Dickens' life

The Language of Flowers

by Vanessa Diffenbaugh (Goodreads Author)

The Language of Flowers 4.05  ·  rating details  ·  31,102 ratings  ·  5,740 reviews

A mesmerizing, moving, and elegantly written debut novel, The Language of Flowers beautifully weaves past and present, creating a vivid portrait of an unforgettable woman whose gift for flowers helps her change the lives of others even as she struggles to overcome her own troubled past.

The Victorian language of flowers was used to convey romantic expressions: honeysuckle for devotion, asters for patience, and red roses for love. But for Victoria Jones, it’s been more useful in communicating grief, mistrust, and solitude. After a childhood spent in the foster-care system, she is unable to get close to anybody, and her only connection to the world is through flowers and their meanings.

Now eighteen and emancipated from the system, Victoria has nowhere to go and sleeps in a public park, where she plants a small garden of her own. Soon a local florist discovers her talents, and Victoria realizes she has a gift for helping others through the flowers she chooses for them. But a mysterious vendor at the flower market has her questioning what’s been missing in her life, and when she’s forced to confront a painful secret from her past, she must decide whether it’s worth risking everything for a second chance at happiness.

Oscar Nominations

Oscar Nominations

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences surprised no one Thursday when it nominated “Lincoln” for Best Picture. The Civil War film received more Academy Award nominations than any other film released last year.

Academy voters will likely have a difficult time making their choices. There are many excellent movies to choose from -- and some great performances -- in a year that produced more money for Hollywood than any other year.

“Lincoln” received a total of 12 award nominations, including one for best picture. “Life of Pi” was second, with 11 Oscar nominations.

Quvenzhane Wallis as "Hushpuppy" on the set of Beasts of The Southern Wild (Photo: Fox Searchlight / Jess Pinkham)

​​
The film “Silver Linings Playbook” -- about a man rebuilding his life after a stay in a mental hospital -- received nominations for best director, best movie and best adapted screenplay. It also was nominated for all four major acting awards.

There were nine other best picture nominees, including “Beasts of the Southern Wild,” “Zero Dark Thirty,” “Amour,” “Argo,” “Les Miserables” and “Django Unchained.”

The James Bond movie “Skyfall” received five Oscar nominations. That is more than any other Bond film. But, like every other movie starring the British secret agent over the past 50 years, it was not nominated for “Best Picture.” The second-biggest worldwide ticket seller -- the Batman movie “The Dark Knight Rises” -- did not receive any nominations at all.  

​​The star of “Lincoln” -- Daniel Day-Lewis -- and the star of “Les Miserables” -- Hugh Jackman -- were nominated for the Best Actor award. Also nominated were Denzel Washington for his performance in “Flight,” Bradley Cooper for “Silver Linings Playbook” and Joaquin Phoenix for his work in “The Master.”

Jessica Chastain was nominated for Best Actress for her work in “Zero Dark Thirty.” Also nominated were Jennifer Lawrence for “Silver Linings Playbook” and Naomi Watts for “The Impossible,” about a family caught in a tsunami. Nine year old Quvenzhane Wallis, of “Beasts of the Southern Wild,” was another nominee. She is the youngest person to ever receive an Oscar nomination. “Amour” star, Emmanuelle Riva was nominated for Best Actress. At 85, she is the oldest person ever to be nominated.

The 5,856 voting members of the Academy can start voting February eighth. The 85th Academy Awards will be presented February 24^th in Hollywood.

“Les Miserables” Soundtrack

This week the album from the new movie “Les Miserables” went to number two on Billboard’s Top 200 albums chart. The recording was just released on December 21st. Some critics are wondering if the fast-rising movie soundtrack will oust Taylor Swift’s album “Red” from the number one position. Faith Lapidus has more on “Les Miserables” and some of its best performances.

The movie is based on a Broadway musical that was, in turn, based on the book “Les Miserables” by the nineteenth century French writer Victor Hugo. The story tells about the troubled lives of several poor, unlucky people.

Hugh Jackman as Jean Valjean

​​
One is Jean Valjean, a criminal hiding his identity from the police as he struggles to become a better person. Hugh Jackman plays Valjean in the movie. Here he performs “The Confrontation” with Russell Crowe, who plays the police inspector seeking Valjean.

Anne Hathaway also stars in “Les Miserables” as the poor, single mother Fantine. Critics strongly praised her acting in the film. But they seemed even more excited by Hathaway singing, especially in this song, “I Dreamed a Dream.”

The songs in the film “Les Miserables” were not pre-recorded as they are in most movie musicals. All the singing was done live on the movie set during filming.

Two actors perform the part of Cosette, Fantine’s daughter. Ten year old Isabelle Allen plays Cosette as a little girl. “Les Miserables” is the young Briton’s first film.

