The Conjuring was a movie that I had wanted to see when it
came out, but never really ha the time for. Yesterday Salinger suggested we go
watch it and I was glad we did. We finally saw a good scary movie in a theatre.
The premise of this movie a “true story” is about renowned demonologists,
Lorainne and Ed Warren who have encountered a family with some nasty ass
spirits. The family in question is a big family of seven the mother and
father and five girls. They move into
this spacious house in Sunday, August 18, 2013
The Conjuring
The Conjuring was a movie that I had wanted to see when it
came out, but never really ha the time for. Yesterday Salinger suggested we go
watch it and I was glad we did. We finally saw a good scary movie in a theatre.
The premise of this movie a “true story” is about renowned demonologists,
Lorainne and Ed Warren who have encountered a family with some nasty ass
spirits. The family in question is a big family of seven the mother and
father and five girls. They move into
this spacious house in 
Mirror, Mirror
Mirror Mirror by Gergory Maguire:
Mirror, Mirror is a retelling of the Snow White fairytale and
the author had set in the early 1500’s and the wicked witch is none other than
Lucrezia Borgia. Needless to say it should have been pretty fricking awesome.
Alas it wasn’t, it was kind of boring and hard to follow. The dwarves are the
hardest thing for me to understand, first their a part of nature, then they
begin to morph into humans and, well it gets tiresome to really comprehend
where he wants to go with this. As per the story Bianca aka Snow White has no
mother and she is the apple of her father’s eye. However he is under the
control of the Borgia’s, I mean in those days who wasn’t, and he leaves Bianca
in her care, yes crazy selfish Lucrezia Borgia. He is on a quest to find the
branch of the tree of life, which if you ask me is dispersed too quickly.
Bitch Please!
This book was so far from what Wicked was that I just can’t
comprehend how he got this published in the first place. It is extremely hard
to follow whenever the dwarves come and when he writes in seven different
voices it with no apparent difference. I was bored throughout the whole story,
Bianca is asleep the bulk of the novel and the only interesting part is when
Cesare tries to take Bianca and Lucrezia rescues her and then in turn tries to
kill her. I don’t know if it was because I read it just after “The Swan
Thieves” a work that tells its story through many voices and still manages to be
coherent or that the language and logic in “Mirror, Mirror” is lacking in
depth. Maybe its that he tried to tie many things together and they just didn’t
work. Whatever the case it was pretty lame and I got through mostly because I
had already started it and because once I start a book I pretty much have to
finish it. I don’t recommend this.
The Swan Thieves
The Swan Thieves
The Swan thieves by Elizabeth Kostova’s second book and it
didn’t disappoint. Although it didn’t move me and engulf me like her first
novel “The Historian” did, I must say I liked this book a lot. The book
revolves around the obsessive and wonderfully gifted genius painter Robert
Oliver. He is brilliant and his work is extremely impressive so why is this man
in the care of Andre Marlow? A renowned psychiatrist known for having the
ability to make even stones talk. Oliver has gone to a museum and nearly
destroyed a beautiful painting of Leda and the Swan by Gilbert Thomas. Why
would a painter do that? That is how the book begins with Marlow only going on
the first words and only words of Robert “I did it for her?”. But who is she?
She is Beatrice de Clerval a female painter of the early Impressionism period,
little known but clearly a genius with a brush. He paints her as if from memory
in many forms. She is his secret muse. Oliver loves her but his love is for the
long dead. So it is up to Dr. Marlow to go through Oliver’s history to his past
life with his wife, his lover, and then to find out the life of the face
perpetually staring from the easel of Robert Oliver.
Bitch Please!
