Movie Review--Must Love Dogs

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

Angels and Demons, by Dan Brown

I read The Da Vinci Code about a year and a half ago and found it quite fascinating. Angels and Demons is a prequel to this; it is the first book featuring Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon.

The book begins with Robert receiving an early morning call. A physicist in a major Swiss reserach facility (CERN) has been murdered, and the center director wants Robert to analyze a symbol seared into the murdered man's chest. It is the word "Illuminati" written as an ambigram (the word looks the same both upside-down and rightside-up). The Illuminati were an ancient Italian brotherhood of learned men who objected to the teachings of the Catholic Church. Four of their members were brutally murdered by the church, and the others fled Italy. A new Illuminati emerged, one bent on revenge. And, despite all the academic evidence that the Illuminati no longer exists, it appears that they are exacting their revenge against the Catholic Church.

Whoever murdered the physicist also stole a vial of antimatter, a subtance identical to matter except that its particles' electrical charges are opposite to those found in matter. Antimatter is highly unstable, and a very small amount has a blast radius of nine city blocks. And it turns out that whoever stole it plans to blow up Vatican City. Furthermore, the Pope has recently died, and the four men who were the top choices to be the next Pope (the preferiti) were kidnapped. One will be killed each hour, until all are dead, and then Vatican City will be destroyed.

Robert teams up with Vittoria Vetra, the murdered physicist's adopted daughter and a physicist herself, and together they try to find the cardinals before it is too late. Meanwhile, members of the Swiss Guard try to find the canister of antimatter. In their search, Robert and Vittoria attempt to locate markers on an ancient path to the Illuminati lair.

I would have to say that I definitely learned a lot in reading both The Da Vinci Code and Angels and Demons. The Author's Note at the beginning of Angels and Demons states that the Illuminati actually did exist, and that the references to works of art, tombs, tunnels, and architecture in Rome, as well as their locations, is factual and that all of these things can still be seen today. Furthermore, it is very thought-provoking reading in terms of science and religion and how these can be intertwined (if they can be), ethics, and so on. For example, the murdered physicist, who was also a Catholic Priest, believed that he had scientifically proved that some of the occurances in Genesis were at least possible, but this was very upsetting to some religious people, who believed that trying to prove such things scientifically was actually demeaning to God. Definitely fascinating reading.

An Intimate Ghost, by Ellen Hart

This is one of a series of mysteries by Hart featuring Jane Lawless, a lesbian amateur sleuth and restaurant owner. I am always looking for good books that feature lesbians as main characters. They can be hard to come by ("good" being the operative word), which is why I particularly love the Jane Lawless series.

In this novel, Jane finds herself facing possible ruin careerwise. At a wedding she has catered, someone spikes the food with hallocenogenic mushrooms. As a result, the groom dives into an empty pool and has to be rushed to the emergency room, where he has surgery for a fractured skull. The bride, Lauren, seems to suffer some sort of emotional breakdown and stops speaking altogether.

Jane enlists the help of her friend Cordelia in clearing her name. Cordelia has some complications in her own life, however. Cordelia's sister, who lives in a distant state, drops by unexpectedly and disappears just as unexpectedly, leaving her 1 1/2 year-old daughter in Cordelia's care. (Cordelia is not the maternal type, by the way).

Jane figures out who must have been responsible for contaminating the food. She confronts this person, but it turns out that someone paid him to do it, and he has no idea why.

Several people might potentially want to hurt Alden, the groom's father. The previous spring, Alden, a high school teacher, had been a hero in a school shooting situation. A troubled teenaged boy held him and a classroom full of kids hostage. Alden managed to calm him down enough to let the kids go, but he was unable to stop the boy, Cullen, from shooting himself. A few days after Alden's son's wedding, a friend of Cullen's accuses Alden of sexually abusing him and Cullen. Cullen's father decides that this is what led to Cullen's suicide. Jane is left to wonder if this is true or if Cullen's friend might have some other reason for wanting to get Alden fired.

Everyone has secrets--Alden, his wife Mary, Lauren, the best man, whom many people think is in love with Lauren, and even Kenzie, the mysterious woman hired to help Alden and Mary take care of Lauren. Jane gets romantically involved with Kenzie, but even Jane wonders who this woman really is and whether or not she can be trusted.

This is a thoroughly engaging read. I read most of it in one sitting. Jane is a great character, so smart and independent, yet vulnerable and genuinely kind. Her friend Cordelia is so entertaining, an outrageous, opinionated theater type who hates getting up before noon. I am eagerly looking forward to the next Jane Lawless novel.

