more focus, miss mori
I'm a cinematic addict but I like books, too.
Romeo and Juliet (Folger Shakespeare Library)
Girl meets guy. Girl falls in love with guy. Girl marries guy. SPOILER ALERT! Girl dies with guy!
...and the whole town makes golden statues of them.
(Honestly, if you didn't know this, I don't know why you're even on this website.)
The best satire of all time? Maybe, hence the opinion change. Well-written? Of course. (I mean, it's Shakespeare's work we're talking about here.) Still, every single character besides Mercutio is really, really stupid.
Six Characters In Search Of An Author (Modern Plays)
Brilliant and yet bizarre, realistic and yet unbelievable; which, incidentally, is the point.
Casino Royale (James Bond, #1)
I was totally expecting to like this more since I've seen Casino Royale the movie several times. Though it could have been *much* worse, that was still very much a disappointment.But... why, in the name of everything that's sacred, does Bond talk about bedding Vesper *and even raping her* more than he talks about being in love with her, before he impulsively goes for a swim and decides he wants to propose the next day? That's not just violently misogynistic -- it's unrealistic. And everyone knows Ian Fleming doesn't write that crap to make fun of it or to offer a criticism about it. I don't care how good the rest of the book was and that I should have expected something like that from the original man's man franchise; that's disgusting and it detracted two stars from my review.
The Lying Game #4: Hide and Seek
So many name drops, so little plot. (accompanied with the reluctant acknowledgement that, no matter how terrible the entire series is, Sara Shepard is still making bank)
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My Most Excellent Year: A Novel of Love, Mary Poppins, and Fenway Park
Adorable. It was mostly plot-less and overly predictable, but in a good way, and adorable nonetheless. I think this book surgically removed my inner cynic for a couple of days because it was so cute. Hucky was especially lovable.
Also, Steve Kluger made me never want to move. I think I'll be in Beantown for the rest of my life.
The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks
Hm. The writing itself wasn't particularly good and Frankie's motivations were sketchy at best and unbalanced/desperate at worst, but the social commentary was thought-provoking and clever and sophisticated.
I Am America (And So Can You!)
A great read! I laughed, I cried, I lost 15 pounds! I cannot recommend this book highly enough.
Please Ignore Vera Dietz
This book may have been terrible if it weren't so amazing. The author took every single cliche ever written in any teenage FML book, wrote her own book, and somehow made all the cliches beautiful. The writing resonated, the characters were so wonderfully written (though I swear I would have hated Charlie if Vera's memories of him weren't so gut-wrenching and heart-breaking), and even though the History-I'd-Rather-Forget chapters confused me a bit, the writing was so easy to follow and love.
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
I don't think any other book has ever made me laugh or cry so hard.
Deadly Choices: How the Anti-Vaccine Movement Threatens Us All
This is wonderfully informative and refreshingly honest scientific writing in a book that still feels more like a narrative piece than most scientific writing, written by a doctor with excellent credentials, a compelling and convincing writing style, and an impeccably-built case for the fact-supported side of the vaccine debate that shouldn't even exist.
Coraline: The Graphic Novel
That was such a creepy book. Every sentence and every illustrated frame gave me chills; the good kind of chills. This story dances on the line between wonderfully compelling and downright terrifying - and that's definitely one of the many things that makes it amazing.
