Happy Three Kings' Day! It is a VI Holiday so schools and government offices are out today. So far not a great beach day for the locals who have the day off, but most of us think the water is too cold this time of the year. It is mostly tourists you see in the water during the winter. There is a parasail boat out in the bay right now. Haven't done that but I think it would be fun, even though I am a bit afraid of heights.

We watched an old Christian Slater movie last night - Untamed Hearts. A delightful Christmas romance story about a reclusive young man with a congenital heart condition (he thinks he has a baboon's heart) and a wild waitress who has had, and lost, way too many boyfriends. Adam is in love, actually obsessed, with Carolina. Because he follows her home from the restaurant they both work at, he arrives in time to stop her from being raped in the park. Slater has such expressive eyes. Mic loved Pump Up the Volume - I don't even want to think about the number of times we watched that movie. Wonder what Slater is doing now - can't think of a recent movie I have seen him in.

Also watched a quite interesting movie that came in the wrong envelope from Blockbuster. We hadn't heard of Almost Normal, so we weren't expecting anything in particular when we put it in the DVD player, but what a surprise. A gay 40 year old professor crashes his car into a tree and wakes up back in high school, but in this dream the norm is gay couples and heterosexuals are called breeders and are beat up and abhorred. Interesting to consider. Best line in the movie - "When you accept yourself as you are, that's when you are normal." Not a well made movie by any means, but it certainly makes you think.

Finished the second book in the Mitford Series, A Light in the Window, by Jan Karon. Who would have thought I would enjoy these novels about an aging rector and his life in a small mountain town in North Carolina. The fact that his new wife is a children's book author/illustrator adds to the appeal, as does Dooley, the teenage boy who lives with Father Tim.

I commented yesterday about not liking the cover for Revolt. Well, I love the cover on David Klass' Dark Angel. It is as dark and thought provoking as this multi-layered look into the family dynamics when the convicted murderer is released from prison after serving 6 years of a life sentence and returns home. Jeff's "normal" life is thrown into turmoil as his girlfriend's family no longer wants him dating their daughter and the other students talk about his murderer brother. Jeff's parents want to give Troy the benefit of the doubt and are totally taken in by Troy's act of being reformed. Jeff thinks his brother is evil, plain and simple. And, he is sure Troy is involved when Fraser, Jeff's rival on the soccer field, disappears. The question - can someone be pure evil? Troy sets out to discover what role his brother plays in Fraser's disappearance, but has no idea what he will do with the answers when he finds them. A definite guy book! Pulls you in and doesn't let you go until the end, if then. Klass is a gifted author of thought provoking YA novels for the older teen reader, with tremendous guy appeal. My favorite is still California Blue, about a runner who discovers a unknown species of butterfly in an area that is about to be logged. Ecology vs. economy and then some. Also, You Don't Know Me blew me out of the water with the intensity of the yearning and pain felt by a young man being abused by his mother's boyfriend. And Danger Zone, a look into reverse discrimination as a white basketball player joins an all black team that will play around the world. In other words - I think Klass is one of the best YA authors we have to offer to the older teen reader.

That's it for today.