60. Little Bee - Chris Cleave

read by Anne Flosnick
11 cds
288 pages

Adult Contemporary Realistic Fiction

Finished: 11/9/12

2008, Simon  & Schuster

Goodreads’ rating:  3.53

My rating: 4/Really liked it

Acquired: TPPL audio

Setting: Contemporary London and Nigeria
from GoodReads:  British couple Andrew and Sarah O'Rourke, vacationing on a Nigerian beach in a last-ditch effort to save their faltering marriage, come across Little Bee and her sister, Nigerian refugees fleeing from machete-wielding soldiers intent on clearing the beach. The horrific confrontation that follows changes the lives of everyone involved in unimaginable ways.Two years later, Little Bee appears in London on the day of Andrew's funeral and reconnects with Sarah. Sarah is struggling to come to terms with her husband's recent suicide and the stubborn behavior of her four-year-old son, who is convinced that he really is Batman. The tenuous friendship between Sarah and Little Bee that grows, is challenged, and ultimately endures is the heart of this emotional, tense, and often hilarious novel.Considered by some to be the next Kite Runner, Little Bee is an achingly human story set against the inhuman realities of war-torn Africa. Wrenching tests of friendship and terrible moral dilemmas fuel this irresistible novel.

Reflections: Fantastic writing, incredible story, but it was almost like he had to throw in every sort of sadness and non-happy ending (to MANY of the part of the story) that he possibly could. Yes, there was a lot of humor, too...5+ for the delicious words, 5 for the storytelling, 1 for the incredible sadness. This book has made me rethink what it is that I want in a "good" story.....I listened to this on CD and the reader was amazing. She read Little Bee's part in an English accent with the deep lilting tones of a Nigerian/Jamaican and Sarah's parts in a wonderful British accent. When she spoke as Andrew she gave Scottish inflections....it was really wonderful to listen to

Movie - Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2

PG-13 (1:55)
Wide release 11-15-12

saw the day before Thanksgiving, 11/21, at El Con with friends from work (Jackie, Jen M, Laraine)

RT Critic:  48   Audience:  77

cag: 4.5/Liked it a whole lot

Director:  Bill Condon

Lionsgate/Summit Entertainment

Kristen Stewart, Rob Pattinson, Taylor Lautner

I was really looking forward to this one, and I wasn't disappointed.  It was really good, a great ending to the saga with a few twists and surprises to boot.  Very enjoyable, will want to watch this one again.

Movie - The Bourne Legacy

PG-13 (2:15)

Wide release Aug. 12, 2012
on DVD Dec. 11, 2011

saw it at Crossroads cheapie theater

RT Critic: 56    Audience:  56

cag: 4.5 Liked it a whole lot

Directed by Tony Gilroy

Universal Pictures

Jeremy Renner, Rachel Weisz, Albert Finney

IMDb Summary:
The events in this movie takes place around the same time that the events in The Bourne Ultimatum. When a British reporter was writing an expose about Black Ops operations Treadstone and Black Briar, and the ones responsible for them are concerned. And when Jason Bourne, former Treadstone operative got the file on Treadstone and Black Briar and gave it to Pamela Landy who them passed it to the media. When the men behind Treadstone and Black Briar learn of this, they're concerned how this will affects other ops they have. They decide it's best to shut down all ops and make sure make everyone involved disappears. They try to take out Aaron Cross who is part of another op called Outcome, but he manages to survive. He then seeks out Dr. Marta Shearing who worked on him when he began. It seems part of the program is for all subjects to take medications but he has run out, which is why he seeks her. But someone tries to kill her. He saves her and she tells him, he should have stopped taking the meds long ago. They go to Manila so that she can help him. Later the men behind Outcome learn that Cross and Shearing are still alive.

Thoughts:  Action-packed, included great, thoughtful acting by Renner. 

Movie- Argo

R (2:00)

Released widely 10-12-12

on dvd 2-19-13

Viewed:

RT Critic: 96    Audience: 94

cag: Wonderful movie, 5/Loved it

Directed by Ben Affleck

Warner Brothers

Ben Affleck, John Goodman

MOVIE INFO

Based on true events, Argo chronicles the life-or-death covert operation to rescue six Americans, which unfolded behind the scenes of the Iran hostage crisis-the truth of which was unknown by the public for decades. On November 4, 1979, as the Iranian revolution reaches its boiling point, militants storm the U.S. embassy in Tehran, taking 52 Americans hostage. But, in the midst of the chaos, six Americans manage to slip away and find refuge in the home of the Canadian ambassador. Knowing it is only a matter of time before the six are found out and likely killed, a CIA "exfiltration" specialist named Tony Mendez (Ben Affleck) comes up with a risky plan to get them safely out of the country. A plan so incredible, it could only happen in the movies

Thoughts:  Superb movie, and the whole time you're watching you're marveling that this is based on a true story.  Affleck's acting and directing are impressive.

