Read in 2008: A Beginning

Ice Haven
Tales of Woodsman Pete
Mother, Come Home
Robot Dreams
Ghost World
Best American Comics 2007
20th Century Eightball
Caricature
The Acme Novelty Library #18
The Fart Party
When You Were Small
Gossip of Starlings
Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist
Mome 9
The Polysyllabic Spree
Housekeeping vs. The Dirt
Bloom
Secrets of the Hollywood Girls Club
20 Times A Lady

Twilight

Read in 2007

Good In Bed
Big Stone Gap
Mortified
Summer Blonde
Best American Comics 2006
Stolen Sharpie Revolution
The Guy Not Taken
PS I Love You
Forever In Blue-The Fourth Summer of the Sisterhood
Wrongboy's History of the Earth
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
The Plain Janes
Gifted
Prep
American Born Chinese
The Astonishing Adventures of Fanboy and Goth Girl
Blankets
Goodbye, Chunky Rice
Veil of Roses
An Abundance of Katherines
Invincible Summer: an anthology
The Constant Rider Omnibus
Make Something: an anthology of portland zinesters
Atonement
Don't Go Where I Can't Follow
Drawn and Quarterly Showcase Three
Missouri Boy
Let Us Be Perfectly Clear
Never Ending Summer

Read In 2006

Holiday On Ice
Ice Haven
The Time Traveler's Wife
Black Hole
My Sister's Keeper
The Cheese Monkeys
44 Scotland Street
Hypocrite in a Pouffy White Dress
Persepolis
Scrapbook
Bitter Is The New Black
Persepolis 2
Paul Has A Summer Job
Breakfast With Tiffany
Goodnight Nobody
Running With Scissors
Inside the Mind of Gideon Rayburn
Charmed Thirds
Little Earthquakes
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime
Love, Rosie

Read in 2005

In Her Shoes
Kissing in Manhattan
The Da Vinci Code
The Grim Grotto
The Second Summer of the Sisterhood
The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2002
Understanding Comics
The Prince
Cat's Cradle
American Girls About Town
Girls In Pants-The Third Summer of the Sisterhood
The Tipping Point
Sloppy Firsts
Second Helpings
Bergdorf Blondes
The Pleasure of My Company
The Know It All
Lucia, Lucia
Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince
Me Talk Pretty One Day
Nickel and Dimed
Thumbsucker
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them
Blink
The True and Outstanding Adventures of the Hunt Sisters
The Idiot Girl's Action Adventure Clube
The Namesake
In The Company of Cheerful Ladies
Meno

Read in 2004

The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency
The Summons
Firestarter
The Lovely Bones
Prey
Rage of Angels
Brunelleschi's Dome
Shopgirl
The Devil Wears Prada
Fishbowl
Tears of the Giraffe
The Nanny Diaries
Morality for Beautiful Girls
A House Called Awful End: The Eddie Dickens Trilogy
The Hostile Hospital
The Carnivorous Carnival
Lemony Snicket: The Unauthorized Autobiography
The Slippery Slope
The Catcher in the Rye
Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants
The Kalahari Typing School for Men

Read In 2003

The Logic of Failure
The Beast In the Jungle
The Birth of Tragedy
Confessions
Candide
Crime and Punishment
A Room of One's Own
The Trial
The Book of Laughter and Forgetting
The Schreuderspitze
The Lady With the Pet Dog
A Small Good Thing
Harry Potter and the Sorcer's Stone
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Catch Me If You Can
The Bad Beginning
The Reptile Room
The Wide Window
The Miserable Mill
The Austere Academy
The Ersatz Elevator
The Vile Village
Girl With A Pearl Earring
Walden Two
A Woman's Book of Life
The Perks of Being A Wallflower

This Year In Movies

I decided at the end of this year last year that I wanted to keep track of all the movies I watched this year. I saw someone else's breakdown on their blog of how their movie watching habits had changed over the years and thought it was pretty cool. I always knew I watched a lot but never really kept track of it before. I already keep a list of the books I read so I figured why not do the same for movies. Man do I watch a lot of movies... I've included tv shows as well, when I've watched the whole season. Thank you netflix! Maybe I'll go back and make some specific comments later.


