As You Wish

By Cary Elwes

Storm the castle once more.

Standing on the stage for the twenty-fifth anniversary of The Princess Bride, I felt an almost overwhelming sense of gratitude and nostalgia. It was a remarkable night and it brought back vivid memories of being part of what appears to have become a cult classic film about pirates and princesses, giants and jesters, cliffs of insanity, and of course rodents of unusual size.

It truly was as fun to make the movie as it is to watch it, from getting to work on William Goldman’s brilliant screenplay to being directed by the inimitable Rob Reiner. It is not an exaggeration to say that most days on set were exhilarating, from wrestling Andre the Giant, to the impossibility of playing mostly dead with Billy Crystal cracking jokes above me, to choreographing the Greatest Sword Fight in Modern Times with Mandy Patinkin, to being part of the Kiss That Left All the Others Behind with Robin Wright.

In this book I’ve gathered many more behind-the-scenes stories and hopefully answers to many of the questions we’ve all received over the years from fans. Additionally, Robin, Billy Rob, and Mandy, as well as Christopher Guest, Wallace Shawn, Fred Savage, Chris Sarandon, Carol Kane, Normal Lear, and William Goldman graciously share their own memories and stories from making this treasured film.

If you’d like to know a little bit more about the making of The Princess Bride as seen through the eyes of a young actor who got much more than he bargained for, along with the rest of this brilliant cast, then all I can say is…as you wish.

I never read stuff like this. I find them boring and hardly ever finish, but this...this was just so much fun! I loved all the behind the scenes stuff I learned, and after reading it I went and watched the movie and laughed at certain scenes because I knew what had happened and why Westley was sitting the way he was (broken foot!). I enjoyed the writing as well, which was friendly, down-to-earth, and engaging. It really felt like I was sitting just having a chat with Cary who was enjoying reliving a great time in his life (minus the broken foot). I loved the little quotes and stories from other actors as well. I’d heartily recommend this book to anyone, who like me, grew up running around their house saying, “Inconceivable!” “Anybody want a peanut?” or “Twoo Wuv!” It’s a heart-warming look at a beloved family film that we are now enjoying with the next generation of the family.

I give it a 4 out of 5

The Help

By Kathryn Stockett

Aibileen is a black maid in 1962 Jackson, Mississippi, who’s always taken orders quietly, but lately she’s unable to hold her bitterness back. Her friend Minny has never held her tongue but now must somehow keep secrets about her employer that leave her speechless. White socialite Skeeter just graduated college. She’s full of ambition, but without a husband, she’s considered a failure. Together, these seemingly different women join together to write a tell-all book about work as a black maid in the South, that could forever alter their destinies and the life of a small town.

I typically stay away from Best Sellers, because from past experience they tend to cross lines that I like just where they are thank you very much. I only read this after I asked people who had read it and know my preferences and decided to try it out. I was warned there was language, and boy howdy there is quite a lot of language. No ‘F’ words, but plenty of the usual in the profanity department. There was also a brief mention of rape, so subtle you could almost miss it. Though, I definitely did not. There is spousal abuse, though it is only portrayed with the next day bruises.

After reading this book I understood why it has been such a phenomenon. It deals with racial discrimination, the sexism of the 60s, and what it is to be different in a place that eats unique people alive. Told from 3 perspectives, Minny, Aibileen, and Skeeter, it’s a story about courage and change. It’s beautifully written, and easy to understand. It’s a book that I found myself both impressed with and sad about. I always get uneasy when reading historical fiction that makes me wonder about humanity. I always hope that if I were to have lived in these sorts of times that I would’ve had the courage to stand by truth and right. This is an interesting way to look at a time in history when things were so chaotic and people really thought the world was going to end and it wouldn’t get better. It’s really about how we’re all the same in the ways that matter. We all have people that treat us badly, we all have problems, we all have insecurities. It’s a good book, and I understand why it was so highly acclaimed.

