Anyway, as I've mentioned before, I love chick flicks. I also like movies about the relationship between sisters; the dynamics are really interesting to me. In this movie, Shirley MacLaine is great as the grandmother, but then I always like both her and Cameron Diaz. I highly recommend this movie.

Book Review--The Mystery of Breathing, by Perri Klass

2005-10-08T18:32:00.000-07:00

Dr. Maggie Claymore is at the top of her profession. A neonatologist, she works with the smallest and sickest premature babies, ones so ill that other doctors might give up on them. She is fiercely devoted to the babies, sometimes to the point where others thinks she tries to save babies whose chance for any kind of decent quality of life is very small. However, she is a very talented and dedicated doctor, and she is in line for a promotion at work. Personally, she doesn't have kids, but she has a terrific husband, also a doctor. Life is pretty good.

But Maggie's life starts to unravel when she gets an anonymous letter, one saying, among other things, that she harms her patients and that the doctors she trains hate working with her. And the harassment doesn't stop with one letter. Maggie and some of her colleagues keep getting increasingly hateful letters, and finally the accuser goes public and puts up posters around the hospital, warning parents to avoid allowing Maggie to treat their child. Worst of all, the letters and posters blame her for the death of a toddler who died in the hospital the previous year.

You'd think someone would notice a person putting up posters around the hospital, but no one does. Investigator Donna Grey asks Maggie about any possible personal relationships with coworkers, talks to her husband, and investigates all aspects of her life, but the perpetrator leaves scant evidence.

The book alternates between what's happening in Maggie's life in the present and different times in her past. The interludes from the past are supposed to provide a deeper insight into Maggie's identity, but while they were usually interesting, I didn't always feel that they added a whole lot to the story. Also, I sometimes felt that they interrupted the flow of the story. Things would be getting really interesting in the present, and then the next chapter would abruptly switch to some time in Maggie's past.

The other thing that frustrated me about this book was that it simply left too many loose ends. I don't want to give too much away in explaining exactly how. It was probably more true-to-life than many other books in that regard, but I would have preferred a tidier resolution.

Book Review--Seizure, by Robin Cook

2005-10-02T23:01:00.000-07:00

I have read most of Robin Cook's books, and really like them. I liked this one too, but not as much as I've liked some of his others. The main problem I had with Seizure was that there was simply too much clutter in it. It took around 400 pages to get to the part in which I was most interested.

Dr. Daniel Lowell has invented a new technique in stem-cell research, one that promises to save many lives. He and his partner (personal and professional) Stephanie D'Agostino, have their own biotechnology firm, and with it they hope they will save lives and reap huge financial benefits.

However, the biotechnology firm faces a serious threat. Senator Ashley Butler, an extremely conservative Southern Democrat (he seemed more like a right-wing Republican), has introduced legislation to ban Daniel's technique. Daniel and Stephanie go to Washington, D.C., to testify in a subcommittee meeting in which they attempt to explain the procedure and emphasize that it does not involve the dismemberment of human embryos. They fail to convince the senator, however, and are frustrated by the biased hearing.

A few days later, however, they are contacted by Butler's Chief of Staff for a top-secret meeting. The senator has a progressive form of Parkinson's disease, and he wants Daniel and Stephanie to treat him for it using Daniel's new technique, though they have yet to try it on a human. The senator demands absolute secrecy, as he doesn't want knowledge of his illness to threaten his political future, which he hopes will include someday becoming president. In exchange, Ashley promises that the bill he is sponsering banning the procedure will die in subcommittee. If the bill dies, the financing for Daniel's company would come through.

Ashley has one final demand. The procedure requires the DNA of someone who does not have Parkinson's disease. It doesn't matter who the person is, since there is no tissue matching involved, the way there would be for an organ transplant. He wants the DNA to be obtained from a blood sample taken from the Shroud of Turin, which is thought to be the burial shroud of Jesus Christ, though this is controversial. Ashley believes it to be real, and he wants this bit of "divine intervention."

