What the Force has Awakened with me and others in this new chapter of Star Wars

Before this past year ended, I did my pop culture duty by seeing Star Wars: The Force Awakens in order to have a fully formed opinion on this growing cinematic phenomenon. This was more of a pleasure than a chore, as J.J. Abrams and company did a truly remarkable job in recapturing the story telling magic of the first trilogy while breaking new ground with a more diverse set of characters.

I'll keep to a spoiler-free review but it's safe to say that the main focus of the plot is a map to the whereabouts of Luke Skywalker, who has exiled himself due to a betrayal from a Jedi trainee. The Republic(thirty years after Return of the Jedi) is now under threat from The First Order(this generation's version of the Sith), lead by the masked menace Kylo Ren(Adam Driver).

 Resistance pilot Poe Dameron(Oscar Isaacs)places the map within the circuits of a BB-8 droid and with the help of Finn(John Boyega), a storm trooper that wants no more part of the First Order and Rey(Daisy Ridley), a scrappy scavenger from the desert planet of Jakku, is trying to reach General(formerly known as Princess) Leia Organa with this vital information.

 More aid is given by the arrival of Han Solo and Chewbacca, with Solo becoming a bit of a mentor along the way. The acting in this film is spot on, with both the old and new characters blending together in a surefooted way that doesn't misstep at all.

The true standouts in the younger cast are John Boyega(who I happen to see in Attack the Block just before seeing TFA) and Daisy Ridley, both of whom bring a solid dose of realism  to their performances. Having not seen Ridley in anything before this movie, I was most impressed with her natural presence onscreen and her ability to covey a myriad of emotions with body language alone:

 Boyega's character had a strong arch that I hope is developed in more detail as the story line goes forward for the next two films.  Like Ridley, his on-screen time is never wasted and the bond that forms between their two characters is instantly believable.

I'm sure that some folks are speculating about a possible romance between these two but that really doesn't seem to be a consideration at this point in the plot, so let's just see what happens. Personally, I'm fine either way as Rey and Finn are a great team who have much in common, both being some what orphans of this intergalactic conflict.

  Finn's journey promises to be as compelling as Rey's is(no spoilers, still!) and seeing how both of them handle their challenges together and apart from each other should be amazing to behold:

 As for the returning players, Harrison Ford is excellent as always in this role and seeing Carrie Fisher bring her strengths to Leia, who is still fighting that good fight, is just wonderful.

Too bad there are some scruffy nerf herders out there who feel the need to lash out at Fisher both for looking older(as about as old as her co-star Ford, I might add) and for talking about how the studio urged her to lose weight for the part. One guy even had the nerve to say that the push for Fisher to drop about thirty five pounds was their way of "doing her a favor."

Excuse you? SHE is the one doing THEM a favor by returning to this iconic role, one that could not be played by anyone else at this point in the game. Not holding her male counterparts to the same standard speaks volumes about which side of the Force these jokers are on. Fortunately, Fisher is a savvy, confident woman who is very Janice in Accounting when it comes to comments like this. As for Leia, she's handled more impressive foes than these far out space nuts, that's for sure:

The Force Awakens has received a lot of positive fan love and praise from critics. Sadly, one of the current naysayers happens to be George Lucas, who expressed some regrets about selling his franchise to Disney.

In an interview with Charlie Rose, Lucas complained about the studio wanting to go with a fan-friendly film and compared his dismay over the creative direction that was taken to selling his children to "white slavers." Considering that two of the major players in TFA are people of color and the pivotal character is female, this choice of words was extremely poor indeed.

Lucas has since apologized for those remarks and while I can understand the misgivings of a creator to hand over his art to the control of another, he doesn't seem to realize that his fears over the "family" elements of the story being lost in the shuffle are baseless.

 Without giving anything away, there is a very crucial scene in TFA that involves the family dynamics that were set up from the original trilogy in a truly tragic fashion. What I think is really troubling Lucas is that he no longer has any input into Star Wars and that this first of the new films is getting the respect from the industry that his prior trilogy(prior to the justly derided prequels,that is)  did not receive.

Well, George, you need to get over that bitterness in order to honestly move on with other projects, as you claimed was your goal all along in making this deal. No one will forget that this all started with you but leaving a taste of sour grapes in your wake is not a good way to cap this legacy. Be honest with yourself; this franchise could've gone into far worse hands than these:

Granted, The Force Awakens does touch upon many of the plot markers that the first Star Wars movie did, with a cute droid carrying an important message, another Death Star type of weapon to fear and so forth.

