The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America by Erik Larson
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
This book alternated between the construction of the Chicago World's Fair and the story of H.H. Holmes a serial killer operating in Chicago at the same time.
I was a lot more interested in the serial killer story line than the World's Fair construction story line. It brought back my high school days when I read true crime almost exclusively. Because the serial killer part was less than half of the book, I didn't feel like it was developed as it could have been.
Architecture buffs will like the construction story line more than I did I'm sure. I had trouble keeping all of the different men who were involved straight and some of the more technical references went over my head.
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March 10th, 2010 in
Books |
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West: "Mommy, when are you going to get some sperm in you so we can have another baby?"
*****
West: What are taxes? Cash: Taxes are homework for grownups.
*****
West:
I don't want Cash to go to kindergarten.
Me: Why not?
West: Because I
have too much fun with him.
Cash: Why do you have too much fun with me?
West: Because I really love you.
Below is who I think WILL win in the six major categories. My predictions are based on buzz and intuition.
BEST PICTURE
Avatar
The Hurt Locker
Precious: Based on the novel 'Push' by Sapphire
Up in the Air
Inglourious Basterds
Up
The Blind Side
District 9
An Education
A Serious Man
BEST ACTOR
George Clooney – Up in the Air
Jeff Bridges – Crazy Heart
Colin Firth – A Single Man
Morgan Freeman – Invictus
Jeremy Renner – The Hurt Locker
BEST ACTRESS
Meryl Streep – Julie & Julia
Sandra Bullock – The Blind Side
Gabourey Sidibe – Precious: Based on the novel 'Push' by Sapphire
Helen Mirren – The Last Station
Carey Mulligan – An Education
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Matt Damon – Invictus
Woody Harrelson – The Messenger
Christopher Plummer – The Last Station
Stanley Tucci – The Lovely Bones
Christoph Waltz – Inglourious Basterds
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Vera Farmiga – Up in the Air
Mo'Nique – Precious
Anna Kendrick – Up in the Air
Penelope Cruz – Nine
Maggie Gyllenhaal – Crazy Heart
DIRECTOR
Quentin Tarantino – Inglourious Basterds
Kathryn Bigelow – The Hurt Locker
James Cameron – Avatar
Lee Daniels – Precious: Based on the novel 'Push' by Sapphire
Jason Reitman – Up in the Air
Who do you think will win?
Below is who I think SHOULD win in the six major categories. (Not who I think WILL win; that's another post.)
BEST PICTURE
Avatar
The Hurt Locker
Precious: Based on the novel 'Push' by Sapphire
Up in the Air
Inglourious Basterds
Up
The Blind Side
District 9
An Education
A Serious Man
I'm torn between The Hurt Locker and Precious. The Hurt Locker had better direction but Precious had better acting. I can't decide!
BEST ACTOR
George Clooney – Up in the Air
Jeff Bridges – Crazy Heart
Colin Firth – A Single Man
Morgan Freeman – Invictus
Jeremy Renner – The Hurt Locker
I only saw Jeremy and George's performances. I think Jeremy's was better.
BEST ACTRESS
Meryl Streep – Julie & Julia
Sandra Bullock – The Blind Side
Gabourey Sidibe – Precious: Based on the novel 'Push' by Sapphire
Helen Mirren – The Last Station
Carey Mulligan – An Education
I saw Gabourey on Ellen and she was the complete opposite of Precious. She was bubbly and full of happy energy. I realized then what a great actress she was to make Precious so down-trodden. And this was her first acting job ever!
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Matt Damon – Invictus
Woody Harrelson – The Messenger
Christopher Plummer – The Last Station
Stanley Tucci – The Lovely Bones
Christoph Waltz – Inglourious Basterds
I only saw Christoph's performance so I guess his was the best!
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Vera Farmiga – Up in the Air
Mo'Nique – Precious
Anna Kendrick – Up in the Air
Penelope Cruz – Nine
Maggie Gyllenhaal – Crazy Heart
Mo'Nique was so raw in Precious. There were no traces of the comedienne from the CW.
DIRECTOR
Quentin Tarantino – Inglourious Basterds
Kathryn Bigelow – The Hurt Locker
James Cameron – Avatar
Lee Daniels – Precious: Based on the novel 'Push' by Sapphire
Jason Reitman – Up in the Air
I felt like I was working right along side the bomb squad in The Hurt Locker thanks to the tension that Kathryn Bigelow built – my stomach was in knots.
