Someone who gets it!

This morning I allowed myself to read all the Sex and the City reviews. I got more and more frustrated by stupid male reviewers, and then the woman who wrote the NYT review really pissed me off. Get this: she disregarded the movie for its one-dimensional male characters! But I finally found one I completely agree with so I thought I'd share it. It's from an LA Times (female) reviewer.

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Also, I was doing some reading on the new Brideshead Revisited, for which we saw a preview last night, and found this awesome bit about Emma Thompson and the weight of the actress who plays Julia. Go Emma!

Ghostwritten follow-up

This morning I was thinking about Ghostwritten and the series of random events/coincidences that led to the end of the book. That got me thinking about the series of random events in my own life, which got me thinking about the series of random events that brought us all together in bookclub. If we were to write a book about the formation of our bookclub using the Lost/Ghostwritten style of storytelling, which random connections would we include?

For me, I picked biostatistics as my major because I liked the color of the brochure. If the brochure had been another color, or if I'd seen another one I'd liked better, I might never have met most of you, and Dawn, Liz, Katie and I might not have started the bookclub. Liz, I remember you and I started working at RTI the same day - wasn't sure if you met Katie and Dawn separately. If not, if we'd started work on different days, we might not have connected. So what led us to working there on the same day? Can anyone else think of any, seemingly unrelated, random events that brought us all together? I know there's a Buffy connection, and Marina has a lot of random connections with everyone!

Friday Bookish Meme

From BTT:

Books and films both tell stories, but what we want from a book can be different from what we want from a movie. Is this true for you? If so, what’s the difference between a book and a movie?

Summer Reading

I always look forward to the NPR summer reading story with recommendations from independent booksellers. Here's this summer's edition. The full list of recommendations is here.

Kate Vaiden: Final Results

didn't like it - 0
it was ok - 2
liked it - 1
really liked it - 2
it was amazing - 1
didn't finish it - 0

6 votes total.

July Book: Race and Politics

For the July book, I pick Dreams from My Father by Barack Obama. It is his memoir about race, class and politics in his life, written after he graduated from Harvard Law School but before he began his political career. This Paper Cuts post mentions the book in the context of questions about Obama's ability to win white blue-collar voters.

Buffy still inspires!

Check out how Buffy saves a NPR reporter's soul....

Never Enough Books

Last weekend, I was watching CBS Sunday Morning (yes, I'm an old person) and I saw the sweetest story about a couple and their book collection. One million books! He was a farmer and has gradually turned building after building on their farm, including a manure tank, into book storage facilities and a book store. She was a professor and at one point he sold his cows so that he could attend graduate school with her, typing all of her papers. Watch this video, it will make you feel good.

Breathtaking!

What is librophilia?

Check out these beautiful pictures and fall in love.

Friday Bookish Meme

From BTT:

Scenario: You’ve just bought some complicated gadget home . . . do you read the accompanying documentation? Or not?

Do you ever read manuals?

How-to books?

Self-help guides?

Anything at all?

Essential Reading

Um, I finished Ghostwritten a few days ago and was really confused. But mostly in a good way.

The wiki summary is enlightening - I so only picked up on about 25% of the story.

I can't wait to discuss it. I'll try to pull together some other materials for us to reference.

Other links:
a published review
a lit blog review

I know we can come up with some better ones

Who are the thinking woman's sex gods?

Paper Cuts wants to know.

Usually I'm really good at this but can't come up with a list right now.

Clive Owen?
Christian Bale?

It must be low hormone time for me because nothing is coming to mind.

Friday Bookish Meme

Writing guides, grammar books, punctuation how-tos . . . do you read them? Not read them? How many writing books, grammar books, dictionaries–if any–do you have in your library?

This one's for all the statisticians . . .

The Indexed blog, sample below. Genius. She's now featured on Freakonomics.

I love this picture.

Obama drinks PBR in Raleigh!

Friday Bookish Meme

From BTT . . .

OK this week's seems kind of lame. But whatever:

Quick! It’s an emergency! You just got an urgent call about a family emergency and had to rush to the airport with barely time to grab your wallet and your passport. But now, you’re stuck at the airport with nothing to read. What do you do??

And, no, you did NOT have time to grab your bookbag, or the book next to your bed. You were . . . grocery shopping when you got the call and have nothing with you but your wallet and your passport (which you fortuitously brought with you in case they asked for ID in the ethnic food aisle). This is hypothetical, remember….

Some New Blogs

Here are some noteworthy blogs I visited as part of the Weekly Geek challenge.

Tripping Toward Lucidity - Well when I saw she was in NC, I had to visit. She has excellent taste and a lovely blog layout.

Bybee's blog is personable, honest and interesting. I could not stop giggling about and envying her Middlemarch dream featuring Will Ladislaw.

Tammy in FL's blog documents her reading, and her attempts to complete 101 goals in 1001 days! She is a girl after my own heart.

Everyday Reads - a lovely and insanely readable blog. And she gets it when she speaks in beatitudes about Atonement, which you'll remember got nods as our book club's most admired selection.

Book Club Classics - I like how this blog is book club-oriented; not just book review or book news oriented. For any of you who are searching for ideas about what to pick for your next selection, she maintains a great list.

Election Day

Help! I still can't decide who to vote for! Has anyone truly made up their mind? Do you mind sharing why? Post in the comments if you feel comfortable.

I'm totally obsessing about it and being way too strategic.