 Since this is first part of a new trilogy, it only makes sense to acknowledge what has gone before and considering the newer elements added, I don't think that the upcoming films will simply be a retread of what has happened before. Let's give Part Two a chance before we cry foul on that one.

What The Force Awakens has in abundance is a renewed sense of wonder, which is really hard to reproduce and can only be accomplished by sincere effort, with little thought for doing just that. At this point, Abrams and all assembled have given us a fresh forum to revive our collective creative spirits in.

Bringing us a familiar fantasy that showcases a series of heroes,heroines and villains that reflect our reality more acutely than ever before is an artistic triumph and I hope that this cinematic celebration will carry forth into the Academy Awards(and not just the technical categories,either) this season. As someone who has seen all the films in theaters, this movie was truly a promise fulfilled and one that I look forward to seeing just how grand an adventure this will be for both my generation and others to come:

See what The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend for a good literary time

When Sara Lindqvist arrives from Sweden to visit her American pen pal Amy in the small town of Broken Wheel, Iowa, the first surprise that she gets is that her friend has passed away. Upon discovering her presence, the townsfolk insist that Sara spend her planned two month vacation at Amy's house, just as Amy would've wanted.

Having no better plans, Sara accepts this strange arrangement but before long, decides upon the proper way to repay her "hosts", who refuse to let her use any of her money for anything, including rent.

All of this leads to the set-up for Katarina Bivald's debut novel, The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend, in which Sara opens up a used bookstore in the dying out town, using Amy's home library as the start up stock. Sara and Amy became long distance friends due to book sharing over the internet and their correspondence lead to this trip. With Sara being a now unemployed bookseller, having this chance to share the one true joy in her life with those who knew Amy in person feels like a bibliophile blessing:

The citizens of Broken Wheel are not sure what to make of this idea but do let Sara go through with it, as Amy did have an abandoned store front as part of her property.

Once the shop,called The Oak Tree Bookstore, is ready for business, locals such as Jen, the overly cheerful writer of the town's newsletter, are eager to see it do well while others are much more cautious about it's prospects.

 Sara is happy just to be doing something useful, even if things are slow at first, and it's not long before her store begins to stir up the sleepy town:

From firing up a rivalry with the more prosperous nearby town of Hope to becoming an unexpected tourist attraction, Sara and The Oak Tree Bookstore unintentionally turn into focal points that all of Broken Wheel become emotionally invested in.

Part of that is due to some of Sara's book suggestions for people such as George, who misses his daughter and learns more about what women want by reading Bridget Jones, Caroline, whose straight laced world view is challenged by a book of gay erotica and Grace, the seemingly tough as nails diner owner who finds a true soulmate in the pages of Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe, soon enough sharing her battle cry of "Towanda!":

All too soon, Sara's travel visa is about to expire and the popular solution to that problem is to have Sara get married, preferably to Tom, Amy's nephew.

Tom and Sara have a bit of a relationship, based upon their mutual resistance to being set up by the town as an ideal couple. However much they want to say no to this potentially disastrous scheme, it becomes increasing hard to do so, as hard as examining their real feelings for each other.

As Sara and Broken Wheel turn to the final page of their story, will they find that happy ending or experience a more realistic finale?

I read this book(via review copy) over the Christmas holidays and it was a real treat to behold. Author Katarina Bivald happens to be a part time book seller in her native country of Sweden(the novel is translated for the US by Alice Menzies) and that knowledge clearly shows as her descriptions of many beloved titles and opinions about books and authors add some snappy spark to her leading lady.

She also has a flair for weaving together a seemingly simple narrative into a heartfelt intricate pattern of people and their lives as enhanced by books. Bivald's charming yet never cloying tale proves that reading with friends is an universal theme and that Sweden's literary scene has more to offer than the flurry of thrillers we've seen from that corner of the world.

The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend will be available at a bookseller near you by January 16 and this is a book that book lovers should relish with true and utter delight.

This fabulous fish out of water story is right up there with the likes of Cold Comfort Farm as a fine example of what wonderful trouble a book smart outsider can bring to a batch of oddly engaging new friends:

Some of my reading resolutions for 2016

Happy New Year to all of my fellow readers and pop culture enthusiasts out there, hope you are as eager to start 2016 with a few good resolutions in mind as I am.

