Darice de Cuba

For the past week I have read and watched vampires stories so much that my head is spinning. In December I had a month vacation so I bought the Twilight series and read it in one week. Besides the overly annoying adoration of Bella towards Edward the story kept me hooked till the end. After I finished them I wanted to read more vampire stories and somehow came across Charlaine Harris Sooki Stackhouse series.

I bought Dead Until Dark but after e few chapters I gave up, I guess I was too much yet in Twilight mind set. Then last week I ordered The Vampire Diaries when I found out that CW is doing a series on it coming fall. It was written in the 90’s, same era as Buffy the Vampire Slayer but really not comparable to it. The first book is kinda slow, it only got really good in the last chapters of the second book. I have yet to order book 3 and 4 and reading from the reviews I should stay away from book 5 which came like a second after thought to the series.

Meanwhile I got season 1 of True Blood to watch. True Blood plays on HBO and is based on the Sooki Stackhouse series. Now that is one hell of a TV show, if it was on prime time networks where the public is as prude as one can get they would have a fit. But this show is good and very graphic. Season one keeps very true to the book considering how shows are mostly completely rewritten from the book form. But True Blood is good, good writing, good actors. Anna Paquin is Sookie Stackhouse, Ryan Kwanten plays her brother Jason, just to name a few. I couldn’t place the actor first, when I looked him up I realized he is Jay from the old show Summerland.

But True Blood got me hooked, I finished watching season 1 in two days. Then I went back to finish reading The Vampire Diaries but I had to sort my mind, not to get the stories confused with each other.

And today before ten in the morning the post delivered the first two books of the Sweep series. I never heard about the Sweep series, it was due to a photo on Flickr of someone reading a book which turned out to be from the Sweep series. A lot commentators commented on how good the series is. So I ordered the first two books. Just started book one today, so far so good.

It is a teen series about Wicca, the heroin Morgan finds out that she is a blood witch and has to fight dark magic. I just started reading it and to not spoil the story I haven’t looked up much about it.

Once I have watched the new Harry Potter movie my doses of all things supernatural will be complete and yes I also read the Harry Potter series. I haven’t absorbed so much stories at once in a long time. Considering the Sweep series has about 14 books until now, I will be reading them for some time.

At least I’m still sane knowing it’s pure fantasy, I read some comments on a TV show blog where people where seriously talking about how vampires exist, even quoting the bible. I guess it’s the appeal of eternal live that has people obsessed. But all things considered I just like a good read and a good TV show.

My Sister’s Keeper just started showing in the US and will be out in August here in the Netherlands. I decided to read the book first and then see the movie. A movie can never tell the whole story and details like a book can.

The book was written by Jody Picoult. This is the first book that I read written by her. From what I can see on her website her other books also have the same genre as My Sister’s Keeper.

Anna is not sick, but she might as well be. By age thirteen, she has undergone countless surgeries, transfusions, and shots so that her older sister, Kate, can somehow fight the leukemia that has plagued her since childhood. The product of pre-implantation genetic diagnosis, Anna was conceived as a bone marrow match for Kate – a life and a role that she has never questioned… until now. –Synopsis

The book is real emotional and deep and it keeps you reading till the end without stopping. The ending is heart breaking and you don’t see it coming, it leaves you shocked. I’m glad I read the book first seeing the comment by the writer on her website.

Yes, I know the ending is different. Yes, I know some of you are very upset. I didn’t change it. The author has no control over the movie, and it was hard for me to accept too. However, there’s a great deal in the movie that I think is great, and I enjoyed watching it – and I hope you did too. Please don’t email me asking me why I changed the ending, or “let” Hollywood do that – it wasn’t something I had any control over. -Jody Picoult

This again proves how Hollywood can butcher good books into lesser movies. Although I must say I haven’t seen the movie yet so I wonder what my opinion will be of the movie in contrast to the book.

Julie and Julia

Today while browsing in the book store I saw a book by Julia Child and the cover had a feature of the soon to be released movieJulie and Julia. A while back I saw the preview and was instantly sold, but the release date here is October so I soon forgot about it till today. I wondered if the movie is based on a book, so rather stand in line at the info counter I took my iPhone and did some quick googling and yes the movie is based on a book. I did take some extra minutes to find the book as it wasn’t in the regular books sections but in the cooking section and very well hidden too between all other books. But I got the one and only copy they had.

The movie stars Meryl Streep so I’m pretty confident it will be a good movie as Meryl Streeps movies almost never disappoints. The book on the other hand has a 3 out of 5 stars review on Amazon. I bought this book on a whim today, I’m just reading through the reviews on Amazon, and people really dislike this book. From what I take out of the reviews the ones who thought it was bad had they expectations set before even reading it and the ones who liked it just took the book on a lighter note.

A one star review:

As an avid blogger and foodie, I looked forward to buying this book for over a year. Now that I have it, I can’t even finish reading it. Powell is not only a bad cook but a bad writer as well. This book doesn’t stick with any audience. Bloggers think it’s overrated. Foodies think it’s insulting to Julia Child. Readers feel it’s a bad piece of writing. Overall, it’s just bad. On top of everything else, her constant b*tching about her botched recipes got on my last nerve.

A five star review:

I’m truly surprised to see so many negative reviews. Really, it’s not a foodie book, and I don’t think ever sold as such. It’s also not even really about Julia Child (though the touching eulogy from the author is nice). It’s just about one woman and how she used a year of cooking some old, rather out-dated and often over-complicated recipes, to find something new within herself.

After I finish the book I’ll update this post which how many stars I’ll award the book.

Back to the movie, from what I gather from the Julie and Julia trailer the movie is based on Julie Powells book and Julia Childs My Life in France The director and writer is Nora Ephron so the movie has high expectations.