Thursday Tidbits

I hope everyone is having/had a great Thanksgiving!  It’ll be short, but here are my Thursday tidbits!

• Want to be amazed at some photographs? Check these out at Underage Reading.
• Considering some Black Friday shopping? A friend of mine from high school, Jamie, did a spot on her local news about things to think about.
• A dear friend of mine from college, Shaun, has spent several year working with a camera truck, which he built himself.  NPR did a story on him, and you can always check out his website at Cameratruck.net.  If you want to learn more, there is a short documentary available, too.  (Short like 10 minutes.)
• Need some Thanksgiving day music?  Check out this list at NPR.
• More Twilight/New Moon stuff: Lisa @ EW has further thoughts after her EW review.  The Oatmeal on How Twilight Works.  Tiger Beatdown on the Underpants Conundrum.
• The Hierarchy of Digital Distractions
• Did you know the New York Public Library had such treasures? Also other interesting info!

 

Thankful

Instead of a review, I thought I would take some time to ponder the things I am thankful for in honor of Thanksgiving tomorrow, in no particular order:

• my husband
• my dogs Jake and Brinkley
• other dogs in the world
• my family
• my friends
• books
• rain
• my health and the health of all my loved ones
• my home
• my job
• the income from my job that allows me to drive a car and feed us and keep us warm and take care of my dogs and all the other things it allows me to do
• my eyesight and my ability to read
• Diet Coke
• “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” sung by just about anyone
• sushi and seafood in general
• bunnies
• good TV like Friday Night Lights, Fringe, Breaking Bad, Mad Men, Lost, How I Met Your Mother, Glee, 30 Rock
• pasta
• goats
• Christmas music
• cheese
• my bed
• chickens
• movies
• potatoes
• the Oscars
• David Gray
• ice
• pajama pants
• wine
• the holiday season
• fires
• Katharine Hepburn movies
• snow
• Ireland
• Disneyland
• sweatshirts
• cozy socks
• freedom – freedom to make choices in particular, whether it is who to vote for, where to work (or whether to work at all), what to eat, where to go, to have or not have children
• the hope that one day, all Americans will have the freedom to make choices like who to marry
• the color red
• Entertainment Weekly
• the internet and all it brings: email, social networks, blogging, funny videos, silly animal pictures, Post Secret
• Ben and Jerry’s Ginger Snap ice cream
• People who work to make the world a better place with and for animals: rescue groups, pet therapy, Puppies Behind Bars and other similar organizations, assistance dogs, groups that bring dogs home from Iraq that were adopted by soldiers, veterinarians
• my DVRs
• opportunities for professional involvement
• pedicures and facials
• the students that come into the school library
• That even though I am 34, the moment that Santa shows up at the end of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade I always tear up
• That 2010 is approaching and brings the hope of many exciting things, including a 2nd leg of a David Gray tour, the new book in Susan Beth Pfeffer’s moon trilogy and Carrie Ryan’s sequel to The Forest of Hands and Teeth
• Our Christmas party, which my husband and I have been throwing for 7 years now – it’s my favorite night of the year
• my blog readers – whoever you are!

Wow, that’s a really long list!  I feel very blessed that I have so much to be thankful for right now.  I hope everyone is able to take some time to ponder and be thankful over the next several days, and spend some time with your loved ones.  Happy Thanksgiving!

Fallen by Lauren Kate

Fallen by Lauren Kate: Read in November, 2009 – ARC provided by publisher – Delacorte Press

Description from Good Reads:

There’s something achingly familiar about Daniel Grigori.

Mysterious and aloof, he captures Luce Price’s attention from the moment she sees him on her first day at the Sword & Cross boarding school in sultry Savannah, Georgia. He’s the one bright spot in a place where cell phones are forbidden, the other students are all screw-ups, and security cameras watch every move.

Even though Daniel wants nothing to do with Luce–and goes out of his way to make that very clear–she can’t let it go. Drawn to him like a moth to a flame, she has to find out what Daniel is so desperate to keep secret . . . even if it kills her.

Dangerously exciting and darkly romantic, Fallen is a page turning thriller and the ultimate love story.

Lauren Kate’s Fallen is one of the books in a recent supernatural trend, although to reveal which one would be a spoiler for the book.  (I will say it is not vampires – thank goodness!)  Luce’s parents enrolled her in a boarding school once they were at a loss as to what else to do for her.  She was involved in a strange incident that left a lot of unanswered questions, so they hoped that a new environment would help her.  The school is a strange place.  It’s old, with its own cemetery dating back to the Civil War.  The buildings were not always a school and have kind of just had the school forced into whatever they formerly were.  For example, the pool is in the church (which sounds like an awesome place to swim).  Cameras follow the students everywhere they go, and students are required to wear all black on school days.  Despite the change in scenery, Luce is still haunted by the shadows that have followed her all her life.

