The Perks of Being A Wallflower

 

I am taking this time to talk about a movie rather than a book.  One of my rules is that I never see a movie before reading the book. I guess you can call this rule two.  To refresh your memory, rule one is If I can't get into a book by reading the first fifty pages I stop reading the book. I broke rule two and I am glad and here is why. Emma Thompson was in this movie.  You know I am a huge Harry Potter fan and I loved Hermione.  I thought she did a very good job in this movie. So I made an exception and saw the movie first. After seeing the movie I started reading the book and had difficulty reading it.  I probably would never have gone to see the movie if I had read the book first.  (Rule number 1 could notget through the first fifty).  I did think the movie was well done. 

This is not your typical teen movie.  I saw it with my twenty year old daughter and both of us liked it.  It deals with the hard topic of surviving High School.  Many many kids go to high school and make it through just fine.  The trick and this goes for life in general is to find a group of people who accept you.

Charlie is a freshman who has some mental health issues which the viewer gets glimpses of in bits and pieces.  He hooks up with a group of older kids who are not part of the mainstream but who accept them.  The movie covers their friendship, their pain and even a little of their joy.  I think the movie did a great job capturing the many emotions that most of us experienced or will experience in High School.  This movie is worth watching.

 If you don't want to buy the movie you can rent it.  Click on  the book here on the bottom

 

 

The Art Forger by B.A Shapiro

The book begins with an article in a paper about the theft of several invaluable paintings that had been stolen from an art gallery in Boston. Included in this heist is a Degas. We are then introduced to an artist, Claire.

Claire is a struggling artist who makes a living reproducing famous works of art. Of course she longs to be known for her own original artwork. One day a gallery owner who she knows makes her an offer she finds hard to refuse.  He wants her to forge a very famous painting A Degas which just so happens to be the one stolen. He brings the work of art to her studio. He says he wants to have this reproduced or shall I say forged for the greater good and not just to make money. The plan is to return the real painting to the museum and sell the “reproduction”.  Claire will get paid for her work plus he offers her a show of her own original works. Claire sees this as an opportunity for her work.

She rationalizes with herself ultimately deciding to make a deal with the devil.  Nothing is easy especially making a deal with the devil and so she is dragged into a world of intrigue including whether to believe that the “original” painting in her studio truly is the one painted by Degas. It is a very interesting thriller.

 

Mr Penumbra’s 24 Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan

B is for Bookstore and for bizarre which is really what this book is all about.  Clay is an out of work tech guy.  The start- up company he worked for went belly up and now he is looking for a job.  He goes out for a walk one day to pass the time and think and stumbles into a bookstore.  The front portion of the bookstore is your usual and customary type bookstore. The stock is the kind that you might expect in any bookstore in any city.  The back of the bookstore however, is an enigma. The books are not your typical books with written words. There is no cost to read one of the books but you must be a member. To become a member a person must agree to a contract.  The contract makes the reader promise to read deeply whatever that means. If they read deeply the books will lead them to something remarkable.

On day a beautiful lady comes in and captures Clay’s eyes and head.  She is a techno wizard.  For all you NCIS fans she is McGee ramped up.  She works at Google and together they build a virtual Penumbra 24 Hour Bookstore and things start happening.  I can’t tell you anymore.  You must read it to figure it out.

I am always interested in reading the book jacket to find out a little bit about the author and it says “Robin Sloan grew up in Michigan and now splits his time between San Francisco and the Internet.”  Does that mean he spends half his time in a virtual world? 

 

Sex on the Moon  by Ben Mezrich

Space the final frontier and always a fascination to me.  When I was in High School I was so enamored by the space program that I wrote to NASA for any information on space and the program.  Several weeks later I received a large envelope filled with information and beautiful pictures of space and stars. Along with the packet was something totally unexpected, a letter from one of the Directors of the program ( I no longer remember who) informing me that if I was interested in the program to contact them after I finished college.  I kind of laughed at the time because even though I was very good at sciences and was a pre-med major in college my Math and physics skills were laughable.  Oh and in addition I suffer from motion sickness which at times can be really bad so being an astronaut was therefore out of the question.  My scope of knowledge of available positions at NASA was limited to being an astronaut, who knew there were people who actually supported the program doing other things. So I read the wonderfully written information, hung up the beautiful pictures and moved on.  Another opportunity lost.

The title of this book interested me.  You know me and titles.  The book is about Thad Roberts and the book pretty much starts with events that altered his life.  He grew up Mormon in Utah and was sent on his two year mission.  The first night in the dorm he and other young men in his dorm confess to premarital sex something considered a sin in their religion. He and his High School girlfriend could not wait for marriage. Unlike the others who kept this admission of guilt to themselves, Thad tells it to the “headmaster” and is asked to leave.  His parents disown him.  He ends marrying his high school girlfriend but they are very young and are struggling to make it.

One day he finds himself in the career center at the University of Utah looking for something that will pay a little more money and he finds literature about the Space Center Program.  This changes the course of his life and he does everything he can to obtain a coop position which is basically an internship position at the Johnson Space Center (JSC)  in Houston.  He gets it because he is a very intelligent young man.  The internship literally changes his life in so many ways.  He goes from being a shy awkward man to being the center of attention.  He dares to do what none of the others would ever dream to do like getting himself into buildings at the JSC where he does not have clearance.  He loved the attention in fact he craved the attention which caused him to make decisions he should not have made.  This book deals with his personal transformation, the Johnson Control Center, wonderful insites into the space program and his scheme to steal the very valuable moon rocks brought back by the Apollo missions.  I must say it is very interesting stuff although my title for the book would have been Stealing the Moon.

