Audiobook Review: The Infinite Sea (The 5th Wave #2) by Rick Yancey

Once again I listened to this as an audiobook from the public library.  And for the most part, I was able to pick right back up and remember what had happened at the end of the first book.  The narrators for the book were really good.

We got to hear about Ringer's point of view, and at first, I was not enjoying it.  I love Cassie, and of course Ringer isn't a fan of hers!  And when we move away from Ringer's part at the beginning, well, let's just say we're left hanging a bit, and it wasn't till the last part of the book that we join back in and find out what has happened to her,  In her second section of the book, I began to feel more on her side.  And grew to really be worried about her.  Okay, stop reading now if you haven't read the first book, because there will be spoilers!  You can go and read my review of the first book, HERE.  And let me say I did go see the movie this week, and I enjoyed it.

So, our group of characters has holed up in an old hotel after they've escaped the enemy base camp that was training them to fight the other humans.  Part of the reason they're staying there is because Evan told Cassie that he would find her there. Even though she knows he had to have been blown up in the explosions he created to help them get away.  But everyone else knows they can't stay.  As I said, the story begins with Ringer's view point.  They've found a flyer in the hotel for a nearby system of caves, and they think that would be a safe place to go and stay.  Cassie refuses to go, saying she'll stay and wait for Evan, while they go on.  Knowing that Evan is an Other no one really quite trusts him, even with what the saw  him do.  But Ringer is tired of waiting, so she decides/volunteers to go scope out the caves.  She plans to go by herself.  Yet she gets out in the woods, and soon she feels that someone is following her, and she sees the drones flying overhead, as well as the Black Hawk helicopters that the enemy is flying.  When she has to shoot to defend herself, it will be a surprise who she has hit.  And afterwards, she will realize that giving herself in to the enemy may be the only way out of the situation.  Then we jump to Cassie.

For Cassie we see how her brother Sam has changed, how he doesn't quite trust her anymore, and from the way he was being trained by the Others, he doesn't understand why she doesn't want him to have a gun and defend everyone.  Another young one, called Teacup, had basically latched herself onto Ringer and wasn't happy when she left.  Soon other people in the group go out, and they start disappearing. In between the happenings with Cassie and Zombie/Ben and the others in the hotel, we jump to Evan's point of view.

Evan is alive, and very hurt.  For now, his body will probably heal like the Others, but it seems to be taking longer.  On his way to try to get to Cassie, he runs into an old friend of his.  An Other.  But he doesn't like her anymore, and he knows that now he'll have to get away from her in order to keep Cassie safe.  And so his search for Cassie becomes even more dangerous with a broken ankle among other injuries.

Back with Cassie's group, Zombie's injuries are also getting worse, but he won't let anyone talk him out of being a part of all of it.  Soon more things will escalate in the hotel.  Evan and his friend Glory will show up, and they will have more problems to deal with.  When we leave Cassie and the crew at the hotel, Evan has given them the address to a place that he says will be safe for them. And he promises he will do his best to get to Cassie once again, even though he may now be completely human, no longer alien at all.  And then the end of the book is all through Ringer's viewpoint.

We find out what has happened to Ringer, that by giving in to the enemy, they've taken her in and basically hooked her up to their systems.  But in the process there is so much that her body doesn't want to take it, and wants to reject the system they've inserted.  So the end of the book is spent with her basically trying to survive and have her body adjust to the new improvements that have been added.  But she doesn't want this, if it wasn't for the fact that they have someone she feels responsible, she would kill herself and be done with it. While she is in there, one of her guards becomes a friend, and soon she thinks maybe he's sending her a secret message, a way to get out.  When she plans her escape, things will almost go as planned. But it seems Colonel Vosch may be one step ahead, even when she thinks she's getting one over on him.  And now she doesn't know who to trust.  We're left at this point, and we don't know what will happen to anyone, and if they will meet back up, and who is still alive, and who isn't.

In this story there are so many exciting things that happen. So many good questions raised. Like, why are the aliens dragging all of this out?  They could have killed all of the humans much easier.  Why are they turning their children into bombs and sending them out to kill the humans left?  So many things that made me think as well. And now I can't wait till the next book comes out, because I  need to know!