Book Review--The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, by Mark Haddon

This is definitely one of the more original books I have ever read. It is told from the point of view of a 15-year-old autistic boy (the author used to work with autistic individuals). Christopher is very bright. He is a genius in math (he knows all his prime numbers up to 7057). He has a great memory and knows all of the countries of the world and their capitals. But like other autistic individuals, he cannot understand human emotions and cannot stand to be touched. He hates the color yellow and won't eat yellow food. The sight of a few yellow cars in a row on the street will ruin his whole day.

Christopher is trying to write a book for school. He wants it to be a murder mystery, so he writes about a neighbor's dog he found murdered. His teacher points out that murder mysteries are usually about people who are murdered, but Christopher says he has difficulty imagining things that didn't happen to him (also typical of people with autism) and that some dogs are more interesting and clever than some people (I'm a cat person, but I can see his point). Christopher canvasses the neighborhood, asking neighbors if they saw or heard anything unusual that night. This upsets his father quite a bit, disproportionately it seems, until more information is revealed. In the process of his investigation, Christopher learns quite a bit about his father and his deceased mother, things his father didn't want him to find out. This leads Christopher to go to London by himself (he lives in a small town in England). Traveling by himself is not an easy task for him. In the end, he is quite proud of himself for this and for solving the mystery of who killed the dog.

This is a really fun book to read. It is just so interesting to see how Christopher thinks. He says in the beginning that it will not be a funny book, since he doesn't understand jokes, but he is often unintentionally funny. The author's empathy and ability to tell a story in the first person from an autistic person's point of view is really amazing.

Book Review--The Story of My Life: An Afghan Girl on the Other Side of the Sky, by Farah Ahmedi with Tamim Ansary

This is an amazing book. It is the story of an Afghan girl, Farah, who overcame amazing hardships in her life. Born in Kabul in 1987 during the height of the war between the mujahideen and the Soviets, Farah nonetheless describes her early childhood as quite happy. She knew nothing about the war. Sure, rockets landed in distant neighborhoods and there was always the sound of distant gunfire, but everyone was used to that. She did not often leave the family compound on her own, and when she did, she didn't go far, just to relatives' houses if they lived close by, the bakery, or to her father's tailoring shop. She learned little about the city of Kabul itself.

When Farah was six, she started school. School was much less intense in Afghanistan; she started at 8 am and went until 10:30 am, and that included recess. They had no books, and not even enough benches for all the students (about 30 in a classroom). They just had a teacher and a chalkboard. Farah loved school because she learned about the world beyond her own family.
It was her love of school that led her to make a nearly fatal mistake. One morning she overslept, and in her rush to get to school, she took a shortcut and stepped on a landmine.

To get medical care, she had to go to Germany. A German organization came to Kabul every three months or so and took wounded Afghan children back to Germany for medical care. Her family wasn't permitted to come, though, so she had to go to a strange country alone at the age of 7. There one leg was amputated and she got a prosthetic leg. Her other leg was also injured, but it didn't have to be amputated. She did have to have surgery on it due to infection, though, and can no longer bend it at the knee. Her knee was removed, and her thighbone fused to her shinbone. Her injuries had also affected her digestive system, and she was unable to eat solid food for several months. Farah stayed in Germany for two years. She was well enough to go home after a year and a half, but she could not go home. The war in and around Kabul had intensified, and all flights were canceled. She was sent to a youth hostel to live with other children waiting to go home. There she got a sense of what it would be like to live in Germany, how free the women were and how modern the place was. She felt conflicted about returning to Afghanistan. Of course she missed her family terribly and wanted to see them, but she felt that life in Germany was much better.

At age nine, she returned to Afghanistan. The culture shock was hard. For starters, she wanted to wear her German clothes and had actually forgotten some Farsi, since no one spoke it to her in Germany. No one went to school much. When she had been in school before, it was sometimes closed due to a "bad rocket day"; now every day was like that. A few months after Farah had returned home, tragedy struck. Farah's sisters and father were killed when a rocket struck their family compound. Farah had been out shopping with her mother and brothers. It was only a few days later when the Taliban gained control over Kabul.

