Becky's Greatest Hits Vol. II

I love, love, love Tracy Chevalier!  The way she integrates art and history into fiction is simply beautiful.  This novel is a lot different from her previous pieces that I have loved as it deals with a very different time period and place: pre-Civil War farm life in rural Ohio.  Quite different from Girl With a Pearl Earring, even though Honor does remind me quite a lot of Griet!  The novels I've read so far this year have been very heavy in subject matter ranging from bipolar disorder to incest.  This also had a heavy subject: slavery.  But Chevelier's storytelling has a way of taking a complex and upsetting issue and making it easily read and digested.  I often think that fictional reading can enlighten us to deal better with social and personal problems.  This book is a great example of that!

A man of his generation and every generation to follow.  We can't be too sad at losing him after the long life he lead.  But there is an even greater sense of mourning when you think of him as being the last of his kind.   If I had a hammer, I'd hammer in the morning, I'd hammer in the evening, All over this land, I'd hammer out danger, I'd hammer out a warning, I'd hammer out love between, My brothers and my sisters, All over this land.

For a while last year, it seemed like every news source I turned to was talking about this awesome film.  I also heard the raw vocal recording of Merry Clayton belting out on "Gimme Shelter" while Mick Jagger exclaims in the background, and knew I HAD to see this.  And I really liked it. Even if it didn't endear me to most of the singers featured.  It really just got me to thinking about how success is defined by many people.  If you're well known, make a lot of money and garner a lot of respect, then you're considered successful.  But to some, success is more measured in terms of waking up every morning and feeling good about who you are and what you do.  Accolades or not.  I really dig that attitude. Which made me quickly fall in love with Lisa Fischer , one of the singers featured in this film.  You may not know her name, but you definitely know her voice .  She's had a lot of success.  Is well-known by the music community and p...

And when I awoke I was alone, this bird had flown So I lit a fire, isn't it good, norwegian wood?

I have crossed into the 21st Century, and to the Dark Side very probably, by finally getting an iPhone.  And it's a neat little gadget even though it nearly gave me a panic attack when I realized it could not possibly hold all my music.  I've asked my hubby to help keep me honest and admirable by not allowing me to do the following behaviors that annoy the piss out of me by iPhone users: ~looking at the phone more than the show, exhibit, game, concert, etc. ~checking in to EVERY blessed place they go ~taking and posting pics of the awesome views or plates in front of them at the moment ~constantly in a state of shuffling and looking down at it as they walk ~giving it more attention than their lunch/dinner companion ~those many, many selfies Hopefully I can avoid the pitfalls of technology and not become another one of those obnoxious hipsters.  Which, I've already decided, I much too old to be anyway.  So there, iPhone!  I will not let ...

I was intrigued to read this book after I heard it discussed on NPR especially when members of the panel wondered if it would have done as well if it had been remained under Rowling's pen name.  This book made me remember everything I hated about social work, volunteer work, church work and small-town community gossip.  Rowling tells the stories of adults every bit as well as she does of wizards.

"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."

All I want is one snow day.  Just one.  One day to stay at home.  One day to hang around in pajamas with my hubby.  One day to snuggle and care about nothing.  One day.  One!!!!!!

I had a lot of hope for this movie, since I really loved the book and I can say that the movie was okay but not great.  But to be fair, this book was very complicated and deep and would be hard to capture by anyone.....even a great director like Robert Redford.  Even if you haven't read the book, you will probably find this movie intriguing.  If you've read the book, you'll probably feel a little let down like me.  Final verdict: read the book by Neil Gordon.