march reviews

April already? How in the world did that happen? 
I will admit that March has been a bit of a blur for me. I'm not sure I can tell you what happened last month except work. I worked a lot. I watched a lot of TV. I didn't sleep as much as I needed to sleep. And I didn't read as much as I wanted to. 

I finally got around to reading Dear John by Nicholas Sparks. (What? No, not just because Channing Tatum is in the movie! Well...)
I read this book after finishing the awful book Juliette. It is how I discovered that written dialouge is very important in a book and will, in fact, make or break my interest in a story. Moving right along... I had mixed feelings about the book. In part, I hated it. Building up a romance, sending boy across oceans to a war, girl breaking up with him in a letter (so wrong!)--and so many other things-- I just couldn't handle it. But part of me thought, as I wiped the tear from my eye, "Love doesn't always work out the way we want it to, and sometimes that is for the best." So I guess that is the moral of that story. 
(Also, Channing Tatum is hot. The end.)


Another book I picked up to read because I want to eventually see the movie is One Day by David Nicholls. I suppose I didn't learn my "love doesn't always work out the way we want it to" lesson, because this book was like Dear John on that level, times 1,000. I cried at this book. It is the well known story of two imperfect people (Dexter & Emma) who are perfect for each other...but can't get their life together long enough to actually be together. Except for those few moments when all is right in the world, and tho moments are so few and so far between.The book is called "One Day" because each chapter tracks their events on July 15th St. Swithun's Day, from graduation day from university and for the next 20 years. 
**Update** I did get to see the movie too. Love it. I cried at the book, but I sobbed and wept at the film. 
My vote is a whole-hearted "yes" to both the reading of the book and the viewing of the film. You need to see this. Yes, even though Ann Hathaway is in it and fakes an accent. It doesn't suck as much as I thought it would. 

And let's not forget the much anticipated movie of the month: The Hunger Games! This was another Gettysburg find for me. Again, I told everyone and all my friends got hooked as well. I know it is long over due, but make sure you see this. I think it was beautifully done and I loved it. I mean, as much as you can love seeing a bunch of teens running around killing each other because of a corrupt government...but I think the adaptation was beautiful.


TV Series, Mini-series & film stuff (aka David Tennant Month)


As I said, I watched a lot of TV in March. Well I did not lie. I started re-watching Doctor Who when I got a friend of mine hooked and so I just kept going. I love David Tennant's Doctor. Love love love. I loved Christopher Eccleston too...but I double loved David's. So there was lots of Doctor Who happening. 

I also saw the BBC's Casanova. Also with David Tennant. Also with Russel T. Davies of Doctor Who fame. It was chock full of other brilliant British actors, too. All in all, a great miniseries. My little sister, who sometimes has trouble with all of the BBC I watch, even loved it. I mean really, it's just great. 




The Chatterley Affair
During my year at Gettysburg, I read Lady Chatterley's Lover and watched the mini-series by Ken Russel. I loved parts of the film (Sean Bean? Yes please!) and parts of the books. Well, lots of parts of the book. I couldn't tell you all of the parts, but I know I have a bookmark full of quotes. I feel it's a very honest look at what relationships are, the emotions that are involved and, like we learned in When Harry Met Sally..., how sex (whether you have it or not) gets in the way. 
This film, The Chatterley Affair, is about the trial of the book in England in 1960. Parts of the story are fictional, but many of the witnesses and their testimony for the book are true. This was a very publicized event and the main purpose was to decide if D. H. Laurence was just publishing smut, or if his book actually contained any literary value. Some of the perspectives of the people who testified were really interesting, especially Richard Hoggart's view of Laurence's purpose of using the F-word (sorry). The fact that David Tennant played the character Richard Hoggart, well...that was just for fun :) 
 

february reveiws

I finished January with the real romance The Vow. I shifted right into novelized romance for almost the entire month of February. Bad idea? Perhaps. But ya know, a little too late to make a change.

The first book I labored over was Juliette by Anne Fortier. No, no. Don't write that title down. Don't make a note. Just listen. I want to save you time and energy.
I found the book, you remember, one Saturday while I was at the library with my dad. It looked interesting and after Beauty (by Robin McKinley) I am afraid I am a sucker for any "re-told" classics. I'm also a sucker for Shakespeare fiction. What can I say? It must be the English Major in me!
The story is about Romeo and Juliet, but with the twist that it actually happened in Siena, Italy.  Over the years the story got distorted, retold and eventually, good ol' Billy Shakespeare picked it up.
The beginning was slow, but sometimes books are like that. I kept expecting it to pick up and get good. I remember thinking, "Well, I'll give it the ol' Nancy Pearl 50 page try," only to find out that the next time I took a whack at it, I WAS on page 50. And still nothing. But something in me really kept thinking, "Maybe it gets better. The whole book can't be THIS bad."
Well, let me help you. It can be. 
It wasn't until I finished it and picked up other books that I realized what was missing: good dialogue. Instead of moving the book along by informative dialogue coupled with some necessary descriptive passages, I found thoroughly wordy paragraphs describing conversations and events with a smattering of actual rote and cliched conversations thrown in. (Not to mention the two dimensional characters she created that, frankly, I had no interest in.)
I was very disappointed but I didn't even have enough in me to summon a "meh" about the whole book. I would say skip it.

