April Summary

I read 5 books in April. I was on a roll and then an awful, terrible, no-good cold hit our home. By then end of the day, I am ready for bed. That is usually the time I get in bed, turn on my reading light and indulge. After all, reading is way more fun when the little kids are tucked in. Add to that, my oldest daughter was sick and hospitalized with vomiting and I spent 3-days holding an emesis bag. I have written reviews on all the books I read on this blog. I am still reading The Valley of Vision: A collection of Puritan Prayers & Devotions on occasion. So, that must be my favorite book.

I decided not to choose between the two movies that I watched this month and thought I would just recommend both. First, Mother of Mine, a Swedish film set during World War II, follows the life of a young Eero Lahti as he is forced to leave Finland. He, like 70,000 other children, are being sent to Sweden as refugees. Then, La Vie en Rose, a French film about the life of songbird Edith Piaf. The two movies couldn't be more different, but somehow they tell the same story. When a childhood is marred by neglect or war, separation, and bad choices made by frail, imperfect human parents, those experiences take their toll on the person's adult life. Of the two, I felt Mother of Mine was a better movie. La Vie en Rose, in my opinion, suffered by the way it was told. The movie begins with Edith collapsing on stage and continues with a series of fractured, non-chronological scenes from her life. Some of the scenes were dream-like and seemed to attempt to artistically convey Edith's fragile state of mind rather than being a real event. The movie is what we would have seen had Pablo Picasso decided to direct a movie. I "don't get" impressionist art and I didn't always follow this impressionistic movie.