August fifty.fiftyme Challenge

Working on the fifty.fifty me blog challenge. This was not a super productive month. Reviews for this post forthcoming!

Majoring in: Japanese Fairy and Folktales

Minoring in: Steinbeck

August Books Read:

• Twisted Fairy Tales: 20 Classic Stories with a Dark & Dangerous Heart by Maura McHugh, Illus. by Jane Laurie.
• One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia This is lively historical fiction set during my lifetime. It's 1968 and eleven year old Delphine and her two younger sisters Vonetta and Fern are leaving New York and headed to Oakland, CA to meet the mother who abandoned them after Fern was born. Although they have a frosty reception from Cecile, a poet and friend of  Black Panther activists who has no desire to raise children, they soon find themselves at home in the neighborhood. The girls learn about revolution at a Black Panther run day camp, and are soon saying "Right on!"  and "Power to the People!" as they go about their daily business. Delphine leads her sisters, cautiously gets to know her mother better and finds a sort of boyfriend in Hirohito, a mixed race boy with a Flying T go cart and a complicated home life. Vonetta gets to shine in performance and Fern finds her own poetic voice. This book was showered with awards, including the Coretta Scott King author award and a Newbery Honor recognition, and it's easy to see why. I will be checking out the sequel, P.S. Be Eleven!
• Openly Straight by Bill Konigsberg
• Same Sun Here by Silas House & Neela Vaswani, 2012. (Please see blog post)
• Three Times Lucky by Sheila Turnage, 2012. (Please see blog post)

August Films watched:

• 50 First Dates (2004) This was cute. I like Drew Barrymore and Adam Sandler together and really enjoy The Wedding Singer. As per my prissy usual, I could have done without the more crass moments, but the romantic relationship was sweet.
• Valentine's Day (2010) Also pleasant, but fairly unmemorable. Many characters, not much character development. I did laught pretty hard at a scene where Jennifer Garner showed up at a restaurant to serve dinner to her lying boyfriend and his (newly-discovered by Jennifer) wife.

Books total: 84
Minus folktales: 49
Movies 25
Major 37-7
Minor 2/3

Just trying to catch up: Fifty.fiftyme July Challenge Stats

Working on the fifty.fifty me blog challenge. Reviews for this post forthcoming!

 

Majoring in: Japanese Fairy and Folktales

 

Minoring in: Steinbeck 

 

July Books Read:

• The Paris Wife by Paula McLain
• The Caged Graves by Diane Salerni
• Just Behave Pablo Picasso! by Jonah Winter. Illus. by Kevin Hawkes. 2012.
• Electric Ben: The Amazing Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin by Robert Byrd, 2012.
• "Who Could That Be at This Hour?" by Lemony Snicket, Art by Seth, 2012.
• Goblin Secrets by William Alexander, 2012.
• A Rock is Lively by Dianna Hutts Aston & Sylvia Long, 2012.
• Island: a Story of the Galapagos by Jason Chin, 2012.
• Chuck Close Face Book by Abrams Books for Young Readers, 2012.

Folktale: A Tale of Two Tengu retold by Karen Kawamoto McCoy

July Films Watched:

Struck by Lightning
Mama
Hyde Park On Hudson

Books total: 79
Minus Folktales: 44
Movies: 24
Major 37/7
Minor 2/3

Pitifully behind: Fifty.fiftyme Challenge June Stats

Working on the fifty.fifty me blog challenge. Most reviews for this post forthcoming!

Majoring in: Japanese Fairy and Folktales

Minoring in: Steinbeck

June Books Read:

