Thought this book was really good. The twists and how the plot turns were written really well, and you could tell that a lot of research went into everything to make it all plausible.  Jack Reacher is ex-military, wandering around the country, and stops in a town right before everything in it becomes shit that hits the fan and he becomes a suspect for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. But he is able to work out the pieces with the police and figure out what’s going on.

But I thought the love portion of it was kind of crap. Would a police officer really get involved with a semi-suspect that quickly? And would they end up together for the duration of the book, like living together and everything?  I guess I am not that much of a love at first sight girl, but that just doesn’t seem likely. Also, I’ve noticed in books and movies (more so movies) that they have people fall in love really quickly because they just don’t seem to have enough time to plot out the ways people can fall for each other, so they make it happen very quickly, even though it kind of doesn’t make any sense. Which bothers me. I know I’m supposed to use movies and books to escape real life, but I still want it to be somewhat realistic!

I also liked that Jack Reacher always kind of knew what he was doing and what was going on. He was always in control, which might make it boring for some people, but I don’t always want to read about someone who’s flailing around because he has no idea what to do or what’s going on.

It also makes me laugh that in the books Reacher is described as quite tall and yet Tom Cruise is playing him in a movie. Wut?

Finally finished the whole series. Would not recommend reading these back to back. Or as an adult, because I got super sick of a lot of it. I started to skim the large paragraphs, mostly because they would just be telling of the past adventures of the Baudelaires that I had just recently read about.

Anyway, the story is of three children (Violet, Klaus, and Sunny) whose parents were killed in a fire, so they are sent to various guardians, starting with Count Olaf, who only wants them for their fortune. He’s found out, so they are sent to another guardian but Olaf is never far behind, disguising himself but always trying to get their recent guardian to give the children to him. None of the adults ever believe them when they say that they see Olaf, and at the end of every book he always gets away right when he’s found out.

As the series develops, questions arise about a secret organization his parents are involved in, but many of these questions never get answered. The ending in general was really disappointing to me (spoilers). Like, an island? Really? And then after a year they just leave the island? That’s it? Someone didn’t feel like answering the millions of questions he brought up in his books. That was especially annoying, like, I read all of these books and that’s what you give me? What happened to the Quagmire triplets? And what was with the two evil people with the hair? What happened to any of the people that were searching and sort of working with them? There was no real justice to Olaf or anything like that. I think the author might have wanted this to be a clue to kids about real life, because life isn’t fair and all that, but I wanted justice, danggit. 

Dexter’s married what!! Such a plothole too; wouldn’t Kyle be all, where’d my fancy pinky ring go? But I guess when you lose bits and pieces of yourself you forget things like rings. So he’s married and honeymooning in Paris with Rita, and they see an exhibition showing a women cutting off bits of her leg all the way to the bone and other grossness. Then they get back to Miami and there’s another crazy killer around who somehow figures out who Dexter is and what he does and comes after him. I like these books but they also get kind of repetitive after a while. Like, I get it, the moon speaks to you and is big. Thanks for telling me that again for the 80^th time.

The main thing that bothers me about these books (spoiler) is that every time someone finds out about Dexter they magically get killed by someone else and therefore cannot hinder Dexter anymore in his serial killing habits. Everything is always tidily fixed up so that Dexter is just given free reign. Doakes, Coulter, the killers, everyone. It makes everything way too simple. Think up a better ending! And Cody and Astor get kind of annoying as well, but I hate kids, so that might just be me.

This film tells you what’s up right away. The first scene shows two men roaming around a decidedly un-cabin like setting (officey?) talking about everyday things when the title screen blares into view. You’re shown right away that this is a set-up for the college kids going to the cabin, and it’s even hinted that everyone is being given a stereotypical part like in every horror movie. Dana is the shy virginal girl, Jules (who recently dyed her hair blonde) is the whore (get it, blonde=whore?????), Curt is the athlete, Marty is the obvious stoner, and Holden is the sensitive but (supposedly) hunkie guy for Dana.

They get to the cabin and partake in general young adult madness (including an intense make-out scene) until the cellar door blows open and then explore the bowels (ha) of the cabin, and this is where the horror-y fun begins. As this is all going on there are cut scenes going back to the two men, who are controlling what is going on and when. There are hints of the reason why these kids are in the cabin being controlled and then killed, but you don’t learn more until the end… This film is definitely worth checking out; it isn’t too scary, since for the most part you know what’s going on, but it still has plenty of blood and gore and one shot of boobs.

