This week is Polygamy Week at Chaos Is a Friend of Mine! I’ll have a place to link up your reviews about books that are related to polygamy on all my reviews this week. Feel free to link up either a new review or one from your archives.
In other non-bookish news, I’ve decided to go vegan this week as an experiment to see if it helps heal my Crohn’s disease. It’s a good time because my boys are at their grandparents this week so there is no one to here to bitch about me cooking new recipes. I’m dusting off my running blog to keep track of what I eat and how it makes me feel. I’ll also post links to the recipes I make this week there.
It’s hard to believe that my sweet baby boy turned six years old yesterday.
He got to plan how we spent the day. We started off with opening presents at 7am – he was very specific about the time. Then we had a breakfast of biscuits and gravy made by Daddy and donuts. After that, swimming lessons and then back home to play with his birthday present – an Xbox 360 with Kinnect. I picked up lunch at McDonald’s for everyone and then we went to the movie theater to see Madagascar 3. We came home to play more Xbox and then went to Burger King to eat dinner and play in their play area. The boys were supposed to have a T-ball game after dinner but thankfully it was canceled due to the 107 degree heat. Then home for more Xbox. He was so into the Xbox that he didn’t even want to stop to have his birthday cupcakes so we’re going to have them today. Tonight is his birthday party at Chuck E Cheese. Then I’m going to need a serious detox from all this horrible birthday food!
June 29th, 2012 in
Family,
West |
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Yesterday I wrote about my impressions of the original 1934 version of the film Imitation of Life. Today I’m going to look at the 1959 remake of that film.
The remake is quite different from the original in several ways. Bea’s character is now named Lora (Lana Turner) and is an aspiring actress in New York City. She meets Delilah’s character, now named Annie (Juanita Moore), at the beach on Coney Island. Annie and her daughter Sarah Jane have recently become homeless and Lora agrees to take them in just for the night. Lora is a single mother supporting her daughter Susie and she can’t afford to support Annie and Sarah Jane too. Annie gets a job washing shirts and she and her daughter end up staying. Eventually, Lora becomes a successful Broadway actress and is very wealthy. Annie’s role in Lora’s success is that she takes care of Susie while Lora is working. Lora works a lot so Annie is more of a mother to Susie than Lora is in most ways.
Lora’s romance with Steve Archer (John Gavin) is fraught with conflict in this movie. He can only be with her if she prioritizes him over her work and apparently that means not working at all. He’s a good guy though; it’s clear that this expectation is not unreasonable. It’s Lora who is being unreasonable wanting to work when there is a perfectly good man wanting to take care of her. I wasn’t expecting to find such a sexist subplot – the 1930s version portrayed women in a way better and stronger light!
Sarah Jane’s struggle with being a light-skinned black person has a bigger part in this movie than Peola’s struggle in the original. I was disappointed that they did not cast a black person to play Sarah Jane. Susan Kohner did do a fabulous job playing Sarah Jane though and was nominated for both an Academy Award and Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress for the role. Sarah Jane is even more of a “tragic mulatto” in this movie and has quite a few dramatic scenes in which she talks about why she wants to be white.
This movie address the issues of race in a more direct way than the original which I’m sure is a product of the time in which it was made. When Lora suggests that Annie talk to Sarah Jane about not trying to pass as white, Annie says, “How do you explain to your child that she was born to be hurt?” Like Delilah in the original movie, Annie wants a big funeral when she dies. She tells Lora to please invite all of Annie’s friends. Lora looks surprised and tells Annie that she didn’t know Annie had any friends besides her – very telling of the one-sided nature of their relationship.
Another difference between the two movies that I must note is the heightened drama in the remake. Lana Turner chews the scenery every chance she gets and the score is very heavy handed. The melodramatic background music makes sure that the viewer is not confused when something VERY DRAMATIC is happening.
This movie has all kinds of interesting movie star connections. Alan Alda’s dad, Robert Alda, plays an agent. Troy Donahue, who was just starting out, has a small part as a real jerk – he was not dreamy at all in this movie. And Susan Kohler’s son is Chris Weitz, the director of The Twilight Saga: New Moon.
It was interesting to watch the two versions of Imitation of Life back to back and see how much (and how little) relationships between black people and white people changed over the twenty-five years between the two movies.
Buy this movie at:
Amazon Instant Video
June 28th, 2012 in
Movie Reviews |
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Yesterday I reviewed “Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?” by Beverly Daniel Tatum. In the chapter called Identity Development in Multiracial Families she writes that, “The stereotype of the ‘tragic mulatto’ – as portrayed in the classic film Imitation of Life, for example – is one of marginality and maladjustment.” I thought it would be interesting to watch the film to gain a better understanding of what she was writing about.
In doing some further research, I discovered that the 1934 version of the film is considered a ground breaking film about race for the time and is actually based on the novel Imitation of Life by Fannie Hurst. The film was remade in 1959 and there is also a book called Born to Be Hurt: The Untold Story of Imitation of Life by Sam Staggs that is a behind the scenes look at the filming of the 1959 movie. I’d like to read those books at some point but today I’ll be focusing on the 1934 version of the movie and then tomorrow I’ll discuss the 1959 version. I was going to do both today but my post ended up to be way longer than I anticipated just writing about the first movie!
The 1934 movie stars Claudette Colbert as Bea Pullman, a widow who is struggling to make ends meet after taking over her late husband’s maple syrup business. One day Delilah Johnson (Louise Beavers) shows up at her door with her young daughter Peola looking for a job as a housekeeper. She offers to work for Bea for no pay, just room and board. One day, Delilah makes delicious pancakes for Bea, using her secret family recipe. Bea loves the pancakes so much, she opens a pancake house to sell them. Eventually, she and Delilah go into business selling pancake mix and they become wealthy.
While all this is going on, Peola is struggling. Even though her mother is a dark skinned black person, Peola is light enough that she can pass for white. (Delilah tells Bea at the beginning of the movie that Peola’s father is very light too.) Peola is ashamed of being black and passes for white whenver she can. Of course, she is outed whenever her mother shows up unexpectedly somewhere, which happens quite often. She grows to resent her mother because of this.
It’s interesting to view this film through the lens of today’s world. Delilah is very much the stereotypical Mammy character. She wants nothing more than to serve Bea and take care of her. Even after Bea gives her a twenty percent interest in the business, Delilah tells Bea to just keep all her earnings for her. She doesn’t want her own home or car, she just wants to keep living with Bea. (And why does she only get a twenty percent interest? It’s her pancake recipe and her face on the box!) When Bea comments that Peola is smarter than Bea’s daughter Jessie, Delilah says something to the effect of we’re all born smart, we get dumb later on. It was somewhat unclear to me if she’s talking about the black race or the human race but it sounded like she was just speaking about black people.
There are just a handful of scenes that are focused on Peola and her struggles. In this film the main plot is Bea’s business and her romance with Steve Archer (Warren William). The kissing scenes in this movie were hilarious. They didn’t pucker up so much as just smash closed mouths together. Is that how everyone kissed back then? My husband and I tried to kiss that way for fun after watching this movie and were cracking up. But I digress…
I didn’t think that Peola’s subplot had that much depth. She talks about wanting to be white but doesn’t talk about why. Perhaps that would have been too much for a film to delve into in the 1930s. When Peola and Jessie are in elementary school, Peola comes home from school crying because Jessie called her black. Bea asks Jessie why she would say such a horrible thing and gives her a stern talking to. I thought that was really interesting that “black” would be considered an insult or slur back then but “colored” was not.
Fredi Washington, the actress who played Peola as an adult, was a green-eyed, light skinned black woman. Ironically, she was encouraged to pass for white by studio heads so she could be cast in more roles but unlike Peola, she refused to pass. She was a fantastic actress but unfortunately there weren’t many roles for a light-skinned black person back then. For some of her roles she had to wear makeup to darken her appearance.
This was an eye-opening film for me and I think anyone interested in the history of race relations in the United States would find it very interesting to watch. If you are interested in a thoroughly detailed analysis of the film, check out this article I found during my research about the film.
