2 movies and a book

I have finally reached the end of the semester (almost, that is, I have one more paper to write by Friday), so I have been pretty busy and haven't had much time to devote to pleasure reading, but I did manage to finish one of the books I was in the middle of: Angels All Over Town. This was my book club book and it's a romance novel, which I don't ordinarily read, but it wasn't terrible. It definitely meets the genre criteria: a love story is at the center of the plot despite anything else going on, and the ending is a happy one. This characteristic, the guarantee of a happy ending, is the primary reason I don't like romances, but is the main reason people who love them do so.

Aside: I saw an interesting report printed at the library where I volunteer that listed books with 0 checkouts in the past 5 years grouped by genre, and in romance there were only 8. 8! That's incredible in a section that contains thousands of books. It was by far the section with the least number of unused books.

Anyway, this book is about three 20-something sisters, close friends who each fall in love and get married over the course of the novel, and supposedly live happily ever after (yea, right). I personally think these books should be in the fantasy section, but that's just me.

I did take the time to watch a couple of movies with my husband this week. We recently discovered Netflix and the huge catalog of films it contains and we're having fun with it. It's a little embarrassing how few modern movies (last 15 years) we've seen, but on the bright side, it means we have a lot to look forward to.

The first was House of D (2004), a touching movie (translation--a real tear-jerker) about an American living in Paris, who, on his son's thirteenth birthday, decides to tell his wife about his own thirteenth birthday, the fact that he is actually American and not French, and the tragic events that led to his subsequent pretense. It's a story about facing your past and yourself, and I recommend it highly. Robin Williams has a role as a mentally handicapped janitor who was an important part of the hero's childhood past, and as usual, he gives a great performance.

The second movie, Walk the Line (2005), is the story of country singer Johnny Cash's early years as a performer, but more importantly, the childhood experiences that influenced his personality and his decisions for many years. I'm not a big country music fan, I don't own anything by Cash, but I did seem to know all the songs that were performed (and there were a lot of them) and I thought Joaquin Phoenix (Cash) and Reese Witherspoon (June Carter) were great. This movie is as much about relationships as it is about music though, and I also recommend it to all.