Farah notes that the Taliban had been "just another army" to them at first. When they gained control, they were just voices on the radio in the beginning, broadcasting their rules, since no one dared to leave their houses. One rule was that women weren't allowed in public without a chadari (what we call a burqa) and a male escort. Many didn't even own burqas anymore. Furthermore, the Taliban hated Farah's ethnic group, the Harzaras. Boys as young as 10 or 11 were being drafted for the Taliban army, but in the case of Farah's brothers, there was a real fear that they might be executed rather than drafted, due to their ethnicity. In the end, fearful for their sons, she and their Hazara neighbors sent their sons off together, to try and escape to Pakistan. They sent them all off together for protection, but they weren't even sure how to get to Pakistan or what the boys would do when they got there. Contact was also difficult. Kabul no longer had phone service, nor did the country have any real mail service anymore. Usually only hand-carried letters got through. Farah never saw or heard from her brothers again.

Several months later, Farah and her mother also escaped. They hadn't gone with her brothers for fear of slowing them down, with Farah's prosthetic leg and her mother's asthma. They managed to get into Pakistan despite difficulties in getting across the border. They stayed with her mother's cousin, but there really wasn't room. They tried to find a room on their own, but since there was no man with them and they had little money, it was difficult. They got evicted from one place and ended up in a refuge camp, where Farah's mother's asthma got worse. So Farah managed to find another place for them to stay, where they could get free room and board in exchange for doing housework for the family. It helped her mother's asthma, but Farah and her mother were treated more or less like slaves. Farah wasn't attending school, and there seemed to be little hope for getting out of their situation.

Then one day, they heard that 1000 Afghan refugees in Pakistan were going to be taken to America (through a private Christian organization called World Relief). Farah was overjoyed and determined to sign up. She had to convince her mother, though. Her mother was convinced that they would be sold into slavery--or worse. She had actually heard that old people in America were sent to the soap factory and made into soap! Farah convinced her that it was like Germany. There were so many other refugees that they had to fight their way to the front; there was no real line. On their third day of waiting, a man came out and said they were taking the wounded and disabled first, and he happened to see Farah. He asked what had happened to her, and she told him about stepping on the land mine as a child. Farah and her mother were allowed inside to apply to go to America.

They had gone through the entire long and arduous process and were set to go to America when September 11 happened. They were then told to forget it, that because of Osama Bin Laden, they might never be able to go to America. But several months later, the program was back on, and they were able to come here. They were placed in Chicago with an American family, because the organization had not been able to arrange housing for them yet. But this news was terrifying to Farah and her mother; they were convinced that their worst fears were coming true and they were going to be slaves. Even the Farsi translator could not convince them that things were going to be okay, that these were good people. It didn't help that the American family with whom they were placed did not speak Farsi. For example, when they showed Farah and her mother the bathroom and kitchen, they assumed the couple was showing them not so they could make themselves comfortable, but because they'd be expected to clean them. They would not eat any food they were offered, figuring that at best it broke the dietary rules of Islam and at worst might be laced with poison. The stress led to a severe asthma attack for Farah's mother. She was rushed to the hospital, where she had to stay for a week. Farah stayed with her and slept on a cot by her mother's bed every night.

Fortunately, World Relief had secured housing for them in that time. They were finally able to relax in their own apartment. Their first few months in America were spent securing refugee status, getting public aid, and so on. Farah started summer ESL classes, which exhausted her--four hours a day of having to concentrate really hard. A couple of volunteers came by to help them with their English, and Farah developed a close relationship with one, a woman named Alyce. Alyce also helped them get some things they needed, like American clothes. It was a relief not to stand out in their Afghan attire.

School has been difficult for Farah, though she has done well. She hadn't really gone to school since stepping on the land mine in the middle of second grade, so she didn't learn to read until coming to America, where she learned how to read and write in English. She basically skipped grades 2-8. Farah wants to go to college, though she is still deciding what she wants to study. She also hopes to see Afghanistan again to help people over there. She considers herself both Afghan and American. Her mother has had a harder time adjusting, but she has been doing better, too. She is taking an English class and socializing with some other Afghan women in her neighborhood. Finally, her mother has told Farah she is glad that Farah brought her to America.

One thing that made me sad is that Farah mentioned that she has no American friends her own age. Most of her classes are non-ESL classes now, but the other kids, though friendly enough, haven't really reached out to form friendships. She says she understands it is hard for the American kids to reach out, but it's harder for refugee kids, who are often ashamed of their poverty and relatively poor English skills and just generally being out of place. She wishes more American kids would take the first step in starting friendships. Maybe things will be better for her in college, where people are more open about making new friends.

