Big Screen Bite

Hola Readers.  Hubbin is a huge zombie fan...me...I find they all end up being the same thing.  That being said, on occasion somebody will come up with a way to refresh the genre...usually in book

form.  This winter I read The Girl With All the Gifts by M.R. Carey, my thoughts on which you can read here.  I mentioned that there was a movie and I was interested in this one in particular 'cause the author of the book wrote the screenplay simultaneously.  He stated that he made the screenplay purposely a bit different from the book to better fit the big screen format.  I was curious how this would turn out so on our last movie night we watched the film version.  For the most part I had almost the exact same feelings about the movie as I did the book.  The casting was pretty spot on, the world felt like a post apocalyptic zombie world, the story followed the book for pretty much everything...it was ok.  I felt that the world was better portrayed in the book, but the little actress that played Melanie really brought it.  I also felt that they could have done a better job advertising in the " hey this isn't really a movie for kids 'cause for real there is a whole lot of adult content in this movie" category.  Overall I felt that the movie really did not bring any of the uniqueness of the book...but still had some of the same pacing problems.  In the end I felt that neither was wholly original, neither was really bad, they were both interesting on certain points...but in the end as almost always, I liked the book better.  That being said, if you have read the book, go ahead and watch the movie 'cause there are some really cool parts.  Happy Reading Everybody!

The Circle Of Marsh House

Hi Readers, who's ready for a rambling?  I am...and since it's my blog...let's get to it.  I am a Studio Ghibli and always enjoy the fact that several of the movies are inspired by books.  One day while looking through movies I found one I had never heard of before, and lo and behold it was based on a book called When Marnie Was There by Joan G. Robinson.  The premise sounded interesting, and I always love discovering new books...especially older ones so both the book and movie got put in the basket and onto my book shelves.  As always SPOILERS AHEAD!

Anna is a foster child in England who has withdrawn from everybody.  Her parents were killed in a car accident when she was very small, and her beloved grandmother died just a few short years later.  She has been taken in by a very loving couple who do their best to make her feel like their daughter.  Unfortunately between her natural reticence at getting close to anybody, and her discovery that the couple get a stipend from the government, Anna comes across as very cold.  Anna's foster mom decides to send her to her friend who lives in a sleepy little beach village.  The couple are pretty relaxed, letting Anna run around as she pleases, which suites Anna just fine.  Anna finds herself drawn to an old manor known as the Marsh House.  It is old and abandoned, yet still draws the quiet and withdrawn girl.  One day, as Anna is exploring the marsh area, she see's a girl with pale yellow hair being brushed by a maid at one of the windows of Marsh House.  This image sticks with Anna, and lo and behold one day that same girl appears in the sand dunes.  The girls name is Marnie and she makes Anna promise to keep her as her special secret friend.  As Anna is naturally quiet, this suits her just fine.  The girls have a couple of adventures and learn more about each other.  We learn that Marnie lives in the Marsh House with her nurse and two maids, all of which are borderline abusive.  They threaten Marnie with a trip to the abandon windmill if she misbehaves, which absolutely terrifies the girl.   Marnie's parents are away most of the time, leaving her all alone with the staff.  One night Marnie and Anna end up in the windmill, and get stuck.  When Anna wakes up, she is alone and very upset that Marnie would leave her.  Anna is rescued and taken back to recover as she is very sick.  As she recovers she sneaks out to try and find Marnie.  Marnie is at her window and yells down a heartfelt and tearful apology and tells Anna that she is being taken away.  Anna is understandably devastated and takes to her bed.  Anna finally decides to get back to exploring and heads to the Marsh House.  She is surprised to see a lot of activity and discovers a family with five kids has moved in for the summer.  She is drawn out of her shell and spends a lot of time with the family, finally finding a place she belongs.  One of the girls, after acting a bit weird, finally shows Anna an old diary she found in her room.  The diary belongs to Marnie and in it there are references to a special friend and a few of the events that Anna and Marnie experienced together.  They bring the diary to the mother and discover that it is over 50 years old...which puzzles Anna 'cause her hazy memories are from recent times.  Eventually they get to talk with an old family friend who grew up in the area of the Marsh House.  The whole story comes out and it turns out that Marnie was a girl who grew up with a lonely life until she got sick after a night in the windmill.  Her parents brought her back from the Marsh House, but more tragedy struck when her father died.  Marnie married her friend Edward, but he was killed in the war when their own daughter was only a couple of years old.  The daughter was sent to America to keep her safe and did not return until she was 13 years old.  At that point her relationship with her mother Marnie was strained.  The daughter ran away and had a daughter herself, who she brought back to be raised by Marnie.  The daughter and her new husband then died in a car accident leaving the child to be brought up solely by Marnie who was the only family left.  Unfortunately Marnie never got over the death of her daughter and died a few short years later...sound familiar?  That's right, Anna is Marnie's granddaughter!  Anna is very happy to finally have her family history and is able to warm up to her foster parents, who really do want her to be happy.  Anna herself becomes much happier and able to let people love her again.

World Building - The setting of this story is pretty small, a tiny little village, a marsh/beach, the house Anna stays at and the Marsh House.  That being said the world is perfectly complete.  The author was able to create not just a world, but an atmosphere that was able to transport me as a reader so completely that it was sometimes a shock when I put the book down to realize that I wasn't actually at a little English beach.  I can totally see why somebody would be inspired to make a movie after reading this, just to capture the world.

Story - The story was good.  It was a little different then I originally anticipated, as most of the blurbs tout it as a ghost story.  I feel like it is more of a circle of life type deal, with family and friends being when and where they are most needed.  The story made sense and other then a few overly convenient moments was well done.  Combined with everything else it worked well.

Character - I really liked the characters in this story.  There was a lot of introspection and growing and feeling and variety.  Each character was fully formed, each character had a story, each character stayed true to themselves, and nobody acted out of character just to further the story.  I also really liked how every single character felt well thought out was necessary for the story.

 Editing - The editing was fairly well done.  The story could have become very confusing, especially with the dream like quality that permeated the whole book, but overall the whole thing was readable and sensical.  Like I said before, other then a few small overly convenient details the book read beautifully and stayed with me.  Good editing.

Movie - The movie was made by the famous Studio Ghibli whom I love for their ability to translate atmosphere into a watchable movie, and this film was no exception.  There were a few notable exceptions from the book to film, the biggest being that it was set in Japan instead of England which was both odd and kind of cool, it was like seeing the same story in two different views.  The thing I didn't like so much is that they made Anna a bit more aggressive and almost mean, where in the book she was just withdrawn and stoic.  I also felt the movie was a wee bit rushed compared to the book.  Overall though the signature atmosphere, introspectiveness and sheer beauty were all there, just like I wanted.

