Posted on Thu ,17/06/2010 by Kathryn
So, I was complaining that it had been a whole week, A WHOLE week since I have been able to get any time to read. THEN Kiki, www.kendrajustice.com, points out that I have not updated my blog since February! Am I really that busy? I have completed a couple of new books. One being The Kane Chronicles, more to follow later! What I really wanted to post about today was my beautiful!two year old has stolen my heart once again. We recently acquired my mother’s old wardrobe that she used from infant until she left to go to college. I can’t look at it enough, it’s wonderful. Anyway, we moved it in while Isabella was sleeping so when she woke up the next morning she was equally impressed. She proceeds getting into the wardrobe and invites me and Wrigs, our dog, to join her! I asked, “Oh Izzy, are you bringing me to Narnia?!” She looked at me like I was crazy but we did end up playing in there for quite some time. Check that off of my list of : To Do One Day! On to the evening and we ask her what she wants for dinner, she screams, “SUSHI!” Yes, you read that correctly. My two year old requested sushi! We jump in the car and off we go and I ask her what she wants to listen to? To that she replied, “Kiss Botti…uhhhh…..Joush Goban..ABC’s? And that is Josh Groban and Chris Botti for those who don’t know! We listened to one of each. And it get’s better. After dinner she wanted to go look at the books in the bookstore. It doesn’t get much better than that. I was so proud! She is her mama’s girl! And on a side note, I am drinking my morning green tea and she is having her peach tea with me. How cool is that?
Categorized under :The Last Song, Nicholas Sparks
Posted on Tue ,23/02/2010 by Kathryn
I am trying to stay on top of my reading but I will admit I am getting behind because I am addicted to the Olympics. I love hearing the stories behind the athletes. It’s just like a good book getting you all emotionally involved. GO USA!
Categorized under :The Last Song, Nicholas Sparks
Posted on Tue ,23/02/2010 by Kathryn
I was finally able to go and see the movie The Lightning Thief with my friend Kendra and I was so disappointed and I know she was too!. I just can’t understand why they would take an awesome storyline and change so much. The thing that bothered me the most was the loss of innocence from the book to the movie that I had found so charming in reading it. I know it’s Hollywood but I can’t understand why they feel like that have to put so many sexual innuendo’s in a kids movie? For example, the Lotus Hotel in the book was just a cool enchanted place where they played video games, but in the movie they had women in lingerie hanging all over them!! It was just to much for me sitting there thinking about all the young impressionable minds around me.
On another note I thought they did a great job on the casting. The guy who played Percy was the same brazen spunky teenager I had pictured in the book. Grover was definitely the funniest. A little over confident than the book character, but still good. And why didn’t they dye Annabeth’s hair BLONDE and where was Clarisse?? It was a lot of the little things that just kept adding up unfortunately.
Now after saying all that, I honestly don’t think I would be so harsh on this movie if I didn’t know the original story, but the problem is I do. I was really excited about it because it had potential but it ended up falling short. Hopefully they will do the other movies but stick to the Riordan’s original story. Still had a good time just going to see it. Good company and good conversation is always fun.
Categorized under :Percy Jackson and the Olympians by Rick Riordan
Posted on Thu ,04/02/2010 by Kathryn
*Note to readers (if there are any): I am a little late posting on these. I have a couple of more I have read and will comment on soon. Dear John by Nicholas Sparks, and Confessions of Fitzwilliam Darcy by Mary Wilson, I read the Percy Jackson books last month as well, just running behind! The Last Song I posted about is our February book club pick.
Percy Jackson and the Olympians
the Lightning Thief series by Rick Riordan
Yes, I am thirty and yes, I enjoy young adult/children’s series. So what right?! Everyone should in my opinion, but they have to be interesting, new and fun, chopped full of adventure. I mean adventure around every corner, majestic creatures, heroes and heroines, young love, you get the picture! It is a simple escape for me. I quick easy read that I can get lost in. Things can get so stressful sometimes you just need a fun story with a happy ending. I can’t get enough of these. I will admit I haven’t come across a series in years that have held me captive at every free moment to see what happens next! The word that constantly comes to mind when describing this series is clever, such a clever story line and I still don’t think I give it justice by saying that. If you are a fiction/fantasy nerd, Greek mythology more that likely peaks your interest as well. Rick Riordan, the author of Percy Jackson, has managed to teach us these facts and he takes us on our adventures with Peruses, the son of Poseidon. I will be totally honest and say I feel like I finally have a grasp on who belonged to who and who did what in mythology after reading these books I respect the author more for separating our God from the gods. He is too big to explain, he stated in the first book. He left it at that but it definitely maintained that separation. He shows the importance of friends and family and when to even stand up for those friends even though they act like jerks most of the time. The books make the characters look inside themselves and realize their flaws. Acceptance of your family and friends, no matter how un normal they may seem. Betrayal, pride, jealousy, death and bitterness are all confronted and they are made to come clean and ask for forgiveness. There are five books in this series and they are all wonderful. I can’t believe I didn’t catch this series earlier but I am almost glad I didn’t because as soon as I finished one, I was ready for the next. I finished them all in a week. I haven’t had that much FUN reading a series in so long. I highly recommend these books if you are into this kind of reading and just need a little escape! To my fantasy fiction readers….this is our cup of tea.
