Right At Your Door

I recently saw this movie for the second time and felt compelled to urge everyone to watch it if they haven't all ready. I had originally seen it in 2006 when it first came out and I have not been able to get it out of my head. So I watched is a few days ago to see if I would feel the same way about it, and I did.

The basic premise is pretty straightforward. What happens to the lives of two people when a dirty bomb goes off in a major city like L.A.?

I don't want anyone to think this is a disaster or action movie because it's not. This is a movie about two people who have to deal with the fear and lack of control they feel when the unthinkable happens in on their doorstep.

The main characters are Brad and Lexi. Brad is a unemployed musician who stays at home while Lexi makes the commute into the city everyday in order to support them both. One morning after Lexi leaves a dirty bomb goes off jamming the freeway and cutting off all communications other than the occasional TV or radio report.

Brad, after not being able to get a hold of Lexi, leaves the house in a failed attempt at trying to locate her. After being turned away by the police and being forced to go back home, terror starts to creep into his mind. A report cautions everyone to seal up their homes and not let anyone who has been exposed to the toxic cloud in. When Lexi show up, Brad is faced with the unbearable choice. Protect himself or save his wife?

I don't want to get into a lot of detail but the ending will surprise you and leave you wondering two things. What would you have done? Would you let fear take over the way Brad did or would you have done something else? Secondly, is the government ready to handle an event like this? Would those in charge handle it this way in reality?

I urge everyone to watch this movie, here is the trailer.

Friday Fill-Ins #135

This is a weekly meme hosted by Friday_Fill-Ins

1. It's time for the vacation I will never take other than in my head.

2. Kansas; it's not a bad place for Republicans, not so good for those of us who aren't.

3. I must be hardest worker in the world considering how much time I spend there.

4. A good nights sleep is the best thing I have ever known.

5. My brain is simply Tired.

6. The last time I laughed really loudly was swimming with my son yesterday.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to not doing anything but rest, tomorrow my plans include working yet again on a Saturday and Sunday, I want to eat a steak and drink a Dos Equis amber with lime!

Alvor Giveaway!

Sheila over at One Persons Journey Through A World of Books is giving away a signed copy of Alvor by Laura Bingham. I must say I'm really excited by this giveaway already just based of the cover and book description.

Hurry up and get entered to win! The dealine is August 7th.

Have You Read 6 Of These Books?

This wonderful list/quiz was posted by For_The_Love_Of_All_That_Is_Written. It sounded like it would be a lot of fun to do it myself just to see how "average" I am.

The BBC believes most people will have read only 6 of the 100 books here. How do your reading habits stack up?

Instructions: Look at the list and put an 'x' after those you have read.

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen ()

2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien (X)

3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte ()

4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling (X)

5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee (X)

6 The Bible (X)

7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte ()

8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell ()

9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman ()

10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens ()

11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott (X)

12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy ()

13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller ()

14 Complete Works of Shakespeare ()

15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier ()

16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien (X)

17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulk ()

18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger ()

19 The Time Traveler’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger ()

20 Middlemarch - George Eliot ()

21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell ()

22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald ()

23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens ()

24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy ()

25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams ()

27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky ()

28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck ()

29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll ()

30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame ()

31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy ()

32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens ()

33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis (X)

34 Emma-Jane Austen ()

35 Persuasion - Jane Austen ()

36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis (X)

37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hossein ()

38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres ()

39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden ()

40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne (X)

41 Animal Farm - George Orwell ()

42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown (X)

43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez ()

44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving ()

45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins ()

46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery ()

47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy ()

48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood ()

49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding ()

50 Atonement - Ian McEwan ()

51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel ()

52 Dune - Frank Herbert (X)

53 Cold Comfort Farm ()

54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen ()

55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth ()

56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon ()

57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens (X)

58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley ()

59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night - Mark Haddon ()

60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez ()

61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck ()

62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov ()

63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt (X)

64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold ()

65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas (X)

66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac ()

67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy ()

68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding ()

69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie ()

70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville (X)

71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens ()