Nostalgia - So one of the things that really struck me about this book was the sense of nostalgia it gave me.  This is totally a book I would have LOVED and read over and over back when I was in the 10-12ish age.  I really enjoyed reading this book now, but really wish I had been able to read it when I was younger because I can see it becoming one of my favorite.  I'm not 100% sure why I am so sure my younger self would have been so into this book.  Maybe it reminds me of the books I read when I was younger, maybe I can see myself pulling it off of the library shelf and curling up in my yard, maybe I can see myself forcing my siblings to act it out, maybe it was my affinity for imaginary friends, who knows.  Every once in a while I will get a book like this, where as much as I enjoy it as an adult, I really want to go back in time and give myself some of these books.

Ghost Story - This book was touted as a ghost story...but it really wasn't...but it kind of was.  It is really hard to really put this in any one category 'cause it really doesn't follow any rules...which I love.  The mechanism of the interaction between Marnie and Anna is never fully explained.  We know that they both had the same experiences because Anna remembers them, even if it is a bit muddled and Marnie records them in her diary, even if Anna's name is never actually mentioned.  I don't think that this pairing needs a "scientific" or "realistic" explanation.  I like to think that these two souls that were connected by blood and love found each other at their loneliest and helped each other survive.  I am good with the idea that love can transcend time and space and I'm gonna leave it at that.

Overall Impression - I really enjoyed this book, it was different and surprising and atmospheric and stuck with me in a good way.  I will probably reread it in late spring/early summer as it feels like it should be a seasonal book, but regardless I really liked it.  I give it 8 out of 10 sand castles with gardens and recommend it to anybody who wants a story with heart or is looking for one for their kiddos with out too much of the yucky stuff.  Happy Reading Everybody!

As You Wish Behind The Scenes

Happy New Years!  What better way to start of this fresh and shiny new year then to finish a brand new book?  How about three books?!?  Yep, I finally actually took my days off to read instead of picking up shifts lol.  So get ready for some ramblings my friends.  Let's start with...As You Wish: Inconceivable Tales from the Making of The Princess Bride by Cary Elwes and Joe Layden.  Since it is more of a non-fiction book the rambling may be a bit different then normal, but let's give it a go shall we?

In essence this is a behind the scenes/memoir of the making, releasing and results of one of the best movies ever The Princess Bride which is based on the book The Princess Bride by William Goldman who also wrote the screenplay.  I love the book, I love the movie, I love Cary Elwes (Westley) so pretty much happiness all the way around.  The book is written from Mr. Elwes point of view and we follow him from the beginning.  We hear about his audition, how nervous he was and how wonderful Rob Reiner  (Director) was/is (we hear this about 1000 times so it must be true :-) )  He moves on to the intense and insane amount of training he and Mandy Patinkin (Inigo Montoya)  had to go through, not only initially, but in between every take during filming to be ready for their epic fencing scene.  It is described as the best in the book so therefore the two were expected to be up to snuff.  We are with him when he meets the beautiful and enigmatic Robin Wright (Buttercup) and the two hit it off in perfect movie chemistry.  Wallace Shawn (Vizzini) apparently is terrified of heights and failing in his role.  Christopher Guest (Count Tyrone) and Chris Sarandon (Prince Humperdink) add there two cent's about playing the villain's in this amazing show.  Billy Crystal (Mad Max) and Carol Kane (Valerie) kept the cast in stitches during their brief days of improvised filming.  I think though it's the stories of Andre the Giant (Fezzik) and his astounding gentleness that will really get to people who read this book.  Through out the filming we learn on how Cary Elwes was injured twice...once because of his own questionable choice of hopping on an ATV, and once when he insisted on having Christopher Guest actually hit him on the head with a sword...not really understanding how heavy it actually was.  Cary tells us about the dinners that they all shared in each others rooms, and even more about how great Rob was.  We get stories from on set, especially the stunts required for the Fire Swamp scenes.  All of this is supplemented with little blurbs from other cast and crew members tucked in through out the book.  The book ends as most of the casts gets together for the 25th anniversary amazed and thrilled at how much a part of peoples life their movie has become.

World Building - Obviously this is non-fiction, so what we are looking at is how well the author conveyed his environment, and our friend did a great job at that.  At any given time I could tell where and even when we were in the process of the film.  I think sometimes it is harder to convey a real place then an imaginary one because you can't take near as many liberties with your descriptions.

Story - It was pretty cool to see a person who was pretty much in almost every scene of the movie tell us what actually went on.  Mr. Ewles gave us all of it from audition through the 25th anniversary so no time was left out.  That being said I felt that there was a lot of repetitiveness overall and that things were reiterated ad nausea.  This was reinforced by the blurbs of the others that should have added to the story, but instead felt like a borderline word for word repetition of what the author had already said.

Character - Mr. Ewles gave us a lot of insight into the crew and cast of the film.  I felt like I got to know the people behind one of my favorite films better.  Billy Crystals parts were hilarious and made me love him even more.  I have always heard stories of Andre's gentleness, but getting to know his history and his struggles added even more of a glow to this guy.  The only real thing I found lacking was the effusive praise that went on in the book.  Everybody loved everybody so much, no body irritated each other, everybody was perfect...I understand that this was really not a rowdy bunch and that they all behaves for the most part...but the over the top continual and repetitive love fest got a little old.

Editing - The flow of the book was really good.  You always knew where in the process you were so as far as that went good editing.  The tone as I've mentioned (and am now of danger of being guilty of myself) was just so repetitive.  You would feel like the story was about to move on and then BAM we were once again reiterating the wonderfulness of everybody.  I feel like the editor (or maybe the ghost writer) should have found a way to mix it up a little.

The Gift - I know I have mentioned it in a previous post...but I've got to again mention the coolness of how I got this book.  My amazing Mamma took months and I'm sure no small amount of money to obtain a copy that was signed by the Dread Pirate Roberts/Westley/Cary Elwes himself.  This alone would have made it pretty awesome.  The fact that this is a) a book about b) one of my favorite movie that is c) based on one of my favorite books and d) is signed by an actor I adore who e) wrote said book in point a.  So pretty much the worlds most perfect gift.

Book/Movie - Aside from getting some insight into the making of the film...this book made me crave a rewatch of the movie and a reread of the original book.  Upon watching the movie again, it was cool to see some of the secrets that were revealed in the memoir.  You can bet I paid special attention to the fight scenes.  I also need to reread the book.  Hearing about the passion of the author when it comes to what he considers his favorite work...in let's face it, is a hugely accomplished body of work, makes me eager to enjoy it with a new perspective.

