Book Review:

The Last Station by Jay Parini

Recounting Tolstoy's last days of his life, this book is a mixture of both fact and fiction told from multiple points of view. Tolstoy and his wife bickered continuously over his legacy and the copyrights of his works. Sofya Andreyevna, Tolstoy's wife, submerged into paranoia making the last days of Tolstoy's life tumultuous, causing him to flee from home to live the his last days alone.

I found the book intriguing. Not knowing very much about Tolstoy and his life, it encouraged me to learn more. I would like to read Anna Karinana and reread War and Peace. — Martha Curtis

"Leo Tolstoy was a Russian writer widely regarded as among the greatest of novelists. His masterpieces War and Peace and Anna Karenina represent in their scope, breadth and vivid depiction of 19th-century Russian life and attitudes, the peak of realist fiction." — Wikipedia

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Movie Review

Strange Wilderness (2008)

Strange Wilderness is one wacky adventure! (Cheech & Chong meet 'Crocodile Hunter' Steve Irwin)

Staring Steve Zahn, this goofy movie is about animal enthusiast Peter Gaulke (Zahn) who runs the successful wilderness show he inherited from his well respected father into ground. When informed by the TV station producer the show is going to be canceled, Peter hatches a plan to save the show by searching the jungles of South America to capture something sensational with a crew of stoned and mentally deficient misfits.

All in all the show made me chuckle a few times and occasionally pushes the outrageous meter into the red zone. Although Strange Wilderness lives up to its reception on Rotten Tomatoes, the movie of high jinks and gaffs, with its notable cast, is a must have for any 420-loving movie watcher.

Movie quotes ar IMDB.com "Peter Gaulke: [narrating] Monkeys make up over 80% of the world’s monkey population."

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Movie Review

My Best Friend's Girl (2008)

This is definitely not a movie to watch while with someone you are trying woo! While both funny and touching, serious relationship concepts might just squash a budding relationship rather than inspire it to blossom... What do I know? LOL.

In this romantic comedy, Sherman 'Tank' Turner (Dane Cook) has an unusual after hours job: he is paid to take women out on bad dates so they will appreciate the men they just dumped. In an 'unbelievable' turn of events, Tank ends up falling for his step cousin's love interest when his cousin, Dustin (Jason Biggs), hires Tank to make himself look good! Oh no! At the same time the love interest, Alexis (Kate Hudson), falls for Tank because he was both a bad date and rejected her. A tangled web twisted events ensue.

True romantics and believers in Fate will appreciate this gem of a movie. The popular cast perform well as they pluck your heart strings.

IMDB.com reviews: Jamie Ward says, "Careless Fun," 7/10 stars.

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Movie Review

Mr Woodcock (2007)

Every shy and demure kid's nightmare! Talk about institutionalized nastiness...

This comedic adventure through self-growth and maturation of John Farley (Seann William Scott) who, in his adult life, becomes a self-help book writer guru in pursuit of his own salvation. However, his journey is derailed when he visits his widowed mother (Susan Sarandon) to discover the gym teacher, Mr Jasper Woodcock (Billy Bob Thornton), who terrorized him as a child is dating and mother. The torment resumes without missing a beat, despite his mother's blind affection for Mr Woodcock.

I really hate people like Mr Woodcock, LOL. He's manipulative and egocentric. He's an asshole. But in the middle of the movie you come to realize there is something else about him.

Visit IMDB.com for full cast credits.

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