72 Dracula - Bram Stoker (X)

73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett ()

74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson ()

75 Ulysses - James Joyce () Started but couldn't finish

76 The Inferno – Dante ()

77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome ()

78 Germinal - Emile Zola ()

79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray ()

80 Possession - AS Byatt ()

81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens ()

82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell ()

83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker ()

84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro ()

85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert ()

86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry ()

87 Charlotte’s Web - EB White ()

88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom ()

89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle ()

90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton ()

91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad ()

92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery ()

93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks ()

94 Watership Down - Richard Adams (X)

95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole ()

96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute ()

97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas ()

98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare (X)

99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl ()

100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo ()

Well I had 18 of them so at least I'm above "average" but I realize I have a lot of books I want to read that I have not gotten to yet. I better get started.

Favorite Fictional Characters ---- Buffy Summers

What's not to like? She strong, sexy and can kick butt in heeled boots. Buffy Summers is my choice for the second post of my favorite fictional characters.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer is still my favorite TV show of all time. Watching the character grow from a sophomore in HS unsure of her powers and unwilling to use them, to a strong, independent adult who is willing to sacrifice herself for others was a pleasure to watch. Buffy was the kind of girl you would want to hang out with at the mall or have watching your back in the local graveyard.

She is resourceful, and able to fight through all the pain and hurt in order to defend her friends, and the world, from descending into Hell. When she dies, which she did twice, she comes back and keeps fighting the good fight. When she is beaten she regroups and comes back for more, until the job is done.

She is loyal to her friends and family and willing to put them first, over her own needs and safety. She is resilient and able to change plans midway through. Whether it's in complete silence or during a song and dance number, she is able to focus on her duty, do the job, and go home again.

32 Questions Asked and Answered

I was just purursing different blogs and saw this on Joys's_Blog and since she "borrowed" it from another blog I figured I would "borrow" it from her as well. So Joy thank you for doing this and answering so well that it convinced me to do it myself.

1. What author do you own the most books by?
Mercedes Lackey hands down. At 26 she towers over the Kingdom of Bookshelvia followed only by Dame Agatha Christie who came in at 16.

2. What book(s) do you own the most copies of?
Due to unforseen circumstances I only have one copy of any given book in my library. Now if we were to talk about all time it would be 5 different copies of Atlas, Shrugged by Ayn Rand.

3. Did it bother you that both those questions ended with prepositions?
No, if you hadn't asked I probably wouldn't have noticed. Not sure what that says about me but I'm sure it's not good.

4. What fictional character are you secretly in love with?
Not sure I should answer this on grounds undetermined, so I will only say there are only 3 of them and I'm sure they would be very open to any proposal I may choose to make in the future.

5. What book have you read the most times in your life (excluding picture books read to children; i.e., Goodnight Moon does not count)?
Atlas, Shrugged by Ayn Rand, The Eight by Katherine Neville, All of Merceded Lackey books, and tons more. I'm one of the those repeat readers. If I love it I will read it again and again and again and again.

6. What was your favorite book when you were ten years old?
Don't remember the name but I'm sure it was an Encyclopedia Brown book.

7. What is the worst book you've read in the past year?
Death's Daughter by Amber Benson would be towards the top of the list. Not because the writing was bad but because the main character was annoying.

8. What is the best book you've read in the past year?
Three way tie: The Road by Cormac McCarthy, Suicide Collectors by David Oppegard, and Pandemonium by Daryl Gregory.

9. If you could force everyone you tagged to read one book, what would it be?
I'm not tagging anyone because I don't know how. However if I could strongly recomend a book without using violent force it would be Pandemonium by Daryl Gregory.

10. Who deserves to win the next Nobel Prize for Literature?
Not sure I have a frontrunner on this one. Might get back to this later.

11. What book would you most like to see made into a movie?
If it was possible (which I don't think it is) I would like to see The Wheel of Time series made into a trilogy of movies.

12. What book would you least like to see made into a movie?
Ageless: The Naked Truth About Bioidentical Hormones by Suzanne Sommers

13. Describe your weirdest dream involving a writer, book, or literary character?
Being swept away by one of the characters from question 4 (who will stay nameless) to an isolated island made of marshmallows and hot fudge.

