I stayed at home and read this one!

And I've now spent one week thinking about this book and about how more people should read it. It's a love story - but not in the style of Marianne Keyes! In fact not in the style of any love story I have read for a very long time, which has made it totally refreshing and very very beautiful.

It is called One Day by David Nicholls and I was drawn to it because of the subtext above the title of the book "twenty years, two people". "It's not often a love story decides to cover twenty years of a romance," I found myself thinking. So, I picked it up and read the back cover which informed me that if I read this book I would be following the lives of two people who hooked up one drunken evening at university and then went their separate ways the next day. I would then re-visit them on that day the following year, and then the year after that, and then the year after that. Intriguing, don't you think?

Emma is very much another Bridget Jones character, except she's a little bit more down to earth and she manages to get her life sorted out before she is swept off her feet by her Prince Charming. (Which, is a little bit more like real life, and a much more positive idea for single women to embrace). Dexter is the typical bad boy, and, like happens to all bad boys, he gets himself into a lot of trouble and is irresistable to women. But what David Nicholls manages to convey to us about this guy is that he actually gets hurt by all of these mistakes and as life goes on he doesn't want these things to keep happening: it's as if he keeps getting knocked down before he's ever able to stand up and regain his stamina. Emma and Dexter manage to maintain a friendship over twenty years, sometimes they are close, sometimes they are not (Speaking as someone who has a few friendships that are heading towards their second decade I know that this is what these friendships are like. They become more precious over time, but have gaps in them where our lives have been too different to be compatible.)

I do not want to ruin this page turner of a book. I want people to read it. I happened to be reading it at the same time as "Eat, Pray, Love" which is a MUCH WORSE read when read in tandem with this book. As "Eat, Pray, Love" becomes more and more decadent and self-obssessed, "One Day" becomes more and more sincere and tender. I lost compassion for Ms Gilbert, but fell in love with Emma and Dexter as they were trying to live their lives, rather than figure them out. They were just like me, and the love stories that they were living were just like mine. I didn't feel quite as alone after reading that book.

If you are looking for a book that is refreshingly different, but also an amazing reflection of real life and real love, then try "One Day". If you want to feel a little bit more inspired about the love you already have, and have had for many years, then read this book. It is beautiful!

Sister Act, The Musical

Yesterday, very spontaneously, my friend Janine and I decided to go and catch a matinee. This is one of the wonderful things that London has to offer - who needs movies when there is live entertainment to be seen? And, always a little bit cheaper when you head down to one of the half price places in Leicester Square.

I have been curious about Sister Act for about a year now, but reviews kept putting me off going and seeing it - yes, even when Whoopi Goldberg was in town acting as the Mother Superior. I was sceptical about how a movie can go from screen to stage and had not heard nice things about Alan Menkin's music. I think both Janine and I felt that it was a show well worth seeing, but not worth spending too much money on!!

The musical is a celebration of seventies music with some great tributes to the Beegees. The male singers (the trio of bad guys and the cop, Eddie) were just wonderful in the Beegee/ Saturday Night Fever impersonations and brought great humour to the show. They were the touch that was added that was not in the movie, therefore unexpected, and that was what made the show for me. I must add that one of the trio, Dinero, sings and speaks in Spanish which gives such wonderful comic effect to the show.

The dialogue is just as it was in the movie, but because a movie can change scenes a bit quicker, it just came across a little bit laboured at times. The music was completely different to the movie, however. I only heard titbits of Alan Menken's Disney days in two songs, Bless our Show, which was remarkably like Be Our Guest from Beauty and the Beast and The Life I never Led which had a similar feel to Part of our World from The Little Mermaid. One reviewer had been disappointed with Menken's music and I can understand that from the point of view of there not being a song with the same stature as Colours of the Wind or Beauty and the Beast, but the ensemble music was pretty spectacular. Those nuns can sing!! All the ensemble sections were simply amazing and that is why I think everyone should go and see this musical before it closes because you won't get to see the amazing staging that goes hand in hand with the music. I had listened to the music before going and was not as impressed as I was when I saw it hand in hand with the dancing, energy of the actors and all those sequins!!

I have now decided to buy the music to this show, because it is so uplifiting - just like the movie - and well worth listening to and playing durng this cloudy and rainy Autumn! I have also decided that this is a great choice for Amateur Theatre, be it at a school or with a group of adults. It looks like so much fun to perform. This is a fantastic show to go and see with the girls on a Saturday afternoon, and it is closing soon, so don't miss it!!