Feature Follow Friday: Character Twitters

Every Friday Parajunkee and Alison Can Read hosts Feature Follow Friday. It's a great way to get to know the blogging community and they ask fun questions!

This week's Question is:

Book character(s) you'd like to see with their own Twitter page - Suggested by A Great Read

J.Lo (the alien not the pop star)

The True Meaning of Smekday

By: Adam Rex

Why: He's an alien who chose Jennifer Lopez's stage name as his Earth name. Enough said.

Probable Hashtag of choice: #WhyForYouCannotUnderstand

What I imagine "original" Iko looked like.

Iko

Cinder (Lunar Chronicles #1)

By: Marissa Meyer

Why: She is hilarious and is strangely the most aware of hip culture out of any character in the Lunar Chronicles, so I imagine she would be the only one who would even know about Twitter (except Cress maybe)

Probable Hashtag of choice: #RobotWinning

Luna Lovegood

Harry Potter and the Order of the Pheonix

By: J.K. Rowling

Why: Because she doesn't care what other people think. And she believes in everything. And she would probably have hilarious (and possibly true) observations about life.

Probable Hashtag of choice: #Okay

Bonus!
Also, here are some fictional characters who already have Twitter (you're welcome):

@FrodoBaggins (Frodo Baggins)

@DarthVader (Darth Vader)

@_Spiderman_ (Spider-Man)

@DeathToMuggles & @Lord_Voldemort7 (Voldemort)

@CobraCommander (Cobra Commander)

@SparkleCullen  (Edward Cullen)

@Leggy_Legolas (Legolas)

Waiting on Wednesday: Conviction by Kelly Loy Gilbert

Breaking the Spine features a weekly event where we talk about the books we can't wait to read.

This week I'm waiting on:

Conviction

By: Kelly Loy Gilbert

Release Date: May 15, 2015

Publisher: Disney-Hyperion

"Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen."
Ten years ago, God gave Braden a sign, a promise that his family wouldn’t fall apart the way he feared.
But Braden got it wrong: his older brother, Trey, has been estranged from the family for almost as long, and his father, the only parent Braden has ever known, has been accused of murder. The arrest of Braden’s father, a well-known Christian radio host, has sparked national media attention. His fate lies in his son’s hands; Braden is the key witness in the upcoming trial.
Braden has always measured himself through baseball. He is the star pitcher in his small town of Ornette, and his ninety-four-mile-per-hour pitch al- ready has minor league scouts buzzing in his junior year. Now the rules of the sport that has always been Braden’s saving grace are blurred in ways he never realized, and the prospect of playing against Alex Reyes, the nephew of the police officer his father is accused of killing, is haunting his every pitch.
Braden faces an impossible choice, one that will define him for the rest of his life, in this brutally honest debut novel about family, faith, and the ultimate test of conviction.

I am excited to read this book, contemporary YA books that are not so cut-and-dried (aka, I can't always predict what the ending will be or even if it will be happily-ever-after) always make me feel so many emotions. I can already imagine that this book will be a roller-coaster ride. I am looking forward to seeing where Kelly Loy Gilbert takes us with this story.

Also, I was lucky enough to win a critique prize from the Freshman Fifteen (authors who are going to be published in 2015), so I can honestly say that Kelly Loy Gilbert is a super nice and cool person.

Monday Musings: Ten Books that Stayed with Me meme (list and thoughts)

My friend Anitra challenged me to list the Top Ten Books that Stayed with Me:

1. The Very Hungry Caterpillar 

by: Eric Carl

Age When First Read: 3

Why it stayed with me: This was my favorite book as a child, it showed me that books can be interactive because each page had a new hole that then all combined into a dozen holes at the end of the book, and they all meant something! It was meta! Also, I was three when I loved this book, so my need for pretty pictures was at an all-time high.

2. A Horse Called Wonder (Thoroughbred #1)

by: Joanna Campbell

Age When First Read: 9

Why it stayed with me: This is the book that made me love reading (and writing). I wrote horse racing fan fiction for these books. I was a fan fiction writer before I knew what fan fic was (how hipster of me).

Also, go here for my review of this series.

