Personal Rating: 2.5 Stars Goodreads rating: 3.76 Stars When Annalisa Townsend’s ship is set upon by pirates in search of her father’s treasure, one of the crew, James Sterling, discovers her in the hold. When he moves to take her necklace, she begs him not to, as it is all she has left of her mother. He accepts a kiss in exchange for the necklace. “A fair trade, m’lady,” he tells her afterward, before disappearing. A year later, with a forged letter of marque, Annalisa is intent on hunting down the wretched James Sterling and reclaiming her father’s treasure from him. But now she’s in danger of him stealing something far more vulnerable this time: her heart. (goodreads.com) I don’t know about you, but I love a good pirate story. There’s just something about the freedom, adventure, high seas, clothing style, and sword fighting that gets to me. Probably because for a while Peter Pan was my favorite book. I first came across this book when going through the Goodreads giveaways. It looked interesting so I entered to win it, but did not and therefore forgot about it. Then, as many of these blog posts start out, I was at a used book sale with a friend *waves to friend* and spotted this in one of the piles. So I grabbed it, brought it home, and eventually read it. It was a rather short read so I think it only took me a day or two. That day or two was filled with a lot of rolling eyes and snorts. Okay, so, you know me, I don’t hate romance in books but I’m not necessarily in favor of it either. I had hoped this book would be a lot more like Treasure Island and a lot less like Romeo and Juliet. Not to say that it has a tragic ending, but the insta love in this thing was irritating and I could scarcely stand it. So, we start out with this girl, who is helpless and afraid and her ship is being attacked by pirates. She happens to encounter a pirate who wants her necklace, which happens to have belonged to her dead mother. She refuses to give it to him and offers her ring instead. He takes the ring - and a kiss and goes on his merry way. Fast forward a year and this pirate, James, is down on his luck and can’t stop thinking about the girl, Annalisa. Meanwhile, Annalisa has become a privateer, and is in the process of hunting down James. When they meet up again - minor spoiler - she catches him and convinces him to help her find some treasure. And there is a love triangle, and James is dark and mysterious, and there’s lots of cheesy lines, and the ending was unrealistic. Not a terrible waste of a day, but not something I’ll likely read again. We’ve got good ole Annalisa as our MC, right? And she goes from wimpy to “I want to kick all the pirate patooties”. I mean, good for her, but the speed at which she garners the capabilities to kick pirate patooty is remarkable. It’s only a year. And she gets herself a boat, a crew, a sword (and now she’s “a natural” fencer), and wanted posters all across the Caribbean and southern USA in that relatively short amount of time. Plus, her whole mind set changes, which I suppose could happen, but just seems far fetched in the way it is written. On top of that, Annalisa isn’t exactly an interesting character. She’s got nothing about her that makes me think: “ooh, what a cool character trait! I wish more characters were like that.” She’s kind of more along the lines of: “I couldn’t pick this character out of a police lineup.” You’re probably getting tired of hearing me say this, but I’m getting real tired of the female protagonists in YA literature. (Maybe Marissa Meyer set the bar too high…) They are all starting to blend together in my head and they all have the same face, build, hair color, attitude, and inexplicable urge to do something drastic and change their world. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to go off on a tangent, but no promises that I won’t do it again. Okay, let’s talk about James before I get too crazy. James, Jim, Jimmy. You did not disappoint in your role of “guy with a tragic past and no cause to fight for”. Actually, Jimbo, you kind of reminded me a bit of Han Solo, which would have been fine, except there are so many Han Solo wannabes in the world of YA lit these days. You had no original character traits. You had an alluring scar on your face. You were strikingly handsome in the most nondescriptive way possible. Again, I’d better hope you don’t mug me because you ain’t standing out in a police lineup, pal. Sure, you had a few funny one liners, but most of the things you said and thought were 100% natural cheese. And you were a bit of a womanizer so you have that going against you too. While the characters did nothing for the story, the storyline itself wasn’t completely awful. If you dial back the romance a little it’s actually an interesting