Jet Lagged

There's no place like your own bed
after 2+ weeks away from home!

We're home from our awesome Asia vacation safe and sound and trying to recover from jet lag. I hope it doesn't take too long to adjust .. I was in a fog all day today between about six loads of laundry and I never made it to the grocery store. Our fridge is SO empty! I thought I'd go to sleep early tonight in hopes of waking up cured in the morning but now I'm wide awake and it's already almost 11:30 pm!

Thank you to those of you who followed my trip on instagram. It was a lot of fun sharing photos and having a little interaction with all of you while I was away even though I couldn't always get back online to reply to your comments. I'm going to work on getting some photos and interesting tidbits about our trip up this week, but in the meantime,
What's going on with you? 
Any news to share? 
What have you been reading?

I planned to do a lot of reading on the 19+ hour flight(s) to the Philippines and the 12 hours back to New York, but I barely read at all on this trip! I didn't feel so great on the flight out, so I watched movies and tried to sleep instead.

BOOKS I READ ON VACATION:
While on land, however, I finished my re-read of Demon Angel by Meljean Brook as part of my Guardians series re-read - series catch up I plan to do this summer in preparation for the final book, Guardian Demon which releases TOMORROW! (August 6, 2013) This was actually my 3rd or 4th time I've read Demon Angel and it gets better and better every time I read it. It's five star keeper book for me, no doubt about it. Of course, as soon as I finished it, I regretted not packing the sequel Demon Moon for my trip!

I also read Kitchen by Japanese author Banana Yoshimoto, which I enjoyed very much even though it made me cry on the flight between Hong Kong and Japan. Kind of embarrassing, but oh well. I think I cried pretty discreetly even if I went through several tissues. ;)

On the trip home from Japan I started reading To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee and I'm really enjoying it so far. I didn't realize it was written from a child's point of view. Anyway, I'm looking forward to finishing it this week. I also started reading Demon Moon last night after we got home from the airport. I just couldn't help it! Of course I'm loving it.. Colin and Savi are two of my favorite characters in this series. This story is so unique, dramatic with an incredible amount of character depth, not to mention impeccable world building and series arc development going on in this one. Actually the same goes for Demon Angel but for some reason I'm really drawn to Savi's character.

MOVIES I WATCHED ON VACATION:
I watched an interesting mix of movies on the two flights from and back to the US and we even went to the movies one night in Tokyo! The other flights between cities and countries were too short to show films. (We had a total of six flights on this trip. Oh Lord, was it nerve-wracking!) :/

1. Jack the Giant Slayer. A twist on Jack and the Beanstalk, a predictable fairy tale.

2. Safe Haven. Based on the book by Nicholas Sparks. I've never read his books, but I enjoyed the movie even if I found it predictable and not as fully developed as I think it could have been.

3. Monsters University. We saw this in a movie theater in Tokyo. The movie was in English with Japanese subtitles. Hee hee.

4. Beautiful Creatures. Based on the YA novel of same name that I read a few years ago. Well done, pretty true to the book with a suitable, non-perfect ending. I liked it.

5. Katy Perry: Part of Me. My daughters and I watched this simultaneously. We were cute and we bonded over this documentary even though we had headphones on. Of course we all like Katy Perry a little more now that we watched this. ;)

6. Painted Skin: Resurrection. A Chinese fantasy action film that I just now discovered is the 2011 sequel to the 2008 film Painted Skin. I guess it can be watched as a stand alone because I didn't feel like I was missing anything. If you like Chinese fantasy action films, give this one a go. Just the right combination of fantasy, action, romance and tragedy to suit me.

Have you seen any of these movies?

Hope to catch up with you this week! :)

Harry Potter Experience... The End

My daughters and I went to the midnight showing of Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows Part 2 movie last night this morning at 12:01 am on July 15, 2011, opening night for the very last Harry Potter film ever. It was a really fun and special way to close the chapter on the Harry Potter experience with my daughters, which began for all of us almost exactly nine years ago when I started reading the first book out loud to them one summer night when they were 7 and 3 years old [now 16 and 12]. At the time, my youngest would fall asleep within the first several pages, but she made up for that by reading and rereading all of the books several times each over the years.

The theater was packed with muggles, a few of whom were impersonating wizards with their attire The theater was full of excitement as the audience sat waiting to witness the film version of how it all ends. When the lights were dimmed and the projector started rolling, I admit feeling a bit impatient with the reel of movie previews, which is typically a part of the movie going experience I really enjoy. I was not alone in my impatience for the movie to start, which I know for a fact because after the third preview an audience member shouted out, "Accio, movie!" Haha! 


The movie was very well done but of course, the book is so much better. More detail, more action, more character development, more emotion, more depth, more plot... just more. So if you've only seen the movies and never read the books? ... it's never too late to capture the magic of the Harry Potter books by J.K. Rowling. Start at the beginning with Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. 


My daughter came across this video the other day in which actors from the Harry Potter movies were asked to describe their Harry Potter experience in one word.

Harry Potter Experience... In One Word [HD]

I think "legendary" [James or Oliver Phelps] and "magical" [Emma Watson] are the most fitting.

How would you describe your Harry Potter Experience in one word? 

memorable 


Have fun if you'll be seeing Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 sometime soon! Or if you already did... hope you liked it. :)

Books In the Movies

So much for getting my blogging groove back last week, huh? That plan backfired. I have nearly 1000 posts in feeds that remain unread--yikes! I think I'll be doing a lot of skimming, but I really want to catch up on what's going on with everyone and what you've all be reading and so on. As for me, reading has been kind of slow this month (what in the world have I been doing??), but I have read two really wonderful books that I hope to post about in the very near future. Needless to say, I miss blogging and interacting with all of you. I hope everyone's been well... happy, healthy and reading lots of great books!

