"Blue Butterfly" a movie

"The Blue Butterfly" a movie based on true story. Starring William Hurt as a renowned entomologist, Marc Donato as a terminally ill 10 year old, and Pascale Bussieres as the mother.

Filmed in Montreal and the rain forest of Costa Rica, the colors in the film are especially vivid.



As her terminally ill son's only wish is to be able to see the elusive blue butterfly, Blue Morpho, this mother convinces the renowned entomologist to accompany them on a trip to the rain forest of Costa Rica in hopes of finding the blue butterfly before her son dies. Nothing prepares the viewer for the steamy beauty of the rain forest, and when a blue butterfly appears, well, it is just incredible photography that gripes the mind and the heart.

Miracles do happen.


One of my co-workers kept seeing this DVD come in, she thought about checking it out, but was so afraid of being saddened by the end of the movie. Finally, I took it home and watched it. I was able to convince her to check it out and watch it.

Hope you will give it a try. It is only 97 minutes long.


Enjoy!

"Gilead" a novel by Marilynne Robinson

"Gilead" a novel by Marilynne Robinson.


This morning (6-29-11) on the Diane Rehm show, Marilynne's book was highlighted and discussed by a panel of three, one journalist and two clergymen.


This book was written in 2004, winner of the Pulitzer Prize.



A book well worth reading.


I am not going to write a review on this one, as I really want you to start out fresh with the story.
Pick it up at your local library, or bookstore.......
Enjoy.

"Ship Breaker", a book by Paolo Bacigalupi

"Ship Breaker", a novel by Paolo Bacigalupi.


A National Book Award finalist.


Winner of the Michael L. Printz award








There are, currently, in many areas of the world "ship breakers"


their work is gruesome, dirty, extremely dangerous.

Paolo takes the reader on a look into the future of the United States as well as the world's other societies.

Sometime in the future, a time when America is no longer powered by fossil fuels, when travel on water is by large clipper ships, when society is no longer hopeful or helpful, when everyone must watch out for themselves - a dismal, fatalistic time.

Nailer, a teenage boy, abused by his father, works the "light crew" along the Gulf Coast - possibly Florida - doing scavenge work of finding copper wire on the grounded oil tankers on the once pristine beaches. Colonies of crews compete for work and found goods.

One day, Nailer and his friend, Pima, come upon one of those magnificent clipper ships, that has wrecked, in a far off area from their normal haunts - intent on claiming the wreckage for themselves, they come across the only survivor from the ship, a beautiful, wealthy girl who might be able to offer Nailer a better life. Should they save her or salvage the ship?

Thus begins a quest to escape from Nailer's abusive father, and the path of never having enough of anything.

This is a "teen" novel, however, it is one that I would suggest to adults due to the subject. It certainly fits in with everything that one hears about regarding the coming end of fossil fuels and how future generations will find ways to move about. Also, when I was searching for a photo for this posting, I came across the one of the ship, and recalled that we had watched a DVD about this very subject - it was certainly something that I had never thought of, concerning the aftermath of wrecked tankers.

This is the author, Paolo Bacigalupi

"Suryia & Roscoe : the true story of an unlikely friendship" by Bhagavan Antle

If you want to read a delightfully, heartwarming story of love and friendship, you need to read Suryia & Roscoe by Bhagavan Antle.

Set in South Carolina, this is an animal preserve, that will win you over to wanting the "underdog" animals to make it.

What a smile!

Orangutans, generally, don't get in water willingly. However, you can observe that Suryia, with her life jacket on, is very calmly enjoying her time with Roscoe in the pool.

This book will be found in the children's section of your library, or in the children's dept in bookstores......... However, you look for it, make sure you pick it up and enjoy it!!!!!!

Vancouver BC riots after the Hockey loss to Boston

Well, NOT everyone was intent on burning the city of Vancouver, BC down after the Canucks lost the final game in the Stanley Cup playoffs to Boston.

If you haven't seen or heard about what happened in Vancouver, BC last night (6-15-2011), you probably might want to check out a news website - CBC, CTV, Global, BBC, CNN - and read what happened.

After the game was over, James turned the tv off, naturally, we were disappointed, he went out and pruned his grape vine, I wrote book reviews in my journal. Afterwards, we watched a segment of JAG, then tuned in for the news on CBC, live coverage was being shown on Global, James switched to CBC, however, they were doing all their national news, he switched to CTV, and for an hour and a half we sat and watched events unfold on tv. It was distressing, disgusting, upsetting, to see mostly ALL young men - I would say in the area of 99.99% were MALE, most were white, very few had their faces covered, so chances are they will be found and arrested!!!!!!! However, we did not see the above.

It was scary to see the journalists walking through the area, knowing full well that the crowd could easily turn on them and not much could have been done to prevent further violence.