14. What is the most lowbrow book you've read as an adult?
Conan The Barbarian by Robert E. Howard

15. What is the most difficult book you've ever read?
Ulysses by James Joyce

16. What is the most obscure Shakespeare play you've seen?
Titus Andronicus

17. Do you prefer the French or the Russians?
No preference

18. Roth or Updike?
Haven't read enough to fairly answer.

19. David Sedaris or Dave Eggers?
Haven't read any of there work to make even a fake answer.

20. Shakespeare, Milton, or Chaucer?
Shakespeare (only because I'm in love with Much Ado About Nothing)

21. Austen or Eliot?
Can I answer neither?

22. What is the biggest or most embarrassing gap in your reading?
I would have to say I haven't read alot of Austen the way others seem to be doing right now. Though I'm not embarrased by it. I just can't get into it.

23. What is your favorite novel?
Can anyone answer this question? I have way too many to pick from

24. Play?
If musicals count it would be Into the Woods. If not it would have to be Bent.

25. Poem?
Two of them. The Lady of Shallot by Alfred, Lordy Tennyson and My Heart's in The Highlands by Robert Burns

26. Essay?
The one answer that will be identical to Joy's. Jonathan Swift's "A Modest Proposal."

27. Short Story?
"The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson. Still gives me chills when I read it.

28. Work of nonfiction?
TV Guides Guide to Television 2006. Best reference book in the world.

29. Who is your favorite writer?
Hmmm.....lot's of answers here, but Agatha Christie and Mercedes Lackey would top the list.

30. Who is the most overrated writer alive today?
Stephanie Meyer

31. What is your desert island book?
I take it this would be the only book available for as long as we are on the island. If that is the case it would have to be fairly long so I will say Atlas, Shrugged by Ayn Rand.

32. And ... what are you reading right now?
The Elfstones of Shannara by Terry Brooks, The Secret Adversary by Agatha Christie, Daughter of Hounds by Caitlin R. Kiernan, and Under This Unbroken Sky by Shandi Mitchell

Where the Wild Things Are, The Movie

My son and I are overly excited to see this movie when it comes out. I did not know it was even being made until I saw the trailer playing around on the computer. This was one of my favorite boooks as a kid and the trailer looks as good. The movie is coming out on October 16th which can not get here soon enough.

Teaser Tuesday

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly even hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading.
Here is how it works.
Grab the book you are currently reading (anything at all)
Open the book to any random page.
Share 2 "teaser" sentences from anywhere on the page.
Please Make Sure They Are Not Spoilers! (Don't Give Too Much Away)
Just enough to pique our interest.
List the book and author so other participants can get their hand on it
if they choose to read it as well.
For this week:

Cautiously they moved along the rear of the building. Walls and fences hemmed them in on all sides and barrels of trash cluttered the path forward.

from The Elfstones of Shannara by Terry Brooks

Agatha Christie Challenge--The Mysterious Affair at Styles

When I had decided to read every Agatha Christie mystery I was just going to go about it willy-nilly, read them as I got them with no regard for publishing order. However, when I posted I was doing this on the Mystery board at the Barnes & Noble book club site it was suggested I go about it a little differently. Becke and Dulcinea both convinced me the only way to do this right was to read them in order because several of the reoccurring characters age throughout the books. I wisely bowed to their wisdom and changed up my game plane a bit.

Now I had a slow start to my self challenge but I finally finished the first book, The Mysterious Affair at Styles. Now this was a book I had read several time,s but this time I tried to read the book as if it was my first time through. This was a lot harder than I originally thought it would be. I believe I managed to do a OK job at it though, and here are a few of my thoughts.

This is not only the first mystery novel Agatha Christie published, it is also the first appearance of the famous Hercule Poirot. Monsieur Poirot and his "little gray cells" went on to star in over 30 novels and over 50 short stories. Leaving out everything else I have read with him in it I came away still liking this strange overly pompous, egotistical man. The man is cunning and so sure of himself he is willing to take risks with other peoples lives in order to produce the outcome he desires.