This book was so inspiring to read. It was certainly one of the most interesting books I have read in awhile, since her experiences are obviously so different from mine, and my knowledge of Afghanistan was (and still is) quite limited. And Farah and her mother have overcome so much. It puts my relatively mundane concerns into perspective, that's for sure. It's something I think everyone should read, both for the learning experience and the inspirational message.

Movie Review--Wedding Crashers

Not a highly intellectual film, but extremely funny. Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn star as divorce mediators who crash weddings to meet women for one-night stands. Then they attend the wedding for a prominent politician's daughter, and Wilson falls for the sister of the bride (Rachel McAdams). Vaughn is pursued by the bride's other sister, who is somewhat of a stalker type. The men get invited to the family's waterfront estate. Vaughn reluctantly agrees to accompany Wilson to the estate, even though he would like nothing better than to escape. Bad things happen to Vaughn (he gets mauled in a family football game and gets shot in the butt, for starters) while Wilson tries to woo McAdams away from her boyfriend.

A sidenote: my friends and I apparently weren't in an audience of Queer as Folk viewers. There were a couple of mildly homoerotic moments that seemed to shock this particular crowd, as evidenced by a collective intake of breath. We thought they should get over it already, but that's the Tri-Cities for you. It's not Seattle, that's for sure.

Anyway, it's not a movie for deep insights, but it's great for laughs.

Book Review--High Fidelity, by Nick Hornby

This book offers a male perspective on relationships that I haven't seen too often. The protagonist is a 35-year-old man named Rob. He owns a record shop and has recently been dumped by his girlfriend, Laura. This leads him to reflect on other breakups in his life. The first part of the book details his "top five" breakups. (Rob loves "top five" lists; he and his coworkers come up with them all the time, i.e., top five Cheers epsiodes, etc.). His latest breakup isn't in the top five, but he has a lot of difficulty dealing with it nonetheless. It doesn't help that his record shop isn't doing so well. He mostly deals with vintage-type music that is actually on vinyl, and it seems rather symbolic of his difficulty in moving on with his life.

It also doesn't help that Laura is involved with someone else. Rob actually gets obsessed about it, calling Laura at all hours and generally exhibiting some stalker-type behavior. He does get involved with someone else, an American recording artist, for awhile, but the involvement is pretty much on a superficial level. He also looks up his old girlfriends from his "Top Five" breakup list. It is interesting to see how their memories of the relationship (or in some cases lack of memories) differ from his.

Laura doesn't exit his life forever, though. Her father's death acts as a catalyst for Rob to examine some of his underlying fears which are impeding his ability to move forward and make some commitments in his life.

Rob's lamentations get a little old at times, and I actually thought the book was a little depressing. However, the ending was quite uplifting, and a lot of people, male or female, can relate to what he has to say about relationships.

Book Review--Divine Evil, by Nora Roberts

I hate it when I do this. I get into a book that I just can't put down. I stay up late reading, I finish it quickly and then there's this big letdown, because I no longer have this great book to read.

That was how it was for me with Divine Evil. It's about a successful New York artist, Clare, who decides she needs to return to her hometown, her roots, to work out some emotional issues. Clare is haunted by her father's suicide when she was only fifteen, as well as nightmares dating back to her childhood.

So Clare moves back to Emmitsboro, Maryland, and into her childhood home. Her mother has remarried and lives elsewhere. In Emmitboro, Clare reconnects with a man from her past, Cameron Rafferty. She and Cameron had had a mutual attraction from afar when they were teenagers, and now they become seriously involved. Clare also starts doing some of her best sculpting now that she has moved back to Emmitsboro.

However, Clare's most amazing work is fueled by her nightmares, nightmares which developed when she witnessed her father taking part in a satanic ritual. Clare had convinced herself that the whole thing was a dream and had never happened, but in reality, her nightmares are based on her memory of that event. The cult is still present in Emmitsboro, and more violent than ever. Furthermore, some of its members are concerned about what Clare might have witnessed on that night so long ago.

Like I said, I couldn't put the book down. I finally had to force myself to do so at about 3 am, even though I wasn't finished. The book also has a surprise twist at the end, one which I did not anticipate at all. All in all, great reading.

Book Review--A Long Way Down, by Nick Hornby

Imagine feeling a despair so deep that you decide to end it all. You pick New Year's Eve as the time to do it, because you cannot face another year. You go to the top of a building, intending to jump off, only to discover that there is more a less a line of people wanting to do the same thing.

