Feature Follow Friday: Funniest Books I've ever read

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:

What are the funniest books you've ever read? - Suggested byAlison Can Read

I'll split this into categories because there are a few:

Young Adult:

Warm Bodies

By Isaac Marion

R is having a no-life crisis--he is a zombie. He has no memories, no identity, and no pulse, but he is a little different from his fellow Dead. He may occasionally eat people, but he’d rather be riding abandoned airport escalators, listening to Sinatra in the cozy 747 he calls home, or collecting souvenirs from the ruins of civilization.

And then he meets a girl.

First as his captive, then his reluctant guest, Julie is a blast of living color in R’s gray landscape, and something inside him begins to bloom. He doesn't want to eat this girl--although she looks delicious--he wants to protect her. But their unlikely bond will cause ripples they can’t imagine, and their hopeless world won’t change without a fight.

If you want to read my review on the book and film, go HERE

Adult:

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

By: Douglas Adams

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.

I wrote a review on why it's the best ever HERE

Non-Fiction:

Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puff

by Chuck Klosterman

Countless writers and artists have spoken for a generation, but no one has done it quite like Chuck Klosterman. With an exhaustive knowledge of popular culture and an almost effortless ability to spin brilliant prose out of unlikely subject matter, Klosterman attacks the entire spectrum of postmodern America: reality TV, Internet porn, Pamela Anderson, literary Jesus freaks, and the real difference between apples and oranges (of which there is none). And don't even get him started on his love life and the whole Harry-Met-Sally situation.

Whether deconstructing Saved by the Bell episodes or the artistic legacy of Billy Joel, the symbolic importance of The Empire Strikes Back or the Celtics/Lakers rivalry, Chuck will make you think, he'll make you laugh, and he'll drive you insane -- usually all at once. Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs is ostensibly about art, entertainment, infotainment, sports, politics, and kittens, but -- really -- it's about us. All of us. As Klosterman realizes late at night, in the moment before he falls asleep, "In and of itself, nothing really matters. What matters is that nothing is ever 'in and of itself.'" Read to believe.

Seriously...I'm Kidding

by Ellen Degeneres

"Sometimes the greatest things are the most embarrassing." Ellen Degeneres' winning, upbeat candor has made her show one of the most popular, resilient and honored daytime shows on the air. (To date, it has won no fewer than 31 Emmys.) Seriously... I'm Kidding, Degeneres' first book in eight years, brings us up to date about the life of a kindhearted woman who bowed out of American Idol because she didn't want to be mean. Lively; hilarious; often sweetly poignant.

Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?

By Mindy Kaling

Mindy Kaling has lived many lives: the obedient child of immigrant professionals, a timid chubster afraid of her own bike, a Ben Affleck–impersonating Off-Broadway performer and playwright, and, finally, a comedy writer and actress prone to starting fights with her friends and coworkers with the sentence “Can I just say one last thing about this, and then I swear I’ll shut up about it?”

Perhaps you want to know what Mindy thinks makes a great best friend (someone who will fill your prescription in the middle of the night), or what makes a great guy (one who is aware of all elderly people in any room at any time and acts accordingly), or what is the perfect amount of fame (so famous you can never get convicted of murder in a court of law), or how to maintain a trim figure (you will not find that information in these pages). If so, you’ve come to the right book, mostly!
In Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?, Mindy invites readers on a tour of her life and her unscientific observations on romance, friendship, and Hollywood, with several conveniently placed stopping points for you to run errands and make phone calls. Mindy Kaling really is just a Girl Next Door—not so much literally anywhere in the continental United States, but definitely if you live in India or Sri Lanka.

Beautiful Books 2: Writing Process

So Paper Fury and Further up and Further in. is hosting Beautiful Books for NaNo again this year. It was great to participate last year (my past posts are here and here). I completely dropped the ball this year and didn't write my first post until RIGHT NOW, so I couldn't put it in the linky, but you can find it here. 

Now for the part 2 questions:

Is the book turning out how you thought it would be, or is it defying your expectations?

It's a turning out mostly how I thought it would. I had an outline of how it should go already. So I'm mostly sticking to that.

To be honest this is me when I write in general:

What’s your first sentence (or paragraph)?

Miyoung knew well how cruel laughter could be; she sat with her head hanging low as it rang around her. 

Soy sauce and fish oil dripped out of her long black locks, soaking the blazer of her school uniform. The sticky drops against her name tag echoed in her ears, soaking each character of her name. Gu. Mi. Young.

Are you a plotter or a pantser? Have you ever tried both methods and how did it turn out?

I'm more of a pantser. But I have shifted to become a hybrid. a Plantser if you will.

