Movie Update

This week I finished up every currently available movie that has any kind of Oscar nomination (including best song). As always, there was plenty I didn't get to see but I managed to cover a lot of ground this year.

I made a run to Blockbusters earlier in the week and picked up Food, Inc. and Coco Before Chanel. Since I have been reading so heavily in the area of the environment and the impact large industrial farms are having on communities none of the information in Food, Inc. was particularly new. For those who have not been investigating this issue, the movie may have a profound impact on the way you purchase your food. Every piece of evidence points to the need to support local farmers, especially those who use more traditional farming methods, organic processes and minimal shipping. The major problem with this approach is that buying organic and locally grown is still a luxury for those who have money, not something that everyone can afford. Someday, I hope documentaries like this will change the system enough so that everyone can have equal access to the most healthy foods.

Coco Before Chanel was not a particularly in-depth treatment of Coco Chanel's life during her teens and early twenties but I did like it. Since I didn't know anything about her, I enjoyed the biographical details and the slice-of-life depictions of France during that time period.

I took time off this week to watch some movies only showing during the day and managed to catch the last four still in the theaters. Invictus is the story of how Nelson Mandela used rugby to try to take the first steps to uniting South Africa after the fall of apartheid. The elements of a good underdog sports story are all there and done well but for me, the most fascinating parts of the movie are those that showed Nelson Mandela's struggles as president. Besides, I could watch Morgan Freeman eat soup and still be charmed and entertained. Also, Matt Damon was the character to such an extent that for a good part of the movie I thought he was a South African actor who just happened to look like Matt.

I recruited a friend and her daughter to go with me to The Princess and the Frog which turned out to be a typical Disney and I have to admit I was a little disappointed with this effort. The most fun part of the movie was watching my friends daughter dance around to the admittedly catchy musical offerings.

The Last Station is about the last days of the life of Tolstoy and I love the details about the Tolstoyan movement and how it changed in good and bad ways with the addition of zealots. The dynamics between Tolstoy and his wife felt a little overacted but overall it was an interesting movie.

Jeff Bridges has a lot of guts acting in a movie that made him look like a broken down alcoholic country singer and he did a outstanding job with this role. Crazy Heart was very good, which is saying a lot considering my aversion to country music.

On Saturday I finished up the part 2 of the AMC Oscar Showcase.

Up is my choice for best animated feature of the year. It was touching but not overly sentimental, it had great humor and enough action to keep you interested throughout the movie. Pixar did an outstanding job with this movie.

A Serious Man was an odd movie. It started off pretty well portraying a man whose life is falling apart around him but at about the halfway mark it started to drag and by the end, it had completely derailed. Added to that, it never really explained the opening snippet about the dybbuk and what it had to do with the rest of the movie. Any thoughts on that?

The Hurt Locker is my choice to win the Oscar. It is a strong realistic portrayal of what Iraq is really like and what our soldiers are going through over there. I liked that it presented the story in a relatively unbiased way, telling a story and not beating us overhead with a message. I do think it was an elegantly constructed, finely wrought movie.

An Education is a difficult one for me to assess. I disliked the main character immensely and could not get past the fact that he was, for all intents and purposes, a pedophile. It made it very difficult for me to appreciate the technical aspects of the movie. Having said that, it was a fairly typical British movie.

I saw District 9 on DVD so did not stay to see it on the big screen. For the most part, I enjoyed this but I do feel that a little more work and editing would have turned this into one of the great SF classics. It was good but didn't quite reach the outstanding mark. As a side note, it is a bit distressing to realize how universal the theme of humans destroying anything different or profitable to them is in the movie making business.

Free E-Book Friday

The Book Depository is offering 100's of free e-books as well as many low price paper editions. It's a great way to discover lots of strange and obscure titles and authors.

Progress Report

As I have started reading for my new award committee I have not yet had a WOW moment resulting in a solid nomination for my committee. This makes me a little sad since other committee members have started nominating books left and right. I have HUGE lists built and I am confident that somewhere on them are some fabulous new titles that are award worthy but I want one now! I just started the new Bernard Cornwell and have high hopes for it. Wish me luck.

On the bright side, I have found some friends to help me pre-screen books so that my huge lists aren't quite so, well, huge. I will be fun to hear what friends think of the books on my list. If I decide to read them, it will also be fun to see how our genre reading tastes match (or don't). At the very least, by the end of the year I should be able to match them up with really great books I know they will love.

Library programming

The last couple of weeks have been spent monitoring news about the Waldo rapist in order to determine what kinds of community information the library may need to provide to the community. Right now we are working with the police department to put together some self-defense classes but it may take a few weeks since they are currently swamped with requests.

