Then, Tuesday night, I heard from one of my sisters, and one of their kids is going through something very difficult. My heart hurts for him.

We also discovered this week that the Alternative Learning Experience program that we use to homeschool is discontinuing the enrichment classes that my kids love. So Friday, we watched the cinematography class’s short film, Noah’s guitar concert, and Jonathan’s piano recital – knowing that these classes were coming to an end. We are going to try to find a way to pay for private guitar for Noah, and I can continue Jon’s piano, but the cinematography class and art classes are going to be missed. Noah has been the chief editor for the past two semesters, doing all the editing for two separate short films, and has learned a lot and found his passion, and it’s going away. It’s hard to watch your almost 14-year-old son struggle not to cry as he says goodbye to a teacher that has meant a lot to him. I won’t go into all the reasons that the classes are being cut, but suffice it to say that sometimes I really hate politics.

So, this is one week that I am glad to see the tail end of. It did end on a high note – with a night spent with my ladies at church, laughing and talking. I needed it.

Today, should also be a good one – church this morning, and then off to my folks’ house to see my baby sister, Marni, who flew in from St. Louis last night. I haven’t seen her in two years, so we have some catching up to do!

Bookwise, I only finished one this week, but it was an amazing one – Jayber Crow by Wendell Berry. Otherwise, I am reading and listening to the same books that I was last week.

In print:
~ Lottery by Patricia Wood – This one is for a read-along with Kelly.
~ A Collection of Essays by George Orwell – This is my bedtime book.
~ The Annotated Emma by Jane Austen and David M. Shapard – Review copy.
~ My New American Life by Francine Prose – For a book tour.
~ Fear by Michael Grant – Our current read-aloud.
~ Being Flynn by Nick Flynn – Review copy.

On audio:
~ The Last Dickens by Matthew Pearl
~ Delirium by Lauren Oliver – Re-read via audio before reading or listening to book two.

What are you doing today? Any big plans – bookish or otherwise?

On the blog this week:
~ Book Review: Pure by Julianna Baggott
~ DVD Review: This Means War
~ Book Review: Ninepins by Rosy Thornton
~ Book Review: Jayber Crow by Wendell Berry

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They are the CIA’s best, trained for any situation…except one. Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment plays the ultimate spy game as two best friends fight for the right of one woman’s hand in This Means War, coming to Blu-ray, DVD and Digital Download May 22. Starring Academy Award® winner Reese Witherspoon (Walk the Line), Chris Pine (Star Trek) and Tom Hardy (The Dark Knight Rises), the laugh-out-loud comedy gets even better on Blu-ray with three alternate endings that answer the question – what if she chose the other guy?

The world’s deadliest CIA operatives, FDR Foster (Pine) and Tuck (Hardy), are inseparable partners and best friends until they fall for the same woman (Witherspoon). Having once helped bring down entire enemy nations, they are now employing their incomparable skills and an endless array of high-tech gadgetry against their greatest nemesis – each other.

Directed by visionary filmmaker McG (Charlie’s Angels), This Means War features a funny and talented supporting cast including Chelsea Handler (“Are You There, Chelsea?”), Angela Bassett (Notorious) and Abigail Spencer (Cowboys & Aliens).

Ugh. This is a really bad movie. I’m not particularly picky with movies – not nearly as picky as I am about the books I read – and I wish I hadn’t wasted my time on this one. Even the total hot factor of the two male leads didn’t make up for the horrible writing, unfunny humor, disgusting best friend character, and completely predictable ending.

I wasn’t even remotely interested in watching the alternate endings, because I knew who she would end up with – and what the end of the other guy’s story would be – before both guys even met the Reese Witherspoon character – it’s THAT predictable. Reese Witherspoon didn’t have chemistry with either guy, and the scenes with her and her best friend (or was she her sister?) were revolting. I know that crude humor for the ladies is the new “in” thing (a la Bridesmaids), but it’s not my thing. Do women out there actually have graphic and crude conversations with their best friends about sex? I can talk to my best friend about anything – and I really mean anything – but there is a line between openness and sharing and “Ew – now I can’t get that image out of my head!”

