Howl's Moving Castle

I also found this beautiful book in New York, on sale at Strand Book Store. The movie is whimsical, a little sad and, at least for me, somewhat confusing. I adored it anyway and when I found the book I couldn't wait to see if reading it would help me understand why I liked it so much.

The book does explain some of the movie's mysterious nature. Calcifer, the fire demon/fallen star (ooh sorry that's kind of a spoiler) made much more sense in the book. He is a mischievous character and crucial to understanding the entire end of the book and/or movie. It was wonderful being able to read everything that Sophie thought throughout her adventure. She is so willful and interesting and often upset that it's hard to follow her reasoning for doing things.  And I discovered that she is the reason I love the movie so much. Sophie is a young woman turned into an elderly woman by a witch and even with the chance at turning back, remains old by sheer force of will. She finds a new interesting life outside of the sure failure of being an oldest child and endlessly making hats. I relate to Sophie and her vigor for life.

This was a quick read and well worth the few days it took to finish. I would also highly recommend the movie, lovely and inspiring.

Next up: Stardust

The Princess Bride

I grew up enjoying this movie with my sister and while I vaguely knew of its origin as a book, I never really thought about reading it, as I have never seen it prominently displayed in any bookstore. Somehow I believed this was because the movie was better (which I should have known was a lie based on every book and movie combo ever! and which I will continue to prove with upcoming books).  It was on my trip to New York earlier this year on one of our many bookstore outings that I stumbled on The Princess Bride in its book form. The kind man behind the register leaned over the counter and told me I was holding an excellent book. I bought it.

This book was mesmerizing. Most pages were word for word what happens in the movie, which even though William Goldman wrote the book and the screenplay for the movie is still surprising. It just shows what an amazing book it is that there was almost no changes from page to screen, just some cuts to character backgrounds. The major differences are the stories of Inigo and Fez growing up and more insight to Prince Humperdinck's pit of despair, which has many deadly animals on the upper levels. There is a wonderfully funny part of the book where Inigo and Fez are coming to save the man in black from the pit of despair and they work together to somehow defeat or avoid all the deadly animals in order to reach Westley in the torture chamber at the bottom. Heartwarming and adventurous just like the movie, with even more hilarity and stories.

Later my best friend Morgan got the book As You Wish and loaned it to me when she remembered that I had recently read The Princess Bride. It only took a couple of days to finish and was hysterical as well as insightful. The book is a written by Cary Elwes but has many excerpts from Robert Reiner, Andrew Scheinman, William Goldman as well as other cast and crew members. The on set anecdotes such as Billy Crystal and Carol Kane doing character improvisation so funny people had to leave so no one on set would laugh brought lightness and fun while the intense fencing training for Inigo and Westley's duel showed the dedication and hard work put into the film. Throughout the book you could sense the camaraderie between those who worked on the movie and their fondness of the story itself. You also realize how many many stunts they did in this movie that you didn't realize was a heck of a lot of trouble. 

They were both amazing and I cannot wait to re-watch this movie. Wonderful additions to any library. 

Up Next: Howl's Moving Castle



Modern Romance

My boyfriend occasionally brings me to the library (a.k.a his second home) and that is how I came to read this gem of a book, or rather, listen to it. I love Aziz Ansari; his stand up is great, Parks and Recreation is one of my favorite shows and his new series, Master of None, I could talk about for days. So I admit I knew nothing about this book except his face and name were on the cover. And that was good enough for me! I did try to get the book but they were all checked out and I have no patience for wait lists, so I settled for the audiobook.  

Coming from reading the memoirs of Tina Fey, Amy Poehler and Mindy Kaling I was expecting something similar from Modern Romance. However, after he finished telling me how lazy I was to not even read the book and had to get the version where he read it to me, he said this book was about navigating romance in modern times(just like the title says, go figure). And while he does share a few personal stories  the book is mostly a research project.

He covers a lot of interesting topics from technology to compatibility to dating in other countries. Did you know Japan has government funded singles gatherings to encourage dating? There are tips on successful ways to text in a relationship and full chapter on cheating and being in open relationships.

