Sunday, March 23, 2008

The Two Towers



So...this book is amazing. Didn't know if you guys knew that or not. But there it is. Thought I would let you know in case you didn't.
Also, I <3 Strider.
I need that on a bumper sticker. Right now.

The Invention of Hugo Cabret


This book is probably the best kids book I have ever read. The characters, though, are not as good as the inspiration you get from reading/viewing this book.
Let me explain. The drawings throughout the book are phenomenal! Really amazing! Take a looksie!





The sketches are throughout the book..sometimes in rows of pages,sometimes in just one or two, so that it can sometimes turn into a picturebook.

Now, the theme of the book is an amazing one. A little boy living in a train station. He steals toys from the toy store so he can take the toys apart to help fix an automaton. The automaton is the only thing he has from when his father was alive. He gets caught stealing the toys from the store keeper and is forced to work there. The store keeper though, has a secret. A secret I will not reveal. But I will say that film also plays an important part of this book in a way I have never seen in another book and it was breathtaking. The book takes a close look of the work of Georges Melies. He was an amazing filmmaker and he was really the first filmmaker to use special effects. He was so creative and just utterly brilliant. Being a magician also helped him use the special effects in a way that had never been thought of before. This picture is from his film "A Trip to the Moon". The picture also plays an important part in the book!



If you flip through the book (highly recomended) you'll actually find this picture. Amazing and beautiful and quite moving. Never before have I read about the love of film in such a way...never before has it been captured like this.

Romeo & Juliet



I took this book with me back home to Los Angeles and read most of it on the plane trip.
When I opened up a newspaper on my return flight, a line was quoted from this very play. I gasped quietly. The line that the newspaper quoted was the exact line that I had last read where I bookmarked it.
You've gotta love that.

Fellowship of the Ring




Mhmmm, the love of Tolkien begins...after so many years. For the first time, I understood it all. For the first time, I loved it all.
In Fellowship, I fell in love with the Shire, and I fell in love with a hobbits love of simplicity.
In Fellowship I fell in love with the Rangers of the North and their love of the hunt.
In Fellowship I fell in love with Galadriel.
In Fellowship, I fell in love. :)

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay



Wow. What can I say? One of the best books Ive ever read, plus I was also introduced to an amazing character!! Joe Kalavier is his name, drawing is his game! Seriously though, I loved him. I dont know how to describe what his character meant to me, and what this book overall meant to me. Superheroes, art, love, magic, hope, loss...yes, it was an AMAZING Adenture!!!!!

A Thousand Splendid Suns


It only took me a few days to read this book. Beautifully written and what an amazing story. Khaled Hosseini is an amazing storyteller.
I know that the Kite Runner got a ton of press when it was released, but honestly, I prefer this one to the Kite Runner. I LOVED it!

Friday, March 14, 2008

After Hours



I had always wanted to read something by this author. :) And this one was a weird one to start with. The book is incredibly bizarre and it follows 3 seperate stories with a few coincidences. In one, a girl runs into someone she knows at a late night diner. She is just trying to read and he comes over to her table because he recognizes her as his ex girlfriends sister. They hit it off then someone needs to her to transalate something for someone in a love hotel and she spends the rest of the night there.
The other story line is the girls sister who is sleeping in room and it pretty much revolves around that only it gets really creepy.
And the third story line follows a business man.
The author has a BEAUTIFUL style of writing, but I couldnt get past the weird themes his storylines played around.
I would like to read something by him again, though.