2010 Reading Wrap Up

With 2010 just a few days away from coming to a close I'm revisiting the year in many different ways, from favourite films to movie memories to what I've seen but also what I've read and a lot of what I read this year was influenced by my 2010 Book to Film Challenge List. I actually did very well with this challenge, finishing all 20 books (albeit the last Lord of the Rings I put on hiatus for several months) on the list and overall reading over 80 books this calendar year and hope to sneak in 2 more before 2011 chimes in. Although I haven't been writing about the books as much as I'd like to along the way, I'd like to rectify that now with the remaining books on the challenges list and also touch on some the great books and things I've noticed this year.

If you are a book to film fan, be sure to swing back here in early 2011 as I'll be announcing my play-along 2011 book-to-film adaptation challenge. It's gonna be fun and I hope you will play along!


Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J.K. Rowling
Lots of things surprized me when reading this 5th book in the Harry Potter series, I obviously didn't retain tons from the first read (or more likely the film imprints stronger with me) and there were way more changes book to film or ... shifting I should say than I remembered - but a lot of it is done really well and some of the non-plot but important character things were shifted to Half-Blood Prince. I did really enjoy re-reading this one, but it is where it certainly where things gets harder and harder. But there is still a lot of great foreshadowing for later, I think that's the thing I like most about re-reading the books is that I get more and more out of them every time, seeing more about the characters, their motivations, and their histories can be clearer. And I know it's a small part of it but I love the character of Frieze. Wish they kept him in the film. Ah, well!


Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling
This is a bit of a weird on for me because I know I re-read it in 2009 in anticipation for the film so this is the 3rd read for me but I don't seem to retain that much from it. I actually love the film adaptation and it pulls out very different themes an focuses than I imagined, and so that highly influenced my re-reading of it this time. I do stand strong on the fact that it feels like one of the oddest titles of the series, because it doesn't feel that important of a focus although that could be intentional. Not my fave of the books by far, but still an enjoyable read.


Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling
I really left this one to the last minute, literally finishing the book at 4am when I was seeing the film Part 1 at 9:45am. But technically, I guess I didn't have to finish it considering the films are part I&II but I didn't know how they were splitting them. I actually am really glad that I re-read The Deathly Hallows, I read it so quickly the first time round I didn't retain that much and I was so worried / focused on what would happen that I wasn't enjoying the journey getting there. This time I enjoyed the journey and I actually really enjoyed the focus on the trio in this book, which although the omnipresent ominous world around them is giving no safe place to turn it feels great to see them stand on their own 2 feet (times 3). I enjoyed it much more than the first time round and would honestly, whole-heartedly re-read the series again and again, although (thankfully) won't feel the need to do for Deathly Hallows Part II!


The Tempest by William Shakespeare
I'd be totally lying if I said that I understood all, or even most, of The Tempest. I found it a challenge to get what was going on from simply reading the lines of the play. I did switch to reading a bunch of it aloud, but that felt kind of silly - although I did understand it a lot better when I did that. Ha! Proof that silly is efficient! That's awesome. Anyhow, I kind of got the gist of what was going on in grand strokes and am now very much looking forward to seeing the film adaptation from someone who understands it much better than I! I might re-read it afterwards to see what that's like too. If nothing else it was the shortest of my reading entries this year at 84 pages!


The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the Kings by J.R.R. Tolkien
The last 'to read' on my 2010 challenge and I was kind of dreading it, which feels awful to say for such a beloved book. I was downtrodden from not reading back when I projected in April, I had started it already so I was picked up mid-story, plus in terms of the book-to-film-ness, the film is one that I almost can't bear to watch because I just want to cry because so much is sad in it. So imagine my surprize when I started reading the book and was immediately drawn back in and felt strongly centred in the war of Middle Earth, feeling ridiculously familiar with the characters, their journeys and the tasks at hand. Could be the biggest surprize of the year that I really *enjoyed* reading this one. The fact that I've read a lot more througout the year might have something to do with it as well, being more comfortable in general.