3. Mossflower 

by: Brian Jacques

Age When First Read: 11

Why it stayed with me: I read Mossflower first in the Redwall series. It didn't ruin the series for me, since it is technically a prequel. And it is EPIC! I also wrote fan fic for this book, but it had humans instead of mice because I knew what plagiarism was at that point and I felt guilty if I made my fan fiction novel the exact same as Brian Jacques awesome book.

Go here for my review of Redwall.

4. The Invasion (Animorphs #1) 

by: K.A. Applegate

Age When First Read: 11

Why it stayed with me: This series made me turn into more of an adult. Because I started reading them when I was around 11-12 years old. And I was still just reading young chapter books about happy kid times. This book started out as a fun adventure chapter series, and then it became a commentary on war! It made me realize that we are not invincible! It made me take a look at my mortality! (Also, it was just an awesome series and cemented my love of reading).

Go here for my review of Animorphs.

5. Public Secrets

by: Nora Roberts

Age when First Read: 13

Why it stayed with me: This book made me a woman. Haha, not really, but it did make me obsessed with romance as a genre. And I still love it. I would bring so many romance novels to school with me that my friends all knew I would have one in my bag at all times. Yup, I was that girl (and I'm not sorry!) Also, Nora Roberts writes so well. I think I kind of wanted to write like her when I was little. She not only has romance in her books, but action and mystery. I love a book that crosses genres.

See my Featured Author post on Books Are Bread here.

6. The Lord of the Flies

by: William Golding

Age when First Read: 14

Why it stayed with me: This book was the beginning of me liking school assigned books. This book actually taught me the true meaning of metaphors and analogies (you guys, Piggy was a symbol for Jesus. What?!) Also, I learned about Freud's whole ID/Ego/Superego psychology theory with this book. It made me see that there was something deeper in literature than just words. Mind blown.

7. Brave New World 

by: Aldous Huxley

Age when First Read: 15

Why it stayed with me: This book wasn't the first dystopian I read, but it made me love dystopian (I was a little bit twisted as a child). It was different than all of the other dystopians because it involves controlling a society by making them give in to their basic desires (however, they are not allowed to make their own order). This is genius! (thought 15 year old me) Because they can't organize and rise up against the government

8. Life of Pi

by: Yann Martel

Age when First Read: 17

Why it stayed with me: I was not a very religious person growing up. But I was always a person that liked having faith. That's exactly what this book is about, it is what made me realize there is a difference between organized religion, spirituality, and having faith in something bigger. I am still not very religious, but I have faith in the bigger things out there and I think I am very comfortable with that (not in small part because of this book).

9. The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down 

by: Anne Fadiman

Age when First Read: 20

Why it stayed with me: I have my Masters in Public Health and I would attribute a lot of that path to this book. I read it in a Science in Society class in college, and it stuck with me. The idea that we can't just treat an illness, we have to treat a person, their culture, and their deep-rooted faiths. This book was written in the 1990s, but it definitely still resonates today. We need to have more cultural sensitivity in medicine, and public health seeks to accomplish this.

10. The Time Traveler's Wife 

by: Audrey Niffenegger

Age when First Read: 22

Why it stayed with me: This book is the best. Period. It has everything, romance, sci-fi, deeper insights into what it means to be happy/be a good person. No one in this book is perfect and I love that. It is the book that I read to detox from a series that I can't get over.

Also the writing is beautiful, the story is so well crafted (especially because it jumps around in time) and the characters are so great. The ending is not a normal happily-ever-after and that might be why it resonated with me. It was the first unconventional ending book that I truly loved. Not all endings are completely happy, but that doesn't mean that they don't change you #philosophied  #booyah.

Now for my very important thoughts on this meme!

So, I have been seeing a lot of versions of this meme: Top Ten Books that Stayed with Me, Top Ten Books that Changed the Way you Think, Top Ten Favorite Books.

Obviously, these can all mean very different things. And based on which one was sent to a person, their list will look very different. However, this almost always happens with internet memes. Nothing ever stays pure on the internet, it's just a giant game of telephone that spans thousands of miles and millions of computers. Even a meme that starts out as pure and fun and full of happiness can be morphed into something that brings out all of the naysayers filled with their unhappiness and negativity.

The internet sometimes takes a beautiful butterfly and it lets the butterfly land on its palm and once the butterfly is all nice and settled it crushes it! It crushes it until it can't spread its beautiful wings anymore. And then it laughs as all of the internet trolls come out and dance in an evil circle while they throw their angry comments at the crushed butterfly.