Buy this film at:
Amazon Instant Video
June 27th, 2012 in
Movie Reviews |
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“Why Are All The Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?”: A Psychologist Explains the Development of Racial Identity by Beverly Daniel Tatum
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Publisher’s Description:
Walk into any racially mixed high school and you will see black youth seated together in the cafeteria. Of course, it’s not just the black kids sitting together-the white, Latino, Asian Pacific, and, in some regions, American Indian youth are clustered in their own groups, too. The same phenomenon can be observed in college dining halls, faculty lounges, and corporate cafeterias. What is going on here? Is this self-segregation a problem we should try to fix, or a coping strategy we should support? How can we get past our reluctance to talk about racial issues to even discuss it? And what about all the other questions we and our children have about race? Beverly Daniel Tatum, a renowned authority on the psychology of racism, asserts that we do not know how to talk about our racial differences: Whites are afraid of using the wrong words and being perceived as “racist” while parents of color are afraid of exposing their children to painful racial realities too soon. Using real-life examples and the latest research, Tatum presents strong evidence that straight talk about our racial identities-whatever they may be-is essential if we are serious about facilitating communication across racial and ethnic divides. We have waited far too long to begin our conversations about race. This remarkable book, infused with great wisdom and humanity, has already helped hundreds of thousands of readers figure out where to start.
This is an excellent book on racism and racial identity. It’s very readable and would a great first book for someone just learning about the concepts of white privilege and institutional racism.
The author walks the reader through the development of one’s racial identity (both black and white) from pre-school through adulthood, with every point backed up with research. I think her section on “white identity” will be truly eye-opening to a lot of white people who read it. I’ve taken quite a few workshops related to white privilege and racism and the author did a nice job of compiling everything I’ve learned all into one book. She writes objectively, without anger and without trying to make the white reader feel guilty about being white.
Although most of the book deals with black people and white people, there is a chapter that deals with other people of color. However, this book was written pre-9/11 – I think the section on people of Middle Eastern descent would have been different and perhaps longer if she had written it post-9/11.
I wish I could make this book required reading for just about everyone. I originally bought it because I thought it would help me in raising my daughter (who is African American) but actually this book has valuable information that I can use with ALL of my kids to help them grow up to be conscientious citizens of the world.
Buy this book at:
Amazon
Powell’s Books
June 26th, 2012 in
Books |
5 Comments
Skipping a Beat by Sarah Pekkanen
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Publisher’s Description:
From the outside, Julia and Michael seem to have it all. Both products of difficult childhoods in rural West Virginia – where they were simply Julie and Mike – they become high school sweethearts and fall in love. Shortly after graduation, they flee their small town to start afresh. Now thirty-somethings, they are living a rarefied life in their multi-million-dollar, Washington D.C. home. Julia is a highly sought-after party planner, while Michael has just sold his wildly successful flavored water company for $70 million.
But one day, Michael collapses in his office. Four minutes and eight seconds after his cardiac arrest, a portable defibrillator jump-starts his heart. But in those lost minutes he becomes a different man. Money is meaningless to him – and he wants to give it all away. Julia, who sees bits of her life reflected in scenes from the world’s great operas, is now facing with a choice she never anticipated. Should she should walk away from the man she once adored – but who truthfully became a stranger to her long before this pronouncement – or give in to her husband’s pleas for a second chance and a promise of a poorer but happier life?
The premise of this book intrigued me. Would it be that easy to give up so much material wealth for a marriage that wasn’t that great in the first place? The author did a good job of setting up Julia’s back-story so that we understand why financial security is even more important to her than most people. However, I still had a hard time feeling sorry for her because I found her to be so selfish. Her relationship with Michael baffled me; their marriage seemed to deteriorate so quickly after Michael’s company took off and their lack of communication after that was astounding. If I were Julia, there were some things that I could not have kept my mouth shut about. I really liked Julia’s friend Isabelle. I would love to see a spin-off book with her as the main character.
I chose this book for my book club’s June read based on the great reviews it got around the blogosphere when it was first published. After reading it, I feel like my book club friends and I may be cold-hearted snakes because none of us liked it that much. That said, we still had a good, long conversation – mostly about the issues surrounding marriage that the book brings up.
