Friday, January 04, 2008

At the Year's End

Before I get to the books & movies from December, I have a little story to tell.

Yesterday I went out shopping for Jordyn's birthday. When I got back the mail had come - there was a package with my name on it sitting on the chair by the front door. Since my birthday is 3 weeks away, I couldn't imagine why I had a package. Then I looked at the return address: it was from Kathleen! What could she be sending me???  I excitedly ripped into the box to find the coolest pair of Bronco-orange sunglasses and suddenly I remembered.

A while back I posted about how I ran over my shades with my car and Kathleen said if she found another pair of these awesome glasses she had, she would send them to me.  I had completely forgotten about the offer but she didn't!  It was a great surprise and Kathleen proved again just how sweet she is!  Thanks!!!!

And now onto the books and movies!  I did pretty well with reading considering I was off of work for 11 days!  It was hard to read at home with the kids home on vacation, Collin off of work for a week and baby showers and Christmas festivities going on.

48.  The Adversary - Julian May  The last book in the Pliocene Exile series.  It was good but it didn't really answer some of my questions like who was it that Mercy thought Aiken looked like?  I know that doesn't sound important but to me it really was!!

49.  Dead Days of Summer - Carolyn Hart  Another fun Death on Demand mystery.

50.  The Beatles Come To America - Martin Goldsmith  This was a tiny book about The Beatles and their effect on the American people after the assassination of JFK.  It took maybe a couple hours to read and while there were cute pictures, I didn't learn anything new.

51.  Ticket To Ride - Larry Kane  This was a cool book.  Larry Kane was the only reporter to tag along with The Beatles for each one of their American tour dates.  He had some great stories to tell and it came with a CD of some of the interveiws he conducted.  This is the book that is responsible for my falling for John Lennon.

52.  Magical Mystery Tours - Tony Bramwell w/Rosemary Kingsland  I started off a little iffy about this book...Tony Bramwell struck me as a bit of a braggart: "I knew The Beatles before they were The Beatles and I worked with them on everything, blah blah blah."  The one thing that got me was when he said he never had to pay for a single Beatles album, they were all given to him.  Well bully for you!  But after a while, I got used to his way of telling a story and was able to enjoy the book told by the promotions director-type fella for The Beatles.

53.  Louie Louie - Dave Marsh   This was a fun book.  It was all about the history of the song Louie Louie, made famous by The Kingsmen.  It went through all the versions ever recorded, which is a phenomenally high number, the life of Richard Berry (who wrote the song and recorded it first) and how Louie Louie influenced a ton of songs!  I wish this one had come with a CD!

54.  The Twylight Tower - Karen Harper  I picked this up on a whim at the library and ended up loving it and wanting to read more.  Karen Harper writes mysteries and the main detective is Queen Elizabeth I.  She's very accurate in her historical background and characters which makes her stories all the more enjoyable!

55.  Maria Callas: A Musical Biography - Robert Levine  One of two opera singers I know.  I figured what the heck, why not read about someone I know absolutely nothing about and ended up fascinated.  Maria Callas led an interesting and sometimes sad life and thank God there were 2 cds included so I could hear the songs that were being talked about.  That woman could sing!!  And she was so pretty...I want to be an opera singer now.  Haha!  I think this is my BOTM.

56.  John Lennon - Bruce W. Conord  I went on a John Lennon freak-out the last time I went to the library and I grabbed whatever book about him I saw.  The girl who checked me out asked if I was doing a paper on him! What I didn't bother to look at was what I was grabbing.  This book turned out to be a young adult book and written very thinly.  I enjoyed the pictures, though. 

I did better with the movies this month than last month due to the fact that all my TV shows were on reruns or just not on because of Christmas specials.

161.  Copying Beethoven  I was excited to see this when I saw the preview and then later when I saw that Joe Anderson was in it I was REALLY excited to see it.  I loved the music but it was so blatently un-historical I more than likely will never watch it again.  

162.  Mr. & Mrs. Smith  Collin bought the unrated version of this movie so we watched to see what was unrated about it.  Turns out it was only the special features.  But it's still an awesome movie.

163.  Win A Date With Tad Hamilton!  Christina & I had plans to go shopping but then her niece got sick so I went to her house and we watched movies.  I picked this one because I had only seen it when it first came out and remembered it being really cute.  Turns out Ginnifer Goodwin is in it and now I can't see her as anyone but Vivian Libretto Cash in Walk The Line.  But the movie is cute and has a sweet message.  And I love Topher Grace!

164.  A Hard Days Night The second movie I watched with Christina.  You can't go wrong with this Beatles fun-fest!  "Hey mister! Can we have our ball back?"

165.  The Simpsons Movie Collin bought this so of course we had to watch it again.

166.  A Bugs Life I picked this movie to watch one night when nothing was on.  I adore this movie - it's so funny no matter how many times I see it.

167.  Shrek  This was on TV and I hadn't watched it in years!

168.  Miss Congeniality Once again, on TV.  Love this movie!

169.  Futurama: Bender's Big Score  This one had it's moments where I laughed my fool head off ("Your tail was wagging") and other moments where I was totally annoyed.  Overall I liked it though.

170.  A Christmas Story What's Christmas without this movie?

171.  Sweeny Todd The MOTM.  Oh my God, I loved this movie!!!  It was so dark and Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham-Carter were amazing!  Yeah, there was a lot of blood but it's The Demon Barber - - you gotta have blood!!

172.  Hairspray  Christina brought over the original movie for me to watch and I loved it just as much as the remake.

173.  Snakes On A Plane  Yep.  We watched it.  Just to get it out of the way and you know what?  Yeah, it's cheesy and goofy in spots but it wasn't near as bad as I was expecting.

174.  Confessions Of A Teenage Drama Queen  I owe Collin a zombie movie for this one.  It was okay.

175.  Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story  Funny funny funny!!  If I hadn't seen Sweeny Todd, this would have been my MOTM.  Judd Apatow & his crew make some funny-ass movies!!!

So that's it.  My final tally is 56 books (which I feel shame about - it should have been much higher) and 175 movies which doesn't surprise me.  This year I'll have to try for 200!!  :D  The Book of the Year goes to Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.  Movie of the Year honors belong to Across The Universe.

I hope you all have a fantastic 2008!!  

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// posted by Heather @ 10:11 AM
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