Cupcakes are So Hot Now

You Are a Pistachio Rose Cupcake

You are multi-talented and constantly adding new talents. You are very gifted. You are hyperactive and tireless. You've got more than enough energy to pursue all your passions. You are joyfully curious about the world. There's so much to explore and learn. You try not to spend too much time examining yourself. You don't believe in second guessing.

What Exotic Cupcake Are You?

Blogthings: Discover the Parts of Your Personality that Have Been Hiding

Americanizing Shelley

I am reading Shaw's Pygmalion for my online book club and thought I'd be adventurous and get a film adaptation other than My Fair Lady. So I chose Americanizing Shelley. It's loosely based on Pygmalion and shows the story of a young Indian woman who was betrothed at an early age to a boy. Now she plans to marry him since she finished Home Ec College. He's been in the U.S. for years and has his sights on another.

I started the DVD and after a couple minutes the stilted dialog and low production values got the best of me. There's just too much that's good on TV that this "Let's make a film!" just doesn't cut it. Unless you're connected to someone in the production, choose something else.

Jane's House

You can visit one of the houses Miss Austen lived in and take writing workshops there.

Carefree, Wild, and Irresponsible? Really?

Your Love Sign is Sagittarius

You have a very philosophical perspective on romance. You don't take any of it too personalty. People fall in love. People fall out of love. That's life. You tend to be an honest and flighty partner. You get bored easily, and you don't mind if your sweetie knows it. Your heart is carefree, wild, and irresponsible. You tend to get in trouble with love, but it's always been a fun ride.

What's Your Love Sign?

Doctor Zhivago, the Novel

Last fall my EFL students read a simplified version of Doctor Zhivago and then we saw the movie. Our discussions were quite lively and it was interesting to delve into Russian history and literature. Thus I decided to read the novel this summer.

Both the movie and the graded reader leave out quite a bit from this hefty classic. I enjoyed getting every detail and event. A thoughtfully written novel is one of my favorite ways to come to know history. This novel, published in 1960, gives readers a close up at the enthusiasm, chaos, and violence surrounding the Russian Revolution.

Yes, the names are long and everyone's got a nickname, but I got a sense of who's who without a chart, maybe because I saw the movie first.

Most of the Russian literature, I've read has taken place before the Revolution, while Doctor Zhivago takes place before, during and after. What a time that was! Pasternak's novel reminds me of Dickens because not only do readers see the hero's journey, but we see so much of what happens throughout the society. I found that fascinating. So many people had so many struggles and tragedies.

The hero is Yurii . At the beginning of the story he's a young boy who witnesses his father's suicide. He's adopted by relatives and marries his cousin Tonia, a lovely, smart woman. The sort of girl people think he should marry. (And he does agree.)

As a young man in Moscow and later after the revolution when Yurii's out in the Ural Mountains, his path crosses that of Lara, an enigmatic, alluring, albeit troubled woman. Her father died when she was young and her mother becomes beholden to Komarovsky, a rich, powerful man who wants Lara when she's in high school. Lara picks up on her mother's implicit message that she should do what she needs to for the family. This action defines Lara making her feel a guilt she never completely overcomes. It taints her marriage to Pasha, an intelligent, innocent promising student she meets in university.

All the characters cross paths and influence each other as they strive to make sense of the confusion of the revolution that steamrolls over so many Russians back then. Pasternak constructs a masterful story full of drama and insight.

If you're not sure about reading the book, try the film or the BBC miniseries.

Persuasion by Jane Austen

Once again, true love triumphs over adversity.

It's difficult for me to be objective about Austen. I struggle to filter my reactions to her unfamiliar language, her unfamiliar time and class based society, and my aversion to Harlequin romance type sagas. All of that poses obstacles to my unfettered enjoyment of her prose.

On an intellectual level, the eighteenth century English preoccupation with class and breeding that is so central to Austen's tales captures my interest even while it engenders a certain amount of disdain.

And yet, on an emotional level, I can't help myself. I like her happy endings, her accounts of triumphal love.

So, I'm off to read yet another . . .

Guest blogger: Bridget

Do We Need a Third Bridget Jones?

As much as I love romantic comedies and I did see the first two Bridget Jones films, I just don't need a third. If as this article suggests Bridget is stupid enough to have an affair, however fleeting, she deserves divorce court.

Where's the originality in the film business? Can't someone invent some new characters and situations?