On another note, I saw the movie last week.  I enjoyed it, but definitely can see the issues that people had with it.  It had the same issues with not understanding the relationships really between the characters because it is kind of glossed over. Something that if you read, you'll just know what it is supposed to be, kind of how I felt they did with the first Twilight movie.  People who read the book understood why Edward and Bella fell in love, but they left that stuff out of the movie.  So a fun movie, but many things could have been better.  I would encourage you to go see it with no expectations, and you will enjoy it.  At least I did.  My biggest complaint was that Evan didn't have chocolatey brown eyes like Cassie described several times in the books.  Hollywood needs to understand that we don't always need blue eyed boys.  The actor could totally have worn contacts, and still been hot.

Books to Movies Giveaway Hop 2015

First, thanks to Bookhounds and I Am a Reader, Not a Writer for hosting this hop.  I think this is a good one to do because most of the time, the book is better than the movie, or tv show.  I am going to let you choose any book that has been made into a movie or tv show, as long as it is under $15 and that the Book Depository will ship to whatever country you live in.  So fill out my Rafflecopter below, and then jump through the Linky to the other great giveaways!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Review: Fallen by Lauren Kate (TBR Challenge #7)

This is my first experience with this author.  I purchased the book a while back, last fall I think, when I heard that they were making a movie.  I finally picked it up a few weeks ago.  All in all, it was a good read, I just don't know that it was anything so different and original than other things.  I'm not saying that is a bad thing, I still definitely want to see the movie.  It's just not anything that wowed me.

The main character is Luce.  She just got in trouble when a boy and a cabin caught on fire and she was the only one around.  All her life she has seen shadows, and these shadows are what attacked the boy and caused the fire.  Of course Luce couldn't tell anyone that because who would believe that?  So now she's been sent to a reform boarding school called Sword and Cross.  She makes friends pretty quick, although she also finds some not so friendly people. First is a boy named Daniel.  He's very good looking, and when she first sees him at the school on her first day, he looks at her like he's happy to see her, but then his expression changes to not so friendly, and he flips her off!  But she can't seem to forget about him, to stop thinking about him.  She feels as if she knows him from somewhere, even while he continues to push her away.  Then there's the other cute guy, Cam.  Cam is sweet, and flirts with her, and really seems to like her.  She tries to go with it, thinking if Daniel isn't going to be interested in her, maybe she can be happy with Cam.  But it just isn't right for Luce.  There are times that Daniel seems to be coming around, then he backs away again.  And weird things happen.  She and her new friend Penn find a weird book in the library that seems to be about Daniel's family.  And once that happens, things seem to really start to get crazy.  There's a fire in the library, and Daniel and Cam seem to fight over Luce!

In the end Luce and Daniel are meant to be together, as the little bit at the beginning teases of a former life where they were together.  Only there seems to be something different about Luce in this life, and it may help them to be together, while it may also begin a huge war between the fallen angels, both good and evil.

A fun read, and I can't wait to see the movie!

Allegiant (Divergent #3) by Veronica Roth

Like many of the reviews I've seen on Goodreads, I must say that I'm unsure exactly what to say, or how to even review this.  Also like at least one other review, I loved Divergent, Insurgent kind of was the usual middle book, not really great, but okay to get through to the next book.  And this one, good, just not how I would have liked it to have ended.  Big alert now, there is NO WAY, I can do this review without SPOILERS, so stop reading now if you don't want to know anything until you read it for yourself.  In fact, from here on out, I can't promise when a spoiler might show up, so before that, let me remind you to go enter my Fierce Reads Giveaway, and then you won't have to read any further!

SPOILERS!SPOILERS!SPOILERS!SPOILERS!SPOILERS!

