November Novel: Dune

As I started reading this book, literally one of my first thoughts was Why has no one ever recommended this book to me? I was sucked in from the first chapter. I had been afraid that I wouldn’t be able to finish the 800+ page novel in the course of a month but found instead that I couldn’t put it down.

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Top 5: NaNoWriMo 2012 Fears

Fake book cover I designed
for my NaNoWriMo novel

November is a big month for me. First, it includes my birthday (woo!) and I'm throwing an epic party to show my friends my new apartment. Second, I'm going to hear one of my favorite authors, Donald Miller of Blue Like Jazz, speak this Friday. Third, for my book club I scheduled myself to read the giant sci-fi novel Dune with no less than 883 pages. And fourth, it's National Novel Writing Month (or NaNoWriMo, for short).

I don't know how all of this happened to come together at the same time, but it did. And now NaNoWriMo is only two days away (!!!), Hurricane Sandy is sending some rain and high winds our way, it's almost Halloween, and I have a lot to be scared about. Here are my biggest fears about NaNoWriMo 2012:

5. My gothic novel will turn into a sappy romance.
I'm not a sappy romance kind of person. I like chick flicks and Pride and Prejudice as much as the next girl, but will not deal with stuff like Christian historical romance or Nicholas Sparks novels. And yet somehow, the last couple of novels I've started outlining have turned into romances. I don't know why. One was about a female programmer who worked making video games and didn't realize the cute guy she grew up with was in love with her. Another was about a woman with such low self-esteem that she took to dating sad guys from dating sites to make herself feel better and fell for the guy she thought was a jerk for seeing through her ruse. An even earlier draft featured a young woman who wrote young adult mystery novels and tried not to love the annoying guy she worked with at the local newspaper. Maybe I should start writing chick flick screenplays or something.

4. My characters will evolve into stereotypes of famous characters. 
I try very hard to create original characters with flaws and frustrations and all the rest. I give them hairstyles and back stories and favorite colors and  name heir childhood pets. As I write them, though, I always have this fear that they are going to turn stereotypical. Like my heroine will become the "plucky female lead character who thinks she's unlovable" and my hero will turn into Heathcliff with a different name. We don't need another Heathcliff.

3. I won't be able to come up with a good ending.
I love the prep-work of writing a novel: the character profiling, researching the setting, getting the clothes and decor and season thought out. I love the noting and the listing and the outlining. Unfortunately, I'm not very good at the finishing. Those other stories I mentioned above? I have the first two-thirds of their plots completely fleshed out: chapter-by-chapter outlines, story arcs, even chapters written. But I couldn't figure out how to finish any of them. How does the programmer learn the guy loves her? How does the low-self-esteem girl get her self-esteem back? Does the writer get her novels published? I don't know! I have a great start on an idea for my 2012 book but have no idea what is causing the mysterious things to happen. If it ends up being a lighthouse keeper in a mask with a projector, you'll know I hit a brick wall.

2. The power will go out and I'll have to write (and count) all 50,000 words by hand. 
I don't live on the east coast, but Columbus is still on the edge of the warning area for the effects of Hurricane Sandy (aka the "Frankenstorm") and we're bracing for the worst. People are buying up canned soup and batteries like it's Y2K. I'm just worried that if the power does happen to go out for a few days like when the derecho went through a few months ago, my laptop battery will soon die and I will be stuck doing things longhand. But if it does come to that, I have two new notebooks, a jar of peanut butter, and a whole bottle of wine in the fridge.

1. I'll give up after about 300 words and my novel will never see the light of day.
This is my biggest fear because it's happened before. I've been trying to participate in NaNoWriMo for a couple of years now and it hasn't worked out. Last year I wasn't home much in November. The year before that I tried to write the dating site story and all I got was one scene and didn't know what else to write. This year is going to be different. I live alone. I don't have cable. I have told multiple people about my story idea and they are excited to read it. I'm going to do everything in my power to write all 50,000 words, despite Dune and Donald Miller and my birthday party. This book is going to happen!

Anyone participating in NaNoWriMo this year? What's your book about?

October Novel: Anya's Ghost

I was excited to include a graphic novel on my reading list this year, and specifically planned to read Anya’s Ghost, the story of a teenager who falls down a well and becomes friends with a ghost, in October for its spooky Halloween qualities. I’ve been reading a lot of creepy books lately – first the vampire novel The Historian, followed by the zombie love story Warm Bodies and the supernatural Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children. I’m not quite sure where all of this weird sci-fi/supernatural/other-worldly stuff is coming from, but as next month I’m reading the science fiction classic Dune I’m expecting it to just get weirder. Tina Fey’s Bossypants in December is going to come as a well-deserved respite from the land of speculative fiction.

