Somusing

I loved Austenland and thought it was about time I tried something else by Shannon Hale. I didn't love Princess Academy in the same way, but I liked it pretty well. My favorite thing about it is how the main character learns that her assumptions about people are usually wrong. It's an entertaining story with good messages, just like a kids' novel ought to be.

Shannon Hale is a better writer than most of the LDS authors out there these days. I'll be reading more of her stuff.

We are at the library and things are quiet, as they tend to be at a library. Suddenly I hear Mira shouting, "Yes, I do! Yes, I do! YES, I DO!" Every time she says it, she yells louder. I rush over to where she is playing on one of the library's new computers. She has headphones on, of course. As I reach her, she yells one more time, "YES! I DO WANT TO QUIT!"

Of course, the animated character on the screen was saying, "Do you want to quit now?" She doesn't know how to use a mouse yet. But you know, when are the computers going to start listening to us? She was speaking very clearly!

And then, after Mean Girls, while we were still in teen flick mode, we also watched 10 Things I Hate About You, which is one of my all-time favorite teen movies. I love the paranoid OB/GYN dad, who makes his daughter wear "the belly" before she goes out.

After watching Tina Fey in Baby Mama, I thought Jon needed to finally see Mean Girls, which she wrote. (I guess we are kind of fans of Tina Fey. We like 30 Rock, too, and I think her Sarah Palin impersonations are hilarious but not vicious, which is good. We liked her when she did Weekend Update on Saturday Night Live, too.) Mean Girls is one of the good teen flicks, with classic lines and believable characters. I like it.

I thought this was really funny. Tina Fey and Amy Poehler are hilarious, as usual. Steve Martin's relatively small part is also great. Well, I liked all of it, really. It made me laugh.

This book of stories about the residents of Haines, Alaska, is funny, entertaining, and thoughtful. The author has written obituaries for the local weekly paper and a column for the Alaska Daily News for years, and she knows everyone in town. That's not particularly difficult, because Haines is an isolated town of 2500 people, accessible only by ferry and airplane, except in winter, when it's not really accessible at all. The locals are colorful and quirky; it's kind of like reading Northern Exposure, one of my all-time favorite TV shows, but these people are real.

I sometimes felt like I was reading about our current location, with the politics, hunting, nature, etc., and that made it even more fun. I really liked it.