Where The Wild Things Are

I rarely like kids' movies, but if this one is anywhere near as good as this trailer I think I am going to love it. 

Spike, you bowl me over every time.

Sunday Morning Stories

I loved this story that was on CBS Sunday Morning today.  

And this one made me want to read a nonfiction book! Maybe.

I love my iPhone

So, yes, I am a touchscreen kind of person after all.  

We made the big leap to ATT a week ago and so far I am pleased.

But I am more than pleased with my new iPhone, I love love love it.  

So many things so easy to do, but I want to learn more and better and so will be taking a free class at the local Apple store Saturday. 

In the meantime, I am looking forward to a few extra days off and a big fat book and maybe a couple of movies.

What I Will Miss About President Bush

Really, I will not miss him at all, no how, no way. But I just finished reading Curtis Sittenfeld's new novel, American Wife which has me thinking about Laura Bush in a different way. I can finally understand why she fell in love with George, though I can't understand why she didn't make more of an effort to change his mind on some issues.
Anyway, Sittenfeld's part in this combined Op-Ed piece in today's NY Times was particularly meaningful to me, but I was better able to appreciate the other contributers here as well, especially Scott McClellan and Robert Draper.

Oprah Picked My Book!

I am ridiculously excited that Oprah picked my favorite book of the last good while!  

Here's my post on GoodReads.

My CDC Guy

Steve began working for CDC right out of college and I remember when he was climbing the tenements of NYC, roaches dropping into the cuffs of his pants, to let people know they had once had sex with someone who had an STD. He was working on AIDs before there was a name for it. He's traveled the world to bring health care and education to third world countries, working not only on STDs but maternal health as well. I'm really proud of what he has done and how cool is it that they put him on the cover of this new book!

A Virginal Goth Girl

"Our topic for today is The Twilight Saga, a series of extraordinarily popular books that you may never have heard of. The attraction is clearly the vampire hero, who is quite a hunk. Before you make fun of this, I want you to seriously consider whether you're interested in denigrating people who spend their leisure time actually reading books rather than watching 'America's Got Talent.'"
Read the rest of Gail Collins' NY Times OpEd piece on modern romance and the state of feminism.

Sunday Reading

I finished my book last night and have yet to begin my next book which enables me to completely focus on the Sunday NY Times and that is how I like my Sundays to be. Here's what I found especially worth reading today.






This story is more than just another story about cultural differences and human rights abuses, it's about the dignity and innate intelligence of a few little girls. The bit at the end blew me away.


I always love the Modern Love column in the Sunday paper; this one was especially well told (and I love the ending of this piece too).

And Thomas Friedman does it again.
Oh yes, we are in big trouble.
Here, there, everywhere.

The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski

I snagged an advance review copy of this one last week; I hadn't heard anything about it and it is really a fat book but since I had recently loved The Art of Racing in the Rain so much I was in the mood for another good dog book and this looked like it might be engrossing. When I read Janet Maslin's review in The New York Times I knew this was going to be my big summer vacation read. I'm really looking forward to being on vacation later this summer and to reading peacefully for hours on the beach or on the deck of our apt. in Ptown.

Recommended Reading

Skeletons at the Feast by Chris Bohjalian
My GoodReads rating: 5 of 5 stars
This is the most immediate experience I have had of WWII. A completely absorbing, tragic story of a wealthy German family in the months before the Third Reich fell. Anna is traveling with her mother, younger brother, two soldiers who have become part of their little group, their horses, trying to stay ahead of the invading Russians. The terrible trek is filled with tragedy and horrors, and love. A very rich story and history I needed to know.

5 movies; 1 book

We got a lot accomplished over this three day weekend.
Oh, I did some laundry and cooking and Mark did some work in the yard and the pool. We went into Dunedin for dinner and stopped by Starbucks more than once.
But mostly, we watched movies and we read.
I read Stephen White's new Alan Gregory mystery, Dead Time. I have given up on most of the mystery series I was once addicted to, but I can't let go of either of the Kellermans, nor of this series, which is very reminiscent of Jonathan Kellerman's Alex Delaware series. I couldn't tell you anything about the stories that are the focus of each book, but the ongoing stories of the friends and family surrounding Gregory are good ones, and I'm always glad to get back to these characters.
We watched three DVDs from the library.
Gray Matters was very light and silly, pretty much a waste of time except for the nice NY scenery.
Gone Baby Gone was very good, story and acting, and quite true to the book. I wonder if the rest of the series (I love the Angie and Patrick stories by Dennis Lehane) will turn up on film one of these days.
Elizabeth The Golden Age was another good Elizabeth story with Cate Blanchet, Clive Owen, Geoffrey Rush. I just love these fancy British historical stories, so full of melodrama and insanity.
We tried to watch Knocked Up on HBO. I don't quite get why anyone who's made it beyond middle school would watch this kind of thing, nor why A. O. Scott gave it a good review. We did not make it more than halfway through.
Best film of the weekend, no competition, was the new HBO movie, Recount. Superb acting and writing and quite a drama even though we know all this stuff. Still shocking, disturbing, amazing.
And here we go again....

A Dark Book

A thoughtful, affective, unusual op-ed piece from the St. Pete Times, worth taking a couple of minutes to read. You might need a tissue.