I give it a 3.5 out of 5- above average but also less than I was expecting for such a wide-read book. 

The Mysterious Benedict Society

By Trenton Lee Stewart

“Are you a gifted child looking for special opportunities?”

When this peculiar ad appears in the newspaper, dozens of children enroll to take a series of mysterious, mind-bending tests. (And you, dear reader, can test your wits right alongside them.) But in the end just four very special children will succeed. Their challenge: to go on a secret mission that only the most intelligent and resourceful children could complete. With their newfound friendship at stake, will they be able to pass the most important test of all?

Welcome to the Mysterious Benedict Society.

“Remember the white knight.”

This, like many books, is about being different and finding where you belong. Reynie Muldoon is an orphan who has a special tutor who helps him to find an advertisement in a paper asking gifted children if they want a special opportunity. Only through the encouragement of his tutor does Reynie decide to take the tests, which turn out to be myriad and strange tests. Reynie passes, along with three others: Sticky Washington, Kate Wetherall, and Constance Contraire. Sticky is the kid who remembers everything he ever reads. Kate is the daring athletic one, keeping everything she needs in her handy bucket, Constance is stubborn and short, and Reynie, well, he’s the one who is able to lead them. This is a little like mission impossible for gifted kids. It’s cute, deep, and warming to read. The above quote is one of the take-aways that I adored from this book, but I won’t spoil it by telling what it means. You’ll have to read it and find out! I enjoyed this story and the inherent goodness of it. It’s about using your unique gifts to make a difference and overcome difficulties and help others.

I give it a 4 out of 5

The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up

By Marie Kondo

Japanese organizational consultant Marie Kondo takes tidying to a whole new level, promising that if you properly declutter your home once, you'll never have to do it again. Whereas most methods advocate a room-by-room or little-by-little approach, the KonMari Method's category-by-category, all-at-once prescription leads to lasting results. In fact, none of Kondo's clients have been repeat customers (and she still has a three-month waiting list of new customers!). With detailed guidance for every type of item in the household, this quirky little manual from Japan's newest lifestyle phenomenon will help readers clear their clutter and enjoy the unique magic of a tidy home--and the calm, motivated mindset it can inspire.

This was a very interesting read for a girl who loves to organize. What Marie Kondo claims is that if you follow her method you’ll never be cluttered again or find yourself in a mess of ‘stuff’. While I laud her approach (which is a good one) it really isn’t going to work for everyone. Especially if you have a family with more than one or two kids. I just can’t envision this working unless you’re a dictator with your kid and follow them around making sure that they put things in their place. I somehow think that would brainwash a child to be OCD. I have, however, incorporated certain aspects of her book and it has been very nice. Her folding technique is one that I now use and love. I also use her disposal method for my clothes, which was amazing because I was finally able to just get rid of junk I’d had in my closet forever that wasn’t doing anybody any good (except for perhaps dust bunnies). If you’re a cleaning enthusiast, I would say read this just for the experience and try it out. It’s worked for a lot of people, and it has some really great ideas inside it. One thing that endears me to it was how it approached possessions. It encourages people to only keep those things that bring them joy. Don’t keep something because so-and-so gave it to you and you can’t get rid of it, or simply because it still works but you have always hated it. You should surround yourself with beauty and the things that make you happy. Loved that concept, and incorporated it as well.

I give it a 3.75 out of 5

Wild

By Cheryl Strayed

A powerful, blazingly honest memoir: the story of an eleven-hundred-mile solo hike that broke down a young woman reeling from catastrophe and built her back up again.

At twenty-two, Cheryl Strayed though she had lost everything. In the wake of her mother’s death, her family scattered and her own marriage was soon destroyed. Four years later, with nothing more to lose, she made the most implusive decision of her life: to hike the Pacific Crest Trail from the Mojave Desert through California and Oregon to Washington State and to do it alone. She had no experience as a long-distance hiker, and the trail was little more than an idea, vague and outlandish and full of promise. But it was a promise of piecing back together a life that had come undone.

