On My Nightstand/In my DVD

Apartment Therapy – Fiona at  La Vie en Fifi wrote about this recently and I am ripping through it after picking it up at the library yesterday! (although you are supposed to take 8 weeks to do the action plan). I’m taking notes and enjoying it enormously.

A Gate at the Stairs by Laurie Moore — This was on my library “wait” list for ages, but finally it is my turn. I started it last night and can’t wait to get back to it.

Parenting Without Fear by Paul J. Donahue  — this is a library book that may not be exactly what I was looking for when I saw the title … we’ll see

Nurture Shock by Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman — a friend loaned me this one

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson— My SIL loaned me this. I’ve been excited to read it for awhile. Misadventures with Andi also just posted on this.

Reading Lolita in Tehran — another thrift store buy I just barely began before I got a library book in. So far, it seems like it is going to be really good.

The Nautical Chart by Arturo Perez-Reverte — I adore this author and snatched this up at the thrift store.

In my DVD Player

Paris with Juliette Binoche — such a great story and beautiful scenery and inspirational style. i loved this movie.

On My Nighstand:

The Help  by Kathryn Stockett — This is for one of my bookclubs

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson— My SIL loaned me this. I’ve been excited to read it for awhile. Misadventures with Andi also just posted on this.

Reading Lolita in Tehran — another thrift store buy I just barely began before I got a library book in. So far, it seems like it is going to be really good.

The Nautical Chart by Arturo Perez-Reverte — I adore this author and snatched this up at the thrift store.

In my DVD Player

Up in the Air with George Clooney was entertaining, pretty good, not my favorite movie ever

Away We Go was a fun indie flick to watch this week

Boondock Saints 2 — perfect for St. Patrick’s Day week.

ON MY NIGHTSTAND

After complaining that I didn’t have a single book to read, I scored the jackpot. I had three library books I had been on the wait list for come in. I am reading the top three books in the order in which they are due back. I absolutely am enthralled by The Hunger Games. It is one of those books that makes me want to hide in my room all day and read. It is a futuristic, apocalpytic type novel. Very well written.

Missing Mark is the second in a series by a former TV reporter. I loved Julie Kramer’s first book, Stalking Susan, so I expect this one will be equally as enjoyable.

I can’t remember where I heard of The Believers, but I think it may have been a book recommendation in the New York Times.

Sarah’s Key is a bookclub pick for this month by one of my SIL’s. It is set in Paris and deals with the holocaust. I picked it up at the thrift store and can’t wait to get to it, but I need to get the library books read first.

I’ve seen Reading Lolita in Tehran so many times at the thrift store I finally picked it up for $.60. I’m not sure when I will read it because I am patiently holding back from reading Brava Valentine as long as I can resist. I am going to feature it for my other bookclub next month because it is my turn to choose the book.

FILM

On My Nightstand

Brava Valentine by Adriana Trigiani. Regular readers  know I am reading this and what a huge fan I am of this author.

How to Have Style by Isaac Mizrahi. I actually cranked through this the first day I got it. Great ideas.

Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson. This has been recommended and mentioned so many times in my world, including by a published author friend of mine I respect, that I feel like I must read it. I think the final straw was reading it was one of the best books of the year on NPR’s website.

The Believers by Zoe Heller. I could be wrong, but I think this was also on a year-end best books list. Maybe NPR again.

Can you see or feel my joy around the world that I have a stack of good books to read again? I was starting to get depressed about it and then Wham-O, my library list came through. I always have about 10 books I am waiting for and this week, three came through!

In my DVD Player

I’m sure all the regular readers are sick of hearing this, but I am still cranking through the Battlestar Galactica series and get sooo, soo happy everytime a new disc from Netflix comes in the mail. Ah, the simple pleasures in life in the frigid midwestern winters!

And seriously, I don’t care how poor I get, I will NEVER give up my $14 a month subscription to Netflix, it SAVES my life during the winter.

This week we watched on instant play: Food Inc. which makes me want to go buy my own cow and chickens and keep them in my backyard and Blindness, based on a book I gave away after only reading two chapters. Now I wish I would have read the book, because I really liked the movie!

On my nightstand

Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell (not shown, it is now on my dh’s nightstand!): I finished this book on the place last weekend. We are discussing it at my bookclub meeting tonight

The Road by Cormac McCarthy — I started this in Sedona and it has completely captured my imagination, but I have set it aside because I just had a bunch of library books I ordered come in.

Dreaming in French by Megan Mcandrew — I began this last night. I can’t wait to get back to it. It is about an American couple transplanted in Paris told from their daughter’s viewpoint (so far that’s what it is about!)

The Likeness by Tana French — I think I heard about this by The Evening Reader’s  blog (see righthandside). Looking forward to starting this, as well.

The Prize Winner of Defiance Ohio  by Terry Ryan — my OTHER book club picked this last week for this month. Will have to get going on it. I have either already read it or tried to read it in the past. I’m sure I will remember which when I get started on it.

Slam by Nick Hornby — once again set aside until my library books are read.