Learnings & Leanings

• Non-Fiction: Where did the Non-fiction go? I want to read more Non-fiction. I don't 'track' my NF reading as much because I tend to not 'read' the whole thing therefore it might not go on my read list or in Good Reads, especially for education/reference stuff like knitting. But this year I didn't work though almost anything that was an a work book, or anything with exercise, and that makes me kind of sad because I like books like that and I love learning. I LOVE it. I might have to actually set aside time a week to work on/read non-fiction because unlike fiction you need time away from it, and I tend to read things straight through. Hopefully I'll be bringing more non-fiction into the mix in 2011.
  
• YA/Kids Books - Although I love YA and kids fiction, I want to add more adult fiction to the roster, especially after reading books like the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and Never Let Me Go where the writing is so strong, it made me realize a lot of the YA stuff out there is crap. Enjoyable crap, but still crap!
• Series - As of early December 2010 I noted that I was in the middle of 18 (!) different book series. This feels more than a little ridiculous, even in the light of reading over 80 books over the year and the fact that I love tracking things, it just feels kind of crazy. Some are on hiatus, some are not all yet even written and there is even one series I hope to finish by the end of the year (yes, I know it's Dec 28th, but there is still time!). Anyhow, I'm having the strong urge not to start any new series until I've completed a different series, unless I really feel drawn to them and/or if they are already written in completion. Not that I'm against series as a concept but some seem never to know when to call it a day, and really drag things out (House of Night felt like this for sure), or even seem to continue after their projected book numbers. I prefer to know what I'm getting into from the beginning, and knowing I'm a completist by nature I want to know how long I'll be on the journey. That feels like a huge disclaimer as the next thing I'm going to say was that there were several series that I absolutely adored and therefore wanted to share the love on them.

So, read a lot. Learned a lot. Didn't write about it as much as I thought I would have throughout the year, but I'm going to highlight a few of the best, most interesting, enjoyable and/or influential books I read in 2010.



The Art of Non-Conformity by Chris Guillebeau
So, I didn't read tons on non-fiction, but I did read The Art of Non-Conformity by Chris Guillebeau, which I adored. Adored! So many times while reading this book I just wanted to find Chris Guillebeau and say "Thank you!" or "You understand" or "Yes!!!". If you have any interest in leading an unconventional life, changing the world, thinking big and doing all of that while being yourself and positively impacting the world around you - this book is for you! Out of the 80+ books I've read this year it has been the most influential and most inspiring. For fans and keeners, there is a unconventional book tour going for the book and has a bunch of Canadian stops in January 2011.



Darkest Powers Trilogy: The Summoning/The Awakening/The Reckoning by Kelley Armstrong I honestly think one of the reason I love this series is that it's only three books, and it uses those three books to tell it's story very, very well. It's a young adult paranormal fiction with romantic elements but the focus is very much on survival and not knowing or understanding what is going on at all. I loved the journey of discovery and the mystery vibe along with anti-establishment energy, and really loved the characters. I really cherished reading these books, they are high up there in terms of the fact that I'd put them as own & re-readers which is rare for library-centric me. I am looking forward to getting into Kelley Armstong's Women of the Underworld series, but I think I might leave that until I have lots of time on deck as I hear it's really absorbing.



Maximum Ride Series by James Patterson
I love the sheer audacity of the short chapters and everyday kid language in these books. I also love that it's a flock (literally, mostly) of make-shift siblings that are avian/human hybrids lead by out fearless leader and female protagonist, Max. There is lots off stuff in the books that are totally off the wall but I love the quick-witted, real-emotion, rag-tag family of the flock. Loved it. Although this kind of breaks the rule of series because it's 5 books then keeps going. I'll forgive it, because I continue to enjoy them.



Percy Jackson Series by Rick Riordan
Modern re-visioning of Greek Mythology in current day New York. These books are brilliant, great use of mythology and respinning it to the contemporary, and I also really liked the characters and their journeys. It's when I read books like this that are so smart and engaging, I know I won't just cut-off reading YA - because there is still a lot of awesome to explore out there!



The Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins
I have mixed feelings about these books as a trilogy. I adored The Hunger Games, I've rarely been as engaged in a book as I was during reading Hunger Games (top 5 pageturners, ever). I was surprized there was a sequel, but riproared through Catching Fire with almost the same intensity as Hunger Games. But Mockingjay wasn't quite for me, it was harder to get into and I was upset during a lot of the time reading it and the fact that felt intentional made me upset *and* mad. In a lot of ways I wish it was just a stand alone book with The Hunger Games - I would have been satisfied with just reading that sole book. It's a very dark post apocalyptic world and very brutal scenarios and young protagonists, so although it's certainly for a YA audience, I'd be hesitant to recommend it to non-adults. There is an upcoming film adaptation, so this one is worth checking out if you are a book-to-filmer as I'm sure we are in for lots of talk about it in the future.



The Saga of Darren Shan
This is the one that I'm trying to finish by the end of the year, and I started the 12-book series in 2009 and I've really enjoyed almost sauntering through this vampire kids series. I really like the character of Darren, who continues to be open, inquisitive, suprized and surprizing throughout the epic mixed with everyday saga.



Vampire Academy series by Richelle Mead
O.M.G. Loved this series, and that's before even reading the last book which I got for Christmas. This is the perfect blend of YA intensity with actual good writing. I love, love, love the series. Strong female protagonist, vampires, romance, friendships and of course the weight of the world on her shoulders. Love it. Can't wait to see how it all gets summed up.

Overalls-list:
Worst Book: The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner by Stephenie Meyer
Most challenging read: Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë - I really wasn't sure I was going to get through it. But I did!
The one that really got me: Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert
Most varied results: House of Night - started off loving it, especially the matriarch structure and alignment to pagan beliefs, but my goodness it went on way too long and didn't like some of the places it went. And it didn't stop as there is and 8th book coming for the 7-book series.
Favourite book of the year: Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
Favourite series of the year: Darkest Powers and Vampire Academy
Favourite non-fiction book: The Art of Non-Conformity by Chris Guillebeau

Wow, that was an epic long post! Thanks for making it to the end. For fellow book lovers, feel free to friend me over at GoodReads and keep an eye out here at Movie Moxie in early 2011 for my new play-along book-to-film challenge! If you know of upcoming book-to-film adaptations that you are interested in, let me know!

Monthly Reading Check-in: July 2010

I think June must have been a crazy epic book reading month, because in July I 'only' got through 9 books and somehow that doesn't seem to compare with June's crowning 12. That 9 doesn't take into account the only partially read The Girl Who Played with Fire, which I had to return to the library before finishing it! I will get it again someday though! Now let's look at a selection of books that I did read in July, mostly ones for the 2010 Book to Film Challenge.

Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert
I absolutely adored this book. I had borrowed it from my sister years ago, before there was even mention of it being a film. I tried to read it years ago but I just couldn't do it, because it was at the time way to close to home. But now, I adored it. Reading the book, which is a 1 year memoir through Italy, India and Indonesia, is literally reading the journey of the author in search of everything, including herself. Inspiring, refreshingly open & honest and completely realitble, I'm delighted it enjoyed 158 weeks on the New York Times Best Sellers list and I think all of my women friends have already read it so I feel really behind on this sucker but I'm so glad that I waited to read it, because trying to push through it years ago would have been not the right thing to do. Reading it now was perfect. I loved it. It was delightful, healing, truthful and powerful. Oddly, the reason to read predates the fact that's it is going to be a film, although it was inspiration to get through it before the films release on August 13, 2010. The film version stars Julia Roberts as Liz, with a supporting cast of Billy Crudup (Stephen) James Franco (David), Richard Jenkins (Richard) and Javier Bardem (Felipe). I hope the film stays very true to the journey of the book.

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling (re-read) Book 4 of 7
Harry Potter reading countdown continues, as the plan is to read all of them before film 7.1 comes out in November. The Goblet of Fire is when the books blossom from a weekend read / very literal film adaptation to holy smokes that's a big sucker of a book / major adaptation to the film. This is the first book where I found huge elements were cut from book to film, albeit at 650 pages, you kind of have to. There is some shuffling of who does what and some characters completely omitted, but I think it's a solid adaptation, and I even like the film better in a lot of ways - specifically the art director of the World Cup and the Yule Ball - absolutely amazing. When I reviewed the film last year I noted and pondered on some odd gender things, and the book confirms that French school was not an all-girls only school, and I really wish they kept it that way in the film. Oddly it's never said one way or another if the Bulgarian school is just guys. Neville seems to be oddly inconsistent on the more or less scale here, I think in this one he's in the film more than the books - and who doesn't love Neville?

The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C.S. Lewis, Narina book # ? I can't figure out the order
So a while ago we finally got a trailer for The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, which made me quick run and request a copy of the book although I was going to leave it for way later in the year. Resistance was broken and I had to read it and boy did I read it quickly, one day and mostly in transit being out and about on the town. What keeps me away from this series, although I always keep thinking it won't be there, is that it has some really strong religious undertones and analogies. I do like how they've done the film adaptations though, where that isn't as prevalent, it's like they found a happy medium where if it's something that is meaningful for you it's present and you can embrace it, but if it will rub you the wrong way it isn't so overt that it will throw you out of the film. Back to the book though, I was surprized that the trailer showed Susan and Peter as they aren't really in the book, which is more so the adventure is Lucy, Edmund, Caspian, Reepicheep and a new character Eustace whom I wrote in my notes as 'a bit of a git'. It story was sweeping adventure stuff all over the place and was overall a lot of fun and now I'm really looking forward to the film which hits theatres December 10, 2010 (in 3D).

Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Titan's Curse by Rick Riordan (book 3 of 5)
Last up for this month is continuing the Percy Jackson series, and I'm continuing to really enjoy the books. Although I'm not super keen on their take on Artemis, which is an interesting interpretation but very keep women/men separate from each other, I love that Artemis is *in* the book. The series is a really fun take on Greek Mythology, not only in being very clever but often in being funny. I think this installment really enjoys going epic and really has things that would be stunning visually, I can totally see why they'd make these film adaptations because I could literally see what was happening while reading. It also gracefully incorporates Percy learning responsibility and the affect actions and decisions have giving really great character development. I can't wait to dive into Book 4!

This puts me at 15/20 of the books read for the 2010 Book to Film Challenge with only what's left being Harry Potter 5 - 7, The Tempest and Return of the King which I never got through earlier this year. Looking promising to complete by the end of the year!

Fellow readers, feel free to friend me over at GoodReads!

Monthly Reading Check-in: June 2010

Another month has passed to it's time to see what's made it off the shelves and piles and gone from 't-read' to 'read'. I'm down to 12/20 read off my 2010 Book to Film Reading Challenge, and what I'm left with is almost exclusively Harry Potter books! I've stepped up timing on reading those by working in both Chamber of Secrets & Prisoner of Azkaban this month to give a bit more ease to get through the rest of the series as from here on it they get rather large. Overall, June was quite a book filled month and I've made it through 11 books and still have a few that I'm in the middle off. Wow. That's a lot of reading. Let's look at some of the highlights.

2010 Book to Film Challenge

Harry Potter & the Chamber of Secrets by J. K. Rowling (re-read) Book 2 of 7
This second entry in the Harry Potter series was like the first, a very fun, fast read. In terms of a book to film adaptation it was also very strongly aligned from book to film with very little that didn't make it to screen or was changed. I'm really enjoying revisiting this world through the books which I've only read once each up until this point, although I know the films very well.

Harry Potter & the Prisoner of Azkaban by J. K. Rowling (re-read) Book 3 of 7
This is the first book in the series where there are not only omissions from book to films, but actual changes in the book to film adaptation. I don't really mind any of the changes though and overall have found that the book provided more insights to the characters and even their actions that I hadn't picked up on before - even if it's something in the film! This is astonishing to me as out of all the films I've likely seen this one the most, so any new insight has floored me and here there were several from the signifigance of chocolate to use of locations or even just that Madame Pomfrey has a first name (Poppy).

General Reading

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson (Book 1 of 3)
I hummed and hawwed a little bit on reading this one as I had already seen the film, and I'm usually a read the book first kind of person. But, given that the story in the film is so fascinating I was curious as to how the book read. I was also hesitant as there is some really harsh content in the film and didn't want to revisit that, but seeing the film gave me a bit of an out to skim those sections if need be. Oddly, I found the harshness way more explicit in the film which I wasn't expecting at all. Overall, I did find it a fascinating read and gave many insights to the characters, and I really enjoyed the writing style. I'm going to continue reading the series, but likely continue this backwards tradition of watching the film first because of the high quality of the films.

Percy Jackson and the Olympians: Sea of Monsters by Rick Riordan (Book 2 of 5)
The adventure continues with Percy Jackson in this modern take on Greek Mythology in an urban fantasy environment. I really enjoyed this second book in the Percy Jackson series, and although I didn't think they were going to continue with film adaptations it actually appears that they will... and just as I wrote that now I can't find a reference for it. I hope they do continue this films, I thought the first film was a lot of fun and this one would be as well although the story might be more aligned to myths people are familiar with and certainly would have a few challenges. But, the first book to film was a good and pretty liberal with change adaptation, so it's certainly possible to do that again. Here's to hoping!

The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner: An Eclipse Novella by Stephenie Meyers
Released aptly just less than a month before the film release of The Twilight Saga: Eclipse, this novella follows part of the time line of the book Eclipse from the perspective of the character of the newborn vampire Bree. It fell pretty flat for me, and I like to call it "The Short Reign of Riley, or the Mysterious Disappearance of our Dangerous Villainess Victoria", even though it's first person perspective from Bree, she doesn't really 'do' much and pretty much feels like a victim. If you want to hear more about it, it was the focus of a current episode of Before the Dawn where Marina & I discuss it more in depth. You can listen to that episode of the podcast here.

Dear John by Nicholas Sparks
Full disclosure: my reason to read this book was from continually reading quotes, hearing remarks and even saying myself "Oh, that's another film based on a Nicholas Sparks novel" as a way to describe a film. Then I stepped back and acknowledged that I've never even read a Nicholas Sparks novel, so it felt a little off to categorize a film for that reason. Anyhow, I liked the film Dear John so I thought this would be a good place to start and it was. It felt very genuine and wondrous, and was interesting to read a relationship focused story from a male point of view. Now I'm curious to read one of his books where I've not seen the film

The Reckoning by Kelley Armstrong by Kelley Armstrong (Darkest Powers 3 of 3)
I wrote about The Awakening back in February which is the second book in the Darkest Powers trilogy and the whole things caps off here with The Reckoning. Wow. This was such an enjoyable series for so many reasons. First: it's not a trillion books like so many YA ones are these days. Second: Paranormal goodness. Third: Great characters! Fourth: Solid page turning goodness. I really loved this series and am a little excited yet hesitant to jump into the Kelley Armstrong's adult series The Women of the Otherworld, because it's long and I know I'll get sucked into quickly and easily - and that's an 11 book series. Aie!!

Up Next - July Reading
Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire
Eat, Pray Love (film out Aug 13, 2010)
The Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader (trailer, film out Dec 10, 2010)
The Girl Who Played with Fire (film out July 2010)

Added to the longer term 'to read' list (likely for 2011)
On the Road for upcoming film adaptation, and it is just 'one of those' that is so referential that I feel like I should read. Also, I want to check out A Game of Thrones (IMDb Page), the first in the A Song of Ice & Fire series which is having an HBO adaptation starring Sean Bean, Jamie Campbell Bower, Lena Headey & Peter Dinklage. Not completely sure what it's about or how many of the books will be incorporated to the TV series but I do know there will be snow, swords & Sean Bean and to be honest, that's enough for me.
Are you an avid reader? Feel free to friend me over at GoodReads!

Titles on Amazon.ca(Canada):
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Book 3)
The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo
The Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Book Two: Sea of Monsters: Percy Jackson & the Olympians Book Two
The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner: An Eclipse Novella
Dear John
The Reckoning (Darkest Powers, Book 3)
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Book 4)
Eat Pray Love
The Voyage Of The Dawn Treader (full Color)
The Girl Who Played With Fire
On The Road
A Game of Thrones: Book One of A Song of Ice and Fire

Titles on Amazon.com (US):
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Book 2)
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Book 3)
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Vintage)
The Sea of Monsters (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Book 2)
The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner: An Eclipse Novella (Twilight Saga)
Dear John
The Reckoning (Darkest Powers, Book 3)
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Book 4)
Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (The Chronicles of Narnia, Book 5, Full-Color Collector's Edition)
The Girl Who Played with Fire (Vintage)
On the Road (Penguin Classics)
A Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire, Book 1)

Monthly Reading Check-in: April & May 2010

Reading. Gotta love it. Hmm, love it so much that I feel like I should have said 'got to' not gotta because it's more of a real word and all that. But, gotta feels right. Anyhow, I've been doing a lot of reading this year and in February and March wrote about progress of the Lord of the Rings readalong with Fellowship & The Two Towers. The book for April was Return of the King and I barely read any of it, which means I didn't write about it. But I did read a lot of books for the 2010 Book to Film Challenge (10/20 read!) along with books not on the challenge but still film related. So, just because I feel off one readalong train doesn't mean I should stop sharing what I've been reading - so here are my thoughts of what I've been reading for the past 2 months.

2010 Book to Film Challenge Books:

Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
Oh. My. Goodness. Getting through Wuthering Heights was a huge challenge. The version I had was only 300 pages, but it felt like 1,000. The majority of the time I had no clue what was going one, who was narrating, when or where it was. No clue. I literally read every word on all the pages, but didn't understand it until I read a summary afterwards and than a cascade of light bulbs lit up bridging the story together. The inspiration to read it in the first place was remembering that it's mentioned in Eclipse, and that I skipped over those passages the first time I read that - plus the fact that it's just 'one of those' books you have to read. Retrospectively I can how it's viewed as a tragic love story, but there was a lot of tragedy and almost no love, and very little time with the central characters actually present at the same time. Although I didn't enjoy reading it all that much, I did end up with a sense of triumph for actually getting through it!

Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer (re-read)
Reason to read this one should be clear with the upcoming film adaptation of Eclipse hitting theatres June 30, 2010 so I wanted to refresh my memory of the book and holy noodle, I didn't remember that much from my first read back in winter 2008. I only retrained pretty much the love triangle aspect of it and nothing else. The re-read has me more confident in David Slade (Hard Candy, 30 Days of Night) as the director choice, and I was so surprized the number of times I had to give kudos for Edward in this one. Being a big fan of Jacob - it was tough to admit that! Bella has a bit of a rough ride in this one, but I think she stands pretty strong here. It's really strange thinking "Oh, I know they kept that because I've seen the images" because a fair amount of pics have been release (see here and here) along with the trailer, it's pretty clear to see what's being kept and what's not. I'm still so shocked how little we've seen on Victoria in the imagery that's out there. I'm hoping they don't have Riley steal the thunder there, as awesome as Xavier Samuel (The Loved Ones, Newcastle) is, I really want to see Victoria. If you want to hear more about my impressions of the book, check out Before the Dawn: A Twilight Podcast next Monday June 7, 2010 where Marina & I will discuss the book in detail.