Movie - Pitch Perfect

PG-13 (1:52)

Limited Release 10-5-12 
on dvd 12/18/12

Viewed on Halloween night, Wed 10/31/12 at El Con

RT Critic: 80    Audience:  83

cag: Loved it/5

Directed by Jason Moore
Universal Studios

Anna Kendrick, Brittany Snow, Rebel Wilson

MOVIE INFO

Beca (Anna Kendrick) is that girl who'd rather listen to what's coming out of her headphones than what's coming out of you. Arriving at her new college, she finds herself not right for any clique but somehow is muscled into one that she never would have picked on her own: alongside mean girls, sweet girls and weird girls whose only thing in common is how good they sound when they sing together, in the new out-loud comedy Pitch Perfect. When Beca takes this acoustic singing group out of their world of traditional arrangements and perfect harmonies into all-new mash-ups, they fight to climb their way to the top of the cutthroat world of college a cappella. This could wind up either the coolest thing they'll ever do or the most insane, and it will probably be a little of both

Thoughts:  I laughed and laughed and totally enjoyed this movie.It was a really clever comedy.

59. Toppling

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Movie - The Master

R (2:18)

Limited release 9-14-12

Viewed: 1

/9/12 at El ConRT Critic:  85   Audience: 61

cag: 1/Did not like it (though the acting was fantastic)

Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson
The Weinstein Company

Joaquain Phoenix, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Adams, Laura Dern

MOVIE INFO

A striking portrait of drifters and seekers in post World War II America, Paul Thomas Anderson's The Master unfolds the journey of a Naval veteran (Joaquin Phoenix) who arrives home from war unsettled and uncertain of his future - until he is tantalized by The Cause and its charismatic leader (Philip Seymour Hoffman).

Thoughts:  I tried - I really, really did try - to figure out what was gong on and why.  Unfortunately, it was to no avail.  The acting was incredible, but the story was.......nuts.

MOVIE -Beasts of the Southern Wild

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Viewed 10/12/12 at Crossroas

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58. The Language of Flowers - Vanessa Diffenbaugh

2011, Ballantine Books
324 pages
for adults
HC $25.00 TPPL
Goodreads: 4.04
my rating: 5 (I loved it, didn't want it to end)
Setting:  Contemporary San Francisco and a vineyard and flower farm somewhere an hour and a half north of the Golden Gate Bridge.
1st sentence/s:  "For eight years I dreamed of fire.  Trees ignited as I passed the; oceans burned.  The sugary smoke settled in my hair as I slept, the scent like a cloud left on my pillow as I rose.  Even so, the moment my mattress started to burn, I bolted awake."

I read this book for a book group and became immediately enthralled. It was a delicious read. It was about a flawed foster child trying to figure out who and what and why she was, learning to trust...and love....and be part of a family. It takes place in contemporary San Francisco when Victoria turns 18, but occasionally goes back 8-10 years to the time she lived with Elizabeth, a single, vineyard owner, who planned to adopt Victoria. You know right from the start that something went terribly wrong during that time, but we don't discover exactly what it was until nearer the end of the book. There was a lot of information about flowers and the Victorian meanings of flowers, but it was all presented in a fascinating, interesting way so that even without a particular enjoyment of flowers it held my total attention.  Victoria's plight includes self-chosen homelessness, growing plants in public parks in San Francisco, stealing (food and flowers and anything she needed), discovering her business savvy, and learning to trust herself and not always running away.

One word for Victoria:  Bravo!  Thanks goodness I have never had to feel any of the abandonement or anguish that she did.

South - Patrick McDonnell

(creator of the comic strip "Mutts")
2008, Little Brown & Co.
$14.99 HC
www.muttscomics.com
Goodreads: 4.43
my rating:  Liked it a lot (4.5)
40 pgs. & endpapers
Endpapers (& all pages) recycled beige

This simple, wordless picture book is super -- sweet and quite a lovely story.  It is autumn.  A flock of songbirds takes off for the south and forgets one of their own, who is asleep on the ground under a tree.  Along comes a cat who helps him through all sorts of strange,foreign terrain...pages and pages of a journey....until they come upon the bird's flock, resting on a telephone wire.  By now the bird and cat are close friends and their parting is a meaningful one.

Yes, my fourth graders could write a lovely story to go with this.  The simple beige/brown/pale yellow pages could easily be photocopied for students to use -- and even water color in the pale blues and greens that appear here and there.

(Note to self:  Check out other books by this author.  Are they wordless?  (The Gift of Nothing, Art, Just Like Heaven, Hug Time.)  "Sometimes it takes a friend to help you find your way."

57. Akimbo and the Crocodile Man - Alexander McCall Smith

Illustrated by LeUyen Pham
1993, Bloomsbury Children's Books
HC $9.95
65 pages
7 chapters
Goodreads: 3.86
My rating:  2.5
I'm guessing, and for some reason never took the time to post this review....perhaps because I wanted to be more pleased with it than I was....

Akimbo's father is a park ranger somewhere in the African bush.  Since Smith placed his Ladies No. 1 Detective Agency books in Botswana (I think), and he's resided there and in Zimbabwe, it might be set in either.

