Heather Anne

This is my week in arts and entertainment. What are you kids reading and watching? Raise your hand if you're going to see The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian Friday night for the action and also to see the Harry-Potter and the Half-Blood Prince teaser. Just me and Amy, then? Alas, earwax.

Books!:

Persuasion, Jane Austen

Jane Austen does not have an equal in wit or social candor; and to quote Prudie from Karen Joy Fowler's Jane Austen Book Club, "Austen can plot like a son of a bitch." She is my favorite author, moving me from giggle to adoring sigh to disdain to raucous laughter all in one paragraph. But there is something... unfair in all of her books, save Persuasion. My sister and I call it "The Austen Payoff." She draws her readers' emotions deeper and deeper into her stories until we are about to bust with longing for Elizabeth or Emma or Elinor to shout out how deeply they are in love, and then Austen just... pulls out. Pardon the double entendre, but it really is quite like deliciously excruciating foreplay followed by a yawn and a, "Well, that was fun; shall we sleep?" Right at the climax of the story, Austen is all, And what did they say to each other now that their true feelings were revealed? Well, pretty much what you'd expect two people in love to say. Then they got their parents' permission, and it was good. The end. Maybe it is because it was her last novel, or maybe she just wanted to stick it to Charlotte Bronte, but when Anne and Captain Wentworth come unglued at the end of Persuasion, it feels so authentic. It is Jane at her best. I reread Persuasion earlier this week and my number one feeling was swoon.

Mercy Watson to the Rescue, Written by: Kate DiCamillo. Illustrated by: Chris Van Dusen

Kate DiCamillo's The Tale of Desperaux is one of the most perfect stories ever written. And The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane moved me to tears more than once. The latest character DiCamillo has brought to life is a little pig named Mercy Watson who loves his toast with a great deal of butter. These books are aimed at a much younger audience than DiCamillo's previous stories, and while the first one in the series, Mercy Watson to the Rescue, is cute, what really drew me in are the illustrations. Chris Van Dusen's incandescent, classic drawings of Mercy and his parents and the two old sisters who live next door just made this story. Look at this:

I'd never heard of Van Dusen before this, but I would gladly give him and J. Otto Seibold the brushes to paint my whole world.

Remember Me, Sophie Kinsella

I checked out books from the library for the first time this week, and my librarian practically forced Sophie Kinsella's Remember Me into my hands. Even though I read loads of kids' books, I am, for some inexplicable reason, all judgey when it comes to anything that appears to be chick lit. I mean, I am a chick. I love chick flicks (see below) more than any person in the world. This book was absolutely 13 Going on 30 meets The Devil Wears Prada meets Bridget Jones's Diary. It was no Persuasion, but it had me laughing out loud the whole way through, and I learned some new British slang. I don't know why I have an aversion to books with bright pink or turquoise covers, but this was a step in the direction of curing the literary asshole in me.

Movies!:

Baby Mama

Here is what I learned from Baby Mama: If Tina Fey asked me to have her babies, I totally would. Yeah okay, I already knew that. Baby Mama was a hoot. A predictable hoot, but a hoot nonetheless. Tina Fey and Amy Poehler should make a gazillion movies together, and I would pay to see every single one of them. Next time, though, they should write their own screenplay.

What Happens in Vegas

There are always people who dismiss the rom-com and judge me for not watching more Important Movies, but you know what? I like to watch people fall in love. And I like to laugh. And I love happy endings. The romantic comedy is a perfect situation for me. It's not that I don't know what's happening in Tibet or what has happened in Rwanda. I know it a lot; that's probably why I need the distraction. Cameron Diaz and Ashton Kutcher are endearing in What Happens in Vegas, and their chemistry puts this one shelf above the average chick flick. Their sidekicks' tag during the credits was one of the funniest things I've ever seen. I'll be quoting it for probably ever.