The Golden Compass

I just finished reading The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman, the first book of His Dark Materials series. (Yes, I'm quite late to this party.) The central character is an 11 year old girl, but I didn't think this book was written down to speak to children. Since I'm a fan of sci-fi/action books and movies, I was bound to like this one. Who can resist talking polar bears who kick major booty?! If you're a fan of this genre I suggest you pick up this book and give this series a try.

I'm going to read the other two Dark Materials books, but first I have to read the latest Artemis Fowl.

Also, I went to see The Dark Knight this weekend. Wow! What a GREAT movie! This is a must see. For a more in-depth review, please see my other blog http://jandkatthemovies.blogspot.com/

National Treasure 2: Book of Secrets

Disney knows how to make good movies, that's all there is to it. National Treasure 2: Book of Secrets was a fun adventure romp that takes us on a quest to find a lost city of gold from a pre-Columbian Native American nation. The places our heroes sneak in and out of unscathed are ridiculous (Buckingham Palace, the White House), but who cares?! I liked going along for the ride. My favorite part was that Mount Rushmore was an attempt to cover up a vast conspiracy. Add this to your list of movies to rent.

Mirror Mirror

I just finished reading Mirror Mirror by Gregory McGuire. He's the same guy who wrote Wicked (which I didn't enjoy at all). I liked the spin he put on this overhaul of the Snow White story. He worked in Lucrezia Borgia in the wicked queen role, along with her brother, Cesare, both of whom were infamous for being the children of a pope and who spent their lives in pursuit of power by just about any means available to them. Weaving these historical figures into his story made it more interesting to read. This story also includes an eighth "dwarf" (for lack of a better word to call these odd creatures), apples from the Tree of Knowledge (yes, that one from the Bible), and, of course, a magic mirror. I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in reading a dramatically different story of Snow White.

The Water's Lovely

I think I need to add Ruth Rendell to my list of favorite authors. In The Water's Lovely, she creates a fabulous mess with a mixed cast of characters that makes you not want to put the book down until you've read the very last word. Everybody has vastly different motivations (some good, some sinister) and she weaves their lives together in the wonderfully intricate web. This is a must read (as all of her novels probably are, but it'll take me quite some time to read all 60 or 70 of them).

Reviews for 2 1/2 Movies

The Bucket List is a touching movie about two older gentlemen, played by Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson, who find out they both have less than a year to live. So they make a list of all the things they want to do before they kick the bucket. It's much more moving and inspiring than I was expecting. If I had known it was this good I would have gone to the theaters to watch it. This is a must see so add it to your movie list.

27 Dresses turned out to be better than I thought too. It's about a woman who's always the bridesmaid, never the bride. Then her sister comes to town and turns her life upside down, forcing her to decide to take charge of her own life. Add this to your list of chick flicks to watch.

Now for the "half" movie, Fools Gold. This was so stupid that I couldn't finish watching it. It was torture. Don't waste your time or money on this one.

Reviews for 1 1/2 Books

I just finished reading Two-Dollar Bill by Stuart Woods. Definitely a must-read. It's a quick-paced mystery full of many well fleshed-out characters that turn the pages for you. This novel follows Stone Barrington, a Manhattan cop-turned-lawyer, as his life gets turned around by a highly skilled con man. I guarantee you will enjoy the crisp writing and witty banter between the characters.

Before that, I was struggling through another mystery called Shattered by Dick Francis, who is clearly a stuffy, fussy old British guy. I tried to stay with it, but the writing was too tedious to keep reading. After almost a 100 pages I decided that I had enough of the background story to be able to read the conclusion, so I flipped to the back of the book to read the ending. I'm so glad I did. I saved myself a few hundred pages of reading and I still got the whole story without suffering through more of the writing than I had to.

Movie Reviews

Let's start with the good movie first. The Orphanage is a very good movie but it's in Spanish so you'll have to read subtitles. It's by Guillermo del Toro of Pan's Labyrinth fame, which I also recommend. It's about a woman who was in an orphanage as a little girl before she was adopted. Now as an adult, she bought the orphanage with her husband with the intention of caring for several special children. But when her (adopted) son goes missing, she has to discover the secret the ghosts of her childhood friends keep in an effort to find her own child. It's dark but not scary, and the ghosts are minimal so it's not hokey. It's very well made and I suggest you add it to your list of movies to see.

