City of Thieves

One of the books I have read recently is City of Thieves by David Benioff. I do not remember how this book got on my list of books to read but it was on my list for a little while. I am glad I read it because it showed an interesting view of Russia during WW2. It is supposed to be comical but it has it sad points to. It shows what Leningrad was like in winter time while the Russians were fighting against the Germans. To make it not so depressing because it sure could have taken that route, Benioff has two very charismatic characters. The Story is being told be Lev, a 17 year old virgin Jew (his words not mine). He gets captured after seeing a dead German fall from the sky and decided to steal what he can from the body. He should have been executed for his crime but the Colonel of the city is planning the wedding of his daughter and needs eggs for the cake. He pairs Lev with Koyla, a wise cracking deserter, telling them that if they can bring him a dozen eggs in 4 days they will not be executed for their crimes.

Koyla is the character that keeps the mood of the book light and from not taking a plunge into the depression of that time. There are still many things that happen to these to characters that make your eyes water but it also makes you smile. The stuff these to get into to get these eggs are just, well amazing.

I truly recommend this book for all ages to read. It shows a different aspect of the World War 2 that not everyone is probably aware of with the amount of starvation that Leningrad went through when trying to survive the onslaught of the Germans. I also like to see all aspects of the war because it should not be forgotten or put into the back of ones mind the horrible things that happened during that war.

Another book to read that shows a different view of the war is the Book Thief by Markus Zusak. I read this book years ago but the story has stayed with me. It is about a girl who is adopted by a poor family in Munich. The family is not Nazis but they have to pretend to go along otherwise something would happen to them. They even hide a Jewish man in their basement for a little while even thought they do not have much money or room. This is a top read for everyone.

Ok so I have more books that I have read recently but I will save them for tomorrow when I have yet another day of nothing to do at work.

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Friday Night Knitting Club

Since I have become a recent knitter my friends might of thought i picked this book up because of the knitting aspect of it. The truth is that it is the second book that is focused around a group of women knitting that i have read and the first one i was not even thinking of knitting yet.

I really enjoyed this book. It is about a group of women in NY city trying to figure their lives out in one way or another. They all come to Walker and Daughter, the knitting shop, every Friday to get together and knit even though sometimes they just sit and talk, or joke around. Each women has something different going on in their lives that you hope will turn out right for them.

I will spoil a little by saying the ending is very sad. I was listing to this book and i was on the bus when i got to the part that i wanted to cry at and had to hold back my tears because i will not be that person crying on the bus.

While looking on the Internet about this book, i found out that it is being made into a movie with Julia Roberts playing Georgia Walker the owner of the shop. I can not wait to go see it but who knows when it will come out. The first website said 2009 but it is almost the end of 2009 and i have not seen anything about it. The another post said 2010 which seems more likely. I will wait patiently for its release by reading more books, watching more movies, and knitting my ass of.

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Chocolate

Acclaimed Thai action director Prachya Pinkaew helms this martial arts drama, which follows Zen (JeeJa Yanin), a young autistic woman who discovers that she has the uncanny ability to absorb precision fighting skills just by watching martial arts movies. When her cancer-ridden mother's creditors come calling, Zen attempts to settle the debts by standing up to a hardnosed gang of criminals who have wrongfully swindled money from her family.




Now that you know what netflix says the movie is about let me give my thoughts on the film.


Yes, it is about an autistic girl who's mother is dying form cancer and learns martial atrs by watching movies. But she does not know what she is doing when she is fighting the bad guys. She just knows that they have money that belongs to her mother and she will get it back from them. Then at the end she just wants to get her mother back from the bad guy and then to stop him from hurting her mother.


This was a good movie and I recommend it,especially if you like kung fu movies. I do not know what it sounded like dubbed but the subtitles where good and you needed them even when they spoke English since they had such strong accents you would not of been able to understand them anyway.

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Sugar Queen

The Sugar Queen by Sara Addison Allen was a very good book and i recommend it to everyone. It is about a group of women who are stuck in their lives when something happens that makes them move forward. Josie, the main character, is stuck taking care of a mother who does not love her but Josie feels sham for what she was like as a child so puts up with the criticisms her mother doles out to here. To escape she eats sweets and reads romances novels in her closet and will not throw away a red sweater her mother hates. Not much of a escape but it keeps her slightly sane.