I will always share this GIF when I talk about being a pantser #sorrynotsorry:

What do you reward yourself with after meeting a goal?

A new car! Hahah, I wish. I do get myself something nice, like a new book. To be honest, I read a lot when I'm on a writing roll. It's like a positive feedback loop for me.

What do you look for in a name? Do you have themes and where do you find your names?

They do have to kind of mean something. They speak to the character or the character's journey. So Miyoung means eternally beautiful, which speaks to a gumiho's beauty and her ability to live for a long time.

Yena means beautiful and talented. Which is fitting because Yena is gorgeous and manipulative.

I picked Jihoon because it is a popular boy's name. I wanted Jihoon to feel more normal than the paranormal characters. Also, Jihoon is easy to pronounce for non-Korean speakers.

What is your favourite to write: beginning, middle, or end — and why?

 Middle all day long! I hate beginnings and endings! There is so much pressure on both!

Who’s your current favourite character in your novel?

Currently I like Miyoung. I made her much more flawed than I thought I would, so she's turning out quite quirky.

What kind of things have you researched for this project, and how do you go about researching? (What’s the weirdest thing you’ve researched?!)

I researched Korean mythology, shamanism, and just random street names. I stuck to the neighborhoods I know and have been to myself in Seoul.

Like the Tiny City I found behind this Tiny Door!

Do you write better alone or with others? Do you share your work or prefer to keep it to yourself?

I probably write better alone, but I enjoy writing more with others. And I share my work AS SOON as I've written it. I have some CPs who are all down for that and some I have to hold back from contacting as soon as I write the scene because I know they're busy.

What are your writing habits? Is there a specific snack you eat? Do you listen to music? What time of day do you write best? Feel free to show us a picture of your writing space! 

Must listen to something. Sometimes I even have the TV on, which many people find weird. I write really well in mid-afternoon and night time. I am not a morning person at all.

You can join the Beautiful Books Part 2 fun HERE

Beautiful Books 1: Introduce your Novel

So Paper Fury and Further up and Further in. is hosting Beautiful Books for NaNo again this year. It was great to participate last year (my past posts are here and here). I completely dropped the ball this year and didn't write my first post until RIGHT NOW. So I apologize for being late. But I will double post to catch up with the second prompt which is already out.

How did you come up with the idea for your novel, and how long have you had the idea? 

It's an old Korean myth/folktale about a Gumiho, nine-tailed fox that can shift into a beautiful woman. So I've had this idea swimming in my head for a couple of years. But I didn't have the confidence to commit to it until now.

Why are you excited to write this novel? 

Ummm, because it's about a nine-tailed shape-shifting fox.

Also, because it's a love story. And it's got a lot of K-Drama elements and I'm a K-Drama nut.
AND I get to look at beautiful inspiration like these GIFs:

What is your novel about, and what is the title? 

I think I jumped the gun in answering this question. But to go into more detail it is about a girl who is a gumiho, but doesn't really want to be. She's never had a regular life or real connections. And she meets a boy who is also lonely in his life. They fall in love, but of course things get kind of complicated along the way.

The working title is "Gumiho."

Sum up your characters in one word each. (Feel free to add pictures!) 

Hahn Jihoon - Detached

Gu Miyoung - Lonely

 Gu Yena - Cold

Which character(s) do you think will be your favourite to write? Tell us about them! 

I really do enjoy writing Jihoon and Miyoung. But there is a side character that comes in later in the book named Junu. He's a bit of a ladies' man and he has a mysterious past as well.

What is your protagonist’s goal, and what stands in the way? 

Miyoung deciding between her love for her mother (her gumiho side) and her love for Jihoon (her human side), and eventually having to deal with the consequences of her own disastrous choices.

Where is your novel set? (Show us pictures if you have them!) 

Modern day Seoul, South Korea

What is the most important relationship your character has? 

The relationship between the two mains is the most explored. But there is a huge theme of their relationships with their parents.

How does your protagonist change by the end of the novel? 

Miyoung learns that she cannot always lean on others in her search to define herself.

Jihoon learns how he hides himself behind these fake personas he creates for himself and that trusting other people might be worth it even if he does get hurt in the process.

What themes are in your book? How do you want your readers to feel when the story is over?
Three themes are: Love, Family, Search for self.

I want my readers to feel satisfied. Like everything happened the way it should have.

BONUS! Tell us your 3 best pieces of advice for others trying to write a book in a month.

Advice for people trying to do NaNoWriMo: Don't edit. You'll want to. But you can't, because the editing bug is strong and you will start to tweak things and get caught up in that. Edit in December. For November, write your heart out!

