review: The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane (book)

so for those of you who don't know - I worked at Border's books last year and one of the perks of working there was that we were given free rein over the ARCs (advanced reading copies) which meant we had access to the books thus receiving a sneak peak. this allowed us to be able to explain the books extremely well to the customers. we were never required to read them but usually the books were interesting enough that i would often pick one up and read it over break that way if i didn't like it i could put it down and pick another one or take the book home and finish it over a week or so. The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane is one of the books i loved!

it is a work of historical fiction that takes place during the Salem witch trials but also is set in modern times. how does it accomplish this? by oscillating between the two. The main character is Connie Goodwin, a Harvard grad student who is actually writing her doctoral dissertation on the Salem Witch trials and witchcraft.

she had planned to spend her summer doing research but when her flaky mother drops the sale of her mother's abandoned home near Salem, Connie can’t refuse. while preparing it for sale, she uncovers a very old Bible and within it, an ancient key and a piece of parchment with the name "Deliverance Dane" written on it. Spurred on by her discovery, Connie searches to find out more about this woman, her fate, and a rare find only hinted about: a "physick" book - which pages hold a hidden, dangerous knowledge.

we follow Connie through the summer as she deals with an over zealous and perhaps crazed professor, a new love interest, and struggles to find herself and her connection to Deliverance's dark past.

this novel gives the reader: mystery, love, magic, sticking it to one's mother, and affirmation of self. i give The Physick Book of Deliverance Dance 4.5 out of 5 stars. minus half a star for some cliche.

review: The Dresden Files (books)

Currently this is my favorite book series. It is a long running science fiction series by Jim Butcher who has been on the New York Times Best Sellers list numerous times for this series as well as his other series The Codex Alera.

The story revolves around Harry Dresden, the only person listed under 'Wizard' in the yellow pages - and no, he doesn't do parties, love potions, or seances. Think of him as a "professional wizard" or wizard detective. Each book is usually a different case or linking cases however, beginning in the later books there becomes an overarching plot. In fact, Jim Butcher has announced that there will be twenty regular books in this series and then will cap it off with a massive trilogy! So if you're looking for the long haul (like me) this is the series for you.

The books tackle all sorts of magical creatures and problems including but not limited to: demons, angels, ghosts, evil wizards, gods, fairies, werewolves, and vampires. Each creature has their own twists on how they're portrayed which can differ significantly from their classical portrayals. Continuing on this line the series offers a refreshing spin on the classic wizard. Harry isn't your anti-hero or even your reluctant hero - in fact, he admits he's a sucker for a lady in need which often comes back to bite him in the ass. The series is set in modern day Chicago so you really won't find Harry running around in robes instead he wears a leather duster and jeans which gives him the lone Sheriff or cowboy appearance that he loves and hates.

Humor is a huge part of the reason why I love this series. Butcher will often take classic elements and make them incredibly witty and hilarious. For example in one of the books flying purple monkey demons are attacking Harry using... well, the same projectile missiles that they use in real life - poo. However, in Harry's case, they happen to be flinging flaming poo that explodes on contact much like liquid napalm. fun!

As for characters there's Harry, Karen Murphy, and Bob that are in almost every book. Harry's very stand-offish and doesn't much like to be intimidated or bossed around but when he is his humor really comes out. Ah, sarcasm. it truly makes the world go round. Harry also owns a skull... named Bob, who just happens to house a spirit of intellect who, despite not having a body or even a corporeal form, loves porn. Karen Murphy is the other main character in this series. She is a Lieutenant in the Special Investigations unit of the Chicago police department. She's a tiny, blue eyed blond haired ball of tightly restrained fury despite the fact that she looks harmless. She is described as "tiny but fierce". very true.

These books are witty, complex, and will keep your turning pages. The plot is interesting and the characters are well done and thoughtfully detailed. I give this series 5 out of 5 stars for length, humor, over-arching plot and zombies.

review: Despicable Me (movie)

This was an okay movie. Quite funny for what it was but not the best movie ever.

Steve Carrell is the voice of Gru, the super villain with perhaps not the most diabolical of schemes. For example he steals the STATUE OF LIBERTY!!! the small one, from Las Vegas. But Gru's status of world's most evil villain is in jeopardy when a young up & comer steals an Egyptian pyramid. But Gru's next plan to steal the mooon is genius and will make the secret Bank of Evil very rich and he hopes it will set him back on top. The only snag in his plan is that he needs a shrink ray. Which is a slight problem since the only one that exists was just stolen from him.

Here's where things go from slightly ridiculous to completely unbelievable. To get back his shrink ray Gru decides to use the orphans who are selling cookies to infiltrate his nemesis' home. So, what does Gru decide to do? adopt the girls.

The rest of the movie becomes a giant cliche. not a bad cliche but still a cliche. after spending time with the girls he starts to change his evilish ways and begins to love the girls. the journey is funny and different and the ending heartwarming. I give Despicable Me 3 stars out of 5 for being funny and doing this cliche well but not being very original.

and here's the trailer for you: CLICK ME!

review: Inception (movie)

This movie was truly mind-blowing, but then most Christopher Nolan movies are. The previews billed it as the awesome action movie and it was, but at its core, it is a movie about redemption.

Leonardo DiCaprio stars as Cobb, a man who's life has fallen apart. His wife is dead and he has been forced apart from their children. However, he is looking for his way back to them. How does he hope to accomplish this? By performing corporate espionage and making his return to the USA his payment.

