¡Sarah!

Book!

13. The Last Days of the Romanovs: Tragedy at Ekaterinburg, Helen Rappaport
So I don't know if I've ever mentioned it before, but in late middle school/early high school I read a ton about the Romanovs. This interest almost disappeared as I gained other interests, but when I saw this book on the local library's list of new books, I nevertheless decided I must read it! And I'm glad I did (even though it made me realize how little I remember from History 12 D: ). Rappaport's writing style really impressed me; I especially liked the flow of the "character profile"-type chapters. And the amount of research she did must have been insane, I think the bibliography went on for five pages at least. But what most impressed me about this book was the news that in 2007, two more bodies were found at the gravesite. I have no idea how I missed this when it happened, but oh my god, I think my thirteen-year-old self passed out at this news. I mean, you've probably all seen Anastasia, you all know that after the Romanovs were killed (although I learned from this book that the news took forever to properly get out), people appeared claiming to be various members of the family -- the most famous being "Anna Anderson," who claimed she was Anastasia and managed to gather up a decent amount of support. One of the reasons these claims were able to go on for so long was because it took forever to find the gravesite, and, once it was found, there were two fewer bodies there than there should have been. If the two missing bodies have been found, this means it's over, and for my thirteen-year-old self who really wanted to believe someone had managed to escape, that is huge news.

(Why are the historical moments I find the most interesting also huge tragedies? I had the worst nightmare after I read the July 18th chapter of this book. Consider that your warning?) (Omg that part at the end about Alexei's dog omggggggg)

And if anyone is wondering, I did not become interested in the Romanovs through Don Bluth's Anastasia; in fact, by the time I finally saw Anastasia, I was watching it in order to see how close to fact they'd kept it. Answer: pretty well not at all. But this doesn't stop "Rumour in St. Petersburg" from getting stuck in my head basically every other day. D: (And okay, I'll confess I do very much like the "Once Upon a December" sequence.)

Movies!

34. Empires: The Greeks: Crucible of Civilization, 2000
A PBS series I borrowed from the library on a total whim. But it turned out to be really well done! It's basically a documentary about classical Athens at the height of its power, and so I think it was good for me to watch it and be reminded of everything I was supposed to have learned in GRS100. xD; I really liked the Battle of Marathon sequence, and, strangely enough, I also felt kind of sympathetic for Socrates, something that is hilarious to me because when I had to read Plato's writing about him, oh I grew to hate him so much. :X I also liked the extra about women in ancient Greece, where we're told that what we know about ancient Greek women is probably just what the ideal was, and in reality they were probably doing all sorts of things their menfolk didn't know about. >xD

35. The Taste of Tea, 2004
So you might have guessed that I am slowly working my way through the local library's Japanese cinema collection, a plan that I sometimes wish I had never embarked on. This movie would've been so much better if it were a short story instead. As it was, it was two and a half hours of barely connected scenes that try to be quirky but were really just boring. After it ended, I felt the same way I did after watching Millennium Actress: "Did I just watch a movie? I don't feel like I just watch a movie ..."

I should've guessed I wouldn't like it. I mean, I don't like the taste of tea. So. :p

I hate that as soon as I started working again, I all but stopped posting. I feel like I haven't been doing much of anything lately, other than ... working. It's frustrating. >:/

Book:

10. 10 Questions Science Can't Answer (Yet): A Guide to the Scientific Wilderness, Michael Hanlon
Parts of this book annoyed me, parts of it I didn't really understand, but most of it was super interesting and he covered some topics I never thought I'd get to read about, which was really cool!

Earlier this week I raided the science section of my local library. xD Reading about science makes me feel SMART!

Movie:

29. The Phantom of the Opera, 2004
Before we watched this, the_wykydtron warned me that it is lulzy like Twilight, and if I had believed her maybe I wouldn't have disliked it so much. :/ Meg was awesome (at least relative to everyone else :P ), I still like the title song, and Simon Callow was in it which is pretty hilarious as this is at least his second time playing a character who runs an opera house. Apart from that, I would very much like someone to rewrite this so that Christine is an actual character and not just ... there. So yeah, fully expecting to like the silent version better. >xD!

Oh, what's that, you want me to post about what is actually going on in my life? Well ... maybe next time. :P

I usually friendslock my trip report entries because they usually include pictures of me, but this one doesn't. I also suspect it is not a very interesting read. COINCIDENCE?!?!

With pictures hosted by Photobucket, in this entry I go to a museum, go shopping, and watch TV. Dude, I could've done that stuff at home! ;D

( day ten )

NEXT: uhhh, to be honest I don't remember. It'll be a surprise for both of us!