So, here goes.  I really enjoyed getting out of the "Factionless" group where Four's mother was in charge.  For some reason, that was just never something I enjoyed in the 2nd book, so of course it makes sense it wouldn't be my favorite in this book.  But once they got out of their city, and headed to the place they were supposed to go, I really began to enjoy it.  But it turns out this experiment they were part of, well, the outside may not have been quite as bad off as the video they watched led them to believe.  While I enjoyed learning about this outside society.  I also feel, like I saw another review on Goodreads again, that maybe we got into one of those back story information overloads that happen sometimes in books.  While this book was basically the same number of pages as the 2nd book, I almost felt like it was shorter in a way.  I think it could totally have been longer, but, that being said, a lot happened in the book.  We had a lot of characters that we lost, or that got injured, and not always just disposable characters.  In fact, the ending of the book, was a HUGE death.  One that changes the whole world.  Someone we began with, we don't get to finish with.  But it's okay.  It was a realistic ending.  The person that saved everyone with their sacrifice, it only made sense that they did that.  But it was so sad.  When it happened, I immediately knew what all the angry reviews I'd seen but hadn't read were about.  I wasn't angry though, just really sad.  I was at a point when I had to stop to go do something else, this was about page 500, and I was glad.  I wasn't sure how I was going to get through the rest of the book.  Whether the ending worked or not, it wasn't a happy one.  I did like how the reason the whole experiments had begun was because of genetically "damaged" people and it turns out the "Divergent" people were what they had been looking for to come out of this experiment.  And it wasn't just Chicago, it was many other cities.  The first city set up didn't even start with a faction setting, and that experiment basically was a horrible failure.  I enjoyed the genetics talk that there was.  And the dystopian society, that Tris and Four and all of the people we knew not only left, but found outside their city.  I also want to comment on the dual point of view, both Tris and Four.  I enjoyed getting the story from Four's point of view.  In fact, it really kind of helped.  Because there were times that if we'd only  had Tris's point of view, you'd probably not have been able to forgive Four for not listening to what Tris thought they should do.  

Really, a good story overall.  A good ending, or realistic ending, not the kind I'd probably read again.  I know a lot of people hated the last book of the Twilight series, and said they wouldn't have ended it that way, but I always argued with them, and said it was the author's story, it ended the way she saw it.  And I actually liked that last book, and I can read it again and again.  This book, while I will argue again with people that it ended the way the author wanted it to, unfortunately it is not a feel good, read over and over story.  But I am excited to see the movies, especially Divergent, so I'll be revisiting the end again at some point, at the theater at least.

Now, if you made it all this way, and you haven't gone and entered my Fierce Reads Giveaway yet, go do it NOW!!

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

Yes, I know I'm way behind everyone else on this one.  I've been meaning to read it for awhile.  But it was a big book, and I just had so many other things to read, that I just kept putting it on the back burner.  Finally I decided that it was time to read it before the movie comes out this November.  So when I finished my last book, I went ahead and checked a copy of this one out from the bookstore where I work.  And, once I picked it up, and got past the first 20-25 pages, I was hooked.
I loved this family that Liesel ended up with.  Her new mother Rosa, loved the way she was so grumpy, but you knew that it was done with love.  And her new father, Hans, just the way he stayed with her every night because of her nightmares.  And then her best friend Rudy, so funny, and what a great friend!  I've always had to read everything I could on the Holocaust.  Most of those books were told about Jewish people, and what they survived, or didn't survive.  This is truly a story of a basically "normal" German family.  They don't seem to have any reason to necessarily be against this war.  In fact Liesel is even in the Hitler Youth Organization at school.  When they do take in Max, a young Jewish man, it isn't because they are trying to fight what is going on in their country, it is because of a favor Hans owed to a friend in World War I.  It was just so interesting to read about the German side of the story.  While it is unforgivable that so much happened and nothing was done about it, this look at how it could have happened, is a great insight.  The fact that the author says he got his ideas from his family telling stories of their old days in Germany makes it even more fascinating.  The raids on the town, the fact that here the Germans were promised if all the Jews were taken care of they would be prosperous, yet here many were still living without enough food.  Most of what happened in this story just seemed so realistic in the way things happened.  Not everyone lived happily ever after.  But not everyone stayed maybe the way you would expect all Germans to stay.  Just because they were the good guys, doesn't mean they all survived.
Other parts of the book that I really liked, the books/drawings that Max made for Liesel.  The story that Liesel ended up writing.  I liked that what could have become a romance, Max and Liesel, never did, it stayed as a brother sister relationship.
This was a book that was 550 pages long.  I started reading on Sunday, and finished on Tuesday.  And I would have been finished sooner had it been summer time and I hadn't had to work Monday or Tuesday.  Now, I'm just waiting to see the movie, and I can only hope that they will not change too many things that will take away what makes the story so great.  I mean, look at what happened with the Hunger Games, while it was a great movie on its own, the parts of the book that I really liked, that made it what it was, were left out.
Anyway, I guess I am now one of the people that will just gush and gush about how wonderful this book is.  How about you?  Have you read it? What did you think?

P.S. - While you're here, make sure you go check out my Fierce Reads Giveaway HERE where there will be 5 winners!!