Here is where it starts to get really "cluttered." Ashley greases the wheels so that Daniel and Stephanie are able to get a sample from the Shroud of Turin. They make a trip to Turin to obtain it and nearly get arrested. They get away but have to leave all their luggage. They then go to the Bahamas, where the procedure has to be done in order to avoid violating any FDA rules. They have to be there several weeks before Ashley, as there are things they have to do before they will be ready to do the procedurel. The clinic where the procedure is to be done, Wingate Clinic, was featured in a earlier novel of Cook's (Shock). The clinic was in Massachusetts, until the directors moved it rather suddenly to the Bahamas rather than face the consequences of being involved in the disappearance of two female Harvard students and unethical practices related to infertility treatments and illegally removing ovaries from women without their consent. Stephanie had to reluctant to go along with treating Ashley in the first place, and she is not happy about dealing with the Wingate Clinic and its directors, Dr. Spencer Wingate and Dr. Paul Saunders. She does some snooping, hoping to find evidence of wrongdoing which she can turn over to the authorities once they are done treating Ashley. She manages to get into their "egg room" and gets caught by their thug of a security guard, who puts her into an actual jail cell in the clinic's basement. To get her out, Daniel has to sign some sort of confidentiality agreement, basically stating that if he or Stephanie blows the whistle on the clinic, the clinic will blow the whistle on them.

An additional side plot is that Stephanie's family has mob connections, and her brother and some of his associates are not happy about their investments in Daniel and Stephanie's biotechnology firm being in jeopardy. They cannot understand how Daniel and Stephanie can be trying to save the firm in the Bahamas and send a thug down on two occasions to communicate their displeasure.

Now, the book is called Seizure because the procedure causes Ashley to have bizarre seizures. So, I figured that the procedure would be done relatively early on in the story, and that the story would focus on that more. But that's not what happens. Ashley doesn't have the procedure done until almost the end of the book, and very little time is devoted to actually dealing with the complications. The ending, by the way, is quite bizarre.

So anyway, the book was still pretty interesting, but it had too much clutter and too many side plots for my taste. Some side plots are fine; they make a book more interesting. And it wasn't that these subplots weren't interesting or even that they were hard to follow; it's just that there were too many.

Movie Review--Flight Plan

2005-09-28T17:06:00.000-07:00

Another enjoyable movie. Jodie Foster is great in the role of Kyle Pratt, a recently widowed mother whose husband was killed in an accident. Kyle is traveling from Berlin to New York with her 6-year-old daughter when the unthinkable happens and her daughter disappears. She searches the plane (which is much bigger and more impressive than any plane on which I've flown) to no avail. She enlists the help of the flight crew. The only problem is that there's no record of her daughter ever being on board. None of the flight crew or passengers remember whether or not a little girl was ever with Kyle. They believe that maybe her recent loss has caused her to snap and imagine her daughter was with her. Kyle understandably gets more and more upset as more time passes and her daughter remains missing, but this only makes her look more unbalanced. She is on her own in trying to find her daughter.

The movie was a little slow to get started, but after that it was suspenseful and entertaining. In general, I like Jodie Foster; if you like her, you'll probably like this. One did have to suspend disbelief at times. I never thought anyone could be that hard to find on a plane, even though it was a much bigger plane than any I've flown on. I did enjoy it, however.

Movie Review--Just Like Heaven

2005-09-25T22:32:00.000-07:00

I loved this movie. I really like Reese Witherspoon in pretty much anything she is in, and I like most romantic comedies. This romantic comedy was rather unique in that one member of the couple wasn't quite physically present.

Reese Witherspoon plays a doctor, Elizabeth, who is totally wrapped up in her work, to the exclusion of any kind of personal life. One night after an especially long shift, Elizabeth is driving to her sister's and gets in an accident.

David (Mark Ruffalo) is a widower who is still grieving the loss of his wife. He rents a furnished apartment in San Francisco largely based on the fact that he likes the couch. He then proceeds to veg out and make a mess of the place.

He then discovers he has a roommate, a bossy young woman who insists that he's in her apartment and is highly indignant about the mess he is making, especially his failure to use a coaster. At first he assumes that there is a misunderstanding, but then he realizes that his roommate can pass through solid objects. She also has a tendency to appear and disappear at will. David then believes she must be a ghost and tries to help her pass over to the other side. He checks out an occult bookstore and even has a priest do an exorcism, but nothing works.

Elizabeth realizes that her ability to pass through solid objects is rather odd, but still believes that she is alive somehow. Unfortunately, she cannot remember who she was before; at first she cannot even remember her name. So she enlists David's help to figure out who she was and what happened to her. They fall in love, but realize that they may never really be able to be together and that time is running out.