Now for the bad movie. Sweeny Todd is s-l-o-w and boring and the music is terrible! I thought I remember that it got good reviews, but I recommend that you don't waste your time because it's two hours of your life that you'll never get back. The acting is good - no one could argue that Alan Rickman, Timothy Spall, and Helena Bonham-Carter (all Harry Potter actors, by the way) could ever do a poor job. But the almost nonexistent plot and the bad music just make this movie drag. Skip this one.

Send Your Own Twilight E Card

What's So Funny?

I'm finally diving into my backlog of books (as opposed to buying all new books like I've been doing lately) and found a treasure my Dad passed along to me a while back. What's So Funny?, written by Donald Westlake, is a crime caper featuring one of Westlake's best loved characters, Dortmunder. This hilarious romp follows Dortmunder and his usual goofy crew of hoodlums as they try to get their hands on a gold and jewel encrusted chess set. If you're looking for something light and funny, pick this one up.

Books & Movies

I've been reading a lot lately, but let's start with the Wall E movie review. Aside from being funny and cute, it was very interesting in that most of the movie doesn't have dialog. The story is told 75% visually. I highly recommend you add this to your list of movies to see.

Now to books! As I usually do, once I find an author I like, I get obsessed and read all their stuff. My latest author is Stephenie Meyer and the book that sucked me in was Twilight. I'm a little late to the party on this one, but I've been burned by several books written for younger audiences that have received overly-generous reviews. It's about a teenage girl who falls in love with a vampire. Sounds cheesy but it's a very well written book and I enjoyed reading it...so much so that I read the three books in this series in four days (book two is New Moon and three is Eclipse. The next book, Breaking Dawn, comes out in about a month (please see my widget countdown on the left side of the screen). I can't wait for the further adventures of Edward and Bella!

Then I picked up the other book she wrote outside of the series called Host. This one doesn't fall into teen fiction since it centers around adults. It's a science fiction story about an alien species that uses human bodies as hosts for their parasitic life form. It's a good story because it focuses on people and relationships, and not too much on crazy sci-fi stuff. Definitely add this one, if not all of her books, to your reading list.

Book Review

Last week I finished reading People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks. My dad passed this one along to me (I never would have picked this up on my own). The plot of this book is similar to the movie The Red Violin (an excellent movie, btw) in that the main story takes place in modern times, but then flashes back to various points in the object's history to learn about what was going on with the people at that time. It won a Pulitzer so it's a little heavier than what I normally read, but I enjoyed it.

This week I started a book called The Zero and I couldn't get into it so I gave up on it. I guess it's safe to say that if you read a book review on here that I liked it as I don't make myself read books that I don't enjoy.

Book Review: Heartsick

Heartsick, a murder mystery thriller written by Chelsea Cain, was a wonderful read. Our protagonist, Archie Sheridan, is trying to find a serial killer that's kidnapping and murdering teenage girls. The side story (and the most interesting part of this book) is that Archie makes weekly jail visits to a convicted serial killer, Gretchen Lowell (a la Hannibal Lecter). The sick twisted fun part is that Archie was Gretchen's last victim - not that Archie caught her. He was tortured for ten days during which he died and was brought back to life by his tormentor, and was then mysteriously released by what we initially assume is her mercy. It's a fun journey in the dark, tormented mind, body, and soul of Archie. Put it on your list of books to read.

A Lot To Catch Up On

I haven't been posting, but I've been busy. Let's start with the poll results. 50% of you were looking forward to the Indiana Jones movie, 35% the next Harry Potter movie, and 15% the next Batman movie.

Let's move to books next. I can now say I've read all of Jasper Fforde's book since I finished reading The Fourth Bear, part of his nursery crime series. I loved it, of course (see reviews of all his other books in my previous posts). The twisty-turny plot had me guessing how he was going to pull together an ending that involved Goldilocks, the Three Bears, giant cucumbers, seemingly random devastating explosions, and the Gingerbread Man. (Ever wondered whether he was a cake or a cookie? Read this book to find out why it's so important.) Like everything else he wrote, this is funny, witty, and spellbinding. I recommend you put all of his books on your reading list.

I also read a book called Lamb by Christopher Moore, a smart-ass of the first water. Lamb is the Gospel of Biff, Jesus' best friend. Mr. Moore weaves a funny and creative tale as he attempts to fill in the blanks of the first thirty years of Jesus' life. Put this on your list of books to read, too.

I just finished reading a chick-lit book called Shoe Addicts Anonymous by Beth Harbison. This isn't really my genre. It was a cute little no-brainer read. If you're looking for something fun that doesn't involve any thinking pick this one up.

