Room With A View--Film

So I got the Merchant Ivory version from Netflix. It was every bit as good as I remembered. I love it! I'm not sure why. The only thing that kind of bugs me is George. I like the actor enough, but I just don't think he's exactly right like the other ones.

**To skip the nudity, when Freddy and Mr. Beebe invite George for a bathe, watch them walk to the lake, then hit skip. You'll go right to the "troublesome boiler" chapter.

Some things I love about this movie. The story, see book review for details. I think Mrs. Honeychurch and the Miss Alans are even more charming than their characters come off in the book. After Charlotte goes inside to get change, Mrs. Honeychurch laughs and it is so great!

I loved the way George kind of scissor jumps over the tennis net and then lays next to Cecil and Lucy. I LOVE the scene where Charlotte is sitting on the ground, then clears her throat and says, "Oh I've had this cough for weeks, it has nothing to do with sitting on the ground."

I guess since its been at least 10 years and probably more like 15 since I've watched the movie, Lucy would seem really young to me. She seemed like a teenager almost. Her posture was so great, and her little pouts. Helena Bonham Carter does a great job. I think all the actors and actresses are so good in this movie. Daniel Day-Lewis~hilarious!!

Austenland by Shannon Hale

I enjoyed reading this book! I recommend it if you are looking for something light and fast.

I think this book is pretty predictable, but it was still fun to read. I couldn't put it down once I started, and it is short.

I'm not the hugest Austen buff, but I've read enough and seen enough movies to follow along. I need to watch that BBC version of Pride and Prejudice, so I can really be cool. Reading this you feel like it was written by someone you know. That's how I felt. It almost seemed like she could have said, I had this funny idea the other day....But it was a creative frame for a romantic comedy.

I think the type of place was believable considering the disposable income and fantasys of certain middle aged women. Plus SO many people are obsessed with Jane Austen.

I love that the great-aunt gave her the trip, and the whole opening scene with her mom and aunt was a great nod to Austen, Forester, all those British authors.

Some lines I liked:

"Like drinking a cold glass of water after too much sugary punch."

"He was so cute and funny and so-not-Mr. Darcy....and so-not-typical-Jane."

BUT the best one was,

"Why was the judgement of the disapproving so valuable?"

Founding Mothers by Cokie Roberts

I recommend this book!

What an interesting read! This book is about just what the title suggests, "The Women who Raised our Nation." Most of the information presented is from letters between women and their husbands and friends. Martha Washington, Abagail Adams, Mercy Otis Warren, Kitty Greene are just a few of the central women.

I loved getting a little different historic perspective. I'm overwhelmed by what these women sacrificed to make the work of their husbands and sons possible. It is also so sad to realize that these mothers lost so many of their children. They basically had babies then got pregnant again over and over. Both moms and babies died in childbirth, and children died often from whooping cough, small pox, all kinds of things. I guess I knew all this stuff but to see the pattern in real women's lives was very humbling. It makes me so grateful for modern medicine!

I enjoyed reading this book, I wish I had kept better notes, because some of the stories overlap and begin to blur in my mind. I'm not sure I could recall to you specific chronological details. I did learn at book club that there is an alphabetized index in the back, so you could easily look up and flip back if you forgot who someone was. But I didn't know it in time.

I didn't even know that Ben Franklin was married. He wrote a nice thing about his wife posthumously, "I always discovered that she knew what I did not know."

Some other cool quotes:

Abagail Adams, "If we mean to have heroes, statesmen and philosophers, we should have learned women."

"We have done evil or our enemies would be at peace with us. The sin of slavery as well as many others is not washed away."

"I can hear of the brilliant accomplishment of any of my sex with pleasure....At the same time I regret the trifling narrow contracted education of the females of my own country."

Martha Washington, "The greater part of our happiness or misery depends up on our dispositions, and not up on our circumstances."

I was a little surprised at how readily these women left their children to be with their husbands. I guess I don't entirely understand their reasoning. But several children were left with aunts, grandparents, even sent away to school. Because these were mostly more affluent families, I'm guessing that a lot of the child rearing was being done by servants, nurses or slaves. So maybe it wouldn't be as different. The women seem to take a lot of pride in their children, and heartache when they lost them. It just seemed weird to me that they didn't always raise them.

