A Thousand Sisters: My Journey into the Worst Place on Earth to Be a Woman

Just saw a bit of her story on ABCNews tonight and was so impressed that I wanted to know more. So I was glad to hear there was a book out now.  I am looking forward to reading this. 

To me, it is a shame that this type of mindset and action is an anomaly and not an everyday way of life. That we do not value each other enough on a day to day basis.  That this war was one that went primarily unnoticed by the general public, and seemingly no one cared. It should be just the opposite. We in the US pride ourselves on freedom and equality, yet we don't seem to want to make an effort to ensure that it doesn't stop at our borders. At least, not so much anymore. We have become an insular people, isolated and self-serving, as much as we want to believe ourselves otherwise.  


Stories such as Lisa Shannon's, and a few others, are a refreshing light in the darkness. May there be more such as her in the coming days. 

Long time

It's been a while, huh?  Have several movies to post about, amongst other things.  Will be back with that shortly, I hope.

The Last Wild Witch Giveaway frome Confessions of a Pagan Soccer Mom

What a wonderful giveaway. And a Starhawk book! Love to read Starhawk. The art throughout the book is colorful, eyecatching and fun. Also printed on recycled paper, thus environmentally responsible too. While you are entering the giveaway, have a look around her blog, very interesting and helpful reads. Also check out the We'Moon site, the publishers of the book. They have date planners and such. But what struck me were the colors used. Simple site yet striking in detail.

X Files' Gillian to play Doctor Who baddie?

23/04/2009 - 17:02

Gillian Anderson is reportedly being lined up to play an enemy of the Time Lord in Doctor Who.

Well known to science fiction fans, the actress who played FBI Special Agent Dana Scully in The X Files is likely to take on the part of the renegade Time Lady The Rani opposite the new Doctor Matt Smith, according to the Daily Express.

A source told the newspaper: "The team behind the show are keen for the next Doctor to have lots of new enemies and Gillian would be a glamorous and impressive addition to the list."

Gillian, 40, will follow in the footsteps of Kate O'Mara who played the role of The Rani, an alluring scientific mastermind the 80s.

The insider said: "Gillian obviously has a massive sci-fi following and it's felt that it would be a major coup to have her appear in Doctor Who.

"The Rani would be a perfect role for her as the character used to be regarded as one of the Doctor's most deadly opponents."

Fry and Laurie hope to reunite in House

Fry and Laurie hope to reunite in House

23/04/2009 - 15:56
Fry and Laurie hope to reunite in House

Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie plan to work together again in Hugh's Golden Globe-winning US drama House, which screens in the UK on Five.

But the multi-skilled 51-year-old admits they still have to find the perfect role for him to play.

“We joke about whether I could play a doctor even crueller, nastier, ruder than House,” says Stephen, who met Hugh at Cambridge University and has since worked with him in Blackadder, Jeeves and Wooster and their sketch show A Bit of Fry and Laurie.

“Or perhaps I should be a better diagnostician than House, but incredibly nice just to annoy him. Or he should have a smarter older brother, because House is based on Sherlock Holmes. Instead of Watson he has Wilson, and he lives in Baker Street, and of course he has a drug addiction, so I could be his brother Microft!”

Stephen adds that he won’t be sporting an accent like Hugh Laurie, whose American drawl initially alienated some English viewers.

“I would be English,” he insists. “I wouldn’t attempt to be American!”

Stephen was set to appear in House before, but due to other commitments he instead appeared in Sky1's Bones – a forensic drama made by Fox in the same studio.

“I always stay with Hugh whenever I appear in Bones,” says Stephen, who has a regular on-off role as shrink Dr Gordon Wyatt. “They’ve asked me to go back and do series five this year, which will be a pleasure!”

Stephen has just completed filming a documentary series for the BBC, and a new series of Kingdom, which screens in June. He is also about to film another 16 episodes of QI, which screen on BBC Two.

“I may even write a diet book, because I struggled to shed over five stone!” says Stephen, who went from 21 stone to just over 15 stone since the beginning of the year. “It’s mostly through walking and dieting. It’s also certainly helped with my depression!”

"Hitchhiker's Guide" series to ride again

"Hitchhiker's Guide" series to ride again
Wed Sep 17, 2008 3:19pm EDT

LONDON (Reuters) - Children's author Eoin Colfer is to write a sixth novel in the "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" series, seven years after the death of its creator Douglas Adams, publishers Penguin said on Wednesday.

The Irish writer, best known for his Artemis Fowl fairy stories, has the blessing of Adams' widow, Jane Belson, to continue the bestselling science fiction saga.