Reading and Listening

After Lillian watched the slaughter of her family in Russia she made her way to New York City and began to make a life for herself. When a cousin finds her way to NY as well, and tells Lillian that her little daughter Sophie may have survived, Lillian is determined to find her way to Siberia where Sophie is rumored to have been taken, even if she has to walk. Amy Bloom writes unusual characters, quirky and complex. Lillian's journey, and those of the people who become a part of it, is wrenching and rewarding.
Away, by Amy Bloom.

Lorie Tonti loaned me her copy of Yell Fire! by Michael Franti & Spearhead the day before 6 cds I'd ordered arrived. I haven't listened to one of my new ones because I cannot take Yell Fire out of my car! It's different from anything I have listened to before and it is topical and danceable and wonderful. Thanks Lorie!

Turtle Tales

We didn't do much this past Labor Day weekend. For one thing I was on call for the library system and so pretty much tied to the BlackBerry. For another, I aggravated my sciatica moving some stuff around the library as we got ready to reopen the vastly improved College Hill Branch. So we hung out, enjoyed the yard with the dogs, spent time with our dramatically aging Willy cat, and read. I did read a truly wonderful book that comes out next month (I had an advance reader's copy thanks to Jen), Run, by Ann Patchett, those characters are still with me.
I also spent some time watching all the wildlife we have in the backyard, in spite of the dogs that are often running around there.
A few weeks ago Mark found a large turtle, some sort of slider, crossing a busy street in our development. This isn't uncommon, and someone usually helps them cross. Mark will often bring them home and release them in the creek behind our yard. But this time he decided to put him in our pond. It's a very small pond and even much smaller turtles have declined to live there.
That includes Horton and Sneetch, the two turtles Jesse bought when she was in college. She bought them from a guy on the street in Chinatown, saving them from a short life in a Chinese kitchen in NYC. They lived in a small tank in her apartment, but when the school year was over we had to drive up to NY since she heard that they couldn't stand the pressure of an airplane ride, even in the cabin. So we made the drive, bringing Jesse and the turtles back with us to Florida. By the end of the summer, Jesse declined to have them return to the city with her. We decided to dismantle the large saltwater aquarium that once had been Jesse's but long had been Mark's, and make a home for the two cute little guys. And they did thrive and they grew big over the years, too big for even our large tank. We enjoyed living with Horton and Sneetch, but finally, after much anguish, decided to release them to our pond in the backyard. We had let them spend time there under our watch, but once we put them out there for good, they left quickly. One almost immediately, one soon after, and we hope they made it to the creek and thrived.
Since then we have had some other turtles in the pond, found turtles and turtles who found their way there themselves. But none stayed long. There are some fish and frogs and plants to be eaten, but not much room.
So we were very surprised when this large turtle that Mark had rescued stayed and stayed. We watched him and he watched us.
And then, Labor Day weekend. I was relaxing on the swing in the yard with my book, keeping an eye on the visiting Sarah Nichter who tends to jump our fence where we have it low so we can gaze at the creek and the woods beyond. Daisy was roaming the yard too. Suddenly Sarah was excited and alert and letting me know someone was there. And sure enough, the big turtle had left the pond. He was walking across the yard and by the time Sarah had found him he was close to the fence, and close to Brushy Creek. I got Mark out there, we said goodbye to the turtle (it was the first time I'd actually seen him whole, mostly just his head, a leg, part of his back, in the pond), opened the gate and watched him take his freedom in the creek. Daisy and Sarah, and Mark and I, were very happy for him. Unless he meets a gator, this guy is big enough to survive and thrive in the creek.

Daisy meets the turtle.


Daisy and Sarah forget about the turtle, they are just happy being dogs in a yard.

What I did Memorial Day Weekend

Read The New York Times where I keep finding more and more feature articles on Web 2.0. Friday, May 25th, for example, Facebook Goes Off Campus and Sunday, May 27th, The Many Tribes of YouTube.

Went to The Subdudes concert (tickets were a thank you gift from the last WMNF fundraiser) at the State Theater in St. Pete, great band, lousy acoustics. The vintage furniture dealers on Central Avenue stayed open late due to the unusually old age of the crowd at the State Theater and yes, we managed to find some comfy rattan chairs that once lived in the Polynesian resort at Disneyworld while we waited on line; now they live by our pool.

Read Black & White by Dani Shapiro, unique characters and thought provoking story about complex family relationships.

Watched Volver; don't get what all the great reviews were about.

Bought new Jimmy Lafave album, Cimarron Manifesto. There's a wonderful new song, This Land, that brings tears to my eyes every time I listen, and I can't stop listening.

Bought new Lucy Kaplansky album, Over the Hills, typical good Lucy, I like the covers better than the original songs this time around. You can listen to her somewhat lusty cover of the June Carter song Johnny Cash made famous, Ring of Fire.

Bought The Invention of Hugo Cabret because I want to read a graphic novel and this seems like one I might actually be able to make it through; love Brian Selznick's illustrations.

Watched A Good Year, light and enjoyable, nothing special, but Russell Crowe is very good to look at.
Read the new Jonathan Kellerman, Obsession, a good, quick, poolside read.

Finished up the long weekend with a great grilled veggies dinner and one final movie, An Unfinished Life, a good, if predictable, story and Morgan Freeman stands out as always.

Three days off is just so much better than two....