In which Vlogbrothers' John Green answers one 15 year old girl's question about how to get boys to like you. Dating advice from nerds, is anything better?
Best Lines:
1. Become a giraffe.
2. What's plastic?
3. Nerd boys don't sparkle in sunshine.
Hi there gang! I have some books to giveaway... 5 in fact! They're been read before and show varying marks of previous ownership. All of them are free of perfumes and smoke.
Leave a comment and my nifty random generator button just might choose you to get one of them. I will be matching winner to book based on the order pulled by the random generator.
"Yes, it's true," a source at Summit Entertainment confirmed to MTV News Friday evening (February 20). " 'The Twilight Saga's Eclipse' is dated for Wednesday, June 30, 2010."
Source for fabulous insight. Read Summit Entertainment's press release.
Bravo to Summit Entertainment for not dragging out the awesome like everything is going with the Harry Potter franchise. I mean really? Deathly Hallows is going to be two movies and I just don't see how that's possible considering how short the book is in comparison to the book sizes of Goblet of Fire and Order of the Phoenix. I'm not concerned at all by how close the release dates are though that seems to be a concern for some. I have very good faith that the movie will be done on equal or better footing when it comes to the special effects, acting, and filming.
Though I am a little concerned about SAG Getting Ugly Again. This could be very bad news for New Moon production and would certainly knock Eclipse back on the time line as well.
Good news for Robert Pattinson fans - he's going to announce at the Oscars, but we might not see him on the red carpet. Make a bowl of popcorn and watch tonight at 5 PT/8 ET!
This is one of the cutest shorts I have ever watched. It's won a lot of awards and in my opinion deserved each one and then some!
It's entitled Validation and is about a young man who loves to make people feel good about themselves. One day he meets the woman of his dreams but no matter what he did or said he could not make her happy... until...
Run time is approximately 16 minutes.
Written and Directed by Kurt Kuenne.
I was really excited by the prospect of indulging in a little Native American historical romance, but the anticipation was not matched by the experience. I want the hours I spent reading this book back. It wasn’t completely atrocious it was just so entirely lacking in depth. I felt nothing for either character; their falling in love was too quick, followed by too much drama afterward to drag out the novel. I’ve never said this about a romance novel before, but there was way too much sex, which if I was emotionally involved with the characters or if it was written well I might have enjoyed thoroughly.
David hates being poor. Not hate-hate where he’s entirely possessed by the fact, but hating poverty enough to try to control who his sister marries. He wants her to live a better life and he knows just who to marry her to too. However Christa is not inclined toward the overweight, heavily perspiring, and twice her age wealthy man. Instead she is attracted to an Indian brave called Tall Cloud (who as this usually turns out is the Indian chief of the Suquamish tribe). They fall in love quickly and consummate their love for each other. But just because they love each other and know it does not mean the rest of the world will accept. It is one obstacle after another from kidnapping, raped younger sisters, enemy tribe attacks, death, fires, and stubborn brothers. It’s a wonder they have time at all for lovemaking, really.
Rating: 2 Stars
PS. The model on this cover is gorgeous. I think all men should grow their hair out and wear headbands with feathers on them... whew... fans face.
So how do you rate a romance novel where the romance part was exceptional but the side story was wholly unnecessary? Once again I’ve managed to pick up a story where the author seems to think that it’s a good idea to include a history of sexual perversion on kids. What’s with this? The young girl that was abused was not the heroine this time but the side character who ends up doing unspeakable things herself on innocents and sinners alike in the name of justice seemingly unable to tell the difference. Why include this? I mean really? Who wants to read this? I don’t!
Most of this stuff is hinted at throughout the novel about the hero’s father being such a sleaze ball, a building that the son had to remind himself was not a fault for what happened, etc. The bastard is dead mind you at the start of the novel so we don’t see a continuance, just back story. It’s becoming gratuitous to the point of being like a retarded bathroom scene in a movie. Anyway you are warned ahead of time if this is not your cup of tea to deal with topics like this in a novel.
Now that that is out of my system, the romance between Grant and Gillian was a wonderful unfoldment. The Scottish Companion starts with Grant’s return to Scotland when his brother dies of a blood disease following shortly after their other brother died of the same cause. Dr. Feyton is worried that Grant may be suffering from the same disease and Grant decides if this is true he must marry immediately. Not wanting to go through the hassle of finding a bride he asks about Dr. Feyton’s daughter. A marriage arrangement is agreed upon and they go their normal ways.
Arabella would rather play at being a physician than be civil to anyone. She doesn’t like to be touched, talked to, interrupted, or forced to do anything. So right off the bat she hates the idea of marrying Grant and does her best to be disagreeable. Everyone finds her to be exactly that and many make asides to Grant about his foolishness.
