The Intouchables

Once again I stray from talking about books to talking about movies.  I just happened upon this movie by accident and I am so glad.  This is a heartwarming story about two men.  One is a rich man Philippe who was in an accident leaving him a quadriplegic in need of twenty four hour care.  The other, Driss is an out of work man, a drifter with nowhere to go.  He applies for the job of Philippe’s caretaker only to meet the requirements of collecting unemployment benefits.  To his amazement he is hired.  Philippe is looking for someone who does not pity him and Driss fits that requirement to a tee. What makes this movie special is the relationship that develops between the two and what they bring to each other’s life.  I loved the movie.  Oh and one more thing, it is in French with English subtitles which made it easier me.  Don’t let this stop you.  See the movie!

For anyone who speaks french fluently, I used google translater

Une fois de plus je m'éloigne de parler de livres pour parler des films. Je suis tombé sur ce film par hasard et je suis si heureux. C'est une histoire touchante de deux hommes. L'un est un homme riche Philippe qui était dans un accident qui l'a laissé tétraplégique besoin de soins 24 heures. L'autre, Driss est un homme de travail, un vagabond avec nulle part où aller. Il s'applique pour le travail de Philippe de gardien uniquement pour répondre aux exigences de percevoir des prestations de chômage. À sa grande surprise, il est embauché. Philippe est à la recherche de quelqu'un qui n'a pas pitié de lui et Driss répond à cette exigence à un tee. Ce qui rend ce film spécial est la relation qui se développe entre les deux et ce qu'ils apportent à l'autre de sa vie. J'ai adoré le film.  Ne laissez pas cela vous arrêter. Voir le film!
 

Lincoln The Movie

In September of last year I blogged about the book Killing Lincoln: The Shocking Assassination that Changed America Forever by Bill O’Reilly and Martin Dugard . Now the amazing film Lincoln starring Daniel Day Lewis, Sally Fields and Tommy Lee Jones is coming out on Blu-ray and DVD. If you haven’t seen it now is your chance. If you have seen it now is your chance to own a great movie and watch it again.

Hostess Oh Joy!

Hostess

Oh Joy! I read in the Sunday Washington Post that the sale of Hostess brands to the investment firms of Apollo Global Management and Metropoulos and Company has been approved.  Does that mean the hostess cupcake, twinkies and Ding dongs will be saved from extinction?  You know how much I love my cupcakes!

Cupcakes

Recently I wrote about a book that centered on a cupcake baker.  If you haven’t read the blog post you can find it under How to Eat a Cupcake. Now I am sure that if you have any kids you have baked cupcakes.  I myself have no idea how many cupcakes I have baked for bake sales, birthdays or holidays. Cupcakes are wonderful.  And just for a little history is seems like the cupcake was first mentioned as a notation in a book called American Cookery by Amelia Simmons in 1796.  Anyway by definition, the cupcake according to dictionary.com is a small cake, baked in an individual portion, baked in a cup shaped mold.  My definition is a cake just for me, just mine.

My daughter was home on spring break this week and we participated in one of our favorite pastimes retail therapy.  We decided to do this said therapy at Columbia Mall in Columbia, Maryland.  We have not been at this mall for awhile and as we were walking from one end of the mall to the either in our attempt at exercising while shopping we came upon this kiosk  on the lower level near Brookstones that had the most exquisite cupcakes.  The place is called Crumbs and if you haven’t tried it all I will say is you must! My personal favorite is a toss- up between the apple crumb cupcake and the carrot cake cupcake.  I try to rationalize that at least if you eat one of these you get some sort of fruits and vegetables but in the end you are just getting amazing cakes. Crumbs is located in thirteen states and I am including the link so you can check if there is on near you.  Also if you live in the New York City area groupon has a cupcake walking tour and one of the stops is the Crumbs bakery.   Again try it you’ll love them!

The link to Crumbs:  http://www.crumbs.com/locations

How to Eat A Cupcake

 

By Meg Donohue

Annie returns to the home she group up in to cater a function. She is an excellent cupcake baker and when the St Clair’s ask you to do something it is hard to say no. But the home she grew up in is not truly her home. She moved there with her mother who was the nanny to Julia St Clair. The two girls were good friends in high school but then Julia betrayed and hurt her. Now it is time for Julia to make good on the damage she had created ten years before. The book has a couple of twists that were not expected.
 
This book has a little of everything.  There is a story of friendship, there is some romance and there is a mystery.  A little of this, a little of that just like a recipe.

For those of you who download books to your computer or a kindle this book is a steal on Amazon.com

 

Memoirs of an Imaginary Friend  by Matthew Dicks

I have never had an imaginary friend and I don’t know of anyone that had that had one either.  Or perhaps they might have had an imaginary friend but they chose to keep the knowledge of the friend to themselves.  All I know is if I did have an imaginary friend it would be one that was fully fleshed out. Apparently children in this book did not feel that need or they did not have the sophistication or the intelligence but Max did.

Max is a special needs child and while nothing is spelled out from how the author describes him it seems like he has Aspbergers syndrome.  His imaginary friend is the narrator of the story and from the beginning it is clear that Budo is different than the other imaginary friends.  He is so life like that most of the time you forget that he is imaginary. He is Max’s only friend given the fact that Max cannot relate to his human classmates.  But like all imaginary friends his job is to be there for Max to get him through good and bad times.  Budo really has to step up to the plate when Max mysteriously disappears from school.

The author does a good job describing the emotions and challenges of a special needs child and the relationships the child does or does not form with those around them.