Huffington Post had a Blog entry about the meme where they said Stop lying about your favorite books on Facebook. I guess my biggest issue with this is that she claims that the meme (no matter how you phrase it) is really just about top ten favorite books. However, my favorite books now might not always stay with me. So, they're not all on my list, because I have other books that were more important to me at important parts of my life.

I think where she might have gotten her thinking twisted is she interpreted it as "Books that changed the way I think" and that sounds super pretentious just by itself. I prefer the original meme (that was sent to me a bajillion years ago even though I'm only just now posting my list. Sorry Ani!) The original meme I got said "Top Ten Books that Stayed with Me." So I don't care if it changed how I think about life, those books stayed with me. Eric Carl's Very Hungry Catepillar was a seminal literary work in my mind (when I was three)!

Also, Book Riot went to town on what they thought of this particular article (hint: they think it's dumb and based on insecurities of the author).

I understand when people get upset that something that started out one way gets morphed into something else. However, at the end of the day it's all about talking about books we love. So how can this be a bad thing?

What do you think about the Ten Books meme?

Throwback Thursday Review: Thoroughbred by Joanna Campbell

Thoroughbred

By: Joanna Campbell

Genre: Chapter Book

First Published: 1991

Publisher: Harper Entertainment

POV: Third Person

Kat's Rating: 4 out of 5

Description:

Ashleigh Griffen swore she'd never give her heart to another horse - not after a terrible disease wiped out her family's breeding farm, along with Ashleigh's favorite mare, Stardust.

Main Character: Ashleigh (this is how I found out that there was more than one way to spell Ashley). She starts out as an eleven-year-old girl who is recovering from the loss of her family's farm. They had to move to a big racing farm, Townsend Acres, as the new head of the breeding operation. However, going from owning your own place to working for someone else (i.e. all of the horses belong to them) is very hard for Ashleigh. And she also is still devastated from losing her favorite horse. However, she gains her confidence again when she becomes determined to save a sickly foal who everyone else has given up on (hint: the foal obvi lives and becomes a champion).

Love Connection: Mike, he doesn't show up until later (when Ashleigh is more teenaged). He comes from the horse world too so they mesh very well. Also, he's a sweet first love for Ashleigh.

Allies and Enemies: Charlie, the grizzled old trainer who is kind of underappreciated. However, he takes Ashleigh and Wonder under his wing.

Brad Townsend. He is the ultimate snobby, nose-in-the-air, antagonist jerk. He is the son of the owner of Townsend Acres so he thinks he owns/knows everything. But he doesn't! He's the worst and he often gets in Ashleigh and Charlie's way, trying to push Wonder down.

Setting: Kentucky (horse racing country)

Review: These are books that are catered towards any little girl who loved horses (so all of us). It has family, friendship, the regular pre- and teen angst that all good MG/YA has, AND horses. Lots of horses. So yea, this series was one of my all-time favorites ever. (When I wrote my first book it was an "adult" version of these books. Except mine involved murder because I was a dark and twisted child). It follows Ashleigh from being 11 to being all grown-up and having a child of her own (the later books follow Christina, Ashleigh's daughter, since the audience was obvi still teen girls).

These books were great though,you got to see how your characters grew up and changed and went through all of the normal milestones in their adolescent lives. It gave you a heroine to root for. Ashleigh was loyal and strong and she knew what was right and didn't let anyone tell her that it couldn't be done. The beginning of the series was the ultimate underdog story and then it evolved into just a great life story about the people who live on this farm.

Recommendations: The Saddle Club by Bonnie Bryant

Waiting on Wednesday: The Blood of Olympus by Rick Riordan

Breaking the Spine features a weekly event where we talk about the books we can't wait to read.

