Sisterchicks go Brit!

Sisterchicks Go Brit! (Sisterchicks, #7) by Robin Jones Gunn
Published by Multnomah Books on May 20, 2008
Pages: 285
Format: Paperback
Goodreads
three-half-stars

Cheerio, Sisterchicks!

SISTERCHICK(R) n a friend who shares the deepest wonders of your heart, loves you like a sister, and provides a reality check when you're being a brat.

Two midlife mamas hop over to jolly ole England and encounter so much more than the usual tourist stops. Liz does have a bit of a childhood crush on Big Ben, and she has hoped to "meet" him ever since her fifteenth birthday. Kellie dreams of starting an interior design business and figures Liz needs to be a part of that equation-a calculation that hasn't added up for Liz yet.

Nothing on the excursion goes the way these two friends had envisioned. They start with a village pancake race and end up being held for questioning on The Underground. Kellie and Liz take a wild tour through the land of C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien and then find themselves swept up, up, and away in a hot air balloon over the Cotswalds. London beckons with the Tower of London, Windsor Castle, shopping at Portabella Road in Knotting Hill, and of course, reservations at the Ritz for a posh high tea.

A few detours along the way and the possibility of being lost in a London fog of wonderment aren't enough to stop these two Sisterchicks! Each step of their regal journey is lined with evidence of God's gracious compassion, and both come to realize that God knows their every wish. He is the One who planted every dream in their hearts.

And, oh, what a surprise awaits them when they return home!

I just finished SisterChicks Go Brit! By Robin Jones Gunn. This is part of her SisterChicks series, but I had not read a book in the series in a long time. I forgot how much I loved the series and Robin Jones Gunn’s writing!

The SisterChicks series are stories about best friends who share the deepest wonders of your heart, love you like a sister and provide a reality check when you’re being a brat. I feel in love with the story of Kellie and Liz and their adventure in England. Kellie and Liz longtime friends find themselves on a trip to England after helping out Opal redecorate her apartment. Little do they know that their little trip across the ocean to see Big Ben, C.S. Lewis sites, and J.R.R. Tolkein sites that they would find out about themselves and just a glimpse into God’s plans for them.

I’m not really a religious person by any means. I did find that in reading the book that I want to visit England even more know. Robin Jones Gunn style of writing in this series makes each and every place come to life, so you can almost always find a destination that you will want to travel to, even if it is only in your imagination.

I recommend that you pick a destination and begin your travels!

Movie Review: Alice

5 / 12 / 11

I had heard about Syfy doing their take on Alice in Wonderland around the same time that Tim Burton did his take on Alice and Wonderland. I finally had an opportunity to buy and watch Syfy’s Alice. I apologize that this is a movie review instead of a book review, but I thought that you would like to know about this movie in case you had not heard about it.

The movie is Lewis Caroll’s Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass completely re-imagined in the present day/future world. Wonderland is now a city of twisted towers and casinos ruled by the Queen of Hearts (Kathy Bates). The White Rabbit, much like the CIA is an organization that works for the Queen of Hearts that abducts people from the real world,oysters, and brings them to Wonderland to gamble at the Queen’s Casino. Once the people are kidnapped they are then sedated and forced to give off only positive emotions while gambling at the casino. These emotions are then harvested into drugs, so that the people of Wonderland can get high.

Alice Hamilton is a girl in her twenties, has been searching for her father who disappeared when she was 10. After her current boyfriend, Jack Chase, attempts to give her a ring and feeling that she it is too soon she tells him that she needs time to think. A little later, she discovers that Jack has slipped her the ring. In hopes, of returning it Alice rushes outside to find Jack only to find herself following a member of the White Rabbit Organization through the looking glass into Wonderland. While in Wonderland Alice meets Hatter, the owner of a Tea Shop and also befriends Charlie, a white knight both of whom intend to free her, her father, and the people of Wonderland from the grip of the Queen of Hearts. I won’t tell you how the movie ends, but as you may know from Disney or Tim Burton the Queen of Hearts is defeated and all is right with the world , or at least most of it.

I loved the movie. The movie is relatable to real life, but at the same time being fanciful enough that we can run away from the cares of the world if all for a brief moment. The acting is superb and done my mostly actors unknown to people in the United States. I recommend this film if you ever get a chance to watch it, do so.

Maneater

4 / 29 / 1111 / 13 / 19

Maneater by Gigi Levangie Grazer
Published by Pocket Star on October 31, 2006
Pages: 464
Format: Paperback
Goodreads

Feast your eyes on Clarissa. At twenty-eight (thirty-one), Clarissa Alpert is blessed with a designer wardrobe, a daddy-subsidized apartment, and an A-list speed-dial. Gorgeous and wildly uninhibited, she has amassed a list of exes that amounts to a Who's Who of Hollywood power players. But with her twenty-ninth (thirty-second) birthday looming, she starts to panic. Who on earth could possibly make her an honest woman?

