Help, I Need Somebody!

I'm sooooo excited! A few weeks ago, I read awesome book called The Help by Kathryn Stockett. It's was seriously amazing! And guess what? Yesterday I found out it's being made into a movie!

The basic plot is about two black women, Aibileen and Minnie and a young white girl nick named Skeeter. It's 1962 in Jackson, Mississippi and both Abileen and Minnie are servants in white households, raising other people's children and doing their cooking. Skeeter has just graduated from college and has come home to live. Skeeter is getting fed up with life at home. She wants to be a writer but her mother doesn't think writing is an appropriate profession for a well brought up girl.

Skeeter was raised by a black housekeeper named Constantine. Not long ago Constantine disappeared and Skeeter desperately wants to find out about her. So Skeeter talks to Aibileen, who works for her friend Hilly. As she does this she slowly starts to realize what life is like for a black person living in Jackson during the Civil Rights movement.

Skeeter knows she has to do something to help. So she convinces Aibileen to let Skeeter  interview her for a book. Word spreads and eventually Skeeter interviews all of Aibileen's friends who work in white homes, including Minnie. They call the finished book Help.

You might think this story( Civil Rights in the 60's) has been told over and over and over again. And it has. But never like this. Just trust me on this. The Help is incredibly moving. It brings up things I had never thought of before. I never really thought about what it would be like to raise a child, to love them and have them love you. And suddenly they realize your different because of the colour of your skin and suddenly they think less of you. I never thought about how hard it would be to see that child's parents ignore them, to see that child hurting and you can't do anything about because your "just hired help". I can't imagine how awful that would be.

But don't get me wrong, this book isn't all serious. There are some really hilarious parts too. The Help is just an all around great book.

I can't wait to see the movie! It looks great! Take a look at this trailer:

The Help was rejected by 60 different publishing companies before it was finally accepted. Meanwhile, a friend of the author's decided to make it into a screen play. Now the book is a number 1 New York Times bestseller and the screen play is being made into a movie. Thank goodness because this is a really great book!

Jackie O

“Even though people may be well known, they hold in their hearts the emotions of a simple person for the moments that are the most important of those we know on earth: birth, marriage and death.”
                     -Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis

Ever since I watched The Kennedy's series on the History channel, I wanted to learn more about the Kennedy family. I especially found Jackie Kennedy interesting. So I read a book called America's Queen: The Life of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis by Sarah Bradford.

To be honest, I didn't like the writing all that much, but I found Jackie's life fascinating.
She was born on July 28 1929. She led an extraordinary life full of extreme joy and extreme grief. Jackie brought something new and glamorous to the White House when her husband, John F. Kennedy, became president on November 8 1960. She even went as far as to start the White House restoration project, forever leaving her mark.

In addition to this Jackie became a fashion icon, inspiring countless magazine articles. Even today her name goes hand in hand with good fashion sense. Pill box hats were her trade mark, as well as her bouffant hairstyle.

Jackie was an extremely complex person, a fact that all those close to her were well aware of. She enjoyed attention, but also highly valued privacy. This made her relationship with the press rocky to say the least. She was a very reserved and well mannered person, which made some people believe that she was snobby but she also had a great sense of humour.

Above all, Jackie was tough. She endured the death of two children; the assassination of her first husband as well as his brother Bobby, who she was very close to;  and a whole string of other tragedies. Not to mention JFK's almost constant affairs and the pressure of being First Lady. And she did all of this with elegance and grace. That's what I must admire about her.

Jackie died before her time, on May 19 1994.

Jackie was loved not as the wife of the president, but as herself.

 

Royal Wedding!!!!!

I have heard a lot of different opinions about last weeks royal wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton. Personally, I think it was great! I was one of those who got up at 5'oclock in the morning to watch it all. I even slept in front of the TV. And I stayed there all day long.

A lot of people have been pretty cynical about the whole thing. I've heard a lot of harping about how stupid people think it is. Well, I think that attitude is stupid! How often do we hear about news that is genuinely happy? William and Kate seem very happy and very in love and there is nothing wrong with celebrating it? Any accusations that they don't have a chance after what happened to William's parents are stupid. They are different people under different circumstances.

My favourite part was when Kate was coming down the aisle and Harry turned and whispered "wait until you see her!" to his brother. I also liked the carriage ride to Buckingham Palace.I liked every thing!

Truly a historic and happy day!
         

Happiness IS an Emotion

 The other day me and my family were driving home from Barrie when a really old Rolling Stones song came on. I mean really old, I think it was a cover of an older song form the 50's. (I'm pretty sure it was before the Satisfaction days but don't take my word for it. I'm a Beatles girl :-)  ) So any way me and my mom were rocking out when all of the sudden, out of the blue my brother says something to the effect of " This is stupid. I like music with emotion."