Grant himself is feeling foolish because immediately upon seeing Gillian he finds himself attracted to her. She is a magnetic force on his life and he can’t seem to stop himself from seeking her out. He knows she’s hiding something and desperately wants to be let into her world. She makes him forget his losses, and overwhelming duties; she challenges his authority and is an intelligent companion who he seeks to impress with his experiments.
Gillian for her part knows that as the companion to Arabella, Grant can never be hers. She was foolish once in love and paid the price with her innocence and virtue. She lost the protection of her family, the love she thought was hers, and was censured by society. Only under Dr. Feyton has she received a modicum of protection and sense of purpose. She knows the price of love and passion so how come she can’t seem to resist the handsome earl? She wants to experience his kisses, she wants to be his, and she wants what Arabella is so blithely willing to toss away.
Rating: 2.5-3 Stars
Originally posted 2008-10-17 05:10:30. Republished by Blog Post Promoter
Guilty Pleasures by Laura Lee Guhrke is the tale of Lady Viola's brother and his duchess-to-be. Technically Guilty Pleasures is a prequel to The Marriage Bed where Viola and her husband John patch up their estranged marriage. On a whole this novel was much better than the Marriage Bed, but because I read the Marriage Bed first I was biased against this book from the beginning. Now before I started reading, I had no idea of Guilty Pleasures relation to the other novel, the backs of the novels do not give very much information. I picked both of them up in the store because their covers were wonderfully designed and drew me to them. It's too bad really.
So why am I prejudice against the book from the beginning? Daphne, happily married by the time Marriage Bed takes place, tells Viola some very negative things about her character and how it's possible that Viola was nearly wholly responsible for the estrangement between John and herself. Daphne is on John's side because she was poor and in desperate straights herself once. Honestly, I never really picked up on that at all in Guilty Pleasures. The novel started with Daphne having already secured a position and working five months at Tremore Hall under Anthony. If I don't like a heroine the novel goes downhill fast for me. I didn't like Daphne in Marriage Bed and I saw no reason to like her now.
It's too bad because I always liked Anthony from both MB and GP. He's an antiquarian and loves his history, hates evicting tenets and always has some way to allow them to stay while giving them self-worth, doesn't abuse his power over his female servants and employees, and champions his sister. He is hero worthy without a doubt. Of course his noble actions avoiding thinking of his female workers cause all the havoc in this story.
Daphne loved to spy on Anthony when he was shirtless and working outdoors excavating. Who wouldn't? When Viola comes to call on her brother, Daphne becomes Viola's number one choice for her brother to marry and cleverly sets them up. Daphne overhears a conversation between the siblings where Anthony describes her as a stick bug on a twig, a machine, and unlikely to marry. Just goes to show him later that he never should have opened his mouth, doesn't it? Having heard, Daphne decides to accept Viola's offer to help bring her out into society which makes Anthony panic as he'll be losing his best employee on the dig.
He devises ways to make her stay; she makes him fall in love with her. Overall a cute tale, but one I couldn't really get into because of Daphne.
Rating: 2.5 Stars.
Originally posted 2008-10-15 05:06:38. Republished by Blog Post Promoter
The Headline reads: The Best Job in the World (and really who wouldn't love to live and work for six months in Australia?)
There are 9 days left to submit an application (Feb 22, 2009 is the cut off date). After that 50 videos will be shortlisted for voting and 11 people will get the chance to explain in person why they are the best candidate for the best job.
I'm pretty optimistic about my application - after all what could be more perfect than a lazy day spent at the beach with a great book in hand?
The Diamond King has got it all: Highlanders, pirates, lost souls, and love.
Alex Leslie used to be a noble in a world that seems to have existed long ago before the war between Scotland and England. Now he is wanted, without honor or hope for a life that had once been held so promisingly before him. Siding with the bonny Prince Charlie cost Alex far more than his pretty face, now scarred, and two strong legs, one now damaged and aching all the time causing him to limp.
Alex has seen horrors of war. The Battle of Culloden turned the tide of war against innocents as the redcoats and turncoats followed mercilessly on the trails of fleeing women, children and wounded – killing and raping indiscriminately. Stripped of his title but not his own sense of moral rightness, Alex came to lead a parcel of helpless Jacobite children out of Scotland to France. There he swore revenge… and two children swore not to be parted from him no matter the cost.
They followed him onto a ship that he was captaining under letters of Marque. Alex was planning to divest the British of their spoils on the sea and he could not do that for fear of the children. All attempts however to divest himself of the brats were pointless. They were far too crafty from their time on the run with him in Scotland to be forced to do anything they didn’t want to do. And truth be told, Alex did not want them to go. He would miss them.
His surrender to their wishes makes it all the harder on him when poor Meg gets wounded in the capture of Charlotte. To make matters worse, there’s a bloody Campbell on board. The Campbell family was the worst of all the turncoats and all the cruel deeds of the war could be laid at their uncaring, guilty feet.
