As part of my attempt to live a more balanced life in 2013, I have given myself the assignment to watch 2 movies and to read 2 books each month.  This is more difficult for me to do than you might imagine, but I’m giving it my best shot.  Here is my January report.

2 Movies

Hachi, A Dog’s Tale – Delightful.  The story of a college professor, the stray dog he found on a train platform and loyalty that goes on forever.  Highly recommended if you like Richard Gere, fables and house porn.  {have tissues nearby}

The Queen of Versailles – Compelling & whacked.  This is a documentary about a ditzy woman and her billionaire husband who set out to build the largest residence in USA.  Can you say conspicuous consumption?  Can you say bad judgement?  Can you say slobs?  Highly recommended because, well– Whiskey Tango Foxtrot— you’ve never seen anything like this.

2 Books

13, rue Thérèse – Fascinating.  On the surface, this is a novel about a college professor who finds a box filled with letter, photos and personal objects.  He decides to document each item and to research the timeframe from which the objects came.  What makes this novel so unique is that the author, Elena Maui Shapiro, who lived in an apartment building in Paris when she was a girl, inherited the objects when an older woman in the building died.  Using these objects as a starting point, the author wrote this novel.  Recommended if you like history and the idea that nothing is quite as it seems.

The Buddha Walks Into A Bar – Informative.  It’s been a long time since I read a book about religion.  This one, written by Lodro Rinzler, is quietly funny, well-researched and difficult to put down.  I hesitate to call it personal development, but I suppose that’s the genre it fits in.  I read it more as a refresher course on Buddhism than a how-to guide.  Recommended if you’re feeling the need to think about life from a different point of view and be mindful.

1 New Mantra

A friend’s second grade daughter came home from school with a long, involved story about playground intrigue.  My friend, who was making dinner as she listened to the story, said that she wasn’t absorbing the details.  Instead, she was listening to the tone-of-voice.  Eventually her daughter stopped talking and my friend realized that she needed to say something Mom-like.  So she asked her daughter what she thought about all that had happened and her daughter, with a sigh, summed it up with: “People are silly.”

No truer words, my little one.  And a perfect mantra about relationships, if you ask me.