adventure with some fun shenanigans along the way. So kudos to the author for that. But you know, I really need to stop reading creative writing tips on the internet because I start to hold up books to those writing tips and tricks and sayings and quotes and advice to judge the book by them. For example, Ray Bradbury once wrote: “Plot is no more than footprints left in the snow after your characters have run by on their way to incredible destinations.” Translation: your story needs a plot and characters, but the characters are really what make the book something special. And To Catch a Pirate had a lovely plot, but subpar characters. Well, that’s about all I have to say about this book. If you’re in the mood for some romantic pirate stuff then this is a great read for you. If you don’t like either of those things then you will hate this book so don’t even bother reading it. Well, you can if you want to. I’m not going to tell you how to live your life. I should probably go eat lunch now. Mmm… the dining hall is serving chicken tenders and curly fries today. Yeah, I should definitely go. Fair wind to ye, me hearties! Arrrrgh! *hoists hook in the air and adjusts eyepatch* Image source: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/493051.To_Catch_a_Pirate?ac=1&from_search=true
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How to begin, how to begin? Unintelligible screams of excitement? A calm overview of what I’m going to talk about today? Perhaps a combination of the two? Yeah. Let’s go with that third option…
OH MY GOODNESS GRACIOUS SAKES ALIVE! I happen to have some good news that I thought I might discuss on my blog. IT WILL SERIOUSLY BLOW YOUR MINDS! It involves a book series that I may or may not have gone through a lengthy obsession with. ARTEMIS FREAKING FOWL BY EOIN (pronounced Owen) FREAKING COLFER - PARDON MY FREAKING LANGUAGE. It also involves a certain someone by the name of Kenneth Branagh, who happens to be a film director (and played Gilderoy Lockheart in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, and he directed Thor and Cinderella and he voiced Miguel in The Road to Eldorado). THAT’S RIGHT FOLKS! THE DAY HAS FINALLY COME! WE ARE GETTING AN- Well, at least we’ve received information about an- ARTEMIS FOWL MOVIE!!!!!!!!!! (Pardon my unnecessary punctuation.) It has been about one whole decade since Mr. Eoin Colfer announced that there was to be a film for his once exceedingly (I might be exaggerating) popular book series. A decade doesn’t seem terribly long when you consider that ten years ago was 2007, but then you think that some people haven’t even been alive that long and suddenly a decade seems a lot longer. While never a hot topic in movie news, the anticipation of an Artemis Fowl movie has been a great battle of patience for the small fandom of the series. There were several occasions where a script was said to have been finished, but no cast had even been speculated at. Of course, there were lots, and lots, and lots of fan castings. The actors of all those fancastings are sadly, either too old or too famous now to be part of a film that likely will not be a giant success. I remember one casting that I thought would have been perfect, but is not really possible. The fan had Skandar Keynes (who played Edmund in The Chronicles of Narnia) as the titular character. I thought that was absolutely perfect because he fit the description incredibly well. However, Skandar Keynes is now twenty-six years old, which is twice the age and two years more than Artemis Fowl. Sooooo… that might be a wee bit hard for him to pull off. Other’s have suggested Asa Butterfield, who was indeed a perfect match for Arty’s looks, but is now twenty years of age. Anywho, I’m digressing. Recently, there was some very big news about the Artemis Fowl movie. IT ACTUALLY GOT A RELEASE DATE! Granted, the release date is a long ways off (though, not too long considering the wait we’ve had already), but at least now there is a set time that we can expect the film by. And that release date is August 19, 2019. Only about 689 days away! I should make a countdown clock… Or borrow one from this website. Do I expect the movie to even hold a candle to the greatness of the book series? No, I do not. Am I terrified that they will cast Larry the Cable Guy as Mulch? Yes, I am. Could thousands of things go wrong and make this a terrible movie? You betcha. Might the movie be canceled all together? Totally possible. Will that keep me from being excited about it? Heck no. I really should do a review of the series sometime so you can see just how much I like it, but I feel like that could go on for a really long time and potentially be filled with massive spoilers because I have not been able to talk about this