A Book Heavy Entry

Happy New Year!

Let's begin with the books.

1. I finally finished Cryptonomicon while I was home for Christmas. It took me about a full month to finish which for me is a rather long time. This is not to say that the book was bad, it was just dense and I had two crocheted blankets to finish between Thanksgiving and Christmas. I've enjoyed all of the books by Neal Stephenson that I've read so far, but I am going to agree with a review I read which stated that Stephenson can't find the ending of his novels. The book was an intruiging blend of WWII history, techie math, how computers work, and treasure hunting. Really enjoyed some of the characters, but the book ends so far away from where it starts that I was left a bit puzzled. He probably could have slimmed the book down a good deal and had a tighter storyline, but I still enjoyed. Go ahead and read, but be prepared for a significant time investment and don't read for the ending, read for the book.

2. The Coelura by Anne McCaffrey. This was a couple hour reread of a novella to shake off Cryptonomicon. I was obsessed with McCaffrey's books in middle and high school, thus I have an entire shelf and have read most of what she's written. I've moved on to other faves, but still enjoy a return every once in a while. (Crystal Singer and Killashandra are still on my top books list and have been read many many times though!) Anyway, this one is a quickie with some interesting illustrations. Light and fast reading for those in between big books or not willing to commit a lot of time.

3. Blood and Chocolate by Annette Curtis Klause. I discovered via Netflix that this book had been made into a movie and watched it about a week ago. I liked the movie, but....I'm left wondering why they said it was based on the book. In the book the main character is a teenager living in suburban Maryland and goes to high school. She is a werewolf. She begins going out with a human, Aiden who is a poet while she is an artist. I won't say much more in case you decide to read for yourself. In the movie, she's a bit older and its in some middle eastern country. She works in a chocolate shop and one night she is in a church and meets Aiden. He's older than in the book and is a comic book artist who came to the area to do research on loup-garou (werewolves) which his next book is going to be about. Um...when did Aiden become the artist in the storyline? And how did we switch up entire continents? Not to mention that she ends up with a completely different character at the end of the movie as she does at the end of the book. So, both are enjoyable, just completely different. The reread over the last two days was another quick one just to see how different the two in fact were.

Up next is undecided, in fact, I think I'm off to the library today and maybe I'll stop in at Starbucks to use my gift card that I acquired for watching a friend's puppy. I finally saw Atonement last night and I have to say that I'm feeling a bit depressed about it. Some shots were amazing, especially one done on a beach in France full of soldiers waiting to be evacuated. It's a continuous shot that goes on for several minutes. The beginning was a bit slow, but once James McAvoy ships out to war, it gets better. Not sure why everyone was blown away by the performances, but definitely worth seeing. Oh, and could Hollywood's leading ladies please gain a smidge more fat? Kiera just looked unhealthy.