This is the premise of Nick Hornby's fourth novel. Four people--Jess, Martin, Maureen, and JJ-- meet each other at the top of a London building, all intending to jump. Jess is a teenaged girl whose life hasn't been the same since her older sister disappeared, though her current angst is due to a guy. Jess's object of her affection is scared to death of Jess's obsessive behavior. Martin is a former TV talk-show host who recently served time in prison due to sexual relations with a minor. He lost his job, his wife, and his children due to the affair. Maureen is the mother of a severly disabled young man. She spends all her time caring for him and has no life of her own. JJ is an American (the other three are British) who was starting to find some success in the music business until he band broke up. His girlfriend also broke up with him at around the same time. With no music, no girlfriend, and no other skills, not even a high school diploma, life looks pretty grim to JJ.

Maureen and Martin actually prevent Jess from jumping, and JJ shows up asking if anyone ordered a pizza. Of course, no one had, but they eat the pizza and start talking. Finally, Jess convinces them to help her find Chas, the object of her obsession. The long night ends with a promise, though reluctantly extracted from some, to wait six weeks before attempting suicide again and to look out for each other. The four also decide to meet regularly.

The story is told in the first person, alternating between the four characters. The four are very different from each other, making it difficult for them to get along and look out for each other. To me, the most intriguing character in a way is Jess. Of the four, she is the one with the least amount of tact. She can actually be quite mean at times, and could use some help in the social skills department. But she is always the one saying they should look out for each other and coming up with ideas to help one of the others.

I guess the main message I got from this book was that sometimes it doesn't take much to help someone, even if they are in deep despair. I don't mean to sound flippant at all, but sometimes seemingly little changes in one's life can cause one to feel much better about things. Maybe that's the key--"seemingly little." A change in circumtances that seems minor to me might make a big difference to someone else.

Book Review--About a Boy, by Nick Hornby

I saw the movie About a Boy when it was in theaters, which got me interested in reading the book. Basically, it's about two people who need to be brought out of their isolation. Marcus is a 12-year-old boy who lives with his seriously depressed mother. Will is a 36-year-old man who lives alone. He has no job, as he lives off the royalties for a song his father wrote years ago. His connections to other people are mostly superficial--friends to hang out with, but not confidants. His family members are either deceased or not close to him.

Will hits upon what he sees as a great way to meet women after dating a single mother. Single mothers, he decides, having a harder time meeting men, would be more willing and enthusiastic about dating him. So he creates a fictional son , a 2-year-old named Ned, and joins a group for single parents. There he meets Suzy, who interests him immediately, and her friend Fiona, who is Marcus' mother.

Will meets Marcus at a group gathering. Suzy had brought Marcus along with her since Marcus' mother wasn't feeling well. Needing to explain why he hadn't brought his son with him to the gathering, Will made the excuse that his fictional ex deciding she needed to take their son with her at the last minute. When they take Marcus home, they discover his mother, passed out after taking too many pills.

Marcus' mother survives the suicide attempt, but the experience leads Marcus to decide that they needed more people around them. If he lost his mother, who would he have? He starts coming over to Will's apartment (uninvited) and gets Will and Fiona to go out on a date together. Will and Fiona were totally unsuited to each other, but Marcus kept coming to see Will. At first Will doesn't especially appreciate this, but Marcus grows on him, little by little. And both of them change as a result of their relationship. Marcus learns how to be a kid, and Will learns how to be an adult.

The characters are great. Will is amazingly superficial and self-absorbed at first, to the point where it's almost comical. He doesn't like kids (he just wants to date their mothers) and avoids messy emotional entanglements, and then manages to step right into just the type of thing he tries to avoid. Marcus is a classic nerd; he doesn't fit in at school, wears the "wrong" kind of clothes, listens to the "wrong" kind of music, and is teased and bullied by the kids at school. He is very intelligent and astute, however.

The theme of the book seems to be the importance of relationships--real relationships as opposed to superficial connections--in our lives. I don't mean to oversimplify, but I think it's something that people take for granted at times, especially when those close to us are annoying the hell out of us. It's a book that will get you thinking about yourself and your connections with other people.

Book Review--Beautiful Child, by Torey Hayden

Another great book by Torey Hayden. Published in 2002, Beautiful Child is a chronicle of more of Torey Hayden's experiences teaching children with special needs. At the center of this story is Venus, an extremely unresponsive 7-year-old child. Venus never spoke or seemed to listen to others. Torey intially thought she might be deaf. However, lack of hearing was not the issue. Though usually unresponsive to others, an accidental bump was capable of sending her into a screaming rage.