Whhhhhhaaattttt? " What's that supposed to mean? You don't think this song has emotion?" I demanded.

" Uh no. It's just some guy playing a guitar!" replied my brother.
First of all, I'm pretty sure that's what closed minded parents thought about Elvis back in the day, aside from being horrified by his dance moves.

Then my brother asked me what kind of emotion I thought there was in that song. He thinks he's so smart.

" I don't know- jubilation (yes I actually said that- it was an in the moment thing) excitement, freedom, happiness! "  What was his answer?

" Happiness isn't a emotion, it;s a feeling." Which is two different words for the same thing, last time I checked.

But I'm not writing this post to pick on my brother. That's just a bonus :-p This whole thing got me to thinking. A lot of the music we listen to, my brother included, tends to be sad or angry. That goes for other art forms too. People got tired of listening to music that didn't express all the crap that was going on in  the world around them a few decades ago. Which isn't a bad thing but I think that now people might think that happy music- heck happiness in general- is uncool.

But it's not! It's okay to be happy! It's okay to listen to music that just makes you happy, even if it's not protesting world hunger. That doesn't make you blind to what's going on, it just makes you a human being who needs to escape from it for a bit. Who likes to be happy.

HAPPINESS IS AN EMOTION!

The Life of Miss Louisa May Alcott

I stayed up late last night to finish reading Louisa May Alcott: A Personal Biography by Susan Cheever, so I thought I would let some of my enthusiasm out by writing this post.

In case you were wondering who in the heck Louisa May Alcott is, she wrote the classic novel Little Women and many other novels. I found it very interesting that a lot of the book Little Women ( published in 1868) reads like a autobiography. In many ways the fictional March family is like the real Alcott family. Like the Marchs, the Alcott family consisted of a strong, loving mother four daughters and a father. Louisa's sisters Anna, May and Lizzie became the fictional Meg, Beth and Amy. Much of the plot of Little Women mirrors Alcott's own experince.However there are some major differences .

Susan Cheever brings out the point in her book that many people believe that Alcott is Jo second fictional March sister. However this is not true. While Jo was much loved by her family for her tomboyishness, Alcott was often punished for it. I also found it interesting that the father in Little Women was mostly absent, Alcott's father was often a driving force in the family, dragging them into his harebrained scemes..

What I found most interesting was that Louisa May Alcott was an independant women in a time when this was almost unheard of. She remained single and suppored her family with her writing.

Even though Louisa May Alcott died at age 56 almost 150 years ago, she is remembered through her work.
                                                           

The Kennedys

Hi everyone!
I haven't posted anything in a bit, but I thought I would talk about something that I saw on TV last night, namely the primer of a 4 part mini series called The Kennedys.

Apparently there was a lot of controversy about whether or not to air this show. I think the History Channel might have canceled it at one point but I'm not sure. I found it really interesting. I watched a special on TLC about the Kennedy's home videos and it caught my interest so I'm really glad that they decided to air the mini series.

So far I think the acting is pretty good. Barry Pepper, who plays Bobby, is so much like the real thing that it is almost creepy :-)

One of the things that really struck me in the first episode was the ambition of Joe Kennedy and the way that his whole family listened to whatever he said. I wonder how that is going to play out in future episodes?

The Kennedys is on the History Channel Sundays at 9:00. Watch it! :-)

                                                              

Whatcha Reading- The Sequel

Hiya!
This week I'm gonna tell ya what I've been reading! I thought I would wait to continue with this until I've read something good enough to actually have something to talk about. So I'm not rambling on. Like I am right now :-)

 Any ways I've read two really good books lately.

So the first is Anna Karenina. I know, I know. Intense right? Not really. For those of you who aren't book nerds, Anna Karenina was written a couple hundred years ago by a Russian guy named Leo Tolstoy. It's about a woman named Anna Karenina (Quelle surprise! :-) ) who has an affair with a Count and has to deal with the consequences of her decision. At least that's what it's about on the surface.

 A lot of people are scared of Tolstoy. This is understandable. An 800 page book written originally in Russian is a little intimidating. At least I thought it was. But I was wrong. Anna Karenina was surprisingly easy to read. I got completely lost in it. I think Tolstoy was very brave to write so frankly about a subject that was so taboo at the time. I sometimes find that books written in the same time period as Anna Karenina are a little unrealistic. I sometimes wonder if people really spoke that way. But in Anna Karenina I had not problem imagining the characters yelling at each other, laughing, crying.

 It's definitely a great book.
                                             
I also just finished reading Water for Elephants by Sarah Gruen. It was amazing!
It's about a young vet named Jacob who joined a circus during the Depression. It has a little bit of everything. It's happy, sad and moving all at once. I don't want to give anything away. All I can say is you need to read it!

Me, Myself and Anne Frank

There are some books that help us become who we are. These books change our way of thinking forever and keep doing so every time we read them. For me this book is Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank.

We all know the story: a young girl writes a diary while hiding in a small attic apartment from the Nazi's because she happens to be Jewish. The first time I read it was the summer going in to grade 7. I was just a year shy of when Anne began writing her diary at the age of 13.Since  then I think I've read it about 4 times. Each time I read it I learn something different. However there are a couple of things that always stand out to me. One thing I always appreciate is how Anne always finds the good in her situation. While living conditions must of us can't even IMAGINE  Anne finds joy in the littlest things, like a glimpse of the sky through the attic window. Despite the horrible things going on around her, Anne found the good. She wasn't always optimistic, of course. Quite often she was terrified but she always tried to find ways to be happy. All of us need to do this. We need to stop being so caught up in our selves and find the joy that comes from simply looking up at a blue sky.

Another thing that always occurs to me when I re-read Anne's diary is how different the person we are on the outside is from the person we are on the inside. The people around her thought that Anne was light hearted and unthinking when in reality she was the complete and total opposite. We need to think about how other people could really be feeling before we judge.

I just finished reading Annexed by Sharon Dogar. It's the story of Anne Frank from the point of view of Peter Van Peels, the son of the family who were in hiding with the Franks. It's very moving and definitely a must read as is Ann's diary. In my opinion Anne Frank's diary not only gives voice to the millions of Holocaust victims, it also shows us the strength of the human spirit in the face of tragedy.

"Think of all the beauty still left around you and be happy."
— Anne Frank

The Pillars of the Earth

In the summer I was wondering aimlessly through a book store when I came across Ken Follett's Pillars of the Earth. It seemed interesting and funnily enough I found it's roughly 1000 pages more comforting than daunting. So I read it.

Over the course of the next two weeks or so I ate, slept, and breathed in Kingsbridge (where the book takes place). It was completely engrossing. The basic plot is built around the...well, building :-p,  of Kingsbridge Cathedral. It follows the lives of character's involved in the building of the cathedral. Most of it is centred on Jack, a young builder and Aliena, the daughter of an earl. There's a whole bunch of other character's and stories going on ,though. Pretty much all lots of life are presented from the Prior of Kingsbridge to the King. It's an amazing book and before long you believe completely in the characters. The second volume World Without End also kicks butt!

I realize that this might sound boring (so what? Their building a church. Good for them!) But don't take my word for it. I can't do it justice. You should just read it and see what you think. They're really is something for everyone, trust me on this one!

If ya don't feel like reading an 1000 page book, would could always watch the miniseries. It's really great! They did a very good job of bringing the novel to life. I'm a big fan of The Tudors and I was really glad that I had something to replace it with. Almost, at least! Unfortunately this week is the last episode :-( so if you want to check it out you  had better be fast!

                                                                                                                                                  

What You're Reading This Week...Right?

So since I started off my blog by rambling on about what I've been reading, Mr J came up with the awesome idea that I should post The New York Times Bestsellers List and talk about it a bit... so here it goes...
Here is the combined Print and e-book Fiction List for this week

