My first Flynn book was the acclaimed Gone Girl. And although Sharp Objects was good, it lacked the depth of mystery and intrigue the later book has. So much about the characters of Sharp Objects seems to just be there, sitting, as if we too have plopped into the middle of this Missouri town much…
Having been captivated by NOS4RA2 (2013), I looked forward to another story by Joe Hill (who will for many years be referred to, of course, as Stephen King’s son), so I picked Horns. Horns is an earlier work by a few years (2010); if I hadn’t known that already, I think I would have been…
Chef cooks up a delicious treat in this light, heartwarming summer flick. I laughed heartily. I snorted loudly (thank goodness I was with a friend neither offended nor embarrassed by my loud expression of funny). And I cried. Yes, the tears flowed unexpectedly at one point, but that just shows the warmth of this film.…
There was great build-up between my friend and me to the new film about the great lizard (100 meters tall, according to my movie companion, whom I teased for using the metric system). Said companion sat next to me for our last giant-monster movie, as I giggled and rolled my eyes at the silliness. So…
Having finished reading a well-written, dense, deep novel earlier followed by another thought-provoking novel, I sought something lighter, something shorter, something quicker. In The Husband’s Secret, I found those things. The story takes a bit of time to follow as each chapter early on brings in a new set of characters. I was sure the…
The Fault in Our Stars is another young adult novel in which the highlighted young adults speak/think/act/live well beyond their years. On the one hand, that makes the story appeal to a wider audience and romanticizes the two for others; on the other hand, though, it gave me too much of a skeptic’s eye in…
The second foreign film of last weekend was Bethlehem—the offering from the Israeli director on the subject of Palestinian informants. I wonder had I switched the order in which I saw the films whether I would have liked this one more. Or less. On reflection, I suspect it wouldn’t have mattered that much. While Bethlehem…
Saving Mr. Banks does exactly what was expected: it entertains, it makes you reminisce fondly over a beloved movie, it allows you to tap your toe, it brings tears to your eyes, and it leaves you smiling. But underneath the showy layers of the Disney Corporation’s securing the rights to make Mary Poppins lies a…
Having loved the book, I was intrigued to see how the movie would tell Liesel’s story. As with most adaptations, pieces were left out, blended, added, discounted, and hidden. But my experience reading the book was so recent, I was easily able to fill in many of the gaps (e.g., I giggled when Mama first…
Fun. Flashy. Frivolous. I wanted to see this when it came out—on the big screen. But time slipped past. Sitting on a non-nighttime seven-hour flight created in me a captive audience, delighted to find this film on Delta’s “on demand” list. (I also watched Water for Elephants, but no review will be here as it’s…
Much from the first book I read by Brené Brown (I Thought it was Just Me) is repeated here, but it’s “packaged” in more easily accessible chunks. The information is good, but it feels like it glosses the surface in a way that feels a bit too commercialized. (I suspect that’s my take based on…
Reconstructing Amelia suffers from having been compared too much to Gone Girl. Gone Girl, it is not. But it’s not bad. It entertains—enough. And it is well written—enough. Reconstructing Amelia is a mystery, not-quite-thriller, told in the new style of piecing together a full story from different perspectives. The problem, though, is that the delivery…
Rush is a movie that offers a look at racing unlike I’d ever seen. Okay, so I haven’t seen much about racing. Even so, the movie entertains nicely. But what was more to me was its ability to share a glimpse into the psyches of racecar drivers, even as different as these two drivers were.…
“If enough of us make small changes in our lives, we will see big changes.” “Change doesn’t require heroics. Change begins when we practice ordinary courage.” I learned about this author, Brené Brown, from several people. It’s almost as if I was *supposed* to read her work, but the Universe knew that I didn’t pick…
The Untethered Soul has good things to say. And they are pretty basic. Admittedly, for the researcher/scholarly writer I am, I had difficulty at times with the lack of references, research, data, etc. But this isn’t about that. This book, instead, is about depth and getting along in life. As I read this book, I…