I do understand why women are flocking to the workshops. Having someone lurking in the community who targets and harms women is scary stuff. But while it is good for people to learn how to defend themselves, I really wish that when different groups put together self-defense workshops during the rest of the year they would be as in-demand as they are at the moment. I am sad that it takes such a tragedy to pack the room with attendees.

At the movies....

Every year, some dear friends get together to watch the Oscars (or more accurately, look at all the sparkly attire and make fun of the fashion disasters.) Although I don't tend to be overly competitive, this addition of a ballot and voting has switched on my competitive OCD and I MUST watch each and every nominee even if all they only were nominated in the Best Song catagory.

So, this weekend I went to the AMC Oscar Showcase. I have been attending these since AMC started doing them and I always have a great time in spite of the hours of sitting that are required. This year, because the Oscars now have 10 nominees, AMC has split the movies between two weekends. Unfortunately, that means that my group of 10+ friends who spent the day with me last year decided not to do it again this year. Luckily a small group still joined me for week #1. Next weekend I will attend alone. (I think)

Avatar was surprising good and in fact, I got a little teary during the tragically romantic parts. The dialog and story were clunky and could have used some work but the cinematography was out-of-this world. Even if you are not a SF geek, I suggest you try to make time to see this one. This just wouldn't be the same on a small screen and the idea that this might change the way movies are made is not as outlandish as I previously thought. This should be a shoo-in for all of the cinematography and special effects Oscar awards.

Up in the Air was an interesting choice for an Oscar nomination. It was the polar opposite of Avatar. The movie is set primarily in airports, hotels and offices and the gray tonality of the film matched George Clooneys characters personality. It was interesting to explore the idea of losing the baggage and people from your life and reducing your life to a suitcase and a hotel room. This would be a good one to rent since this is a movie more about ideas than action and aventure. No big screen theatrics are needed to explore ideas about what makes a life worth living.

Precious was good but exceptionally grim. I had already seen this movie and thought this held up well with a second viewing. It is definitely a movie that celebrates literacy as a way out of an awful situation and made me want to go to Literacy Kansas City to sign up to be a tutor. Realistically, with the part-time job I would have very little time to spend two or three days a week tutoring but someday it will be on my ever expanding to-do wish list.

The Blind Side was not a movie I was looking forward to since I get very grumpy when I have to sit through a movie designed to play on my sympathies in overly sentimental ways but in spite of myself, I was charmed. I would love to have to the courage to take a stranger into my home and immediately treat them like family. This is worth watching for the feel good factor but in my opinion, not really a viable Oscar contender.

Inglourious Basterds is Tarantino at his best. Certainly it was bloody but it entertaining as only he can be. This rewrite of Hitler's WWII felt completely fresh and new and even if it was a work of complete fiction, it was nice to see the Jewish people fight back. Tarantino is not for everyone but if you can stand the violence, it was a spectacular movie.

Other movies I watched this week:

In the Loop - An Office-type movie in a British political setting. I should have liked this better than I did but I ended up getting distracted and wandering off a lot. Maybe it would have played better on the big screen for me.

Bright Star - Romance between poet John Keats and next door neighbor Fanny. Interesting setting and time period but I could not for the life of me see why she would fall for him other than his romantic poetical demeanor. This was directed by the same woman who directed The Piano, another movie with "romantic" elements I failed to appreciate.

The Cove - a scathing diatribe against the dolphin entertainment industry and Japan for encouraging the fishing of dolphins. Not a balanced look, but a passionate one and for anyone who loves animals and finds dolphins appealing, this is a horrifying and radicalizing look at a practice that is deadly for dolphins and humans alike.

Paris 36 - I haven't cared much for any of the more musical offerings this year and this movie was no exception. In spite of the main character's rather sad life, apparently the driving force for the plot, I couldn't bring myself to care that much about the characters or want to know what was going to happen next. I do tend to like French movies but this one just didn't do it for me.

The White Ribbon - my movie watching friend loathed this one but I found it to be oddly compelling. I had originally thought this would be a horror movie but instead it was a study of "man's inhumanity toward man". It was very dark and dour and very, very German. I do wonder if I would have stuck with it if I had been watching it at home on DVD however.

The Young Victoria - I liked this one very much in spite of its rather slow pace. It made me want to find some good biographies on the the couple and find out if the movie accurately represented this rather charming love story.

Free e-book Friday

From the press release: "The eBook edition of Daniel Blythe’s X Marks the Box: How to Make Politics Work for You, is being given away in its entirety and completely free for three weeks preceding the publication of the print edition."

Go to the author’s site, www.xmarksthebox.co.uk, or Waterstones’ ebooks homepage http://www.waterstones.com/ebooks until March 4th.

Very Valentine by Adriana Trigiani

Last night we met for Book Group and discussed Very Valentine: A Novel. Well, mostly we gossiped but we did discuss the book for a few minutes.

Very Valentine is the story of an Italian American 30-something named Valentine, who has moved in with her Grandmother so she can learn the custom shoe industry from her. At around the time she meets a good looking Italian boy she learns that the family shoe business is in deep financial trouble. Trying to save the company puts strain on all of her relationships and she must try to decide what is truly important to her. This is very much a Chick-Lit title with more focus on the main character growing as a person than on her romances.

During the discussion, there was some unhappiness with the relationship between Valentine and her boyfriend, especially from the attendees who are romance readers. However, learning that this is the first in a trilogy did seem to make a difference to a few of the people who expressed this frustration. Others found the not-so-perfect relationship to be very typical of the modern dating world and felt it contributed to the style and pacing of the story. One person thought there was too much focus on the back story and family dynamics. Everyone agreed that her relationship with her Grandmother was the strongest part of the book and very charming.

I personally enjoyed this novel very much. I liked the dynamics with her family and co-workers much more than I did the sections about her budding relationship. I love novels in which the character or characters build their own family (especially when they throw in a couple of quirky characters.) I will definitely be checking out the second in the series, Brava, Valentine: A Novel which came out February 9, 2010.

Book Club

The newest book club I belong to is a "Martini" Book club. This usually means we are more interested in the martini than the book (Very Valentine in case you are interested.)

I couldn't make the martini I selected because there is a suspicious lack of lychee liquor in Kansas so I took the liquor store workers advice and made a Full Moon Martini, consisting of equal parts Grand Marnier and Amaretto with a healthy blast of lime. It was okay but not spectacular. My favorites are still the citrus martinis like the Key Lime Martini or the Lemon Drop Martini which is why I was so excited about the Lychee Martini. I should have looked at a few more recipes and I would have found I could use Lychee juice instead for the Martini.

The food, on the other hand was very good. I decided since the book was partially set in Italy I would have some good Italian olives, marinated mozzerella, and bruschetta. At the last minute I because fascinated with this blog and decided I simply must try the Crock-Pot Baked Brie. I will definitely be making this again. It was easy and really, really good.

Happiest Cities

I have been hearing about Kansas City not doing well in this survey. It's good to know we don't come in at the bottom of the list.

The 10 happiest cities are:

1. Boulder, CO
2. Holland-Grand Haven, MI
3. Honolulu, HI
4. Provo-Orem, UT
5. Santa Rosa-Petaluma, CA
6. Santa Barbara-Santa Maria-Goleta, CA
7. San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA
8. Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV
9. Ogden-Clearfield, UT
10. Oxnard-Thousand Oaks-Ventura, CA

... and the 10 unhappiest cities are:

153. Pensacola-Ferry Pass-Brent, FL
154. Hickory-Lenoir-Morganton, NC
155. Shreveport-Bossier City, LA
156. Evansville, IN-KY
157. Kingsport-Bristol, TN-VA
158. Youngstown-Warren-Boardman, OH-PA
159. Flint, MI
160. Charleston, WV
161. Modesto, CA
162. Huntington-Ashland, WV-KY-OH

From USA TODAY

In Over My Head

books in a stack (a stack of books)
Originally uploaded by austinevan.

In my excitement to get started with my new committee I may (or may not) have submitted 36 suggestions to read for the month of February. You would think that this would teach me to be a little more judicious in my choices for March....but you would be wrong. For next month (so far) I have compiled a list of 78 titles. If I keep up this pace I will have to quit both jobs and stay home to read which is clearly an unworkable plan. Therefore, I am going with Plan B which involves recruiting friends topre-screen some of the titles on my list. I already have a few victim....I mean, volunteers lined up.

Anyone else interested in reading some books and giving me your opinion?

Oscar Short Films

This weekend I went to the Tivoli for the 2010 Short Film Oscar showcase.

Here is my favorite animated short film:




My favorite live action short film was The Door (not a happy film). My friend almost fell out of her chair laughing at Instead of Abracadabra. Sadly, neither of these are online right now but you can download them from iTunes.

The next night I went to A Single Man and Nine. I really liked A Single Man, a story about a man distraught about the loss of his beloved partner, even though I ended up teary most of the way through the movie. Nine, on the other hand, was tedious. Maybe it was because I was a woman, the plot, man thinking about all of the women in his life and realizing he was messing them all up, was not at all to my taste.

