Book Review: Maneater

4 / 29 / 11

I recently finished Maneater by Gigi Levangle Grazer. Ok, I’ll admit that I had watched the Lifetime Movie in 2008 with Sarah Chalke (Scrubs) and Judy Greer ( 13 going on 30). Although, I’ll give in and say that I only watched because the concept of a maneater seemed so intriguing.

Like many a people will say the book is better than the movie and in some ways I agree. The main character Clarissa is always on the hunt for a new man of the moment and like many girls is always dreaming of her fairy tale ending. Just when she thinks that she has dated every guy in all of Hollywood, she meets Aaron Mason. Clarissa and Aaron have a whirlwind romance and before you can say Happily Ever After they are married and looking to lead the storybook life. The day after the honeymoon Aaron drops a huge bomb on Clarissa’s plans for their life and possibly ruining their relationship forever. Clarissa delves to repair the life she imagined and finds that the whole life she imagined is about to come crashing down. Aaron is hiding an even deeper secret that as much as he adores Clarissa and would trust her with his life, he can’t bear to have exposed and have the entire world he built come crashing down just as things appear to be going right.

The book did a good job of developing Clarissa’s and Aaron’s backstory and keeping that story together. It didn’t manage to keep the secondary characters story together and would often hop from their story line to the main story line in a matter of moments. The movie kept the story line of both the main and secondary characters flowing together beautifully and you never felt that one story was deeply more important than the other. Like many a book adaption there were parts of the book changed for the movie so that the movie flowed better and appeared more realistic. I would recommend both the book to read and the movie to rent, but not to own.

Book Review: Heist Society

4 / 2 / 11

I just finished Heist Society by Ally Carter. I found this book on the bargain book rack at Borders I think (I alternately haunt Borders and Barnes & Noble depending on which one is closer and which one actually has the magazines I read). I recommend this book, I thought it was good and hopefully will be able to find other books by the author.

The story of Heist Society is about a girl named Katarina Bishop who is forcibly expelled out of a prestigious boarding school by her friend, W.W. Hale the fifth to help clear the name of her father in an art heist of a mobster. As Katarina begins the search to help clear her father’s name she is quickly thrown back into the world that she had escaped and finds that she can never really escape the world she was born into.

The book with its slight twists and turns take us on the complicated world of art thieves and what it means to be art thief. The story takes us around the world in a blink of an eye to get to the bottom of the story. The reader also finds talks about in a fictional matter the art that was stolen during World War II that is still being researched and returned to the rightful families by historians, activists, and other survivors.

If you ever get a chance to read this book I recommend it. It’s a relatively fast read and the story will make you want to keep reading until you get to the bottom of the story. Definitely a page turner no matter what your age.

Movie Review: Song of the South

2 / 24 / 11

I finally got my hands on the Song of the South dvd and had a spare minute to watch it. The dvd came to me really fast 2 days after I ordered it in a bubble envelope and a flatter dvd case. If you’ve been in an office supply store you know which case I’m talking about. The dvd was undamaged in any way although there might be a flaw in making of the case, but whatever.

I had seen this movie for about a minute in college when my roommate had borrowed it from her family. She also had to do some hunting for her dvd. Since then, I’ve been dying to own the dvd and was having an incredibly hard time finding it since it has been banned in the United States since it’s release in the 1940s. There are some conflicting reports on when it was banned some say it was never released beyond the theatrical release others say that it had a limited release and upon controversy was pulled from the market never to be seen again.

Regardless of the release controversy, the movie is very well done. The dvd quality is great and it is not in the restored edition and I would disagree with people who like the restored versions of classic movies better. The dvd shows the colors beautifully in their original form, the music is in its original form as well. I do understand that at the time the racial slurs in the movie were not appropriate. If I had lived back then might have been on the side to ban the movie on that alone.

However, in today’s society I would push for the movie to be re released or to be made available under certain context. The illustration of racial and class separation shown in the movie could be used a teaching tool in the classroom. The stories by Uncle Remus of Brer Rabbit and Brer Fox would also be helpful and teaching tools. The songs is the movie are catchy and could certainly use a new audience. I believe that Disney is doing itself a disservice by holding the movie in the vault and yet having the characters Brer Rabbit, Brer Bear, and Brer Fox wander around the park for people to take pictures with. Splash Moutain is also a fairly popular ride and it would make the ride even more popular if people knew the story behind it.

Buy the dvd here: Song of the South.org don’t forget to sign the petition!

Also to find out more about Uncle Remus visit Uncle Remus .com

Book Review: Paper Towns

2 / 16 / 11

I’m still reading and posting reviews and that’s the upside to this post. The downside is that I haven’t been reading and unplugging as much as I would like. I always tend to forget that with my current job Winter and Spring are probably the busiest times of the year. It will then start to slow down toward the end of Spring and continue from Summer into much of the Fall. These are about the times I wish I had an iphone with the Kindle app, so that I could whip it out and knock off a few pages every now and then. I don’t however and it would look weird to sit in a meeting and whip out a book when you think its going far too slowly.

Paper Towns by John Green is a wonderful piece of fiction for young adults. Granted his writing is geared toward young adults, but like most adults when you look for a good book you often don’t care what it is geared for even if it is young adults thus the success of Harry Potter and Twilight. The book was laid out so that it talked about the characters before, during, in an escapade, and the hunt for more ( you’ll get what I mean when you read the book). It had some interesting points, but i personally felt it dragged quite a bit. I liked the concept of Paper Towns and thought of running away and starting over completely anew ,but it was not one of his better books.

Book Review: Zero Regrets

1 / 21 / 11

In keeping with my resolutions for this year, I thought I would post book reviews. This way I can be kept accountable for the books I read. In case you didn’t read the post before this my resolution for reading this year is to read at least one book a month. I decided this for a number of reasons mainly because I’ve found that I’m a book store junkie that loves to buy books and often lets them pile up on my nightstand without actually reading them. I also find that at the end of everyday I often keep myself plugged into the technology realm. If I take a moment to read a book then I’ll spend less time plugged in and give my mind a little break to wander.

The book for this month was Apolo Anton Ohno’s book Zero Regrets: Be Greater than Yesterday. This book was a pretty fast read if you have time. He mostly talks about his career in detail from the beginning to the present day. Apolo also delves a little into his relationship with his dad that has been a huge part of his career. This book could be classified under several categories but I’ll classify it under self help because by Apolo telling us his journey he is in some sense challenging the reader to live a life of no regrets. He tells readers all the things that have happened through his career and some the crazy experiences he has had along the way such as Dancing with the Stars and not getting on the Olympic team on his first try.

I would definitely recommend this book to people even if you are not completely sold on the idea of Apolo Ohno and short track speed skating. It’s a good book to read and very well written. Ladies, there are also some amazing pictures 😉 He’s got a better situation going on than The Situation.