August recap- books+movie adaptions+poetry snippet

Greetings, friends!

I understand that, to the untrained eye, it would appear that the last post I wrote was the July recap. Not so. I published many profound and brilliant posts this month. Unfortunately, they have fallen into another dimension which makes them difficult to access.

But they’re definitely there. Trust me.

Books

I read a total of 6 books in August. Some middle grade, some YA, some adult, and some old English epic poetry.

Stardust by Neil Gaiman

Not much for plot (there isn’t really a climax??), but I didn’t feel like it needed a really strong, structured plot. The writing is smart and the world feels real.

Also, Tristran is kind of adorable.

“He was painfully shy, which, as is often the manner of the painfully shy, he overcompensated for by being too loud at the wrong times.”

–Stardust

Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones

I got this on hold at the library. Imagine my horror when I went to pick it up and THIS COVER STARED BACK AT ME.

But have we not been told, “Don’t judge a book by its cover?” Truer words were never spoken!

This my favorite book of the month. The characters reminded me of Elizabeth Marie Pope (which, if you don’t know, is high praise). Sophie is smart and fiery and will take no nonsense from anyone (even if they are an all-powerful wizard). Calcifer is wonderfully salty, Howl is overly dramatic and self-obsessed and hilarious, and Michael is so sweet and loyal, bless him. A brilliant cast. I love them all.

The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton

Not a big fan of the tower of faces on the cover.

When it’s not talking about how movie star handsome everyone is, this book manages to be quite profound. The boys are all so close they’re basically brothers, and as I’ve mentioned 1 or 2 or 38 times, I really like books about brothers.

Also they eat chocolate cake.

Bob by Wendy Mass and Rebecca Stead

This book was just… sort of “meh.”

The plot was simple and straightforward. It relied mostly on its charm, but there wasn’t enough charm to really carry it.

 

Beowulf

Shockingly enough, I didn’t pick this book up for the fun of it. It was for a British lit class.

If you want to know what sort of hero Beowulf is, suffice it to say that he once swam in the sea for seven days and seven nights, holding a broad sword to fight off sea monsters and wearing FREAKING ARMOR AND CHAIN MAIL.

I guess we’re supposed to be in awe, but I’m just laughing at how ridiculously over the top he is.

All Rise for the Honorable Perry T. Cook by Leslie Connor

I like the premise of this book. A boy is raised in a prison where his mother is incarcerated. When he is eleven, authorities get involved and he’s taken away to live with another family.

I wanted to like this book. But it turned out to be kind of bland. I could sort of see what they were trying to do with the antagonist, but he came across as two-dimensional. And a lot of the issues seemed too black-and-white where they could have been more complicated.

Movies

I watched several book-to-movie adaptions in August. Which is always fun. (HAHAHAHAHAHA.)

Clearly these filmmakers know a thing or two about how to adapt a book into a movie.

Howl’s Movie Castle: Sophie is good, Michael is adorable, Calcifer is hilarious, the music is excellent, but WHAT IS GOING ON with HOWL, hmm?? How did the melodramatic, self-obsessed, guy with a soft heart become a tragic, noble, bird-man??

There was the one scene where he freaked out about his hair, but it didn’t fit with the way he was the rest of the movie.

Stardust: Overall, the movie’s sense of humor wasn’t matched to mine. I appreciated the fact that Tristan was awkward (at least at the beginning). But the romance though.

Book romance: Yvaine will insult him until her last breath. (And if she runs out of insults, Tristan will helpfully remind her of some more.)

Movie romance: Yvaine gives a lengthy speech DECLARING HER LOVE+WAY too much kissing

Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children: I read this book almost a year ago, so the details are fuzzy. But I KNOW the entire ending was… something else. (Actually, that goes for all three of these.) I didn’t really like the book much, so I didn’t really care what they did with the movie. The best thing about it was the adorable children (namely Fiona and Hugh).

Aside from book-to-movie adaptions I watched… a lot of other things. I think the highlight would have to be Frequency.

THIS MOVIE, GUYS.

Due to crazy polar magnetic activity interfering with radio waves (just go with it), a man is able to talk to his father who died 30 years ago. So firstly, it’s EMOTIONAL. And secondly, it’s effects the TIME-LINE.

The writing is SO GOOD and the acting is EXCELLENT. The STORYTELLING is so freaking brilliant. Especially at the end??

I was geeking out in a way that a movie has not made me geek out in a long time.

Writing

Last month I did Camp Nanowrimo and wrote the first draft of a book. I’ve started to notice a trend with me. The month after I finish something big, everything I write is basically junk.

So yeah, I didn’t write anything worth talking about.

Except a poem! I’m taking a poetry class and I wrote a poem which I actually like.

The past isn’t biodegradeable

but it’s easy to recycle.

Pain can be repurposed

and it hurts like new.

Other Things

• I wrote SO MANY blog posts.
• Ha ha.
• I listened to the theme from Howl’s Moving Castle roughly 68 times.
• I became obsessed with listening to Bridges Burn by NeedtoBreathe.
• I read my sister’s book and she was UNKIND to my children. It was super dark and murder-y and circus-y and my sister is brilliant, bless her.
• I accidentally went near the discount rack in the bakery section of the grocery store. Stuff just…jumped into my basket.
• I really want to start taking pictures for my blog instead of always using stock images. I thought I might start this month… but clearly that didn’t happen.
• I hardly read ANY blog posts, and it made me sad. But school has started so time is an endangered species. Hopefully I will manage to find some soon anyway???

How was your August? Did you discover any new favorite books? Movies? Did you write much? Do you have trouble writing anything after you finish a big project? Are you listening to the theme from Howl’s Movie Castle right now (as you should be)? Do tell!