I’m not sure I’ve ever given such a horrible review to a movie I was sent for free. Hopefully I’ll still get movies to review – but I couldn’t, in good conscience, recommend this one.

This Means War is available now on Blu-ray and DVD. The special features include a gag real, alternate endings, commentaries, and more.

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Goodreads quote: Deep in the Cambridgeshire fens, Laura is living alone with her 12-year old daughter Beth, in the old tollhouse known as Ninepins. She’s in the habit of renting out the pumphouse, once a fen drainage station, to students, but this year she’s been persuaded to take in 17-year-old Willow, a care-leaver with a dubious past, on the recommendation of her social worker, Vince. Is Willow dangerous or just vulnerable? It’s possible she was once guilty of arson; her mother’s hippy life is gradually revealed as something more sinister; and Beth is in trouble at school and out of it. Laura’s carefully ordered world seems to be getting out of control. With the tension of a thriller, Ninepins explores the idea of family, and the volatile and changing relationships between mothers and daughters, in a landscape that is beautiful but – as they all discover – perilous.

I’ve read two of Rosy Thornton’s previous books, Crossed Wires and Tapestry of Love, and enjoyed them very much. I also enjoyed Ninepins, but I worry for other readers who choose the book based on the cover blurb. It’s that little phrase “with the tension of a thriller” that is misleading. Is this book more thriller-like than her previous two? Yes. Is it a thriller? No. It, is however, an extremely readable work of contemporary fiction.

Laura is a frustratingly real character. Her parenting skills drove me crazy! I am a much more involved parent with my teenage daughter than she is, and as I read, there were times I wished that I could sit her down and tell her that it is not her job to be her daughter’s friend! Am I friends with my teenage daughter? Absolutely. But I don’t back off and give her space when there is something very worrying going on in her life. (Okay, parenting rant over.)

I only feel that strongly about characters that seem completely real to me, and my reaction to Laura is a testament to Thornton’s ability to write authentic stories about flesh and blood people. Laura is someone I could imagine meeting on the street.

Willow is a character that is harder to pin down. Thornton does a good job of drawing out the suspense: is Willow simply a teenage girl who has had a horrible past and is in need of someone to love her? Or is she dangerous? And what about her bipolar mother who keeps showing up at Ninepins? Is she harmless and addled? Or does Laura need to be concerned for the safety of her daughter?

Beth is a typical 12-year-old girl, caught in that in-between time. She wants to be a teenager, but in so many ways is still a little girl. Her asthma has made it difficult for Laura to let her go and have her freedom. Beth sees in Willow an older sister-type, someone to be looked up to, someone a little dangerous and wild, and the two become close.

While I said this book isn’t a thriller, it does have elements of suspense, and it did keep me wondering until the end about Willow and her motives for being at Ninepins. This was a hard book to put down, not only for the suspense, but because it also includes the beautiful descriptions of setting and the rhythms of daily life that I have come to love in this author’s work.

I always learn more about British culture and cuisine when I read one of Rosy Thornton’s books, and this one wasn’t any different. While reading, I looked up Jaffa Cakes, Battenberg Cake, and Maltesers.

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I have praised the author Wendell Berry so often here on my blog that I am afraid you, my readers, will weary of hearing his name. (If, by some chance, you have missed those ravings, you can read a concise declaration of my love for the man here.) At the risk of some of you thinking, “Oh, here she goes again!” – I am going to tell you just a bit about this perfect, perfect book, Jayber Crow.

For those of you who have read any of the other Port William novels or stories, you know that Jayber Crow is the town barber. He has had a unique place in the community – a listener to secrets, a keeper of stories, an observer of the best and worst of Port William. This book is, simply put, his story. At the end of his life, he looks back over its years, his travels away from and back to the Port William area, and also his personal journey to become the man he should be. It is, to put it as simply as possible, a truly beautiful book.

