Candy's Raves (and Rants)

This was just “okay”. It seemed to lack something although I can’t really say what it was that was missing. Just not as zippy or something. I was more interested in what was happening in Alex’s personal life than what was happening with the case he was working. It just seemed so overdone… this person did it… no wait… THIS person did it… no wait…

It was left open-ended, so I’ll have to catch up with Mr. Cross in a couple of months.

====
FROM THE PUBLISHER
“Alex Cross battles the most ruthless and powerful killer he has ever encountered – a predator known only as the Wolf.” “Alex Cross’s first case since joining the FBI has his new colleagues stymied. Across the country, men and women are being kidnapped in broad daylight and then disappearing completely. These people are not being taken for ransom, Alex realizes. They are being bought and sold. And it looks as if a shadowy figure called the Wolf – a master criminal who has brought a new reign of terror to organize crime – is behind this business in which ordinary men and women are sold as slaves.” “Even as he admires the FBI’s vast resources, Alex grows impatient with the Bureau’s clumsiness and caution when it is time to move. A lone wolf himself, he has to go out on his own in order to track the Wolf and try to rescue some of the victims while they are still alive.” As the case boils over, Alex is in hot water at home too. His ex-fiancee, Christine Johnson, comes back into his life – and not for the reasons Alex might have hoped.

At first, it seemed like this book was the same 10 letters written over and over again… I was kind of getting discouraged, until I realized that Michael Moore is giving these people a gift. A gift to share their words in a way no one else has. What struck me is that Moore says very little in the book, it was, indeed written by the soliders and those that love them. His name is on the cover, yes, but he’s just a small part of it. I liked that. Don’t get me wrong, I love Michael and his work. I like that he’s “in you face”, but it was nice to kind of have him step back and let the letters speak for themselves.

Even as I write this in early 2006, I still get a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach every time I hear the letters WMD.

====
FROM THE PUBLISHER
American soldiers serve willingly. They risk their lives so the rest of us can be safe. The one small thing they ask, though, is that they not be sent into harm’s way unless it is absolutely necessary. But after being lied to about weapons of mass destruction and about the connection between al Qaeda and Iraq; after being forced by stop-loss orders to extend their deployment; after being undertrained, underequipped, and overworked long after George Bush declared Iraq “Mission Accomplished,” these soldiers have something to say. From his famous 2003 Oscar acceptance speech to his record-breaking documentary Fahrenheit 9/11, Michael Moore has been an outspoken critic of the Bush administration and the war in Iraq. But in this book, Moore gives the spotlight to the real heroes of protest: the men and women who have fought in Iraq and want the American public to know how they feel about their mission and their commander in chief. Moore also fields letters from veterans of other wars and mothers, wives, and siblings of our soldiers in the field. They also express their anger and frustration, their tears and pain, and their hopes and prayers. Impassioned, accessible, and moving, these are letters that reveal the true hearts and minds of the men, women, and families on the front line.

I just finished this book. It is one of those books that you read slowly. The characters are developed amazingly well. By the time you put the book down you feel as though you’ve lived the life of Dr. Larch and Homer Wells. You know them as intimately as you know the back of your hand.

This, however, may be the downfall of this book for me. Don’t get me wrong, it’s wonderfully written, the dialogue is beautiful, and the story is wonderfully told. The problem comes that so much time is spent on developing the characters that, at the end, the story seems to be lacking. There are a few questions of why and how that really needed to be answered.

I was also irritated by the fact that the dates were written as 194_ and 193_ – I found this extremely distracting. I realize history wasn’t exactly all put together back then, but it was annoying.

On a personal level, I share Larch’s view of the world, but found myself oddly disappointed in Homer that he compromised his own belief systems… yet almost proud that he was able to bring himself to see the other side.

This is a book that will stay with me for a long time and I’ll have to rent the movie, of course, just to hear the story told again.

====
Summary from IMDB.com -
Homer is an orphan in remote St. Cloud, Maine. Never adopted, he becomes the favorite of orphanage director Dr. Larch, who imparts his full medical knowledge on Homer, who becomes a skilled, albeit unlicensed, physician. But Homer yearns for a self-chosen life outside the orphanage. When Wally and pregnant Candy visit the orphanage Dr. Larch provides medically safe, albeit illegal, abortions Homer leaves with them to work on Wally’s family apple farm. Wally goes off to war, leaving Homer and Candy alone together. What will Homer learn about life and love in the cider house? What of the destiny that Dr. Larch has planned for him?

I watched this with a friend last week. I think I was supposed to love it, but it was just “okay” for me. It felt like any other opposite sisters movie ever made, except this one had shoes in it (I’m guessing the book is better, god I hope so)… anyway, it was alright, I’m glad I netflix’d it instead of paying money at the theather.

