This is my shocked face. No really, it is.

I have been re-reading CATCHING FIRE by Suzanne Collins.This is the 2nd book of THE HUNGER GAMES trilogy. I re-watched the movie which prompted me to go back to the source. I am struck how different and so much better the books are than the movies. Yes, I know that's obvious in general. Even though the books are in first person POV therefore it is all Katniss all the time, so much more happens in the books -- the movies just have too much of a battle with the clock even when you split the book into two movies as with the third book. The characters are developed so much more in the books, especially Peeta's. I have always been Team Peeta from the beginning. But the movies, the actor is good looking but sadly he is just too short (5'7") and doesn't have the build for the role.  Today I was struck by a line in the book that says that Katniss hugs Peeta, her check resting against his chest. Sorry, that just can't happen with these actors. I read the books before the movies and I always pictured him bigger, stronger (able to easily lift the big bags of flour, etc.) And, well, nothing against Lawrence but she's a tall woman (5'9"); Katniss to me was average-ish in size if not on the small side for growing up with lack of food and therefore the use of her as a symbol to fight the Capitol was that much more meaningful let alone to win the games. And second, the movie only has time to hit the highlights of building the relationship between the two and the relationship is the foundation everything else rests on, IMHO. There is time to show Peeta's strengths and how he is a partner, inside and outside the games. In the movies, he's pretty much a victim that Katniss has to protect/rescue. In the books, they are spending days and days together therefore we believe that Katniss has feelings eventually for him and therefore Peeta's jacking in book three has so much more meaning. He was a sweet guy in love and they twisted it. And don't get me started on how they gutted Finnick's character in the movies.

Sigh.  At least we have the books.

I talked to Steve on the phone last night and at one point I put it on speaker for the dogs to hear him. Ryker's head was cocking from side to side (very funny and cute) and I don't think Coda could hear it being that he was down at my feet and Ryker was right next to me.

Much love,
PK the Bookeemonster

Dogs don't think of these things

I find myself in a weird state of mind. Reading mind, that is. I have SO MUCH to read yet nothing is really grabbing me. I want a BLOCKBUSTER book and I can't find one. It is so frustrating. And finding a book to read is so subjective that one can't get suggestions from others because their tastes are different from mine. So do I counter this mood with a re-read? Just plow through something mediocre? It's been a couple days now.

So Steve got to Vegas and is now at SHOT show. I splurged last night and had barbecue ribs from CJ's for dinner. I was suddenly very popular with the dogs. I had their undivided attention for a while. Coda was noticeably not relaxed that his daddy wasn't home last night.

Darn it, Agent Carter won't be on tonight because of the State of the Union which I'm NOT watching. So I'll workout, have dinner, read and bed, I guess.

Much love,
PK the Bookeemonster

Must be a Monday ....

Well, this year I'm going to do it. I'm going to Bouchercon in October in Raleigh, NC. Steve does his vacation in January going to SHOT show (this week). This is his third year. I decided that, given enough time, I can save up and go to something that I enjoy. Next year it is in New Orleans; I'd really like to go to that. For those not familiar, the Anthony Boucher Memorial World Mystery Convention, Bouchercon,  is an annual convention of creators and devotees of mystery and detective fiction.

On Saturday we went to see the movie American Sniper. Very very well done. I'd not been a fan of Bradley Cooper but he impressed me in his portrayal of Chris Kyle. Steve met Chris Kyle at SHOT show two years ago -- two weeks before he was killed.  The movie ends with footage from his funeral procession and no music throughout the end credits. Very silent. Very moving. Highly recommended. The theater was packed.

So, Steve leaves today and will be back on Friday. Just me and boys, bach-ing it. I hope to get a lot of reading done. But then, I always hope that. I didn't really do much of that this weekend.  Tonight, dinner, working out, reading, bed. Party time, I know.

Much love,
PK the Bookeemonster

Ball! Smash!

Somehow missed yesterday. Sorry.

TGIF!

Not much happening. Work, dogs, home, read, sleep, eat, repeat. This weekend will be mostly the same cleaning and so forth. Steve will be getting ready for his Vegas trip, SHOT show so I expect some minor uproar mostly on Sunday night.

I've been watching some videos online, Dr. Who, some Shakespeare, and performances. One can spend a lot of time online just clicking from link to link. Yes, I've known this for quite a while, just mentioning where my time suck has been going lately.

I think this weekend's reading will focus on the Sam Thomas book and the Dorothy Dunnett. I hope. 

Have a very good weekend.

