Somusing

The second and third books in the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series are just as entertaining and exciting as the first. Fun reading, with lots of references to Greek mythology.

Same as what I thought about Tears of the Giraffe .

If the youngest is crying, and you give some bubbles to the big kids so they can distract him, he might stop crying, but the arguing among the elder children might be so loud and vehement that you consider taking the bubbles away, even if the little one starts crying again. If there is a water and ice dispenser in the door of the refrigerator, there will always be at least 20 cups and glasses on the table, half-filled with water and ice. Even though there are only eleven children.

I'm spending this week at Ivy's house while Ivy and her husband are gallivanting around Orlando, Florida. (I totally approve of the gallivanting, by the way. They'd better be having marathon fun!) That makes me, the lone adult, with eleven children, ages 19 months to 12 years. Of course, more than half are my children, so it's not really as big of a deal as you'd think. The days start off pretty calmly, and it's only around dinner time that the noise reaches such a level that I start to feel like joining along with the screaming. And right after that, it's bed time, the best part of the day. Ivy and I have watched each other's kids several times, and it's interesting to see how interactions between the kids change as they get older. For example, the older boys now spend a lot of their time talking about their "band." Keep in mind that none of them plays an instrument. Well, Ivy's oldest is taking guitar lessons, and my boys play the

The fourth book in the Harry Potter series has a pretty slow and meandering start that lasts for about 3/4 of the book. Maybe I was a little burned out on Harry by the time I started it. I also remembered the movie pretty well, and maybe that made it less exciting. I do think the plot moves more slowly than in the others and it's not even really clear what the plot is , because the connections between events are intentionally unclear until the end. However, the end was so suspenseful and exciting that it made up for the rest. Even though I knew what was going to happen, I was riveted. It also set up the fifth book in a way that the movie didn't. So I guess I'm a Harry Potter convert. I resisted for a long time. But after I finished Goblet of Fire , I had that familiar bittersweet feeling of missing the characters as if they were real friends that I'd lost contact with. I can reread the books and see the movies, especially the coming sixth and seventh, but there

This was the first Harry Potter movie that I really liked, and the book was even better. I loved the time travel stuff.

I decided to take advantage of my recent desire for purely entertaining reading and read the Harry Potter books I hadn't read yet. After the fifth, sixth and seventh, this was a quick read, and thoroughly enjoyable.

Jon and I got to see Juno in Manhattan, which was fun--I think we rode five really long escalators to get to the theater, which was probably on the twelfth floor. From a window up there, we could see the tops of some of the enormous billboards that cover the buildings just off of Times Square. Strangely, the huge ads we happened to see from that height were for QVC products, the biggest for a hose attachment that apparently makes one extremely happy. Judging from the ad, anyway. I didn't expect to see ads for QVC in Times Square. (Okay, just off of Times Square, but still.) Anyway, the movie was excellent. I kind of wish we'd spent loads of money on it instead of on the play we saw the night before. If it's still playing near you, you should go see it.

This Lightning Thief is a lot of fun, full of exciting action and humorous characterizations of Greek gods and goddesses. The premise is that those gods really exist, that Mount Olympus now resides on the 600th floor of the Empire State Building (invisible to mortals), and that the gods are still carrying on just like they did in the old days. In fact, they've got some half-blood offspring running around in the world, kids of a god or goddess and a mortal. It won't teach you much beyond the most basic Greek mythology, but it'll remind you of some great stories. My boys loved this book and the sequels (more about them later).

I was surprised at how much I enjoyed this . It was fun because it was a mystery and a romance, and also pretty funny. Easy and entertaining. (That's what I've been in the mood for lately.)

I've read every book by Tracy Chevalier because I loved Girl With a Pearl Earring . None of them have captured my imagination like that one did, but they've all been interesting and well written. Burning Bright features William Blake and his wife as characters. It was pretty good, but not great.