I felt lukewarm about this book – I never cared enough about the characters, especially Julia, that I felt like crying over them. A lot of other reviewers were crying buckets at the end so maybe that says more about me than this book! I did enjoy parts of this book and clearly a lot of other people out there have enjoyed it wholeheartedly so you may want to check out some other reviews besides mine.
Buy this book at:
Amazon
Kindle Store
Powell’s Books
June 25th, 2012 in
Books |
3 Comments
Remember a while back when I was on a kick reading about polygamy? Well, I actually read enough books about it that I can post a whole week of polygamy book reviews. So I’ve decided to declare July 1-7 Polygamy Week on my blog. I’ll be reviewing Escape and Triumph by Carolyn Jessop, Under the Banner of Heaven by John Krakauer, and The 19th Wife by David Ebershoff. I may throw in a surprise bonus review as well! Each day will have an opportunity for you to link up with my post. You can start reading now and link up a new review or link up any reviews from your archives that have something to do with polygamy. I’m still very intrigued by this subject and am looking forward to seeing what books you all have read about it. Feel free to grab the button to use on your blog too!
June 24th, 2012 in
Books |
1 Comment
Nikki and Deja: Wedding Drama by Karen English
My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars
Publisher’s Description:
Ms. Shelby is getting married! As the girls in Nikki and Deja’s class compete over who can plan the best imaginary wedding for their teacher, Nikki excitedly throws herself into preparations for the real thing. But Deja is not so enthusiastic. Her Auntie Dee has been temporarily laid off from her job, and Deja is worried. What will happen now that she can no longer afford a new dress and special hairdo? Will Nikki leave her best friend behind while she shops and primps? Will Deja be able to get over her jealousy and enjoy the celebration anyway?
This is the fifth book in the Nikki and Deja series but it could easily stand alone. I haven’t read any of the previous books and I didn’t feel like I missed anything. The intended audience for this book is ages 6 to 9 or grades 1 to 4. This was definitely a feminine story, all about the excitement of planning a wedding. As much as I hate to classify things by gender, I don’t think this book will appeal to most boys (nor is it meant to.) This book did a good job of capturing how competitive and snotty little girls can be with each other and showing how it makes the girls on the receiving end of the snottiness feel bad.
I chose this book because it sounded like a cute story and there are girls of color on the cover. I think I’ve mentioned before, I like to acquire books for our home library that feature children of different colors and ethnicities, especially since as a foster parent I often have children of color living in my home and it makes them feel more comfortable here to have books that feature kids that look like them. I liked that even though this book had several characters that were people of color, race was not the focus of this book. Not every book with characters of color needs to be about racial issues – people of color do live ordinary lives just like white people.
I did think that the moral may have been a little too subtle for a little kid to grasp. This would be a good book to read with your child and discuss afterwards to make sure that she gets the intended message. Overall, this was a cute little story about friendship.
Buy this book at:
Amazon
Kindle Store
(I received this book courtesy of the Amazon Vine program.)
June 21st, 2012 in
Books |
3 Comments
Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Publisher’s Description:
On a warm summer morning in North Carthage, Missouri, it is Nick and Amy Dunne’s fifth wedding anniversary. Presents are being wrapped and reservations are being made when Nick’s clever and beautiful wife disappears from their rented McMansion on the Mississippi River. Husband-of-the-Year Nick isn’t doing himself any favors with cringe-worthy daydreams about the slope and shape of his wife’s head, but passages from Amy’s diary reveal the alpha-girl perfectionist could have put anyone dangerously on edge. Under mounting pressure from the police and the media—as well as Amy’s fiercely doting parents—the town golden boy parades an endless series of lies, deceits, and inappropriate behavior. Nick is oddly evasive, and he’s definitely bitter—but is he really a killer?
As the cops close in, every couple in town is soon wondering how well they know the one that they love. With his twin sister, Margo, at his side, Nick stands by his innocence. Trouble is, if Nick didn’t do it, where is that beautiful wife? And what was in that silvery gift box hidden in the back of her bedroom closet?
