I went to see the movie of The Hunger Games over the weekend. Heartily recommended. Excellent acting and unusual restraint for Hollywood in handling the violence of the story. I guess they wanted their PG-13 rating but IMO it made for a better movie. I had read the first two books in advance, and am now in the middle of Mockingjay the final volume of the trilogy. I am just about to get in the car and drive to the post office to mail Maddy Clare back to Pam. Thanks for circulating this book! Rosefolly

I had mixed feelings about the movie. Having read and reread the books countless times since I was a young child I knew going in that there was no way the filmmakers were going to be faithful enough to the book to make me happy and I was right, although on a much lesser scale than I'd feared. What bothered me most was the parts where dialogue was needlessly changed (i.e. the scene was exactly the same and instead of lifting the excellent and important dialogue from the book the writers inserted insiped dialogue instead for no apparent reason) like the scene in the Beavers' house where the children ask the Beavers about Aslan. I also disliked the slight changes to the Beavers' characters. I felt as if they were used for comic relief, where in the book they were at times slightly silly (Mrs. Beaver wanting to take her sewing machine along when fleeing the wolves) but in a way that did not make them objects of ridicule. It seemed to me that Lewis respected them and the movie-makers did not. The river-rafting scene was just ridiculous, why add that in out of nowhere? But after groaning and complaining about all of the drawbacks I have to make clear that overall I loved the movie. I thought that for the most part it kept wonderfully to the story in the book and the casting was excellent. I really liked the actors who played the children. The CGI was amazing. Seeing all of the mythical creatures arrayed in the sweeping battlefield scene shots took my breath away. I'm so glad they waited until now to make this movie, it would have been a shame to have missed out on that if the technology hadn't been up to it. As far as the professor's lack of suprise at hearing of another world- in the book this is clearly not a new concept for him, but I don't believe it was made as clear in the movie. I'm not sure why. I'm really looking forward to the next movie. Hopefully they will all be as well-done as this one was.

merry, the chap on the right could almost pass as English! A couple of books I just finished: Two Feet Four Paws by Spud Talbot-Ponsonby (a 'she' despite the odd name) who, with her dog, walked round the coast of England/Scotland/Wales starting and finishing at Tower Bridge in London. She covered about 4500 miles and raised money for a homeless people's charity as she went. Using family and friends as 'back up' she slept/ate in a 'mobile home' and took about ten months to complete the journey. Not a great piece of literature but it gives a good account of the odd people she met, the terrible weather conditions she faced and the sheer determination that helped her overcome aching limbs and exhaustion. I had earlier read her later book Small Steps with Paws and Hooves about a trek through Scotland she undertook with her toddler strapped onto a horse and the same dog. This journey was made after a diagnosis and treatment for cancer, which sadly did for her soon afterwards when the disease spread to her lungs and brain. It seems the walking even while having chemo gave her something to cling to. On quite a different note . . . I picked up a paperback The Edge of Nowhere by Elizabeth George. Probably a mistake as it turned out to be a 'teen read'. I suppose I learnt how US young people speak/behave, or maybe how Ms George thinks they do. I doubt that the average young person would have stuck with this book for long as, although the premise was 'promising' with a girl who can 'hear' people's thoughts, the plot rambled all over an island in the Pacific NW (where EG lives in 'real life) each road, highway, lane was described in detail, what house was near what store/school/church etc. A map could have been provided to save reading-time. I kept going to the end only to discover it is the first book of three and I don't care enough about the heroine to read the rest. Question. Do US teenagers of both sexes refer to girls as 'chicks'? Somehow it seems dated. And does everyone live on fast-food and endless 'snacks'? I wont ask about drugs as most of these teens seemed to be 'high' from snorting, sniffing, swallowing illegal substances.

I've seen a lot of Broadway shows on Broadway over the years. When I originally started, the tickets were $7.50....My Fair Lady, Fiddler on the Roof, Lil Abner etc. I worked my way up to $90.00 a ticket over the years. As much as I truly enjoyed every show, including Lion King, my Broadway days are over. No way would I spend $250.00 a ticket. I now buy season tickets for our local theater. Not Broadway by a long shot, but enjoyable and if for some reason I cannot go, I'm only out '$15.00. LOL