I believe we owned this before in a videotape box set, but I'm sure we will enjoy watching it on DVD!

Two more books won recently.



The Mitfords: Letters Between Six Sisters

The six notorious and passionately opinionated daughters of the second Baron Redesdale knew many key figures of the 20th century, from Hitler and Churchill to Evelyn Waugh and Lucian Freud. The sisters wrote some 12,000 letters to each other over a span of 80 years—the last was a fax sent in 2003 by 83-year-old Deborah to the dying 93-year-old Diana—and 5% are included here. The turbulent years before and during WWII produced the most noteworthy correspondence: Jessica scandalized her family by running away with her Communist cousin, and Diana divorced a Guinness heir to marry British fascist leader Oswald Mosley. Anti-Semitic Unity gushes like a schoolgirl over Hitler and tells Jessica that she wouldn't hesitate to kill Jessica's Communist husband for Nazism—but in the meanwhile she hopes they can be friends. Nancy writes cheerily to the imprisoned Diana after secretly testifying against her during the war. In later years, Jessica irritated her sisters from her home in America and broke completely with Diana over political differences. Peppered with colorful nicknames, filled with love, encouragement, jealousy and gossip, and written primarily to amuse the recipients, the letters testify to the bonds of sisterhood. Diana's daughter-in-law has diligently edited the mammoth correspondence, although readers will need to fill in the gaps with Mitford biographies and memoirs.

Sounds good. Also sounds like I need to learn more about these famous sisters first! Off to the library, I guess.



Absolutely Positively Not

Sixteen-year-old Steven relishes square dancing, drools over his male health teacher's musculature, and keeps a stash of International Male catalogs underneath his bed, but is determined that he is absolutely, positively not gay. In an eager crack to prove his heterosexuality, he futilely attempts to buy a Playboy magazine, tries mingling with the meathead jocks at lunch, and embarks on a series of disastrous dates with girls from his class. From the outset, it's obvious that Larochelle's first novel is mostly lighthearted laughs as Steven tries to rid himself of deviant sexual behavior (as explained in an ancient teen sexuality book he borrowed from the library). When he finally does own up to his shortcomings as a heterosexual, he decides to out himself to his best friend, Rachel, who is relieved that he has finally told her and blabs the news to her entire family while urging him to form a gay-straight alliance in his high school the following day. Even though the good-natured humor does cloud the book's overall sense of reality at times, Larochelle's eye-opening and accurate portrayal of Steven's coming out will ring optimistically true for many teens and their friends who are struggling with sexuality issues. And it's the delivery of his outing, coated in a healthy dose of hilarity, that makes Absolutely, Positively Not a fast-paced, funny, and frivolously frank read.

Very nice personalization by the author! Enjoyable book (for those of us who still pick up teen novels).

This is a pretty cool instant win - one of those folding camp chairs:



Try it yourself: T-Mobile Pasaporte a los Partidos Sweepstakes (ends in a couple of weeks)

Won this CD a couple of weeks ago, but I'm just getting around to posting it now.

I haven't been entering many contests recently, and started trying to get back into it today. Had a win pretty quickly to remind me how fun that is!



Unlike usually, I'm not going to give the link for this one, because the game is rather confusing to play. I probably wouldn't have even tried myself without the advice on Sweepstakes Advantage from other members!

Took a bit of time - but I'd say it was worth the wait.

The box (which is bigger than 2' x 2' x 2'):



And the contents (sorry for the glare):



I think my nieces (Zo Peep and Libby Doodle Doo) will enjoy most of these, and the rest will likely end up in Toys for Tots.

Heard this movie is very good - just need to find the time to watch it!