series in depth with anyone since I first read it (which was probably in 2008 or around there). Okay, my younger brothers both read it and my older brother got through all the books except the last one, so I could talk to them about it, but I don’t think they enjoyed it quite as much as I did. Wait, did this post have a point? Uh… right! The movie now has a release date, hopefully it will eventually have a cast as well and maybe someday it will have a trailer! I don’t have much faith that this will be a movie that is accurate to the book, but it’s being made by Disney, so there is some hope that it will at least be entertaining. Thanks for reading my exclamations of excitement! If any more information about the movie is given I will probably post another excited post. Until then you’ll have to make do with my regular posts and reviews. Aurum est Potestas. (That is really random if you haven’t read the books… so go read the books!) Image source: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6699003-artemis-fowl Image source: http://www.clipartpanda.com/categories/movie-camera-clipart This post might seem a little... how shall I phrase this? Crazy-cat-lady-ish, but the cats are books. It might seem a little obsessive and nutso, okay? That's what I'm trying to say. So, I started college almost a month ago and that means there is a whole new library for me to explore. The library at my school is not only the school library, it is also for public use. The people who I text regularly will probably get sick of me saying this but: this library is magical. It's got four levels. It's got a whole floor just for nonfiction books. It's got a DRAGON (well, a cute sculpture of one). It's got comfy chairs. As soon as I walk through the doors I'm instantly calmed. The longer I spend in this library the happier I get. It's got printers that I actually know how to use. It's got books and movies that I've never been able to find at any other library. I. Love. It. Guess what? I get to work in this library to help me pay for school! How cool is that?! Pretty darn cool. I love my job and it makes me glad that I'm in school right now so that I can become a librarian and talk about books for a living someday. It's kind of funny, actually, my school is encouraging the students to take aptitude tests and other things to discover what they want to do with their lives and I'm over here raring to go. Anywho, I digress. The purpose for this post is that I was stressed out so I went to the library and walked through the nonfiction stacks for forty minutes and took just a few pictures (nineteen, I believe). At first I was going to post all of these pictures on Facebook, but I realized that I would want to make that an on-going album because I'm going to keep finding pretty books. Well, I don't want to pester the Facebook people with hundreds of pictures of books. Soooooo... where does a book obsessed girl post her slightly obsessive pictures of the books she took pictures of simply because they were pretty? On her blog, of course! Like I said, these pictures aren't of any books in particular, they were just ones that I thought were pretty, cool, or wanted to hug (yeah, you heard me). There are also a couple of pics of the shelves themselves, but mostly it's random books. So, without further ado, just use the arrows to navigate: So there you have it! Some of the pretty books in the non fiction section of my new library! I'll probably do a few more posts like this (especially if I visit any other new libraries) just to explore the library some more. There's a whole fiction section waiting to be looked at and lots more non fiction as well.
I seriously doubt you enjoyed this as much as I did (partly because you didn't get to experience the smells and textures of the books, I suppose), but hopefully you found it at least slightly entertaining. I should probably get some sleep now. Because, you know, college. *takes a deep breath* *grins so widely it makes the Joker wince* Hi. Welcome to my blog. The place where we act like normal human beings all the time and do not almost scream in excitement in the library. Those of you who have been here before or know me in person know that I am lying right now. OH MY GOODNESS GRACIOUS SAKES ALIVE! I WENT TO COLLEGE AND THE COLLEGE LIBRARY HAD THE MOVIE ADAPTATION OF MY ALL TIME FAVORITE BOOK, THIEF LORD! A MOVIE ADAPTATION THAT WAS, UNTIL THIS TIME, NOT AVAILABLE AT ANY LIBRARIES KNOWN TO ME. A MOVIE THAT WAS ACTUALLY FILMED PARTIALLY IN VENICE. CAN YOU TELL HOW HAPPY I AM RIGHT NOW OR DO I NEED TO SHOUT AT YOU SOME MORE?! *straightens wild hair* *attempts to dim smile* *fails* Okay, okay. I’m calm. I can discuss this like a mature person. NO I CAN’T. OH MY GOSH I WAS SO EXCITED THAT I LITERALLY SQUEALED RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE OF THE LIBRARY AND I HAVE NO SHAME. IT’S THIEF LORD YOU GUYS! WHAT ELSE WAS I SUPPOSED TO DO? SIT THERE AND QUIETLY REMARK HOW PLEASANT IT WAS THAT THIS LIBRARY HAD THE MOVIE ADAPTATION OF THE BEST BOOK EVER? IF THAT’S WHAT YOU THINK I SHOULD HAVE DONE YOU DON’T KNOW ME VERY WELL. Alright, alright. I know when to turn off caps lock. Let’s get down to the actual “book vs. movie” part that the title of this post promises you. You know, before my inner fangirl breaks out again and covers this post with doodles of flowers and gondolas. Right. So. Let me just say that I was incredibly impressed by this movie. You already know how I feel about the book (I FREAKING LOVE IT TO DEATH, pardon my language), but honestly this movie can stand alongside this book proudly, unlike some other book-to-movie adaptations I know *cough* Inkheart *cough, cough* Divergent *wheeze* Percy Jackson *hacks*. Obviously the movie didn’t have the time to go into some of the great detail that the book goes into and I think they could have done a better job of showing the scenery of Venice, but for a 98 minute movie it did a really wonderful job of sticking close to the original story. They threw in a few extra magic bits, which didn’t bother me exactly, but weren’t in the book. Part of what I liked so much about the book is that you don’t know for 100% sure if there is going to be magic in it or not. It’s part of the mystery and I think having magic early on in the plot ruins the mystery just a little. As far as characters go, I think they had an excellent cast, though it was very British. Jim Carter isn’t really who I pictured for Victor Getz, but I certainly enjoyed his performance. Caroline Goodall is pretty much exactly how I pictured Ida and she also performed brilliantly. Rollo Weeks fit the role of Scipio amazingly well, as did the rest of the actors for his “gang” (though I wish they’d given Hornet longer hair like in the book). I couldn’t quite get over the fact that Aaron Taylor-Johnson (who plays Quicksilver in Avengers: Age of Ultron) was Prosper - he was only sixteen in this movie but he did amazingly. And the actor for Bo, Jasper Harris, was so adorable that my heart just about melted (which is weird because the actor is now about the same age as my brother). One thing that I really enjoyed about the movie was how Scipio moved. That probably sounds weird, but hear me out. The thing about the Thief Lord is that he is made out to be this incredibly mysterious and exciting character, but he’s only a kid. I think they did a good job of showing the daring and bold side of him while still reminding us that he’s a kid by the way he moved. For example, in the beginning of the movie he was jumping from building to building in pursuit of someone. Now, they could have made him leap gracefully through the air, but instead he jumped very realistically, with a lot of effort and it didn’t actually look all that impressive - like a kid trying to do something cool. I don’t know, maybe I’m not making any sense, but I liked that aspect of the movie. There isn’t that much humor in the book that I remember (I mean, there are some funny bits, but it’s not an obviously humorous book) but there were several scenes in the movie that had me giggling. I can’t tell you most of them, unfortunately, as they are spoilers. I will say that while Esther and Max Hartlieb were mostly just despicable in the book, in the movie they were despicable and hilarious and made annoying facial expressions to boot. Truthfully, I can’t think of any other differences. I still like the book better, but I think this movie is a great way to introduce people to the book if they don’t usually read. That’s how I feel about a lot of movie adaptations, even the ones that aren’t great. I mean, the more people who read these books the better and even horrible movies might lead people to read the books. As I said, though, the movie in this situation does a lovely job of keeping up with it’s beautiful book counterpart and I wholeheartedly recommend it. No one seemed to feel one way or the other when I did a book vs. movie post for The BFG and when there is no feedback that means I do whatever I want (happens a lot, actually). And I want to do more book vs. movie things so expect more in the future. One of these days I should really start reviewing new books to keep things current, but I like the old ones so much. Oh well. It’s my blog, I shall do as I please. Thanks for reading! Ciao. Book cover source: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/857639.The_Thief_Lord Movie poster source: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0430674/?ref_=nv_sr_1 |
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