Book Review: The Stupidest Angel

The Stupidest Angel: A Heartwarming Tale of Christmas Terror by Christopher Moore
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The Stupidest Angel is the story of young Joshua Barker, a seven-year old boy who thinks he saw Santa Claus getting murdered. A hapless but well-meaning angel attempts to grant Joshua his Christmas miracle with disastrous results that send the whole town into chaos.

I think you either get Christopher Moore and love him or you don’t and hate him. Oh, how I love Christopher Moore. I love, love, love dark absurd humor that doesn’t make any sense and his books are packed full of it. This book has the best line EVER in it:

“No one knows why, but second only to eating the brains of the living, the dead love affordable prefab furniture.”

I thought about this book for days after I finished it and laughed every time. It’s not a traditional Christmas classic and that’s why it’s wonderful.

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2010 Golden Globes Wrap-Up

The Golden Globes was a fun show to watch this year. Ricky Gervais's cutting remarks made me squirm in my seat but in a good way. He was so funny and really pushed the envelope – I couldn't tell if the crowd was into him or about to storm the stage and throw him out. I hope he gets asked back next year.

Let's see how I did with my predictions, shall we?

Best Motion Picture – Drama

I predicted The King's Speech (and rooted for Black Swan) to win and the winner was…The Social Network! I was really surprised by that one.

Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama

I predicted Natalie Portman to win and the winner was…Natalie Portman! Like I said before, I don't know how anyone could have given a more amazing performance.

Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama

I predicted Colin Firth to win and the winner was…Colin Firth. I predict he will win the Oscar as well.

Best Performance by an Actress In A Supporting Role in a Motion Picture

I predicted Melissa Leo to win and the winner was…Melissa Leo!

Best Performance by an Actor In A Supporting Role in a Motion Picture

I predicted Christian Bale to win and the winner was…Christian Bale!

Best Motion Picture – Comedy or Musical

I predicted The Kids Are All Right to win and the winner was…The Kids Are All Right!

Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture – Comedy or Musical

I predicted Anne Hathaway to win and the winner was…Annette Bening! What did you think of Annette's hair that night? I think I liked it but it's getting slammed by the fashionistas.

Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture – Comedy or Musical

I predicted Johnny Depp to win and the winner was…Paul Giamatti! 

Best Animated Feature Film

I predicted Toy Story 3 to win and the winner was…Toy Story 3!

Best Director – Motion Picture

I predicted Tom Hooper of The King's Speech to win and the winner was...David Fincher of The Social Network!

Best Screenplay – Motion Picture 

I predicted Aaron Sorkin of The Social Network to win and the winner was…Aaron Sorkin of The Social Network! 

I correctly predicted seven out of eleven categories – a 64% success rate. Good thing I didn't place any wagers! Next up, the Academy Award nominations, which will be announced on January 25th. I can't wait!

2010 Golden Globe Update

Golden Globes day is finally here! I actually got quite a few of the movies in. Below are my thoughts and predictions. Please comment and let me know what YOU think!

Best Motion Picture – Drama

Black Swan
The Fighter
Inception
The King's Speech
The Social Network

This is a tough one. Based on the four that I've seen I think Black Swan was probably the overall best. However, from what I've heard The King's Speech will actually win.

Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama

Halle Berry – Frankie and Alice
Nicole Kidman – Rabbit Hole
Jennifer Lawrence – Winter's Bone
Natalie Portman – Black Swan
Michelle Williams – Blue Valentine

I've realize it's the only one I've seen in this category but I can't imagine anyone being better than Natalie Portman was in Black Swan. She showed so much range and had to do so much crying! Her performance in the last scene was breathtaking.

Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama

Jesse Eisenberg – The Social Network
Colin Firth – The King's Speech
James Franco – 127 Hours
Ryan Gosling – Blue Valentine
Mark Wahlberg – The Fighter

Colin Firth will win this category.

Best Performance by an Actress In A Supporting Role in a Motion Picture

Amy Adams – The Fighter
Helena Bonham Carter – The Kings Speech
Mila Kunis – Black Swan
Melissa Leo – The Fighter
Jacki Weaver – Animal Kingdom

My vote here is for Melissa Leo. Mila Kunis's character in Black Swan wasn't that far off of her character on That Seventies Show. And Amy Adams was good but not award-winning.

Best Performance by an Actor In A Supporting Role in a Motion Picture

Christian Bale – The Fighter
Michael Douglas – Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps
Andrew Garfield – The Social Network
Jeremy Renner – The Town
Geoffrey Rush – The King's Speech

Christian Bale should get this. His portrayal of Dickie Eklund was spot-on. At first I thought it was over the top but as the credits roll at the end of the movie there is a clip of the real life Dickie and Christian nailed his distinct style of speaking, his quirky mannerisms, everything.

Best Motion Picture – Comedy or Musical

Alice In Wonderland
Burlesque
The Kids Are All Right
Red
The Tourist

I think The Kids Are All Right will probably win this category.

Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture – Comedy or Musical

Annette Bening – The Kids Are All Right
Anne Hathaway – Love And Other Drugs
Angelina Jolie – The Tourist
Julianne Moore – The Kids Are All Right
Emma Stone – Easy A

I'm not sure about this one. I thought Julianne Moore was too awkward and stilted (as usual) but Annette Bening was pretty good. My guess is that Anne Hathaway will win.

Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture – Comedy or Musical

Johnny Depp – Alice in Wonderland
Johnny Depp – The Tourist
Paul Giamatti – Barney's Version
Jake Gyllenhaal – Love And Other Drugs
Kevin Spacey – Casino Jack

My guess here is Johnny Depp for Alice in Wonderland.

Best Animated Feature Film

Despicable Me
How To Train Your Dragon
The Illusionist
Tangled
Toy Story 3

Toy Story 3 will definitely win. It is the only movie in this category that struck a resounding chord with adults (and made us all cry!).

Best Director – Motion Picture

Darren Aronofshy – Black Swan
David Fincher – The Social Network
Tom Hooper – The King's Speech
Christopher Nolan – Inception
David O. Russell – The Fighter

I have a feeling that The King's Speech will win but I'd like to see Inception win.

Best Screenplay – Motion Picture 

Book Review: The Beach House

The Beach House by Jane Green
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Nan is an eccentric old woman who lives in Nantucket in huge rambling home. When her investments tank and she is in need of money, she decides to rent out rooms in her home over the summer. Between her two boarders and her son Michael who moves back home she brings together a motley group of people – all of whom are facing major transitions of one kind or another in their lives.

Although this was overall a good story, I had a few issues with it. First of all, Jane Green’s editor still doesn’t think it’s important to check that the American dialogue is authentic. Just like in Swapping Lives, the characters talked using British phrasing and slang. It was worse this time and very distracting. A thirteen year old girl, after getting a babysitting gig exclaims, “I’ve never had a proper job before!” The characters all said proper all the time actually. And one character who was arguing with another said they were having a “row”. It took me out of the story almost every time.

Another problem I had was that when one of the characters ends up being gay, everyone comments that they were not surprised; they always knew that character was gay. But no one ever says why or how they knew that character was gay. The character doesn’t act stereotypically gay so I felt like Green should have delved more into why no one was surprised.

I listened to The Beach House in the car. The book is structured so that it switches among the different characters perspectives every few paragraphs. The narrator wouldn’t pause at all between paragraphs where the character changed and that could get confusing. Other than that I thought the narration was good.

There was a lot of serendipity in the way that everything that happened throughout the book ended up intertwining and it all came together and wrapped up in a neat package at the end. I actually like that sometimes so I was okay with it – especially for a car book, I don’t want to get too upset while I’m driving over a sad ending!

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4 Year Old Ass Man

The boys and I were reading an Avengers comic book last night. (Side note: I cannot wait 'til Cash can read comic books on his own and read them to West. I can't understand a single thing going on in them – they make me feel very dumb and extremely bored at the same time.)

Anyway, we come to a picture of Spider-Woman that looks similar to this:

West (my innocent four-year old babe) says, "Do you know what my favorite part of her is Mommy?" And then points here:

"Um, why is that your favorite part of her?" I inquired, scared of what the answer might be. "Because I like the bumps," West says, actually looking a little sheepish. Then Cash wanted to know why her bottom had bumps and we had a very awkward discussion about muscular butts and how to get them.

One More Challenge

I found one more challenge that I want to sign up for this year – The Vampire Chronicles Reading Challenge hosted by Book Chick City. I've read the first five or six in the series and I've wanted to reread them so this will be perfect. I didn't realize there are ten books in the series total – I'm excited to read them all.

Year-End Wrap Up (Personal)

Let's check in and see how I came out on the goals I set for myself at the beginning of 2010.

1. Go to a yoga class at least once a week and practice at home at least once a week

I only went to a few yoga classes. I was president of my church's Board of Trustees for half of the year and that took up WAY too many of my evenings. However, I started P90X about a month ago and part of that program is doing the Yoga X DVD once a week most weeks and twice a week on "recovery" weeks. It's a 90 minute, very challenging routine. And of that 90 minutes, shivasana is only five minutes! (If you want to follow my workouts, you can check out my workout blog. It's mostly just a record for myself so it's not all that exciting.)

2. Train for and run the Hospital Hill 10K (it's in June sometime I think)

I ran Hospital Hill but I downgraded to the 5K because I didn't train very well due to being sick and accepting a new foster baby. BUT I had a huge painful boil on my inner thigh that rubbed against my shorts and I ran anyway. I actually ran (and walked) the 5K, came home and took a shower and then went to the ER to get the boil lanced. (Gross and totally TMI I know, sorry.) And the really funny thing is my time was over two minutes faster this year than last year!

3. Read at least one book a week (hopefully more but I want to make sure that reading stays fun and not a chore. I read 40 books last year so this would be 12 more, hopefully not too much of a stretch.) I also want to make sure I read at least a couple of classics.

I blew this the first part of this goal away – I read 61 books this year! As for classics, I read Pride and Prejudice which I LOVED. I started Wuthering Heights but I couldn't get into it and gave it up about halfway through. I've hardly read any classics so feel free to suggest some that you've loved. Except Dickens – I've tried and failed.

4. Scrapbook at least one layout a week, either digitally or on paper

This did not even come close to happening. I did make our family's Life Book which is a scrapbook that we take to adoption staffings so the team can see what an awesome family we are and pick us to adopt the child in question. (We had two staffings in 2010 and weren't picked but I'm hopeful for this year.)

5. Lay out my clothes for the next day (both running and regular) before I go to bed every night and make sure everything the boys need for school is laid out/packed up.

I did great at making sure the boys stuff was ready the night before, not so great on making sure my own stuff was ready.

6. Plan a dinner menu every week

Hit or miss. I lost my cooking mojo the last half of the year and I think it was because I let my Cooking Light subscription lapse. I've started that up again so hopefully it will inspire me.

7. Go to bed earlier. Ideally I would like to be upstairs getting ready for bed 10pm and then I can read for an hour or so. (It's 10:30pm as I type this so obviously I'm not doing too well so far!) I know an earlier bed time will help with the motivation to get my butt out of bed to run.

This didn't start to happen until I started doing P90X. I am really committed to completing this program and there's no way I can do the intense workouts with getting enough sleep. I'm upstairs most nights by 10:30pm or so and lights out happen by 11:30pm. I'd like to get to lights out at 10:30pm because by the end of the week, I am TIRED.

8. Be more patient with the boys. Practice deep breathing and counting to ten when they're pushing my buttons.

This is a goal I'll be working on for the rest of my life and will probably never acheive to my (or their) satisfaction.

9. Pay off the credit cards

We made a pretty good dent in them and Travis has us on a plan that should get them paid off in 2011.

10. I feel like I need to have some kind of goal to decrease my Internet time but honestly, I get the shakes just thinking about it. Maybe if I concentrate on all my other goals my computer time will automatically decrease.

Having three children for most of the year and four children for a small part definitely helped me break my Internet addiction. Also being the president of my church's Board – that took up WAY too much of my time. Oh wait, did I mention that already? I digress… Another thing that helped was getting a smart phone. I can check my email on my phone throughout the day when I'm out so when I get home I don't feel the all-consuming urge to fire up my computer.

Year-End Wrap Up (For Books)

This year I read 61 books! That is an all-time record for me. I reviewed all but a handful of them. The reviews for the ones I've finished in the last couple of weeks will come out soon. My previous record was 40 books in 2009.

