TBWITWW and I each have separate Netflix queues. Because our tastes are fairly different, this allows us to have different recommendations. Also, because I watch movies as background, I have a much more lowest-common-denominator selection. Action movies and the like. However TBWITWW uses TV that way, so when she watches a movie, she tends to choose movies that require a bit move brain power to enjoy. This has led to some great discoveries. One of those was Rabbit-Proof Fence. A movie that we would have likely never heard of, let alone watched, without the recommendation on Netflix. The latest was Zelary.

While this movie tells the story of a member of the Czech resistance in WWII who is forced to relocate to the countryside to avoid the Gestapo. The only way she can integrate herself into the rural community is by marrying a local who was a patient at the hospital she worked at in the city.

All of that is really quite incidental to the real story of this movie. The story is really about how people become part of a community. The transition from outsider to insider is the underlying theme as we watch Eliska become not only accepted by the community, but also how she learns for herself what it means to be part of that community.

The best way to describe the emotional effect of this movie is by way of a fairly tortured analogy. Imagine you're going to visit a friend you haven't seen in a long time, and you've driven a long way to get there. At the end of Zelary, you feel like you've just settled down on the couch to go to sleep after that drive. You're a little bit drained and a little bit uncomfortable, but relaxed, satisfied and optimistic for tomorrow.

As part of the LibraryThing Early Reviewer's program, I was recently sent a copy of Careers in Crime: An Applicant's Guide by Michael Weinberg. This book is a send up of the typical job hunting books that try to cover the "best jobs" in a given field. It's filled with statistics, example of practioners of different jobs, and ratings. Each job is summarized, descriptions of working conditions, environment, likelyhood of arrest and more are given for each job from counterfeiter to prison wife.

This book seems to be exactly as advertised. It's funny, and actually informative on several levels. While not a book that you're likely to sit and read in one session, it's a great book to keep in the bathroom. Many sections made me laugh out loud and read them aloud to the people around me. (Oddly, sometimes people find this annoying.)

My only real complaint about the book had nothing to do with the writing. The copy editing was terrible. There were many misspellings as well as an entire paragraph that was cut off mid sentence. Usually with advance reading copies there is a note that it is not the final version, but this book did not carry that notice and didn't appear to be a specifically printed Advance copy.

Overall I'll give Careers in Crime a 3.5 star rating.

I finished Devil in the White City by Erik Larson yesterday. I think it read like two fairly interesting stories mingled together with little to no actual connection between the two. The writing was quite good though. It read fast and kept me interested. This book, after having read Empires of Light and Citizen has made me want to read more about the Columbian Exposition and Daniel Burnham.

Larson does a very good job of developing the personalities of the characters, and making you feel as if you know them. I think this is particularly difficult when writing non-fiction, as the information you have to work with is limited, yet you cannot just "fill in the blanks" from your imagination.

I just finished Citizen : Jane Addams and the Struggle for Democracy by Louise W. Knight. This book focuses on the earlier part of her life, including her childhood, education and founding of Hull House. While the history of Jane Addams was very interesting, what I found most facinating in this book was the picture of life in Chicago at the turn of the 20th Century. Particularly the themes of corruption, patronage, machine politics. Many portions of this picture of life in Chicago don't seem to have changed much. The "machine" candidates are still getting elected, the poor areas of town are still getting screwed, and the powers that be seem more interested in their own power than in the job they're being paid to do.
The book was a bit slow-paced and seemed to contain a lot of speculation with regards to motives and thoughts. It seemed like the author had a picture of who Jane Addams was, and tried to fit the facts into that mold. While historically interesting, the book was not the most well written biography I've read.

TBWITWW and I went to see "The Pursuit of Happyness" yesterday. It was definitely worth the trip. Will Smith, once again, shows his range, playing a man who, because of some poor business choices, is out of money, and trying to make good on his life. His wife leaves him, and the only thing that keeps him going is his love for his son. In many movies, the main character his rock bottom before working their way back up, but in this movie, he hits rock bottom even after starting the road back up.

While the story itself is inspiring, it is the relationship between the father and son that make the movie worth seeing.

TBWITWW and I watched Hotel Rwanda last night. It's been sitting here from Netflix for quite some time, but we just haven't been in the mood for anything quite that heavy. However, it was definately worth the wait. The story is, in some ways, similar to Schindler's List, but told with less of a "movie" feel. Where Schindler's List made it's point through sheer emotional barrage, Hotel Rwanda felt as if it simply told a story honestly, and quietly.

The story centers around Paul Rusesabagina, a manager at a 4 star hotel, who quietly saves over 1000 people in the middle of a genocidal war. He doesn't set out to save these people or to be a hero, he merely sets out to protect his family, but his concious allows him to include all of the people who have taken refuge in the hotel. While the west sent in troops to pull out the foriegn nationals, but leave those being massacared behind, the UN troops are spread thin (300 for the whole country) and under orders not to fire their weapons.

Watching this movie reminds me that although there are people that are willing to be heroes, sometimes without trying, most of us are simply bystanders in life. I'm not without guilt in this myself. Hotel Rwanda shows that guilt in us, and if that means we are more able to voice our outrage when this happens agian, the movie has done a good thing.