We leave you an interview wit  Isabelle Allen, the girl who sings “Castle on a Cloud” from the film “Les Miserables.” 

 

10 questions for Toni Morrison

In today's edition of El Pais there's an article about Nobel Prize-winner Toni Morrison's latest novel, Home (2012), and a Time magazine video interview from 2008. Morrison won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1993. Her long list of awards also includes the Pulitzer Prize in 1988.

Here's the video of the 10 questions series.



You can read a simplified scrip of the interview here.

You can also see a short slide show on her life and career here.

Song of Solomon (1977), Morrison's 3rd novel, is available at our library.

Best books and best sellers 2012

Our first entry of 2013 is about last year's books. In December magazines and newspapers published their best-book lists. Digital Book World also announced the best-selling ebooks of the year. The most popular: the Fifty Shades trilogy, followed by the Hunger Games trilogy. Surprise: the critics' preferences were different form the public's choices, none of these titles appear in their lists.

Not that there are many coincidences among the critics, but let me write about one of them: Hillary Mantel's Bring Up the Bodies, winner of the 2012 Man Booker Prize. What's special about her is that she also won the Booker Prize in 2009 for Wolf Hall (available at our library). She can add these to a long list of awards, which includes more than a dozen.

Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies are part of the Thomas Cromwell Trilogy, about King Henry VIII's secretary. Cromwell helped the king break with Rome and marry Ann Boleyn. If you think you've had enough of Henry VIII, give it a try: you won't be disappointed. Both books are wonderful psychological portraits and an opportunity to learn about life in those years. There's a lot of intrigue, too, so you won't get bored. Cromwell himself is a fascinating character, a corrupt highflying type that is so popular on film and TV these days.

You can read an excerpt from Wolf Hall here.

The Hobbit

As you probably know, "In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit." Once Tolkien had written this sentence on a blank examination paper he was marking, he decided that he had to find out what sort of hole he lived in, why he lived in a hole, etc. The result was a tale that was later published in 1937 with immediate success. It tells the story of how Bilbo Baggins, a respectable hobbit, had an adventure and found himself doing and saying things altogether unexpected. This is quite unusual, since respectable hobbits never have adventures or do anything unexpected. And a big adventure it is: he'll have to deal with trolls, goblins, the Gollum and even a fearsome dragon; he'll also find a certain ring with amazing powers. Fortunately he'll have the invaluable help of Gandalf the wizard and a group of dwarves with funny names.

JRR Tolkien

What do hobbits look like? They are a little people, about half our height, and have no beards. They are inclined to be fat in the stomach; they dress in bright colors (chiefly green and yellow); wear no shoes, because their feet grow natural leathery soles and thick brown hair; have good-natured faces, and laugh deep fruity laughs (especially after dinner, which they have twice a day when they can get it).

The Hobbit is an utterly enjoyable story with lots of action and humour. It's like a fairy tale for smart children: the heroes are not quite perfect - their motivations not quite heroic; they are affected by cold weather, lack of food and difficulties; the outcome is a lesson in geopolitics. Bilbo gradually develops self-confidence, courage and good judgement; at the end he'll be a stronger, better person.

The Hobbit is soon to be added to our library. Meanwhile you might want to see Peter Jackson's first part of  a trilogy of films, which opens worldwide today: I hope they're as good as the book!

Winter Poems

We haven't published any poems in a while so, on occasion of the first big snowfall, here go these about winter and its connotations.

(from poetryfoundation.org)

Snow

By Frederick Seidel

Snow is what it does.

It falls and it stays and it goes.

It melts and it is here somewhere.

We all will get there.

The Darker Sooner

By Catherine Wing

Then came the darker sooner,

came the later lower.

We were no longer a sweeter-here

happily-ever-after. We were after ever.

We were farther and further.

More was the word we used for harder.

Lost was our standard-bearer.

Our gods were fallen faster,

and fallen larger.

The day was duller, duller

was disaster. Our charge was error.

Instead of leader we had louder,

instead of lover, never. And over this river

broke the winter’s black weather.

Lines for Winter

By Mark Strand

Tell yourself

as it gets cold and gray falls from the air

that you will go on

walking, hearing

the same tune no matter where

you find yourself—

inside the dome of dark

or under the cracking white

of the moon's gaze in a valley of snow.

Tonight as it gets cold

tell yourself

what you know which is nothing

but the tune your bones play

as you keep going. And you will be able

for once to lie down under the small fire

of winter stars.

And if it happens that you cannot

go on or turn back

and you find yourself

where you will be at the end,

tell yourself

in that final flowing of cold through your limbs

that you love what you are.