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September Novel: Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea

I finished this book ages ago, and have read multiple things since then, so this is going to be another abbreviated blog post.

I added this book to my 2012 reading list for a couple of reasons: 1, it’s a classic I had never read, and 2, I was fascinated by the character of Captain Nemo in the film version of the graphic novel The League of Extraordinary Gentleman. In the movie, fictional characters including Tom Sawyer, Dorian Gray, and Dr.Jekyll/Mr. Hyde go on adventures together aboard the Nautilus with Nemo himself, and the portrayal of both the man and the boat were intriguing. It’s modern technology designed in the Victorian era, a veritable steam-punk visual interpretation.

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August Novel: The Historian

While I may have much more free time now that I have moved, I have significantly less internet. Actually I have no internet at my apartment, as I'm waiting until I can get internet and cable connected at the same time, and currently don't have a fully-functioning TV. All this to say that I'm getting a lot more reading done, but also a whole lot less blogging.

Case in point: I finished The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova back in early August, but haven't had the chance to write about it until now. It was a great book and I thoroughly enjoyed it, but as I've read three books since then, I can't remember it well enough to give it a complete and well-thought-out blog post. And that really is a travesty, as I literally could not put it down and attempted to read while cooking dinner, which happens to be really hard to do when the book is a hefty 689 pages and you're trying to hold it in one hand and stir pasta with the other.


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The Male "Manic Pixie Dream Girl"

I just finished writing my book club post for A Room with a View, and had an idea that begged to be its own blog post, inspired by a spur-of-the-moment comparison of lead characters Lucy and George to Summer and Tom in (500) Days of Summer:

Summer is the type of character often referred to as a Manic Pixie Dream Girl (MPDG). MPDGs are not an actual female stereotype, but a character in films described as “that bubbly, shallow cinematic creature that exists solely in the fevered imaginations of sensitive writer-directors to teach brooding soulful young men to embrace life and its infinite mysteries and adventures [Nathan Rabin, here].” Basically, think of any film where a hipster/intellectual type believes his life will never turn around, but then he meets a crazy girl who does her own thing, and falls in love with her. She teaches him to love life, and likes him for being so sensitive and adorable and usually somewhat nerdy, and all is good in the world.

Some MPDGs in film history:

Natalie Portman in Garden State, Katherine Hepburn in Bringing Up Baby, Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany's, Mary Elizabeth Winstead in Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, Marilyn Monroe in Some Like it Hot

Then I got to thinking: is there such thing as a Manic Pixie Dream Guy? Is there a stock character that is caring and smart and kind of a bad boy that exists solely in the imaginations of writer-directors to teach melancholy soulful young women to embrace life and its infinite mysteries and adventures? And then it hit me:

Ryan Gosling.

Okay, not the real Ryan Gosling, but the fictionalized version of him that has spurned millions of “Hey Girl” memes all over the internet. Smart. Attractive. Sensitive. Swooned over by women everywhere. He is the male version of America’s favorite MPDG, Zooey Deschanel. (Sidenote: if someone made a quirky romantic comedy starring them both, scored with songs by bands like Mumford & Sons and Arcade Fire, and filmed it all in a sunny Instagram-like filter, would the indie world implode? Also, does anyone know a Hollywood producer I can pitch this idea to?)

I did a quick Google search to see if anyone else had thought of this yet (how has no one thought of this??) and the closest thing I found was a list posted by an anonymous user  in response to a question similar to mine [read it here]. Taking from their list and mine, some popular examples are:

Chris O'Dowd in Bridesmaids, Heath Ledger in 10 Things I Hate About You, Ryan Gosling in The Notebook, James Marsden in 27 Dresses, Jimmy Stewart in The Shop Around the Corner

I’m dubbing this guy the Adorkable Maverick Dream Boy™ (patent pending)*. He’s cute, smart, free-spirited, and wears button-down shirts, often plaid. He’s the guy who convinces the wallflower that she’s beautiful or makes the nice girl realize that the heartthrob she’s crushing on isn’t really her type. Best-case scenario he has an accent (British, Southern, Canadian, it doesn’t really matter). The AMDB might start out as the best friend or even the enemy but eventually escapes the friend zone to become the love interest. He tends to be the one that the girl realizes has been there for her all along and that helps her learn how to be the best version of herself. Much like the MPDG, the AMDB is primarily in the story to be the romantic interest of the lead character, although in both cases it is sometimes hard to tell who really is the focal point of the story.

