Movies, Books, and Laura

City of Thieves

2010-01-14T08:27:00.000-08:00

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

2009-12-17T06:45:00.000-08:00

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

2009-12-14T13:40:00.000-08:00

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

2009-12-10T14:09:00.001-08:00

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

2009-08-28T14:49:00.000-07:00

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

2009-02-05T08:20:00.000-08:00

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

2009-01-16T09:16:00.000-08:00

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.

Kinky Boots

2008-12-15T13:41:00.000-08:00

Yes, this is my second post today and it is only minutes after my last post, but i have nothing to do at work and i want to keep everything separate.

So, "Kinky Boots" is great. It turns out to be based on a true story about a shoe maker in England that starts making shoes for drag queens. Of course the movie embellishes the story with love stories and prejudices on drag queens.

The actor, Chiwetel Ejiofor, who played the drag queen did a brilliant job of it and showed how hard it is to be accepted for who you are.

The movie also shows how much more open England is compared to America yet again.

So go rent this movie for it is very good.

The Kingdom and the Elves of the Reaches

2008-12-15T13:22:00.000-08:00

I just listened to the series "The Kingdom and the Elves of the Reaches" There are four books in this series with this name and then they continue with four more books with the name of "In the Service of Dragons" Since the second group of four are not available yet to put on my ipod to listen to by my library i have only read the first four.

My opinion of these books are slightly mixed. It is an interesting tale and i do want to keep reading but for a book made for the reading level of ages 9-12 it seemed really complicated. (Yes, I read children's book's sometimes) I am way past 12 and i would sometimes get confused on what was happening from one moment to the next. I got the gist of what happened but i still feel like i missed some minor things that happened in the book. It might of been because i listened to the books instead of reading them but i do not believe so.

I did like the story though and would recommend people to try them out if they have nothing else to read.

Lie with Me

2008-12-05T07:11:00.000-08:00

A truly interesting Movie. At first i thought i had rented a soft core porn movie and in a way it almost is but it is trying to tell a story about the way sex has had an effect on younger generations. Young people( early 20's to mid 20's i am thinking) seem to want only sex with others and not commitment because that just leads to divorce. Yet these two dysfunctional people realized that in the end that what they felt for each other was not just lust but love.

Basically it is an interesting movie but maybe only something to watch when you have nothing else to do that day. Definitely not a kid friendly movie.

The Trips

2008-09-08T08:52:00.000-07:00

As expected, I have not been using my blog. I knew that would happen since i can always do something else instead of talk about myself and what i am doing. Not that it matters since i am not doing much.

Two exciting things in my life at the moment. First, I went to New Jersey to see my friend Ellen and her family. It was really fun because i have missed them terribly and want them to leave New Jersey and come back to Denver where they belong. (OK, they can belong anywhere, i just want them here) Only down point of the trip was the massive sun burn i received the day before i had to fly home. Nothing is sadder then realizing that you can not bring the gallon of lotion onto the plain for your sun burn because they think it is an explosive. Thank god there was a Body Works store on the other side of the security gates. Of course their cream was so oily it gave me a large amount of back zits. , yea.

Second item, is that i am travailing to Austin Texas for the Game Developer Conference on Friday of this week. I am driving down with two 20 year olds. They love to say how they can drive forever and so when i said we will start on Friday night after class, they did not seemed to thrilled. All i can say is that i am not driving 16 hours in one day. I will take a nap after work and drive Friday night. Calab does not work all the time so he can help me drive for goodness sake. OK, i am venting on the idiots but that is because i can right. that is what blogs are for. More venting, the stupid place to stay has driven me around the bend. First, we were going to stay at Brandon's friends place. Me being a girl and older took dibs on the couch and the boys could sleep on the floor. Then his friend's place was sold out from underneath him and we had no place to stay. He was going to see if some of his Church friends would put us up but took to long to get back to us. So, i complained to my dad and said there were a couple of motels about 2 miles from the conference. He said that i should get a room in one of the hotels that are part of the conference no matter how much it is. So that is what i did, doing it for four people since another guy was flying in and was going to stay with us. Then when i told my dad how much it was and he was stunned and said he was thinking of a place that was cheaper and i told him those were the ones that were two miles away and had scary reviews. then the guy who was flying in is not coming and i am not sure if i will be able to get the hotel to lessen the amount on the room since it will be three instead of four. Then, i have decided to fly home instead of drive home because i just want to. SO i looked at the prices and deiced to try and use some of my United Airline miles that i have. I know i have them but i could not find them. After talking to someone at united, i found them and i had 37,000. enough for the ticket i wanted. Since i was only doing one way i had to talk to someone which cost me $25. Then because i did it so late i had to pay another $50. then they said if i wanted to check in any bags it will cost me$15 for the first one and $25 for each one after. so i will be planing on a carry on bag but can we just ahhhh.

So, that is it for now. If work does not pick up soon i will probably add some more later today.

My favorite thing to do with Blogs...

2008-07-09T17:21:00.000-07:00

What I have been doing since my friends have stared blogging is to look at the blog that is after them. You know where it says up top , Next Blog. It is really interesting and most of the time it is in some other language. I am telling you this because i found an interesting picture on one that i am going to put here.

Isn't it neat. I like it. Tick tack toe anyone....

have i mention how little time i have....

2008-05-30T18:17:00.000-07:00

I am not sure how my friends can blog so much. I never seem to have the time to do it. Mind you I go to school at night and work during the day and half of my friends are stay at home moms. Yet they are busy, at least i think they are. this term at school i will be able to write more since i will only be going to school three nights a week but i am going full time at work so who knows. Lets see what books i can tell you about since i discussed movies last time.

There is one author that i have read many different works from. her name is Christine Feehan. She writes a vampire version of books and also a psychic serious. I have read a couple from each and some of her short stories. The reason i discuss all of things i have read of hers is to remind myself to not read another of her stories. Her short ones are fine but when i get to the full novels i get irritated and annoyed. I not sure exactly why and do not discourage people from reading her stuff because she does take an interesting few on the vampires. That view is that Vlad the impaler, who is the person many people attribute with Dracula, is part of a vampire like society but they are here to protect the world from evil but if the Carpathian (which what they call themselves) does not find their mate they might become an evil vampire who will try and destroy the world. The psychic story line is just as interesting. It starts with a girl who is a part a group of kids that had experiments done on them when they were young that gave them psychic abilities but then they were separated. The girl and a group of solders that are part of the guy she fell in love with are trying to find them. All the kids are girls and all the solders are boys. can see where this is going. they are all going to fall in love and there will be graphic sex parts of the book which can always get tiring after a little while. I do not think it is the sex that annoys me since the last book i read of hers called Dark Melody the characters could not have sex because of complications so there was none until the last 50 pages and then that was basically what the last 50 pages were. The book annoyed way before that started happen, so i believe it is something else and i do not now what.

Now that i have gotten that off my chest lets talk about a book that i enjoyed reading and the was the Count of Monte Cristo. I had to read this for many reasons. One, it is a classic and i am trying to read more of the classics. two, I saw the movie and wanted to see how they compared. Since I listened to it on CD instead of read it, i figured out really quickly that the two would not be the same since there was 35 discs to listen to. the average book is around 12 discs so that says the Count of Monte Cristo is a really big book. That is OK since it is one of the more easier books to listen to that is classical. For those who do not know what the story is about here is a quick summary. Edmond (a poor but happy young man) is about to marry is love and become caption of his ship. Those that wanted what he had, conspired against him and he was thrown into prison where he stayed for 10 years even though he did nothing wrong. He escapes and seeks revenge on all that betrayed him and help those who tried to help him or his father. You want more detail then that pick up the book and read the back cover.

I read many other books and seen many other movies but I need to go so that is all for now.

So many books and movies, so little time

2008-05-08T07:44:00.000-07:00

I have read and seen so many different books and movies over the past month I do not know what to say. I will probably not remember the movies since i found myself watching a movie that I had already seen but had forgotten that i had watched it already and that movie was "Ring 2" Not as good as the first witch is probably why i forgot i had already seen it. A goo sequel that i did see was "Grudge 2". It had a lot of good jumps to it and the plot took on an interesting turn by moving the curse to America.

Two other movies that i have seen is Sweeney Todd with Johnny Depp and Heavy Metal 2000. Can we say two really opposite movies? Sweeney Todd was interesting with all the singing and it was interesting to realize that the guy who played Borat was in the movie. Of course i did not recognize him at first. He is the barber that Sweeney challenges to a shave off if you did not know. Then Heavy Metal 2000 was a little disappointing since it was only slightly similar to the first Heavy Metal. I was expecting a group of stories revolving around an evil green orb like last time and all i got was one story about a green key that turns the owner mad. Oh well.

I have other things to do and will come back to discuss the books i have read later even though i do not think any one actually reads this but who knows.

Book time

2008-04-09T12:50:00.000-07:00

So, as i might of said before i listen to books at work as well as read them. In the last week and half i have listened to two books and read one. The first book i listened tow was this one by Terry Prachett, called Going Postal. As anyone who has read any book from Terry they know it is full of weird humor. This one is no different. It was fun to read and if you like fun books you should read this one. It is about a criminal that was giving a second chance at life by running the post office that has not delivered a letter in over 40 years but has still collected mail. There are piles of mail everywhere and he has to try and figure out what to do.

The second book that I listen to was called Elements of Style by Wendy Wasserstein. It is about a group of upper crust people in New York a little while after 9/11. It is an interesting look at the in and outs of the upper crust and how petty they can be. It also makes me glad that i am not part of the group of people. I do not think i can deal with all the pressure to be perfect.

The Book i read this month was the Accidental Vampire by Lynsay Sands. I believe that this is her seventh book but i could be wrong. She has given the look at vampires an interesting twist. Instead of being cured people who die when they are turned, they are people from Atlantes that came up with nanoites that made them into vampires. Each of her books follow a vamp that thinks they have found their lifemates and what they do to get them. They are fun romance vampire books and this one is just as fun as her others.

