As for the books I've read since my last post, there is a lot of ground to cover. The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern was great! It was something I found from a pin on pinterest that listed books "so good you can't put them down." Going in, I wasn't sure what to expect and hoped it wouldn't be too similar to Water for Elephants. While that remains one of my favorite books, I didn't want to read a copycat, ya know? Well, The Night Circus did not disappoint. Far from it, in point of fact. It had a dark undertone and involved "real magic!", instantly setting it apart and ultimately proving that the pin was correct, because it was difficult putting it down to do other things (like, you know...work, sleep, etc.).
Next up was My Life in France by the one and only Julia Child. Now, I read Julie and Julia and saw the film adaptation and loved both, and of course Julia Child holds a special place in my heart for her amazing cookbook, which contains my absolute favorite chocolate cake ever (the reine de saba cake). Truth be told, though, that recipe wasn't even hers, as the dessert section of the cookbook was admittedly entirely made up of recipes by one of the co-authors, Simone Beck. Anyhoo, I digress... I went in expecting to love the book. What's not to love, right? Reading all about living in France and eating delicious French food! I am not entirely sure why it didn't strike my fancy, but let's just say it was the polar opposite of The Night Circus for me in terms of being able to put it down. It took longer to read because I just couldn't get into it. It felt unnecessarily long and if I'm being honest, Julia comes off rather full of herself. Granted, she kind of needed to be in order to achieve everything she did, but it just struck me the wrong way I guess. I didn't hate it, didn't love it, it was just there for me.
Ahhhh next, The Fault in Our Stars by John Green. This had been on my list of books to read but I hadn't gotten to it yet and didn't really have any idea what it was all about either, though I knew the movie was coming out. In my usual fashion, I planned on reading the book before seeing the movie. However, a couple weeks ago Ilya and I had wanted to go see X-Men at the drive in. Unlike the previous week, however, when it had been paired with Godzilla, the week we were going it was being paired with The Fault in Our Stars. So at first we decided we would go and see a different set of films (The Edge of Tomorrow and Godzilla), which we did on Friday night. The desire to see X-Men was strong, though, and the drive-in is such a great deal price-wise. Plus we get to bring Gizmo! So we decided we would go back the next night and bring our books and book lights so that if The Fault in our Stars was boring, we could read during that and then watch X-Men (which was the 2nd movie in the line-up). Well, there was no need for the books... the movie was SO good! For some reason I hadn't expected much acting-wise from it, but that wasn't actually based on anything and the acting turned out to be phenomenal. And so like any girl who has seen this movie, I cried big, fat, ugly, salty tears. After seeing the movie, I couldn't wait to read the book, so that is what I read next. There were differences, of course, but I feel that in this instance both the film and the book were great in their own right. Also, this is a rare occurrence where I believe it actually helped to not have read the book before seeing the film. The movie-watching experience was much better without knowing everything that was going to happen (then again, contrastingly, does that make the book experience less since I knew everything that was going to happen? At any rate, it didn't feel that way for me). So basically, both book and movie were outstanding and I don't know why you're sitting here reading this instead of reading or watching one of them now! ;)
My next book was Every Day by David Levithan. This was an interesting and fun read, kind of a mix of ideas in the movie Being John Malkovich (insofar as the body-hopping that was going on caused the soul or what have you of the body being inhabited to be pushed back and taken over, where the current resident has full control over what the body does) and the TV show Quantum Leap (the main character hopped from body to body and tried not to mess up the people's lives while being in control of the body). There were questions raised, of course, as to the ethics of such body-hopping and ultimately the reader is introduced to the idea that there are other body-hoppers out there, and they might not all be as kindhearted as the main character (though how kindhearted is he really, with everything he has been doing in the book?). Of course there's a cheesy, completely unrealistic romance thrown in (this is a young adult book, after all), but nevertheless I enjoyed the book immensely. Apparently there is a "sequel" in the works, though not really a sequel, per se, but rather a story of the same set of events as Every Day, but from the point of view of the love interest. I am skeptical...
Next up was Looking for Alaska by John Green (author of The Fault in Our Stars). This was a fairly short read, but crammed a lot in. It's a coming-of-age/finding yourself story told from the point of view of a boy heading off to boarding school for his junior year of high school, seeking adventure (or, as he calls it, "The Great Perhaps"). It is funny yet sad, thought-provoking while entertaining. I'm secretly hoping this one gets turned into a movie too. Apparently there was a screenplay written at some point, but it didn't get picked up. Hopefully this will change after the success of the film adaptation of The Fault in Our Stars!
The next book was 100% chick-lit, not much to be said. Been There, Done That by Carol Snow. Over-the-top events that would never, ever happen for any person in the real world. It was entertaining and kept me interested, but it wasn't one I would read again or put at the top of the list of my favorite chick-lit reads.
Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane was amazing!! Interesting, full of mystery and intrigue, it kept me captivated throughout the entire book despite the fact that I saw the movie. Granted, that was almost 4 years ago now, so I didn't remember too much about it. I did remember the main shocker from the end (Bruce Willis was a ghost the whole time?!), but didn't mind because it allowed me to read the book seeing the hints along the way leading up to the big reveal. I just wonder if, reading it without any knowledge of what's to come, I would have picked up on these hints or not. Sadly, I will never know. After reading the book, I definitely want to see the movie again. We own it on the PS3 (back 4 years ago I had a phase where I would convince myself it made more sense to buy the movies on there as opposed to renting them on there, because they were so expensive to rent and chances were I'd love the movie and watch it many more times, right? Yeah...that wasn't the case very often), so Ilya and I will probably be watching that this weekend at some point.
Lastly, another piece of chick-lit, Mr. Maybe by Jane Green. This book was so horrible...really just awful. The main character was the most self-centered, snotty, superficial and materialistic "woman" (in quotes because the way she acted was like she was still a child). There just didn't seem to be any part of the book that was even remotely relatable or that could even remotely feel like "ok yeah! Maybe that could happen!" I suppose all chick-lit is like that to an extent, but this was just too much. What's worse, it was trying to convince the reader that this wretched excuse of a human being could be atrocious while still landing a sweet, down-to-earth guy (who, by the way, witnesses first-hand her materialistic, wretched behavior). This isn't like Confessions of a Shopaholic materialistic either. I'm talking she dismisses this guy at first because he doesn't have a nice enough apartment or money to buy her things and let her live a life of luxury. She lists off what she wants in a guy and it all relates to money - how many houses they will have, how much money they will have. She gets engaged to a different guy she didn't even want to go out with in the first place, isn't attracted to (he has a wretched mustache), doesn't even like (he has the personality of a cement block), because he can give her the life of luxury. The problem is, sure there are gold diggers out there in the world, but I just feel they wouldn't be having an internal struggle in the way this character supposedly was. If anything, their struggle would be straight-forward... "I'm marrying this guy for his money...this seems wrong, but I just love all this stuff." Her struggle was supposedly all because she was getting older and fearing she wouldn't ever meet anyone, and thinking she needed to go for this guy because he treated her so well (based solely on the fact that he showered her with expensive gifts), and trying to convince herself she could make herself love this rich dude. Ugh... also, she's clearly got some serious mental issues from how she describes the things she does pushing guys away in relationships. Of course none of this gets addressed, she just supposedly has a lightening bolt moment of realizing she wouldn't be happy with the rich guy (yeah...probably because she isn't happy with herself! Not really...she apparently decides she just wouldn't like living the life of luxury anymore...yeah right!). Anyway, this has gone on long enough. Point is, there's a lot of chick-lit out there, a lot of which is really enjoyable and fun to read. This was none of that. Don't waste your time.
Now I am reading In Her Shoes by Jennifer Weiner. So far it is vastly superior to the aforementioned atrocity. I forgot to mention too that the last 4 of these entries have been books I purchased at the used book sale a few weeks ago! Ilya mentioned the book sale in one of his posts, I believe. I ended up buying 25 books there so I am stocked up! A couple of them aren't new to me, and actually were read already for this challenge (Water for Elephants and The Reader), but they're ones I want to own, so what better time to buy them than when they're only $1, right? I was able to find all of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo trilogy, so whenever the time comes where I want to dive into those, at least they're all here in my possession. Ilya says the best book sale is in September at the library closest to us. Apparently they only have one a year, so there's always a TON of books. I can't wait!! I better keep plugging away at the ones I bought from the last sale so I can justify coming home with another 25 (or more)!
As for our lives aside from reading, we've just been enjoying all the nice weather we've been having here, cooking out, going to the drive-in, playing with Gizmo outside and sitting out on our balcony. It looks like maybe next weekend is going to break the streak and be rainy, so we're soaking it all in this weekend while it's still here! It's nice and scenic out on the balcony now that the trees in the woods have fully bloomed and I have completed the hanging garden. We love having reading time out there!
For Father's Day, I put together a couple collages of photos of Ilya with Gizmo, since he is such a great "dad" to our fur child. This is a true transformation story, I tell you! When we started dating, Ilya had never had a pet, was pretty terrified of Gizmo and very reluctant to interact with him. In fact, the first time he was over, Gizmo of course wanted to go over to him on the couch and snuggle, lick his face, etc., but Ilya was definitely not on board. I tried holding Gizmo back as long as I could, but his desire to snuggle with humans is really intense, so finally I had to lock him in the crate for the rest of the time Ilya was there. :( That was 4 years ago and look at them now! He cares so much about Gizmo and takes such good care of him. It melts my heart, I tell ya. I love these guys!! So now I'm going to go spend some quality time with them. I hope everyone has an enjoyable weekend!
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