Personal Books

Today’s Book(s) and a Movie

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I’ve still got two Harry Potter books — The Half-Blood Prince and The Deathly Hallows — to finish for my re-read this year.  Since we’re planning to head out of town today (traffic gods please be on our side, say 3PM, if that’s good for you), I decided there’s no better time to finish up the series than during the holidays so in the suitcase they went.  I’m not sure if I’ll actually be able to finish but I’m going to give it a good try.

I did get the chance to see part 1 of the Deathly Hallows the other night, so I thought I’d share a few thoughts on that too since I’m already talking about the boy wizard.  It’s not really a review, just a few thoughts.

First, I’m not a book purist.  I consider movies and books completely different mediums and I never believe that a book, especially a large book like Deathly Hallows, should follow exactly the same lines.  It’s just not feasible and I’m good with differences — even major differences don’t bother me.  That said, here’s what I thought.

I liked it.  Honestly, I thought about leaving it at that but it seemed like cheating.  I saw it on Imax so the special effects looked great, the acting was good, and you know right from the start that you’re no longer watching a cutesy movie about a kid learning spells.  People die, but there’s still some humor to put things in perspective. There are some very sad moments (When Hermione erases her parents memory is one.) and some very funny ones (Ron’s awkward way of telling Hermione that he’s in love with her and trying horribly to apologize for leaving both her and Harry in a rage.) that left me wanting more and very glad that I decided to re-read the series even if I hadn’t yet gotten to book seven.  I said the acting was good, and in particular, Emma Watson’s performance.  She’s matured dramatically and it shows.  And of course Alan Rickman and Ralph Fiennes are phenomenally bad in a good way.  I never imagined Voldemort as creepy as Fiennes makes him and there’s something to be said for that.

While I’m not a fan of two part movies like this, they did end it in a somewhat logical spot so I can’t complain about that other than I immediately wanted to see part two.  I’m trying not to give too many things away and realize this isn’t making much sense, so in my continuing attempts to remain spoiler free, I’ll just leave you with a trailer.

Have you seen the movie?  Any thoughts?

The Sunday Salon – The Not So Much to Report Report

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Somehow, I came down with a cold last week.  I denied at first that I was sick at all.  Who wants to be sick before Christmas right?!  I spent several days sniffling and sucking cough drops as though they were the essence of life itself and then, toward the end of last week, I gave in.  I admitted defeat and succumbed to the cold germs that threatened to bring down my holiday if I didn’t rest.  Three days later and I’m still feeling the effects of the dreaded germs but in general, I am feeling much better.  My husband may argue that I’m still very ill and should be sitting on the couch numbing my brain with TV but I feel all together different on that point.  🙂

Being sick meant I didn’t get a lot of reading in this week which annoyed me because I’m reading A Game of Thrones and loving it so so much.  Cold medicine made my head fuzzy and took away any focus I managed to cobble together so I was only able to read about five pages at a time before I was forced to put the book down.  I’ve rebounded this weekend and am happy to say I’m loving this book even more now than when I started.  The world building is so awesome and I keep falling deeper and deeper into the court drama.  It’s leaving me at a loss for words — or is that the cold medicine — either way, I’m not sure what to say about it other than you should read it.  Hopefully, I’ll be able to come up with more than that when it comes to time to write a review…

This afternoon I’m heading out to the suburbs to see Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows on Imax.  I’m so excited.  🙂  I was beginning to feel as though everyone but me had seen it already.  I was foiled at Thanksgiving with sold out shows, had to hold off for our trip to Colorado, then it was my birthday, then I got sick, and then it snowed.  So today is the DAY!  Yes, today I get to see the movie.  It’s become a little tradition among our friends to trek out to the burbs to see it on the big-butt screen so I’m very excited all around.  A good movie and some time with friends before the holidays descend in full force and we all scatter to our respective home states.  Will you be seeing a post about it later this week?  Maybe.  Depends on whether I can get butt in chair before packing up the car and spending hours sitting in traffic pretending to be cheery listening to Bruce Springsteen belt out that Santa song for the hundredth time.  I digress.  Back to books.