And, Bryan: you have asked me in the past which of Berry’s books you should start with. This is the one, my friend.

“I’d had the idea, once, that if I could get the chance before I died I would read all the good books there were. Now I began to see that I wasn’t apt to make it. This disappointed me, for I really wanted to read them all. But it consoled me in a way too; I could see that if I got them all read and had no more surprises in that line, I would have been sorry.” ~ p. 47

“Now I have had most of the life I am going to have, and I can see what it has been. I can remember those early years when it seemed to me I was cut completely adrift, and times when, looking back at earlier times, it seemed I had been wandering in the dark woods of error. But now it looks to me as though I was following a path that was laid out for me, unbroken, and maybe even as straight as possible, from one end to the other, and I have this feeling, which never leaves me anymore, that I have been led.” ~ p. 66

“Hate succeeds. This world give plentiful scope and means to hatred, which always finds its justifications and fulfills itself perfectly in time by the destruction of the things of time. That is why war is complete and spares nothing, balks at nothing, justifies itself by all that is sacred, and seeks victory by everything that is profane. Hell itself, the war that is always among us, is the creature of time, unending time, unrelieved by any light of hope.

But love, sooner or later, forces us out of time. It does not accept that limit. Of all that we feel and do, all the virtues and all the sins, love alone crowds us at last over the edge of the world. For love is always more than a little strange here. It is not explainable or even justifiable. It is itself the justifier. We do not make it. If it did not happen to us, we could not imagine it. It includes the world and time as a pregnant woman includes her child whose wrongs she will suffer and forgive. It is in the world but is not altogether of it. It is of eternity. It takes us there when it most holds us here.” ~ p. 249

“I am a man, who has hoped, in time, that his life, when poured out at the end, would say, ‘Good-good-good-good-good!’ like a gallon jug of the prime local spirit. I am a man of losses, regrets, and griefs. I am an old man full of love. I am a man of faith.” ~ p. 356

© CarrieK for BOOKS AND MOVIES, 2012. | Permalink | 12 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: commonplace book, literary fiction, wendell berry

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Goodreads blurb: Pressia barely remembers the Detonations or much about life during the Before. In her sleeping cabinet behind the rubble of an old barbershop where she lives with her grandfather, she thinks about what is lost-how the world went from amusement parks, movie theaters, birthday parties, fathers and mothers . . . to ash and dust, scars, permanent burns, and fused, damaged bodies. And now, at an age when everyone is required to turn themselves over to the militia to either be trained as a soldier or, if they are too damaged and weak, to be used as live targets, Pressia can no longer pretend to be small. Pressia is on the run.

There are those who escaped the apocalypse unmarked. Pures. They are tucked safely inside the Dome that protects their healthy, superior bodies. Yet Partridge, whose father is one of the most influential men in the Dome, feels isolated and lonely. Different. He thinks about loss-maybe just because his family is broken; his father is emotionally distant; his brother killed himself; and his mother never made it inside their shelter. Or maybe it’s his claustrophobia: his feeling that this Dome has become a swaddling of intensely rigid order. So when a slipped phrase suggests his mother might still be alive, Partridge risks his life to leave the Dome to find her.

When Pressia meets Partridge, their worlds shatter all over again.

I have read a lot of YA dystopian fiction – though nowhere near the amount that some bloggers have – and the post-apocalyptic world of Pure is the most terrifying setting of all. The Wretches, those outside the Dome, may have survived the Detonations, but their lives are one horror after another. They are the walking wounded, scarred, missing limbs. And many of them are fused with whatever they were holding or standing near when the Detonations occurred. Pressia was a little girl at the time, and she was holding her baby doll.

The terrors of the world the Wretches inhabit is made even more devastating in contrast to how the Pures live in the Dome. The Pures were the rich, the educated, those who could afford a place to hide when the Detonations occurred. They are supposedly waiting for the world outside the Dome to be ready for them to join the Wretches and rebuild civilization.

