Review: Paper Towns by John Green

Title: Paper Towns
Author: John Green
Series: stand-alone
Publisher: Speak
Publication Date: October 16th, 2008
Source: Purchased for Kindle
Purchase: Amazon | Barnes & Noble

Quentin Jacobsen has spent a lifetime loving the magnificently adventurous Margo Roth Spiegelman from afar. So when she cracks open a window and climbs back into his life—dressed like a ninja and summoning him for an ingenious campaign of revenge—he follows.

After their all-nighter ends and a new day breaks, Q arrives at school to discover that Margo, always an enigma, has now become a mystery. But Q soon learns that there are clues—and they’re for him. Urged down a disconnected path, the closer he gets, the less Q sees of the girl he thought he knew.

John Green is a Legend of sorts. If you are a reader at all, you have surely heard his name.  Also there is that whole nerd fighter thing he has going on, whatever that is. But it's popular. Anyway, I read The Fault in Our Stars a while back and I liked it. I didn't love it, it was too wordy for me. I preferred the movie.

I feel like I will probably prefer the movie for Paper Towns as well. There is something wonderful about Greens writing, but at the same time, I don't click with it. There are moments when I read a line and I think, wow that was brilliant. But most often I'm bored and want the story to move along.

I should have known I wasn't going to love Paper Towns. I tried to read a book last year, that was compared to Paper Towns. I thought, sure it's compared to a John Green book, it has to be a winner. Nope, I couldn't get into it. I tried but it wasn't for me. I can't even think of what the name was, that's how much of an impact it's made on my life.

The thing that I disliked the most about Paper Towns was Margo. I thought she was an asshole. And Quentin thinks she shits candy. She does not. Though I'll give her props for some of the pranks she pulls off in the beginning. I was diggin the book early on... but then it just drops off and I was bored.

Finally things start happening again. But in the end, I felt like... really I pushed through all that for this. It was rather uneventful I'd say. I just expected more. And that could be because of the hype, or just because Greens writing isn't my thing. I'm not sure.

When I watched the movie trailer, I thought it looked like something I would really enjoy. I'm still going to give that a try, because sometimes the movie is better.

I would recommend this book for sure. I know a ton of people who have read and loved it. I just wish I would have liked it more. :/

About the authors:

John Green's first novel Looking for Alaska won the 2006 Michael L. Printz Award presented by the American Library Association. His second novel An Abundance of Katherines was a 2007 Michael L. Printz Award Honor Book and a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. His next novel Paper Towns is a New York Times bestseller and won the Edgar Allen Poe Award for Best YA Mystery. In January 2012, his most recent novel The Fault in Our Stars was met with wide critical acclaim, unprecedented in Green's career. The praise included rave reviews in Time Magazine and The New York Times, on NPR, and from award-winning author Markus Zusak. The book also topped the New York Times Children's Paperback Bestseller list for several weeks. Green has also coauthored a book with David Levithan called Will Grayson, Will Grayson, published in 2010. The film rights for all his books, with the exception of Will Grayson, Will Grayson, have been optioned to major Hollywood Studios.

In 2007, John and his brother Hank were the hosts of a popular internet blog, "Brotherhood 2.0," where they discussed their lives, books and current events every day for a year except for weekends and holidays. They still keep a video blog, now called "The Vlog Brothers," which can be found on the Nerdfighters website.

Find John:

Website | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads

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Labels: john green, meh, movie, paper towns, reviews

The Fifty Shades of Grey Scene That Won't Make the Movie

A few years ago, I made a book trailer. Not just any book trailer, but a book trailer for the infamous 50 Shades of Grey. I didn't particularly like the books, honestly. I thought they were poorly written, but I did read them because... well... train wrecks, ya know. lol.

I had been blogging for about a year, and peer pressure made me pick it up. Erotica really isn't my thing so I had no intention of making any video for it, but my friends Jess, Andrea, and Autumn kept telling me... "You have to make a trailer for it! You just have too!" So the ideas started flowing, and I got right to it.

The best part of making this video was sending these ladies screen shots while working on it. My poor husband also had to endure much of the process as I played it over and over in my editor to get it just right. Shortly after I made it, it went a little viral. It was posted on Vh1 under the celebrity articles along with the reading by Gilbert Gottfried and other parody's. Such an honor. It also made it on to Movieline which was awesome.

It died down though after the initial buzz and I haven't paid much attention to my views since. The end of this year I was at about 139,000 views. As of right now, it's at 400,845 views and climbing. Which is crazy! I woke up the other morning, and I saw Andrea had posted a link on my FB page. She says..."Holy crap, April Haug! Your 50SoG Sim trailer is on Jezebel!" Day Made. 

Here is a Horrifying Fan-Made Video of the Fifty Shades Tampon Scene

I nearly crapped myself. I read articles on Jezebel all the time! And above is a screen shot of the article being popular! I had to capture this momentous occasion.

