Tag Archives: Joanne Guidoccio

Movie Review: Trouble with the Curve

Posted on by Joanne Guidoccio

I was motivated primarily by curiosity.

A long-time fan of Clint Eastwood, I looked forward to seeing the octogenarian perform in a film he had not directed. And after his antics at the Republican convention, I also wanted to restore my faith in his acting abilities.

While I was not enthralled with Eastwood’s portrayal of Gus Lobel, an aging baseball scout who is losing his sight, I did enjoy this plodding but pleasant film. Justin Timberlake lit up the screen with his good looks and charm as he played the part of Johnny, a former pitcher who now scouts for the Boston Red Sox. But the real star of the film is Amy Adams, who plays Mickey, Lobel’s workaholic daughter.

After Lobel’s boss (John Goodman) learns that the Atlanta Braves want to get rid of the cantankerous old man, he calls Mickey and asks her to spend a few days helping Gus out in North Carolina. Father and daughter have their issues: Gus refuses to talk about the past while Mickey still resents him for leaving her with relatives after her mother’s death. In the romantic subplot, Johnny and Mickey spar with each other.

Safe…easy-going…predictable….I agree with the critics.

Oprah and DeVon Franklin

Posted on by Joanne Guidoccio

On yesterday’s Super Soul Sunday, Hollywood film executive and spiritual teacher DeVon Franklin sat down with Oprah to share his thoughts on achieving success without compromising faith.

Throughout the hour-long program, DeVon referred to his recently released book, Produced by Faith, in which he compares our life journeys to the development and production of a movie. God is the director and each person is the star of his/her movie.

It is not surprising that DeVon feels most at home on the set and at the pulpit. A deeply religious and spiritual man, he considers prayer to be therapeutic and welcomes the opportunity to express himself and listen carefully to God’s answers.

What does he know for sure…God is real and faith works.

Quotable Quotes…

Stay in your own movie.

If I embrace who I am, it will open doors not shut them.

If your faith won’t fit in the door that opens, then do not walk through that door.

The door that God has opened for you will fit your faith.

Without great characters, you have no story.

Ego moves God out of the director’s chair.

What keeps us in the valley of depression is a response to one moment, one scene of the story.

We are only in control of two things: how we prepare for what might happen and how we respond to what just happened.

Fun Friday

Posted on by Joanne Guidoccio

Nico–photographed by Christina Guidoccio

Five things writers  can learn from dogs…

Be tenacious and curious about everything.

Abandon yourself to joy on occasion.

At all times, follow what you love.

Have a steadfast and loyal heart.

Work hard and sleep well.

Source: A Year of Writing Dangerously: 365 Days of Inspiration and Encouragement by Barbara Abercrombie

Inside by Alix Ohlin

Posted on by Joanne Guidoccio

The novel starts on a tragic note.

Grace, a female therapist, finds a man half buried in the snow. Having bungled his suicide, Tug breathes a heavy sigh as Grace rescues him. Later, Grace develops feelings for this charismatic stranger and pursues him.

In the meantime, her troubled patient, Annie, runs away from home and reinvents herself as an actress in New York. The beautiful and self-involved Annie ends up befriending a young, pregnant runaway who takes willingly and gives little in return.

Mitch, Grace’s ex-husband, leaves the stifling comfort of Montreal for Iqualuit, a place where “he felt the gorgeous pleasure of being away. No matter what happened here, for good or bad, it wasn’t home, and there was a luxurious freedom in that.” Unfortunately, more bad than good did happen as Mitch struggled to help an adolescent dealing with a family tragedy.

As the lives of these three people intersect in unexpected ways over the course of ten years, we learn what it means to be a Good Samaritan and the emotional complications that can result.  As these characters search for approval and validation,  they question their choices and  eventually discover why it’s so important to help each other. Often, it felt like I was reading a series of linked short stories in different times and locations. But in spite of the changing POVs and broken-time sequence, the narrative flowed smoothly.

An excellent read and worthy of the Giller long-list nomination.

Oprah and Iyanla Vanzant–Part II

Posted on by Joanne Guidoccio

In yesterday’s Super Soul Sunday, Iyanla Vanzant shared the most profound moments of her spiritual journey. We hear about her suicide attempt  at age 21 and the devastating loss of her daughter, Gemmia. While Iyanla may have crashed down, she didn’t stumble. Instead, she discovered that the quicker she got “It aint’ about me,” the less she suffered.

Iyanla’s daily spiritual practice involves reading her bible and listening to music. She stressed the fact that she does not pray to an external God. To Iyanla, prayer is intimate heartfelt conversation with BOO, her internal God. She shared three personal prayers that cover every circumstance:

Help!

Help me now!

Thank you.

Interesting facts about Iyanla…

1. She went to law school to train her mind. While there, she learned how to think and build an argument.

2. The name Iyanla means mother. It was given to her by her godfather.

3. She is most at home and at peace when she is braless in bed watching reruns of Law and Order.

What does she know for sure…God loves me and I didn’t do anything wrong.

Eden Mills Writers’ Festival

Posted on by Joanne Guidoccio

                                                                                                    

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This day is blessed.

The angels are looking down.

                              Lillian Nattel

We all nodded in agreement as best-selling author Lillian Nattel praised this magical community event that occurs once a year on the banks of the Eramosa River in the tiny village of Eden Mills.

The weather co-operated and added to our enjoyment as we wandered around the village, eating and drinking, stopping to browse through books and sitting in on readings at the various venues—the Mill, the Cottage, the Sculpture Garden, Common and the Chapel.