Venus's family life was very far from ideal, as her file and home visits confirmed. Her mother, who had a history of prostitution and drug abuse, had nine children, Venus being the youngest. One of the elder children, Wanda, aged 19 or 20 and mentally retarded, frequently brought Venus to school and seemed to take a great deal of responsiblility for her, though her cognitive deficits made that a serious challenge. The nine children had three different fathers, the first of whom had died in prison. Venus's mother gave birth to a stillborn baby after the second man beat her severely. This man had also been convicted of child abuse and charged with animal cruelty. Venus's father, the third man, also had a string of convictions. His were for burglary, drug charges, and most disturbingly, pedophile activity. Though out of prison at the time, he was banned from having contact with the kids. Venus's mother had a new live-in boyfriend, who was pretty much like the others before him.

In the beginning, four other students shared the classroom with Venus--Shane and Zane, twins with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome; Billy, an angry, aggressive boy; and Jesse, who had Tourette's Syndrome. Later, Gwen, a girl with High-Functioning Autism, joined the class for just the afternoon. The mix of students was so volatile that at first Torey needed to seat them each at their own table and had them remove their shoes upon entering the classroom. Fights broke out every day. Torey had an aide to help her, but their very different approaches turned into another source of friction.

It is fascinating to see how Torey gets the group to get along and make some impressive strides academically. Even more fascinating, she manages to engage Venus and get her to start making some academic progress.

Progress was extremely slow with Venus. It was hampered by her horrific home life and poor attendance. In addition, she spent some time on homebound due to violent behavior on the playground. Furthermore, Torey's principal and her aide objected to some of her methods in engaging Venus, criticizing her choice of materials and their educational value. I could see their point in this, but what Torey did with Venus really worked, in that she was able to develop a relationship with Venus, who then started finally being able to complete some academic work and make some progress.

I always feel hopeful after reading one of Torey Hayden's books. Though many of the kids come from awful situations, their ability to overcome the severe obstacles in their lives and Torey's dedication and commitment in helping them gives me great hope for the future.

Book Review--No Place Like Home, by Mary Higgins Clark

Mary Higgins Clark is one of my favorite authors, ever since I read her first book, Where Are the Children? when I was maybe 12 or 13. Her latest book, No Place Like Home, is one of the best, in my opinion.

At age 10, Liza Barton accidentally shot and killed her mother, in an attempt to protect her from her estranged stepfather, whom she also wounded. Her stepfather, Ted Cartwright, claimed she had done so deliberately and that she had intended to kill him as well. The shooting was ruled an accident, but many people believed Ted's version of events, and his claims that he and Liza's mother had broken up because of Liza's animosity toward him. They dubbed her "Little Lizzie" after the infamous Lizzie Borden.

Liza was adopted by distant relatives, who changed her name and moved her to California. She lived there until she attended design school back East. At age 28 she married a childless, 60-year-old widower, and they had a son. On his deathbed, her husband begged her not to tell anyone her true identity, for fear their son would be stigmatized. Liza, now called Celia, agrees to keep her secret.

Two years later, her son now four, Celia is happily remarried to a lawyer, Alex Nolan, who knows nothing about her past. On her 34th birthday, Alex, surprises her with a new house--which, unbelievably, is the house in which she shot and killed her mother and wounded her stepfather. (This is perhaps a little too coincidental to be believable, in my opinion, but that's the only negative thing I can think of to say about this book.)

Celia's unhappiness is apparent when she sees the house, but remembering her promise to her first husband, she feels she cannot tell her new husband the real reason she does not want to live there. So they move in and she tries to make the best of it, but the troubles start immediately. The house is vandalized. Celia receives prank calls. Her son hears about "Little Lizzie" in school. And then Georgette Grove, the real estate agent who sold them the house, is murdered. Celia discovers the body and becomes a suspect in her murder. Celia fights to prove her innocence in that murder, as well as uncover more about the past in an attempt to clear her name, so that she can finally tell her husband the truth about her identity. However, more murders follow, and Celia and her son are also in danger.

I did have a hunch regarding who might be behind her current troubles, and it turned out that the hunch was correct, at least regarding one of the culprits. Mary Higgins Clark always manages to throw in several unanticipated twists and turns, however, and the truth is generally rather complicated.

As with all her books, I did not want to put this one down. Known as America's Queen of Suspense, Mary Higgins Clark is one of the best in the genre. I always feel rather low once I've finished reading one of her books, though, because I know I'll have to wait a year before a new one is out.