• Bookspeak! : Poems About Books by Laura Purdie Salas. (Please see blog post)
• Unspoken: a Story From the Underground Railroad by Henry Cole (Please see blog post)
• A Boy Called Dickens by Deborah Hopkinson. Illus. by John Hendrix (Please see blog post)
• Cameron & the Girls by Edward Averett, 2013. Cameron is a 14 year old boy with Schizoform disorder. It causes him to hallucinate, but this can be controlled by medication. Unfortunately, Cameron tries to experiment with going off his medicine, and begins to hear voices. One is familiar to him, the Professor, who helps remind him of the rules he should be following. Another is a nasty new voice who challenges him to take risks and is vaguely threatening. Most intriguing is "The Girl," who wants to be Cameron's girlfriend and speaks sweetly to him. While attending classes for special needs teens he meets and becomes friends with the new girl, who has a history of depression and also would like to be Cameron's girlfriend. This was not my favorite book, because as a reader, you can watch Cameron keep making bad decisions, and it's very frustrating. I had a hard time liking him.
• The Case of the Deadly Desperado
•  Teeth: I loved this one. It was odd but emotionally true. Boy and his family go to live on an island that has miracle fish to help rehabilitate their youngest son who is ill with, . Boy is the only teenager on the island, except for a girl with a mysterious mother, and a physically ugly merboy. The fish boy and boy bond.
• The Ice Queen
• On the Road to Mr. Mineo's by Barbara O'Connor (Please see blog post)
• The Last Little Blue Envelope  by Maureen Johnson
•  13 Little Blue Envelopes by Maureen Johnson. Shortly after Ginny's artistic and well traveled aunt dies, Ginny receives an unexpected package from her. It challenges the 17 year old to go to Europe and and follow the directions
•  Little White Duck (Please see blog post)
•  Giants Beware! (Please see blog post)
•  Doll Bones

Folktales: The Samurai's Daughter by Robert San Souci, Tanuki's Gift: a Japanese Tale by Tim Myers  (See my blog posts for extended summaries of these).

June Films watched:

• Stoker  (2013): This movie made me feel like I wanted to take a bath after I was done watching it and I wished I hadn't seen it. Ick. That said, it had everything to do with the plot and nothing to do with the quality of the film or its actors. India's (Mia Wasikowska) father dies on her 18th birthday, leaving her mother ( Nicole Kidman) a hot widow. On the day of the funeral, her mysterious uncle (Matthew Goode), who she never knew existed, shows up. Unsavory actitivities follow.
• Oz: the Great & Powerful: To be fair to this film, there is no way that it could compete with the wonder that I felt as a child  when I first saw The Wizard of Oz . There is also nothing as consistently menacing as those original flying monkeys. So, there was no competition. I generally enjoy Michelle Williams and James Franco. However, I disliked the wizard's character and his womanizing ways. I really didn't like the wizard kissing Glinda. Where is the pretty but powerful Glinda? She seemed passive  and I thought that that predictible kiss just rlegated her to the role of "the girl."Also, a certain witch's transformation seemed flimsily based. Is our terrifying Wicked Witch of the West really just the result of a spell and a romantic disappointment?  Well, what did I like? The China Girl. She really did seem magical. However, she wasn't enough to save this tedious movie for me.
•  The Great Gatsby (2013)
• Poirot: Taken at the Flood

Totals:

Books total: 69/50
Books minus folktale minor: 35/50
Movies: 21/50
Major: 36/7
Minor: 2/3

Fifty.fiftyme Challenge May Stats

 

 

 

Working on the fifty.fifty me blog challenge. Reviews for this post forthcoming!

 

Majoring in: Japanese Fairy and Folktales

Minoring in: Steinbeck

May Books Read:

•  Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell: I love this genuinely touching, non-sappy teen romance. In the back of the school bus, Park grudgingly allows the prickly and weird Eleanor to sit next to him. Eleanor is not particularly grateful to the "stupid Asian kid." It is definitely not love at first sight. But slowly, the two develop a deep connection, threatened by Eleanor's miserable home life with her cruel and violent stepfather. Set in the mid 1980s, with mix tapes and no cell phones or Internet, this story will please both adults and teens!
• In Search of Goliathus Hercules by Jennifer Angus: I recommended this one to sixth graders on my school visits this spring. In 1890, ten year old Henri's father, who is traveling, disappears.His mother goes to search for him, so Henri is sent from England to America, to live with his great aunt. There, he discovers that he can talk with insects and meets his aunt's unpleasant neighbor Mrs. Black. Henri is propelled into a series of adventures, working for a flea circus, traveling to Malaya to look for his father, hunting for the fierce beetle Goliathus Hercules and foiling the vicious Mrs. Black, all while turning pretty bug-like himself.
• Struck by Lightning: the Carson Phillips Journal by Chris Colfer: I love Glee and I'm crazy about the character Kurt Hummel. Chris Colfer seems cool when you see him as himself. I listened to him read this on CD. The sarcastic humor is fun. If I didn't know who the author was, though, I have to honestly say that I wouldn't recommend this, due to flat, stereotypical characters and an abrupt ending.
• Bink & Gollie: Best Friends Forever by Kate DiCamillo & Alison McGhee: If you haven't yet met the stars of these early reader/ short chapter books, you have pleasure coming! These two friends are complete opposites, but they totally enjoy each other. In these three adventures, Gollie has found that she is descended from royalty and is now ruling her kindom, much to Bink's annoyance, Bink is tired of being shorter than Gollie & sets out to do something about it, and the girls decide that they will collect something that will get them into a record book.  All of the Bink and Gollie books are charmingly illustrated by Tony Fucille.
• Boy Toy by Barry Lyga: This was a disturbing but gripping read. When Josh was twelve years old he had a favorite teacher and developed a close relationship with her. Too close. Eve, who is married and beautiful, praised him for his maturity and intelligence and invited him to help her by being part of her grad school research. Josh is thrilled, because he has a big crush on her. The research project led to him going home with her after school every day, which over months led to him losing his virginity to Eve. Five years later, everyone knows about what happened to Josh and he can't wait to get out of town. A girl he used to be close to is back in his life, and she wants to be his girlfriend. It's time for Josh to deal with all that happened to him in the past. Although much of this book really bothered me, as it was meant to, I suppose, I think that Lyga skillfully handled this topic.
• Magic Under Glass by Jaclyn Dolamore
• In the Shadow of Blackbirds by Cat Winters: This creepy historical fiction kept me reading it every chance I got. It’s 1918, during World War I and things are going really badly for 16 year old Mary Shelley Black. Her father has been arrested for being Un-American, her old friend and new love Stephen has gone off to war, and a deadly flu is sweeping the country. Stephen’s brother is making money doing spirit photography and has used the unknowing Mary Shelley as his model. Then word comes that Stephen is dead, she is literally struck by lightning and everything changes. Is she really receiving messages from beyond the grave? What can she do to help Stephen? Who can she trust?
• Sweet Thursday by John Steinbeck: This is a "happy" book by Steinbeck. It won't break your heart like Of Mice and Men or The Pearl. It follows his book Cannery Row, catching up with the row's  inhabitants after the World War II in Monterey. Doc, collector of marine animals is back, trying to work on a scholarly paper on octopi. There's a new girl in town, Susie, who, although tough and argumentative, has a sweet spot for Doc. Madame Dora is now dead, but her sister "Fauna" has taken her place and is ably running the Bear Flag brothel with an aim to get her most promising girls married off properly. Mac and his slightly different group of flophouse boys earnestly and bumblingly try to help Doc, much to his chagrin. I loved this book! You might also check out the  1980s movie of Cannery Row, which combines the stories from Cannery Row and Sweet Thursday and stars Debra Winger and Nick Nolte. Granted, I haven't seen it in years, but back in the day I thought that it was really funny.
• Travels With Charley: In Search of America by John Steinbeck: If you are someone who never read this in school, like me, let me tell you that this is a memoir from Steinbeck's time traveling the U.S. for  3 months with his fine French poodle. He equipped a truck with a camper top, christened it Rocinante, and they set out on their trip, with plans to meet Steinbeck's wife halfway through their route. Sadly, for me, he never made it into Minneapolis, although he apparently tried. More on this shortly.

Rocinante, which I absolutely could not picture when I read the book!

 Folktales: Basho and the Fox, Screen of Frogs, The Fool and the Phoenix, On Cat Mountain, Boy of the Three Year Nap, Under the Cherry Blossom Tree (See my blog posts for extended summaries of these).

