Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Monster High 2–The Ghoul Next Door

Ok, so from reading another blog I learned about the 2 chapter sneak peek at the new Monster High novel.  Granted I’ve yet to read the first one but I wanted to see how this one was.  The blog owner said there wasn’t much brand name dropping in this book, but I found that that simply wasn’t the case.  There are a lot of brand names in this sneak peek.  I’ve sense found this to be kind of cute since reading the last book’s sneak peek.  Not sure why really.  I guess because I realize this is what the story called for and although I haven’t read Lisi Harrison’s other novels I feel this is her style of writing, and who am I to say anything about her style?  It’s her vision and her way of telling the story, so more power to her.  This sneak peak makes me want to hunt down the first novel and read it.  I hope it’s at my library…which I still need to get a new card for.  Oops.   But yeah, it looks like it will be a cute novel.  It seems to pick up from a cliffhanger from the last novel, so seems like some questions will be answered.  If you are interested in reading the sneak peak for yourself, click here.  Enjoy.

Writing away,
M.

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Update on “Please Don’t Eat The Daisies”.

Ok, so I am reading through the parts that gave me trouble and wanted to report back on them.

Ok, so the first part of the book that gave me trouble was the section called “Don Brown’s Body”.  So in the book Kerr says that sitting through a dramatic reading of “John Brown’s Body” ,by Stephen Vincent Benét, one night made her come up with her own version she called “Don Brown’s Body”.  Now what follows is a crazy mishmash of a play that is to be read dramatically.  The play is based off of Mickey Spillane crime novels.  So Kerr took his style of writing and made a play based on his stories in the way that “John Brown’s Body” was written, which honestly is a jumbled collection of words that kind of told the story of the civil war in the form of an epic poem.  I tried reading it (John Brown’s Body), but it hopped around so much and it just did not read well or easily for me so I gave up a little over a 1/4th of the way in.  But I got the gist of it and see what Kerr meant now by her version…I think.  LOL!  Still didn’t make me laugh, but I understood it a little bit better now.  I find that as I age I understand things I read a little bit better with experience, so maybe in another couple of years I will fully understand this section of the book.  Maybe not.  Either way, at least I kind of feel a little clearer on the essay.

And the second section that gave me trouble called “Toujours tristesse” would have given me less trouble if I had paid attention to the first sentence of the chapter where she said basically that she had written the essay after reading “A Certain Smile” by Françoise Sagan.  “A Certain Smile” is about a young woman in a relationship with a male classmate.  The classmate takes her to meet his businessman uncle and his uncle’s wife.  The young woman and uncle see they have an attraction to each other and go off the Cannes to spend a romantic time together because they are afraid of being bored and it seems they may be bored in their relationships and want to try someone new.  However there is a rule of no falling in love so they don’t hurt her boyfriend and his wife.  But when they get back from Cannes the woman sees she loves the uncle, but he does not love her.  His wife finds out and the relationship ends.  In Kerr’s essay, the young woman is still in a relationship with a classmate, but the uncle is now the guy’s grandfather and the grandfather’s wife.  The young woman and grandfather fall for each other, but instead of being afraid of boredom they invite it and like being bored.  They still go off to be alone, at the sea, but instead of the wife finding out, the grandfather tells the young woman that while he was bored with her he was more bored with his wife and he was going back to her.  So their relationship ends and the woman is alone.  Now it makes more sense to me, and even without reading “A Certain Smile” I find this essay funny now.  LOL!  Delayed understanding, you’ve gotta love it.  Winking smile

So there you have it, I am a little clearer, have learned about some interesting bits of literature and new authors I didn’t know about before, and am ready to move on to my next novel.  Man, you’ve gotta love reading and the places it will take you.  Oh and the internet too, gotta love it, because I doubt I would have found out this information or found it as easily without it.  Smile  Ok, off to read some more, have a great day.  Smile  Bye for now.

Writing away,
M.

Please Don’t Eat The Daisies

Jean Kerr’s “Please Don’t Eat The Daisies” is an interesting and fun read.  It’s a collection of humorous articles about her life as a mother, wife, and playwright.  While the book is dated and may lose younger readers like myself on some of the people or events mentioned in the book, for the most part the book is very relevant to modern times.  Though I’m not a mother yet, I could still relate to Kerr from remembering my childhood and how I drove my mom crazy and how she dealt with me, my brother, and my sister. Kerr’s four boys clearly made life interesting for her and her husband, but mostly her.  LOL!  Tales about the house her and her family moved in are very interesting as well.

For the most part this book kept my attention, except for some essays that kind of went over my head.  There was one essay about a play she’d write after a play she had just seen.  I’m assuming her play was a parody of the play she’d just seen, and am kind of bummed I just didn’t get that part of the story.  Nor the part of the story about a woman running off with her boyfriend’s father.  I mean I “got” the story, but didn’t “get” the story.  I plan to go back and reread both parts to see if I can understand both better.  Sometimes when I read my mind will trail off in thought and then I will miss out on the context of a chapter of a story and have to reread, so I will be going back to reread and see how I come away from it.  I’ll update you on my findings.

So I suggest if you can get a copy from the library or get a cheap copy of this book it’s so worth the read.  It’s funny, it’s relatable no matter if you are a mom or former child, and it’s a quick read as well.  I took a couple of days with it because I only read it while exercising, but avid readers will get through this book in a couple of hours easily.  I hope you enjoy it as much as I did if you read it.  Smile 

So what am I reading now, you may ask?  I’m reading this:

“How I Stole Her Husband” by Liz Ireland.  I’m going to be honest, I have NO idea what this book is about.  I bought it on discount at Books-A-Million one day after reading the cover of the book and thought it  sounded interesting.  I’m assuming it’s going to be a silly romance novel along the lines of this one:

“Switcheroo” by Olivia Goldsmith.  I read this novel and it was a pretty cute story about two women who look very similar and traded lives for a while.  I don’t think the two stories will be along the same plot but along the same kind of “cuteness” level.  I wish I could explain my version of “cuteness” level.  Just kind of like one of those funny romance movies that end happily.  That how I see the book being.  I’ll let you know if I was right or wrong.  Watch me be very wrong and it ends up being a murder mystery.  LOL!  Either way I’m excited to find out.  I read all kinds of books, so anything that catches my attention gets me drooling to read it.  So I’m off to start the first chapter and see how it starts out.  Talk to you all soon.  Bye for now.  Smile

Writing away,
M.

Sunday, March 13, 2011

What I’ve read and am reading.

So I have been trying to read a little each day.  The best way for me to do that is to do it while I am on my exercise bike doing my miles.  I haven’t been on my bike in forever since I’ve been sick, but now that I am feeling better I am slowly exercising with 5-6 miles a day.  So I decided to get back to reading while I exercise, it makes the time go by seriously.  So the first book I read on my return to the bike was Witch Week by Diana Wynne Jones.

I know this is not the cover for newer copies of the book, but this is the copy that is on my copy.  I am not sure how I got this book.  I believe it may have been through way of my sister when she was a kid.  Not sure.  I know it came from the library at my old elementary school.  I am guessing they were giving away the old books and this was the one my sister chose.  Well anyway, I have wanted to read this book ever since I got it but just never did so it sat on my shelf for years.  Last year I started it then I got ill and just stopped reading.  Well I decided to start it over and finish it.

The book was an interesting read.  Diana is a British writer, so the story is told with a British theme to it.  It’s about a boarding school that takes all students as well as witch orphans.  But no one knows who is a witch and it’s to stay that way because witches were burned if found out.  Well some of the students start to figure out they are witches and start using their magic which causes some issues at school and starts people wondering about who was a witch in the school.  All the witches seem to be in room 6B at the school.

The story goes on about the students that know they are different and their discovery of their magic, what they can do, and how to hide it.  Eventually they are found out and they have to work together to protect themselves.  They call up help that takes an odd approach to helping them, but help them he does and things change for the witches in one way or another.

I thought the book was interesting.  I won’t say it’s my favorite book, but it got my attention and kept it.   The ending was kind of “meh” to me, but it was kind of interesting how it unfolded and how things ended up.  The story was really thought out and planned which I like when an author does that.  I’m keeping the book to share with my hopefully future children.  It’s a cute story that I think would be fine for any child.  I would say between 5-12 would like this story.  Depends on the reading level of your child, or their attention span and ability to understand what’s going on in the story.  The book has it own version of cursing.  They say “magick” as a way of cursing since that was feared in the story.  So you may want to consider that before getting the book.  I don’t think it would really register with a child that it’s considered a form of cursing in the story so I think the story would be fine.  So all in all it was a cute story and I liked that it was a British story to get a different theme or way of telling a story.  I think the new cover is kind of creepy for the story, but don’t let it cause you to judge the story before giving it a flip through.  Smile  I’d like to read more Diana Wynne Jones stories, so I will be doing that hopefully this year.

Now on to what I am reading now.  I’m reading “Please Don’t Eat The Daisies”.  Now I saw my mom had this book for years and I was always curious about it but never read it.  Then I saw the movie and thought that was what the book was about. I was wrong.

When I started the book I thought it would be more of a novel, but as I read it I noticed it didn’t follow a plot and it was kind of a jumble of something I wasn’t quite sure about.  So I googled to learn more about the story and found out the book is a collection of essays written by the author Jean Kerr who was a humorist and playwright.  This cover is not the cover on the one I have.  Mine is a really old copy.

From and Amazon listing, this is the book I actually have.  I love older books that don’t have fancy covers.  Just the book and the title on the bind.  It just makes me feel like I am in for a vintage treat.  I have several old books like that that I will be working through this year.  But back to the book I am reading, so far it’s an interesting read.  I’m not laughing like crazy, but I am smiling and chuckling every now and again.  And how Jean Kerr writes it’s like she is talking to you and telling you a story.  I loved the introduction to the book.  It made me laugh and smile and I knew I’d like her writing.  I like a good witty book and this one is giving me that so far.  I love her dedication as well.  She dedicated the book to her severest critic.  LOL!  Is it tacky to borrow another author’s dedication because I so LOVE hers and want to use it.  LOL!

Well that’s about all for now.  I have some other books I have read that I wanted to post about but that of course is for a later time.  I’m back to reading and working on understanding Script Frenzy.  So I will talk to you lovelies later.  Bye for now.

Writing away,
M.

Saturday, March 12, 2011

Script Frenzy?

Ok, so years when Script Frenzy started, I was all jazzed about it.  I so wanted to try my hand at writing a script, and decided to give it go.  However, when April 1st rolled around, haha the joke was on me, I couldn’t motivate myself enough to actually write a script.  So I didn’t do it and figuring script writing wasn’t for me, even though I have written several plays and a movie script once, I gave up on it and never tried it again.  Forward to 2011 and I got the email about Script Frenzy and thought, nah I just don’t write scripts and I’ll just wait for Nano.  But I kept reading about it all month, and how it was so easy to log in with my Nano login and it couldn’t be easier to participate.  Still I thought, nah not for me.  Then tinkering around with some dolls I use in a webcomic/photostory I am trying to work out the idea for it hit me that I need a script, I want it written fairly quickly, but I don’t have the motivation to force myself to write it out fast.  Humm…wait…Script Frenzy…in need of a script…no brainer anyone?  So I am reattempting Script Frenzy with some gusto this time.  The script I have mostly formed in my head, I just need to get it down and organized so I can “film” it all later this summer and get this project done so I can move on to another one.  So yeah, you know what I’ll be doing this April.  Smile  Should be fun.  Smile  Anyone else doing Script Frenzy this year?

Writing away,
M.

Thursday, March 10, 2011

Georgy Girl


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So I have “known” of Georgy Girl since I was child.  My mom has had this album by The Seekers for forever.  She would let me borrow her records and along with the Mamas and Papas this record always came to my room with me.  I don’t recall many of the other songs on this album except maybe one or two others, but Georgy Girl I would listen to over and over again.  I would sing and dance along with this song and at my young age feel they were talking about me.  Can you tell who didn’t have high self esteem as a kid?  LOL!  Here’s the song if you are interested.

Well when I grew older I learned from my mom the song was for a movie called Georgy Girl, that I found out when I grew even older was based off of a book called Georgy Girl.  My mom told me about the movie and well, I had to watch it.  It was from the 1960s, it was British, and it was that corny camp kind of movie I love, so I HAD to watch it.  Speaking of watching, and totally off the topic, the other day I watched a video online of Soleil Moon Frye dressed up as Punky Brewster…as in at her age now, to say thanks to her million Twitter followers.  It was a bit corny and camp as well.  Don’t know why that came to mind.  But moving back to Georgy Girl.


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*Warning, I am going to talk about the movie so there are spoilers ahead.*  So in short this movie is a about a girl named Georgy, third person to the right in the picture, who lives with her best friend Meredith, second person to the right.  Meredith dates Jos, first person on the left.  Georgy’s parents work for James, guy on the right, because basically they fell on hard times and he hired them as help in his mansion, oh did I mention James was rich, and he helped raise Georgy by paying for schooling for her and making a studio for her in his house so she can give dance classes to children.  So the going thing in the movie is Georgy is a fat ugly nobody while Meredith is a thin sexy somebody.  Jos comes over to pick Meredith up for dates and sometimes has to wait while Meredith is out on another date.  During this time Georgy keeps him company.  They are friends even though he calls her names like Fat Face and constantly remarks on her large body…which is easily a 12-14 in US sizing.  Well while all that is going on, James…the rich guy, is dealing with the fact that not only is his wife ill and refusing to go to the doctor for help but try to heal herself on her own but he also is seeing he cares for Georgy in more than a fatherly way.  One night when she shows up for a party he gives her a shocking proposal that she avoids giving her answer on for a while.  She avoids James as much as possible while she deals with new issues popping up in her life with a pregnancy, a marriage, a divorce, an adoption, a death, and then another marriage.  Whew, girl is busy.  In the end Georgy ends up kind of where she wanted.   I feel she would have preferred a different outcome but it gave her what she wanted…kind of.

I know I left out some of the bits and pieces, but I figured I would just in case you want to watch the movie.  And since I aim to please, here’s the movie.  You can either watch it down below or click here for a slightly bigger screen or so you can watch it full screen.  It’s a little over an hour and half.  Enjoy.  Smile  If you like old movies, British movies, or old British movies you’ll love Georgy Girl.



Yeah, I know the video window is big, but I didn’t want to mess up the viewing of the movie if you decided to watch it on my blog.  So I sacrifice for all of you.  Winking smile  Talk to you guys soon.  Be good until then.  Smile

Writing away,
M.