Reviews

Antonia meet Jazz. Jazz meet Antonia.

Antonia signed up for a peer counseling program at her middle school to lend an ear to students who need someone to talk to...not girls who wear black lipstick and holes in her clothes...on purpose. What was she getting into?

What does compassion have to do with what we eat?  Jonathan Safran Foer, author of Everything is Illuminated, makes the argument that the answer to this question does matter.  At least he’s betting on it as

I am really interested in supporting our local Kansas authors and I came across writer Tracie Peterson. She wrote The Long Awaited Child, a story of Tess Holbrook who desires deep in her heart to become a mother. She and her husband have tried everything under her doctor’s care. Tess feels hopeless until one day a friend of hers mentions adoption. Tess considers adoption, an idea with which she comes to terms with after much soul searching.

As is true with many of the titles I read, this one was recommended by a patron. Dewey is the sweet story of a kitty that was found in the book return box of the Spencer, IA public library one cold winter morning. The library director adopted the cat and the library became his home.

I found this book and author so inspiring that in order to do them justice, I felt compelled to share how I first became aware of the author and my response to hearing the author speak and reading the book.

This 2009 film may remind you of "2001: A Space Odyssey". Sam Bell (played by Sam Rockwell) is stuck on the dark side of the moon with only Gerty the robot for company. He gets occasional pre-taped video messages from his wife, but otherwise his three-year stint working for Lunar Industries mining fuel from lunar soil is devoid of human contact.

I'm not even sure how to describe this book. It is set in an apparently familiar place - 1980s England - but this is an alternate universe in which the Crimean War is still going on after 175 years, time travel by government agents called Chronoguards is commonplace, and people can not only travel to and live in books but can interact with characters who, like actors in a play, lead independent lives within their books in between the scenes in which they appear.

I picked up the movie Tenderness because it starred Russell Crowe and the cover states "edge-of-your-seat thriller". But I would consider this more of a drama than a thriller. This is a story of, Lori, a girl that has fantasized about one kiss she witnessed between a boy and a girl 2 years previously. It just happens that Eric, the source of this kiss, is being released from juvenile prison for murdering his parents.

I was a big fan of the first Universal Soldier when it came out in 1992, so I was hoping for a fairly decent version. After all, both Jean-Claude Van Damme and Doph Lungren were returning for a repeat performance. Oh, but what a big disappointment! There was alot of violence and alot of fighting and alot of blood. But what was lacking though was the story. Or perhaps it was the director's rendition of the story. Either way, I wish I wouldn't have wasted my time.

I almost didn't watch this movie because of all the apprehension among those that I talked with. But I am so glad I did. It is a story of a young girl who perseveres through physical abuse, poverty, incest--which produces 2 pregnancies, illiteracy and she is harrassed because of her weight. The parts that did include the incest though were fairly short and Precious had a habit of fantasizing when things got too much for her. The audience would accompany her to her safe places. Gabourey Sidibe, the rookie that plays Precious, did a wonderful job.