Category Archives: Reading

Name that movie!

I pulled this from the Byrne Unit, where I was not tagged. But golldarnit, I’m doing it anyway. Here are the rules:

Pick 15 of your favorite movies.
Go to IMDb and find a quote from each movie.
Post them for everyone to guess.
NO GOOGLING/using IMDb search or other search functions.

  1. “I’m very sorry for your loss. Your mother was a terribly attractive woman.”
    Good job, B! This is from “The Royal Tenebaums,” one of my very favorite movies.
  2. “I don’t want to be a product of my environment. I want my environment to be a product of me.”
    This one’s from “The Departed,” which I went to see by myself (well, with a group of moms I didn’t know). I was very surprised to love it.
  3. “Winter, slumbering in the open air, wears on its smiling face a dream… of spring. Ciao.”
    C’mon, woodchuck chuckers! It’s “Groundhog Day“!
  4. “You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.”
    I should’ve known Amanda would be the first one to get “The Princess Bride.” I couldn’t begin to guess how many times we watched that one together.
  5. “You can never go home again, Oatman… but I guess you can shop there.”
    Rodger‘s right! This is from “Grosse Point Blank,” the movie in which John Cusack plays an assassin who goes to his high school reunion. It’s a great movie.
  6. “You smell like beef and cheese. You don’t smell like Santa.”
    “Sheesh” indeed, little brother. This is from “Elf,” which I’m still waiting for Netflix to bring to me.
  7. “Don’t ever touch me. … You smell like cabbage.”
    If you haven’t seen “Dick,” you should run out and rent it right now. It’s my favorite political movie ever.
  8. “You call this a happy family? Why do we have to have all these kids?”
    Hannah got it! We’ll be watching “It’s a Wonderful Life” on Christmas Eve, as usual, and I will most likely laugh at this line even though I probably shouldn’t.
  9. “We still got that meat lovers’ pizza in the trunk.”
    Little brother Justin’s right! It’s “Tommy Boy.” I had a hard time choosing my favorite “Tommy Boy” quote, if that tells you anything about my level of sophistication. (“Shut up, Richard.”)
  10. “I think you’ve had enough tea for today, let’s get you outta here.”
    Someone would’ve gotten this one right away if I’d used “You’re a sad, strange little man.” It’s from “Toy Story.”
  11. “The magic is unsanitary!”
    This was another one that I was surprised to like. It’s from “Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants.”
  12. “I like your nurse’s uniform, guy.” “These are O.R. scrubs.” “O, R they?”
    Rachel? You’re my “Rushmore.” Way to go.
  13. “It’s got raisins in it. You like raisins.”
    It also doesn’t surprise me that Amanda got this one. We watched “Better Off Dead” roughly every other day between the ages of 11 and 13.
  14. “Give me a scotch. I’m starving.”
    Right again, Rodger! I have to admit, though, that by the time I got to “Iron Man” I’d run out of movies that I “love.” This falls under the category of movies I liked.
  15. “And cause I was a gazillionaire, and I liked doin’ it so much, I cut that grass for free.”
    Of course Jeni would know this was “Forrest Gump.” At least I didn’t use “Me and Jenny was like peas and carrots.”

Brown's lost "Moon" story doesn't measure up

There is a certain romance to the story behind “The Moon Shines Down” by Margaret Wise Brown. The unfinished manuscript was found in a cedar trunk years after the author’s death. The pages were in the trunk for so long that “the onionskin paper had yellowed and the paperclips that held the pages together had rusted,” says the book’s publisher.

Margaret Wise Brown based “The Moon Shines Down” on a prayer frequently found on cross-stitch samplers: “I see the moon, and the moon sees me. God bless the moon, and God bless me.” It’s a pleasant little refrain, and it’s repeated frequently throughout the book as a very cute little koala travels around the world, sharing children’s bedtime routines with your little reader.

Continue reading “Brown’s lost ‘Moon’ story doesn’t measure up.”

I really did like the book

I wanted to write a review of Leif Enger’s new book, “So Brave, Young and Handsome,” but I’m having a hard time doing that. Enger wrote my favorite book, “Peace Like a River,” and I can’t seem to write about “So Brave” without comparing it to its predecessor.

“So Brave, Young and Handsome” is sort of a middle-age coming-of-age story about an author who’s stuck on his second book. It’s an adventure story, but it’s also about family and finding yourself and holding onto your identity. Enger is capable of writing with an understated, elegant lyricism, and that’s evident fairly frequently in his second novel. It was there on most every page of “Peace Like a River,” though, which is why I didn’t enjoy “So Brave” quite as much.