Relax with some late summer reading treats

We have two weeks of summer left, time enough to get ready for the fall but just as important, time to enjoy these warm weather days to their fullest.

A good way to unwind in the shade is by picking up a new book, one that perhaps you may not have heard of. Despite all of the attention that certain nonfiction titles are getting at the moment, there are plenty of wonderful novels just waiting to mellow you during the last of the season simmering heat.

Let us begin with a debut novel, The Shortest Way Home by Miriam Parker,that has it's heroine making a sudden decision to change the course of her life. Hannah Greene had planned on taking up a plum job in New York upon graduating business school but while visiting a lovely Sonoma Valley winery with her boyfriend Elliot, she feels that her savvy marketing skills would be best served there.

Part of the reason for wanting to help the winery get back on it's financial feet is William, the son of owners Linda and Everett, who also wants to head to New York in pursuit of his musical dreams. However, Hannah is not just motivated by the prospect of new love. She feels drawn to the world of wine and grape growing, a heartfelt desire that would be enhanced by having a supportive partner by her side but not totally dependent on that factor.

Hannah's choice to stay in Sonoma influences many others, including Linda, who considers what might have been with the true love of her past life. Will Hannah be able to plant firmer roots or find that her impulse to transplant her future course trapped on rocky ground?

Back in my bookselling days, I did know Miriam as a book rep and she was one of the most gracious and charming people in her field. I'm happy to see that her literary dreams have come true and hope that her special vintage of story telling becomes a welcome classic:

Also, Louise Miller follows up her engaging novel, The City Baker's Guide to Country Living, with another tale of small town charm. The leading lady of The Late Bloomers' Club is Nora Huckleberry, who now runs the diner that her late parents owned and has taken care of all of the family responsibilities without the aid of younger sister Kit.

Kit is back in her life,however, thanks to an unexpected inheritance of land from a beloved neighbor, Peggy Johnson. Not long after Peggy's funeral, Nora receives an offer from a big box store chain that wants the property to build on,which Kit thinks is great but big sis is not too sure of.

To complicate matters, Nora finds herself falling for Elliot, the rep for the big box chain who returns her interest and there's a bit of mystery about Peggy's estate that needs looking into. In the midst of all of this, the local residents are divided between wanting a new business to shake things up and keeping to the old ways that made their town worth staying with.

Miller has a knack for quirkiness blended with solid character support and this book should give anyone who reads it that special Stars Hollow type of feeling indeed:

Finally, what better way to end the summer than with The Summer Wives? Beatriz Williams' latest work starts in 1951, as the newly wealthy Fisher family retreats to their summer house on the exclusive end of Long Island Sound.

While father Hugh has recently married into the well established Schuyler family, daughter Isobel spends her time flirting with Joseph Vargas, the son of the local lighthouse keeper, while maintaining an engagement with Clayton Monk, a member of the upper class.

Before summer is done with, Hugh is murdered and Joseph is sent off to prison for the crime, which many grow to believe that he didn't commit. Years later, stepdaughter Miranda returns to the island to discover the truth of that summer with help from friends old and new.
Will her inquiries heal the long ago breaches for some or open fresh wounds for others?

Williams is a master of emotionally savvy historical novels that place you dead center within a world that is far in the past yet feels as current as present day. Even if you're not familiar with the set of stories about the Schuyler women that this book is connected to, this novel will be able to provide the reader with a good amount of page turning delights:

Summer reading is it's own unique reward and I hope that at least one of these books can take you right through to Labor Day weekend with a nice last of the season hurrah there. An extra bonus is in store if you discover a new author in the bargain-or at least, one that's new to you!:

Bad Movie Month gets a sitter for Bridget Jones's Baby

Welcome to our second installment of Bad Movie Month as we continue to say "Badly Done, Brits" and once again, Colin Firth is front and center for his third appearance as Mark Darcy in Bridget Jones's Baby.

To be fair, this film is a vast improvement from Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason(it helps that the original director came back) and is mediocre at best.

Also, this third act wasn't based on one of the Helen Fielding novels that brought Bridget Jones to life. Fielding did write a third book but she killed off Mark Darcy(which outraged fans) and the movie makers decided to go with a wholly different concept.

