Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl

I have mixed feelings about this book. At times I felt it was beautiful and insightful, especially about how a person reacts to death, but at other times it felt melodramatic and downright silly. However, that's how teenagers are. As Uncle Mason would say, "Teenagers are so apocalyptic."

I loved the setting of the book. I loved how this little Southern town of Gatlin held so many secrets right under people noses. I loved how the history of the Castors was intertwined with the Civil War. The scenes of the Castor Library, how the Ravenwood house changed, and when the stairs whipped Ethan back. These scenes were so imaginative and I hope the movie gets them right.

This book had me reading for hours wanting to know how it ended. I read over 400 pages in a day. I was physically nervous about whether or not Lena would be claimed for the Light or the Dark. The authors Garcia and Stohl, despite the melodramatic teenage romance, are excellent stroytellers. They kept the suspense up until the very end.

But when I got to the end part of me wanted to throw the book against the wall. The ending was frustrating. Why Uncle Mason did what he did makes no sense. I suppose he was trying to protect Lena from Sarafine but it was pretty messed up. Then again all families are dysfunctional in some way. This was theirs I guess.

I have one question though and I want to read the rest of the books in the series to see if it answers my question. Considering the ending, it makes you wonder why Sarafine and Ridley ended up the way they did. I don't wonder about Larkin. He explains. It's just more fun. Sorry to be so cryptic but I don't do spoilers.

I am tempted to give it three stars because I wasn't crazy about the ending or the melodrama, but because the suspense kept me glued to the book for a almost a whole Sunday, I'll give it
Hopefully the movie is as good as the book. There's some potentially really cool scenes. (I also may have read almost the whole book in a day because I've the movie from Netflix for a week now.)

The Movie
It was so bad. I've seen some books ruined by the movie version of them but this was atrocious beyond my imagination. The actors did what they could with a horrible script. My rating

Ready! Set! Read! Summer Challenge 2013 #bookbuster edition

At first, I wasn't going to participate in this summer challenge. When I first saw it I thought, "I already am doing a book to tv/movie challenge." But then I read the bookbuster categories and they are so creative! Here is more info about the challenge hosted by Ready! Set! Read!

Ready! Set! Read! heads to the big screen this summer! We've saved a seat for you.

This summer, we read the movies! The goal? Finish 8 titles that you've never read (10 for extra credit). The catch? Your choices should be books that were turned into movies, TV shows, or plays. You may also include books slated for film and/or theatrical adaptation. 

Start date: June 24
End date: August 31

 Choose one title in each BOOKBUSTER categories:

Book(taking a)stand: A book about a political, social issue, or sociopolitical issue that interests you.
Off to see the wizard: An otherworldly book. This book is set in an alternate universe or features an otherworldly species.
Oscar-Worthy: An award-winning book or its award-winning film adaptation. *Extra credit for an award-winning book that inspired an award-winning movie. This category may include award-nominated titles too.
Keeping it real: A book that is based on a true story.
Born to be wild: A book that takes you on a wild adventure.
Under the influence of ________: A book about the power/effects of not-so-true love. You know that genuine love is not the character's motivation. What is? You fill in the blank and let us know.
Second chances: A book you should have read but didn't. Maybe a book from a another challenge? Teen challenged: A book featuring a child/YA protagonist. *Extra credit for a story told from the child’s narrative perspective.
Emotional roller coaster: A book that stirs your emotions. Does the plot make you sad? Happy? Afraid? Hot and steamy? Heck! All of the above? *Extra credit for this bonus category.
Reverse Shot: A book that ‘flips the script' per se. This is a movie, TV show, or play turned book. *Extra credit for this bonus category.

WAYS TO GET INVOLVED:
 · Are you a blogger? Feel free to add a comment to this post with a link to your blog. We encourage you to write reviews and identify #bookbusterEdn somewhere in the subject line. We will check your blogs to keep track of the entries you earn (More on entries in the HOW TO WIN A PRIZE! section below)

· You can still participate without a blog. Leave a comment on this post saying that you’re in! Email us at readingwritersblog@gmail.com as you complete your review(s). Your review(s) can take any format. Just be your-amazing-self and let the review(s) be reflective. We will not publish your reviews on this blog without your consent.