FILM/MOVIES/TV

We just finished the last episode in Season 1 of Battlestar Galactica last night. (on netflix). Now on to season 2!

I will be hitting the movie theater sometime this weekend for the second Twilight movie, even if I don’t know what is called off the top of my head, I’ll be there!

BLOG FOR PAY UPDATE

So far, I’ve been offered two opportunities to post on here for pay and turned them both down. The first was a while back and was about plastic surgery. The second came yesterday and they wanted me to write about — get this — crotchless panties. No thank you. I will, however, post something for pay in the future if I think it will be relevant or interesting or at least nonoffensive, to you, my readers. Thanks for understanding.

On my nightstand this week

Happiness is a big stack of books by my bedside!

While waiting for a book from the library to come in I began this book:

When will there be good news? by Kate Atkinson — so far I love it, but because I own it, I set it aside for a library book that came in:

The Elementary Particles by Michel Houellebecq. Those of you in the FC group might be interested in how I came across it. Please forgive my sloppy attribution (and you can be sure if I were publishing a book I would track this fact down) but it was possibly in Entre Nous or French Women Don’t Sleep Alone (or maybe even another book — if you know which one let me know) that it mentioned this French author. So I tracked him down online and then ordered this book from my library. So far it is fantastic. I am concentrating on this exclusively since it it borrowed and has a due date. I have the dictionary by my bed to look up words in this book I am not familiar with. So far I have looked up  the word “hirstute.”

After I run out of library books I am going to start on two books that came in a big box of books from a friend:

Loop Group by Larry McMurtry (the author of Terms of Endearment)

and

Here Kitty Kitty by Jardine Libaire

FILMS

Pretty much the only thing I like better than a good book is a good movie!

I think I mentioned a few weeks ago I saw Inglorious Basterds, Tarantino’s new flick and loved it so much I’m going to mention it again!

I also rented Munich last week – an intense film that really illustrates a feeling of ongoing hopelessness surrounding the situation in the middle east and just how sad it really is. It is easy for people who live in the United States to tune it out and not realize how dramatically it impacts so many people.

I also borrowed Breathless from the library yesterday. I has previously rented it on Netflix, but had to return it because the disc was scratched. I’m looking forward to watching this classic. I think I may try to watch it tonight.

On my nightstand this week:

Books

I whipped through fellow blogger (www.fortyisthenew20.com) Phyllis Bourne Williams’ book “A Moment on the Lips”  — a very readable sweet love story.

Unfortunately, I didn’t have as much luck with the other books on my nightstand. I don’t know if it is my mood and I’m not in the mood for nonfiction, but I will be returning “Bella Lingua” and “The Audacity of Hope” to the library. I really, really want to read Obama’s book, but every time I picked it up, it didn’t hold my interest. It was even worse with Bella Lingua. To me,  it seemed like a text book you would read in a crash course before you moved to Italy. I just couldn’t get into it. Why can’t someone write a book about the Italians along the lines of all the fun books about the French (Entre Nous, French Women Don’t Get Fat, Two Lipsticks and a Lover)?

Happiness Sold Separately – I’m still enjoying this book. As I mentioned before, I pick it up whenever I don’t have a library book to read because I don’t have to return it to my SIL anytime soon.

The Historian — I haven’t even picked this up yet. A SIL loaned it to me. It looks too heavy to bring on the airplane when I go on vacation in a few days.

Movies

This week was not a big movie week. I watched “My House in Umbria” and that was it.

On my nightstand and in my DVD player

I am a voracious reader and avid film watcher — or more honestly I am a complete bookworm and film freak!  During the summer I often sit outside on my patio while my kids splash in the kiddie pool and read my latest book. Rather than watch TV, I almost always prefer to curl up with a good book and a glass of wine after the kids are tucked into bed. I can usually be talked into putting down the book, however, if we have a good movie in the mail from Netflix.

In the DVD

During the past two weeks I’ve watched:

 ”Broken English” (note to all you francophiles: has a French angle and is a fun movie)

“The Reader” with Kate Winslet — an intense tear jerker worth watching

“Tron” I also somehow got talked into watching this again, but couldn’t sit through the whole thing

“Dead Man” with Johnny Depp. Love to look at the guy but got bored and went to bed

“Slumdog Millionaire” loved, loved this one

“Taken” with Liam Neeson. Intense action, great acting. If you like James Bond flicks, you’ll like this one.

On my nightstand:

“The Book Thief” I just finished this for one of my bookclubs and loved it. It was hard to believe it was written for young adults.  It is not in the picture because I loaned it to a SIL yesterday.

“Happiness Sold Separately” by Lolly Winston. I am a few chapters into this one and enjoying it immensely. It is a great summer read I can put down, pick back up later and get right back into it. I put it down whenever one of the books I have “ordered” from the library comes in. I borrowed it from a SIL so I can take my time with it.

“Firefly Lane” by Kristin Hannah. This is a library book with a waiting list so I am concentrating on this one the most and it is also the one my second bookclub is reading. So far I love it.

“The Audacity of Hope” by Barack Obama. I’ve only read the introduction to this so far.

Two chess books I keep meaning to re-read