Now on to movies. I have to start with my favorite movie so far this year, Young @ Heart. This incredible documentary follows a choir full of senior citizens for a few months as they learn contemporary songs (well, more contemporary that their generation) in preparation for a concert. The movie opened with one of the women performing Should I Stay Or Should I Go by the Clash. It was great! I laughed, I cried, and I was, most importantly, inspired by the zest for life these people have. I saw it at a local theater that tends to show independent films, so you may have to hunt for this one. It is worth it. I have six words for you: must see must see must see. If you're not convinced, search on You Tube for a few downloads from the movie. They made videos for a couple songs in the movie and, of course, someone put them on You Tube. But the movie is so much more than these videos.

I also rented Untraceable and Michael Clayton. The first one was decent. Rent it if want a scary movie on tracking down a serial killer. The second was very good, but make sure you're in the mood for a serious movie.

The last movie I have to report in on is Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. It's definitely worth seeing - who doesn't want to see Indy in action again - but I can't help but be disappointed. It's been 15 years and this is the best script Spielberg and Lucas could come up with in all that time?! If you want to read an overly-verbose review of the movie rife with spoilers on just about every plot point, check out my other blog I have with my friend. There's a link on the left side of this page to J and K at the Movies.

That's all for now. Don't forget to vote in my new poll!

The Big Over Easy

I just finished The Big Over Easy by Jasper Fforde. (Please see my previous posts for reviews of this other books.) This first book in his Nursery Crime series follows detective Jack Spratt and his assistant Mary Mary through the murder investigation of Humpty Dumpty. It was funny and witty just like his other books. I especially appreciated the twist at the end (which I won't give away here in case you are inclined to read it). I highly recommend this book, and I'm looking forward to reading the next one in this series, The Fourth Bear.

Movie Reviews

No Country For Old Men was interesting to watch. I definitely recommend it, but don't expect it to be the feel good movie of the year. Honestly, with a hair cut like that freaking you out, I hope you weren't expecting a warm fuzzy.

Baby Mama was a lot funnier than I expected. Amy Pohler is one of the funniest people I've watched in a long time. Definitely put on your list of movies to watch.

I'm Not There was WAY to artsy-fartsy weird. I couldn't finish watching it. I only rented it because Cate Blanchett is in it, and I think she's the best actor in the world. Trust me, that's the only reason I picked this one. Needless to say, I wouldn't recommend it.

A Scanner Darkly

A Scanner Darkly was a dark (sort of sci-fi) movie starring Keanu Reeves. It's about a small group of addicts hooked on a drug called Substance D which is highly addictive and difficult to recover from without sustaining permanent damage. Despite the heavy topic it had several humorous scenes courtesy of Robert Downey, Jr., reminiscent of John Goodman in The Big Lebowski. It had a few unexpected twists at the end (which I always appreciate). If you haven't seen this yet, I recommend you put it on your list of movies to rent.

Movie Reviews

This weekend on cable I caught Saw III and Transformers. If you watched the first two Saw movies, this third one is more of the same. Whether that's good or bad is up to your personal tastes. I will say that it takes a twisted mind to come up with all those twisted ways to kill people.

I had no expectations for Transformers, but it turned out to be OK once it got going. However, if sci-fi actions movies aren't your preference, you won't like this.

I would say the same thing for both of these movies - catch them on cable if you have the time, but don't waste your money to rent them.

Movie Review: P.S. I Love You

I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised about P.S. I Love You. I'm not generally into chick flicks, but this one was clever and well acted. It has a fun supporting cast with Lisa Kudrow and Gina Gershon stealing all the scenes their in. If you're thinking of renting this one, do it.

New Blog for Movies

Me and a friend have decided to start our own blog to post movie reviews. We went to see Iron Man this weekend and thought that would be a good place to start. My friend is going to write up the first review, and I'm going to post my comments after her write up. We'll keep a dialogue going as long we feel we have topics to discuss on the movie.

Please check it out at http://jandkatthemovies.blogspot.com/. There's also a link on the left under my Check This Out section. Feel free to post your comments on either our blog or the movie.

Enjoy!

A Few Updates: Books, Movies, TV

I'm continuing to read my way through Jasper Fforde's Thursday Next series. I've read The Well of Lost Plots and Something Rotten, and I'm currently in the middle of The First Among Sequels, which is his last book (so far) for Thursday Next. Please see my previous post for my comments on how great these books are. Once I finish this book, I plan to start on his nursery tale crime series for which has only written two books to date. I'll definitely post a write-up on those two.