December seems to have become my nemesis this year.  Not in a bad way.  Well, it did make me a year older but I’ve gotten over that.  No, it’s timing.  There’s so much going on that I haven’t had the chance to sit down and write reviews the last few weeks.  I would like to get some thoughts down for The Lost City of Z by David Grann and the same goes for Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte.  So far, I have been less than successful.  My reading has also fallen behind a bit but that I’m all right with considering my reading slows down in December anyway.  Well, I’ll just have to see how this week goes.

Happy Sunday everyone!

The Snow Post

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So, that’s a little lie because there’s no snow where I live (at least not at the moment) but I’m hoping to step off a plane in Colorado and see some.  Yep.  I’m taking a few days off to enjoy winter weather fun.

I’ve downloaded several books to my Nook and packed a warm sweater (OK, I can’t lie, I packed several sweaters.) and I’m off.  I shall return soon with photos of snowy mountains to share.

Since all will be silent here, I wanted to leave you with a few videos I found.  The next book on my reading list is Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte so I thought a link to the movie trailer would be appropriate.  The movie comes out in early 2011.

One of the books I downloaded for this trip was A Game of Thrones by George RR Martin because HBO will showing a series based on the book next year and I must read it before that.  Well, I wanted to read it for a while but this is my reason at the moment and I’m sticking to it.

Anyway, enjoy. 🙂

The Sunday Salon

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We had visitors this weekend so not much reading was done. I did get in a few chapters here and there but mostly it was filled with football games and touristy things.

In the last week, I finished The Distant Hours by Kate Morton, The Sherlockian by Graham Moore, The Exile by Diana Gabaldon, and started Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by JK Rowling so even if I didn’t get to read this weekend, it was still a good week overall.

I don’t have much to say today which is probably due to the lack of sleep I’ve had the last few nights.  Even the nap this afternoon didn’t help so I’ll be making this a very short salon today.  I was planning to talk about cleaning off the bookshelves or maybe even holiday reading but I don’t have it in me today.  🙂

Happy Sunday.

Today’s Book

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I usually participate in a meme of some sort on Thursdays but since Alyce from At Home With Books has ended My Favorite Reads and I don’t do Booking Through Thursday anymore (although I love reading the responses), I’ve been struggling with what to do with Thursdays.  There are tons of memes out there and I like them all but I thought I’d do something a little less memey.  I thought I would simply talk about the book I’m reading today.  Marg over at The Adventures of an Intrepid Reader does this every once in a while and I enjoy hearing about what book(s) she’s reading so I thought I would take a page and do something similar.  It won’t be a review or a re-cap.  I may even get lazy a few mornings and post only the cover and leave you wondering.  Mostly it will be my first initial thoughts on a book and whether or not I’m enjoying it.  Nothing fancy, nothing extravagant cuz I’m lazy in the morning and far, far, far from being a morning person.

Today I’m reading The Distant Hours by Kate Morton.

I requested this book which is something I don’t normally do (my TBR is big enough without adding promised reviews to the mix) but this made it onto my list a long time ago and when I saw an ad for copies in Shelf Awareness, I asked for one.  Then it sat because I had other things to read and it’s long (672 pages), and while I love long books, I kept putting it off.

Yesterday, I decided it was time.  So, here’s what’s happened so far (I will try to avoid spoilers and since I’m only 144 pages in that should be easy.) —

Edie Burchill is having dinner with her parents when her mother gets a letter that causes her to cry, something her mother never does.  Edie gets her to talk about the letter and she finds out that her mother was a child evacuee during WWII and was taken in by the Blythe sisters at Milderhurst Castle.  A short time later, Edie gets lost on a business trip and finds herself at the castle.  She talks the sisters into giving her a tour, and after a creepy encounter with the youngest sister, she now seems a little obsessed with the castle and the sisters.

