Fired Up

Title: Fired Up!
Claim to Fame: No super big name actors
Grade: B
Rating: Unrated Version

Summary: (Amazon)
The word "shameless" does not begin to describe Fired Up, a sneaky, self-aware teen comedy about two high-school jocks who join the cheerleading squad so they can score with girls at cheer camp. Naturally, they find themselves starting to care and end up committed to helping their squad win the big competition at the end. But while trotting through the formula paces, Fired Up manages to subvert the cliches of teen movies while fulfilling them at the same time. It's really kind of genius. Fusing the smart sassiness of Bring It On with the hyperactive self-referentiality of Dude, Where's My Car?, Fired Up wallows in the luscious flesh of its cast (both male and female) while pushing the horndogginess to ridiculous heights; it casts an absurdist eye on cheerleading while making savvy use of sports-movie plot devices; it starts out with the rigidly defined sex roles of high school, but by the end has mocked masculinity, femininity, homophobia, and furries(!). Nicholas D'Agosto (Heroes) and Eric Christian Olsen (Dumb and Dumberer: When Harry Met Lloyd) play the jocks with just the right mixture of likability and preposterousness.

Title: 5/5
The title was great and defiantly fit for the movie. It was unique and not the same cheer titles we’d been seeing over and over again!

Cover: 4/5
The cover was good but did have a degree of dullness to it. I didn’t like how it didn’t show much insight into the movie but it was still a nice cover.

Plot: 4/5
The plot was good but at times left room for improvement. Some holes were not filled and some of the crude humor was unnecessary and not even a part of the movie.

Acting: 4/5
The acting was good but not FANTASTIC! There were a few parts that could have been casted a little better when it came to some cheerleaders. Other parts were cast correctly!

Wednesday Wishlist

Here is the book on my wishlist for this week!

Gone
by Kathleen Jeffrie Johnson

That first day of class, her eyes had flickered over him the way a teacher's will. But hers had come back to rest. Before flitting away again.

It was too late. She had seen him.

Connor pretended she hadn't, but she had. It terrified him. It made his blood sing.

His history teacher, Ms. Timms.

Corinna.

What had he ever thought about, before he thought about her?

At last, Connor understood that his life was his to live. No more pity love. Not from aunts and neighbors. Not from missing mothers and fathers. Not from drunks. The real thing was his this time; he just needed to take it.

Why I want it: I have always been interested in psychology and so with these kinds od books I like to think about why the character did what they did. I know I am not always right with my guesses but its like a case study. The teacher/student thing is very unique.

Author Interview

Today Tom Dolby is here to chat about the Secret Society

1. Where did the idea for Secret Society come from?
I've always wanted to write an adventure series -- I thought it would be cool to explore the idea of a secret society that tapped people in high school, luring them in with promises of privilege and wealth.

2. Who is your intended audience?
The book is for everyone, but I find that it's most appropriate for ages 12 and up. I get many fans in their twenties, though, and I've heard from a lot of adults who love it as well.

3. How long did it take you to write this book?
It took a year to write, which was very fast.

4. Has publishing it been a long process?
It always is, though this book was much quicker than others I have worked on.

5. What was the hardest part of writing this book?
When you're writing about something fantastical like a secret society, the challenge is to make everything else as realistic as possible. If you do that, your readers will go with you wherever you take them.

6. What authors inspire you?
So many -- the classics, JD Salinger, F. Scott Fitzgerald. In YA, Melissa de la Cruz and Scott Westerfeld are terrific.

7. Who do you love to read?
I read all sorts of authors. A lot of nonfiction recently -- stuff about jewel thieves and museum heists. Inspiration for the next book!

8. What is unique to your writing?
I think my characters in SECRET SOCIETY have a timeless quality to them -- they live very much in the present, but they are aware of the past.

9. Who was your support well writing?
My husband, Drew, was there the entire time to read every draft and convince me I would make it to the finish.

10. Any advice to wannabe writers?
You just have to keep going and stick to it!

Must Monday 40

Here is what I'm waiting for this week!

Wanderlust by Lucy Silag

Will they save their lost friend before it's too late?

Angst and betrayal abound as teens search the French countryside for their missing classmate in this exciting sequel to Beautiful Americans.

The book opens with PJ on a train, racing toward Rouen to meet her sister, Annabel. But Annabel's life may be fraught with troubles far worse than her own.

Alex persuades Jay and Zack to hunt for PJ at one of her absentee father's ritzy estates in the country. But a painful encounter with her dad leaves Alex weeping—on Jay's shoulder. Three's a crowd for Zack; he heads to Amsterdam seeking an old friend, and a place to belong.

