The Hunger Games: Catching Fire Movie

Visually pleasing. Very true to the book. Does not suffer from the middle-child syndrome. May the odds be ever in your favor and watch it. Available on DVD, On-Demand and digital cable TV.

Title: The Hunger Games: Catching Fire
Cast: Jennifer Lawrence (Katniss Everdeen), Woody Harrison (Haymitch), Josh Hutcherson (Peeta), Liam Hemsworth (Gale), Lenny Kravitz (Cinna)
Release Date: November 2013
Time: 146 minutes
MPAA Rating: PG-13
My Rating: ♥♥♥♥♥

Series Sunday: Recommendations?

Series Sunday is a bookish meme hosted by Literary Marie of Precision Reviews. I encourage all of my fellow book bloggers and bookhearts to play along.

• Read an installment of a series.
• Share your review/recommendation below.
• Include the title, author and series name.

I am looking for new series to jump on the bandwagon and start reading. Please share your recommendations of what I should read next. Thanks in advance, bookhearts.

 

August & September eMags

I am Living La Vida NOOK with these August & September eMags:

Ebony ~ Cut The Stress Over Their Mess + Your Ultimate Money Guide

Ebony ~ The Sexy Stars of GET ON UP! + Financial Boot Camp

Essence ~ Jill: Her Brand New Bangin' Body & Style Evolution

Essence ~ Michelle Obama: Her Secrets to Raising Smart Kids

Entertainment Weekly ~ The WALKING DEAD Exclusive 

Entertainment Weekly ~ Fall Movie Preview: Scoop on 88 New Films + GONE GIRL

O: The Oprah Magazine ~ The Best Books of Summer

 

First Lines Friday - Primetime Fall TV Edition

First Lines Friday is a bookish meme hosted by Literary Marie of Precision Reviews. I encourage all of my fellow book bloggers and bookhearts to play along.

• Grab your current read(s) or watch(es).*
• Share the first line(s).
• Include the title and author.

"And stop acting like a little bitch baby."

~ How To Get Away With Murder by the executive producers of Scandal and Grey's Anatomy starring Viola Davis


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"Oh, my stars. Is that how you cope with this insufferable humidity?"

~ The Blacklist starring James Spader and Megan Boone


*Fall TV is so awesome that I had to share the first lines of a couple shows I'm watching this season. Check out the trailers above.

Postcards from Cookie

"I, on the other hand, continue to dig into holes she's filled with cement, hauling out the proverbial jackhammer when necessary." ~ p. 129

I heart memoirs. Real people tell their life story and experiences without shame and with a sense of pride. It is the author's truth; the writer's "side of the story" based on his/her memory. The subject could be love, loss, survival or comedic. In the case of Postcards from Cookie, it is a memoir of motherhood, miracles and mail.

Journalist Caroline Clarke is not an unhappy adult adoptee. Her purpose for visiting adoption agency, Spence-Chapin Family Services, is to obtain her medical history. What she gets is a detailed report of her birth mother and family. As Caroline reads through the report, something clicks. Her biological family sounds familiar. Not because the Coles are a prominent family and known for musical greatness (aunt Natalie Cole and grandfather Nat King Cole), but because she personally knows them!

Investigating details from the adoption agency report and contacting a college friend starts Caroline's journey to connect with her birth mother, nicknamed Cookie. A life-changing relationship begins and grows with phone calls, e-mails and so many postcards that Caroline has to empty drawers to store them all.

Postcards from Cookie is an extraordinary true story of discovery and the appreciation for written communication. Not every adopted person wants to seek their birth parents. Simple curiosity wasn't Caroline's intention. However, I was filled with warm feelings as I read and saw their mother-daughter relationship develop through correspondence. It wasn't always roses and smiles. They had disagreements like any family, which made me root for them more. Caroline is a passionate advocate for adoption. I recommend this memoir.

Title: Postcards from Cookie: A Memoir of Motherhood, Miracles, and a Whole Lot of Mail
Author: Caroline Clarke
Published: April 2014
Pages: 307
Edition: Hardcover
Rating: ♥♥♥♥

 

Attachments

"If I got to know people I might not feel so impartial when I'm enforcing the rules." ~ pg. 3

When Lincoln O'Neill applied to be an "internet security officer," he thought it would be protecting the company from hackers and building firewalls. Instead it is working until one a.m. reading other people's e-mail and reporting whenever someone forwards a dirty joke. Lincoln knows two employees in particular, Beth Fremont and Jennifer Scribner-Snyder, are violating company policy by sending endless e-mails back and forth discussing their personal lives but their messages are entertaining. Before long, Lincoln is falling for Beth. But how can he introduce himself? "Hi, I'm the IT guy that reads your e-mail and I think I love you."

"He was never going to send them a warning. Ergo. Therefore. Thus...He technically, ethically, had no reason to keep reading their e-mail." ~ pg. 38

Is it obvi that I am on a quest to read all books by Rainbow Rowell? One of her earlier released books Attachments seemed like a quick read so I started it on a rainy summer day. The format of Attachments was engaging in the beginning. We read Beth and Jennifer's messages in e-mail format like Lincoln does. At the same time, the book follows Lincoln's daily life at home and work. Normally I would have finished this book in one day. Not this one. I almost enforced my 50-page rule. It seems impossible to drag a story line in a book under 200 pages, but Attachments did.

This is my third Rainbow Rowell novel and I have decided her endings leave much to the imagination. Almost incomplete endings like a chapter is missing. I actually checked the physical copy of Attachments to make sure my eBook wasn't missing pages at the end. Alas, it was not. It is disappointing because this story line had potential to be great. Lame build-up, lame ending.

Title: Attachments
Author: Rainbow Rowell
Published: April 2011 
Pages: 187
Edition: eBook
Rating: ♥♥

 

Series Sunday: L is for Lawless

(Kinsey Millhone Alphabet #12)

Series Sunday is a bookish meme hosted by Literary Marie of Precision Reviews. I encourage all of my fellow book bloggers and bookhearts to play along.

• Read an installment of a series.
• Share your review/recommendation below.
• Include the title, author and series name.

"He thought I couldn't even hold up a seven-pound shotgun. I was insulted. Stereotyping the old." ~ pg. 288

My Series Sunday pick is L is for Lawless, the 12th book in the Kinsey Millhone alphabet series by Sue Grafton. Kinsey is asked to find out why the military has no record of a deceased World War II vet named Johnny Lee. Should be an easy investigation, right? Until his apartment is burglarized, an old friend is beaten up, a pregnant woman with a duffle bag is on the run and a vengeful psychopath pops up. Kinsey is following leads across the country to solve a decades-old mystery that apparently someone would prefer left unsolved.

San Francisco Examiner called this novel one of Kinsey Millhone's "wildest adventures yet." I have to disagree. If I wasn't so invested in this series, I would have stopped reading early on. The mystery of an already deceased person simply did not grab my interest.

Le sigh. I have the same gripe with the meaningless lengthy descriptions. I understand the author chooses to give background info on the main character for readers who start a series in the middle; however, this is the 12th installment. We don't need pages upon pages of background info on Kinsey. Let's just assume readers know who she is.

Nevertheless, I will continue reading the Kinsey Millhone alphabet mystery series.

Title: L is for Lawless
Author: Sue Grafton
Published: September 1995
Pages: 343
Edition: Paperback
Rating: ♥♥