Luce becomes friends with some of the students, although she also finds herself immediately disliked by others.  One guy, Cam, begins to flirt with Luce, but she finds herself inexplicably drawn to another student, Daniel.  He is not nice to her, but she can’t resist him.  Why does he dislike her so much?  Why do some of the other girls not like her?  Why can Luce not escape the shadows?

I enjoyed Fallen.  I liked the characters Luce and her friends Penn and Arriane.  These two especially were well written.  They are both individuals and not at all the boring best friend one often sees.  It took a while for Daniel to win me over, but I eventually grew to like him.  Even the school is a character and I easily found myself not in my reading chair, but sitting the library or wandering the sunken cemetary with Luce.  The book contains a lot of mysteries, and I like that not all of them are solved by the end (there is a sequel planned).

My only issue with the book is that it has a tendency to drag a bit.  There were several places where it didn’t seem like much was happening and nothing was being set up for the future, at least as far as I can see.  Eventually the book does pick up, and I was never tempted to stop reading it, but it is definitely a negative about the book.

The cover looks like it will be gorgeous (the ARC is a plain navy blue and white) although I find Luce’s hair a weird choice.  The reader quickly learns that while she once had long hair, she no longer does.  I’m curious to know why they chose to go with the long hair on the cover.  I think it will be very eye-catching and it perfectly sets the mood of the book.

I plan to order this for our library.  I think it will be a big hit with readers who enjoy mysterious supernatural stories and romance.  There are some typical boarding school shenanigans involving substances underage students should not have, but it isn’t a big part of the story.

 

I am an Amazon Affiliate. If you click from here to Amazon and buy something, I receive a percentage of the purchase price.

New Moon movie review

I went to see New Moon last night.  You should know that I like the Twilight series.  I don’t love it – it has it’s flaws – but it’s fun and addicting.  If I had a dollar for every person I recommended the books to – students and adults, my Christmas shopping would be easier.  I saw Twilight three times in the theater, and bought the DVD.  I thought the first movie was cheesy but fun, and improved on the book by making a lot of the characters, such as Bella’s dad and school friends, a lot more fun and three-dimensional.  While the falling in love between Bella and Edward was fast, I also believed it and could see what they might see in each other.  I’m not a Twitard by any stretch of the imagination, I proudly wear my “And then Buffy staked Edward. The End.” t-shirt, and I’m not on Team Edward or Team Jacob, but I like the books and the first movie a lot – I’m a semi-fan.

I did not like the movie version of New Moon.  First of all, it was slow.  I lost count of how many times I checked my watch.  There was so much dead space where characters just stood around and stared at each other.  (Roger Ebert agrees with me.)  I know that New Moon isn’t the most exciting of the books; a lot of it is Bella being depressed.  Did they really have to duplicate all of that and cut out the few fun things like more of Bella and her bike, Bella being reckless and depressed?

I also really missed the other characters.  Like I said, that was one of the things I thought the first movie did better than the books.  Bella barely interacts with anyone besides Jacob and faux Edward.  I know – Bella = depressed so she’s alone a lot, but the lack of other characters hurts.  This must have been an easy film shoot for everyone else.  Billy is in about 20 seconds of the movie, Bella’s friends barely show up, her dad is never around, and we get a boring English teacher instead of the fun science teacher.  The Cullens could have been cardboard cutouts for most of the movie, since every scene just requires them to stand in the couple formations and stare at Bella.

The special effects were a bit better.  The sparkle still looks hilarious, but it is a little improved, and the running vamps (mainly Victoria) are sooooo much better than Twilight.  The wolves were decent from far away, if a bit too cuddly looking, but more than once they made me think of the wolf in The Neverending Story, and if your 2009 movie wolf makes a viewer think of an 80’s movie, is that good?

Jacob’s wig is better this time, but Jasper’s wig is just as bad.  Alice’s clothes are terrible.  I thought she was supposed to be into fashion, but she’s always draped in all these large billowy things, like an eccentric older lady. Very weird.

The acting was up and down.  Taylor Lautner was okay, but RPattz looks constipated the whole movie.  Michael Welsh is adorable as Mike Newton – I think he’s become my favorite character in the movie version – and Anna Kendrick is just as cute.  Justin Chon made Eric even more gay than he was in the first, which is pretty good considering the lack of screen time he has.  Jackson Rathbone is just as stick-up-his-rear as in the past.  Nikki Reed never fails to make me want to punch her in the face.  Kellan Lutz was cute.  Rachelle Lefevre is gorgeous and incredibly underused.  (I am still very angry that they fired her from the third move.  Bryce Dallas Howard is always so dead in the face, and not as gorgeous.)

