Stuff I Got This Week

For Review:

Midwinterblood - Marcus Sedgwick

Have you ever had the feeling that you've lived another life? Been somewhere that has felt totally familiar, even though you've never been there before, or felt that you know someone well, even though you are meeting them for the first time? It happens. In 2073 on the remote and secretive island of Blessed, where rumour has it that no one ages and no children are born, a visiting journalist, Eric Seven, and a young local woman known as Merle are ritually slain. Their deaths echo a moment ten centuries before, when, in the dark of the moon, a king was slain, tragically torn from his queen. Their souls search to be reunited, and as mother and son, artist and child, forbidden lovers, victims of a vampire they come close to finding what they've lost. In a novel comprising seven parts, each influenced by a moon - the flower moon, the harvest moon, the hunter's moon, the blood moon - this is the story of Eric and Merle whose souls have been searching for each other since their untimely parting.

So that's what I got this week. What did you all get?

Top Ten Tuesday

This week's topic is:

Top Ten Books I read in 2012...

Sparks - S.J. Adams

I saw this title on the Rainbow List and loved the title. I didn't love the cover so I thought I'd try it before buying it. It is 100% amazing. 

Adaptation - Malinda Lo

I have read Malinda's other two novels and felt fairly lukewarm about them. This one really was incredible though. Just different and intense.

The False Prince - Jennifer A. Nielsen

A surprising read for me. It was part of Scholastic's Mother-Daughter BookClub. It was just so well-written and I adored the main character.

Battle Royale - Koushun Takami

YES! This book is amazing. 

The Night Circus - Erin Morgenstern

This was such a lovely book. I wish I could cut out the section I didn't like, but even with it I am so in love with this novel.

Transcendence - C.J. Omololu
Very different from Dirty Little Secrets, but amazing. I really enjoyed the time travel in this novel.

Amelia Anne is Dead and Gone - Kat Rosenfield
From the cover to the last page I adored this book. A perfect mystery-blend.

This is Not a Test - Courtney Summers
The best zombie novel I've read. Not zombie heavy, just lovely.

Born Wicked - Jessica Spotswood
A very exciting novel about witches, I hope they come back in style, because this was delightful.

The Diviners - Libba Bray
Libba Bray is just brilliant. The setting and the creepiness make me want to read this one again (with the lights on).

Honorable Mention: Chopsticks: a novel - Jessica Anthony & Rodrigo Corral
This book was beautiful. If there is a YA novel more beautiful and heartfelt than this one I want to know about it. So few words, but so much emotion packed into it.

The Broke and the Bookish is a group of college aged and twenty somethings that have an unhealthy obsession with reading and would spend every last penny on books even if it meant skipping a few meals. We are the people  who lurk in the library, buy handbags based on how many books can be stashed in them, and who refer to characters in books as if they are personal friends.

We sought after other bookish college students to share in our love for reading and were brought together by the College Students group on Goodreads that was created in September 2008. Our desire to share great books with each other in and our tendency to be opinionated and passionate about all things book related naturally led to the birth of The Broke and the Bookish in June 2010.

Movie Review: Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter

Where I got it: Library
Rating: 2.5 stars 
Cover Rating: 5 stars (Absolutely delightful.)
Rating: Rated R
DVD Release Date: October 23, 2012
Run Time: 1 hour 45 minutes
Buy it: Amazon

For a summary of this movie, check out my review of the book version here.

So you often find that the movie is not nearly as good as the book. For one reason or another it just doesn't meet expectations. Things get dropped and the can make the movie just plain not as good. What strikes me funny about how bad this movie was is the fact that the author of the novel wrote the screenplay for this. Despite this fact the movie seemed like a loosely based version of the novel. I suppose the movie was more entertaining, the book would probably be more closely similar to a documentary than a blockbuster. It seemed like too many things were changed and dropped though.

Another point that bugged me was Abe's superhuman strength and the disregard for the laws of physics. So many scenes in this movies suspended belief. Why did Abe have to have superpowers in the movie? He didn't in the novel and it was perfect, it made sense. Then to watch the movie it just seemed crazy. Why couldn't Abe have just built up his strength? Why the magical?

I was very disappointed in this movie. Maybe I would have enjoyed it slightly more if I hadn't read the book? Still the physics and superhuman strength bugged me quite a bit. Watch it if you dare.