Fun Friday - The Fun of Movies, and of meeting challenges...

For My Friday Flash 55: I am trying to get in early this week. This is the start of a four-day weekend for the kids (we have three days too!).. So we are kicking off this weekend for the kids with plans for movies each night (just in case, any day trips planned locally fail to happen).

The Lure of the Silver Screen

Thrillers, comedies, romances too
I love all these; not horrors though.
Tearjerkers tend to bring the crybaby in me
Home audience then loves to watch me, not the movie
Family movies are a big hit always
Mysteries and adventures, we watch some days
We watch an occasional musical;
Documentaries as well.
Now, how about you?


For  Book Beginnings: and The Friday 56: From 'And Then There were None' by Agatha Christie - this is the ePub version from archive.org. This is one of the books I have in my TBR since it fits many of the challenges I enthusiastically joined earlier this year, and then proceeded to ignore. I have read many books which might/will fit in some of the challenges - currently, my biggest challenge is to complete the reviews for all the books read, match the books already read to the challenges, and finally, link up to the challenges. 
I hope to work on this challenging task soon - over this long weekend hopefully! I finally updated my Challenges page and put in a link to my plans for each challenge (most likely will completely change at the end of the year) here.

For Book Beginnings:

In the corner of a first-class smoking carriage, Mr. Justice Wargrave, lately retired from the bench, puffed at a cigar and ran an interested eye through the political news in the Times.

For Friday 56

They could all hear it - running feet along the terrace.

In that minute, they knew - knew without being told...

As by common accord, they all rose to their feet. They stood looking towards the door.

Dr. Armstrong appeared, his breath coming fast

Treasure Trove Thursday - A Poet's Tree

For Theme Thursday's prompt of trust

The trust you place in me
Is such a wonderful responsibility
I wish I had that trust in me
That you place in me.

For dVerse Form for All: Paying Tribute, Page and the Glosa: I loved experimenting with this form. Having to chose one poet to pay tribute too was tough - the first poets that came to my mind were Edward Lear (The Owl and The Pussycat was one of my favorite poems as a kid), Shelley (Ozymandias was another favorite), and Shel Silverstein(whom I discovered only in my adulthood and really have grown to love his work and my kids do too). I finally picked Silverstein's 'The Poet's Tree' for this form - seemed apt for dVerse too!

 The Poet Tree

Underneath the poet tree
Come and rest awhile with me
And watch the way the word-web weaves
Between the shady story leaves.
- Shel Silverstein

The day was long
The feeling strong
Lots to accomplish
Lots to do
I looked at the work, then outside
Then took a good look at me
I then knew what I needed
Took my writer’s tools and
I went to sleep happily
 Underneath the poet tree

I woke up with a start
My writers tools all around me
Looked around for inspiration
Each blade of grass was a world its own
Each leaf on the tree
Told a wonderful story
The droning bees, the chirping birds
Shared tales from around the world
I invite you to the poet tree
Come and rest awhile with me

We can watch the clouds above
Each one a shape-shifter virtuoso
Or we can climb the many rhymed tree
and swing on the worded branches
Maybe we can catch a falling fruit
Play hide-and-seek in its leaves
You can compose an epic poem
I can write a silly rhyme
We can enjoy the warm afternoon breeze
And watch the way the word-web weaves

As I invite you once again
To enjoy the poet tree
My mind turns itself back
to endless lists of things to do
but for now, for today
this is what my heart believes
Sit down awhile, take it slow,
Stop and smell the roses
You will forget all your peeves
Between the shady story leaves.

