The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies - Success or Disappointment?

We went to see the final instalment in The Hobbit trilogy last night.  It was good but I am conflicted and I'll tell you why in a bit.  

This instalment ties The Hobbit to The Lord of the Rings quite well.  Before it, there seemed to be quite a gap between the two but The Battle of the Five Armies ties them together nicely and the ending was perfect in achieving this.  The sketches displayed in the closing credits were incredibly lifelike and revealing of each character's attributes.

The music score, well I love it!  Particularly the last song to play during the credits,  The Last Goodbye by Billy Boyd.  It's incredibly beautiful.  As is the song that plays during the trailer below.

It's been several years since I've read The Hobbit, as in junior high school, so I'm vague on details, but I recall it being more focused on Smeagol and Bilbo Baggins.  Jackson has done a phenomenal job bringing the book to life thus increasing Tolkien readership and fandom.  The cinematography in all three films was phenomenal, the special effects always astounding even if unrealistic.  But this is fantasy, right?   The casting agent should be applauded!  Each character was genuine and believable as the actors portrayed them.  My biggest conflict lies with the plot of this particular film. The movie is certainly enthralling, I'll give it that; however, the creative license that took The Hobbit, a children's novel, and brought this incredible work to an enormous audience, also included a battle which never occurred in The Hobbit, the book.  I know it's titled The Battle of the Five Armies; it just seems superfluous and the entire book could easily have been a two film adaptation. Was an enormous battle scene the best way to tie The Hobbit to the trilogy of The Lord of the Rings?  Perhaps it was, but it still irks me that this film strayed so far from the original inspiration for the series, the book The Hobbit. Opinions?

Oh, and wasn't the original title to be "There and Back Again"? I rather liked that.  I guess that's the romantic in me.

Happy Birthday J.R.R. Tolkien, January 3.

#TheBattleoftheFiveArmies  #TheHobbit #PeterJackson #songscore #ThereandBackAgain #LordoftheRings  

Mockingjay Movie Part I - trailer

The Giver - coming to theatres this August

Post by eOne Films.

Movie Trailer Release: Mockingjay, Part I

#Mockingjay  #bookstomovies #SuzanneCollins

Official Movie Trailer Has Been Released for The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies

#TheHobbit  #BattleoftheFiveArmies  #bookstomovies  #movietrailer

If I Stay Movie Trailer

Tonight I saw the movie trailer for Gayle Forman's book "If I Stay."  Now that's just great.  Another YA novel I HAVE to add to my TBR list!!!  I have rarely read YA in the past but it all started with Harry Potter, then Twilight, then the Lunar Chronicles...... I have to admit there are a lot of impressive YA novels out there!  My children are all young adults (in their twenties) and here I am.  Is this what it's like to have a midlife crisis?

Before I Go To Sleep by S.J. Watson - book review

Before I Go to Sleep
Author:  S.J. Watson
Published:  June 2011
Publisher:  Harper Collins
Pages:  340
Genre:  Fiction/suspense
Edition:  Trade paperback
Source:  borrowed

'As I sleep, my mind will erase everything I did today. I will wake up tomorrow as I did this morning. Thinking I'm still a child. Thinking I have a whole lifetime of choice ahead of me...' 

Memories define us. So what if you lost yours every time you went to sleep? Your name, your identity, your past, even the people you love — all forgotten overnight. And the one person you trust may only be telling you half the story. 

Welcome to Christine's life. (from Goodreads)

My Thoughts:

From the opening paragraph, S.J. Watson had me hooked.  "The bedroom is strange.  Unfamiliar.  I don't know where I am, how I came to be here.  I don't know how I'm going to get home."

Before I Go to Sleep is the thrilling, can't put down suspenseful novel of a woman who can't remember things day to day because of an accident she was in years earlier.  Each morning she wakes up not knowing where she is or who she's in bed with.  The mirror shows a significantly older woman than the one she remembers herself to be.  She cannot form new memories.

Daily her doctor calls to remind Christine to get her journal from the closet and to read it.  At day's end, she writes about her day and the journal, though it's not been written in for very long, slowly begins to reveal certain truths about her life.  The curious thing, which really keeps you reading to know why, is at the very beginning of the journal she has written "Don't trust Ben."  

Although I am itching to tell more,  I don't want to ruin the story for you.  Cleverly plotted and written; it's enough to say it's a real page-turner that I hated to put down!  Breaks were not long enough and days too short, as I squeezed in reading time for this thriller!!  I can't wait for the movie!  Wowza!!!

Warning for sensitive viewers:  some language and sexual references.

It's the Year of the Book to Movies Adaptations!! Here's Unbroken, coming this Christmas to theatres.

The movie is an adaptation of "Unbroken" the biography of Louis Zamperini, a rebel child who turned his life around and became an Olympian athlete. Louis later fought in World War II and was captured and kept in a prisoner of war camp.  This is the story of a man who wouldn't be broken.

Louis Zamperini passed away July 2/14 at the age of 97.

Film directed by Angelina Jolie

Movie Trailer for Cheryl Strayed's "Wild" Now Available

See my review of the memoir "Wild" here:  http://shirley-mybookshelf.blogspot.ca/2013/08/found-in-wild-review-of-wild-by-cheryl.html

Gone Girl Coming to Theatres This October

Gone Girl has just moved up the must read list!!!  This looks soooo good!!!

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green - book review

The Fault in Our Stars
Author:  John Green
Published:  2012
Publisher:  Dutton Group, a division of Penguin
Pages:  313
Genre:  YA Fiction
Source:  Borrowed

Despite the tumour-shrinking medical miracle that has bought her a few years, Hazel has never been anything but terminal, her final chapter inscribed upon diagnosis.  But when a gorgeous plot twist named Augustus Waters suddenly appears at Cancer Kid Support Group, Hazel's story is about to be completely rewritten.

Insightful, bold, irreverent, and raw, The Fault in Our Stars is award-winning author John Green's most ambitious and heartbreaking work yet, brilliantly exploring the funny, thrilling, and tragic business of being alive and in love.

My Thoughts:

As my readers may know, I don't read much YA.  It takes an exceptional book to break that barrier and The Fault in Our Stars is just that.  Why, you may ask, did I pick up this YA novel?  Was it all the hype, the reviews, the movie which was just released?  Well, yes, it was a bit of all of this though I can't say the choice was wholly attributed to its popularity.  Ranking is not solely a precursor to book selection for me.  No, it was more because of a fellow co-worker who loved the book,  staff-picked it and then was greatly dismayed when the CEO of the company staff-picked it as well, necessitating the removal of his sticker of approval and recommendation.  That, for me, was the deciding factor.  It meant that much to this individual that I had to read it.  So I did.

The Fault in Our Stars is as remarkable as all the reviews have indicated.  Herein is the story of a teen-age Hazel with terminal cancer whose parents are concerned with her reclusiveness and encourage her to attend a Cancer Kid Support Group.  It is here she meets two remarkable young men who leave a permanent impression in her life; one of whom steals her heart.

Augustus was tall, lanky, gorgeous with a crooked smile and blue eyes that lit up when he saw her.  He didn't take no for an answer which perturbed her as much as it flattered.  He's in remission and she struggles for breath, an oxygen tank her permanent companion.  She's afraid she is a grenade who will tear apart the lives of those close to her when her time has come.  She is more fearful for those she loves and cares about than for herself.  She is beautiful that way.  But it's her book recommendation of An Imperial Affliction that really brings them together and offers them a summer to remember.

They are different and yet a lot the same.  They banter back and forth, joke around, have similar ideals.  After posting an ad that they constructed together, to give away her childhood swing set, titled "Desperately Lonely Swing Set Needs Loving Home".....  Hazel and Augustus settled on the couch where Augustus read from An Imperial Affliction aloud and as he read she fell in love "the way you fall asleep: slowly, and then all at once."

And before she tells him he tells her:

"I'm in love with you, and I know that love is just a shout into the void, and that oblivion is inevitable.... and I know the sun will swallow the only earth we'll ever have, and I am in love with you."

Such a romantic notion and so tragic.  No wonder every teenage girl who reads this novel loves it!

It's not only the romanticism, it's the beauty of the language and the imagery.  

"The sun was like a toddler insistently refusing to go to bed."

Dessert: "a succulently rich cremeux surrounded by passion fruit - was too good not to at least nibble."

I love this book.  It's genuine, bold, tearful and funny.  You will feel every gamut of emotion in the human repertoire, just as I saw with a young lady who sat in the store and read the book cover to cover over a few hours.  She laughed, she cried, she smiled.  She loved it!

I highly recommend The Fault in Our Stars.  Read the book, see the movie.  Personally, I'm waiting for the Blu-Ray.  I refuse to sit weeping in a theatre.  Tissues strongly suggested for both the book and the movie.

About the author:

John Green is the award-winning author of Looking for Alaska, An Abundance of Katherines, Paper Towns, Will Grayson, Will Grayson (with David Levithan), and The Fault in Our Stars.  His many accolades include the Printz Medal, a Printz Honor, and the Edgar Award.  John is on Twitter: @realjohngreen and tumblr: fishingboatproceeds.tumblr.com and online at: johngreenbooks.com.  He resides in Indianapolis, Indiana with his family.

#TheFaultInOurStars   #JohnGreen

This is Not A True Story, It's a Love Story - Winter's Tale

This trailer has captured me.  Oh, now I have to read the book!!!!  

First Book of the Year!! Happy New Year Everyone!

Another year has begun today and I was able to sleep in!  What a delight after a month of being up at 3:15 am to work at the hour of ridiculous (5:30 am).  You see, I work in a bookstore and supervise the team in charge of putting out product, signage for promotions, changeovers and such.  It's early but you get used to it and for a month, it's not too bad.

Raclette (courtesy of Amazon)

How was your New Year's Eve?  We spent it together, most of us, enjoying Raclette, eating chocolate and munchies and playing cards.  I, however, being a tired woos, was falling asleep playing cards so I gave up and went to bed at 10:30 and was woken just in time to bring in the new year with family.  It was a delightful evening and a few friends stopped in briefly to wish their new year greetings.  We did the countdown with a local tv station, cheered, hugged and kissed and the merriment ensued without me as I retired to bed.

Today it is cloudy, threatening more snow and the roads are slick (at least they were last evening, so I don't expect they've miraculously changed for the better.).  We have a lot of snow but it is warming at week's end to highs of -1 and -7 Celsius, Thursday and Friday respectively, with a risk of freezing rain Thursday.  We've had more freezing rain this winter than I've ever seen in the last 13 years we've resided here in the Edmonton area.  Rather treacherous for walking and driving. (I got the cleats for my boots, it's that bad!)

When Sheila at Book Journey posted a 1st Book of the Year join in, I decided now would be a perfect time to read a book I've wanted to read for two years.  It's Markus Zusak's The Book Thief.   It's the story of a young orphan, Liesel, and her love for books, a love that begins with acquiring a book left behind at her brother's graveside.  In her foster parents' home, a young Jewish man stays hidden from the Nazis during the beginning of World War II.  Oh, the possible ramifications if he were found. It is also about a love of books and words during a terribly tumultuous time in history. I invite you to watch the extended trailer below with an introduction by the actress who plays Liesel.

It is 1939.  

Nazi Germany. 

The country is holding its breath.  

Death has never been busier, 

and will become busier still.

By her brother's graveside, Liesel Meminger finds her life changed when she picks up a single object, partially hidden int he snow.  It is The Grave Digger's Handbook, left there by accident, and it is her first act of book thievery.  So begins a love affair with books and words, as Liesel, with the help of her accordion-playing foster father, learns to read.  Soon she is stealing books from Nazi book-burnings, the mayor's wife's library, wherever there are books to be found.

But these are dangerous times.  When Liesel's foster family hides a Jewish man in their basement, Liesel's world is both opened up and closed down.

In superbly crafted writing that burns with intensity, award-winning author Markus Zusak has given us one of the most enduring stories of our time.

