Publicist’s description:
Ethan Coen’s screenplays have surprised and delighted international audiences with their hilarious vision and bizarrely profound understanding of human nature. With his brother, Joel, Coen has written, directed, and produced some of the most original and beloved movies in the history of cinema, including Raising Arizona; Miller’s Crossing; Barton Fink; The Hudsucker Proxy; Fargo; The Big Lebowski; O Brother, Where Art Thou?; Intolerable Cruelty; an adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s No Country for Old Men; Burn After Reading; and—most recently—True Grit, which was nominated for ten Academy Awards. Coen has also written collections of critically acclaimed plays (Almost an Evening), short stories (Gates of Eden), and poetry (The Drunken Driver Has the Right of Way), all presented in his distinctly humorous and oddly brilliant literary voice.
Coen’s eccentric genius is revealed again in THE DAY THE WORLD ENDS (Broadway Paperbacks Original, on sale April 3, 2012), a collection of poems that offers humor and provides insight into an artist who has always pushed the boundaries of his craft. THE DAY THE WORLD ENDS is a remarkable range of poems that are as funny, ribald, provocative, raw, and often touching as the brilliant films that have made the Coen brothers cult legends.
Short, accessible, and nearly the same price as a movie ticket, this new poetry collection is a perfect treat for Coen’s legions of fans.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: When not writing plays, poetry, or short stories, ETHAN COEN makes movies with his brother, Joel Coen. After thirteen films, the Coen brothers have one of the most beloved and critically acclaimed bodies of work in the history of cinema.
I haven’t read this book but I’m a fan of a lot of the Coen brothers’ movies. I’m excited to be able to offer a copy of this book to two of my readers with United States addresses. Just fill out the form below. The giveaway will be closed for entries at 11:59pm (central time) on April 11, 2012.
April 4th, 2012 in
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Sacre Bleu by Christopher Moore
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Sacre Bleu is the story of painter/baker Lucien Lessard and real-life artist Henri Toulouse-Lautrec as they try to figure out if their friend Vincent Van Gogh really killed himself or if foul play was involved. Along the way, they meet the mysterious Colorman, who is always trying to sell blue paint to the artists. Other real-life artists of the day have supporting roles: Monet, Manet, Degas, Gauguin.
This book was definitely absurd but I didn’t find myself laughing out loud as much as I usually do with a Christopher Moore book. I was more mildly amused. A lot of the jokes that I didn’t think were that funny in the first place were repeated throughout the book, which got old.
As an art lover married to a painter, I appreciated the art references throughout the book and having pictures of the paintings mentioned included within the text. (The pictures were black and white in my advance copy; I’m not sure if they will be in color in the finished hardback but I hope they will.)
I think that Moore fans will get some enjoyment from reading this book. If you are new to him, I would not recommend starting with Sacre Bleu.
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(I received this book courtesy of the Amazon Vine program.)
April 3rd, 2012 in
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I’m sure most everyone who read The Hunger Games has seen the movie by now but I’m going to offer up my review of the movie anyway. This review will have spoilers if you haven’t read the book so PROCEED WITH CAUTION…
I thought the screenplay adaptation of the book into the movie was fantastic. I know a lot of people were disappointed that the character Madge, the mayor’s daughter, didn’t make it into the movie. I wasn’t bothered by this – the movie was already almost two and a half hours long and I was fine with this being left out. Other than that, I think most every important detail in the book made it into the movie.
Jennifer Lawrence’s portrayal of Katniss was amazing. I couldn’t believe how realistically she was able to make her body tremble in the scene where she is about to go into the tube that will take her up into the arena. And her love for Rue was so geniune. Even though I knew Rue was going to die, I bawled like a baby when it happened. Amandla Stenberg, who played Rue, was cute as a button and had the angelic presence of Rue down pat.
When I read the book, I was squarely Team Peeta but I may be leaning towards Team Gale after watching the movie, just because Liam Hemsworth looked so much better than Josh Hutcherson. Josh’s Peeta had some very distracting frosted blonde hair. I’m pretty sure they don’t sell home hair color kits in District 12 so I don’t know why his hair had to be like that. Hopefully it will be toned down in the next movie.
All in all, I had just minor, nit-picky complaints about this movie. It’s a great adaption of the book and I give it two thumbs up! I can’t wait to see it again.
The Nobodies Album by Carolyn Parkhurst
My rating: 4.5 of 5 stars
Well-known author Octavia Frost has re-written the last chapters of all her previous novels and compiled them in her newest book, The Nobodies Album. When she arrives in New York to drop the finished manuscript off at her publisher’s office, she learns that her son Milo has been arrested for murdering his girlfriend Bettina. Even though Octavia and her famous musician son have been estranged for four years, she immediately heads to California to offer her help. She discovers that Milo can’t remember the events of the night his girlfriend died and doesn’t know whether or not he was the one who killed her.