I Remember Nothing and Other Reflections  by Nora Ephron

I don’t understand, I am usually a pure fiction kind of girl but I am trying to open myself to different possibilities.  It sort of started when I picked up Bossy pants by Tina Fey and is continuing with this book by Nora Ephron.

Sadly Nora Ephron died in 2012 from a very nasty illness and its complications.  I am familiar with Ms Ephrons movies.  I mean who can forget the unforgettable film When Harry Met Sally starring Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan.   The mere mention of the movie brings back the scene in the deli between Harry and Sally. I don’t think I need to go any further explaining that scene, if you have seen the movie you will know what I am talking about.  If you haven’t seen the movie well then RENT THE MOVIE or Download it from Netflix or buy it at Amazon.com.  Just watch it. It’s a classic. 

This book is a little of this and that.  The beginning is spent talking about growing up with parents who both were writers. Who wrote the Play take her She’s Mine and Carousel.  Unfortunately they became alcoholics and the family home life became a disaster.  I found it interesting how she described her parents as one day they were not alcoholics and the next day they were.  All her sisters are writers.  Maybe it’s genetic being a writer I mean not being sisters that is genetic.

She talks about her days at Newsweek and the Post and she talks about her marriages and divorces.  It seems like the marriage and divorce that most impacted her was number two to Carl Bernstein.  Yes she knew who Deep Throat was and actually told people but they really didn’t believe her.

One thing she said that really made me pause was that as a writer she hoped to write something profound and she said she didn’t.  Maybe what she wrote wasn’t profound but a lot was certainly memorable.  I really enjoyed reading this book.

The Boonsboro Inn Trilogy by Nora Roberts

Nora Roberts is a prolific writer.  She has written many, many books and I have read many of her books. Many of her books are Lifetime books.  I mean that sincerely since many of them have been turned into movies for the Lifetime Network.  Sucker that I am I have watched them. What can I say, I am a sucker for romance and happy endings.  Hey someone needs a happy ending to their story.

I just read her Boonsboro Inn Trilogy.  Sunday mornings I wake up make myself coffee, sit down to read the Washington and lo and behold the travel section is spotlighting Nora Robert’s Inn, The Boonsboro Inn.  Well imagine my surprise to find out the setting for her last three books actually existed.  I must admit I did not enjoy her last few books.  She has become so formula driven that you basically can write the story with her.  Ok you may not be able to write it but you certainly can figure out where it the story is going.  A little boring, I must confess.  Gone are the days when I looked forward to reading the books that made up a series.  I loved her Key series and her Chesapeake series and a few of her stand alone novels, her new stuff not so much.  Nora go back to writing like you use to, change your damn formula.

Getting back to the Inn, the rooms are named for romantically linked couples in works of fiction.  Each room apparently is very well appointed.  In her Boonsboro books the Inn is haunted with a lovely but petulant ghost who comes to the rescue several times throughout the series.  I have to admit I loved the description of the Inn much better than the actual characters.  It is obvious Ms. Roberts has great affection for the Inn as does the person who wrote the article in the Travel section of the Post.  I wouldn’t recommend the books but I do hope I get to see the Inn.

 

 

 

Bossypants  by Tina Fey

Of course I knew Tina Fey before I picked up this book.  Well I don’t actually know her personally, I know of her like millions of other people.  I will never forget her as Sarah Palin or in 30 Rock.  And I confess I didn’t actually read the book I listened to it in my car read by Tina Fey.  I think the fact that she herself read the book added a lot to the enjoyment of the story. It was kind of like she was sitting on my couch just chattin with me, Just us girls.

I really did not know what to expect from this book.  As I discussed in my previous blog I always am curious about why an author picks a title.  Once again Tina answers my question in the introduction so my curiosity was satisfied very early on.  The book is her autobiography and I found the book to be humorous at times and very biting and sarcastic at other times but what would a comedian be if not funny and sarcastic. What I was really surprised about is how much we had in common like her distaste for cruises. Any of you who know me are well aware of how much I abhor big boats and the ocean.  I know a lot of you love to cruise and I respect that however, there is no way I would willingly get on a ship and spend any time on the open or closed sea.  Who cares if there is an all you can eat buffet.  I am happy eating a normal meal rather than stressing about how the heck I will burn of the extra 20,000 calories I have just eaten when my body is barely able to handle 1200.  Yes I have a metabolism with two speeds slow and stop.

 

The other thing she talked about was the “health class’ we had in fifth grade.  I don’t know if any of you remember it.  It was not a coed class so I think you all know what was being discussed.  If any guys are reading this you may want to skip to the next paragraph.  The topic of discussion in this class was Aunt Flow and Bloody Mary and we were given a little goody package that helped us deal with those feminine icons if you know what I mean.  

 Last thing she talked about going to a photo shot with wet hair and no makeup so the hair and make-up people had a very distinct before and after.  She seemed to think that they felt a real sense of achievement with the after.  It’s kind of how I feel when I go into Sephora.  The only difference is I wear make-up there and the make-up artist still winces when I ask her about applying eye make-up.  I do want to give a shout out to the lovely make-up artist who with extreme professionalism and patience showed me how to do a smokey eye.  Needless to say I bought all the products she had used.  I promise to work hard to get it to look like that again or not.

That is where the similarities and things we share in common end. 

 It is always interesting to learn what experiences in a person’s life caused them to choose their profession and the path they chose.  If you like Tina Fey LISTEN to the audio book.  I think you will really enjoy it.