====
Description:
This tale of two sisters — wild-child Maggie (Cameron Diaz) and straight-laced Rose (Toni Collette) — is based on the theory that they have nothing in common except for their size 8-1/2 feet. But Maggie’s discovery of a long-lost grandmother (Shirley MacLaine) the girls never knew they had could be the thing that brings them together for good. Ridley Scott sits in as producer on this comedy-drama based on a novel by Jennifer Weiner.

I LOVE indie films. This one was… not great. I didn’t hate it. But I think it didn’t live up to the hype around it (perhaps that’s the problem). The acting was terrible, really really really terrible. I liked that they had “normal” people acting, but geezus, they were just BAD. Nothing really happens in the film until it’s halfway over and even then it was kind of “ummm.. so what?”

Glad I saw it… I got to see how they used to make doll babies (I’m going to have chucky dreams tonight, you just wait!)

====
Description:
Moving on from high-profile Rat Pack remakes, director Steven Soderbergh tests out a new method of moviemaking that involves low-cost digital camerawork and employs — get this — no-name actors. Set in a crumbling Ohio town that revolves around the local doll factory, this offbeat film follows the antics of townsfolk turned detectives who try to unravel a murder mystery — and end up discovering a bizarre love triangle.

A fun, quick read… this one centers around mothers and daughters and that loving (and explosive!) relationship. Well written, quick read – I read the whole thing in a day.

One thing though…

Surely someone will wash these pants soon, right? Ewwww…

====
FROM THE PUBLISHER
With a bit of last summers sand in the pockets, the Traveling Pants and the Sisterhood that wears them embark on their 16th summer.
Bridget: Impulsively sets off for Alabama, wanting to both confront her demons about her family and avoid them all at once.
Lena: Spends a blissful week with Kostos, making the unexplainable silence that follows his visit even more painful.
Carmen: Is concerned that her mother is making a fool of herself over a man. When she discovers that her mother borrowed the Pants to wear on a date, shes certain of it.
Tibby: Not about to spend another summer working at Wallmans, she takes a film course only to find its what happens off-camera that teaches her the most.

I’ve had ths machine for a while now so I figured I’d do a little “review” on it here… so far, we really really like it! I’m not a morning person so I usually skip the coffee in the morning, although I love it. So that means, we end up going to Starbucks (my kids recognize the Starbucks sign like most recognize the golden arches, okay? The LOVE the vanilla milk there). ANYWAY… Starbucks gets expensive… enter the Tassimo…

I saw this on a show with Martha Stewart last Fall, but really didn’t think much about it… didn’t really consider getting it or anything… but this thing ROCKS! It was a bit of a pain to set up and go through the cleaning procedure, but it makes a single serving of coffee, lattes, cappucino, hot tea, hot chocolate. YUM! The hot chocolate is AMAZING. The lattes are great (but I’m a latte girl). I run the expresso disc through twice before running the latte milk disc so I can add a little vanilla creamer to it – yummm…

Who needs sleep when you have the Tassimo? It is a little on the loud side, but it froths! Oh, and it takes less than a minute to make a cup of whatever your heart desires. Clean up is a snap.

The only complaint I really have about it is the steam overflow. There’s a small hole where the steam/water overflows. It’s caught in the little platform where your cup sits… BUT… if you are filling a travel mug, you take the platform out, so the water rushes out under your cup. I just stick a towel under my cup to catch it, but it is annoying considering how easy the rest of the machine is to use.

What a fun book! I’m a Koontz fan, but I was expecting this. Yes, it’s still slightly creepy, but more than that, it’s funny – and a much needed break from reality during this crazy time of the year for us accounting nerds. Great, quick read that keeps you wanting to turn the pages. I read all 500+ pages in 2 or 3 days.

I was surprised by the level of humor and I love the way it was written, like a memoir. Very well done!

====
FROM THE PUBLISHER
With his bestselling blend of nail-biting intensity, daring artistry, and storytelling magic, Dean Koontz returns with an emotional roller coaster of a tale filled with enough twists, turns, shocks, and surprises for ten ordinary novels. Here is the story of five days in the life of an ordinary man born to an extraordinary legacy–a story that will challenge the way you look at good and evil, life and death, and everything in between.

Jimmy Tock comes into the world on the very night his grandfather leaves it. As a violent storm rages outside the hospital, Rudy Tock spends long hours walking the corridors between the expectant fathers’ waiting room and his dying father’s bedside. It’s a strange vigil made all the stranger when, at the very height of the storm’s fury, Josef Tock suddenly sits up in bed and speaks coherently for the frist and last time since his stroke.

