let me entertain you

so over the winter break from work, i got back into reading. yes, i have been diligently trying to catch up in my new yorker magazine pile, and yes, that does involve reading, but i'm talking about books. i got a few as christmas presents, and that started me off! first i read the lovely bones by alice sebold. don't be put off by the fact that it's from the perspective of a 14 year old girl who is raped and murdered. that part of the story is (mercifully) brief, and not too descriptive. it was a really good read, and hard to put down. i also read the girl with the pearl earring by tracey chevalier-also a good story that was well written. it's a very cool concept to take a painting and make up a story about its subject. plus, it provides a little historical background to holland at the time of vemeer. now i vow to read a new yorker, then a book, then a new yorker, and so on.

i also saw two movies while brian was off playing hockey (hockey nights are my nights to rent videos of movies that brian would never want to see). i saw lovely and amazing-a sweet little slice of life film. nothing earth shattering, just the story of four women from the same family who problems just like the rest of us. it's got catherine keener and brenda blethyn in it, plus jake gyllanhaal (or however you spell it). he's a little hottie for sure. then i rented kissing jessica stein-a great flick about the single life in new york and trying to meet people and going outside yourself to try different things. plus the leads wear some FANTASTIC clothes/outfits in it. made me want to go shopping for some leather pants and cute dresses. if only i had long legs....and a place to wear stuff like that. as you might imagine, you don't see many leather pants wearing folks in the upper valley.

on one of the tapes, i saw a preview of secretary, which i had heard a lot of good critical info about, but not really seen anything of what the story was. now i can't wait for it to come out on video!