Lovefest - Ok Ok Ok, I know I just spent half this rambling complaining about the repetitive love fest...but on a totally different note...it's kinda cool to know that the cast and crew seemed to genuinely enjoy the experience.  You watch movies like this and hope that everything about it was magical, and to find out that it seems like it actually was...well it kind of gets me right in the feels.

Overall Impression - The absolutely awesome amazing way I obtained this book will always give it a very special place in my heart and on my bookshelf.  That being said...I would have loved it even more if it was a bit better written/edited.  Without hesitation I recommend it to ANYBODY who loves the movie (so pretty much any real human with any sort of heart) and can't get enough.  I give it 10 out of 10 on a nostalgia Cliffs of Insanity Scale and a 6 out of 10 on rereadability R.O.U.S. scale.  Happy Reading Everybody!

Fantastic Beasts And Why I Love Them

HI!  Guess what I saw?  Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, which is based on the encyclopedic style book Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them by J.K. Rowling and Newt Scamander.  I've had the book forever and when I heard they were gonna make a movie based on it I was a little confused 'cause it's not a story...it's a list of magical creatures and some cool facts about each one.  While the book was entertaining and fun, not so much movie material.  That being said there was not way on God's green earth that I was gonna miss the change to get some much needed wizarding world magic, especially during this holiday season.

So Hubbin packed me up and hauled me to the movie theatre were I was alternating between apprehension that this all new, unprecedented untold story would not live up to expectations (slim as they were as again the book wasn't really a story) of the great world of Harry Potter and sheer and utter child like excitement of the idea of finally having any sort of magic back after years of nothing.  The movie started...and people it was sheer and utter magic!  Sure it had a few dark moments, and sure it was probably twenty minutes longer then it needed to be and with out a doubt the "revelation" at the very end of the movie was just...dumb...but seriously folks over all the movie was incredible.  It felt like it should be over the top, but as Hubbin said, it was just the right amount for us poor HP starved fans.  A couple of highlights.  It was set in New York in the 1920's which was pretty much the awesomest thing ever as it totally set it apart from Harry Potter and expanded into a full fledged Wizarding World.  We got to see a different era, a different place, different customs, different laws and all seen through a foreigners eyes so that the explanations and confusion made sense.

   The over all story tied directly into the history we learned in HP and gave us a connection to our beloved stories without retelling Harry Potter.  The best part for me however was the sheer number of Fantastic Beasts that were shown and discussed in the movie.  Seriously they actually made a movie off this book.  Mr. Scamander's suitcase filled with so many magical creatures each in their own makeshift habitat made me ache to go live in the suitcase.  Beginning to end with a very few minor considerations, this movie was sheer magic and made this Wizarding World fan so very very very happy.  Here is to the next four movies being as good!  Happy Reading Everybody!

Bitter In Black

Had a bout of insomnia the other night...so that means I got to finish another book so YAY!  This of course means time for a haunted rambling to continue our October of awesome.  The book is The Woman in Black by Susan Hill which is the inspiration for the movie by the same name.  Was I to scared to sleep?  Let's find out...as always SPOILERS AHEAD!

Arthur Kipp starts us off by telling us where he is at now.  He is happily married to his second wife after being widowed at a young age and now enjoys his later life with his wife, step-children and grandchildren.  The family starts telling ghost stories which triggers a pretty intense memory in our narrator Mr. Kipp.  He takes us back to his younger days where he was working on making partner at his law firm.  He ultimate goal was to provide a comfortable home for his fiancee Stella and their future family.  To this end he is sent by his boss to the remote town of Crythin Gifford and further out to an old manor Eel Marsh House.  A crumbling pile that is regularly cut off by the high tide.  Mr. Kipp's job is to attend the funeral and then the business affairs of the late Alice Drablow, the last remaining Drablow to live at Eel Marsh House.  Mr. Kipp finds himself quit comfortable in the little town and sets off with the local solicitor Mr. Jerome.  During the funeral Mr. Kipp see's a gaunt and wasted figure in all black.  He enquirers about her and only receives fear and silence in answer.  Mr. Kipp heads out to Eel Marsh House and again encounters the Woman in Black and determines that she is not only unhuman, but potentially malevolent as well.  As Mr. Kipp continues to go through the house he is stuck in a fog and in that mist he hears the sound of a pony and trap go off the road and the screams of a child as they are sucked down and drowned in the treacherous marsh.  Mr. Kipp is shaken up until he is picked up by his man and realizes that what he heard was not real.  He decides to get provisions and stay at the house until his business is complete.  To this end a new friend insists that he borrows his little terrier Spider to accompany him.  Mr. Kipp is woken in the night by a sound coming from a locked door.  He breaks it open and discovers the room of a young boy and a rocking chair in motion.  After going through various documents in between being scared and startled by various noises he finally get's the tragic story of Eel Marsh House.  Turns out that Alice Drablow had a sister Jennet who gave birth to a child out of wedlock.  Because of the circumstances and time period, Jennet was forced to give the child to her sister to raise.  Jennet could finally no longer stand to be away from her son and came to Eel Marsh House.  One day, while Jennet was standing at the window she watched in horror as her son, his nursemaid and the driver of the trap and pony lost their way in the mists and were instantly sucked down and drowned in the marsh.  These are the screams Mr. Kipp kept hearing in the marsh.  Jennet died 12 years after her son, bitter, angry and blaming everybody for her sons death, haunting the town many years after her demise.  After some more terror, Mr. Kipp is brought to his friends house to recover.  It is here that Mr. Kipp learns the horrifying aftermath to the story.  Apparently every time the Woman in Black is sighted, a child dies a horrible death.  Mr. Kipp goes back to London to try and forget the terror of his trip.  He marries Stella and they have a son.  One day Mr. Kipp, his wife and infant son are at a fair.  Stella takes their son on a carriage ride while Mr. Kipp looks on.  As the carriage rounds the corner on its return trip, Mr. Kipp sees the Woman in Black step in front of the carriage, causing it to crash into a tree.  Mr. Kipp's son is killed instantly and Stella is grievously injured.  After 10 months of pain, Stella finally succumbs to her injuries, leaving Mr. Kipp as another victim of the bitter and angry spirit of the Woman in Black.

