Oscars!

You're not in the wrong place, this is still a blog about books, but can we just have a minute to talk about the Oscars.

I don't know what it is about them, but I just love them. I know the jokes are often bad, the bits are too long, the speeches are boring and there is an air of smugness that hangs over the proceedings, but I still love them.

I love seeing what everybody wears. I love guessing who's going to win, even if there is no surprise. I love the rambling drunken speeches and the weepy "I had no idea" speeches. It's all so fun.

I have found that the best way to watch them is with good snacks, a few movie buff fans and with an extra hour of recorded material so you can fast forward over the commercials and boring parts.

I have to admit I was really thrilled when Bigelow and won for director and The Hurt Locker took Best Picture. I am just so tired of Avatar hype and Cameron is so cocky! I was glad Up picked up a few wins, it was such a sweet story. And the dresses, Helen Mirren looked amazing! There were so many great movies and performances this year. It's always fun when there's no front-runner that's going to sweep every category. Ok, that's the end of my Oscar ramblings.

Did any of you watch the Oscars? Did your favorites win?

Photo from oscarramblings.files.wordpress.com

Friday Favorites: We Need to Talk About Kevin

I may be out on a limb with this one, but I'm ok with that. This is a strange book to list as a "favorite" because it's not one I'd pick up to re-read out of love for the characters. In fact the characters are decidedly hard to love.

It's something more than that. There's something about this book and the intimate way it was written that just cuts all the way to my bones. It is brutally honest. It says those things you're not supposed to say. It holds nothing back, makes no excuses and leaves the reader to form their own opinions.

The book is written in the form of letters from a woman to her husband. Here's a brief summary from Booklist...

"In a series of brutally introspective missives to her husband, Franklin, from whom she is separated, Eva tries to come to grips with the fact that their 17-year-old son, Kevin, has killed seven students and two adults... Guiltily she recalls how, as a successful writer, she was terrified of having a child. In crisply crafted sentences that cut to the bone of her feelings about motherhood, career, family, and what it is about American culture that produces child killers, Shriver yanks the reader back and forth between blame and empathy, retribution and forgiveness. Never letting up on the tension, Shriver ensures that, like Eva, the reader grapples with unhealed wounds."

I think it would be incredibly difficult to write a book that you know will cause some horrible responses, but she did an amazing job. It's a book that spurs discussion and isn't that what a great book is suppose to do? I highly recommend it, but that doesn't mean you're going to like it.

Have any of you read it? What did you think?

Mac Book... literally

How fantastic is this laptop cover! I'm completely enamored and would love to slide my mac into one of these. I do think it's funny that they didn't even come up with a fake book name for the spine, it just says Book.

Photos from Twelve South