I liked the Volturi, they were pretty much how I imagined them to be.  In the books, I did think Jane was one of the main three, so I’m not sure if I read it wrong, or if they put three males on the dias for a reason, but reading a few fan sites makes me think it is my mistake.  Michael Sheen as Aro is perfect.  Marcus cracked me up with his constant boredom of everything.  Meyer mentions is whenever the Volturi show up, and I always found is amusing, and it is played out even better on-screen by Christopher Heyerdahl.  He is in the background most of the time, but I found myself watching him more than the main action on the screen, which might speak volumes about my interest in the main action.

I have no plans to see this again in the theater, and I don’t care to purchase it on DVD.  I will see the third, despite this one and the casting of Bryce Dallas Howard, but I’m not as excited about it as I was to see this one.

On a side note, I went to see what the hilarious Cleolinda had to say about it, and she seems to feel the same way I did about a lot of these points.

Photo Friday

I love Virginia wine country!  These are from a wine tour I put together 2 weeks ago.

The first winery we went to was Aspen Dale.  The building where they do the tastings is actually an old barn they have converted.  If memory serves me, the building is over 200 years old!  The tasting was great, with foods to pair with each wine.

A pony at Aspen Dale:

 

The 2nd winery was Miracle Valley.  They hosted us outside under a tent, and they had an adorable dog.

 

Thursday Tidbits

I’ve gotten a little behind this week, so posting has been content-lite this week.  Hopefully next week, I’ll be back on track. For now, a couple thing:

• Trying to decide on a fast food place?  Check out this hilarious flow chart.

• It’s possible that men who marry smart women live longer!

• A ten tear old Arkansas boy has decided not to say the pledge until we truly have “liberty and justice for all” through the freedom for all to marry.  CNN interviewed him, and he’s an articulate, serious kid, who also happens to be wearing an awesome shirt.

• Speaking of CNN videos, if you like goats, you should watch these two goats try to catch a ride on a bus.  I know we can’t let the pigeon drive the bus, but what about the goats?

• I have to take my dog Jake back to the vet today.  He was diagnosed with arthritis earlier in the fall and has been on Rimadyl.  This worked for a while, but he’s back to limping again.  I’m trying not to worry as he seems to be fine besides limping – he eats, still runs around, bringing us balls and ropes, barks at everyone who walks by.  It isn’t affecting his quality of life – yet.  I don’t know what the vet will suggest, so I need to wait and see.  He’ll be 8 this January, which is getting up there for a dog, but he’s a 60 pound mutt, so he should have several more good years left in him, and I want to keep him around as long as possible.

• I saw the film Precious this past weekend.  It is a good movie – well acted, emotional, and sure to receive some Oscar nominations.  I never truly got into it, although my friend shed some tears so it must have been me.  It tries to end on a hopeful note, but I do feel like it is a little false, knowing the time period and the obstacles Precious faces.  I can only assume the book ends the same way, although I have never read it.  I did like that after leaving the theater with illiteracy on my mind, I saw the following bumper sticker on a car, “Those who do not read are no better off than those who cannot read.”

• I’ve started a shelf shifting project this week in the fiction section of the library.  I do realize that I’m gambling a bit with circulation still continuing, but over the past year, things have just gotten out of sorts.  A few random empty shelves, some with just 5 books and some about to burst at the seams.  Of course, I can’t help but weed while I do it, which helps make room but makes the project take longer.  I enjoy it, though. Staring at the shelves, trying to figure out a good place to break the letters down to the next shelf, trying to decide how many books I want to leave.  While it seems to offend some people when we weed and/or spread books out so there are less per shelf, I’m a big believer in doing it.  First of all, it’s a sneaky way to make the library look like it could use new books, so people don’t think the budget should be cut.  Second, I think it makes things visually easier to find.  Third, we don’t have a good display area in the library, and when I’ve tried to make one, it doesn’t get much traffic.  So I like to use the empty space on the shelves to display books.  It catches the eye, makes the shelves jump out at you, and seems to encourage browsing.

Stitches by David Small

Stitches by David Small: Read in September, 2009 – copy purchased for my high school library

Description from Good Reads:

Finalist for the 2009 National Book Award (young adult category): the prize-winning children’s author depicts a childhood from hell in this searing yet redemptive graphic memoir.One day David Small awoke from a supposedly harmless operation to discover that he had been transformed into a virtual mute. A vocal cord removed, his throat slashed and stitched together like a bloody boot, the fourteen-year-old boy had not been told that he had cancer and was expected to die.

In Stitches, Small, the award-winning children’s illustrator and author, re-creates this terrifying event in a life story that might have been imagined by Kafka. As the images painfully tumble out, one by one, we gain a ringside seat at a gothic family drama where David—a highly anxious yet supremely talented child—all too often became the unwitting object of his parents’ buried frustration and rage.

