12 Drummers Drumming

The Twelfth Day of Christmas my true love gave to me 12 drummers drumming - oh, please don't.

New things I have encountered, thanks to my daughter, during the past twelve days:

Reel Geeks - a site on YouTube where two octogenarians review current movies. They are witty, knowledgeable film professionals who don't pull any punches. They were recently written up in the San Francisco Chronicle

Books:My daughter has a knack for finding interesting books - so I love to cruise her bookshelves when we visit.
1. Living to Tell the Tale, A guide to writing Memoir by Jane Taylor McDonnell. Now out of Print I am heart broken to learn.
Really informative guide for writers and storytellers on how to shape a story.

2. Working Four Hours a Day by Timorthy Ferriss. I spotted that book open face down on the couch as soon as we walked in.
On a quick browse the best tip - don't open your email first in the mornings - that puts
you on someone else's fire drill before you put out your own fires or proceed on your list.

3. 101 People Who Never Lived - and Influenced Your Life. Think about it. Sherlock Holmes, Nancy Drew, Doctor Kildare, and
a selection of other popular and classic literary characters. Fun to look through and something to think about for a
storyteller.

4. The Dark is Rising series by Susan Cooper. Led to this by a poem Granny Sue quoted on her blog. Five interesting books
waiting for me at some library at home. I checked them out here just to take a look. Celtic fantasy for adolescents, well
written, pre-Harry Potter themes, written in the late 1970s.

5. Rent Two Films and Call Me in the Morning. A clever choice our daughter gave to Jim for Christmas. The premise - two
therapists have listed films by themes, suggesting that clients could watch two working the problem from different
perspectives and then talking about the films to get to the issues. A good gift for Jim - a practicing MD Psychiatrist.