Tag: book

Books, Out of the Box Blogs, Reviews

The Duff by Kody Keplinger, do you think she sold out with the movie?

Les

First, sorry for my late post. Yesterday wasn’t a good day.

So let’s get started. This is one of my all time favorite books, I have read it more times than I can count. As it turns out I absolutely love Kody Keplinger. I read all of her books, except the young tween book she wrote.

Anyway, for those who haven’t read the book, Bianca is a senior in high school, and lives at home with her dad. She is smart, bitchy, and always negative. I do not like her. Enter my favorite character, Wesley, he is rich, smart, a man whore,and a loner. His parents are never home so he does what he wants. These two meet at a teen club, where Wesley wants Bianca to talk to him, so he can hook up with one of her two hot best friends. She tells him to go away, but he asks her to cooperate and not to be upset about being the “DUFF” (Designated Ugly Fat Friend) in her friendship. She throws drink, and boom she hates him. Oh! Did I mention Wesley is a jerk.

So life goes on she and Wesley  get paired on a class project and things get better and better from there.

Ok, the movie is a far cry from this book. Don’t get me wrong if I separate this book from the movie it is enjoyable. However, knowing that it was tied to this  book killed my dreams of seeing it played out on the big screen. The characters in the movie are nothing like the book characters. They only similarities between the two are the names of some of the characters. My opinion is that Kody didn’t fight for enough say in this movie. Her book is 4 to 5 star material, the movie 3 star at tops, and only if you don’t know it is tied to the book.

So if you have only seen the movie and not read the book, please do yourself a favor and read it! You will see what I am going on about.

So here is the question. Did Kody sell out? What other authors do you think sold out for a movie deal?

Peace out

Les

Out of the Box Blogs

The Big Review

Karen

I have three books to review and I’m officially stuck. Easy you think, right? Not really. One I loved, one I hated and I falls right in the middle. What’s the big deal? Allow me to explain. You see any good review I read always does the following: (1)provides a clear opinion on a book (2) with a understanding of the story ,(3) without any spoilers. Sounds easy? It’s not. Problem one, when I love a book I want to go on and on about every character and how they were integral parts of the story, how they affected the plot and the outcome. Damn broke rule number three. Okay but isn’t that why goodreads made that great little spoilers button? Sure, but I don’t have one of those. So cut out the important parts, keep the integrity of the story so readers understand, oh yeah and make sure everyone knows it was kick ass. Lots of exclamations points only get you so far!!! Sorry saying this was awesome over and over just doesn’t cut it anymore..

So what about the bad reviews? Same rules but now your actually criticizing some ones writing, and potentially convincing others not to read it. I have always held to the belief that I should be honest, but there is a line between honest and mean, and you never want to cross it. This is especially hard with small indie writers, while I don’t mind offering critique, basically telling someone I generally disliked there book can be harder than you think when someone has 5 reviews total on there page. And then on the other hand, if they are a well loved author, prepare for the backlash. I can still remember my first one star, it was a Y.A. author that was popular, whoa watch out! After I started getting some negative thumbs down I was pissed, I had worked hard on that honest review and it seemed that some people were just not liking it because they loved the author (and hadn’t even read the book, hey I loved them too but this book was not up to par) not because it was a badly written review. But then I did a total readjust on my attitude, I had to remember, I just said something bad about an author they liked, hey that’s they’re way of expression too. I always now make it a point to read all types of reviews and try to concentrate on how people are expressing themselves. It takes a lot of courage sometimes to say bad things.

The in between. Ugh this is the hardest to write. Sure I can go to amazon and goodreads and throw up three stars, but write a comment? This is where I struggle. But I recently read something an author wrote and I’m taking it to heart, they pointed out that reviews with good and bad points in them are the best kind because you learn the most from them. So I’m working on going back and writing an actual review, pointing out what I liked and disliked WITHOUT SPOILERS (so bad at that) so people can make up they’re own minds.

I know this isn’t an official review, but sometimes you gotta vent.

Out of the Box Blogs

The Martian by Andy Weir

Karen

This book is amazing! There is so much I feel like I want to talk about, but I figure I should just give it to you straight. Why did I love The Martian? Because it did what great SicFi books do, it combined that little bit of reality in science with fiction to create a blockbuster story. I could see Mark (the main character that is stuck on Mars) as a real person, this is how the people in my life actually talk, and I loved the interaction between him and NASA and his fellow characters. I’ll even give you an example, when Mark is emailing one of his fellow astronauts he says: Frankly, I suspect you’re a super-villain. You’re a chemist, you have a German accent, you had a base on Mars…what more can there be?  Great stuff! I also enjoyed some of the secondary characters, like Venkat, Mindy, Teddy, Mitch, Martinez, Johanssen, the list could go on and on. I found them to be interesting “full” characters that I looked forward to reading about. I also loved that the book was about a Mars mission, which is what the space program is about right now, and had a lot of solid technical facts, yet still held true to the futuristic scifi genre that I love. I laughed, worried, fought, and was generally consumed by this book. It’s a worthy read.

As a side note, I don’t know anything about Andy Weir, I believe that authors books should speak for them not their background or schooling or how old they are, so I don’t like to read bio’s. It’s their business not mine. But from this book I gather that Andy has some scientific background so when I noticed that the second highest rating on goodreads for this book is a 5 star rating from Wil Wheaton, the actual Wil Wheaton (you know who I’m talking about) I fangirled a little for him. That’s awesome for a scifi writer. And if he’s a nerd? Even better! Good for you Andy Weir!!

As with most of life’s problems, this one can be solved by a box of pure radiation. I can’t help myself, I’m going to be quoting this book for weeks! I loved this book!!!!

Out of the Box Blogs

Confessions of a former Tom Cat by Daisy Prescott

Les

This is an amazing Story! I loved it! The characters are written well and they are believable as real people. Tom and Idaho are awesome.

Ok, so this is a very funny story about Tom a tomcat (playboy) who has no plans to settle down, and only does one night. While he is upfront about it, he can be a jerk and the girls still eat it up (like me, I love jerks). Enter Idaho, who is engaged to a douche bag and has always been one of the guys. Then it gets interesting and crazy. This book had me laughing literally out loud. I am glad I took a chance on this book, that was recommended to me. This is one of those rare finds with characters you believe they are real, and you are right there with them. Go read this book! Take a chance on this one, you won’t regret it.

So, if you read any of my other posts, you know I will never go into great detail, because I want you to experience the book through your own perspective, not mine.