Who do you think should win?
Oscar Day is here! Since my last Oscar post I've seen District 9, Precious and The Blind Side. I've closed out the Best Director category, which to me includes the only movies that are serious contenders for Best Picture.
District 9 was a very strange movie about an aliens who have inhabited South Africa since the 1980s. They look like giant bugs but are an intelligent life form. The South Africans round them all up and make them live in refugee camps. The parallels to apartheid pretty much hit you over the head – the message is not subtle. The movie had tons of gore and action but it had a pretty good story as well. It was good but not Best Picture caliber.
Precious is about a black high school girl living in Harlem in the 1980s. She is abused by both her parents and has two children as a result of being raped by her father. The message of this movie was don't be too quick to judge – you never know what's going on behind closed doors. It also explored the culture of poverty in ways that will hopefully open people's eyes. This was an excruciatingly hard movie to watch but worth it.
The Blind Side is true story about a wealthy white Memphis family that take in a homeless black teenage boy. Going in, I thought the movie would be totally cheesy but it wasn't. It was really well done and had me teary from beginning to end. If I wasn't already a foster parent, I would become one after seeing this movie.
Both Precious and The Blind Side show how it takes one-on-one help and mentoring to help someone pull themselves up out of poverty. It's not as simple as "pulling yourself up by your bootstraps." Throwing money at the problem doesn't solve it either, it takes people down in the trenches, doing the work.
BEST PICTURE
Avatar
The Hurt Locker
Precious: Based on the novel 'Push' by Sapphire
Up in the Air
Inglourious Basterds
Up
The Blind Side
District 9
An Education
A Serious Man
BEST ACTOR
George Clooney – Up in the Air
Jeff Bridges – Crazy Heart
Colin Firth – A Single Man
Morgan Freeman – Invictus
Jeremy Renner – The Hurt Locker
BEST ACTRESS
Meryl Streep – Julie & Julia
Sandra Bullock – The Blind Side
Gabourey Sidibe – Precious: Based on the novel 'Push' by Sapphire
Helen Mirren – The Last Station
Carey Mulligan – An Education
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Matt Damon – Invictus
Woody Harrelson – The Messenger
Christopher Plummer – The Last Station
Stanley Tucci – The Lovely Bones
Christoph Waltz – Inglourious Basterds
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Vera Farmiga – Up in the Air
Mo'Nique – Precious
Anna Kendrick – Up in the Air
Penelope Cruz – Nine
Maggie Gyllenhaal – Crazy Heart
DIRECTOR
Quentin Tarantino – Inglourious Basterds
Kathryn Bigelow – The Hurt Locker
James Cameron – Avatar
Lee Daniels – Precious: Based on the novel 'Push' by Sapphire
Jason Reitman – Up in the Air
BEST ANIMATED FEATURE
Up
Coraline
Fantastic Mr. Fox
The Princess and the Frog
The Secret of Kells
BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
The Messenger
A Serious Man
Up
BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
District 9
An Education
In the Loop
Precious
Up in the Air
BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
Ajami
El Secreto de Sus Ojos
The Milk of Sorrow
Un Prophete
The White Ribbon
BEST FILM EDITING
Avatar
District 9
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
Precious
BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
Burma VJ
The Cove
Food, Inc.
The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers
Which Way Home
ART DIRECTION
Avatar
The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus
Nine
Sherlock Holmes
The Young Victoria
CINEMATOGRAPHY
Avatar
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
The White Ribbon
On Valentine's Day we continued our tradition of consuming as many heart-shaped foods as we could think of. The day started with heart-shaped pancakes, lunch was heart-shaped sandwiches and dinner was heart-shaped pizza.
The boys got T-Rex hats from Travis and I. Travis bought me a super cute sleeve for my Kindle:
The boys made cards with candy on them for Travis:
March 3rd, 2010 in
Cash,
Travis,
West |
1 Comment
One of Cash's classmates at preschool is the son of Haitian immigrants. The school sent a note home indicating that they were taking up a collection for the classmate's family because they still had several relatives living in Haiti that were in need after the earthquake.
