School started! I promise I think about updating this every day but then something else pops in my head and I get distracted. So today, you are my first priority!
How did you like The Perks of Being A Wallflower? I will post my review in the near future.
I wanted to schedule a time to watch the movie, but I think I'm going to have to start using Japan time, since I need to be able to schedule around work, etc. But I'll still try to make it not too obnoxious for others.
I plan to sit down and watch Perks Saturday, September 5th, at 9am JST (5pm Friday, PST). I will live tweet with the tag #FIwatchPerks. Join me!
September's book is The Martian by Andy Weir. Order it from Amazon: here.
Since the movie is new to theaters October 2nd, this is going to go a little differently than normal. It is more of a free-for-all! Watch the movie when you can, then post a review or response and let us know how you felt about it. Husband and I will probably see the first run available in Japan, so I will try to update my review as soon as possible. I (obviously) won't be live tweeting this one, I don't think the theater would like that very much. Ha! But more on that later.
October's book has yet to be chosen, if you have any ideas let me know in the comments!
Sorry for my tardiness and the shortness of this post. The first week of school is always a busy one.
Happy reading!
Showing posts with label amazon. Show all posts
Showing posts with label amazon. Show all posts
Wednesday, September 2, 2015
Wednesday, August 5, 2015
August Book: The Perks of Being a Wallflower
As you might remember, our August book will be:
The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
Buy Book: Amazon
Buy Movie: Amazon
Amazon synopsis:
Read the cult-favorite coming of age story that takes a sometimes heartbreaking, often hysterical, and always honest look at high school in all its glory. Now a major motion picture starring Logan Lerman and Emma Watson, The Perks of Being a Wallflower is a funny, touching, and haunting modern classic.
The critically acclaimed debut novel from Stephen Chbosky, Perks follows observant “wallflower” Charlie as he charts a course through the strange world between adolescence and adulthood. First dates, family drama, and new friends. Sex, drugs, and The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Devastating loss, young love, and life on the fringes. Caught between trying to live his life and trying to run from it, Charlie must learn to navigate those wild and poignant roller-coaster days known as growing up.
--Insert silly anecdote: So, I went to the library to pick up the book. I didn't have very long to spare, but I wanted to get to the book for later. So I run in, go directly to the database computers and search. Whoo-hoo! it is available! Ok, "YA F CHB" got it. Well, this is more complicated than it seems. You see I am living in a new town and have actually only been to the library a handful of times. Mostly to borrow movies before our personal belongings got here. I had no idea where the YA section was. I walked around the library twice before I saw a couple of teenage girls walking down a dark hallway and into a side room. Not being creepy or anything, I followed them, and violà!
There was a tiny room with maybe four bookshelves. And I'm looking, BER - CAI - CLO - CHE - CHA - CHE, what? I know it said it was available! I stared at the books for a few minutes before just deciding that I'm an idiot and will have to actually ask the librarian.
I slink up to the counter. "I'm sorry, I think I'm an idiot, can you help me find a book?" She laughs a little and says "of course." She looks up The Perks of Being a Wallflower on her magical computer and then turns red. Odd. She rushes in a half whisper, "well, ours are actually in the adult section. We had it on the adult book club list and it was just easier for them to find it there, sorry! We should really fix that. It'll be back there." No problem! So I go back to the other end of the library, I should comment here that the library is set up strangely anyway, I had to move through the Sci-Fi and the mystery section before I found it. But there they were, two copies! Needless to say, I did not get out of there in the 3 minutes I had thought it would take. But I did get my hands on a copy! Now to find time to read it. --End silly anecdote.
I also wanted to say that I am very excited about this book-to-movie pair! Did you know that Stephen Chbosky, the author, also wrote the screenplay and directed the movie? I feel like that will make this one of the best book-to-movie situations ever. To actually be able to see the author's vision made into film. What do you think? Am I crazy to have such high hopes?
The critically acclaimed debut novel from Stephen Chbosky, Perks follows observant “wallflower” Charlie as he charts a course through the strange world between adolescence and adulthood. First dates, family drama, and new friends. Sex, drugs, and The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Devastating loss, young love, and life on the fringes. Caught between trying to live his life and trying to run from it, Charlie must learn to navigate those wild and poignant roller-coaster days known as growing up.
--Insert silly anecdote: So, I went to the library to pick up the book. I didn't have very long to spare, but I wanted to get to the book for later. So I run in, go directly to the database computers and search. Whoo-hoo! it is available! Ok, "YA F CHB" got it. Well, this is more complicated than it seems. You see I am living in a new town and have actually only been to the library a handful of times. Mostly to borrow movies before our personal belongings got here. I had no idea where the YA section was. I walked around the library twice before I saw a couple of teenage girls walking down a dark hallway and into a side room. Not being creepy or anything, I followed them, and violà!
There was a tiny room with maybe four bookshelves. And I'm looking, BER - CAI - CLO - CHE - CHA - CHE, what? I know it said it was available! I stared at the books for a few minutes before just deciding that I'm an idiot and will have to actually ask the librarian.
I slink up to the counter. "I'm sorry, I think I'm an idiot, can you help me find a book?" She laughs a little and says "of course." She looks up The Perks of Being a Wallflower on her magical computer and then turns red. Odd. She rushes in a half whisper, "well, ours are actually in the adult section. We had it on the adult book club list and it was just easier for them to find it there, sorry! We should really fix that. It'll be back there." No problem! So I go back to the other end of the library, I should comment here that the library is set up strangely anyway, I had to move through the Sci-Fi and the mystery section before I found it. But there they were, two copies! Needless to say, I did not get out of there in the 3 minutes I had thought it would take. But I did get my hands on a copy! Now to find time to read it. --End silly anecdote.
I also wanted to say that I am very excited about this book-to-movie pair! Did you know that Stephen Chbosky, the author, also wrote the screenplay and directed the movie? I feel like that will make this one of the best book-to-movie situations ever. To actually be able to see the author's vision made into film. What do you think? Am I crazy to have such high hopes?
Saturday, July 4, 2015
Beautiful Creatures Movie Review
Well, I don't know if you followed the twitter feed (#FIwatchBC), but if you did you probably already know what I'm going to say.
I did not like that movie. Most of the story was ruined in the first three minutes. They cut out half of the characters! (Ugh! and I just realized we never even say Ethan's father, he was just talked at or about.) The worst part was all of the silly little changes that did not affect the story in any way: case and point: Coconut Pie. WHY? Why couldn't it be lemon? Is there some trademark on Lemon Pie that I don't know about? So stupid. OK, I understand having to move things along and cutting scenes and characters for timing, but why those little things? Why change who "used to say" something or someone's favorite pie? What is that doing for the story? Seriously, someone please explain this to me!
So, Richard LaGravenese wrote the screenplay and directed the movie. After watching it, I'm under the impression that he did not actually read the book. I think he had an intern read it and tell him what happened.
I'm actually not sure I would have liked this movie even if I hadn't read the book. It feels forced and like it pulls lots of plot points from thin air. Maybe I am being too harsh -- what did you think?
Now that that is over... time for a new adventure:
This month we are reading The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger.
I did not like that movie. Most of the story was ruined in the first three minutes. They cut out half of the characters! (Ugh! and I just realized we never even say Ethan's father, he was just talked at or about.) The worst part was all of the silly little changes that did not affect the story in any way: case and point: Coconut Pie. WHY? Why couldn't it be lemon? Is there some trademark on Lemon Pie that I don't know about? So stupid. OK, I understand having to move things along and cutting scenes and characters for timing, but why those little things? Why change who "used to say" something or someone's favorite pie? What is that doing for the story? Seriously, someone please explain this to me!
So, Richard LaGravenese wrote the screenplay and directed the movie. After watching it, I'm under the impression that he did not actually read the book. I think he had an intern read it and tell him what happened.
I'm actually not sure I would have liked this movie even if I hadn't read the book. It feels forced and like it pulls lots of plot points from thin air. Maybe I am being too harsh -- what did you think?
Now that that is over... time for a new adventure:
This month we are reading The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger.
Buy Book: Amazon
Buy Movie: Amazon
Amazon's synopsis:
A MOST UNTRADITIONAL LOVE STORY, this is the celebrated tale of Henry DeTamble, a dashing, adventuresome librarian who inadvertently travels through time, and Clare Abshire, an artist whose life takes a natural sequential course. Henry and Clare’s passionate affair endures across a sea of time and captures them in an impossibly romantic trap that tests the strength of fate and basks in the bonds of love.
Happy Reading!
Tuesday, June 16, 2015
Quick Update: July, August, September Books Announced
Sorry for the dead-air lately, work got very busy!
How are you liking Beautiful Creatures? If you have finished, will you read more of the series?
I wanted to let you all know that the next three books have been chosen!
July: The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
Buy Book: Amazon
Buy Movie: Amazon
Amazon's synopsis:
A MOST UNTRADITIONAL LOVE STORY, this is the celebrated tale of Henry DeTamble, a dashing, adventuresome librarian who inadvertently travels through time, and Clare Abshire, an artist whose life takes a natural sequential course. Henry and Clare’s passionate affair endures across a sea of time and captures them in an impossibly romantic trap that tests the strength of fate and basks in the bonds of love.
August: The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
Buy Book: Amazon
Buy Movie: Amazon
Amazon synopsis:
Read the cult-favorite coming of age story that takes a sometimes heartbreaking, often hysterical, and always honest look at high school in all its glory. Now a major motion picture starring Logan Lerman and Emma Watson, The Perks of Being a Wallflower is a funny, touching, and haunting modern classic.
The critically acclaimed debut novel from Stephen Chbosky, Perks follows observant “wallflower” Charlie as he charts a course through the strange world between adolescence and adulthood. First dates, family drama, and new friends. Sex, drugs, and The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Devastating loss, young love, and life on the fringes. Caught between trying to live his life and trying to run from it, Charlie must learn to navigate those wild and poignant roller-coaster days known as growing up.
The critically acclaimed debut novel from Stephen Chbosky, Perks follows observant “wallflower” Charlie as he charts a course through the strange world between adolescence and adulthood. First dates, family drama, and new friends. Sex, drugs, and The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Devastating loss, young love, and life on the fringes. Caught between trying to live his life and trying to run from it, Charlie must learn to navigate those wild and poignant roller-coaster days known as growing up.
September: The Martian by Andy Weir
Buy Book: Amazon
MOVIE IN THEATERS OCTOBER 2, 2015
Amazon synopsis:
Six days ago, astronaut Mark Watney became one of the first people to walk on Mars.
Now, he's sure he'll be the first person to die there.
After a dust storm nearly kills him and forces his crew to evacuate while thinking him dead, Mark finds himself stranded and completely alone with no way to even signal Earth that he’s alive—and even if he could get word out, his supplies would be gone long before a rescue could arrive.
Chances are, though, he won't have time to starve to death. The damaged machinery, unforgiving environment, or plain-old "human error" are much more likely to kill him first.
But Mark isn't ready to give up yet. Drawing on his ingenuity, his engineering skills—and a relentless, dogged refusal to quit—he steadfastly confronts one seemingly insurmountable obstacle after the next. Will his resourcefulness be enough to overcome the impossible odds against him?
Now, he's sure he'll be the first person to die there.
After a dust storm nearly kills him and forces his crew to evacuate while thinking him dead, Mark finds himself stranded and completely alone with no way to even signal Earth that he’s alive—and even if he could get word out, his supplies would be gone long before a rescue could arrive.
Chances are, though, he won't have time to starve to death. The damaged machinery, unforgiving environment, or plain-old "human error" are much more likely to kill him first.
But Mark isn't ready to give up yet. Drawing on his ingenuity, his engineering skills—and a relentless, dogged refusal to quit—he steadfastly confronts one seemingly insurmountable obstacle after the next. Will his resourcefulness be enough to overcome the impossible odds against him?
What do you think? Are you excited about any of these stories? Do you have any other recommendations for us to read and watch?
Monday, June 1, 2015
June Book Announced: Beautiful Creatures
We have chosen Beautiful Creatures, by Kami Garcia (@kamigarcia) and Margaret Stohl (@mstohl) for our book this month.
Synopsis (From Amazon)
Lena Duchannes is unlike anyone the small Southern town of
Ethan Wate, who has been counting the months until he can escape from Gatlin, is haunted by dreams of a beautiful girl he has never met. When
While Beautiful Creatures great reviews, and an occult following, I think this is the best review I read of it (From Publishers Weekly):
"Readers who like angst-filled teenage romance will be swept up by the haunting and detailed atmosphere, the conventions and strictures of Southern life, and a compelling and dimensional mythology."
Beautiful Creatures is the first in a four book series, so get hooked and see what happens! AudioBookSync.com offered Beautiful Creatures for free the first week of thier summer reading program, if you were lucky enough to download it at that time, have a listen - I really enjoy the way they do the songs! Or pick a copy from Amazon, here.
The movie was released in 2013. It was directed and (screenplay) written by Richard La Gravenese. You can order a copy from Amazon, here.
Happy Reading!
Friday, May 1, 2015
First "Meeting" - First Impressions - And Other Notes
Welcome to the First Impressions Book to Movie Club!
First and foremost, this is a formal invitation to anyone to join us. Come one, Come all!
I have been thinking about trying to make a virtual book-to-movie club for awhile now. I don't have all of the specifics figured out yet, but I wanted to at least get started. So, here we are.
This is my idea of a "book club." I don't always like book clubs, they tend to read the same books, or at least the same types of books, over and over again or are filled with people who have silly ideas about literature. (Have you read THIS article by cracked.com? You should, you'll see what I mean.) I love talking about books, but I can't stand people finding crazy meanings in every - little - thing. (My DH will vouch for this. He loves to tell people how I got a "D" in my college Film class because I refused to accept that the "grass in Westerns" symbolized anything other than "the grass in Westerns.")
Now, I'm not saying that authors don't include messages beyond the text. I know the power of metaphors and symbolism. I just think we need to read for what it was written for, not project our own agendas into the writing. If you don't agree, you don't have to. I just wanted to make sure you understood where I was coming from while I thought about creating this book club. And, I'm not asking you to leave, quite the opposite! Stay! Share! Have some fun!
But I seemed to have digressed, let me try this again .... so, this is my idea of a book club. The premise is that everyone will read the book then at the end of the month we will watch the movie together. I know what you are thinking.
I'm not delusional.
I promise.
I don't mean we will all gather in some physical place to watch the movie. Duh. I mean I will announce a time and a day that I will watch the movie, and I encourage you to watch it at the same time as me. We can all live tweet our thoughts as we watch. We can talk about the differences between the books and the movies, or what we liked about the movie or book, or, well, anything really.
What do you think? Are you interested?
If you are, and I'm assuming you must be since you've made it this far, welcome to our first "meeting."
Our first book will be Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austin (buy) or as it was originally titled, First Impressions. See what I did there? Witty, right? P&P is a classic romantic tale that everyone should read. Just to get this out in the open, we will be watching the 2005 version (with Keira Knightley and Matthew Macfadyen). While I would love to encourage everyone to watch the BBC version starring Colin Firth, I understand that it 5 and a half hours long and that is a bit of a commitment. (But, watch it if you have the time. It is amazing.)
We will read it over the month of May, then I will announce a time to watch and tweet along.
Next month, we will read Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl (buy). I wanted to mention this now, because from May 7th - May 14th audiobooksync.com will offer the audio book for free. So make sure you get a your free audio book!
As I just wanted to get things going, I chose the first two books. But I am open to suggestions, comment below if you have any!
The only rule is that the book must have been made into a movie -- this can include new movies that are being released, though we will have to develop a format for in theater movies if that were to come up. Any ideas?
I think that is enough for now. I'll get to reading P&P and check in from time to time.
Happy Reading!
First and foremost, this is a formal invitation to anyone to join us. Come one, Come all!
I have been thinking about trying to make a virtual book-to-movie club for awhile now. I don't have all of the specifics figured out yet, but I wanted to at least get started. So, here we are.
This is my idea of a "book club." I don't always like book clubs, they tend to read the same books, or at least the same types of books, over and over again or are filled with people who have silly ideas about literature. (Have you read THIS article by cracked.com? You should, you'll see what I mean.) I love talking about books, but I can't stand people finding crazy meanings in every - little - thing. (My DH will vouch for this. He loves to tell people how I got a "D" in my college Film class because I refused to accept that the "grass in Westerns" symbolized anything other than "the grass in Westerns.")
Now, I'm not saying that authors don't include messages beyond the text. I know the power of metaphors and symbolism. I just think we need to read for what it was written for, not project our own agendas into the writing. If you don't agree, you don't have to. I just wanted to make sure you understood where I was coming from while I thought about creating this book club. And, I'm not asking you to leave, quite the opposite! Stay! Share! Have some fun!
But I seemed to have digressed, let me try this again .... so, this is my idea of a book club. The premise is that everyone will read the book then at the end of the month we will watch the movie together. I know what you are thinking.
I'm not delusional.
I promise.
I don't mean we will all gather in some physical place to watch the movie. Duh. I mean I will announce a time and a day that I will watch the movie, and I encourage you to watch it at the same time as me. We can all live tweet our thoughts as we watch. We can talk about the differences between the books and the movies, or what we liked about the movie or book, or, well, anything really.
What do you think? Are you interested?
If you are, and I'm assuming you must be since you've made it this far, welcome to our first "meeting."
Our first book will be Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austin (buy) or as it was originally titled, First Impressions. See what I did there? Witty, right? P&P is a classic romantic tale that everyone should read. Just to get this out in the open, we will be watching the 2005 version (with Keira Knightley and Matthew Macfadyen). While I would love to encourage everyone to watch the BBC version starring Colin Firth, I understand that it 5 and a half hours long and that is a bit of a commitment. (But, watch it if you have the time. It is amazing.)
We will read it over the month of May, then I will announce a time to watch and tweet along.
Next month, we will read Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl (buy). I wanted to mention this now, because from May 7th - May 14th audiobooksync.com will offer the audio book for free. So make sure you get a your free audio book!
As I just wanted to get things going, I chose the first two books. But I am open to suggestions, comment below if you have any!
The only rule is that the book must have been made into a movie -- this can include new movies that are being released, though we will have to develop a format for in theater movies if that were to come up. Any ideas?
I think that is enough for now. I'll get to reading P&P and check in from time to time.
Happy Reading!
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