À la Nick Hornby, books in/books out for April.

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Bought:

  • The Knife of Never Letting Go, by Patrick Ness (kindle*)
  • Monsters of Men, by Patrick Ness (kindle*)
  • The Ask and the Answer, by Patrick Ness (kindle*)
  • Taken, by Robert Crais (kindle*)

Read:

  • Catching Fire, by Suzanne Collins (reread)
  • Mockingjay, by Suzanne Collins (reread)
  • Mountainfit: Fjällsommar, Fjällsjälv, by Meera Lee Sethi (kickstarter project!!)
  • Tattoo (Ice Song #2), by Kirsten Imani Kansai (library)
  • Life: An Unexploded Diagram, by Mal Peet
  • Will Grayson, Will Grayson, by John Green & David Levithan

*From a day when Kindle editions of books were on super super sale. :) I use the kindle app on either iPhone or iPad. Works just fine.

À la Nick Hornby, books in/books out for March.

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Bought:

  • Boy Meets Boy, by David Levithan

Read:

  • An Abundance of Katherines, by John Green (borrowed)
  • The Castle of Llyr, by Lloyd Alexander (reread)
  • Taran Wanderer, by Lloyd Alexander (reread)
  • Boy Meets Boy, by David Levithan
  • The High King, by Lloyd Alexander (reread)
  • Saving Francesca, by Melina Marchetta (borrowed)
  • Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins (reread)
  • The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak (borrowed)
  • Soul Thief, by Jana Oliver (gifted)

Sewing Blogs

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So I might be stuck right in the middle of one of those “I AM GOING TO SEW EVERYTHING!!!” frenzies and here are some blogs that are inspiring me to stay up super late shuffling through patterns and fabrics and ideaboards and…

Make Something
Made by Rae
Grainline Studio
True Bias
Little Betty
Sew Well
Dana Made It
Soozs
La Petite Josette
Tidy Tipsy
Vivat Veritas
Tansit-Isis Sews
Be Mine
Savory Stitches

(I will add these all to my links page eventually, I just haven’t had the time)

Hunger Games, the movie!

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I swear I will be back sometime within the week to talk about how I felt about this movie, but in the meantime I’m going to post something I meant to post last week before it opened:

If you’re interested in seeing it AND HAVE READ THE BOOK (b/c these might be spoilery if not), I would encourage you to read Kristin Cashore’s post on the series overall. (Kristin Cashore = the author of Graceling and Fire, two books I loved as much as I loved the Hunger Games books!!!) I really love what she has to say PARTICULARLY what she has to say about Katniss’ ultimate choice (or decision). I’m SO TIRED of hearing people whine about the third book and how they feel Katniss becomes too Bella-like (passive) in it and I think that paragraph really touches on how that isn’t true.

I would also recommend the MonkeySee review of the movie which has a number of good points.

(My long-ago brief comments on the HG books are here and here. I reread book 1 before going to the movie on Sunday and I’m glad I did as I was remembering things more as a whole and it was nice to just think about things from the beginning again.)

À la Nick Hornby, books in/books out for February.

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Bought:

  • Life: An Unexploded Diagram, by Mal Peet (YA)*
  • You Killed Wesley Payne, by Sean Beaudoin (YA)*
  • The Watch that Ends the Night: Voices from the Titanic, a novel by Allan Wolf (YA)*
  • The Castle of Llyr, by Lloyd Alexander

Read:

  • Magic on the Hunt, by Devon Monk (library)
  • Magic on the Line, by Devon Monk (library)
  • The House of the Scorpion, by Nancy Farmer (borrowed)

Despite having nothing but time on my hands, all of that time seems to be going to crafting and busy work and almost none to reading…

*Went to an event at the Center for Teaching Through Children’s Books at National Louis introducing the Booklist award winners and favorites of the year and bought these at the book sale afterward. Not that I should have, but…

À la Nick Hornby, books in/books out for January.

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Bought:

  • ?? I’m sure I bought at least one, but I don’t seem to have kept track. Probably because I SHOULDN’T be buying any whilst unemployed. Ah, well.

Read:

  • Everyone Remain Calm, by Megan Stielstra (stories)(electronic)
  • Zoo City, by Lauren Beukes (electronic)
  • Call for the Dead, by John LeCarre (library)
  • A Murder of Quality, by John LeCarre (library)
  • The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, by John LeCarre (library)
  • The Looking Glass War, by John LeCarre (library)
  • The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate, by Jacqueline Kelly (loan from Bill)

Wrapping It Up: Favorite Movies 2011

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I know when I finally posted my review of The Guard yesterday I told you it was in my top 5 or top 2….Yeah turns out it was #1! When I reviewed the list of what I saw in 2011 and compared film to film, it just kept beating out all the other contenders!

For my top 9 favorites, some worsts, and some randomly categorized references (best house lived in by main character, film that felt most like I’d seen it 89 times before, etc), go read my full wrap up of my 2011 favorite flicks over here.

Big Screen: The Guard

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Wow, I really can’t believe I didn’t write this movie up before now. It’s definitely in my top five for the year. Maybe even top two, I have to give that a wee bit more thought. :) I first saw it back in August and I wound up seeing it two or three more times after that. SO GOOD!!

A real black comedy about a down-and-out Irish cop played by Brendan Gleeson–not a bad dude, just a bit jaded and over it–and a visiting FBI agent played by Don Cheedle on the trail of some drug runners. The chemistry between Gleeson and Cheedle is out of this world. Cheedle as the straight man plays against his casting in many roles and he’s just so perfectly straight-backed and stone-cold serious in it. This is movie is really hilarious and not at all politically correct (I thought it was pretty honest about racism, myself). Well acted, well directed, so many nifty twists and turns.

I just loved it to pieces. GO! I’m sure it’s out on DVD by now. Or streaming somewhere.

Big Screen: Young Adult

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I thought the beginning was a little rough–some things take too long to get going, others seem to leap ahead and you wonder if you’ve missed something. There are a few weird continuity errors–i.e., at one point someone appears completely across town a minute later although she drove someone else’s car to their house so how did she get back there? type of things. And there’s some stuff that just feels like it wasn’t quite well though out enough plot-wise.

But once it gets going, a LOT of the dialogue is pretty fantastic. The wacky friendship / alliance between Charlize Theron and Patton Oswalt’s characters was so great, there’s a lot of (not romantic) chemistry happening there. Dad kept saying he’d watch an entire show every week just about those two! :) The going back to a small town, trying to define yourself in a different way stuff is all right on.

And the rigid unrepentive, unchangingness of the lead character really is what makes this work. She comes out of this movie the same person she went in. There’s no self reflection happening there…and it’s pretty awesome that there isn’t frankly. If this movie had ended differently, it would’ve shot itself in the foot.

Didn’t blow our minds completely, but definitely well worth seeing.