Thursday Movie Picks: Interview

Hey, guys!
Welcome to another entry for Thursday Movie Picks.
It’s a series hosted by Wandering through the Shelves, so if you want to join the party, head over to her blog! It’s pretty easy: check out each week’s topic and come up with 3 to 5 movies that fit the theme.
This week I’ll talk about some famous Interview moments in films!

#1 Interview with the Vampire

Well, this was the movie I thought of and I guess, it’s also the most obvious choice. There’s not exactly a single memorable interview scene, that I can think of. However, the entire film is basically what Louis (who claims to be a vampire) tells a reporter during an interview. Brilliant film!

#2 The Devil Wears Prada

I love this movie almost as much as I hate the book it is based on. The Devil Wears Prada features Anne Hathaway who gets a job at the famous fashion magazine Runway. We get a super iconic (and hilarious) scene where Anne is interviewed by Meryl Streep in order to get that job.

Top 5 Tuesday: Books I predict will be 5 stars

Hey, guys!
It’s Tuesday, that means it’s time for a bookish favorites posts. Top 5 Tuesday is hosted by Bionic Book Worm and is quite simple: check out the topic and write a post with your picks.
For today’s topic, I’ll take a look at my tbr-pile and see which books I suspect to be amazing!

#1 Six of Crows:

I still haven’t read anything by Leigh Bardugo. Shame on me! However, I already bought all of her books and am excited to finally get started. From everything I’ve heard about Six of Crows so far (and what I gathered from tumblr), I am quite certain that I’ll love the book!

Six of Crows on Goodreads

#2 Skyward:

This book made it onto my tbr-pile simply because of the stunning cover. It keeps getting named for various T5T themes, so I’m familiar with the synopsis by now. It’s right down my alley, so there’s no way that I’ll not rate this 5 stars!

Skyward on Goodreads

Book Talk: Fairest by Marissa Meyers

Hey, guys!
After I read Stars Above, I also had to pick up Marissa Meyer’s second book related to The Lunar Chronicles. So let’s talk about Fairest!

Fairest on Goodreads

The Plot:

This book depicts the life of Levana, whom we encountered in The Lunar Chronicles. It shows us her childhood, relationship with her sister and Winter’s background. How did a sweet little girl turn into the evil queen?

The Rating:

After reading Stars Above, I dialed my hopes down a little for Fairest. In all honesty, I expected it to be another filler, written for the fans to make some more money with a series that’s already finished.
However, I was pleasantly surprised!

Fairest is actually a fascinating account of Levana’s background that is 100% worth reading. I don’t care if you hated Levana or rooted for her, pick up this book and check it out.

Book Talk: Stars Above by Marissa Meyers

Hello, my lovely readers!
Welcome to another book review. A while ago I read Marissa Meyers’ famous The Lunar Chronicles series. Well, I decided to catch up with the other stuff she wrote, beginning with two books related to the series. The first one of those is the topic of today’s review.
So let’s talk about Stars Above!

Stars Above on Goodreads

The Plot:

Stars Above consists of nine short stories. Eight of them are sequels or prequels to books in The Lunar Chronicles series or go deeper into events briefly mentioned there: how Cress landed in the satellite, Cinder arriving in Michelle’s care, Scarlet getting married, and many more.
The only story not directly related to the familiar characters is The Little Android, which is a re-telling of Hans Christian Anderson’s famous fairy-tale, now set in the world of The Lunar Chronicles.

The Rating:

I won’t go into detail for every one of the stories, instead, I’ll keep it short.
If you are a huge fan of The Lunar Chronicles, you will enjoy Stars Above. The stories are rather cute but definitely not a must-read.

So, if you found the original books okay but were not completely blown away, I’d suggest you skip Stars Above. Chances are, you’ll be bored by the stories. Honestly, as nice as the little glimpses are, most of them are simply too short to offer much depth and thus didn’t really have any impact on me.

Thursday Movie Picks: Let’s Start at the End

Hey, guys!
Welcome to another entry for Thursday Movie Picks.
It’s a series hosted by Wandering through the Shelves, so if you want to join the party, head over to her blog! It’s pretty easy: check out each week’s topic and come up with 3 to 5 movies that fit the theme.
This week I’m not quite sure what to do with the topic. Well, I interpret it as telling you about films with non-linear narratives. So prepare yourself for the ride!

#1 Gone Girl

Gone Girl was one of the biggest films of 2014. Personally, I am not a fan of what I refer to as the “crazy bitch” genre and therefore wasn’t that thrilled by Gone Girl. It does, however, have an interesting narrative structure that makes it worth checking out!

#2 Mr. Nobody

When I read this week’s theme, Mr. Nobody was the first movie to come to my mind. It explores the butterfly effect theory where one little decision can ultimately end in enormous differences. So Mr. Nobody actually shows the same timeline and how it alters. The idea of the film is super fascinating, so I’d definitely suggest checking it out.
Although I have to admit, with each time I re-watch it, I discover something I don’t like. The first time, however, I was absolutely over the moon!

A Sarah J. Maas Rant

Hey, folks!
Those of you who drop by regularly might have noticed that I recently devoured just about anything SJM has ever written. I have a lot of feelings and thoughts to share about that (especially about the TOG series) – not only positive ones.
I’m doing all that in a separate post to avoid spoilers in my reviews. Anyway, let’s get started!

Writing Style:

As much as I love her characters and stories, Sarah J. Maas seriously needs to work on her writing style. The more books I read by her, the more I noticed how much she fancies certain words and phrases. By now, I have an unending hatred for “toes curling in boots”, people “purring”, anybody who “lies through his/her teeth”, etc. It’s not just annoying but it also makes certain things lose their impact. Night Triumphant sounds rather impressive, but when she keeps flaunting the word Triumphant it’s not that big a deal anymore.
There are many others of whom I read multiple works, but SJM is the first one where this really strikes me. It bothered me so much, that I actually considered putting down the books somewhere in the middle of the TOG series. Hadn’t I already been that invested in the story and the characters, I wouldn’t have finished reading.
Along those lines, I have one more observation. Throughout her novels I noticed that she often refers to the female characters as girls, wheres the male ones are always men. I am aware that Aelin or Elide are quite young, but it still annoyed me. Granted, that didn’t occur as often as the other stuff I mentioned but it nevertheless bothers me – especially because her female characters are so badass!