Most of my plans for this brand new year will be reading related as well as blog connected, so this post is all about my major book reading goals for 2016. I do want to achieve other things, such as finish a novel that I'm working on, but books are a big part of my life(especially my TBR piles) and focusing on them is a good way to motivate myself even more:

 TRY HEMINGWAY: Late last year, I read Paula McLain's The Paris Wife, the novel about Ernest Hemingway's early years as a writer told from the view point of his first wife Hadley, and not only enjoyed it but longed to read The Sun Also Rises, which is a focal point for the story.

Granted, Ernest Hemingway was quite the jerk when it came to his wife(not to mention the other women in his life) but he still created some ground breaking books that changed the course of American literature. Part of what makes that work still relatable today are the deep character flaws of  Hemingway's protagonists, which are based upon him and his friends, some of whom were not too happy about the comparisons, I'm sure.

The only Hemingway book that I've ever read was A Movable Feast, about those days in Paris(I was on a Sylvia Beach kick back then) and was never assigned him in school, so while I know about his work, I haven't really experienced it for myself and it's time that I did.

So, while on a post-holiday buying binge, I added The Sun Also Rises  to my stack,along with a non fiction title called The Hemingway Book Club of Kosovo, where a teacher of English uses The Old Man and the Sea to guide her class of war torn students. I haven't read OMATS either(that one I'll borrow) but reading how that book helped these people connect ought to be encouraging.

I don't know if this will lead to an extensive reading of Hemingway or not but I am willing to try and see what all of the fuss is about. Should be a fun challenge and even though the books are so well known, discovering them for myself could be rather surprising:

 TAKING A WINTER'S RESPITE:  Taking part in more online reading challenges is something I'd like to do for this year and my first one will be A Winter's Respite over at Seasons of Reading, which is from January 19 to the 24th.

There's no particular theme for this readathon but you are encouraged to discuss your book choices online. The main book that I will be reading for that week is The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern, a novel that I've heard much about yet have not picked up until recently. I did plan to read it this winter and having a readathon to share my take on it with makes it more fun.

This story of two magical rivals who fall in love and face the wrath of their circus community for doing so really sounds like a delight and hopefully, a film version will arrive soon. What I am most anxious to see here is if the hype around this novel is well earned or at the very least, a nice prelude to another grand book waiting in the wings from this author:

LRG BOOK BOUTS: As an ongoing blog project, I will be having a series of "book bouts" where two books with a similar theme can face off against each other. Since I have to read each one(in some cases, reread), these literary matches will occur about once or twice a season throughout 2016.

Currently, I am preparing for Round One: Literary Insiders, where a pair of novels about publishing novels will step into the squared circle. In this corner, we have Olivia Goldsmith of The First Wives' Club with her down and dirty look at fictional publishing house Davis & Dash in The Bestseller. 

This page turning story of how five authors(some first timers, others seasoned pros) strive to reach the heights of the best seller lists is set in the 1990s, making it somewhat dated yet rather amusing in it's depictions of behind the scenes book warfare.

The challenger stepping into this ring is James Michener's The Novel, which takes a more sedate look at the realm of publishing as it focuses on one author and the last novel in his acclaimed series. The book is divided into four parts, starting with the writer, then from editor to critic and at last, the reader, that covers the journey of one novel to make it to the shelves.

The Novel is also set in the nineties, making that playing field a bit even with Goldsmith's Bestseller, and at this point, appears to be based on much of Michener's own personal experiences in getting his work out there. So far, so good but which one packs more of a publishing punch? Stay tuned for this and many more bookish battles to come:

Those three resolutions seem like a good start to me and hopefully the rest of my literary year will be a wonderful one. However, I am somewhat saddened that Downton Abbey begins it's final season this weekend.

I know that it's not based on a book yet it does feel like one of those lovely long saga novels that you hope never truly ends. On the bright side, there are new seasons of Poldark and Outlander(both of which I have some of the books for) to look forward to. Yet, saying farewell to Downton will be a bittersweet joy. Then again, all good stories must reach a conclusion and there will be many more to come as Downton Abbey sings it's swan song, I'm sure:

Preparing for a new year of books with these January & February reads

I hope you're all having or have had a very happy holiday season and are getting ready to tackle another new year of great reads.

No doubt, many of you received some wonderful books as gifts but does that ever stop a determined reader from seeking more literary goodies to stack on their shelves? Not to mention the gift cards to your favorite bookstore that were stuffed into your Christmas stocking or slipped into a greeting card.