After the hooligans/vandals broke windows and looted The Bay, they then went to London Drugs, then to Sears, then to Chapters. How will they ever be able to look at themselves again in the mirror and think they are MEN? They are thugs plain and simple, they deserve to spend the rest of their lives carrying their guilt around their necks -- sort of like Hester in the Scarlet Letter.

Sorry, I had to get this one out of my system...........

"Strictly Ballroom" an Australian cult film

Strictly Ballroom. An Australian "cult" film.

This is, yet, another fun film that I enjoy watching when I am ironing.

Cyndi Lauper's song "Time after Time" is used in the roof-top dance scene (upper picture), just one of the many great songs in the flick.

If you have never seen this one, hope you will give it a shot.

Enjoy.

"Cleo, The Cat Who Mended a Family" by Helen Brown

"Cleo, the Cat Who Mended a Family" by Helen Brown.

Cat-lovers, isn't that a face that could just melt your heart?

Well, this story is one of love, grief, restortation of the spirit and soul. You will probably need a tissue or two, at the beginning at any rate...... If you have ever lost a child, grandchild or young person in your life, this book MIGHT not be for you. However, this might be the story that helps heal your heart's wounds.

Helen, New Zealand journalist, TV presenter and scriptwriter, who currently resides in Melbourne, Australia with her family, tells the poignant story of how Cleo came to her family, and helped them heal.

As Helen begins her story, "Choice" A cat chooses it owner, not the other way around.

Helen and her sons, Sam and Rob are going to visit Lena's house to look at kittens, Helen states "We're not getting a kitten," I said, negoitiating our station wagon around a bend the shape of a pretzel, "We're just goint to look at them." Famous last words spoken by this mom. "You said we could get a kitten," Sam whined from the backseat before turning to his younger brother for support. "Didn't she?"

"I didn't want a cat. I probably wasn't even a cat person. My husband, Steve, certainly wasn't. If only Lean hadn't smiled so brightly that day at our neighborhood playgroup when she'd asked: "Would you like a kitten?" If only she hadn't said it so loudly--and in front of the children."

Kittens are looked at, and one stands out, but still Helen doesn't make a concrete decision. At this time, the kittens are too young to be separated from their mother anyway.

Life goes on, until that fateful day, when Helen is having lunch with a friend, and a phone call comes for Helen - a phone call that will change her and her family's life forever. Sam, the oldest son, has been struck and killed by a car. Life becomes unbearable, a blur, a torment, filled with anger, grief, and then Lena arrives with the kitten that Sam and Rob had fallen in love with that day. Helen is sure that this not the thing that their lives need, but Rob, who witnessed his brother's death, is convinced that the kitten was sent by his brother. And so the saga of Cleo begins.

Cleo is unspeakably a spritiual being who knows exactly what each family member needs, and when they need it.

Unfortuately, as is the case in so many tragic events, Helen's marriage falls apart, yet Cleo is the one stable thing that holds her and Rob together during this event. And when Helen meets "Philip with one I" and falls in love with this "too good-looking to be real" eight years younger man, Cleo once again is there for Helen and Rob.

Hope this has interested you enough to pick up and read.......

Happy Reading.

check out her website www.helenbrown.com

"Idyll Banter" by Chris Bohjalian

"Idyll Banter, Weekly Excursions To A Very Small Town" by Chris Bohjalian

Chris and his wife were "cab-napped" in March 1986 from Brooklyn, driven around for 45 minutes by an unusual cabbie who ignored traffic signals and stop signs. Around the midnight hour, the cabbie dumped them in an unknown neighborhood which was surrounded by police getting ready to raid a known area crack house. As Chris and his wife were lying on the ground to avoid bullets flying, he quietly suggests that possibly they might want to consider moving someplace in New England where these types of events would not be commonplace. Months later, leaving Brooklyn they move to Lincoln, Vermont - population at that time 975 - where, hopefully, life will be much easier on them........

"Idyll Banter" is a journal of small town life. Wonderfully insightful into the transition Chris and his wife made from Big City life to small town Lincoln...... from the telling of "Losing the Library"

" On a summer night in 1666, six years before she died, poet Anne Bradstreet watched her home in North Andover burn to the ground, taking with it one of the larger libraries in the New World. Publicly, at least, she approached its destruction with a combination of Puritan stoicism and faith, and bid farewell to the collection in a poem. Privately, was she somewhat less poised? I've always imagined she was, especially when she considered the ruination of all those books.

Lately, I've wondered as well how deeply her neighbors felt the loss of that library. I've envisioned them sifting through the black ashes in their black clothing and finding a chaffes spine from a book. A blistered cover. A flyleaf, singed along the edges.

This summer, my small Vermont village lost its library. A hill town of roughly a thousand people, Lincoln sits in a valley midway up one of Vermont's highest peaks, the 4,052-foot Mount Abraham."

The above is just a flavor of what Chris and his wife felt about losing their town library.

I hope that you will consider reading this delightful book by Chris.

Happy Reading!