The Lovely Bones (5/29/10)

I went over to my parents to help get their computer set up on Saturday and while waiting for the cable company to get everything set up so I could get things going I saw that my parents owned this movie.  I've been wanting to see it, so I asked dad if he had seen it yet, he hadn't so we decided to watch it.  I don't recall the book feeling as slow as the movie did, I'm sure it was but I was so immersed in it that I didn't notice.  But while watching a movie that moves a bit slowly with my dad there is NO way to avoid the fact that the story isn't very quick.  My dad is an action movie kind of guy, things need to be doing something, shots being fired, things exploding, this was hard for him to watch.  I think I might have to rewatch this sometime when he isn't there and I can immerse myself a bit more.

The movie follows most of the same story as the book.  I liked the movie, it did feel a little slow, but I don't think it was slow in a bad way.  They cut out a few things, but they weren't really things that mattered too much.  As a whole I liked the movie, though even knowing what was going to happen the suspense was at times difficult for me.  What can I say, I like my movies being easy to watch and stress free.

Oh, the inbetween in the movie is nothing like the inbetween in my mind.  I suppose we all will have our own slightly different version of how we would imagine something like that.

Twilight by Stephanie Meyer

So this isn't the first time I've read this, it's actually the second.  I normally say I've read the whole series twice, but when I thought about it more, I had read all the other books twice but had lent the first book to someone at work and never reread it (though I bought another copy and have two now).  The borrowed book was returned to me on Monday and I happened to forget Villette by Charlotte Bronte which I've been reading at home.  So I decided to read Twilight again, and well, it's one of those books that once I've picked it up I can't put it down.  I was pretty impressed I let it stretch out over 3 days.  Now to reread the rest of the series (or at least the first 3) before the novella comes out!  Which is really really soon, I have it preordered and can't wait till it shows up on my door step.  I know, I'm one of those Twilight people, how in the world did that happen?  At least I don't go screaming about it when I go watch it at the movie theater or anything crazy like that.

Juno (5/23/10)

Another movie that has sat in my queue pretty much since we got Netflix.  It's nice when I don't add new things and eventually get to watch things I've been wanting to see but can't justify putting in that #1 spot when I add them to the list.

So I missed the part where this is a comedy, maybe it's just my current state of mind but it really seemed like a drama to me.  There isn't much funny about a 16 year old getting pregnant, finding a family to adopt the baby and that family falling apart.  Yep, I just didn't find it funny.  Sure it had funny moments, but the plot as a whole was not a comedy to me.  It's certainly a movie I will only watch one time.

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

I partially read this online and partially in my big giant Bronte sister book (it has 6 books in it or something like that), so I just picked out the most commonly occuring cover I could find online.  I really do enjoy reading the classics, and I much prefer page turning to internet browsing.  It's wierd to think how much things have changed in what really is a relatively short time in the grand scheme of things.

In this book you follow Jane Eyre through a very rough life, I would go into her hardships a bit more but I don't want to give away anything that happens in the book.  I must say that it was great to see a true love that could make it through hard times and continue even when the situations change for the characters.  It's great to see this kind of true love, it seems to really lack in modern day stories.  To me the modern stories tend to have a superficial feel to them at times, though I suppose that might just be because the circumstances are possible to actually happen with the way things are today.

Yep, good book, I can see why it's stood the test of time.

The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

I really enjoyed reading this book, it took a little getting used to keeping track of dates and who was where when, but once I got used to that it was a great love story.  A great love story that included hard times and good times and twists and turns.  Very enjoyable indeed.

The only thing I didn't enjoy about the book is sometimes she would use language that seemed a bit vulgar for what was happening.  There were a few times it seemed to fit but often it just felt thrown in there.  Sure the words describe what she's talking about, but why not use slightly nicer words?  It would have been the same story without them and some of the romance wouldn't have felt so crude to me.  But that's just me.

All in all it's a good book, I enjoyed it and can't wait to see the movie.  I hope it lives up to the story portrayed in the book.

The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold

This story is one worth reading, at least it was for me.  The description of heaven or the inbetween is certainly not what I expect when I'm free from this earth, but then who really knows exactly what to expect?

This story is about a young girl that is murdered and she is stuck in the inbetween, the place between the living and heaven.  In the book you watch her family fall apart, find love, come together and learn to live with her loss.  There are a few other side stories of friends that she follows that are all worth having in the book.  And then there is the story about the creepy neighbor who killed her.  Knowing that people like him are out there scares me, he just seems so much like any guy next door neighbor. 

I really did enjoy the story, it was a quick read and well worth it.  I hope the movie lives up to the story presented in the book, I think it could be adapted really well to the big screen, but then it could also be a big mess if not done well.  I'll find out soon enough, it's already out on DVD and almost at the top of my list!