Thirteen random lists of things that popped in my head for the letter A - For Thursday 13 and Alphabe Thursday

1. Apples, Asparagus, Artichokes, and Avocados – ‘A’ foods that are among my favorite foods too!
2. Akbar the Great, Alexander the Great, and Ashoka – Great emperors that I read about as a child in history books and stories – and admired.
3. Alvin and the Chipmunks, Apollo 13, and Airport 77 – There are many more movies I like as well but these are just three of them that I enjoyed
4. Asterix and Archie comics – loved these as a child and love them even now
5. Ashes from a retired American flag - We had a flag retirement ceremony last year at a camping trip for our cub scout pack. One of the families had a flag that had to be retired - when the flag is torn/tattered, then the flag is retired by burning it in a flag retirement ceremony - this was truly something wonderful. We now have ashes from that ceremony which can be scattered, buried, or added to the ashes of another retirement ceremony - for now, we have it as a memento of that occasion.
6. Aardvark, Alligators, and Antelopes
7. Arctic Tern
8. Artists, Acrobats, Astronauts, and Authors
9. Abditive, ardass, alpenglow, ambisinistrous, avital, and automysophobia – Check out ‘The Phrontistery’ for the meanings of these unusual words
10. Attitude (Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference.  ~Winston Churchill) and Aptitude (“Genius is nothing but a greater aptitude for patience” - George-Louis Leclerc de Buffon)
11. Amazing and awesome
12. Asia, Africa, Antarctica, America, and Australia (sorry, Europe!)
13. Amma – what I call my mom, and my mom-in-law, and what my little ones call me

World of Words Wednesday

The letter of the week at ABC Wednesday is S and continuing my theme, here are the women authors I am highlighting –

Murasaki Shikibu – The author of ‘The Tale of Genji’ which is acknowledged as the world’s first novel. I am trying to find a copy of the translated book so I can read it – part of the ‘1001 Books to read’ list. But I still included her because of this wonderful fact – that in times when society was male-dominated, the writing that came out of it and is now ‘sometimes called the world's first novel, the first modern novel, the first psychological novel or the first novel still to be considered a classic’(from Wikipedia) was written by a woman.

Anna Sewell – The author of ‘Black Beauty’, a childhood favorite of mine (and still continues to be one) and a universally popular book - one of the best-selling books of all time.  

Harriet Beecher Stowe  – The author of  ‘Uncle Tom’s Cabin’.

For Haiku Heights – betrayal and 3WW – finish silky clever

Silky smooth finish

Hid a clever cunning mind

Betrayal – easy

For Wondrous Words Wednesday,

• battledore -  n. 1. a. An early form of badminton played with a flat wooden paddle and a shuttlecock. b. The paddle used in this game.
• stutter-step: It is a footwork technique in tennis. From wikipedia - Although the term is mainly used in tennis, it has also become a modern term that is used commonly meaning to "unsurely make a decision or perform a job or activity". For example, you could 'stutter step" in a decision, or take slow, unsure steps and be cautious towards it instead of to just make up your mind and go for it.

Simply Sunday - Part two - An Ode to Children's Book Week 2013

Today is the last day of Children's Book Week 2013. As I said before, for me, it is just a way of highlighting these books - like celebrating a birthday, or any other special day - but every day is a day for being you, appreciating/loving/respecting your mother, father, teacher, the veterans, freedom, and of course, reading.

I loved the poster created by Brian Selznick(my son is a big fan) and went hunting for past posters for Children's Book Week. I collected them in my Pinterest board here. They are lovely and a work of art (each and every one of them). I have a couple of them here on my post today. I am still on the lookout for posters from many more years in between.

Today, I completed a couple more reviews to post but wanted to add my kids' thoughts as well so will hold off on them till my Magic Monday post.

Here is an ode to children's books using the Sunday Whirl words:

Whirl: Cut opaque hover breath nebulous bleak timing torch crush blazing slab touch vision

Cut above the rest – children’s books - the best

Neither nebulous, nor opaque are they.  (whether nebulous or opaque are they!)

Books, please, in my favorite treasure chest

Worlds read about hovered a breath away

Bleakest of times torched to death by books.

Opened this paper slab - riches abound

Senses blazing – vision, touch, smell, et al

I started timing my work around books

My very first crush –in a book I found

Each book I cherish – be it day/nightfall.

For Sunday Scribblings: moves, and Haiku Heights: bridge (and the Children's Book Week poster from years ago that inspired me for this Haiku)

Books are but bridges

A string of words that moves us

Across worlds and times