Movies and books, what a life?

("semi-spoiler alert--skip this if you haven't seen it.)


Ender's Game was a movie I had to see because I'd liked the book so much.  Although they left out the brother/sister subplot, they put everything else in...or at least, they tried to.  As hard as they tried, they didn't quite get it across.

I was sorry not to see it, but there it wasn't.  It takes true genius to draw in pictures what can best be told in words.  It's nearly impossible to show--by face and words and even dreams--the tortured, twisted mind of a abused kid who fought only when he had to...and fought with the goal of making sure that the enemy was never able to hurt him again.

On a lighter note, I'm still stuck on Fables.  The library seems to have them up through volume 15 or so, so it's easy enough to pick up a couple each time I stop by.  This one,

Fables vol. 8 Wolves

...was sweet.  You might even say syrupy.  I didn't mind, but I did have to cover up an, "Ahhh" or two.

She captures the castle; I do housework

I capture the castle
by Dodie Smith

Hard to describe, this is.  it's whimsical and poetic and it curls, ever-so-slowly in wispy rings, unfolding in the mind of a young woman growing up.  She doesn't know she's growing up, but you do--you watch in delight as she slowly gains understanding of her world, her family, and her place in it all.  Slow as it is, the story never drags--you're as excited by the events of her tiny little world as she is.  It's a masterpiece in a wide-open mind.

I listened to this instead of reading it and I believe that heightened my appreciation of it.  Since I only listen to books when driving, jogging, walking dogs or doing housework, I was forced to stretch it out over four or five days.  The slower pace was maddening, at times--I wanted to gulp it down in a sitting.

(Especially maddening when driving, because if a CD image on my IPod comes to an end, I can't switch to the next one until I hit a long stoplight.  And there were 12 CDs in this audiobook.  And the last one didn't show up in the playlist.)

So if you have a tendency to gulp books (binge, overindulge, or stay up all night reading with a flashlight under the covers), listen to the audiobook for this.  You'll enjoy it more.

One question--would very many men enjoy this story as much as I have? 

Comedy for a half century

Don't Shoot, It's Only Me
 Bob Hope with Melville Shavelson

This rambling memoir is Bob Hope's personal military history of America from the late 1930s through 1991--World War II; the Korean War; the Cold War; Vietnam; Kuwait; the Persian Gulf.  In all of these conflicts--and many other world events--Bob Hope was there. Entertaining the troops, dodging bullets, writing skits on an aircraft carrier, and making bad jokes at the expense of every major world leader.
The best parts of this book are the the short recitations of the jokes he told,
       Discipline in very strict in the Marine Corps. They're not allowed to turn their elelectric blankets above "just friendly."

Plus the way he has of slipping in a funny or two in every paragraph.  In some ways the whole book reads like a standup comedy act.

And the worst part is when he does a show in Lai Khe, Vietnam, near the end of a police action that has dragged on too long for everyone.  His joke leads off with the phrase, "be home before you know it."  But they don't know it. They don't think they will ever make it home...he is just another liar in a nation of lies.

Lack of a status update

Rain and not getting home before dark.  The only think I could possibly have to post is a book review, and I'm in the middle of two books (paper) and one audiobook.

How about a plan?

No good.  There is a lot of blank space between now and the next holiday.

Very unfair review--didn't meet expectations

Might as well review Cheaper By The Dozen now.  I just finished skimming the ending.

I'd never, by any whim of a wildest imagination, call this a teen classic.  For one thing, a teen classic is about teens.  This isn't about teens, it's not even about kids.  It's like a...documentary about a very unusual and eccentric man who happens to be the father of twelve children.  By choice, too.

So there it is--twelve kids being raised by a wildly eccentric father and a smart, solid, (and flatly drawn!) mother.  It's a historically significant documentary .  It tells much about American history and family life of the era, and becomes especially interesting toward the end when the girls start wanting bobbed hair, silk stockings and high-heeled slippers.  Dear father is aghast.

All that said, it's not a teen classic and I'd never have read this book as a teen.  I might have picked it up at some point but I'd never have finished it.  Thank heavens it was short.

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

I've been reading a lot about drinking lately, so it was an odd coincidence that this book came up on the list.


 The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian 

by Sherman Alexie
illustrated by Ellen Forney

It's about a kid trying to escape from his home before it's too late. While he still has enough fresh hot air in his balloon to pull him out of the suck that is reservation life.  He's a kid who loses most of his battles but seems not to know when to stop fighting. A kid you gotta pull for.

The drinking connection comes in when he quotes his grandmother,

          "Drinking would shut down my seeing and my hearing and my feeling," she used to say.  "Why would I want to be in the world if I couldn't touch the world with all of my senses intact?"

I can answer her question--to stop seeing a world where some children die for lack of food and other children suffer from too much food.  To stop hearing the creaks in your joints as they rust and decay and you know a day will come when they don't carry you through another day.  To blunt the feelings of bone-weary boredom when you work at a dead-end job that pays too little to keep gas in the car that drives you to the job.

But I digress--this isn't what the book is about.  It's a funny book, and a good one.  I recommend.

Saw a movie with Edward today

 and what a movie it turned out to be!  Gravity!  Sandra Bullock is my hero.

I'd been forewarned about how intense it was, so I found myself holding back, simply observing, for the first half of the experience.  About the time of her little--shall we say--cat nap--I became an active participant, not an observer.  I don't think I breathed deeply for the rest of the movie.

I'll save the book reviews for tomorrow.