This handful of January and February titles should be a sweet incentive to greet 2016 with a sense of hope and a promise of page turning delights to come:

A READING REVELRY:

 Speaking of page turning delights, I happen to be enjoying one right now as Katarina Bivald's debut novel, The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend, is an ode to the pleasures of reading with friends.

When former bookseller Anna travels from her home land of Sweden to meet her American pen pal Amy in her small home town of Broken Wheel, Iowa, the first big surprise that comes her way is the discovery that Amy has passed away. The townspeople are insistent that Anna spend her vacation at Amy's house, as that is what she would have wanted.

While she is reluctant to accept the hospitality of this dwindling town without any form of payment, Anna winds up settling down for a while and ultimately decides that the best way to honor Amy's memory is by starting up a used bookstore with her friend's vast library of literature.

The residents of Broken Wheel are not usually inclined to read but in order to stop the neighboring town of Hope from mocking Anna's efforts, they begin to rally around the book shop and with a few helpful suggestions, find a few books that change their lives for the better. This novel is a sheer joy so far and I hope that anyone who loves books rushes out to read and pass it along to others. Bivald writes like a seasoned pro and captures not just the fun of reading but the offbeat charms of small town America as well(January 16):

  Another book inspired novel is about to come from Iain Pears, one that sets up different realms of reality that connect to form a story telling whole.

 In Arcadia, one of those worlds is in Oxford of the 1960s, where English professor Henry Lytten is working on a fantasy novel. His young neighbor Rosie happens to enter the fictional world that Henry has created, where she meets Jay, a young boy about to begin an apprenticeship but the path to that world have been created by a device from a dark future brought forth by Angela, who has her own reasons for making this all happen.

Pears is best known for An Instance at the Fingerpost, another elaborate tale of wonder, and this book sounds like an intriguing challenge. It also sounds a bit like Cloud Atlas meets The Neverending Story, quite the entertaining mash-up, if you ask me(January):

AN EMOTIONAL DANCE:

The world of ballet is far from the gentle graces of the dance,as Sari Wilson's Girl Through Glass artfully shows us. Mira enters the competitive field of New York City's ballet scene at age eleven in 1977, fueled to excel at all costs.

Her struggles are linked to Kate, who returns to New York upon receiving a letter that offers closure for a dark part of her past. Once a dancer herself, Kate's scholarly path was not her first choice but one that she thought would satisfy her artistic dreams shattered by a hidden truth.

The beauty of ballet and it's less lovely side has been highlighted before yet Sari Wilson's tale takes a deeper look into the emotional toll that it takes on it's female dancers and displays just how much pretty can hurt(January):

 Award winning author Elizabeth Strout returns with My Name is Lucy Barton, where the title character is slowly recovering from a serious operation. Being bed bound, she can't avoid a visit from her mother, who Lucy hasn't spoken to in years.

While mother and daughter attempt to catch up, a few old wounded memories are opened up, revealing an emotional infection that is more painful than the physical one that Lucy is suffering from.

Strout's writing tends to be painfully good, which can make it hard to read at times but her work is the type of inner agony that is worth going through the fire for(January).

SAILING ABOARD AN AUTHOR SHIP:

 Renowned writer Herman Wouk has reached that point in his life when an autobiographical look back at his past seems to be most fitting, as the subtitle of his upcoming memoir, Sailor and Fiddler, is "Reflections of a 100 Year Old Author."

The first half of the book goes into his days in the Navy, which inspired his prize winning novel The Caine Mutiny, and the latter details what embracing his faith has done for his life. Wouk also talks about the real life influences that aided him in his other works since as Marjorie Morningstar, Youngblood Hawke and the Winds of War saga novels.

 His keen wit and sharp insights are definitely as timely as ever, giving readers a real opportunity into seeing what goes into creating such memorable characters as Wouk's infamous Captain Queeg, a man trapped in his own rigid state of mind. Such richly written people are worth learning more about as well as their creator(January):

SOME SUSPECT SOUTHERN CHARMS:

 Katy Simpson Smith's Free Men follows a trio of desperate criminals that form an unlikely bond as they make their way through the backwoods of the American South in 1788.

Bob is a chatty fellow who comforts himself from the sorrow of his time in slavery with his tall tales while Cat is hardily much of a talker, yet his own sad stories of the past are quite a mouthful.

