Hiatus

So, I think everyone knew this was bound to happen. I haven't written a full-fledged review in months and the only posts that were going up with any regularity were my IMM posts. Occasionally I will toss us some movie reviews, but even those are few and far between.

The reason for all of this is that I've been in a quite a funk for the last several months and it doesn't appear to be getting any better. There's been a lot of upheaval in my personal life and unfortunately my reading and blogging have taken a hit as a result. I have read maybe 7 books that I loved so far this year, and only a few of them are YA books. I'm not reading as much as I used to, and I'm not liking much of what I do read.

So after thinking long and hard, I've decided to step away from my blog for a while. I will probably still update my Books Read in 2013 page, but I hate looking at my blog and only seeing IMM posts. I don't want anyone to think that I'm keeping this blog open just so I can brag about what I get every week. The reality is that the IMM posts are the ones that require the least amount of thinking for me to prepare.

My heart just isn't in the YA world right now. I'm still reading YA, but not with the fervor I had been. It has nothing to do with the genre itself and everything to do with me. I'm in a weird place in my life right now--my heart just isn't in anything except taking care of my Best Girl.

So I hope you will understand my absence (I know I just gave you a convoluted mess to read through, and I apologize, but that's how my brain has been working as of late).  I am not deleting my blog because I do hope to return to reading and reviewing. Right now I just need to figure some things out and try to get my life to a better place.

Thank you for your patience and understanding.

Enjoy your reading!
Christi

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

In My Mailbox (130)

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:

• Four Secrets by Margaret Willey (it's been on my radar ever since I processed it a few months ago)

DVDs borrowed from the library:

• Zero Dark Thirty
• Killer Joe
• Killing Them Softly

What did you get?
Enjoy your reading!
Christi

Early April Movie Reviews

Since I haven't been reading as much lately, and I really haven't been enjoying what I've been reading all that much (with a few exceptions, god I have to get some reviews up!), here are some thoughts on some movies I've seen recently:

Jurassic Park (in 3D, natch) (rated PG-13): Best Girl and I saw this over the weekend. I have ZERO memories of this movie from its first release EXCEPT: when my parents got their big, 50-inch TV, my mom would always pop JP into the VCR to demonstrate the surround sound system. Best Girl LOVED the ride at Universal, and we were pleasantly surprised to see how true the area in Florida was replicated from the movie. The movie was pretty scary (I will venture a guess that 1993 PG-13 standards are not the same as 2013 PG-13 standards!), but overall we very much enjoyed the movie. We enjoyed it so much, in fact, that we picked up the movie on DVD at Target the same day. :)

Robot & Frank (rated PG-13): my colleague at work does lunchtime films for the adult population once a month, and she decided to show this one. I'd never heard of it, so I put it on hold. It was interesting--it takes place in the "near future" and is about an ex-con (Frank, played by Frank Langella, who I love) whose son gives him a robot health aide to make sure he's eating well, sleeping enough, and to basically be a loyal companion. It seems Frank might be starting to get a little...forgetful. Frank soon realizes that Robot might be the perfect companion to pull off one more big heist. This was a cute movie with a great cast (James Marsden, Susan Sarandon, and also Liv Tyler, who I'm not really fond of). Much of the movie revolves around the local library and it's transformation to a digital repository, which of course I found especially interesting.  It wasn't a movie I would've picked up on my own but it was cute enough.

Easy A (rated PG-13): my brother and I were discussing how much we love Stanley Tucci one night, and he (my brother) pulled up a few of Tucci's scenes from this movie on YouTube, so of course I had to borrow this from the library. I have to say I thought this movie was absolutely adorable. Of course Stanley Tucci OWNED this movie, but Emma Stone is adorbs and Thomas Hayden Church was a nice surprise, too. I don't know why I was so hesitant to see this one; I loved it!

What have you seen lately?
Enjoy your reading (and viewing)!
Christi

In My Mailbox (129)

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:

• Reconstructing Amelia by Kimberly McCreight (adult fic)
• The Adults by Alison Espach (adult fic)
• Hysteria by Megan Miranda

DVDs borrowed from the library:

• Robot & Frank
• Breaking Dawn Part 2 (It's over. Thank the lord, it's finally over!)
• Last Play at Shea (Billy Joel's concert, the last one held at Shea Stadium. My brother thought I'd enjoy it.)

