From Paris to Shangri La

MOVIES
Midnight in Paris. Wonderful movie! The opening is like a city tour of Paris and all the writers and artists that you meet in the midnight hours should give you a great list of classics and biographies to explore! It’s a love story, but not a “chick flick.” Highly recommended!

Cowboys and Aliens. We have a saying in our house when we’ve watched a not-especially-good movie but we didn’t turn it off and we didn’t really get bored: “Well, it was popcorn!” This was one of those flicks! Over-acted and unbelievable, but since it wasn’t rated very highly, not that much of a disappointment.

Bridesmaids. My hubby rented this because it kept showing up on the “best movies of the year” list. He didn’t make it very far, so it wasn’t even popcorn to him. I enjoyed it more than I expected to. It was a little hard to believe that our star thought she was ugly and that no man would want her and I did think that today’s women had gotten past the “have to have a partner…husband…whatever” to be happy. My favorite character was the overweight sister of the groom! I know she was over compensating for all the cruelty she must have experienced from her peers, but she was truly a beautiful person.

BOOKS
Just finished Clive Cussler’s, The Kingdom; A Fargo Adventure (written with Grant Blackwood). It’s a typical Cussler book, which is not a criticism in my opinion! The Fargoes are a husband and wife team who travel the world looking for ancient treasures. They don’t do it for themselves, of course, but to turn the artifacts over to the government of the country where they rightfully belong. Remi and Sam are extremely smart and athletic and have influential friends everywhere who can cut through red tape for them. That really helps when you are searching for an ancient “Golden Man” in Shangri La. The fun in these books is trying to discover what is true and what Cussler has made up. I used to have to take notes and then do research. Thanks to the iPhone, now I can just sit in my easy chair and find out if an island really exists and even find it on a map. Good adventure book with a little history included for free!