I Feel Bad About My Neck and Other Thoughts on Being a Woman by Nora Ephron

I feel bad about my neck.  No really I feel bad about my neck and I have for awhile now. This is one of the many subjects Nora Ephron talks about in her book and I agree with her.  She said that according to her dermatologist, a woman’s neck starts to go south at 43.  I don’t know why 43 is the magic number and not a milestone like 45 but that’s what she said. And here is the worst part; it can only be fixed with surgery.  Botox will not do.  I HATE SURGERY!  I HATE SURGEONS!  A very good friend of mine recently had this procedure done and she looks absolutely great.  But she is much braver then I am and once again I must state, I HATE SURGERY.  I will just have to decide how bad ly I really do feel about my neck.  Maybe I will just wear scarves or maybe I will buck up and have the surgery and while they are at it they can do liposuction and a tummy tuck oh yeah and a nose job!

Another thing she talks about is purses.  I kind of agree with her feelings about purses.  I don’t want to paraphrase her great explanation so I will just let you read it.  All I know is, I go through phases with my purse.  Sometimes I carry a small purse and sometimes a large one.  I am in my large purse phase right now.  I can always measure my stress level by my purse’s interior.  When I am really stressed out my purse is a trash bin when I am not that stressed, it is pretty darn organized.

She also talks about cooking and cookbooks.  She has actually met some cookbook authors and been influenced by them.  I remember in the 80’s I was pretty obsessed with cookbooks and cooking.  I had the time and the inclination and no kids who complained if I made something out of the ordinary calling it orphanage food which was shortened to O.F.  What do kids know anyway? Now I am too tired and uninterested in any type of experimentation.  See kids you have won.  Dinner will now be dull and boring!

There are so many topics that she covers, so many truisms about woman and getting older.

Read the book she is very insightful

The Cottage at Glass Beach  by Heather Barbieri

It is time for me to start my beach read list and this is the first one, although if you have the time you can read it now. Visualize yourself sitting on a beach. For me it is on the Outer Banks.  The waves are hitting the shore and you can hear the sound of the seagulls calling to each other.  I am sitting under an umbrella and I have blocked out the world. Or maybe I am on a beach in Jamaica and someone has just brought me a fruity drink that has more rum than fruit. Yum. Blissful don’t you think?

This book is written by the same author who wrote The Lace Makers of Glenmara and while I liked that book better it is still a good story. 

Nora lived in a cottage at Glass Beach with her parents until she was five years old and the unthinkable happened, her mother disappeared. She and her Mom had been in a small boat when a storm came upon them.  When she woke she had no memories of what had happened. Nora’s father was devastated and packed them both up and moved to Boston.

Years later, when she finds out that her politician husband has been cheating on her, she returns to the cottage with her daughters. At first she is there to get away from the scandal surrounding her and her husband and to think things through. But she finds herself sifting through the past.

Living History by Hillary Rodham Clinton

Oh the things she has seen. Oh the places she has been. Oh the people she has met. Hillary Rodham Clinton is a Yale law graduate, the first female chairperson of Legal Service Corporation, the first lady for eight years, a wife, a mother, a US Senator from NY, a presidential candidate and most recently Secretary of State. Actually the list of her accomplishments goes on and on.

Aptly titled Living History, Hillary Rodham Clinton seemed to be immersed in politics practically since she was born. I do exaggerate but not by much. Born in 1947 she spent her teens and twenties witnessing and participating in the politics of the 60’s and 70’s. This meant the Vietnam War and the civil rights movement, and Watergate. She has been an ardent supporter of women and children's issues. She belongs to a group of women who are identified by their first name, women such as Celine, Meryl and Kate.

 

Hillary relates in her own words the history of the United States from the 60’s through the early 2000’s and I found her take fascinating. She also takes the time to set the record straight on many issues such as White water, Ken Starr, the whole Lewinsky debacle, her relationship with her husband and much more. She gives the reader great insight into what it takes to be a first lady and how hard it was for her to take a back seat. She worked hard to fight for the causes that were important to her while trying not to put Bill’s Presidency in Jeopardy. She talks a lot about her close relationship with her daughter which I found inspiring. I am also awed by her knowledge of the law and of our constitution which has served our country well. It angers me when politicians go after the basic tenets of the constitution to serve their own agenda. I truly enjoyed this book although at times it read like “the all about me (Hillary)” book rather than a narrative on the history that she lived through but what the heck it is her book\autobiography and that is her prerogative. I am glad I read this book. I admire her more now than I did before and it certainly proves she has the experience to be the President of the United States if that is what she chooses to do. I guess you can say I am a big Hillary fan.

 

The Ann of Green Gable Series by Lucy Maud Montgomery

Growing up, I loved the Ann of Green Gables series. I could almost visualize Prince Edward Island and the house Ann grew up in.  I fell in love with Miranda and Mathew and sobbed my eyes out when Matthew died. My daughter fell in love with these books as well.  I found this collection of books on amazon.com. It is in kindle format for an amazingly ridicules price.  If you have any young girls in your life introduce them to these wonderful stories.  I downloaded the collection to re-read and enjoy once again. 

In addition to reading Ann of Green Gables, I thoroughly enjoyed the movie starring Megan Fellows.  It is definitely worth watching.

 

 

 

The Lace Makers of Glenmara  by Heather Barbieri

Kate is a 26 year old fashion designer who has recently had some setbacks in her life. She decides that what she is currently doing with her life is not working for her and so she flees to the West Coast of Ireland, her ancestral homeland.

She ends up in Glenmara a fading seaside village where she works hard to gain the trust and friendship of the women of the village.  These women are part of a circle of lacemakers.  They teach her how to make their beautiful lace.  She designs a line of exquisite lingerie incorporating the lace.  Many people are not happy about this preferring to stick with their traditional pieces.  But after all they are a small village and therefore a “family” and they look out for each other no matter what.  This is a beautifully written story about love, friendship, pain and loss.

Amazon has a great deal on the kindle edition of this book.  Click on the book above and check it out.