books, books, books!

Another post in such short time? I'm on a roll!

I was supposed to be in Las Vegas tonight, but since I'm not, and I'm still feeling a little down about it, I thought I would take this opportunity to write about some of the books I've been reading and loving recently!

Percy Jackson And The Olympians. Here are the first three books pictured. There's a fourth, which unfortunately didn't come in a nice little all-in-one picture. The fifth and final book in the series will be out on May 5th of 2009. These are fantastic books. I cannot stress this highly enough. If you enjoyed Harry Potter, or like Greek Mythology, these books are worth checking out. Percy Jackson is a 12 year old boy who finds out he's a half-blood -- the son of a mortal and a Greek God. The books are all about his adventures in a modern day America that's immersed with every God, demigod, monster, hero, and myth you could ever think of from classic Greek Mythology. The characters are lovable, endearing, and funny. I know these books are geared toward a younger audience, but I think they're still highly enjoyable for adults. I passed each one on to my mom as I was finished and she's really enjoyed them as well.

The House Of Night series! Yay! Awful pictorial representation! Boo! I love these books. I actually prefer them to the Twilight series. Don't get me wrong, I love me some Edward Cullen, but I like that Zoey, the main character/protagonist isn't seemingly perfect the way Stephenie Meyer makes Bella out to be. Zoey messes up, Zoey has flaws, yet I love her anyway and I'm cheering her on, even when she's making mistakes. The basic premise of these books is this: vampire finishing school. Basically, when a human starts turning into a vampire, they go to a House Of Night to learn about vampires and how to become a one. If their human body accepts the change, they'll become a full-fledged vampire. If their body rejects the change, they'll die. Zoey discovers she's a powerful vampire fledgling and the books are about all the mystery and intrigue she gets up to with her friends at the House Of Night.

They're really fun books and pretty addicting. The authors are PC Cast and her daughter Kristen. It's sometimes hard to get through the "teen lingo" that Kristin Cast has thrown into the book to make the characters seem more realistic to how teenagers are today. I don't actually think it's very realistic at all and is, honestly, somewhat stereotypical, but if you can overlook that element (it gets better, I promise!), these books are worth reading if you're into a good series about vampires! Small warning: Zoey hates swearing and cursing, but a couple of the other characters don't share her viewpoint. Nothing constant and crass (this isn't The Departed, after all ;-) ), but words do show up now and again. There are currently four books in the series -- I've read that the Casts will be writing 9 total! They come out every six months, thankfully.

This little book packs a lot of awesome information in a fairly short number of pages! It focuses on all areas of your life: physical and mental health, spirituality, exercise, happiness -- this book has it all. I'm kind of a geek about self-improvement/New Age books, and this one has been one of my favorites. I loved the recommendations on anything from daily blue green algae supplements (I take them!) to the importance of daily relaxation/meditation. If you come across this book, that may not be the cover -- mine is a pink and orange cover with a flower on the front, and is, of course, lacking the Amazon "look inside!" logo, but that was the only good picture I could find ;-) If you're looking for little ways to improve your overall health and happiness, I'd start here.

I'm taking a class this semester called Novels And Films, and the genre is noir. I've always liked noir, but this class has given me a new appreciation for it. So far we've read three novels -- The Maltese Falcon, Double Indemnity, and The Big Sleep. All good books! The Big Sleep is a little bit slow getting started, The Maltese Falcon is enjoyable from cover to cover, and Double Indemnity is fairly action packed from almost the first page. Murder! Mayhem! Mystery! Private detectives and damsels in (sometimes) distress! All three of the movies have been pretty good as well, but so far I've always preferred the book. Humphrey Bogart IS pretty awesome, though, and he's in two of the three.

The Other Boleyn Girl + Becoming Jane

I saw The Other Boleyn girl a week ago with Kathleen and I really, really enjoyed it. The Tudor period of England has always been one of my favorite historical eras so it was definitely a fun and interesting couple of hours. Phillipa Gregory's take on the story of Anne Boleyn and Henry VIII isn't exactly historically accurate, but interesting and appealing enough for me to want to pick up the book in the near future.