 After the two of them meet up with  Istillicha, A Native American seeking restitution for his tribe's losses, the three new companions run into a group of travelers in an encounter that leaves six men dead and three men on the run from an eager bounty hunter. This lyrical tale of troubled men running into trouble promises to be a journey worth taking(February):

Matt Ruff's Lovecraft Country goes further ahead in time, as former Korean War veteran Atticus Turner leaves 1954 Chicago to search for his missing father in New England.

 Accompanied by his Uncle George, who puts out a safe driving guide for African Americans on a regular basis, and old school friend Letitia, Atticus discovers that his father is being held captive by The Order of The Ancient Dawn, lead by a vicious father and son act who also have big plans for Atticus in their ritual pursuits.

This blend of horror fantasy with real world social problems should be a smartly scary look at what terrors lie beneath the surface of Americana. Certainly sounds like a hair raising read on both counts(February).

The new year should be a happy one for books, at least, and a good way to start that off is by having a nice after-holidays shopping spree. Don't feel bad if all you bought for your fellow readers was a gift card-it is hard to choose the perfect present for that special bookworm who seems to have everything there:

Setting up the LRG Christmas Eve jukebox

Merry Christmas Eve, everyone(and happy holidays to those who enjoy other festivities this time of year) and I hope you all will have a good time with your loved ones. One of my blog traditions is to set up a few music videos that share my sense of the spirit of the season, not to mention leave you with some entertaining as I take a mini-break.

Let's start off with a modern day classic from Run DMC. "Christmas in Hollis" is just flat out fun to listen to. Back then, no one could have predicted the lasting power of this funky tribute to Santa or that Run would end up with a show on the Cooking Channel(which is pretty cool culinary watching,btw) but some future pleasures are best appreciated with a touch of surprise:

 Next, we have a double dose of Jimmy Fallon that begins with this unexpected singalong from his SNL days. When this musical skit first aired, it was just seen as a one and done but amusement factor from fans was so high that "I Wish It Were Christmas Today" has been replayed quite a few times.

The simple charm of Fallon, Chris Kattan, Tracey Morgan and Horatio Sanz with their trusty keyboard and guitar plucking is what makes this silly song a true holiday traditional tune:

Fallon's love of music has carried onto his Tonight Show gig, with him and The Roots taking up classroom instruments to join in with many of the musical guests. For the holiday season a while back, Mariah Carey sat in with them to belt out "All I Want for Christmas is You", one of her signature songs that plays out very well in this setting:

For something slightly different, we turn to 80's icons Hall & Oates as they have a little house party to share with friends a bit of that "Jingle Bell Rock".

Not only does the song hold up well(as it should, given the numerous cover versions of JBR) but the mock hokey tone of the video here really adds to the fun:

Again, I wish you all a happy holiday and LRG will be back before the new year begins, with a couple of preview posts and some New Year's Eve tunes too.

For now, we will close out with the heartfelt joy of a "Patrick Swayze Christmas" and be delighted that one good thing that we can count on is a return of Mystery Science Theater 3000(hooray for the Kickstarter campaign success!) some time in the new year:

An entertaining elegy for The Death of Superman Lives

Out of all of the comic book film adaptations that have come and gone over the years, most fans would hold up the 1970's Superman movies as the gold standard to which all other versions must be measured against.

While there have been new cinematic takes on the Superman legend since those days, the one film that still generates a lot of buzz is the one that was never made. Funded by a Kickstarter campaign, Jon Schnepp went in search of the reasons behind The Death of Superman Lives or as the subtitle puts it, What Happened?

Back in the late 1990s, Warner Brothers looked into the possibility of reviving Superman on screen, some time after the dismal failure that was Superman: Quest for Peace. The plan was to adapt the popular "Death of Superman" saga from DC comics that revitalized interest in the iconic hero. At least three scripts were written, one of them from director/writer Kevin Smith, a smart choice given his knowledge of the genre. However, his first meeting with producer Jon Peters was the first of many red flags to be waved on this road to movie making madness:

Smith's script was abandoned as soon as director Tim Burton was attached to the project, who wanted to do a different take on superheroes that would challenge him a bit more than his previous success with the Batman films.

However, Burton's casting choices for this film started off on a truly wrong foot as Nicholas Cage was set to be Superman(he also wanted Christopher Walken to play Brainiac) and when a few photos leaked out of the redesigned super suit that Cage had done costume tests for, fans were quickly in uproar.