· If you’re on Twitter, feel free to use the hashtag, #bookbusterEdn so that we can find and support each other through retweets and discussions.

 HOW TO WIN THE PRIZE! 
· At the end of the challenge, we will randomly choose one person to win a $20.00 Amazon gift card.

 · Each finished book + accompanying book review guarantees one (1) entry. However, there are ways to increase your odds. Each accompanying movie review earns two (2) additional entries. We encourage you to watch the movie and compare it to the book. Each Extra credit book earns three (2) entries.

No restrictions on page count.
Fulfill categories in any order.
You're also welcome to fulfill the categories without reading books turned movies.
Those books won't earn prize entries though.

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

The Book

While Jay Gatsby is one of the most memorable characters in literature history, there just isn't much to this novel. Any comparison I make would cheapen it, but the book is simply about "partying." Granted the parties in the Roaring 40's were extremely glamorous, especially Jay Gatsby's parties.

I honestly don't like this book that much. I've read it before and I didn't really like it the first time. It's full of phony, dishonest, and shallow people. The narrator Nick Carraway knows this and shows contempt for everyone, even Gatsby himself. Why did he hang out with people he didn't even like? I'd love to ask the narrator this. 

He also clearly drank more than he leads on because all chronological order is thrown out the window. According to the commentary in my book, many have complained about this. I don't know why. The amount of plot in this novel could fill a Post-it note.

Nor did I realize how much Gatsby says "old sport." When I first read this I was in my twenties and thought it was appropriate for someone almost thirty to say. Now I'm thirty-eight and realize it's a silly thing to say.

At times the book is melodramatic and soap opera-ish. "I'm crying because I've never seen such beautiful shirts." That is possibly the most ridiculous dialogue ever written. The scene where Gatsby, Tom, and Daisy finally confront each other was absurd. I tried the first time to believe anyone would have such a confrontation and I couldn't. I still can't.

Things finally "get real" when there's a tragic accident. And...well...unfortunately if I told you any more there would be major spoilers. The ending of The Great Gatsby is both depressing and enlightening. The ending shows the reader is supposed to feel like these people are phony and shallow. I suppose that's actually what makes this book so brilliant. 

My rating 

The Movie

Coming soon! I can't wait to see Leonardo DeCaprio utter the words "old sport." Maybe if I get really bored I'll watch the Robert Redford version.

Louder Than Words by Jenny McCarthy

I couldn't put this book down! I wanted to read the book because my neighbor of several years has a boy with autism. I was hoping to get an idea about what it's like for her to raise him. This book didn't do that because my neighbor boy doesn't have it as severely. I am grateful for that. However, it may be because she puts in the work to make life as normal as possible for him. This book gave me an idea about that work involves.

While some mothers recognize traits of autism almost from birth, Jenny McCarthy watched her son begin to regress around at the age of 2 when he began to have seizures. Reading how her wonderful little boy became a zombie right before her eyes was absolutely heartbreaking.

One thing I love about Jenny is how bold and honest she is. She didn't clean up her language to make herself look better. She didn't pretend to have all the answers. She didn't leave her son to be fixed by the medical industry alone. She admitted mistakes and wrote about the toll having an autistic son took on her marriage.

The way she never stopped searching for answers and helping her son recover was nothing less than heroic. For that the book deserves five stars. Hell, having the courage to write this book also deserves five stars.

However, if I was the poor mother of a child not recovering from autism, I think I would hate this book.
At the beginning of the book Jenny was treated by the hospitals like any other mother in America. She was bossed around by no nothing doctors who put making money over the proper care of patients. She was just like the rest of us parents. I would be giving the staff hell too if that was how I was being treated. (Actually I have when my son laid bleeding from the head and patients with less severe afflictions were seen before him.)

Partway through, Jenny McCarthy stopped being like other average mothers.