I recently re-watched Juno. If you haven't seen it yet, put it at the top of your list. It's very funny and touching. Diablo Cody won an Oscar for writing this touching tale about a pregnant teenager. I know - it sounds like an after-school special but I guarantee that you will enjoy watching it.

I also watched No Reservations with Catherine Zeta-Jones-Douglas. I thought it was supposed to be a romantic comedy, but the romance was low and the comedy almost non-existent. It was like a Lifetime movie, but with good actors. Needless to say, I didn't enjoy this and don't recommend it.

A while back I went to see There Will Be Blood with Daniel Day-Lewis. I loved this movie. He is such a great actor and earned a well-deserved Oscar for his performance. Be forewarned that this is not a happy, feel good movie. It's a character study of a sociopath. It's based on a book called Oil! by Upton Sinclair. I don't think I'd enjoy reading his books, but this movie was fascinating.

If you don't already, watch Lost on ABC. What a fabulous show! I admit that the third season meandered a little too much, but this fourth season is pure dynamite. My two favorite characters are Benjamin Linus and Sayid. Ben started out in season two as "the bad guy," but as we progress, it's becoming clearer that he is the best multi-dimensional character ever written for a TV show. He does bad things, but we are starting to understand that he has a purpose for all of his decisions, and he's trying to do good for Jacob/the island. (If you haven't seen it I can't begin to describe Jacob.) And Sayid is just cool. If you were really stuck on an island, you'd definitely want him on your side. He is a former member of the Iraqi National Guard and his title was Communications Officer - meaning that we was good at torturing people to get them to communicate the information he needed. But he is also a very complex character. Any time there's a Sayid-centric show, the theme of is always "don't 'ef' with Sayid!" If you haven't watched it and/or need to catch up, you can watch all the episodes for free at abc.com.

And last but not least, please vote in my poll.

My New Favorite Author

I was fortunate to be stuck on an overly-long business trip last week - fortunate because I had enough time to read a great book and discover a fabulous author. His name is Jasper Fforde and the book I read was The Eyre Affair. Yes, Eyre as in Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte. There are also numerous references to Dickens, Shakespeare, Bacon, and Milton. Sounds like stuffy, snobby British literature, right? Thank God that this couldn't be farther from the truth. It was a fun, humorous, witty page-turner that I thoroughly enjoyed.

Set in an alternate reality heavily focused on literature, Baconites go door-to-door trying to convince people that Francis Bacon wrote all of Shakespeare's plays, people get stuck inside of poems, and forging verses of literature's greatest authors is punishable by law. Our heroine is Thursday Next, a literary detective who is called upon to investigate the kidnapping of characters from literature's greatest works and prevent their literary homicides. It's silly, imaginative, and quite charming.

So, of course, I have already finished the next Thursday Next novel titled Lost in a Good Book. It's full of the same humor and charm as the first novel and I loved it just as much. I think there are five Thursday Next novels written so far, in addition to another series he's seems to have started regarding crimes committed in fairy tales that need to be solved by Jack Spratt and his assistant, Mary Mary. I think the first novel in that series is The Big Over Easy about the murder of Humpty Dumpty. But as soon as I post this, I'm going to start on the third Thursday Next novel titled The Well of Lost Plots. I'm sure you'll see another posting on this very shortly.

So hurry to your nearest library or book store to pick up anything written by Jasper Fforde. I guarantee you will enjoy it.

Surprise!

I bet you're shocked to see a post, eh?! Well, here's what's new...

I went to see Vantage Point last weekend. Don't waste your time or your money. It has a lot of good actors, but plot is weak and it has a really dumb ending.

Today I went to see Nim's Island (the choice I had was this or Fool's Gold and Fool's Gold looks really, really bad). Nim's Island was really cute and funny! I liked it, but it had a lot of animals in it and I like anything with animals. Jodi Foster's role was really funny. It's a departure from the types of characters she's played in the last few years. And Abigail Breslin was really good. It's a movie geared toward kids, but adults that want a fun, feel-good movie will enjoy it as well.

I've also watched all the episodes of the The Office. Everyone who works in an office and 95% of the people who don't will enjoy this show. It's really funny, but it's the type of humor where you laugh AT the protagonist, not WITH him (that's where 5% of people won't like it). If you haven't watched it yet, I highly suggest renting them all. It's too good to miss.

