#3 Nobody's Perfect

The Gymnasts was another fave series of mine back in the day when babysitting ruled, being a twin held some kind of miracle superpowers (but only if you were blonde, pretty and popular) and girls still wrote letters to boys in a nearby school instead of filming sex videos with them.

The Gymnasts series was set at Evergreen Academy with the group of 'pinecones' (sort of beginner gymnasts) - Jodie, Darlene, Cindi and Lauren. I loved the name Darlene when I was a kid although Jodi was my fave character - she's the cute blonde on the cover. I even liked the Darlene in Roseanne although she was an altogether different character.

The Gymnasts author (Elizabeth Levy) has a quirky (if somewhat annoying) feature of naming the chapters. I found this kind of annoying now and pretty sure back when I was 11. For example, "Writer's Block for Blockheads", some are just inane while some give big obvious clues about what is going to happen in the chapter and I found this patronising even for the actual target audience for YA literature. Anyway this was one of my fave books as it starred Jodi and from what I remember her having to write in a diary for school.

Basically Jodi has been chosen to participate in a demonstration with her coach, Patrick but it will require her to take some time off school. Not being the greatest student already, her mum and teacher gang up and won't let her go unless her schoolwork improves. She has to write two pages in her school journal everyday until the demonstration.
Since this is an early one in the series it is still sort of introducing the characters and we learn Jodi is pretty fearless and she has the pressure of her parents being awesome gymnasts and her sister being a mega brain.

Jodi procrastinates (a lot) but eventually begins writing pretty much all about gymnastics and how much she lurves her coach. She gets to go and perform in the demonstration but not after some ripping up of the journal when Ashley (gymnast bitch) reads it and mocks her writing. It gets put back together with the help of the pinecones and they're all on their merry way, with Jodi getting to perform in front of her sister and prove she also has some talent and determination.

I liked this series for obvious girl reasons: it has gymnasts, cattiness, a hot coach and a group of tight knit friends. The girls do act more age appropriate and look their age on the (fugly) back cover (excuse the crappy pic). Suppose it was printed in 1988 though, but I think Jodi looks quite cute on the front cover. Also I distinctly remember trying out those gymnast poses on the left side of the cover, particularly fond of the second one from the top if memory serves. The body doesn't do so well lately though. Tried to get up on the high bar with my 6 year old cousin last weekend to attempt a swing (not even trying the death drop I used to do with ease in primary school), and I couldn't even lift my weight. Sigh.

The Thornbirds Take 2

I've been so lazy lately, but with my boyfriend working 10 days straight (6am - 10pm bloody hard worker, opposites must attract) I have an excuse to catch up on some posts I've been meaning to do.

The Thornbirds had quite a few characters in the big Cleary family, a family who emigrated to Australia from New Zealand in the early part of the 20th century after a rich sister (Mary Carson) of Paddy (the dad) decides she'd like her brother to work on her huge sheep station named Drogheda. Since they're doing it tough in NZ they hop on over on the boat. When they arrive there are 4 older brothers and arguably the main character of Meggie, the only daughter, with 2 younger boys as well.

Immediately Meggie forms a relationship with Ralph de Bricassart a priest who visits with Mary very often due to her sway in the community and her charity towards the church. Mary grows jealous of the priest's relationship with young Meggie (who at the time is around 8 and the priest 22) and decides to give Ralph the power to decide who will get her entire estate (worth many millions) when she dies. Ultimately Ralph decides to take the estate himself (leaving the Cleary to still live and work at Drogheda and be comfortable) thereby giving him the power to become a cardinal with the catholic church.

To go through the whole story would take forever. The family suffers so many tragedies through working on the land, losing loved ones and the ongoing battle between Ralph's faith and what he feels for Meggie (of course nothing happens until she is older).

Overall impression of the book was that I was engrossed about 3/5ths of the way through. I loved the early tales of the hard time working on the land and the tradgedies that seemed to keep falling on the family. I liked the drama of the courtship of Meggie and Luke a new worker at Drogheda, who anyone could see was no good but to innocent Meggie just reminded her of Ralph.

Once the story continued on to that of Meggie's children I lost a bit of interest. I felt Meggie for all her personality flaws was still betrayed in a more positive light than her daughter (who was referred to as several times as being nothing like her mother in looks and personality) just because she wasn't Ralph's spawn. While she had a more fiery and interesting personality and life rather than just pining after a priest who should have known better.

