A Different Sky by Meira Chand - This historical fiction is an excellent way to learn about Singapore and what happened there between 1927 and the late 1950s. It is a story of love, a story of of ethnicities, a story of brutal war and a story of survival. The author writes to the five senses with her descriptions of the place and times, but lets the reader flesh out the characters through their personalities. I loved these people and the toughness they found within themselves to survive the hardships and tortures they endured. The author weaves politics into the story, and yet there is an enduring goodness or sweetness that each character seems to carry within. Mei Lan, Howard, Raj, Rose, Cynthia, Wilfred and Second Grandmother are some of the characters you'll meet and come to love.
Vidal Sassoon: The Movie - Vidal Sassoon died a few weeks ago, and his obituary mentioned a documentary that had been made about his life. This was the man who changed the world of fashion and hair with his geometric "Sassoon" haircut in the 1960s. His story is a rags to riches tale that took him to the height of success. He was an artist and entrepreneur, as well as a great personality and all around likeable guy. The movie was made a couple of years ago, and his charm and continued success drive the story of his life in which he also reflects upon the down times and how he coped with them. On the home front, I made a tremendous amount of progress (for me) in the last two days. I decided that I would not wait for anyone to have a garage sale, and made plans to dispose of all the rest of the stuff that had been cluttering the living room, foyer and dining room. I took some nice things to our local thrift store, and a kind freecycler who loves to pick up stuff and re-distribute it took a huge load, and I have another four bags to leave out for an Amvets pick up tomorrow morning. In addition I have some books to donate to our library book store, and I took a few of my ads off Craigslist since the stuff was gone. That freed me up to post some other things on Craigslist, which I did. There is still more to go, but I feel as if I've made some serious progress. The clothes rack is down and the garage sale tables are put away. It feels great to not see all that stuff when I walk down the stairs. Who knows, I may even get around to painting this summer! I'm going to continue to read books about getting rid of stuff, and I'm gong to try not to go to as many garage sales. This might work, since the more stuff I get rid of, the less I feel like escaping this place, and the more I feel like doing projects that are fun and that I've long planned to do.
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