Am I on to something here? Is there a case for a male version of the Manic Pixie Dream Girl, or is the Adorkable Maverick Dream Boy just wishful thinking?

*Not really, but if this term goes viral, I want credit at least on Wikipedia for coining it!

July Novel: A Room with a View

I know I’ve been neglecting this blog a little lately – okay, more than a little, it’s been over two months since I last posted, which is not at all like me. I’ve been really busy, I promise! Since I last updated with my review of The Help, I was hired full-time at my office (yay!) and finally made the move to Columbus (double yay!!). Unfortunately I totally missed finishing a book in the month of July. At one point I thought I would be able to make it in the last few days of the month, only to realize that I had got September’s book instead. Sigh.

So now that I’m in my own place, and have a lot more free time on my hands, I was able to get and read July’s book, A Room with a View by E. M. Forester. The novel is about a young woman and her chaperone traveling in Italy sometime before the First World War, with a major theme being the societal roles of women at the turn of the last century. The young female lead, Lucy, is quite an independent young woman, especially for her time period. She wants to learn and have adventures but all of those things are considered “unladylike” and instead she is expected to do a little traveling, meet a nice young man, settle down and get married. While she is in Italy with her older cousin Charlotte they stay at a pension (a term I learned while reading The World According to Garp) and meet the eccentric novelist Eleanor, two kind elderly sisters traveling the world, a kindhearted and funny but socially improper gentleman, and his young son, George, who, if he lived today, would be exactly like Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s character in (500) Days of Summer: a sad, creative hipster hoping to meet a Manic Pixie Dream Girl.

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Top 5: Unnamed Literary Characters

When it comes to literature, names hold a lot of meaning. While it often seems trivial, the name of certain characters can often tell a lot about their personality. Would Scarlett O'Hara seem as spoiled without her uniquely southern name?* Would Voldemort be as creepy without an evil-sounding moniker? Would Winne the Pooh seem as cuddly if he had been named Randolph instead?

Then again, it is almost more telling when a character stars in a story and is never given a name. They're the main character, after all, shouldn't their name be the most important? Not necessarily. It dawned on me the other day that in a number of pieces I've read, I had gotten to the end and noticed that I had no idea the name of the protagonist. Below are the five most notable things I've read without a named main character.

5. Father and Son, The Road by Cormac McCarthy

This is one of the novels I read last year, and it is fascinating to note that very few names are used in the entire story. It's set in a post-apocalyptic America and is about a man and his young son traveling across the country in search of food and civilization. Names weren't important in a world without photo IDs, application forms, or addresses. The man knew his son, the son knew his father, and they didn't need (or even want) to know the names of anyone else.






4. Narrator, Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk

I must admit, I saw the film adaptation before I read the book. I almost never do that, but then again I didn't know it was based on a novel until sometime after I'd seen it. I was a little slow to the game. It is now one of my favorite movies, and the friend who recommended it to me also pointed out later that Ed Norton's character never had a name. It's told in the first person by the a narrator (played by Edward Norton), and his namelessness is fitting for a character who essentially looses his identity and takes on the split personality of Tyler Durden.




3. Narrator, Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier

I read this book not too long ago because it was adapted by Alfred Hitchcock into a film - if it was good enough for him to make a movie out of, then surely it's worth reading. I have not seen the movie yet, but absolutely adored the novel and the mystery it entails. I had no idea until reading a mention of it later that the name of the woman telling the story is never revealed! Everyone refers to her as "Mrs. de Winter," and the namesake of the novel itself is actually the former Mrs. de Winter, around whom the mystery spins. Her married life is overshadowed by the life of Rebecca, so much so that despite being the narrator, we never learn who she really is. 



2. Lenore's lover, The Raven by Edgar Allen Poe

One of the most famous poems of all time, The Raven tells of a man tormented by a bird who comes to his home and says only the word "Nevermore" over and over again, reminding him that he will never again see his lost love, Lenore. While the tale is beloved by many (I personally know the first stanza by heart!), parodied by everyone including The Simpsons, and even has a sports team named in honor of it (re: the Baltimore Ravens), no one - save maybe Poe himself - knows the name of the man who was haunted by his love and a peculiar talking bird. 




