My weekend

It was one of those weekends where everything fell right into place. It started on Saturday which was a planned girl’s day out. Myself and three of my good friends headed into New York City to see Legally Blonde on Broadway. It was a perfect feel good show, with upbeat music and funny dialogue. Click on the below clip to see the beginning of the show.

After heading back over the Hudson river, we all had dinner together and enjoyed the fact that there wasn’t a high chair or snotty nose at our table.

On Sunday my almost six year old daughter and I went to Chinese school and then hit the bookstore afterwards for some mommy/daughter browsing. Last night I sat down to watch some football goodness and was thrilled by the HUGE NY Giants win last night (yep, I’m a die hard Giants fan, having had it drilled into me since I was a toddler)! It was the perfect (and very exciting ending) to a great weekend!

Sorry I’ve been MIA around here – I have been spending a lot of my free time reading, so I update my book blog much more often. Stop on by if you have a chance – I will be hosting a book giveaway there in a couple days.

For more Legally Blonde fun, click below:

Forever Lily

I generally leave the book reviews for my book blog, but wanted to share my opinion of Forever Lily by Beth Nonte Russell since the content may be of interest to the China adoption community.

I came upon this book at the bookstore just a few short days ago and was immediately drawn to the cover art. Forever Lily is a true story, based on Nonte Russell’s own experience, and is tagged as her “unexpected journey into adoption.” The author  became a travel companion for a friend adopting from China. Her friend, Alex, did not bond with the baby and decided (while still in China) that she no longer wanted to bring the baby home.

What I initially thought might be an interesting and thought provoking look into the inner-workings and emotions of international adoption, turned out to be a poorly written and somewhat contrived book.

The book is filled with dream sequences and meditative hallucinations that the author says she had throughout her travels in China. Whether or not she had these vivid dreams, or her “inner visions” as she calls them, seems beside the point of the story. These dreams, while an obvious attempt for the author to link herself to her Chinese daughter, not only distracted from the story but became ridiculous. Filled with Chinese symbolism (monks, concubines, empresses, dragons) and even the Virgin Mary, her visions made me think I was reading an Amy Tan novel. 

I was touched by the author’s description of an orphanage and was glad that the book could give me some insight into the poor conditions that these children live in. Having said that, I was less impressed by the portrayal of Alex, the women who decided not to take the baby. I really would have like to have known, from a psychological perspective, why this woman immediately rejected this baby.    

It is no great secret that the author was able to legally adopt the baby a few months after coming back from China. The love and bonding that Nonte Russell obviously feels for Lily is touching. She rearranged her entire childless life (her step-daughter was already in college) in order to bring this baby home. I only wish that the book itself was a little more informative and less wishy-washy.

For a much more in-depth and interesting look at China adoptions, check out The Lost Daughters of China by Karin Evans.

Your blog as a book

I saw this post on Soulemama the other day and thought you guys might find this interesting.

Blurb is a on-line book making company that can take the content of your blog and make it into an actual high quality book. I think you can edit a little after uploading your blog, picking and choosing the content that you want. That might come in handy if you want to skip some less than eloquent entries you might have posted (I know I’ve got LOTS of those)!

Soulemama writes: The short of it is that Blurb works by downloading your blog into their software, where you can then format and edit the book, and then upload it back to them for printing. There are many options along the way that will affect pricing, layout, content, binding, etc. I found it to be a rather smooth process, easy to follow, and such. Since I wanted one blog post (and it’s photos) per page, I just printed Year One this time. Still – that was four hundred and something pages long, making for some tedious formatting, and a rather hefty price at the end (this is all the fault of the quantity of my content, not Blurb). I’m really impressed with the quality of the book itself – it’s quite well made.

Check out her site to see pictures of her finished book. This might really be a great way to chronicle, in hard copy, your journey through the adoption process and could even take the place of a scrapbook after your little one is home. Now why didn’t I think of this?

Anticipation

I used to watch the Oscars with much anticipation. In the past, I would try to see most if not all the movies that were nominated for Best Picture of the Year, so I knew which one to cross my fingers for during the ceremony. This was BK (before kids) and now I am happy to have seen one of the nominees, Little Miss Sunshine (which cracked me up). I probably won’t stay up so late to see who wins and will find out on the radio once my alarm goes off at 6:10 tomorrow morning.

Now, I am anticipating some of the movies and books coming up in 2007. Here is a list of my must see/reads.

Spiderman 3 – In theaters May 4rd click here to see the trailer. Looks like Toby’s got a new outfit and plenty of special effects.

Shrek the Third – May 18th. Is there a baby ogre on the horizon?

Pirates of the Caribbean 3 At World’s End to be released on May 25th. I can’t get enough of Captain Jack and look forward to seeing the newest addition to the cast, Chow Yun-Fat as a Chinese Pirate.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix movie – released July 13th. If that wasn’t enough, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows book 7 is right on it’s tail being released on the 21st. Joe’s niece is getting married that same day – do you think it’s too late to change her wedding date? 🙂

A few funny movies coming this summer look really good – check out the trailers for Knocked Up and Evan Almightly.

Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer – after reading her other two vampire books in the series (you can read my personal review here) I am eagerly anticipating the early fall release of the third book, Eclipse.

The Other Boleyn Girl to be released in December, 2007 – I’ll admit it, I am a sucker for period dramas. Some of my favorite movies include Emma, Sense and Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice (both versions). I have just about finished the book and look forward to seeing the Natalie Portman and Scarlett Johansonn portrayals of Anne and Mary Boleyn.

What about you guys? What books and movies are you looking forward to?

October 31st

Just in case you guys are looking for something a little creepy to read during this Halloween time, please grab a copy of The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield and then stop by my book blog. Discussion questions will be posted early November, so there is still time to join in!

Hope to see you there!

Old Same

One day in the 1960s an old woman fainted in a rural Chinese train station. When the police searched her belongings in an effort to identify her, they came across papers with what looked to be a secret code on them. This being the height of the Cultural Revolution, the woman was arrested and detained on suspicion of being a spy. The scholars who came to decipher the code realized almost at once that this was not something related to international intrigue. Rather, it was a written language used solely by women and it had been kept a “secret” from men for a thousand years. – From the acknowledgement section of the book Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See

The book, a work of fiction, is based upon a real written language that existed in a remote area of the southern Hunan provence in China for thousands of years. Nu Shu was created by women, for women, as a way to secretly communicate their thoughts and feelings. In the book the main character Lily forms a lifelong relationship with Snow Flower, who she then considers her an “old same” (similar to a sworn sisterhood or maybe a best friendship between women).

This was the first book selection at my online book club, The Written Word. One of the discussion questions I posted today is the following: Do you think the concept of “old sames” exists today? Do you have an “old same,” or are you part of a sworn sisterhood?

For me, I would have to say that I have been fortunate to have two very strong female relationships in my life.

First is my girlfriend Ariel. We have known been friends for almost twenty years now. Unfortunately, we don’t reside in the same part of the country anymore and since we have such busy lives we don’t communicate half as often as we should. Having said that, each time I hear from her it feels like I just spoke to her yesterday. It is comfortable.

My friend Chau, on the other hand, has only been in my life for about six years, but it might as well be sixty. We met at work and became fast friends. Joe would often work late so it would be Chau and I at the movies, Chau and I going out to dinner (you get the picture). Of course, all that changed when I gave birth to Leah and became a stay-at-home Mom. My relationship with Chau, thankfully, has stayed the same. She has been here with me through thick and thin and always makes me laugh.

So, do any of you have an “old same” out there?

On a side note, if you are interested in participate with my online book club, just stop by The Written Word and send me an e-mail. We will be picking out our next book selection soon, so be sure to check it out!

Join me with a good book

Based upon a few suggestions from some of my blogging buddies (yep, I’m talking about you Tammy and Stacy), I have started a virtual book club blog called The Written Word. In order to get this up and running I am asking anyone that is interested to visit The Written Word, read the Welcome post for instructions and then send me an e-mail with your suggestions! Keep in mind that you do not have to be a blogger to participate.

I plan on adding blog links to all those who participate and also links to some of the really cool reading blogs that I have found.

Suggestions are welcome, so please don’t be shy and come on over. I hope to find a few of you (my mom, Chau, Ariel, my sister, Maureen, Pink Lucy, Katie J and Nicole) who I know are big time readers to participate.

Please Bury Me in the Library

I love to sit down with a good book, so I figured that there must be other bloggers with my passion for reading. A quick search on the internet sent me to some really interesting blogs all about books.

The most elaborate of them all is BookGirl’s Nightstand. Just click on the reference section to check out her archives and a huge list of links to other book blogs. I was also happy to find Bookmark My Heart, A Life In Books, A High and Hidden Place and Out in the Woods. Also be sure to check out A Readable Feast at ClubMom. It is a really cool site that mixes recipes with info on lots of different childrens books.

Speaking of reading a good book, how about reading a book about reading books (are you confused yet)? Check out the memoir So Many Books, So Little Time by Sara Nelson. The author challenges herself to read a book a week for a year and then keep a journal on how the reading material intersects with her life.

Or how about The Reading Group by Elizabeth Noble? It’s a work of fiction about five women, living very different lives, who meet monthly for a bookclub.

Check out this really beautiful children’s book that I found in my local library last night. Please Bury Me in the Library (or Libary, as Leah calls it) is a book of poems celebrating a love of books and reading. One of my favorites from the book is below

“Great, Good, Bad”

A great book is a homing device
For navigating paradise.

A good book somehow makes you care
About the comfort of a chair.

A bad book owes to many trees
A forest of apologies.

I must stop typing now, since I need some time to read Prep tonight. Happy reading!