Wishlist Wednesday: Obsidian (Lux #1) by Jennifer L. Armentrout

Wishlist Wednesday is a weekly meme, hosted at Pen to Paper Blog, in which we feature a book we can't wait to get off of our wish list and onto our shelves!  I normally participate in Waiting on Wednesday sponsored by Jill at Breaking the Spine, but the book I am talking about this week is one that isn't a new book, not a new release.  In fact, the book I've chosen this week is by an author that I feel like I'm way behind the bandwagon on and need to get going!  Especially since everyone yesterday was going on about how this book is going to be a movie!  So this week I've chosen Obsidian (Lux #1) by Jennifer L. Armentrout.  In case you are also behind with this author like I am, here is the blurb from Goodreads.com:

Starting over sucks.

When we moved to West Virginia right before my senior year, I'd pretty much resigned myself to thick accents, dodgy internet access, and a whole lot of boring.... until I spotted my hot neighbor, with his looming height and eerie green eyes. Things were looking up.

And then he opened his mouth.

Daemon is infuriating. Arrogant. Stab-worthy. We do not get along. At all. But when a stranger attacks me and Daemon literally freezes time with a wave of his hand, well, something...unexpected happens. 

The hot alien living next door marks me.

You heard me. Alien. Turns out Daemon and his sister have a galaxy of enemies wanting to steal their abilities, and Daemon's touch has me lit up like the Vegas Strip. The only way I'm getting out of this alive is by sticking close to Daemon until my alien mojo fades. 

If I don't kill him first, that is.

So, what book or books are on your wishlist this week?

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

I'd wanted to read this book since I first saw the ad for the movie that came out earlier this year with Leonardo DiCaprio.  But just never got around to it.  Plus, I'd also decided lately not to read books right before the movies, just because I'd been disappointed so often, e.g. The Hunger Games movie.  I know many people probably read this at some point in school, but it was not one that I ever read, so my sister ended up buying it, and then she sent it to me to read.  Honestly I can say that the movie was pretty much identical to the book.  As I read the book, I was like, yeah, nothing new, this happened like this in the movie, and so on.  Oh yeah, there were a few differences, like his dad at the end of the book, but not the movie for example.  But pretty much it was like the actually made the movie straight from the book.  The scene in the movie where he Gatsby is taking his fancy shirts out of his drawers and closets and then throwing them at Daisy and the narrator of the story, Nick, I figured that must be something to give the movie a more dramatic scene, but no, that was actually in the book.
I don't know if I should actually tell you the story, like I kind of do on my other reviews, since this is a classic.  Basically, Nick moves to New York, into a tiny little cottage that is next to a huge, elaborate mansion.  Nick's second cousin, or some sort of relation, named Daisy, and her husband Tom who Nick knew in college, live across the bay from him in a fancy house.  The big mansion next to Nick's cottage is owned by a man named Gatsby that no one seems to really know much about.  And every weekend Gatsby throws huge parties that people from all over come to, even without being invited, they just show up!  Turns out that Gatsby once knew Daisy and was in love with her, and she with him so it seemed.  But at the time he was too poor to marry her, as she came from a well to do family.  But now he has made his fortune, and has come back to try to win her back. Even though she is married and has a child, he is convinced that once she sees him and what he now has to offer, she will come back.  Of course there is all kind of drama and things don't go the way they are supposed to.  A kind of tragic love story I guess.
Not a bad book.  But I'd definitely recommend just seeing the movie if you're going to do one of the two.  And if you're going to do both, probably seeing the movie first will help you get through the book with its style of writing a bit easier.

Top 10 Tuesdays: Best/Worst Book to Movie Adaptations

Top Ten Tuesday is sponsored by The Broke and The Bookish. As I've said before, I hate when my blog is more memes than reviews, but when you get into so many advanced copies that can't be posted until 30 days before they are published, or you already have a scheduled date for the review, sometimes you have to join in.  And since this is my favorite Tuesday meme, and my goal is to post something every day this summer, here we go!  This week's topic is one that I love!

top ten best/worst book to movie adaptations

Let's start with the best:

1. The Green Mile by Stephen King - I LOVED this movie.  And I used to re-read books right before the movie came out so that I could see how close the movie would be.  I've recently decided to do that with the movies ruining stuff, as you'll see in my worst list below.  But this movie, from the moment that they walk John Coffey down the "green mile" at the very beginning of the movie, I was moved to tears just knowing what was going to happen.  They did such a good job with this movie, stayed close enough to the book that it was perfect for me.  
2. The Help by Kathryn Stockett - Yes, there was quite a bit left out, but again, they did such a great job with this movie, left so many of the really important things in, that I was pretty close to being as emotional when I watched it as I was when I read it.
3. Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice - Now, again, I know there are some problems, and a lot of people were against Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt probably. But honestly, I think they both did a great job.  And Kirsten Dunst was amazing!  While Tom Cruise is so not a "vampire" actor to me, he did a pretty good job in this.  So good that I hated that he wasn't in any of the future movies they did (did they do more than one more?), because he had become Lestat in my mind.
4. Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris - I choose this one because the movie is still so good to this day.  I've read the book, but not enough to know just how much may have differed in the movie, or at least not off the top of my head.
5. Misery by Stephen King - While many of King's early movies weren't done as well as they could be, both The Green Mile and Misery were done almost perfectly in my opinion.  
6. I was only going to do 5 for each, but I want to kind of put the Harry Potter movies up here.  Even though I will list one/two of them in my worst ones, overall I feel the movies stayed pretty true to the books and were entertaining.  So I won't pick out any one specific title for the best list, but will put them as a whole.

And the worst:

1. The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan - Where do I start with this?  Maybe it's because I read the book with my students at school so many times, and we had so many good discussions about it.  But I was majorly disappointed when I watched this.  So much changed, or left out, to me it just really spoiled the whole story.  And I loved having students who I'd read it with come back and tell me they felt the same way!
2. The Twilight Saga by Stephenie Meyer - Now, actually, I do love the movies.  But that is because they do kind of bring alive some of the stuff I loved about the books.  But honestly, the first movie was the worst, so much left out, I totally understood all the complaints of people who thought it was an "instant love" and so unbelievable.  There is so much more in the books to show how they actually fall in love.  But while the adaptation from the book was pretty bad, on the other hand, it got so many people reading that it was worth it in my opinion.
3. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins - I know a lot of people may disagree with me on this.  But, like The Lightning Thief, I had been reading this with my students for a couple years before the movie came out, and once again, so much important stuff left out!  And even though they were little things that were changed, like where Katniss got the mockingjay pin, my students again came and told me all the things that they didn't like.  My main complaint with this movie is that it made it seem like the actual games only took a couple days, maybe a week.  In the book it was like a month, and so much more happened that made it so much more.
4. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by JK Rowling - This movie disappointed me because of all that was left out, Ron and Hermione as prefects, Ron's real first season on Quidditch?  The betrayal of Percy also left out at the end of the series.  Just too much left out.  Overall it was okay, but too much left out that I felt was important.
5. Eragon by Christopher Paolini - I had listened to this book on audio as opposed to actually reading it.  And the person who read it used such great voices and did such a great job, that it was pretty disappointing to see the movie and all that was left out.  

Honestly, I could keep going, I just remember another good one, Holes, and I'm sure I could keep listing bad ones.  What about you?  Do you agree with my choices?  Any that you absolutely cannot believe I listed as either good or bad?  I'd love to hear your opinions as well!

My Favorite Books to Movies/Television Shows

Today I'm going to talk about the books that I love that have been turned into movies and what I thought of them.  So there are going to be some good ones, and some bad ones here.

1.  I loved the Twilight series.  The books I mean.  Loved, loved, loved them!  I know many people out there do not, and that only bothers me when they have to insult me because I do.  There are books I don't like, but I don't insult the people who like them.  I figure to each his own, and that is why there are so many different books out there to read!  Which is a good thing!!!  Okay, off my little soap box about this.  The movies, especially the first one, were okay.  Not great.  The actors didn't match what I had pictured in my head really.  But there are some good things.  I could still enjoy the first one I think because I had read the book, and so the things left out, like why or how did Bella and Edward fall in love, so not shown in the movie, I already knew how it happened from reading the book.  And the first movie got my sister to finally read and fall in love with them like I did.  And I feel the movies have been getting better and better.

2.  I was a late starter in the Harry Potter series.  I started after the first four books were already out I believe.  I am often not interested in joining into the latest bandwagon, often figuring I'll be disappointed, (case in point, 50 Shades, 'nuff said).  But I had recently started working at the B.Dalton store in our local mall, and another employee gave me a stripped cover copy of the first one to try it out.  And of course, I was hooked.  I sped through the first 4, and then was eager for the 5th one to be released.  I think the movies, especially the early ones, were really good.  I know that I was disappointed though as they left sooooo much out of the Goblet of Fire, and then The Order of the Phoenix, I was so mad that they left out the parts about Ron and Hermione being prefects, and Ron playing Quidditch!  I believe the movies then got better for the last 2 books (3 movies).