I am glad I read the book though, having heard a lot about it but knowing nothing and I am pretty eager to see the mini-series.

Image courtesy of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Thorn_Birds

Movies I Loved

If I was going to define myself by any movies I watched religiously with my friends in the mid 90s when I was 11/12 and 'ruled the school' (primary school anyway) it would be the following 3 movies:

Clueless

The Craft

Reality Bites

Now in further detail:

Clueless is still pretty awesome. Whatever happened to Alicia Silverstone? I thought she was the prettiest actress I'd ever seen. And I wanted her wardrobe obviously. It had a young Paul Rudd who hands down, is doing the best out of his career compared to everyone else. It also has a very different looking Billy from Six Feet Under and it has Cher's dad Dan Heyada who is terrifying in a lovable way. Clueless even has its only language and I remember reading a teen magazine which deciphered all the lingo for me. Example, a mona lisa. A girl who looks okay from far away but is a big mess when viewed close up. Harsh yes, but can be applied to everyday life. This movie even spawned my love of knee high socks and where I learned the sad reality that they don't really work in real life (particularly not on 11 year olds with developing chests and the beginnings of acne). I bought some yet never wore in public. Tragic.

The Craft is obviously way darker in that superficial high school sense and so appealed to my juvenile interest in magic and the occult. We had this book in the school library which had, you know, 'scary' stories that was always been consciously checked out. One even had a picture of a woman looking into a mirror and in the reality she was alone but in the mirror there was a hand at her throat! Just saying, I was into some heavy stuff.

The Craft had some cool characters and actors playing them (for the time). Nor was I to know the really scary Fairuza Balk played Dorothy in the underrated 80s sequel Return to Oz (check that movie out - the queens different heads scene is awesomely creepy for a 'kids' film).

And who hasn't tried the light as a feather, stiff as a board trick? I know at least once I tried it at a friends birthday party with a bonfire in the background! Atmospheric. Or a lame teenagers party, I can't decide. Nah bonfires are always cool.

Admittedly I wasn't in the target audience for Reality Bites. I wasn't an angsty generation Xer. Heck I didn't even know there were generational gaps and there sure as hell wasn't a generation Y around back then. But Winona Ryder was awesome, so waify and pixie like. Pretty much nothing like me and she played Jo in Little Women - the best March sister. Plus she had the hot pre-Terminator outburst Christian Bale lusting after her.

I have to say I never 'got' Ethan Hawke though. He seemed so greasy, though I guess that was his attraction back then, being all grunge like and whatnot. Ben Stiller's character actually wasn't that bad, he was pretty nerdy looking and had a huge phone but he had cool collectables and a real job. I am so not the target audience for this film. But I loved it anyway. I also loved Vicki and their classic dance to My Sharona in the petrol station. It just had classic scenes which appealed.

Looking back on these films I still enjoy them, but in different more nostalgic ways. Clueless gets played about once a year on free TV while the other 2 wouldn't get a rating which is a shame for these young Gen Z or whatever the hell they're going to be named. Can I just say my generation has the crappiest slogans if you will. The noughties another craptastic example.

Images borrowed courtesy of http://www.20thcenturyflicks.co.uk/film-list?page=351 and http://images.google.com.au/url?source=imgres&ct=ref&q=http://www.lazydork.com/movies/clueless.htm&usg=AFQjCNGQFjBruiuz5Sb1rORu7VcprzhH9Q

The Thornbirds

Getting another one off my list is Colleen McCullogh's The Thornbirds. I'm about a third in and am really loving it (much better than that Orwell's 1984 so much easier to read. Although I ordinarily wouldn't have understood some of the references in Sadako's lastest post. Silly me).

I'd always heard what a classic novel it is, but maybe there was more hype around the mini-series. Wikipedia informs me it was the second highest rated mini series of all time in America? Sweet.

Having watched nor read either it would be interesting to compare when I'm finished the book. Anyway after hearing that Stephen King devoured this book I thought I also must read. My overall opinion won't be long.

Rebecca

Just wanted a quick post to say I took forever to get into this book but then once I started, I stayed up until 1am last night reading the last 100 pages or so.
It's weird but I didn't notice how at the end I was really gunning for the character who had committed murder. Eh.
Also thought it was interesting how Du Maurier seemed to add in dimensions of her own life into the nameless narrator and to the notorious Rebecca title character (lesbianism anyone?).

