Somusing

Why make a title short when you can ramble on and on? Well, anyway, this was entertaining, although clearly one of those books thrown together without a lot of effort. It's more like a bunch of blog posts than a book, but I enjoyed it. The author recounts her efforts to lose weight and various funny experiences along the way. One thing I like about the book is that she has a high opinion of herself that wasn't affected badly by her weight; it was nice to read about weight loss for health reasons, rather than the self-loathing place a lot of people have to reach before they lose weight.

This was alternately irritating and quite funny, which was a nice surprise, since I expected much more irritation than humor. If you liked The RM or The Singles Ward , it might be worth borrowing it from a friend.

It's always satisfying to discover that a beloved movie of my youth is actually a good movie. I loved The Journey of Natty Gann when I was a teenager, mostly because of John Cusack, who was cute, of course. He's still cute, but aside from that, this is just a good movie. Good acting, good Depression-era story that's fairly realistic, good cinematography. It's pretty serious for little kids but not too serious, especially if accompanied by some history and explanation.

Seems like Jon and I always get to the go the movies when there's nothing particularly enticing playing at the time. We weren't super excited to see Four Christmases , but it was much better than I'd anticipated. The acting by all is stellar ('cause they're stars, you know), and it's perfectly written. I loved it.

The Independence Club by Rachel Ann Nunes This does a fairly good job of getting into the heads of several older single women, some divorced, some widowed. It's a different group to feature in LDS fiction (at least according to my experience, which is not great). There are too many characters to get involved in their stories very much, but it was okay. This Just In by Kerry Blair With this book, I decided officially that Kerry Blair is my favorite writer of LDS fiction. This one is funny and intriguing and combines romance and mystery/adventure in a very satisfying way. I loved it.

Now that TV is available online (as it always should have been), here's what I've been watching: The Office : Of course. 30 Rock : Very funny, and differently from The Office . Ugly Betty : The last episode of the first season was a masterpiece. It's getting less interesting, but I still enjoy it. Lipstick Jungle : Maybe this is entertaining to me because the women's lives are so different from my own. Or maybe because the people who write it have no idea how successful relationships work, but they're trying. Chuck : Oh, I love this. The action is over the top and the plots impossible, but who cares when it's so funny. I love that Buster from Arrested Development is on it now. Buymoria rules! Grey's Anatomy : I had never seen this before a few weeks ago, and now I'm totally into it. What a soap opera! But with way better acting, some funny lines, a decent set, and some very interesting, improbable though possible medical conditions. I...

The acting in this LDS film (though not outright LDS) is better than usual, probably because of the mockumentary format. (Or maybe this crowd of LDS actors is just really good at playing MLM sales people because of personal experience? Actually, I have no idea if they're all LDS.) This movie successfully reminded me of every in-home sales pitch we've ever had (and of a couple of particularly unpleasant out-of-home experiences), which made it an uncomfortable movie to watch. And yet Jon thought that it didn't sufficiently explore the yuckiness of having friends and family and church acquaintances hit you up to buy stuff or "start your own business." (He did not use the possibly made-up word "yuckiness;" that's me.) Admittedly, for those of us who are returned missionaries, there is an interesting connection to explore between preaching the gospel and being a sales person. But I am too tired to address that right now. It might be worth it to se...