So here’s the thing, the mystery of wanting to find out who
this woman was kind of what kept me going into the story in the first couple of
pages. I quickly found out that I REALLY didn’t like the main character. To me
he seemed to, patronizing and careful. He talks all weird and, and this is
weird for me to admit, I could never visualize him as real person. Usually with
a book your characters, if they are well written, haunt you and you wish with
all your soul that somehow they were real. Like for me it would be Lestat de
Lioncourt from Anne Rice’s “Vampire Chronicles”. When I was thirteen after reading
“The Vampire Lestat ” for the first time, I longed to see him floating outside
my window with that ironic smile and golden hair, befriending me like Louis,
Marius and Gretchen the nun (although nothing sexual) or David perhaps (later I
made this association when I read “the tale of the Body Thief”). I wanted him
to tell me his life story not read it thru through Rice’s voice. It sounds
silly but that’s what good writers are supposed to do, make their characters so
real you want to be a part of their world. I could go on with books, series
that have engulfed me into their fantasy worlds and their characters that
mesmerizing and imperfect have beguiled me. That being said, Kostova has failed
with her main character to be able to, at least with me, to make that
connection. Marlow is just that: a character. He really never comes to life
like Oliver, Mary, Kate and especially Beatrice de Clerval. I believe her
failing is that Kostova made her main character a man and he sounds like a
woman, or more like a woman wrote him. There is nothing manly about him, more
of like projections of what a man is supposed to be like. Despite this however
I enjoyed the book, it was about 600 pages and it was a bit tedious what with
all the painting descriptions and the unceasing descriptions of woods and
nature that my inner city girl can’t appreciate fully. I wish that Robert
Oliver was real and that I could see his collection of Beatrice de Clerval.
That is primordial that you, dear reader, understand she makes you want those
images to be real. I googled the image that Robert had supposedly ravaged and
no it wasn’t a real painter and yes there it was Leda but I do have to say that
the Leda in the painting and Leda in the description are two different things
but I’ll let you figure out the differences if you decide to read this book.
The story is mesmerizing and sometimes you wonder why some parts are necessary
but it is all essential. In the end it all comes together falling into place
neatly and clearly just there. Like the Historian the real fun is in trying to
fit into place the story you get in pieces and painstakingly through letters.
But is in the reveal you get the reward.
Man Up!
Man Up! by Ross Matthews:
Firstly let me introduce the author of this book, who
doesn’t know it but is my gay soulmate, Ross Matthews. Maybe some of you know
him from his work at Jay Leno as the uber cool correspondent or as a regular
round table guest on Chelsea Lately. Sometimes he’ll actually host the show
too! Or you might know him as the better half of the radio show “he said/ he
said” Josh and Ross! Which by the way is super funny. You might read his blog
“Hello Ross” or then again you might have read his book “Man up!” . I am guilty
of being a fan since I saw him on
Bitch Please:
I was amazed that while reading this book I could imagine
him reading it to me in his angelic lady like voice. And him pointing certain
things out with his index finger the way he does on the round table. Everything
about this book was funny, his obsession with Gwenyth Paltrow and the
entertainment industry (which I share as well) his love of girls toys when he
was a little boy, his run ins with homophobia, his love of tiny dogs and of
course his brushes with fame. Now I cannot deny that he is my favorite Red Carpet
correspondent and I so wish that one day he would interview me, (I need to
hurry up and write a book, star in a movie or record a solo album). The book
made me laugh a lot. It also made me think that my dreams can come true. He is
leading my path to becoming… whatever it is I decide I want to become. I know
at my age I should have that figured out already. I highly recommend everyone
read this book as a pick me up or something to lighten the heavy load of
literature.
The Memory Keepers Daughter
The Memory Keepers Daughter by Kim Edwards :
This one comes with a story. About three weeks ago Salinger
and I were on our way back from shopping in weho. On a previous trip I had
noticed a library by Pan Pacific
Park
So that’s how I cam to have this book in my hands. I had
heard about it from different sources, the library catalog had this on
recommendation and so did some of the other literary websites I have visited.