I think this is also when I picked up a few Sarah Addison Allen books. She is such a beautiful guilty pleasure of mine that I'm not even sorry to admit it. I read Sugar Queen and The Peach Keeper. Everything she writes is so infused with magic that, even though you know there is no magic in food to attract men, family or love in general, for the duration of the book you actually entertain the possibility that baking that pie you've been thinking about might change your life.  Even if it doesn't, you'll have a yummy treat to eat while you read her books. It's a win-win no matter how you spin it. 


And then, my friend Rachel told me about The Mortal Instrument Series by Cassandra Clare. And then, she let me borrow them on my Kindle. Needless to say, I tore through those four books in a matter of weeks. I think two, max. Maybe two and a half.  There was a little sprinkling of Harry Potter (and making fun of Harry Potter) in there, and a little something else that smells highly of magic. I will see what I can do about getting her to do a review, since they were her find. 

success!

I did it! 

I finished three books in January! I totally didn't think I was going to make that goal. (And have to admit that I wasn't even thinking about my book goal when I crammed those last few pages in before bed last night...)

You will notice something missing from the blog: reviews of all the books I've read so far. Funny, that was meant to be the whole reason for this blog! 


I'm still deciding if I'm going to do a month long review (all three in one blog entry) or reviews as I finish the books (which obviously did not happen this month...). Any suggestions or preferences from my readers? 


I'll leave you with a teaser to the review with the list of books I've read for the month of January:

• The Story of Beautiful Girl by Rachel Simon
• The Help by Kathryn Stockett
• The Vow by Kim Carpenter 

And no, A Clash of Kings is NOT on the list. I hope I can have it done sometime before the summer. Man, that books is LONG!

january reviews

This took way longer than planned. For that, I apologize.

I got the final kick in the pants when a friend emailed me about "The Story of Beautiful Girl" and I realized I needed to get this review up. 
My mom was reading this book and I assumed, incorrectly, that I wouldn't like it if my mom was interested in it. We have totally opposite opinions on books. Completely opposite. She's stopped asking to borrow my books because she says that I don't have "her kinds" of books. Whatever, Mom. 
But. The Story of Beautiful Girl is a book we both agree on. (Actually, now that I think about it, my mom & I read all three of the books I will be reviewing for January. I guess our taste in books isn't so different...) 

I really loved this book. I hesitated to type those words because there is so rarely a book that I don't like (there IS one that is coming for February that will get a poor review, I promise). How to go about reviewing this book without telling everything? The story opens on a dark and story night. Novel gold, if ever there was. Martha Zimmer, a retired school teacher, widow, and almost complete loner opens the door to her farm house to a rain soaked Lynnie and Homan, escapees from the Pennsylvania State School for the Incurable and Feebleminded. Wrapped in stained and rain-soaked rags is a newborn baby. 
The book breaks into three different story lines, following how Martha, Lynnie and Homan's lives change after their fateful night in the rain.
I feel like I'm leaving out so much in my description here, but I don't want to give it away! It is a story of love, choices, hope and chasing love wherever it takes you. 
Some of you might recognize the author, Rachel Simon, from her first novel "Riding the Bus with my Sister."  I haven't read or seen the movie based on the book, but if it is anything like "Beautiful Girl," I'll have to put it on my list.

I am NOT going to apologize for this, however: run, do not walk, to your nearest book place and pick up The Help by Kathryn Stockette. Seriously. There is hardly much more I can say about this book. I have heard some reviews about the book, commenting that it is just one more book by a white woman trying to understand and explain the life of black women. I don't know how I feel about that. I know it was written truthfully. My mom got the book that Stockette used for research and she was amazed by some of the stories. Will we ever really get the true and honest stories? Maybe. Maybe not. But the stories that are out there, if they contain even mostly truth, they are shocking and eye-opening. Just like The Help. And maybe after you read it, I can have Minny bake her famous Chocolate Pie so we can chat about the story.

The last book I read in January (and finished right under the wire!) was The Vow by Kim and Krickett Carpenter. I am very excited to see the movie that is coming out the end of this week (Channing Tatum. Need I say more?) and like the good book reader that I am, wanted to finish the book before the movie. 

