vagansmom

I did a search and noticed that Hans has read Year of Wonders so I hope he will chime in. I recently read it and wanted to see if anyone had the same feelings about the book. I didn't like it very much It takes place during the plague in 1666. The story itself is decently engrossing but I had lots and lots of trouble finding it believable. I felt that this was one novel that imbued characters from that era with today's sensibilities. I WISH it were true but I'm very skeptical and so I ended up reading nearly the entire book with a raised eyebrow. I had the same problem with The Red Tent (which I finally gave up on because I found myself getting too annoyed) so I'm wondering if it's really just my own personal problem.

BW, I'm still embarrassed to admit that I liked Corpse de Ballet. Let's just say it appealed to all my basest instincts. :shrug:

Ditto Dido. Gosh, that was fun to say! :grinning:

Leigh, for the illiterate such as myself, please define "easy leg", and why Ansanelli has it but Bouder doesn't. Thanks.

Tutumaker, Reading Lolita in Tehran was just highly recommended to me by a good friend. It's on my March vacation reading list because I fear that, right now, I wouldn't have the kind of focused concentration it requires. I'm looking forward to it though. Treefrog and BW, I suspect that Unless is a book that will grab you emotionally when your children are leaving home. We are reading it for our staff book club this month at school. So far, those of us whose children are moving on in life - making their own choices away from home - have deeply responded to this novel whereas those of us with younger children have not. One woman, a little older than the rest of us, has said that she felt even more deeply affected by it than she'd expected. Most of our book club group are in my shoes - with kids who are in transition in their lives - and we are, all of us, anxious and hopeful and sometimes saddened - by their choices. We've all agreed that this book is far deeper than it appears. But I don't know if it would've touched me so deeply two years ago, or even one year ago, for that matter because my family's lives weren't in so much transition at the time, although I knew it was coming. I do wish I could've had a conversation with Ms. Shields about it. She was ill, and probably knew she wouldn't live long, at the time of its writing. That makes her topic even more poignant.

OK, I confess to being the friend who gave that book to Treefrog as a gift. She kindly refrained from stating my name but it's OK, Treefrog, you can say it. B) The only trouble is that now I fear I may be the friend who recommended a book (a different one) that BW's having a hard time reading And it wouldn't even be the same book! :mondieu: So, BW, out with it - I can take it :sweating: I recommend books like crazy and do realize, with good humor, that not everyone's going to be smitten by my favorites. But back to your question: Do I try to wade through anyhow? It depends, usually, on how long the book is. And yes, I agree that it also depends on whether or not it's in the classics category. Back in my 20's, I struggled with "A Tale of Two Cities" and reread "it was the best of times, it was the worst of times" COUNTLESS times before I got past about page 20. And I ended up adoring the book. But I stuck with it simply BECAUSE it was a classic and I figured that it had enough widespread acclaim - and famous quotes to make it worth my while. But if a friend has recommended a book, and I'm struggling with it for one reason or another, I'll usually finish it if it's under about 250 pages. If not, I probably won't. I generally allow a book about 100 pages before I'm willing to give up on it. Currently, I'm stuck on "Middlesex". Initially I loved it. I bought it independently but then two good friends commented on how much they loved it and so I steamed ahead, believing that I too would finish and love this book. Now I'm bogged down somewhere around page 300 and just don't want to bother to go on. I don't know why. It's a fascinating topic, I enjoyed it much of the way through the first quarter but it's just lost its shine along the way. My two friends are mystified - both thought it was exactly the sort of book I'd love. Oh well. We're still good friends. And we're still recommending books to each other.

Having not yet seen the NYCB in "Sleeping Beauty", I was puzzled by this comment in a NY Times review: Can someone explain? See here for the full review.

I almost prefer to watch that "less..." group of people Carbro mentions receiving their awards than the actual known entities. I have every bit as much, if not more, respect for their craft than I do for that of the "beautiful people". It might be hard to watch those folks because we've never seen many of them before but in a way, that's what I find them so intriguing.

Jim, I've been away from home with limited computer access the last day or so. I've just emailed you though. Hope the tickets are still available.

Yes! Definitely! How do I contact you? My email is vagansmom@hotmail.com

Vrsfanatic, she joined MOMIX. As you probably know, Moses Pendleton, who founded and directs MOMIX, was a founding member of Pilobolus. Both are headquartered in the same little town so it's easy to get confused. Also sometimes a dancer has moved from one to the other company which further confuses things. FunnyFace, I've never seen Pilobolus II but I would've been upset had I seen what you described. The main company often does workshops and performances for kids in this area and they are uniformly very age level appropriate as well as loads and loads of fun. They are very popular among the youth in this area and, as a company, have been very generous to the local school community.

I live fairly close to their studio and so have had the good fortune of getting to see many performances over the years. Also, Pilobolus is wonderful about working with kids; they've been to our school for workshops off and on for many years. (Some of their kids once attended this school). So I would've loved to have seen that segment on TV. I have great admiration for the founders of this group.

Where is his home base?

I missed the program. Can anyone report on it?

