The Historian

I'd heard from my sister and my friend Rachel (Birch) that the ending of this book is disappointing. I'm going to have to argue that the whole book was disappointing. I liked the ending just fine, but coming as it did after 600 pages of vague, scholarly letters, I was mostly just glad to be done. I do hope that Elizabeth Kostova writes more, though, because this was a huge undertaking and really an amazing debut novel. It just needed a lot of editing. I'm okay with a story within a story. Even, perhaps, I story within a story within a story. But at one point we were five layers in: the narrator read a letter written by her father about a manuscript he had read that talked about a letter that had been written to a monk who related the following tale . . . oh, my gosh, one of these narrators has got to go!

Book of the Year

I'm going to go with How I Live Now, by Meg Rosoff, as my Book of the Year. It was so gorgeous I can't even rave about it enough. My second pick is Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, which was a wonderful literary feat.

Happy New Year!

Hmm, I shall have to recommend my books of the year. But first, let me list some favorite movies that are not to be missed:

Serenity (Joss Whedon's fine adaptation of his fine tv series, "Firefly". While you're at it, rent or buy the complete "Firefly" series, for a look at what settling the 'final frontier' would really be like.)

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (I know this is getting flak for not being as spiritually moving as the book, but I have to say that I have no complaints. The casting was sublime, the CGI amazing, and I think the spiritual allegory was perfectly intact. Plus, Mr. Tumnus just rocks.)

Wallace and Gromit in The Curse of the Were-rabbit. (I'm having the most terrible rabbit problem!)

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Fast paced to keep up with all the events of the Tri-Wizard tournment, but so far the best of all the films.)

Star Wars, Episode III: The Revenge of the Sith (The darkest and possibly the greatest of the Star Wars movies. And that scene with Anakin all burned and gross-- shocking! Gross! Makes sense!)

Batman Begins (Best Batman movie. Ever.)