Jon Schnepp was actually able to include footage of those costume tests in his documentary, along with interviews with major players in this undertaking like Tim Burton, Jon Peters and Academy Award winning costume designer Colleen Atwood, who really did take this project as a real creative challenge:

Schnepp also talked to the two other screenwriters who were called forth as well as the artists and designers who worked for two years on the concepts that both Tim Burton and Jon Peters wanted for the film(Peters still has one of the demo models displayed at his house).

You have to hand it to Schnepp not only for getting most of these people to speak freely about a failed project(Nic Cage was not one of them) but to present the long and strange process that went into preparing Superman Lives in a way that's not mocking the hard work that was put into this production.

He shows a sincere interest in what might have been, even when Jon Peters(who openly admits to putting a staff member in a headlock and bringing in his kids to give critiques on the work in progress) stops to take a business call during their interview. Peters alone is a hoot, with his bizarre take on what should be in a movie like this. One of his ideas was to make Superman's cape a weapon that he could throw at people "to cut off heads", I kid you not!

Fortunately, the testimony is nicely balanced out by likes of producer Lorenzo Di Bonaventura and screenwriter Wesley Strick, who was tapped by Tim Burton to make his vision for the Man of Steel come to life on the silver screen:

Eventually, the studio pulled the plug on Superman Lives, due more than likely to the projected budget(which would've been amazingly high back then) and a string of flops that year that made the powers that be hesitant to go forward with such a risky production.

In my opinion, that was a wise decision as neither Burton or Cage were suited(pun sort of intended) for a Superman film and the ever-changing tone of the scripts would have made this movie more infamously awful than Batman and Robin.

The stories behind this story are worth checking out as they give an authentic account of how Hollywood works, both for good and bad. The Death of Superman Lives: What Happened is available to watch online and on demand(the Showtime channel has it on their line-up, which is how I came across it this past weekend).

Jon Schnepp's enthusiasm for exploring what might have been a truly unique version of Superman makes this documentary a charmingly geeky delight to behold and certainly offer some fantastic food for thought when it comes to making a superhero shine on screen:

The bliss of having a Bookish Secret Santa

This holiday season, I did something that I haven't done since I was a kid; signed up to be part of a Secret Santa group. One big change from the ones I took part all those years ago is that this was a book themed exchange, with the option of adding other items into your parcel.

This particular exchange was arranged by  Michelle Miller of Seasons of Reading, who paired off all of the participants and encouraged us to blog about what we received.The response has been great so far, with some folks even taking photos of their gift packs and putting them up on the official Facebook page for the group.

 Since my tech skills are rather primitive when it comes to that, I decided to go the blog post route. My Secret Santa giver was Sandy Smith Nawrot and I'd like to start this round-up off by saying a very sincere thank you to her for this bounty of bookish goodness:

WISH LIST GRANTED:

For this Secret Santa set-up, you were asked to give a list of desired titles and one of mine was Career of Evil, the third novel in the Cormoran Strike detective series written by J.K. Rowling(aka Robert Galbraith). It was the only hardcover that I put down on the list and seeing it as I unwrapped the first gift was truly a pleasant surprise.

Unfortunately for Strike and his trusty assistant Robin Ellacott, the surprise package they find waiting for them at their office happens to be a human leg. Strike not only takes this gruesome delivery in stride, he can easily think of four people from his past who would send him something like that.

I truly love this series,as the writing is smart and crisp as well as proof positive that Rowling's imagination is boundless and not to be tucked tightly away into a genre corner. I'm holding off reading it for the moment, due to trying to finish a couple of other books up, but not for long as this is a devious delight worth savoring during the holiday season:

CHRISTMAS TREATS:

Another query for the Bookish Secret Santa was if you wanted anything that was out and out Christmas themed and my answer was yes.  I did get a pair of holiday related gifts in my bundle, one of which was a book entitled The Cat Who Came Back for Christmas by Julia Romp.

It's a true story about the mother of an autistic son, who bonded with a stray cat that they adopted and named Ben. Her child had never really connected with animals before yet to her amazement, Ben became a special part of his life and hers as well. As the title says, Ben did go missing for a brief time but the family was happily reunited with this beloved cat. Since I love cats(we have three of them in my house), this story sounds like a lovely seasonal treat indeed.

