2014 Reading: A Child Called "It"

I heard about this book a long time ago in my sociology class when I was in college. It was on a list of potential books that we had to read to write a report. I, of course, being who I am chose the book about the drug addict instead of the one about the abused child. I don't know what that says about me, but whatever. This book was going to someone at the library and it caught my attention again after all these years and I decided to give it a try.

I am not ashamed to admit that parts of this books made me want to throw up. No matter how deranged I think my mind can be sometimes, I will never understand this kind of treatment of a child. I mean, I understand that the mother must have had mental problems aloing with her alcoholism, but another thing that just makes me sad is the general neglect of everyone else in this boy's life.  Teavhers, friends, siblings, nurses, doctors... his own father. They all knew what was happeneing but no one did anything about it.

There are two other books that go with this one, but I don't think I am going to read them. I think that this book by itself was a tale that needed to be told and gotten out into the world and the rest is just page fillers in order to make a couple of bucks. Not to say anything bad about the writer, but I think the story should have ended there.

It was an easy read, but also, I think, a very important one.

*NEW VIDEOS!* I Suck At Life + Boy Meets World

I made a very very late video for the 4th of July, but then I figured it wasn't worth posting and then I just kept forgetting. After the forgetting, I just kept avoiding it until we find ourselves in the situation we are now.

I've been reading a lot, and not much else.

I don't know.

I'm actually thinking of not doing vlogs anymore, but maybe just blogging about the shows instead. I think I might be able to get more out that way. I feel self-conscience in front of the camera and I know that I don't always get out everything I want to say in a single video. I'll think about it some more.

So here's the late late late video

So then today, I get a message from my friend who says that she needs me to vlog today.

Meh, who I am to argue.

2014 Reading: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead

I saw the movie once, many years ago, and I remember thinking "This is hilarious! And also sad."

It's not really a secret that Hamlet is my favorite play of all time and I've seen just about every adaptation of it available. I love the speeches and the story and the characters... I mean, you can't go wrong. 

Except Mel Gibson's version, which I don't want to talk about.

 I love thinking about these two characters as they appear in this play. Their lives begin with the summons to Elsinore. There is literally NOTHING before that for either of them. They begin not knowing who they are or where their going and must learn so along the way. They meet everyone and around every corner is a foreshadowing of death but they don't know it yet. And just when they find out who they are and feel like they've accomplished something in this small world they've been thrust into, they are executed. Thus dies two characters who never really lived.

I think they best part was the very last scene and Guildenstern seems to go through all five stages of grief in a mere moment. Brilliant.

Now I wanna watch the movie again.

And the players! I don't think I've laughed as hard as I have at the first meeting they have with the traveling players.

This was a nice little detour before I get back to the rest of the books I have piled up to read.

2014 Reading: A Million Ways to Die in the West

Okay, so I have a huge crush on Seth MacFarlane. Sue me.

This was exactly like watching the movie.

That's about it.

*shrug*

2014 Reading: Daughters of Eve

Okay, this book was horrible!

Seriously, at the beginning of the book, I was totally on board with the whole girl power thing. One of the first things I write for this update was: "One of the character's brother said something about not helping to clean up because he wasn't about to practice being a housewife, and the parents just went along with it and continued to force all the housework on the girl... Oh hell no... HELL no."

But then, it just kept getting more and more ridiculous. HUGE exaggerations of misogyny and female oppression (even for 1979) spawn even grander acts of female empowerment and radical thinking.

Okay, I'm a feminist and all, but holy shit.

And then it ends, with little to no resolution and everyone gets away with everything and lives happily ever after. WHAT?!

Definitely not one of my faves, Lois.

Shitty 80's Horror Movie Review: Pet Semetary (franchise)

Okay, so since I didn't post last week (because I am lazy) I decided to combine the two in this series to make up for it.

I had never seen these movies before, but it's one of those things that you always hear about from other people.

There are some things I would like to know though, like:

What the fuck was up with the mom in the first one and her story about her sister? It had NO bearing whatsoever in the story line.

Why did the old guy, who KNEW that burying things in the crop circle (because that place was, like, 20 miles away from the actual pet semetary) would turn them into evil flesh eating zombies, tell that dude about it in the first place? So the fucking can got run over by a truck. Shit happens. Get another fucking cat. Ugh. People are stupid.

Pet Semetary (1989)

Pet Semetary II (1992)

2014 Reading: Killing Mr. Griffin

I decided a while ago to just gta ALL the Lois Duncan books and finish them off one by one. So, after the seriousness that was the last book, I wanted to go with some easy, short books.

Holy shit, that kid was a psychopath. I mean, I've had some tough teachers, but none that I've hated THAT much.

And seriously, what was with Sue saying she loved Mark at the end?! I thought she was all into David (you know, the nice one) but then, when she's being burned alive by the man no less, she says she loved him...

WHAT?!

That was one of the weirder books by Lois Duncan. But, meh, what can you do?

2014 Reading: A Stolen Life

This book was kind of hard to get through. Not because of the writing or grammar or anything, but just he subject matter. I know that I talk a lot about loving serial killers and how I find them fascinating and a little bit sexy (but not in a creepy way), but this kind of thing... when it's about a child... I just couldn't read it for very long at one time. I found myself talking a few breaks over the day and just going to do something else.

I really admire Jaycee. She is far stronger than I would have been if I were in her shoes. It makes me think about all the things she missed out on: school, prom, first boyfriend/heartbreak, going to a teen party and getting drunk for the first time... making stupid teenage mistakes that we all make in the process of growing up into the people we are bound to become.

I made the mistake of beginning this entry while listening to sad, dramatic piano music("Finding Balance" by Michele McLaughlin) and though I realize it's silly, I feel a little nostalgic for childhood. I know that my childhood was nothing grand to write home about, but I would gladly give it to her if I could. Mistakes and all.

I honestly don't know what else I can say about this book.

I'm glad that I read it.

2014 Reading: Reached

I utterly DEVOURED this book. It is probably 50% bigger than the other two and I read it in half the time.

I still don't know exactly why I could not put any of these books down. All I know is that they were fantastic and I wish that I could read them all over again.

There were things that I expected to happen, and then there were things that I didn't expect to happen and I just loved all of it, even the sad parts.

Seriously though, I was completely right in my first assessment: 1984, Fahrenheit 451, and The Giver had a love child and it was this book series . And I could not have been more pleased.

I don't know what else to say. If you are reading this blog and you hold anything of what I say as even remotely possible, let alone true, then read this series. Read it and feel my feelings, damnit!

2014 Reading: Crossed

This is seriously becoming one if my favorite book series. I could not put this book down. Except for work, sleep, and the occasional break to catch up on my TV shows, I was reading this book ALL. THE. TIME.

It's been a while since I had a visceral reaction to a story in a book. The first time was when I almost threw up while reading Exquisite Corpse (one of my fave books of all time), I cried during the last Harry Potter book, and I cried during The Fault In Our Stars. I've always thought that true art should cause a reaction, no matter what that action might be. When Cassia and Ky found each other in the canyon, I had to shut the book and hug it to my chest for a minute before I could continue.

I am starting the third one this very minute and I cannot wait to see how it ends. At this point, it could go either way. I'm not even making any predictions about this, I just want to be taken along for the ride.

Whee!!!

2014 Reading: Matched

I. Love. This. Book.

Imagine if The Giver, 1984, and Farenheit 451 had a love child. That is this book. Also, I swear it's like a really good fanfiction (seriously, I think I read a fanfiction that had this basic premise once) and I mean that in the best possible way.

I don't know what it is lately, but the plots of some of these new young adult books are FAR more interesting than most of the adult books I've come across.

I don't know what it says about me that I like this kind of book. People living their perfect lives in ignorant bliss and then finding out that the world is just a big pile of shit and they've been happily wallowing in it for years. They finally see the cogs that run the machine and who is behind it all. Ugh. I love it.

Maybe it's part of the schadenfreude. I want to see people's perfect existences crumble right before their eyes and make them face the fact that the truth has been staring them in the face for the longest time.

I already have the second and third waiting for me (I learned my lesson with Maze Runner) so I can just jump right in. I CANNOT WAIT!

2014 Reading: Summer of Fear

I promised myself I would finish these tiny books as quickly as possible. So, with nothing to do on my day off, I sped through this one.

I called the ending by page 24. Sure, they added a supernatural aspect to it, but my hypothesis was still the same and I was right on all counts.  It was kind of a predictable story line when you think about it.  All the supernatural element did was make the choices and actions of some of the characters more easily forgivable.

Seriously, though... Did teenagers really talk like that back then? I mean, really? Is there evidence of this somewhere? Some bit of unscripted film footage that I could look at and finally know for sure if people from the 60's really did talk like that? I would really like to know.

Yeah, these books are fun if you just want something short to read and you can finish them really quickly before forgetting all about it and start on something completely different.

I'm thinking of it as a kind of mind-sorbet. Cleanses the mental-pallet.

2014 Reading: Ransom

GLENN IS A SOCIOPATH!

Seriously, if anything with this book stuck with me, it's the fact that the Glenn character is a fucking sociopath to the highest degree and should probably be in therapy and DEFINITELY be in jail. Wow.

But anyway... I wanted something lighter for a little while so I got three more of the tiny Lois Duncan books to fill in the gaps before I started another major book.

Man, one theme that keeps coming back to me as I read her stuff is that kids just DON'T talk like that. I don't even know if they ever did, even if it was in 1966. If they did, then I feel so inferior to them. By, like, a lot.

Once again, this book left me wanting to know what happened to the characters after the action died down. I wanted to see if Jesse and Dexter got together, I wanted to see what happened after Bruce found out his brother was a fucking psycho and decided to not cover for him anymore.

THESE ARE THINGS I NEED TO KNOW, LOIS! For my sanity!

2014 Reading: Silence of the Lambs

I know that there were a lot of books in between the first one and this, but, meh. I don't really care. It's not like I'm dying to know what happens. I've seen the movies.

I figured I would read something to lighten the mood...

I am awesome like that.

Okay, so where the Red Dragon movie basically followed the book to the letter, Silence of the Lambs was a little different. Not much of a difference, mind you, but enough for someone like me (who pays WAY TOO much attention to insignificant details) to take notice. Some lines of dialogue, some character descriptions (though even good casting can so that sometimes). Stuff like that.

I think the most notable difference is the detail that they put into Jame Gumb. There was a lot of background and home life that was never put into the movie that I think was important for the character. His upbringing, his mentality, and the way he dealt with things would have been a good addition to the movie rather than just introducing him as a psychopath with little to no motive for wanting to make a woman suit.

I'm also glad that they ended up going over Jack Crawford's character a little more in this book. There was some more info on his wife that was previously unknown unless you watched the Hannibal show.

This one I could not help but imagine Anthony Hopkins voice in my head the entire time. Or the voice of Ted Levine as Buffalo Bill (even though the characteristics are COMPLETELY different for him).

I think some more light ones are coming up. I'm giving myself a little break.