I almost forgot.
"Hairspray" was okay. I liked it, the songs are catchy, the main actress was very lovable and there are definitely some John Travolta moments (especially those with Christopher Walken) that made my jaw drop in a sort of shock that could be taken for entertainment. D loved it, as did the rest of the audience, who clapped at the end. I must add, I can't get enough of Queen Latifah. I think she's extremely talented -- my favorite part of the movie was a montage of the civil rights march in town.
I'm reading The Golden Compass, by Philip Pullman. It's a fantasy book, geared towards intermediate readers, but it won many prizes and is going to be a movie starring Daniel Craig (yum) and Nicole Kidman. I love it -- its rich and evocative settings and powerful characters are combined with an intricate and quite suspenseful plot. The main story is of a wild little girl who finds herself caught up in international intrigue in the arctic north, battling to save others from shady government experiments and to support her fierce and distant uncle in his efforts to uncover the links between their home and parallel universes, the secret to which is tied up in the aurora borealis. She does so with the aid of gypsies, a shape-shifting animal familiar, a sentient polar bear and a mysterious symbol-reading compass that points her always toward the truth. The book lacks the humor of Harry Potter, but the little heroine, Lyra, is just as appealing in her own way. The story is very emotionally affecting -- I can hardly wait until S is old enough for books like these. It also makes a great break from The Girlfriends' Guide to Surviving the First Year of Motherhood, which I also love but which I have to put down sometimes when it starts to make me lightheaded with fear.
Next I want to see "Sunshine" and the next Bourne movie. Stay tuned!
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