I have always found myself fascinated by a man who is described in this book as "hardly more than five feet, four inches, but carried himself with great dignity. His head was exactly the shape of an egg, and he always perched it a little on one side. His moustache was very stiff and military. The neatness of his attire was almost incredible. I believe a speck of dust would have caused him more pain than a bullet wound." This description was given by Arthur Hastings who is narrating the book. Colonel Hastings would appear regularly throughout Hercule Poirot's career as a Watson like character. Poirot's reasoning and skills of observation are wonderful to watch play out as he solves the case.

This is also the first appearance of Inspector Japp of Scotland Yard. Not much is revealed about him in this book other than he had previously worked with Poirot and has full trust in him.

I loved the book and recommend if to anyone who has never read a Agatha Christie book. This is a good taste of what she has to offer as a story teller. In this book as in her others, the clues are always there for you to spot and there are never any surprises. One of the characters from this book, Evelyn Howard, describes the way bad writing in mystery novels so often goes "Lots of nonsense written....criminal discovered in last chapter. Every one dumbfounded." This is not the case for Agatha Christie books, the killer is always there to spot if you are as clever as Hercule Poirot.

This is the plot synopsis from the publisher of the edition I read (Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers)

Set in Essex in the English countryside. The Mysterious Affair at Styles is one of the great classic murder mysteries. The victim, Mrs. Emily Inglethorp, is the wealthy mistress of Styles Court. After an evening of entertaining family and guest, she is found poisoned in her locked bedroom. The long list of suspects includes her gold-digging new husband, her stepsons, her best female friend, and a visiting doctor. As luck would have it, a brilliant, if rather eccentric, detective is among the company at Styles.

Harry Potter Reading Challenge

After starting my one man Agatha Christie challenge the last thing I needed to do was start another challenge. But when I was on Sheila's site, One Persons Journey Through A World Of Books, I saw this challenge by GalleySmith and could not resist. I haven't read the books since the last one came out and I think it will be a good time to check them out again. The chance at the giveaways is enough if you need any incentive to read the books. So go to GalleySmith and check the challenge out.

Pope Joan by Donna Woolfolk Cross Giveaway

Sheila at One Persons Journey Through A World Of Books has a exciting giveaway on a terrific book. She is going to be able to give an autographed copy of Pope Joan by Donna Woolfolk Cross.. Please stop by and check it out. You won't be dissapointed by this read.

Torchwood: Children of Earth Miniseries

I just got done watching the 5th and final episode of Torchwood:_Children_of_Earth and it was, in my opinion, one of the greatest hours of television I have ever had the privilege to see. I wanted to do a quick review of the entire 5 part miniseries so I can try and convince a few of you who didn't watch it buy the DVD when it comes out in a few days. It might help if you watch the first two season first, but I think you would still enjoy COE without watching them.

This was a much darker look at humanity and what people are willing to do for the "greater good" than the past few seasons. The basic premise is that aliens called The 456, after the frequency they communicate on, come to Earth and demand 10% of the Earth's children to use as a drug. The opening scenes where the aliens start to talk through the children is harrowing and not going to be forgotten by me any time soon.

Now is this was all the plot involved it may have been a bit boring. However with the characters of Captain Jack, Gwen , and Ianto out to try and save the world it was anything but that. We find out that the aliens visited once before and Captain Jack was one of the people who turned 12 children over to The 456. If not The 456 would have unleashed a virus onto the planet killing millions. It was a decesion that would later come back to haunt him when a child whom escaped the abduction confronts him.

We also discover that Jack has a daughter and a grandson named Stephen. Who end up being used as pawns by the government to try and control what Jack and Torchwood does in regards to the aliens. This was after they tried to kill all three memeber of Trochwood by blowing up their bas of operations.

Now the aliens are back to demand more since their first racket succeeded so well. The aliens say they will wipe out the entire planet if their demands are not met. The reminder of the show deals with how the government gives into the demand and how the decision to hand over 10% of the Earth's children is made. If was dismayed by how believable it was to watch government officals sit around a table and decide which children will be sacraficed and which spared.

