Saturday, June 27, 2009

Movies and Books

I may feel really busy with work, but I've been managing to sneak in some time to watch movies and read books.

The books I've read have mostly been chick lit - where I just wanted some fluff that I could finish in a few hours so that when I got obsessed (which I always do), I would be able to return as a normal functioning human being quickly.

I've read:
  • Can You Keep a Secret? by Sophie Kinsella. My first Kinsella book. Appropriately cute and fluffy.
  • The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, by Anne Brashares. Also a cute book. Very young feeling, but was fine. I enjoyed it for what it was.
  • The Namesake, by Jhumpa Lahiri. This was a deeper book, definitely not chick lit. And I enjoyed it more deeply than the others, kind of how I would a really great dinner (as opposed to the other books, which I enjoyed the way I enjoy potato chips).
Currently, I'm reading a non-fiction book called "The Survival of Beauty" which assessed beauty in a quasi-scientific manner and what it means to society. I've only just begun, but since it's non-fiction I won't get as obsessed with the storyline and will be able to put it down when I need to.

As for movies, last night I saw "Taken" with Liam Neeson. First of all, Liam Neeson is a first-class actor. I'm not sure he used it so much in this movie, but he was an extremely believable character here. Anyway, the movie was just good. I was literally on the edge of my seat. Sometimes I use that phrase a bit flippantly, but toward the end of the movie I realized I had scooted up from being reclined on the couch to sitting on the edge, all tense and hunched. All in all, I enjoyed it. I'd recommend it for a Netflix rental. Perhaps not a $5 blockbuster rental, but as part of Netflix queue, I'd say, "foshizzle!"

I am trying to catch up on everyone's blogs. I have deeper things to blog but I never seem to have the time to put them to paper anymore. HA! Paper. I mean "the internet".

This was a totally useless post. Have great weekends all!

12 comments:

PhysioProf said...

PDizz in the house!

Alyssa said...

Not useless :) I liked Taken as well, although it was a bit creepy thinking about that happening.

If you like chick lit, then try books by Jennifer Weiner (Good in Bed is my favorite) or Jodi Piccoult (especially My Sister's Keeper if you haven't read it yet).

Jim L. said...

Oh the Namesake made me soooo mad at my wife even though she didn't do anything even remotely like in the book. Just an irrational anger.

PhizzleDizzle said...

MCH - for some reason I don't want to like chick lit (the tomboy in me?) - but it is something I enjoy when the time is right. I really never have read any chick lit until those books, except for once I read a book called "something blue" while in a bookstore, I forget who it was by though. Also, the contrarian in me refuses to read Jodi Piccoult, though I will probably watch the movie :).

Jaz - what about the book made you so mad? Moushumi (the wife)? I don't follow...nothing about the book made me mad...?

Jim L. said...

I don't really remember. I read the book last year as part of a book club and I remember that all of the women were blatently cheating on the guys. I think I put myself in the main characters shoes. But I could be remembering it wrong.

Alyssa said...

Yeah, I hear you - I totally refused to read chick lit for the longest time. Then I read Good in Bed, and I've read all of Jennifer Weiner's books now. They're sweet and fun!

Some Piccoult books are better than others. I wouldn't really consider those chick lit though. More like "drama" or something.

I definitely have a "do not read" list though - mostly things like the Twilight series and Harry Potter! LOL

PhizzleDizzle said...

I definitely am not going to read any Twilight....but Harry Potter? I LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVE Harry Potter!!!!! It really is a fabulous series. If you ever consider bending....I'd highly recommend checking them out :).

Cath@VWXYNot? said...

Sophie Kinsella is OK, not a patch on Helen Fielding's Bridget Jones books though!

My Sister's Keeper drove me crazy - I was loving it right up until the end, which was a major cop-out. I was soooooo mad. Review here if you're interested, partial spoiler-alert in the comments ;)

Jim L. said...

My wife fell in love with the Twilight books and I intend to read them shortly as well. She also loves Harry Potter which she just started the 7th book.

JLK said...

Okay, Jennifer Weiner is fantastic, I love her to death. But my favorite book by her is Little Earthquakes. It's chick-lit with substance, which is what I dig.

The Shopaholic series by Sophie Kinsella sounds really cheesy (I wouldn't touch them for the longest time), but when I finally picked up the first one I was hooked. The books are just so damn FUNNY! But the movie absolutely sucked, just FYI.

The other chick-lit author I love is Emily Giffin, especially Something Blue.

PhizzleDizzle said...

Maybe I should give chick lit a chance and read more of it...sounds like lots of people like it!!

Silver Fox said...

I can't remember if we've seen Taken. Now that we have Netflix, will have to check that out. And we do the movie streaming, also, onto MOH's laptop. It works well as long as we reboot the computer first (to clear caches or memory or whatnot).

I'm way behind on catching up! Hi everyone! Hi PD!