Pressia the Wretch meets Partridge the Pure, and they discover they both hold pieces to a connected past. They also discover that the Detonations may not have occurred for the reasons they had been told – and Partridge’s father, leader of the Dome, is at the heart of the corruption.

Pure is a bleak book, and the stark despair of the world might make it too horrible to read, but the strength of the characters keeps it from being utterly dark. Pressia, and her love for her grandfather. Bradwell, with the birds fused into his back, a reluctant hero. Partridge, seeking to understand why he is so different from his father and older brother. El Capitan, who starts out as a soldier of fortune, and yet is drawn into helping Pressia and Partridge. Their histories, their stories, their hope – that is what fuels this book and makes it well worth reading.

© CarrieK for BOOKS AND MOVIES, 2012. | Permalink | 15 comments | Add to del.icio.us
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Mailbox Monday is being hosted in May at Martha’s Bookshelf. Click over to add your link and check out other bloggers’ mailboxes!

My New American Life by Francine Prose – Review copy from the publisher for a tour with TLC Book Tours

Bridge of Scarlet Leaves by Kristina McMorris – Review copy from the publisher

You Take It From Here by Pamela Ribon – Review copy from the publisher

Any new books in your house this week?

© CarrieK for BOOKS AND MOVIES, 2012. | Permalink | 18 comments | Add to del.icio.us
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I finished three books this week: Insurgent by Veronica Roth (link to review below) and Ninepins by Rosy Thornton (review to come) in print; and The Undomestic Goddess by Sophie Kinsella (review to come) on audio. I also gave up on The Sheen on the Silk on audio, and will be reading it in print eventually. The writing is gorgeous, but it’s an historical epic with lots of characters – and I find that type of book very difficult to follow on audio.

I am currently reading the following:

In print:
~ Lottery by Patricia Wood – This one is for a read-along with Kelly.
~ Jayber Crow by Wendell Berry – I’ve gotten to the point in this one that I can’t leave it for bedtime only.
~ A Collection of Essays by George Orwell – This is my new bedtime book.
~ The Annotated Emma by Jane Austen and David M. Shapard – Review copy.
~ My New American Life by Francine Prose – For a book tour.
~ Fear by Michael Grant – Our current read-aloud.

On audio:
~ The Last Dickens by Matthew Pearl
~ Delirium by Lauren Oliver – Re-read via audio before reading or listening to book two.

On the blog this week:
~ Book Review: Insurgent by Veronica Roth
~ Mini-reviews: The House at Tyneford by Natasha Solomons; Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt; Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery; and The Replacement Wife by Eileen Goudge
~ Book Review: The Red Book by Deborah Copaken Kogan
~ Audiobook Review: A Grown-Up Kind of Pretty by Joshilyn Jackson

I realized after last week’s Sunday Salon that I’d forgotten to wrap up April’s reading, so I’m adding that below.

I hope all of you have a wonderful Sunday!

Books completed in April:

The Innocent by Taylor Stevens (audiobook) – 5 stars – my review

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green – 5 stars – my review

A Million Suns by Beth Revis – 5 stars – my review

The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters (audiobook) – 4 stars – my review

A Grown-Up Kind of Pretty by Joshilyn Jackson (audiobook) – 5 stars – my review

The Shoemaker’s Wife by Adriana Trigiani – 5 stars – my review

The House at Tyneford by Natasha Solomons – 5 stars – my review

Deadline by Mira Grant – 4 stars – my review

Before I Go to Sleep by S.J. Watson – 3 stars – my review

The Midnight Gate Helen Stringer – 4 stars – my review

An Impartial Witness by Charles Todd (audiobook) – 4 stars – my review

The Red Book by Deborah Copaken Kogan – 2 stars – my review

© CarrieK for BOOKS AND MOVIES, 2012. | Permalink | 10 comments | Add to del.icio.us
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~ Godspeed, Mr. Sendak. I know most people are most grateful for his picture book Where the Wild Things Are, but my first memory of Mr. Sendak’s work includes the amazing sets from the Pacific Northwest Ballet’s production of The Nutcracker. Then, a lot later in life, my daughter Natalie fell head over heels in love with Little Bear, both the books and the PBS series. We spent many hours enjoying Little Bear’s adventures with Emily and Duck and all the others. His talent will be missed.