Last weekend my little girl turned twelve. I can hardly believe it. To celebrate her birthday, she had a dinner, movie and sleepover party. Originally we planned to see the Justine Bieber movie, but it was no longer playing in any of our local theaters by last weekend, so I was spared. :o Instead, we saw Red Riding Hood. As a fan of fairy tale retellings, I was actually looking forward to seeing this one, but a little leery when I noted it wasn't getting such good reviews. Turns out I really liked it! I thought it was suspenseful enough without being too scary or gruesome and the romance part was subtle enough to not overpower the fact that this story is indeed a grim fairy tale--not a Disney romance. Although there was one scene for which I wished I had octopus arms so I could cover each of the girl's eyes. No nudity, but it was suggestive. Thankfully it lasted all of 30 seconds or so.

One of my favorite parts of going to the movies is seeing all the previews. For once, I walked away wanting to see almost all of the previewed movies, several of them based on popular novels that I have not yet read.

movie poster

book cover

The first was Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen. I have seen this book everywhere over the last couple of years from bookstores to Target to the library, etc., and more recently when my book blogging friend, Michele told me she recently read it with her book club and loved it. Now that I saw the preview for the film version, I finally want to read the book, too!

movie poster

book cover

Another preview I saw was for the movie Something Borrowed based on the same titled 2005 chick lit novel by Emily Giffin. Hilcia read and reviewed this book several months ago and because she liked it, I thought I might give it a try even though I was hesitant because of the nature of the story. Basically the main character of the story is in love with her best friends boyfriend-fiance. You know that's just setting up for heartbreak and disaster, right? It looked like it in the movie, too. Frankly, I'm still hesitating about the book and the movie.

Have you read Something Borrowed by Emily Giffin? What do you think?

The third preview that grabbed my attention--although this one is not based on a literary work-- was for an upcoming dark fantasy film called Suckerpunch. Have you heard about it? It looks really bizarre, but that's kind of its appeal, I think. Set in the 1950s, a girl named Babydoll had been horribly abused and gets admitted to a mental institution where she transports herself into her own fantasy world to search for a way to escape the hospital. I'm not sure if the fantasy world is real or in this girl's head, but maybe it doesn't even matter. The special effects look amazing and the whole package looks like a strange, far-fetched, but thrilling ride. Of course the twelve year olds in the movies with me all thought Suckerpunch looked creepy and even my teenager gave me the weirdest look when I told her I wanted to see it. Apparently, you have to be a cool grown up like me to be suckerpunched by psycho girls in weird outfits, excessive makeup and wielding fantastical weapons while fighting their way through some grim alternate reality in order to escape institutionalization. Who knew?

The trailer:




Suckerpunch will be in theaters March 25.

Who else wants to see it?

I'd also really like to see the latest film adaptation of Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte, but it seems it's only playing in select theaters and none of those select theaters are in my neighborhood. I'll most likely wait until it's available to rent from redbox or netflix.

Another book to movie adaptation that I'm looking forward is Beastly by Alex Flinn that opened earlier this month. The book was one of my favorite young adult reads of 2010. I'll probably end up renting this movie down the road as well.

What book to film adaptations are you looking forward to?

Tagged! SF Movies Based on a Novel

I've been tagged by Thea and Ana at The Book Smugglers.

Copy the list below.

Mark in bold the movie titles for which you read the book.

Italicize the that you’ve watched.

Tag 5 people to perpetuate the meme. (You may of course play along anyway.)


1. Jurassic Park
2. War of the Worlds
3. The Lost World: Jurassic Park
4. I, Robot
5. Contact
6. Congo
7. Cocoon
8. The Stepford Wives
9. The Time Machine
10. Starship Troopers
11. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
12. K-PAX
13. 2010
14. The Running Man
15. Sphere
16. The Mothman Prophecies
17. Dreamcatcher
18. Blade Runner(Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?)
19. Dune
20. The Island of Dr. Moreau
21. Invasion of the Body Snatchers
22. The Iron Giant(The Iron Man)
23. Battlefield Earth
24. The Incredible Shrinking Woman
25. Fire in the Sky
26. Altered States
27. Timeline
28. The Postman
29. Freejack(Immortality, Inc.)
30. Solaris
31. Memoirs of an Invisible Man
32. The Thing(Who Goes There?)
33. The Thirteenth Floor
34. Lifeforce(Space Vampires)
35. Deadly Friend
36. The Puppet Masters
37. 1984
38. A Scanner Darkly
39. Creator
40. Monkey Shines
41. Solo(Weapon)
42. The Handmaid’s Tale
43. Communion
44. Carnosaur
45. From Beyond
46. Nightflyers
47. Watchers
48. Body Snatchers

Contact and The Iron Giant are two of my favorite films.

2010 is my husband's favorite film of all time.

I've watched 18 out of 48 movies (37.5%). That's actually a lot better than I expected when I first glanced at the list.

I've read 0 out of the 48 novels (0%). I thought that George Orwell's 1984 was at least a required reading in high school, but when I went to read a synopsis of the novel, I honestly don't recall ever reading it.

I tag:

kmont at Lurv à la Mode

JenB at The Ginger Kid's Den of Iniquity

Zeek at The Way I See It

Meljean Brook at Meljean Brook

Ann Aguirre at Ann Aguirre