Title: The Extraordinary Secrets of April, May, and June
Author: Robin Benway
Published: August 2010
Genre: YA Fantasy
Format: Read eBook on Nook for Droid App.
Rating: *** 1/2

Sisters April, May, and June just moved to a brand new high school because of their parents' divorce.  Starting a new school and dealing with divorce is always hard, but the ( Read more... )

Heartbreaker
Year: 2010
Genre: French Foreign Film / Romantic Comedy
Format: Watched on Netflix Instant in French with English subtitles
Rating: *** 1/2

An adult brother, sister, and brother-in-law work as a team of professional heartbreakers.  According to our team, there are 3 kinds of women in couples, "knowingly happy, knowingly unhappy, and ( Read more... )

The Nine Lives of Chloe King (***) - Chloe King is a normal teen living with her single mom in San Fransisco, going to school, working at a vintage clothing store, and hanging out with her best friends Amy and Paul.  Weird things start happening to her on her birthday -- like she can easily walk on the edge of a bench, has retractable claws, and ( Read more... )

Title: The Strange Case of Origami Yoda
Author: Tom Angleberger
Year Published: 2010
Rating: *** 1/2
Format: Read hard cover book
For: grades 3-6

Sixth-grader Tommy is trying to figure out the truth.  Eccentric Dwight, who eats lunch at Tommy's table, swears that the wise advice his Yoda finger puppet is giving the kids of McQuarrie Middle School has ( Read more... )

Title: TiMER
Year: 2009
Motion Picture Rating: R
Format: Movie Viewed on Netflix Instant
Rowena's Rating: *** 1/2

TiMER is an entertaining indie film about relationships, with a sci-fi twist. Twenty-nine year old Oona (Emma Caulfield) lives in a slightly futuristic world that's almost like our own, except that most people have what's called a TiMER ( Read more... )

Life Highlights:
An Eloise Vacation - This winter break the daughterling and I decided to vacation inside the new hotel we watched being built near our house.  We studied their website carefully, wrote ourselves a schedule for our visit, packed up a few clothes, books, and toiletries, and walked over.

Our favorite activity was exploring the hotel, ( Read more... )

Life Highlights:
Walking on Sunshine (The Gluten-Free Version): I used to think maybe I'd be well, now baby I'm sure.  And I just still love that I feel like I've now found my cure.  Now every time I wake up, my head feels so light and so goo-od.  Cause now I don't have so much snot hanging round me no more.  Now I'm walking on sunshine. Who-ah. I' ( Read more... )

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 ( Read more... )

Highlights:
Road Trip - My son and I cruised along Midwestern highways on a 12-hour drive to Lake Michigan, squeezing in plenty of teen driving practice, and passing by a few colleges along the way. I made a road trip playlist of music we both liked: The Who, Jimi Hendrix, The Violent Femmes, Rage Against the Machine, and the Dr. Horrible ( Read more... )

Highlights:
Girls Gone Wild (Camping At Assateague Island) - My camping trip this year was an all-girl event with the daughterling, her friends, and me. These fantastically fun girls put up and took down the tents & canopy, washed the dishes, swam in the ocean for hours, dug in the sand, and had me laughing all the time.

Fiction Books Finished:
Where ( Read more... )