My other Christmas related gift was socks, which I really appreciate as my feet tend to get very rough. This particular pair is infused with aloe and Vitamin E, making them incredibly comfortable to wear around the house.

Socks have gotten a bad rep as holiday gifts yet that image has begun to change over the past several years. If you think about it, socks are truly something that you always need new ones of, especially around this time of year.

Plus, as Mr. Bean has shown us, socks are a solid part of what makes Christmas the joyous time that it can be:

MORE BOOKISH DELIGHTS:

Cats made a most welcome appearance in this gift package. Along with the book mentioned above, a lovely Christmas card with a cuddly kitten was included as well as a gorgeous cat and mouse bookmark designed by Cynthia Gale.

Bookmarks feel essential when giving books(I included one in the package that I sent) and this lovely silver and gold piece is beautifully distinctive among the paper and tassle trimmed ones that I own.

The last yet far from least bookish gift I got was The Book Lover's Calendar for 2016. It's a page a day calendar that brings back some memories for me. Back in my bookseller days, we used to order extra editions of this particular calendar to give out as gifts to customers who spend a certain amount with us during the holiday season.

We sold some, of course, with the regular box calendars but also keep a good supply of them under the counter to award those special shoppers who were glad to get an extra gift for their efforts.

The Book Lover's calendars are great bibliophile gifts, as each page offers reading recommendations for those looking for something to read while waiting as patiently as possible for their favorite writer to finish working on their next book:

My heartfelt thanks to Sandy for her generous gifts and happy holidays to you and yours. Thank you also to Michelle for setting up this Secret Santa for book folk. I'm happy to report that the person I was assigned to received her gift package and really liked it(Happy Holidays,Heather!). Books may not seem like exciting presents to some people but for readers like me, getting a new book is like having Christmas every day of the year:

Having a Jane Austen birthday party that is Emma approved

Today, we celebrate the 240th birthday of Jane Austen, one of my favorite authors whose influence upon literature and the role of women in society is still being felt in pop culture.

Since this is also the 200th publishing anniversary of what many consider to be her masterpiece, it only seems fitting that my blog post party in her honor be hosted by Emma Woodhouse.

Second only to P&P's Elizabeth Bennet in fan admiration(despite her creator's claim that no one but herself would like very much), this title heroine ,with her overindulged sense of superiority that is readjusted for the betterment of her character, has become quite the iconic as well as ironic lady in Austen land.

There have been several film versions of Emma(mostly made for TV) and a couple of modern day reinventions that have become just as beloved as the classic version of the story.

To start things off, we have a look at the opening credits for the most recent BBC/Masterpiece edition of Emma, starring Romola Garai who had Jonny Lee Miller as her Mr. Knightley.

While I was not thrilled with some of the creative choices made here(too much backstory given to characters meant to have a bit of mystery about them, for one), this is a enjoyable take on the novel and the credits are rather elegantly done:

 It's not just for Emma herself that we take to this story; the many amusing characters such as overly cautious Mr. Woodhouse, charmingly naive Harriet Smith and the goodhearted Westons are part and parcel of what makes the fictional village of Highbury such a literary high spot.

In the Pemberley Digital webseries, Emma Approved, one of the most beloved characters was given a thoughtful modern makeover. The talkative Miss Bates was introduced here as Maddy, an accountant with her own small business and hobby of making homemade preserves that have interesting flavor combinations.

Much like the original, Maddy's devotion to her mother and niece Jane Fairfax, along with her chatty demeanor, made her a family friend that Emma was happy to help, although not when it came to taste tasting her latest creations:

Not every character is likable here, which can be just as amusing but for very different reasons. Some of them start off as potential pals like the flirtatious Frank Churchill or the always agreeable Mr. Elton but all too soon, their true colors begin to appear and not to their best advantage either.

Mr. Elton's real intentions towards Emma are revealed in a carriage ride after a Christmas party that allowed him to take in too much of the host's good wine. However, his feelings of disdain for Harriet Smith, who Emma had been hoping to pair him up with, were soberly delivered.

When it comes to on screen versions of Mr. Elton, one of the best and most humorous performances belongs to Alan Cumming in the 1996 theatrical adaptation that had him pitching woo to a less than enthused Gwyneth Paltrow:

As to Mr. Knightley, my favorite performance comes from the BBC made for TV version(adapted by Andrew Davies) with Mark Strong playing opposite Kate Beckinsale.