The movie is sweet and touching, as well as funny. Ruffalo and Witherspoon are great together. I also thought Jon Heder was hilarious as Darryl, a psychic and medium who works in a occult bookstore. I would definitely consider it a "chick flick" (the best kind of movie in my opinion). I highly recommend it.

Book Review--The Stupidest Angel, by Christopher Moore

2005-09-20T20:52:00.000-07:00

Okay, it's not exactly the right season for this. I seem to have a habit of reading Christmas books out of season. But this isn't exactly a typical Christmas book anyway.

The story takes place in the small town of Pine Cove, California. There a seven-year-old boy, Josh, is distraught because he thinks he saw a woman kill Santa Claus. He prays that Santa will come back from the dead for Christmas.

In reality, Lena Marquez had just killed her hated ex-husband, who had been wearing a Santa suit. Josh doesn't know that, of course, so his one wish for Christmas is for Santa to come back to life.

Raziel is an archangel who has come to Earth to grant a Christmas wish for a small child. Raziel isn't too bright, however, and in attempting to bring "Santa" back to life, he casts too wide of a net. Long-dead residents of Pine Cove come back as zombies to terrorize a Christmas party.

The characters in this book are great. My favorite is Molly, a schizophrenic who went off her meds in order to be able to pay for a Christmas present for her husband. She's just such a colorful character.

This is the first book I have read by Christopher Moore, and it was a lot of fun. Apparently some of the characters, including Molly, have appeared in some of his other books. I will have to check those out.

Random Thought Number 11: Swimming Cats

2005-09-17T17:01:00.000-07:00

Last night I had the strangest dream. In the dream, my cats were swimming in the pool in my apartment complex and just having a great time. I have had variations of this dream before, and I'm always amazed. "I didn't think cats could just automatically swim the way dogs do, but I guess they can," I always say to whomever is with me. This time, I was worried about the cats being in the pool, though I thought it was pretty amazing that they could swim, since cats aren't exactly allowed in my apartment complex swimming pool. It was hard to keep them out though, because somehow they kept escaping because they wanted to swim so much.

I looked this up in The Everything Dreams Book by Trish and Rob MacGregor. This is a pretty interesting book. Though it discusses the importance of determining what different dreams and dream symbols might mean to the reader personally, it does have some interpretations of common dream symbols. Anyway, not surprisingly, it doesn't have "swimming cats" so I looked up cats and swimming separately. Cats can be a postive or negative symbol, depending on the dreamer's association with cats and the other things happening in the dream. I love cats and it didn't seem like a bad-luck kind of dream. So, I don't think the cats should be interpreted in a negative light in this dream. (Cats can mean prosperity or represent independence, the feminine, or sexual prowess, according to this book). However, I did have mixed feelings: amazement that they could swim, and worry because they weren't supposed to be in that pool and I couldn't seem to keep them out of it.

A dream about swimming, on the other hand, "suggests the dreamer is immersed in an exploration of emotional matters or the unconscious. " (p. 270). This is interesting to me since I often have dreams about swimming with no cats involved, since I love to swim. However, I am not sure how to tie these two elements together. I don't think it was trying to tell me that my cats are deep in thought about emotional matters or the unconscious, for example. Does anyone out there in cyberland who is better at dream interpretation than I have any thoughts about this?

Movie Review--March of the Penguins

2005-09-06T20:45:00.000-07:00

This movie wasn't what I was expecting. I guess I was expecting something more along the lines of Ice Age or something like that. I did enjoy March of the Penguins, however. It's a documentary, narrated by Morgan Freeman, about the lives of penguins. This may sound rather dry, but it was really interesting. If there really is such a thing as reincarnation (which I do believe in), I definitely don't want to come back as a penguin.

The movie starts with the penguins' march (they walk or slide on their stomachs) of some 70 miles. They do this to spawn. They have to get to a place where the ice is really thick and won't melt until summer, so their offspring don't fall through. When they get to the spawning place, they engage in a sort of "singles" ritual. It's unknown exactly what they are looking for, but they are looking (interesting, since they all look exactly the same). They only have one mate, but I think this only lasts for a season. The females lay the eggs (one egg apiece). Once they do, they have to pass it off to the male right away, and he protects the egg from the cold via a flap in the skin. But they have to be really careful in passing it off, because if the egg is exposed for any length of time, it will freeze and the chick will die. Then the females, having lost a third of their body weight from producing and laying the egg, have to eat, which requires trekking back to where they came from and diving into the ice-cold water to get food. They stuff themselves with food, enough so that they can regurgitate some later and feed their offspring, and make the trek back again. Once they come back, the chicks have hatched, and they take care of the offspring while the males, having lost half of their body weight, go to eat. Some of the chicks freeze to death, and the mothers grieve, sometimes so much that they try to steal another penguin's offspring, though the other penguins stop them from doing so. They have a strong bond even though they haven't been together that long. But once it's time to leave the spawning place, and the babies can care for themselves, the parents and offspring probably will never see each other again.

Anyway, I knew absolutely nothing about penguins before seeing this, and I found it all really interesting. Looks like a really miserable life, though. I guess it's not like they know of any other way to live, though.

Book Review--Twilight Children, by Torey Hayden

2005-09-02T22:38:00.000-07:00

As I'm sure I've mentioned before, Torey Hayden is one of my favorite authors. Twilight's Children is her latest book, just out this year. Most of her books are about her experiences in the classroom, teaching emotionally disturbed children. This book is about her experiences working in the psychiatric ward of a children's hospital. The focus is on three people with whom she worked.

Cassandra was nine years old. At age five, she was abducted by her father. He kept her for two years. Finally Cassandra was found three states away, alone, starving, filthy, and forgaing for food in garbage cans. When she finally returned to her mother, she didn't speak, and even when she began speaking again, she refused to talk about anything that had happened during the time she had been abducted. She had post-traumatic stress disorder and had been sexually abused.

Drake was a happy, intelligent four-year-old. Yet he never spoke, except to his mother. His extremely overbearing grandfather brought him to Torey, knowing that her specialty was elective mutism, and expected her to get him to speak immediately. Was there something physically wrong with Drake, or had he suffered some horrible trauma that had caused him to stop speaking? The truth was actually quite shocking.

Gerda was an elderly woman in a rehabilitation unit close to the children's hospital. A stroke had robbed her of most of her speech. Torey usually only worked with children, but she agreed to see Gerda as a favor to a friend. She ends up learning interesting details about Gerda's past, though Gerda had a tendency to speak in monologues rather than actually being able to converse. The attitude of some of the people who worked with the elderly came as something of an unpleasant shock to Torey.

I always like Torey Hayden's books, but this one, though still good, wasn't necessarily one of my favorites. The three cases, though interesting, were disconnected, and there wasn't as much of a unified story as with her stories about teaching, and her other book about working as a therapist, Murphy's Boy . I wasn't even quite sure why she included Gerda's case, since it was so different from any of her other cases and though it was rather interesting (and sad), there didn't seem to me to be that much to say about it. I did feel bad for Gerda though; she had no family that really cared, and her cats were put to sleep since she couldn't take care of them anymore. That made me mad. She had a lot of cats and it would have been hard to find homes for them all, but it still made me mad; it was just so cold, getting rid of her loved ones.

Anyway, not quite as good as her other books, but still really enjoyable and thought-provoking.

Movie Review--Must Love Dogs

2005-08-29T19:59:00.000-07:00

This one got so-so reviews, but I enjoyed it. It's about Sarah (Diane Lane), a preschool teacher, who is trying to move on with her life after a divorce. Well-meaning friends and family try to set her up at every turn. Her sister even puts her profile on perfectmatch.com, saying that Sarah's perfect match "must love dogs" even though Sarah doesn't own a dog and actually borrows one to meet a new man, Jake (John Cusack) at the dog park. Jake's dog was also borrowed, as it turns out. Jake really likes her, but she is less impressed by him. She is more enamored of Bob (Dermot Mulroney), the father of one of her preschool students, who is in the process of getting divorced and a bit of a womanizer. But when they get together, she is quickly disillusioned, and realizes she went for the wrong guy. So she is really happy when she runs into Jake, until she realizes that he is accompanied by another woman. So will Sarah and Jake finally get together? Oh, the suspense!

The movie isn't terribly original; it's a fairly standard romantic comedy, with the usual misunderstandings that get in the way of people getting together. However, it's funny and charming. Anyone who likes romantic comedies will probably like this.

Random Thought #10: Cats on a Leash

2005-08-25T21:23:00.000-07:00

I am a cat person. I like cats better than dogs. Cats don't bark, they don't slobber all over you, and they don't have bad breath. Also, I'm scared of big dogs. These are just some of the advantages of cats as opposed to dogs.

It's very rare that I will admit to any advantages that dogs may have over cats. I will grudging admit to one, though.