Jeanette Campbell, never knew the horrors of the war. She was safe, sequestered at home where no tales of cruelty could reach her. This does not sway Alex to relent toward her. At least his hate of her is different than the hate she has felt at others hands. Jenna, as she prefers to be called, has been quite unloved by her aristocratic family and society at large. She has been spurned because of a birthmark she cannot help. Born with the Devil’s Mark on one arm from shoulder to wrist, Jenna has known only fear and instant loathing.
Given the choice of being disowned or marrying a man she’s never met, Jenna chooses to find a haven in Barbados. Certain the widow was not told of her birthmark, Jenna is fearful of her future. The thought of mothering his children is the only thing that kept her going. So when the Charlotte is captured, Jenna cannot help feeling helpless and angry that her one chance at happiness has been ripped from her. For what man will take such a bride; even a desperate one?
Rating: 2 Stars
Originally posted 2008-10-10 08:49:41. Republished by Blog Post Promoter
Variety mentions in this article that the Twilight sequel, New Moon, will film for two weeks in May in the ancient Tuscan city of Volterra, Italy. Visual map below:
Stephen King delivers a smack down to Meyer in an exclusive with USA Weekend. The part that I liked best of the article was the analysis of the Twilight books:
"...People are attracted by the stories, by the pace and in the case of Stephenie Meyer, it’s very clear that she’s writing to a whole generation of girls and opening up kind of a safe joining of love and sex in those books. It’s exciting and it’s thrilling and it's not particularly threatening because they’re not overtly sexual. A lot of the physical side of it is conveyed in things like the vampire will touch her forearm or run a hand over skin, and she just flushes all hot and cold. And for girls, that’s a shorthand for all the feelings that they’re not ready to deal with yet."
How do you feel about the King's words on the quality of writing between Meyer and Rowling? I'd be interested - leave a comment!
I generally liked this novel. It revolves around how a marriage once destroyed by infidelity can be healed. I have pretty strong views on this subject so I’ll talk about what ruffled my feathers. I’m like Viola, the heroine, at the start of the novel, looking at things in black and white. The author didn’t persuade me to think in gray matter, too bad Viola did. Luckily in the end she got what she deserved – a loving, devoted, adoring husband – but you could have fooled me. I still thought the hero was shy of truly learning how to love at the end of the book. However, you can be the judge.
Viola is the sister of a Duke and at the age of nineteen she knew she was in love with Viscount John Hammond. She also knew that despite the circumstances of his situation, he loved her, not the money she brought with her. How naïve she had been. John knew nothing of love; he was all empty words and passion.
“When unaccompanied by his love, a man’s desire was like the wind. It had no substance, and it was impossible to hold onto.” – pg 186
Now eight going on nine years after their vows, John has come to the decision to get himself an heir. For that, he will need to woo his way back into his wife’s bed. This task would prove impossible until he changed. But can a man like John, change his spots?
In the last ten pages he did. Until then the brute refused to take blame for more than half the novel and managed to in nearly every conversation lay the whole troubled affair at Viola’s feet. This is much like what happens in the movie Something to Talk About starring Julia Roberts. This made me really mad and when it wasn’t John telling Viola how she made him break his marriage vows and slip into other women, it was the Duke’s wife that was telling her how she wasn’t looking at things from John’s point of view.
John broke his vows. Period. The end. Case closed. What kind of man has to hide his dirty deeds behind his innocent wife? In today’s world with all the diseases that can be caught, a man who cheats ought to be charged with attempted murder if he slips back into his wife’s bed (undetected or not) without first having himself checked out thoroughly.
Viola first turns John away from their marriage bed when she learns that he kept a mistress during the entire time he was courting her. All his words of love, adoration, devotion were lies. She might have forgiven him those if the other woman wasn’t involved. After all impoverished lords needed funds and heiresses to make them solvent – he could have learned to love her.
John waits a month and leaves Viola to live a separate life. There he has count them, five, mistresses in the space of the years prior to his most devout attempt at reconciling. He only does it because he needs a legitimate heir to the viscountcy. Viola is the only woman who can grant him this. So once again he plans to use false words to get her into bed and if that doesn’t work the law is on his side and he can force her there.
But in his own words the five mistresses were her own fault for being cold to him. Poor baby. Eventually he says he is sorry for his part in breaking their marriage by using his young nephew to be his buffer. I don’t think Viola had any part to breaking the marriage. Distraught as she was she stayed with him (granted making him take separate sleeping quarters and refusing to allow him to use passion against her to win his way back into her good graces) until he left.