1. Woman, The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

I love short stories - in high school we read lots of them, and I still count many of them of some of my favorite works of literature. One of my favorites is The Yellow Wallpaper, first published in 1892, about a woman whose life is stilted by the men around her until she is driven into complete madness, obsessed with the wallpaper in the room she is confined to, as she has nothing else to distract her. She is forbidden from working, writing, and conversing with others by her husband, a doctor who believes it to be a cure for "slight hysterical tendencies," a common diagnosis of women when their husbands didn't understand them. She is never named, presumably, because she as a woman is not as important as the men around her.


*Fun Fact: Margaret Mitchell considered naming her "Pansy" but changed it just before publication!

May Novel: A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

This was a lovely book that I am so glad to have read. Set just before World War I, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith is the coming-of-age story of a little girl named Francie growing up in New York. We meet her as a child, get flashbacks to her parents lives to learn the circumstances into which she was born, and follow her through her early teens as she experiences school and work and life. In my version there is a forward by Anna Quindlen, who explains that the plot of the book is hard to pin down, but the best way to describe it is as a book about "what it means to be human." I would agree, this novel is not just about a little girl growing up in a sad family in a poor neighborhood, but it's about relationships with your parents, learning about love, doing your best, making the most out of life, and all those little lessons that life teaches you without you really realizing it.

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April Novel: The World According to Garp

Admittedly, when I read the description of this book, I knew it was going to be weird. I’m used to weird. Last year I read Slaughterhouse-Five and A Handmaid’s Tale, I am prepared for strange. But The World According to Garp was a whole new kind of weird.
 
When people fell from the sky and turned into animals in The Satanic Verses, it wasn’t a problem because you could tell Rushdie was using magical realism to prove a point. When Alex and his gang broke into houses and raped women in A Clockwork Orange it was disturbing but made sense in a dystopian novel. When Chief started talking about listening machines in the walls in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest it didn’t phase me because he was in an asylum at the time. But with Garp, all the characters are basically normal people but have the most messed-up lives of just about any book I have read.

The novel starts with nurse Jenny Fields, a young woman who is so practical as to have almost no emotions besides a strong maternal instinct. She decides she wants to have a baby but has no interest in men or romance, so she essentially rapes a nearly-braindead and dying young soldier in her hospital in order to impregnate herself. Weird. And things start getting more strange from there.

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Top 5: Mad Men Characters

I may have come in a little late to the game, but I am now a huge fan of AMC's Mad Men. Over the past couple of years I've collected all four of the past seasons on DVD and now am finally able to watch new episodes! I'm so excited that it's back on the air. I have to admit, being a designer, I love seeing the pitches that SCDP pulls off. Megan's Heinz Beans timeless concept? Brilliant. Right up there with Peggy's "basket of kisses" from the lipstick testing episode. There is so much to love about this show - the fashion, the drama, the sets - but undeniably what draws you in is the intricate characters. Each of them have so many different things going on at a time that sometimes it's hard to keep up. And I love every minute of it. So in honor of last night's episode, here are my top 5 favorite characters (to date).

5. Sal Romano

It's really a shame that this character got written out of the show, because Sal was one of the most fascinating and unique characters. He was a creative director at Sterling Cooper, and the only gay character on the show. He was also married and in the closet, with boyfriends on the side, which made for some fascinating and awkward situations, especially in the 60s. His character was interesting and troubled - I wish he was still part of the cast.

4. Joan Holloway/Harris

On the surface, Joan is a sassy secretary that can hold her own with the men in her office while still exuding femininity. Underneath that, though, is a young woman torn between wanting family or a job, romance or marriage, wealth or happiness. What makes her fantastic is her high level of confidence and unmatched ability to know exactly how to act (and how everyone else should act) in every situation - something that all of the men in the ad agency depend on. Her gorgeous red hair and curvaceous Marilyn Monroe style make her a unique fashion icon unlike most women on TV today.

3. Anna Draper

Anna is such a unique character to the show. Most of the series takes place on the east coast, except for Anna, who lives in California. Everything from her nearly-hippie clothes to her sunny disposition screams Californian, a stark contrast to the dark and cynical lifestyle of Madison Avenue.  She knows all about Don's past - for a long time she was the only character who knew his real name - and still loves him like a brother despite all of the things he's done. Anna is the one point of truth and consistency in Don's life, and her death changes him. She is only featured in four episodes but has a profound impact on Jon Hamm's character.