The Blood of Olympus (The Heroes of Olympus #5)

By: Rick Riordan

Release Date: October 7, 2014

Publisher: Disney-Hyperion

Though the Greek and Roman crewmembers of the Argo II have made progress in their many quests, they still seem no closer to defeating the earth mother, Gaea. Her giants have risen—all of them—and they're stronger than ever. They must be stopped before the Feast of Spes, when Gaea plans to have two demigods sacrificed in Athens. She needs their blood—the blood of Olympus—in order to wake.
The demigods are having more frequent visions of a terrible battle at Camp Half-Blood. The Roman legion from Camp Jupiter, led by Octavian, is almost within striking distance. Though it is tempting to take the Athena Parthenos to Athens to use as a secret weapon, the friends know that the huge statue belongs back on Long Island, where it "might" be able to stop a war between the two camps.
The Athena Parthenos will go west; the Argo II will go east. The gods, still suffering from multiple personality disorder, are useless. How can a handful of young demigods hope to persevere against Gaea's army of powerful giants? As dangerous as it is to head to Athens, they have no other option. They have sacrificed too much already. And if Gaea wakes, it is game over.

I loved the Percy Jackson series. I thought it was an awesome way to reimagine the Greek gods. And I L-O-V-E the Heroes of Olympus series because it does that same thing with Roman gods. PLUS it ties in the differences between Greek and Roman interpretations of these gods. PLUS, it has awesome action, adventure, friendship, and love. 

Just like Harry Potter, the Percy Jackson series have grown with their audience, and now we are well into YA territory. I love when series do this and I can't wait for Blood of Olympus to come out.

Top Ten Tuesday(3): Top Authors I've Only Read One Book From But NEED to Read More

The Broke and the Bookish host a weekly meme of Top Ten Lists.

This week's question is:

Top Authors I've Only Read One Book From But NEED to Read More

1. Audrey Niffeneger

I read The Time Traveler's Wife and I loved it. It is the book I use to detox from a series I get too obsessed about. I really need to read more of Audrey Niffeneger's books. 

2. Diana Petrefreund

I really liked For Darkness Shows the Stars and bought her second novel in that series, but I have yet to get to it in my tbr list.

3. Mary E. Pearson

She usually writes fantasy but the only book I've read by her is The Adoration of Jenna Fox. I need to get on reading the rest of her novels.

4. Sean Wilsey

I LOVED Oh The Glory of It All. I really enjoyed it when I was on my memoir kick. I think he's a very astute and funny writer and I should pick up another of his books (whether fiction or non-fiction)

5. Jeannette Walls

Another great non-fiction author who had a great book, Glass Castle. She wrote another book about her grandmother, Half Broke Horses, which I bought but have yet to get to.

6. Isaac Marion

Warm Bodies was hilarious. The movie version of it was hilarious. Everything about this story was hilarious. I need to read more of Isaac Marion's stuff.

7. Tammara Webber

Easy was one of the first NA books I read (at least since NA was created its own genre). I really enjoyed it.

8. Rick Yancey

Waiting on Infinite Sea to come out because I really enjoyed The Fifth Wave. Rick Yancey does write across all age groups and genres, so I really should have picked up another of his books to read, but I really want to finish the Fifth Wave series first.

9. Amy Tintera

I really enjoyed Reboot. And actually I do own Rebel, it has just fallen victim to my too-long tbr list.

10. Michael Crichton

I read the Andromeda Strain in high school because my dad thought I would like it. But I NEED to read Jurassic Park among many other Crichton classics.

Monday Musings: Film Adaptations of Books

Do you get excited for the Film Adaptations of your favorite books? 

Did you think that The Giver movie was maybe a little too "Hollywood" for your liking?

Whether we like that our favorite books are turned into movies, they tend to do well. Otherwise, why would Hollywood keep taking the hottest books for source material. I personally don't mind when a great book gets made into a film. It's not like they made the movie and therefore the book is suddenly no longer available. Just because the story has been interpreted in a new medium doesn't negate the original source material. If you hate the film then just don't pay attention to it anymore, just reread the original book that made you fall in love with the characters and story in the first place.

I think that as long as we don't expect the film adaptation to be 100% like the original book story then we won't be as disappointed. We have to acknowledge that a 2-hour movie cannot include everything from our favorite 500-page novel. And we also have to know that some of the more subtle story points cannot be interpreted well onto the screen. But that's alright, because a good story is always a good story. Even a bad film interpretation can't take that away.
(And let's not forget the great movies that we got out of some of our favorite books: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Lord of the Rings, The Hunger Games)

I also often hear conversations about how Hollywood is becoming lazy with the fact that most of it's movies are based on books and comics and remakes of older classic films. However, there are a lot of old movies that were based on books, we just didn't know it:

Who Framed Roger Rabbit was based on Who Censored Roger Rabbit? by Gary K Wolf.