What he says before he dies is that there will be five dark days in the life of his grandson–five dates whose terrible events Jimmy will have to prepare himself to face. The first is to occur in his twentieth year; the second in his twent-third year; the third in his twenty-eighth; the fourth in his twenty-ninth; the fifth in his thirtieth.

Rudy is all too ready to discount his father’s last words as a dying man’s delusional rambling. But then he discovers that Josef also predicted the time of his grandson’s birth to the minute, as well as his exact height and weight, and the fact that Jimmy would be born with syndactyly–the unexplained anomal of fused digits–on his left foot. Suddenly the old man’s predictions take on a chilling significance.

What terrifying events await Jimmy onthese five dark days? What nightmares will he face? What challenges must he survive? As the novel unfolds, picking up Jimmy’s story at each of these crisis points, the path he must follow will defy every expectation. And with each crisis he faces, he will move closer to a fate he could never have imagined. For who Jimmy Tock is and what he must accomplish on the five days when his world turns is a mystery as dangerous as it is wondrous–a struggle against an evil so dark and pervasive, only the most extraordinary of human spirits can shine through.

First, I’ve seen the movie so this may be a biased review. My biggest problem with the movie is that it took so many liberties with what happened onboard the Andrea Gail, things that no one has any way of knowing. I always felt cheated and that it was “dramatized” for our entertainment, kind of a thing.

I picked up the book because I did enjoy the story. I do remember the storm, although just barely, it was pretty big weather news. I like that the author’s note in the front explains why he writes it in the manner he does. He does explain that they just don’t know. But he does say that he took liberties and why he took them. Even then, the book is so much better than the movie. It goes into detail about the fishing industry, the evolution of the industry as well as how it is done.

It also goes into detail about the storms, how the boats are built to survive the storms and what the downfalls are of those that go down. The story is pretty gripping. He did a good job of making the characters seem real (they were real, after all!). I will say that some of the explanations really went over my head and I had to re-read more pages than I care to admit to understand it.

Overall, worth a read… I always enjoy hearing about “nature’s fury” so this was interesting to me!

====
FROM THE PUBLISHER
It was the storm of the century—a tempest created by so rare a combination of factors that meteorologists deemed it “the perfect storm.”

When it struck in October, 1991, there was virtually no warning. “She’s comin’ on, boys, and she’s comin’ on strong,” radioed Captain Billy Tyne of the Andrea Gail from off the coast of Nova Scotia. Soon afterward, the boat and its crew of six disappeared without a trace.

The Perfect Storm is a real-life thriller, a stark and compelling journey into the dark heart of nature that leaves listeners with a breathless sense of what it feels like to be caught, helpless, in the grip of a force beyond understanding or control.

This is one of those books I keep meaning to read, but well, the movie came out, so…

I think we all know the story of Enron. I’m an accounting nerd so the story of Enron has always intrigued me. The lack of integrity of the accounting people involved had to be huge. This can be done by one person, it’s a team effort. I remember in accounting class (this was back in the 90s before the Enron scandal) the topic of Mark to Market accounting came up and the professor glossed over it, basically just said it was “magic” accounting based off of projections that were “plucked from thin air”. I don’t know why I remember that, but it always stuck in my head.

I’ve seen my fair share of creative bookkeeping, cleaned up more than one mess, but I cannot even fathom what must have gone on between Enron and Arthur Andersen.

Anyway… the movie. I have to say that the “sound track” kept me giggling a little. Very well done documentary. It did a good job of telling the story and explaining it so that a lay person can understand it. I think that is the biggest hurdle for people is understanding what went wrong in Enron and how it happened so quickly.

The worst for me was thinking about the 20,000 employees that got screwed out of their retirement. One guy in there sold his 401k that had been worth $348,000 for $1200. Can you imagine?

I was also struck by the connection to the Bush family and the fact that Arnold “The Terminator” was in a meeting (amazingly enough there are no notes from this meeting). Connect the dots, eh? I walked away feeling bad for Gray Davis. I guess I never really connected those dots myself until now. Enron basically forced him out of office.

Anyway, very interesting… I really like documentaries, so I am biased, but this one was really well put together.

Ken Lay and Jeff Skillings trials are set to start on Monday, January 30, 2006.

====
Description:
Based on the book of the same name by Peter Elkin, director Alex Gibney’s documentary takes a behind-the-scenes look at the powerful energy company whose downfall forever changed the landscape of the business world. With a blend of fascinating footage, fast-paced interviews and a wealth of information, this film is a serious lesson in the potential trappings of dishonesty and unethical behavior dogging corporate America today.