Movies and books

I make no sense, even to myself. Please see my Shutter Island post to be utterly confused, but I finally got to see Valentine's Day. It was nice, it entertained me, but I think I've already forgotten it. Yet, Shutter Island remains.

Thus lies the tightrope of my brain. I don't want to be haunted and left feeling empty and hopeless (hello Shanghai Girls), but I do want something I can sink my teeth into. I think at the end of the day, I want to be challenged but end up hopeful in the end. An example... I enjoyed every second of reading Jodi Picoult's My Sister's Keeper until the ending. How dare she jerk me around and make me care about this family and then not have the balls to find some solution to the problem she presented? I felt cheated and manipulated. That I don't like.

It's very important to me lately to figure out what I do like since I'm finishing up this edit on my book. If I can't pinpoint what I like, how can I expect to write something anybody else likes? I find myself being as overly critical as I am at every book club. I loved Pillars of the Earth, but I critiqued it enough that several people at the book club asked if I really did like it. Do I want somebody tearing my book up in the same way???

In a similar vein, I just finished reading Wednesday Sisters by Clayton (see my book list on the right). I wanted an easier, fluffier read after Shanghai Girls and Shutter Island, but this book jumped all over the place and left me feeling like an editor making remarks and not a reader. This made me realize something... a good book is one that brings me in and makes me forget to look at it critically. Stephanie Meyer (Twilight) for example was NOT a good writer, but she weaved a story that kept me entertained from Start (Twilight) to finish (Breaking Dawn) and actually still wanting more. Nothing hooks me into a story better than interesting and flawed characters. But, on the flip side, a well-written story can awe me past storyline. I guess we are simply back to the delicate balance thing.

For those of you reading this with a confused wrinkle in your forehead... I did warn you. Sometimes I so analyze things that I can't form a real opinion. I just stay caught in the land of thinking about it. Scary, huh?