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone by J. K. Rowling (re-read)
The majority of what's left on my 2010 Book to Film Challenge are Harry Potter books. I'm re-reading the entire series in anticipation of the release of the film Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 (out Nov19, 2010). Last year I watched all the films, but this is the first time I've re-read the books and it absolutely amazes me with this one how much it was literally translated in to the film version Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. It's actually a really good reminder on how difficult that is, but also when you consider a 200ish page kids book was almost verbatim translated into a 2hr+ film, that with anything longer, or adult, stuff will be edited out. I did really enjoy reading the book and revisiting the magical world. And the book has more Neville. And everything is better with more Neville.

MAX by James Patterson
Fifth and final book in the Maximum Ride series (although there is a FANG book out, not sure how that places in the chronology), and I love these crazy avian-human hybrid group of misfit kids with their fearless leader being the teenage girl, Max. Like the third and fourth book, it feels a little 'message-y' but, in my opinion, it's not a 'bad' message so I don't really mind. I also just love how fast and frantic these books are, I usually finishing them in 1-2 days. They remind me of that weird lemon sorbet stuff I remember having at a chichi French restaurant once, that cleanses the palette between course. They totally do this - they cleanse the palette and leave you ready for more.

General Reading
These are on my list, but are (shock!) still film related and interesting so I'm sharing!

Fallen by Lauren Kate
This one it's a little big of a challenge to talk about without spoiler so I'm going to be brief. Young adult, paranormal-esque romance, female protagonist (Luce) gets sent to reform school and meets someone who feels so familiar. It's a solid read, I enjoyed the characters and the imagery which was quite beautiful. It's been picked up by Disney for a film adaptation, and I'm not surprized as could make a really great film. I did have a bit of a grrr moment though because I thought it was stand alone book, but it isn't. Part II is anticipated to be out this summer, and I'll happily read more of the world but I'm also trying not to get into more series - they seem never ending these days! Actually it looks like it's going to be a 4-book series. We'll see.

Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan
I had hoped to read this one before the film Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief came out, but alas no luck there. Turns out - that's okay! The book has more than enough interesting in it that it's worth a read on it's own. It's a modern interpretation of a What If? scenario of if Greek Gods where still around and kicking up some trouble here and there on Earth. Like the film, I really enjoyed the creative interpretations of abilities, strengths and weaknesses. It's clever, cute and pretty fun. Although doesn't look that likely that we'll get more films in the series, I'm highly looking forward to continuing the 5 book series to see what adventures and trouble Percy gets into. Update: According to Wikipedia an adaptation of the second book The Sea of Monsters is in the works for a film to be released in 2012.

Titles For Consideration to Add to the 'To Be Read' list:

Let The Right One In / Let Me In by John Ajvide Lindqvis
After seeing the images of the upcoming film, I think I'm going to have to read the book. As much as I want to look down my nose at this one as the original Swedish film Let the Right One In / Låt den rätte komma in is so great it doesn't need an English remake, I reconsidered after realize that the upcoming film is an adaptation of the original book by John Ajvide Lindqvis rather than the Swedish film. Even so - those stills show a very strong resemblance to the film. Anyhow, have a bit to decide, Let Me In hits theatres in October 2010.

Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen
A veterinary student leaves his studies to join a travelling circus. If that wasn't enough to sell me, the film adaptation (set for a release 2011), will be directed by Francis Lawrence (Constantine), starring Robert Pattinson (Twilight), Reese Witherspoon, Christoph Waltz (Inglourious Basterds) and Hal Holbrook (Into the Wild). Um, yeah - I'll be reading that.

Update on The Tempest: a release date has been set for the film version in the works from director Julie Taymor (Across the Universe) starring Helen Mirren: Dec 10, 2010. Same day as Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. Because it's so late in the year it's likely going to be one of the last books I get to this year. With The Tempest I'm considering throwing a reading party to actually read the play aloud instead of reading it on my own. Not sure though, we'll see.

Regular updates of my reading over at GoodReads, feel free to friend me!

Titles on Amazon.ca(Canada):


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