Here, we start with Bridget attending Daniel Cleaver's funeral(Hugh Grant wisely chose not to be involved with this one) and running into Mark, who she has been separated from long enough for him to marry someone else. While she still has a few regrets over that, Bridget prefers to deal with turning 43 by going to a music festival with one of her younger co-workers.

There's plenty of jokes aimed at the younger generation here such as referring to the festival as "Sodom and Gomorrah with tofu" but the worst bit is an extended Ed Sheeran cameo that seems to never end.

It was fine enough when Bridget and her friend don't recognize him for a photo op and then see him in concert where Bridget is still clueless about who he is(and does a bit of crowd surfing, which seems rather dated) but it's not over yet as Bridget's buddy runs into him yet again and the whole thing ends with Sheeran and the work gal pal crashing a giant rolling ball into some porta-potties.

Anyway, the point of the music festival sequence is for Bridget to meet Jack(Patrick Dempsey) via falling into the mud and accidentally entering his yurt late at night. After their one night stand, Bridget hooks up with a soon-to-be-divorced Mark Darcy while attending a christening and you guessed it, she's pregnant and unsure of who the father is.

There's a long bit of sitcom contrivance as Bridget has the chance to inform each man that she's uncertain of whom made her expecting a child but she can't bring herself to do so. Of course, that big reveal moment is done in a public place(an Italian restaurant that plays a ridiculous part in getting Bridget to the hospital later on) and awkward for so many reasons:

This leads Mark and Jack to compete for Bridget's affections and audition for the fatherhood role,which at least does not end in a public slap fight.

I have to take a moment to talk about Dempsey,aka "McDreamy" of Grey's Anatomy fame at this point in his career. The character is a rich American with a matchmaking website and rather hippy-dippy in nature. With all of his supplying Bridget with healthy drinks and home decor to stimulate the baby's senses, Jack comes across as a watered down Alan Alda, which is bland on top of bland!

He does act a bit smarmy at times, even stooping to tell Mark that Bridget did not use one of her expired vegan condoms with him(a gag that makes me gag) and playing on the mistaken notion of a natural childbirth instructor that Jack and Mark are a gay couple adopting Bridget's baby. Even when trying to be bad, Dempsey is such a dull dud at it:

Firth does seem to have a little more energy as Mark Darcy here than in the last film but at times you can tell that he feels this set of worn out comedy tropes are beneath him.

Who can blame him, with the constant references to how old Bridget is(I hate the term "geriatric pregnancy" even if it's a current medical phrase) and jokes about the dissident rock band that Mark is defending in court which he even grumbles about how awful their music is and can understand why they're being repressed by their government.

As in Edge of Reason, Bridget's parents and friends are squeezed into barely-there subplots, with Bridget's mum running for council and winding using her daughter's unexpected pregnancy to her political advantage for one. Her trio of original friends are avoided mostly at first because they have families and kids(Bridget prefers to be seen as a "SILF" as in "Singleton, I'd Like to...) but Shazzer does get a little more screen time,perhaps due to the fact that the actress playing her happens to be the director-just saying!

 Anyway, more misunderstanding occur until it's time for the baby to arrive and that entire race to the hospital bit is embarrassing even on a sitcom level. Mark finds Bridget locked out of her house(in a huge pity inducing sequence that involves being caught in the rain and leaving her phone at a closed ATM) and her water breaks before they have that reconciliation kiss.

They then recruit a pizza delivery van(from that restaurant visit earlier) to drive them, only to get stuck in traffic ,thanks to protest march lead by Mark's rebel rock band and then Mark carries Bridget to the hospital,struggling mightily even as Jack catches up with them to help. It's so painful to watch that not even Emma Thompson showing up to crack wise as the baby doctor can ease this cinematic suffering:

While Bridget Jones's Baby is more watchable than Edge of Reason, it's not that much better and hopeful this will be last of Bridget and company that we see on screen.

Oddly enough, Helen Fielding is credited as one of the writers on the script for this and she wrote a tie-in book for the movie,which is not based on the book she wrote in the first place! Oh, well, we still have the first Bridget Jones to enjoy and swoon over Colin Firth with.