Join along in the fun here!

Kat's K-Dramas: Goong Review

I debated with myself about whether I would write reviews about older dramas (and by older I mean wasn't made in the last few years). But I decided that there are some great classics out there (and by classics I mean from like 2006, haha). Anyway, this is my review of Goong (or Princess Hours) one of the most beloved Cinderella retellings in K-drama (and that's saying something, there are a lot of Cinderella retellings in K-drama).

Goong 궁 (宮)

AKA Princess Hours

Genre: Romance, Comedy

Episodes: 24

Aired: 2006-Jan-11 to 2006-Mar-30

Network: MBC

Starring: Yoon Eun Hye, Joo Ji Hoon, Kim Jung Hoon, Song Ji Hyo

Watch it on: Dramafever, Viki

Goong is a story about young love in face of tradition, politics, and intrigue. In this imaginary world, modern-day Korea is a constitutional monarchy and the Royal Family lives in a grand Palace, the Goong. The sudden death of the reigning the King throws the Royal Family in the public eye. Faced with the decreasing popularity among the public for the Royalty, a grand wedding for the Crown Prince, Lee Shin, is decided to be the best publicity move and at the same time prepare Shin for immediate succession. The intended bride? The headstrong, awkward, and sweet spirited Shin Chae Kyung that just happens to go to the same exclusive art school. Chae Kyung was betrothed to become the next Crown Princess by her grandfather and Shin's grandfather.
After 14 years of living in England with his mom, Shin's cousin, Lee Yul, appears back in Korea. Yul was the original Crown Prince before his father died when he was a child. Chae Kyung's optimistic spirit wins the heart of internally lonely, Yul. And as the Crown Prince Shin and simple-minded Chae Kyung appear to start developing deeper feelings, a series of scandals are exposed to the public right after the pair are officially announced married. Will love conquer all in a world of political pressures and marital hardships? Or will being in the spotlight of the public be too much for the young newlyweds to endure?

Main Character: Shin Chae Kyung (Yoon Eun Hye)- Sassy and adorable, she is a bit clumsy and not stylish or graceful at all. So, she is the anti-princess. However, she was promised to Lee Shin as his princess so she is forced into that life. I love that she does not want to be a princess at all. Most girls would have killed for that chance, but not Chae Kyung. It makes her a great heroine in my mind. She does have a lot of faults, like she makes a lot of problems for the royal family when she could just slow down and think about what she's saying or doing first. However, all of her flaws are harmless and mostly adorable. So I can forgive those.

Love Interest: Crown Prince Lee Shin (Joo Ji Hoon) - He is attractive, loved (by the country and girls), and cocky. So he's like the quintessential arrogant chaebol prince. It is pretty obvious that he's like this because he's young and there's a lot of responsibility on his shoulders. He wasn't originally supposed to be the crowned prince. It should have been Yul and Shin was thrust into the limelight after Yul's father died. So it's not Shin's fault that he wasn't always prepared to be the future king. However, in the beginning Shin is a bit of an a** in ways where it's hard to forgive him (obviously I did, but he goes over the top a bit in how mean he is to Chae Kyung).

Secondary Love Interest: There is a secondary love interest for both main characters. Lee Yul (Kim Jung Hoon) is the secondary love interest for Shin Chae Kyung and Min Hyo Rin (Song Ji Hyo) is the secondary love interest for Lee Shin.

Yul starts out sweet and kind. He knows that his mother is a bit scheming, but really he's just happy to be back with his family and his cousin. Then he falls in love with Chae Kyung and s*** hits the fan. Since she is supposed to marry the prince, and he used to be the prince, but now Shin is the prince. So Yul thinks to himself, "Wait a minute, she should be my princess. AND I love her and Shin obvi doesn't! So this is super not fair!"

Hyo Rin is less relatable as a character. She's just a perfect rich girl who thought she could have it her way with Shin. But when she makes the mistake of not wanting to get engaged at the age of like 17 (which is understandable) she loses him. She thinks "WTF, I just wanted to live my dream of being a ballerina AND becoming the future queen, but on my own time." Wah wah, rich girl problems #AmIRight?

It's kind of a tradition in most romantic comedies and melodramas in K-Dramas to have a secondary love interest. And while I am kind of sick of love triangles in YA books, I kind of love them in my K-Dramas. Maybe because the second male lead is usually so sweet to the main girl. Or maybe because they super duper love the girl character so much that they even encourage her to be with the main male lead because they just want her to be happy (that's what love really is!). BTW, this is not what happens in the this show (sorry 'bout it!). Yul is not a fan of Shin. I mean, he loves him kind of like a brother, but he gets jealous right quick and most of it is because he loves Chae Kyung and Chae Kyung love Shin. Oy vey, so much angst.

