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A Manual for Cleaning Women Selected Stories by Lucia Berlin - I'm blown away by this book and the stories by an author who lived more than nine lives in her one life. Technically these are short stories, but really they form a memoir that chronologically tells the tales of her remarkable life. I didn't realize that it was moving chronologically until the middle of the book; before that I was recognizing characters reappearing in stories, but once I knew that we were moving forward, the book was even more enriching. One of my best. It's raw and beautiful in its truth and its exaggerations, and sometimes its even funny. In the end there is a great story that's also sad when thought about too deeply, but the funny line was "If you ain't doing the D you can't get the DWI!" Lucia is the kind of person you never meet in Chicago, but always seem to be meeting in California.
Finding Vivian Maier - We've been a little over-Vivian-Maier-ed these past few years, so I never watched the movie. I guess sometimes the crowds are right! Her story is fascinating and brought to life on film as a documentary about a real, yet secret documentarian. The author, if you will, keeps asking why. Why did Vivian take pictures? Why was Vivian a nanny? Why did Vivian stay in the background? I can answer it all as someone who is a small kindred spirit to Vivian the contrarian. But I won't right now. I've got this whole other image that I've always projected even when it wasn't true. Nancy B. says "fake it until you make it" and I'm more the image than the Vivian at this point in my life. All this blog writing has helped. Age and experience have helped. Motherhood has helped. So that's all good. And it's good that I understand what drove Vivian. Even though I wouldn't have liked her, I would have gotten it. The hoarding, the picture taking, the wandering around observing, the fascination with the ordinary. The movie is good.
Bridge of Spies - Huh? Sorry, if this was everyone's fav good movie, I'm swimming against the tide. It was OK, but not the bestest. I'd send it back to the 60s if I could.
Carol - Yeah, no. Again, the story not that great, the acting, really? You need at least a little bit of a story and characters doing stuff in the story to make the thing look good. Send this one back to the 80s. There
were good movies in 2015, but I am the only one who liked them. If the
Oscars didn't have fashion and stars and a funny host, I wouldn't have
watched. Since the most of the nominated movies weren't any good, the
show wasn't as good as it could have been. I still have to watch
Spotlight, so stay tuned. Somehow Brooklyn and Room made it into the mix
but where was Age of Adeline? Where was Concussion? Chiraq? Straight
Outta Compton? I'd rather watch Shades of Blue or the Chicago shows any
day of the week over this year's Oscar movies.
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