Back in Paris, Olivia's escapades with Thomas are interrupted when they discover reason to believe PJ is in more peril than she knows. Will the crew find PJ in time? Have they lost themselves along the way?

Buy it December 24th

Very LeFreak by Rachel Cohn

Very LeFreak has a problem: she’s a crazed technology addict. Very can’t get enough of her iPhone, laptop, IMs, text messages, whatever. If there’s any chance the incoming message, call, text, or photo might be from her supersecret online crush, she’s going to answer, no matter what. Nothing is too important: sleep, friends in mid-conversation, class, a meeting with the dean about academic probation. Soon enough, though, this obsession costs Very everything and everyone. Can she learn to block out the noise so she can finally hear her heart?

Buy it January 12th.

Blogger Interview

Today I have Aimee from http://www.myflutteringheart.blogspot.com/ here to chat. Remember if you want to be interviewed please leave your email as a comment.

1. When did you start reviewing? Why?
I started my fluttering heart in October of 2008, but it was mainly as a diary entry type scheme so I could keep track of all the perfectly pretty things the world has to offer. I didn't expect people to read it! Then I noticed on other blogs that there were book reviews, and it was like I'd had a brainsnap the entire time I had been blogging previously, and now I had seen the light: "You mean, I can blog? About my favourite thing in the whole wide world? And analyse them to death? And other people might read it? And agree with me? And disagree with me? Wow."<------Those were my brain's thoughts, in consecutive order. And here I am!

2. What book should be a movie? Tv series?
For movies, I would love to see The Knife of Letting Go by Patrick Ness on the silver screen. Such an amazingly original, adventurous, romantic, dystopian YA novel. I think it would be a total rollercoaster ride and I would love every thrill-seeking minute and I promise I would only stop to vomit AFTER it had finished the ride. That's how good the book was. It would translate perfectly into a movie -seriously. I heart it very much. As for a TV series - I would dearly love to see Libba Bray's Gemma Doyle Trilogy (A Great and Terrible Beauty, Rebel Angels and A Sweet, Far Thing) be played out in a series. These books have such a beautiful eye for detail - I can see me rushing home from work to watch every episode of the girls in the boarding school - experiencing the perils of life in their flouncy Victorian petticoats, and then after a couple of episodes have everything turned upside down by their understanding that they have magic powers and can travel to another world! I think it's the type of series where you would miss all the gorgeous little details if it was only made into a 2 hour movie for each book.

3. How do you feel about authors all making prequels?
I love prequels as long as they're done well. Prequels should bring something new to the story, as well as fleshing out the original. Authors shouldn't just be writing prequels to cash in on adding more to a series - but I definitely think a fan to the series would enjoy knowing more about what the author thought might have happened in the history of their beloved characters.

4. Do you have an opinion on the lit assigned in school?
I always felt like I was lucky to read the books I did during school. They were never books that I would've chosen to read myself, and I only read them at the time because I had to - but now, years later, I think I understand the messages contained within them and some of them have become my absolute favourites! I trust english teachers with my (reading) life.

5. Do you review every book you read?
I do now!

6. Whats unique about your blog?
my fluttering heart is just that - my heart. I say things about books and movies on there that I might say in real life, but I have time to think about it so they sound better than just spontanously speaking - or at least to me they do! I feel like every day I stab this magic hospital needle into my arteries and draw out my brain's thinkings and my heart's exciteable nature - there's a lot of blood, sweat and tears that go into my reviews, but even if they're ugly thoughts, they're true to me. My reviews would never pander to the publishers - if I don't like a book I'm going to say I don't like it and then say why. Blog With Integrity, people!! *pumps fist into the air*

7. Whats unique about you?
I love beauty in anything INSTANTLY to DEATH AND BEYOND- it can be overwhelming! I like to be creative in everything I do. I get so passionate and obsessed with so many things that it becomes a health risk - I'm completely and utterly distracted from the real world by whatever pretty, sparkly thing crosses my path. If I could die with only sparkles and gold glitter and faeries in my vision I would die a happy girl. I don't pretend to think i'm completely unique, or at least not completely original. But I'd love to find more people out there like me. :)

8. Do you plan to review for a long time?
I certainly hope so. As long as I continue to have the support of the big wide blogosphere nothing can stop me!

