Confessions of a Shopaholic - Sophie Kinsella

Ok, so this is a really cute girly book. Shallow, yes, but cute. I actually cringed everytime she attempted to "save money." It reminded me a little of my attempts to dieting--you know she justifies her purchases and I justify my food intake.

I know that the movie for this book is coming out in February. I am totally excited, even if they changed a lot of things about the book (for one, they Americanized it since the book is bBritish). I guess that's the girl in me coming out. If you are looking for literary depth, this is not the book to read. If you are looking for fun, and you're a girl who appreciates materialism and shallowness every once in a while, then yes, read it.

What I liked about the main character is that she is actually a smart girl. It seems to me that she actually underestimated herself. I love that the author portrays this character as someone who, underneath her interest in fashion and looking good, is actually very capable. After all, beauty, vanity, and brains can co-exist. Shallowness and smartness are not mututally exclusive.

The Reincarnationist - M.J. Rose

I hated this book. It looked exciting at first, you know, wonderful summary and all. I kept waiting for it to get really exciting, but I think this book tried to build up way too much, with a very weak punchline.

The character development was weak, if there was even any at all. You know, you get to know the characters, you get pieces of their past lives (and I mean past lives for some of them), but you don't really feel anything for them. If, while reading this book, my emotions were drawn on a line graph, the line wouldbe pretty flat. I only stuck with the book to get my money's worth, but I don't know if my time was wasted instead.

Silver Diner (Springfield, VA) vs. Johnny Rockets (Alexandria, VA)

I'm going to be brief so I can review other things since I haven't written here in a while.

Silver Diner is an pretty good diner. Much better than Johnny Rockets. I compare the two because both are in Northern VA, within 5 miles of each other, and they don't appear to be as big as IHOP and Denny's, which to me, are pretty much in the same league.

Anyway, what I like about Silver Diner is that they actually have a good selection of healthy food. Johnny Rockets is just grease. In fact, my hubby once said, as we were walking out of a movie theater, that he can smell the grease coming out of Johnny Rockets. Plus, Johnny Rockets has salty, cheap looking food (well, they are cheaper than other diners so what do I expect, really?).

Silver Diner has cheaper food too, but the food is delicious. I was pleasantly surprised that they use fresh, crisp vegetables for their salad, unlike other diners. I especially like the black bean burger--spicy, crispy on the outside and just enough mushiness for a bean burger on the inside. When you order shakes, they even bring you the leftover shake that wouldn't fit in their tall cups, so you definitely get your money's worth.

Silver Diner also has a good variety on their menu. Don't remember most of it, but I remember going through pages of it, unlike Johnny Rockets' limited selection.

Johnny Rockets has very ordinary food. I don't like that they definitely got stuck in the 50's. I mean, I know that the whole diner thing really took off in the 50's and that Johnny Rockets is trying to relive those times, but maybe they could've added just a little bit more exciting food than what they offer.

Silver Diner wins this one.

Saigon City Restaurant, Pho 495, and Pho Kim - Springfield, VA

Because I have been eating too much Pho these past several weeks, I decided to share which Pho restaurants I've tried. Saigon City Restaurant, Pho 495, and Pho Kim are the ones that I have tried in Springfield, VA and of the three, Saigon City is the best.

Pho 495 is okay--it's good Pho but not special. What I don't like about it is that it doesn't have a good selection of drinks. They have your usual soy milk, etc. But unlike other places, they do not offer boba tea, and unlike the other two places being reviewed here, they don't offer boba tea smoothies. The service was typical--the waiter came twice and that is to ask what we want and to bring the food. I didn't expect the service to be wonderful though because it's just not that kind of restaurant. The good thing about this place is that, apart from a pretty good Pho, the prices are pretty good too.

Pho Kim did not have a good Pho--I mean it wasn't terrible tasting because I just don't see how anyone can really screw up beef soup unless it is intentional. And I believe that Pho Kim wouldn't intentionally make their Pho bad, and it wasn't. What their Pho looked and tasted like is that it was made without much effort. They didn't give enough bean sprouts, and even if they did, they didn't look fresh anyway. Some beef pieces were overcooked and the soup itself was a little fattier than usual. The atmosphere was not great at all. It was small and crowded. The good thing about this restaurant is that their boba tea smoothies are fantastic. It took forever to come (I was midway through my Pho when it finally came), but it was so worth it.

Saigon City has good Pho, and a good selection of drinks and other food. It also has boba tea smoothies, which my husband thinks is better than the smoothies in Pho Kim. I thought they were about the same. The atmosphere is okay--bigger than Pho Kim but a little smaller than Pho 495. The service is okay too--again, it is not the kind of restaurant that you would expect to have excellent service.

Saigon City wins!

Religulous

I asked a friend what she thought about this movie after we saw it together, and she said something like this: that she was really glad she saw it, but it wasn't really a "wow" movie either. I agree with her.