Marriage vows are not a one way street. A man and his needs can be resolved with a hand not another woman or any of her body parts. Fidelity goes both ways. If he required it of her then it was not an unreasonable request for Viola to make of him. John said it was and refused to be sexually blackmailed. Well what the hell was he doing when he refused to promise fidelity but sexually blackmailing his wife?
Has anyone read this book? What do you think?
Rating: 2.5 Stars
Originally posted 2008-10-06 15:07:06. Republished by Blog Post Promoter
Win some (teen?) romance books at the Book Muncher by submitting your own Valentine poem: 20 lines or less. Here's mine:
Ode to My Valentine
Oh sweetest berry, thou has ripened well,
Summer’s blossom has made thee taste like ambrosia,
Thy juice is as dark and rich as the finest wine,
I kiss thee once and yearned,
Thou has tantalized my every sense,
Ardently I seek thy secret pleasures,
I vow to cherish thee and make thee cheery,
Wouldst you love me, oh sweetest berry,
And be my Valentine?
In other news, it's tough being a writer. Lots of romance writers experience what is known at "genre shame" and they shouldn't. Look at the statistics - more romance is bought than all the rest of the genre choices out there. If you make it as a romance author that's definitely something to brag about.
Yes, and they put their dignity and their reputations at risk for it, writes Oliver Roberts.
Women get so offended when you say that men are the more romantic sex, when, really, they should feel complimented by it.
What do you say about that?
Review Highlight:
Book Habitue says about State of the Onion, a mystery novel, "Not overly complicated... I had it figured out early, but a good read. This kind of falls into my "fluffy mystery series" addiction."
Wendi's Book Corner reviews a novel on the Salem witch trials saying, "I had a hard time picking this book up, but once I started reading it, I had trouble putting it down!"
I have been reading The Price of Desire by Jo Goodman these last few days and at 200 pages in I knew it was going to be a disaster. This review contains a lot of spoilers so be warned. I think many readers will find it helpful to read the spoilers as the book is very dark and angsty when everything else about the book leads one to think it’s going to be a fun story. The back is titillating and gives no clue to what’s really inside the book. Real quick it goes something like this: Alastair has promised his sister Olivia to Griffin to pay off his gambling debts and both Olivia and Griffin take the biggest gamble on each other.
Before I learned more about the characters past I knew it wasn’t going to be pretty. At 200 pages in they've shared one kiss. Overall it’s been very slow reading as the heroine is very withdrawn and so is the hero. While at 200 pages in it's no longer at the painful level to read and be witness to their story it certainly is not as engaging as it could be and there's already been a settling of a 1000 pound debt (mainly the brother handing Olivia over to the hero), attempted rape (by some drunk in the hell that came upon her room), a fire (that started during the attempted rape- she gets him in the end by nearly strangling him to death with a towel), and confrontation with the delinquent brother (after he fails to get the funds to release her from the hero's care). In any case, I can tell the hero cares somewhat, but the emotional exchange between the two is so dry that there's hardly any connection.
At 350 pages in, they’ve exchanged bodily fluids and words of love and we come to learn a lot about Olivia and this is where it gets me. I’m sorry but I read romances to enjoy myself and get a few moments to escape reality. Nothing about Olivia’s past is enjoyable. Beyond the attempted rape scene from before we learn that Olivia was raped in her past. As if that weren’t bad enough her father ‘played’ with her when she was younger than six years old a ‘touching’ game. When the nanny brought this to the attention of Olivia’s stepmother, Olivia gets sent to a boarding school for young girls where priests tortured the girls as punishment for small infractions by sitting/standing on seatless chairs. Somehow her father reaches the school to continue his sick game and rapes his daughter all part of his and a few other men’s game and setup involving carriages and gifts. Olivia between ages 6-12 was used and it only stopped because she started her menstruation cycle. The following is in her own words…
“I was not his only little girl, I knew that. But I also knew I was his favorite… He gave me to them, Griffin. He sent me to them when it pleased him to do so. To sit at their table while they played cards, to deal for them as I’d been taught, perform on command, and later… as any one of them was struck by a fancy… I was a present on some occasions… his marker on others.”
Needless to say this book has a rating of 0.5 Stars. I don’t know anyone who’d willing read any further once they got to that revelation. As for me I closed the book and started writing this post. It was too much trauma, perversion, and sickness of the mind to deal with and I certainly didn’t want to keep thinking about it. Hopefully Olivia wins happiness in the end, the girl clearly deserves it, but I just didn’t want to dwell on the matter any more. I blame the publishers for letting a novel like this hit the shelves.
Originally posted 2008-10-03 06:48:19. Republished by Blog Post Promoter
Eclipse has a release date for theaters!
starring Julia Roberts. This made me really mad and when it wasn’t John telling Viola how she made him break his marriage vows and slip into other women, it was the Duke’s wife that was telling her how she wasn’t looking at things from John’s point of view.
