Review: The Stonekeeper (Amulet Vol. 1)

Title: The Stonekeeper (Amulet Vol. 1)
Author: Kazu Kabuishi
Publisher: GRAPHIX
Publication Date: January 1st, 2008
Genre: Junior Fiction, Graphic Novel, Fantasy

Two years after the death of their father, Emily and Navin move into the countryside with their mother into an old house in the family. Some quick investigations of the house lead the family to the room of Emily’s Great-Grandfather, who went missing years ago. When Emily finds a mysterious amulet, she secretly takes it. When her mother is taken by a monster, Emily will have to use the amulet to save her. With Navin, Emily enters an impossible world where only she has the power to save her mother and the whole world. With a rabbit robot called Miskit, Emily will have to take the power of the amulet if she wants to reunite her family. While the power of the amulet can do great things, Emily will have to stop it from taking power over her. I’ve been on a graphic novel kick lately, and this is one of the best ones I’ve read. Beautifully drawn, the story sucks you in from the very beginning, with an emotional start and a quick moving plot. I know some parents stick up their nose at graphic novels, but this book is perfect for young reluctant readers. Original and exciting, this story features characters with depth and an interesting story, and it will all take you not quite half an hour to read. Even with so much packed into such a little book, The Stonekeeper does what it set out to do perfectly: tell a story.

4.5/5

In My Mailbox (49)

In My Mailbox is a weekly meme hosted by The Story Siren, in which book bloggers post about the books they've bought, borrowed or received in the past week.

Although I wasn't going to originally, I ended up buying Who Could It Be At This Hour (All the Wrong Questions) by Lemony Snicket. The book is part of a new series from the perspective of a young Lemony Snicket, before all that Baudelaire orphan business. 

Sort of a boring week for me, book wise. I took out the second and third books in the Amulet series by Kazu Kibuishi early in the week and have already read and returned them. I'm really enjoying this series so far and think that they're a really fun and quick read. 

To make up for this not so good IMM, here are some Halloween pictures. 

This is me last weekend. I was sort of Hermione, since I had the Gryffindor robes and the time turner, but I didn't do the hair and I'm wearing a beanie because it was cold.

This is my cat, who I very quickly dressed up as Princess Lei, in the costume I had for my build a bear. Her name is Penny Lane and she is not happy with me right now.

So Happy Halloween everyone! Feel free to comment with what books you recieved this week and what you're dressing up for for Halloween, if you are. 

Review: A Moveable Feast

Title: A Moveable Feast
Author: Ernest Hemingway
Publisher: Vintage
Publication Date: 1964
Genre: Non-Fiction, Memoir

In this fictionalized memoir, Ernest Hemingway tells stories from his first years in Paris as a blooming writer, spending his days writing in cafes and his nights in love with his first wife, Hadley. With Paris of the 1920’s as the backdrop, Hemingway remembers trying to make ends meet in the City of Lights. One of the Lost Generation, Hemingway tells stories of the people who mattered to him, such as Sylvia Beach and her beloved bookshop, Gertrude Stein, Ezra Pound and Scott Fitzgerald.

I bought this book from Shakespeare & Company in Paris, for fairly obvious reasons since the older version of the shop and its owner are on the cover. Before I left, I’d asked someone if it was a cliché to read Hemingway in Paris, and I had been told that it definitely was. All the same, I bought it anyway and read most of this book in my hostel, in cafes and even in Luxembourg Gardens. It might be a bit of a cliché, but I was the only person I saw reading Hemingway, the majority of people reading 50 Shades of Grey. There really is no better place to read this book, and it really added to my enjoyment of Paris and to reading A Moveable Feast. It was interesting to see Hemingway’s Paris in the backdrop of my Paris, and to see other writers from his perspective. I love how Hemingway breaks all the rules your grade school teacher told you about writing, and how he does so beautifully. The chapters read like short stories, and are all written very simply. Some of the stories towards the end dragged on a little, although I’m not sure if these were part of every edition or just included in mine. If you have absolutely no interest in Paris, Hemingway, or any of the writers he knew, then this book isn't for you. However, if you hold any interest in these things, A Moveable Feast is worth checking out. Whether you already love Paris and Hemingway or not, this is a great little book and perhaps a good introduction to Hemingway. Just like the city he loved, Hemingway’s writing is a moveable feast.