Inspired by such internationally acclaimed writers as Michelle Landsberg, Linden MacIntyre, Richard Gwyn, Lillian Nattel and Ami McKay, I also welcomed the opportunity to sit in on up-and-coming writers. While at the chapel, I listened to five writers from the MFA program at the University of Guelph and the winners of this year’s writing contest. Patricia Anderson, friend and fellow member of Guelph Writers Ink, read her award-winning story, Growing Pains.

Poet at Age 92

Posted on by Joanne Guidoccio

I enjoy reading about other people’s second acts, especially those of wordsmiths. I file away these stories and retell them whenever friends and  acquaintances start moaning about being too old to write a book, start an exercise regimen, apply for a new job or get out of their comfort zones.

The story of best-selling Japanese poet Toyo Shibata is one of my favorites.

At age 92, Shibata’s back gave out and she was forced to give up classical Japanese dance. Her son suggested she try another art form, one that would be easier on the back. So, Shibata decided to spend her evenings writing poetry. Encouraged by the publication of her first poem in a newspaper, she continued writing until she had enough poems to fill a book.

At age 99, Shibata self-published an anthology entitled Kujikenaide which can be translated into Don’t Be Too Frustrated, a mantra for the feisty nonagenarian. Since its publication in 2009, the book has sold over 1.5 million copies. An extraordinary achievement in a country where poetry is a tough sell and a book is considered a success if it sells 10,000 copies.

Unfortunately, her poems haven’t yet been translated. According to the reviewers, she addresses simple themes and writes mainly about her family and her caregivers. In one poem, however, she wrote a steamy passage about her doctor.

She is working on a second book which she plans to release on her 100th birthday.

Inspiring quotes from Toyo Shibata…

Although 98, I still fall in love. I do have dreams; one like riding on a cloud.

Everyone is equally free to dream.

A flower bloomed from a century-old tree, and it’s all because of your support. Now I have a souvenir to bring to the after-world and boast about it to my husband and my mother out there.

The Virgin Cure

Posted on by Joanne Guidoccio

Mixed feelings as we discussed The Virgin Cure at last night’s book club.  

While no one really loved the book, many of us liked it enough to consider reading Ami McKay’s highly successful debut novel, The Birth House, and the third in the series, to be released at a later date.

The Virgin Cure was inspired by McKay’s great-great grandmother, Dr. Sadie Fonda Macintosh, who practiced street medicine in the slums. McKay had intended to write the book in her grandmother’s voice, but while writing, she began to hear the words of a very different character, a twelve year old girl named Moth.

Moth’s opening line is a riveting one: “Mama sold me the summer I turned twelve.” Her fortune-telling mother had run out of ways to keep afloat in the slums of 19th century Manhattan. So, she sold Moth for an undisclosed price to a wealthy sadistic woman named Mrs. Wentworth. Brutally beaten and frightened, Moth manages to escape, but when she returns home, she discovers that her mother has mysteriously disappeared.

Homeless and at risk, she finds refuge in a home for higher class prostitutes. There, she finds life as an “almost whore” tolerable. She makes friends with the other young women in the home and meets the remarkable Dr. Sadie who is concerned with the plight of these child sex workers.

When Dr. Sadie enters the picture, point of view alternates between Moth and the doctor. I found these viewpoint changes very abrupt and I would have enjoyed reading more about Dr. Sadie’s story. What drove a wealthy woman to leave her family and spend her time among the poor and disadvantaged? McKay could easily have devoted entire chapters to the doctor and provided us with more insight into her motivation.

Many of us expected to read more about the virgin cure.  McKay describes this particular cure sought by infected men who believed they could be  cured by having sex with a virgin, but it is not the real focus of this book.

McKay’s research skills are impeccable. She has provided more than enough details to create a strong sense of place and further enhanced the narrative with snippets of news and trivia from the time period.

Oprah and Iyanla Vanzant

Posted on by Joanne Guidoccio

Rhonda Harris aka Iyanla Vanzant was born in poverty, endured a childhood filled with fear, married at age fourteen and had three children by the age of twenty-one. She lived off welfare until she turned her life around by putting herself through college and law school. Later, she became an ordained minister, launched a self-help empire and sold more than eight million books.

An amazing story of transformation that merits more than one appearance on Super Soul Sunday.

Yesterday, Iyanla focused on her early years and the hard lessons she has learned along the way. She acknowledges her earlier self—Rhonda—and credits that wounded and sorrowful soul with helping her survive poverty, abuse and rape. When “Rhonda” no longer fit who she had become, Iyanla renamed herself as a symbol of starting anew.

Facing the truth is painful but necessary. Throughout her life, Iyanla dealt with many relationship and money issues that forced her to endure the labor pains of birthing that truth. It took her forty years to realize she was still seeking her father’s approval. When her daughter commented on their financial problems, Iyanla admitted that she had a “welfare mentality with a million dollar life.”

As she opened up, Iyanla Vanzant demonstrated how she found peace among the broken pieces of her life.

So many wonderful quotes…

When you find yourself in a new situation, everything that requires healing is going to rush to the surface. Pause and take a breath.

If you are not living the life that’s in alignment with who you are today, you are living the generational pathology of who you used to be.

Look at your patterns. Pause and pay attention.

When your relationship with God is hit or miss, so is your life.

Iyanla’s definition of God—All there is.

All things are lessons that God will have you learn. (Course in Miracles)

I must have decided wrongly, because I’m not at peace. (Course in Miracles)

You can give but if it can’t be received, it’s like it was never given. (Oprah)

Looking forward to Part II next Sunday.