No mother I know could drop seven thousand dollars in an instant to fly home or buy tickets for a private jet so they can come home every night. They can't buy a $5000 heart monitor  The mothers I know don't have the money to go to the best doctors in the country. Most of them barely have the money for the medical care of a healthy child, much less a severely ill child. They certainly wouldn't have the money for all the therapy and alternative treatments Jenny was able to give her son. I would bet you even if they have good insurance it wouldn't cover these alternative treatments.

She was able to afford his top of the line treatments even after divorcing her husband and having to pay him half her income in alimony! (I would also love to hear his side of the story.)

There's simply no denying Jenny's son recovered "in the window" because she was able to give her son the best treatment money can buy. I learned a great deal about autism, the causes, and the treatments but I want to read a book by a parent who is like me. I want to read about what it's like for an average parent or better yet, a below average parent, to have a son with autism.

I don't deny that Jenny McCarthy has done a tremendous service to the autism community by writing this book and advocating for autism awareness, but surely she is aware other kids don't recover from autism because their parents can't afford the best care.

At the very end of the book Jenny adds a disclaimer. My child was lucky. Your child may not recover as well as mine did. At no point does she ever admit this is because her son had opportunities average kids do not have.

I was curious to know if this was just my opinion or if it was shared by others. It was defiantly shared by others. Here are some other people who feel the same on Amazon:

"However as a non-celeb mom trying to find ways to deal with autism and not go bankrupt in the process, I had a hard time identifying with Jenny's journey since she seems to have a lot of money to put towards her son's treatment."

 "I wonder if Jenny could appreciate the challenge facing other parents with autistic children, who cannot afford a nanny to help out, who cannot afford intensive therapy, who may have been kicked off their medical insurance plans. Now that would be an interesting follow-up book."

"Unfortunately Ms. McCarthy, not EVERYONE has millions of dollars they can spend on medical expenses. I felt this was a slap in the face to all the other parents who live with an autistic child that cannot afford to buy expensive foods, dietary supplements, or treatments."

"She loses rapport with her intended audience by highlighting how much she can spend on him."

I could add a dozens more comments just like these.

Also, the fact that she kept asking "Why doesn't the medical industry tell you about the risks of vaccines, about the possible causes of autism, and how effective alternative treatments are?" I kept expecting her to put two and two together to make four but it never happened. It's all about money! If the medical doctors tell people that their child can be cured with diet or that not all kids should get immunizations they are going to lose millions of dollars in profit. Jenny McCarthy is a smart woman but her failure to make this connection was just stupid.

Overall the book was a page turner and for that I want to give it five stars, but I just can't. Jenny McCarthy's son's recovery from autism was the exception, not the rule. In the end, I can only give it.

The Silver Linings Playbook by Matthew Quick

It's rare that I watch the movie before reading the novel but I love Bradley Cooper so much that I rented the movie from Redbox a few days after it came out. I also am a widow so was anxious to see how that was portrayed. (For some reason, even after seeing the previews dozens of times I never realized it was Jennifer Lawerence.) I had the book on hold at the library and was hoping it would become available sooner. Instead, I got the book the day after the I watched the movie. Another thing that rarely happens is that I liked the movie much better.

The Movie

Because I saw the movie first, I've decided to post my movie review first. Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawerence were the perfect actors for the roles of Pat and Tiffany. Both of them are so damn cute and charming, even when they are acting like psychopaths you can't help but like them. I also loved Robert De Niro's character. The mom was a busybody and pretty annoying but had she not been the hilarious moments between Tiffany and Pat may have never happened.

I love this movie because it is about the recovery of two mentally ill people. It's so rare to see movies about people getting better. Usually they are about how they went crazy. At the same time, I was frustrated by the lack of background information on Pat. I was even more disappointed that Tiffany's story was barely told. But I absolutely loved the characters. They both wanted to get better. It's nice to see a movie where someone sincerely wants to recover from mental illness.