Called "And Another Thing...," the new novel will be published in October 2009. Colfer said he was a big fan of the original books, which started as a BBC radio serial.

"For years I have been finishing this incredible story in my head and now I have the opportunity to do it in the real world," he said in a statement. "It is a gift from the gods. So, thank you Thor and Odin."

The satirical books tell the story of a hapless Englishman called Arthur Dent who travels the universe after the Earth is demolished to make way for a hyperspace bypass.

The saga centers on the search for the answer to "life, the universe and everything," which after a long wait turns out to be 42. Penguin Managing Director Helen Fraser said she hoped Colfer would attract new readers to the books.

Adams died from a heart attack in California in 2001 at the age of 49. He had hoped to finish the series with a sixth novel.

"Five seems to be a wrong kind of number; six is a better kind of number," he once said.

(Reporting by Peter Griffiths; editing by Steve Addison and Paul Casciato)

© Thomson Reuters 2008. All rights reserved

SPOILERS!!!! don't read the review if you want the whole book experience!!!!!!~~!

Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay

My review

rating: 5 of 5 stars
First Reads Giveaway book...expected in mail any time now...Will post review when I get thru reading it.



Received today, 26 August 2008...will start reading today! The only thing I think I am dreading about the book is the fate of the brother left in the locked closet. The rest I can steel myself against, LOL.



This is, I believe, the one of the BEST book I have read in a very long time!!! And I normally avoid books with the Holocaust as even a remote topic. Just because I get disgusted with how despicable we can be to each other.



But this book? I loved it. The author has a smooth, fluid, comfortable way of expressing the emotions and plot lines of this story. There are books that are favorites of mine that are not so smoothly told.



The heartbreaking, heartwrenching stories of both Julia and Sarah are so eloquently related to us that it is just too easy to put ourselves in their place. Sarah's worry about her little brother Michel, left locked in the cupboard for safety while she and her parents are rounded up by the French police in compliance to the wishes of the Nazi occupiers. Her despair at watching her parents being ripped away from her, the conditions of Vel d'Hiv and the move to Beaune-la-Rolande and escape from the camp with a girl named Rachel. The immediate aftermath of the escape is despairing and leads to a lifetime of guilt and withdrawing on Sarah's part.



Julia is stuck in a very dysfunctional marriage to a Frenchman who is rarely faithful and "there for her." She has a wonderful, bright daughter in Zoe, but rather distant from her in-laws, who always call her "The American". Her husband plans on remodeling his grandmother's apartment after Mame' is placed in a nursing home because of Alzheimer's. She is then given a story to research for the magazine she works. She is to do a "companion" piece for the commemoration of the tragedy of Vel d'Hiv. During her research, she learns that the apartment was part of one of the families story, linking that family to her in-laws'. She is told repeatedly by her father in law and her husband to drop the story, don't dig any deeper. She ignore's their advice and follows what her conscience tells her is right.



She finds that not many Parisians, let alone French citizens, are aware of this part of their past, nor are interested in learning about it. She finds it disturbing and commits to researching more.



To say anymore would be to give away too much more of the story. Let's just say that the story is a haunting one. And enlightens the reader to a period of history that is rarely, if ever taught.



Favorite passages:



p.68-69 (too long to type out here, takes up so much of the pages.



p.88

So maybe that's how it worked. That's how all this had happened. Hating people so much that you wanted to kill them. Hating them because they wore a yellow star. It made her shiver. She felt as if all the evil, all the hatred in the world was concentrated right here, stocked up all around her, in the policemen's hard faces, in their indifference, their disdain. And outside the camp, did everybody hate Jew's too? Is this what her life was going to be about from now on?



p195-197 (The letter to Alain from Genevieve) especially the following passage:

Yes, the war is over, at last over, but for your father and me, nothing is the same. Nothing will ever be the same. Peace has a bitter taste. And the future is foreboding. The events that have taken place have changed the face of the world. And of France. France is still recovering from her darkest years. Will she ever recover, I wonder? This is no longer the France I knew when I was a little girl. This is another France that I don't recognize. I am old now, and I know my days are numbered. But Sarah, Gaspard, and Nicolas are still young. They will have to live in this new France. I pity them, and I fear what lies ahead.



This last passage I find eerily similar to my feelings of the world today. And I fear that my son, who is now 23, will never be assured that our "leaders" have enough sense to not blow the world up just on a whim.



Okay, pessimism aside, READ THIS BOOK! Supposedly, the movie rights have been acquired. I hope so and they movie producers do it justice. I will definitely buy the DVD!


View all my reviews.