I'm a Prince of Rochester, King of Minnesota!!

I finished my book just now. The Cider House Rules by John Irving is another great novel by Irving. I really like how he writes, how easy it is to follow the story and how easy it is to fall in love with his characters. I've now read A Prayer for Owen Meany, A Widow for One Year, and now Cider House Rules - all of which I loved. Widow probably still my favorite.

Owen Meany was a very religious book that was made into the movie Simon Birch. Of course there was about 90% of that book that was missing from the movie, but that's normally the case. And Widow was made into A Door in the Floor which came out a couple of years ago. It was a good movie, but again it only touched the surface of what the book was really about. With that said, I have the movie Cider House Rules at the top of my Netflix list so I will let you know what I think. Compared to Owen Meany, the Cider House was much much much more liberal. Homer Wells grows up in an orphanage in Main during the 1940s. He has extremely bad luck trying to be adopted by different families and always returns to the orphanage. After a while, he finally "becomes useful" at the orphanage by working there and accepting his place there. The main doctor there functions officially as a deliverer of babies. But due to the nature of his job, he is unofficially known as the only doctor in Maine who will perform an abortion on a woman if she requests it (illegal at this time and he would do it for no charge).

So the concept of abortion is continual throughout this book that was written in 1985! I'm amazed how a lot of his concepts and arguments both for and against aborition are still being used today... some 20+ years later. If you are strongly opposed to abortion, you may not like this book. If you are of other opinion, you may like this book.

The only criticism I have for the book is the love triangle that develops in the book and I could see a mile away. I realize the situation that was created with the love triangle, but I really did not care for how it turned out. It's probably realistic in every way - but when that happens, I feel bad for the guy who works so hard only to have his heart crushed... and then he learns to move on in life and become an expert at something other than love. Yeah, there's probably some personal aspects of Homer's story that feel close to me, but that's about all I gots to say about that.

And if you've never read the book and have no idea what I"m talking about - that's ok. I actually own this book if anyone wants to borrow it. I actually bought it about 4 years ago in Arizona while visiting my Grams (yeah Grams - I bought this when I was at the Union while you and the ladies were driving in your parade:) ). Once you get past the "setup" part of the book, it really does become quite personal and touching. I have started it probably 4 times, only to put it down again and again. Don't worry, I've done that routine more than 4 times with Insomnia by Stephen King. Maybe someday I can get through it! Up next for me is actually Obama's book that I brought with me to NY!!!

I'm driving to Endicott this morning. Still in NY and a lot closer to the rediculous snow they received here in NY last week. I have two of my "peeps" there to visit with for a few days before heading to Toronto on Thursday.

Haiku of the Day
Finishing the Book
Was my main goal forTonight
I can sleep in Peace!!!

Entertainment of the Day - As I was "casually" shopping this weekend (not looking for anything in particular), I accidentally saw that Harry Connick Jr has a new CD out! Oh, My Nola came out at the end of January and is his dedication of the Jazz of his home area of New Orleans. He takes some songs that a music fan should recognize and adds a taste of Louisiana Jazz to them. These are all songs he feels has special meaning to the area that he grew up in and I see the album as a tribute to all that the area has gone through in the past 2 years. It's Big Band CD and yes, he has tour dates scheduled. I'm planning on going to see him in Minneapolis if anyone is interested in joining me!! Seriously!

Weblink of the Day - Not sure I can beat yesterday's flute playin Beat Boxin Mad man... but see if this holds up.... This is a pretty cool link that some guy created professional pictures after seeing a kid's drawing as his motivation. You have to go there to see what I'm talking about!