The vet (see Random Thought #9) thought my cats were doing pretty well. The only thing is that they are a little bit overweight. So, I want to try to exercise them more. This would be easier if I could take them for a walk, like you can with a dog. I have heard that cats can be leash trained, but I am not sure I can do this with my cats--I wonder if you have to start when they are really young? I don't want to just drag them behind me. Also, I think they'd need harnesses, because they've always wiggled out of any collar I put on them, and I sure wouldn't want them to escape. I have been playing with them, but I am rather lazy. I do like to go for walks, though, so if I could just take them with me, it would be easier. It occurs to me that I have never seen anyone take a cat for a walk, whether or not they can be leash trained.

So, one advantage of dogs over cats--dogs like to go for walks. Personally, though, I think that's it. Hopefully I won't get hate mail over this :-). It's just a personal preference; I know that dog people love their dogs just as much as I love my cats. Pets are good, no matter what your preference.

Movie Review--The 40-Year-Old Virgin

2005-08-22T20:23:00.000-07:00

Another fun movie. Steve Carell plays a man (Andy) who is still hasn't had his first sexual experience at age 40 (hence the title). His friends at work try to "help" him, which results in, for starters, an excruciating (and incomplete) chest-waxing experience, and an excursion to a bar, where Andy leaves with a woman who vomits on him before they can get down to business. After that, Andy wasn't really in the mood.

Andy meets a nice woman whom he wants to get to know better (played by Catherine Keener). For her first visit to his apartment, his friends convince him she cannot see it as it is, complete with a framed Asia poster and a very complete collection of action figures. They remove anything which might be regarded as "adolescent", after which the apartment is completely empty. Andy has to tell her he is having his carpet replaced. Then he has to deal with the complexities of condom usage, and his new girlfriend's hostile teenage daughter, who walks in at just the wrong moment.

The only thing I didn't like about this movie was that the emotionally stunted theme was taken a bit far. I mentioned the adolescent apartment. Also, Andy rode a bike to work every day because he'd never learned to drive a car. However, Andy is a genuinely nice and likeable guy, and the movie is genuinely funny.

Book Review--Murder of a Smart Cookie, by Denise Swanson

2005-08-20T22:09:00.000-07:00

This is very light reading, but fun. It is the latest in a series of books about Skye Denison, a school psychologist and amateur sleuth. Skye's latest adventure occurs over summer vacation. Skye always gets another job during the summer for extra money, and this summer she is on job #3 when her boss from job #2 is found murdered.

Skye's normal summer job as a lifeguard hadn't worked out. The beach where she had worked had been closed for swimming due to an invasion of geese (apparently bird shit is very toxic). So she'd gotten a job in an antiques store, only to be fired when she told a customer that the vase she was trying to sell was worth far more than the store owner had offered to pay. Her third job, working for her uncle as the coordinator of the First Annual Route 66 Yard Sale. It's a huge event and made an even larger headache than it might otherwise be due to the difficulty of working for her uncle. But at least the pay is very good, enough for Skye to make a down payment on her cottage, which she has been renting for the past few years.

For a small town, Scumble River (the fictitious town which is the setting for all these books) seems to have an extremely high murder rate. This time the victim is Cookie Caldwell, Skye's former boss at the antique shop, and her body is found in Skye's family's booth at the yard sale. The sheriff thinks that Skye did it. Skye investigates on her own in an attempt to clear her name.

Anyway, I always really enjoy these books. I like books in a series; when I get to like a character I like to read more about them.

Vanishing Acts, by Jodi Picoult

2005-08-17T20:59:00.000-07:00

Delia Hopkins has a great life. She has a wonderful daughter and a terrific fiance. She has a great career, helping police departments track down missing persons with her search and rescue bloodhound, Greta. But her life is shattered in an instant when her father is arrested for kidnapping her when she was only four.

Delia's father had told her that her mother was dead. Delia has no memory of her mother or of being Bethany Mathews, which was her name before she was kidnapped. She has no memory of visiting a Harlem crackhouse in the dead of night with her father, Andrew, to get new identities, those of a father and daughter killed in a car crash.

Andrew is extradited to Arizona, where they had lived before he kidnapped Delia. Delia's lawyer fiance, Eric, associates with an Arizona attorney and takes on the job of defending Andrew against the kidnapping charges. Fitz, a journalist and the best friend of both Eric and Delia since childhood, follows them all to Arizona, ostensibly to write a story, but really due to his deep and enduring feelings for Delia.

