In My Mailbox (135)

In My Mailbox is a meme created by The Story Siren to showcase new books received.

So here's what I got this week!

ARCs received from publisher to share with my teens (thank you, Little, Brown!): Two copies of Boy Nobody by Allen Zadoff, Rapture Practice by Aaron Hartzler, and Pi in the Sky by Wendy Mass!

Borrowed from the library:

• Free Fall by Chris Grabenstein (adult fic)

Um, yeah, that's it! I have some other movies on hold but I'm not checking them out until next weekend, so I'll add them to next week's IMM. And I have most of last week's stuff to catch up on, anyway.

What did you get?
Enjoy your reading!
Christi

In My Mailbox (134)

Happy Mother's Day! I hope all the moms out there have a great day. This is my first Mother's Day without my mom, and also my first Mother's Day as a single mom, so it's a bit difficult for me. But I've got my Best Girl and that's all I need!

In My Mailbox is a meme created by The Story Siren to showcase new books received.

So here's what I got this week!

A big, beautiful box of ARCs from a co-worker! She knows that I host a huge giveaway for my teens at the end of the summer:

(The Originals by Cat Patrick and Nantucket Blue by Leila Howard have been on my to-read list forever, and since my nook is no longer working, these are the two I have chosen to accompany me on vacation...the timing couldn't have been more perfect!)

Borrowed from the library:

• The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey
• Freak Show by James St. James (June's Book Club selection at my library)

DVDs borrowed from the library:

• Broken City
• The Impossible

What did you get?
Enjoy your reading!
Christi

Movie review: Iron Man 3

So Best Girl and I went to see Iron Man 3 on Friday. We are big Marvel movie fans--I specifically say movies because neither of us read the comics, but we do enjoy the films and the superheroes (I, especially, enjoy watching Thor, preferably shirtless. Yum.).

So this is just a brief review of the movie. We loved it.

Did you want more? LOL Truly, we enjoyed this movie from start to finish (stick around for the bonus after-credits scene!). I can't imagine any other actor succeeding in this role like Robert Downey Jr. does. His constant stream of consciousness talking is something that not many people can do well, but you can tell it's just second nature for him. The scene between Tony and the kid, Harley, he meets in Tennessee, was one of my favorites in the movie, just because of the quick-witted back and forth between the pair.

Iron Man 3 shows us a different side of Tony Stark, one that makes him seem a little less Iron and a little more man. I love Don Cheadle, so it's always a pleasure to see him as the Iron Patriot (although we totally agree that War Machine sounds way cooler). I wonder if there's been any consideration of expanding his story? Would love to see that!

And of course Pepper gets to wear the suit! I'm not sure how I feel about Gwyneth Paltrow, honestly. She's pretty good in these movies, and I get the sense that not just anyone can keep up with RDJ, so she's got that going for her. Do I think she's the most beautiful woman in the world? Um, no. But anyway, she has many of her own kick-ass moments in this movie. It's always awesome to see girls fighting the baddies right there with the boys.

The reason I opened this review with the declaration that we like the movies, not the comics, is because I'm sensing that a lot of comic book purists will not be happy with some of the events in this movie. The little research I've done suggests that the Mandarin, is a completely different villan in the comic books than he is in the movie. I can absolutely get and appreciate how screwing with a book character in a movie is totally wrong (Madge from The Hunger Games, anyone?), but for this movie, I thought the Mandarin twist was pretty cool.

So overall, we felt the movie was very entertaining and had us completely engaged from start (actually, pre-start, because they showed the trailer for Thor: the Dark World. Again, YUM.) to after-credits.

In My Mailbox (133)

In My Mailbox is a meme created by The Story Siren to showcase new books received.

So here's what I got this week!

Borrowed from the library:

• Panic by Sharon Draper
• Notes from Ghost Town by Kate Ellison
• The Sin-Eater's Confession by Ilsa Bick
• That is Not a Good Idea! by Mo Willems (picture book)

DVDs borrowed from the library:

• Parental Guidance
• Rise of the Guardians
• This is 40
• Life of Pi

What did you get?

Enjoy your reading!
Christi

In My Mailbox (132)

In My Mailbox is a meme created by The Story Siren to showcase new books received.

So here's what I got this week!

Borrowed from the library:

• Pretty Girl-13 by Liz Coley

DVDs borrowed from the library:

• Django Unchained
• The Sessions

What did you get?
Enjoy your reading!
Christi

In My Mailbox (131)

In My Mailbox is a meme created by The Story Siren to showcase new books received.

So here's what I got this week!

Borrowed from the library:

• Out of the Easy by Ruta Sepetys
• Period 8 by Chris Crutcher
• Chloe and the Lion by Mac Barnett, pictures by Adam Rex (picture book, super funny)

What did you get?

Enjoy your reading!

Christi

Catching Fire--Ramblings

I finally got around to re-reading Catching Fire and finished it up last night. Can I just say that I am so, so nervous about the movie? Catching Fire was my favorite book of the trilogy, and I think that there's so much going on that perhaps this should have been the book to split into two movies.

Here are just a few of the things that bother me (these might be spoilers if you haven't read CF yet):

• Bonnie and Twill--the two runaways from District 8 that Katniss meets in the woods--aren't mentioned on the IMDB Catching Fire page. This, to me, is a pivotal plot point and I'm scared to see how it's going to be mangled.
• Madge--I had forgotten how important the roles of her and her family were in CF. Not only the whole thing about her mom and the reaping, but Katniss really sees the uprisings for the first time on a TV in her house. AND SHE WASN'T MENTIONED IN THE FIRST MOVIE. No record of her character on IMDB, either.
• And after watching the trailer? I am even more scared. Yes, I know they didn't show any of the Quarter Quell, but remember, they didn't show any fighting in any of the trailers for the first movie, either. That doesn't bother me at all (although I fear they will dumb down the monkeys the same way they dumbed down the Muttations). I got the impression that they are going to great lengths to spell things out for the viewer, which pisses me off. President Snow did not admit to doctoring the Quarter Quell decree-things in the book (at least, not in Catching Fire)--readers knew it was all too perfect to be coincidental but we were with Katniss as she slowly came to that realization. Here, we learned in the trailer that Snow has tricks up his sleeve.

Ugh, I don't know. Of course I will be at the movies the weekend Catching Fire opens (I don't think I can do a midnight showing!), and I will be GLAD, ECSTATIC, to come back here and tell you all that I was SO WRONG AND THEY ROCKED CATCHING FIRE. Will I be doing that? Only time will tell.

I do know that I found Liam Hemsworth immensely less stupid-looking--dare I say, almost hot?--when he presented the trailer at the MTV Movie Awards. The facial hair made him look more like his brother, my next husband, Thor.

What do you think? I know I've missed a ton of stuff here.
Enjoy your reading!
Christi