TSS: A WEEK OF BOOKS, BLOGGING, & MOVIES — MAY 6

Good morning, Blog World!  Welcome to our first Sunday Salon in May.  Just as April brought many weather changes, this new month has been warm and beautiful so far.

Soon this Central Valley town will be swept up in its usual heat waves, and we’ll be complaining about that!  lol

I’m ready for the beach, though, and looking forward to some books that take me there, even if I don’t actually go there yet.

Even as I turn my thoughts toward the beach, I spent part of yesterday watching a movie from a totally new season.

New Year’s Eve was a delightful star-studded movie about that special night in Manhattan, with all the usual hopes, dreams, obstacles, etc.  Nothing particularly surprising in this movie, but it was fun to watch on a Saturday afternoon.  A variety of stars from Jon Bon Jovi, Halle Berry, Katherine Heigl, Ashton Kutcher, to Robert De Niro.  Several others made cameo appearances along the way.

And there was a major suggestion of a midnight get-together between a man, whom we meet early on, and a woman who remained mysterious until the end. 

This was also a week of bookish adventures, some better than others.  I didn’t finish as many books as I’d hoped but one was a real page-turner.  My blogging was all over the map, from Monday Potpourri:  Featuring a Unique Village and my April Reading Wrap-Up to a few others.

Like Showcasing Favorite Books, Blogoversary Winners, and Reflections on This Blog’s Life.  Or how about Design Details:  Spiffing Up the Blog & Excerpting, or Searching for Clues in the Past.

Having written about this range of topics, I also read and reviewed these books- (Click titles/covers for links):

1.  Big City Eyes, by Nora Ephron (Another one off the TBR stacks!)

2.  HRH, by Danielle Steel (off the stacks!)

3.  Dead Witness (e-book), by Joylene Nowell Butler (a brisk, suspenseful thriller!)

Today I’m reading a short story collection by Jennifer Weiner:  The Guy Not Taken.

My plan is to take it, with a nice beverage or snack, out to my patio.

What are your plans for the day?  Reading, movies, spending time with friends/family?

1970s ISSUES & CHOICES — A REVIEW

Margaret Reynolds is a NY housewife living the crazy, multi-tasking life of a young mother during the 1970s. Meeting the other mothers in the park, keeping track of the sandbox tots, and trying to remember what life was like before—or what life could be again—Margaret’s mind takes her on fantasy trips. Especially after discovering she is again pregnant.

While trying to sort out this snag in her life, at the same time that her mother is pressuring her to move the family to the suburbs, Margaret’s fantasies take her to Fidel Castro’s Cuba and other inexplicable places that seemingly stand in as a reminder that her own daily life is sort of boring.

I enjoyed this book (by Anne Richardson Roiphe) while I, too, was going through similar experiences. Not living in Manhattan, but feeling stifled by the lonely housewife existence.

When I recently read another book by this author, I was reminded of this movie and ordered it from Amazon. I enjoyed it in a slightly different way. The kind of enjoyment that comes from the vantage point of remembering a past existence and reflecting on it in a somewhat nostalgic fashion.

I am giving Up the Sandbox four stars, mostly for the memories evoked, as well as for Barbra Streisand’s great performance.