5/5

“But Paris was a very old city and we were young and nothing was simple there, not even poverty, nor sudden money, nor the moonlight, nor right and wrong nor the breathing of someone who lay beside you in the moonlight.”

In My Mailbox (48)

In My Mailbox is a weekly meme hosted by The Story Siren, in which book bloggers post about the books they've bought, borrowed or received in the past week.

I swore to myself I wouldn't buy any books this week and I didn't, although it was a close call. I was going to buy this lovely copy of the The Spiderwick Chronicles (books one through five). There was some water damage, so I ended getting it for free, thus never technically bought any books this week. I've never read the series or seen the movie, but I've always wanted to. 

Library books! I'm starting to worry that I've taken out more than I can handle. I have The Last Letter For Your Lover by JoJo Moyes, The Anne Frank House Authorized Biography by Sidney Jacobson, The Stone Keeper (Amulet) by Kazu Kabuishi, The Kill Order by James Dashner, When the War Began by John Marsden, Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta and Volumes 3 and 4 of Fruits Basket by Natsuki Takaya. All of my holds just came in at once! The Amulet books are supposed to be very good graphic novels. I've read the other books in The Maze Runner series and am looking forward to the prequel, The Kill Order. Jellicoe Road and Where the War Began were both recommended to me. The beautiful mug pictured was made for me by my friend Nicole. 

What was in your mailbox this week? 

Shakespeare & Company, Paris

I think you could safely say that Shakespeare & Company in Paris is the most famous bookstore in the world. Selling English books, Shakespeare & Company is tucked away on Rue de la Bûcherie, just across from Notre Dame in the 5th Arrondissement on the left bank. This store was opened by George Whitman in 1951, named in honour of Sylvia Beach's famous bookshop, which was a second home to writers like Ernest Hemingway, James Joyce and Ezra Pound. Beach's shop was closed during the German Occupation.

The shop is now owned by Sylvia Beach Whitman, George Whitman's daughter. George himself died in December of 2011. The shop famously allows writers to live in the shop in exchange for work. It also has a great reading room as well an antiquarian room. I bought a postcard, a Shakespeare & Company blank journal for my friend and a copy of A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway. You can see some more pictures here. I've been wanting to go to this shop for ages and it definitely lived up to the hype, although it was ridiculously busy. I wouldn't recommend going on a rainy day and it might be smart to head over right as it opens. While you will have to be sure to check out everyone's favourites like the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre, don't forget about the bookshop with a big name when you're in Paris. You can watch an amazing video here and find the shop in movies like Midnight in Paris and Julie and Julia and read about it in Anna and the French Kiss. 

Review: Fire Spell

Title: Fire Spell
Author: Laura Amy Schlitz
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Publication Date: September 13th, 2012
Genre: Junior Fiction, Fantasy

The year is 1860, and a young Clara Wintermute is looking forward to her twelfth birthday party, in which a puppeteer is coming to create a magical puppet show for Clara and her friends. While the puppet show will be enchanting, Clara is more excited to see the two children who help with the puppet show. They are unlike anyone Clara has ever met, and she actually feels like they genuinely like her, unlike her other friends. For Clara is a very lonely little girl, and it feels as if the ghosts of her deceased siblings are everywhere she goes. After the puppet show, Clara Wintermute goes missing. Parsefall and Lizzie Rose, the two orphans who worked as puppeteers, might be the only ones who can save Clara. Tied to Clara’s fate are two dangerous magicians, caught in an age-old battle for power. Amidst the grey world of Victorian London, three children will have to confront magic and ancient curses.

