FiftyFifty Reading Challenge - Book #3 - Middlesex

I had to abandon the YA title, "The House of the Scorpion," by Nancy Farmer. I had gotten to page 60 but wasn't digging any part of that book. Ugh. Hate to give up on a book, but time is too precious, right? I want, really want, to like YA books, but they're not working for me.
So I turned to my bookshelf, filled with titles and titles and titles, most of which I have read, but many of which I have not: books purchased On Sale or when Borders was shutting down, or for their cover designs that attracted me like a moth to light. Yes, I do judge a book by its cover.
Searched through my fiction section. Found "Middlesex," by Jeffrey Eugenides. A sticker on the top right of the book: Oprah's Book Club. Translation: I'll probably like it.
I started reading. Paragraph one begins:
"I was born twice: first, as a baby girl, on a remarkably smogless Detroit day in January of 1960; and then again, as a teenage boy, in an emergency room near Petoskey, Michigan, in August of 1974."
Now that's quite a hook, ain't it?

FiftyFifty.Me -Movies 3 & 4

What's not to love in a movie about baseball, featuring America's honey Brad Pitt?
Moneyball was a homerun in my eyes. I know, I know, stupid, cliched pun. But still ... . Loved it, loved it, loved it. Pitt's portrayal of Billy Beane was fun to watch, what with the ever present khaki-pants-sports-polo uniform and tobacco-chewing spit cup. Just a well acted, feel-good movie. Jonah Hill was amazing, too. (Watched Sunday, Feb. 19, with HAS.)

Cancer sucks. I hate cancer. Cancer killed my dad in 2007; it's killing my aunt and my uncle. Given my hatred for the disease, and my at-times strange sense of humor, it is no wonder that I sat down to watch "50/50," a movie about a young man who has, as Seth Grogan's character states, "Level 4 back cancer." I LOVED this movie, all parts of it, including the silly and the sad. My favorite line, spoken by Grogan's character as he applies a healing ointment to his friend's fresh scar: "Man, this is some SAW shit." Just funny. Finding the humor in the serious and sad and tragic appeals to me. Definitely a five-star movie. (Watched Monday, Feb. 20, with Elizabeth.)

FiftyFifty.Me Book #2 and Movie #2 - "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas"

First I watched the movie, on a chilly sort of day. HAS was home for Presidents' Day, and I had a 99-cent movie, titled The Boy in the Striped Pajamas.
The movie opens with three little boys playing in the streets of a populated city, circa 1940. They're pretending to be airplanes, their arms outstretched, voices buzzing. As a lover of All Things Children, I was hooked.
The movie is, simply, extraordinary. From the opening to the ending, I and HAS watched, riveted.
So sad, the ending. Didn't see it coming. I hadn't yet read the book.
After the movie, I got the book from my bookshelf, noted my handwritten inscription: Kathleen Stander, Scholastic Book Fair, 2007. Read the book jacket: "The story of The Boy in the Striped Pajamas is very difficult to describe. Usually we give some clues about the book on the jacket, but in this case we think that would spoil the reading of the book. We think it is important that you start to read without knowing what it is about.
If you do start to read this book, you will go on a journey with a nine-year-old boy called Bruno. (Though this isn't a book for nine-year-olds.) And sooner or later you will arrive with Bruno at a fence.
Fences like this exist all over the world. We hope you never have to encounter such a fence."
I started the book Monday afternoon, post movie viewing. Finished Tuesday morning.
Book is a quick, but unforgettable, read. Five stars.

The Boy in the Striped Pajamas
A Fable by John Boyne
Copyright 2006
Published by David Fickling Books
an imprint of Random House Children's Books
a division of Random House, Inc.
New York
Summary: Bored and lonely after his family moves from Berlin to a place called "Out-With" in 1942, Bruno, the son of a Nazi officer, befriends a boy in striped pajamas who lives behind a wire fence.

Movie #1 of FiftyFifty Challenge ...

Finally, I saw a movie in 2012. What, six weeks into the new year, and I am finally getting to a theater? Not like me at all.
The Descendants was worth my wait. Although emotionally wrenching to witness, I loved the movie for its emotional depth and realistic family dynamics.
Didn't hurt, visually, that the movie was set in America's beautiful state of Hawaii.
I give The Descendants five stars.
Perfect movie about imperfect human relationships.

Feeling wistful

Today, as I dismantled All Things Christmas, I couldn't help but feel a longing for so many things: my youth, my children's youth, my first love (not for him, but for the feelings I had in his presence), my old body (before middle-aged weight gain).
These feelings surfaced because I was on my own with the take-down boxes. The husband and son had left at daybreak for a quick run to Des Moines. Daughters were nowhere to be found (one at work? one out with friends?), and so it was me and the dogs and a flood of memories.
It didn't help that I was posting on Facebook the Top Song of my birthweek: The Rolling Stones' "(Can't Get No) Satisfaction" ... others were doing the same ... and I became infected by those postings. My ADD does not need much help to distract me from any chore or project, and next thing I knew I was watching four or five youtube videos ~ the Stones, Sonny & Cher, Herman's Hermits.
Pretty soon, I changed my FB profile, used my baby picture, which got me to thinking: Did that big-eyed little girl know what she was in for? The dysfunctional family, the screaming mother, the alcoholic father (he was more fun than Sober Mom), the bitchy sister, the flat hair, the crooked teeth, the unpleasant loss of virginity, the heartbreak from loves lost and unrequited relationships, the quick marriage, the pain of childbirth, the heartbreak of parenting.
No, it is a good thing she did not know. Or others like her.
No one would want to grow up.

FiftyFifty Reading Challenge ~ Book # 1

FiftyFifty Reading Challenge ~ 2011

Major: National Book Award Winners

Title # 1: What I Saw and How I Lied (Author: Judy Blundell)

Publisher: SCHOLASTIC PRESS/NEW YORK

Copyright: 2008

Started: January 1, 2012

Finished:

First paragraph:

"The match snapped, then sizzled, and I woke up fast. I heard my mother inhale as she took a long pull on a cigarette. Her lips stuck on the filter, so I knew she was still wearing lipstick. She'd been up all night."

Fifty books, fifty movies, and me

Just signed up for an amazing challenge: Read fifty books and see fifty movies in one year.

My writer friend posted a link to the 50/50 challenge on her Facebook page a few days ago, and ever since it's all I've been thinking about. Well, that and Indian food. Taj Majal opened in Liberty about six weeks ago and I've been there half a dozen times. My new deathrow last-meal request is now going to be chicken tikki masala and onion naan.

But I digress.

My "major" in this reading/viewing challenge is to read fif ... fift ... fifty books that have garnered National Book Award status (Read: Big Deal; Impressive Literary Award). Going to start with a YA Title: What I Saw and How I Lied by Judy Blundell.

I intend to blog about each book and movie as I go.

Oh yeah, my "minor" is to watch fifty movies that started out as books.

I can already see, ten minutes into fully grasping this challenge, that it is going to be difficult to focus only on NBA and book/movies: I will try my best, but I am already admitting that a random novel from my bookshelf is going to sneak in, or a movie one of the offspring brings into the house will end up in the DVD player.

DEFINITELY I will be reading above-mentioned writer friend's YA novel Hate List, which collected numerous awards, too. Her name: Jennifer Brown.

And I know her. Feels good to know a "real-live-publishing-author"!

Maybe someday I'll get there myself. If not, I'll have a heckuva good time reading good books and seeing good movies.