When I read the back I knew immediately I wanted to read it, it was compelling
and even though I decided to read the Lisa See book first I kept drifting to
the other. Finally after I finished “Snow Flower and the Secret Fan” “In cold
blood” and “Affliction” I finally read ‘The Memory Keepers Daughter’. The story
starts on a winter’s day in 1964 in which Dr. David Henry delievers his own
twins. The boy is healthy and essentially perfect while the surprise child shows
the symptoms of having Down Syndromes disease. So he does something so fucked
up, he gives his baby daughter to his nurse Caroline Gill and tells her to give
her away to an institution. As the years go by Dr. Henry’s wife Norah is slowly
growing away from her husband, inwardly pushing him away for not loving or
acknowledging the existence of their lost daughter. Paul his son who loves his
father also begins to grow away from his father angry and rejected, because he
can not rise to his father’s expectations. Meanwhile Caroline keeps the baby
runs away and raises the child as her own. Understanding that she will have to
fight hard and fight many battles for her daughter to be seen as worthy to
attend school and live a semi normal life. Dr. Henry receives a camera from his
wife called a “Memory Keeper” and he becomes obsessed with his camera and the
parallel universe between nature and the human body. The family that should be
perfect, they have everything, money, success, they travel and have many luxuries
others do not and still they are miserable. The secret of their Daughter
weighing heavily upon David’s shoulders and his guilt takes his toll.
Bitch Please:
I really liked this book and that’s saying something because
I could not stand for one minute the name of the Dr’s wife. Norah! God almighty
is there a name for a woman so annoying. Norah is so stupid! And it sounds
awful when u say it like ‘nugh’ just gross. But I guess it suits the character
who is as shit brained as her name suggest. Possibly the #1 annoying character
in the book I cant stand her. She is the perfect Susie Homemaker who just could
never get over losing her baby girl, which I kind of understand, I mean she
lost a child but fuck she just drags that shit for twenty years! I mean the first
five were fine but the other 15 were like a lot. I know he should have told her
the truth but then we wouldn’t have a story now would we. Paul is a little
douchebag like his mother who can’t appreciate shit and even though David made
a mistake he always tried to shoulder the brunt of the mistakes and he bore it
in stride. I read this book in a day, the language is beautiful and the story
is very moving. My one complaint is that their isn’t enough of Phoebe and
Caroline Gill and way to much of Norah Henry (that soul sucking slut bag of a
bitch). I would recommend this to everyone. The very idea behind David’s
photography collection is one I wish was actually real.
In Cold Blood
In Cold Blood by Truman Capote:
This was the only non-fiction/
non-biographical book I think I have ever read. I just don’t like non-fiction,
it makes me slow and I get bored almost immediately. However for some reason,
(actually in all honesty it’s probably because I had just seen Sinister and the
main character is like a modern Capote except family oriented.)I wanted to read
this book. I had actually loved his ‘Breakfast at Tiffany’s’ and his obsession
with my girl Marilyn Monroe made me want to read anything of his further. This
in mind I went to the library and checked it out, it took me about a week to
finish this book, it being only 367 pages I should have finished it a lot
sooner. But like I said, non-fiction makes me slow. It was written with a
fiction like story, reconstructing the lives and the last days of the Clutters
and the trip the killers Hickcock and Smith planned and excuted but by the 290
mark it was all newspaper articles and quotation marks and I was done with it
but sheer will forced me to finish it. The story revolves around the murder of
four members of the Clutter who were killed, in you guessed it, Cold Blood. The
reason for the murder was never known and if it hadn’t been for one cell mate a
Mr. Floyd Wells then no one would have ever made the connection. I don’t know
if it was the longevity of it or the fact that it all took place in a sleepy
agricultural town like Kansas
Bitch Please:
The book actually wasn’t all that bad and im sure I would
have liked it better if the killers had been more sinister. However that being
said I don’t think id ever read this if I had known how slow it would be or how
tedious and boring it would end up. Don’t read this unless you have to, I mean
watch the movie, watch Sinister. Its just not worth the effort, it’s long and
you can already guess how it ends.
Affliction
Affliction by Laruell K. Hamilton
This is the twenty
something book in the Anita Blake Vampire Hunter series. Ok here’s the thing I
honestly love this series. I love how bad ass anita is and even though through
the years she has waned a lot in her convictions since book six but I still
like her loads. I love her supporting characters her myriad of lovers
especially Jean-Claude and Nathaniel. I don’t always love the writing. I don’t
always love the defensive stance Anita always takes whenever she goes to the
cop station in whatever state Vampire politics or Zombie armies take her. I
hate that she always makes it several chapters of “I’m still the scariest bitch
in town and even though you think your tough because you’re a man, you’ll never
be the biggest BITCH and im the all powerful necromancer. Sex goddess.” If she
gave this speech maybe Hamilton
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