This book is so much more than a murder mystery. Interspersed throughout the main story are exerpts from Octavia’s other books that include the original last chapter and the new, revised last chapter. Octavia talks about how authors put themselves in their work whether they realize it or not. The excerpts from her other books serve to illustrate what regrets Octavia has about her life. I thought this was a unique method of telling a story and I really liked it.
The murder mystery story-line was exciting and kept me guessing up until the end. Additionally, I appreciated the realism of Octavia and Milo’s relationship. They were both well-developed, layered characters – relatable but not always likeable. Flashbacks to when Milo was a child help the reader understand why his relationship with his mother is so complicated today. I highly recommend The Nobodies Album.
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March 15th, 2012 in
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Then Came You by Jennifer Weiner
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Annie, a young married mother of two, wants to be a surrogate mother to earn money to help her husband with their ever growing pile of bills. Jules, a college student, is considering donating her eggs to earn enough money to send her father to rehab. India, a wealthy Manhattanite, want a child to secure her inheritance from her husband. Her step-daughter Bettina is out to prove that India is a gold-digger and a liar.
This book alternated narration between the four above characters. These characters were well-developed – quite a bit of back-story for them was revealed in their respective narration. Eventually, all of their lives end up intersecting, somewhat unrealistically I thought. I really had a problem with the ending of this book. I thought that India was unlikeable and her choices near the end of the book seemed horrible to me. Maybe I’m too vengeful, but I was not happy with how her life turned out.
I listened to the audio version of this book which in this case I think lessened my enjoyment of it. Each character was narrated by a different woman: Karen Ziemba, Ava Cash, Jenni Barber and Annalynne McCord. I thought Annalynne McCord’s portrayal of Jules was awful. She sounded tired and like she was reading a list of items, not telling a story. Karen Ziemba’s narration of India’s story wasn’t much better. Since two out of the four narrators sounded like they were reading lists, I wonder if it’s more the director’s fault. Either way, it got on my nerves.
I liked this book enough that I’ll give another of Weiner’s books a try some day.
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March 14th, 2012 in
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Last week, I was lucky enough to see award-winning Sherman Alexie, author of The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, speak at Johnson County Community College. I’m so glad the college made this event open to the public (and free!). Alexie’s talk was titled “The Absolutely True Story of the Author of the Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian” and focused on Alexie’s own childhood growing up on an Indian reservation.
Of course, growing up on an Indian reservation wasn’t all fun and games. Alexie’s family and most of the other families on the reservation lived in abject poverty. His family didn’t have running water or electricity until he was seven years old. Alexie had 42 permanent teeth. Because the Indian Health Service only did dental work once a year, he had to have the 10 extra teeth pulled all at one time. The white dentist thought that Indians only felt half as much pain as white men and prescribed pain killers accordingly. But Alexie has the skills of a stand-up comedian and even though he was talking about some really sad things, his talk was incredibly funny.
Some highlights:
*The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian was the second most challenged/banned book last year. The number one most challenged/banned book was the children’s picture book about gay penguins.
*It’s been published in 78 countries and he just signed a deal to have it published in Iran.
*The impetus for Alexie asking if he could go to school off of the reservation came when he was in seventh grade and saw that his math book had his mother’s name it.
*He described Indians as being “indigenous to the land but immigrants to the culture” of America.
At the end of his presentation, he was asked questions that JCCC students had submitted ahead of time. One question was about which events in The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian really were true. He answered the question by speaking about how human memory is never accurate because we are the unreliable narrators of our own autobiographies. To illustrate his point, he had the audience close our eyes and then shout out what color his pants were. The majority of shout-outs were wrong.
He was also asked why he finally agreed to let his books be released as e-books. He didn’t really answer why but he talked about how seeing what strangers are reading gives a glimpse into their humanity and he’s sad that e-readers take that experience away.
If you ever have the chance to see Sherman Alexie speak, I highly recommend that you do. In the meantime, you can follow him on Twitter at @Sherman_Alexie and get little snippets of his wit and wisdom.
March 13th, 2012 in
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No One Is Here Except All of Us by Ramona Ausubel
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Publisher’s description:
In 1939, the families in a remote Jewish village in Romania feel the war close in on them. Their tribe has moved and escaped for thousands of years- across oceans, deserts, and mountains-but now, it seems, there is nowhere else to go. Danger is imminent in every direction, yet the territory of imagination and belief is limitless. At the suggestion of an eleven-year-old girl and a mysterious stranger who has washed up on the riverbank, the villagers decide to reinvent the world: deny any relationship with the known and start over from scratch. Destiny is unwritten. Time and history are forgotten. Jobs, husbands, a child, are reassigned. And for years, there is boundless hope. But the real world continues to unfold alongside the imagined one, eventually overtaking it, and soon our narrator-the girl, grown into a young mother-must flee her village, move from one world to the next, to find her husband and save her children, and propel them toward a real and hopeful future.