The Undomestic Goddess was perfect for the two flights home from New York City, when I was sick and tired and worried about the weather and just wanted something easy and entertaining to read.

On the one hand, this is quite enjoyable, nicely written and calming. On the other hand, it's too simplistic and positive. Tears of the Giraffe is the second in the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series, which takes place in Botswana. It reminded me of the one book in the Mitford series by Jan Karon that I've read.

As far as chick flicks go, Sweet Home Alabama is not bad. This is the second time I've seen it, though, and I don't think it would stand up to any more viewings. So I guess it's not a classic chick flick.

I can't decide if this is a pretty good movie or an just excuse for the main guy to kiss two women. The grandmother, played by Olympia Dukakis, was entertaining. I enjoyed the movie. But I still suspect that it was an excuse for the main character to kiss Meg Ryan and the younger hot thing. Mother and daughter! Woohoo! It kind of messes up my enjoyment a little bit.

This is a pretty good movie where Harrison Ford actually does some acting, since he plays a high-powered lawyer guy who suffers brain damage and becomes a different person after rehabilitation.

There's a mad uncle who is writing Difficult Sums for Children , a knowing housekeeper who nevertheless has misplaced Thursday, a horrible cousin, and, of course, "It," a cranky but hilarious Sand Fairy. Upon meeting the five children for the first time, he says, "Have your parents tried boiling you?" I enjoyed this much more than I thought I would.

Freedom Writers is based on the true story of a fresh-out-of-college teacher who ends up teaching the kids nobody wants to teach in L.A., the ones everyone expects will drop out in the next couple of years. They all ended up graduating, and they published a book called The Freedom Writers Diary: How a Teacher and 150 Teens Used Writing to Change Themselves and the World Around Them , which I'll definitely read someday. The movie was very good--good acting by Hilary Swank and others. Definitely worth seeing.

I'd never seen this classic film , though I've read the book at least twice. It was excellent, but it still doesn't hold a candle to the book. What a great story!

Our library doesn't have a very big selection, so sometimes I end up watching something like this . It's the first thing I've seen with Hilary and/or Haylie Duff, besides Napoleon Dynamite . Chalk it up to pop culture research. It was cute, though. And the corporate guy with the Bluetooth headset who was constantly having ambiguous conversations was hilarious. The Bluetooth Robo Guy talking to the air or responding inappropriately will become more and more funny, I think. On being introduced to someone, this guy said, "I love you very much. Yes. 'Bye."

This was a slightly bizarre movie about a kid who sets out on his bike to visit his father a few states away. There are mysterious things about the trip, some of which are explained. Someday I'll read the book on which the movie was based.

Bella is a beautiful film about Nina, a waitress in New York City who finds out she's pregnant, and Jose, the head chef of the restaurant where she works, who walks out on his job to help her figure out what she's going to do. He has a surprising and disturbing past, but also a bunch of wonderful Latino family members who help Nina see that life can be different from what she's experienced. The story is a tiny bit confusing, but it's really a great movie that deserves to be seen by a lot of people. If you have a chance to see it in a theater, please do!

It took me quite a while to get through Bushman's excellent, scholarly biography of Joseph Smith, and I'm proud of myself for it, in a silly, ridiculous way. After all, I'm a fiction-reader at heart, and this is a big book! And scholarly! It really is excellent, though, and covers everything you've ever heard about Joseph Smith. He puts Joseph into the context of his own time and, maybe most importantly for me, helped me understand what Joseph and Emma's marriage may have been like. I thought it was wonderful.

I found this first Hermux Tantamoq Adventure surprisingly delightful. Hermux is a mouse who makes watches and sort of accidently has adventures. I'm usually not that interested in books about talking animals, but the social commentary in this was funny and clever and unexpected, the story entertaining, and Hermux was gentle and sweet. It's geared for ages 10 and up.

Beautifully written short stories , mostly about Indians who've left India for the United States. I found them interesting and hopeful, for the most part.