Major Pettigrew

On tap for Sunday's co-ed book club is Major Pettigrew's Last Stand by Helen Simonson. A retired British major, a widower, falls in love with Mrs. Ali, a Pakistani widow, in a small English town. Of course, prejudices from the friends, neighbors and family don't make it easy for them.

While the plot feels like it follows a rather standard trajectory, the characters are lovingly drawn, and the Major's relationships with his frustrating family feel real, and his does his charming friendship with Jasmina Ali.

Oh, Well....

I was hoping to make a post about the winning Oregon Ducks. But I can't. It was a nail-biter, though.

King Kong Sushi

In our continuing quest for great sushi, we just had to try out King Kong Sushi which has opened up on Bonita and Indian Hill in the former Kinya Sushi place. It had great reviews on yelp, so we gave it a go. The place is lively and welcoming. Whenever someone walks through the door the whole staff gives out a loud hello. The service is quick, the presentation attractive. Business was brisk.

If I had not been to Awesome Sushi in Long Beach and Hayato Sushi on Foothill, I might not have known that this sushi is not the very best. It was good. The Bora Bora roll (no rice!) was very good, but the spider roll (my standard) was just okay. It was large, but the rice was packed so loosely that I couldn't handle it very well, and the inside stuffing of tempura crab was pretty skimpy.

I also had the steamed vegetables which were fine. I am beginning to think that when the sushi chef takes time to prepare your roll (here ours was delivered within 5 minutes - pretty fast), it tastes better.

Paperback Swap

As long as I am blogging about things online, I should write about Paperback Swap. I stumbled upon this site about a year ago, but didn't do anything about it until yesterday when I joined.

This is the online version of getting all your friends and relatives and neighbors and coworkers and their friends, etc. into one room with a bunch of books to trade. Someone takes one of your books, you get to take someone else's book, that person gets a book of their choice, etc. (It reminds me of the babysitting co-op I used to be in.)

These are the basics. Sign up (it's free). You post 10 books (or more) that you are willing to send to someone (media mail - cheapest way to send a book). You instantly get 2 credits to get you started.

After I signed up, I ordered two books, and within the next two hours, I had two requests for two of my books. I printed out the shipping form, packed up the books and am headed to the p.o. this morning. As soon as the recipients get their books and mark them received, then I get two more credits.

Unwanted Gift Cards

Have a gift card you don't really want? Try cardpool.com. I heard about this on some tv show recently and had a Best Buy card that we didn't really have a need for. You can sell them a card of yours and get 90-some percent back on it either in cash or in an Amazon gift card. You click on the card you want to sell and then they send you something to print out with free postage to send them the card. I sent in the card on Monday, and today I got the coupon code for Amazon and just put in an order. So, it appears to work!

You can also buy other people's gift cards for a little savings, but I haven't done that yet.

Cutting for Stone

Next week my women's book club will be discussing Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese. We chose January to discuss it since we take December off and this book is about 650 pages long.

I like to read epic novels which span either one person's lifetime or several generations, and continents. This novel follows the life of Marion Praise Stone from just before his birth until late adulthood, starting in Ethiopia with a cast of characters from India and other places, the story of love and loss, betrayal and compassion fills all the requirements of story.

There are parts of medical procedures which I had to skim, but it turns out that Verghese himself is a physician, so he must have felt those parts important. It also took a little patience for me to get through the first 100 pages or so, but by the end I was reading larger and larger chunks.

A New Year for Yoga

I haven't been to yoga for the past two weeks. And now it's a new year. Our teacher, Tracy, has decided that we are going to reach out into more challenging poses. Here is the triangle pose that we have been working on. I don't remember starting it, but I was probably not very good at it when I first started a few months ago.

Today we started the twisted triangle pose. I felt completely out of my realm! I'm sure that as we work on this one little by little, it will become easier, and then maybe I won't stumble. . . . It certainly makes the regular triangle pose seem "easy."

King's Speech

It's been awhile since I've been carded, but when I went to the Laemmle yesterday, the young man selling me a ticket asked if I was getting a senior citizen discount. Humpf. Maybe I should have taken it and saved a buck or two.

Nevertheless, I was happy to pay to see The King's Speech which has gotten rave reviews and Oscar buzz. This review is for Mom and Dad whose Christmas cash went to my Laemmle card.

I enjoy learning history through movies, and this one has great acting, good dialogue with some pretty funny lines, with just some solid filmmaking. The characters are believable and human.

Now we've seen three potential Oscar winners before they are announced (this one, True Grit and The Social Network), and I'm glad I don't have to make the choices.

Google Street View Car

The other day we were out driving and saw a Google Street View car. If it is trying to go incognito, it doesn't succeed!

True Grit

Thanks to Claire for a Laemmle gift certificate, we enjoyed the latest Coen Brothers' movie yesterday - True Grit. She requested a movie review, and here it is.

If you like Coen Brothers flicks, westerns, comedy, good acting, great dialogue, or a movie that doesn't drag in any spots, you just might really like this one. I have not read the book, nor have I seen the John Wayne version, so I cannot make any comparisons. Jeff Bridges should definitely get a nomination for an Oscar, and I loved the soundtrack which features the hymn Leaning on the Everlasting Arms for at least 25% of the movie. The actress who plays Maddie (Hailee Steinfeld) does a fabulous job with her character's dialogue.

I think I still like Fargo as my favorite Coen Brothers movie, but I believe this one comes in at a close second (even if Netflix predicted only 3 out of 5 stars for me).