Friday, November 30, 2012

Star Bright by Father Andrew M. Greeley


This is a great little romantic Christmas story that is not typical in one sense but in essence there are only a handful of stories to tell. I enjoyed the ending.

This was my first Andrew Greeley book. Being Catholic I felt obligated to at least read one. I can say the story telling is average, however, someone needs to find this Priest a new editor, proofreader or whatever, because the typos, mis-spellings and tense confusion in this book were appalling.

I borrowed this book from the library, and a previous reader was so kind as to underline every single mistake in the book. I would say there were 10 or more. For instance, the phrase "difficulty family" as opposed to "difficult family”.

That did distract me from the story a bit. I will give another one of his books a try, but if that is something I have to contend with, I will not be reading any more.


Synopsis from Goodreads:
It's beginning to look a lot like an American Christmas: unpleasant relatives, miserable travel, a slobbering dog-and one "harmless American of Irish origins," Jack Flanigan, who is reluctantly falling in love with a young Russian woman studying at Harvard.

She's spending Christmas alone in a foreign country, so he invites the dark-eyed beauty home to Chicago for the holiday. Even though it isn't Christmas in the Russian Orthodox calendar, she accepts!

What happens when she gets to Chicago and caught in the maelstrom of commercialized Yuletide? Enough to say, there's a tree, and a feast, and midnight Mass, and a gaggle of contentious Flanigans of all ages-who have the merriest Christmas ever-and nothing will ever be quite the same for any of them.

Especially for Jack.

Wednesday, November 28, 2012

A Winter Dream - Richard Paul Evans

Richard Paul Evans' new Christmas book "A Winter Dream" is out in bookstores now.  This story is based on the Bible story of Joseph and his brothers.  This modern day account has ad exec sacrificed & banished due to jealousy.  Joseph Jacobson has a few bumps along the way and one wonders if he will ever find happiness.

I don't want to give too much away because I know several people are reading this one.  I enjoyed it. 

I give it 4 out of 5 stars.

This is my FIRST book for the challenge.


Monday, November 19, 2012

Christmas Spirit Reading Challenge 2012

Photobucket 
Monday, November 19, 2012 through Sunday, January 6, 2013 

Visit her site to see more details. 
 These are the Levels:
 --Candy Cane: read 1 book --Mistletoe: read 2-4 books
 --Christmas Tree: read 5 or 6 books (this is the fanatic level...LOL!) 

 Last year I was Christmas Tree. I went nuts. I probably will read 5 books this year (last year I read 7). I will also be watching lots of Christmas Films.


My first book will most likely be Richard Paul Evans "A Winter Dream". It is waiting for me at my library. I read his Christmas books every year. I will be very disappointed when he stops. 

Sunday, November 18, 2012

Library Discovery





The library I normally go to is the Mid-Manhattan Branch, but when I feel like going to one in my neighborhood I go to the Parkchester Branch.

Now I've lived in my neighborhood for a total of 15 years.  5 years in the early 90s and recently for the last 10 years. And I've been on numerous walks over the years and I have never ever realized there was another library so close to my home.  I am happy to know I have another option.


Friday, November 2, 2012

Thanksgiving Movies & Books


Thanksgiving Movies
 
I am filling up my DVR with Holiday movies.  It is November after all.  I came across a Thanksgiving movie that is new, so I thought I’d pass it along.
 
Love at the Thanksgiving Day Parade
Premiere:  Sunday, November 4, 2012
Time:  8pm
 
I get excited when I come across Thanksgiving movies. There are not many out there.
 
If you surf around you will see that there are a lot of movies that claim to be Thanksgiving movies, but I don’t feel are really.  Movies like ‘Pocahontas’.  I think of Thanksgiving movies as movies about Families and Thanksgiving.
 
Hannah and Her Sisters
Soul Food
Who Made the Potatoe Salad? (the e is not a typo)
Planes, Trains & Automobiles
Dutch
Thanksgiving Family Reunion
An Old Fashioned Thanksgiving
Miracle on 34th Street (It encompasses both holidays so I put it for both)
A Walton Thanksgiving Reunion
The Thanksgiving Treasure
A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving
Ice Storm (depressing)
A Time to Remember (depressing)
 
These are others, which I didn’t like, but still are Thanksgiving movies:
Home for the Holidays
Pieces of April
The Myth of Fingerprints
 
Thanksgiving Books
 
I’m only going to read one Thanksgiving book this year I think:
 
Thanksgiving by Janet Evanovich.
It’s a romance novel, which I usually don’t read, but it is short and it is Thanksgiving themed.
Of course the Libraries in NY have to go back to full power before I can see if it is even ready for me to pick up. Hopefully they will extend the pick up time.
 
 
TV
I can’t talk about much since news has been on all day since Monday and many shows have not aired.  I managed to catch some of them on Free on Demand.
 
Revolutions:  OK now this is getting interesting
Upstairs/Downstairs:  I wonder if we can write a petition to have Amajad killed off.
 
That’s it.  I haven’t watched “World Without End” yet, I’ll watch it this weekend.
Two and a Half men didn’t have sound last night, we had very bad cable last night, so I’ll try and watch that and “The New Normal” on Free on Demand.
 
We finally got WPIX (The CW) back on our cable service, but of course, nothing has been on. But I’m happy because with WPIX gone we also lost Antenna TV. How am I supposed to live with out all of my shows from the 1970s???  I was going through withdrawal.