Upon further research, there were quite a few sites that had picked up my video for discussion. You see, when I made the video, I felt like I needed to add "The Scene". I know this is primarily a young adult blog, but most know that there is a scene in book one involving a certain feminine product being removed by the ever so suave Christian Grey. That was the scene I worked my whole trailer around, because I knew there was no way it would ever make the cut to be in the movie. Plus, I was going for comedy here, and what's funnier than a plug flying through the air?

This week, it was made official that this wonderful scene will indeed not be in the movie, and the director never even considered it.. Well no shit. That was a given. But I guess that's what sparked the interest in my video.

Example: the title of the Uproxx article.

The ‘Fifty Shades’ Movie Won’t Include The Tampon Scene, But Here It Is

Here are a few other articles that made my LOL.

Metro...

This fan-made animated Fifty Shades Of Grey trailer (complete with tampon scene) is immense

TheMarySue...

50 Shades Won’t Include The Infamous Tampon Scene, So Here, Have This Fan Re-Creation

Bustle.com...

The 'Fifty Shades Of Grey' Tampon Scene Got An Animated Fan-Made Video & It Produced These 6 Terrifying Moments — VIDEO

Entertainment Wise...

Here's What That Fifty Shades Of Grey Tampon Scene Would Have Looked Like

Cosmopolitan...

This fan-made Fifty Shades period sex scene will scar you for life

MTV...

That Fifty Shades Of Grey Scene They Missed Out? A Fan Made Their Own Version.

Indiewire...

Watch: The Tampon Scene From 'Fifty Shades Of Grey' You Won't See In The Movie Recreated With 'The Sims'

The Lowdown Under...

‘The Sims’ Fifty Shades Of Grey Book Trailer


I have to say, the article on Bustle was my favorite. I'm still laughing over it. And here is my favorite comment thus far...

Who doesn't like bacon? I'm dying! lol

So this week has been a flurry of activity. I'm still so blown away that it's even gotten any attention at all, because it was just a joke. It was just for fun. I never imagined it would be talked about so much. lol. 

There is my tiny claim to fame. I just had to share it with you all in case you haven't seen it. 

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Labels: Bustle, E.L. James, Entertainment Wise, Fifty Shades of Grey, Jezebel, movie, Tampon Scene, Tampon video, the Mary Sue, Trailer, Uproxx, video

{Audiobook} Review: The Book Thief by Markus Zuzak

Title: The Book Thief
Author: Markus Zusak
Series: n/a
Narrator: Allan Corduner
Publisher: Penguin Audio
Publication Date: September 12th, 2006
Source: Borrowed Audio from Library
Purchase: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Audible

It's just a small story really, about, among other things, a girl, some words, an accordionist, some fanatical Germans, a Jewish fist-fighter, and quite a lot of thievery.

Set during World War II in Germany, Markus Zusak's groundbreaking new novel is the story of Liesel Meminger, a foster girl living outside of Munich. Liesel scratches out a meager existence for herself by stealing when she encounters something she can't resist: books. With the help of her accordion-playing foster father, she learns to read and shares her stolen books with her neighbors during bombing raids - as well as with the Jewish man hidden in her basement before he is marched to Dachau.

This is an unforgettable story about the ability of books to feed the soul.

I'm a little late to the train on this one. So many of my friends have read and loved this book. Finally, I got around to it. And I can kind of see what all the rage is about. 

The Book Thief is beautiful and terrible all in one shot. The writing and story was top notch, but I did find myself bored at times. These kind of books are hard for me to stay interested in. I got the audio through my library and I had to take it back out because I didn't finish it the first time around. This story is depressing. I mean.. it takes place during World War II, so of course it's depressing. It was hard to listen to. There were moments though, moments of hope that just lit me up with warmth, and for those moments, I'm glad I listened to it.

The narrator is death! And that was pretty freaking cool. I loved how he mentioned little things early on, and you didn't get to see them play out until the end. The narrator did a fantastic job of reading death. If I could do it again, I would listen to the audio. I kind of followed along on my kindle, but mostly I stuck with the audio. 

I have not seen the movie.. but I plan to. I think I will like it. Maybe even more than the book. We will see.

Rating The Book Thief was tricky... because if I had to rate it based on my interest, it would be a 3 or 3.5, but the writing is a 5 hands down. So that brings me to a solid 4 I think. I'm glad I gave this one a shot, but I probably won't read any of his other stuff. 

About the author:

Markus Zusak was born in 1975 and is the author of five books, including the international bestseller, The Book Thief , which is translated into more than forty languages. First released in 2005, The Book Thief has spent a total of 375 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list, and still remains there eight years after it first came out.

His first three books, The Underdog, Fighting Ruben Wolfe and When Dogs Cry (also known as Getting the Girl ), released between 1999 and 2001, were all published internationally and garnered a number of awards and honours in his native Australia, and the USA.

Find Markus:

Website | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads

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Labels: Audiobook, death, knopf, markus zusak, movie, reviews, the book thief, world war II