World Building - The atmosphere created by the author of this book was complete and enabled one to get lost in the moody and damp landscape.  The only real issue I had with the world building was how much of the book was spent describing the environment instead of showing it.  It felt like at least a third of the book was just descriptions of the dank marsh and the spooky, musty house.  While making a complete world, this also had the detrimental side effect of making the first 3/4 of the book a bit boring.  That being said, the setting was pretty perfect for the story.

Story - The actual ghost story part of this book is pretty awesome.  It was a story that was scary on two levels.  One, the story made sense, you could understand why the ghost was so angry and why she got revenge the way she did.  The second level of scary is that it involved innocent children.  It's bad enough when an adult with resources and reasoning is haunted, but when you involve children the chill factor jumps a ton...at least for me.  As for the rest of the story, again, the first 3/4 of the book was long drawn out set up that made me want to skip pages.  It wasn't until the last quarter of the book where I got super engrossed in the story so...

Characters - The characters where pretty much your average ghost story characters, slightly naive man, haunted villagers unwilling to part with information, the convenient friend, the cold recluse old lady, the angry spirit.  Nothing spectacular.  Nothing bad, just no real character development in anybody other then Mr. Kipp.  It was nice to see that he had overcome his past to a degree and found some happiness instead of letting it destroy him, but other then that pretty run of the mill characterization.

Editing - The combination of having this book be narrated in the first person and wanting this to be a full length book made most of it angsty and boring.  I am torn between blaming the author and blaming the editor for the pacing of this book.  The contrast between the excruciating slow bulk of the book and the amazingly creepy end of the book left me pretty frustrated and wondering how most people got far enough in to appreciate the spectacular last fourth of the story.  I personally feel that this would have been perfect for an under 100 pages story but that's just me.

Ghost Story - Let's get back to the ghost story part of this book for a minute shall we?  I was seriously scared for this part of the book.  After a ton of pages of feeling like I just wanted to put the book down it got really scary very quickly.  I really loved how squirmy and heart in the throat this part of the book made me.  I was in bed and even had a big strong Marine sleeping next to me and I STILL had the covers over my head!  This is what I look for in a good scary story.  Blood and gore don't really do it for me, but a great ghost story gives me all the chills.  I am pretty stoked that after slogging through so much blah, the pay off at least was pretty awesome.

The Movie - I loved the newest movie adaption of this book.  They definitely changed some things, but I felt, especially in movie format that the changes made the story even better.  In fact I liked the movie so much it inspired me to go hunt down other great ghost stories.  I totally got where the book inspired the creepiest parts of the movie, and the Eel Marsh House and surrounding environs were spot on match for the book.  Overall for a movie adaption I would strongly recommend it to anybody who prefers atmosphere and story over blood and gore for their chills.

Cause and Effect - I think the reason the actual ghost story part appeals to me is that it follows my own personal appreciation of cause and effect.  My favorite stories are ones where I can follow a reason for something to happen.  Many times, especially in supernatural tales, a ghost or spirit or monster is malevolent just because it makes the story scarier.  In stories like this, human actions have long term consequences AND the consequences are logical (or a logical as a bitter child killing ghost can be) to the actions that spawned them.  In this story a woman was forced to give up her child then had to watch him die a horrible death.  The consequences are that she now takes children away from their parents...makes sense in a way.  To me this is the potentially scariest thing ever 'cause it means that you have to be responsible for your actions or you or potentially innocent people will suffer for it.

Overall Impression - This is another case of a book I wanted to like a lot more then I did.  It was really excruciating to get through the majority of this book and the awesome chills I got from the last part may or may not make up for it.  In all honesty I will probably just skip to the good part if I ever read this book again.  I recommend it for anybody who has patience...or doesn't mind skipping right to the end.  I am torn because it was almost like reading two books, so I guess I give the first 3/4 of the book a 4 out of sheer boredom and the last 1/4 a 9 'cause it was super awesome...which averages to I don't know...maybe a 6 or 7 unreadable gravestones.  Anyways Happy Reading Everybody!

Heaving Bosoms And The Undead

My friend L called this weekend wanting to see the new Pride and Prejudice and Zombies movie "based" (note the quotes) on the book Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Seth Grahame - Smith and Jane Austen which is an undead take on Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen...did you catch all that?  I LOVE LOVE LOVE Pride and Prejudice, and was actually quit pleased with the book Pride, Prejudice and Zombies, so I agreed to go.  After bribing him with Vanilla Caramel Bourbon Milkshakes (seriously Heaven in a chilled glass) Hubbin agreed to come with.  The movie was actually a lot of fun.  It did not really follow either book, but it did pay homage to it many times along with the original Colin Firth BBC version of the movie (seriously at one point the new Darcy does the whole white shirt into the water scene).

Where the book did it's best to essentially BE Pride and Prejudice as written just now with zombies, the movie decided to take on a bit of a different story line, adding in many battles and a four horse men/redeemable zombies sub-plot that was a bit confusing but did make for some great gothic battle scenes.  The casting was pretty spot on, with all the right people being young, beautiful and spunky.  My favorite casting was Lena Headey as Lady Catherine de Bourgh...even if they totally changed the character.  Over all the movie felt like a cheeky modern take on the Jane Austen era as a whole, with a loose arc of Pride and Prejudice laid over the top. There were tons of heaving bosoms barely restrained by corsets, dashing soldiers chopping at zombies and enough high class snark to please any Austenite.  I probably should not have enjoyed it as much as I did as it completely butchered both books...yet I had to give mad props to the pluck and fun of it all.  I have to think that if Jane Austen were alive today, these prim, proper and crazy characters would land within her scope and she too would enjoy the film.  I am not ashamed to say that I really had a good time watching this movie and will probably watch it again, just for the fun of it.  Happy Reading Everybody!

The Astronaut

Had a blast with my Bubby, his wife and my Hubbin this weekend, which included watching the phenomenal movie The Martian...based on the book The Martian by Andy Weir.  My Hubbin asked me try and hold off on reading the book before watching the movie 'cause I have a bad habit of being "that person" during the movie who compares it to the book the whole time...I tried...I really tried, but we had a long distance transfer at work which resulted in a long trip home...and the book was there...As always SPOILERS AHEAD!!!! (for the book and movie)

Mark Watney gets brutally ripped away from his crew during a massive storm.  Presumed dead by his crew mates (which makes sense 'cause his bio-readings show him dead) make an emergancy ascent to their ship the Hermes and head home.  Shockingly Watney survives his ordeal and is now stranded on Mars as the only living creature on the planet.  We follow Watney through his journal as he tries and plans on how to survive.  This is made a bit easier as he still has most of the equipment from the aborted mission at his disposal including potatoes which he plants using his own poo as fertilizer...I call them pootatos..get it...POOtatos hahahahahaha....ok...need to get back on track.  Watney realizes that everybody must think he is dead.  On a positive note, he also realizes that if he can survive long enough, the next Mars mission will be arriving in about 4 years.   Of course he not only needs to figure out how to survive that long, but how to navigate a ton of the planet to get to the new landing site.  Meanwhile back at NASA a series of satellite photos reveal that Watney is still alive.  This of course causes a huge stir and much discussing on the possibilities of his long term survival and the chances of rescuing him.  An unexpected boon happens when Watney gets a hold of Pathfinder and uses it to communicate with NASA.  They work together on several plans starting with a rushed probe to get him supplies.  This goes very wrong when certain variables are not accounted for.  Watney continues on his own with various plans, mishaps and revamping when things don't go his way...turns out he is a savvy botanist.  All hope seems lost when the Chinese reveal they have a probe that they are willing to donate to the cause in exchange for a spot on the next Mars expedition.  NASA plans on using this to send more food to Watney.  Meanwhile a kid named Rich Purnell figures that using the right calculations they can use the probe to resupply the Hermes the ship that the rest of Watney's crew is on and send them back to pick him up.  The problem is they only have one probe and must choose which plan to go with.  NASA director chooses the "safer" option of sending Watney food, only to be foiled when an anonymous person sends the plan to the crew of the Hermes who execute it without permission.  With no other option they go for the rescue plan and head back to Mars to pick up their missing crewman.  Back on Mars, Watney has overcome all kinds of stuff to finally get to the landing site where he is told how to strip pretty much everything off of the ascent vehicle.  After a couple of harrowing maneuvers the crew of the Hermes get their man back. And that is the  basic story.

For some reason, every time I refer to this book I call it the astronaut instead of The Martian...not sure why...but there you go. What the synopsis does not do is convey the sheer personality of almost every single character in this book, it is just amazing to me  how varied, detailed and authentic each person has, while still being a pretty scientific novel.  This combination of personality and science (well as much science as one can have in a slightly futuristic fiction novel) really makes this book readable for several types of readers.  I especially enjoyed the sense of humor in what could have been a very dreary and depressing story.  The voice of Mark (which is the dominant one in this book) is my favorite as you watch him cycle through emotions, then get on with keeping himself alive.  He is smart, but sometimes messes up, he is scared, but not helpless, he is funny, but no inappropriate. A lot of the strength in this book comes in part from the format.  About 2/3 of the total book is a first person verbal journal style of Mark Watney and his time on Mars.  This works well 'cause his stream of conscious style suits his predicament and gives him ample opportunity to just talk things out.  This also gives us a lot of the humor as he pretty much says whatever comes to his brain as he records.  We also get a kind of real time "technical" peek into exactly how he is surviving.  This first person narrative is peppered with random flashbacks and the normal prose at NASA.  In the end we get to see things from both ends, get to know things the other end doesn't and laugh when Mark refuses to cooperate in a PC manner when they finally establish communication.  Another strength (for me anyways) is the beliveability of this book.  It is set just far enough into the future that we can assume certain technology is in regular use, but not so far that we loose the sense of familiarity.  The author is pretty good at giving scientific, yet not overly smarty pants explanations on to why something should or shouldn't work.  This makes it very easy to stay in this world the author has created.  I am also very into Mars and follow news of it closely and even have the Curiosity Rover T-shirt so this book spoke to that very much.  I loved the tone of this book, I loved the world, I loved the characters, I just really enjoyed this book.  I also LOVED the movie...not quit as much as the book of course, but it was still awesome.  It followed the book fairly well, and with out a doubt, kept the flavor and spirit of the book.  I would recommend this book to just about anybody with any interest in well, pretty much anybody.  With the exception of some gloriously placed swear words, this book is even suitable for the slightly younger crowd.  I give this book 8 out of 10 Pootatos and wish I had the patience to put in all of the awesome little sayings and quotes that make me smile and laugh out loud.  GO READ THIS BOOK!  Happy Reading Everybody!

Superhero's

I love me a good super hero story, be it a traditional comic book hero, a novel featuring a good guy with some sort of super power, or reading a story of a real life hero (many of which I get the pleasure of working with on a daily basis).  I think the super hero appeals to me because of what I do for a living.  I see people in the worst situations and can only do so much to help.  I often time wish for a super power to be able to give more help, or prevent the situation in the first place, or the anonymity to work beyond the "correct" and "PC" and "polite/professional" boundaries I am understandably placed under.  Reading and watching (full disclosure Daredevil and Avengers: Age of Ultron may have been binged watched this weekend) characters over come odds to help others makes me feel like this is something that may actually be possible.  Many times (ok almost all the time) what I am reading and my real life have a very real connection and these last couple of weeks have had me craving superhero's like no bodies business.  So what do I read when I need a super hero boost?  Here are some of my favorites (and yes comic books totaly count as good reading...seriously some of these plots are more complicated then The Wheel of Time series and A Song of Fire and Ice put together!).

Iron Man

I have always been an Iron Man fan.  I love that his "super powers" extend from his incredible smartness and not just physical prowess...of course his vast fortune doesn't hurt.

Helen and Troy's Epic Road Quest

Ok so these two don't wear masks and capes, but they embody everything a super hero should be, kind, heroic, brave and in an epic gender reversal the girl is the kick ass one!

Captain Underpants

First off, the guy's name is Captain Underpants...that is totally awesome, second this is a big reason one of my nephews started reading so double win for this superhero.  

Buffy

I know, I know Buffy started as a movie/tv show, but there are now plenty of novels and comics that are available and seriously this girl kicks all kinds of butt, and looks super cute while doing it.

Storm

Storm is just pretty much as awesome as they come.  She can control the weather, fly AND still finds the time and patience to teach all the kiddo's the art of mutant superheroness.

Aside from the fictional variety, I love to search out stories and articles of every day hero's.  This is awesome because it can be anybody from a soldier that saved his buddy, to a woman helping out a person in the grocery line who may be short on cash.  Everybody please remember whether you where a cape and save the universe, or wear flip flops and help somebody carry groceries into their house, hero's are needed and wanted and make the world a better place.  Happy Reading Everybody!

Maleficent

Hello all, how was your weekend?  I got a ton of reading done YIPEE, so be ready for a deluge of convoluted ramblings in the near future.  As much as I love reading, my sweet Hubbin was in need of a hot dog so of to the movies we went (the movies is the only place he eats hot dogs...).  Since I am spoiled my wonderful and amazing Hubbin took me to see Maleficent, which is supposed to be the back story to the evil faery in Disney's version of Sleeping Beauty.  I was both excited and dreading seeing this movie.  I was excited because Maleficent is by far my favorite Disney villain, followed by Ursula the Sea Witch, and Captain Hook (I am a fan of Disney films and I am not afraid to show it).  I have always loved the story of Sleeping Beauty, more for it's brutal villain's then for its passive princess and the Disney version of Maleficent was everything I wanted, she was strong, beautiful, powerful, even a bit sexy, and completely unapologetic for being as she puts it "the Mistress of Evil".  I was dreading this movie because in the new tradition of humanizing our villains I was afraid they would lose everything I loved about my Maleficent.
WARNING SPOILERS FOR THE MOVIE AHEAD! 

Unfortunately I was right for the most part.  They took a powerful and strong female bad ass villain and made her a good guy who just had a bad moment or two.  Seriously I would say that you only get the feeling that Maleficent is any sort of villain for about five minutes of the entire movie.  Her history is not near as extensive as I would like to see, both beginning and ending with the would be King Stefan (Aurora/Sleeping Beauty's dad) and the reasoning behind a lot of what is done is flimsy at best.  She spends the first third of the movie as a good faery, the protector of her realm, which is actually pretty awesome visually.  She meets Stefan, a human whom with she falls in love with, but is heartbroken when he, you know does the whole human greed/ambition thing.  It is very obvious in this movie that humans are bad, destructive and greedy, while every thing else is magic and awesome and the petty humans must destroy it 'cause you know that's what humans do.  Stefan comes back to lull his old friend Maleficent to sleep to kill her so he can be king.

Of course his childhood feelings prevent murder so he just cuts off her wings instead.  He becomes king and she becomes pissed, with a penchant for black pleather.  One of the few cool things she does is create a servant out of a crow that is pretty awesome (I want a crow dude).  Using this crow dude she spies on the king until she learns he has a daughter.  Maleficent in a fit of revenge and pissed offness go swooping into the castle casting a completely watered down curse about sleeping until true loves kiss.  Yep she didn't even give the bumbling "good" faeries a chance to lessen the curse from death to sleep, she just did it herself.  The three colorful faeries take the kid into the woods (which I never understood...why not just take her away for the year between 15&16, how does raising her away from the castle protect her at all?!? Also that never actually happens in the original tales...but then those are not fit for children are they?) and make the most hilarious attempt to raise this squalling infant.  Seriously the best part of the movie is the three "good" faeries, their bumbling attempts to raise a human, and the funny, yet oddly harmless for the Mistress of Evil" tricks Maleficent plays on them.  Maleficent ends up completely enchanted by Aurora, and tries to remove the curse to no avail (note to self, don't cast unbreakable curses unless you really mean them) but offers to let Aurora live with her in the faery side of the giant thorn bush.  Aurora meets a boy, but there is no singing so I'm not sure if it was true love.  Aurora rides to the castle where she finally meets her father, only to find him a bitter, obsessive freak, bent on the destruction of Maleficent.  Aurora pricks her finger, Maleficent brings her the prince she met, but alas no true love there.  Maleficent is sad and kisses Aurora goodbye...which is of course true love and the princess awakens.  King Stefan is still hell bent on killing Maleficent, even after he see's his daughter alive and well, and of course conveniently forgetting the whole reason they are in this mess is 'cause he cut her wings off!!!!!!  Aurora finds the wings, Maleficent is healed, the crow turns into a really cool giant crow/dragon thing (I WANT ONE SO BAD), and the bad evil king is defeated and killed.  Aurora moves in with Maleficent and they all live happily ever after?!?

Yeah, so in case you didn't pick up on it, not my kind of movie.  It was visually stunning, but the gentling of one of the best villains out there just made me sad.  I like my villains to have a back story, very few beings (even fictional ones) are born evil, and knowing their journey usually adds a great dimension.  This however...I don't know...it seemed like they were trying to change history a bit, like in Star Wars when they change it so Greedo shoots first, Maleficent is supposed to be a glorious, bad ass villain, not a sweet earth mother with horns and a bad taste in pleather (though I totally want a giant pair of horns to go with my wings

 now).  The lack of any true badness in Maleficent made it very hard to associate her with the Mistress of Evil in the original movie...she didn't ever really take it out on her subjects.  In fact the only really bad thing she did was the watered down curse...which she tried to lift.  King Stefan on the other hand got a really bad take, in almost every story he at worst harmless and at best a loving and doting father.  I understand that it is popular to villainize the privileged white male, but this was just not the way to do it.  The reasons for his actions were again flimsy at best, and unexplained most of the time and made any reason for his hatred moot.  Over all I loved some of the visuals, want to watch a spin off with the three faeries, need a crow dude of my own,still love dragons, and want to completely rewrite this movie to give it its teeth back.  Instead I will go pick up one of my numerous, fantastic adaptions of the story and remember why I love the story in the first place.  Enchntment, Princess Sonora and the Long Sleep and Spindles End along with rewatching the original movie with all of the Mistress of Evil awesomeness (and maybe a quick rewatch of Enchanted with the fabulous Susan Sarandon showing the world how a villain should be done) will restore my faith in this twisted fairy tale.
What did you think of the movie?  Is it alright for villains to be bad, or are they better with a redeeming factor? What is your favorite villain?  Is it bad that at age 8 I was already preferring the Mistress of Evil to the princess?

No Complaints...No Really

Spring is here!  I know I know, spring has been here for a while, but it actually feels like spring, not to hot, not to cold, everything is green and you know what that means...time for JANE AUSTEN!!!!! Along with reading all of the books, I have discovered the holy grail of book to movie adaption.  Yep the BBC mini series adaption of Pride and Prejudice.  This gem is really less of an adaption and more of a translation of page to screen.  I love everything about this movie starting with the opening strains of the music that always sets the mood for me.  We then move on to the perfect Colin Firth who will forever be Mr. Darcy to me.  The rest of the casting is also sublime from Jennifer Ehle as the sassy and smart Elizabeth Bennet, to my personal favorite Alsion Steadman who played the over the top Mrs. Bennet to perfection.  The simpering Mr. Collins is perfectly portrayed by David Bamber and I'm pretty sure that Barbara Leigh-Hunt is Lady Catherine.  One of my favorite parts of the movie is the settings, we get to see Longbourn, Pemberly, Netherfields Park, London, Lambton, Kent, Rosings Park, Brighton, Ramsgate, and a plethora of just really pretty English countryside vistas.

The costuming is spot on, with attention paid to the differences between classes, town vs country, age and seasons.  Of course the absolute best part of this show is that it follows the book exactly.  Now to be fair it takes 6 hours to accomplish this...which I guess is a tad long for a single sitting...so I've heard, but the result is finally a faithful, nothing cut, full dialogue, all the characters, all the situations, the whole story being played out in front of you.  This my friends is why the mini-series rules.  I wish more books were adapted in this style as it gives you time and space to actually get the whole story on screen, and not just the parts that particular director/producer feels are necessary.  I also appreciated that they left the story alone, they did not feel the need to add a duel, or a love triangle or anything to "jazz it up", it is a wonderful story and they let it shine.  Now that I have talked about it I am going to go and watch it.  Happy Reading Everybody!
What movie do you think does the best job adapting a book?  Do you think that you can actually adapt a whole book in less then four hours?  Do you think I can watch the whole mini-series in one sitting?

5000 Swooning 12 Year Olds

Saw the Divergent movie a couple days ago based on the first book in the Divergent series.  A couple of my station sisters have been reading the books with me and wanted to go see it.  Of course the only day we all had free was opening night, so off to buy our tickets we went.  We bribed the boys with Bourbon Carmel Milkshakes (sooooo yummy!) and off we went.  As always SPOILERS AHEAD.

The movie was OK, it seemed to be sanded down from the original story to more generic teeny bopper gook, they took out a lot of the tensenes between the Dauntless recruits and replaced it with lovey dovey gush.  They also changed to format of the challenges which kind of sucked  because I thought that was one of the best parts of the book. The producers or writers seemed to have the same problem with the faction premise that I did and mentioned Human Nature being a problem on a couple of occasions to try and nod to the fact that the way factions are set up would never really work.  I did like the casting for the most part, Zoe Kravitz as Christina was probably the best character in the movie (and one of my favorites in the book).  She looked the part, acted the part and generally kicked butt.  I liked the casting of Eric as well, he did not follow the book description but Jai Courtney played the cool cruelty like a pro.  Shailene Woodley as Tris was fine and Theo James as Four is hot and brooding, but nothing super special.  Over all I wanted to see more of

 Tris's journey like we did in the book, the struggle to shed her Stiff personality and become who she really is never came clear in the movie.  It was a weird mix of the movie trying to pack everything in and yet not really hitting any of the main points.  The other unique experiance I had with this movie is seeing it on opening night with 5000 swooning teenage girls who added their own special soundtrack and entertainment value to the whole proceedings.  The Chicago scenes were pretty cool, it's weird seeing somewhere you lived all decrepit and blown up (even if the stupid pink building survived) so that was nice.  Over all it had a very generic teeny bopper feel that did not capture the best parts of the book, and did nothing to dispel my dislike of the faction system.  The music was pretty awesome though. I will probably not watch it again, but I am glad I saw it at least once and will be interested to see where they go with the second and third book and movies.  But I think I will stick to the Hunger Games.

What did you think of the movie compared to the book?  Is it possible to do a YA book as a movie and not make it teeny boppery?  Am I a horrible wife for dragging Hubbin to see this?

Mary "Meanie McMeaniehead" Poppins

Hello All!  I have a thing for old children's books, they tend to be very different from the sweet, sanitized books we read our kids today.  A lot of these books have been made into movies that have also toned down some of the old fashioned disdain people seemed to have for their children, to the point where most people have never actually read or heard the original stories.  One that is getting some attention right is Mary Poppins by P.L. Travers.  There is a Disney movie version made famous by the wonderful Julie Andrews and a new movie out (which I have yet to see) about how the story went from a book about a vain, snarky nanny to a movie about a sweet, loving singing nanny called Saving Mr. Banks all of this served to catch my interest enough to read the original story.  As always SPOILERS AHEAD.

This book is more of a collection of stories strung together then it is a true singular story.  Essentially the Banks children, Jane, Michael and the baby twins John and Barbara are in need of a nanny and who should come floating in on her parrot handled umbrella but Mary Poppins.  She waltzes in and whisks the children away on several adventures including tea on the ceiling, mediating between a spoiled dog and his overprotective owner, a strange after hours party at the zoo and dates in chalk drawings.  All the while our favorite nanny is actually (excuse my language here) kind of a bitch.  She is constantly being mean and rude to the children, especially the older ones, denying that their adventures ever happened.  She is also very very very vain, constantly looking for reflective surfaces to admire herself in, she also has a penchant for fine clothes, always buying something new.  The book ends with Mary Poppins leaving without even saying goodbye, just ditching the kids in the middle of the day and flying away with no warning, or nanny lined up or anything.  The parents are actually the nice ones in this book, even if they are a bit flaky and you kind of feel bad that they end up in the lurch they are in.  And that is the end of book one.

I know not a very detailed synopsis, but it is a pretty short book.  I loved reading it and love how snarky and borderline mean Mary Poppins is, a far cry from the spoon full of sugar version in the movies.  This seems to be a thing back in the day, they had no problem having authority figures be...well not very nice, but always for the good of the children.  It is nice to see kids expected to behave and to be loved and disciplined in an appropriate manner.  I would love to see what would happen if you tried to publish a book like this now a days, cries of cruelty would abound, yet the children in the books loved their nannies and had many adventures and learned many lessons with them.  I would recommend this book to anybody who misses the old days, like to read about other era's or is just looking for some entertainment.  I give this book 7 out of 10 snakeskin belts.

What old children's story surprised you when you finally read it?  Is it ok to be snarky to kids?  Which versions do you prefer?  I really like kids I swear it!

Enemies Of The Heir...Beware

Woooohooo time for another Harry Potter Post!  I intended to have this up a couple weeks ago, but you know...life.  Anyways lets jump right into this.  This post will be me gushing...I mean rambling about Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling.  As before I will not go into any detailed plot synopsis as that is available in a plethora of sources (my favorite being the Harry Potter Lexicon) and instead will mostly be talking about my own personal feelings on various topics.  As always SPOILERS AHEAD!

So this book is cool 'cause we get to come back to a world we already know.  We have been introduced to the wizarding world, we have all secretly watched our mailboxes for our Hogwarts letters (mine is just a wee bit late, I know it!), we all know that Slytherin is bad and Gryffindor is good (I do have a bit of a problem with this, but it gets resolved in later books) and we have all fallen in love with Hagrid.  This of course makes the fact that our poor hero stuck friendless with his horrid Muggle relatives all summer just that much more awful.  I like how much the opening of the book drives home that as bad as Harry thought he had it before, a taste of a better life makes his Muggle life that much worse.  We are all confident in our knowledge as a reader that we know whats going down 'cause hey we read the first book and now we are wizard experts...except BAM here comes Dobby to add another dimension (one that turns out to be not so pleasant in later books) to our known world. Now Dobby is special to me 'cause he is my Hubbins favorite character, so much so that he said if we ever had a kid he would call it Dobby (just one of the many reasons we are skipping the whole kid thing), anyways every time Dobby appears on page or screen it makes me think of Hubbin and smile.  This book shows us that there is a myriad of facets to the wizarding world and not all of them as magical and savory as we would like.  So this is skipping around a bit so lets move on to a more list type format and see if that works better shall we?

Random things that caught my attention in the book, movie, and the Lego game
Family-The book especially shows the different facets of family.  The lengths Ron and his brothers go through to get Harry not only speak of a deep friendship, but of a comradrie among the Weasley boys that makes them help each other without really questioning it.  Molly Weasley being angry at the boys has less to do with true anger then it does her fear that something happened to them.  The ease of which they "adopt" Harry into the family, the instant love Harry has for the Burrow (even though some people think it is shabby), and the all around live and let live attitude of the whole Weasley clan is pretty awesome and reminds me of my own family (yep I am one of those lucky people who pretty much grew up in a Weasley type house...I even think there was magic!).  Contrast this to the coldness displayed in the interactions with the Malfoy family.  Draco likes to run around pretending that his life is perfect in his rich pure-blood mansion, but the interactions we see with his father of of a fairly cold nature.  He is expected to live up to impossibly high standards and is given no leeway when he falls short.  I sometimes think Draco is probably pretty jealous of Ron Weasley because as much as he gives him a hard time, Ron is the one with the loving family, Ron is the one with the friends, and in the end Ron is one of the hero's.  Again this all comes in to play in later books.
Set-Up-This is the book, when after finishing the series and looking back starts to really set up the long term stuff.  There is of course stuff in the first book (Harry's origin's especially) that overeach the whole series, but this book is where we look back and see specifics start to emerge.  Like the diary being a
Horcrux...something that isn't even mentioned until the sixth book.  We also see the family dynamics that build through out the rest of the books.  Here is where we start to really set up the pure-bloods against the rest of the world conflicts, starting with little jabs and pokes, such as when Draco calls Hermione a mud-blood, (can I just say in the movie, the scene when Hagrid comforts Hermione when she is in tears is one of the best scenes in movie history...I just loved it!) or the more sinister outright murder of Muggle borns. We start to learn the story of Tom Riddle/Voldemort and the theme of the similarities between Harry and the Dark Lord starts to take shape.  We also hear Dumbledore drive home the fact that in the end it is the choices we make and not the circumstances we are put in that make us who we are. Polyjuice Potion makes its first appearance here and is used to great effect here and in future books. The first book did an excellent job creating this world and it's number one villain.  This book turns it into a saga of epic awesomeness.
Characters/Casting-This book introduced us to a wide range of characters outside of our three hero's.  We get to delve a little deeper into several inhabitants of the wizarding world.  Sir Nicholas de Mimsy Porpington or Nearly Headless Nick is the Gryffindor ghost and we get to see the world of ghosts through his deathday party.  In the movie and game this is left out as it really does not further the whole storyline, but it will always be one of my favorite parts in the book.  I also love how the three friends are willing to go to the party to help Nicholas feel better, even though the party itself is pretty rotten (literally!)  We are introduced to Draco's father Lucius Malfoy in this book/movie and can I just say that Jason Isaacs plays him with a cold cruel perfection!  Lucius is our link to post Voldemort Death-Eaters, he is the face of prejudice and entitlement and while he is a bit of a stereotype, he serves a purpose in the books.  We get to see more of the teachers, Madame Pompfrey (I want to be a wizard nurse so bad!) and Professor Sprout get some great page/screen time and remind us that there is more to Hogwarts then Dumbldore, Snape and
McGonagall (who form there own little trio of of mismatched "friends" through out the books).  I still am not thrilled with the casting of Percy or some of the other lesser students, but most of the casting was spot on.
Gildroy Lockheart-I know he is a character, but he gets his own section 'cause there is so much to say about this guy.  First of all I love him in the books, and the casting in the movie was perfect with Kenneth Branagh smarming it up all over the place.  This character is probably one of the most wonderful embodiment's of how people are around celebrities and how it can easily go to a persons head. His constant need to be in the spotlight, to show up everybody around him, but with no actual talent (other then memory charms) is an ailment that is very pervasive in the real world.  What I like most about this character is how other people react to him.  Hermione and Mrs. Weasley in paticular go ga-ga over him.  This is a great way to show that as smart and logical as our Hermione is, she is still a human girl and is able to be blinded by the most charming smile (five years in a row in fact :-) ).  Here eventual disillusionment of her crush is sort of sad, and yet so relateable. I am kind of sad that this was not shown in the movie (though the Lego game showed in the most hilarious way possible, hearts in the eyes and everything) because I think it is a humanizing point for Hermione and shows that you can be a smart girl, and a girly girl, and a sweet girl, and a genius all in the same package.  I also loved that the Harry and Ron in particular learned you can seriously dislike somebody for reasons other then they are evil.  Lockheart was never an "evil" character, he was never a Death-Eater, he was just really annoying, so annoying in fact that Ron and Harry were tempted to root for the dreaded Professor Snape in dueling class.
The Ending-I will say I have mixed feelings about the last couple chapters of this book.  I thought that the phoenix coming in with the hat, sword and healing tears was a little convenient, I know it was meant to show just how loyal Harry was to Dumbledore and the precepts of Gryffindor, but it felt a little deus ex machina to me.  I did however like how long it took Harry to figure out that Tom Riddle was a bad guy, it shows his tendency to want to think good of people in general. The whole Hagrid and Argog thing...eh, again seemed really convenient.  I do however love how Harry got Lucius Malfoy to free Dobby and the consequences it has in future books.  The idea that this rich, entitled, powerful man was tricked into freeing his servant, who is a great status symbol by a second year student with a sock was pretty sweet.

I loved the first book for the world building and its ability to completely immerse me in this alternate universe, I love the second book for being just as good as the first and for setting up the rest of the series. There is so much more I could talk about, but this is already a mega post and there are five more books to read!  It is now time for me to go read, watch, play and interact with the third book and I am very excited about it.  I love this chance to just go on and on and on about these books that I love.  Thanks for hanging in there and Happy Reading Everybody!
Did you like the second book as much as the first?  What are your feelings on Dobby?  Did this post make any sense?  Do I ever make any sense?