Emmy Nominations!

This morning nominations for the Emmy (television) Awards were announced. If’ you’re new to my blog you may not know that I’m sucker for award ceremonies. Every year I watch the Emmys, the Oscars and the Tonys. And even though I don’t get cable, I am aware of the popular shows on cable. And if one looks interesting I try to get DVDs out of the library to watch those shows.

You can see a complete listing of the nominations here:

http://www.emmys.tv/awards/64th-primetime-emmy-awards

I was excited by a couple of things. Mayim Bialik was nominated for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy for Big Bang Theory. Amy Farrah Fowler has some of the best lines on the show and Mayim executes them perfectly. I think she can even outshine Jim Parsons (Sheldon Copper) although the two work really well together. She’s my pick in that category.

I loved that Dot-Marie Jones got nominated for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series for her role as Coach Shannon Beiste on Glee. She’s probably the underdog in that category but was glad she was noticed.

And I was thrilled to see not one but two Masterpiece (PBS) shows singled out: Downtown Abbey and Sherlock. I am fans of both and was glad to see the shows and the actors nominated (especially Benedict Cumberbatch for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie).

I think there has been shift in television over the last few years. Categories like Outstanding Drama Series are dominated by cable shows (six out of seven). HBO, Showtime and AMC are producing better dramas than ABC, CBS and NBC. The exception, of course, is PBS which, in my opinion, has been producing great dramas for years but they are just now getting noticed.

Book List - July 2012

23. Cottage at Glass Beach by Heather Barbieri - This is a novel about a wife and mother of two girls who escape to an island off the coast of Maine after her polititian husband is caught cheating. She called the island home until she was five when her mother disappeared. The desciption of the island and it's inhabitents is great and there are mystical elements to the story but the plot moves pretty slow and the ending is abrupt. Still an enjoyable read.


24 Paris, My Sweet: A Year in the City of Lights (and Dark Chocolate) by Amy Thomas. In 2008 the author of this book got the opportunity of a lifetime, to temporary relocate to Paris for a year. Thomas is a self-proclaimed sweets fanatic and the book revolves almost exclusively around eating everything from bon-bons and cupcakes to macaroons and tarts in Paris (and New York City). Even for a big dessert person like myself I found this book a little to sweet for my taste. Thomas' life (at least during her time in Paris) totally revolves around desserts and based on the author's photo, she somehow doesn't weigh 400 pounds!


25. Witness by Nora Roberts. Yes, another Nora Roberts. This one is a stand-alone book about a 17 year old girl who witnesses a mob murder and has to go into witness protection. Things don't go as planned and most of the book occurs 12 years later. While the story was rather good, the ending was a little too quick and clean for my tastes, like Nora got tired of the story and just wanted to end it.

26. Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott. A writer friend and work "bestie" gave me this book on writing. Has some good insight.

Book List - June 2012

Books I've read in June.

19. Mr. Darcy's Dream by Elizabeth Aston. I'm a sucker for P&P sequels. This one, the story of Georginia Darcy's daughter Phoebe, was rather dull. The title refers to Mr. Dary's ambition to create a large glass house (greenhouse) at Pemberly. There is a misunderstanding between Phoebe and the man she loves. Much focus is on reputations but it all works out in the end.

20. The Red Book by Deborah Copaken Kogan - This a book about four women who attended their 20th college reunion. The title comes from a type of Who's Who that is printed every five years for Harvard alumni. There is a lot of affairs and deaths but it's main focus is that even the lives of graduates of Harvard don't go the way they're planned.


21. The Last Boyfriend by Nora Roberts. This author's trilogies are great summer reads. Three characters each have their own book to discover love. And there is always a happy ending.


22. The House I Loved by Tatiana de Rosnay. Unfortunately this book had absolutely no plot and as a result was boring. In the 1860s Paris neighborhoods were being distroyed to make room for large bouelvards. One woman, a widow in her 60s, refuses to leave her house and insteads hides in the basement writing leters to her dead husband about what has happened over the last 10 years since he died. The person from People magazine who called the book "mesmerizing" must have also spend hours watching goldfish in a glass bowl.

Heather's Movie Viewing Trivia

(Today’s blog was inspired by questions this week’s Entertainment Weekly asked actress Emma Stone, with my answers.)

The First Movie I Remember Watching
Disney’s Cinderella (1950). Of course, this was a re-release. I remember thinking it took a really long time to drive to the movie theater.

The Movie Character I Wanted to Be
Samantha Baker (Molly Ringwald) from Sixteen Candles (1984) because (SPOILER ALERT) she gets really, really cute Jake at the end.

The First R-Rated Drama I Ever Saw
My mom took me to see The Breakfast Club (1985). After the movie, Mom (who had gone to an all-girls Catholic high school in the 50s) said that high school wasn’t really like that. I told her that it was.

The Scariest Movie I Ever Saw
I never got frightened by most horror movies. To me the blood and guts were kind of boring and overall the movies were so stupid they were funny. The one exception was The Blair Witch Project (1999). That movie TOTALLY freaked me out. Haven’t been camping since.