6. Yes Man, Danny Wallace
This book surprised me by being almost four hundred pages long, and I surprised myself by whipping through it in three days! It's very different from the movie that was based on it. Being based on Wallace's own experiment, it's more realistic (but still quite embellished, I'm sure) and there are more negative outcomes from always saying "yes." I liked it, but I'm not quite sure what to say about it ... Both the book and the movie make me feel like I should attempt some sort of "yes" project, but at the same time they both end with the message that it is okay to say "no" sometimes too, so in the end I'm just like uhm ... okay then. :/

Well, actually I do like the "say yes more" idea of the book as opposed to the "always say yes" idea of the movie. It reminds me of "look up more," which I have been trying to do. x)

(My goodness but it was nice to read a book that wasn't totally depressing! xD )

More movies omgggggg:

12. Le comte de Monte Cristo, 1998
So last week I was reminded of my desire to read The Count of Monte Cristo, only at the time I didn't much feel like actually reading it, so I went to the library web site intending to put a hold on one of the movie versions, and there I discovered there was a French movie version, so I thought "ah! how authentic," and put it on hold, and then when I went to pick it up I discovered it was not a movie at all but a SEVEN-HOUR MINISERIES, and I wasn't quite as enthusiastic anymore but I watched the whole thing and OMG I KIND OF LOVED IT and now I'm really sad it's over. :( It was kind of like the Miss Marple episodes I used to watch in that there were soooo many characters and they were often introduced in a way that wouldn't clue you in that you should pay attention because they'd be important later. ^^; Other than that my only real complaint is that the last scene was pretty tacked-on and I was not at all surprised to learn that it's different from the end of the book. But let's be honest, if I had been able to choose the ending I would have gone with Edmond/Bertuccio. I was really sad that Bertuccio's speech about how one day they would be equals and friends never quite came true, okay!! :( Also my favourite character was Maximilien which I'm pretty sure means I would be quite the ostracized Dumas fan anyway. x)

Anyway, yet again I fail at watching the movie instead of reading the book, because now I really want to read the book. D:

Oh, and also! Even though I definitely needed the subtitles, I was surprised to find that my French listening comprehension is apparently still good enough to catch a bunch of times when the subtitles were not exact translations. So ... go me? I dunno, I feel bad because I'm only interested in studying French when I'm interested in a movie or musical or whatever that's in French. So I never study it, but then I watch something like this and feel guilty. What an unsolveable problem! :/

13. Casablanca, 1942
Thanks to my friend A, I finally watched it. And I liked all the parts that didn't involve the love story. BLASPHEMY!!

14. Clue, 1985
athena_crikey is totally going to hate me, but yes I finally watched this as well! At the beginning I wasn't really into it, but it got a lot better as it went on and Tim Curry was pretty awesome in it. Actually I'm kinda glad it took me so long to watch it, I don't think I would've liked it as much before. ^^;

I swear I don't usually watch this many movies, but in my current jobless state I have been going to the library like every other day and so yeah. :/

3. The Wind Done Gone, Alice Randall

Likely the only Gone With the Wind sequel-of-sorts I will ever read (yes, there is a copy of Rhett Butler's People sitting in my room as we speak; owning it and reading it are entirely different things!), The Wind Done Gone is told from the point of view of Cynara (okay, I confess I actually really like how Randall drew inspiration from the same poem that Mitchell pulled her title from), an original character who is the daughter of Gerald O'Hara and Mammy. Which I suppose is one of the reasons why the cover of the book has to have a big red "Unauthorized Parody" marking on the front of it. ^^;

I feel like I could write a huge long entry about this book, but for now I think I'll just sum up. The writing style is Margaret Atwood meets Joy Kogawa, which meant I HATED IT; Rhett never says anything clever unless you count "once you go black you don't go back," which kicked me out of the story faster than that time I was reading Tale of Genji and came across the phrase "hanky panky"; what happens to Scarlett is the exact opposite of what I imagine happening to Scarlett although interestingly enough I don't think either of us are imagining her out of character. When Randall decides to contradict canon she usually does so explicity, so it's strange that Will and Suellen apparently don't exist at all (I suspect Randall wanted Scarlett to have sole possession of Tara) and also apparently the Wilkes' second child survived (for ... no apparent purpose). I was pretty bored whenever Cynara was off by herself or with other original characters, and I really really hate what Randall did with the scenes following Bonnie's death, but I liked exploring the lives of GWtW's more marginalized characters, and oh man Prissy is creepily intelligent which was pretty awesome. Basically I can't say that I loved this book, but for the most part it was interesting. It's definitely a different look at GWtW (plus it's only a quarter as long as GWtW) so if you're interested in that, I'd say read it. I'm glad I read it, I just don't imagine I'll ever be desperate to read it again. ^^;

And I don't know if this was for legal reasons or just because Randall felt like it, but all of the GWtW characters have different names in The Wind Done Gone. The main four are Other, R. or Debt, Dreamy Gentleman and Mealy Mouth. ^^; It's always really easy to tell who's who, though that might be because I've only just finished my reread. I actually would love to talk about The Wind Done Gone with someone who's only read it and has no knowledge of what happens in Gone With the Wind. Man that'd be so weird!! xD

So if I start making a list of all the books I read in 2009, do you think I'll actually get through the year without forgetting I was making it?

LET'S FIND OUT!!

1. The Girls in the Back of the Class, LouAnne Johnson
I don't think I read anything in January besides travel guides, so the book I finished today gets to be first on the list. It's the sequel to the book that became the movie Dangerous Minds - basically a fictionalized (though I'm not sure to what extent) account of one of the years the author spent teaching English in a California high school for underprivileged kids. Despite the author's insistance that she would pay more attention to her female students this time, I feel like the title doesn't fit the book; most of the stories still focus on the guys. Because their stories are more exciting? (Two of them get shot at, for example. D: ) My other complaint is that the author spends like four pages describing her and a student's attempts to kill a spider, and I thought that was rather unnecessary. Other than that, it was a really interesting book (and a surprisingly quick read) covering a bunch of different issues. I'd like to read the prequel if I come across it (haha, I came across this one just browsing the shelves in the public library), although I don't think I'll actively seek it out, at least not until my pile of books to read has considerably shrunk. D:

Starting around the middle of last summer, I started keeping track of the books I read using Facebook's Visual Bookshelf application, although I fudged that list a bit more than I intend to fudge this one. ^^; If anyone cares, ( the books I read legitimately last year include ... )

From when I started to read up until about eighth grade (when the time I spent on the Internet began to go from an okay amount to Way Too Much), I basically read a book a day. While I don't feel a need to go back to that, I'm definitely happy that my attempts to read books for fun again seem to be working! :D

GOSH I am so not ready for it to be NaNoWriMo.

IN OTHER NEWS, by means of Facebooky goodness I have just discovered that one of the guys I met in Toronto met my future husband the night before our interviews. I am one step closer to Sarah Stromboulopolis or whatever. Truth be told I probably won't learn to spell it until it's time to start writing our wedding invitations.

In other OTHER news, yesterday I discovered bsc_snark and oh my gosh I am loving it. And it is making me wish I had never gotten rid of all my BSC books, hahahaha!! YES IT'S TRUE I used to LIVE the Baby-Sitters Club books. Are any of you hiding this same deep dark secret?? xD My favourites were definitely Dawn and Mallory (every time Dawn moved back to California I was CRUSHED like I can't even TELL you), which is pretty awesome since everyone in this community really seems to hate them. OH WELL. xD;

Tonight I watched Laurence Fishburne's Othello and was totally into it the whole way through, but the other night Laurence Olivier's Hamlet was on TV and I could only watch like two minutes at a time without getting bored and flipping channels.

I feel bad because isn't that version of "Hamlet" supposed to be a total classic? It won Best Picture that year and everything. But I was just like, "Talk faster!! DO SOMETHING!!!"

I hate the idea that I fit the stereotype of someone from the Internet age in that I have very little attention span. I don't want that to be true. :(((

Lawl I just realized I am talking about Shakespeare. Maybe just having an interest in Shakespeare means I have more of an attention span than most of my generation? xDDD;;;;

OKAY THIS POST SUCKS, my apologies. D:

Also I forgot to write down my work schedule today. So, uh, I hope I work when I think I work. :X

Work today was absolutely ridonkulously busy so let's not talk about it. And then afterwards I fell up the stairs and this guy and his kid were passing me in the opposite direction and neither of them even acknowledged the fact that I could potentially have just broken my leg. My least favourite part about work is how it makes me HATE EVERYONE EVER!!!#!#!$@!!!

But then I got home and my dad had a present for me! :D :D :D :D He works at a newspaper and frequently nabs books from the book review people, hahaha. When I think about it too hard, it sort of bothers me that they get sent all these free books but apparently only read and review, like, five of them. And then the rest of them end up in our house. But I am not complaining about the book my dad gave me today!! XD The most recent biography of Walt Disney, which features a price tag of fifty bucks at my favourite bookstore, is now mine for free~~~~~!!! XD XD XD XD Oh, so awesome. I am happy. XD

Although this is still second to the time in elementary school when I was absolutely obsessed with marine mammals and there was a book of whale photos in the National Geographic catalogue that I wanted so bad but had no way of affording, seeing as how I was in elementary school. And then one day my dad just brought it home for me, having nabbed it from the book review people. XD XD XD

Hahaha, this entry is so selfishly self-indulgent. XD I love it. XD But I am sharing valuable information! If you want free books, don't work at a bookstore! Work at a newspaper! hahahahaha awesome. XD