Nancy's Reads & Reels: "behind the beautiful forevers," "The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel" and "Bernie"

Katherine Boo writes on the first page of her book: “For two Sunils and what they’ve taught me about not giving up.” Giving up is what you would imagine yourself doing if you lived in the Mumbai slum, Annawadi, full of the most desperately poor people you could imagine.

A lot of characters inhabit this true-life story and it’s difficult to remember who belongs to which family.

Nowhere in this book do the characters find justice. They try to desperately eke out a living and for their trouble they are rewarded with nothing. All the officials are on the take and every charitable project is filled with corruption.

The book’s quite a downer but it might make you stop and think the next time you complain about your life’s difficulties.

The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel was a delightful movie and I suppose it was made for people like my sister and me. We are both in our 70s and struggle with the notion of what happens once you retire. We won’t be heading to India but the movie transported us to that colorful location and we identified with many of the characters. All the English actors: Judi Dench, Tom Wilkinson, Maggie Smith and Bill Nighy are superb. Dev Patil as the clueless hotel owner is perfect.

I could hardly wait to see “Bernie” after reading about him in The New York Times. Jack Black does a great job as Bernie Tiede, an assistant undertaker in a small East Texas town who wins the affection of wealthy widow, Marjorie Nugent, the most disliked woman in town, played by Shirley MacLaine. Bernie is loved by everyone—so imagine the shock when he is accused of murder. The movie is like a documentary in that different townspeople are interviewed about their opinion of Bernie and no one has a bad word to say about him. Matthew McConaughey does a great job as Danny Buck the District Attorney who calls into question Bernie's character and motives.

Wow! Two enjoyable movies in two weeks—very unusual.