Apologies (Again!)

Goodness, it has been a long time since I wrote my last post, a little over two years to be exact.  I've been pretty lax about writing the blog post because to be honest, I totally forgot about it.  One of the reasons I feel I forgot about it was because I had trouble coming up with articles to write.  The other reason is that a lot of things happened at my workplace in December 2013 and I was then transferred in January to a full-time position at another branch in the library system for a few months, then back to my old branch and then to another branch in November 2014 until the end of January 2015.  My personal life also took a big hit when my husband got a job out of the country, so we were trying to spend as much time together as possible before he left.

Although this blog started out as a project for my Teen Materials class at Western, I’m going to change things up to make it easier for me to keep up the momentum.  One of my new series will be about my reading history, what got me started, series I've read & enjoyed, authors who I love, etc.  Also, I will be writing about author & publication news as well.

Exciting News!

I am very excited to have found out about the new Fairy Tales that were found in Regensberg Germany.  Although the news is no longer new, it is still very cool!  Here is a link to the news article:  http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/mar/05/five-hundred-fairytales-discovered-germany

I am personally looking forward to getting my hands on a translation or even just a copy.  Sadly, it seems that noone local is carrying them, not even the universities.  Hopefully that will change, but in the meantime, I'll just have to stick to reading twisted and other fairy tales that are published.

Percy Jackson Mind Map

Hi everyone!
So, the third book for the Heroes of Olympus is coming out in two days!  This is very exciting news for those of us who love Greek mythology series.  In celebration of this, I have created a Percy Jackson Mind Map.  It is saved as a PDF.  If you use Foxit Reader, you will need to disable Safe Mode and use the Hand Tool in order to access the links.  Adobe does not seem to have any problems!  I hope you find some new books out of this document!  Happy reading!

In order to view the document, click on the link below:
Percy Jackson Mind Map

The Selection Book Review

The Selection by Kiera Cass

Published by Harper Teen, 2012

This is the first book of a planned trilogy.  In the American state of China, the royal family selects 40 girls from the population for the royal prince to choose to marry.  When America is selected, she is heartbroken as she has been secretly dating someone for about two years who is below her caste.  The ones, basically royalty, are on top and the eights are on the bottom.  However, this is her chance to not only better herself, but help her family and she strikes a deal with her secret boyfriend.  This book is a combination of the TV show The Bachelor and The Hunger Games.  While not everything is recorded and broadcasted like in The Hunger Games, particular events and interviews are broadcasted.  Unlike The Hunger Games, there are rules in the house and if these rules are broken, then the offender gets kicked out.  This book is suggested for those who like dystopian novels, romance, love triangles, series and suspense.  I suggest ages 16 and up as that is the age of the Selected.

P.S.  There’s supposed to be a televised series of the books, so keep your eye out!

Death of a Good Author

It is with much sadness that I announce that Donald Sobol has died.  I knew him from my own childhood and as a jumping point into mysteries.  The Encyclopedia Brown series is still one of my favourite and perfect for starting off in mysteries.

Here is the CBC article:  http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/story/2012/07/16/obit-sobol-donald-encyclopedia-brown.html

My Apologies

I can’t believe that it has been two months since my last post!  I’ll try to explain why that is.  Just when I settled into my new routine which didn’t necessarily include working Saturdays, I got a new job closer to being a librarian.  However, the hours are odd and I’ve been trying to pick up extra cash by working extra hours which tend to be scattered all over the place, not to mention taking up extra time to figure out how to get there by public transportation.  I’ve also been applying for actual librarian jobs that are part-time permanent.  This means there will be interviews coming my way and this will unfortunately disrupt my schedule.

There is also this horrible heat wave and this seems to suck the very energy right out of your body.  My house has air conditioning in the two bedrooms on the top floor and I don’t particularly want to work in a bedroom.  Anyways, I just wanted to apologize for not updating as regularly as I should be.  Hopefully my new plan will work and I should be up and running more regularly until the next slew of interviews!

Movie Review 1: The Adventures of Tintin and The Muppets

Hi everyone!  Sorry it's been awhile since my last post but suddenly life just got a little too busy.  So here's my first set of movie reviews.
The Adventures of Tintin
I thought this movie was pretty good.  If you have read the graphic novels, then you will see the differences between the two formats for sure.  However, I thought that the changes were rather good.  The Uncanny Valley effect was minimal and seemed limited to some of the more realistic looking people.  The more cartoony the character was, the less the effect.  I highly suggest watching this whether or not you've read the graphic novels.

The Muppets
This movie was absolutely hilarious!  This movie was not above poking fun at itself and I rather enjoyed the conventions that were used and satirized (especially the bit where they say "We'll travel by map!).  This movie is definitely a true family film.