Religulous is a must-see movie, especially for a variety of people for different reasons. Religious extremists, though it is unfortunate that they are the least likely to see this documentary, are the ones who can really gain from its message. Regular religious people, who in my mind are the people who regularly go to church but still somewhat show a trace of tolerance for other religions, should see Religulous so that they can see what could happen if they, along with everyone else, take an extreme stance on their beliefs. Those who believe in God but don't necessarily belong in a particular religious community should see it because the movie might make them curious as to exactly what they believe in and why. Those who are seeking to join a religious community should see the documentary so that they can be reminded that while a lot of good can and has come out of religion (e.g. charity, teachings of love, being conscientious, etc.), a lot of bad also can spring and has sprung from religion (e.g. hate, wars, genocide). Those who do not believe in God should see it too because, though the movie does not focus on this message, it does somehow show that different religious people not only believe in different things, but they also believe in various degrees, thus religious people should not be lumped together and be judged as crazy. Nope, this message is not central to the documentary, but I do think that it is a coincidental underlying message nonetheless.

I am religious in the sense that I go to church when I can, but there are many things that I am supposed to do that I don't, and that I shouldn't do but I do. While the movie did nothing to shatter my faith, it did reconfirm what I believe in the first place: that faith has to be personal in order for the world to fully embrace tolerance. I understand that many religions preach converting others into their faith systems, but I've always believed that such can be done by their members' actions, their examples. Forcing people is not the way to go (and obliterating them is definitely a no-no). But this is beside the point, because Bill Maher didn't really touch on how people should be converted (I just digressed for a bit because I felt a need to say it).

Bill Maher's whole thing is that he doesn't know what is out there and that many rational people believe in irrational things in the name of religion. I hardly think that this is blasphemy--I think it is a valid inquiry because really, a "miracle" is just a holier way of saying "magic." Religuous people need to have a better explanation for believing in what they believe. They can't just go along with what their church leader told them to believe. In my case, I can explain why I choose to believe, but that's another discussion.

My friend said that she's disappointed because, while the movie purports to cover religion in its entirety, most of the people that Bill Maher interviewed are the "nuts." While he had a couple of people there who displayed rationality, most of the people he interviewed are the ones who are pretty extreme. We both agreed though, that Bill Maher had to do that to make the movie more interesting.

I do think that showing mostly the "nuts" was essential to one of his main themes: the self-fulfilling prophecy. Many, many people believe in the end of the world. I do agree with Bill Maher that, if everyone does take a radical view of their religions, then the end of the world may indeed be, very close at hand.

Houlihan's - Springfield, VA

I've been to Houlihan's a couple of times and I had a good time both times. The food is pretty good (from I understand, they make everything from scratch and that all their ingredients are fresh), the servers are friendly, the atmosphere is quiet enough for a good conversation, and the lights are neither too bright nor too dim.


They have an okay selection of food. The menu looks thicker than other restaurants, but it's because of the drinks menu. Both times I went to Houlihan's, I had a hard time deciding what to order because I thought that there ought to be more . . . originality. I like restaurants that dare . . . not ones whose list appear in many other restaurants.

I do have to say though that both times I went to Houlihan's, I was pretty happy with what I ordered. I had steak the first time, and seared ahi tuna salad the second time. The steak was good, more flavorful than your typical franchise steakhouse. It's not the best, but it's pretty good for the price. The seared ahi tuna salad was also good, though I wish that they gave me more dressing than they did. I would have to say that this salad is one of the more original food items in their menu--the combination of your typical salad leaves, fresh bananas, banana chips, dressing, and raw fish is something that I haven't encountered in other restaurants. The overall taste of the salad, again, was pretty good for the price ($11.95).

Their desserts are not bad--they are pretty cheap. Though there's not a wide selection of desserts, I've never gone to a restaurant that offers dessert for $2.75. Every other restaurant charges at least $4.00. I've tried their creme brulee, pecan pie, and tiramisu. It's pretty hard to mess up desserts so I will say that though they weren't the best, they weren't bad for $2.75.

I guess overall, this restaurant is a pretty good place to go to if you want a decent atmosphere and a pretty good bang for your buck. I will definitely go again.

The Lovely Bones

The great thing about writing from a dead person's perspective is that one has a lot of freedom to characterize what it's like in the afterlife. After all, no one really knows what it's like, save those people who claim that they died and then came back to life. In this case, death resembled what many people in America believe--that people have souls, that there is a heaven, and that souls go to heaven when they die (at least the good ones). The author did fill in a few details about the afterlife, but these details are nothing new. For example, in the book, the dead watch over the living, the living sometimes see or feel the dead in the form of a ghost, and there is somewhat of a middle ground between earth and heaven (though the author referred to it as a smaller heaven). The author also explored the idea of a soul possessing a living's body.

What I am trying to say is this: there is not much creativity in the author's portrayal of the afterlife. There is not much creativity in the actual plot--there was an awful murder of a teen-age girl, her family falls apart, then her family starts patching things up again and moving on with life several years later.

However, the book was beautifully written. This author is gifted when it comes to writing beautiful sentences and paragraphs. In some ways, I think maybe she intended for the story to be ordinary, because then she can focus on beautiful reflections about life and death. The author might have been striving for a plain story which would act like a canvass, so that she can paint colorful words on it. I think it worked. This book is like a familiar journey, no surprises whatsoever. The journey goes through different terrains and lasts through various seasons because it invokes various emotions--sadness, fear, relief, anger, peace. I think that the book's attraction is that it takes one through the human experience of loss and moving on, both from the perspectives of the dead and the living.

Overall, this book is pretty good. It's not exciting, but it it wasn't meant to be exciting (I don't think). It is more about getting lost in the experience, not the events. I do recommend it to people whose lives are all caught up in the present, because the book is a good reminder that there may not be a long future left to really live.