Yo!

This book is full of color and spirit, well written, and despite the disjointed nature is a good, enjoyable read.

Here's the premise. Yo(landa) Garcia has written a book that portrays members of her family in an honest light. (Honesty is not always flattering, as many of us know) In a series of short stories, we get views of her sisters, her parents, her friends, her teachers, her students, her exes, etc... The stories make up something resembling a coherent whole and the first and last stories tie the whole thing together in a satisfactory way.

Shifting abruptly to so many different points of view can be disconcerting. The book has a two or three story "flash forward," and then moves back to childhood through adulthood. But with the start of each story you wonder 'how old is she now?' and everyone has a different take.

I found myself gettind drawn into each person's own stories and found the main character to be merely tangential until the final few stories.

The colorful language and eloquently described scenery of both the Dominican Republic and New England and Alvarez creates interesting characters both separately and then brings them together. It'd be nicer if she gave you a complete picture of Yolanda, but some part of her is always obscured.

But still, this book is great fun, well written and entrancing. Because of the interconnected short story aspect, it's very easy to put down and come back to later.

Secret Lives of Dentists

This is cute. It's weird, but it's cute.

David (Campbell Scott) and Dana (Hope Davis) have an unsteady marriage that is pushed to the brink when David discovers Dana in a... compromising position. She's merely being flirtatious with someone in a crowded room and didn't know that David was there, so he never lets on, preferring to stay in a shaky marriage than initiate an ending.

As the tension builds, David creates an imaginary friend (Denis Leary in his angriest) to help him cope and voice all of his anxiety. Things with his three children get bad as they pick up on the tension between the couple.

This movie is from David's perspective, so the view of Dana is harsh and unflattering. There's a lot of vomiting and not much else. But this movie isn't plot based, it's character based and the questions it poses are interesting.

Not a fast paced action packed thriller, but it poses good questions and is quietly enjoyable.