My five-star reads were:

Adult

Ape House by Sara Gruen
Tallgrass by Sandra Dallas
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
You Don't Look Like Anyone I Know by Heather Sellers
The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls
The Help by Kathryn Stockett
Kiss of Midnight by Lara Adrian

Young Adult

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian by Sherman Alexie

Children's

Ramona the Pest by Beverly Cleary
Beezus and Ramona by Beverly Cleary

Almost 20 percent of my reads were five-star. Not bad!

My one-star reads were:

City Boy by Edmund White
The Last Supper: A Summer In Italy by Rachel Cusk

Only two – thank goodness! And both of these I won from either LibraryThing or Goodreads so I had to finish them – otherwise I would have abandoned them.

2010 Challenge Wrap-Up

All righty, let's see how I did on my 2010 reading challenges:

I signed up for three books in the South Asian Author Challenge.

1. Half Life by Roopa Farooki

2. Born Confused by Tanuja Desai Hidier

3. The Twentieth Wife by Indu Sundaresan

What's In A Name 3 Challenge:

Food –The Bread of Angels by Stephanie Saldana

Body of Water –

Title – The Apothecary's Daughter by Julie Klassen

Plant – Tallgrass by Sandra Dallas

Place Name –The Little Giant of Aberdeen County by Tiffany Baker

Music Term –

I signed up for Honorable Mention (1-3 books) for the Books Won Challenge and I didn't get any read AND reviewed.

The last challenge is the Amy Einhorn Perpetual Challenge. This one is easy because it goes on forever! So far I've read:

1. The Help by Kathryn Stockett

2. The Gendarme by Mark Mustian

I actually ended up the year better than I thought I would considering I didn't pay too much attention to my challenges when I chose which books to read. In 2011 I'm going to update my challenges monthly so I'll be able to keep better track of what I need to read.

2011 Reading Challenges

I'm putting all of the challenges I've decided to sign up for 2011 into one post. Last year I did my challenges backward – I just read whatever and then figured out which of my books fit into which challenge. For 2011 I want to be more proactive and actually pick books out to read specifically for my challenges. I plan to do a monthly challenge update post, which should help me keep on top of things.

Swapna is hosting the South Asian Challenge again this year. She's made one change – the books can be by a South Asian author OR set in South Asia. You can find the details here. I'm signing up at the South Asian Explorer level which is five books.

Teresa's Reading Corner is hosting the 2011 Audio Book Challenge. I'm signing up at the Facinated Level which is six audio books. I listend to way more than that this year but that's because I was on my church's board and driving back and forth from there at least three times a week (30 minutes each way.) That assignment is thankfully over. You can find the details of this challenge here.

The Ladybug Reads is hosting the 2011 E-Book Challenge. You can find the details here. I'm signing up at the Facinated Level which is six e-books. I have a ton of books waiting to be read on my Kindle so I hope this challenge helps me get some of them read!

One of the most creative challenges is What's in a Name 4, hosted by Beth Fish Reads. This year the categories are:

1. A book with a number in the title
2. A book with jewelry or a gem in the title
3. A book with a size in the title
4. A book with travel or movement in the title
5. A book with evil in the title
6. A book with a life stage in the title

Katy from A Few More Pages is hosting the 2011 2nds Challenge which challenges readers to read a second book by an author you've read before. I'm signing up at the Just A Spoonful level which is 3 books that are the second of a series or the second time you've read an author. You can find the complete details about the challenge here.

Bart's Bookshelf is hosting the TwentyEleven Challenge. I need to read two books in nine of the categories and one book in two of the categories:

1. To YA or not YA… (I think I read mostly adult fiction so I'll read YA for this category.)
   
2. …With a Twist. (Read a sub-genre you don't normally read. This will be hard because I read almost everything!)
   
3. Hot off the Presses. (Read a book published in 2011.)
4. It Wasn’t Me! (Read a book you've chosen based on a blogger's recommendation.
5. Show it Who is Boss! (Read a book from your TBR pile as of 12/31/10.)
   
6. Bablefish. (Read a translated book.)
   
7. Will-Power? What Will-Power? (Read a book you bought in 2011.)
   
8. Mind the Gap. (Read a book you need finish a series.)
   
9. Back in the Day. (Re-read a favorite book.)
   
10. Way Back When. (Read a book published before you were born.)
    
11. Slim-Pickings (Read a book between 90-150 pages.)

Whew, I think that should be enough to keep me busy for the year!