Post Script!

How could I possible forget to mention Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull?
Easy. Let me share with you one word, which makes it easy to forget: Aliens.
The film is entertaining and a good ride, as all the Indy movies are, but I was slightly disappointed, despite a good point my mother made. I mean seriously, aliens? But as my mom said, 1957 was a time of science fiction and the budding space race and Roswell occurred 10 years prior, so yeah, aliens aren't that far of a stretch, but it seems so un-Indy. This argument of mine was countered with, "What about the ghosts in Raiders of the Lost Ark? Or the guy getting his heard pulled out through his chest in Temple of Doom? Or the Crusades knight guarding the Grail in Last Crusade?" I give, I give. Aliens are no less Indy territory than any of the previous ... stuff. Shia LaBeouf is funny as Mutt Williams, and there is far too little of Karen Allen. Marcus Brody has sadly died, and--disappointments of disappointments--so has Dr. Henry Jones the First. (Sean Connery, how could not show up for 3 minutes of screen time! That's all I ask! Judi Dench won an Oscar for 8 minutes of screen time in Shakespeare in Love! Not that you would have won an Oscar for this film, but still.)
Bottom line: Entertaining fun if you do not have exceptionally high hopes for film and can sit back and take in the double crosses, the Russians, the Greasers & the college kids, the chase scenes, the mystery, the puzzles, and yes, the aliens.

Next!

Finished The Swan Kingdom by Zoe Marriott. It was entertaining. It's a retelling/revision/based on Hans Christian Andersen's "The Wild Swans". I don't know that story to compare it to Marriott's version, but on it's own, I think The Swan Kingdom is well told. Alexandra gets her strength from the land, just as her mother has, as well as the women in her family for many previous generations. Her three older brothers, David, Hugh, and Robin, dote on their younger sister and are as protective as older brothers generally are. David is the future King of the Kingdom, Hugh is the brave soldier and protector, and Robin is the noted scholar, but no one pays much attention to Alexandra. She feels she is plain and slightly awkward and only feels at ease in the gardens with her mother. When Branwen is attacked by a creature and dies, Alexa and her brothers must learn to cope without her. Their father the King is consumed by the desire to find and kill the creature that Alexa described that killed her mother. Instead of returning with the creature, he returns with Zella, a beautiful young woman who has mysteriously besotted the King. Alexa and her brothers know that there is some strange magic going on and in a strange, unintended battle, her brothers disappear and Alexa only wakes four days later, shipped off to live with an aunt she never knew. Discouraged, she finds solace with Gabriel, a young man she sneaks out of her new home to meet with every night while he visits the seaside village. She waits for her brothers to return and when a visitor shows up at her aunt's, it is not the visitor she expects. Alexa must put her beloved homeland to rights and give back to the earth the power she receives from it. A good read; Alexa grows from 15 to 16 in the book and is great for any fairy-tale re-telling fan like myself. Nothing content wise to make it objectionable to readers as young as 11.
I've begun Lirael, the book that follows Sabriel. I'm about 70 pages in and in a big chunky book like this, that's not very far. I do enjoy that Lirael works in the Great Library and I'm curious to find out what kinds of things other than books are in the library.
While I read, I remain your,
Savage Librarian.

Slowing Down

Just finished Sabriel by Garth Nix last night. I am very impressed. It's an awesome story, with a great lead character (Sabriel feels herself unworthy to her task, but muddles through well enough--even better than well enough; is determined to accomplish her goal--what she will do after that, she's not sure; and she has emotions as well. It often seems that female characters, in order to make them 'strong', are denied their emotions. Not the case with Sabriel), and plenty of action. I didn't fall asleep at all while I read last night. (Falling asleep while reading, mind you, has nothing to do with whether or not I'm enjoying the book, sometimes I just fall asleep.) Sabriel and her father, Abhorsen, can travel into Death and the Dead can travel into Life. Her job is to banish the Dead from the land, but first she has to find her father. She has been raised south of the Wall, away from the Old Kingdom, where things are a little more normal. In her journey to find her father, she encounters the Dead (some of them still give me shivers), Mogget (a trapped-spirit-thing in the shape of a cat who is very sarcastic), and Touchstone (who was once a figurehead on a ship. Sabriel released him). Your typical quest fantasy book, with its own twist, but so originally and beautifully told, so rich in images that it's impossible not to picture what's happening, that it makes it a little different. I'm looking forward to reading Abhorsen and Lirael. I really am a fantasy nerd. I was just a little late in coming to it.
In the process of reading The Swan Kingdom by Zoe Marriott and not more than 20 pages into it at this point. It's a retelling/version/inspired by Hans Christian Andersen's story, "The Wild Swans" and I'm curious to see how it will turn out. Alexandra is a princess with three older brothers, but is 'homely' as her father calls her, while her brothes are handsome and intelligent. She shares a link to the earth with her mother and her father frowns upon such a connection. That is where I am currently. She's just turned 15 and things are supposedly going to change.
Turning to what's alread out on dvd, I've been sucked into Veronica Mars, and I almost begrudingly admit that I'm impressed by it. I was never into Nancy Drew or the Hardy Boys when I was younger and I don't read mysteries, so I didn't think I would enjoy the show. But it's so ... so ... pop-culture-y and clever and witty that it's impossible to resist. The main characters are likeable and well-developed (even obnoxious, snotty Logan) and at least the first season's season-long mystery was interesting (though I have to say, I was completely surprised at who did it; there didn't seem to be much connecting the victim & murderer). I'm only 3 episodes in to season 2 and I think I'll enjoy it as much.
As for the Big Screen, saw Forgetting Sarah Marshall last week because I love Jason Segel (Marshall on How I Met Your Mother, which is a fantastic show) and it promised to be a cute/funny movie. It leans more towards raunchy-funny, but funny nonetheless. And sweet. And made me want to go back to Hawaii. Peter is dumped by tv-show star girlfriend Sarah Marshall (played by Kristen Bell) and attempts (and fails) to get over her. His friend encourages him to take a vacation, get away from the apartment Sarah and Peter shared, and work on moving on with his life. Peter decides to go to Hawaii because Sarah always liked it and he went, only to find that Sarah is staying at the same hotel with her new boyfriend .... O, poor Peter. He stays, hooks up with the cute customer service girl (Mila Kunis, yay That 70s Show cast member!), and Sarah wants him back. Much hijinx ensue in the meantime, including Paul Rudd as a stoner surf instructor, and a rock-puppet-opera about Dracula. That's right. Rock. Puppet. Opera. Dracula. Fun, if you like stupid/romantic comedies. On the slate tonight: Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Please, please, please let there be a brief Sean Connery cameo. Review will be up later.
I am, as always, your slacking librarian.

