About Books Blog 17: Prom

Author: Laurie Halse Anderson

Genre: Young Adult

Favorite Line

"Something is always broken. Most things can be fixed."

Summary

Ashley Hannigan could care less about prom. However, the rest of her urban high school is bending over backward to make it the perfect night. Including Ashley's best friend Natalia, who heads the prom committee. When the schools faculty advisor gets busted for stealing the prom money, the hopes of the students are crushed. Natalia ropes Ashley into saving the school's most magical night out of absolutely nothing. Can prom be saved? With the help of Ashley's friends and family perhaps it can.

What I Thought Of This Book

Prom was a fun, funny, fast read. The lead character Ashley had a since of humor that is similar to mine. Her family was wacky in an adorable way. Her friend Natalia's grandmother cracked me up. I think the only character I disliked was Ashley's boyfriend. I kept hoping that she would dump him.

The best thing about the book is how Anderson set up these great hilarious scenes with groups of characters. It gave you the feeling that you were in one of those great 80's coming of age films. Even though the book isn't remotely set in the 80's, it still gave me a Pretty In Pink meets Sixteen Candles meets Cinderella vibe.

I loved that the book was comprised of very short chapters. It made it not only easy to read, but easy to find time to read. I didn't have to worry about if I could finish a chapter before I had to work on something else. 

Prom left me with the feeling that all the Laurie Halse Anderson books I've read do. I felt all warm and fuzzy after finishing it. Her books always make me say, "Everything is going to be okay in the end. Even if you have to go through trials and tribulation to get to that point." This is why Laurie Halse Anderson is one of my favorite YA writers. I have a goal to read all her books. However, that has yet to happen, because every time I get close to reading most of them she seems to write a new book. Haha.

Facts I Found Interesting

Darn there are absolutely no interesting facts for this book. I looked and looked. Oh well, just know that the book is plenty interesting.

The Movie

No movie yet. I bet you could make a pretty adorable film out of it. It would probably be wacky fun.

Music To By

Favorite Albums

Sadly, I didn't listen to a lot of albums while reading this one. I was going through a short phase where I just wanted to read in silence. I did listen to Volume 1 and 2 of the Glee Soundtrack near the end of the book. I think that would have been my favorite albums, even if I had listened to tons of music. First of all Glee is set in a high school. Thus, it is perfect for stories about high school students. Secondly, it has several songs that center around working together and staying strong when facing adversity. Which is exactly what Ashley, her friends, and family needed to pull off this prom.

On another music related note. The author stated in her acknowledgments that she listened to Beethoven, Bruce Springsteen, Coldplay, Eminem, Norah Jones, and Sting while writing Prom. Well, there was the interesting fact I was looking for earlier.

Prom Playlist

Basket Case - Green Day

A Little Help From My Friends - Across The Universe Cast

Lean On Me - Glee Cast

Girls Just Wanna Have Fun - Cyndi Lauper

Let Go - Frou Frou

He Wasn't - Avril Lavigne

Jump - Madonna

Dancing With Myself - Billy Idol

Brothers and Sisters - Coldplay

Let's Dance - David Bowie

You Can't Always Get What You Want - Glee Cast

My Prom review as promised. I'm actually not sure what book I'm going to do next. I'm not sure which book I'm going to finish first. I'm thinking it's going to be Scarlett, but we shall see.

Book Talk

Well, I had to cancel dance classes tonight because of snow. It's weird sitting at home when I would normally be teaching or driving home from work. This little break has left me very relaxed. Thus, I thought I'd use my relaxed state to blog a bit.

I've been wanting to talk about my adventure into reading more than one book at the same time. I said once that I preferred to read one book at the time. As soon as I said that I wondered why that was. I decided to try reading a couple books at once and see what happened.

What inspired me to try it at this time was the fact that I'm reading The Stand. While the book is turning out to be awesome, the hard back extended version is rather cumbersome to carry around. It got rather heavy in my dance bag/purse. So when I bought the novel Scarlett I thought I use that as my travel book, and leave The Stand at home to read. After that I got the opportunity from Red Telephone Books, to read a review copy of a YA/Sci-Fi novel called The Prophesy. So I am currently reading 3 books. Technically, I'm reading 4 because I occasionally read a bit of New Moon now and then.

I've found that I like reading multiple books. You get to exposed to more than one genre at once. Which is awesome. Have you ever found that when you read several books in the same genre it becomes difficult to enter another? When your reading more than one book you don't get that problem.You can also change books, when you want to look at some different characters, or you hit a slow point in the story.

Well that's all folks. Wait no it's not. I was thinking I'd like some suggestions for book related blog posts I can do between reviews. I'd like to post more often, but I'm just short on ideas of what to do. Does any one have any ideas? Thanks. Oh yeah, one more thing. I might be able to get my Prom review out this weekend. Yes! Stay shiny all!

Short Dramatic Rant

Okay, I just had to rant right now. I had to set my blog comments on approval, because someone kept putting inappropriate and porn type links in my comments. This so upsets me. Some people just have no respect. That's all I really have to say. I know this isn't book related at all, but I just had to rant about how much this bothered me. Grr! 

About Books Blog 16: Hannibal Rising

Author: Thomas Harris
Genre: Suspense

Favorite Line

"Hannibal had entered his heart's long winter. He slept soundly, and was not visited by dreams as humans are."

Summary

I'm using the one on the back of the book. I just don't think I could summarize this one well.

Hannibal Lecter emerges from the nightmare of the Eastern Front, a boy in the snow, mute, with a chain around his neck. He seems utterly alone, but he has brought with his demons with him.

Hannibal's uncle, a noted painter, finds him in a Soviet orphanage and brings him to France, where Hannibal will live with his uncle's beautiful and exotic wife, Lady Murasaki.

Lady Murasaki helps Hannibal to heal. With her help he flourishes, becoming the youngest person ever admitted to medical school in France.

But Hannibal's demons visit him and torment him. When he is old enough, he visits them in turn.

He discovers he has gifts beyond the academic, and in the epiphany, Hannibal Lecter becomes death's prodigy.

What I Thought Of This Book

I know what you're thinking. The girl who in her last review complained about the amount of cursing, decides that the next book she should read is Hannibal Rising. A book about the early years of Hannibal Lecter, a psychopathic, cannibalistic, serial killer. What can I say. I'm random that way.

As much as I had wanted to read this book, I wanted to avoid it. That fact is, you have to be in the mood to read about the lives of fictional serial killers. Most of my concern came from glimpses of Hannibal's early life supplied by Thomas Harris' novel Hannibal. I knew from reading Hannibal, that Lecter's younger sister, Misha, met with an extremely unfortunate death. I was not particularly anxious to read about Misha's death, or any descriptions of cannibalism. You'll be glad to know that neither of these things are graphically described. All things referring to cannibalism are only implied. Thank goodness for that.

Your probably wondering why I even read the novel if I was so wary of it. Well, the answer is Thomas Harris. I love Thomas Harris' writing style, and have read almost all of his books. He has a way of describing thoughts, emotions, and small details that amaze me by being both simple yet complex. He comes up with interesting character quirks, and his books always have exciting action sequences.

Even though I knew I would like the writing style, I was surprised at how much I truly enjoyed the book. I don't know what I really expected the novel to be, but I didn't think it was going to be such a great revenge thriller. I really got wrapped up the journey Hannibal takes to exact revenge on his sister's murders. I don't condone revenge in real life, but it is a exciting story element for fictional people.

I think another reason why it appealed to me, was because I find what makes serial killers tick a subject of interest. I'm totally into psychological profiler and true crime shows. I've aways considered Hannibal Lector a rather interesting character. Thus, I found it intriguing how Harris explained the way his mind worked.

The author also was actually able to make you almost feel for Hannibal and root for him. I know that sounds weird, but is a little sad. I mean eight year old Hannibal Lecter was a child prodigy, who loved his little sister, and loved animals. He could have grown up to be a fairly decent Lithuanian Count if not for his unfortunate childhood trauma. If you've read many of these types of stories you'll know, that super genius plus psychological trauma equals well... rather unpleasant things. The dude still deserves to be punished, (which never seems to actually happen in any of the books), but a least you know he wasn't born an evil psychopath.

Overall, It's a great book if you like suspense with murder and mayhem. If you don't like that type of thing, or are squeamish, I'd say it's probably a good idea to stay away from it.

Facts I Found Interesting

You know what I'm going to link you to Wikipedia. The facts I found interesting, don't really make much since if you haven't read any of the previous books involving Hannibal Lector.

Hannibal Rising On Wiki

The Movie

I haven't seen the movie yet. I had the opportunity to once, but choose not to watch it. As I said before, you have to be in the mood for that sort of thing, and I wasn't that day. Plus, I really wanted to read the book first. I'm sure I'll see it eventually. The from the trailer I can gather that movie seems very close to the book. This may be, because the book was allegedly written, only so it could be a base line for the film. The acting, and cinematography seem very well done in the trailer. I read some reviews on IMDb, and many of them spoke well of the film. That's all I can say about it since I haven't actually seen it for myself.

Hannibal Rising Trailer

Music To Read By

Favorite Album

I loved, loved, loved Origin of Symmetry by Muse. Something about the instrumentation fit the mood of the story. I can't explain it. The title of the album also seem to fit in a way. Since Hannibal has a genius caliber mind, the book often refers to mathematics. I think there is also a quote in the book somewhere referring to symmetry.

Hannibal Rising Playlist

Nocturnes: C Sharp Minor- Chopin

Fever Dream - Tyler Bates
New Born - Muse
The Dominoes Fall - Dario Marianelli

Attack - 30 Seconds To Mars
Ghost (Piano Trio) - Beethoven
I'm Looking Through You - The Wallflowers
This Night - Black Lab

Yay! Another review finally. I apparently the holidays and going back to work, threw me off of my update plans. I've had this review on my computer for weeks now. Thank you for your patience with my incredible procrastination.

Next About Books Blog: Prom by Laurie Halse Anderson

About Books Blog 15: Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist

Authors: Rachel Cohn & David Levithan

Genre: Young Adult

Favorite Line

"Music is an angry machine. We are all angry machines."

Summary

Desperate to avoid his ex-girlfriend, Nick asks Norah to pretend to be his girlfriend for five minutes. Little did they know, that this event would spiral Nick and Norah into a joyful yet confusing semi-first date, which takes them all over New York City.

What I Thought Of This Book

I read this book, because I saw the movie one weekend. I usually try to read the book before watching the film. In this case I didn't know there was a book until I was reading the movie credits. I thought since I have an addiction to making playlists this book would be perfect for me. However, the book actually left me feeling torn. There were good things and bad things. I thought I would make a list of things I liked and things I didn't like.

Things I Liked

1. Nick and Norah are awesome characters. They are wacky, random, and love music as much as I do. I loved reading about them finding things in common, and falling in love with each other. I loved that they heal each other after their previous relationships left them emotionally insecure.

2. I think the book is a good study of why people enjoy music, and how strongly it can effect us.

3. I love Nick's song lyrics. I am so mad that the authors thought up those lyrics before I did. So unfair.

4. The two authors really seemed to write well together. Their writing styles complemented each other so well that you felt like there was only one author.

5. It's the kind of book you can read in a day. I didn't because...well I don't know why. I guess it just didn't work out that way with my schedule.

Things I Didn't Like

1. To tell the truth I wouldn't feel comfortable with any of the young adults I know reading this book.There were what I considered fairly descriptive sexual references, and a few other things I didn't think were appropriate for someone younger than high school age. Even if they were in high school I probably wouldn't suggest this novel to them. To me this book is an adult book with young adults in it.

2. The excessive cursing. I seriously had a hard time finding a page that didn't have the F-word used repeatedly on it. It wasn't so much that I was offended by it, as the fact that it became very distracting to the story. It became difficult for me to see how sweet some of the scenes were through all the F this and F that. A few curse words for the sake of realism makes since, but I think six to ten times a page is a little excessive.

3. A particular scene in the book has possibly made the movie The Sound of Music less innocent for me. Now every time I hear one of the songs, I'll think of a night club that features people dressed as nuns making out to Sound of Music songs. I am not kidding that is actually in the book. No matter how cute it is that Nick and Norah's first dance is set to Edelweiss, I still found it a little awkward. I don't even want of discuss what they did to my image of ET.

4. I worried for the youth of America. Are the poor children really as jaded and emotionally insecure at only the age of 18 as these characters are? If so, I feel for you poor sweet things.

Well that's all I have to list. As I said before, this book left me torn. As much as I loved Nick and Norah as characters, I wasn't sure if that was enough to make me read the book again.

Facts I Found Interesting

1. The book has an awesome website, nickandnorah.com. It includes audio recordings of the book, discussions with the authors, a list of playlists in the book, a place to make your own playlists, and a couple more fun things.

2. Instead of a normal acknowledgments page the authors used a playlist to thank the people who made their book happen.

The Movie

It's an okay film. I liked the actors that where casted in it. All the supporting characters looked just like I imagined them in the book. Strangely, the actors they casted as Nick and Norah look nothing like how I envisioned them in the book. It didn't really matter though, because I still liked them. I was also quite pleased that some of my favorite scenes in the book are used in the film. It feels weird saying that, because I watched to movie before reading it.

I think the main difference between the book and the movie, is that the film centers around Nick and Norah uncovering clues to find the secret concert of their favorite band, Where's Fluffy. While the band Where's Fluffy is mentioned in the book, there is no epic search for their concert. I think this change really served the film well. It provided more crazy situations for the characters to get into.

The only thing that bothered me was a sub-plot I like to call, "The Journey of Caroline's Chewing Gum." If you've seen the movie I think you know what I'm talking about. Basically the drunken character, Caroline, chews on the same piece of gum through the whole film. Let me say, drunk people and gum are not two things that mix well. Haha.

Overall the film is entertaining. I wouldn't say if was super wonderful or anything, but it's a nice way to spend your time on a weekend. I think I like the movie better than the book.

Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist Trailer

Music To Read By

Favorite Albums

I liked both of Green Day's albums Dookie and Nimrod. Nick and Norah are punk rock fans, so Green Day is mentioned one or two times in the story. Too Young To Fight It by Young Love was great. Their songs are upbeat yet thoughtful at the same time, which worked for club scenes and emotional scenes. Hot Fuss by The Killers for the great bass lines. Nick is the bass player in his band so it makes since. I also enjoyed Does You Inspire You by Chairlift and Ellipse by Imogen Heap.

Oh yeah! I almost forgot. Author Rachel Cohn made the following playlists for the book.

Music Mentioned In The Book

Obviously a list of songs and artist mentioned in the book. I think she might have missed a few songs though.

T(rainy)/Dreamy Playlist

In the book Norah thinks about making a playlist for Nick, using songs that either have the words train or rain in them.

The Norah Soundtrack

Songs that express Norah's point of view during the book.

Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist

(My Version)

(Several of these songs are either in the book, or by artists mentioned in the novel. I've thrown in a couple of my favorite songs to listen to while reading in there as well. I love that a book that I only sort of liked, ends up having an awesome playlist. That is so like me.)

Too Young To Fight It - Young Love

I Want To Be Your Boyfriend - The Ramones

Chump - Green Day

Change Your Mind - The Killers

Pictures of You - The Cure

Edelweiss - Sound Of Music Cast

Closer to You - Young Love

Should I Stay or Should I Go? - The Clash

Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now - The Smiths

Bruises - Chairlift

Walking Alone - Green Day

I Fall To Pieces - Patsy Cline

I Want To Hold Your Hand - The Beatles

Take A Chance On Me - Abba

Singing In The Rain - Gene Kelly

Toxic - Yael Naim

Tidal - Imogen Heap

Wrapped Up In Books - Belle and Sebastian

Taking Chances - Lea Michele (Glee Cast)

Jump Then Fall - Taylor Swift

Well that's all folks. Just to let you know I replaced all the players on here. Sadly, the switch has left my Company of Swans playlist rather small, because I haven't been able to find all the songs for it yet. Oh well, at least I have a player now. Yay! Merry Christmas everyone!

Next About Books Blog: Hannibal Rising by Thomas Harris

Randomness, Frustration , Yay!

I really just felt like writing a random note about my playlist player problem. I don't know if anyone noticed, but the players for all the book playlists went missing. The reason is that I used Imeem for my player. Myspace Music decided to take over Imeem. Thus, deleting the website. Sigh. I know, it was very frustrating.

Luckily my mom found a new site called Grooveshark for me. A site with a player that I think is even better than Imeem's was. Yay! Anyhow, I'm trying to replace all the playlists on this blog with this new player. It may take a bit. Unfortunately, this event has pushed back the release of my review for Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist. I can't remember all the songs I put on the playlist for the book, so I have to start all over. That's okay I'm just happy that I have a player again. I hope nobody messes with this one. Haha.

Thanks for reading though my randomness. Kisses and hugs. Keep it shiny all!!!

About Books Blog 14: The Visitation

Author: Frank Peretti

Genre: Christian Fiction/Supernatural Thriller

Favorite Line

"Have you ever tried to be Jesus? Believe me, only the real one can manage that."

Summary

I'm not going to even try to summarize this one. I'm using the one from the back of the book.

The sleepy, eastern Washington wheat town of Antioch has suddenly become a gateway for the supernatural --- from sightings of angels and messianic images to a weeping crucifix. Then a self-proclaimed prophet mysteriously appears with an astounding message.

The national media and the curious flock to the little town--- a great boon for local business but not for Travis Jordan. The burned-out former pastor has been trying to hide his past in Antioch. Now the whole world is headed to his backyard to find the Messiah, and in the process, every spiritual assumption he has ever held will be challenged. The startling secret behind the visitation ultimately pushes one man into a supernatural confrontation that will forever alter the lives of everyone involved.

What I Thought Of This Book

A friend suggested the author, Frank Peretti, to me. I was very glad to get the suggestion, because I had wanted to get into Christian Fiction. However, when I would scan the titles at the bookstore nothing stuck out at me as a story line I would like. I mean most of the Christian Fiction that I'd heard of where romances. While I do enjoy the occasional romance, I think I'm more of a Supernatural Thriller person. That is exactly what Frank Peretti writes.

I won't lie to you. The first fourth of the Visitation was a little bit of work. Good work, rewarding work, but work nonetheless. The book centers around a whole town of characters. I had a hard time just turning my brain off and reading when I was trying to remember all the townspeople's names and what their jobs were. In addition, the concepts introduced into the story often led me to reflecting on my own life. Thus, I found myself forgetting to read the page I was on, because I was thinking so much. Happily, once I got to the middle of the novel it was smooth sailing. I was able to stop thinking so much and just enjoy the tale. By the end to the book it was so exciting, I was reading like crazy to find out what was going to happen next.

Peretti is really quite a brilliant writer. His writing has a witty sort of humor, which I loved. It’s always good to have a giggle even when the characters are going through turmoil. I thought it was wonderful that he made excellent character and setting descriptions without making them dull. Thank you Frank Peretti, because seriously some authors can make descriptions a tiny bit boring.

I loved how well the characters were developed. They were very realistic to me. I felt like I knew a few people in real life that were close to the characters in the story. Some of the characters were little annoying, because this book is very good at demonstrating how delusional people can become. Some characters are just adorably clueless, because they are so gun ho to fix the problem they forget about the consequences. I was especially fond of the lead character, Travis. I felt like I could relate to him. Something about him that made me feel like he could be a good friend of mine.

Over all The Visitation is a quality story with mystery and thrills. I can't wait to read more books by Frank Peretti.

Facts I Found Interesting

Frank's introduction for the book offers insight into what inspired him to write the novel. Most of it has to do with his personal experience with growing pains of discovering the difference between religion and relationship with God. Quite a concept, I know, but I got what he was saying.

The Movie

I have never seen the film, but I'm not sure I would like it. From reading on Wikipedia and watching the trailer, I can tell there are some bothersome changes that I know would probably make me mad. Usually changes don't bother me much, but I think in the case of this book they would. I'm thinking that this story would go over better as a mini-series. However, the movie might have turned out being okay. As I said, I haven't seen it, so I wouldn't know one way or the other. If you have seen it let me know what you thought.

The Visitation Trailer

Music To Read By

Favorite Albums

My two favorites were The Best Yet by Switchfoot and Unbreakable by Fireflight. The first album is because the songs seemed to fit very well with Travis' character. The second because Fireflight is one of my favorite Christian bands and their songs were great for action scenes. I would have listened to their other album Healing of Harms, but I didn't have it on my player at the time. Now that I think about it, I probably should have listened to more bluegrass music since that is the main character’s favorite type of music.

The Visitation Playlist

I had some trouble with this one. I know this playlist only has music by three artist. I might not be my most varied playlist, but I felt like they were songs that I really would listen to while reading the book.

Meant To Live - Switchfoot
Drugstore Jesus - Plumb
This Is Your Life - Swichfoot
Concrete - Plumb
Liar - Fireflight
24 - Switchfoot
The Love We Had Before - Fireflight
Unbreakable - Fireflight
I Dare You To Move - Switchfoot

I hope you had fun reading this loves. I'm getting a little faster at writing these things. It's very exciting for a girl who's slightly dyslexic. Haha. I'm actually on schedule with my reading for once. Hopefully that means the next review will be up faster. I'm trying to think of really good stuff to post in between reviews. Any ideas?

Next About Books Blog: Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist
by Rachel Cohen & David Levithan