3.  The Lightning Thief series by Rick Riordan also is a favorite book series.  I started reading them the first year I went to my state librarians' association conference, and the author was one of the speakers.  I LOVED them!  And then I began reading them to my students, and they loved them!  One of my favorite memories as a teacher is having the parent of one of those students come and say how thankful they were to me because now their son was loving the books, and at one point he got so into reading, that they bought him a Nook e-reader!  I even took one of his copies of the books down to get autographed when I saw the author.  Now, onto the movie.  It was horrible!  Percy was too old, he was supposed to be a middle schooler!  So much was wrong!  And I loved having my students that I had read the book with come back and complain to me about it!  Students that hadn't read it loved it.  If I had continued teaching that book, I would have shown the movie just to see the kids have the same reaction.  And now I hear they're making the sequel?  I want to know how?  They ended the movie in a way that didn't leave it open for the sequel!  Will I go see it?  Maybe, in the hopes that maybe they can fix what they messed up and be able to make them all into movies.

4.  The Hunger Games is another series I started because of the library association book awards.  I read it a couple years ago when they were deciding whether to nominate it for that years possible award list.  And of course, was immediately hooked.  The movie, well, I have two differing opinions on it.  When I went to the midnight show to see it, this was a book I had been teaching in my classroom for about 2 years, and I knew it inside and out from discussing characters and plots and settings, etc.  So seeing it the first time I was a little disappointed.  Some major things I didn't like about it, people and details I felt were important and shouldn't have been left out.  But then, I went back and saw it again, without thinking about those things, and I thought they did a really good job.  It was a great movie.  Although again, I had students I'd read it with that were a little disappointed like me.  (Is it wrong that secretly makes me happy?  Or maybe not so secretly?)

5.  Now, off of YA books, to one of the BEST movies made from a book EVER!  The Green Mile by Stephen King.  This was originally published in little mini-books, about a month apart for each of the 6 parts. I really liked this book/series, and I am a huge Stephen King fan, and I can name so many of his books they ruined in movies, such as Cujo.  But this movie, at the beginning, when they're leading Michael Clarke Duncan's character down the "green mile", before the movie even tells what has happened, I was already in tears, because it totally made me remember the book, and what happens.  They did an awesome job.

6.  I am also a huge Dean Koontz fan, and one of my favorite of all his books is Watchers.  And at the time, one of my favorite movie stars was Corey Haim, but he was not the right person for this movie.  Especially since the Travis character was supposed to be a grown man.  Changing the main characters to teens, and man, changing so much more of the story, the movie was horrible.  I can only hope that one day someone will decide to do a remake and do it right.

7.  I hadn't read the books when the True Blood series started.  I decided to wait and read each book after each season.  And that worked well, at first.  The first couple seasons were pretty good, even with some of the changes.  But then, I couldn't wait anymore and had to read on in the series, and so as seasons would start, so NOT where the next book was supposed to go, it made it harder to watch.  And while I still watch the show, it is hard not to be irritated at a lot of the changes.  I don't mind some of the outside stories that get added, what I hate is when they change things about the main characters and their stories.

8.  The Vampire Diaries.  I was so excited to hear about this show!  And then, I watched the very first episode and the things that were changed, well I was already OUT!  The color of Elena's hair, wrong.  Her aunt she lived with, was supposed to be an elderly woman from the way I read the book.  So just, no.  Also, I really loved the Secret Circle series by this same author, I used to read it over and over.  So when I heard the CW was going to do a series on it, I knew there was no way I would even give it a chance.

9.  Now this is a kind of backwards entry, Buffy the Vampire Series, the tv show with many novelizations.  A lot of time novelizations are cheesy, don't really capture the essence of the show.  But not in this case!  There are some awesome books, ones that aren't just a written version of a specific episode.  One of the authors that did this best was Nancy Holder, and I've recently reviewed her Teen Wolf series novel, and she's done it again!

10.  Hmm, I'm debating between 2 books for this one, either Shopaholic, or 20 Times a Lady.  I'll quickly brief both.  Shopaholic, love the books, the movie, also good, but I think didn't quite do justice to what could have been done.  20  Times a Lady, or What's Your Number for the movie title, I haven't read in a while.  But I loved the movie, thought it was funny, so guess it was okay!  Plus it has Chris Evans, who, HOT!!!





