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Maximum Ice

Posted by barb on Jun 27, 2005 in Books

by Kay Kenyon

Star Road has returned to Earth after a failed attempt to establish a colony elsewhere in the galaxy. They turned back after the young people stopped being able to bear children. They’ve been gone 250 years according to the ships clocks, but 10,000 years have passed on Earth.

When they arrive, they find an Earth covered with “Ice” — a crystalline substance that covers most of the surface. The people of Star road don’t have much time, since Ice is still spreading, and the small tract of land left open will be covered in less than 6 months.

On the surface, the Ice Nuns are the group to negotiate with. They are not catholic, nor God-fearing; however, they keep up the heirarchy of the old Catholic Nuns — along with the discipline and corruption. Their goal is to talk with Ice, and they don’t want to stop its growth.

Zoya tries politics with the Nuns, hooks up with a tracker of Ice Witches, and searches for a nun postulant who could unlock the secret of Ice.

This is the first book of Kenyon’s that I’ve read. Based on the blurb on the back of the book, I wouldn’t have even picked it up, and I would have missed out. The story was strong, the characters compelling, and I look forward to seeing what else Kenyon has written.

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Hollywood Ending

Posted by barb on Jun 19, 2005 in Movies

2.5/5 stars

Woody Allen plays a has-been director whose last hit was ten years ago. He’s now almost unemployable, being known for unreasonable demands. He gets a chance when his ex-wife (Tea Leoni) pushes her producer boyfriend to hire Allen. Allen becomes blind before the first day of shooting, but can’t give up the job, or he’ll never get a job in Hollywood again. Ostensibly, hilarity ensues.

This film is typical of recent Woody Allen films — lackluster and with a large “thud” at the end. The characters weren’t much more than 1-dimensional. The story lacked much push toward the “climax” and ending, and frankly, I wasn’t sure when the climax happened. There was some entertaining dialog, but all-in-all this is not a film I’d go out of my way to see.

[IMDB link for Hollywood Ending]

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A Wrinkle in Time

Posted by barb on Jun 17, 2005 in Books

by Madeleine L’Engle

This is another book that I read in my childhood that I’ve revisisted to see how it held up.

Meg’s father is a scientist who has been missing for quite some time. Her mother knows that something has gone wrong with his last assignment (top secret, with the government), but doesn’t know what to do to help him. Then, Meg meets Mrs. Whatsit, Mrs. Who, and Mrs. Which through her brother, Charles Wallace. These three unusual women know where Meg’s father is, and use a tesseract (a wrinkle in space and time) to help the children find him.

A great story, and it holds up as a good read for my adult-self as well as it did for my child-self.

Note: This book is on the list of 100 most challenged books from 1990-2000. Why? According to Forbidden Libaray, this book was:

Challenged at the Polk City, Fla. Elementary School (1985) by a parent who believed that the story promotes witchcraft, crystal balls, and demons. Challenged in the Anniston Ala. schools (1990). The complainant objected to the book’s listing the name of Jesus Christ together with the names of great artists, philosophers, scientists, and religious leaders when referring to those who defend earth against evil. Got it. Let’s cross Jesus off that list, shall we?

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Mad Hot Ballroom

Posted by barb on Jun 15, 2005 in Movies

4/5 stars

For nearly a decade, ballroom dance has been taught in New York City public schools. At the end of the year, there is a citywide competition for the best of the schools. This documentary follows students from three of the schools as they learn the dances, choose competitors and finally compete for the gold.

This film was a bit reminiscent of Spellbound, the documentary on kids competing in the national spelling bee. However, I felt that this one didn’t give us as intimate a look at the kids as Spellbound did. There was much more emphasis on the dancing and dance classes than on getting to know the kids. Don’t get me wrong — we do get to know a few of the kids, and I felt very invested in the final outcome of the competition, but there was a lot more dancing footage than getting-to-know-the-kids footage.

[IMDB link for Mad Hot Ballroom]

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More Anguished English

Posted by barb on Jun 13, 2005 in Books

by Richard Lederer

More bad grammar, gaffes, and funnyu mistakes collected together. A fun, funny read, but quickly forgotten.

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The Companions

Posted by barb on Jun 12, 2005 in Books

by Sheri S. Tepper

As is typical of the Tepper books I’ve read, she paints a rather depressing picture of Earth’s future, with a decimated environment and overcrowding that taxes the few remaining natural resources. A group (IGI-HFO, or In God’s Image – Humans First and Only) has called for all animal life to be eradicated to leave more resources for humans.

But in this desolation, Tepper remains optimistic on human nature — at least the human nature in a few strong people who can affect change in the world. As with most Tepper novels, the main character is a multi-faceted, interesting, strong female. Jewel Delis has worked with domestic animals since before the IGI-HFO people banished all except laboratory animals. Her brother works as a linguist, and often brings her along as an assistant on his travels to other worlds, not knowing that she really works for arkists, the group secretly trying preserve animal life on other planets.

Excellent read.

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Hitch

Posted by barb on Jun 4, 2005 in Movies

3.5/5 stars

Fun, fluffy romantic comedy starring the very cute Wil Smith. Not much else to say.

[IMDB link to Hitch]

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The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants

Posted by barb on Jun 1, 2005 in Movies

4/5 stars

I love the books, and was really looking forward to the movie. Naturally, the movie has watered down a couple of the stories, but that has to happen, since there’s only so much that can be fit into two hours. What really struck me, though, was how sad the movie was. I started crying in the first 5 minutes, and didn’t stop until it was over. I thought maybe I was being a big baby, but Sweetie, who was sitting next to me, was crying through much of it, too. I didn’t remember the books being quite that sad. Overall it was quite good, though be prepared with a few Kleenex.

[IMDB link to The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants]

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Catching up on my book diary

Posted by barb on May 24, 2005 in Books

Those last four entries of books are ones that I’ve finished between February and now — I’ve been too busy to read much, and way too busy to write up in my diary. Here’s hoping that I’ll have more time to read after the AAS meeting next week…

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Jump the Shark

Posted by barb on May 24, 2005 in Books

by Jon Hein

Repeat after me: Not all fun web sites need to be made into books.

This is a book based on the Jump the Shark web site, where people discuss when various TV shows, celebrities and politicians “jumped the shark”. Of course, the phrase “jump the shark” refers to an episode of Happy Days where Fonzie jumped a shark cage on water skis, also widely viewed as the moment when Happy Days showed that it was past its prime.

The problem with the book, though, is that we get only Hein’s opinion on when people jumped. We lose the interaction of the website, which, frankly, is the fun part.

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