Quick Update: Watching Perks and September Book

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!

The Time Traveler's Wife Movie Review

I think, if you were following my live tweets you'd be able to tell since I didn't tweet nearly as much as I usually do. I was far too engrossed in watching. There were aspects I didn't like as much as in the books, but there were also a few moments I liked even better than the book!

I don't like the synopsis that IMDB.com offers:
A romantic drama about a Chicago librarian with a gene that causes him to involuntarily time travel, and the complications it creates for his marriage.

What do you think? I honestly would not watch that movie, it sounds boring. Ha!

I loved both Eric Bana and Rachel McAdams, I think they did a great job. I especially loved Brooklynn Proulx, she as adorable and perfect!

I was a little sad we didn't get to see Kimy, she was, by far, my favorite character.

And a last little "did you know" for your reading pleasure: Jennifer Aniston and Brad Pitt bought the film rights to the novel before it was released to the public. Pitt was a producer of the film, apparently he had some good feelings about it!

How did you like the movie? Did you think they did the book justice?

The Time Traveler's Wife Book Review

I'm a little behind on posts, but I'm working on catching up, I promise!

This is a copy of the review of The Time Traveler's Wife I posted on to Google Books:

As a club we read The Time Travelers Wife in July 2015. This is a story of a man with a genetic disorder that causes him to travel in and out of time. It is a love story that starts for her when she is 6 and he is 36, but it doesn't start for him until she is 22 and he is 28. I enjoyed this story very much. Niffenegger uses foreshadowing a new and very interesting way that allowed emotions to be felt through anticipation and shock. I was amazed by the writing. However, there were many points that were just uninteresting or really didn't have anything to do with the story that just took away from the overall telling. I gave this story three stars, not because it wasn't good, but because it wasn't great.

Read my review and others HERE.

How would you review The Time Traveler's Wife?

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?

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.

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?

What do you think? Are you excited about any of these stories? Do you have any other recommendations for us to read and watch?

AudioBookSync.Com Summer Reading List

Sync is a program that offers two free audio book downloads each week during the summer. Each pair includes a Young Adult novel and a Classic novel matched through similar themes. Each book is only offered for seven days, so you much download the titles during that time.

Week 1: This summer began May 7th. Through May 14th they offered Beautiful Creatures, by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl and Rebecca, by Daphne Du Maurier. Beautiful Creatures will be our June book-of-the-month so I hope you were able to download it while it was available!

Week 2: 5/14-21 Dodger, by Terry Pratchett and Great Expectations, by Charles Dickens. I'm very excited about this week! I love Terry Pratchett, he has such a great voice. And, I'm a little embarrassed to say, I've never read Great Expectations. I seemed to have missed it in all of my English classes. So this is one for the bucket list! Also, Great Expectations has been adapted to the big screen 10 times, count them t-e-n times! and apparently, they span the the spectrum. We may have to make this one a book-of-the-month soon as well.

Week 3: 5/21-28 X: A Novel, by Ilyasah Shabazz and Kekla Magoon, and Here in Harlem, by Walter Dean Myers. X is about the young man who becomes Malcom X. Here in Harlem is a collection of poems. Both tell the stories of Harlem and its struggles.

Week 4: 5/28-6/4 The Ring and the Crown, by Melissa De La Cruz, and Sea Hearts, by Margo Lanagan. I have enjoyed a few novels by Melissa De La Cruz, so I am interested in this title, even though I hadn't heard of it previously. Sea Hearts and The Ring and the Crown are about love, magic, and human weakness.

Week 5: 6/4-11 A Corner of White, by Jaclyn Moriarty and Dracula, by Bram Stoker. I honestly have no idea what A Corner of White is about. I've read the synopsis, and I still don't know. Dracula is about a vampire (obviously).

Week 6: 6/11-18 The Living, by Matt de la Pena and The Perfect Storm, by Sebastian Junger. Both are about catastrophic events and the characters that try to survive. The Perfect Storm was adapted into a movie in 2000.

Week 7: 6/18-25 Rose Under Fire, by Elizabeth Wein and Anne Frank Remembered, by Miep Gies and Alison Leslie Gold. These are not for the faint of heart, both are about the Nazis, the war, and concentration camps.

Week 8: 6/25-7/2 Monster, by Walter Dean Myers and Lord of the Flies, by William Golding. Lord of the Flies is another of the classics that I didn't read in school. (I went to a few different high schools, so my program wasn't very predictable.) But to be honest, I was never really interested in it. Still, free is free, and a movie was made.

Week 9: 7/2-9 Echoes of an Angel, by Aquaneta Gordon and Chris Macias and Buddha Boy, by Kathe Koja. Both are stories of overcoming hardship. Though very different, they are both moving.

Week 10: 7/9-16 The Explorers Club, by Nell Benjamin and Around the World in Eighty Days, by Jules Verne. I can't wait to read both. I remember watching the 1956 Around the World in Eighty Days movie as a kid, I loved it! I may have to go digging around to find it again.

Week 11: 7/16-23 Crows and Cards, by Joseph Helgerson and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain. Misadventures in the South.

Weeks 12: 7/23-30 March, by Geraldin Brooks, and Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott. March is the story of the Little Women's absent father, so they are best read together. Little Women came to the big screen in 1994.

Week 13: 7/30-8/6 Courage Has No Color, The True Story of the Triple Nickles, by Tanya Lee Stone and John Ball's In the Heat of the Night, by Matt Pelfrey. Overcoming prejudices and differences on the police force in the south and fighting on the battlefield in WWII. In the Heat of the Night was released in theaters in 1967.

Week 14: 8/6-13 Under A War-Torn Sky, by L.M. Elliot and The Old Brown Suitcase, by Lillian Boraks-Nemetz. Two more WWII stories and what freedom can cost. Both look like they will be very interesting.

There you have it, 14 weeks and 28 books.

Which ones are you interested in? Should we add any to our book list?