Apparently Hitchcock did a movie in 1940 and it has quite a big difference in the twist in the story which seems disappointing but without having seen it I can't really comment.

Since I seem to be the last person to discover and read this book I don't think I have much more to add, but I did also buy Jane Eyre yesterday without realising there were any similarities between the two.

Queen Kat, Carmel and St Jude Get a Life

So in a nutshell, Kat's a bitch, Carmel's fat yet talented and Jude's got a revolutionary dead father and is really smart.

This story is divided into 3 main sections with each girl telling her story in the first person.
The 3 girls are all from a country town and end up living together in Melbourne when they leave to go to university.

Kat's (or Katrina) studying law, and is the standard blonde good looking one but she gets messed up with the wrong people, including a gay drug dealer, a older rich married man and a 'naughty' photographer.

Carmel's pretty overweight and has a gorgeous singing voice. She didn't get into the music course she wanted and is studying some course so non descript I couldn't even recall it. She ends up pulling out, singing in a jazz band and hooking up with Kat's family friend's son Anton. She also fights a battle against her huge family who want her to come back and help around their farm.

Jude's incredibly smart and is therefore a medical student. She is trying to emulate her doctor Chilean father who died when she was very young. It all goes wrong for her when she finds out one of the men who tortured and possibly killed her father back in Chile is now working as a chef in Melbourne. Jude becomes a confidante and protector of Carmel and the two form an unlikely bond.

We don't get Kat's perspective until the final 3rd of the book and it is safe to say most readers would not have related to her up until this point. She does also undergo a transformation and becomes a 'better' person and the journey is realistic.

This was a book I reread a lot in high school and my late teens. For some reason I never actually bought the book though. I just kept checking it out at the library and bringing home a familiar friend every once and a while.

It did get made into a mini series in 1999 with the title dropping the 'get a life'. I didn't see all of it but I always felt they didn't get a lot of the main actors right. Regardless a great story though, by Maureen McCarthy who has also done quite a few good YA books.

Oztion Findings

I was browsing on Oztion which is pretty obviously an Aussie version of Ebay when I stumbled upon a few of the maybe lesser know childrens series books I used to read when I was around 10-12 (apart from the Babysitters Club, Pen Pals and Sweet Valley Twins) published around 1995/6.

One which I cannot remember a lot about is The Boyfriend Club but when I saw the cover it really jogged some memories. When I read the back cover of one of the titles I remember it did strike me as odd that you didn't need a boyfriend to be in the boyfriend club..was it about trying to get one? I can't really remember, but the mid 90s outfits and hair are snarktastic! I especially remember the first cover, I remember thinking that is what high school is all about, slumber parties, practising applying make-up and having crushes on boys (sadly I never really worked up the courage to talk to boys that I liked much in high school but this was American it was different! or so I thought).


Another one was the two book series Lost Girls By Linda Williams Aber. I actually bought these two myself as I always remembered the cover of the first and where I was
Basically a bunch of different girls of varying ages go on a cruise with a local as the captain (whose only 18!) and get shipwrecked on an island. It was very angsty and very me as a pre teen. There were the usual stereotypes but it was set on an Island! And the girls got to play house! Double excitement!


Another was the Cafe Club, also found a few of these books on Oztion. I remember reading this series around our pool for some reason, and all I can really recall is that the girls in this were English and their school seemed very posh to me (of course anything would compared to my feral public school experience).


In other completely different news was anyone aware Dexter is married to his sister (in real life of course). How cute is that? We are behind (I think) over here but I just spent all of Easter Monday catching up on season 2 and need to watch the finale tonight. And then I'm just going to have to go and buy season 3.

Special order

So annoyed.
I special ordered On the Beach by Nevill Shute, bit of a classic I've never read.
The girl in Dymocks is not too helpful, couldn't find it with the title, then did find it with the author I confirmed and just said "It's a penguin reader." Um okay, am I meant to know what that means? I just smile and nod, I realise Penguin is a publisher and had the correct author so assumed all was ok.
Waited the nearly 2 weeks for it to get in (Ebay is quicker) and then find out penguin readers are 'simplified texts'. Crap, lesson learned. And no refund on special order books...mmm bit immature but got my mum to ring up and she got me some store credit (I've noticed shop assistants tend to be a bit nicer to the more 'mature' lady), so not a total loss. Although am still without the book I wanted!