Mrs. Doubtfire was based on Anne Fine's Alias Madame Doubtfire.

Forrest Gump was based on Forrest Gump by Winston Groom


Die Hard is based on the 1979 book Nothing Lasts Forever by Roderick Thorp

Cruel Intentions was based on Les Liaisons dangereuses by Choderlos de Laclos (published in 1782)

Goodfellas was based on the 1986 novel Wiseguy by Nicholas Pileggi

Stand by Me based on The Body by Stephen King

Blade Runner came from Philip K. Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep

Starship Troopers was based on the 1959 book Starship Troopers by Robert Heinlein

Field of Dreams was based on Shoeless Joe by W.P. Kinsella.

Shawshank Redemption was based on Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption by Stephen King

Do you like the movie adaptations of your favorite books?

Feature Follow Friday: Book Recommendation Sources

Every Friday Parajunkee and Alison Can Read hosts Feature Follow Friday. It's a great way to get to know the blogging community and they ask fun questions!

This week's Question is:

Before blogging (dark times people!) how would you find out about new books or did you?

Good old fashioned word of mouth. I got many suggestions from my cousin Axie (check out her blog Books Are Bread).
When I was very young my parents would take me to Barnes and Nobles and Borders (R.I.P.) and let me just run wild. It was the ONLY store that they let me buy (almost) whatever I wanted, so I loved going there (thinking back on it, I think they tricked me into loving reading. But I'm obviously not mad about that). So I read a lot of back-cover summaries and ended up reading a lot of weird books. (Also lots of books that were related to whatever I was obsessed about at the moment...so, mostly horse books).
And when I got older, there was always the trusty emails from Barnes and Noble and Amazon. You know, those suggested readings based on books I've read.

How did you hear about books before blogging?

Throwback Thursday Review: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

By: Douglas Adams

Genre: Sci-Fi/Humorous

First Published: 1995

Publisher: Del Ray
POV: Third Person - Multiple Narrators

Kat's Rating: 4.5 out of 5

Description:

Seconds before the Earth is demolished to make way for a galactic freeway, Arthur Dent is plucked off the planet by his friend Ford Prefect, a researcher for the revised edition of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy who, for the last fifteen years, has been posing as an out-of-work actor.
Together this dynamic pair begin a journey through space aided by quotes from The Hitchhiker's Guide ("A towel is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have") and a galaxy-full of fellow travelers: Zaphod Beeblebrox--the two-headed, three-armed ex-hippie and totally out-to-lunch president of the galaxy; Trillian, Zaphod's girlfriend (formally Tricia McMillan), whom Arthur tried to pick up at a cocktail party once upon a time zone; Marvin, a paranoid, brilliant, and chronically depressed robot; Veet Voojagig, a former graduate student who is obsessed with the disappearance of all the ballpoint pens he bought over the years.

Main Character: Arthur Dent is an average Englishman who is saved right before the destruction of Earth. So he is one of the two last existing humans in the whole galaxy. He's a little bumbling, a lot confused, and he has that persistent blustering disbelief that only an Englishman can have and while still just avoiding the label of "super annoying."

Love Connection: Trillian (Tricia McMillan) the second of the two last existing humans in the whole galaxy. She's a little hippie-dippie, but she does love adventure, so I can respect that. Also, she did give Arthur a chance when he met her at that Earth party, he just kind of dropped the ball there.

Allies and Enemies:  Ford Prefect - Arthur's best friend who turns out to be not-so-human. He works for The Hitchhiker's guide and he's on Earth doing some research. 

President Zaphod Beeblebrox - a two-headed, forgetful hippie with half his brain and a lot of self-importance. In other words, every guy in mid-town manhattan (zing!)

Marvin - a paranoid depressed robot who is supposed to be kind of the R2D2 of the ship, but just mostly mopes around.

Towel - a Hitchhiker's best friend in space.

Setting: Space-ace-ace-ace!

Quote:

For instance, on the planet Earth, man had always assumed that he was more intelligent than dolphins because he had achieved so much—the wheel, New York, wars and so on—whilst all the dolphins had ever done was muck about in the water having a good time. But conversely, the dolphins had always believed that they were far more intelligent than man—for precisely the same reasons.

Review: Fact: This book is hilarious.

