It wasn’t the best novel I’ve ever read, but it made me think in different ways and that’s one thing that I really enjoy doing. It centers around fantasies and how most of the human race is so afraid to take their fantasies beyond sexual. Quite a few chilling scenes as well. I don’t feel the need to write up a review about this, but I did like it…though it could have been a bit sexier I think.

Though my opinion was that this wasn’t worth consuming, I would hope that everyone else would read it and make their own judgements, especially because I seem to stand alone on this. This is the third Marian Keyes book I read, and while I thoroughly enjoyed the first two, I felt as if I was doing nothing more than trudging through this one.

This story is about Claire, a woman who’s husband springs on her the fact that he’s having an affair and leaving her only moments after she gives birth to their baby. Depressed, she heads home to Dublin to stay with her family and let them help her take care of her baby and herself. Once out of her funk, she begins to try and figure out all the things in her life, like what she’s going to do, why her husband left her, etc. etc. Within this little life journey, she meets a friend of her sister’s, a younger college student who seems to completely sweep her off her feet…when he’s not acting like an emotional wreck himself.

As I read this book, I kept trying to figure out why I didn’t like it. Upon finishing, I realized there were several reasons. For one, too much monologue. Maybe I’m just not in the mood for it, but the story didn’t seem to move at all. I felt like all I was doing was listening to the main character drone on her own little world, and in that world, half the time she was trying too hard to be witty.

Even when the story seemed to be really going, it would be ruined for me by her incessant thoughts. It was like trying to watch a movie and having to hear the person next to you talk the whole time. I would have really been into the sex scene if she hadn’t analyzed it the whole time in her monologue.

I will admit that toward the end, the story seemed to move alot better, but by then I was ready to throw the book. The husband was a condescending asshole, the mother, though probably well meaning, seemed to think that the answer to Claire’s problem was to give the husband another chance, and the one character that I really really disliked through the book was the only one making sense by that time.

I’m still going to attempt to read the books about the other Walsh girls though. It could have just been a fluke, or it could have just been this character. I explained to the friend who referred this book that the main C reminded me alot of myself, but seeing all those things there in black and white was really irritating.

While I think everyone else should formulate their own opinion, I didn’t like this book. It won’t deter me from reading more MK though…I’ll be starting the next one sometime later this evening.

I’ve actually seen this movie before, but I decided to pop it in the DVD player today just to keep my mind busy while I did some other things around the house.

I love this movie! Quentin Tarantino is one of the better directors out there today, and his foray into humor is just as good as anything else he’s done to date. In this movie, Tim Roth is cast as a bellboy working alone on New Year’s Eve. In the course of his night, he visits four different rooms, each with their own separate story that he seems to unwittingly get pulled into. Between witches, kids, hollywood actors, and kinky couples, he finds himself highly stressed, quite agitated, but much better financially for the tips made throughout the night.

There are several stars in this film, many taken from other QT movies, such as Bruce Willis, Antonio Banderas, and Tim Roth. Madonna and Jennifer Beals both make appearances as well. This film is definitely one of my favorites.

So many great foreign films seem to come out of France, so I was quite excited when a friend of mine recommended this one. Because of the subtitles, I couldn’t even do my normal multi task routine…I actually had to sit down and watch it, but with this one, it was probably a good thing.

The movie starts out with two children who begin there own game of “Dares” using a carousel tin given to the boy by his dying mother. The one holding the tin gets to dare the other to do anything…and the other has to do it. The game causes grief for their teachers, their parents, their siblings…pretty much anyone in the adult world who has to deal with them.

Then they enter adulthood, where the game continues, the dares still as outrageous as they were ten years prior. Only now, they can’t seem to figure out what’s true and what’s a dare. When human emotion comes into play, so does the hurt. Becoming so wrapped up in the thrill of the game, they find that there might not be much worse than not being with the one you love.

I don’t mind admitting that I was just a tiny bit confused by the ending of this movie, but that’s one of the things I really liked about it. It’s open for discussion. Though the movie has the element of romanticism to it, its mostly a fun romp, waiting to see who’s going to outdo the other and who’s going to win the Dare war. Full of little surprises here and there, the movie definitely kept my attention and I did indeed find it to be worth watching.

I absolutely loved this movie! Being that it was a limited release I never got to see it on the big screen, but even on my own little TV, it was worth the rental fee, and it will be so worth the money I spend when I buy it. Not only was the cinematography spectacular, but the music was beautifully haunting and the character interaction was superb. I was delightfully creeped out by the sphinxes and hopefully romantic about the relationship between Helena and Valentine!
Loved it, loved it, loved it!