In the last episode we watch children be yanked out of schools, homes, and even parent's arms to be used as sacrifices to the greater good. Watching society break down out of fear born out of self preservation was fascinating to watch over the last five nights. You want to hate the Gov. officals who are making these decisions but you can't quite get there. They are almost as much the victim as the children. How do you choose between 10% of the children and the entire population of the planet?

Now naturally the day is saved in the end but not without Captain Jack having to make the impossible choice of sacrificing his grandson to save the world. It was a gut wrenching ending that had me in tears for the second time. The first was the death of my favorite character in the fourth episode of the miniseries. Now this is not new to fans of the show as both Owen and Tosh were killed off last season.

I'm not sure I'm fully fleshing out the details and emotions this show made me feel over the last week, but I hope this gives you enough information to want to watch it for yourselves.

Friday Fill-Ins #134

This is a weekly meme hosted by Friday_Fill-Ins

1. Not being able to wear contact lenses is not the end of the world.

2. Sitting here, listening to the sound of rain falling, I want to go play.

3. Calamari tastes so good!

4. Sometimes, putting others first is annoying.

5. Torchwood is breathtaking, really.

6. Well, maybe there is the one for me.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to reading a good book, tomorrow my plans include working and Sunday, I want to not go to work

Favorite Fictional Characters ---- Vanyel Ashkevron

I get asked at different times by friends, family, and other readers who my favorite fictional characters are. As most of you will know this tends to be a rather hard question to answer. We all like certain characters for many different reasons. We like how they overcome a challenge, the way they treat their friends or families, their wit and intelligence, maybe even it's just their name. Whatever the reason, we tend to fall in love with them because they connect with us on an emotional level. Something about them hits that proverbial nerve within us and they are a part of us for the rest of our lives.

So I thought I would, once a week, post one of my favorite characters and share some of the reasons behind it. I hope by doing this it helps you (the blog reader) discover new characters or gives you the voice to share why you like the characters you like.

The characters I post about will come from books, movies, TV shows, and even an occasional poem.

Now with no further ado, I will present my first character. I first met Vanyel_Ashkevron a few years after college. I had read a little bit of fantasy when I was younger but got away from it during high school and college. The idiot I was sort of dating at the time (not that I'm bitter or anything) was reading Magic's_Pawn by Mercedes Lackey and seemed to really enjoy the book. Long story short, I got rather sick for a few days and the book was the only thing around to take my mind off of how bad I felt.

It was love at first read. I had, up to that point, never found a character I could connect with in such a way that I would cry when he cried, laugh when he laughed. Here was a character that was going through a lot of the same issues I faced when I was younger and in a way still do.

A sense of isolation from those who he should of felt the closest too, his family. Not feeling comfortable in your own skin and not fully understanding why. The joy and almost instant pleasure at finding yourself and discovering that you are not only loved but worthy of that love. Finding your "home" and the "family" you choose. Then the pain and loss that is unimaginable at such a young age (he is 16 when this book starts). Finally the reawakening of yourself and your purpose in life.

He was the first fantasy character, the first character really for me, that made me feel that what I went through as a teenager was OK. That the pain and confusion I felt dealing with who I am and how that made me different form others was normal. He also helped me to understand that the way I feel today, and when I read the book for the first time, was my reward for going through the pain and isolation I felt growing up. That I had earned the right to be happy, be who I am, and enjoy my life and my "family" to the fullest.

I don't want to get into too much detail of the books because I really encourage you to read them. I will say there are three of them. Magic's_Promise and Magic's_Price are the final two books of the series, The Last Herald Mage trilogy by Mercedes Lackey. The links I provided will give you the basic premise of the books. However they can never explain the amazing person that Vanyel Ashkevron is.

Teaser Tuesday

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly even hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading.

Here is how it works.

Grab the book you are currently reading (anything at all)

Open the book to any random page.

Share 2 "teaser" sentences from anywhere on the page.

Please Make Sure They Are Not Spoilers! (Don't Give Too Much Away)

Just enough to pique our interest.

List the book and author so other participants can get their hand on it

if they choose to read it as well.