This book took me awhile to read because it is so packed with information. The narrative does jump around people and forward and backward in time. Sometimes this is distracting, but I think it's unavoidable with the information she is trying to present. You can't really cruise through it, but it is a worthwhile read!

Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine

I really liked this book. (Thanks Betsy for the recommendation and the loan!) I haven't seen the movie yet, but reading the book makes me want to now.

It took me a few pages to get into the book. I'm not usually a fan of fairytales and fantasy beyond children's books, so the whole Ogres, gnomes, fairies, giants talk was a little off-putting at first. But like a good book, once the story developed, I was hooked.

I think that the take on the Cinderella story was good. Original, but it kept enough similarities to make it clever. It's a sweet romantic story, with a spunky Ella. I think she was a fun character, pretty original in that she wanted to be funny, and was strong-willed about her curse.

I also liked the way the curse was resolved. In case the book is different than the movie, or in case I'm not the only one who hasn't seen it, I won't go into detail. But I liked that Ella was a strong character without feeling like feminism was being thrust out a as a central theme.

This is a fun young adult story. Probably even intermediate. I don't think my boys would read it, but I think it would be age appropriate for them.

Was it this movie that made the name Ella so popular a few years later?

confessions of a slacker mom by Muffy Mead-ferro

I didn't like this book. I liked the idea, I thought it would be relatable and at least humorous.


Instead I think it was self-gratifying and arrogant. I think the author probably has some good ideas, but her examples and her reference point were extreme and stupid.


I don't know one person who has a TV in each of their kids rooms. I don't know one person who wants their kids to be years ahead in school, but not be able to catch a ball. Maybe she was exaggerating to be funny, but if so her arguments kind of lose their power. But actually I don't think they had much power to start with.

I'll admit that half-way through the book I was done with it. It's short so I finished, hoping to find something more redeemable or valuable. I don't think there are any new ideas here. NONE. There were things I agreed with and things I didn't, but it didn't open up my eyes to anything, nor provide me with any new ideas.

I do think she has enough ideas and funny things to say that she could have written an at least partially entertaining magazine article. Really not enough substance for a whole book.


One more gripe:  I think her kids are a little young for her to think she has it all figured out.


I could rant some more, and I apologize for not taking better notes and being more specific with my complaints. I guess I'm a slacker.

A Room With A View by E.M.Forster

I've never seen this cover before, but it's the best I could find!

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this book. After raving about it at book club I came home and started reading it again for two reasons. 1) To make sure I did still love it, and 2) to see if it stands alone with out the great Merchant Ivory film I fell in love with in college.

So I know that the answer to 1) is yes. But I'm still not sure about the 2). I'm sad my blockbuster doesn't carry it because I'm really in the mood to see the movie now that I've re-read the story. The two are so intwined in my mind that I can't figure out which one I would recommend you read/see first. Just be warned that there is nudity, humorous--not suggestive, but full.

What I Love:

This story is a comedy. The characters are hilarious. Miss Bartlett must be the most annoying person ever created, but she even makes you laugh. I think we all are reminded of people that have similiar personalities. Her lines kill me. And then when Mrs. Honeychurch tells Lucy she is just like her, I felt like laughing even though I could feel the absolute horror that Lucy was feeling. I hate it when people compare me to someone who I'm convinced I'm nothing like.

I love the chapter titles. Like, "Possibilities of a Pleasant Outing," and "Lying to Mr. Beebe, Mrs. Honeychurch, Freddy, and the Servants."

I love that Forster doesn't bother with physical descriptions. He describes the views a couple of times I guess, but no lengthy list of adjectives introducing characters, no long descriptions of the monuments they see abroad. I appreciate that. I get annoyed when writers feel the need to paint every detail for us. I think it works really well with this story. Leave out the unneccessary.

Lastly, I love the story. I think it is original. It may be a little cliche that the character doesn't know who she loves, or what she should do, when it seems obvious to the reader. But it's so short and so witty. You don't spend much time being frusterated or irritated with characters. I guess I've felt that way too many times in books.

I also love the smartness of Forster's writing. The subtle and not so subtle symbolism. The Emerson's provide Lucy with a "view" throughout the story. Who provides the "spiritual guidance." The forshadowing, all of it.

Is it like Jane Austen?

