Review: Neil Patrick Harris: Choose Your Own Autobiography

Neil Patrick Harris: Choose Your Own Autobiography by Neil Patrick Harris

I love Neil Patrick Harris!  I first watched him in Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, then in How I Met Your Mother.  I was so happy to find out that he published his own autobiography because although I love to watch him (I just started watching A Series of Unfortunate Events on Netflix), I don't really know all that much about his life.
I read the ebook version. In the grand tradition of choose your own adventure, I died more than once.  I found that the links didn't work very well at first, but I figured it out eventually.  There are also pictures at the end which didn't show well on my Kobo because it is black and white.

I actually really enjoyed reading about him.  Even when I died, I found it entertaining because it was written in such a hilarious manner.  I would actually suggest reading a physical copy of the book if possible.  There is also an audiobook available read by NPH and although I love his voice, I'm not sure how the listener would choose the next chapter of the book.

Picture Book Reviews from Inhabit Media

It was my niece's third birthday recently and I wanted to get her something special.  My sister told me that she was really getting into longer more involved stories like The Balloon Tree by Phoebe Gilman.  She also really enjoys A Promise Is A Promise by Robert Munsch.  I wanted to get her something that I didn't think she would get from anyone else.  I found out about this Canadian publishing company based in Iqaluit while at the OLA Super Conference.  I saw the vendor booth on the trade show, but Akilak's Adventure was also mentioned at the talk about Diverse Books.

I went to Chapters and it was kind of a pain to find these books since they are filed in different sections of 3 - 5 year old storytime books, but I persevered and the results were totally worth it!  Although I was tempted to get The Owl and the Lemming, I didn't think my niece would like that one as much.  The books that I eventually chose were The Caterpillar Woman and Akilak's Adventure.

This is a really interesting story about a girl who gives her jacket to a strange woman and takes on the appearance of a caterpillar.  When hunters come to her tent, she helps them and one of them takes her as his wife.  Eventually, she becomes her beautiful self again and her husband becomes young and handsome in this fairy tale ending.  There are a lot of words that are a little difficult to pronounce, but there is an Inuktitut pronunciation guide in the back.  In addition to the wonderful story, the pictures are done in very muted colours and have a very smooth texture, similar to watercolours.  My niece actually preferred this book and after we read it once, we read it several more times that evening until my voice started to get all croaky.

This is a fun story about Akilak who sets out on an adventure to her uncle's camp in order to get more food for her grandmother.  I thought this was going to take on a Red Riding Hood kind of twist, but it didn't.  It is a girl who goes on a physical journey, but also embarks on a journey of self-discovery.  I really liked the illustrations in this book as they struck me as being similar to Martchenko's drawings in Munsch's books.  Although I read this book to my niece, she preferred the other, at least at the time.

I really am looking forward to other books with which this publishing house will produce and am definitely keeping on eye on them for unique wonderful stories that are Canadian.

Review: The Invisible Library

The Invisible Library by Genevieve Cogman
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This book is amazing! I really enjoyed it once I got going. Irene is a librarian for the Invisible Library. The Invisible Library basically is a hub at the center of of L-space (Pratchett fans will get this) which allows librarians into alternate universes to collect unique pieces of literature and where time does not pass.
Irene is a librarian who is sent on a standard mission of search and retrieval. However, this time, she has a student with her named Kai. The librarian who meets them, Dominic Aubrey, gives them the information they need to retrieve the book, clothes, etc. However, things soon go down the drain as Irene and Kai get caught up in the politics of this world and then find out that Alberic, the one librarian who betrayed the Invisible Library, is also in the world and determined to get his hands on the text. Events reach a climax as all the different factions in this world who are determined to get their hands on this book clash.

This book is a good mash-up of sci-fi (steampunk), fantasy (magic, vampires, fae, werewolves) and action/adventure.  Fans of steampunk, specifically Gail Carriger's Parasol Protectorate series, will enjoy this.  Librarians and archivists will also love this book as it involves trans-dimensional travel in order to save books.  Overall, I would say that the book isn't terribly gritty except in a few parts where it becomes violent and the descriptions get gory.

Amazing New Fantasy Series!

Rise of the Dragons by Morgan Rice
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I really enjoyed this book! The characters are well-balanced and the plot moves quite quickly. The main focus of the book is on Kyra, daughter of Commander Duncan. However, she isn't like all the other girls as she'd rather be training with weapons rather than learning domestic skills. When she slays a boar who was going to kill her brothers on Winter Moon, she changes her destiny forever.

This book also follows the story of Merk, a mercenary who is unsure of what to do now that the king surrendered and Alec, a boy who took his lame brother's place to be sent to the Flames, the purpose of which is to keep the trolls out of the country. At the same time, you also meet the Troll King, who is much more cunning and cruel than any who has come before.

I've never read anything by this particular author before, but I would suggest it to people who like their fantasy a little bit gritty as the writing style is similar to George R. R. Martin.

