#saw those dad cacao frames and

[arts-of-berdengguhit]

I can't help it 😂

[sawthefaeriequeen]

6, 14, 17, 20, 21, 35, 36!

6: Which book was the last one youreally, really loved?

Answered here!

14: Name a book where the movie/tvadaption actually was better than the original

 Ohhhh, I turned this over in my head a lot — Howl’s MovingCastle? But I liked that as much as theoriginal! It doesn’t count! Stardust? But I only read a little of the bookbecause I couldn’t connect with it! It’s not a fair comparison!

Then I remembered Stand By Me (adaptation of Stephen King’sThe Body) existed and all bets were off the table. :D

Don’t get me wrong, the book was good – I think Stephen Kingis a great writer even though I am a chicken and have read a grand total of twoof his books.  It’s good in a gritty,end-of-summery way and I loved his sensory prose. But the thing is it’s very muchframed as an older guy looking back at a time long gone.  There are jarring moments where Gordie  (main character) drops little bombs inadvance ala Death in Book Thief,  like“Teddy, what a crazy kid, man. Oh, by the way? He didn’t make it very far inlife. Anyway, on to the story of  ouradventure…”

And that’s okay! That’s how some stories are told! I justprefer how the movie told this story,where the four boys’ adventure is front and center, where you can watchchildhood innocence being lost’ as it’shappening, and  you don’t have theretrospective view of older!Gordie.

Another thing, the movie is a lot more, well, tender with  the characters.  They’re a lot more demonstrative andaffectionate with each other. The book-to-movie transition of the characterswas pretty faithful (and all the kids’ acting is so good!), except they madeGordie more fragile and introverted. Which actually served the story better. Because it’s so much moresatisfying , then, that the movie makes Gordie more proactive, and changes itup so that it’s he who saves the day and saves Chris (aka the gallant tough-guyBFF who is the one in this role, in the book).

I think the very last one is why I prefer the movie,honestly. Even Stephen King said “wow, I should’ve thought of that!” when hesaw it.

17: If you owned a bookshop whatwould you call it?

Lol, probably a bad pun with my name in it. I mean, justlook at my Goodreads name.

20: Bestsummer read?

Hah, so Ihave this unapologetic thing for contemporary YA summer books. I unabashedlylove Sarah Dessen (especially the books that take place in the beach town,Colby), and the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (although not the last one,which made the old, crinnge-y mistake of thinking ‘adult’ meant dark and miserable).

I alsopicked up The Unexpected Everything by Morgan Matson last year because she wasdoing a signing here and I figured, eh why not. I’m really glad I did becausethat book had all the ingredients for my ideal summer book which were 1) girl goingsoul-searching and finding fulfillment, 2) romance I can get invested in, withactually-lovable nerd love interest  4)All sorts of shenanigans that make you wish you were right there, and 4) FRIENDSHIP – a strong group of lady friends,and a couple of guy friends too (and her love interest gets seamlessly integratedin the friend group, which was particularly delightful!), 5) Strong familybonding. # 5 was particularly nice in thisbook because usually, in the Summer Books, they only come to anunderstanding with their Estranged Family Member* at the end of the story. Here,she and her dad start actively repairing their relationship almost midwaythrough the book, and it’s great.  

*there isalmost always one!

21: Best winter read?

Oooh, okay, so I lovewinter books because obviously I live in a place without any snow at all. Sogrowing up, everything about wintery settings seem like a completely magicaluniverse* to me and I always devoured the obligatory ‘snow books’ thatcame in Sweet Valley, Baby-Sitters Club, American Girl etc. I mean, my favoritechildhood coloring book was one about the Arctic Circle.

Anyway, my favorite of those was The Bobbsey Twins At Snow Lodge. Such a delightfulwish-fulfillment  book, that one.  Some of the highlights:

1)     The obligatory mystery was set in this tiny cozycabin battered by snowstorms and the twins all had to spend Christmas there! Mybb id was so pleased at all the loving descriptions of wind howling and crazycold snow falling because in tiny!me’s head, they were sort of like the typhoons we get all the time, except excitinglydifferent.