Fact: If you didn't like this book, then you don't like laughter, space, and you're not my friend.
(You know what, that wasn't cool. I'm sorry. I just got a little passionate and I took it out on you. No hard feelings right?)

I imagine Douglas Adams thought to himself, "what's all the weirdest stuff I've had random thoughts and dreams about? Now I'm going to put it all in a book."

The book is full of funny satirical observations on life. It's also filled with hilarious strange characters that are not so different from humans if you think about it.

I realized on a recent re-reading that this humor is probably pretty British, it's very tongue-in-cheek and dry. It reads very easily and I finished the book in less than two days when I first read it. Douglas Adams is pretty spot on with a lot of the delivery in this book and I would recommend it to readers of any age. Even if you don't like Sci-Fi you should really give this book a try.

Recommendations: Warm Bodies by Isaac Marion, Sex Drugs and Cocoa Puffs by Chuck Klosterman

Waiting on Wednesday: A Thousand Pieces of You by Claudia Gray

Breaking the Spine features a weekly event where we talk about the books we can't wait to read.

This week I'm waiting on:

A Thousand Pieces of You (Firebird #1)

By: Claudia Gray

Release Date: November 4, 2014

Publisher: Harper Teen

Marguerite Caine’s physicist parents are known for their radical scientific achievements. Their most astonishing invention: the Firebird, which allows users to jump into parallel universes, some vastly altered from our own. But when Marguerite’s father is murdered, the killer—her parent’s handsome and enigmatic assistant Paul—escapes into another dimension before the law can touch him.

Marguerite can’t let the man who destroyed her family go free, and she races after Paul through different universes, where their lives entangle in increasingly familiar ways. With each encounter she begins to question Paul’s guilt—and her own heart. Soon she discovers the truth behind her father’s death is more sinister than she ever could have imagined.

A Thousand Pieces of You explores a reality where we witness the countless other lives we might lead in an amazingly intricate multiverse, and ask whether, amid infinite possibilities, one love can endure.

I saw this book at the ALA 2014 and I was immediately excited about the cover, the premise, the whole idea of this book. I can't wait for it to come out. I love Portal fantasies and parallel universes. 

Monday Musings: Do you read Self-published books?

Back in the day I would often have an interesting conversation with my cousin. It went a little something like this:

"Oh hey, I read this series and it got really weird in the end."

"Oh yea? What is it called?"

"It was Random-Series-Most-Often-Involving-hot-dudes."

"Oh yea, that's a self-pub."

So, I took two things away from this. A) Self-published books are surprisingly easy to find out there, they were often the recommended books from Amazon that I would click on and like B) Self-published books are not always edited.

However, neither of those things made me more or less likely to read self-published books. I am the type of reader that will read anything as long as I am entertained during my morning subway ride. Therefore, I find myself thinking the strange stigma on self-publishing is fading. That's my thoughts as a reader.

As a writer self-publishing TERRIFIES ME. You are responsible for everything! For editing, publishing, marketing, and setting up any kind of meet-and-greet let's get together fun-times an author should do to gain/cater to their fans. That sounds like fun if I didn't have a day job. However, most authors have a day job (I need my health insurance!). 

Also, on the industry side self-publishing is a thriving market in YA, Christian Lit, and Chick Lit. So really, it's not like it's just your weird uncle who is publishing his manifesto on why the internet is a government conspiracy.

So, what are your thoughts on Self-published books? Good? Bad? Who cares as long as the love story is steamy?

Book to Movie Adaptations: Fall and Winter 2014 Releases

I'm the guy in the back.

This is a list of the upcoming Novel to Film adaptations that are being released in Fall/Winter 2014.

Release Date: September 19, 2014

This is Where I Leave You 

Adapted from: This is Where I Leave You by Jonathan Tropper 

From IMDB: When their father passes away, four grown siblings are forced to return to their childhood home and live under the same roof together for a week, along with their over-sharing mother and an assortment of spouses, exes and might-have-beens.

My Random Thoughts: I kind of like these stories. Where previously estranged family members are forced back together where they have to face their pasts and (hopefully) make amends. I kind of like to think that there's always a second (or third or fourth) chance for people, especially families.