I bought this book at Foyles in London, mainly because Stacey from Pretty Books had heard it was good, and because it looked like the perfect book to buy in London, with Big Ben and St. Paul’s on the cover. I actually read this book in Paris and I quickly got wrapped up in it. I adore the cover art, and the novel as a whole captures and even lives up to the eerie and beautiful picture depicted. I loved the atmosphere presented in the novel, and how Victorian customs, especially pertaining to death, were dealt with in the novel. It was well-researched and interesting historical fiction. The story takes us into the minds of various different characters, from the rich to the poor, the good to the evil. All the characters were all well written and intriguing, and it was nice to see London of the mid 19th century from the perspective of characters from different social standings. Even as I spent my days in Paris I found my mind being drawn back to this book, which I was reading at night. It was well written with a fast moving and unique plot. In the middle I was feeling a little let down, wishing there had been more explanation as to why Grissini did what he did to Clara. In the end, I was very happy with the ending and how the novel took you there. Full of spells, puppetry and impossibilities, Fire Spell was enjoyable read for lovers of fantasy.

4/5

Film Review: The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Title: The Perks of Being a Wallflower 
Director: Stephen Chbosky
Production Company: Summit Entertainment
Release Date: September 28th, 2012
Genre: Drama

Not long after the suicide of his best friend, Charlie (Logan Lerman) is starting high school and couldn’t be more friendless. In his letters to someone he doesn’t even know, Charlie reveals his fears and innermost thoughts. When he becomes friends with the exciting duo of Sam (Emma Watson) and Patrick (Ezra Miller), Charlie is introduced to a world of the typical teenage rites of passage, from first kisses to first time doing drugs, but he also finds people who don’t see him as just a wallflower to look past. Based on the 1999 novel of the same name, The Perks of Being a Wallflower was written and directed by Stephen Chbosky, which isn’t something that happens very often. For book to movie adaptations, there are always two ways to judge them: both as a stand-alone film and as a retelling of the novel. Just looking at it as a movie, The Perks of Being a Wallflower is the best teen movie I’ve seen in ages, and is not comparable to anything else. Taking an epistolary novel and turning it into a film is always difficult, but Perks manages to pull it off. The acting was very well done, and the actors helped make a very emotional film that had a strong affect on me. The three leads were just phenomenal: Emma Watson’s expression alone sometimes were enough to break your heart and Ezra Miller made Patrick hilarious, while also showing how he was the rock of the group and how he tried to hide his own pain. Charlie is a very difficult character to pull off, mainly due to how emotional and passive he is, but I think that Logan Lerman did a great job. I thought that the film spoke truthfully about high school, and even though Perks is set in the early 1990’s the story is still relevant today, although mixed tapes are out. It really was just a beautiful film that could make you feel the full gamut of emotions.

As an adaptation of a much-loved novel, I thought that Perks was one of the best I’ve seen. Of course, not everything is included in the film, like with any book turned into a movie. You could look at this as a good thing in a way, since one of the main criticisms of this book is that too many things happen to the characters, to the point that it feels unrealistic. Having loved many books that have been made into films, I long ago accepted that not everything can make it into a film. Not only that, but things that work on the page don’t necessarily work on the screen. It’s been a year since I read the book, but it was mainly little things that were removed, such as the reading of the poem, with one of the bigger things omitted being part of Charlie’s sister’s storyline. Most of the things I can think of that were not included didn’t really tie into the main plotline, or wouldn’t have worked as well in the film. Some things, mainly conversations, were added to the film and we also got to learn more details about characters. Most importantly, the film beautifully captured the spirit of the book, which is a difficult thing to translate onto film since the entire book is told through letters. There were parts that worked better on film than in the book, in my opinion, such as the ending and the “infinite” scenes. Overall, this was a great film that I would recommend to everyone, whether you read and liked the book or not. If you have only seen the movie and enjoyed it, then I would definitely recommend reading the book, which is always a different experience and will add so much to the story and characters you already know. I only wish that every book I love could be made into a movie that is directed by the author. The Perks of Being a Wallflower stayed true to the book in creating a film that makes you want to laugh and cry.

5/5