Then one day Della Lee Baker shows up and has taken up residence in her closest and tries to help Josie out of the life she is in. First she sends her out for a sandwich from Chloe who is having her own problems. Josie becomes good friends to both women. Each one of these three women are unique and have something special about them.

I did listen to this book, not read it. But it was one of those books that i could not stop reading. I took my player everywhere with me so i could keep reading the book. It is definitely not one to put down.

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Twilight - book and Movie

So, I am a total slacker on this as anyone who knows me can tell you. which is fine since i do not think anyone actually looks at this blog. I now have a counter on the bottom to see how many people might actually look at it. Since it counts me i will see how many times i visit it :)

So, Twilight....I have not figured out why so many people love this book. I have read many vampire books because i have an addiction(My name is Laura, and i am addicted to Vampires...Hello Laura) I want to say that the reason i did not like it was because of the vampires in it but i thought the concept of the vampire in the book intriguing minus the sparkly thing that the sun does to them. No, I think it was the girl Bella, who reminded me of teenagers from high school who drove me nuts in high school. She might say that she is a mature teenager but i thought she acted like any other teenager. Sure, she cooked dinner for her father and looked after her mother but that is what she wanted to do, she did not have to do that. The whole book was her getting used to a new life and meeting a boy who first ignores her then pays attention, then ignores, then gives her more attention, then tells her a secret. A really handsome boy. It took me 8 days to read the Twilight. Since it took others i know only a day or two to read and i am known to read books that i like just as fast, i definitely figured i am not a Twilight person. Then i tried to read New Moon, but Bella stated complaining right from the start and i just could not do it. With Twilight, I had to force myself to read it but i have decided that i do not want to wast my time on reading the rest of the series. I will just watch the movies since all the books will become movies. Of course I will not wast money to see them in the Movie theater(especially since i would complain and get booed out by the fanatics) but will rent them when they come out on video and watch them with another friend who is not a fan.

Now lets talk about the Movie. Some of friends who love Twilight think they like it because the saw the movie first and then read the books. I do not think that would of happened to me because i have seen many movies and then read the books. I liked the movies but hated the books.(OK there is only one that i can think of right now even thought I do not remember the name right now) The movie though never looked appealing to me when i watch the previews so i do not think i would of liked the series if i watch the movie first. What i did like about the Movie was that it was only two hours long. It was not 300 pages until they got to anything interesting. Then i was not sure if the actor who played Edward would do a good job since while i was reading the book i kept picturing him and he did not fit my image. But he did do a great job. I was little disappointed they did not look at that one vamp that can see into the future as much or say how the bad guy had a role in her becoming a vamp, but there is so much one can put in a movie from a book, which makes me wonder what i will miss by not reading the other books.

So now i will have to wait for New Moon to come out on Video to see if i will be able to watch the last two. But i will not read those blasted books.

No Angel

This book was very good and i highly recommend it. It starts before WW1 and is about the trials and tribulations of one family. There are times when i wanted to kill the author though. She would have this horrible thing about to happen and she go back and froth until you where about to scream because it would be horrible if it did happen. and she did this many times through the book. Everything always turned out good in the end. The characters are strong characters that you fall in love with and want to know what happens to them. It is a long book though so be warned.

Seventh Son

I just finished the second book in Orson Scott Card's series of Alvin Maker. Let's just say that it was fantastic and i can not wait to read the next 4 in the series.


Card says he based these books on an epic poem he wrote and all i can think is that it was one big poem. He did say he added to it but still. There are six books now with a seventh still in the making.


The story is about Alvin Maker who is the Seventh Son of a Seventh Son. If anyone knows their fairy tails, they know that the seventh son is very special and a seventh son of a seventh son is even more special. A great evil tried to stop the birth of Alvin because he is to change the world.

Also the books are an alternate history of America. It is kind of hard to explain it, but what i got from it was that witches did not get burned for practising witchcraft. Many of the people were actually sent to America from England because they were witchs. There are still holy people who look down on it but a person is not punished because of it. There are also wizards and one of the most famous was Benjamin Franklin.

Then the Indians have a different power then the whites which is showed in the second book. It is close to their beliefs with the worship of the nature. Napoleon is also in the second book with the ability to make people love him by touching them. He is sent to America to defeat the English.



So I recommend these books for people to read. I got so engrossed with the second book, that i could not get any work done while i listened to it yesterday. I have to wait for the other books until they are available to borrow from the library, which is probably a good thing or i will never get anything done.