It's not always easy to get out to see the latest movies. We rely now on the local library service and its wonderful network throughout Victoria. Lately, we've had a fabulous run of viewing - the last few episodes of
The Americans that for some inexplicable reason we missed at the time of screening. Both
Save the Date and
I Give it a Year were titles Joe screwed up his nose at, but managed to sit his way through them and offered a few enthusiastic laughs.
Parkland was completely absorbing - the immediate aftermath of JFK's assassination. Just as horrifying now as it would have been at the time - this movie comes highly recommended but is definitely heavy viewing.
I suffered a book drought that was well and truly broken by the above four books. JoJo Moyes'
The One Plus One was one of mum's library scores and when she passed it on recently, it was a lifesaver. Featuring the coming together of one dysfunctional family with a man whose mistakes threaten to ruin his career, this book will keep you reading well into the small hours.
Balancing Act centres around a family pottery business and the three generations it supports - a great weekend read. Ann Leary's
The Good House grabbed me from the start - I fell in love with Hildy Good, whose character was so cleverly written and narrated. I was delighted to find that this novel is to be made into a movie starring Meryl Streep and Robert De Niro - read the book first though and let me know what you think!
The Care and Handling of Roses with Thorns is just as good as its beautiful cover promises - Margaret Dilloway's handling of Galilee Garner and her passion for rose breeding shows serious illness is no excuse for living life on the sidelines.
Here's a taster of what's on my bookshelf next! I read Kelly Corrigan's
The Middle Place a few years ago - a beautifully wrought memoir of the period in which she battled breast cancer as her father simultaneously had prostate cancer. This stage of her life - as both a mother of children and a being someone's child herself - inspired the title.
Glitter and Glue is another memoir, this time reaching back into the 1990s when Corrigan travelled from America to Australia as a backpacker. Unable to work legally, Corrigan nannied for a recently widowed Sydney man and his two children. I'm looking forward to delving deeper over the next few days. I haven't read any of Jennifer Close before, but I'm hoping these two novels above live up to their reviews.