2)     Of course, by the awesomeness of coincidence,their two cousins had to get away from their parents for Christmas too, becausePlot Reasons, and the Bobbseys are only too glad to take them in. “We can havea cousin Christmas!” I played with my cousins almost every weekend at thattime, and I thought that was most excellent.

3)     Copious and charming descriptions of hotchocolate, of a grandfatherly guy who drove an actual sleigh around town givingpresents to children, of having dress-up parties because there was nothing todo (and I loved that, because we did that too!), of a secret undergroundpassage that of course was  connected to the cabin, and of an oldfashioned Christmas where you had to hand-makeyour presents for your loved ones. I was so charmed.

4)     Back to the hot chocolate, because seriously. Inone of the scenes where the twins are fighting a sudden snowstorm to get backto their  cabin (which was another thing that pleased my tiny id.Because parents totally let their 7-12 year old children go boating and hikingby themselves all the time, yup) theyhave to take a break and so they take shelter under a convenient tree. And oneof the cousins whips out a freaking chocolate bar and melts snow  using a thermos and a convenient lighter andmakes hot chocolate right then and there for all of them to enjoy. I was all D:D: D: hot chocolate that wasn’t Milo or chocolate balls (which, cacaofarming  is/was a thriving business in myhometown )?! What sorcery is this?!

(And um yes, at some point I tried that trick with a candleand a chocolate bar. It did not work and I was Sad.)

*even the Madeleine L’Engle one where Vicky is trapped on anisland in Antarctica! And that one Sweet Valley where they have to fight forsurvival in an ice cave! And the one where the Baby-sitters are getting creepedby a stalker in a ski lodge. Because hey, I always I knew they’d survive and atleast it wasn’t happening to me.

35: Name a book you consider to beterribly underrated

Answered here!

 36: Name a book you consider to beterribly overrated

It kind of pains me to say, but whatI’ve read of the Lynburn books by Sarah Rees-Brennan.

 I wanted to like it! Her Demon series totally appealed me on a viscerallevel with its characters and the relationships between them (even though I willbe the first to admit that it’s really flawed as well). And the Lynburn series was set in a mysterious town with a spooky old house to be investigated –  it had a similar setting to so many adventurebooks I loved as a kid and a teen; it shouldhave been catnip to me.

 And yet I felt lie SR  was trying TOO much to pile the quirk andWhedon-esque dialogue on, to the point that they piled and piled and thecharacters did NOT feel like characters to me. They felt like caricatures. And therewere all the yay-ain’t-I-clever moments that threw me out of the story becausethat can’t possibly be realistic – likethe scene where the dad leaves her with Jared (who he doesn’t even know) in her room and all Dad can sayis wisecrack, wisecrack, wisecrack and he leaves them both for the night? Sorrybut no way an Asian parent is ever gonna act like that, EVER, no matter howcool they are.

 The thing that also really annoyedme is, it seems she gave all the big, juicy flaws to her male characters, andher female characters were just ‘quirkily nosy’ and ‘quirkily misanthropic ’but omg love them! Love them! Please love them, they’re awesome because I sayso! Eyeroll.  Just…eh, lady, do you nottrust me to love a girl character with huge flaws?

 Lastly, I quit in the second book becauseI kept seeing exchanges like this, which… say what you will about MaggieStiefvater, but she is still way better at writing a realistic woke teenager.For example, I like that scene where Blue tells off the condescending old guy (withAdam quietly supporting) because her dialogue doesn’t seem to me so darn contrivedand Tumblr-post-perfect as SR’s above. Those scenes were all over the place and they just threw me out of the book. As in, I stopped reading.

 And okay, people love this series alot, maybe for the same reasons I dislike what I’ve read of it. That’s cool . Ijust get a bit bristly when it’s touted as soooo much better than herprevious  one, because for me, sometimesless is more.

[robins-s0ngbird]

hes not amused in the slightest btw

I can't help it 😂