So that's all I've got for now. Please vote in my new poll.

Barry's da Bomb!

I went to see Barry Manilow in concert last night. Oh. My. God. He is so great! I had an expectation level that his performance would be good, but he blew me away. At 67 his voice is as powerful and mesmerizing as it's always been. He doesn't strain to hit the high notes or hold the long, dramatic notes at the end of his songs. His performance was first class from start to finish.

I was a little panicky at the beginning of the show. After opening with It's a Miracle (great show opener, by the way), he sang a medley (first verse and one chorus) of a few of his bigger songs. I was worried that he wasn't going to sing the full version of my favorite song of his, Weekend in New England. Then I really went into a panic when I realized that he might not sing it at all! The guy's got 40 years of songs behind him; I don't know what he's going to choose to sing. But in the middle of the concert I heard the first five notes of the song and I got very giddy knowing that I was actually going to hear him perform this song live! Then he starting singing and my heart instantly began to melt. I couldn't even sing along to all the words because I was getting choked up. (Yes, I'm a geek, but you guys already knew that.)

He also sang Mandy and Copacabana, of course, as well as many, many other hits. He sprinkled in a lot of stories about his life, which filled in the background of his stunning career. He had a very large band, four back-up singers, and a few moving parts on his stage. He was very interactive with the audience the entire night. It was obvious that that his fans love him and he loves his fans.

The highlight of the night came somewhat early in the show when he brought one of his fans on stage to dance with him as he sang Glen Miller's theme song, Moonlight Serenade. What a lucky lady! But my favorite part of the show (aside from him singing my favorite song) was the people sitting around us. I nicknamed the women sitting in the row behind us The Barry Manilow Fan Club, and some of them actually were members of his official club. Their excitement was a lot of fun to listen to during the concert and they were very nice to talk with before it started. The couple I was sitting next to were very nice, too. The guy was SO into the music, that several times during the night he made gestures with his hand as if conducting the music during the grand crescendos of a few of Barry's songs. I find that concerts are much more enjoyable when the people around you are not only listening to the music, but feeling it as well. It just makes the atmosphere of the concert that much more enjoyable. [As a side note, when I went to see The Police, the guys standing next to me talked during the whole concert. I don't know why they spent money to go to that concert when they could have just went to bar if all they wanted to do was talk and drink beer. It totally bummed me out.]

Barry Manilow's concert was so inspiring to me that I actually started playing the piano again today. I have a big book of sheet music to a lot of his songs that I never learned how to play when I was taking lessons. I introduced the idea to my teacher and showed him the book, but he clearly wasn't interested in hearing me hack away at Barry Manilow songs, so I never attempted it. I remembered today that I had it and cracked it open. I'm muddling through the intro to Mandy. I know I'll never sound even close to the original version, but I never wanted to play for anyone but myself, anyway. I'm thankful that Barry's performance last night inspired me to want to learn to play a new song after all but ignoring the piano for over a year.

Thank you, Mr. Manilow.

Movie Review: Eastern Promises

I went to see Eastern Promises a little while back. I think it should still be in the theaters if anyone wants to check it out. It stars Viggo Mortenson and was directed by the guy who did A History of Violence, also starring Viggo. I thought this movie was really well done (as was H of V).

It's pretty intense. It takes us inside the Russian mafia and all the dirty, nasty things they do. This is not the feel-good-movie-of-the-year. If you get queasy watching violence on the big screen, you will probably have to turn away during the bathroom fight scene. It goes on for several minutes and gets pretty bloody.

Having said all of that, it's a really good movie and you should put it on your list of movies to watch. But if you want something that goes down a little easier, check out Hidalgo. It stars Viggo and is about a guy and his horse.

Movie Review: Bourne Ultimatum

A couple weeks ago I finally went to see The Bourne Ultimatum. I'm sorry I didn't go sooner! What an incredible movie. I had an extra-large jumbo coke that I sucked down before the movie even started, so I had a very full bladder during the movie. But there wasn't really a slow part in the movie to take a potty break. I ended up running there and back to the bathroom so I wouldn't miss too much.

This was a great ending to a very exciting movie trilogy. I haven't read them, but I understand that Robert Ludlum's books are quite entertaining as well (if any of you want to check them out). In any case, I highly recommend all three movies if you haven't had the opportunity to watch them yet.

I hope you all had a great summer!