I've been away for awhile - more technical difficulties. Here's some catch-up:

Lars and the Real Girl. It's a brave, bold, and quietly beautiful film about real love, and not the kind you might think if you know anything about the premise. It's a fantastic treatment of an offbeat story line that I thank the gods for, and the best love story since Fargo. Yes, I believe that Fargo was all about love. Watch the final scene one more time and then tell me to my face that it isn't.

Penelope. Another good story, this one's a fairy tale and it's exactly the kind of fairy tale every little girl or grown woman should see. I'm addicted to fairy tales (not the Disney kind - I prefer the gritty, scary, bloody vengeance and witchcraft flavor. The sort the brothers Grimm and Hans used to write). I've tried to get my alma mater to add a fairy tales study to their class roster, but the English department has not given in to my demands as yet. So I study on my own. Aside from the old standards, read this contemporary classic collection of adult fairy tales. But you might want to hold onto something...between your thighs.

The Thirteenth Tale. So gorgeously written, and so gorgeously English that I can hear the narrator lilting in my head while I work at other things throughout the day, waiting to get back to it. This one gets to you quickly, even though I'm reading it slow and easy - relishing...every...single...moment. I'm not even sure I care whether it's a good story because I like the writing so much. The plot could pretty much fall to the wayside.

Christmas! There will be some lists of Christmas favorites to come.