Whole bunch of Movies

2008-03-31T11:33:00.000-07:00

So I have seen a whole bunch of movies over the last two weeks have not written about them. The first one that i saw two weeks ago but forgot to talk about was the movie and it was Horton Hears a Who.

What can you say about this movie. It is a Dr. Seuss movie. That should explain it all. I do not remember this tail from when i was a child but the book looked familiar when i looked at the book. My mother said she always liked this book so we probably have it somewhere.

The movie "This is England" was an interesting look at England in the 1980's It also showed an interesting look at the English skinhead. The funny thing was that sometimes when the characters were to say something and i would think i was watching Red Dwarf. OK, I know that i was not but they did say a lot of the same things which would make sense since Red Dwarf was made in the 80's and the movie took place in the eights. Yea, sometimes i am slow but i get there sooner or later. This was a good movie to see but expect some violence.

This was a fun movie to see and i highly recommend it. It is about kid that has to travel though time to find items to save the world from darkness. The effects where very good also. I found it quite entertaining to watch.

I did see this in the theater but i have just rented again to see it. I have not read the book in a long time but i thought they did a great adaption of the book. It was very fun to watch.

When i saw the preview for this movie i always knew i would like it so i of course saw it in the theaters. It might be my fatalistic look of the future and wondering what the world would be like in the future if something terrible happiness like what happened in this movie. It is violent with a lot blood. I liked the movie a lot.

I think i saw one other movie but i can not remember what it was. So that is about it for now.

2008-03-28T15:07:00.000-07:00

The joy of reading books and listening to them on tape is that i get many more books read. So for post number two of the day i will tell of the second book i finished today.

When looking at this cover people are probably thinking not another vampire romance novel with lots of unbelievable sex scenes but it is not. There is no sex in it at all.

Now, i have read many different books on vampires and as i write my blogs you will see a whole bunch of them since i seem to have a thing for vampires. This is an interesting take on the vampire world. There are two types of vampires, the made ones and the born ones. The made ones ignore the made ones and try and find a born vamp with a good fertility rating. There is no love in the matches of born vampires. The main character wants a man of her own but she wants love so she decided to start a dating service to help everyone find what they need. I making this to complicated. lets keep it simple. It was a cute book even though the heroin had a problem with noticing the labels of everyone's clothes. Easy to read and if you like vampires like and need a quick book to read then this is the one for you.

The Family Tree

2008-03-28T11:38:00.000-07:00

Just finished the book called the Family Tree. It is the story of three generations of women and the lives. Not all of their lives just the import parts. It is tole by the last female and her looking back to when her mom was alive and looking at the history of her grandmother and the love that she had lost. So it is basically three stories being told at the same time. the daughters, the mothers, and the grandmothers. Which means it jump around a lot. I listen to it on tape so maybe it is not as jumpy if you are reading it. It was good though and i recommend it to those who need a book to read. It is British so expect a lot of British terminology like lift and lay-in.

Night Watch and Day Watch

2008-03-25T15:11:00.000-07:00

So this is the movie I watched over the weekend. I saw in the theater when it came out in 2004 and what i liked about it when it came out was what it did with its subtitles. It is a Russian movie if no one figured that out. What they did with the subtitles was make them part of the movie. Like in the beginning when the boy is swimming and he hears a voice calling to him. instead of just hearing the eerie voice the subtitles take on a blood like look to them and float away in the water. Sometimes it even looks like it is blood coming from the boys nose bleed which is the result of the call. Another thing that the subtitles did was when a character screamed at the main character that got big like the were screaming to. So when i rented this movie i as hoping to enjoy these features but it did not even have it spoken in Russian.

Other then that it is a great movie. The idea of the tale is very original. Then what they do with the spacial effects is just great. I highly recommend this movie.

Then there is Day Watch the sequel to watch. When the first movie came out they said it would be the first part in a trilogy. After watch Day Watch i have no idea of where they are going to go with a third movie but i hope not to miss it.

I did miss Day Watch in the theaters so i did not get to see if the continued with what they did with the subtitles. The story is just as great here as in the first. The special effects might even be better then before. There is this great scene where a girl is driving her car along the side of the building and there is a cleaning lady one of the rooms that just looks out the window in dismay because of the tire streak on the other side of the window she just finished cleaning.

Anyways, watch both is what i recommend.

2008-03-25T14:23:00.000-07:00

Since it seems that everyone i know has a blog i might as well try and have one also. The main word in that sentence is TRY. I thought about what i could blog about and thought of all the movies i watch and all the books i read and realized that i could write about them. Since blogs are supposed to be about the person who is writing the blog and everything that happens in their lives, i knew that would never work for me. My blog would be small and boring if i only talked about my life since all i do is work and go to school. Since no one wants to hear about my boring job or what i have learned about in school i will talk about the books or movies that i have read or seen recently. I will add stuff about me if something interesting happens but since that is a rarity we will not have to worry about it. well that is it for now. More latter.