May Films watched:

•  Hitchcock: This takes place when Hitchcock is inspired to make Psycho, based on the book by Robert Bloch and the infamous murderer Ed Gein. Apparently, no one thinks that this is a good idea. They think that it will finish him as a director. He also seems to be going through a rocky patch with his wife Alma, who is a partner to him in his filmmaking as well as an assistant director and screenwriter in her own right. I enjoyed the acting by Anthony Hopkins and  Helen Mirren and was very creeped out by the scenes involving Gein.
• Silver Linings Playbook

Totals:

Books total: 56/50
Books minus folktale minor: 22/50
Movies: 17/50
Major: 34/7
Minor: 2/3

Fifty.fiftyme Challenge April Stats

Working on the fifty.fifty me blog challenge. These are somewhat spotty reviews, but I'm behind on my recording my stuff!

 

Majoring in: Japanese Fairy and Folktales

Minoring in: Steinbeck

 

April  Books Read:

•  The Glass Demon by Helen Grant: I really liked Grant's book The Vanishing of Katharina Linden and I also enjoyed this. Teenage Lin and her family are dragged to Germany by her medieval scholar father. He is searching for the Allerheiligen stained glass windows, which are believed to be haunted by the demon Bonschariant. Things begin badly, with Lin finding the body of an old man in an orchard at a stop on their way to their new home, and go creepily along from there. Accidents seem follow Lin & her people. With help from her teen neighbor Michael, Lin hopes to unravel the truth about the horrible events and protect her family.
•  In Darkness by Nick Lake:  This won the most recent Printz Award. I honestly probably would not been drawn to this story by myself, although it is extremely well done. I began to read the book, but switched to the audio version, which added a whole dimension because of the reader's acting. In Darkness' setting is split between modern and historic Haiti. In current time, 15 year old Shorty is trapped alone in a hospital room after an earthquake. He is hurt and suffering and discovers a mental link between himself and Toussaint L'Ouverture, an 18th century slave and a liberator of Haiti.Slowly, readers learn Toussaint's story as well as Shorty's sad tale of life as a gang member searching for his twin sister, who was taken from them on the day that their father was also murdered by gangsters.
•  The Island of Dr. Moreau by H.G. Wells: This book actually bothered  me quite a bit. I don't know what I was thinking, considering it involves vivisection and cruelty to animals and...others. Truly, I expected it to be mostly cheesy and I was reading it because I wanted to read the new YA spin on it, The Madman's Daughter by Megan Shepherd. Now I don't know if I can bear to read the new book.

         In case you don't remember, The Island of Dr. Moreau is about a shipwrecked man who ends up on (surprise, surprise) an island with a mad scientist and his henchmen. The place is populated with some pretty odd looking people. The deranged doctor has just received a new shipment of animals that will serve as his experiments. You may now draw your own conclusions and/or read this classic.

•  The Garden Princess by Kristin Kladstup: This is just a light, fun book, kind of a relief after The Island of Dr. Moreau. Princess Adela is not interested in things like tea parties, gowns and marriage. What she loves is gardening, and she dreams of traveling the world and collecting rare plants. When her gardener friend Garth is invited to see the Lady Hortensia’s super secret garden, rumored to be the most beautiful one in the land, she comes along to see what she can learn. Every kind of flower, from every season, is blooming there, but when other guests start to disappear, and Garth begins to act all moony over Hortensia, Adela knows she must do something. With the help of a treasure seeking magpie, she just may be up to save the day.

 Folktales: Three Samurai Cats, Maneki Neko: the Tale of the Beckoning Cat, Lady Kaguya's Secret (See my blog posts for extended summaries of these).

 

April Films watched:

• Too Cold Out There Without You : I saw this outstanding documentary at the Minneapolis/St. Paul International Film Festival. This is  the film as they describe it: "When the Rev. Christopher Fike was ordained in the Episcopal Church he was a straight, married mother of two. Five years later he had completed his transition and now identifies as a man. A post-transition story that looks beyond the act of transitioning, this film instead focuses on the transformations that take place in Chris’s relationships and the church as a result of his transition."
•  Cadfael: A Morbid Taste for Bones: I lazily give you the movie summary from Barnes and Noble : "In acquiescence to the wish of the Prior of Shrewsbury Abbey to have the bones of St. Winifred on display, a group of monks trek to Wales to dig up her remains. The monks are met with great hostility that escalates when a man opposed to their excavation is found dead. The monks are held under suspicion, and things are further complicated by a young monk's insistence that he is seeing visions of St. Winifred. Although Cadfael (Derek Jacobi) exposes the monk's vision as fraudulent, he withholds the truth behind the monk's lies."
• Coco Before Chanel : This did not leave me with a particularly positive impression of Chanel, she seemed sort of heartlessly ambitious to me. I didn't realize that she began from humble means, which was interesting.
•  The Darjeeling Limited : I liked this. It was strange and enjoyable for me. Three loser brothers ( Owen Wilson, Adrien Brody and Jason Schwartzman) reunite on a train traveling in India. Make sure to watch the short "Hotel Chevalier" before you see the feature.
• Annie Hall: This reinforced for me that I am not a Woody Allen fan. I'm just not. I did enjoy seeing Carol Kane though.

