This weekend, I saw The Prestige…one of three hundred and some DVD’s my in-laws happen to own (hard to believe, huh?). I have a vague memory of seeing a couple of previews for this movie but really knew nothing about it. I didn’t even read the little blurb. (Side note: lately I can’t be bothered to read the blurb. I used to devour them and base my purchases on the cover and the blurb. Now, I buy based on recommendations or hype I’ve read…and of course the cover). So, I had absolutely no idea what the movie was about or where it was going.)

Turns out I really enjoyed it. It was extremely well done, with lots of twists and turns. There was one part though that bothered me, and I just couldn’t get over it. Having gotten the idea from Diana Peterfreund to white out spoiler info, I’m doing that here:

I was just unable to get past the part about the electricity machine that effectively cloned one of the magicians. It was simply unbelievable for me and skewed the whole movie. Anyone else have this reaction?

I would still recommend the movie. Just know going into it that there’s a little bit of quirkiness at work here. The movie was based on the book by Christopher Priest, which I suspect was really quite wonderful.

I’ve decided to start a bookclub with a new friend, a fellow mom from my son’s 1st grade class who, like me, doesn’t like the idea of sitting around discussing serious, literary, often times dreary books with a group of women. We do, however, like the idea of having a couple of ‘girls-hours-out’ dicussing hip, modern, funny books we all enjoy. So, we’re planning our first meeting in March. The book we selected (really I selected and then got approval) is The Little Lady Agency by Hester Browne. I LOVED this book! (Yes, I’ve already read it). I wanted to suggest the sequel Little Lady, Big Apple but didn’t as it is considerably less accessible. The libraries in our area don’t have it yet, and it’s only out in hardback. So I’m re-reading TLLA and loving it anew.

Ms. Browne starts with a little character bio, which I tend to do when I’m writing, and I think it works great (at least for her). When I get critiques on my work, people always tell me I’m not moving to the action quickly enough, but I don’t get it. So many books start with little tidbits of information that are interesting and provide a hook without the every-popular dialogue or moment of action. Sometimes I think romance writers follow too many rules. And when you connect yourself to romance writers (really lovely people!), you find yourself getting nudged into following right along. At this point I’m trying to decide how to run with my opening paragraphs: alone or with the pack. Tricky, tricky.