What about you?  Are there any movies from books that you hated?  Or ones that you thought were perfectly done?  I'd love to hear about it!

First Impression of The Hunger Games Movie

Okay, as this is a book blog, and The Hunger Games movie is based on the book, I feel I can go ahead and give my opinion on the movie.  I'm not going to make a big deal about how the book is always better than the movie, because that just goes without saying.  First, let me say the movie was a really good movie, I'm not saying that it wasn't.  This post is just to discuss my experience and feelings about how it was done.  So I want to start with the good things.  The fact that all the actors cast really fit the characters in the books is a huge accomplishment to me.  So often the person just isn't who I imagined when I read, or doesn't quite conform to that when I see the movie.  Not so in this case.  They stuck right to the story, anything added did not ruin the story, in fact a lot of the stuff added really enhanced the movie experience.  For instance, the book is told from Katniss's point of view, so there is so much we don't get to see because of that.  I liked how the movie showed us the Gamemakers' working on the arena, setting up President Snow's role for later as well.  I like that they kept in things that you might have thought would be too hard to do, like the Tracker Jackers, and the muttations.  Even though neither were quite as horrible as in the book.  I loved the interview with Cesar Flickerman and Peeta.  I think someone who has not read the books will totally enjoy the action and imagery.  Now I was really tired, I'd worked all day, and then only took about a half hour nap before the movie.  Plus, I went and saw another movie about 3 hours before it started.  And, they kept the theater so dark when we were sitting in there, I was having some trouble staying awake.  So I'm guessing there are some details I need to watch the movie when I'm more alert to catch.
Okay, the bad things.  I want to preface this with this statement.  I am going to compare this to some other movies from books, but I'm not comparing the actual movie content or quality, just my experience with them in comparison to the books and being familiar with the books.  Okay, I feel that they did a Twilight movie mistake in not really putting any of the relationship building between Peeta and Katniss in the movie.  If you haven't read the book, you don't really understand the whole "boy with the bread" thing because you don't know how bad off Katniss was, you don't really see what happened to Peeta because of that.  Time with Peeta and Katniss in the cave was left out, so we don't get to see how Katniss must play this relationship, or how much she is playing.  I still HATE that they left out Madge, the mayor's daughter, the REAL way Katniss gets the Mockingjay pin.  We don't know the whole story of what happened to make Katniss even go out and start hunting.  And wow, Rue, we don't get all the time she and Katniss spent together and so when she died, I didn't even tear up in the movie, and I was soooo sure I would! I think this experience also compares for me to when I went to see The Lightning Thief movie.  Let me assure you that this movie, The Hunger Games, was a really good movie, while The Lightning Thief was horrible.  But my comparison here is that I have taught both of these books in my class, and so I have dissected so much about the stories, the symbols, the characters, and I know them in so much detail.  So that makes going to see the movie and having so many things left out hard to take.  Talking about symbolism, the lessons I got to use with The Hunger Games has a huge activity about all the food in the book, and what it could symbolize and how it fits in with the story.  And yet in the movie, none of that.  We don't get to hear about what Katniss says she likes most in the Capital, the lamb stew, that gets sent to her and Peeta for a feast in the arena.  We don't get to hear Peeta describe all the different breads from the districts, tying in so well to his boy with the bread image.  Haymitch doesn't do his dive off the stage at the beginning, such a big part of the book.  And Haymitch is just not the drunk he is supposed to be.  One last complaint, I'm glad the muttations were there, but I tried looking so close to see that they had the characteristics they were supposed to, and they didn't.  Oh yeah, and I think they were trying to keep it to a PG-13 rating, and so the violence was almost completely skipped over, barely in the background. 
In conclusion, I will go see it again.  I do think they did a good job with the movie for what they did, and I would definitely show it when it is on video for my students to compare a book to a movie and see what they think.  I do recommend it, go see it, I did like it! 

Battered Earth by D. Hilleren

Battered Earth by D. Hilleren

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Okay, this is a hard review to do. I was so excited to win this, my first, and only, book that I've won from a Goodreads contest. And it came to me signed from the author, which is really cool. I signed up for the contest because the information about this book sounded interesting. Once I got it though, I had so many other books I was really enjoying, and I have really been on more of a YA book kick, that it took me awhile to pick it up and read it. And when I picked it up to read, it took me awhile to get through because of the reasons I'll state later in the review. But let's start with the good things I have to say.



