So, when I checked this movie, Mostly Martha, out of the library last week, I knew I was in for a treat. Why? Well, it was something about how the librarian clutched the movie in her hands and rolled her eyes back in her head and said, “I LOVE THIS MOVIE! I would watch it again and again.” In my experience, librarians are usually pretty spot on about what’s good and what sucks–even movies.

So, yeah, I loved it. Let me first say, though, that I’m in a bit of an emotional space right now. But then I’m PMSing–so EVERYthing is making me cry–even Moonlight for Valentino, which I caught on television yesterday AND Stepmom, which was also on yesterday. Are you starting to get an idea of my day yesterday? If you’re thinking sitting in front of the television, wrapped up in a blanket weeping, you’ve pretty much got me nailed.

But Mostly Martha was special. First of all, it’s a food movie. The main character is a chef and her love interest is a chef. Second, it’s got an adorable kid in it who sort of reminded me of Scarlett Johansson’s character in Manny and Lo (which is a great movie–see that one as well). Finally, it’s beautiful–there were some scenes where Martha is walking and snow is falling that are sublime.

But mostly it is the story that killed me. It was layered and fascinating and I felt a real kinship to the obsessive-compulsive Martha. I don’t want to say too much about the plot as I’d rather not spoil it for you, but if you like food and you like to cry, this is one you won’t want to miss. Oh, and for some reason I found the kissing scene in this movie one of the sexiest kissing scenes ever and usually I hate kissing scenes because I am mental age 12.

Night Train VI is shipping soon and I can’t wait to get my copy. There is an interview with Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and stories from such writers as:

Steve Almond
Grant Bailie
Terri Brown-Davidson
Daphne Buter
Kathy Fish
William Reese Hamilton
Richard Madelin

You won’t want to miss out–order your copy today.

Newburyport is my favorite city and I’m not just saying that because I used to live there and hope to live there again soon. It is my favorite because it hold events like the first annual Newburyport Literary Festival, which is next weekend (April 28-30). For this first year, the festival will focus on the work of Andre Dubus (ooooh, do I love his stories! oh!), who lived in a town near Newburyport.

The main day of the festival appears to be Saturday, as it is jam packed with events and readings. I’m excited and planning on attending and will report back here afterwards.

Here’s a book you’ll want to add to your “must have” list–Roy Kesey’s Nothing in the World:

Nothing in the World is a war story unlike any other—a dark, surreal, surprisingly funny and offbeat fable of madness, innocence and survival.

The spring issue of FRiGG is live. As usual, it is one of the most beautiful ezines out there and is filled with great writing.

Okay, so I am late to the party in reading this book, but I think Hornby himself would appreciate that fact. Here are the reasons why you should buy (I say buy instead of read because it is partly about buying books you never read):

1) All of the proceeds from the book are split between 826NYC, a writing center for children, and Treehouse, a London-based charity for children with autism (Hornby has a son with autism)

2) Hornby is funny as hell

3) He is a also a writer who knows how to get to the heart of the matter (“We are never allowed to forget that some books are badly written; we should remember that sometimes they’re badly read, too.”)

4) and has a tender heart

5) it’s partly about writing (“But there comes a point in the writing process when a novelist–any novelist, even a great one–has to accept that what he is doing is keeping one end of a book away from the other, filling up pages, in the hope that these pages will move, provoke, and entertain the reader.”)

6) reading about reading is an interesting concept

Early this morning on our walk, we decided to go through the woods instead of on the road. Perfect decision as a part of the way up the path we heard it–the wood thrush.

This clear, cool bird song makes me think of two things:

1) Allen’s grandmother when she was staying with us two years ago and slept with her window slightly ajar so that she could hear the thrush in the morning.

2) this poem by Jane Kenyon, which should be read and then read again and again: Having it Out with Melancholy–here is the final stanza (but please read the whole poem–it will turn you inside out):

High on Nardil and June light
I wake at four,
waiting greedily for the first
note of the wood thrush. Easeful air
presses through the screen
with the wild, complex song
of the bird, and I am overcome

by ordinary contentment.
What hurt me so terribly
all my life until this moment?
How I love the small, swiftly
beating heart of the bird
singing in the great maples;
its bright, unequivocal eye.

read it: April is International Poetry Month, by Dennis Mahagin

Nancy Zafris, fiction editor of The Kenyon Review, interviews author Brad Kessler, whose book, Birds in Fall, was excerpted in the latest issue of the journal (and, boy, did I love reading it).

Check him out! Jim Tomlinson‘s Iowa Short Fiction Award winning collection, Things Kept, Things Left Behind, is now available for order (even though it’s not yet released).

Off the top of my head, I can think of two compelling reasons why you’ll want to get your hands on this book:

1. I’ve yet to read an Iowa Short Fiction Award collection that I didn’t thoroughly enjoy
2. Jim kicks some serious writerly ass and you should read his stories.

If you don’t want to just take my word for it, read his story Flights, which was in the issue of SmokeLong for which I was a guest editor.

The new issue of Storyglossia is live and you will be missing out if you don’t read it–especially if you miss the story by my dear and talented friend, Katrina Denza. You will be shaken to your core by reading her story, Here’s My Hand, Take It. Go on and read it!

Hot damn! If you’ll recall from my groggy, hungover post from a few weeks ago, my best friend was just recently here visiting. While she was here, we visited a bookstore (we also saw Slither which was really cool and funny and also gruesome, but I loved it). Anyway, when we were browsing in the bookstore, I admitted that I’d never read Carol Shields and she suggested I should. And she was so right (and she always is anyway, so I never doubt her).

I got The Stone Diaries out of the library yesterday and it is breaking my heart in two. I am not even through the first chapter yet and I can already tell that this is a book I’m going to love.

More on this to come…