Free E-Book Friday

Science Fiction authors are always the first to see the possibilities of offering free literature online. This weeks offering is from a website called Free Speculative Fiction Online http://www.freesfonline.de/. I hope you find a story or two to read and enjoy.

My Favorite Things

So I lied. I told you that I would be reading the book, Crawl Space, last night but at the last minute this book came in. I LOVE Connie Willis novels and her newest is a continuation of one of my favorite time travel books, To Say Nothing of the Dog: Or How We Found The Bishop's Bird Stump at Last. Between dipping into this book and going to see the movie The Young Victoria, (for my Oscar movie watching marathon) I did not end up reading Crawl Space. I am sure it is a lovely book, but dude, it just can't compete with time travel.

And it starts again....

I just turned in my first suggestion list (40+ books) for the new book award committee and ordered them all from the library. Now I present you with the first book I will be reading for the new award....

What I Am Working On

I spent most of last week working on a new Readers Advisory training plan for my staff. Readers Advisory, for those who don't know, is the ability to suggest books that a reader will enjoy (NOT what you think they should be reading) and it is one of my favorite library related things to do. There is more to it than that but you get the idea. Every month my staff will meet to discuss different genres of books. Our first session will be an organizational meeting and then we will jump right in and start with mysteries. During the second meeting we will explore useful tools and discuss the appeal factors of our first genre and then we will have a discussion on a book that the entire group reads together. For the third session each person will pick a book from a different sub-genre and do a short review and book talk. We will continue with the training until all the genres are covered....and then we will start over again.

The beauty of this new plan is that the basic structure of it was a gift from a librarian at the St Louis County Library. Two of the book lists were gifts from library friends on a Listserv. After consulting a Genre studies book, I contacted the author (another librarian) and got some tips from her. The collaboration among libraries is only one of the many reasons I love being a librarian.

Valentine's Day Love

Public Service Announcement. It is important to know that pink hearts are the rejects of the candy heart world. Show them a little love and pick a pink heart next time you indulge.

Happy Valentine's Day everyone! This morning a friend sent out the following tweet: "RT @kst8ter76 Was just discussing with a friend the tragedy of people not knowing how important they are to others. For V-day lets #spreadlove" To honor this idea, over the next few months I am going to attempt to highlight some of the special people in my life.

In a past post I have mentioned how important the blogger community has become during the past two years. One of the couples I met shortly after I started attending the blogger meet-ups was a couple named Bea and Logtar who have are now a big part of my life. They are two of the most loving, generous, positive people I have ever met and to know them is to love them. (Plus, Bea loved books which made me predisposed to love her.) Several months ago, they broke the blogger community's collective hearts by moving to Chicago. I know it was a wonderful opportunity for them but we all miss their exuberance and joy. Luckily, they also miss us and come back to visit as a special Valentine's Day treat. Their visit made my weekend special. Photo of Bea and Logtar courtesy Average Jane

A brief history of pretty much everything

Because this art school final was too good not to share...

Suvudu Free Book Library

"With the Suvudu Free Book Library, you can read the first book in some of their most acclaimed series absolutely free! They are kicking off the library with five full-length novels for you to sample, but will be adding new titles on a regular basis."

http://www.suvudu.com/freelibrary/

Simple Meme: What Book Are You Reading Now?

Here's a simple Meme...answer the following questions.

1. What Book Are You Reading Now?
2. Why did you choose it?
3. What's the best thing about it?
4. What's the worst thing about it?

Here are my answers...

1. Use of Weapons by Iain Banks
2. I am reading it as part of my paranormal romance challenge from my Goodreads.com group.
3. Discovering a brilliant new-to-me author.
4. The book doesn't really fit the "paranormal romance" parameters.
   

Winterfest at the Library

I picked "Picture Wednesday" for my blogging schedule because I thought it would be an easy middle of the week post. Unfortunately, I cannot seem to remember to take pictures of anything interesting. Therefore I am going to pull a picture off my phone that was sent to Twitter last week. Here is a picture of the boss and another staff person dancing in Kirk Hall at the Central Library. (I did tell the boss I was twittering him.)

Several years ago the library decided to do away with the annual Christmas party and have something called Winterfest instead. The beauty of this approach is that you can schedule it for anytime that winter is occurring. Usually this event falls squarely on my birthday which always makes me a little cranky. This year it didn't happen until February, last Friday night to be precise. This year it didn't seem like as many staff attended which was a shame because the committee did a really nice job with the food and drinks this year. I did miss catching up with all the retirees who usually attend but it was still a nice evening.

Happy Winter everyone!