January (22)
Juno-theatre - great way to start the year!
Shoot em Up -stupid even for an action movie
10 Items or less - a quiet gem
Happenstance -a rewatch, now i can't even remember it again!
Starter for 10 -cute movie
Sweeny Todd- theatre -didn't really like
Funny Ha Ha -very low budget
Eagle vs. Shark - love this movie
Stephen Tobolowsky's Birthday Party -not exactly what i expected but still interesting
Juno-theatre again -awesome again
The Lives of Others -sad
Factory Girl -sad
Rushmore -a favorite
Walmart: The High Cost of Low Price -frightening
The Hoax -ok
Nine Lives - like a collection of short stories
Idiocracy -pretty dumb but better than i thought it would be
Black Snake Moan -pretty much what i expected
Good Luck Chuck -good for a laugh
Wedding Daze -not so good for a laugh
Rocket Science -similar to thumbsucker
Stranger Than Fiction -a rewatch, funny movie

February (16)
Ira and Abby -kinda cute
Tideland -the worst movie i have seen in a long time
Sicko -what you would expect, didn't watch the gross parts
The Nanny Diaries -cute, maybe better than the book
Blind Dating -ok
Paris Je T'aime -a rewatch, i love this movie
Great Expectations -a rewatch, i also love this movie
Veronica Mars Season 3 -a rewatch, a love this show
The Tudors Season 1 -wow jonathan rhys meyers is intense
Feast of Love - sad but nice
The King of California -goofy but good
Be Kind Rewind-theatre - not as good as I'd hoped for
Fierce People - good until something happens and then i was pretty disgusted
A Citizen, A Detective, and A Thief -kinda long
The Jane Austen Book Club - really liked this one
Margot at the Wedding -did not like this one

March (31)
The Other Boleyn Girl-theatre -pretty good, want to finish the book now
Sydney White -cute for this type of movie
Jumper-theatre -fun, but not so much plot
Reign Over Me -sad but good
Guru -long and sad
My Kid Could Paint That -interesting
Goya's Ghosts -ok
Full Frontal -interesting idea
You Can Count On Me -ok
Penelope-theatre -love this movie
Blade Runner - didn't really see what all the hype was about
Undiscovered -better than i thought it would be
No Country For Old Men -esh, why do these kind of movies always win the awards
50 Pills -fun
The Martian Child -sweet
Rent -pretty good
No Day But Today (Rent Documentary) -really interesting
Raising Victor Vargas -sweet quiet movie
Southland Tales -dumb as was expected
Love In the Time of Cholera -sad but ended nice
Enchanted -so very hilarious
Possession -romantic
Horton Hears A Who!- theatre -really good
Death At A Funeral -funny and awkward
Suburban Girl -not half bad
Broken English -really enjoyed
The Hottest State -ok
Smiley Face -had to watch because it looked crazy and it was was
Salaam-E-Ishq -one of my new favorites
Extras Season 2 -so funny
Hitman - pretty bad

Did anyone else notice this?

Anne Boleyn and Ugly Betty share the same taste in necklaces.

How is this a secret?

The multi-talented Jason Schwartzman released this record "Nighttiming" under the name Coconut Records last Spring I believe. I just heard about it two weeks ago. It's amazing! Fans of Phantom Planet and Rooney will certainly enjoy.

The Best In A Long Time

I've enjoyed Juno twice so far and the soundtrack multiple times. See it now!

Lookalikes

Best Issue of Bust Ever!

I gasped when I saw this. I was so excited. And then a week later it came. In my mailbox was the new Oct/Nov issue of Bust featuring a cover interview with Miranda July! Ever since I discovered Bust about a year ago (late on the bandwagon) it's been blowing every other woman's magazine out of the water. And now this. Holy crap! And then it got better, I started reading the interview and heard about Learning to Love You More, which I had somehow missed even though the project had been going on for years! (Goodness I feel out of the loop it started in 2002) Loved her movie, loving her short story collection, so I had to preorder the new Learning to Love You More book. (It was supposed to come out last week but I don't think it's out yet) Anyone know more about this project than I do?

All I know is Miranda July and Harrell Fletcher started the project where they volunteered tasks for others to accept and complete and all the responses are posted on the website. It's such a great idea, I cannot tell if the tasks are still active or if they have stopped creating new ones. Definitely would like to give one a try. What a great idea!

Ali's Free Paintings

Several months back I heard about Ali Spagnola's free paintings project. She wants you to have her art and she wants you to have it for free. I really admire what she is doing and was overjoyed when I got an email awhile back saying she had done a painting for me (right), of my favorite animal, the tapir! You can track the paintings she is doing via her blog. Good luck Ali!

Hotel Chevalier

Being a HUGE Wes Anderson fan I scanned ITunes all morning in hopes of finding the free download for Hotel Chevalier. Finally I found it via a link posted on an imdb message board. Check it out!

Royal Tenebaums is my favorite film and my favorite of Wes's films, then Rushmore and then the Life Aquatic. This short has added to my high hopes for the Darjeeling Limited. It looks like it's going to be great possibly greater than the Life Aquatic?

I was somewhat startled (in a good way) to see an ipod in the short. Wes's films have always had the feeling of being set in a different era. It was rather exciting seeing the short being set in what was obviously this time period.

So excited!

Atonement:Trailers

Here's the trailers for the movie version of Atonement. Looks very promising!