I had to use the publisher’s description of No One Is Here Except All Of Us because it was such an unusual book; I was having a hard time summarizing it in my own words. It took me a while to get used to the style in which this book is written. The story is told in the style of a fable or folktale. Things happen that aren’t entirely realistic and people speak in stilted, simple sentences. Once I accepted this book for what it was, I really enjoyed it. The prose is wonderful and descriptive – heartbreaking at times and dryly funny in some places. Once I got used to the style, I found the flow of words almost relaxing in a way. Even though some terrible things happened, it was presented in a calm manner. It’s so hard for me to explain. You’ll have to read it for yourself and let me know if you felt the same way. I highly recommend that you do!
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(I received this book courtesy of the LibraryThing Early Reviewers program.)
March 9th, 2012 in
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Hold Me Closer, Necromancer by Lish McBride
My rating: 4.5 of 5 stars
Sam thinks he’s just an ordinary fry-cook at Plumpy’s in Seattle. When he learns he’s actually a necromancer, a whole paranormal world he never knew existed is revealed to him. Douglas, the head necromancer in charge, is none too happy to learn that there is another necromancer in town. He kidnaps Sam, locking him in a cage with a female werewolf. Can Sam figure out how to use his powers to escape Douglas’s clutches?
Sherman Alexie’s blurb on the cover of Hold Me Closer, Necromancer says it best, “This is a SCARY funny book OR a FUNNY scary book. In either case, it is a GREAT book. I LOVE IT.” I agree – Sam’s narration is full of really funny, sarcastic slacker humor. At the same time this book is full of suspense. A little romance between Sam and a sexy werewolf is thrown in as well.
My one complaint is that I constantly had Elton John’s Hold Me Closer, Tiny Dancer running through my head constantly as I was reading it. It was worth it though!
This book is the first in a series (the next book is due out in September) but this story was self-contained so you can read it without feeling like you need to commit to the entire series (you’ll want to after you read it though!). Also, there is an e-book out now called Necromancer: A Novella that is Ashley’s story. Ashley is a really cute, funny character in Hold Me Closer, Necromancer so I’m betting that the short story about her is great. It’s free in the Amazon Kindle store right now.
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March 1st, 2012 in
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Forgotten by Cat Patrick
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Every night while London Lane is asleep, her memory of that day is erased. The only thing she can “remember” are events that haven’t happened yet – the future. She relies on the reminder notes she writes herself before every bed every night and her best friend Jamie to navigate the world. One day she meets Luke Henry, a cute new boy at school. For some reason, she can’t see him in her future memories. At the same time, she is starting see disturbing images that she doesn’t understand. Will London ever remember the past or understand her future?
This book reminded me of the movies Memento and Fifty First Dates. However, I thought Patrick’s twist on short-term memory loss with having London able to see her future was fresh and original. This book has elements of both romance and mystery. I have seen other reviews gushing about how dreamy Luke is. I would agree but since I’m a thirty-seven year old woman and Luke is a teenager I think it would be creepy if I gushed. I’ll just say that I thought he was very sweet and I enjoyed his relationship with London.
The mystery has to do with the images of a funeral that London starts seeing around the same time that she meets Luke. This resolved with a twist that I didn’t see coming. The ending left me wanting more – I think partly because I didn’t want to say goodbye to London.
Overall, this was a great first novel from Cat Patrick. I’m looking forward to reading her next book when it comes out in May.
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February 28th, 2012 in
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Legend by Marie Lu
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
In a future dystopian world, the United States is divided into the Republic and the Colonies. The Republic has been at war with the Colonies for years. June is a fifteen year old prodigy – she is already a top soldier for The Republic. When her older brother Metias is murdered the prime suspect is Day, a fifteen year old rebel who is The Republic’s most wanted criminal. When June hunts down Day, she learns the truth about what the government she works for is really all about.
Another young adult dystopian! I can’t believe how popular this genre has gotten. I think Legend is great addition to the YA dystopian club. It’s fast paced and unpredictable. I did have some trouble picturing some of the settings as they were described. Luckily, this didn’t hamper my enjoyment of the story.
Some of the reviews I’ve read have criticized the importance of the roles that the two fifteen year old characters have in The Republic. I had no problem suspending my disbelief and accepting that two fifteen year olds can change the world. After all, fifteen year olds are the primary audience for this book – of course they want to read about kids like them kicking some butt!
I believe this is the first book in a series; I’m not sure how many books are planned. I expect that future books will reveal more about how the United States became divided and at war with itself, as both the reader and the main characters are ignorant about what happened in this book. I highly recommend this book for dystopia fans.
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February 23rd, 2012 in
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