For this week:

"I don't know what possessed me. Her beauty, perhaps, as she sat there, with the sunlight glinting down on her head; perhaps the sense of relief at encountering someone who so obviously could have no connection with the tragedy; perhaps honest pity for her youth and loneliness."

from The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie

Page 157

How Many Times Can You Reread A Book?

I'm in a little quandary right now. I've been reading one of my favorite fantasy books of all time. I fell in love with The Sword of Shannara by Terry Brooks as a kid and my love affair has continued since then. I recently started to read it again, probably for the 15th time, for the SciFi/Fantasy board on Barnes & Nobles book club site.

My problem is this. I start to read the book and will read from anywhere between 10-45 minutes. Then I end up putting the book down. I'm still loving the book and the characters. I still find myself getting excited when one of the characters is in danger. My heart still beats a little faster when Menion rescues Shirl.

So I'm a little unsure of my lack of interest this go around. I'm not sure that's even the right word for it. Maybe inattentiveness would be a better choice. I find myself getting distracted by everything else to the point that I'm not giving this great book the attention it deserves.

I'm not sure if it's the fact I've read the book so many times that the tension of what's going to happen next isn't there. If that is the case, I have to ask myself how many times reading a book is too many times? Is it more of how much time lapses between reads? Or is it something else that really doesn't have a defined explanation?

Whatever the reason, I'm finding myself bothered by the whole problem. I really love this book and want to finish reading it. As a matter of fact we are reading the other two books in the trilogy for the board. So hopefully I can figure out what is causing my lack of motivation, get over it, and enjoy one of my favorite books.

TCM Summer Under The Stars Movie Posters

TCM commissioned 12 new posters for their Summer Under The Stars series. I was impressed by all of them but absolutely loved the one for Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde starring Fredric March. These 12 posters give us a good overall view how these classics would be marketed if they came out today.

Check out the other posters and you will be blown away, the sight also lists a full schedule of movies.

My Agatha Christie Challenge

I went to bed last night thinking about a question a close friend of mine posed the other day. For as long as I can remember when the "Who is your favorite author?" question comes out I have always answered Agatha Christie.

Mainly due to the fact I fell madly, deeply in love with her writing style and her sense of tone and character. I was so infatuated with her books that for the Christmases of 5th and 6th grade, her books were all I asked for. As I got older my attention to her wavered a bit. Now that pendulum has been swinging back for the last few years and I know own more of her books that I ever had in my life.

Now you may be asking what is this question that kept him tossing and turning all night? Well here it is. She asked me, if Agatha Christie is my favorite author, why haven't I read all of her books. Which is a good question. As we all know Christie wrote over 80 mystery novels and quite honestly I have read maybe 20 to 25 of them. Many of those haven't been seen by my eyes for years.

Quite honestly I wish I could give a good reason for my lack of diligence in this matter. I can't though so I am going to challenge myself a bit. I am going to read every Agatha Christie mystery novel within the next year. So that gives me until 7/19/2010 to accomplish my goal.

Now I did give some thought to whether or not I should follow some sort of order in my Agatha Quest. I rejected going in publishing order for the simple fact I hate ordering books unless I have to and trying to follow publishing order may require me to wait for some books. I also considered going in some sort of timeline, especially with the Hercule Poirot books, but that was rejected due to how much time it would take in order to figure that order out.

So I'm not going to go in any sort of order.

It's going to be a free-for-all, willy nilly type of challenge for me to accomplish. I will be posting reviews of every single book I read as they are read. I hope this won't bore anyone to tears and I hope it causes some of you who haven't read a lot of her books to go pick one or two of them up and discover what you have been missing.

The Maiden Voyage Begins

After hours of thinking about it I finally decided to start a blog of my own. I'm not sure what I'm doing exactly but I figure I will learn as I go.

I wanted to start this blog as a forum where I can put out into cyberspace my thoughts and opinions on a myriad of subjects. For the most part I will be talking about books both good and bad. My opinions on movies and politics will more than likely pop up here and there as well. I have a a lot thoughts going through my head at any given time so I'm sure the subject matter will jump around a bit. If anyone ends up reading this welcome and I hope you stick around for a while.