Review: The Windsors: A Royal Family & My Life in Ruins

I haven't done a movie review in quite some time, but I recently watched two films that I had to comment on. I usually review films that are based off of novels, plays, or famous Broadway performances; however, I sometimes can't help myself and want to share a few great stories that fall outside of this realm. Neither of the following films come from literature, but both are interesting and deserved a quick mention!

As mentioned in a previous post, I like films about the monarchy. After watching the fabulous documentary Monarchy: The Royal Family at Work, Netflix recommended another documentary, The Windsors: A Royal Family. Part way through disc one of three, I grabbed the envelope the documentary came in to see when it was filmed, thinking it was filmed in the early to mid 1990's. Why? The film making was very 60 Minutes meets old school PBS documentaries--none of this modern, reality TV sense of following around one's subject. This documentary is made up of testimonials and interviews with friends, distant family, and assistants to the crown, who give their first-hand opinions as primary source photographs and film are used to show the most amazing footage of the monarchy. So, you're asking when it was filmed? According to my Netflix envelope it was 2007, according to Amazon it was filmed in 2002. Either way, I was honestly quite shocked that it was so recent.

I won't say that the film wasn't fantastic, but engaging, it's not. It is very much a piece of history, which I loved, but demanded that I pay careful attention to dates, connections between relatives, and the history of events occurring in the world at the same time as those presented in the documentary. A history teacher could use this for brief, amazing clips of Queen Elizabeth's grandfather, King George V and the world as it was during his time, clips of Winston Churchill addressing the Parliament, King Edward abdicating the thrown, or even the coronation of Queen Elizabeth, but that's as far as I would go. This documentary is amazing in its collection of primary documentation, but pretty heavy laden with history, in a way that I haven't seen in awhile. It's not that I didn't enjoy it, but will say that it surprised me a bit in the beginning.

Now, just a quick word about the second film, My Life in Ruins. People often think I'm kidding, or exaggerating when I say I want to move to Greece someday (even if it's only for 4-6 months out of every year), but I'm not. Greece is an amazing country that I don't think I could get enough of (along with Turkey). Having said that, I ran to the theater to see Nia Vardalos's most recent film, eager to see scenes of Greece as the setting for her romantic comedy. The movie was cute, even if predictable and a bit cheesy. Vardalos (who looked pretty amazing) plays the Greek tour guide for her overly-exaggerated-in-their-lameness tourists, trying to interest them in the amazing history of the sites she presents them, when all they really want is ice cream and shopping excursions. First off, I was so offended by the ridiculous things the tourists demanded that I kept talking out loud. I know...chill out, right? Well, that's what my mother kept saying, but I kept picturing all the tours that I took while in Greece, and I could never get enough of the history and antiquities. Honestly, I think I was just a bit too keyed up to fully enjoy the tourists' horrid antics and silly lines. I realize that we were supposed to laugh at the stupidness of the tourists, but they made me want to scream.

Now, on the other hand, here's where this single girl has to gush for just a moment. Alexis Georgoulis (acclaimed as the George Clooney of Greece), made my day. :) My friend Doc and I had a moment in Athens, after hopping off their extremely clean subway system, where we ended up riding the escalator behind what I believe had to be a modern Adonis. I'm not exaggerating when I say that the man we giggled over (yes, at our ages we giggled over his amazing male beauty and enjoyed our escalator ride) reminded me of Alexis Georgoulis, so I calmed down and just enjoyed the film in all it's predictable silliness. I've included here two pictures of him; one where he's looking way too scruffy to really pay him any mind, but then the second, showing him in all his male gorgeousness (which looks like how he spelled his name).

See his scruffy self in the corner...

Now, he's looking like a romantic lead!

Overall, a cute film. It did have some questionable sexual innuendo, but was a pretty harmless romantic comedy, on the whole. Yes, it's predictable, but has its funny moments, and one really nice looking Greek romantic lead. Now, time to figure out how I can find myself a home on a small corner of Greece???

Review: My Brother Michael by Mary Stewart

What an exciting little book! I finished this book several days ago, but haven't posted yet because I was digging through my pictures from my trip to Greece to see if I had a picture of Delphi that I could put up. Well, the one disc that held my Delphi pictures read as "empty" and needs to be taken in ASAP! I do have pictures though of the famous "Charioteer," one of the most famous existing bronze statues, that is featured in the museum there and is mentioned in the novel. I will say, that he is an amazing thing to behold. He not only has these amazing little curls on his head, but has glass eyes and eyelashes! Okay, enough about the "details" featured in the book, and on to the book itself.

Synopsis: One morning as Camilla sits in a coffee shop in Athens, Greece, an unknown man approaches her with a set of car keys and an order to get the car sitting outside to "Simon," as it is a life and death situation. Camilla realizes she has been mistaken for someone else, but now has this car to deliver, and heads out towards Delphi to find this Simon character. From there, she does meet a man by the name of Simon, who saves her from the windy, narrow roads of Greece to help her take the car on to its journey's end. We're left unsure if this Simon is the one spoken of earlier, but this man with her is as much a mystery as what has been left her. We find that he had a brother named Michael who died in Delphi years earlier, and from there, you are rewarded with constant glimpses of a mystery and sweet romance that unfolds a chapter at a time.

