nomadreader

The barest of beginning plot:   The Magician's Elephant is the story of Peter Augustus Duchene, a ten-year-old orphan who chooses to spend food money to ask a fortune teller if his sister is alive. She tells him his sister is alive and an elephant will lead him to her, which is a message Peter does not understand, as he has never actually seen an elephant. The lovely: This book is mostly lovely. It's a story that starts simply and adds richness, meaning and layers as it goes. It's accessible to young readers, and would make a wonderful read aloud book for younger readers, but it's still enjoyable for adult readers.  The setting is somewhere between reality and magic. The time is modern, old-fashioned and timeless. The details of space and time are vague, and some readers will likely envision different settings; it's a book that uses your imagination without you even realizing it. Yoko Tanaka's occasional drawings are beautiful. Is it a contender for the N...

On my quest to see at least the five films nominated for Best Musical or Comedy movie and Best Drama before the Golden Globes air Sunday night, one of the films I most looked forward to seeing was (500) Days of Summer , even though I didn't understand the title. (Summer is the name of the main female character.) (500) Days of Summer  is allegedly a quirky romantic comedy. It's actually the tale of a sad man (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) who falls in love with Summer (Zooey Deschanel) even though she tells him she's not into relationships. Then, of course, he gets mad at her for not wanting to be in a relationship and proceeds to mope. The film is slightly bearable because it's not told in chronological order. The narrative bounces between the happy days (double digits days of summer) to the miserable (far too many).  It's clear I was not a fan of this film. I wanted to like it. I laughed a few times, but I never identified with any of the characters. Summer is presen...

Welcome to my Monday morning recap (on Thursday afternoon) of my fabulous dinner and a movie date with myself! Up In the Air  is Jason Reitman's third film. I really enjoyed Thank You For Smoking  and absolutely adored Juno, so I had high hopes for Up in the Air .  George Clooney, who is fantastic in this role, plays a man who travels more than 300 days a year. His job is to fire people, and he has the perfect balance of charisma and toughness needed to fire people he doesn't know for a living. After seeing the trailer many, many times, I worried this film would be hampered by a trailer that gives away it's climax (if you've seen the trailer, then you know what I'm referring to). I was pleasantly surprised to see I was wrong. I don't want to spoil the film's actual climax(es), but rest assured, friends, you don't know too much going into the film. Another pleasant surprise was the humor. Yes, I expected it to be funny; I laughed in the trailer. T...

Waiting on Wednesday is hosted by Jill at  Breaking the Spine to highlight an upcoming release you're excited for. My pick is so new it doesn't yet have a title. In Sunday's New York Times , there was a fantastic guest editorial by Carolyn Bucior about substitute teaching. It's both micro (bad lesson plans) and macro (the training, support and qualifications of substitutes). It's funny, smart and compelling. Ms. Bucior supplies anecdotes from her experience as a substitute that are both hilarious and harrowing (and sometimes both). More importantly, she proposes relatively simple changes to make the system more effective. To my delight, her byline mentioned she was writing a memoir about substitute teaching, and when it comes out, I cannot wait to read it. For now, read her editorial; it's amusing and inspiring, a winning combination for editorials and memoirs alike.

There has been a lot of talk about 2010 as the year of deliberate reading, and for me, I'm also being more deliberate about my television watching. I love tv, and I really like some bad tv shows. The Real World/Road Rules Challenges seem to be a series I will never outgrow. There is something endlessly fascinating about watching the continuing drama of those I watched grow older on screen. Some change immensely, and usually disappear from future seasons, and some come back the same as they were ten years ago, and I wonder if they truly are the same, or if they're simply good at playing a character of what they think the public expects of them. Still, I find I'm watching fewer guilty pleasure shows (thank you, The Soup , for making it easy to know what's going on, laugh, and not waste hours each week). I'm also watching fewer shows. If it doesn't hold my interest, I'd rather read. I'm reading The New York Times  every day, and that takes time. Time seems...

This weekend, Natasha from Maw Books  hosted the second Bloggiesta. What is Bloggiesta? Simply put, it's a chance for bloggers to focus on making their blog better. I missed out on the first one, so I've been participating in mini-challenges from both of the Bloggiesta events. One of my biggest projects this weekend has been labels. This blog did not start as a book blog, and the content has changed dramatically over the years. I have many old labels. Then I stopped using labels for a few months, so I had many posts without labels. I spent a lot of time working on labels. Perhaps my favorite thing about Bloggiesta has been taking the time to think about this blog. I spend time most days reading, writing and working on the blog, but it was wonderful to take a step back and think about the blog as a whole.

After sort of liking the book Twilight ,  I was curious to see the movie. I liked the second half of the book because things actually happened, so I figured any movie adaptation would focus more on the action and be forced to leave out some parts of the story. Imagine my surprise when I thoroughly enjoyed the first half of the movie and found the second half rather underwhelming. Stephenie Meyer is not much of a wordsmith. I don't mean to malign her. I think she can write a compelling story, but I am not wowed with her command of the English language. The clunky, dull first half of the book was mesmerizing visually. The backdrop of the Pacific Northwest became a character in the film; it's beauty was stunning. In the book, many things seemed redundant and over-the-top, but the film used finesse to introduce the audience to the characters. Kristen Stewart was fantastic. I haven't seen her in anything but interviews, and I was amazed how much I enjoyed her performance, ...