I can not believe November is done! Heck, I can't believe the year is almost done! Crazy. I didn't read too much last month cause I was trying to finish up Christmas gifts. Gifts that I can't post pictures of until after the holidays. Oh well.
One thing for sure, it's definitely winter now. Cold - check. Snow - check. Ice - sigh...and check.
Movies:
I saw a few good movies this month. Ender's Game wasn't too bad. Not too long ago, I remember thinking Harrison Ford had possibly lost his mind, but he seemed ok in this. If they make the others in the series, I'll consider seeing them.
Thor: The Dark World was AWESOME! I loved everything about it, I mean, except Natalie Portman. I liked her when she was young, but pretty much since Star Wars, I've not enjoyed her (minus Black Swan...she was very good in that). This installment in the Marvel universe franchise was very funny. I like how open it ended...possibly leaving room for a Loki spin-off...man, they would be stupid not to do that. Tom Hiddleston is basically the world's boyfriend at this point. The charm in that one is strong :)
I tend to see movies with Michael Fassbender. 12 Years a Slave was no exception. It was brutal and he played a crazy man. But it was well done. It makes you uncomfortable and long for the ending. I held it together through the kidnapping, the horror, the whippings, the torture, the emotional abuse...and then when things were finally resolving, I lost it. I recommend watching this one alone at home with a box of tissues.
Hunger Games: Catching Fire was really good. I read the books a while ago and didn't refresh my memory, but I think it followed well? I liked it a lot and if you like the stories, you should see it. It's worth the money for Effie's costumes alone!
Books:
Like I said earlier, not a lot of reading this month. But I managed a few: The King's Deception by Steve Berry, Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy by Helen Fielding, The Tudor Plot by Steve Berry, The Confession by John Grisham, and The Silver Linings Playbook: A Novel by Matthew Quick.
I know I've said it before, but I really enjoy Steve Berry's political thrillers. This was another with Cotton Malone as the main character. (NOTE: kind of spoiler-ish...if you want to read it, I'm sorry...there's no way around the description). The King's Deception goes back to Tudor England and supposes that Queen Elizabeth wasn't actually Elizabeth. The deception was that Henry was to visit Elizabeth, but she had been very ill and died and no one told the king. In order to save the lives of those who cared for her, a young relative was recruited to pretend to be the young girl. Only it was a young boy who took on the role...and played it through the queen's death. The repercussions of such a ruse would've nullified many of the actions that had been sanctioned by the queen, including the annexation of so much of Ireland. In order to avoid legal issues and possibly war, the current administrations would stop at nothing to hide any proof of the child switch. This book was a great read. Taking place all over London and other parts of England, I became engrossed in the scenery as well as the history. Enough so that I bought Bran Stoker's Famous Imposters, a book that covers the possible switch.
The latest in the Bridget Jones series was, to me, a letdown. I loved the first one...tolerated the second one...and barely pushed myself to finish this third one. It would've been a fine story if it hadn't been characters I knew so well. I believed the parts with Daniel Cleaver. I didn't like that Shazzer wasn't there at all. And I hated what happened to cause the story to take place. I don't want to spoil it for you, so I'll stop there. Like me, you may just want to know what happens anyway, but be aware that it will make you sad and mad and not feel like Bridget ever grew at all through any of the books.
The Tudor Plot is a short story that takes place several years before The King's Deception. It provides the background alluded to in the new book. It was packed full of intrigue and again, covered a lot of scenery and history about Great Britain. I liked it a lot and it explained some of the antagonism in the next book. It would've been a good idea to read it first, but in the end, it didn't matter. It was just another good story in the Cotton Malone series.
I started Grisham's The Confession last July while on vacation. I don't read Grisham usually...this book didn't persuade me to read more. Justice wasn't served until much too late. The characters weren't overly engaging. I just never really got into it...but, I will say that having put it down for over a year, I never forgot what was going on, which means it stayed with me. It was about an innocent man on death row, the man who should've been on death row, and the people who became involved. It was sad and read fairly slowly.
The Silver Lining's Playbook is very similar to the movie, although not quite the same. I truly enjoyed it though. Since I've seen the movie, I had the movie stars in my head as the characters. I was sad the Chris Tucker character didn't play as big of a role, but it was still a very nice, quick read. If you liked the movie, I'd recommend this as well.
That's it. Time to back into the other room and try to stay warm while watching TV. Happy December!
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