Strayed faces down rattlesnakes and black bears, intense heat and record snowfalls, and both the beauty and loneliness of the trail. Told with great suspense and style, sparkling with warmth and humor, Wild vividly captures the terrors and pleasures of one young woman forging ahead against all odds on a journey that maddened, strengthened, and ultimately healed her.

 

Wow. This book really has me reeling. Not a good reeling either.  There was so much that really frustrated me and left me so angry that I wanted to yell and cry at the same time. I will say this much for the author: she knows how to work emotion. I had the same problem I always have with memoir: my beliefs mess with my ability to be objective.  Her life was a big huge mess, and I congratulate her on being so open and honest, that can be really hard, I know. Grief affects everyone differently and this is just one woman’s reaction and subsequent descent into madness and eventual realization. Her life was riddled with sex and drugs, and she doesn’t skirt around the fact that she enjoyed it, though it was all “recreational”. Just one point of the book and message that I was upset about and completely and strongly disagreed with; she cheated on her husband because her mother died and she was missing something. Again, everyone deals with, or doesn’t deal with, grief in their own way. Another thing, warning there are probably over a hundred instances of the f-word in this book, a point which had me reeling (in the bad way) wondering if anybody really said it with that much frequency and without batting an eyelash about it. Wow. But honestly, the one thing in the entire book that had me hating it was the offhand way the author addressed the fact that her heroine buddy had gotten her pregnant and she just automatically got an abortion. I think in the entire book it comprised 3 sentences. I was taken aback by how easy that decision was for her. Being very strongly against abortion, this not only upset me, but I was downright livid, an emotion I don’t often find myself feeling. I tried to work my way past it and enjoy her story of hiking, but I got tangled up in my own opinion and just couldn’t get past it. I can’t give this book any sort of good rating because it seemingly promotes terrible lifestyle choices like drugs and one night stands by making them seem normal and commonplace, and in the end, not really of that great of importance. I believe that the more that certain things are talked of, the more they gain power, words are powerful and I don’t like the fact that a vast majority of this book is profane and dealing with unsavory life choices. I have nothing against the author, this just wasn’t for me.

 

I give it a 1 ½ out of 5 because it was well-written and formatted and had interesting information on long-distance hiking and those who experience it.

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

By Rebecca Skloot


Her name was Henrietta Lacks, but scientists know her as HeLa. She was a poor black tobacco farmer whose cells—taken without her knowledge in 1951—became one of the most important tools in medicine, vital for developing the polio vaccine, cloning, gene mapping, and more. Henrietta’s cells have been bought and sold by the billions, yet she remains virtually unknown, and her family can’t afford health insurance. This phenomenal New York Times bestseller tells a riveting story of the collision between ethics, race, and medicine; of scientific discovery and faith healing; and of a daughter consumed with questions about the mother she never knew.


Okay, here's a book I would never have read if not for college classes. This book made me sick. I can't believe all the stuff that goes on that we don't know about; I'm kinda hoping that Ms. Skloot was a bit elaborate in her telling of the story of Henrietta and her family and her cells. There's a lot of science in this book that is downright interesting enough that I would have loved to read just the science stuff because the human interest behind the story is tragic and horror-filled. Take a black family that doesn't much mind about incest, isn't able to educate themselves, is abusive, molesters, and has a case of murder and you have a very brief history of the Lack's misfortune. Take the doctor and science point of view about taking a woman's cells without her knowledge and then you start to wonder...what else are they doing that we don't know about? This book made me slightly paranoid of doctors. I can't and won't reccommend this book because of the mention of abuse and incest and molestation among other racial and ethical crimes. It's an emotionally hard book to read, but extremely well-written and, as far as I can tell, well-researched. If you have a second go look up Henrietta online. It's just too interesting not to know the science part of her life. Chances are, someone in your family is alive today because Henrietta died...