Anyway, on the flip side, the secondary female lead is usually a jealous and manipulative character. And I kind of hate that. There are some exceptions, but usually when the love triangle in K-Dramas involve two girls and a guy it comes out to sneaky manipulation and lots of drama! (Don't like this, but it does add to the drama part of K-dramas). This is definitely how it plays out in Goong. I personally love Song Ji Hyo, so the fact that her character stinks really upset me. But I won't hold it against anyone because with royalty comes drama and with teen romance comes drama, so really she never had a chance in this story.

Allies and Enemies:

Kim Hye Ja as the Queen Mother Park
Yoon Yoo Sun as Queen Min
Park Chan Hwan as Emperor Lee Hyun
Lee Yoon Ji as Princess Hye Myung (Shin's sister)
Shim Hye Jin as [Hye Jung Goong] Lady Seo Hwa Young (Yul's mother)
Lee Ho Jae as the Head butler Gong
Jun Soo Yeon as Escort Choi
Won Mi Won as Attendant Suh (Lee Yul's former nanny)

Chae Kyung's family
Im Ye Jin as Chae Kyung's mother
Kang Nam Gil as Chae Kyung's father
Kim Suk as Shin Chae Joon (Chae Kyung's younger brother)

Setting: An alternate reality Korea where the emperor still exists and runs as a constitutional monarchy (they liken it to England a lot)

Random Thoughts: I like alternate reality shows, I like that there are still recognizable elements of the world we live in, but it's just slightly different. Like when you ask the question "what would it be like if there was still an emperor in Korea?" I love shows that answer those random questions. It was based on a Manwha (similar to a Japanese Manga) of the same name so it has a lot of those comic elements. 

This show was adorable. It was a bit slow in the middle, and it did that thing that dramas (and animes) do where it repeats the same kind of conflict over and over again from episode to episode. However, there were some nice reveals and the character development of the two mains was great. They really grew as people and it happened in a good and organic way for me.

I like the Chae Kyung was in no way perfect in the beginning. Sometimes there are dramas where there is the bratty and conceited chaebol heir/prince and he is shown how to really feel/love by a sweet and sassy girl (cough Heirs cough). But the girl doesn't grow as vastly as the boy does. This isn't actually the case in Goong. Chae Kyung is fumbling, clumsy, and has no aspirations or etiquette. She grows up a lot in the course of the show. So by the end she is a more complete person. 

I didn't love the "bad guys" in the show. Lady Seo Hwa Young is a little too manipulative and conniving. I mean, she lived a perfectly happy, comfortable life with her son in Europe. And if she hadn't been so selfish in wanting the throne then Yul would have kept being perfectly happy too. I think that Yul deserved to be back in Korea with his family, but the way it happened obviously wasn't for his happiness. And even though Lady Seo Hwa Young presented it like she was doing it all for him, she totally was doing it for herself. (This is often a recurring theme in K-Dramas when parents push their kids to live out their "dreams" for them). 

In the end the show was a fun teen romance with some royal intrigue and alternate reality yumminess. There was family, friendship, love and coming of age all in a great drama. There were also some wonderful cultural references that spoke about traditions that have been in Korea since the Joseon period, which I loved.

Side note: This drama is apparently how G-Dragon and Seungri truly became friends, and I love anything Big Bang. So that's a glowing endorsement for Goong. Hahaha

Monday Musings: Ways to procrastinate from NaNoWriMo and still feel productive (kind of)

Hey guys, are y'all writers, are y'all taking part in NaNoWriMo? Well, if you are then you may or may not have already given in to your need to procrastinate. Something I definitely have not done at all, for sure 100% not.

However, if I were procrastinating instead of writing, I'd do it in a writer fashion. And that's looking up things about books, writing, and publishing.

So if you want some cool things to look at while you're procrastinating from NaNoWriMo while still feeling like you've been productive then here are some procrastination suggestions for your procrastinating pleasure (whew, run on sentence. Which happens to me more and more as NaNo goes on):

1. Things about Writing:

I like to hone my craft as I'm writing, so I just look at these blogs all day every day:

Literary Rambles

Brenda Drake's Making Connections

Dorothy Dreye's We Do Write

Chuck Wendig's Terribleminds Blog

Cupid's Literary Connection

Krista Van Dolzer's Mother.Write.Repeat

2: Things about Querying and Publishing:

I've been watching and listening to podcasts/vlogs. 