To Do: Books to read

I found this list I wrote at some stage last year, of books I'd discovered on the net which I thought sounded interesting. A few I had heard of before but a few I hadn't, and then reading other blogs discovering how popular they are.
So I thought I'd better post them as a reminder and get onto reading them. Since I made the list though, I have read numbers 2, 6, and 11.

1. Beloved by Toni Morrison

2. The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood

3. Peyton Place Grace Metalious

4. The Princess bride by William Goldman

5. Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier

6. Rosemary's Baby by Ira Levin

7. The Thornbirds by Colleen McCullugh

8. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith

9. Valley of the Dolls by Jacqueline Susann

10. A Separate Peace by John Knowles

11. Running with Scissors by Augusten Burroughs

12. The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

13. I Love You Beth Cooper by Larry Doycle

14. Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian by Sherman Alexie

15. Prep by Curtis Sittenfield

Confesssions of a Shopaholic

Having just seen the movie today, I thought I'd compare the book and movie as they were quite different.
Rebecca Bloomwood is a journalist who is somehow working at a financial magazine although she is in debt and has a debt collector (or a 'stalker' as she explains to her parents) hounding her for money throughout the novel.

She lives with her friend Suze who practically lets her live rent free as she never has enough money for her rent cheques to be cashed.

Becki gets a good 'warm' feeling from shopping for mostly designer clothes, shoes, and bags and feels compelled to put everything onto her credit card and forget about the consequences of using all that plastic until she gets her statement and is convinced someone has stolen her credit card.
Becki does realise she has a problem though and tries 'cutting back' and then 'earning more' neither of which help the situation as she keeps making more and more excuses to shop. She even tries one disastrious day working in retail where she fights with a customer she's meant to be helping, for a pair of pants.

Luke Brandon, Becki's love interst in the novel is the head of Brandon Communicatiosn, a financial PR company. He and Rebecca have the usual misunderstandings about where they stand and eventually face off (very unrealistically but it is a comedy) on a morning breakfast show after Rebecca outsed one of his companies in an article for misleading clients right before they could have received a monetary windfall.
Rebecca does very well in the debate and it leads to a permanent slot on the show. She also sorts it all out with the bank manager and gets together with Luke who has broken up with his girlfriend.

The main differences are that the novel is set in London, while the film in New York.
Luke Brandon is Becki's boss in the film but in the book someone unrelated to the company she works for.
Suze has a boyfriend then fiance name Tarkin, who in the book was actually Suze's cousin, has a thing for Becki, is a multimillionaire and Becki considers him mostly for this reason but does grow a conscious and can't go through with anything.
In the book Luke is described as a self made millionaire and a genius. This doesn't come though so much in the film. They invent a story about his mother beiing a great rich fashionista but Luke wants to make it on his own, not on his mother's coat tails.
He's also a bit self doubting in the film in some ways, and he and Becki get together quite a bit earlier than in the novel.

I think the novel and film were both okay. I probaly enjoyed the film a bit more, the role was excellent for Isla Fisher (we like to compliment any Perth people pretty early on, see Ledger, Heath) and she comes across a lot more likable in the movie than in the novel.

Having read 2 of Sophie Kinsella's books now I feel she comes across as a bit obsessed with the finer things in life (read: outrageously expensive). I read Remember Me? recently and the preoccupation with mentioning expensive things can get irritating.

Overall the movie and novel were both similar pieces of fluff which are easy to watch/read when you don't want to press your mind too much.

Does it get any easier?

I'll be honest, I'm not getting any younger. I turned 25 last month and while this isn't incredibly old in the scheme of things I do feel I'm getting a bit old to not have a few things sorted out.

Job wise I still don't have much of an idea what I want to do. I have things I think I would enjoy but am getting to that stage where I don't want to start studying something again and then lose interest and decide I don't actually want to do this forever/full time.

Things I've tried (retail):

Toys r us, my first job lasted a couple of years after starting as a Christmas casual

McDonald's, a terrible 9 months which I hated and just did as I needed money. Worked the late Friday night shift 11pm-5am once and had drunk people through drive through asking me if I wanted to be burnt on the arm to become part of their 'club' *shivers*

cafe, lasted 4 years part time and really enjoyed the people I worked with and free muffins and slices

Office/administration:

lasted 2 days in an office for a courier company...Hated it with a passion and had a feeling from the beginning I wouldn't like it when they first told me I had 'won' the job

company I'm currently with, very small office have stayed nearly 2 years, pretty easygoing and low key but can get boring

other company I'm currently with, have lasted nearly a year..really don't have much of a clue about the industry, was meant to be a temp job until I worked out my plan...haven't gotten around to it.

In addition:

Have worked a few days as a dog washer, pretty hard work but I do love dogs but decided against it...I was young (19) and naive...thought working in an office was more 'glamorous' as you go to wear nicer clothes.

Also worked for 3 months for a rugby organisation but they let me go because I wasn't doing the accounts correctly (when I'd had no experience, formal training and was 19!).

So I have tried a few things and also studies. Straight out of high school I completed a certificate 4 in natural therapies and then did 2 years of an early childhood bachelor of education when I was 21. But I decided I wasn't ready to be a teacher, the whole thing was beginning to stress me out.

So I'm thinking maybe I need a job I can leave at work, I'll be stress less etc. But then I see all these high powered women with 'real' careers, passions and I want to be like them.
Maybe I just haven't found my niche yet.

Eh, this ended up being a lame journal type post.

Picnic at Hanging Rock

This is such a classic Australian book and I was just curious if it was popular in other countries as well. It is a pretty old novel and tells an even older story about girls in a boarding school in the year 1900. The book was written by Joan Lindsay and first published in 1967 and the movie directed by Peter Weir came out in 1975. I watched the movie when I was in primary school before I read the book only a few years ago, but they are both equally good.

I think I felt compelled to read the book because I found the movie to be so haunting and knowing it was one of the first international hits of Australian cinema, I suppose I wanted to see where it all began. I discovered the book has all these other dimensions relating to the characters which wasn't more explored in the movie, as so many book to film adaptations have due to the time restraints of the film.

I have to admit to imagining the characters from the book as they are portrayed in the movie which is good because it is an old timely book and it really gave me an image of just how British Australia was back then. Now we seem to be more American which I'm not really sure which is better but I digress.

In simple terms the book tells the story of how on Valentines day in 1900 during a school excursion to hanging rock in Victoria, 3 schoolgirls and a teacher mysteriously disappear.

The events that unfold concerning the headmistress, the two boys that help search and another student at the school all take up the majority of the book. The disappearance happens quite early in the novel.

Hanging Rock is apparently a picnicking area, although I have never been there myself living on the other side of the country. There is something about the Australian bush which is majestic but also a little frightening. There is a place I go bush walking about 20 minutes from my home and there is just that feeling like you are all alone and this is 40 minutes from our capital city!

The book has a few supernatural themes done in a simplistic yet haunting way. It's not like the book sets out to be completely spooky and throws in all these odd things it just seems to transpire that way.

It is a very interesting book to check out if you haven't heard anything about it at all - I would recommend it but even if you have seen the movie the book also has a lot to offer.

Tell Me I'm Here

Tell me I'm Here is one of those heartbreaking true stories of the lengths a mother will go to in order to help her son who has schizophrenia as well as developing a drug habit.

Anne Deveson is an Australian producer and writer who has 3 children and her eldest Jonathan begins to develop strange behaviour and is eventually diagnosed with schizophrenia.
Her search for something to help Jonathan even takes her to a progressive institute in India and in the meantime her children are quietly suffering. Granted she is aware of this and feels guilty for putting so much energy into only 1 of her children and you really feel for her trying to balance so many roles in her life. A lot of this book is set in the 70s/early 80s so it is also interesting to see issues that are still going on today back in that time period.


We had to read this book as one of the English texts in upper high school. I have re-read it several times and what really stands out is the amazing lengths Anne goes to in order to help her son. She is willing to try anything to bring her son back to what she remembers before his mental illness takes hold and while she goes on living her own life everything else to an extent is thrust into the background. You also emphasise with her other two children. Recently even Anne's daughter wrote her own book about that time in her life.

I really appreciated Anne's honesty and compassion for her son. This isn't a new book but I think (although I'm no expert on mental illness) its themes are still relevent for those suffering or living with those who have a mental illness. It's such a hard thing for other people to understand since it is not a physical illness but as this book shows it can have such an effect on ordinary families and the way they live their lives.