I am searching my websites to try and collect the first edition, first printing of these books. I will keep you updated. I just aquired the last book signed by the author and expect in any day now! I just have a feeling about these!
Categorized under :Percy Jackson and the Olympians by Rick Riordan
Posted on Thu ,04/02/2010 by Kathryn
A beautiful story of forgiveness, redemetion, and more importantly …love.
The Last Song by Nicholas Sparks was an extremely captivating story. I just completed the book and it is one that stays intertwined in your thoughts far after you have completed it. Just to warn you, it is hard to put down once you have started it. It was actually a complex book full of different and interesting characters. The funny thing was even though they were so different I still felt a deep emotional connection with almost all of them. I could easily relate to Ronnie the 17, almost 18 year old that is bitter because of family break down and she shuts down herself . She vows to stop playing piano, which she and her dad had been playing since she was four and gave up her dreams and him. She started making wrong decisions, accomplices, etc, but I can remember having some of the same thoughts as she went through her trials. Especially the redemption. Her mom sends her brother Jonah and her to stay the summer where she finds herself searching out the same type of bad crowd at first and gets into more trouble. Expecting her dad to think the worst of her, he shows her nothing but love and respect. There relationship continues to grow and she becomes acquainted with an exceptional young man,Will, who she falls in love with dad’s approval. He is humble with a gentle spirit and absolutely adores Ronnie and sees past the front and to who she really is inside. As the summer continues, her dad, Steve, and her brother Jonah work on a window for a church that was burnt months ago. The pastor of the church felt like Steve was his son. They have a special relationship and he helps him to find what he is looking for and inevitably it is to hear Jesus speak. At the end of the summer the truth comes out that Steve has a terminal cancer and thus the reason he wanted to spend this summer to reconnect with his children. When he tells Ronnie, her thoughts turn to the three years she didn’t speak with her father and she earnestly prays to God that he will multiply their time. You start to see the Holy Spirit working in all of them and even though he loses the battle they all come out stronger in the end. She finished the song that her dad had started months ago and was able to play it for him before he passed, which also inspired her to audition for Julliard and pursue her passion, the piano. She and Will had parted at the end of the summer and not on good terms. Her dad encouraged her to forgive, not only him but mainly herself. He comes to the funeral and promised to call, but leaves you wondering a while what will happen. I could guess the ending of the book after reading a few chapters in and I was hoping I was desperately wrong. I could sense that her dad was having health problems and wouldn’t make it, hence The Last Song title, but I was enthralled with the story. I was so involved with Will and Ronnie’s relationship that I kept my fingers crossed that in the end it would work out. Still hoping after all the sobbing, yes, sobbing I would get my happy ending and you know what……….You will have to read it yourself to see how the story unfolds.
I admire Nicolas Spark for being able to involve so many different characters into one plot. The personalities are so real its hard not to get emotionally involved. I remember not speaking to my parents in my rebellious years, trying to figure out things out myself, when what I really needed was the love of my parents and more importantly, the love of Jesus. When Jesus did take over my life I suddenly had those same remorseful, shameful feelings about the time I had lost with my parents. I sincerely prayed that God would multiply the time I had with my parents and make us whole again. I know I prayed it b,ut it was hard to imagine that it could happen after all we have been through. I learned the same forgiveness and the same redemption. This has been one of my biggest gifts from my Father. Not only do my parents and I feel like we have had that time miraculously back but our relationship was and is so strong. I never thought I would be able to talk so candidly and open to them, but hey, they are my best friends. It made me think back while I was reading and even though it was a fictional story, it made me feel blessed once again that I still have my parents. I love a mainstream author that isn’t afraid of really interjecting the workings of our Lord. Kudos to Sparks, you got me on this one! This is definitely my cup of tea..
Categorized under :The Last Song, Nicholas Sparks
Posted on Wed ,13/01/2010 by Kathryn
So, here it begins. A new year and a new adventure starting with four dear friends, all with the same passion for reading and books, but differing opinions as what we feel is the ideal type of story. Some books we can all agree are fantastic works of art. Although, about the same book one of us loved, the other, however, could take it or leave it. We have talked for a couple of years about starting a book club but never did anything with it. When the subject came up again, we were all ready to commit. With hectic schedules, kids and life in general, meeting once a month isn’t as easy as it sounds. Instead we have decided to read our choice book and then blog about it. It is exciting because I will have to branch out from my norm of reading. I am a sucker for the classics, C.S. Lewis, particularly Narnia, Tolkien, Austen, etc. Fantasy fiction, historical fiction and just about any true classic are my cup of tea. I have loved to read since I was young. I remember reading The Fox and the Grapes, Aesop’s Fables, over and over, plus Where the wild things are and my animal encyclopedia were always out as well. My mom and my grandmother were avid readers also. I am forever thankful that they encouraged me to read at such a young age. My grandmother started me on Nancy Drew mysteries early and then my Mom introduced me to a magical world with talking animals, kings and queens and adventure! I would read Narnia over and over and I still do as an adult. I honestly believe you can get something different out of the series at different stages of your life. When I read a book it’s like I am watching a movie in my mind. I have often thought about a movie that was so good, only to realize that it was simply a book I had read months before. To be able to create a story that literally stays with you after you have read it takes talent. I am eager to see with our selections in our book club, if a book I wouldn’t normally pick up can have the same effect as those I hold so dear to me. Until next time….
Categorized under :The Last Song, Nicholas Sparks
