The books of December 2013

Peace out, 2013!

Crafts:

I can post these since they were (finally) given as gifts. Sadly, I didn't always get a final picture where it's nice and framed, but you get the idea.

I have a friend who loves Bender, so I used part of weelittlestitches pattern from her blog to make him one and used one of Bender's many quotes:

He majored in Bending and minored in Robo-American Studies.

Next up was part of a themed gift. I found this one in kanitted's etsy shop:

 I wonder if there were Renaissance Ninjas...

One friend and I had a moment a while back discussing Bell Biv Devoe, so she ended up with this gem from stephXstitch's etsy store:

Now you know...

Another friend loves Disney. I found a retro tribute to Disney in the SatsumaStreet etsy store and made it for her:

It's a small world, after all.

Last, but definitely not least, I took a picture of a painting my friend made from her website, used a pattern creator, and made this for her:

It just makes you happy looking at it.

Movies: 

Despite making gifts and traveling home, I did manage to go see a few movies in December.

Anchorman 2 was really, really funny. It was silly, and occasionally borderline stupid, but I loved it anyway. I laughed so hard I made myself cry...twice. Definitely something I'll buy when it comes out because I will need to see the news anchor battle scene again :)

The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug was, to me, better than the first Hobbit installment. Smaug was awesome...he looked very cool and Benedict Cumberbatch's voice was perfect. I'm not sure how I felt about Legolas being there...I can't say that I remember that happening in the book, but it's been forever...and it's not like he was busy. His Elven dad, Lee Pace, was great...as usual. The story felt like it moved faster, but it was about the same length as the last one. Overall, I'd say good show.

American Hustle was fantastic. Stop reading. Go watch it. Christian Bale's stomach, combover, and glasses are insane. And Bradley Cooper's hair? OMG. Him wearing those little perm rods in it will never not make me laugh.

47 Ronin...yes, I saw it. Right now, haters are hating on this movie. I actually liked it. The story pulled me in and Keanu was Keanu, you know. He was earnest and you felt for him and he did a good job. It also had a dragon. So for me, it was a win-win. It was entertaining and I would watch it again.

Last one this month was Saving Mr. Banks. This movie is lovely and makes you cry buckets of tears. It probably doesn't need to be a big-screen see, but definitely rent it when it comes out...and keep plenty of kleenex handy!

Books:

This month I read Takedown Twenty by Janet Evanovich, Out to Lunch by Stacey Ballis, Bring Up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel, Dangerous Dream: A Beautiful Creatures Story by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl, and Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell. I started the month by re-reading Dracula by Bram Stoker.

The last time I read Dracula, I was in high school. At some point between then and now, my memory of the story was only that in the Coppola movie. It very much is NOT the same as the movie. And actually, given the time in between and the current re-read, I think I like the movie better. The story in the book is extremely similar, but I felt like Mina was more just used and discarded instead of a super-integral part of Dracula's story. Also in retrospect, I think that Keanu Reeves did a better job than I originally thought...Jonathan Harker as a book character might be the most boring person in the universe. At least in the movie he had some life to him...well done, Keanu. I was surprised at how much I didn't enjoy reading this book again. 

Takedown Twenty was the usual Stephanie Plum adventure, but this time with more giraffe. There seemed to be less things blowing up this time, but maybe the giraffe distracted me. She's still torn between Morelli and Ranger, still fairly predictable, but still entertaining. A very fun read and super welcome after plodding through Dracula.

Out to Lunch is another fine tale from Stacey Ballis. I had been looking forward to this one for a while...I pre-ordered it and it appeared (MAGIC!) on my Kindle, I jumped right in to the story. It started off pretty sad, but I liked that the sad thing had to happen for the story to take place at all. The main character's growth and challenges were very fun to read about (hint: it involves food and cooking, hurrah!) and by the end, Ballis once again made me wish these people were real and that I knew them and hung out with them. 

Remember that most of my friends didn't like Wolf Hall, but I did? Well, Bring Up the Bodies is part two. One friend mentioned that she thought this one was better. I thought that the pronouns were more explained...sometimes unnecessarily so given the way the last book was written...which probably helped her enjoy it more. I really like Mantel's take on what's happening in Cromwell's brain and the world around him. Each character was written in a way that you think maybe each got what was coming to him or her...which given Anne Boleyn's end, that might be mean to say. The court that Mantel describes is terrifying at times with its level of intrigue and backstabbing. I know that there's one more book in this trilogy and I am looking forward to seeing how Cromwell takes his own ending.

Dangerous Dream was a short story from the Beautiful Creatures series. This story focused on Riley (the bad caster, cousin to Lena the good caster) and her journey to avoid her true feelings. It looks like this takes place after the last Beautiful book and is the pre-cursor to a spin-off series that will have Riley as the main character. I'm not sure if I'll read them, but it was nice to briefly revisit the characters and see what they were all up to after graduation.

The book I finished on the next to last day of the month was Rainbow Rowell's Eleanor & Park. Much like my paragraph about her Fangirl book, I'm not going to be able to do the story justice. I know that there was some hub-bub about her doing a reading of this book somewhere...protesting and all that. I get that it's a young adult novel and that some of the themes are dark and scary. But the writing covers the darkness and frights with love and caring...and comics and 80s music. The fact that Eleanor so readily felt that the Smiths were a part of her at first listen said more about her to me than 50 pages of reading...it told me how sad she was...how alone she felt...and how that first time of hearing how you feel in a song is powerful. The fact that Park could've been awful to Eleanor, but chose to share his comics...and later his life...with her is a strong testament to his character...however many times he feels shallow, deep down, he and his family represent more than nice...they represent caring and goodness...and it possibly why he feels so strongly about the X-Men, the Watchmen, and Batman...people who are flawed, protecting others like and unlike themselves at all costs. It made me laugh and it made me cry and I lost some sleep because I couldn't put it down. You might not like it, but this is a very good book.

Well, that's it. Hope everyone is ready for a good new year! Happy 2014!