Adrian Tomine interview in the new Giant Robot magazine

I've always been curious about Giant Robot magazine. Just picked this up today. If any of you are fans of him like I am you are going to love this. It's a six page interview!

It's been awhile

I have posted here or on the Ink Engine blog for some time now. I think it was a mix of laziness/feeling I didn't have anything to say/ and being busy reading other blogs! But now I have a list of things I'd like to post about!

Just started reading Atonement by Ian McEwan and Pretty Little Mistakes by Heather McElhatton (very close to each other on the Borders shelf!)

My friend lists Atonement as one of her favorite books so I had always wanted to read it. Then I watched some behind the scenes features on the movie version that's due to come out soon and knew now was my chance to read it. Books are always better before you see the movie versions. It's somehow become a personal goal to try and read books before seeing the movie version. I can say that that was not the case with the first few Harry Potter movies/books.

Pretty Little Mistakes is called a "Do-Over Novel" much like the children's Choose Your Own Adventure books. It's rather fun! It starts the day you graduate from high school and your first choice is to go to college or travel. It boasts 150 endings.

Some good movies to check out, described in two words or less:
Year of the Dog (Comedy/Drama)
The Devil and Daniel Johnston (Heartbreaking)
Cashback (Time stops)
Mirrormask (Sci-Fi/Artsy)
Little Manhattan (Adorable)

Booking Through Thursday

Came across this cute blog called Booking Through Thursday. Every Thursday a new question about books or reading is posted and the reader's post their responses. Very fun.

This Thursday's question: Are you a Goldilocks kind of reader?

Do you need the light just right, the background noise just so loud but not too loud, the chair just right, the distractions at a minimum?
Or can you open a book at any time and dip right in, whether it’s for twenty seconds, while waiting for the kettle to boil, or indefinitely, like while waiting interminably at the hospital–as long as the book is open in front of your nose, you’re happy to read?

My answer: I would say I am a Goldilocks kind of reader. I've realized I try not to be but always end up paying attention to the distractions around me while reading the same page over and over again because I'm unable to pay attention long enough to read more than a sentence at a time.

I also don't like to read for under say 5 minutes. I prefer to read for periods of time closer to 15-30 minutes at a time.

Slightly off subject, once I start a novel (this doesn't count for short stories) I like to finish it in under a few weeks or continuously read it until I'm done. If i put down a book and pick it back up months later I start from the beginning not from where I left off. I also find with most books when I have about 150-100 pages left I'm ready to be done and just read and read and read until I am. I'm not so sure if it's about wanting to know how to book ends or feeling that I'm ready to move on to the next book, I guess it depends on the book.

Gifted: A Review

I recently got the chance to participate in Librarything.com's Early Reviewer's program and was selected to read and review Gifted by Nikita Lalwani. I'd suggest if you aren't doing so already, the join librarything and join their Early Reviewer's program. It's great fun. This book is scheduled for release September 11th.

The story of young Rumi Vasi, math genius, and her family explores many themes including adolescence, the nature of genius, and an Indian family living in England. At a young age it is discovered the Rumi is gifted in mathematics and her father takes it upon himself to nurture those skills and help her get into Oxford at the age of 15.

Immediately the book “The Namesake” by Jhumpa Lahiri and the movie, “Bend it Like Beckham” written and directed by Gurinder Chadha came to mind, both sharing some storylines of Indian family’s displaced. While these two stories memorized me, “Gifted” did not.

I tried desperately to connect to Rumi, succeeding only a few times. I felt bad for her mother, and did not like her father. The parents both seemed confused in their parenting abilities and I wished for them to have more compassion and realize that things were not as they seemed with Rumi.

Three parts of the story were specifically enjoyable for me, Rumi interacting with her little brother Nibu, Rumi’s two trips to India, and Rumi living away from home while attending Oxford. Maybe I enjoyed these small sections because I was in someway able to relate to them, unlike other parts of the story.

I connected to the idea of the story but not the execution. I am sure some people will enjoy this book, it just wasn’t for me and that happens.

1 and 1/2 stars of 5
Manuscript from LibraryThing Early Reviewers

Recently In Movies

Netflix has greatly decreased my need to see movies in the theatre but somehow this past week I went and saw two movies.

When to Hairspray expecting to somewhat enjoy it and man was it fantastic. The whole time I just kept thinking about how much better it was than Dreamgirls. Sometimes musicals get on my nerves but this one was a grand slam. I've also been enjoying the director, Adam Shankman as a guest judge on "So You Think You Can Dance" recently. Fun stuff.

Also went to the Bourne Ultimatum, which I also enjoyed more than I thought i would. It was non-stop action except for a few scenes involving peole sitting at desks and/or computer. I really liked the casting of the two assasins, they weren't boring and I actually was hoping they wouldn't die, but they were not allowed to kill Bourne in the process. I won't spoil too much for you so I'll stop there.