The Last Movie I Bought
The Dark Knight (2008). I thought Heath Leger was brilliant in this movie and totally deserved his Oscar (even thought it was sadly given posthumously).

The Movie Musical I Know Every Word To
No brainer, Grease (1978).

The Movie I Can’t Turn Off When It Comes on the Television
This is a really hard one. Pretty much any movie based on a Jane Austen novel, or stars John Cusack or Colin Firth, or John Hughes movie from the 80s, or Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (As Ferris said, Life move’s pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you can miss it.).

The Movie I’ve Seen More Times Than I Can Count
Again, this is really hard. There are so, so many. But if I had to choose just one I’d probably say Real Genius (1985) with Val Kilmer. It's hokey but I still love it.

My First Movie Star Crush
Christopher Atkins but not in Blue Lagoon (I didn’t see that until years after it came out), in The Pirate Movie (1982). This was a cult favorite with my friends and I in high school. If you’ve never seen it, it’s an extremely cheeky 80s version of the musical, The Pirates of Penzance.

The Last Movie That Made Me Cry
I don’t normally cry at movies. I may shed a tear or two but I cannot honestly remember the last time I did that so I’m going to answer this with the movie I cried the most at, Finding Neverland (2004). I was sobbing at the end of the movie when the credits were rolling. I was still sobbing as we left the theater, as we walked through the parking lot and didn’t finish sobbing until we were driving away. So, so sad.

The Movie I’m Always Telling People to See
Sliding Doors (1998) with Gwyneth Paltrow. For a long time I’ve been tired of Hollywood producing so many re-makes of movies and (mostly bad) television shows and movies based on children’s games. This movie has one of the MOST original stories I’ve ever seen. Serious, its super good with a great ending (LOVED the ending)!

God Save the Queen!

I love everything British. I’ve been lucky enough to have visited England on four occasions and, if I could, I would love to live and work there, so I am excited about all the celebrations surrounding Queen Elizabeth II’s 60th anniversary on the throne. She’s 86 years old and while the last 60 years haven’t been perfect, it is generally acknowledged that she’s done a pretty good job as Queen.

A lot of people don’t understand the duties of the monarch or think that there is even a need for a monarchy. While the Queen can technically dissolve the British Parliament and get rid of the Prime Minister (she has reigned through the terms of 12 prime ministers), it will probably never happen. Basically the purpose of the monarchy is the promote unity (and is that a bad thing?). While most of the Queen’s duties (she attends more than 370 events every year) are symbolic, she is the Queen of State in 16 Commonwealth which includes 53 countries. Queen Elizabeth has various official, ceremonial, diplomatic, and representational duties, and she is a patron of 620 charities.

So while she may not have a lot of political power (although she meets with the Prime Minister ever week and serves as a counselor – she has enough life experience) she does have a purpose. And Queen Elizabeth is the longest living monarch and has the second longest reign (after Queen Victoria who reigned 64 years).

Whether you think the monarch should continue or not you have to give Queen Elizabeth some credit. For 60 years she was dedicated her life to her country, probably sometimes over her own family. I don’t think you can say that about any American political leader.

Book List - May 2012

It was a disappointing month, only two books. I ended up reading a book that is taking a long time to finish (I'm not even half way done).

Here is what I read in May:


17. These Girls by Sarah Pekkanhen - This is a story about three women and their friendship. Each have secrets and struggles, but nothing extraordinary. It was an okay read.

18. The Queen's Handmaiden by Jennifer Ashley - This is a fictional story about Queen Elizabeth I from the time her father died and she became queen through the point of view of her seamstress. I've read a lot of historical fiction about Queen Elizabeth and this was an okay but again, nothing extraordinary.

Book List - April 2012

Here is what I read in April:

14. The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern - I don't normally read fantasy (although the cover says this is a novel) but a friend recommended it so I decided to give it a read. The title is very straight forward - this book is about a very unusal circus that is open only at night and the people who run it (and no, they are not vampires as one friend asked). Of course there is an underlying mystery throughout the book so you'll need some patiences but it was enjoyable just the same.

15. Miss Darcy Falls in Love by Sharon Lathan - This is another continuation of Pride & Prejudice but you don't need to know the original story.  I always find it interesting how other authors tell what happen to the characters onces P&P is over and this one tells how Georginia Darcy falls in love.  It was okay and kept to the speech and manors of the time but it did get a little too Harlequin-y for me, especially at the end.

16. The Lost Years by Mary Higgins Clark - I don't read a lot of mysteries but I've been reading MHC since I was about 12.  She has written over 40 books and I've probably read most of them.  She seems to have a formula that she follows in her writing (all the books are written the same way and are somewhat dated) but I always end up reading whatever she puts out.  Most of her books involve a murder.  The man murdered in this story may have found a letter written by Christ.  This was easy to read and enjoyable.  If you like "who-dunnits" then you would probably enjoy this book.

I feels as if I've been slacking this year.  Only 16 books in the first four months.  There just doesn't seem to be as much time to read as their used to be.  I'm not really sure what has changed.  I don't think I need more hours in the day, I'd rather just spend less time on things that aren't as enjoyable, like work.