Diary of a Wimpy Kid - The Last Straw

I've been hearing a lot about this "Wimpy Kid" series so I thought I'd give it a look. I reserved a copy at the library and rather than set me up with the first one "Diary of a Wimpy Kid", they gave me "The Last Straw". But it really didn't matter as you don't have to have read the first one before you read this one. For me, it was a fun book to read when I needed a break from something more serious (such as "Cutting for Stone" which I am currently reading).

I'll probably get the others from the library (over time...) and fall back on them when I need something light.

One of my favorite scenes in this book occurs on the first page when Greg is coming up with New Year's resolutions for his family. He tells his mom "I think you should work on chewing your potato chips more quietly." That struck home for me as I hate to hear crunching, probably something I learned from Ma.

Kiki's Delivery Service

Kiki's Delivery Service was the first Miyazaki film I ever saw, and we just got it from the library again. It's been a couple of years since we first saw it--the twins didn't remember it at all--and I found it even better the second time around.

The film begins as Kiki, a young witch, decides that it's time for her to leave home and try to make her way in the world. The rest of the film is about her trying to get settled in her new life, and the adventures that happen to her along the way.

One of my favorite things about Miyazaki is the way that he will stir together disparate elements from past history and, because the story is already dreamlike, the elements seem to fit effortlessly, as if they always belonged together. The cars in Kiki's new town all seem to be from about the mid-1930s, and there is a dirigible in the story, but there are also transistor radios, and television. The locals regard Kiki as more of a remarkable surprise than a fright; nobody is horrified to see her flying around on a broom. And the message behind the film is a powerful favorite of mine.

The only downside to this movie is that Kiki's cat, Jiji, was voiced by Phil Hartman. I never heard of Phil Hartman until he became famous for the wrong reason, and I can't listen to his work here without being saddened by that. Sigh.

Ellen Tebbits

I have been a huge fan of Beverly Cleary for about 25 years. And before that, I knew of her stuff because of the one book of hers we owned at home growing up, which was Ellen Tebbits.

I must have read that book at least half a dozen times, just because it was there. It wasn't until much later, when I began to improve as a writer, that I really came to appreciate Ms. Cleary's amazing talent.

I've read most of her books to the twins--everything in the Henry Huggins series, everything in the Ramona series, everything in the Ralph S. Mouse series, and a couple of her other books as well (including her book Otis Spofford, which also features Ellen Tebbits in a supporting role). But this book never found its way to our shelf until last week when Charlotte brought it home from school.

And so I re-read it today. Wonderful, again. (Coincidentally, Charlotte brought home this edition, which has the Alan Tiegreen illustration on the cover, but the same drawings inside as the 1951 original that we had when I was a kid.)

Currently Reading

Even-handed historical narratives about the inventors that helped shape the American present.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, about as many of the names associated with certain inventions are gifted with more talent for marketing than inventing, and so have made themselves into household names.  Some were more interested in inventing than anything, and barely stopped to apply for patents, or left it to their assistants. And others stuck doggedly at their work against all odds until they were favored by dumb luck.

About this last group, especially: you wonder how many hundreds of would-be inventors kept going against all odds but never got there, or were beaten to it. Quite a few, probably, that we'll never hear of.

Disfarmer

When I come across something like this, it often feels as if everyone else already knows about such things and I'm just behind the times. I just found out about Mike Disfarmer from a recent issue of The New Yorker.

In case you missed that issue, the guy was kind of a flake. Raised in the rural southern town of Heber Springs, Arkansas, he claimed to have been desposited by a tornado and raised by an adoptive family. To distance himself from his rural origins, he changed his last name from Meier ("dairy farmer" in German) to Disfarmer ("dis-farmer").

Flake or no, he was an amazing portraitist. Some of his images can be seen (or copies bought) at www.disfarmer.com. Many more are available for viewing on flickr.com, like this one:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/photomartimages/sets/72157604293857762/

Castle In the Sky

I feel as if there's not much to say about this film. Anyone who enjoys animation probably already knows about Hayao Miyazaki and all the things that make his stuff wonderful:

- unpredictable storylines in fantastical settings

- traditional (i.e., hand-drawn) animation, with computers used only rarely

- magnificent artwork

and that, until recently (due to age), he drew many of the frames and usually checked every single frame himself (over 100,000 for a single film). And people who aren't familiar with Miyazaki are not likely to appreciate his stuff until after they've seen a couple.

If you haven't seen his stuff before, this is a good one to start with; also, Kiki's Delivery Service or My Neighbor Totoro. He won a richly-deserved Oscar for the stellar Spirited Away, but some might find it less accessible than the others.

One other item: we just got this one from the library, and it was wonderful, but it's from 1986 (not released in the US until much more recently). I confused it with his more recent Howl's Moving Castle, which we haven't seen yet.

Citizen Welles

One day I was in the mood for a biography so I picked this one up at random at the Public Library. Turned out to be more interesting and educational than I expected.

And I guess that's partly because Orson Welles turned out to be more interesting than I expected. I've been a fan of Citizen Kane since forever, and of course I knew of the War of the Worlds radio show, but didn't really know much about the guy beyond that. Didn't know anything, for example, about his stage career, which was actually where he got started and began to build a name for himself before the Mercury Theatre radio shows.

The book is very much about Welles as a person, rather than being about The Movie Star or The Radio Star, and gives an interesting look into his personality and his approach to his work. (One of the biggest personal upsets of his professional life, for example, came when he was playing on a Broadway stage and someone from the back of the audience called out, "Louder!" Ever the confident perfectionist, Welles was mortified.)

The easy access of the Internet makes reading a book like this all the more fun. It's easy to find downloadable .mp3 files of many of the radio shows, and there's even some footage of the "Voodoo Macbeth" on YouTube.

Overall, a fun and worthwhile read, even if you're not a Welles fan.

The Sea of Trolls

Young adult fiction. If you enjoy reading about Saxons & Northmen in 793 - and runes, trolls, beserkers, druids, bards, skalds, and frost giants, then you will love this book. I thought it a lot of fun and I've already started the 2nd book of the series, The Land of the Silver Apples.

There's a lot of action, a lot of fantasy and I found it well-written.

Doubt

Wow wow wow! Theresa and I went to see this last night at the Bagdad, neither of us knowing much about it. I was just blown away by the quality of the writing and the acting. Meryl Streep especially was just incredible, and I already have very high standards for her. Philip Seymour Hoffman impressed me as well. This is the first role I have seen him in that wasn't just a big schlubby jerk, so it was nice to see that he has a little range.


The only complaint I have about the movie was that it ended a little abruptly for me. Some of that I'm sure is that I was enjoying it so much I didn't want it to be over. Really good stuff.

The Longest Trip Home

Okay - you can't click to look inside from here. You'll have to go to amazon to do that.

This is a memoir covering his entire life - growing up Catholic in the midwest, going off to college & jobs, getting married with a family of his own, and then returning home again when his dad gets sick. It was funny and sad and all very believable.

Give it a try!