Wacky Wednesday Book Review - Oona Out of Order by Margarita Montimore

 This is the perfect book for a wacky Wednesday.  Oona Out of Order by Margarita Montimore is one of the cleverest books I've read in a while. It is a very fun read and with each chapter you are surprised. I could only imagine the author's wall filled with a timeline and post it notes, only to be rearranged constantly. 

cover blurb It's New Year's Eve 1982 and Oona Lockhart has her whole life before her. At the stroke of midnight she will turn nineteen, and the year ahead promises to be one of consequence. Should she go to London to study economics or remain at home in Brooklyn to pursue her passion for music and be with her boyfriend? As the countdown begins, Oona faints and awakens thirty-two years in the future in her fifty-one year old body.

Thus begins  your adventure as a reader. It's fun to watch Oona figure out what's doing on. She has to navigate life as a stranger to her life. Fortunately, her mother is a solid fixture and is aware of Oona's time travel dilemma. There's also a fellow named Kenzi who appears in years as an aid (or more to his story).  Thanks to very wise investing (it helps as you move in time to know to bet big on Apple stock), Oona is very rich and does have a home base. 

P.318 Kenzi to Oona  "When you go from year to year randomly, I bet you see things differently. Notice more. Appreciate more."      Indeed, this book does make you think about your own life. 

Oona Out of Order is inventive, clever, and really entertaining. A good summer read. 

Monday Movie Mania - F9- The Fast Saga

 Monday Movie Mania - F9: The Fast Saga continues the absolutely ridiculous car stunt/ travel/ save the world franchise that evolved from The Fast and the Furious initial movie. I've been along for every hour, every mile, and I've been entertained. I left Ray at the curb on these a while ago. He couldn't stand the inanity. He had too many, "but that couldn't happen...statements." I could just ignore the stupidity, or I didn't know any better. 

It's nutso. It's insane. The plot lines are crazy. Each one of the nine movies ups the ante. So what? It's summer brain candy.  I'm not even going to attempt to explain the story. We get some history, we get current "must save humanity", and we get a nostalgia nod to Paul Walker (RIP).  

Hey - I love Vin Diesel's voice - that growl. Michelle Rodriguez is badass. Tyrese, Ludacris, et al - just a fun cast. John Cena is Vin's brother...sure.... Cameo by Helen Mirren - priceless. Charlize Theron is back as Cipher  (love her). 

Saw it at a Saturday matinee on the big screen - the only way to go for pure summer movie mania. 

F9....get in gear and zoom. 

Finally Friday - Amy Tan

 Finally Friday. Let's fill it with Amy Tan.  There is currently a documentary on Netflix about her - very well done and it prompted me to buy this memoir Where the Past Begins - Memory and Imagination. 

Ever since she burst on to the literary scene with Joy Luck Club, Amy Tan has been a favorite author of mine. Her writing, characters, and stories are rich. She blends the past with the present to create memorable books. And she's taken me to places I've never been. 

With this memoir, you learn more about her life and upbringing. It was not easy. Her mother's story is quite shocking - abusive marriage, fleeing China, Amy's father's (2nd husband) death from a brain tumor and her eldest son's death from a brain tumor, leaving America briefly to travel and mourn, and mental illness through the years. 

Meanwhile, Amy has her issues from her father and brother's deaths. That's a lot to deal with and she uses writing as an escape, a tool, and a career - she was meant to be a writer!

p.186  Darkness is no longer the word I would use for despair, not since going into that cave. I now think the metaphor of pitch-blackness is a good one for starting afresh, for thinking before writing. In darkness, the old forms and assumptions vanish.  Time is suspended. Noise is blocked. In darkness, I have only imagination. 

Food for thought from this memoir (that I did buy):  p. 327  Books are no longer being bought. People are scrimping on their minds. They are starving. 

Happy Friday. Don't scrimp.  Feed your face (mmm...ice cream!), feed your brain - anything by Amy Tan. 

Wednesday Wow - Rita Moreno Documentary

Rita Moreno - Just a Girl Who Decided to Go For It is a fascinating, energetic documentary of a woman who's been a trailblazer in film, television, stage, and music. She's now eighty-nine (87 in this film), and she's a firecracker.  She's won the EGOT - Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony. 

Stand and applaud just for that. 

She's had to work harder than many to break barriers and get past limited roles as the "immigrant", the "native girl", "girl with the accent", etc. Beautiful, exotic, dancer background, singer, she kicked butt as Anita in the original West Side Story.  Yes, proud of her Puerto Rican heritage, but "I like to live in America..." sung with passion and grit told her story. 

So many roles (the nun in OZ on HBO, on The Electric Company with Morgan Freeman, singing with Muppets on Sesame Street, and more in each decade) and still worked in the reworked One Day At a Time on Netflix, Rita Moreno is also an activist and she speaks her mind. She ain't shy. 

She had a long time affair with Marlon Brando. She had a long (but difficult) marriage that produced a daughter she's very close to and has done song and dance with back in the day. The daughter, in this documentary, still works with her mother and they are quite a team. 

This is a jampacked documentary and you'll come out of it feeling the energy and also shaking your head with admiration for Rita Moreno - the Girl Who Decided to Go for It. 
 

Monday Joy For Beginners - a book review

 Joy for Beginners by Erica Bauermeister is a quiet pleasant read. Kate has a second chance on life after surviving cancer. In this book she reflects  on the friends she has gathered and the joy of truly living in the moment. Her friends united to help her through the dark days. What they didn't know was how much she was thinking of them.

At a celebration dinner, she tasked each with a fresh joy - something they wouldn't think to do themselves, but from her observations is necessary. Each woman - Robin (her daughter), Caroline, Marion, Ava, Daria, Sara, and Hadley - questions this opportunity, but in each of their chapters, we journey with them to a satisfying conclusion. 

Robin signs her and her mother up for a white water paddle trip in the Grand Canyon. Caroline needs to clear the bookshelves of her exes books. Daria must learn to bake bread. Sara (mother of twins) has to travel overseas on her own. Marion gets a tattoo. Hadley has allowed her cottage to be swallowed by overgrowth - she must clean out her greenery - and thus emerge from her hiding. Ava had to fund raise and do the sixty mile breast cancer walk with Kate.  

Joy For Beginners sheds a light on stepping out of the box and finding new joys, discovering oneself, and testing boundaries. This is not a preachy book and the characters are fully formed. These are women who celebrate their friendship and grow stronger from their center, Kate. 

Friday - Exciting Book Launch for Small Forgotten Moments by Annalisa Crawford

 https://bit.ly/small_forgotten...

"A spellbinding, intoxicating journey into the dark heart of obsession."

Small Forgotten Moments, available for pre-order from Amazon. Barnes & Noble, Book Depository, and more!

I am very pleased to be a part of Annalisa Crawford's book launch for Small Forgotten Moments. 

She's been a blog friend forever, and I've appreciated her writing, storytelling, and ability to create memorable characters. She'll draw you in, surprise you, and  leave you wanting more. Hauntingly lovely writing highlights Annalisa's creativity. 

This new book touches down in August. Are you ready?

https://annalisacrawford.wordpress.com/

Wednesday Interlude

Tough to see this wall of shimmering metal pieces.  It was really cool in person - trust me

Nature creates its own sculptures

Can you canoe?

A folly

 Just another stunning piece of Chihuly glasswork

Hope you've enjoyed these moments of Wednesday Zen courtesy of the Crystal Bridges Art Museum