Discussion starters:

~ My Friend Amy: Reading addiction

~ Medieval Bookworm: Re-reading

~ Book Journey: When you don’t love that book that everyone seems to love

Reviews and blog posts that have me adding to my to-read list:

~ Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein, reviewed by Kelly at The Written World

~ The Best of Myles by Flann O’Brien, reviewed by Christine at The Book Trunk

~ So Far Away by Meg Mitchell Moore, reviewed by Jenn at Jenn’s Bookshelves

Book to movie news:

~ EW has the first look at the couple playing Ethan and Lena in the Beautiful Creatures film.

© CarrieK for BOOKS AND MOVIES, 2012. | Permalink | 8 comments | Add to del.icio.us
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Goodreads blurb: One choice can transform you—or it can destroy you. But every choice has consequences, and as unrest surges in the factions all around her, Tris Prior must continue trying to save those she loves—and herself—while grappling with haunting questions of grief and forgiveness, identity and loyalty, politics and love.

Tris’s initiation day should have been marked by celebration and victory with her chosen faction; instead, the day ended with unspeakable horrors. War now looms as conflict between the factions and their ideologies grows. And in times of war, sides must be chosen, secrets will emerge, and choices will become even more irrevocable—and even more powerful. Transformed by her own decisions but also by haunting grief and guilt, radical new discoveries, and shifting relationships, Tris must fully embrace her Divergence, even if she does not know what she may lose by doing so.

Veronica Roth certainly knows how to write a page-turner! Insurgent starts right where Divergent left off, and pulls the reader on a page-turning, hardly-a-moment-to-breathe journey to the end – which is satisfying and leaves you wishing there wasn’t a year or more until book three. In fact, the ending is ironic in a truly horrifying way, and I wish more people had finished it so I could talk to them about it!

There is also more character development in this book than in the first one, something that I really appreciate. As Tris and Tobias’s relationship develops, the reader sees how almost impossible it would be to be in love amidst their circumstances. That fact makes their feelings for each other even more powerful. Of course, their romantic path is full of terrible obstacles, some of them created by the secrets they are keeping from each other.

Like Suzanne Collins did so deftly in Mockingjay, Roth shows that in a revolution, things are never as black and white as they seem. The characters in Insurgent all have very personal reasons for wanting the revolution to succeed, and personal often trumps ideological, leading to needless suffering and loss of things that may be of value. The ending, especially, highlights this in a shocking way – and I can’t wait to read book three.

Now, after reading that gushing review, you may be wondering why I didn’t give Insurgent a five-star rating. I’m going to be vague in my explanation, so that I don’t give away any major plot points. In the last 100 pages of the book, there is a major continuity/consistency error. At first, I thought I had misread or misunderstood something, but after turning back six or seven pages and rereading – twice – I came to the conclusion that this was something that was missed in the editing stages. It pulled me out of the story so abruptly that I put the book aside and did some Googling to see if anyone else had noticed it.

I came across a post by the author that acknowledges it, explaining that she had written several drafts back to back, and edited several drafts back to back, and so it slipped through. I’m glad to see that she realizes it – but I am confused as to why there were so many comments on her post from readers saying that they didn’t notice any errors. I’m not a particularly careful reader – I don’t think – but this was a pretty blaring inconsistency that had to do with a major personality issue of a major character. It’s unfortunate that, in all of the various stages of editing, it was missed.

The publishing phenomenon of the YA series is huge, and readers don’t want to wait long between books. I know I don’t! But I can’t help but wonder if our impatience and demand for quick sequels could be affecting the quality of said books? Something to think about, I guess.

