Book #4 - Potty Train in Three Days

Just finished Potty Train in Three Days.  With the other potty book I read, I'm working my way towards a Major in Potty Philosophy.

This one had such realistic and easy-to-follow advice as, "[T]he parent or caregiver needs to be on duty at all times...to make the potty training period effective.  All day long, this person needs to be alert to the child's behavior.  Even spending a moment or two away from the child can set him up for failure."

Ah, OK.  No problem.

I'm done reading these stupid books.  Someone send me extra paper towels, because I think we're going to need them.

Book #3: U is for Undertow

This the 21st Sue Grafton novel I've read; I've been faithful through the whole Kinsey Millhone alphabet mystery series.  I'm not a maniacal mystery reader...many of them are too grisly for me (like in the Patricia Cornwell novels) or too thematic (like in the horse mysteries) or too incredibly awfully written (like in the increasingly disappointing Diane Mott Davidson catering mysteries, and the really depressingly horrible Rita Mae Brown mysteries).

But these alphabet mysteries are great.  Grafton is amazing at maintaining Kinsey's timeline:  it's only 1988 in U is for Undertow.  Despite the fact that all these technological advances have arrived to (ostensibly) ease a detective's life by 2012, Grafton has stayed true to the library visits, criss-cross directories, and other paper/people-based research.

Really, the most shocking thing is that this ISN'T Grafton's newest novel.  V is for Vengeance is her newest (and I have that on the kindle as well...).  I missed U for a variety of reasons:  often my family & friends & I will share hardcover novels, to amortize the cost, and when it was my turn for U, I heard that it was about child abduction, and I wasn't mentally prepared for it, so I gave up my place in line, and never reclaimed it.

Nonetheless, glad to have read it!  Will read V very soon!

Movie #3: MacGruber

MacGruber is one of those movies filled with inappropriate jokes, gross-out sight-gags, raunchiness, stupidness.  In short, my favorite kind of movie.  In the grand tradition of some of my all-time faves, like Role Models and Old School (though not as good as either of those classics), MacGruber was silly and funny and thoroughly enjoyable.

I used to watch serious and important movies.  I watched Saving Private Ryan from the 3rd row of a massive movie theatre, and still kind of have a headache from it.  When I went to see The Fisher King in high school, I had to sit on the curb and weep for 20 minutes before I was composed enough to drive home.  Maybe, over the course of this movie and book adventure, I will dip my toe back in the waters of serious film.  But for now, I'm composing my Must Watch List...next up:  Bridesmaids!  Or maybe The Hangover II! Or Superbad!!!

Recommendations welcome.

Book #2 - Cutting for Stone

If I had known I was going to take on a Read-A-Lot-Of-Books challenge, I might not have chosen the 640-page novel Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese.  So lucky for me then, that I didn't know about it, because then I would have delayed reading this wonderful, complex, challenging, vivid novel!

It follows the life of twin brothers, Marion (the narrator) and Shiva, born in unusual circumstances in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in the mid-1950's.  I would do it a disservice to try to summarize it--that's not my strong suit.  But I loved the book, and highly recommend it.

My sister has been to Addis, and reading Cutting for Stone gave me another view on what she's described about the city and the needs there.  Added bonus:  At the end of the novel, when Verghese thanks all the people who helped him, he gives a shout out to Dr. Rick Hodes, an amazing and inspirational physician living in Ethiopia.  Read about him!  Give money to the JDC, the charitable organization that supports Dr. Rick's work!

Now I am going to read something quick and trivial. 

Movie #2 - Inventing The Abbots

While folding XX,XXX loads of laundry tonight, I watched Inventing The Abbots starring Joachim Phoenix (and I am old enough to still think of him as River's little brother), Billy Crudup (who, I learn from our friends at Wikipedia, grew up in Manhasset, just east of my DH's home town), Liv Tyler (who speaks in a monotone, but seems kindly), and Jennifer Connolly (who I thought was the wife in Seabiscuit, but it turns out, that was Elizabeth Banks!  Who knew??).
I've read a number of Sue Miller novels (she wrote the short story the movie was based on) and I was kind of dismayed that it was such an anti-sister plot.  Really, sisters?  I mean, I know Billy Crudup is adorable, but must you?  sigh
Another movie for my personal record books, but not one I'm going to urge others to see. But think of all the laundry I got folded!

Book #1 - The Potty Boot Camp

If I weren't participating in a (completely optional, self-inflicted) contest to try to read a bunch of books, I wouldn't even count this AS a book.  But I am, so I am.

I read The Potty Boot Camp: Basic Training for Toddlers by Suzanne Riffel.  This incredibly short, mostly crappy (pun intended) book is meant to give me the will to actually potty train my 3-year old boy.  Not sure that it did that, but at least I'm 1/40 of the way to my Book Reading Goal for 2012!

Wish me luck...