Trailer:

 

Release Date: September 19, 2014
The Maze Runner
Adapted from: The Maze Runner by James Dashner

From IMDB: Thomas is deposited in a community of boys after his memory is erased, soon learning they're all trapped in a maze that will require him to join forces with fellow "runners" for a shot at escape.
(Man this blurb doesn't even seem to do this awesome story justice in my mind, but if I were to write my own blurb it would just go "Awesome awesome awesome. Epic epic epic. Shucking awesomely epic.")

My Random Thoughts: SO EXCITED FOR THIS MOVIE. Let's all go see this opening night and then meet back on the internet to squeal about it.

Seriously though, the casting is epic (Teen Wolf's Dylan O'Brien, Game of Throne's Thomas Brodie-Sangster, Ki Hong Lee aka Minho aka my maze runner crush)

You guys, this WILL be a good movie, this story was destined for the big screen, we must all go and pay homage to the wonderful story gods for this awesomeness in our lives.

(Go HERE for my review of Maze Runner the novel).

Trailers:

Release Date: September 26, 2014

The Boxtrolls

Adapted from: Here Be Monsters! by Alan Snow

From IMDB: A young orphaned boy raised by underground cave-dwelling trash collectors tries to save his friends from an evil exterminator. Based on the children's novel 'Here Be Monsters' by Alan Snow.

My Random Thoughts: I did not read this book. So when I saw the original teaser trailer I thought "what is this movie about?!" However, now, older and wiser by a few months I think this could be really adorable. And I have a soft spot in my heart for stop-action claymation films (Where are my Wallace and Gromit fans at?)

Trailer:

Release Date: October 3, 2014

Gone Girl 

Adapted from: Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

From IMDB: With his wife's disappearance having become the focus of an intense media circus, a man sees the spotlight turned on him when it's suspected that he may not be innocent.

My Random Thoughts: I have to admit, I didn't read the book and I have to be in a very particular mood to watch a thriller. That being said I know so many people who are very excited to for this movie. So I will probably go see it with them. Also, the book seems like it would adapt well to the screen (although I thought this about The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and that film didn't do as well as everyone thought it would).

Trailer:

Release Date: October 10, 2014

Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day 

Adapted from: Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day by Judith Viorst 

From IMDB: Alexander wakes up with gum in his hair, and things just get worse as his day progresses.

(haha, love it they do not pretend it is anything more than what it is)

My Random Thoughts: Sometimes I see these movie trailers and think, wow they really took...liberties with that book. But then again, this was a 30 page picture book. I have to admit, I liked what they did with Where the Wild Things Are (but that might have been because of the soundtrack). So I am not in immediate hate-mode for this movie. The being said, I didn't love this book like I loved Where the Wild Things Are. 

Trailer:

Release Date: October 22, 2014 (UK Release)

Love, Rosie

Adapted From: Where Rainbows End by Cecelia Ahern

From IMDB: Rosie and Alex have been best friends since they were 5, so they couldn't possibly be right for one another...or could they? When it comes to love, life and making the right choices, these two are their own worst enemies.

My Random Thoughts: The book was written as a series of correspondence (through letters, IMs, e-mails, and texts). So I wonder how that will adapt for the big screen. However, Ahern's P.S. I Love You was already adapted so maybe they have this correspondence-type film down.

Trailer:

 Release Date: November 21, 2014

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay 

Part 1

Adapted from: Mockingjay (Hunger Games #3) by Suzanne Collins

In the Hollywood tradition of taking a series and stretching it to as many films as possible so they can wring the marrow from our very souls, comes The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1.

From IMDB: Katniss Everdeen reluctantly becomes the symbol of a mass rebellion against the autocratic Capitol.

My Random Thoughts: This book is 110% different than the first two. So for people who haven't read the trilogy prepare yourself to enter a completely different film than you expect.

Trailer:



NEWLY RELEASED TRAILER (9/15/2014):

Release Date: December 17, 2014
The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies
Adapted from: The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien

In the new tradition of taking a not-so-long book and stretching it into three films to suck even more of the marrow from our souls, comes The Hobbit: Did there really need to be three?The Battle of the Five Armies.

From IMDB: The Company of Thorin has reached Smaug's lair; but can Bilbo and the Dwarves reclaim Erebor and the treasure? And, if so, can they hold on to it?

My Random Thoughts: I didn't see the first two, but I do like dragons and Middle Earth and epic soundtracks. So I will probably see these movies...eventually.

Trailer: