Thursday, October 28, 2010

Let's Review...

Books and Movies

In the past week I have read three books, cover to cover (started #4 last night), and watched three movies.

Books:

HOT by Julia Harper was okay. A small town librarian has been planning revenge for the framing of her uncle in an embezzling case. She develops an attachment to the FBI Special agent assigned to the case as their relationship develops via cell phone while she's on the run and trying to find evidence. I liked it well enough, it kept me interested, although I was able to put it down as needed, like to sleep or eat. :)

Hill Country Holdup by Angi Morgan, my NTRWA chapter mate and dear friend was great. Her first book for Harlequin (or anyone, but her dream publisher). A super smart woman's child is kidnapped and she must go to the child's father, a FBI Special Agent, to help her. Only he doesn't know he's the child's father. Action packed from beginning to end as Jane and Steve travel across the Hill Country of Texas in search of clues. Full of twists and turns until the end. And I didn't guess the villain.

Blue-Eyed Devil by Lisa Kleypas was WOW. Written in first person, which I didn't mind nearly as much as I expected. Rich heroine is cut off from daddy's millions when she marries her boyfriend. Narcissicism and abuse ensues until she finally gets away. A well done PSA on the disease of narcissistic personality disorder of which there's apparently no real cure. Once safely back in the fold, the heroine must learn to set boundaries and enforce them and, of course, learn to love again. Very well told all the way around. That fourth book I mentioned at the beginning is the third book in this series; this book being the second. I'll be after the first one later.

Movies:

Star Trek 2009 - a perennial favorite in our house and I've seen 60+ times at this point. Don't ask me why, but I love this movie. Not going to really write a review per se on it, but I watched it. If you're a fan of the original series, you may or may not enjoy the modernization of the characters and the relationships. I think it was intended as a reboot of the franchise, bringing younger viewers into the fold. Two more movies are planned. Even if you don't like the premise of the reboot, you have to admit, the actors all did a fabulous job with the legendary characters. It's hard to pick a favorite, though. Least favorite of mine was Chris Pine in the Kirk role. I've never been a big fan of Kirk's. Sulu, meh. Uhura, Spock, Chekov and Scott were awesome. The Bones character was great. The music was fabulous and I do have the soundtrack.

Ice Castles - the 2010 remake of the original 1978 film. Believe it or not, I've never seen the original. The remake was blech. Not that the actors weren't fine, performances were fine. But the whole thing was a bit slow. First of all, it took to just past the mid-way point of the film for her to finally have the accident and lose her sight (well, most of it). So I'm supposed to believe that she overcame whatever fears she had and the physical obstacles in less than half the movie? Nope wasn't buying it. I really had to suspend my disbelief on this one. I'm sorta tempted to watch the original just to see how that aspect of the story was presented, but I've got better things to do with two hours (like read Lisa Kleypas's other book ;).

The Young Victoria - The story of Queen Victoria's young life, her ascension to the throne, and the development of her love affair with her husband Prince Albert. Very well done all the way around, except I really didn't get the point of the plot until the movie was over. It was more along the lines of a documentary in movie format. But the actors were wonderfully cast and for a history lover like me, well worth the time investment.

So any good book or movie recommendations?

4 comments:

mtnchild said...

Book recommendations from me??? You seem to have all the subjects covered nicely! It's been a while since I've hit a reading spurt. The last book I read was about a month ago and that was enough.

Right now my 'thing' is knitting and sewing. Yeah, both at the same time! I sew in the 10 am to 3 pm time slot, and knit mostly at night; it works nicely for me.

Have you thought of joining a Book blog?

Love you
Mom

Jen FitzGerald said...

Eh, I don't have time for book blogs. If I'm required to write the review I'd fail epicly. I'm not really that great at summarizing a book and all its good points. Either I like or I don't and I have hard time explaining why. As for just reading a book blog, I have enough time wasters as it is and I really need to get back to writing. :)

Regina Richards said...

You may think you aren't good at summarizing, explaining, and reviewing but you're wrong. As proof I point to the excellent job you just did with the books and movies in today's post.

:) Happy Thursday!

Jen FitzGerald said...

Thanks, Regina!