While Hugh Grant was smart enough to stay out of this middling mess, he has plenty of bad movies on his resume and next week, we'll be looking at one he didn't avoid,Did You Hear About the Morgans? Failing marriage comedy meets Witness Protection jokes and fish out of water skits, this movie just sounds like a smorgasbord of stupid indeed:

Some Crazy Rich reading recommendations

Late summer is often seen as a slow period for pop culture, with lackluster movies, TV reruns and the same old books served up on our entertainment menu. However, every now and then, we do get a delightful surprise and one such delayed pleasure is about to come our way.

The worldwide film premiere of Crazy Rich Asians, the first of a literary trilogy by author Kevin Kwan, is set for this week, an event that so many people have been waiting for.

It's not only due to the popularity of the novel(which is a fun read that I'm rereading at the moment) but also for having an all Asian cast in a mainstream Hollywood movie, something we haven't seen before. The closest we came to that was The Joy Luck Club(also a book adaptation) and that was back in 1993!

So far, the CRA film looks like a sleeper hit in the making and I have no doubt that copies of the book are in high demand. So, if you can't get a hold of a copy(or have already read it and the sequels, China Rich Girlfriend and Rich People Problems as well), here are a few other books that share a similar style and/or tone with CRA that you might like to try:

THE WANGS VS. THE WORLD: Jade Chang's debut novel follows a family trying to literally outrun their financial troubles. Charles Wang is deep in debt and about to lose his cosmetics empire(with the stock market crash of 2008 making his money problems worse) when he stumbles upon the notion of reclaiming long lost property in China.

Packing up his second wife Barbara, he goes on a cross country trip to gather up his kids,who have yet to realize that the family nest egg is gone, in order for all of them to start anew in China. Needless to say, that idea doesn't go over too well with anyone.

The book is an engaging roller coaster ride, with humor and pathos taking their turns to enhance the twists and turns that the characters deal with. There is talk of The Wangs vs. The World  becoming a Hulu series but don't wait until then to ride this story telling train:

FREE FOOD FOR MILLIONAIRES:  While Min Jin Lee did wonderfully well with her amazing novel Pachinko, this earlier book of hers also deserves as much praise and readership.

Fresh out of Princeton, Casey Han has acquired some rather upper class tastes, such as golf and designer clothes, yet is financially unable to support such a luxury appetite.

With the help of an old friend, Casey gets an entry level position at a Wall Street firm, which brings her further into the lavish lifestyle that she longs to be a part of. The choices that she makes with friends and family along the way causes a number of ripple effects, touching even her mother, a woman just discovering what she truly wants in life.

The book has a blend of Victorian era social satire(think Trollope and Thackeray) with Edith Wharton's New York that is topped off with Lee's brilliantly unique flair for immersive character details. Even if you haven't read Pachinko(which you should), FFFM is a must read indeed:

THE WINDFALL: Diksha Basu's debut novel is mainly set in India, as Mr and Mrs. Jha are preparing to move from their working class neighborhood to the rich part of town, thanks to the sale of Mr. Jha's website which made them instantly wealthy.

As they try to adjust to their new circumstances,as well as keep up with the Chopras next door, their son Rupak is studying for a business degree in New York. While he's happy about his family's good fortune, Rupak is worried about telling them that his grades are bad and he has an American girlfriend.

This story is a lively look at manners and the social ideals that people feel they need to live up to(or down, as the case may be), with a nice bit of drama thrown in for balance. The Windfall was one of my favorite books from last year and I hope new readers will enjoy it as much as I did there:

My fingers are crossed for Crazy Rich Asians to rule the box office next weekend(and a little longer after that!) as it will increase the chances of the other two books in the trilogy to be made into feature films as well.

 Just having a wonderful book become a great movie that will undoubtedly create a wider audience(along with reaching one that has been vastly ignored for way too long a time) is reward enough yet it would be a nice bonus to make the artistic dreams of so many others come true:

Bad Movie Month is taken to The Edge of Reason with Bridget Jones

Welcome ,friends, to another installment of Bad Movie Month here at LRG where we endure the dreaded dog days of August by looking over some particularly dreadful films.