She's reserved a table for two. Enter Aaron Mason, the latest, hottest new producer in town, who Clarissa decides is the future "Mr. Alpert." With the help of her vivacious friends, her aerobicized Latina mother, her ex-con father, and the most divine gay waiter in Hollywood, Clarissa plans the biggest wedding L.A. has seen in years -- all before the couple's first date. Catching Aaron's eye is not the problem. He just seems to have his own agenda. Could Clarissa have finally bitten off more than she can chew?

I recently finished Maneater by Gigi Levangle Grazer. Ok, I’ll admit that I had watched the Lifetime Movie in 2008 with Sarah Chalke (Scrubs) and Judy Greer ( 13 going on 30). Although, I’ll give in and say that I only watched because the concept of a maneater seemed so intriguing.

Like many a people will say the book is better than the movie and in some ways I agree. The book did a good job of developing Clarissa’s and Aaron’s backstory and keeping that story together. It didn’t manage to keep the secondary characters story together and would often hop from their story line to the main story line in a matter of moments. The movie kept the story line of both the main and secondary characters flowing together beautifully and you never felt that one story was deeply more important than the other. Like many a book adaption there were parts of the book changed for the movie so that the movie flowed better and appeared more realistic. I would recommend both the book to read and the movie to rent, but not to own.

Heist Society

4 / 2 / 1111 / 13 / 19

Heist Society (Heist Society, #1) by Ally Carter
Published by Disney-Hyperion on February 9, 2010
Pages: 287
Goodreads
four-stars

When Katarina Bishop was three, her parents took her on a trip to the Louvre…to case it. For her seventh birthday, Katarina and her Uncle Eddie traveled to Austria…to steal the crown jewels. When Kat turned fifteen, she planned a con of her own—scamming her way into the best boarding school in the country, determined to leave the family business behind. Unfortunately, leaving “the life” for a normal life proves harder than she’d expected.

Soon, Kat's friend and former co-conspirator, Hale, appears out of nowhere to bring Kat back into the world she tried so hard to escape. But he has a good reason: a powerful mobster has been robbed of his priceless art collection and wants to retrieve it. Only a master thief could have pulled this job, and Kat's father isn't just on the suspect list, he is the list. Caught between Interpol and a far more deadly enemy, Kat’s dad needs her help.

For Kat, there is only one solution: track down the paintings and steal them back. So what if it's a spectacularly impossible job? She's got two weeks, a teenage crew, and hopefully just enough talent to pull off the biggest heist in her family's history--and, with any luck, steal her life back along the way.

I just finished Heist Society by Ally Carter. I found this book on the bargain book rack at Borders I think (I alternately haunt Borders and Barnes & Noble depending on which one is closer and which one actually has the magazines I read). I recommend this book, I thought it was good and hopefully will be able to find other books by the author.

The book with its slight twists and turns take us on the complicated world of art thieves and what it means to be art thief. The story takes us around the world in a blink of an eye to get to the bottom of the story. The reader also finds talks about in a fictional matter the art that was stolen during World War II that is still being researched and returned to the rightful families by historians, activists, and other survivors.

If you ever get a chance to read this book I recommend it. It’s a relatively fast read and the story will make you want to keep reading until you get to the bottom of the story. Definitely a page turner no matter what your age.

Movie Review: Song of the South

2 / 24 / 11

I finally got my hands on the Song of the South dvd and had a spare minute to watch it. The dvd came to me really fast 2 days after I ordered it in a bubble envelope and a flatter dvd case. If you’ve been in an office supply store you know which case I’m talking about. The dvd was undamaged in any way although there might be a flaw in making of the case, but whatever.

I had seen this movie for about a minute in college when my roommate had borrowed it from her family. She also had to do some hunting for her dvd. Since then, I’ve been dying to own the dvd and was having an incredibly hard time finding it since it has been banned in the United States since it’s release in the 1940s. There are some conflicting reports on when it was banned some say it was never released beyond the theatrical release others say that it had a limited release and upon controversy was pulled from the market never to be seen again.

Regardless of the release controversy, the movie is very well done. The dvd quality is great and it is not in the restored edition and I would disagree with people who like the restored versions of classic movies better. The dvd shows the colors beautifully in their original form, the music is in its original form as well. I do understand that at the time the racial slurs in the movie were not appropriate. If I had lived back then might have been on the side to ban the movie on that alone.

However, in today’s society I would push for the movie to be re released or to be made available under certain context. The illustration of racial and class separation shown in the movie could be used a teaching tool in the classroom. The stories by Uncle Remus of Brer Rabbit and Brer Fox would also be helpful and teaching tools. The songs is the movie are catchy and could certainly use a new audience. I believe that Disney is doing itself a disservice by holding the movie in the vault and yet having the characters Brer Rabbit, Brer Bear, and Brer Fox wander around the park for people to take pictures with. Splash Moutain is also a fairly popular ride and it would make the ride even more popular if people knew the story behind it.

Buy the dvd here: Song of the South.org don’t forget to sign the petition!

Also to find out more about Uncle Remus visit Uncle Remus .com