Category: New Posts

Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty

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Okay, so I love love loved this show. Everything was so good – the acting, the plot, the relationships. Literally everything.

I was really surprised when I started reading the book because it actually takes place in Australia. I have to admit, I didn’t think that people from Australia would be as gossip-y as Americans, but I guess that’s kind of a dumb assumption to make. Everyone gossips and everyone lies sometimes.

There were a few other differences from the show – Madeline and Renata both had more kids, there was no Madeline affair, and as always there were way more details to the story.

The book was really good. I found myself picking it up just to read one or two chapters and not being able to put it down. Just one more, I kept telling myself.

When I read this there was a lot of talk about a second season of the show and how they would continue the story after the book ends, but I think there’s a lot that they could do with this next season. The characters are amazing on their own and I would honestly watch them just hanging out and gossiping about each other. I also think that there is a lot more to explore with Renata’s character and with Bonnie’s character. We didn’t get to see too much with them this past season and they’re both very interesting characters.

I loved it. It was sad, but good, while still being sad. I’m very excited to see what’s to come next season and to have these characters live on for a little while longer.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J.K. Rowling

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Full disclosure – I can never get through this movie. Literally, I’ve never watched it the whole way through without falling asleep. The good thing about this is that I had no idea what to expect from the book!

I did feel like this book dragged a bit until the end. I didn’t know what happened to Mr. Weasley at all, that was horrible. I felt so bad! Also, Umbridge is the worst. I thought I hated Lockhart, but she’s worse.

I did know that *SPOILER ALERT*

Sirius died. I felt so bad for Harry every time he thought about living with him and finally to be with someone who cared about him, knowing that he was going to die. It was horrible when it actually happened and there was so much action leading up to it. It was actually kind of hard to follow.

I did really like this one, it’ll probably never be my favorite, but it was still a good one.

 

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling

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Okay, so I didn’t remember this movie at all. Why did I think that Neville’s parent’s were dead? I must have just overlooked that in the movie, I actually can’t remember if they ever say whether they’re alive or not.

Anyway, WOW what a crazy book. Not remembering the movie well actually made me keep questioning what I thought happened, and I felt like maybe they changed things in the movie.

I’m not gonna lie, I kind of had to drag myself through the first half of the book. It felt very slow and I really loved the last one so I thought this one would be exciting, but once it got to the the Triwizard Tournament it really picked up and was really good.

It really makes you think that no one can be trusted. It could’ve been anyone who put Harry’s name into the goblet. I felt bad for Harry, that he didn’t know who had put him in this situation and that he was forced into it and people acted like he was just doing it for the fame.

The Voldemort scene was intense and some amazing writing. I was so sad about poor Cedric, the scene was devastating, especially after Harry had told him to take the goblet with him.

I really liked that Harry gave all the money he won to Fred and George, that was a nice little thing to end the story with.

I know what’s coming next and I’m so worried about how I’ll feel reading it. There was so much more in this book than what I remember from the movie, but that’s why I really love reading books that have inspired movies. Even if you know the gist of the story, it takes you so much deeper which is really fun.

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling

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Okay, okay…I know I said I really liked the first two…but this one is my favorite out of the three BY FAR. It was so so so so good.

I LOVED that Harry finally gets to learn more about his parents. It seriously made me so happy for him to find out how similar he is to his dad. It really makes you think about the times that you have with your parents and the common interests that you have and how heartbreaking it would be to not experience those things. I seriously loved it.

There was so much more to this book than what they had in the movie. I’ve actually been watching each movie after I finish the book to compare, which has been really fun to see and to compare it to how I’m imagining things in my mind. You also catch little details in the movie that you may have missed before because you just didn’t know about it before reading the book. I really like that.

I’m so sad that it’s taken me this long to read this series. I’ve really missed out, they’re so good.

I’m also sad because I’ve seen the movies and I know how things are going to end for some of the characters. Reading about how happy Harry is when he thinks he can go live with Sirius makes me feel so bad, knowing his fate. I hate that, but I’d actually rather be prepared for it than shocked and upset when it happens in the book.

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling

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Just like the first book, I thought that this one was very similar to the movie and I really enjoyed it. I like that these books so far have been so easy to read. I get that they’re “supposed” to be children’s books, but they’re great for adults also. You just want to keep reading, it’s hard to stop. I’ve actually been staying up really late just to keep reading.

