Books and Movies

Reading list starting December 2008:
1. Moll Flaunders, (audiobook) by Daniel Defoe. Book club read for December. I don't remember discussing this book, but it's interesting from the parts I finished on the audiobook. Definitely something I want to come back to.
2. The Longest Trip Home, (audiobook) by John Grogan. Written by the author of Marley and Me, about his personal experience of growing up Catholic in Midwest. It's very personal, very. I can't imagine his wife pleased to share his sex history with millions of readers.
3. The Other Boleyn Girl, (audiobook) by Philippa Gregory. Nice and juicy. Had to return to the library cause someone else was waiting for it. Will have to come back later.
4. A Good Dog, (audiobook) by Jon Katz. About a bad dog, Border Collie Orson, just like Marley. Marley was put under when he was old and sick; Orson was put under when he drew blood from another human.
5. Dog Days: Dispatches from Bedlam Farm, (audiobook) by Jon Katz. Much lighter and entertaining story about the author's life on the farm with his animals.
6. The Sun Also Rises, (audiobook) by Ernest Hemingway. Classic I can always count on.
7. The Last Juror, (audiobook) by John Grisham. Young editor of a small town paper sold it for a million, lesson learned.
8. Howards End, by EM Forster. Delicious language. The kind of book that need to be slowly chewed word by word, over and over again.
9. On Writing, (audiobook) by Steven King. Listened to this a long time ago, still great second time around. The master talks, in his own voice, about his life story, the accident that almost killed him in 1999, and the art of writing. Commanding yet unintimidating, friendly and frank, painful yet humorous. A master indeed.
10. S is for Silence, (audiobook) by Sue Grafton. Brain candy, baby, cause I'm busy and stressed again.
11. T is for Trespassing, (audiobook) by Sue Grafton. Pump up the sugar, baby, I need to keep going.

Movies:
1. White Countess, a Merchant-Ivory production with Natasha Richardson and Ralph Fiennes. Saw this before Richardson's accident. A great loss.
2. A Room with a View, another Merchant-Ivory production, from EM Forster novel.
3. Howard's End, our last Merchant-Ivory kick, also from EM Forster novel. This is a very pleasant series of movies, wish there are more of them.
4. Beethoven Lives Upstairs, the great composer seen from a child's perspective.
5. Atonement, very well made, spooky and confusing.
6. An Affair to Remember, the great Cary Grant, eye candy. Very weak story, but who cares.
7. Annie Hall, my first Woody Allen movie, and wonder aloud why the husband never showed me one, and he claims that he used to go see all of them when they first came out.
8. Manhattan, Woody Allen again. Over flowing intelligence and humor, lovely.