G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra

I was very reluctant to see this movie. I have fond memories of (and pieces of) playing with the Joe guys when I was a kid. There were a couple girl characters so I was allowed to participate when the boys were playing. The cartoon was classic 80s as well, but for some reason the trailers and commercials for the movie looked uninspiring. I was fine with waiting until it came out on DVD. But this weekend I had some free time so I decided to hit a matinee. I'm really glad I did. It was a great adventure. It had all the action and fun techy toys that you would expect and the actors did superb jobs of being the "Joe" characters without being cheesy or unbelievable. The story wasn't too hard to follow and actually made sense.
My guess is the Marketing and PR guys for this movie were Marvel fans and were unexcited with the task of promoting the Joes. If so...shame on them. I hope other people go see it despite the so-so PR. I would definitely recommend it and I hope it does well enough to warrant that sequel that they set up oh so well.

The Sugar Queen

by Sarah Addison Allen
2008, Bantam Books
This was the latest Book Club book that I read, and it was the best that we've read so far. It's definitely chick lit, but it has this extra bit of fantasy that works really well. One of the characters is visited by books that appear just when she needs them (Wouldn't that be awesome!). The twists are creative and I wasn't able to guess any of them ahead of time, which added to the excitement of their discovery. It's a well written book that follows the romance of the characters without shoving it down your throat. It also ties up all the loose ends for a satisfying ending.
Check it out and enjoy!