I don't think I would have chosen to read this book if I had looked up anything about it ahead of time. I'm in a happy, very long term, relationship and I would think dating advice would be moot. But Aziz incorporated his humor and his facts in perfect measure on each topic and I was able to have great conversations with my boyfriend about every chapter of the book. A good read I would recommend to all.

Yes, Please; Bossypants and Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?

There are multiple reasons I decided to write about these books in one post. I read them around the same time, I have some backlogging to do so multiple-book-posts are needed and the most glaring reason is that they are very similar.

All three are memoirs of strong female comedians and the story of how they got to be who they are today and you can't go wrong with any of them.
These books are very quick reads and absolutely hysterically funny. I actually borrowed Is Everyone hanging out without me? from my friend Shelby on a cruise and by the end of the five day cruise I was able to give it back. Yes, Please is probably my favorite but if you have the time (make the time!) I would highly suggest reading all three. The stories are unique but they intersect quite a bit (especially Tina and Amy's) and all three talk about each other with admiration and support in their books.

There are a myriad of goofy pictures that make us all feel better about how weird we looked growing up and give us hope that perhaps we will look as beautiful as one of these three ladies one day. The stories are replaceable and hilarious, like some great stand up, you can actually almost hear them saying it (you actually listen to them say it if you got the book on tape but then you would miss the awesome pictures) I laughed loudly during all of these and thought deeply about some life choices. While each of then is obviously a comedic star they all take the time to write and reflect on issues in their life. I was quite sad when I read in Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? that Mindy really looked up to Amy and Will's relationship since I read Yes, Please first and Amy talks about their divorce. With the good, comes the bad and each book has some interesting life lessons. They also made me strangely aware and proud of my parents, because reading about other people's parents always reminds me of how lucky I am in that regard.

Reading about UCB and SNL were highlights for me as I am a huge fan of SNL and recently was able to go to New York and see some improv at the UCB theater there. It felt like getting a back stage pass to those things and I re-watched multiple SNL episodes and laughed twice as hard. I may have been biased toward Yes, Please because I was binge-watching Parks and Recreation at the time, which I would also highly recommend to anyone in need of some cheer in their life.

Overall  these are witty and wonderful books written by witty and wonderful people. I was trying to figure out a fair way to make a rating system for the books I read and I still don't know how it will fair with different genres or my weird opinions so for now I will just say a big YES to all three.
Next up: Aziz Ansari's book Modern Romance

Carolyn's books

My name is Carolyn. I'm 24, I work as a registered nurse and I am an avid reader. Occasionally I think things like  'I wish more people would read this so I can talk to them about it' or 'I wish I could remember if that book was good enough to re-read or  a once-is-enough kind of good'. It is these thoughts that made me decide I should keep some sort of record of  the books I read.

This blog is mostly for my own recollection of the books I read, but I hope to share it with some other book lovers who are looking for something new. I'll share a little bit about the book (trying not to spoil) and some personal thoughts.

WARNING:my taste is mostly fantasy novels but I'm willing to try anything if someone recommends it. Also, I tend to love almost everything so if you're looking for a  hard  critique you've come to the wrong place.

There is going to be some back-logging at the start of this.
I finally finished the wheel of time series by Robert Jordan around New Years which is when the idea first came that I should be documenting this. For those who might not know, this series is 14  monstrous books so finishing was like crossing the finish line at the end of running a marathon, and there was much dancing in the ballard household that day.

Since finishing the series I have been demolishing books at an incredible rate. So since the beginning of this year here are the books I've read and will be talking about in upcoming posts:

- Comedic celebrity books. I did a run of these including Bossy Pants by Tina Fey, Yes Please by Amy Poehler, Is Everybody Hanging Out Without Me by Mindy Kaling, and Modern Romance by Aziz Ansari

- The Fifth Season by N. K. Jenkins !!!! I'm really excited to talk about this one!!!!!

-When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead

-The Alchemyst by Michael Scott (not the one from The office, but could you imagine?)

- and books turned movies including Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones, A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson, Stardust by Neil Gaiman and  The Princess Bride by William Goldman (which I will probably talk about first since I'm reading As You Wish by Cary Elwes currently)

So that's what we have to look forward to in the coming weeks! I can't wait to begin!


Note: I'm doing this from my phone and it is making it impossible to italicize things so I'm incredibly sorry to anyone I may offend for not italicizing the titles of all of these books.