ARC received from publisher to share with my teens at the library (thank you, Little, Brown Books!):

• Wise Young Fool by Sean Beaudoin 

What did you get?
Enjoy your reading!
Christi

In My Mailbox (128)

Happy Easter to all those who celebrate!!!

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 (I actually made a trip to work--during my vacation!--to pick up my holds!):

• Bluefish by Par Schmatz

eGalleys downloaded from NetGalley:

• Rotten by Michael Northrop
• Dare You To by Kate McGarry

DVDs borrowed from the library:

• Argo
• Lincoln (see why I made the trek to work?)
• Girls, Season 1

What did you get?

Enjoy your reading!
Christi

March Movie Reviews (and my feelings on James Franco)

I have been on the fence about James Franco for a long, long time. I really want to like him--I love the idea of him being our generation's Renaissance Man--but something about him just doesn't ring true. My ex-husband has always said never to trust anyone with beady eyes, and for the most part he has been completely spot-on with that advice. Something about James Franco just doesn't ring true for me, like he's made it his life's mission to make us all look like idiots or something.

Still, I enjoy some of his work. Of course I loved him in the Spiderman movies :) and he was absolutely amazing in 127 Hours (rated R)--especially THAT scene, which was done in one horrifying take (I really feel he deserved the Oscar that year, not just a nod). If you can stomach it, I highly recommend it.

Best Girl and I (and a few of my friends) saw Oz: The Great and Powerful (rated PG) a few weeks ago. I enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would. Mila Kunis is, as aways, stunning. James Franco was better than expected, although I felt the cockiness of the character was more along the lines of how I think Franco might act in real life. But who knows?  The two things I loved best about this movie were Finley, the flying monkey, and the China Doll. I want each of those things for my very own.

Finally, this evening I treated myself to the movies to see the other Franco film out right now, Spring Breakers (rated R). Entertainment Weekly has been raving about this movie for several weeks, and naturally I was curious to see Selena Gomez and Vanessa Hudgens fully breaking out of Disney. Hudgen proved herself, but Gomez's character was a little too clean-cut to really gauge how well she's going to do outside of the Disney bubble.

I was also curious to see how James Franco did as Alien, rapper and local thug. I was not disappointed but instead quite surprised at how well Franco transformed himself:

Until Franco took off the sunglasses, you couldn't even really tell it was him. He didn't just embrace this character, he became this character. It was an amazing transformation. 

This movie is not for everyone, of course. Lots of drug use and drinking, sex and gratuitous nudity, and violence abound. But it was an interesting film that I enjoyed. I never took a spring break trip during college, and you can bet your butt I'm not going to let Best Girl take one, either!

I don't have a final verdict on James Franco. I do enjoy his performances as an actor, but I get the feeling that he's always acting.

Enjoy your reading!
Christi

In My Mailbox (127)

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:

• Banished: surviving my years in the Westboro Baptist Church by Lauren Drain (adult nonfic)
• Six Years by Harlan Coben (adult fic)

DVDs borrowed from the library:

• Easy A
• Boiler Room
• Arbitrage

What did you get?
Enjoy your reading!
Christi

In My Mailbox (126)

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

So here's what I got this week!

Received from author for review:

• When You Were Here by Daisy Whitney

DVDS borrowed from the library:

• Compliance

A pretty slow week for me, but that's OK. Some weeks are like that.
What did you get?
Enjoy your reading!
Christi

Ugh, word verification

Even though I know I don't get many comments, I am being forced to turn on the word verification for a while. Amidst the few but very sweet comments I have been getting lately is an increasing number of spam comments. The only way I know how to deter them is with word verification. Hopefully it will be only temporary.

Does anyone have another suggestion for me? If you're willing to do the verification, that is!

Enjoy your reading!
Christi

In My Mailbox (125)

Click here to enter to win a copy of Island Eyes, Island Skies!