The two that I've liked lately are: 

Shipping & Handling with Bridget Smith of Dunham Literary Inc. & Jennifer Udden of the Donald Maass Literary Agency.

AND

PubTalkTv with Summer Heacock (@Fizzygrrl), Kelsey Macke (@KelsNotChels), Monica Odom (modomodom), Jessica Sinsheimer (@jsinsheim), Roseanne Wells (@RivetingRosie)

AND

For YA Writers (because this is a YA/MG blog) I like Adventures in YA Publishing.

AND

Minorities in Publishing is a blog and podcast about Minorities in Publishing (@minoritiesinpub) with Jen (@jbakernyc) Bev (@lolbev)

3. Thing about Books and Reading:

Come on, you knew I'd link We Need Diverse Books. It's necessary to mention.

And Book Smugglers is a good review site if you're struggling to choose a book to read next and so is Book Riot

And a shout-out to my former home blog Books Are Bread

NaNoWriMo: Coming Soon to a computer near you!

Hey guys, it's that time of the year! Fall!

My favorite season because of apple cider, Thanksgiving, pretty trees AND NaNoWriMo! 

National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo as the cool kids say, is a challenge to write a WHOLE BOOK(50,000 words) in the month of November. 

And fighting the slow pull of insanity while trying to meet word count. Just kidding, kind of.

It also brings the writer community together and can jump-start a new novel idea.

According to Nanowrimo.org:

National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) is a fun, seat-of-your-pants approach to creative writing. On November 1, participants begin working towards the goal of writing a 50,000-word novel by 11:59 p.m. on November 30. Valuing enthusiasm, determination, and a deadline, NaNoWriMo is for anyone who has ever thought fleetingly about writing a novel.

NaNoWriMo kind of reminds me of college because you have an excuse to be grouchy and crazy at 3 AM and there are likely other people doing that exact same thing! So you know what that means, 3AM coffee/wine and whine time with friends! 

I also always like to point out that some awesome novels were started and/or written during Nanowrimo (http://nanowrimo.org/published-wrimos).

Okay, so here are some of the fun things you get by signing up (FOR FREE) at Nanowrimo.org

Cool stats and graphs telling you how awesome (or, in my case, how lazy) you are:

Awesome Forums where you can connect with other authors. There are so many options to base the forums on (genre, hobbies, progress in your WIP, where you live, who you read):

And there are some Regional specific events:

I participated in NaNoWriMo for the past two years (and won *cough cough*). I loved it, I loved meeting new people and working on a new WiP. Fun fact, none of my WiPs from NaNoWriMo became full novels. However, I don't think that's a bad thing. I got super inspired (often times halfway through NaNo) to write MSs that DID become full books. And I queried the snot out of at least one (that means I thought it wasn't complete garbage and other people were allowed to read it). So, there you go.

Anyway, I love the idea of NaNoWriMo. I like anything that gets people to write and to get excited about writing. I am knee deep in a WiP, but it's actually split into 2 parts, so I'm writing part 2 of my YA contemporary fantasy during NaNo this year.

If you want, you can find me on the site and we can be nanowrimo pals! (I'm katjc589)

Feature Follow Friday: Kiss, Marry, Kill

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:

Pick Three Book Characters - Kiss? Marry? Kill?

Kiss

Jace

The Mortal Instruments

I really like Jace's snarky personality and his bad-boy attitude. But he does give Clary some anxious moments when he acts a fool. So I don't think I'd want to have a real relationship with him (plus he super loves Clary). But I wouldn't mind the kissing.

Marry

Minho

Maze Runner

Minho is strong, smart, and funny. These are all things I would totally want in a husband. He's also Korean, this is what my grandmother would want in a husband for me. So really Minho was made for me to marry (or my cousin Axie I guess, since we have the same grandmother). Anyway, I love him, he's one of my favorite Maze Runner characters and I would marry him and help him deal with his maze PTSD and cook him kalbi and kimchi chigae.

Mikolas Vavra 

Daughter of Smoke and Bone

He is a side-side-side character at first. He is the crush (and eventual boyfriend) of Zuzana, Karou's BFF in Daughter of Smoke and Bone. So he is a human who happens to be thrust in the middle of all of the supernatural happenings in the story. I love how he accepts and fits into this world of angels and monsters. And I love how loyal he is to Zuzana and by association to Karou. He's just a great boyfriend and would probably be a great husband.

Kill

Clancy

The Darkest Minds

I've said before that I think Clancy is too evil. So I'm just going to quote myself here (haha) "I don't particularly like villains that are just villains. I much prefer the ones that have a redeeming characteristic so that I can be conflicted about and for them."