Review: As I have mentioned before, I am not one who usually enjoys mystery, but this book feels more like some sort of thriller to me. Maybe it was the fact that the first half of the book, Stewart spends her time describing Greece, its people and food, and wonderful antiquities that had me (since I honestly want to spend my dying days on a Greek island), but I thought that the story sold itself more as an intriguing thriller that led you to want to know more about who gave Camilla this car, who is Simon, how did Simon's brother Michael die, what role does the ancient city of Delphi have to do with it all?

(Stadium at Delphi, and top of the city.)

I will be honest in saying that because I've been to Delphi, I struggled to picture some of the landscapes Stewart describes. For instance, the place that Simon stays is supposedly a jaunt (of sorts) over the ruins to where Camilla is staying in a hotel at the foot of the hill. I'll say from experience, that Delphi is no little hill! We had to hike up to the highest spot of Delphi, which was a city that switchbacks up the side of a veritable mountain/cliff, looking down on a beautiful valley below. By the time you climb to the stadium track at the top, you're pretty much looking up a cliff of sorts. Maybe down on one end there are more trails that weren't included in our climb, but I was amazed at how simply Stewart kept sending her main heroine home over the ruins of Delphi to her hotel! And at night, no less! Wow...that was one brave chick!

Altogether, I found Stewart's novel a fantastic read! I would definitely recommend it to anyone who enjoys a thriller, sprinkled with a little underlying romance. This is a clean novel, with plenty of excitement to leave you tearing through the last 150-200 pages in one sitting! It also looks like the publishers are re-releasing this novel in November with a new, revamped looking cover! If you want a nice thriller for the summer, look no further.

For more information, see: My Brother Michael

Sunday Salon: A Memorial Weekend

Happy Sunday, and Memorial Day Weekend to those here in the States. I'm happy to say that it has actually been quite a lazy weekend, but eventful to some degree! My poor wireless router went down Friday night, which had me at Best Buy in my grubby clothes to look for a new one. I then spent the next six hours proving the guy there (who said I needed to pay Geek Squad to come install it) wrong, by hooking and setting it all up BY MYSELF...thank you very much. Yes, it took me forever, but it's up and running. I am now the proud owner of a new, 10X the power, wireless router than before. :) That will come in handy when I move into my new townhome this fall, as I'll be setting up the main computer upstairs.

As for books, this has seemed to be a pretty productive reading week, thanks to things slowing down with the end of the school year. My online job wrapped up this past week, and I'm in the middle of Finals for my kids at school. Since our grades are due the last day of finals, I don't really do a "real" test. That would just be too hard to get graded and in by 2 pm, so I do reading surveys at the end of the year, and have kept them over the past several years to compare reading trends. It's quite interesting. As always, you get the kids who are happy to say they won't be reading until next fall, and then you get the others who eagerly give you a run down on all the books they're planning on reading once school lets out. Either way, it's interesting to see the trends.

Once school gets out, I'll be packing up, mailing boxes, and gearing to head to HAWAII!!! I'm nervous to leave mid-building on my new townhome, with so much to be decided on, but am looking forward to a tropical summer. My Kindle is totally stocked, full of books and series I've been wanting to read. I've kept my eye on prices, and picked up new books whenever they were free or within a $4 range. (Have I mentioned how much I LOVE my Kindle??? See Kindle: Amazon's 6 for more information!)


This past week I read and reviewed three books: Deep Dish, The Stand, and Living Dead in Dallas. Each book was completely different from the next, but interesting in their own rights. Right now I'm in the middle of My Brother Michael, which is set in Greece, and is taking me back to my own trip through Greece and Turkey. Man, I love that region! I even told my financial adviser the last time we met, that my entire goal for retirement was to be able to spend several months a year in Greece! Besides that, I'm picking away at lots of books. I REALLY want to dive into book two of Sharon Lathan's series, Loving Mr. Darcy, but am trying so hard to hold off long enough to let it be the only thing I have to do. I'm so looking forward to escaping into its pages, that I've had to put the book away so that I won't be tempted to crack it open and read it too quickly! Besides, I'm nervous that I have to wait so long for book 3! (Picture above is of me at the library at Corinth. I can't believe they let you stand up there!)

Well, I do have a few other things that I'm reading, here and there, but am really just clearing things out so that I can leave in a week and a half. No library loot for me for awhile! Anyway, until next time...bye!

Anything Austen-esque!

So, I found out that there is a new ITV program in Great Britain called "Lost in Austen." I went to ITV, and you can watch the episodes online!!! Guess what I'll be doing during my prep??? :) Here's a link if you want to check it out. I have no idea if it's any good, but I'm willing to give it a try. Wait! They won't let you watch it outside the UK?!? Greedy Bas....tians of light and glory. (Whew...saved that one!) I guess you can catch it on YouTube, but my school is afraid of what teens will do if they have access to such a demon site, so I'll have to wait until I get home!

Oh, and one other quick sidenote. I tore through the leaked manuscript of Stephenie Meyer's fifth novel in the Twilight series, and I have to admit that I was really hooked! At a time in my life when I have VERY LITTLE faith in men actually being capable of returning or showing love, this somehow made me hope there are men who feel like this about the person they love. Yes, I'm a huge sap, which is also why I'll always be disappointed by love (sounds like an Austen line somehow?), because I have UNREALISTIC EXPECTATIONS. Okay, so I'll go back to my John Thornton/Mr. Darcy fantasies and keep my mouth shut! :) I'm probably better off being by myself anyway so that I can travel and someday end of living here:


Ahh... Now there's something that hard work and a dream can ACTUALLY achieve! Besides, that chair looks like it might be more comfy for one, with a hot guy serving me cold drinks.