If you want general info, the publisher’s website has it.  I don’t want to add more since that’s actually as far as I got in the book last night.  I’m enjoying it but it’s reminding me of another book, The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield, and I keep comparing the two in my head and  I need to knock that off or I won’t get through this one.

On another note — and since I’m talking about whatever I want today — I bought The Exile by Diana Gabaldon.  It’s the Outlander graphic novel and, YES, Jamie Fraser looks nothing like the Jamie Fraser in my head but that’s okay.  He’s still a hot Scottish guy in a kilt.  🙂  The Outlander series ranks high on my favorite scale so I had to buy this one since I own all the other books.  It’s told from Jamie’s perspective, and I don’t read many graphic novels which I’m trying to change for the better, and I think a hot Scottish guy in a kilt will get me there.

The Sunday Salon – Lazy with Crazy Acquisitions

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Hi there.  I’m still around; I was just a lazy blogger last week.  Work always gets extremely busy this time of year — I refer to it as the Vegas Syndrome.  My company has a conference the first week of November in Las Vegas and every year around this time everything explodes and that’s pretty much the state work is in at the moment which is why I was lazy on the blog front.  I plan to remedy that in the next few days since things should calm down and return to some sort of normal before I get on a plane.

While I’ve been lazy with the writing, I haven’t been lazy in the book acquiring department.  I’ve mentioned this before — we have a book buying moratorium on at the moment in our house.  Review books are still allowed, but all other books, with the exception of ebooks since they take up no space, were not.  Somehow the moratorium failed in the month of October.  My husband and I both bought several books and said, “Oh, we’ll find space for them,” which probably means we’ll have to buy a new bookcase but so be it.  We’re planning to do that anyway.

So what did I end up with?

The Distant Hours by Kate Morton — This is a review copy I requested so it’s not falling under the rule but since it came into the house, it’s getting counted.

The Hard Way by Lee Child — A co-worker loaned this one to me (He’s got most of Child’s Reacher series and I keep borrowing them.  He’s like a personal thriller library.) and again not a true rule breaker but it will be spending time here so on the list.

Roald Dahl’s Book of Ghost Stories — We have this great local bookstore a few blocks away and each time I go there, I visit this book.  The last time I went in, it came home.

The Cat Who Walks Through Walls by Robert A. Heinlein — I’ve been in the mood for some good science fiction and it’s been a while since I’ve read one of Heinlein’s books.

The Forever War by Joe Haldeman — More science fiction.  My husband read this one and loved it.  I don’t like to read about war but the science fiction part has me intrigued.

Rudyard Kipling’s Tales of Horror & Fantasy with an introduction by Neil Gaiman edited by Stephen Jones — My husband bought this one for me after a particularly long day.  🙂  It’s short stories and perfect for when you want something quick and creepy.

The Lost City of Z by David Grann — I’ve been wanting to read this one for a long time, and when I was playing around with my Nook yesterday, decided that it was time to buy it.  Besides, I need something to read on that long plane ride to Las Vegas. (ebook)

The House on Durrow Street by Galen Beckett — I read the first book, The Magicians & Mrs. Quent, and while I can’t say I loved it, I liked it enough to get the second one.  (ebook)

Magic Bleeds by Ilona Andrews — I’ve read the three previous books in this series and loved them all.  It’s urban fantasy and everything about these books is fantastic. (ebook)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now, to close this up, the wrap-up for last week.  I read:

The Burning Times by Jeanne Kalogridis, finished The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova (I’m a week ahead of the read along, it’s supposed to end on Halloween, but I’m not good with reading on a schedule.), and started Corrag by Susan Fletcher.  I plan to start Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie today too.  I downloaded a free copy to my Nook weeks ago and have been meaning to read it.  I loved this book as a child and want to see what I think of it as an adult.

That’s all for me today.  Buy any good books in the last few days?

Enjoy your Sunday.