Mind you, I like what Jonny Lee Miller(who also played Edmund in the 1999 Mansfield Park movie) did with the role and Jeremy Notham was suitably charming along side Paltrow. Yet, since the Beckinsale Emma is my preferred version of the book, Mark Strong goes right along with it.

He does take to the serious elements of the character rather well and may come across as harsh at times but when it's time for Knightley to show his more softer side, Strong provides plenty of romance there, tempered with good sense of course:

So, happy birthday to Our Dear Jane and a most happy anniversary to Emma, whose celebration will continue throughout the next year to come.

Having a December birthday is tricky, especially when it comes so close to Christmas, and I do wonder if Austen was inspired by that dilemma when she wrote that whole holiday party chapter of the story. Emma does get a sincerely unwanted gift there, thanks to Mr. Elton, that nearly wrecks the festive nature of the day not just for her but for poor Harriet as well.

Let us cheer up from that gloomy thought with a lively dance number, always a good choice in any Austen story. This sassy salute to Clueless set to the tune of "Fancy" ought to be a merry method of ending things on a good note:

Seeing what awakens when the new Star Wars film finally arrives in theaters

As the day grows closer for the official theatrical release of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, it's pretty much impossible to ignore this imminent pop culture arrival anywhere you look.

Whether it's TV,magazines or internet chatter, the renewed interest and active energy of fans is one power source that just about all media loves feeding on as well as feeding to us. Considering the increasing bad news that the real world offers more and more often these days, it's no wonder that folks would find a galaxy far,far away to be a safer place.

I do think that having a new yet familiar cultural phenomenon like this could be the best thing for all of us right about now. Star Wars has the cache of being a franchise that people of all ages and backgrounds know so well that getting back into the realm of the Jedi and the ways of the Force is not daunting, even if you haven't seen the much despised prequels:

Speaking of the prequels, there are still a good number of fans out there that feel betrayed by them and are reluctant to join in with the frenzy surrounding The Force Awakens.

 I really can't blame them, especially since I found those movies to be complete and utter cinematic messes too, yet that doesn't mean that we should give up on the whole series there. Look, any long running film franchise is bound to have a couple of clunkers there(ask any horror fan) and Star Wars is no exception to that rule.

Yes, Jar Jar Binks is the worst(second only to Hayden Christensen's balsa wood level of acting) but on the other hand, not everyone liked the Ewoks in Return of the Jedi either. At the very least, those unnecessary prequels do give us a chance to take some joy in hate-watching them:

 Having a fresh new chapter of Star Wars is a prime opportunity to look back at the original trilogy and see what made it so great.

 Much like The Force Awakens, the first set of films were a blend of old and new, combining classic story telling tropes with new technology that created a modern mythology into which audiences eagerly tapped into.

I was one of those early fans and I admit that at first, I had no interest in this Star Wars movie that everyone was talking about. However, when my parents took me and my brother to see the first film, we were all enchanted by this amazing world and it's cluster of characters such as the timidly intelligent C-3PO, Han Solo and his Wookie co-pilot Chewbacca, the brave and bold Princess Leia and the ultimate Big Bad, Darth Vader.

Vader was a favorite of my father's and to this day, I still have one of the Star Wars themed gifts that I gave, him a ceramic mug shaped like the Sith Lord's helmet that I came upon in a thrift store. Part of my love for villains comes from my dad, who also enjoyed Jabba the Hutt as well, and I'm sure that we were not the only ones that made the Star Wars saga a family affair:

With The Force Awakens, that comforting bond of cinematic wonder is back to unite both old and new generations, friends and family, into a shared experience that could help us to not only take a little shelter from the real world storm but to reassess our attitudes about life as well. We could start with attitudes about fandom, for one. In order to survive , such a powerful force needs to be inclusive, which means getting over some of the seemingly set in stone stereotypes about who is "supposed" to be a fan and who isn't.

Why should it matter when you got interested in Star Wars or how, the important thing is that you like and/or love the series and want to share that joy with others. To those geek gatekeepers out there ready to pounce, you are  so not the fans that this or any other series are looking for.

Being overly particular about who you deem to be "worthy' of sharing your fan space  with is not what any hero you admire would do. Unless your goal is to be an out and out minion of small mindedness, I think you know what side of the Force is the right one to be on.

A new Star Wars should be a time of celebration and I truly believe that it will be, yet it would be a true achievement for pop culture if all fans were accepted without question. May the Force be with us, with popcorn and light sabers at the ready: