Books | Amy C. Shaw

Mini Book & Movie Reviews: Fairest, The Half-Blood Prince, and The Theory of Everything

March 30, 2015 • 18 Comments

The Books

Fairest

This backstory on Queen Levena was certainly illuminating. You can understand why, with the family that she has, that she would turn out so twisted, but that certainly does not excuse what she does. What she did to Evret Hayle made me extremely uncomfortable, and I was so sad for him and Winter and everyone else who was really involved. It was also really interesting though to see how everything tied in, and I think that helped me enjoy this book a little more. I think this is definitely an interesting addition to The Lunar Chronicles and have to hand it to Marissa Meyer for not pulling any punches with Levena’s character.

Rating: 4 stars

Harry Potter and The Half-Blood Prince

So I rated this one 4.5 stars on Goodreads, and I stand by that rating, but this has been one of the more forgettable books for me so far I think. I mean, what happens? Going to class, SNOGGING (I hate that word so much, especially since it sounds make up, but I guess it’s British?), Harry trying to spy on Malfoy, more snogging, Dumbledore sessions, and then SADNESS. Yeah, I had not been spoiled on that so I did not see that coming.

Ron was ridiculous in this book. I mean, I know he’s a teenage boy but wow, I wanted to rattle him. And then Ginny. I thought I was supposed to like Ginny? Actually, I did like her in the end and what she says to Harry, but I don’t like the Ginny who makes out in public and yells at Ron about it and just acts annoying. I was thinking what the heck does Harry see in her? And not only that, but I don’t feel Harry having feeling for her, I’m just told that he does. I’m not buying into the Harry-Ginny or the Ron-Hermione romances the way I hoped I would.

But I adore Luna. And I did like this book, overall, it just mostly feels like another stepping stone to the grand finale.

Rating: 4.5 stars

The Movies

Harry Potter and The Half-Blood Prince

This is definitely my second favorite movie of the series so far now, as I felt it did a much better job of sticking with the highlights and not making too many unnecessary changes, except for a couple of glaring exceptions. First, what the heck was with them burning the Weasleys’ house?! And then that’s it, no follow up?! Maybe it will make sense to me later, but right now I’m just perplexed. That’s a big thing to just add in there! And then of course there’s Ginny…

I’ve seen where a lot of people complain about movie Ginny, which at first I wasn’t understanding, because, as I mentioned before, I found her kind of annoying in the book, and she seemed sweet in the movies, including this one… UNTIL IT GOT WEIRD. What was with her in the Room of Requirement when she’s like, “Close your eyes,” and kissing Harry and “I can stay if you’d like me to.” I mean, really?! That was the weirdest crap ever.

But I loved that scene with Harry and Hermione when she asks Harry how it feels to see Ginny with Dean, and he responds to her crying, “Like this.” So sweet. And I liked Luna saving Harry in the beginning, not that I had a problem with Tonks doing it in the book, but this way we got less Snape and more Luna. (I HATE THAT MAN.)

Rating: 4 stars

The Theory of Everything

This movie was not what I expected. No doubt that Eddie Redmayne did a phenomenal job playing Stephen Hawking, but I felt very hollow at the end. I didn’t feel I really got the “point” of the movie, and all the triumph in Hawking outliving his life expectancy is overshadowed by the brokenness of his family. If you’re expecting this movie to simply be a feel-good love story of Stephen and Jane and how they deal with Stephen’s conditions, then you’ll find yourself as disappointed as I was. This story ends with the deterioration of their marriage, which made me just feel sad for them, even more so than the diagnosis had.

Rating: 3.5 stars

What are your thoughts on any of these books and/or movies?

Bookish Wedding Inspiration: Magnolia

March 26, 2015 • 11 Comments

I thought it might be fun to try creating themed wedding ideas based off of books, and how the main character’s wedding might look with our modern sensibilities, and thus, Bookish Wedding Inspiration was born! This is my first time to do a bookish wedding post for a contemporary, which was kind of nice for once because I didn’t have to worry about time period, just personalities and setting!

Bride and Groom Look

The Tux and Dress

Dress Source

I spent a lot of time narrowing down a lot of beautiful dresses, trying to find something that was classic, elegant, and had a touch of vintage. Ultimately, I felt this picture was really just the whole package for Jemma and Ryder. I think it definitely evokes the feeling of a classic Southern wedding.

Bridal Veil

I feel that Jemma would refashion a vintage veil, and perhaps end up with something like this Juliet cap style veil.

The Bouquet

Source

I thought it would be fitting for Jemma to carry a magnolia bouquet, and I found this one simple magnolia that I felt would be perfection for her.

The Boutonierre

Source

And of course, Ryder needs a magnolia too.

The Bridesmaids

Dresses

Source

I felt that with Jemma’s taste for retro styles, these Alfred Sung dresses from Nordstrom would be a good fit. I figured with five bridesmaids, they could each have a different style, like above, but all in the same champagne color. (Yes, they’re all supposed to be the same color, but we all know after that blue/black/gold/white dress incident that the appearance of colors can be deceiving.) Anyhow, I love how these dresses have a classic look with just a dash of an early 60’s feel to them. Plus they look like they would be great for wearing at a Southern spring or summer wedding!

Bouquets

And to go with their champagne dresses, I envision the bridesmaids carrying bouquets of champagne hydrangeas.

The Portraits

Source for bridal and wedding party portraits

The Venue

Source

For whatever reason, I picture the ceremony at Jemma and Ryder’s home church, and the reception outside, probably at one of their family’s houses. These pictures really evoked Southern charm for me, I mean, check out those stained-glass windows, that willow, and those magnolia leaves on the table!

Reception Details

Lighting

I love quaint lighting, and I thought this magnolia chandelier and these mason jar lights would both set the mood nicely for Jemma and Ryder’s wedding reception.

Place Setting

Source

The Cakes

Magnolia wedding cake/Groom’s cake

I loved how this cake had the same simplicity of the magnolia bouquet I chose for Jemma, and then how perfect is this cake for Ryder and his love of astronomy? Except the flavor would be caramel cake, his favorite.

I hope you enjoyed this edition of bookish wedding inspiration! What would you expect at Jemma and Ryder’s wedding?

Discussion: Books from Childhood/Teen Years

March 24, 2015 • 10 Comments

Two things prompted this for me. The second was this week’s Top 10 Tuesday topic that I honestly feel too lazy to try to work out, which is Top 10 Books From My Childhood (Or teen years) That I Would Love To Revisit. The first was an interaction I had on Sunday morning. My mom works in the library at our church, and I always go in there to chat with her after service.

So this Sunday, there was a family who came in and one of the girls in this family came straight up to the counter and asked my mom if she had any recommendations. My mom wasn’t really sure, and then deflects the question to me. This girl was obviously young, and I was thinking geeze thanks, Mom, I have no idea. I asked the girl how old she was and she said 11. That didn’t really help me at all except now I know what an 11 year old looks like (there’s a blur between about 6 and 12 where all kids look the same to me). She ended up walking away with nothing, and I spent some time after that looking at the middle grade/YA section we have there, if you can call it that. I mean, the selection was fairly decent considering I don’t see much more (maybe even less sometimes) in this age category at a Christian bookstore. Obviously, there is a better selection at like a Barnes and Noble when you’re going beyond just Christian reads, understandably, but it really got me to thinking.

I wouldn’t be surprised if this girl goes through a similar experience than I did. When I was a kid, I was reading things like American Girl, Babysitter’s Club, Boxcar Children, and I also read some Christian books aimed for younger audiences, and thanks to looking at the shelves at the church library I remember some of those books: The Incredible Worlds of Wally McDoogle by Bill Myers, Dixie Morris Animal Adventures by Gilbert Morris, and others I don’t remember the names of. But at some point, probably close to 11, is when I came across an awkward stage of life in my reading where I discovered:

– The books for younger kids weren’t cutting it for me anymore.

– The books for teens were annoying because they were all dating and drama.

– While I had the reading ability for many adult books, most of them dealt with adult problems.

I couldn’t help but wonder if this is where this 11 year old girl is at.

It does seem that there is a decent selection of middle grade/younger YA books out there now, that maybe there is a good selection that is appropriate for an 11 year old, but I feel I know I certainly missed that boat. I spent years struggling not knowing which books were worth picking up. And I know this isn’t a genre that most of my readers read, but I feel that there is definitely a black hole in the middle grade/YA market in Christian fiction. There really needs to be more options.

But then again, maybe there are plenty, I honestly don’t really know since I’m not seeking those books out. Maybe instead the problem is that all these books are just titles on a shelf. This 11 year old girl just wanted to know what we liked. What had been tested and approved by someone else? How do you get this sort of feedback when you’re 11, from someone other than friends? 11 year olds aren’t reading blogs or on Goodreads. I think the best option they have is book fairs, and even that only helps so much.

I think it’s easy for people to overlook this age group. I remember some of books from my younger childhood years, and I remember some of the books from my teen years, but there is a bit of a void in the middle. I guess what I want to know is: do you remember what books you read when you were in that preteen/tween age? Do you remember feeling an awkward stage between kids’ books and teen books?

