Two poems by Jason Heroux and a film by Woody Allen

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"Windows" and "Brief Case" by Jason Heroux (prose poems from his chapbook Leaving the Road, Mercutio Press, 2003)

Match Point, written and directed by Woody Allen and starring Jonathan Rhys Meyers as Chris Wilton, Emily Mortimer as Chloe Hewett Wilton, Matthew Goode as Tom Hewett, Brian Cox and Penelope Wilton as Alec and Eleanor Hewett, and Scarlett Johansson as Nola Rice.

(There are also some very talented supporting actors including Margaret Tyzack as Betty Eastby, Ewen Bremner as Inspector Dowd, James Nesbitt as Detective Banner, and Rupert Penry-Jones, who played Captain Wentworth in the BBC version of Persuasion, as Chris's friend and former tennis rival.)

Bel Canto by Ann Patchett

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Bel Canto, a novel by Ann Patchett (HarperCollins: New York, 2001).

Cherry Blossoms

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Kirschblüten - Hanami (English title: Cherry Blossoms, French
title: Un Rêve japonais), in German, written and directed by
Doris Dörrie and starring Elmar Wepper and Hannelore Elsner as Rudi and Trudi Angermeier, Aya Irizuki as Yu, Maximilian Brückner as Karl Angermeier, Nadja Uhl as Franzi, Birgit Minichmayr as Karolin Angermeier, and Felix Eitner and Floriane Daniel as Klaus and Emma Angermeier.

Labor Day

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Labor Day, a novel by Joyce Maynard (William Morrow/HarperCollins: New York, 2009).

There seemed to be a couple of very tiny continuity goofs here: a maternal grandmother dies when the boy is old enough to remember, leaving his mother an orphan (49-50), then had died "so long before," when he was at least too young to remember (146); a man is shirtless (151), then wearing a shirt (154).

I don't know why I get so distracted by such tiny details, but they pull me right out of the story. (This reminded me of a 12/02/2009 Publishers Weekly blog post by Elizabeth Bluemle, in which she said that reading the acknowledgments page(s) in a novel kick her "right out of the world of the story and its magic.") It's so difficult to maintain a reader's suspension of disbelief.

But beyond that, I ended up putting aside the other books I was reading after the first two pages of this one.

Poetry by Sandra Beasley

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"Unit of Measure" by Sandra Beasley (poem from Poetry, July/August 2009; reprinted at Poetry Daily on July 7, 2009)

Fiction by Valerie Vogrin

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"Sisters-in-Law" by Valerie Vogrin (short story from The Summerset Review, Fall 2009)

Poetry and short fiction

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"Local Attraction" by Billeh Nickerson (poem from his collection McPoems, Arsenal Pulp Press, 2009)

"The Golden Age" by Piotr Gwiazda (poem from Linebreak, November 10, 2009)

"Her Untold Story" by Jean Thompson (short story from her collection Do Not Deny Me, Simon & Schuster Paperbacks, 2009)

From pp. 280-281:

On her way home Lynn detoured to drive past Jay's new house. She guessed that if she kept doing this, there would eventually be some kind of restraining order. Jay and Margot had purchased a woodsy, faux chalet in a desirable district. . . . She rolled slowly past, noting the dim light in the no doubt spacious kitchen, and the illuminated upstairs window where Jay massaged his pregnant bride's swollen feet. Or consulted with her over the hipster version of What to Name the Baby. (Elijah? Paola?) Or any of the other things he'd never done with her. . . .

She turned a corner and veered around the block to make a second pass. Stupid and degrading behavior. How long did she intend to keep it up? The child would be born, learn to walk, head off for school, develop questionable friendships. The saplings in the yard would grow to mighty shade trees. The neighbors would wave at her as she made her rounds. Jay would be balding and fiercely deaf. She would have long ago forgotten the different layers of their life together: love, married struggle, boredom, acrimony, but still her curses would gather round him like crows on a wire.

Lynn changed directions and headed home. What could you tell from the outside of a house anyway? Wouldn't her own look just as peaceful and welcoming, no matter how forlorn the life inside it was?

"Her Untold Story" is sort of a continuation of Jean Thompson's story "Wilderness," which was near the beginning of this collection. I read that one when it came out in One Story.