Much love,
PK the Bookeemonster

No cone of shame ... I am Batman

I will be starting THE WITCH HUNTER'S TALE by Sam Thomas. This is 3rd of 3 in series featuring Bridget Hodgson, a widowed midwife, and Martha Hawkins, her apprentice, in 1640s York, England. Here's a description:

Winter has come to the city of York, and with it the threat of witchcraft. As women and children sicken and die, midwife Bridget Hodgson is pulled against her will into a full-scale witch-hunt that threatens to devour all in its path, guilty and innocent alike. Bridget—accompanied once again by her deputy Martha Hawkins and her nephew Will Hodgson—finds herself playing a lethal game of cat and mouse against the most dangerous men in York, as well as her sworn enemy Rebecca Hooke. As the trials begin, and the noose begins to tighten around her neck, Bridget must answer the question: How far will she go to protect the people she loves?

Published in 2015, it has 320 pages. 

Much love,
PK the Bookeemonster

Snow! Squeaky toy!

Currently reading THE SCORCH TRIALS by James Dashner, this is 2nd of 4 in the The Maze Runner dystopian books. Here's a description:

Solving the Maze was supposed to be the end. Thomas was sure that escape from the Maze would mean freedom for him and the Gladers. But WICKED isn’t done yet. Phase Two has just begun. The Scorch. There are no rules. There is no help. You either make it or you die. The Gladers have two weeks to cross through the Scorch—the most burned-out section of the world. And WICKED has made sure to adjust the variables and stack the odds against them.  Friendships will be tested. Loyalties will be broken. All bets are off.  There are others now. Their survival depends on the Gladers’ destruction—and they’re determined to survive.

Published in 2010, it has 370 pages. This is a digital loan from the library.

I watched a great version of Much Ado About Nothing with David Tennant and Catherine Tate as Benedick and Beatrice. Here's a sampling:



This production is set in the 1980s and very funny.

 Tonight I have Agent Carter to watch. This show is wonderful.





Much love,
PK the Bookeemonster

You're back early!

I finished A FINE SUMMER'S DAY by Charles Todd. This is 17th of 17 in series featuring Ian Rutledge, a shell-shocked World War I veteran returning to his job at Scotland Yard, in London. This is a prequel. Here's a description:

On a fine summer's day in June, 1914, Ian Rutledge pays little notice to the assassination of an archduke in Sarajevo. An Inspector at Scotland Yard, he is planning to propose to the woman whom he deeply loves, despite intimations from friends and family that she may not be the wisest choice. To the north on this warm and gentle day, another man in love-a Scottish Highlander-shows his own dear girl the house he will build for her in September. While back in England, a son awaits the undertaker in the wake of his widowed mother's death. This death will set off a series of murders across England, seemingly unconnected, that Rutledge will race to solve in the weeks before the fateful declaration in August that will forever transform his world. As the clouds of war gather on the horizon, all of Britain wonders and waits. With every moment at stake, Rutledge sets out to right a wrong-an odyssey that will eventually force him to choose between the Yard and his country, between love and duty, and between honor and truth.

Published in 2015, it has 368 pages. The crime solving is good; it's sad to see Ian so ... normal and perhaps happy because we know how things are going to turn out for him after the war.

I am also reading a nonfiction book, ZEALOT: the Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth by Reza Aslan. Here's a description:

Two thousand years ago, an itinerant Jewish preacher and miracle worker walked across the Galilee, gathering followers to establish what he called the “Kingdom of God.” The revolutionary movement he launched was so threatening to the established order that he was captured, tortured, and executed as a state criminal. Within decades after his shameful death, his followers would call him God. Sifting through centuries of mythmaking, Reza Aslan sheds new light on one of history’s most influential and enigmatic characters by examining Jesus through the lens of the tumultuous era in which he lived: first-century Palestine, an age awash in apocalyptic fervor. Scores of Jewish prophets, preachers, and would-be messiahs wandered through the Holy Land, bearing messages from God. This was the age of zealotry—a fervent nationalism that made resistance to the Roman occupation a sacred duty incumbent on all Jews. And few figures better exemplified this principle than the charismatic Galilean who defied both the imperial authorities and their allies in the Jewish religious hierarchy. Balancing the Jesus of the Gospels against the historical sources, Aslan describes a man full of conviction and passion, yet rife with contradiction; a man of peace who exhorted his followers to arm themselves with swords; an exorcist and faith healer who urged his disciples to keep his identity a secret; and ultimately the seditious “King of the Jews” whose promise of liberation from Rome went unfulfilled in his brief lifetime. Aslan explores the reasons why the early Christian church preferred to promulgate an image of Jesus as a peaceful spiritual teacher rather than a politically conscious revolutionary. And he grapples with the riddle of how Jesus understood himself, the mystery that is at the heart of all subsequent claims about his divinity.

Published in 2013, it has 336 pages. This is a digital loan from the library. 

Much love,
PK the Bookeemonster