Booked Solid

Updating on books I've read recently.
To begin with, Nobody's Princess by Esther Friesner. Helen of Sparta questions her role in her family and in society in ancient Greece. She's headstrong, determined, and a fighter. She questions why, as she will be Queen of Sparta one day, she can't learn to fight like her brothers. She makes a good enough case that she is taught with them to defend herself and to attack. She also meets with a few other strong women characters who help her learn to ride or get what she wants out of life, to show that Helen, at least, expects more from her life than to be a wife, mother, and queen. When we leave Helen, she's on her way (disguised as a boy again) to find her brothers who have joined up with Jason to search for the Golden Fleece. I'm looking forward to reading the next one, Nobody's Prize, as soon as one of my co-workers has finished it. It's a good story for girls, I think, because Helen does ask why she gets more notice for being pretty but nobody wants to see her stand up for herself.
The Willoughbys by Lois Lowry. The four Willoughby children, Tim, Barnaby A, Barnaby B, and Jane, determine that the ill-treatment they receive from their parents entitles them to be Orphans. After all, they are Old-Fashioned Children and look at how things turned out for Sara Crewe, Oliver Twist, and so on. They suggest their parents take a vacation to dangerous places so that the children may become Orphans. Naturally, they'll have a Kind Hearted Nanny to take care of them in their parents' absence. Things work out (after the house is sold, after their parents mysteriously refuse to die, after they've abandoned a baby on a neighbor's front porch) in an old-fashioned way and it's just a great tongue-in-cheek read. A good precursor to A Series of Unfortunate Events. Lowry's Glossary in the back is devilishly funny.
Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart. Frankie is not your typical high school sophomore. She attends Alabaster, a prestigious boarding school in Massachusetts, she is part of the Geek Conglomerate, is dating senior Matthew Livingston, and is not content to be a pretty bubbled headed 15 year old. She doesn't understand why her school, and on a larger scale, the world, has to be such an Old Boys Club. She wants to be a part of it instead of being brushed aside as "just a girl." Frankie, being the resourceful, stubborn, strategist she is, decides that she won't just be a part of the Club, she'll run it. The Loyal Order of the Basset Hounds is Alabaster's response to other secret societies in upper class in schools. Frankie's father was once a member and refuses to share anything about the society but she manages to find a way in and to instruct the Bassets in their school pranks. Who would believe that this sophomore is calling the shots? Frankie is definitely another one of those female characters, like Helen in Nobody's Princess, who refuses to simply lie back and accept her stereotyped role in her world. It's a fantastic story. Frankie longs for someone to really see her and doesn't find it in anyone who is close to her. But it ends on a positive note because you know that being the strong individual she is, she's bound to change the world.
Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi. Marji is growing up Iran in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Her parents are pretty awesome. She's somewhat aware of what's going on in the world around her and is another person who doesn't want to simply accept what's happening. She attends a protest as a young girl. It's a fantastic graphic novel (the one the animated film, Persepolis, is based on) with a compelling story and I'm looking forward to reading Persepolis 2 (after, of course, I pare down on the pile I currently have waiting for me, including Armageddon in Retrospect, The Swan Kingdom, How to Make Friends and Oppress People: Classic Travel Advice for the Gentleman Adventurer [a fantastic looking book created from travel books published a century ago I received for my birthday], and Sabriel, which I've just begun today. So I'll be a bit busy).
There's always time for movies and video games, however, and Iron Man is so much better than I anticipated that I'm actually looking forward to a sequel that could so easily be made. Saw Forbidden Kingdom a few weeks ago as well, which was entertaining enough (Jet Li & Jackie Chan, who wouldn't be entertained?). MarioKart for the Wii is super awesome. I don't like the steering wheel as much as I like using the GC controller. Looking forward to possibly doing a tournament with other libraries that own a Wii, which would be TOO COOL.
Until I've finished another book (or three), I remain your
Savage Librarian.