Totals:

Books total: 41/50
Books - folktale minor: 13/50
Movies: 15/50
Major: 28/7
Minor: 0/3, Don't worry, I'll have two to add in May, I'm about halfway through both.

Fifty.FiftyMe Challenge March Stats

http://www.fiftyfifty.me/register/

Working on the fifty.fifty me blog challenge

Majoring in: Japanese Fairy and Folktales
Minoring in: Steinbeck

March  Books Read:

• Ask the Passengers by A.S. King (Teen): Teenage Astrid has a confusing life, so she likes to relax on her picnic table, watching planes go by overhead. As she does, she sends the airplane passengers all of her love for safekeeping as she talks to them. In her daily life, she has a perfectionist mom who favors her younger sister, a stoned dad, an all-American prom queen best friend, Christina, who is closeted, and a secret relationship with her coworker Dee. Astrid hasn't told anyone about Dee, not even Christina, because she needs space to figure out what she feels, and she doesn't want to be popped into a category. With some guidance from her philosopher friend Frank (her imaginary take on a big thinker we've all studied) Astrid tries to muddle through to a steadier place. I thought this book was pretty great.
• Astray by Emma Donoghue (Adult): This is a collection of short historical fiction and the stories have a connecting thread: each character finds him/herself somewhere in life that they didn't expect to be. British elephant Jumbo and his trainer are on the verge of a move to America and a stint with P.T. Barnum, a young gold miner and his partner are about to part ways, a young lady learns the truth about the father she loves and more. This was a fantastic journey with interesting characters in sometimes heart-wrenching situations.
• Driving with Dead People by Monica Holloway (Adult):  Holloway's memoir details her relationship with parents whose behavior can be unsupportive, indifferent and cruel to flat out monstrous. During her childhood in the 1970s, her father is physically and emotionally abusive and her mother is rather pathetic. Once her mother remarries, she is aloof and essentially abandons her teenage kids. Holloway negotiates all this with some help from a friend's family (who own a funeral home) and her own college-age sister. As an adult, in spite of everything, she still loves her family although only her bound with this sister remains.
• My Princess Boy by Cheryl Kilodavis (Children): is a lovely picture book about accepting people for who they are (my review forthcoming).
• The Future of Us by Jay Asher & Carolyn Mackler (Teen): This fun story is about two teens, former best friends and next door neighbors Emma and Josh, who are fascinated with their Facebook pages. This is not unusual, but this is in 1996, before the social network was launched . When Josh gives Emma an AOL CD-Rom, she is surprised that something called Facebook comes up when she logs on, showing her life 15 years in the future. She shares her secret with Josh, who is initially skeptical, but becomes a believer when he learns that he will be married to one of the hottest girls in class. Emma's future is less satisfying, and she soon begins to tamper with it, causing other rippling changes. I got a kick out of revisiting a time with pagers, not cell phones, VHS tapes, mixed tapes and of course, when the Internet was still a novelty.
• The Ruining by Anna Collomore (Teen): I was interested in this because it has a connection to Charlotte Perkins Gilman  short story "The Yellow Wallpaper." In fact, I was hot to read it, and ordered it from the library right after I read the reviews. Young college freshman Annie leaves an unhappy upbringing in Detroit to become a live-in nanny for a perfect family in California. Things are magical at first; Annie loves her three year old charge Zoe and is thrilled by the friendship of her young and glamorous mother. Unfortunately, things start to break down really quickly and Annie must work harder and harder to please her employers. Odd things begin to happen, Annie begins to get physically and mentally exhausted, and things are obviously not right. I was annoyed by the naivete of some characters and had difficulty believing the end, but I do think teens will like this suspenseful story.

