ACCENT: PIONEER GIRL by Bich Minh Nguyen

A quick description of this book sounds highly bizarre and unlikely to hang together.  A brother and sister are first generation Vietnamese Americans, struggling to find their own identities while respecting their mother and grandfather’s fierce loyalties to their heritage.  As a child, our narrator loved the Little House on the Prairie series of books.  She…

REVIEW: TROPIC THUNDER (2008)

There may have been a layer of unexpectedness which enhanced my enjoyment of this film, but I must admit it was highly entertaining.  A little bit of Borat-type humor (“That is so wrong…”), Hot Shots goofiness, and well-planted dialogue combine to make a very silly movie.   Hollywood makes fun of itself, on every level,…