Bottom line, if you loved Divergent, you’ll enjoy this one, too. And I’ll be curious to hear if you noticed the problem that jumped out at me.

© CarrieK for BOOKS AND MOVIES, 2012. | Permalink | 14 comments | Add to del.icio.us
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I’ve already blogged a TON about this book, since it was our April read-along title, but I thought I should do a short, spoiler-free review. The House at Tyneford is about a young Jewish woman from Austria who flees to England to work as a housemaid in order to avoid the Nazis. This book is just about as close to perfect as you can get – and it is one of the best works of historical fiction I’ve ever read. I know it will turn up on my “best-of” list for the year.

Title: Tuck Everlasting
Author: Natalie Babbitt
Genre: Middle grade fiction, fantasy
Publisher: Square Fish
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Source: Print copy borrowed from a friend
First line: The road that led to Treegap had been trod out long before by a herd of cows who were, to say the least, relaxed.

I don’t know how I’ve gone so long without reading this! I picked it up at Michelle’s house one Friday when she had to take a phone call from her dad, who was in the hospital. I read the first thirty pages, took it home, and finished it a couple days later, as it’s only 130 pages or so. This book is so much more than the plot synopsis, which most people probably know a bit about. For a simple story, it has a huge message about what’s important in life. I’m glad I finally read it.

Title: Anne of Green Gables
Author: L.M. Montgomery
Genre: Historical fiction
Publisher: Simon & Brown
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
Source: Audiobook from the public library
Audiobook reader: Kate Burton
First line: Mrs. Rachel Lynde lived just where the Avonlea main road dipped down into a little hollow, fringed with alders and ladies’ eardrops and traversed by a brook that had its source away back in the woods of the old Cuthbert place; it was reputed to be an intricate, headlong brook in its earlier course through those woods, with dark secrets of pool and cascade; but by the time it reached Lynde’s Hollow it was a quiet, well-conducted little stream, for not even a brook could run past Mrs. Rachel Lynde’s door without due regard for decency and decorum; it probably was conscious that Mrs. Rachel was sitting at her window, keeping a sharp eye on everything that passed, from brooks and children up, and that if she noticed anything odd or out of place she would never rest until she had ferreted out the whys and wherefores thereof.

I’ve read the entire Anne of Green Gables series several times over the course of my life, and I decided that I wanted to a do a reread via audio before reading The Blythes Are Quoted, which Michelle got me for Christmas last year. This particular edition was published to celebrate the 100th anniversary, and Margaret Atwood wrote the introduction, which was amazing. I definitely saw different things in the story this time, all because of the years that have gone by and the place I am as a mother. I loved it just as much as always, and can’t wait to dive in to Anne of Avonlea.

Title: The Replacement Wife
Author: Eileen Goudge
Genre: Contemporary fiction
Publisher: Open Road
Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
Source: Audiobook from the public library
Audiobook reader: Susan Boyce
First line: “We had a nice time,” Kat said.

While it has been a fantastic reading year for me when it comes to historical fiction, it has been a disappointing year in the contemporary fiction area. (Joshilyn Jackson aside, of course. I need a The Weird Sisters type of book that simply awes me with its brilliance.) I’ve never read Goudge before, and am not sure I will again. This book had such potential from the synopsis (professional matchmaker and happily married woman is dying of cancer, and wants to pick her husband’s next wife before she goes), but it devolved into a romance-y type novel that had way too many supporting characters and an ending that sucked. It didn’t help that I didn’t like the audiobook narrator. She did fine with dialogue – except when it came to a couple of supporting characters that were foreign, because her accents were pretty bad – but when she read the straight narration, she put tons of pauses in where pauses weren’t called for. Think William Shatner as Captain Kirk. It. happened a. lot. and. drove me. crazy.

© CarrieK for BOOKS AND MOVIES, 2012. | Permalink | 15 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: audiobooks, children's fiction, classics, contemporary fiction, historical fiction, middle grade fiction

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