I wish I had nothing but good things to say about this book. The story is romantic, sad and everything in between. Kim & Krickett Carpenter were married three months before a horrible car accident changed their lives forever. While Kim (the husband) had pretty serious injuries, his wife suffered much more. Krickett came out of her comma missing the last year and a half of her memories. Unfortunately for Kim, that year and a half included the first time they met and the romance that led them to their marriage. 
All of that said, I had trouble reading this book. I was looking at it like a novel. For a novel, the writing is poor, unclear at times and not very good at drawing the reader in. BUT. (And it took me a while to realize this.) It isn't a novel. It isn't fiction. It is written by the man who found the love of his life, lost her in a car accident and kept loving her. Even through her bad days, days when he could have given up and left, he stayed by her side. And that makes it worth it in the end.
*Update* I finally got to see the movie! And sadly, I was not impressed. So much of the story had undergone changes, as I expected Hollywood to do, that it was hardly recognizable. 

Well, I'm sorry this is so late. I really am. And I realize that now I'm three months behind. I hope you have no high expectations for the upcoming posts. I am looking forward to sharing with you what I've been reading. 

is there such a thing as too many books?

Just in case you didn't quite understand the problem I have with wanting to read more books than I actually have time for from my last post, let me tell you a little about my morning.

Since the snow did it's little magical dance, I didn't have to go into work today. Instead, I went to the library with my dad to drop off some movies.*  I swear, that's all I was going to do. 

I left with a new book. That was not on my list for this year. Oops.

How will I ever have time to finish all of these library books?! Gah. Well at least I have a few extra hours today to read, and I guess I know exactly what I'll be doing tomorrow afternoon! 


*For the curious, I was returning Easy A, The English Patient, and season 1 of Dollhouse. And yes, I recommend all of them. If you decide to watch The English Patient, don't forget the tissues.

book love

If you would ever stop me on the street and demand I open my bag, you will find at least one paperback novel. Depending, of course, on the size of my bag. I carry my iPod with me almost all of the time as well. That holds about 8 or 9 classic type books that I would like to or am currently reading. There is a stack of 3 or 4 books on my bedside table, in the event that I forget to get the current book I am reading out of my bag or if the book I am reading is too big to fit in my bag. 

All of that said, (and yes, every bit of it is true), I have only read one complete book this month! If this is any indication of my reading patterns for this year, I'm not sure I'll make it to my goal. I also realize that if I am only reading 2 or 3 books a month, this blog won't be updated very often. On the first problem of not reaching my goal, I have no other solution except to keep pressing on. On the second problem, I have a solution. 

I have asked a number of my fellow readers to consider doing some guest blogging for me while I am trying to make it through the mountain of reading I have planned for this year. I hope to have more information for you soon. I also hope to have a review up soon for the first book I've completed: The Story of Beautiful Girl. 


In the meantime, I've picked up "A Clash of Kings" and am attempting to plow through all 1009 pages. I am about 130 pages in, which feels like not much at all, but I am enjoying it much more than I did "A Game of Thrones" at this same point in the book. 
I have also picked up "The Help," something I am really excited about. A bunch of people have been asking me if I've read it and I am kind of tired of saying no! Plus, everyone had good things to say about the movie, so I'd like to have some kind of frame of reference when I eventually get around to see it. I picked it up the last time I was at the library (the book, not the movie), so I do have a shorter deadline than I do with "Clash of Kings."


This might not be the most exciting entry ever, but I wanted to give you a little bit more of a glimpse into my reading life. And, after seeing the incredible film "Extremely Close & Incredibly Loud," the book by the same title by Jonathan Safran Foer has been added to my reading list. I recommend the movie highly, but I suggest you take an entire box of tissues with you to the theatre. Trust me. You will thank me later.

welcome

When I was in London, I had to read "Great Expectations" for one of my literature classes.
As much as I love literature, British literature, and every single part of my class at London Metropolitan University, I deeply despise this book.

Deeply.

However, while I was reading it I happened upon the phrase "scattered wits."

Scattered wits take a long time picking up; and often, before I had got them well together, they would be dispersed in all directions by one stray thought...

And somewhere through all the Dickens hate (as an English major, I'm allowed *some* hate, right?) those two words stuck with me.

So I went online to check if 'scattered wits' was a blog name through Google. It was not and so I snatched it up...and have been sitting on it for the past three years.

From the beginning I decided I wanted to keep it as a book/movie review type blog, since I already had a personal blog going. I read a lot of books and love recommending them to friends. I'm not saying I'll have fabulously brilliant things to say about everything I read. I just like to share.

A few days into January, I also set a goal for myself on Goodreads to read 35 books this year. Everybody else was setting goals, and so I gave into the peer pressure. I figured this blog would be a really good way to keep track of that as well.

I hope to bring you reviews of good books, good movies and maybe a book or film (or two) that just doesn't make the "must" list. But as Pip said, sometimes one single thought can derail the train, so I make no promises...

A few books on my to read list:

A Clash of Kings by George R. R. Martin
The Four Loves by C. S. Lewis
Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak
Scarlet by Stephen Lawhead
The Help by Kathryn Stockett
The Story of Beautiful Girl by Rachel Simon
The Chronicles of Narnia and Philosophy edited by Bassham & Walls