Believing that they were trying to do their best, David’s parents did just the reverse. Edward Small, a Detroit physician, who vented his own anger by hitting a punching bag, was convinced that he could cure his young son’s respiratory problems with heavy doses of radiation, possibly causing David’s cancer. Elizabeth, David’s mother, tyrannically stingy and excessively scolding, ran the Small household under a cone of silence where emotions, especially her own, were hidden.

Depicting this coming-of-age story with dazzling, kaleidoscopic images that turn nightmare into fairy tale, Small tells us of his journey from sickly child to cancer patient, to the troubled teen whose risky decision to run away from home at sixteen—with nothing more than the dream of becoming an artist—will resonate as the ultimate survival statement.

A silent movie masquerading as a book, Stitches renders a broken world suddenly seamless and beautiful again.

I liked this, and recognize how well done it is, but I was never caught up in it.  (I keep trying different graphic novels and most just don’t ever sweep me in like a regular book does.  While I just can’t seem to fall in love with these books, I am VERY aware that this is just me and continue to buy them for the library as there are so many students who love them.)  It is a heartbreaking yet hopeful story that I do think many will appreciate.

I am an Amazon Affiliate.  If you follow a link from here to Amazon and buy something, I receive a percentage of the purchase price.

7 Kreativ Bloggers

I’m passing on the Kreativ Blogger award to the following:

1. Jen at Corrodentia Weekly – Jen is a friend of mine who blogs on a weekly basis (or so).  I love reading her insights and the different books she reads.

2. Pam at Haute Mamma Wannabe – Pam is an internet friend who blogs about her life – everything from her daughter to fashion and workouts. I love keeping up with everything her daughter is up to!

3. Dena blogs at The Powell Family where she also writes about her life and her 2 adorable children. She is also super creative and has a site where she sells a variety of embroidered items at Written in Thread.

4. My friend Kristen at The Reluctant Hausfrau – another mom who blogs!

5. Jess at Say What?

6. Jen at The Next Kid Thing – an awesome mom who’s creating her dream job

7. You! If you have never won this award before – take it! Pass it on!

Kreativ Blogger Award

Wow, thank you, Cathy!  Cathy at Words World and Wings has awarded me (along with 9 others) the Kreativ Blogger award!

The award has some rules:

1) Copy the picture and post it on your blog.
2) Thank the person that gave it to you and link to their blog.
3) Write 7 things about yourself we don’t know.
4) Choose 7 other bloggers to pass the award to.
5) Link to those 7 other bloggers.
6) Notify your 7 bloggers.

So, let’s see, 7 things about me that you won’t know.  I’m going to assume that you, the reader, is someone who does not know me well.

1. I like to laugh, and I am often told I have a great laugh.  My dear friend Kathy describes it as “bells and butterflies” and more than one person has told me it is infectious.

2. I love mittens and refuse to ever wear gloves.  Recently, I’ve had a hard time finding decent mittens, though.  For some reason, companies are making these faux-mittens that look like mittens, but when you stink your hand inside, the fingers are separated like gloves.  I don’t understand the thinking behind these.  Mittens allow your fingers to keep each other warm, whereas gloves give you the freedom of individual fingers but each finger must keep itself warm.  So why get rid of the freedom of gloves, but still keep your fingers separated so they cannot keep each other warm?  I also don’t like fleece or knit mittens because I feel like the wind comes through both materials easily.  So, I’m picky about my mittens.

3. While living in New York City, I fell in love with salt bagels.  These are hard to find in my area now, and it is one of the few things I miss about NYC.

4. I love ghosts and ghost stories and have had several spooky encounters.  Despite this, I have never actually SEEN a ghost and would prefer to keep it that way.

5. The earliest career goal I remember having was to be a professional reader.  No one had the heart to tell me that no one would ever pay me to sit around and read all day without doing additional work.

6. I would rather be cold than hot.  This seems to put me in opposition with most members of my gender.

7. Grey, rainy, cool days are my favorite, although I’ll take any rain I can get.  I find it comforting and cleansing.  I feel closer to the Earth, both the ground and the green things and the atmosphere and the ocean.  Whether curled up in a cozy place, driving, sitting under a porch, walking with or without an umbrella – I love all of it.

Thank you again to Kathy!  My pick for the next 7 bloggers will be coming ASAP!

Photo Friday

Happy Friday the 13th!  We had a Halloween party and our friend Mikee built his own costume – Shockwave from Transformers.  It was AMAZING.  He spent over 100 hours building it, and even had different working lights in it.  Check it out:

 

Details:

 

 

Tell me that is not awesome!