Surrender, Dorothy: Reviews

Wife in the North

I really enjoyed fellow blogger Judith O'Reilly's blog-to-book, Wife in the North.  I agree with the Publisher's Weekly review that it's a little too long.  I do get that Judith didn't want to move to the north.  She loved London. I get that. 

I don't get why her husband moved her there if he was going to keep working in London. 

However, I don't care about any of that because I'm jealous as hell of O'Reilly's writing.  She puts together some very beautiful sentiments about aging, parenthood, and life choices in her blog, which was bought as a book ten days after she launched it.  Oh, we should all be so lucky.

But I think, in O'Reilly's case, it wasn't luck. It was talent. 

Fairy Eve and Her Holiday Books

The Parent Bloggers Network sent me three books by Lisa Sferlazza Johnson and illustrated by Tucker Johnson this fall.  They all feature a little fairy named Eve.  I read them all to my daughter, and we agreed that while they are all clever and beautiful, Winter's Eve stands out among the pack.

I'm always looking for insight into other people's customs and holiday celebrations, and I find most things out through my daughter's books.  This one describes the many winter festivals of light, and all are given gracefully equal weight.  I love how all of them are brought together without preference, how all are valued for what they contribute to the world. What a great message.

All Hallow's Eve follows Eve to her October 31 birthday party, when her friends bring her gifts of candy in costume.

 

And Christmas Eve combines fairies and the Christ story in a particularly unique way.

 

So cute. 

Then She Found Me

I've been sitting on this movie for a while. I don't know why. I love Helen Hunt and Bette Midler and Colin Firth. But I sat on it, and then I finally watched it. And oh, my God -- this is a great movie.

 

Then She Found Me is the story of learning to trust people, not because you have evidence what they say is true, but because it IS true.  And how easy it is to hurt the ones you love, and how important it is to look beyond that to the love. And now I will dissolve into a pile of tears.

It is THAT GOOD.