So I was also trying to answer this question, 3rd reason I guess. I'm also not sure of the answer. I haven't read an Austen novel in a while. I think Forster writes more humorously. Class distinction and "properness" are kind of mocked in this novel.

What I don't love:

The only thing is that some of the book still goes over my head. Because this was written 100 years ago, there are things Forester refers to that I just don't understand. I also haven't been to Europe, which I think adds to that. There are the obvious things like Italian phrases, and words like "shibboleth." (Which I looked up, and it wasn't the intended meaning) But there are less obvious references that lose their meaning on me. None of these, however, affect the book's effect on me.

Great Quotes:

"Then the pernicious charm of Italy worked on her, and, instead of acquiring information, she began to be happy."

"I think that you are repeating what you have heard older people say. You are pretending to be touchy; but you are not really."

"Perhaps anything that he did would have pleased Lucy, but his awkwardness went straight to her heart"

"My brain has gone to pieces. Part of it lives three minutes back, when I was sure that you loved me."

"It was unladylike? Why? Why were most big things unladylike?"

Divisadero by Michael Ondaatje

I have to say that I just don't get into this style of writing. Or maybe I mean form. I haven't read this author before, so I don't know if this is typically how he writes his books.

Here's what I mean. The book begins with a family, two sisters their father and a farm hand that has basically been raised by the father. So you read several chapters about the family and how a tragic event affects them. It flashes to different times in the future and what the characters are doing. Then there is a section that follows a character from one of the girl's stories, there is one more flash forward to her sister, then the next section goes way back in time in the life of one of the other characters. Nothing more about the original story.

I honestly didn't want to finish it when I realized that I had about 30 pages left and it was all going to be about Segura the writer. I just felt more emotionally attached to the first family and their stories. Not even an ounce of resolution. The story just ends and you think it will come back and it doesn't.

I liked the way the stories were written, and I like the characters. There's a little too much violence, and a little forced romanticism. Really, people carry herbs in their pockets so they can just pick veggies from the wild and with a loaf of bread make a meal. This happens in more than one instance. Then again I've never been to France.

I know this isn't much of a review, but my feelings were all over the place and I thought the book was too. I won't be rushing to read his other books.

Dream When You're Feeling Blue by Elizabeth Berg

Overall Recommendation: Sure. I think this is a nice story. Its not going to change your life, but I enjoyed it.


What I liked: This is the story of three sisters during WWII. They are young adults living at home. I liked the sisterly interactions, I think they could have been more developed as individuals, but they were believable characters.

I liked the interaction of their family. I liked all the letter writing and the routine of their lives.

What bugged me: It seemed to me that Elizabeth Berg had a list of all the 1940's research she did, and she made sure to cram in every little reference to the era, pop culture, figure of speeches, propoganda. It felt forced. We know its 1943 already. It felt like she wanted to keep pointing out what was going on around the characters. But the story is so entwined with the war, you don't forget what year it is. All the references to clothing trends, rations, war posters, bonds, it just got a little distracting.

I also didn't like the ending. I don't want to "give it away," but I just thought it was a little disappointing.

The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd

Recommendation: If you haven't read this book, READ IT!

After reading the last two "downer" books, I reached for an old friend, and wasn't disappointed.

One of my favorite books I've read in the last few years. I don't think there are many people who haven't read it, so I'm not going to review it.

Just a reminder if you've forgotten about it.

Gossip: When I was looking for a cover picture, I saw that they are making a movie of this. Dakota Fanning as Lily, Queen Latifah as August, Jennifer Hudson as Rosaleen, Alicia Keyes as June.

It is listed on IMBD as "post-production."

Everyone seems a little younger than I imagined, but then again, I'm getting old.

The Awakening by Kate Chopin

I read this in college, but didn't remember much past the premise. Because it takes place around the same time and has the same theme as Loving Frank, I thought I might as well.

I do feel for the women of this time period. I appreciate efforts women, including Mamah Borthwick, made in order to further Women's rights, suffarage, etc...I just feel like the stories are too extreme.

I think that in my day, women are encouraged to have book clubs and Ladies Nights. It is expected that we get bored or feel underappreciated. I would hope that that gives us a form to stand on and to try hard to meet our needs. In both these books, I kind of left with the thought that you can't let your life get to this point. The point where your only option is complete abandon.

An interesting quote from Edna Pontellier: "I would give up my life for my children; but I wouldn't give up myself."