Gosh, I had wondered if D'Amboise was the daughter of Jacques. So nice to see that yet another of the D'Amboise children is making her stamp within the arts community. But I am THRILLED :jump: for Patti! She so deserves the high praise she's receiving for this role. I am hoping for her that this will relaunch a career that's had its share of fits and starts in recent years.

Frankly, I have never understood the fascination with Kidman. I simply can't put her in anywhere near the same category as Streep, whose chameleon-like qualities don't need a fake nose in order to be convincing.

Sorry - my daughter posted in this space not realizing that my screen name was logged in. We've deleted her post here and she's reposted under her own screen name.

Karla Kovatch is with Festival Ballet now.

Tonight I started "The Pull of the Moon" by Elizabeth Berg. It's yet another book written from the perspective of a 50-ish woman realizing that she's undergoing a loss. Hmm, do I detect a pattern here in my reading choices? (see the Carole Shields thread). I like it; I really do. Anyone read anything by her?

I have always had a hard time reading Flannery O'Connor because I find her works terribly depressing. I appreciate her writing style but I still come away depressed.

They each stand alone. DaVinci Code occasionally mentions a character from Angels& Demons but that's about it. You can read them in either order. I read DaVinci Code before Angels & Demons - not a problem at all.

And Opus Dei is still a controversial organization. In my neck of the woods, there's an abbey nearby that had (maybe still has but I don't know) ties with Opus Dei. A friend of mine was involved with them for a period of time some years ago and has such strong opinions about some of their practices that she was part of a group of individuals who traveled to the Vatican for a meeting with officials there to discuss the organization.

But do you think Dan Brown himself actually believed he was advancing any theories? I think that all along he intended to serve them up as great mysteries that had some fun with conspiracy theories. And they were great. They sent lots of people, myself included, to other books and articles in search of the truth.

Although I finished Unless about two weeks ago, its aura has lingered and even deepened in the days since. I bought that book because the cover mentioned something about the 19 year old daughter in the story abruptly dropping out of college to panhandle on the streets. A few weeks ago, I'd spent some time comforting a friend whose own 19 year old daughter had just abruptly flunked out of college, moved into an apt. with a very new, much older boyfriend, and gotten an entry level job. My friend recognized that she was grieving over her lost dreams for her daughter. As a child growing up, this daughter was set on an academic path - bright, engaging, energetic student. Mom's dream for her included college, perhaps grad school, maybe a slow romance that turned into marriage. Even though she'd raised her to have an independent spirit, it still was a shock to discover that mother and daughter didn't have the same vision in mind. My friend said that in some ways she was glad to see her daughter forging her own path, making her own decisions, having her own plans for her future. She had raised her to follow her own heart and she was proud of her for doing so. Her daughter did have plans for herself and was following them. But it still hurt, and my friend was just recognizing that, as a mom, she needed to allow herself to grieve. I know something about grieving over lost dreams for my children. I think that probably all parents of adult children know something about this. I wonder, though, how many of us recognize it on a conscious level and allow ourselves to respect this grief and allow it unmeasured time. Until I listened to my friend and watched her process her feelings, I hadn't realized my own. I knew that I had fears for my own kids, both just launching out into the world on their own, but I hadn't realized that, clutched up in those fears, was also a silent sadness. We tend to view it solely in terms of fear, not sadness. Some of my sadness is for the world they will have to live in, some of it is for the inevitable decisions they may be forced to make because of this world. And some of it is for the dreams I unconsciously carried with me for them day in and day out all the years of their upbringing. Like my friend, my dreams for them included a straight path towards a safe future - solid, clear goals in mind, their own chosen vocation or passion, and a direct route to fulfilling those goals. A silly dream, I know, especially from this mother who's always opted for the winding, crooked path that's included many about-faces. I trumpeted this other way, I think, by example, and yet, probably because as parents we want safety first for our kids, I am filled with fear and some grief over their choices. My 18 year old daughter has forged her own independent path in recent months. I'm proud of her. I'm proud of her determination, of her singlemindedness, of her decision to pursue a dream that's completely unlike that of any of her former schoolmates. I admire her inner strength to make her decisions alone. But I still grieve, even though she's doing everything I raised her to do. She's chosen the bumpier road. And that's what I thought this book would be about: that bumpy road and how a mother adapts to her daughter's choices. Or maybe it was going to be about mental illness and how a mother must adapt to that awful reality. In either case, it would be about a mother's loss. And it is. Reta Winters' loss was profound - her daughter turning her back on her family and living in a homeless shelter while panhandling on the streets wearing a sign saying "Goodness". I'm still wondering if this book is about loss, or about goodness, or about power. I think power. And it makes me grieve some more.

I agree - it's a great show for kids. Their humor is zany, not risque, and pokes lots and lots of fun at ballet. Your daughter will love it. I'd see them again in a heartbeat and take my nieces and nephews (and I'm a mom who wouldn't let my young adolescents see some PG13 films). And your daughter will rave at their technical ability! We saw them do Paquita the same month my daughter had the lead role in it at her ballet school. Daughter wondered, after seeing the male dancer perform that variation en pointe, if she should just hang up her pointe shoes forever!