2. Sally Draper

You don't often see fully developed child characters on adult dramas, but Mad Men does an excellent job of integrating Don and Betty's oldest daughter into the storyline. Sally is a spitfire of a young girl, full of her father's ingenuity, passion, and forwardness, as well as her mother's stubbornness. She tries to deal with an absent father, a distanced mother, younger siblings, the death of her grandfather, and eventually her parents' divorce and subsequent remarriages. It's a lot for a girl just now turning 12. Over the course of the series she has stolen and smoked her mother's cigarettes, made cocktails, learned to drive, and gone to see the Beatles. Sally knows a lot more than she lets on, and young actress Kiernan Shipka plays the troubled child beautifully.

1. Peggy Olson

Peggy is hands-down my favorite character of the entire series. If I had to choose someone from the cast that I identify with the most, it would probably be her. She's the only woman in the creative department, working hard to promote herself out of the pool of secretaries and into the world of mock-ups, pitches, and ad campaigns. She earns the respect of a lot of the men she works with, especially Don, who urges her to do better and even takes her with him when he leaves to form SCDP. She's pretty, but not a bombshell like Joan or a beauty like Megan; she often dressed frumpy and led a fairly conservative lifestyle (before the whole "secretly have Pete's illegitimate child and give it up for adoption" thing, at least). She's unlike most of the women portrayed in the show, as she values her career over marriage and housewifery, and is a lot more like leading man Don Draper than probably either of them want to admit. Despite the fact that Don's new wife Megan works at SCDP (and in creative under Peggy, no less), his "work spouse" is most definitely Peggy. Now that she's broken into the men's world of advertising she has been known to hang out with beatniks, smoke pot, and go to strip clubs with her clients. All the while rocking a Jackie-O hat like no one else on the series can.

Top 5: Defictionalized Products

They say art imitates life, but it seems that more and more often life is beginning to imitate art. Case in point: the phrase used in the title of this post, "defictionalized products": it refers to items used in books or movies that became so popular among fans that it was created in real life (hence, no longer fiction). People have become so enthralled with entertainment that we get super excited when what was once imaginary comes to reality. One of my favorite stories of art creeping over into life comes from the 1993 film Demolition Man with Sylvester Stallone, Wesley Snipes and Sandra Bullock. The movie is set in 2032, in the city of San Angeles, which was created by combining San Diego and Los Angeles after a massive earthquake in 2010. Apparently only one restaurant chain survived the post-earthquake Franchise Wars and went on to become the fanciest place to go for a meal: Taco Bell. In the 90s when this movie was made, the Taco Bell logo looked like this:

The logo was redesigned for the movie to make it look like it was from the future, and appeared like this:

And the pink-and-purple logo was so well-received that the company actually changed their entire branding to that look, leaving us with the current logo:

Straight from fiction to real life! I love it when that happens. But enough about Taco Bell - below are my favorite products that made the leap to the real world. 

5. The Batphone

In the classic Batman TV show starring Adam West, Commissioner Gordon would call the caped crusader on his private line, ringing in to a red blinking phone. Now you can actually buy this phone - which doesn't call out but blinks on incoming calls - for a mere $125!

4. Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans 

As Harry Potter fans know, Every Flavor Beans literally come in every flavor - and I don't just mean the traditional fruit and spice varieties, but also such favorites as grass, fish, earwax, and vomit. When the films started to be released, this tie-in product was also released in stores. I had some in 2005, when I went to a midnight showing of Goblet of Fire with a group from college. No one was brave enough to eat more than one.

3. Red Swingline Stapler

In the cult classic Office Space, underappreciated character Milton constantly complains about others taking his red stapler from his desk. He gets so frustrated that he threatens to burn down the company - and does. Fans loved the quotable Milton so much that not only did his oft-repeated phrase "I believe you have my stapler?" make it onto officer vernacular but the company Swingline received so many requests for the red stapler that they released a limited edition one at office supply stores in 2002. For the filming of the movie they just took a regular stapler and spray-painted it.

2. Nike Mags

In the second installment of the Back to the Future franchise, Marty McFly travels to the year 2015 and wears a pair of awesome sneakers with automatic shoe laces. They became so popular that Nike released a pair that looked similar to them in 2008, and even inspired a guy to invent his own self-tying laces. Then in the fall of 2011 Nike released the Mags - an exact replica of the shoes worn by Michael J. Fox in the film, complete with LED lights. The shoes were auctioned off on a special Ebay account with all proceeds going to the Michael J. Fox foundation,  supporting Parkinson's research.