Lockhart is seriously so annoying though. If I had to pick something that I didn’t like, it would be him. He’s the worst part of the book.

I like that we’re starting to see the relationships forming between Harry and Ginny, and Ron with Hermione. I’ve always heard people talk about how if you’ve only seen the movies you won’t understand why these couples end up together, but that the books do it way better. I feel like I’m starting to see that and I’m happy about it.

I also would’ve loved to see the death day party in the movie. I think that would’ve been fun, even though it maybe isn’t essential to the story.

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K. Rowling

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Okay, so when I was realllyyyyy little I was gifted the first Harry Potter book. It took me over a year to finish it the first time and I definitely was too young to really pay attention and know what was going on. I got the book before the movies were made, so it really wasn’t this huge sensation to me yet and I never read the others.

As an adult, I’ve seen all of the movies and really love them. I know so many people who have read the books and adore them, so I figured it was finally time for me to get on board.

I seriously can’t believe that I’ve never really read these books before and I’m really excited to have them all finished.

Re-reading the first one was so good. It was a lot like the movie, I feel like they did a really good job adapting it. I seriously loved it so much, it was so easy to read. I finished this one super fast.

Usually I hate knowing what’s going to happen, but in this case I actually loved it because there were so many hints throughout the book and little things that foreshadow what’s to come. I love being able to pick up on that.

Anyway, it’s really good and I’m really late to the game. Better late than never though right?

The Perfect Storm by Sebastian Junger

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Before I started reading The Perfect Storm, I read some other book reviews. I really wasn’t sure what to expect. I’ve seen the movie, and the reviews were mostly positive but they did mention that it wasn’t exactly written like a story. It was more of a collection of interviews alongside technical information about what happens to a boat in the middle of a storm.

What I really liked about this approach was that it didn’t try to romanticize the story. In the movie, it’s very much about Mark Wahlburg’s character, Bobby and how he’s dealing with the situation while his girlfriend is home waiting to hear news. The book has a lot about how she was feeling during the whole ordeal, but it felt more like a factual re-telling of the events rather than the emotional story of their relationship and the loss that she was experiencing. It was different, but I liked it.

As someone who studied journalism, I kept feeling like I was reading a long form article on the whole event. The majority of the story was about what happened around the Andrea Gail during the storm, like what other boats were experiencing at the same time and how they didn’t think they were going to make it.

I do think it spent wayyyy too much time discussing the other ships. There were so many details about them that I didn’t care about, I found myself reading/glimpsing through it quickly just because I didn’t care.

I also now know way more about swordfishing than I ever thought I would. Some of the technical stuff was definitely hard to get through, mostly because I wasn’t really interested in it and I really wasn’t trying to learn about it. I couldn’t tell you anything about it today.

While I did like the approach, I really yearned to know what was happening on the Andrea Gail. I know that the author wanted to stay factual, so couldn’t fictionalize scenes from the boat, but it really felt like something was missing from the whole story.

Overall, I think that the book is a good partner to the movie. This gives you the facts and more insight into the technical world of fishing, while the movie gives you the fictional reenactment that you really want after reading this. It definitely makes you care more and understand what it could have been like.

I definitely think that people who like the movie should read the book to have a full understanding of the whole story. It makes it much more than a sad movie starring George Clooney and Mark Wahlburg.

The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins

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When I first started seeing trailers on TV for The Girl on the Train, I was super excited to see the movie. It reminded me a lot of Gone Girl, which I loved, so I was hoping for the same type of story. The Girl on the Train isn’t quite on the same level as Gone Girl, in my opinion, but I still really enjoyed it.

Usually when I read a book that a movie is based on, it’s because I saw the film version first and didn’t realize or have interest in reading the book before. In this case, I made the decision to wait to read the book until after I saw the movie. I feel like when I read the book after seeing the movie I fall in love with it more because it gives so many more details and insight into what is going on with the characters. In this case though, I found myself wishing I had read the book before.

I felt like the book didn’t have as big of an impact on me because I knew from the beginning how it was going to end. It was a strange feeling for me, because I often read books after seeing the movie and have not experienced this sort of thing before. I kind of think that I just wanted to experience the shock I would have felt while reading the book, and that because I already knew, it didn’t have such a big climax for me.

That’s not to say that the book wasn’t as good as the movie. I actually think that the book was better than the film version, and liked that there were some little differences between the two. The main difference was that the book took place in London, while the movie took place in New York. I thought that was an interesting change they made, and that Megan definitely seemed more like what I think of as an “American” girl. It’s possible that I just imagined her that way based on the actress that played her in the film.

I also liked that the book went into more detail about how far Rachel’s relationship with Scott went. The movie sort of hinted that this was what happened, but I really liked knowing for sure what was going on between the two of them.

Which brings me to Rachel. I really liked her, even though she is an unreliable narrator. You really want to root for her and trust that she didn’t do this to Megan, even though her pieces of memory suggest otherwise. Even when watching the movie, I never felt like she was the one who killed Megan. I actually really liked Megan too, and mostly just felt sorry for her. However, I really hated Anna throughout the whole book. Her reminiscing about being the other woman and missing that feeling of having someone want her in that way were kind of annoying. Even at the end she thought about letting Tom kill Rachel just so that she would have him to herself again, even though she knew that he had cheated on her too.

I also think that the book did a really good job of disguising Tom as the killer. Even though I knew from the movie, there were multiple times when I questioned it while reading the book and even thought that maybe they had changed the story for the film version. I had actually guessed it about half way through the movie and the book kept me questioning it right up until the end.

Even though The Girl on the Train wasn’t as crazy of a story as Gone Girl, I really enjoyed it. I liked that there were twists and that the characters all had their own interesting stories and points of view. I liked that I got to see what was going on from all sides of the story and really liked how it ended. Would definitely recommend to anyone interested in these types of thriller/suspense/mystery stories.

Room by Emma Donoghue

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Okay, so let’s just assume from now on that if I watch a really good movie I will eventually read the book it’s based on. Room was such a good movie. It made me happy, it made me sad, it made me laugh, and it made me cry. I honestly didn’t know that it was based off of a book until I saw on Goodreads that one of my “friends” had read it and decided right then and there that it was next on my list.

I love when there are little differences between the book and movie versions of the same story. It kind of helps me to separate the two in my head and enjoy and appreciate both without comparing them to each other too much. In the book version of Room, the biggest differences to me were that Ma had a brother and that it was revealed she had given birth to another baby before Jack.

I think both of these aspects added interesting twists to the plot. The parts with Jack’s other family, like his grandparents and his uncle, really showed how difficult it was for the adults to understand what he had been through and how they had to adapt to understand what it was like for Jack to be outside of room. This actually kind of made me angry at times because it was so difficult for them to understand what the world was like for Jack, and I felt like they could have been nicer about it instead of getting angry at him for doing something wrong.

This story was so, so heartbreaking and hard to read at times. I absolutely loved Jack and loved to see the story from his point of view. He’s such a smart kid and it’s really interesting to see him experiencing the world for the first time. You really want to root for him and Ma. Which brings me to Ma trying to kill herself. That whole situation was horrible and I couldn’t help but feel like she was being selfish. I understand that everything would have been incredibly difficult for her and that she would probably be extremely depressed even after the escape. However, she knew how much Jack relied on her and he would have been so lost without her. I’m glad that she did make a recovery for Jack’s sake.

What’s really scary and eye-opening about this story is the realization that situations like this have happened in the past. Oftentimes when girls have been found after spending years in captivity it is revealed that they had children or had been pregnant. This book really makes you wonder what kind of life people in these situations have as they continue to grow in the outside world. There’s something seriously wrong with the world and it seriously breaks my heart that people go through situations like this. It makes me feel so blessed to have what I do in life, even if my life isn’t perfect.

The ending of the story really made me happy and I felt like it was a perfect way to have this chapter of Jack’s story end. It really felt like Jack would be able to let go of Room and live his life in the outside with his Ma.

Product Review: Nestle Splash (Mandarin Orange)

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I’ve had flavored waters in the past, but they’re not really my favorite thing to drink and I tend to not buy them if given the option. What I like about this water was that it tasted less like water with flavoring and more like an orange flavored drink. I feel like I would consider buying this if I wanted something like orange juice or orange tang. I liked that it didn’t have any calories, however I was surprised by how sweet it actually was. I feel like if there was one thing about it that I didn’t like, it would be that there are artificial sweeteners so that it can be advertised as not having any calories. Personally, I’d rather just have sugar than artificial sweeteners. Overall, I really liked it and would probably buy it again/recommend it to others.

* Disclaimer: I received the Mandarin Orange flavored Nestle Splash beverage complimentary for testing purposes from Influenster, however all opinions are my own.