Must Have DVD's for the Holiday Season

Movies make great Christmas presents. My family always loves when one of us receives movies as gifts, because then we sit around for the next few days,staying in warm from the cold, and watch movies in our PJ's and eat leftovers while we listen to my Mom bitch from the kitchen about how nobody helped her clean up wrapping paper and tinsel.

Some of the must-have DVD's out this month:

JULIE & JULIA: Love this movie, ordered it on Amazon.com right away, and cried when I finished reading the book. Amy Adams is fantastic in this movie, Meryl Streep is phenomenal (as always) and Stanley Tucci is so damn cute as her adoring husband, I'd give him a kiss on the cheek. (Okay, well maybe only after a few shots of Patron.)My sister-in-law loved the movie, and it will make you hungry, so be prepared to gain ten more pounds when you run out and buy the Julia Child cookbooks.



THE HANGOVER: Needless to say, I laughed until my abs were sore, and was all alone in the movie theatre (well, me and about one hundred strangers, anyway.) This movie will have you in stitches. You shouldn't watch it with the little ones (my family's very liberal and not into censorship, but we still wouldn't let kids under 12 or 13 watch it.) The guys in this film are absolutely hysterical, and you will wanna pop in the DVD over and over again. Makes a great gift for the guys on your list, too.



THE UGLY TRUTH: Buy it for all the single ladies in your life, the ones who are lookin for love in all the wrong places, the ones who practically sleep in the self-help and relationships aisle at Border's Books and Music. Hell, buy it and let your whole family watch and laugh their happy asses off the day after Christmas. Gerard Butler? Is strangely attractive in this movie, even when he acts like a douchebag.



Whatever movies you and yours watch this holiday season, I hope they bring you fits of laughter, lots to bond over, and that you can make many happy memories to remember for Christmases to come. That's what Christmas is all about.

For The Hot Chick on Your Christmas List

The gift you must run out and buy your girlfriends for Christmas?

Yeah, it isn't the make your own martini kit you found at Target, or the pedicure foot bath bullshit you saw at Costco.

It's this fabulous little book, How to Love Like a Hot Chick, by Cerina Vincent and Jodi Lipper, which offers women amazing dating and relationship advice in a straightforward, no-nonsense format. You'll feel like you're talking with your girls over margaritas, except that these girls actually took their heads out of their asses and put their female intuition into practice.

You know what that is, ladies. It's the little voice inside your head that tells you he's a supreme douchebag, you know, that voice you oftentimes ignore, because you think he might change, or magically transform into a love God over night?

At any rate, buy your friends this book, change their dating lives, or hell, buy it for yourself. There are plenty of break-ups over the holiday season.

Personally, I believe the only chumps who would leave a girl alone on the holidays are scum sucking bottom feeders who deserve to be kicked in the balls.

But hey, that's just my opinion.

Buy a copy (or two, or ten) at Borders, Amazon.com, or Barnes and Noble today.

For the "Man's Man" this Christmas

In an attempt to solve all your gift-giving dilemmas this holiday season, I will feature items that I think would make great presents for all the people on your holiday shopping list, especially those challenging people who are always hard to buy for. One of those people is no doubt your brother. Or, your best guy friend. Or, the guy at work who not only listens to you bitch, but sometimes picks up the tab for the beer you drink at happy hour. And more than likely, your whiny ass owes him a damn good present.

The book you need to RUN to Barnes & Noble to purchase these guys is called, “I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell,” and after reading an excerpt in the store, I bought it immediately. I was laughing until my abs hurt, and the writer is genius. Your buddies will love it, and will want to add the author to their list of friends to drink with.

The writer is a womanizing, game playing, lying, immature, irresponsible, borderline alcoholic with shaky morals. His saving grace is that he is, in fact, hysterically funny.

Hmm. Sounds like the guys I’ve spent the greater part of my twenties dating.

Pick up your copy of “I Hope They Serve Beer” today at Barnes and Noble, Amazon.com, or Borders, and give the men in your life another book to read, which no doubt will be sitting next to the Maxim and Playboys next to his toilet.

LC's Book of the Week

LC's Book of the Week Pick is definitely Sue Monk Kidd & Ann Kidd Taylor's book, "Traveling With Pomegranates." Not only is it beautifully written, it chronicles the trips of a mother and daughter, and the way they evolve and change as women. Their relationship with each other is strengthened through the book, as they grow closer, and as years and different events bring them together.

The past week, I've realized how close I am to my Mom, now, and how much closer we've become since she could have lost me last week...knowing that, maybe gives me some sense of mortality, and how fragile life can be...and how blessed I am that I have a mother who loves me and wants to take care of me unconditionally.

I watched Steel Magnolias today, and all I could think was how much Sally Field's character reminds me of my own mother. Resilient, caring, devoted, loyal, and willing to fight for her children no matter the situation.