1. Wonka Candy

In 1964, British children's author Roald Dahl published the book Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, the story of a poor little boy who gets to tour the fantastical candy factory of the eccentric Willy Wonka. It was later adapted to film in 1971, considered to be the classic favorite featuring Gene Wilder as Wonka, and again in 2005 directed by Tim Burton and starring Johnny Depp as the chocolatier. The book and films featured amazing edible treats, including fizzy lifting drinks, chocolate rivers, and hot ice cream for cold days. With the release of the first film in 1971 The Willy Wonka Candy Company began selling Wonka Bars and created other types of popular candy, including BottleCaps, Nerds, SweeTarts, Pixy Stix, Laffy Taffy, Fun Dip, Runts and Spree. Bought by Nestle in the 1980s, now all packages of Wonka candy include a reference to the original book and author Roald Dahl. Other products inspired by the film include the recent release of lickable wallpaper installed in a London elevator. (I also believe that Extra's line of dessert gums featuring flavors like strawberry shortcake, key lime pie, and orange creamsicle and apple pie were influenced by Wonka's whole meal in a single piece of gum, and keep hoping they'll come out with a blueberry pie flavor so I can say, "You're turning violet, Violet!" - although I'm not sure I'd chew it for fear of plumping up like Violet Beauregarde and having to be rolled to the Juicing Room).

Nicholas Sparks Film Adaptations

As someone who loves literature, I try to give every book a chance. I don't like to write off an author as "lame" before I've read at least one of their books, even if it is about sparkly century-old vampires with crushes on susceptible young women. So when it comes to Nicholas Sparks, know that I've read a couple of his books - A Walk to Remember and The Notebook, to be exact - and still think he's one of the most repetitive authors out there. Probably the only one to top him would be Danielle Steele - my mom used to read her books, and after about a dozen she realized they're all the same plot but the characters have different names, hair colors and careers. Not my idea of a good read.

So I was at Target the other day, browsing through the book section while waiting for our prescriptions to be filled, and found an entire endcap devoted to Nicholas Sparks, specifically the novels that have been adapted into movies. After the initial eye-roll, I noticed something a little fishy.

 

The cover for Dear John based on the 2010 movie looks suspiciously like the cover of Message in a Bottle, from the film with Kevin Costner in 1999. Dark-haired guy snuggling with a blonde on the beach, centered in the shot? Sounds like a great idea... 

 But then I looked at the rest of the books on the shelf, and that's when it got really good. 

 

Really? Is that all the characters do in Sparks' novels, nearly kiss while touching their lover's face?  Didn't anyone realize that all of the covers look EXACTLY THE SAME? Or did they do it on purpose as part of some marketing strategy? I just don't get it. 

Thankfully, the one book/movie I actually did like - probably because it reminds me of fun times I had watching it at sleep overs during high school - doesn't look exactly like all of the rest of the film adaptation covers. 

 

It does still include the two main characters happily in each others arms, though. I guess that's the signature look for Nicholas Sparks movies. Word has it that his 2010 novel Save Haven is set to be adapted into a film by 2013. It's set in North Carolina, so maybe it's time for another snuggling on the beach cover? I guess we'll have to wait and see...

March Novel: The Bell Jar

This month's selection, The Bell Jar, was included on the 2012 reading list for a few different reasons: first, it is considered a classic, as in a no English major worth their salt has never read Sylvia Plath kind of classic; and second, it is important to me to read classic novels written by women. I choose my reading list after carefully scouring best-seller lists, lists of American classics, and recommendations from other readers. It seems that, overwhelmingly, the books commonly considered to be classics - both traditional and modern - are written by men. Out of TIME Magazine's list of the top 100 novels, only 15 had female authors. That's less than a quarter, which seems low to me, as women have been publishing novels since the mid 1800s or earlier.

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Top 5: Fictional Crushes

Unless you've been living under a rock for the past few months, you're probably aware that The Hunger Games opened in theaters this weekend. From what I've heard it's raked in $155 million on opening weekend - coming in at the third largest of all time, after Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 and The Dark Knight. Not to shabby, huh? After seeing the film, and reading this great article on Hello Giggles about embracing you inner teenager and all her giddiness, I was inspired to choose a fun topic this week: fictional crushes.

The real reason women
watch this show.

