Somusing

Oh, I loved this . It made me laugh out loud several times, and then I told a lot of friends about it. It's a lovely, funny romance with clever allusions to various Jane Austen novels and the films based thereon. Seems like I've read and seen plenty of stuff that alludes to Jane Austen, but not necessarily successfully, but Austenland is great! It's not profound or anything, but I loved it. And it's very clean!

I still remember when I was a young teenager (or maybe even preteen), and I read all of Judy Blume's young adult novels, and then my mom banned them all for the rest of the kids. I think she had already written her first “adult” novel, Wifey , by then, which I happened upon the other day. I read through the first few pages, and that was enough to confirm the rumors I heard long ago that it was a truly trashy book. Anyway, Summer Sisters is entertaining and well-written and has some good insights into relationships between friends and mothers and daughters. Sometimes it's quite poignant and moving. It also made me think I should never allow my children out of my sight, or more specifically, I shouldn't allow them to hang out at other people's houses for extended periods.

I read this book a few years ago and liked it pretty well, but the movie was just okay. It was fun to listen to passionate discussion about Jane Austen's novels and see how the characters' opinions had so much to do with their own lives, but ultimately, it just seemed like an excessively “chicky” chick flick.

And here's the second one. Strangely enough, there seem to be even longer stretches where nothing happens, some of it actually represented by nearly blank pages, which was a nice touch, especially compared to the many pages where nothing much happened but there were lots of words to get through anyway. Still, though, extremely realistic descriptions of teenage love, etc., and I enjoyed the book and felt pretty frustrated that I am third on the hold list at the library for the next book. I think if I were more teenagish, I'd have bought it already. But I'm older now and realize that I can wait. (If I can wait almost a year to watch Season 4 of The Office, I can wait for this!)

Until now I've been sheltered from the recently successful LDS-authors-who-don't-write-for-an-LDS-audience. Twilight , and its sequels, are wildly popular, apparently, and I can see why. It's all about forbidden love with the high school bad boy, but amped up about 100 times, because not only is this boy bad-but-really-good-underneath-all-the-badness, he's a vampire! So he's not just acting bad! And he's still actually a good guy! There's enough crazy sexual tension here (but still clean) to keep the girls glued, even through the long spells where nothing much seems to happen in the book. I really liked it and immediately started the next in the series.

What can I say? It's still great. Now Jon and I are watching every last piece of whatever they've put on the DVDs. We might be able to make it last a couple more weeks. In the meantime, Season 4 is well underway, and we know nothing about it, so don't tell us!

The Karate Kid (1984) It's still a great movie , though the music is definitely dated. (I had to roll my eyes when my 11-year-old said, “This music is cool!”) Mr. Miyagi was even deeper than I remembered. Benny and Joon (1993) I have no idea if Joon is really an accurate and believable crazy person, but it's a good show . And there's Johnny Depp doing great mime stuff. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (2001) I enjoyed this much more after my recent Harry Potter immersion exercise. The Simpsons Movie (2007) Had its moments, but what I'd really like is a custom-made DVD with my favorite Simpsons episodes, like the Vegetarian episode and the Halloween one where Bob Dole and Bill Clinton are kidnapped by aliens right before the election, and nobody will vote for a third party, even when the replacement candidates are revealed to be aliens! Stardust (2007) Some have compared this to The Princess Bride , but they are wrong to do so...

Where Rivers Change Direction by Mark Spragg A memoir about growing up on a dude ranch in western Wyoming. It's well-written and he's got some fascinating stories to tell. Son of a Witch by Gregory Maguire Wicked , the book that precedes this one, is one of my all-time favorite books, so maybe it shouldn't surprise me that it was somewhat disappointing. Still pretty good, but not nearly as complex or surprising as Wicked . Wives and Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell This is what people used to do instead of becoming obsessed with The Office ! It was originally serialized in a periodical, and it's quite long, with teasing sentences at the ends of many of the chapters. I thought it was delightful. Elizabeth Gaskell seems like a kinder but still witty Jane Austen.