Wishful Slacker

A book, a movie, and girls' night

 

Books books books!

I have been on a semi-reading hiatus the past few months, partly because Ellie's recent developmental phase led me astray.  Diving into a lovely memoir or riveting piece of fiction took a back seat to reading up on sleeping habits and toddler feeding.  Then, after I got these areas somewhat smoothed over, I turned to Super Freakonomics, a brilliant book, but one that quickly led me to sleepiness in the nighttime hours.  It is a good book, don't get me wrong.  I encourage others to read it themselves.  But it is a thinky book.  And sometimes thinky makes me sleepy.  In that order :-)  Bottom line- it took me a long time to get through it.

I asked for many, many books for Christmas, and with delight I received almost all of them and then some!  In addition, I have several that have been lent to me that I still need to go through as well.  The weekend before the holidays began, Ellie woke up and decided, "Hey, I think I can reach the next shelf up on the bookcase!"  On a day when we meant to wrap up our holiday preparations and to also take it easy, we instead had to scramble to find new homes for our books before the great demolisher decided to yank them down and rip out all their pages.  The only direction left to take was up, so up went a whole row of our books, butting out whatever lovely trinkets and decorations had previously graced the purposefully-open spots on our higher shelves.  Once we could not squeeze one more book on a shelf, the remaining ones had to be turned sideways and crammed into the inches of free space left.  We now have the most top-heavy book collection in the city (and we are thankful that we screwed our bookcases into the wall as part of our baby proofing).  And my efforts to create a nice decorative bookcase?  Turned to dust.  Remember the good ole days?

The third bookshelf.  Stuffed animals where books used to be

Our great bookcase redesign occurred BEFORE I brought home my new wonderful book gifts, so now I have a pile stacked next to my bed, because there is no where else to put them.  I am feeling a bit bohemian, surrounded by all these piles. 
Here's what I received for Christmas:
The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion
Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight by Alexandra Fuller
The Peculiar Memories of Thomas Penman by Bruce Robinson
Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
Triumph of the City by Edward Glaeser
The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver
Clara's War by Clara Kramer
Dancing with Mrs. Dalloway by Celia Blue Johnson

My previous list of borrowed books that I still need to read includes:
The Power of Two by Isabel Stenzel Byrnes and Anabel Stenzel
In the Garden of Beasts by Erik Larson
The Great Bridge by David McCullough

Isn't it all exciting? I am pretty excited about it!

But the title of this post isn't about any of that, really.  It is instead about one of the other books lent to me, by my mother, to be precise- The Paris Wife, by Paula McLain.  I cannot say enough about how good this book is.  The writing is just spectacular.  The last book I raved about here, Evening Is the Whole Day, was written by an author who got her MFA from the University of Michigan.  Lo and behold, McLain did as well.  The Paris Wife is about Ernest Hemingway's first marriage to Hadley Richardson, told in first person from Hadley's point of view.  It is Paris in the 1920s, and I could not put this book down (what also helped with that was my hope to finish it at my parents' house, thus freeing up an ounce of space in our present-laden CRV for the ride home.  Unfortunately, I was about two days too late in being able to accomplish this, and The Paris Wife is still at my side in Chicago). 

Here's where the story gets good.  The night before I finished Paris Wife, my husband and I decided to watch Woody Allen's movie Midnight in Paris, which is now available for rent off of Apple TV.  Oh my God, seriously, watch this movie while you are reading The Paris Wife.  It is a perfect match.  Midnight in Paris is such a fun movie, and it features everything you read about in The Paris Wife.  I was on cloud 9 (though it doesn't take much anymore).  We paused it midway through when we were overcome with a strong desire to drink some wine. 

Because this book and movie pair so well together, I came up with an idea.  I think it would be fabulous for a group of friends or a book club to read The Paris Wife, then get together to discuss the book, drink some wine, and then finish off the night by watching Midnight in Paris.  Make everyone bring some type of 20s-inspired hors d'oeuvre or dessert (there are plenty of examples throughout the book), and just have fun.  It would be fab, as long as no one goes overboard and acts like Zelda Fitzgerald.  :-)



Hadley and Ernest Hemingway in Chamby, Switzerland, 1922. Photograph: Ernest Hemingway Photograph Collection, John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, Boston.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/feb/20/paris-wife-paula-mclain-review

Alice in Uncomfortableland

First there was this (I love when the speaker says, "...the wonderful people she meets," the scene shows all the scary people coming at her- YEEK!  How was this a kids' movie?!):

And then, in 1985, this creepy-ass Alice Through the Looking Glass aired on tv:

And now, there is this!

For me, the story of Alice in Wonderland is one of the most unsettling stories ever written.  Poor Alice, everywhere she turns another weirdo shows up.  No one can be trusted and she can't find her way home.  It gives me the heebie jeebies just thinking about it!  

I heard that the new Tim Burton version is supposed to be pretty good too, but I just don't think I can put myself through it!  No rabbit holes for me!

Disney Education

You all know that I'm a planner.  When my husband and I decided to go to Disney World for our honeymoon last year, I put us on a Disney Education plan.  For several weeks before our trip, almost every red Netflix envelope arriving in our mailbox contained a Disney animated movie.  I mean, HELLO, we couldn't have Jim pass a Disney Princess and NOT know who she was!  That would be horrible!  I mean, why go to Disney if you can't recognize 60% of the characters?  It is really interesting to re-watch old animated movies that you haven't seen since your childhood.  Has the movie changed or is it us?  I mean, take Pinocchio for instance.  Viewing that movie as an adult, my first thought is, "how in the heck did this movie get past my parents' censorship?"  That movie is FREAKY.  The whole bit in the middle where Pinocchio and all those boys are turning into donkeys?  How did I not have nightmares for a year after watching that?  And then from there it goes right into the whole "swallowed by the angry whale" debacle.  If I was Geppetto I'd be all, "Right Toy, you are on your own!"  It's insane to think that the movie was released in 1940.  People must have been swooning left and right when that came out.

Then there are other movie reactions that just haven't changed one bit.  Like this scene in Dumbo.  It gets me every time.  EVERY time.


We loved Disney.  And I think Jim would admit to enjoying the movies beforehand.  While on our trip, there were definitely moments when we could have used a little less Mickey and a little more wine.  It is probably for this reason alone that Walt created EPCOT.   

 

The Making of Public Enemies

The movie Public Enemies opens in theaters this week and I wanted to share these pictures that we took back in May, 2008.  Being a true story, several scenes were shot in the actual location where events occurred, including the Biograph Theater in Lincoln Park.  Word spread like wildfire when the production crew came in and converted this section of Lincoln Avenue into how it appeared in 1934.  We and several hundred others flocked here on that Friday afternoon to catch a glimpse of the action.  Production vehicles and trailors were parked up and down Halsted, and many cool vintage cars were brought in.  They created artificial storefronts, laid street car tracks, and even sawed away all the metal parking meters- because obviously those weren't around in 1934 (heck, they can't even get them to work in 2009)!   

On a separate night, they shot scenes just down the street from our apartment building at Pine Grove and Surf.  All evening we kept hearing continuous rounds of tommy gun fire.  It was really loud!  Apparently Johnny Depp even paid a visit to our corner Red Hen bakery for a coffee.  For all the hype the production created around this area, the movie had better be good!