Lock and Key

Title: Lock and Key
Author: Sarah Dessen
Publisher: Viking
Price: $18.99 USD HB
Release: 2008

Grade: B
Rating: 14+

Summary: (Barnes and Noble)
Ruby is used to taking care of herself. But now she's living in a fancy new house with her sister Cora—a sister she hasn't seen in ten years—and her husband Jamie—creator of one of the most popular online networking sites. She's attending private school, wearing new clothes, and for the first time, feels the promise of a future that include college and her family. So why is she so wary? And what is Nate— the adorable and good-hearted boy next door— hiding behind his genial nature? As Ruby starts to see, there's a big difference between being given help, and being able to accept it. And sometimes, in order to save yourself, you've got to reach out to someone else.

My thoughts:
This book basically had two covers which I thought was super cool. The dust jacket was awesome but the cover under it was AMAING! I wish that was the actual cover because it was the best.

When I was thinking about the title I thought Lock and Key was a dull choice. When I continued to think about it I realized I couldn’t think of a better, more fitting one. Sometimes you need the dull one.

Sarah fully developed her characters in this novel. There was an undeniable chemistry between the characters which is necessary for the juicy relationships. Sarah created just that.

The plot of this novel was a bit too common but it was still good. It had the repetitive Sarah Dessen feel to it. The setting was very descriptive which was nice. All of the images were portrayed so vividly, it was as if you were actually there.

I didn’t like the ending. It was okay but not at all what I had been wanting. It felt like it was unfinished.

Viola in Reel Life

Title: Viola in Reel Life
Author: Adriana Trigiani
Publisher: Harperteen
Price: $16.99 USD HB
Release: September 2009

Grade: A
Rating: 12+

Summary: (Barnes and Noble)
I'm marooned.

Abandoned.

Left to rot in boarding school . . .

Viola doesn't want to go to boarding school, but somehow she ends up at an all-girls school in South Bend, Indiana, far, far away from her home in Brooklyn, New York. Now Viola is stuck for a whole year in the sherbet-colored sweater capital of the world.

Ick.

There's no way Viola's going to survive the year—especially since she has to replace her best friend Andrew with three new roommates who, disturbingly, actually seem to like it there. She resorts to viewing the world (and hiding) behind the lens of her video camera.

Boarding school, though, and her roommates and even the Midwest are nothing like she thought they would be, and soon Viola realizes she may be in for the most incredible year of her life.
But first she has to put the camera down and let the world in.

My thoughts:
I loved the cover that was chosen for this book! It was not only beautiful but it gave us an insight into what the character was like. The fact that the yellow shoes were included was fabulous! Some real thought was put into this choice.

The title, Viola in Reel Life, was a great choice. The play on words was unique and lovely. The fact that they used Reel not Real shows a tremendous amount of thought.

The characters in this novel were so well developed, it was fantastic! I loved how different each one was and how the author took the time to fully develop each and every one.

This novels plot was very unique. I loved that a large aspect was boarding school. I have always wanted to go to boarding school so that always draws my attention. The boarding school aspect in itself was unique. The film aspect blew it over the top.

Boarding school was the perfect setting for this novel. Because this book was so focused on film Indiana was a nice choice as well. There was pretty scenery to be vividly described.

The end of this story was good but it left one big hole totally unfilled. I felt that because it was left unanswered it took away from the ending.

Theatrical Thursday

Title: The Virgin Suicides
Claims to Fame: Kirsten Dunst
Grade: D
Rating: R

Summary: (amazon.com)
Played in a delicate minor key, the film is heartbreaking, mysterious, and soulfully funny, set in a Michigan suburb of the mid-1970s but timeless and universal to anyone who's been a teenager. The four surviving Lisbon sisters lost a sibling to suicide, and as its title suggests, the film will chart their mutual course to oblivion under the vigilance of repressive parents (Kathleen Turner and James Woods, perfectly cast). But The Virgin Suicides is more concerned with life in that precious interlude of adolescence, when the Lisbon girls are worshipped by the neighborhood boys, their notion of perfection epitomized by Lux (Kirsten Dunst) and her storybook love for high-school stud Trip (Josh Hartnett). Unfolding at the cusp of innocence and sexual awakening, and recalled as a memory, The Virgin Suicides is, ultimately, about the preservation of the Lisbon sisters by their own deaths--suspended in time, polished to perfection, and forever untainted by adulthood.

Title: 5/5
The title was super awesome and lead me to believe that this would be a fantastic movie.

Cover: 3/5
The cover was average in my opinion. It seemed okay but nothing that really pulled me in. They could have done better.

Acting: 3/5
The acting in this movie was worse then I had expected. It wasn’t horrible but it was very average.

Plot: 2/5
The Plot was dull and left much to be desired. Too many blank holes needed to be filled.