Perils of exercise

Unfortunately for my motivation levels I am trying a new healthy thing where I'm trying to make sure I exercise daily for at least half a hour. I play basketball one night a week and mixed netball another night but other than the occasional dog walk I was behaving rather like a sloth lately. I went to a ladies lunch last Tuesday where we had a guest speaker Dr Dingle, a west Australian doctor who has an extremely healthy attitude to eating, exercise, lifestyle factors etc. Anyway he sort of sparked this health kick.

His lecture was pretty motivating if not a bit overlong but he really was very enthusiastic. Anyway yesterday I set off for my 3rd walk of the week, ipod in ears with some very catchy 80s tunes helping me along at my local park/sports oval. Let me point out I was not even on the road or on a pathway, I was walking the perimeter of the oval when I was whistled at by a young guy in a red ute. I don't think it was the 'hey you're good looking' kind of whistle but more a 'hey I'm going to whistle really loudly and annoy and scare you' kind of whistle.

And even if it was a 'complimentary whistle' I wouldn't have liked that either. There were 3 guys at the park all doing some light jogging around: do they have to put up with any kind of verbal abuse?

It's just ridiculous that in this day and age I still feel self conscious while doing something as innocent as walking around a park trying to get some exercise. Usually I wait until a bit later to go for a walk/jog but then that also raises issues about safety especially when I have my headphones in and are not as aware as I should be.

When I got home I went and told my Dad, wondering what his opinion would be. He basically said not unkindly that I should be flattered. Thanks Dad. My mum, who'd had a few wines by this time was not too helpful either. My dad also piped in with the fact that he gets honked etc when he rides to work (my Dad is a really annoyingly healthy person who rides 15 kilometres to work and back frequently in the warmer months). I explained that this is because he rides on the road (as he is meant to as the paths are meant to be for pedestrians) and a lot of car drivers like to think they own the road and see him as an inconvenience.

I told him it's is not the same thing as I think I was just being singled out for being a youngish girl on my own walking.

If I had been with my boyfriend as I was the day before I really doubt it would have happened. I'm not sure if I'm overreacting or not but it did have me a bit upset yesterday and it did cut short my walk as I then felt more self conscious than ever. Do I now have to restrict my walking to just doing laps of the inner oval which doesn't have any cars near it? Am I an oversensitive crazy person? Time will tell.

The Lovely Bones

I guarantee most people have heard of this book by now but that doesn't diminish any of the love I have for the author, Alice Sebold, and her beautifully told story which came out in 2002.

Susie Salmon is your typical 14 year old girl and the story is told through her eyes. One day while walking home from school she is lured into an underground hidey hole by her neighbour George Harvey where he procedes to brutally rape and murder her. Throughout the story you do learn a bit baout George's character and his mindset and the things he continues to do after the murder but it's not the focus of the story.

Her view is then from that of her own personal heaven and how she comes to terms with her death and the reactions of her family.

Each family member reacts differently to the news of her death. Her mother eventually succumbs to an affair with the police investigator who is looking into the murder. Susie's father becomes consumed with trying to locate her killer. Her brother, Buckley becomes withdrawn and feels like he is living in the shadow of his dead sister.

I found this story to be so original whether that is because I have led such a sheltered literary life or whether it truly is, I don't mind or care. There are so many interesting elements: she has a 'counsellor' of sorts in Heaven, she regularly has a rush of dogs around her place in Heaven, and the moment when her dog from her time on earth is among those dogs is such a lovely scene.

The relationship that develops between Ruth and Susie once Susie has died is also intriguing. Ruth herself is a rather complex character with a strange supernatural power to be able to see events that happened in the past.

This book would have to be one of my favourites for its touching take on death and the afterlife and it's also a good look into grief and what can happen to a family when their world is turned upside down.

I looked on wikipedia (don't judge) and they have said that Ryan Gosling has pulled out of the film production citing 'creative differences', and now Mark Wahlburg is his replacement. Say it isn't so! Internet movie database is also confirming this, but I just can't picture Wahlburg as Susie's dad. But Susie is being played by Saoirse Ronan who played Briony in Atonement so I think that should be a good fit.

Good in Bed

Cannie Shapiro is a journalist who thinks she has a pretty good life, job, dog etc. She is on a break with her boyfriend of a few years, but isn't feeling particularly bad about it (she was the one who initiated the break) and is plodding along with life. Oh and she has a little weight problem, this does get mentioned many times and is the crux of the book in many ways.

