I am going to write about something near and dear to my heart, Buffy. I don't know about you but I tend to move from one obsession to another and for several years I turned my attention to Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Joss Whedon in general. If, goodness forbid, you are unfamiliar with Buffy allow me to enlighten you: Regular California teenager Buffy Summers discovers she is the chosen one, destined to bring about the end of vampires and evil in general.
Catfish is a new documentary taking the world (and internet) by storm and I highly recommend that everyone see it. The story begins when Nev Schulman (a photographer in NYC) has a picture of two dancers featured in the New York Sun. A few months later, Nev receives a package from a small town in Michagan containing an oil painting from 9-year-old Abby, an aspiring artist who used Nev's picture as inspiration.
I approached Mockingjay with a bit of apprehension. You know when there is something you really love you worry that the author/creator might ruin it with one swift stroke of the pen? That is the anxiety I felt leading up to the release of Mockingjay. How could you possibly end a series as great as the Hunger Games? Would Katniss survive? What would happen to Panem!? Although I liked Mockingjay it was certainly not a satisfying book.
So this weekend I went to see possibly one of the best movies ever!!! I might even go so far as to say that this is the best book-to-movie adaptation I have ever seen. But before I start fawning over it I will give you a quick background. Scott Pilgrim vs the World is based on the Scott Pilgrim books by Bryan O'Malley which I have blogged about before. Like all the classics this is the story of boy-meets-girl. 23-year-old Scott Pilgrim lives in Toronto, Canada.
I read It's Kind of a Funny Story by Ned Vizzini years ago but the story has always stuck with me, I think it was something I could really relate to. It's about a guy who is at the top of his class at his public school. He is a pretty competitive person (at least academically) and he desperately wants to get into this very elite prep school, probably more for the challenge of getting accepted than actually going.
Kyle Kingsley is the most perfect guy in school, just ask anyone. He has everything he wants, money, the right friends, the hottest girl in school. But no matter now beautiful Kyle is on the outside he is ugly on the inside, where it counts. Kyle decides to make fun of a new girl in his English class by pretending to ask her to the spring dance and then standing her up. But little does Kyle know that the new girl is actually a witch and she gets back at Kyle but cursing him and turning him into a beast.
The Everafter by Amy Huntley This would be a good read alike for people that enjoyed Elsewhere by Gabrielle Zevin. Like that book, the subject explored is what happens to a person after they are dead. As the book begins the only thing that Madison Stanton knows for sure is that she is dead. She doesn't remember dying and she doesn't really remember her life.
I just finished one of the best series of graphic novels I have ever read, the Scott Pilgrim series. It began when I saw a preview for the upcoming movie and I thought, "gee, that seems interesting." So I checked out the books, I had no idea what I was in for. Although the series starts out a little slow, and it takes a little bit to recognize each character on site (helped by handy name tags every so often), it picks up quickly.
Micah live in New York City and attends a fancy private school, she is on scholarship. She lives with her parents in a small apartment and she doesn't seem to have a lot of friends. The drama starts when a boy from school, Zach is found murdered in Central Park. Micah, who narrates the story, says she barely knew Zach, just had a few classes with him but as the story goes on it is uncovered that Micah and Zach were actually secretly dating, secretly because Zach was actually dating another girl.
There is a trend online to find your favorite unsung books, books that you love but aren't widely read. The criteria that I am using is to look at my Goodreads account and any book that I have given 5 stars to that has been read by less than 500 people. Here is my list of unsung books!