This Week		Last Week	Combined Print & E-Book Fiction	Weeks on List
1		1	TICK TOCK, by James Patterson and Michael Ledwidge. (Little, Brown.) The New York detective Michael Bennett enlists the help of a former colleague to solve a rash of horrifying crimes that are throwing the city into chaos.	3
2			ALONE, by Lisa Gardner. (Random House.) A woman who survived a horrible childhood abduction may have tricked the Massachusetts police sniper Bobby Dodge into killing her husband.	1
3		2	THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO, by Stieg Larsson. (Knopf Doubleday.) A hacker and a journalist investigate the disappearance of a Swedish heiress 40 years earlier; the first volume in the Millennium trilogy.	3
			Sunday Book Review | Books of The Times Review
4			A DISCOVERY OF WITCHES, by Deborah Harkness. (Penguin Group.) The recovery of a lost ancient manuscript in a library at Oxford sets a fantastical underworld stirring.	1
5		4	THE GIRL WHO KICKED THE HORNET’S NEST, by Stieg Larsson. (Knopf Doubleday.) The third volume of the Millennium trilogy, about a Swedish hacker and a journalist.	3
			Sunday Book Review | Books of The Times Review | Excerpt | Related Article
6		3	THE GIRL WHO PLAYED WITH FIRE, by Stieg Larsson. (Knopf Doubleday.) In the second volume of the Millennium trilogy, a Swedish hacker becomes a murder suspect.	3
			Sunday Book Review | Books of The Times Review | Excerpt
7		5	WATER FOR ELEPHANTS, by Sara Gruen. (Algonquin.) After his parents die in a car accident, young veterinary student — and an elephant — save a Depression-era circus.	3
			Sunday Book Review | Related Article
8		6	CUTTING FOR STONE, by Abraham Verghese. (Knopf Doubleday.) Twin brothers, conjoined at birth and then separated, grow up amid the political turmoil of Ethiopia.	3
			Sunday Book Review | Excerpt
9		7	THE HELP, by Kathryn Stockett. (Penguin Group.) A young white woman and two black maids in 1960s Mississippi.	3
			Books of The Times Review
10		8	THE CONFESSION, by John Grisham. (Knopf Doubleday.) A criminal wants to save an innocent man on death row, but he must convince the authorities he’s telling the truth.	3
			Books of The Times Review
11		11	DEAD OR ALIVE, by Tom Clancy with Grant Blackwood. (Penguin Group.) Familiar Clancy characters appear as an intelligence group tracks a vicious terrorist called the Emir.	3
12		13	ROOM, by Emma Donoghue. (Little, Brown.) The entire world of the 5-year-old boy who narrates this novel is the 11-by-11-foot room in which his mother is being held prisoner.	3
			Sunday Book Review | Books of The Times Review
13		9	MARRYING DAISY BELLAMY, by Susan Wiggs. (Harlequin.) A woman struggles for years to choose between two men. And then, one fateful day, the decision is made for her.	3
14			THE SECRET SOLDIER, by Alex Berenson. (Penguin Group.) When the king of Saudi Arabia is threatened, the former C.I.A. operative John Wells goes undercover to help.	1
15		12	STRATEGIC MOVES, by Stuart Woods. (Penguin Group.) In the 19th Stone Barrington novel, the New York lawyer works with the C.I.A. to transport a fugitive.	3

So scanning through this list I realized that I haven't read any of these books. I've heard of a few of them or seen them in stores but I haven't actually read any. Maybe I should...

I sometimes wonder if bestseller lists in general are all that accurate. Authors seem so proud if they get on the New York Times Bestsellers list. But does it really mean anything?I mean yes they sell; but do people actually enjoy reading them? I've bought quite a few books that I thought I would enjoy that ending up being flops. Would a most enjoyed books list be better?

I need help from you guys here. Has anyone read these books? Are they any good? What am I missing?

If It Ain't Broke, Should Ya Fix It?

Alright, so I was minding my own business, flipping through a reccent issue of Chatelaine when I came across something that stopped me in my tracks and demanded to be read.

It was in the book club section (anyone who read my first blog shouldn't be surprised that I gravitated toward this section:-)) that I stumbled across it. It seemed innocent enough: a review of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. 'So? Wasn't that book written like 200 hundered years ago?' you may ask. But this edition was somewhat different. The full title read, 'Pride and Prejudice: The WILD AND WANTON Edition'.

Currently there is a fad for playing with the classics. Out of this fad came such titles as Pride and Prejudice and Zoombies, Sense and Sensibility and Seamonsters as well as Wuthuring Bites. Personally these novels make me feel sick. To me they seem like a last ditch attempt to get teenagers to read the classics by using the vampire/zoombie/whatever fad. I think that they are in extremly poor taste. As for the other books that use historical figures in the same way, such as Abraham Lincon: Vampire Hunter, Queen Victoria: Demon Hunter and Henry VIII: Wolfman don't even get me started....

But to this wild and wanton thing is a whole other level. Adding vampires and seamonsters to the classics seemly...well, silly. But adding sex just seems wrong. It really says something about socieity when you need to add sex to make people read a book. I guess the adage that sex sells is true. It's really sad, If you ask me.

The point could be made that this wild and wanton series (there is also a wild and wanton wuthuring heights) is written for modern audiences, it's giving these books a wider readership, times have changed. Well all I really have to say to that is that they are classics for a reason. People have loved them before they included vampires, zoombies or even sex. And I think people will contine to love then in the future, sans vampires.

I think we should be teaching future generations to appreciate the classics the way they are and leave the classics alone. They're already great!

What do you think?
VS

VS 

Letters to Juliet

So I read this book not that long ago called "Letters to Juliet"(the book the movie was based on) and it got me thinking.