We all have them - movies that you say you love for the storyline, but really it's just because the leading man is swoon-worthy. You know Grey's Anatomy wouldn't be as popular if it weren't for McDreamy and McSteamy. Below are my top 5 (current) fictional crushes. Who are yours?

5. Edward Rochester, Jane Eyre (2011)

Michael Fassbender as Rochester

If you know anything about me at all you know I love the story of Jane Eyre, and with that comes a love of Rochester. He's your typical Romantic male lead - dark, brooding, and emotional. Kind of a jerk sometimes, but that's just a ruse to cover his emotional side. In the newest Jane Eyre the actor playing Rochester was perfect. He managed to pull off wearing a vest, a scarf, even a cotton nightshirt with ruffles. It takes a special kind of guy to make a nightgown look manly.

4. Peeta Mellark, The Hunger Games (2012)

Josh Hutcherson as Peeta Mellark

I may have only read The Hunger Games in the past month, but if you've read the series, you can probably agree that Peeta is the perfect guy. He thinks of others before himself, he refuses to let the games change him, he endures torture to protect what is right, and is exactly what heroine Katniss needs: a level-headed good guy who just wants what's best for her. He's also had a secret crush on her for like ten years. How adorable is that? Plus it doesn't hurt that he's pretty adorable himself.



3. Lloyd Dobler, Say Anything (1989)

John Cusack as Lloyd Dobler

Admittedly I have a weakness for 80s teen movies, but honestly, how can you not like Lloyd Dobler? He's witty. He teaches kickboxing to little kids. He can be friends with girls and not want to make out with them. He's a good brother and uncle. He sends his girlfriend a love letter in the mail. And when she breaks up with him, by giving him a pen, of all stupid things, he shows up at her house and plays their song outside her window to try and win her back. Basically, he's the perfect 80s boyfriend, with the boy-next-door looks to go with it. I have this movie poster and hung it in my apartments all through college, probably to the chagrin of my roommates.


2. Max/Johnny, Penelope (2006)

James McAvoy as Max, or Johnny, or whoever he is

Penelope is one of my favorite go-to feel-good movies. Christina Ricci is a loveable lead character, a girl cursed with a pig-nose and looking for a guy who will love her for who she really is. The one guy who gives her a chance is named Max, who comes in singing, picking her favorite book off the shelf, and generally sweeping her off of her feet with charm and an indie musician image. She runs away, and he's not really who he says he is, but in the end it doesn't matter, because he has pretty eyes and great hair.


1. Mr. Darcy, Pride and Prejudice (2005)

Matthew Mcfayden as Mr. Darcy

First of all, Fitzwilliam Darcy has been a heartthrob since Pride and Prejudice was first published in 1813. He's shy, thoughtful, intelligent, happens to be wealthy, and says things like "I love you most ardently." I mean, seriously? Who does that? Second, to anyone who says Colin Firth is the only Mr. Darcy, I say, meet Matthew Mcfayden. He makes 19th century sideburns look attractive. In the rain, even. I say I like this film because it's beautifully shot and Lizzie is such a strong female character, but let's be honest, it's all about Darcy.

The Hunger Games Trilogy

*Spoiler Alert: I'm going to talk about all three of the novels, so if you haven't finished them yet, don't read any further! I also ruin a couple other novels, so be careful.* 

I'm not one to give into trends just because everyone else is doing them. Just because something is popular doesn't necessarily mean that it is good, so before I read a trendy book or shell out the money to see a big-name film, I check to see what critics are saying about it and how friends with similar tastes feel. I put off reading Eat, Pray, Love because every Oprah-watching soccer mom I ever met swore by it, and I don't usually have the same tastes in books as they do; but after seeing the author speak in a TED talk, I gave the book a chance and loved it. I was anxious to read The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, especially after a movie adaptation was announced, but after the advice of a similar-minded friend who said "don't waste your time," I chose not to read it.

So when everyone and their mother started talking about The Hunger Games, I was only somewhat interested. Another YA trilogy about a teenage girl? There are a million of those out right now, filling up the somewhat depressing "Supernatural Romance" shelf in the teen section at Barnes & Noble. Not worth my time. But then people started telling me I needed to read it - people I majored in English with at college, well-read people studying to be teachers, basically everyone who loved the same books I did. So I decided to give it a chance, picked up a copy at the bookstore - and read the first book in less than two days. I was hooked.