Movie Review: Ever After Vs. Disney's Cinderella

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I love Ever After!  It is my all time favourite version of Cinderella, so when I saw that Disney had put out a new live version of the film, I was pretty excited.  I didn’t think it would compare, but I have to admit that this new version looked pretty darn good.  So, I watched it.

One of the things that I love about Ever After is the costumes.  The time period is based in the Renaissance, so the costumes are Medieval based.  I really love the ball costume for Cinderella.  The ball gown from Cinderella, since it is by Disney, is very similar to the ball gown from the cartoon version, but they did such a great job on it!  The other costumes from the movies are also similar to Regency or Victorian.

The stories are fairly similar since they are both using the same source material.  I felt Cinderella handled the death of the mother particularly well, even going to far as to show a before and after shot of the family.  However, I finally figured out why I prefer Ever After.  The endings are so different that I just had to go with Ever After as it has the stronger ending.  Also, there is is this strange feeling that Cinderella is trying very hard to be like Ever After, but just doesn’t quite make it.  Although I prefer Ever After, Cinderella is still very good and I highly suggest that you watch it!

Into The Woods: A Movie Review

Sorry for the lack of posts.  I was just so busy getting ready for my trip to the West Coast that I just completely forgot about it.  Then, I was actually travelling and was completely exhausted from jet lag.  Once I recovered from the jet lag, I realized that I had writer's block and was struggling to come up with an idea.  So, here is my review of Into the Woods, a children's movie.

I recently watched Into The Woods.  I really enjoyed it!  I don’t normally review movies, but seeing as how this movie was based on the Grimm fairy tales, I thought it would be fun!  Into the Woods is a fairy tale musical and I am a sucker for musicals.

If you don’t know anything about the movie, Into the Woods starts with the town baker and his wife wishing for a baby.  A witch appears and tells them that they must fetch her some items before she will lift the curse from his house, for when the baker’s mother was pregnant, his father stole over the wall to steal a particular herb and the witch placed a curse on the family.

So each fairy tale character heads into the woods to accomplish their goals and this is the first song which is absolutely amazing!  So the intertwining stories are that of the baker and his wife, red riding hood, rapunzel, jack (and the beanstalk) and cinderella.  The plot is great since once you assume that everyone has their happily ever afters, the movie is over, but there’s still more to come.

The music was really well written and performed.  There were a number of reprisals, but my favourite song was still the opening number and Johnny Depp’s song as the wolf (yes, it is a little pedophilic, but that’s the point).  The song “Agony” was also hilarious due to the fact that two princes know how ridiculous they are and just go for it.  As for the storylines, I was really surprised by the fact that the stories followed the original tales very closely.  If you aren’t sure what I am talking about, I would suggest that you read some of the Grimm or Perrault tales.

If you like fairy tales and musicals, then you will likely enjoy this movie.  I hope you like it as much as I did.  Interestingly enough, one of my favourite reviewers, The Blockbuster Buster, also did a review, but for once, we really disagree on this particular movie, particularly the “Agony” song.

Missing Percy Jackson? Try these Books! Part 2

This is a continuation of my blog post from last week.  There were just so many suggestions that I couldn't fit them all into one post.  The person was seeking books for a 9 year old boy with an extensive reading history of fantasy.

Spirit Animals

 

Wings of Fire by Tui T. Sutherland

Tombquest by Michael Northrop

The Last Dragon Chronicles by Chris D'Lacey

Brotherband Chronicles by John Flanagan

 

Pendragon by D.J. MacHale

The Queen's Thief by Megan Whalen Turner

Leviathan by Scott Westerfield

Bone by Jeff Smith (Graphic Novel)

The last two suggestions are normally found in the teen section, but keep in mind that the teen section covers from 12/13 years of age to 18.  These books can be handled by those who have read through Harry Potter as it is pretty dark by the end.

Protector of the Small by Tamora Pierce (or if that doesn't appeal, try one of her others)

The Spiderwick Chronicles by Holly Black

Magisterium by Holly Black and Cassandra Clare

Any book by Diana Wynne Jones.  I liked Howl's Moving Castle.

Enchanted Forest Chronicles by Patricia C. Wrede (See my review for Dealing with Dragons to get a good feel for the series)

   

TimeRiders by Alex Scarrow

Earth Sea Cycle by Ursula K. Leguin

The Chronicles of Prydain by Lloyd Alexander

The Blood Guard by Carter Roy (more forthcoming?)

Seven Wonders by Peter Lerangis

The Inheritance Cycle by Christopher Paolini

Beyonders Trilogy by Brandon Mull

Brian's Saga (Hatchet) by Gary Paulsen

Arthur Trilogy by Kevin Crossley-Holland

Of course, once everyone submitted their suggestions, my mind kept chugging away and came up with one more suggestion.  The first book of the Tales of Alderley series, The Weirdstone of Brisingamen is an excellent fantasy/adventure story set in Wales.  I haven't gotten around to reading the other two books in the trilogy, but I'm sure they're just as good!

I hope that those of you who are Percy Jackson fans found some great reading suggestions.  Please comment below if you have further suggestions or how how you liked on the books suggested in the post.