The book is all about the letters that people have been writing to "Juliet" since sometime during the 1930's. The are a group of people of answer all these thousands of letters. People write to Juliet for advice on their love problems and Juliet's secertaries, as the people who answer are called, write them back. At the face value this idea might seem a little silly. Juliet isn't real, she is a fictional character. Why do people write to her when they know she isn't real?

It's human nature to look for help with your problems. Writing to Juliet makes people feel like they don't have to face their problems alone. And after years of experince and thousands of letters every year, Juliet's secertaries are pretty good at answering calls for help :-)

Another reason why so many people write to Juliet  is because they want to belive that she is real. Everyone wants to have something to believe in. Even though you know in your head Juliet isn't real, there will always be a part of you that seceretly thinks she exists. That's just the way we are.

And maybe, just maybe, she is real. Maybe this whole idea of writing Juliet letters makes her real. Maybe each and everyone of those letters sent by all those thousands of people, has made her real.

In Spite of All the Danger

Here is a video of my favourite scene from the movie Nowhere Boy as well as the original version by John Lennon and Paul McCartney. This is the first song they ever wrote and recorded. Enjoy!

Komm Gib Mir Deine Hand

First off excuse my German.I might of spelt some words wrong. I can't even spell very well in English:-)
So maybe I should explain where this seemingly random title came from. Auf Deutsch Komm Gib Mir Deine Hand means I Want to Hold Your Hand. Sound familiar? It should! It's the title of a song written by a little band from Liverpool called The Beatles. I was listening to this song, In German(cuz I'm just that cool) and it made me think "how cool is this? You know you're great when you can write songs in two languages and their both awesome!"(even if the person listening doesn't understand what is being said!) What's the point of this rambleing? Just that The Beatles are the coolest band ever!

In case you didn't know the original members of the band were John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Pete Best and Stuart Sutcliffe. Their first album, "Please, Please Me" came out on March 22 1963. By the time the album was recorded  Stuart had left and Pete had been replaced by Ringo Starr. The Fab Four. Their last album, "Let It Be" was relased on May 8 1970. In less than ten years The Beatles had changed the face of music.

All four of them came from fairly humble beginnings. Their first group, started by John Lennon was called The Quarrymen. They played some gigs around Liverpool. And than the band, now called The Beatles, went of to Hambourg. That's were the German comes from:-) The rest is history. It was all shaggy hair, screaming girls and great music.

What's my favourite Beatles song, you ask? Good question! I hate to pick one. But if my life depended on it I would probably say " I Should Have Known Better" from "A Hard Day's Night" What can I say? I just love it. "A Hard Days Night " is a great album and a great movie. If you havn't seen it, youtube it now! It's very clean :-)

I think great music transends barriers. Age, race, even language. And I think The Beatles definitly did that, eight days a week!

Whatcha Reading?

Let's be honest here. I may as well tell you that I have never writen a blog before. Until a few days ago the thought never even occured to me . So I guess I'll start out by talking about something I know A LOT about: books. Sounds pretty boring, huh? And I must admit some books are boring. But some books are great. More than great life changing even. While reading a book you can go anywhere and be anyone. It's kind of like a super power... but without the spider bite or nuclear waste. Hopefully.

One of the most annoying things in the world is when you are really into a book and someone comes up to you and asks, "Whatcha reading?". My standard answer is always something along the lines of "a book. Duh!" So to make up for all the times I gave people who were really interested in what book I currently had my nose stuck in that answer, I have decided it to talk about it here. At least for this week...

So what am I reading? Well, I just recently finished reaing "Revolutionary Road" by Richard Yates. This book (or at least the story)recieved a lot of attention when it was made into a movie starring Kate Winslet and Leonardo Di Caprio in their first movie since "Titanic". They both said they were looking to work together on something as dramaticly different as possible. And I have to say that in most ways they found it in Revolutionary Road".

 I really enjoyed reading this novel. The characterization was really brilliant and Frank and April Wheeler seemed quite real to me. Richard Yates has a way of quietly bringing things to your attention instead of hitting you over the head with them. I also found the contrast between the deep theme(discontent with the life you lead) and the light, bright feeling of the 1950's interesting. Despite the deep theme of the book I never felt bogged down by it. Perhaps this is because the charaters seemed so vivid.

 I think the big lesson to be learned from "Revolutionary Road" is know thyself. AKA Figure out if you actually want to get married and have kids before you go ahead and do it. Overall I think that everyone should read this book because it's a real thinker and makes you reflect on your own life and descions...

And that's what I'm reading!