First, the plot/storyline is really intriguing. I could really see this story being made into a movie, with either Matt Damon or Jason Statham as Oliver the government agent. With either one of them in that role, my friend Kim and I would be sure to be in the theater to see it! I think all the different "crimes" were done in a way to throw off suspicion from what was really happening. I didn't quite figure the whole "bad guy" part of the story out till later in the book, and to me that is a good book. I want to be kept hanging, trying to figure out either who is the bad guy, or what will happen next, and this book was pretty good about that. I also liked seeing how one of the "bad guys" kind of understood what he'd done was wrong at the end. Whether that is realistic or not, for the type of guy he was, I still like to see that occasionally. Then to have other bad guys who were still just as bad as ever, also a good thing. And it kind of left off in a way that there could possible be a sequel with some of our main characters, good and bad, brought back.



Now, for my complaints. This was a self-published book, and as with the last book I read that I knew was self-published, I can see the definite downside to doing this. And the main reason is in the writing. Now, while there weren't many errors in this one, which I can't help but see as I teach a class where I am expected to edit papers for these things, so I automatically see when I read just about anything anymore. My complaint with the writing in this is the way that the dialogue was written. It was very stilted, not the way that people really talk, that made it hard for me to read. It's as if the author was just trying to be grammatically correct, which doesn't work for dialogue in a novel. The other complaint I have is a personal one. I am not a person who "believes" in global warming. Do I think the Earth's climate is changing? Do I think that humans can do things to affect it? Yes to both of those. But, as an Earth Science major in college who has spoken to many geologists, I don't believe humans can really create as huge of changes in Earth's climate as some people like to say. And if scientists need to be working on anything, it is not how to "fix" the climate back to what we're used to, but to figure out how we can adapt to the changes. Because change is what the Earth does, whether we're here or not, and if we can't adapt to the changes, we'll be the latest round of extinctions, and another form of life will come up and take over. Earth doesn't need us to survive. Sorry, off my soap box there. Make that my teacher's podium, as it is my area of study.



All in all, a good read, a good story if you read it as that, just needs some work on dialogue. And hopefully as the author continues to write she will get better at that and continue to put out interesting stories.



View all my reviews

Top 10 Tuesday: Books You Want Made Into Movies

I know, I know, it's Wednesday. But when I was scrolling through my blog reading list this morning, I saw this meme on other's and thought it was such a neat topic that I'd join in this week and now have something to do on Tuesdays as well. This is sponsored by The Broke and the Bookish, and I look forward to participating in this because I enjoy lists as well. Now I thought this would be fun, so let's see if I can come up with 10 books!

1. In the Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan. I love this series, and since zombie movies really seem to need a good storyline anymore, I think this would be a great one to start with. And then the two sequels could make for a series of movies.

2. The Gone series by Michael Grant. I love this story about a bunch of kids left alone when all the adults, or people over a certain age just disappear. There are some great monsters and scary parts that could really draw in people.

3. The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan. Yes, I know they already made a movie. But I'd like them to re-do it, making it more true to the book so that they can go on and make the rest of the books into movies as well.

4. Another series I'd love to see re-done that they messed up on the very first book is Flowers in the Attic by V.C. Andrews. That movie was so bad, they even had the mother killed at the end of the movie, thereby screwing up any chance of making the rest of the books into movies.

5. I also think the Suite Scarlett series by Maureen Johnson could make for a very humorous movie. Especially if they let the author help out around the set and with the script writing!

6. Delirium by Lauren Oliver. In my love of dystopian books lately, I think this would be a great movie. There are so many scenes that would be so dramatic in a theater.

7. Another dystopian book I've really enjoyed lately is Wither by Lauren DeStefano. I can see as this is supposed to be a series, it might even make for a good tv series.

8. I do think the Chronicles of Vladimir Tod by Heather Brewer would make for a great movie, or again I could see them as a tv series. On the WB or UPN. :-)

9. I think that after Julie and Julia was such a hit, and Eat, Pray, Love too, that another memoir that would be fun would be The Wilder Life by Wendy McClure. It would be so fun to see her travel to all the different Little House on the Prairie locations and the story was so entertaining it wouldn't even have to be a documentary, it could be done as a fun movie like the two I mentioned at the beginning of this.

10. Finally, wow, there are so many that I love, trying to find one more that I think would make a good movie. I think the book Deadly by Julie Chibbaro would be an intersting historical fiction movie about Typhoid Mary. I would go see it.

Wow, I did it!