Her life is turned upside down when her (soon to be ex) boyfriend, Bruce lands a regular column in a magazine titled Good In Bed and his first article is about the pain of loving a larger woman. Uh oh. Cannie confronts him and after going through a shame spiral, eventually decides she wants him back although as far as I, and a lot of other characters he has no great personality traits/personality.

Cannie also starts on a weight loss program and meets a kind doctor who she of course thinks is too old for her (and will prove to be major plot device later). She also interviews and then brfriends an unlikely celebrity through her work as a journalist and goes on a journey of self discovery about herself when she is confronted with various ups and downs. All is going along pretty well again for Cannie and then she is confronted with a challenge she didn't think would come along.

I quite enjoyed this book, although it was predictable in many ways and so many plot devices are used purely as ways for Cannie to 'get ahead'. I did find her anger towards the end of the book a little bit unrealistic. I understood why she was angry, but I'm not sure myself why I just didn't find it authentic for whatever reason.

But I also did enjoy not having to read about a 'trim neat blonde' (just an example) as seems to be the usual with a lot of chick lit. These 'trim' (man I hate that word, it conjures up images of society women who just grab a bite to eat here and there because they're so busy with their charity work) girls still do have their own flaws otherwise the stories would be too boring but they seem to have the perfect body to make up for their (usually pretty small) flaws. Overall about a 6.5 out of 10, nice homely kind of book I could easily read while eating my lunch at work.

P.S. I Love You

Okay, I don’t normally go for these sappy predictable romance stories, but after seeing the movie version, I do what I normally don’t and went out and bought the book. Usually I read the book first and then make fun of how they’ve slaughtered the book at the movies. There are rare exceptions of course – Renee Zellweger was the perfect Bridget Jones, lets just not talk about the sequel.

Basic storyline goes as such: Holly and Gerry were perfect for each other but unfortunately Gerry gets a brain tumor and dies. This is not a spoiler, it all happens very quickly. The rest of the story is how Holly copes with the loss and Gerry sends her letters monthly (organised before he died) to help her ‘deal’ with his passing – Gerry’s rules for getting on with her life.

Now this is a rare occurrence where I actually preferred the movie to the book. I was really surprised when I liked the movie. I never cry in movies, usually only when an animal dies – don’t even get me onto when I saw I Am Legend. Heartless and cruel of me yes, but I just get more choked up over animals that croak it, rather than humans with all their annoying faults.

Regardless, I liked this movie and even found myself tearing up a bit. Embarrassing. So I was all prepared to really like this book, and I was disappointed when I found it rather different for a start (not the authors fault) and a bit of a poor imitation of some much better Irish writers such as Marian Keys who excels in this stuff.

I realise the subject matter was a bit of a downer, but I just felt I had no compassion for Holly who came off as kind of annoying and very self centred, and I had no love for the supporting characters either. It was all a bit one dimensional. If you look at Keys book, 'Is There Anyone Out There', which also deals with loss, the characters were a lot more well rounded and for ‘chick lit’ it was more enjoyable to read in general.

Running with Scissors

I stumbled across the author, Augusten Burrows while watching a Melbourne writers festival thingie on ABC before Christmas and although I hadn't read any of his books the interview propelled me to look him up.

He seemed to have had such an interesting (to put it mildly) childhood. During the interview he was actually more talking about the book A Wolf at the Table but I thought I should start with the most famous of his books.

Augusten is not your usual child, his parents are always fighting, his mother is a wannabe poet and his dad is distant. He knows from a young age that he is a gay and his parents soon divorce and he spends all his time with his mother.

Pretty soon she is seeing a psychologist, Dr Finch, who says she has a lot of issues and Augusten is spending more and more time at the Dr Finch's house with his menagerie of children, adopted and not, and bizarre patients some who have been living in his disgusting cockroach ridden house for years. Obviously this is where most of the weird happenings occur in the book.

The psychologist has strange methods and while Augusten paints a funny tinge over the whole situation, some of the incidents are really quite shocking. Without the humour injection the book really would just read as a tragic childhood story but Augusten makes it readable. The book basically runs through the time his parents divorce until he leaves home at around 18.

During the interview I viewed Augusten is really open about his upbringing and speaks with real honesty and I admired him for that, but I can't in all honesty say I really loved this book.

I appreciated its strangeness and the way he seems to step back from it all in some sense but some of the situations described in the book are quite confronting and it really made me appreciate my 'normal' upbringing.

I was surprised to see the cover of my book was set out like the movie poster, when I wasn't even aware it had been made into a film. After further investigating I discovered it came out in 2006 - I cannot for the life of my recall it getting any press in Australia at the time. I'm not sure if it had a limited season or if I just have a terrible memory but I'd be pretty interested to see how they handle some of the more sensitive issues in a M Rated film.

Facebook

I'll admit it, I'm addicted to the dreaded facebook. Not only does it help make my sometimes boring work days go faster but it is a good (although somewhat superficial) way of keeping in touch with my friends.
And of course also finding people you went to high school/primary school/kindy and seeing how much they've changed is always interesting/frightening.


But there are all the downsides: facebook skanks though probably not as bad as myspace skanks yet - but how many cleavage inducing self taken pictures do we need in this world. The inevitable self promotion photos (that's a complete different topic on how digital cameras have taken away any form of pictures that aren't entirely approved by everyone in them therefore taking away the more natural pics but I digress), the lame status updates where some people give way too much information, and the fact that some person you knew for 2 minutes in year 4 wants to be your 'friend'.


Do I sound a bit cynical? I was just going on about how it gets me through the workday..... anyway the point I was getting around to eventually was also the use of 'events' in facebook. You can get events for anything.

Tonight I'm attending a BBQ which was posted as an event on facebook complete with all the details you need to know and also everyone invited to the BBQ could post messages on the events 'wall' so everyone can see what's going on, what to bring etc. It's good in a way, I mean it must save on phone texts which is how we would have done it prior but it's also bad in that no one gets actual invites to places anymore with the exception of weddings.

Case in point, my birthday is coming up and I was thinking of doing cool invites with a toddler picture of myself and details on the photo (I did it for a friends hens night and it was awesome). But then I got thinking wouldn't it just be easier to do it as an event? It'd be quicker and I need to get it out soon since everybody seems to be booked up pretty early these days and its harder for us to all get together.

But there's just something old fashioned in me that wants to send out invites. I think its the formality or the tradition of it but putting it on facebook does not give me the same feeling of finality about the party. Like I could change my mind and just put something up on the wall: 'Sorry guys I'm not feeling well *cough cough* the party's off' (which is a distinct possibility for me - I'm a nervous host).

I'm not sure which I'm going to go for, time may beat me out and my invites will go the way of letters: nonexistent.
P.S. Not the picture I was going with but check out the cake!

Rosemary's Baby

I totally stayed up reading this book way past when I should have been asleep (sorry BF!). Once I got into it I just couldn't put it down.

First of all there were a few reasons I wanted to read it.

One as everyone knows it's a bit of a classic and the fact that it's out of print in Australia made it just that more intriguing.

Two, whenever I look up famous people born on my birthday for a long time all I ever got was Mia Farrow. Since up to this point all I knew of her was the fact that she was married to Woody Allen and we know that didn't end well I was curious to see the movie she is so famous for. But I promised myself to read the book before I saw the movie.

Three I love weird and wonderful books just as much as those based in reality, and this seemed the perfect book to read, having heard so much about it and never actually going out and reading it.

We are introduced to Rosemary and her actor husband Guy. They've just moved into a Gothic style apartment in New York which is notorious for some creepy behaviour in the last hundred years but it's a great place with 2 bedrooms so what the heck?

Everything is pretty good for a while, they meet some neighbours, Guy lands a great part on TV but Rosemary begins to feel distant from her husband and she has some odd hallucinations. Guy decides he'd also like to have a baby and very soon after some forced copulation (she was passed out! There are no words to describe the wrongness) they've got a bun in the oven.

To tell much more would ruin the enjoyment of reading the novel and I really recommend it. The way Levin builds the suspense is tingling and I honestly couldn't put it down. The writing is simple but that's the way the book works. You're learning every little twist along the way with Rosemary and you sometimes wonder if she is losing her mind or what the hell is going on.

It was written in 1967 and the book does not date that much. There were a few sexist issues (most notably the rape) but it is still a good read.

There is a sequel book which was written in 1997 by Levin, which I read an excerpt of but I'm not too sure about it. May be interesting just for curiosity's sake.