It was a well-shot movie with visually pleasing sets, scenery, and costumes (the one notable exception being the necklace Anne spent most of the movie wearing that looked like it was stolen right off of Betty Suarez's neck). The storyline was fairly interesting, but what I found most compelling about the film were the characters and the interpretive decisions the actors made in portraying them. I think every actor did a fine job, but I'd like to make special note of Jim Sturgess and Natalie Portman. Jim Sturgess played George Boleyn, and he's probably most well-known for his portrayal of Jude in Across The Universe, a movie I have just recently fallen head over heels in love with, so it was a pretty delightful surprise to see his name up on the screen during the opening credits. He was great. I think I'm officially a fangirl. In the book, Phillipa Gregory chose to portray George as a homosexual, which the movie hinted at but never directly stated, and I thought Jim Sturgess did a good job of layering the nuances of that in very sutble ways. And Natalie Portman is just good in everything, isn't she? Well, "Hold me like you did by the lake on Naboo..." aside... ;-) What I really loved about her performance was the way she made Anne cruel and calculating and harsh but absolutely sympathetic all at the same time. I felt sorry for Anne and the way her life never seemed to go her own way, and all throughout the film you could just feel her desperation to have some semblance of control over the things that were happening to her and around her. Very nicely done.

I was, however, not as pleased with Becoming Jane, which I watched last night. Don't get me wrong, I didn't hate this movie, I just didn't love it. I'm actually rather conflicted as to what rating I should give it on Netflix, which doesn't happen very often. The problem with this movie was that it was well acted, well shot, and well done in terms of props and costuming and location, but the script was just somewhat disappointing. The movie bordered on downright boring in parts, but mostly I couldn't invest myself in a love story that felt like it had no natural progression. I'm not talking about the instantaneousness of "movie love", but when Jane and Tom Lefroy finally gave in to their feelings for each other, it felt forced and unnatural, which is weird because the actors had great chemistry! I don't know, man. Like I said, I think the script was really at fault here. Even the sub-plots felt tacked on. It's an interesting idea, the never-married Jane Austen falling in love in her youth and being inspired to write her great novels by a love that could never come to frutition, but the script just fell flat. There were some good moments, though, and it was worth seeing once. I always enjoy a little bit of Maggie Smith being a cranky British woman in my life.

Across The Universe

I watched the film 'Across The Universe' for the very first time on Friday afternoon. Wow. What an incredible two hours that was! I immediately wanted to re-start the movie and watch it again, but I had to go to work, so I'm saving my second viewing for sometime this weekend. This film is very reminiscent of Tim Burton's stylistics, yet I don't think it can quite be compared completely to a Burton film because this movie is just so original and unique and visionary. It's fun and whimsical and strange, the acting is superb, the music is absolutely WONDERFUL (what a fun and clever use of classic Beatles songs), and the characters are real and complex and flawed, but I found myself loving them and cheering for them and wanting every single one of them to have a happy ending. For a movie with such an "psychedelic" feel, the love story was refreshingly realistic. This movie made me not only want to fall in love in the midst of the radical hippy movement of the 60's, but to be a part of that era and that time, to live and love freely without social restraint. Up until today I'd always considered myself a fair-weather Beatles fan -- I know all the hits, I'm familiar with their repertoire, and I appreciate their place in pop culture and what they did for the music scene. However, this movie made me want to be a full-on fan: consider this the beginning of my Beatles Revolution. Eddie Izzard and Bono make fantastic cameos in this film. If you haven't seen it, I highly, highly recommend it!

As a bit of a side note, and without giving too much away, my favorite moment of the entire film happens at the very, very end of the movie when the cast is singing one song and then one of the characters chimes in with the chorus of another song in this sort of sonic duet of bliss. Combined, it sends such an incredible message about life and love, I think. Sometimes I really do believe that all you need is love.