Oh my gosh – this book was so good. I was drawn in right from the title which is perfect for this book. “Gone Girl” just sounds creepy and intriguing. This is one of those books that is really hard to review without spoiling it but I shall try. Gillian Flynn has created two fabulous characters in Nick and Amy. While the plot of this book is primarily the mystery of what happened to Amy, it’s also a study of Nick and Amy’s marriage and how things change once they both lose their jobs and move from New York City to Missouri. I had the pleasure of seeing Gillian speak at an event hosted by Rainy Day Books. She said Gone Girl is about how no one really knows what goes on in a marriage and what happens when your golden lifestyle that you define yourself by is stripped away.
Other highlights of Gillian’s talk:
+ When asked to comment about the fact that her two previous novels have angry female main characters, Gillian stated that women are not innately good as it is sometimes assumed and that they should get credit for trying to be good. Rage and anger are normal emotions for both men and women but some reason we tend to think there is something wrong with a woman who is feeling angry. I haven’t read Gillian’s previous two books but I thought she made a really good point – women should be allowed to be angry.
+ Gillian said that she could probably set up a perfect murder in real life, but she would crack under the pressure of being questioned. She also said that she doesn’t have the twists and turns her stories take in mind when she writes; she just sees where the story goes as she’s writing it. I can’t imagine!
+ One of the characters in Gone Girl makes fun of the Mid-West and the people who live there and at first I was a little offended. Then I found out that Gillian is originally from the Kansas City area and that made it okay with me. You have the right to make fun of it if you grew up here. My favorite line from the book about the Mid-West is, “I have learned about bulk shopping in my four weeks as a Mississippi River resident. Republicans go to Sam’s Club, Democrats go to Costco.” That’s pretty much true in my neck of the woods! Gillian commented that there is a strange reverse eroticism that people on the coasts have about the Mid-West. You can tell them anything about the Mid-West and they’ll believe it.
+ The movie rights have been optioned for both her previous books – Sharp Objects and Dark Places. Gillian said that Sharp Objects is being developed by the producer of Paranormal Activity and that Amy Adams is attached to play Libby in Dark Places.
Me, Gillian and NerdyApple. Gillian told me that I had a friendly face and because of that she kept looking at me during her talk (I sat in the third row). She signed my book, “To Rachel – the great audience member – thank you!” That made me love her even more. I can’t wait to read her first two novels.
Bottom line: You must, must, must read Gone Girl – it’s gripping, surprising and twisted. What more could you want?
Buy this book at:
Amazon
Kindle Store
Powell’s Books
June 20th, 2012 in
Books |
3 Comments
Yesterday, I reviewed the book In Her Shoes. Today I’m going to review the 2005 movie based on the book. This review assumes that you have read the book and may have spoilers for the book/movie if you haven’t.
I thought the screenwriter did a good job of adapting the book for the screen. The book is really long and a lot had to be trimmed and condensed to make the movie, which still ended up being two hours and eleven minutes long. I thought the choice to leave out Maggie going to Princeton was a good one – I found that part of the book to be unrealistic anyway.
I agreed with most of the casting choices. The main casting choice I didn’t like was Cameron Diaz as Maggie. The scenes where she is trying to read a book to a man in the nursing home she works in are awful. I didn’t find her believable as someone who has a learning disability. Actually, I don’t think she’s that great of an actress in general. I know that some people thought Toni Collette was too thin to play Rose, but I wouldn’t have expected them to cast a plump actress. Unfortunately that’s just not how Hollywood movies work. Shirley MacLaine was wonderful of course – she was nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Ella Hirsch.
Incidentally, when Jennifer Weiner spoke at the BEA Bloggers convention, she mentioned that she was really happy with how the movie had turned out. She strikes me as someone who would let the world know if she wasn’t happy with it so I think she was telling the truth. It’s always nice to hear that an author is satisfied with the screen adaptation of their book – it must be hard to let go of control over your characters and story.
If you liked the book In Her Shoes then I think you will enjoy the movie as well. I think fans of romantic comedies will enjoy this movie even if they haven’t read the book.
Buy or rent this movie at:
Amazon Instant Video
June 19th, 2012 in
Movie Reviews |
1 Comment