I described the first novel to my sister as a cross between Harry Potter and The Giver. Suzanne Collins writes much like J.K. Rowling, with simple fluid words, captivating characters, and forward-marching plots that leave you telling yourself, just one more chapter, then I'll stop for a while. And much like when I read Rowling's books, I couldn't put them down and devoured them almost all in one sitting. The Harry Potter series, The Giver, and The Hunger Games trilogy have one pivotal thing in common: they are using the experiences of a single character in order to teach the reader a much larger lesson about life. Potter is about friendship, loyalty, doing what's right in the face of adversity. The Giver is about remembering your past, gaining knowledge, learning what it means to be human. The Hunger Games is about protecting the innocent, ending senseless wars, and doing what is right for your community.


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February Novel: Jurassic Park

I am a Michael Crichton fan, so it wasn't hard to decide to put this classic on my 2012 reading list. I was first introduced to him the summer before my junior year in high school. My English teacher for the next year gave us a reading list for the summer, which included The Grapes of Wrath, The Crucible, and inexplicibly, Crichton's recently published Timeline (I was a junior in 2003, it was released in 1999). Seeing as the rest of our list was classic novels written during or about American history, this one seemed a little out of place. But my friends and I read our books anyway, writing the required 1-page reflection on each one, and brought them to the first day of class like we were told. When we asked our teacher later why it had been required reading, she said something along the lines of "I thought it was a fun book and that you guys would enjoy a break from the heavier stuff." I have to give her credit, she was probably the teacher who influenced me the most when it came to enjoying and analyzing literature. She also introduced us to The Goonies, for which I am forever grateful.

Anyway, after my first brush with Crichton's work then, I scoured my mom's bookshelves for his other novels. I loved his techno-thriller genre mixing and detailed scientific information infused with fiction. Not literary fiction, by any stretch of the imagination, but definitely a fun and engaging read.

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Top 5: Comfort Reads

Everyone has a list of their favorite comfort foods, the tried-and-true dishes for when you're sick or having a bad day. On those days when things seem to be going terribly it's nice to sit down with a big bowl of ice cream and tell yourself that everything is going to be okay, even if just for the amount of time it takes to finish an entire pint of Cherry Garcia.

Because I'm a weird person, I have favorite comfort books that I like to read when things start looking bad. It doesn't matter that I'm stuck on the couch with a fever or having a bad day, things are always going to end up the same in the books I've read so many times the covers are falling apart. Do you have a book that you turn to when you need a pick-me-up? These are the top 5 that I reread when everything else is going to hell in a handbasket.


5. Anything from Janet Evanovitch's Stephanie Plum series

If you ever have a day when you just need to laugh about something, these books are the ones to turn to. I have literally laughed out loud while reading every single book in this series. It's about a girl working as a fairly terrible bounty hunter, the two guys who love her, her best friend the ex-stripper, and her crazy Jersey family. She's also clumsy, blows up a car at least once every book, and has a pet hamster. It's the perfect mindless distraction. The first in the series of 18, One for the Money, was just made into a movie starring Katherine Heigel. I can't wait to see it!




4. The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde

I love this novel by Welsh writer Jasper Fforde - partially because it revovles around Jane Eyre, and partially because it has everything you need in a book all wrapped up in one. Romance, mystery, science fiction, relateable characters, humor - not to mention lots of literary puns and allusions. I have read it multiple times and never ceases to entertain me.







3. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

This is my favorite book of all time. I've read it nearly a dozen times by now. I think the familiarity is part of its charm - I know exactly what is going to happen when, and no matter what is going on in my life Jane is always going to be on the road that day on the way to town when Rochester comes home to Thornfield Hall.  It's just lovely. This was also made into a movie recently (it has been many times before, but the newest one came out this past year). I finally watched it a few weeks ago and it was so beautiful and wonderful, I'm already looking forward to watching it again.




2. Conversations with the Fat Girl by Liza Palmer

I found this book randomly on the rack at Target and have never regretted buying it. It's about a young woman watching her best friend get married while trying to land her dream job, be less insecure about her weight, and get the cute guy at work to notice her. It isn't literary genius by any stretch of the imagination but reading about a normal person struggling with normal issues makes me feel ... normal. The ultimate comfort.






1. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

This, coincidently, is also my go-to movie when I've had a bad day and want to feel better (although the new Jane Eyre will give it a run for its money). I've read the book and seen the film so many times over the years that the Bennets practically feel like family.

And if you're feeling particularly down and not even a classic romance will make you feel better, there's always Seth Grahame-Smith's Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. Reading about Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth beating off the undead with their bare hands is always a good time.