Thank God for Mothers.

To buy "Traveling With Pomegranates," visit Barnes and Noble, Borders, or www.bn.com. or your local bookseller today. It's definitely a must-read. Buy a copy for your Mom, too. It would be the perfect gift to place underneath the Christmas tree...and we all know that's coming up, right around the corner.

Happens Every Day: LC's Must-Read Book of the Week

I love memoirs. Perhaps it’s because I’m a storyteller; as a writer, it’s second nature to explain a personal experience to someone as though I’m writing my own memoir. Somehow, telling people the bullshit that I’ve been through seems to help them through difficult times and gain some clarity they didn’t have before.

This is by far one of the most incredible memoirs I’ve ever read. Isabel Gilles’ voice in the book shines through; you can tell she is a novice at the whole writing thing, but it’s that voice—a real, true voice of a woman who survived the worst possible heartache—that makes even the biggest cynic empathize with her.

When her husband gets a new job in a small town in the Midwest as a professor at a university, Isabel is forced to move her two young sons and become a stay-at-home Mom. When he begins coming home a little later, she realizes he is having an affair with the woman who just started working in his department, and they finally decide to be together, despite much begging and pleading from Isabel. There is a scene in the book where she suspects the woman, who she befriended, was having an affair with her husband, and when she talks about infidelity while they are in a movie theatre together, her husband’s mistress turns to her and says, “It happens every day.”

When I read this book for the first time in the summer, it hit close to home for a few reasons, personal reasons…and flashbacks of the times I’ve been hurt and felt broken flooded back. When I was staying with Auntie Gloria in Las Cruces, New Mexico in summer this past year, she let me (as usual) stay in her bedroom, and as I laid in that big bed at night and read most of the book, I found myself in a little ball, crying as I read the last part of the memoir. It was so real and so heartfelt, it pulled at my heartstrings in a way a memoir ideally should.

Pick up a copy for yourself at your local library if you’re a recessionista, or if you’re the type who likes to add a new and wonderful book to your bookshelf, visit your local Barnes and Noble, or www.bn.com, or Borders Books and Music today. Everyone has a story, and this one desperately needed to be told.

The Sartorialist & Caffeine: A Fashionista's Tribute to The Good Stuff

Oh, if I had no discipline...I would probably wake up in the morning, have a huge cup of coffee (venti, black, please) and sit at the kitchen table (or in bed) with my laptop and search the world wide web for every fashion blog known to man. I would look at the beautiful photos my fellow bloggers have taken (as I always draw inspiration from photography) and I'd read fitness blogs to get more inspiration for the workout I would have to do after sitting on my ass reading blogs.

One of my favorite blogs is The Sartorialist, and you can read/view for yourself at: www.sartorialist.com, but now, you can also purchase this amazing book, which your friends will be quick to grab off your coffee table when they come over to visit, and ooh and ahh as they leaf through the pages. You can purchase it at www.barnesandnoble.com as well or www.borders.com.

So give your laptop a vacation for a bit, invite your fashion loving co-consipirators over for their caffeine jolt, and start getting inspired by this great book.

I Can See Clearly Now...

Yesterday I drove out to Scottsdale Fashion Square, and had a pleasant day, shopping, lunch at Nordstrom Cafe, and browsing the bookstore aisles at Borders.

I woke up early yesterday to work out, so by the time I got ready to leave, I forgot a few important things to pack in my purse. When I got into my car, I started digging through my purse to look for my sunglasses, and realized I'd left them in my sunglass drawer at home (yes, I'm an organization weirdo and I have a whole drawer devoted to sunglasses and perfectly folded scarves.) Completely bummed, I walked into AJ's Fine Foods for my iced green tea with extra ice & sweetener (my favorite!) and realized just how important sunglasses really are.

Not only do they shield my eyes from the sun, and keep out harmful UV rays, they also prevent wrinkles. (Something I've been concerned about since I was 12.) They also allow me to walk through Fashion Square and not be bothered by people, because sometimes by oversized shades say "kick rocks" without the words having to come out of my own mouth. They give me the look of a celebrity who doesn't want to be bothered by the paparrazzi, and they add an instant touch of glamour to my outfit.
The pair I've purchased more recently is by Marc Jacobs, they're very Lauren Conrad from The Hills, square and oversized, and I totally love them.

Since I forgot mine at home, I was almost tempted to buy these Prada glasses at Nordstrom sunglass boutique at Fashion Square. They're also available at Sunglass Hut at Fashion Square, and Solstice at San Tan Village, and you can also find them online at www.nordstrom.com, for those who don't live close to these stores.

Hey, if I can't be a Hollywood star, I might as well look like one. Protect your eyes from the hot sun, and step out in style by treating yourself to a much deserved pair of glam new glasses. Put your stunna shades on, honey, because the sun is shining, and, best of all, so are you.