The movie (Simon Birch) is pretty good. I haven't read the book, though, so I don't know how close it stays.

Oh wow...that movie is based on Owen? I had no idea! That isn't a character in the book. Must see it.

I was wondering why they hadn't made a movie and I thought maybe it would just be too difficult to capture the essence of Owen.

They renamed Owen to Simon Birch at Irving's request because he didn't think it would translate well to a movie.

Ahhhh, just what I was thinking. It sounds like it was well-received. Once I finish the book and see the movie I'll report back.

Finished Owen. Loved it.

Now I'm starting another Irving: A Widow For One Year. As always, I'm immediately into the story.

Also: Revenge of Anguised English, two Life Magazine photo collections, and a book about becoming real and stopping the negative thinking that holds you back (self-help books are often hokey, but I happened upon it at the library and thought I'd give it a shot. Self-actualization in 5...4...3...or maybe not.)

"Why Not Say What Happened?" - Ivana Lowell (adopted daughter of Robert Lowell)

Interesting life she's led thus far.

I'm on a Harry Potter kick. Finished the first three, am now on Goblet of Fire.

I've also been reading The Wiccan Minister's Manual.

And some other good stuff:

Radium Halos - Shelley Stout
The Malacca Conspiracy - Don Brown
Mr. Toppit - Charles Elton
Big Machine - Victor LaValle
Den of Shadows Quartet - Amelia Atwater-Rhodes
On Killing: The Psychological Costs of Learning to Kill - Lt. Col. Dave Grossman
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress - Robert A. Heinlein
Something Wicked This Way Comes - Ray Bradbury
The Proteus Operation - James Hogan
Autobiography of a Recovering Skinhead - Frank Meeink
Ethics and the Craft - The History, Evolution, and Practice of Wiccan Ethics - John J. Coughlin
Heart Transplant - Andrew Vachss (Author), Frank Caruso (Illustrator), Zak Mucha (Afterword)

Guess it's been a while since I've posted in this thread ...

Just finished "Daring Young Men" last night -- a history of the Berlin Airlift. Attributes the national recoalescence of West Germany in some part to the effort to sustain and save West Berlin. A general of the time said at the end of the Airlift and of nascent West Germany, "This was their Valley Forge."

Something I hadn't heard about was that a certain amount of goods came in quietly, privately, through East Berlin, the Wall after all being more than ten years in the future.

I guess consumer goods stamped "Made In Occupied West Berlin" over those eleven months are collector bait now. Their aggregate tonnage was a bit over eighty-one thousand tons flown out aboard the same aircraft doing the airlift.

Wolf, J.K. Rowling will no more send you to the dictionary than Ernest Hemingway will -- but indisputably she has written literature. However unsubtle her writing might be, when I noticed my rereadings of Harry Potter were catching up to my rereadings of Lord of the Rings...

The Disappearing Spoon, by Sam Kean. A fun book, but it doeasn't answer the obvious question of whether gallium is poisonous (answer: inconclusive, but doesn't seem to be).

"Rocky Mountain Company: Fort Dance" by Richard S. Wheeler

New Mexico, 1841

Lives of the Poets - E. L. Doctorow.

Wow wow wuzzy! Incredible - simply beautiful. AMAZING.

Reading his stuff brings a clarity to my life. I am NOT a writer - never was. Just wow. He's a master.

An old one in my library, along with "Friday"

At the moment, I'm reading "The Wrecker" by Clive Cussler & Justin Scott.

8th grade urban fantasy The Mortal Instruments. I loved them. :blush:

I never read Harry Potter just because they were kids books. When I picked up the first book, City Of Bones I didn't know they were for teens but, I swear, I was captivated beginning to end.

New guy at work was reading that tonight, I've sent myself a sample, may wait until the price drops to read it, sooner if the sample hooks me.