And how does he accomplish his corporate espionage? By stealing the person's ideas from their very dreams (and therefore subconscious). But so far things aren't going well for Cobb until meets Saito (Ken Watanabe), who makes a proposition to implant something in someone's mind. So instead of extracting - implanting, which is infinitely more difficult.

So Cobb sets out to make a new team to dive into their target's dream. The problem with implanting is that you have to delve very deep into the unconscious which is done by diving within dreams themselves. To do this each level of the dream must be created which is where Ariadne (Ellen Page) comes in. She designs and creates the dreams which is perfect because her name is Greek from the story of the women who is the best mortal weaver. coincidence, i think not?!

The whole mission is amazing. The tension keeps building subtly throughout till I noticed that i was consciously starting to worry about the fate of our heroes. Not only was this movie suspenseful but also carried a twist ending and had provoking themes such as the duality of reality and virtual reality, the mind and the body, what is reality vs. sanity. This movie deserves the 5 out of 5 stars. When this movie ended the only thing I could do was think about it and muddle it over and over in my head. That is the kind of movie I love because it makes you think. When you see this movie, and you really should, make sure that you have a person to talk to about the movie and some time set aside to really think about the implications that this movie is making. And also debate the ending.

here's the preview if you need the prodding to go and see it: CLICK ME!!!

review: Toy Story 3 (movie)

one word to sum of this movie: nostalgic.

this is what everyone says about the movie - and i sadly am no different. however, this movie is great. same great characters that you remember, including the newer ones introduced in the sequel, having adventures.

i always liked the toy story series because it reminded me of being a kid. not just the toys themselves, but how the adventures always seem to snowball out of control with each action and this installment of the toy story series is no exception. what starts with an attempt to get Andy (the now teen) to play with them before Andy leaves for college and they get put into the attic turns into them being donated to a child care center. when they arrive, Woody and the gang are greeted by Lotso, an old hug-able bear with a dark past (dum dum da!), who welcomes them with open arms showing them how good life can be around at day care. too bad he has no intention of letting Woody and Buzz have the good life. instead our heroes are locked in a room with the youngest members of the day care who aren't known for treating their toys gently. so what's a toy to do? escape of course.

*mission impossible theme start* from here on out things get hairy for the characters. the creators of this movie said they watched every escape movie out there. and it shows. the escape scenes are everything you expect from a movie: action packed, exciting, humor thrown in. you almost forget that they're a plastic space man running from a Ken doll. *mission impossible theme end*

the remainder of the movie centers around the lessons growing up can teach us. about leaving childhood behind and growing up. there are scares and heartwarming moments, that in the end leave you with a warm fuzzy feeling which is exactly what you want out of a movie.

this movie will appeal to little kids for the bright colors and the obvious jokes, but truly this movie is for the people who grew up with Toy Story, my generation and our parents. it's reminiscent of the Shrek series - the jokes go way over the kids' heads to appeal to the adults in the room. all in all i give it 4.5 out of 5 stars lacking only due to the shortness of the movie. hopefully, the toy story saga is done cuz you can't end on a higher note.

review: Girl with a Dragon Tattoo (movie)

w00t! first review- any feedback would be great please and thanks!

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo made it's debut in 2009. It is based on the critically acclaimed best seller of the same name by Stieg Larsson of Sweden and, fun fact, was actually published postmortem. Called Men who hate Women in Swedish, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is the first book of the Millennium Trilogy.

The movie opens centered on a package. An old man is attempting to open it. When he opens it, it's nothing horrible - just a pressed flower. This is where if you're paying attention things get interesting. First, the old man looks at the postmark on the package (Hong Kong). Second, he's wearing gloves to open it. Third, after seeing what the package contains he starts to cry. Intrigued yet?

Mikael Blomkvist (Michael Nyqvist) is our protagonist. He's investigative journalist with morals who's just been convicted of libel against a seedy businessman. Enter Lisbeth Salander (Noomi Rapace), our second protagonist and a genius hacker who has been investigating Mikael through his own computer - you can see her in the court room. After leaving the magazine to spare them the associated bad press, Mikael is offered a job by the head of the Vagnar Group to investigate the case of his niece who disappear 40 years ago off an island where all of her family was gathered. Lisbeth who hasn't stopped hacking into Mikael's computer gets sucked into the investigation.

The questions that need to be answered are: What happened to the missing girl? Is she really dead? Who wanted her dead and why?

The movie is filmed beautifully. Not too artistic to make you feel like you should hate the movie on principle and not too main stream to make you feel like you're watching a summer blockbuster. The score is does its job perfectly, heightening the mood of each scene. My personal favorite was the scene where Mikael is looking at the undeveloped film and making a composite video. *chills* All in all I give this movie 4.5 out or 5 stars. It's loses half a star for the multiple "endings", the lack of a more legally satisfying ending, and the occasionally feeling like this film was really good but very long too. Look for the upcoming sequels: The Girl who Played with Fire and The Girl who Kicked the Hornets Nest. Both should be out in the next year or two. I also recommend reading the Millennium trilogy!!!

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is currently, I believe, only available with subtitles (yay!) with the audio in the author's native tongue of Swedish. You can find it currently on Netflix instant watch or at any remaining video rental agencies.... if there are any left.