isoupic:

maya_with_books by brian lincoln on Flickr.

(Source: nothingbutobsessions)

shsnaps:

A beautiful, whimsical celebration of great first lines.

Can you name all six novels?

(Source: Guardian)

theboondogglespeakeasy:

I do this all the time.

What Would Barbra Do? How Musicals Changed my Life by Emma Brackes

My friend Maryanne got me this book for my birthday last month because I absolutely adore Barbra Streisand. The book was okay, I enjoyed the parts where Brackes spoke about her own life, and the intertwining of musicals and movie-musicals in her everyday life. But a lot of it was review/history of musicals and movie-musicals which I could have done without.

Favorite parts included Brackes’ description of her “Yentl and Lentil” nights with a friend of hers, even better was Bracke’s first viewing of Yentl which was actually a punishment during high school. I absolutely cannot wait to host my first “Yentl and Lentil” and have already decided to make this a themed set of adventures to include “Burlesque and Breakfast” “Cake and Cabaret” (for some reason Cake and Cabaret sounds better than Cabaret and Cake) and well I need some more help with some others. So if you have any ideas, let me know kay?

Overall the book was enjoyable and a quick read, but it seemed like the majority of it she was more criticizing musicals rather than illustrating why they changed her life. Also, it lacked Barbra, I mean she was included, but definitely not enough to warrant her the title. Well Barbra in her self warrants to be included in every title, but that goes without saying.

If you are a big musical fan then this is a definite read, other than that I would have to say to steer clear. 

Of course! Inman says it to Ada:

Look at the sky now. What color is it? Or the way a hawk flies. Or you wake up and your ribs are bruised thinking so hard on somebody. What do you call that?

Also a favorite, I can’t remember if it was in the book:

Ruby says it to Ada:

They call this war a cloud over the land. But they made the weather and then they stand in the rain and say ’Shit, it’s raining!’ 

I have just finished reading The Hunger Games trilogy for the second time. And as I got to the end of the third book, I wanted to re-start. Nice.

But I will wait a little bit more. I do want to read them once more before the movies come out. I am extremely nervous that the movies are going to ruin the books for me such as how the Twilight movies ruined the books for me. I only read Twilight one time around and then saw the movies. I will most likely never read them again and can’t remember if I actually enjoyed them or not. 

But I am actually extremely excited for the Hunger Games movies, but I can definitely see them being extremely corny and awful. Maybe I will be wrong and they will be great. I shall keep some hope.

Review: Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson

I love when people hand me books and say “Want to read a good book?” Heck yeah I do! A friend from work handed me this book one day and asked if I wanted to read it. Naturally, as all book-enthusiasts would, I took the book and started it on my commute home. A recommended book always trumps any book you are currently reading at your own choice. Thankfully, I was in the midst of re-reading “The Hunger Games” trilogy so I could handle taking a pause for a new book.

The reason I love when people recommend books to me so much is that 9 out of 10 times I would never have picked up that book on my own. “Snow Crash” is definitely a book I would have walked right past on the shelf in the bookstore. 

You got strange names, strange times, strange characters, and so many strange futurisitic at the time of written, but now it’s not very futurisitc type things. Hiro Protagonist is a free-lance hacker, former pizza delivery guy, concert promoter, and the greatest sword fighter of all time. He along with a bunch of other hackers helped lay the foundation for the ‘Metaverse’ a virtual reality where people walk around like normal, as avatar versions of themselves. Business people meet here instead of traveling thousands of miles, teenagers go on dates, and people just sit around and talk. 

This is all well-to-do until in reality a new drug called Snow Crash is spreading around, and in the metaverse a virus of the same name is not only corrupting computers, but is causing actual physical harm to the reality person who’s avatar comes in contact with it in the metaverse. Punches from all sides!

Hiro Protagonist, along with his 15-year-old partner and badass extraordinaire, Y. T. get involved, things unravel and stuff blows up, people die, lives are saved, and the whole shebang.

Okay, so really so much stuff happens that it is way to difficult to summarize effectively. The point is, this book is extremely interesting and has the right combination of things without being formula-like. I’m pretty sure Stephenson has some secret knowledge where he knows how to be not overly outrageous but just has enough oddities and surprise to keep a reader engaged without being a blockbuster “I’ve got twists and suspense but still manage to be boring” type book. Definitely a book to think about.