Folktales: Belching Hill, The Badger and the Magic Fan, Gonbei's Magic Kettle, The Furry Legged Teapot, Japanese Children's Favorite Stories,  The Crane Wife, The Adventure of Momotaro; The Peach Boy, Momotaro and the Island of Ogres,  The Five Sparrows (See my blog posts for extended summaries of these)


March Films watched:

• The Master (2012): I was drawn to this film largely because of the actors: Joaquin Phoenix, Amy Adams and Phillip Seymour Hoffman. I love Hoffman! I'd watched him act practically anything. Phoenix plays Freddie Quell, a post World War II drifter who meets up with Lancaster Dodd (Hoffman) and his wife (Adams) who lead a movement called "The Cause." I've read that this is based loosely on L. Ron Hubbard and also somehow on John Steinbeck.
•  Beasts of the Southern Wild (2012): My husband and I really enjoyed this movie about little Hushpuppy and her people, who live in "The Bathtub" a bayou community with its own culture. It took me about an half an hour of watching it to let go and get into it. Young Quvenzhané Wallis gives an amazing performance.
•  Perfume : The Story of a Murderer (2007): This boasts Dustin Hoffman and Alan Rickman as actors, and an added attraction for me was Rachael Hurd-Wood, who played Wendy in the 2003 non-animated movie Peter Pan. It is a bizarre, bizarre story and I was fascinated throughout. Jean-Baptiste Grenouille is a poor boy in 1700s France with an extraordinary sense of smell and little else, inside or out. He studies the art of creating perfume and becomes obsessed with making the perfect scent. Unfortunately, lovely young women provide the main ingredients. Don't expect realism with this story, but it's definitely worth watching!
•  Touch of Pink (2005): This fun story is about Alim, a gay Pakastani man who is not out to his family and how that changes. He lives in England with his loving partner and is a successful photographer, while his traditional, critical mother lives in Toronto and wonders why her son isn't married yet. When his Canadian cousin's wedding is being planned, this stirs things up and Alim and his mom are reunited, with amusing results. Will he have the guts to tell his mother who he really is? Will she accept a white, non-Muslim son-in-law? Luckily, Alim also has a guardian angel in the form of the spirit of Cary Grant (played fabulously by Kyle MacLachlan) who helps him to be an elegant young man. My husband loved seeing the clothes "Cary" wore. He compared it to my love of the costumes of Downton Abbey. :)

Totals:

Books total: 34/50
Books - folktale minor: 9/50
Movies: 10/50
Major: 25/7
Minor: 0/3

Fifty.Fifty Me Challenge Jan. and Feb. Stats

Working on the fifty.fifty me blog challenge

Majoring in: Japanese Fairy and Folktales
Minoring in: Steinbeck

January Books Read:

• Brooklyn, Burning by Steven Brezenoff: Is about homeless teens in Brooklyn, NY, but covers much more than that. Sixteen year old Kid isn't welcome at home, wants to be in a band and has been badly hurt by love. Kid tells this story to "You." As things unfold, you realize that neither Kid's gender, nor Kid's new friend Scout's are given. And they never are. Brezenoff has left this open for the reader. The teens are given tender support by young adults, and I liked the way this cobbled type of family helps Kid as best they can.

Folktales:  The Wise Old Woman, The Tale of The Mandarin Ducks, The Tale of the Lucky Cat, The Beckoning Cat, I Am Tama, Lucky Cat, The Greatest of All (See my blog posts for extended summaries of these)

February Books Read:

• Unwholly by Neal Shusterman: This is the second book in the Unwind series. It continues with the thought provoking situations raised in UnWind's dystopia (teenagers can be retroactively aborted/"Unwound", babies can be "Storked," etc.) and raises new ones. Connor, Risa and Lev appear again and we are also introduced to Cam, a teen "Rewind" made entirely of the best parts of other Unwound teens. Action continues. I love this series!
• The Fault In Our Stars by John Green: is sad, beautiful and great to listen to on CD, because Kate Rudd reads it so well. Teenage Hazel has lung cancer, and meets Augustus, the guy of her dreams, in a cancer support group. They plan to go to Amsterdam and meet their favorite author, to ask him what happened to his characters after his novel ends. Life with cancer is treated very honestly; the teens are not angelic and falsely heroic. I fell in love with Hazel, Augustus and their friend Isaac.

