Birthdays!

Happy Birthday

Jane Austen- 1775

Arthur C. Clark- 1917

Noel Cloward- 1899

The Last Song

First of all, let's get this out in the open. I love Nicholas Sparks. Phew! I said it. Ok so The Last Song, which is currently number 12 on the New York Times best seller list, was good. I liked it, I mean it was cutesy and heart-achey, but I felt compared to a lot of other Nicholas Sparks books this one felt short. Especially since Miley Cyrus got to name the main character (Ronnie) and also play her in the movie. I have a HUGE issue with this. Not only is Ronnie not the name I would have thought to have picked, but also who would have picked Miley Cyrus? Even hearing her name makes me think of an STD. Anyway side from my Miley rant, Last Song is about a girl named Ronnie, who has a kind of screwed up past with the law and her parents divorce. Her mom forces her and her brother Jonah to go to a small beach town in North Carolina to visit their dad who they haven't seen for a few years. As predicted Ronnie doesn't want to go, accidently gets in more trouble, meets a cute guy named Will, falls in love.

Basically all the stuff Sparks is renown for is in this book. So for all you Sparks fans out there, this won't disappoint, and maybe make you want to bake cookies for your father. Anyway to end this commentary on the book, if you want to check out some stuff on the book or movie, here are some links! Enjoy!

-Jess

http://www.nicholassparks.com/LearnMore.asp?BookID=15

http://www.slashfilm.com/2009/11/17/the-last-song-movie-trailer/

P.S. Dear John looks like it will be fantastic and a major tear jerker if it is anything like the book! Be warned!

To make your visit worth while!

Here I am going to do a quick review on some of the books that have been recently made into movies. This way if you don't like reading you can check out the movie!

First up: The Reader. This was a fantastic book, as well as a fantastic film to go along with it. Some of the material may be somewhat unsettling since this is definitely a weird relationship since Hannah Schmidt is 21 years older than Michael Berg. But, i do feel that Schlink does an amazing job a narrating this piece almost as a ballad. Love, Loss, and Being Lost. Just fantastic.

Secondly: Harry Potter and The Half Blood Prince . Of course everyone and their mother loves Harry, Ron, and Ginny, so i won't dare say a word against the book. However the movie as every true Potter fan knows did not live up to quite the expectations fans had. However it did stay truer to the book than some previous movies. Also does anyone else notice how Hogwarts keeps changing? Thoughts?

Thirdly: New Moon. My LEAST favorite book in the series. It was so depressing, and really boring to read (only because I was a hardcore Team Edward). However after the crap that was considered the first movie, I really had no hope for the second, surprisingly it was WAY better than the first one. Kristen Stewart didn't bite her lip so much, or look like she was on crystal meth (good job make-up!) and there was plenty of Taylor Lautner shirtless. However they didn't stay very close to the book, and did anyone notice what was going on with R-Patz nip in the clock tower scene?

Lastly (for now): The Lovely Bones. Now I haven't actually seen the movies, but the book was incredibly good. Sad, but really good. A lot of people I have talked to about seeing it, don't want to at all because the thought of sitting through a movie dealing solely on a 14 year old girls murder is just too disturbing, and yes the book at parts was very disturbing. But, it was also a really really good story. I will be seeing this movie and keep you posted!

Happy Reading!

-Jess

My first critique

So, I am setting up this here blog in hopes that once word is spread of my genius opinions on what i think about books that I will become uber-famous! Just kidding, ok not really.

Anyway! So the first book I would like to critique is Her Fearful Symmetry, by Audrey Niffenegger. Now I have heard glowing reviews of the Time Travelers Wife, so I figured hey why not, this seems like it would be interesting. I did not like this book at all! The story that Niffenegger creates albeit is very intricate, and tightly woven, I just could not get into it. First off she presents us with a set of twins who have the unhealthiest relationship in the world, and then brings in the dead great aunt who (spoiler alert!) in fact turns out to be their mother. That was pretty predictable honestly, however some points in the story were just head scratchers. If you read it talk to me, and we will discuss. But, in all seriousness the book was not worth the eighteen dollars paid for it. I could go on and on, however I won't.

On a slightly more positive note, for all you readers who like the mortal instruments series, author Cassandra Clare has confirmed there is to be a fourth one! yay!!!

Also for those Stephenie Meyer fans out there who have actually read her other book that does not deal with sparkly vampires, she does have plans to make The Host into a trilogy. I am actually really excited for this, because I felt like The Host had a little more substance than that of Twilight.

Check back for more updates on all things literary!

-Jess