Our theme this year is "Badly Done, Brits!" featuring a quartet of English actors who have a very impressive body of work(not to mention a couple of impressive bodies themselves) yet also have an equal amount of regrettable film choices as well.

I hate to start things off with Colin Firth, truly one of my favorites. From his iconic Mr. Darcy in the BBC's Pride & Prejudice to his Oscar winning performance in The King's Speech and truly kick ass with style work in Kingsmen, Firth has proven to be a legend in his own time.


Unfortunately, our dear Mr. Firth has had the misfortune to make a few cinematic blunders as well. While his role as Mark Darcy in Bridget Jones' Diary was an instant classic, his reprisal in the sequel Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason had all of the flair and flavor of a frostbitten TV dinner.

To be fair, leading lady Renee Zellweger and co-star Hugh Grant(who is getting the Bad Movie Month treatment, I assure you) are not much better as they do more than just walk through their roles again. It's more like they zombie march through them.

 Most of the plot has to do with Bridget not believing that she and Mark can maintain a steady relationship, causing several pointless fights between them based on sitcom level insecurities such as her showing up at a big lawyer's dinner with bad hair and hastily applied make-up, then losing out on a quiz contest due to her overconfidence in Madonna trivia, followed by Bridget being torn between leaving pathetic pleading messages on the phone and talking to Mark in person as he's outside her front door:

While the follow-up book by Helen Fielding(one of the four screenwriters credited here) had a loose theme based upon Jane Austen's Persuasion,similar to the P&P feel of the original BJD novel, this movie chucks that completely out the window.

Instead, we get a retread of the greatest hits from the first film which are done rather poorly, from Daniel Cleaver hitting on Bridget with sleazy requests for naughty school girl tales and professing an admiration for her "granny panties", Mark and Bridget walking home sadly after a huge fight(with mournful pop song playing on the soundtrack), plus Cleaver and Darcy exchanging fisticuffs out in public

That scene is especially sad as not only does it lack the element of surprise that the fight in the first movie did but the bulk of it takes place in a large water fountain no less. Sure, Firth is well known for his P&P wet shirt moment, however, this whole sorry slapfight is soggy for the wrong reason:

In re-watching this film(which I painfully admit to owning on DVD), the complete lack of energy for this project is incredibly clear to see.

 Unlike the lively humor and engaging character development from the original BJD, this second movie appears to have drained the life out of everybody and it's only the second one! I can understand being bored by playing a role for three,four or six times but if part two has the whole cast mentally checking out before the camera starts to roll, that's a bad sign.

Firth aside, the whole movie seems determined to just get every plot point over and done with. Most of the focus is on Bridget being incredibly clownish(I counted eight major pratfalls, three of which were on a ski slope) and the supporting characters such as her parents and trio of friends reduced to pointless cameos.

 Sure, her best gal pal Shazzer goes with Bridget to Thailand(I swear there's one scene in which everyone competes to show how loudly they can say "Thailand?!") but that's merely done so that Bridget is completely innocent when caught with drugs at the airport, thanks to her good friend picking a mysterious new boy toy who sets them up.

The entire "unjustly imprisoned in Thailand" section is cringe inducing to say the least as Bridget leads her fellow prisoners in a Madonna singalong, realizes how petty her boyfriend troubles are due to hearing about the other women's emotional horror stories and tries to pretend her issues with Mark were just as bad and when released, Bridget's parting gifts to her cellmates are self-help relationship books and fancy underwear!

That sequence of events was bad then and even worse nowadays. Almost makes Bridget slipping and sliding down a ski course( ending right into a drug store where she engages in a bad translation bit about buying a pregnancy test) look far more dignified:

The movie was a true disappointment on many levels and why I bought this DVD, I don't know(other than an excuse to gaze upon Colin Firth). The original Bridget Jones's Diary still holds up well and it would be nice to forget that this sequel even existed,alas they did make a third one,which makes part two hard to ignore.

So, I must mock Colin Firth again next week as I watch Bridget Jones's Baby for the first time. If this is my first viewing, how will I know it's bad, you may ask.

 At this point in my movie watching life, my bad movie detection skills are quite strong and just seeing the trailers for this flick(which replaces Hugh Grant with Patrick Dempsey) causes my cinematic defensive senses to begin a-tingling: