Movie and Book Review

As promised before, I won't do a lot of book reviews because I think there's a lot of people out there who don't like them or find them boring. My book reviews will be pretty high level, basically just "read it" or "don't." Since I love to read, I won't do a review on every book I read. But here's a quickie on the book I finished last week (and haven't removed from my "What I'm Reading" portion of my blog).

Firefly Lane, by Kristin Hannah.

This is definitley not an earth shattering, philosophical book that is going to change people's lives. It's just a nice story about friendship. It's a little unbelievable at times and every once in awhile you'll get a little tired of one of the characters whiny attitude, but overall I would recommend it. You'll read it quickly. But here's the thing about this book. It made me cry. I mean CRY, CRY, CRY. It normally takes a heck of a book to make me cry and I certainly wouldn't call this a "heck of a book." But the end of it really got to me. One of my fears as a mother happens in this book and I just cried and cried. So, if you like a story about girlfriends, read it.

Now for a movie review...

Like I've said before, I think I'm a pretty good mom. However, until today, I've never taken my 5-year-old to a movie in a theater. I know, I know, you all are saying "What?!?!?" But you know mother's instincts. I knew that my girl would be scared by the dark and loudness of the movie (this is the same child that freaked out for over a year when we went to church because the organ was too loud--it was a long year). So I knew that it would be a waste of my time and money to take her to the movies. But today Weather Man took the afternoon off and we decided that she's ready and so we took her. Hint: the afternoon of the first day/week of school is a great time to take a 1st timer to the movie because there is NO ONE there.

We went and saw Wall-E. I'd heard nothing but poor reviews of the movie, so I was a little hesitant but we'd missed Kung Fu Panda's starting time, so this was our next choice. What did I think? Oh--I don't really know. On a child's level, it was not good--no child would ever understand that movie. I think everyone will agree on that. But I also don't think most kids realize they aren't getting it. It obviously has environmental/social/political undertones that I (as an ultra conservative) found irritating. But I had read reviews of the movie and knew to expect that. So I just kind of ignored that and enjoyed the little love/friendship story between the two little robots. Katie enjoyed her first movie going experience though. The preview for Madagascar 2 has her super psyched!

Here she is at her first movie. She doesn't look too thrilled about it, but she did fine.