(from the book cover)

I'm so excited to be able to fit this book into my reading schedule... finally.  The movie of The Book Thief is out in theatres now and I can't wait to see it but first I must read the book!!  Are you the same way? Must you read first before watching the movie?

What is your first book of the year?

Trailer: The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

JK Rowling's Screenwriting Debut Announced on Facebook Today!!

JK Rowling's "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them" will be a theatrical event in the near future.  Well, maybe not so near as JK Rowling has agreed to write the script for Warner Brothers and that could take some time, not to mention casting and filming......

JK Rowling officially announced the news on her https://www.facebook.com/JKRowling/posts/441828229259132">Facebook page

stating, "I always said that I would only revisit the wizarding world if I had an idea that I was really excited about and this is it."

I am looking forward to revisiting the magical world of JK Rowling and if I am, I am sure her much younger devoted audience will be ecstatic with the news!!

The Book Thief - Movie Tailer

Coming to theatres November 2013.

Catching Fire Official Movie Trailer

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (review)

Yesterday afternoon my husband and I attended The Hobbit:  An Unexpected Journey.  It was opening day and we selected the 3-D version at the Ultra AVX theatre (where we also saw Titanic).  The theatre had a few odd empty seats which surprised me.  Actually, The Hobbit.... premiered the previous evening to a standing ovation, the girl at the ticket counter told me.  She has seen it thrice and it just opened!!!  A few audience members applauded at the end of the showing yesterday but no ovation.

It was fabulous!!!  Of course it was gory and a lot of graphic fighting scenes splashed across the screen but despite that (and of course, we all expected it) the story was superbly told.  Casting of all characters was spot on and my husband could name all the dwarves who invaded poor unsuspecting Bilbo's home before they were introduced.  That's excellent casting, I say!  

From the "home invasion", an empty pantry, to giant spiders and wicked magic by a necromancer, we follow Bilbo as he begins a quest which he doesn't feel cut out for.  After all, hobbits don't like adventure!  Never before has a hobbit seen so much, been faced with so much and accomplished so much! 

The 3D effect, which I complained previously about not being necessary in most new films (Avatar being the only exception), did the story justice here.  It didn't come across overly enhanced; rather, it made the filming flow smoothly with great life.  I love the butterfly scene!  

All in all, it was stupendous!!!  Only one complaint, and I'm sure everyone will agree, it will take far too long for parts II and III to hit theatres!!!!

I think I will re-read The Hobbit before seeing the next two parts.  I've forgotten far too much!

Breaking Dawn Movie Review

I love the opening sequence of Breaking Dawn II.  Wintery scenes with splashes of red, close-ups of snow crystals, such beautiful cinematography!

I tried to take one photo of the title shot but it came out blurry but you get the idea.

Breaking Dawn II opens where BDI left off, with the awakening of the new Bella.  Before she can see her daughter though, she must hunt and she does with Edward, showing incredible restraint in her food choices.  When she (and we) meets her daughter, Renesmee, let me tell you she is the cutest baby girl, aside from my beautiful daughter of course, and everybody adores her!

The movie progresses with a threat from the Volturi which precipitates thrilling action and a scene with Jake that had all the girls in the audience audibly thrilled!  I am going to avoid any further spoilers by just saying that some things are different from the book and there is a surprise at the end which neatly ties up the entire saga.

The action is portrayed, both in effects and videography, with greater realism and the makeup is much better.  I still found Dr. Cullen to be oddly pasty looking compared to the others.  Perhaps it is his natural darker hair colouring that makes it necessary to be more liberal with the makeup?  Edward's finally looks good!  The new cast members are well chosen, actually pretty close to how I pictured them from the novel, and I am so glad to see no cast replacements to main characters!

Breaking Dawn II is action packed, with some gory scenes (nothing too graphic but parents be warned), the love scenes with Edward and Bella are more intimate (not complete nudity, mostly limbs and backs), and the overall effect is more than I even expected.  

Of all the Twilight movies, I liked this one best.  PS  My husband even stayed awake!

Considering the violence and the love scene, I would not recommend this movie to children under 14 at the youngest.  (parental discretion encouraged).

Breaking Dawn Part II Trailer