List of Awesome (3) and Updates

It seems to me that 2011 is flying by. How are at Valentine's Day already? Here I am, another year no Valentine. But I still love this silly day--probably because I enjoy the colors and love is a decent thing to celebrate.

In honor of Valentine's Day, Erin Blakemore, author of The Heroine's Bookshelf, has been showcasing letters of love to favorite heroines. You have to check out Nicole's letter to Laura Ingalls Wilder if you were at all a Laura fan--it's a pretty awesome letter.

If you like to keep an eye on book to film adaptations, RC of Strange Culture has one of the best round-ups I've seen. Quite a few interesting projects in the works. I need to squeeze in We Need to Talk About Kevin and I'll be interested to see if Peace Like a River gets made.

Danielle of There's a Book has been featuring the wonderful Candlewick Press all month and is currently hosting a giveaway for a giant bear. When I was a kid, my grandmother won a giant bear for me in a Hallmark drawing. It remains a prized possession brought out at Christmas time. Having a stuffed animal the size of you has to be every kid's dream (and every parent's nightmare)

I enjoyed the Oscar nominated film True Grit and greatly enjoyed reading this extensive dialogue between Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana, in which they discuss the novel and both films.

Communication on the internet can be a very difficult thing. No matter how long you spend writing a blog post and then editing it, someone will come along and leave a comment that makes you scratch your head and wonder--does this person get even an inkling of what I'm saying? I can't tell you how many times I've had a quick vent over comments left here or in reply to something I've said elsewhere that feel like the other person is missing the point. Truth? Maybe they are or maybe I am! Words--such clumsy tools to communicate hearts and minds. So I really appreciated Mike Duran's exploration of whether or not everyone should "get you."

Quick Hits: Books I Done Read's review of Female Chauvinist Pigs: Women and the Rise of Raunch Culture, Ron Block's GORGEOUS version of "What a Friend We Have in Jesus", Rachelle Gardner's explanation of remainders, and Don Miller's How a Creator Handles Critics.

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After being sick last week, I've felt much better this week. The weather here is sunny and warm. On the music front, I've fallen completely in love with The Civil Wars, and have listened to little else for the past two weeks. I've also been eagerly watching the TV development season as networks are wrapping up their orders of pilots and I've been excited to see that The Secret Circle was ordered to pilot and that Nestor Carbonell was added to the Ringer pilot. (that's Sarah Michelle Gellar's potential show) That would represent a meeting of my two all time favorite shows. :) Some of the potential shows sound really amazing--high concept and speculative and my fingers are crossed that we'll be free of dull procedurals next year.

I'm currently reading House of Prayer No. 2 by Mark Richard which is excellently written and Aftertime by Sophie Littlefield which is about zombies. (enough said?)

Just a reminder that the Faith and Fiction Roundtable will be hosting discussions of Certain Women by Madeleine L'Engle on the 26th--we've had varying reactions to the book and we hope you'll join us to chat about the many ideas raised.

So that's some of what's up with me...how about you?