A Few Updates: Books, Movies, TV

I'm continuing to read my way through Jasper Fforde's Thursday Next series. I've read The Well of Lost Plots and Something Rotten, and I'm currently in the middle of The First Among Sequels, which is his last book (so far) for Thursday Next. Please see my previous post for my comments on how great these books are. Once I finish this book, I plan to start on his nursery tale crime series for which has only written two books to date. I'll definitely post a write-up on those two.

I recently re-watched Juno. If you haven't seen it yet, put it at the top of your list. It's very funny and touching. Diablo Cody won an Oscar for writing this touching tale about a pregnant teenager. I know - it sounds like an after-school special but I guarantee that you will enjoy watching it.

I also watched No Reservations with Catherine Zeta-Jones-Douglas. I thought it was supposed to be a romantic comedy, but the romance was low and the comedy almost non-existent. It was like a Lifetime movie, but with good actors. Needless to say, I didn't enjoy this and don't recommend it.

A while back I went to see There Will Be Blood with Daniel Day-Lewis. I loved this movie. He is such a great actor and earned a well-deserved Oscar for his performance. Be forewarned that this is not a happy, feel good movie. It's a character study of a sociopath. It's based on a book called Oil! by Upton Sinclair. I don't think I'd enjoy reading his books, but this movie was fascinating.

If you don't already, watch Lost on ABC. What a fabulous show! I admit that the third season meandered a little too much, but this fourth season is pure dynamite. My two favorite characters are Benjamin Linus and Sayid. Ben started out in season two as "the bad guy," but as we progress, it's becoming clearer that he is the best multi-dimensional character ever written for a TV show. He does bad things, but we are starting to understand that he has a purpose for all of his decisions, and he's trying to do good for Jacob/the island. (If you haven't seen it I can't begin to describe Jacob.) And Sayid is just cool. If you were really stuck on an island, you'd definitely want him on your side. He is a former member of the Iraqi National Guard and his title was Communications Officer - meaning that we was good at torturing people to get them to communicate the information he needed. But he is also a very complex character. Any time there's a Sayid-centric show, the theme of is always "don't 'ef' with Sayid!" If you haven't watched it and/or need to catch up, you can watch all the episodes for free at abc.com.

And last but not least, please vote in my poll.

My New Favorite Author

I was fortunate to be stuck on an overly-long business trip last week - fortunate because I had enough time to read a great book and discover a fabulous author. His name is Jasper Fforde and the book I read was The Eyre Affair. Yes, Eyre as in Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte. There are also numerous references to Dickens, Shakespeare, Bacon, and Milton. Sounds like stuffy, snobby British literature, right? Thank God that this couldn't be farther from the truth. It was a fun, humorous, witty page-turner that I thoroughly enjoyed.

Set in an alternate reality heavily focused on literature, Baconites go door-to-door trying to convince people that Francis Bacon wrote all of Shakespeare's plays, people get stuck inside of poems, and forging verses of literature's greatest authors is punishable by law. Our heroine is Thursday Next, a literary detective who is called upon to investigate the kidnapping of characters from literature's greatest works and prevent their literary homicides. It's silly, imaginative, and quite charming.

So, of course, I have already finished the next Thursday Next novel titled Lost in a Good Book. It's full of the same humor and charm as the first novel and I loved it just as much. I think there are five Thursday Next novels written so far, in addition to another series he's seems to have started regarding crimes committed in fairy tales that need to be solved by Jack Spratt and his assistant, Mary Mary. I think the first novel in that series is The Big Over Easy about the murder of Humpty Dumpty. But as soon as I post this, I'm going to start on the third Thursday Next novel titled The Well of Lost Plots. I'm sure you'll see another posting on this very shortly.

So hurry to your nearest library or book store to pick up anything written by Jasper Fforde. I guarantee you will enjoy it.

Surprise!

I bet you're shocked to see a post, eh?! Well, here's what's new...

I went to see Vantage Point last weekend. Don't waste your time or your money. It has a lot of good actors, but plot is weak and it has a really dumb ending.

Today I went to see Nim's Island (the choice I had was this or Fool's Gold and Fool's Gold looks really, really bad). Nim's Island was really cute and funny! I liked it, but it had a lot of animals in it and I like anything with animals. Jodi Foster's role was really funny. It's a departure from the types of characters she's played in the last few years. And Abigail Breslin was really good. It's a movie geared toward kids, but adults that want a fun, feel-good movie will enjoy it as well.

I've also watched all the episodes of the The Office. Everyone who works in an office and 95% of the people who don't will enjoy this show. It's really funny, but it's the type of humor where you laugh AT the protagonist, not WITH him (that's where 5% of people won't like it). If you haven't watched it yet, I highly suggest renting them all. It's too good to miss.

So that's all I've got for now. Please vote in my new poll.