August 2010: In Brief
Audiobooks:
The Boyfriend List, by E. Lockhart (****) - [2006] Fifteen-year-old Ruby Oliver never thought of herself as the type of person who might have panic attacks or need to see a shrink. Now here she is writing a list of all the boys she's ever dated, kissed, or thought about, trying to figure out what they have to do with the unfortunate events of the spring dance that led to her first panic attack.
This is another of my favorite YA books. Ruby Oliver is a charming--but very real-- teenage girl trying to figure out how to navigate the tricky path of dating and friendship in high school while also learning to voice her own true feelings. Audiobook reader Mandy Siegfried's talent for teen speak makes this audiobook an especially good choice. [Young Adult Fiction for ages 12 and up]
Will Grayson, Will Grayson, by John Green and David Levithan (****) - is an utterly charming book about two very different high school boys --each named Will Grayson-- who meet by chance in downtown Chicago. Their story is told in alternating chapters. One Will Grayson is reconsidering his rule about not caring too much about anything, while the other Will Grayson is starting to admit he's gay and cares so much about what others think it's destroying him. Add to the mix their new mutual friend, the very gay and proud of it, Tiny Cooper, the football team's best offensive linesman and the author/composer/star of the new high school musical, "Tiny Dance" and you have one very fun story.
This was an especially good book to listen to in audio form. The two different narrators make each Will Grayson easy to identify, plus one of them does an excellent separate voice for Tiny Cooper, which is great for the musical scenes. [2010] [Young Adult Fiction for ages 14 and up]
Movies:
My Bodyguard (*** 1/2) - [1980] A clever teen in a rough high school tries to enlist the school's loner to be his body guard. Somehow I missed seeing this film when it came out 30 years ago. It was fun spotting well-known actors in their first movie roles. Adam Baldwin (Firefly, Chuck) plays the loner, Matt Dillon is the school bully, and Joan Cusack plays a friendly classmate. Jennifer Beals is even in the film with a non-speaking role as another classmate. [Watched on Netflix Instant]
Kamikaze Girls (***) - [2005] A colorful, quirky movie about the unlikely friendship between two eccentric teen girls, biker chick Ichigo and dainty Momoko, a girl who wears frilly dresses and dreams of living in 18th century France. [Watched on DVD from Netflix in Japanese with English subtitles]
TV:
Mad Men (season 4) - I think this is my favorite season of Mad Men, so far.
Online Language Learning:
Mi Vida Loca - BBC online has an excellent foreign language webpage. Mi Vida Loca is their latest and most ambitious program. It's a 22-episode beginning online Spanish program with videos and interactive lessons, for free.
It uses a story format with you, the viewer, as one of the characters. You're a British student on holiday to visit your friend Theresa in Madrid. Unfortunately, Theresa can't make the trip at the last minute, so you're on your own, staying in Theresa's flat in Madrid with her friendly, but busy, journalist sister, Merche. Merche's dangerous story investigation ends up adding a lot of excitement -- and Spanish practice -- to your trip.
Mi Vida Loca is a fantastic free Spanish program that's well worth checking out. There's enough meat that even intermediate Spanish students will learn new vocabulary, but still introductory enough for beginners. (As an added bonus you'll pick up some British vocabulary too.)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/spanish/mividaloca