My Oscar Ritual didn’t quite pan out this year…

…but that doesn’t stop me from celebrating a year in which I saw all but 10 of the nominated films in every televised category. That’s a record, I do believe! Unfortunately, I haven’t made it to the theaters to see the top, top winners yet, but I loved seeing Clint Eastwood walk away with the [...]

WHAT WAS SHE THINKING? NOTES ON A SCANDAL by Zoë Heller

Genre: Fiction and LiteratureISBN: 0141012250How Acquired: BookCrossingReading Began: February 21, 2005Completed Reading: February 26, 2005Overall rating: Five out of ten
Recommendation to others: If curiosity gets the best of you, go ahead and read this book. Otherwise, it’s not entirely satisfying and the book jacket’s claim of “gripping” is completely overstated.
Why I chose to read this [...]

NATIONAL TREASURE

February 20, 2005 ~ Movies 14, McKinney, Texas

THE HOTTEST STATE by Ethan Hawke

Genre: Fiction and LiteratureISBN: 0679781358How Acquired: Half Price BooksReading Began: February 15, 2005Completed Reading: February 18, 2005Overall rating: Six out of ten
Recommendation to others: Beyond the curiosity of witnessing a young Gen-X actor become an author of fiction, this book surprised me in how enjoyable it was. In a morbid, watching-a-train-wreck kind of way. Ethan [...]

THE DIARY OF AN AMERICAN AU PAIR by Marjorie Leet Ford

Genre: Fiction and LiteratureISBN: 1400032644How Acquired: BookCrossingReading Began: February 9, 2005Completed Reading: February 14, 2005Overall rating: Six out of ten
Recommendation to others: This doesn’t quite have the same “punch” as The Nanny Diaries, and its similar title is distracting as you first begin to read, but The Diary of an American Au Pair is enjoyable [...]

KATE REMEMBERED by A. Scott Berg

Genre: BiographyISBN: 0425199096How Acquired: Half-Price BooksReading Began: February 3, 2005Completed Reading: (abandoned February 9, 2005)
Why I chose to read this book: I assumed this book would be a continuation of Miss Hepburn’s own biography, which was published in 1991, more than ten years prior to this one.
Comments: I read quite faithfully for a full weekend [...]

ME: STORIES OF MY LIFE by Katharine Hepburn

Genre: Biography and MemoirISBN: 0679400516How Acquired: Half-Price Books (on clearance!)Reading Began: January 28, 2005Completed Reading: February 2, 2005
Overall rating: Nine out of ten
Recommendation to others: Reading these stories is like sitting at the feet of Miss Hepburn and watching her own home movies. Vivid, funny, tender, beguiling. Anyone who has loved a Hepburn film will [...]