One thing made me tremendously respect the movie was the moment when Pat says he was tested for bipolar disorder but it was inconclusive. As someone who also has had inconclusive tests for mental afflictions, I felt like cheering when I saw this. Those of us that suffer from mental disorders don't always get clear cut diagnoses. Even though it was just a movie, it made me feel better knowing I'm not the only one who doesn't know exactly what is wrong with me.

I thought the dance competition and betting storylines were cute and entertaining but I was a little disappointed that the movie took such a silly turn when it was about something as serious as mental illness recovery. I understand ultimately this was a romance movie but I wish it had kept a more serious tone throughout the entire story. I loved how the movie ended and both Pat and Tiffany deserved so much to get their "silver lining."

Overall I loved the movie. So much so I bought a copy of it. My rating is a solid . 

The Book

Sigh...the book. The book was depressing. Like others I hated the way Pat was immature at times, referring to his separation from his wife as "apart time" and just overall being unable to behave like an adult. But like the movie, Pat is completely earnest about recovering from his mental illness and that makes you root for him.

If I thought Tiffany's story was barely told in the movie, it was told even less so in the book. But I loved how she stalked Pat and would run with him everyday just to be near him. The funny exchanges between Pat and Tiffany weren't funny at all in the book though. In the end, Tiffany betrays Pat and renders herself completely unlikable. Thank goodness the movie didn't follow this storyline!

I do wish in the movie they had kept the other dance competitors as being teenagers like in the book. I think that could have made for some really funny scenes. I did like that Pat didn't remember being in the mental institution for years and slowly recovered his memory throughout the book. He can't remember why he is mentally ill and it isn't completely revealed until the end of the book. 

This will be a spoiler, but in the book, Pat's wife never actually makes an appearance. Pat is absolutely convinced they are going to get back together no matter what happens. He also beliefs his life is a movie. At first it's endearing but when it's clear Pat is unable to accept reality it's just really sad and frustrating to read about. Tiffany takes advantage of his lost grip on reality.

My favorite part about the book was the story of how Pat and his father recovered their relationship. This was highly touching and was really the only thing that kept me reading to the very end. While I liked how the book took a more serious approach to Pat's recovery, at times it was just too sad and depressing.

The blurb at Amazon describes it as "Matthew Quick’s heartwarming, humorous and soul-satisfying first novel." Honestly, it just wasn't that funny. Especially when you see how the humor was portrayed successfully in the movie.

Another thing that absolutely enraged me about the book was that Pat kept giving spoilers about the ending's of classic novels. I plan on reading The Great Gatsby next and was uber pissed that the author, Matthew Quick, thought it would be okay for Pat to complain about the ending! He did this about other classic novels as well but not ones I plan on reading. Also it's just really gimmicky and lazy to write about other books in your book. 

Overall the novel was just okay. This novel didn't make me smile like the blurb said it would. It just made me feel depressed. 

Monday Musings: Is Handwriting Dead?

This week's topic: Is handwriting dead?

(Turns out this was last week's topic. Oops!)

Yes! They have stopped teaching in elementary school. My two younger kids are not learning it, but my teenagers did. They have replaced handwriting with computer classes. I don't understand how kids even know how to sign their name anymore. Do they print it?

When I write in cursive my kids can't read it. I suppose that is kind of awesome. It's like I'm writing in code. Handwriting has become antiquated. (I've always wanted to use that word in a sentence! Yay!)

Although, I must admit I don't miss hearing them complain about trying to make the damn cursive letter Q or about how they are making the sticks too tall or the loops to big.

But also it's the death of individualism, in a way. My handwriting makes me unique. No one will ever write the way I do. Kids won't get to experience that anymore. I've never homeschooled before but I think I may at least try to teach them cursive writing. Then again, they'd be able to read my journal...so maybe not.

Ironically, styles of handwriting are fonts, so maybe it's not entirely dead.

This post has been part of Monday Musings hosted by The Book Barista.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbrosky

Book Review

Rather than give a traditional review I thought I'd do something different this time. Instead I will answer the Topics & Questions for Discussion in the back of the book. (Note: I have paraphrased some of the questions.)