Folktales: The Old Man Who Made the Trees Bloom, Why Cats Chase Mice, Issun Boshi, The Silver Charm, The Boy From the Dragon Palace, Wabi Sabi, The Moon Princess, Mysterious Tales of Japan, Bamboo Hats and a Rice Cake (See my blog posts for extended summaries of these)

January Films watched:

• Lincoln (2012) (at theatre): I was afraid that this would be dry, but I did enjoy it. Daniel Day Lewis got the Oscar for best actor and it was easy to see why. I was also interested in Sally Field's performance as Mary Todd Lincoln.

February Films watched:

• Les Miserables  (2012)(at theatre): I really enjoyed it. It took me awhile to figure out that Jean Valjean was acted by Hugh Jackman, but when I did, I was impressed.I got a big kick out of the crooked Thenardier (Sacha Baron Cohen) and his blowzy wife (Helena Bonham Carter, of course).  The music stuck with me and I was saddened in all the right places.

         I had seen the 1998 non-musical version starring Liam Neeson and Geoffrey Rush, and I liked   Rush's performance as  Javert much more than Russell Crowe's. I felt that he showed the anguish of the character better, but I also have to say that I have a crush on Geoffrey Rush, and have had ever since I saw him in this and Quills.

• Anna Karenina (2012)(at theatre): This book is about so much much more than Anna, her love affair and subsequent disgrace, but I have to honestly say that it's not one of my favorites. This movie, on the other hand, I liked. It was just so beautifully done, with the Kiera Knightly (Anna), Jude Law (Karenin) and the gorgeous Aaron Taylor- Johnson as her Count Vronsky.Yummy costumes and scenery!
• Midnight Cowboy (1969): I'd never seen this classic starring John Voight as an unsuccessful hustler and Dustin Hoffman as his pathetic friend/would be pimp. It was pretty depressing and I was kind of obsessed about looking up the difference between the movie and the book. I wanted the back story of Crazy (AKA Chalkline) Annie.
•  Perks of Being a Wallflower (2012):  I loved this Young Adult book (read it many years ago) and really liked the movie too. I was pleased to see that Stephen Chbosky, who wrote the novel, also wrote the screenplay and directed the movie. Login Lerman was fine as the sweet, odd Charlie. I also liked the supporting cast, and was happy to see Mae Whitman again, having gotten to like her in Parenthood. Having seen Ezra Miller in We Need To Talk About Kevin, in which he played a murderous and terrifying character, I was curious how he would be as the likeable Patrick. I was also somewhat worried that Emma Watson (Sam) would grab the attention because of Harry Potter fame. Actually, I thought that they were both excellent. The movie made me simultaneously wish I was a young woman again and thank God that I'm not!
•  Bully (2011): This is a powerful documentary about bullying in our U.S. schools. It was directed by Lee Hirsch, who was himself bullied when he was a young person. It follows the lives of several young people who are constantly bullied and talks to the courageous family and friends of two young men who committed suicide over the way they were treated.

        Two teens that especially stood out for me were Kelby and Alex.  Kelby has a girlfriend, but in her town, that's just not accepted. Still, she wants to be the one who can make a difference. Alex is picked on everyday, and is punched and poked with pencils on the school bus. He wants it to be jokes, so he can still think of those people as his friends. After all, if they aren't, then what friends does he have? Be sure to watch the special features on the DVD, so you can see Alex in the happier times that follow.

Kelby

 

Alex Libby in the movie Bully from www.wired.com

 

 

 

Alex after Bully from http://www.therighthandgal.com/noble

Check out The Bully Project !


Totals:

Books: 18/50
Movies: 6/50
Major: 15/7
Minor: 0/3