Kate McDowell on Storytelling

Yep, as summer draws to a close (I'm back to work next Monday, still have my entire home-office half painted, and a crisis of mold at Ben's studio threatens everything... and I'm going tubing with Danielle et al. today anyway at Kickapoo, take that life, HA) I'm re-reading S&S by Jane Austen. Dear (blog) readers, may I remind you that "sensibility" is not a version of "sensible," but actually means "sensitivity." I also rewatched the Kate Winslet and Emma Thompson (oh and Hugh Grant too) movie version the other night. Kate is, as always, brilliant, proving once again why she is far and away my very favorite actress. There will be no plot synopses here... The character of Elinor, the older sister, is almost more likable as Emma T. in the move than as the smart-assed projection of the author in the book. Though you have to admire the various turns of phrase with which she dazzles her fellow conversationalists, Elinor's parts of...

by Janet Nichols Lynch follows the short-lived but intense relationship between Rafa and the girl he has long fantasized about, Monique. Wrestling and helping his family were his passions before his brief hook-up with Monique, but all those other things fall by the wayside as he pursues her. She's totally hot, but usually goes out with guys who, well, have better cars. And she lets Rafa know that, while he lets her know that she has his heart. It doesn't take a very astute reader to see that Rafa is projecting a whole lotta good things onto Monique's hot body while disregarding her strikingly selfish side. When Rafa's stepdad is deported back to El Salvador, he is pulled back into the reality of his mom's struggle to provide for him and two other kids. As he steps up to be "el hombre de la casa," Rafa is finally struck by how manipulative and shallow Monique really is: "I take one last look at Monique. Creamy brown thighs. Beautiful breasts r...