Delia meets her mother, Elise, for the first time since age four. She demands that her father tell her why he deprived her of her mother for all these years. When she learns the truth, she realizes that her idealized image of her mother never existed.

The book, as with all of Picoult's books, alternates between different points of view--Delia's, Eric's, Fitz's, Andrew's, and Elise's. Delia tries to cope with the fact that her whole life has been turned upside down. Andrew's defense takes its toll on Eric, an alcoholic who starts drinking again. Fitz tries to help Delia and has a harder and harder time dealing with his feelings for her. Andrew copes with life in prison as a 60-year-old first-time offender. Elise recalls the past--the baby she lost after Delia, her feelings that Delia's father could not love her as she loved him, and her downward spiral. With the alternating viewpoints, everyone tells their own story and you see how they might end up making choices that most of us would think were the wrong thing to do. Even if you still don't agree with the choices they made, you can see how they might have made them. The message here is that there are no moral absolutes.

Birthright, by Nora Roberts

2005-08-14T23:04:00.000-07:00

This story begins in 1974. Three-month-old Jessica Cullen is out at the shopping mall with her big brother, Doug, 3, and her mother. They are waiting in line for Doug to see Santa Claus. But when it was his turn, Doug got scared, wriggled his way out of Santa's grasp, hit the ground, and wet his pants. His mother rushed forward to help, and when she turned back toward Jessica's stroller, it was empty.

Fast forward to 2003. Callie Dunbrook is an archaeologist. She is recruited to work on a dig in rural Maryland, where a worker at a construction site had unearthed a 5000-year-old human skull. The site had been slated for development, and many people are not happy (possibly murderously unhappy) about being out of work so that an archaeological dig can take place there instead. Furthermore, Callie has to work the site with her ex-husband. But Callie is completely shaken to the core when a strange woman approaches her, saying she believes Callie to be her long-lost daughter.

Callie doesn't believe her, but cannot rest until she checks out the woman's story. It turns out that Callie, who studies the past, has quite a lot to learn about her own past. However, someone very dangerous does not want her to learn the truth.

This book has a lot of intrigue. There is the mystery of Callie's past and a woman's missing daughter. The book is also part murder mystery and part romance. The archaelogical dig itself is more backdrop than central to the story, though the discussions about uncovering an ancient civilization are very interesting. Callie's profession as an archaeologist is a sort of metaphor; she works as obsessively to uncover the past in her personal life as she does in her professional one. All in all, it's a very interesting read.

Movie Review--Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

2005-08-13T21:54:00.000-07:00

This movie was a lot of fun. I saw the 1971 version when it was on TV, and my second-grade teacher read the book to the class, but since both of these events occurred around 1978, I remember very little about either the book or the first movie. So I can't compare them with this latest movie version. I can say that Johnny Depp was very good as the eccentric Willy Wonka.

Most people probably know the basic premise of the story. Charlie is one of five children who gets a gold ticket in a chocolate bar. The prize is getting to visit Willy Wonka's chocolate factory. Plus, one of the five kids will get another special prize.

Charlie is definitely the most needy of the five children. He lives in a tiny, rundown house with his parents and both sets of grandparents, and they eat cabbage soup every day. His dad has a job at the toothpaste factory, until his job is taken over by a machine. Charlie is also the only one of the kids who is not a brat. He manages to be sweet without being saccharine. The others are 1) a rich, extremely spoiled girl from England, whose father had his workers check candy bars by the boxload in search of a gold ticket, 2) an extremely overweight boy whose parents don't seem to feel it necessary to limit his chocolate intake, 3) a fiercely competitive little beauty queen from Atlanta who has been chewing the same piece of gum for months to try to set a record, and 4) an obnoxious little boy who watches TV and plays video games all the time.

The children, each with an adult guardian along, get a tour of the factory. But it isn't all pleasant for bratty, misbehaving children!

The humor is probably more for adults than kids. Also, the scene where Veruca (the spoiled rich girl) gets dragged away by squirrels would probably scare younger children. In general, though, it's a movie that appeals to both older kids and adults.