John, a crocodile expert, has come to the ranger station to tag crocodile families - newborns and their mothers.  Akimbo gets permission to accompany him.  He sees the mother netted and tagged, watches the babies hatch and tagged.  The huge scary reptiles are everywhere - and Akimbo knows how dangerous they are.  But then the unthinkable happens.  John, a trained naturalist who should have known better, gets attacked by one as he's getting into their rubber boat.  Things get more and more difficult as Akimbo hits the crocodile on the head with the oar, traverses the dangerous water, and hot wires the truck to get it started.

The beginning of the book was quite interesting.  Its simple storytelling is peppered with some great words and descriptions.  But then, perhaps to spice up a story that needed a little suspense/thrill, it turned in a crazy direction.  I would have much preferred the ecological, environmental story with more caution thrown in.  I have students who would love the animal part of this.  I was even planning to read it aloud, but I think I'll try another in the series (Akimbo and the Elephants, Akimbo and the Lions, Akimbo and the Snakes....)

A Walk in London - Salvatore Rubbino

illustrated by the author
2011, Candlewick Press
32 pages (2 are foldouts - making a large map of the Thames)
Goodreads:  4.20
my rating:  I love England, I love this book (4.5)

Endpapers:  Map of London.  On back endpaper, there's a index.
Illustrations:  Mixed media - simple - full page - no white
1st sentence/s:  "Hello!  There's me, and that's my mom!  We just got off the bus in Westminster - in the heart of central London!"

Very informative book about some of the highlights of London, as seen through the eyes of a mother and daughter.  Included on each page are short pieces of historic information that would greatly interest kids who are (or are to become) history buffs.  Included are:  St. James Park, Buckingham Palace, Trafalgar Square, Covent Garden, Plazza Westmister/The Strand, St. Paul's Cathedral, "The Monument," Tower of London, the Thames, and Big Ben

Author/Illustrator's first picture book was A Walk in New York.  Lives (and walks) in London.

56. A Long Walk to Water - Linda Sue Park

Based on the true story of Salva Dut
2010, Clarion Books
122 pgs.
Goodreads: 4.18
My rating:  4.5

1st sentence/s:  "Going was easy.  Going, the big plastic container held only air.  Tall for her eleven years, Nya could switch the handle from one hand to the other, swing the container by her side, or cradle it in bot arms."

Setting:  southern Sudan, between 1985 and now.

OSS:  Two different voices, one of a Dinka "lost boy" of Sudan on a many-yeared journey to find a home, and a life; and one of a contemporary Nuer girl whose entire day is spent gathering water instead of going to school.

Wow.  Salva spends from 1985 to 1996 wandering, orphaned and homeless, from Sudan to Ethiopia to Kenya and finally to the United States before he can put down any kind of roots, get an education, and even find a few - new and old - family connections.  This is an amazing and wonderful true story of one of the thousands of "lost boys of Sudan," written by an award-winning author who actually knows him.

Salva has done amazing things with his life.  After you read this book (and you must) go to Salva's website:  Water for Southern Sudan.

55. 12.21 - Dustin Thomason

2012, Dial Press
328 pgs.
HC $27.00 TPPL
Goodreads rating: 3.52
my rating: 4 or maybe even 4.5, it was very good
1st line/s:  "He stands silently in the moonlight against the wall of the temple, the small bundle held tightly under his arm."

During the last two weeks before the Mayan Long Count (and the end of the world, some say) a deadly, uncontrollable disease with no antidote is unleashed on Los Angeles.  Dr. Gabriel Stanton, a brilliant researcher and Center for Disease Control authority on prion diseases and Chel Manu, a Mayan historian and linguist from the Getty, team up to try to find the origination of the disease in order to try to stop it AND cure it.

This was an interesting and suspenseful story, different than those I usually choose.  I enjoyed the entire book.

POETRY PICTURE BOOK - Book Speak! - Laura Purdis Salas

Poems About Books
illustrated by Josee Bisaillon
2011, Clarion Books (Houghton Mifflin)
32 pages
Goodreads rating:  4.31
cag:  5
21 poems - all about books and words!
Endpapers:   Plummy, purple gorgeous
Illustrations:  mixed media, collage, washes and paper cuts - a REAL mix of media!

One of the poems is a poem for 3 voices - about the beginning, middle, and end, from each point-of-view.  A class could present - but I need to get my hands on two more copies of the book!

The author's from Minneapolis, the illustrator's from Quebec.

CALLING ALL READERS

I'll tell you a story.
I'll spin you a rhyme.
I'll spill some ideas ----
and we'll travel through time.

Put down the controller.
Switch off the TV.
Abandon the mouse and
just hand out with me.

I promise adventure.
Come on, take a look!
On a day like today,
there's no friend like a book.

TOP SECRET

Describe your desires and they become mine.
I'm a treasure box where feelings can shine.
All thinkers need pages where dreams can take flight.
Reveal all
Your secrets, one entry per night.

BOOK PLATE

I don't need your napkin.

I'm not your soup bowl's mate.

I don't want your peas or bread.

I'm not that kind of plate!

Write your name upon me.

I'm a paper love tattoo.

Paste me in your book to show

That I belong to you.