1. Why do you think Chbosky chose to use letters as his narrative structure?

Because this book wasn't traditional in the sense that there is a plot and problem to be solved. It was more about how Charlie's character changes over a school year because of who he meets not what happens to him.

2. Who do you think Charlie was writing to? Does it matter?

I've always believed when we write letters like that we are writing to our future self.

3. Who did you identify with most?

Charlie because I never fit in, always felt like the friends I had eventually left me and I would end up alone, and like Charlie I cried about nearly everything.

4. Discuss Charlie's character. Would you be friends with him?

Yeah, I always gravitated towards people that were "freaks" when I was in high school. What fascinated me the most was Charlie's mental problems. I kept trying to figure out what his diagnosis would be - borderline personality disorder, bipolar disorder, anxiety disorder, schizophrenia, and so on. I didn't expect mental problems to be a subject of the book, so when Charlie started experiencing them and telling about how he had when he was younger as well I was very surprised and got me far more interested.

5. What do you think kept Charlie from "participating" when he entered high school?

Fear of rejection, being laughed at, failure, anxiety. 

6. Who was Charlie's greatest ally? Who was his worst influence?

His greatest ally was his English teacher Bill. (I know if it wasn't for my English teacher Mrs. Powers I probably wouldn't be writing today.) His worst influence was grandfather who got drunk and fought with everyone during family holidays.

7. How to the references to other books, movies, and music shape your reading?

I loved this! I am a person who seems to reference everything in my life the same way. I remember what my life was like when I read Bridget Jones's Diary or Prozac Nation and when I saw the movie Titanic, and when I heard the song Smells Like Teen Spirit.

8. When Bill invites Charlie over for lunch Charlie says, "He was talking for real. It was strange." What was meant by "real."

Teachers usually talk to kids like they are students. They keep their personal and professional life separate. As a kid you forget that they are people with lives and problems outside of school. When they talk about their lives and problems outside of school, it is indeed "strange."

9. Sam tells Charlie he can't put everyone else first and call it love. Do you agree with Sam?

Absolutely. Being a martyr and sacrificing yourself to take care of other people so they want or need you around isn't love. It's being a doormat. And when they are gone, you no longer feel wanted or useful because you aren't there to rescue or help them.

10. Discuss Aunt Helen's relationship with Charlie. Where you surprised to find out the truth about their relationship?

Not at all. I figured something really messed up had happened to Charlie to make him as unstable as he was. But it's hard to wrap your mind around it because you usually think of things like that being done by an adult male, not a female.

11. After watching an artsy film with Mary Elizabeth, Charlie says "It was interesting but I don't think it was very good because I didn't feel different when it was over." Do you agree works are only "good" if they make you feel differently? How did reading The Perks of Being a Wallflower make you feel?

Yes I absolutely agree. The books I have given the highest stars to made me feel or think differently than before I started the book. Movies and books can be interesting but what makes them great is when they make you feel strong emotions. The Perks of Being a Wallflower made me feel nostalgic about being a teenager. I'd like to write about some of the things I experienced as a teen and how they shaped who I am.

12. Charlie says, "Maybe it's good to put things into perspective. Sometimes I think the only perspective it to really be there." How has Charlie's outlook shifted since the beginning of the story?

He understands what it means to be "participating." At first he thinks it just means to talk to people and get involved with activities. But by the end of the novel he understands it's more than that. It's being fully present and aware. I think the best scene that shows this is when he's changing the music based on the mood and activities of the partygoers. He learns how to "participate" on an entirely different level. Sometimes the biggest participators are actually behind the scenes, hence the perks of being a wallflower.

13. What reflections did the book inspire in your own life? What parts resonated most deeply with you?

Charlie's relationship with Patrick affected me deeply. I had a friend in high school that everyone thought for sure was gay but he denied it all throughout high school. When I finally got back in touch with him 15 years later I was delighted to learn he was openly gay. Reading about Patrick made me wonder what it was like from my friend's perspective.

My rating  

Movie Review

Coming soon!