Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins

So I barely read last week, I don't know why. I had the time but whatever I was reading (The Red Pyramid) just wasn't keeping my attention. So on Sunday I decided, you know what, I haven't read all week, I NEED to read something. So I picked up my nook and looked through all the books I've yet to read and finally decided on Anna and the French Kiss. I've heard a lot, and I mean A LOT of people rave about this book and I understand why. Anna and the French Kiss is the story of Anna Oliphant, a seventeen year old girl, whose famous author father decides to send her to a boarding school in Paris for her senior year. Anna is lonely and culture shocked but she quickly makes friends with Meredith,  a girl who lives on the same floor as her. Anna is quickly welcome into Meredith's group of friends, which includes Josh, Rashimi, and the gorgeous and sweet Étienne St. Clair. Anna and Étienne develop a connection but things are complicated by the fact that he has a longtime girlfriend he can't seem to let go of.

This book was a very quick read, it was very much focused on character development, which is absolutely fine with me, those are actually my favorite type of books. I found myself rooting for Anna and Étienne to get together and I became quite frustrated with all their misunderstandings and the miscommunications. I loved Anna and the French Kiss for it's ability to portray teenage romance so realistically (complete with all the angst and sexual tension). I loved Stephanie Perkins' writing so much that I also bought the companion book, Lola and the Boy Next Door (review for that coming soon).


Rating:★★★★
Recommendation: If you're into contemporary romance, I would advise you add this to your personal collection.

Under the Dome by Stephen King

The Book: Under the Dome happens to be my first Stephen King novel ever. I own a few of his books, and have seen a lot of movie adaptations of his book, but this is the first one I actually sat down and read. Under the Dome follows the residents of Chester's Mill, Maine, a small town that becomes completely cut off from the rest of the world when an invisible barrier, known as "The Dome" drops all of the sudden.

Under the Dome is written in third person but follows nearly every character in the town, switching POV's quite often. I personally really enjoyed that aspect of the book because it felt as if Chester's Mill was a snow globe and I was looking into it, with knowledge of what every character was thinking and doing. Stephen King did such a fantastic job writing characters that were real, that I grew to care about quickly. Characters that exist out in the real world and hit a certain nerve when you read about them (I'm looking at you Big Jim). There are very many subplots and at times it's hard to follow characters but once you really get into the book, it's quite easy. I became so invested in the story and the characters that I found myself sighing in frustration and shouting out "OH MY GOD" a lot while reading it.

The TV Show: Under the Dome has been made into a mini series that is airing Mondays on CBS and you can bet I am watching it. I saw the first episode and they changed so many things!!! Now I'm not going to write the show off just because of all the changes. However, I would definitely recommend not reading the book first because you'll just be nit-picking all the differences and end up not enjoying the show as much. That being said, after I told myself to stop comparing it to the book, and treat it as it's own entity, the show has a huge air of mystery surrounding it and I actually LIKE that they changed some things because it left me wondering what's gonna happen next, even though I read the book. I really like the cast and can't wait to watch the next episode to be honest.

Rating: ★★★★★
Recommendation: Yes, read it specially if you like Mystery Sci-fi.

Favorite Quotes: "Give a man or woman back his self-respect, and in most cases-not all, but most-you also give back that person's ability to think with at least some clarity.

Man of Steel

I had the opportunity to see Man of Steel on Tuesday with my husband. We had high expectations going in and were not disappointed. Man of Steel is a reboot of Superman, with a completely new more gritty and realistic feel to it. Man of Steel explores the idea of what would happen if the world found out about this alien being who has been on Earth for 30 years, disguised as a human. I've been a big Superman fan from the time I was very young. The original Superman movies with Christopher Reeve used to be some of my favorites, and I was quite disappointed when Superman Returns turned out to be a steaming pile of crap. Part of what made Man of Steel better than the previous attempt to revive the franchise, was the fact that the casting was right on point. Henry Cavill plays Clark Kent/ Kal-El perfectly, and no one can deny that Amy Adams is a great actress. So though she never looked like Lois Lane to me, she played the part well. Kevin Costner as Jonathan Kent and Russell Crowe as Jor-El were also fantastic. The special effects were great, but there was so much flipping and tumbling and fighting that at times I ended up dizzy. The movie seemed a little lengthy it's a bit over two hours, but it was very action packed, so by no means was I bored. I really enjoyed seeing a lot of the backstory (the movie begins in Krypton). And I thought General Zod was the perfect villain to start off the series with. I think it's safe to say this reboot was successful and that I'm not the only one hoping for a sequel. Man of Steel hits theaters June 14th.

Rating: ★★★★
Recommendation: If you're a superhero fan, go see it, but skip the 3D.

NOS4A2 by Joe Hill

So, I saw a review for this book in an issue of Entertainment Weekly and the summary of it sounded interesting so I decided to pick it up when I saw it at Barnes & Noble. NOS4A2 is the story of Vic McQueen who, with the help of a very special bridge, has the ability to find lost things. The book also follows Charlie Manx, a man who takes children away to special place he's imagined up, a place called Christmasland. One day Vic McQueen and Charlie Manx cross paths, and she becomes the only kid to ever escape him. Years later when Vic McQueen is all grown up, Charlie Manx returns and comes looking for her, dead set on getting his revenge. I could probably write a better summary but I really don't want to give anything away.
This book was fantastic. It took me a little while to read though because I could not bring myself to read it at night. Joe Hill created such a creepy character that I was way too afraid to read about him before I went to bed, I just knew Charlie Manx would star in my nightmares. Aside from the fact that it was scary, this book was actually a lot of fun to read. I've never read anything like it and I'm very glad I picked it up. Vic McQueen was a badass, she did have her faults and vices, but it was easy to see where those stemmed from, and she was really still a badass. Although the book was mostly creepy and scary, there was some humor in it. Especially in the interactions between Charles Manx and his sidekick, Bing Partridge. I really enjoyed this book, I'm only sad that it took me so long to become a fan of Joe Hill's writing. He truly has a gift with words, the imagery in this book is absolutely amazing. Seriously if you ever want to give an example of perfect use of imagery, use Joe Hill's writing.


Rating: ★★★★★
Recommendation: Worth adding it to your personal library.
Favorite Quote: “Fantasy was always only a reality waiting to be switched on."

The Kings of Summer

Had the opportunity to attend a screening of The Kings of Summer last night, and I'm really glad I went. The Kings of Summer is the coming of age story of three teenage boys--Joe, Patrick, and Biaggio--who, fed up with their patents' attempts to control their lives, decide to declare their freedom and build themselves a house in the middle of the woods. They make a pact to be "men" and work for their food, water, and shelter. I had already seen previews for the film, and knew I would really enjoy it, so it was no surprise when I walked out of the theater still smiling (the audience clapped at the end, so I wasn't the only one who loved it).
The three lead actors (Nick Robinson, Gabriel Basso & Moises Arias) were great, but honestly Moises Arias as Biaggio stole the show. Almost every part of the movie that had me dying of laughter involved Biaggio. The supporting cast was also outstanding, Nick Offerman in particular. I'm a huge Parks and Recreation fan, and it was nice to see him in a role outside of the show. Megan Mullally and Marc Evan Jackson were also hilarious as Patrick's parents. I really loved this movie, and it's gonna be added to my collection once it comes out on DVD.
The Kings of Summer is a limited release so I suggest checking your local theater to see if they will be playing it.


Rating:★★★★★
Recommendation: Go see it in theaters if it's available where you are! It's heartwarming and funny!

Farewell, Raggedy Doctor

I've been actively watching Doctor Who for a year now. I watched seasons 1-6 last year and caught up just in time for the premiere of Season 7. Doctor Who was not even on my radar when Christopher Ecclestone and David Tennant left the show, so this is my first experience with the departure of my current Doctor. I was aware of the rumors surrounding the show, but I refused to listen to any of them because unless it's confirmed by actors/studios, nothing I read on the internet is true. So it did not come as a shock at all when it was announced that Matt Smith would be leaving the Doctor Who after the Christmas Special. I will spend a lot of time speculating as to who will be the next Doctor, but before all that can start, I want to take the time to say I will miss Matt Smith terribly! I've grown extremely attached to the Eleventh Doctor and I am so, so sad to see him go! I hope whoever takes over the role will become as dear to me as Eleven has (and I hope his chemistry with Jenna-Louise Coleman is as good as Matt's is).
Farewell raggedy man. I will miss you.

-A

Tomb Raider

So by no means am I a huge gamer, but I bought Tomb Raider yesterday so I thought I'd make a quick blog post about it. I think I'm only 8% done with the game >_<, but I can say I'm hooked! The graphics are absolutely beautiful, and the story is quite engaging. So what drove me to want to play this game? Reviews really. I had seen the trailer and some screen shots for the game but appart from that I knew nothing about it until the guys over at SourceFed posted a video reviewing the game (check out the video here). After watching that review, I added that game to my Wish List and since I decided it was time for me to move from Assassin's Creed and try something new. Gameplay is quite straight forward and the tutorials are clear and flow really well with the story (as opposed to tutorials where you have to do random shit that has nothing to do with advancing the story). The cut scenes are just beautiful (seriously I can not say enough about the graphics!), I can't wait to play more and see where the story goes! I will be posting small updates as I play more, so stay tuned for those!

-A

The Selection by Kiera Cass

The Bachelor meets The Hunger Games...but not really? I'd heard a lot of people rave about this book, but I'd also heard a lot of people say that it was aimed at younger audiences (which I honestly don't agree with) so I had mixed feelings about starting this book. However, seeing as I forgot NOS4A2 at work and couldn't read it all weekend, I decided to read one of the many books I've bought on my nook but have yet to get through. The Selection won out and I found myself hooked after the first few pages. Let me just say that when people say it's like The Bachelor, they are not lying. The story is about America Singer, a seventeen (?) year old girl who gets a chance to be chosen for the Selection, a contest where 35 girls are sent to live at the palace and compete for the young prince's heart. This book takes place sometime in the future, when the United States has gone into so much debt that China and other countries have waged war against it and the country has crumbled and resurfaced with the new name of Illea. This country has implemented a Caste system and our heroine is a Five, which means she's some sort of artist or entertainer (actually a singer/musician). Her caste is not the worst (there are eight castes, One being royalty and Eight being "the untouchables") but she explains that there are months when her family goes hungry. Honestly the only way this story is similar to The Hunger Games is the fact that it's a dystopian, but the problem with this book is that it focuses so heavily on the romance and (surprise surprise) the love triangle that we forget that there's something bigger going on. I've seen and read a couple reviews for this book and some of them mentioned that they felt the book was aimed towards younger audiences, but I didn't feel that to be true. The book actually makes a few mentions of sex, and one character suffers from PTSD due to the fact that she was nearly raped.  Even with the serious subjects that are touched on, the focus was on the romance and that made the story seem a bit shallow, but that may change in the second or third books (another surprise...it's a trilogy!). I found the book to be entertaining, but not the point that I will make every single person I know read it. I have gone ahead and bought the second book in the series, titled The Elite and plan on reading it and posting a review of it soon.


Rating:★★★
Recommendation: If you're looking for something quick to read, check it out.
Favorite Character: May Singer

This Is The End

Got a chance to see This Is The End last night, so here we go!
I heard about this movie last year, when it was still scheduled to come out at the end of 2012 and had a different working title. I read the premise of it, and was instantly sold, so I was slightly disappointed when I heard the release date had been pushed all the way back to Summer 2013. However, the wait was worth it. This movie was absolutely hilarious. The screening was full and I saw almost everyone laughing throughout the whole movie. All the stuff from the trailers was in there, along with more scenes that had me laughing so hard I couldn't breathe. It was so much fun seeing the cameos from various different actors and actresses. The dynamic between the leads was great, which is to be expected because all these guys are friends in real life. Parts of the movie were a little out there, which is to be expected because it's a movie about real actors (not characters) during the apocalypse. One of the funniest scenes includes an exchange between James Franco and Danny McBride that I'm still laughing about.

You can expect to see faces like Emma Watson, who is just fantastic, Rihanna, Michael Cera, Christopher Mintz-Plasse (there was a scene with Cera, Mintz-Plasse, and Hill all together, it was almost like a Superbad reunion), Aziz Ansari, Mindy Kaling, and other recognizable names I'll keep to myself because I don't want to spoil anything. I know as soon as this movie comes out, I'll hear a lot of my friends talking about it and quoting lines from it. This is the funniest movie I've seen so far this year. We will see if the title holds once I've seen The Hangover III which is the only movie I can think as a main contender.
This Is The End hits theaters nationwide on June 12th!

Rating:★★★★
Recommendation: If you want to laugh and don't mind a little absurdity, go see it in theaters!

Inferno by Dan Brown

As any Dan Brown fan, I can say that I was extremely excited when a new Robert Langdon book was announced. However, after the lackluster The Lost Symbol, I went in not expecting too much out of Brown, and I think that was a wise choice. The book follows Robert Langdon after he wakes up in a hospital in Florence, with no recollection of what's happened in the past 36 hours, and with random people trying to kill him (go figure!). A beautiful, smart, young woman helps him escape and we begin a journey through Florence in a race to find an item that could change the course of history forever.

I enjoyed the book quite a lot, it was better than The Lost Symbol, but it pales in comparison with Angels & Demons (which is Robert Langdon's first--and best-- adventure to date). I just didn't feel the need to know what came next like I felt with Angels & Demons. But the fact that Robert Langdon has amnesia added a nice touch of mystery, and keept me entertained.
As always you can expect the change in POV, and Dan brown does a great job in using POV's to add mystery, and make the reader question what they already know, or what they think they know.
Thought Dan Brown did a great job blending art, literature and history together to map out Robert Langdon's adventure in the book, it fell a little short for me. That may be because I'm not as familiar with the works referenced in this book, as I was with the works referenced in Angels & Demons and The Da Vinci Code. 

Overall it was a good read. I would definitely recommend it if you happen to be a Dan Brown fan.

Rating: ★★★½ (I gave it a 4 on goodreads.com because you can't do half-stars there)

What shows are on my to-watch list? What shows am I currently watching?

To give you an idea of the kinds of shows I watch/ I'm interested in, I decided to compile a list!

Shows I'm currently watching (as they air):

1. Doctor Who (On hiatus until November 23rd--rude!)
2. Game of Thrones (Season finale June 2nd)
3. Criminal Minds (Season Finale May 22nd)
4. True Blood (Season 6 Premieres June 16th)
5. Dexter (Final Season Premieres June 30th)
6. Shameless (On hiatus until next January 2014?)
7. Parks And Recreation (on hiatus until Fall 2013)
8. American Horror Story (on hiatus until October 2013)
9. The Following (on hiatus until Fall 2013?)

Shows I watch, but I'm not caught up on: 

1. Supernatural
2. New Girl
3. Modern Family
4. Once Upon A Time
5. Teen Wolf
6. Awkward
7. Bones
8. Revolution
9. Misfits 

Shows I plan on starting or have just started watching:

1. Hemlock Grove (I watched the first episode and I liked it)
2. Battlestar Galactica (2 episodes in...already attached to characters)
3. The Office
4. How I Met Your Mother
5. Fringe

Most of these have already gone on hiatus for the summer and I'll have time to catch up before next season starts, but tbh I have so much shit going on I stop watching shows as they air and just watch them all at once on Hulu, Netflix, or I buy the season if necessary. It seems like the only ones I can keep up with are the Sunday shows because so many of my friends watch them and I don't want to be spoiled!

Star Trek: Into Darkness

Let me just put a disclaimer here. I'm not a Trekkie, I've never seen the original TV Series or any of the original films. My first experience with Star Trek came from the first J. J. Abrams film in 2009, and that film was funny, and entertaining, and the story was so intricate and good, that I became a fan instantly.

The second installment did not disappoint. The timeline is iffy but the film begins, a few months or years (???) after the first movie. James T. Kirk is still the captain of the USS Enterprise. But then there's some rule breaking that goes on, which leads Kirk to lose his ship. Other spoilery things happen, and then we finally meet this film's baddie, Benedict Cumberbatch. Look, I'm a big Sherlock fan, so I was beyond thrilled when I heard Cumberbatch was the new villain. He has such a presence and delivery, really I could get behind anything he does. This movie was just as entertaining as, if not more than, the first one. There was lots of action, and a great story line. However, the characters are what draws me to these films. The chemistry between the cast is so good, it makes me think, these actors are actually the characters they are playing, which is great because the main focus of this film is the relationship between Spock and Kirk. A relationship that began stormily, but has developed into a friendship so strong, these two characters see each other as brothers.

Ultimately, the film is worth seeing. I walked out of that theater extremely satisfied and wanting to see it again.


Rating: ★★★★★
Recommendations: See it in theaters now! (3D if it doesn't give you a headache, like it does to me)

Take 2

First and foremost, I apologize for being gone nearly a whole damn year. A whole YEAR! I promise I had every intention of keeping up with this blog, but life got in the way and I just couldn't do it. I guess blogs work better if you write for fun instead of as a chore. And that's what I intend to do this time around. I began writing a review for The Green River Killer: A True Detective Story by Jeff Jensen and for some reason, it's still sitting in my drafts, unfinished. I will have to re-read it in order to finish my review, so don't expect that any time soon.

What you CAN expect soon, perhaps by tonight, is a review of Star Trek: Into Darkness. I was given the opportunity to see the movie last night and I plan on typing up a quick post with my thoughts on the movie.

Also, as you can probably see on the goodreads widget, I'm currently reading Inferno by Dan Brown and NOS4A2 by Joe Hill. I'm also reading Signs of Life by Natalie Taylor, but that's taking me a bit longer (I don't know why, but memoirs always take me longer).

Anyway, that is all, and now to write about Star Trek!

-A