Tag: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Books and Movies – Love ’em!

Before the midnight showing of Harry Potter pt 2

I ended up going to a midnight showing of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Pt. 2, with no regrets.  Marissa and I watched Pt. 1 on PPV at home (without popcorn) and then went to the theatre!  We arrived around 10:45 and the there were a lot of people there in costumes and I don’t know how many theatres were actually sold out.  The one we were in was already 2/3 full by the time we got there.  It was exciting to be there with all of the other “giddy” people, to hear the applause throughout the movie – even before the movie started – and to watch the final book come to life.  There were differences, of course, but there was also word-for-word sameness in a lot of dialogue.  Good stuff.

The books are more amazing, of course, but the movies add to the experience.  One of my favorite podcasts, Filmspotting, reviewed the movie after reading ZERO of the books (or even seeing all of the movies), so they had tons of questions, although they gave the movie pretty good reviews.  Marissa hadn’t read any books beyond the first and enjoyed the movies on their own.

So now what?  Other book-related movies are coming out soon.

  • “Snow Flower and the Secret Fan” is in theatres now (7/15) but I don’t see it showing up in Rochester for a while… I will keep my eyes peeled for that one.  I had that one on audio but lost it somewhere (probably on my dead iPod) so I downloaded a digital version from the library (MobiPocket Reader anyone??? Yikes… another program downloaded to read books) but also requested a paperback – and today I got an email that it was ready and waiting!  Yay!  I’ll dig in tonight!
  • “The Help” comes out on August 10 – and it looks so good!  What a fun book to read and discuss.  It will be a book club event to see that together!
  • “One Day” comes out August 19.  (July 15 was the ONE DAY featured in the book!  Should have acknowledged it!)  I look forward to seeing that book on the screen.  I enjoyed reading it – mostly – although the ending didn’t sit right with me.  😦
  • “Jane Eyre” hasn’t made it to Rochester yet – meaning it won’t?  It was released in April, so that’s probably a good bet.  I have it in my Netflix queue but there’s no release date there yet.  Sigh.  I read that book in anticipation of the movie.  I’m glad I caught up with a classic and I know there are multiple versions of the movie that I can pick fromI
  • “Sarah’s Key” was made into a movie!  The book about the Vel’d’Hiv Roundup in 1942 in France was another sad Holocaust story, telling about another unknown-to-me piece of history.  Kristin Scott Thomas stars and it might be French, as the title is listed as “Sarah’s Key (Elle s’appelait Sarah)”.  Releases 7/22!
  • I heard that “Austenland” is being made into a movie starring Keri Russel.  I liked that book, so that’s pretty fun.  Gotta love all things Austen!
There’s the “movie news” portion of the blog – ha!  Just so much good stuff coming up, I guess.  Lots of good material to choose from!
Speaking of book club events, we had book club this afternoon.  I got there late – around 2pm – and we discussed our book (“Olive Kitteredge”) very little!  No one loved the book, although a few of us thought it was good enough.  It’s really short stories about small town life with the character of Olive showing up, being featured, or simply being mentioned somehow in each one.  So the plot and story-line was not easy to follow and the characters were many and difficult to remember.
But oh, did we laugh about other stuff!  Suddenly it was 5:10 and we wondered if we were staying for supper!  Good stories and catch-up time.  Who knows what we’ll do next, but it may be just a movie date along with dinnertime discussion of “Heaven is For Real,” since many had read it already and really wanted to discuss it when done.
Well, I can’t wait to dig in to “Snow Flower and the Secret Fan.”  What are you excited to read?  What movies are you excited to see?
Off to read!
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It All Ends 7.15.11

"the end" mosaic
THE END Image by m kasahara via Flickr

The famous tagline for the “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2” movie, which premieres in the US on 7/15.  Last week I watched some of the UK Premiere Red Carpet hoopla and heard the speeches given by the cast and writers and directors.  Tears! Yesterday I finished the audiobook of Book 7.  Tears!  I found myself in the car, listening and crying.  I found myself walking around the house listening – and crying.  And now it’s done.  I am excited to see the movie – although I have found that listening to the books and watching the movies right after has made my head hurt a little.  The changes in plot and circumstances, while necessary to keep the movies under 2.5 hours, are very noticeable when you’ve just finished the book.  Will I see the movie at midnight on July 15?  Maybe.  If not, I’ll wait until an evening next week, when I will be more awake and coherent.

So now, back to my regularly-scheduled podcast listening for a while!  I am behind (although I’ve cut back, with getting back into audiobooks again) so I’ll catch up and then start listening to “Snow Flower and Secret Fan” before that movie comes out!  I’m attempting to listen to “Visit from the Goon Squad,” but finding it difficult to follow on audio. May need a physical copy to read.

I started “The Girl in the Garden” on Monday night and it is a fast and easy read!  I love books set in India or about the Indian culture, so it’s a given that I’ll enjoy it.  I’ll keep you posted about how much!  Kamala Nair is from Rochester and I purchased the book at her book signing at B&N in June. She’s coming to the library the end of July so I may go again and see if she has more to say at that time.

Well, my TBR list continues to grow!  I’m looking forward to some time spent with “The Girl in the Garden” on this beautiful day – not too hot but brilliantly sunny!  Yay!

What are you reading???

Off to read!

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Tick Tock…

Clock
Image via Wikipedia

And the days go by… and the blogging doesn’t happen!  Well, maybe 22 days isn’t too bad of a lag, but I think it is.  Mid-May was a very busy time, as “Take Note!”, the choir I am in, had a lot of rehearsals and performances over an 8 day span, with busy weekends and weeknights before.  It was a great time.  The third time I sang “Please, Mr. Postman” I really nailed it.  I should have front-loaded that work rather than being in panic mode.  But panic mode usually works for me, so c’est la vie!  I’ve had quite a bit of time off (for me) and haven’t been cranking through the books too much but have read a few.

I got official and final word Tuesday night / Wednesday that my position at work is being cut due to budget reasons, so the last five or six weeks I have been in crisis mode mentally.  I’m so “in my head,” as I call it.  Introverted.  Immersing myself in meaningless tasks.  Choosing audiobooks or podcasts over live conversations.  These last few days at work will be difficult – it’s hard to say goodbye over and over again – so I am looking forward to it being behind me.  June 7 can’t get here fast enough.  And all of this brings to point something I learned about myself after the flood – I really can only do one big thing at a time.  I couldn’t look for a new house until I sold my old house and had actually signed the papers.  Likewise, I can’t focus as much as I should on looking for a new job until this job is wrapped up.  So although I am going to pretend that I will do some serious job searching and applying tomorrow, most likely I will find some putzy jobs to do and then learn more about my rights through the union.  Hopefully soon I’ll be ‘normal’ again.  Ha.

But I have finished a few books since I last wrote.  I am half done with “Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet” and really liking it.  It’s quite easy to read, which is unexpected.  I thought it would be heavier, but maybe I’m just not there yet.  I hopefully will finish that soon.  I finished listening to “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix” (see above comments about immersing myself in audiobooks) and was amazed at how much I don’t remember from reading the book!  But it was nine years ago that the book came out, so that’s a long time.  I’m sure I’ll remember less about book six and I already know that I remember very little about book seven (it was the last book I read before my house flooded and something changed in my brain that day and that book disappeared – along with a little sanity!).  I am pretty sure I’ll reach the goal of reading the books before July 19 so that is exciting!

And I also finished my very first e-book loaned from the library!  I checked out one book, just any old book I could get, as most had a waiting list, and I didn’t like it.  I couldn’t tell if it was the book I didn’t like or the e-book that I didn’t like.  So I waited and finally got one I wanted to read (“Twenties Girl” by Sophie Kinsella) – a light and fun romp – and I ripped right through it!  It was easy to read and a good, fun book.  The 14 day loan period from the library is a little pressure, so hopefully the others will come spaced out good enough for me to not panic!  I read the book in less than three days, but I had to stop reading “Hotel…” which I didn’t like to do.

And so I ramble.  I must blog more so that I don’t have quite so much to say!  Yikes! I’ll just update my “Spring Thing Reading List” below and be off to read!

Spring Thing Reading List:

  • Mockingbird
  • The Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet
  • Saving CeeCee Honeycutt
  • Heart and Soul
  • The Hundred-Foot Journey
  • Fly Away Home
  • Winter’s Garden
  • Harry Potter (2)
  • Harry Potter (3)
  • Harry Potter (4)
  • Harry Potter (5)
  • Harry Potter (6)
  • Harry Potter (7)
  • Jane Eyre
  • Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand
  • Twenties Girl
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