January Books and Movies

#1
Anything Goes
Jill Churchill
1999
246
Cozy Mystery
4
TBR/ PBS

Great start to a new series. Lily and her brother Robert inherit a home from a little known uncle during the depression. The conditions of the home ownership are a bit murky, but the town has a few secrets revealed when a man is found murdered in their kitchen.

#2
Book Thief
Markus Zusak
2006
560
Fiction
4.5
Library

Liesel Meminger, a foster child living outside Munich during World War II, scratches out a meager existence for herself by stealing when she encounters something she can't resist--books--in this unforgettable story about the ability of books to feed the soul.

#3
My Secret PostSecret
Frank Warren
2006
144
Non-Fiction
4
Library

At the beginning of 2005, Frank Warren launched a new blog called PostSecret as an experiment in community art, inviting strangers to mail him anonymous postcards that made art out of their innermost secrets and then posting a selection of the cards every week on his blog. My Secret is his second book, a collection of cards from teens and college students--none of which has been shown on the website--that carries the same emotional power and creativity that have made Warren's project a phenomenon.

#4
St. Dale
Sharyn McCrumb
2005
311
Fiction
4
Library

A group of stock car racing fans embarks on a bus tour of Southern speedways—seven states in eight days—as a tribute to legendary NASCAR champion Dale Earnhardt. I know most won't be interested in this quirky book, but I really enjoyed it. The tour participants are quite interesting in their own right, but you really get to know them all and I will miss them. Plus with McCrumb's sense of humor you learn more about NASCAR then you thought you would want to. Didn't know that NASCAR also stands for Non-Athletic Sport Centered Around Rednecks.

#1
Movie: Night in the Museum
4
Theater

First of all I am not a Ben Stiller fan, but that being said, I liked this movie. What would happen if all of the displays were to come alive after dark in a museum? Very funny scenes, but some of the "one liners" are definitely not for children, that is if they understand what is being said. I would recommend for ages 10+.

#2
Movie: Howl's Moving Castle
3+
Netflix
Beautiful animation, but the story is a bit lame. Evil spells and they all lived happily ever after.

Total Pages Read - January
1261