Random Thought #9: The Vet: An Essay in Three Voices

2005-08-10T00:37:00.000-07:00

I didn't get the carriers out soon enough. Whenever I have to take the cats anywhere, I always take the carriers out early, usually a day in advance. The cats bolt when they first see them, but then they get over being suspicious, and it's easier to actually get them into the carriers when it's time to go. I forgot to set them out the night before, so I set them out at about 10 in the morning, when their appointment was at five. This was enough for Carmela to relax a little, but Moonie was still highly suspicious, enough so to hide not just under the bed, but up in a hole they've clawed in the foundation. I couldn't even see her. I had to take everything out from under the bed (I store things under there since I don't have all that much space), take off the mattress, and shake out the foundation until she kind of fell out. I felt like a monster since she was so scared, and my bedroom looks like a heroin addict ransacked it, searching desperately for a new stash.

Moonie: For some reason, my human doesn't seem to understand that when I hide under the bed, it means I don't want to go where she wants me to go. I knew, as always, that it was bad news when my human got out the carriers; two carriers, so I knew that meant both Carmela and I were going somewhere. Unless I could elude her. Carmela is way too trusting. She forgets about the carriers right away and plays right into our human's hands. So anyway, I thought I had the perfect hiding spot. Carmela and I have clawed holes into the foundation of the bed for just such a purpose. I couldn't believe that my human was able to even find me and then actually get to me. Now the bedroom looks like a tornado hit it. She has messed up my space.

Carmela: I always freak out when I see the pet carriers. Moonie tells me to stay away from them, and I do, at first. But I always forget, eventually. So our human puts me in a carrier and I have to wait forever while she tries to get Moonie into her carrier. It's not fair. Moonie is bad, so I have to suffer. But Moonie is so passive when we actually get to the vet. She just lets them do whatever they want without putting up a fight. Me, I won't let them weigh me without trying to wiggle out of their grasp. I try to keep them from giving me any shots or doing any tests, but then they give me drugs to make me sleepy. I go on hunger strikes if I have to stay over. I cannot believe that my human does not try to stop them from poking and prodding and drugging me. She is not a good mom. But I always forgive her, because I forget to stay mad at her. Moonie is a little better at holding a grudge.

Well, I would write more, but it's really late, and I still have to clean up the bedroom before I can go to sleep. Besides, vet day is rough on everyone.

Vector, by Robin Cook

2005-08-09T00:35:00.000-07:00

Medical thrillers are among my favorites. I particularly liked Vector because it featured two characters, Laurie Montgomery and Jack Stapleton, that have been in some of Cook's other novels. Both are medical examiners that tend to go above and beyond the call of duty in investigating suspicious deaths. Some of their latest cases suggest biological warfare.

It begins when Jack conducts an autopsy on the body of a former rug merchant. He determines that the man died of anthrax. When he learns of the man's profession, he figures that the he might have contracted it through anthrax spores on some of the rugs he sold, since some were furs and hides imported from countries where the animal form of anthrax is a problem. So he figures the mystery is probably solved, but something doesn't quite feel right. Little does he know of the impending danger to thousands of people.

Yuri is a taxi driver who worked in a biotechnology lab in the USSR before the breakup of the Soviet Empire. He dislikes America and its government and particularly hates Jewish people. He gets involved with a skinhead militia called the People's Aryan Army, led by two men he considers friends, Curt and Steve. Curt and Steve don't necessarily trust people of Russian descent, but they befriend Yuri because of his anti-semitism, his hatred of the US government, and the fact that he has the knowledge to build a bioweapon of mass destruction. Yuri sets up a lab in his basement and begins growing anthrax and botulinum toxin.

On a personal level, Laurie dashes the hopes of two would-be suitors, Jack and Lou, a police detective, when she introduces them to her new boyfriend. Neither Lou nor Jack much care for Laurie's new flame, jealousy perhaps accounting for some of their dislike. However, it doesn't take long for Lou to uncover some very disturbing information about him.

Meanwhile, Jack gets another baffling case. It isn't a case that he is assigned to autopsy, but rather a case that a friend has asked him to look into. The friend's sister has just died, and he is convinced her husband killed her, though her doctors did not suspect foul play. Jack has to move fast and bend some rules to get some fluid and skin cells to test. He also discovers that part of the reason the doctors had not suspected foul play was that her husband had lied about some of her medical history. Initial lab results did not suggest anything out of the ordinary. Jack discusses the case with Laurie, who suggests botulism. Jack is astonished when lab tests confirm this.

The question is whether Laurie and Jack can figure out what is going on in time to prevent many more deaths.

This is a really interesting book, but pretty scary to think about, especially since much of what is said about bioweapons in this book is based in fact.