The good, the bad and the nostalgic

[bironic]

His Majesty's Dragon by Naomi Novik: Thumbs up. A very easy read, and worth picking up for the sweet relationship between Laurence and Temeraire (man and dragon). Am 150 pages into the second in the series, Throne of Jade, now.

Nanny McPhee (2005, dir. Kirk Jones): Thumbs up. The reviews had made it sound awful, but my children's movie-loving dad

Comments

[phinnia]

All Summer in a Day. THANK YOU. I couldn't remember the title - I'd read it a million years ago ...

[bironic]

I was in the same predicament until barely_bean or scrunchy mentioned it completely randomly a few weeks ago! So you have them to thank indirectly. :D

[thewlisian_afer]

Charles! Oh, I loved that story when I read it. I was in sixth grade at the time and I can't remember a damn thing about it anymore, but I do remember being absolutely delighted by it.

Also, I TOTALLY AGREE about Nanny McPhee. I wasn't all that enthusiastic about the idea of it but I was like, "Well ... Emma Thompson. Can't pass it up." So it went on my Netflix queue and I ended up being really charmed by it. ♥ Pleasant surprises like that are awesome. :D

[bironic]

Nothing like rock-bottom expectations to help you enjoy a movie. :)

I can't find the short story online (she said, after a sixty-second search), but IIRC, "Charles" was about [*looks both ways for the spoiler-wary*] a mother whose kindergartener comes home every day brimming with tales about the class troublemaker, and at the end it turns out it had been him.

[daasgrrl]

Never saw Nanny McPhee, but I LOVED the Nurse Matilda books, upon which (I think) it was based. They were so very surreal. And English. I read Gift of the Magi in about sixth grade, too, and at the time I thought it was just the most amazing thing ever :)