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

Here's what I got this week!

Borrowed from the library:

• Who Done It? Investigation of Murder Most Foul (an anthology compiled by Jon Sceiszka featuring over 80 children's and YA authors proclaiming their innocence in the murder of an editor)
• The Silver Linings Playbook by Matthew Quick (adult fic)
• Give Me Everything You Have: On Being Stalked by James Lasdun (adult nonfic)

DVDs borrowed from the library:

• The Men Who Stare at Goats
• Looper
• Wreck-It Ralph
• Red Dawn (2012)

What did you get?
Enjoy your reading!
Christi

DVD Reviews 5

Click here to enter to win a copy of Island Eyes, Island Skies!

Here are a couple of DVDs I watched recently--borrowed from the library, of course!

Seven Psychopaths (rated R): I just could not get into this movie,  I don't know why. I thought all the actors were interesting but the storyline was just all over the place for me. There's just something a little scary about Christopher Walken, I gotta be honest. Woody Harrelson was fun as a psychopath with a soft side for his puppy, though.

Inglourious Basterds (rated R): EXCELLENT movie. I now officially love Christoph Waltz--he was such a good character in Django Unchained and such an evil character in this movie but good or bad, his characters definitely made each movie. I thought this movie was very engaging, although with more subtitles than I was expecting. Still, I was definitely kept involved in this movie, and of course, being a Quentin Tarantino film, there were more twists and turns than expected. Brad Pitt played a redneck with ease, and the actress playing Soshanna was stunning. I did love that Samuel L. Jackson and Harvey Keitel loaned their voices to some small parts, too!

Have you watched anything fun lately?
Enjoy your reading!
Christi

Island Eyes, Island Skies review

Island Eyes, Island Skies by Richard Levine

Feathered Tale Books, January, 2011

RIRI: Author provided copy in exchange for an honest review

Summary from Goodreads:

While at her cousin's birthday party, young D.C. meets Rob. They have a great time and promise to meet again over the summer, but a father's untimely death and a mother's miscarriage keep them apart. Reunited at school, smart-alecky D.C. and introspective Rob slowly form a bond, as they share time, adventures and sporting activities together; they also share thoughts about the workings of the mind and nature, and observations about the quirky qualities of certain members of their own families. When tragedy strikes again, they try to come to terms with what it leaves behind, struggling to accept the uncompromising, unidirectional nature of time. In the end though, separately, they come to believe in the future and the second chances it will bring.

I thought this was a very sweet coming-of-age story for middle readers looking to bridge the gap into YA literature. The chapters alternate mostly between twelve-year-olds DC and Rob, but there are some chapters narrated by moms, teachers, and even younger siblings, giving readers an even more intimate look at the lives of these characters.

DC and Rob are both so individual and completely likable. DC is tall for her age and is on her way to being a striking young woman, but she's also got that awkward "I'm 12 and have no idea what to do with this body" thing going on, which pretty much makes her a normal kid. Rob is an easygoing kid who knows right from wrong and is just a good kid. Together, the pair spend time playing sports and creating elaborate made-up scenes--his servant to her queen, etc. If it all seems a little innocent, that's because it is. It's so nice to see two kids just acting like kids. It's totally obvious that each has feeling for the other, but they are also so content to just hang out. It's really, really sweet.

I have to say, though, that the second tragedy (or third, I suppose) happens, it totally took me by surprise and was sudden and extremely unsettling. Seeing how the pair will recover from it just made this a very engaging read.

The author has graciously provided a giveaway copy! Entering the giveaway couldn't be easier, just enter the Rafflecopter! Contest is open to US residents ages 13 and up, and closes on March 15.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Enjoy your reading!
Christi

In My Mailbox (124)

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

Here's what I got this week!

Borrowed from the library:

• The Zodiac Killer: Terror and Mystery by Brenda Haugen (nonfiction)
• Leverage by Joshua Cohen 
• Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Saenz

DVDs borrowed from the library:

• Inglourious Basterds
• Seven Psychopaths

What did you get?
Enjoy your reading!
Christi