Cash told me that he wanted to have a hot chocolate stand to raise money for his classmate because he thought that would be easier than going door-to-door collecting money from the neighbors. I explained to him that the school didn't expect him to collect money from the neighbors; they just wanted him to bring some of our money in for the collection. Cash was adamant that he needed to have a hot chocolate stand because he wanted to bring in "lots and lots of money" (said with his arms outstretched). I looked out the window at our snow covered driveway and shivered thinking about having a hot chocolate stand out there. Then I had an idea – we could have the hot chocolate stand at Hy-Vee, our neighborhood grocery store. Travis called Hy-Vee and they said no problem! We decided we would give half of the money to Cash's classmate's parents and half to the Red Cross.
Travis and the boys made the sign. We bought all the supplies and rented two big coffee urns to keep our hot chocolate warm. Cash decided that West would be the security guard for the stand. West took his job very seriously and asked several people, "Did you pay?" Luckily no one got too annoyed with him. Steve, the Hy-Vee manager was great – every 20 minutes or so he would make an announcement over the intercom about Cash's stand. Steve tried to interview Cash over the intercom but Cash said, "I'm too busy to talk," which Steve thought was pretty funny.
I couldn't believe how many people stopped by our stand and gave Cash 5, 10 or 20 dollars. Most of them didn't even want any hot chocolate in return. We had a lot of family and friends go out of their way to come and visit too.
Cash's stand earned 334 dollars! I was so proud of my little boy for wanting to help out his friend. Cash likes to make grand plans all the time and I was glad we could actually bring one of them to fruition.
February 26th, 2010 in
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Pretties by Scott Westerfeld
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This review contains spoilers if you haven't read Uglies, the first book in the trilogy.
From Goodreads: Tally has finally become pretty. Now her looks are beyond perfect, her
clothes are awesome, her boyfriend is totally hot, and she's completely
popular. It's everything she's ever wanted.
But beneath all the fun — the nonstop parties, the high-tech
luxury, the total freedom — is a nagging sense that something's wrong.
Something important. Then a message from Tally's ugly past arrives.
Reading it, Tally remembers what's wrong with pretty life, and the fun
stops cold.
Now she has to choose between fighting to forget what she knows and
fighting for her life — because the authorities don't intend to let
anyone with this information survive.
This book had less message and more action than Uglies. Tally has become pretty and must decide whether or not she wants to stay that way. The author does a great job of making the pretties sound vapid. The way they talk and their pretty slang was so annoying I almost couldn't stand it. I picture them as a cross between Stepford wives and the Heathers. There's not much I can reveal about the plot without spoiling it so I won't but I will say it ended with a doozy of a cliffhanger and I'm looking forward to Specials the last book in the trilogy.
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February 23rd, 2010 in
Books |
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City Boy by Edmund White
My rating: 1 of 5 stars
This book just did not hold my interest at all. I wouldn't have finished it but I received it through GoodReads First Reads program so I felt like I had to.
City Boy is author Edmund White's account of his years in New York as a struggling author. I didn't feel any emotion coming out of him. It felt like he was just writing a laundry list account of his activities and so it was hard to connect with him. Also, he name dropped a lot and it was clear that I was supposed to be impressed but I only recognized a handful of names that were dropped. It was hard to keep everyone straight too – he mentioned dozens of people.
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February 22nd, 2010 in
Books |
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My poor blog has been so neglected this week – it was a crazy one! I worked three mornings at KU Med as a Standardized Patient (fake patient for student nurse and doctor exams), made birthday treats for Cash's half-birthday celebration at school (he has a summer birthday), had a church board meeting (three hours long as usual), went to see Grey Gardens – The Musical at the Unicorn (fantastic!) with my mom and brother and went to see Disney Live with Travis and the boys.
Even with all that, I managed to get all three of my short runs in. I'm planning on doing my long run this afternoon after the THREE kids we are doing respite care for this weekend go home. They are five (boy), four (girl) and 23 months (girl). The four and five year old have fit right in with my boys – they have been having quite a time playing this weekend. The 23-month old is so sweet and so smart. She repeats everything I say like a little parrot. She even said, "zzzziiiiipppp" after I zipped up her pjs.
Here are the cupcakes I made for Cash's half-birthday at school. He was very specific about how he wanted them decorated:
February 21st, 2010 in
Uncategorized |
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