The Top Ten Books On My Spring TBR List

March 17, 2015 • 18 Comments

Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. Today’s topic is Top Ten Books on My Spring TBR List. I was lousy at following these lists first, but after a while started doing better. I read about half of my winter list, so not too bad. Only time will tell how I’ll do this time around, especially with long books on my list…

1. Shadow Scale by Rachel Hartman

This was on my winter TBR, but I knew that was unrealistic anyhow. I will definitely read it soon though… probably next, in fact! I just got my copy and it’s so pretty!

2. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling

Guys, I’m almost done with Harry Potter! I won’t know what to do once I finish! Oh wait, yes I will… read all these other awesome books on my list… though I will also be a little sad it’s over.

3. Save the Cat by Blake Snyder

This is a writing book that I have heard is helpful with plot. This could come in handy during Camp NaNoWriMo.

4. Do Over by Jon Acuff

I have loved all of Jon Acuff’s books so far and look forward to reading his new book, coming out in April! (P.S. If you pre-order, you get a free copy of the e-book that disappears on release day.)

5. The Well of Ascension & 6. The Hero of Ages, both by Brandon Sanderson

This spring I will finally follow-up on Mistborn! Nikki said I’ve got to read these back-to-back, so I’m planning to do just that.

7. The Last Time We Say Goodbye by Cynthia Hand

I’m nervous about this one, because I don’t do these intense contemporaries, BUT I think it might be helpful for me as I work on my WIP, and I can get it from the library. At least I’ve heard good things… if you call crushing people’s souls a good thing…

8. All Fall Down by Ally Carter

I have this one on hold at the library, so hopefully it’ll become available at a time I can read it. I haven’t read any Ally Carter yet but have been wanting to.

9. Firefight by Brandon Sanderson

I’ve got this one on hold too. I already had to drop it once and put myself back on the waiting list again. One day I will get to it…

10. The Body Electric by Beth Revis

I bought this one recently and it sounds interesting, so I really would like to check it out sometime in the next few months!

What’s on your spring TBR?

Double Book & Movie Review: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

March 5, 2015 • 23 Comments

The Book

So I had heard a couple of people mention this isn’t exactly their favorite of the series, one stating there was something that actually made her upset enough that she didn’t read the last two books until years later. On the flip side, I knew someone else say this book was their favorite of the series. Needless to say, I wasn’t sure what to expect exactly, but I was a little nervous.

Most of the book felt pretty typical of Harry Potter, but not in quite the same blase way The Chamber of Secrets did. Harry has a terrible time at the Dursley’s and has no clue what’s going on in the wizard world. Harry nearly gets in trouble but Dumbledore saves him. We meet a new professor, Umbridge, who is awful and I hate her. We meet Luna Lovegood (finally, I’ve been oddly fascinated about meeting her), and we get some more of Cho and Ginny and Neville and Fred and George and others.

Then there’s the point before the climax where things aren’t looking good, our characters take a journey, are thrust into the climax which is pretty dramatic, but for some reason I didn’t quite feel it as much as I would have expected. I think I can blame this at least partially on the time I was reading these scenes, particularly that I didn’t get to read this part all at once, so that probably hurt more than any of the actual writing. And then, that thing that made me nervous even though I didn’t know what it would be until it happened HAPPENED and that kind of shocked me and then once it sunk in for me the way it did for Harry I was just so incredibly sad. Especially when Harry opens that package at the end and you realize so much could have been avoided and it sort of bothers me he doesn’t even acknowledge that himself, but then again maybe it’s for the better he doesn’t think of it? But it bothered me.

And then what is up with Dumbledore? I can’t decide if it’s a character flaw or an author flaw that he didn’t tell Harry ALL THE THINGS at the end of book 3. That really would have been the time. How much of this did Rowling have planned out in advance? I have no idea. I almost felt like Dumbledore was like, “Please excuse my dumbness, but two books ago I honestly had no idea the story was going to turn out this way.” But I don’t know, maybe she really wanted Dumbledore to mess up that badly. I mean, people do that. It just stinks, especially when you think they’re so wise.

Anyhow, I did enjoy it overall, but so far it is my second least favorite. Based on what I hear, that’s probably where it will stay. I’ve been trying to decide between a 4 and a 4.5… and I think I’ve finally settled on 4 stars.

The Movie

I didn’t enjoy this movie as much as The Goblet of Fire, but I did enjoy it more than the first three. The changes are still there, but I think I’ve become a bit more forgiving of them. And again, the direction in this one was mostly pretty good, though I didn’t love the beginning scene with Dudley and Harry. This one was also shorter than the others, so it almost felt too short, even though I don’t think it actually was.

The only specific thing I really wanted to mention about the movie was that I think the actress who played Luna did a great job. And I love that added scene of her and Harry in the forest.

What are your thoughts on Harry Potter and The Order of the Phoenix (book and/or movie)?

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