Lord of the Rings Read-Along: The Two-fer Edition

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I’m going to combine two Lord of the Rings Read-Along posts this week because I’m way behind on my posts and my reading and I want to catch up and this is the way I’m going to do it. 🙂

First, thanks to Teresa at Shelf Love for hosting The Two Towers discussion in March and to Maree at Just Add Books for hosting The Return of the King this month.

Here are the final questions for The Two Towers:

1)The last half of The Two Towers covers fewer characters than the first half. For some, this makes Book 4 slower than the rest of the book; others love the intense focus on Frodo, Gollum, and Sam. Where do you stand on this question?

I’m in between on this one. I understand why it was done (at least I think I do) but it’s odd when you’re reading. Yes, the fellowship is now on two separate quests and writing it as two stories only heightens that reality but it does sometimes make me wonder why they don’t seem to think about each other and how they’re doing.

2)If you’re a first-time reader (or even a rereader), what surprised you most about this half of the book?

I starting feeling very different about Frodo. I tend to think of him as sappy but I think that’s more a movie impression since Elijah Wood always looks like he’s going to cry in the movie (just my two cents and not meant to be mean-spirited). While reading, I started to remember that Frodo was a bit tougher than I really gave him credit for and I liked that.

3)Are there any specific moments that stand out as favorites or least favorites in this section?

I don’t think I have any least favorite moments but I really enjoyed meeting Faramir again.

4)What are some themes or ideas in this book (or the trilogy as a whole so far) that stand out to you?

Sam’s undying, unwavering friendship always stands out for me. He’s so loyal and true that I always want to hug him for just being who he is, not apologizing for it, and not feeling sorry for anything he does to help Frodo.

5)And the obligatory movie question: Many LOTR readers take the biggest issue with Jackson’s treatment of this part of the trilogy than with any other? Did the changes bother you? Are there any ways in which you think the movie was more effective?

I don’t think of the movies as more or less effective. It’s just a different medium and somethings that work so well in the book just don’t translate on screen. I like to think of them as separate but connected entities. So, no, I don’t think there was anything in the movies that was changed that bothered me intensely enough to mention here. I walk the middle line on this question. I like the books. I like the movies.

Here are the intro question for The Return of the King:

1) We’re coming to the end of the quest. Where are you in your reading?

I’m on chapter 4, The Siege of Gondor. Not all that far yet but I plan to catch up this week.

2) Have you read LOTR before? If so, what are you anticipating most re-reading in ROTK? (er … try to avoid spoilers, although I suppose that question makes that a bit tricky)

I have read the books before and I’m really looking forward to the refresher on ROTK since I don’t remember much from this book. Yep, that was a smooth avoidance wasn’t it. 😉

3) Who’s your favourite character in ROTK?

Aragorn. Just cuz he’s hot. 🙂

4) Favourite scene?

There is a speech that Aragorn gives to the gathered armies that starts, “Today is not the day…” I really am hoping that I’m not remembering something from the movie and not the book here but I have this very Julius Caesar/Marc Antony, Shakespearean like, speech vision in my head and I am starting to wonder where I remember it from…I hope it’s the book.

5) How do you feel about the overall series now that we’re getting near the end?

I’m feeling very nostalgic about the whole thing. I’ve read these books a few times and have very fond and different memories of all of them. Re-reading the books now has brought back some wonderful memories.

6) Have you seen the movies? Have they coloured your reading of ROTK?

Avoidance tactic two — yep, saw the movies. Yep, like the movies. Nope, not hurting my experience.

Man, this movie question just won’t walk on in to the sunset will it?

7) Does reading the books make you want to watch the movies, or run screaming in the other direction?

Uh, see 6. I’m planning to re-watch the movies when I’m done reading to see what was different. I’ve convinced the hubby to go along with me and he said, “What, so we’re planning to do nothing for the whole month of May but watch movies?” We only have the extended versions on DVD. So, if no on hears from me for a while…send popcorn.

Have any thoughts about the Lord of the Rings?