I really liked how this movie played with stereotypes of all the characters. Dana isn’t a virgin, but she was the most virgin-esque of the group, so she still fit the profile. Curt seemed like a big jock but was serious about school and an economy major or something like that. The stoner was the one who was able to see through the pot haze to figure out what was going on. And the different way the guys in the control room could change bits of the scenario to make the kids do what was according to plan, like the pheromone spray and the cellar door blasting open.

I almost wished that this had ended differently, with the world not ending (ps spoiler) so that there could be a Cabin in the Woods 2: Merman style. Or Cabin in the Woods 3: Clown Frenzy. And then it could be never-ending. Cabin in the Woods 4: Werewolf Mania.

God this book was terrible. So so sosososo bad. But I’m brunette, so that might be part of why I hated it so very much. That and it’s pointless and stupid. I tried reading Candace Bushnell before-I read Sex and the City and totally didn’t get it, but I figured it was one of those things where I was just too young to really comprehend it and I thought that I would understand this book better because I’m a wee bit older now. But it was still just horrible.

So there’s like four stories of different blondes who are basically useless blobs that try and use men and one claims to be a feminist because of it and it makes me want to maim her. It’s bad, don’t read it, unless you live in Suck City, Arizona, where reading it is probably mandatory.

I was so, so into this book until the very end, but I’ll get to that when I get to that.

I have no idea how to start this paragraph. Every time I start with something it ends up sounding like crap. But it’s the story of Rose, who at the age of nine comes home to her mother’s cooking and realizes she can taste the emotions through it of the person who made it. From this she realizes that her mother is incredibly sad, and has difficulty eating her food afterwards. From this special ability Rose can also decipher where the ingredients in food came from, like what state a potato came from, etc. So she gets an affinity to junk food, because since all that was made in factories without any human touch it doesn’t have any emotion. I probably suck at describing all this, but whatever. The concept was really interesting, and the way everything is described really can put the image in your head.

So I was with the book in all this. And then it just got too weird without sufficiently describing the weird enough for me to understand it. It turns out that Rose isn’t the only one in her family with special talents; she has another relative who could smell people the way she could taste them. Her brother also had a special talent, and this is where the book lost me. It turns out that he could vanish himself into furniture, which really, does not seem like anything I would really care to display as a talent. Unless you were a spy, I guess. Oh, that’s kind of a spoiler, bee tee dubs. Once the brother vanishes, it can take him a while to come back, but eventually he leaves and doesn’t come back. His parents are devastated, but realize they can’t do anything about it, or don’t try. The rest of the story is just Rose living her life until about the mid-twenties. She works, and the story ends with her becoming a cook. And that’s it. But I felt like the ending didn’t have a good conclusion. It was like someone started a sentence without finishing… I wanted something more concrete. But before that the book was great, and even with the not so great ending I would say that it’s a good and fairly fast read.

Three piece chicken basket with mac n cheese and a biscuit. And yes, I nibbled off the leg before I took the picture :)

Came here on a Wednesday around 6 and got seated right away. Ordered the chicken box with mac n cheese and a biscuit. Chicken was super juicy (they only gave one napkin when obviously 3 was needed). Mac n cheese was good as well, but tasted almost undercooked, but then I like my pasta rather mushy and not at all al dente, so that might just be me. Biscuit was huge and fluffy; I smeared a little honey on it at the end of my meal to turn it into a sort of dessert thing (was way too full to try the pies). We just got water with the meal, which was served lukewarm with no ice, I’m guessing because they expect people to get a proper drink with their meal. Service wasn’t bad, our server was nice and came around enough but not too much. It is a little pricy, but you do get a lot for your money, so it’s worth it every once in a while if you’re living the slightly over minimum wage dream like I am.

Breaking the waves

Oh, Lars von Trier. Loved Dancer in the Dark, HATED Dogville. Replace ‘ville’ with ‘shit’ and you’ve got how I feel about that film. I mainly just picked this to watch because my brain is like 25% teenage 15-year-old boy and if something has weird sex in it, I will be there to watch that shit. Hence my being drawn to this film. It starts out with Bess, who may be a bit off in the head, marrying Jan, and then they bone is some random room right after the wedding, which I don’t know if that’s some European tradition I’ve never heard about, but was kind of weird. Anyway, they live happily in sex-tastic matrimony until Jan has to go away to work, where he gets knocked in the head by some equipment (there wasn’t any sex going on here, so my brain was really only half-way there) and is paralyzed. (Oh, this has spoilers in it. Just in case you didn’t get that.) Bess is obviously uber upset, and then spends her time visiting him in the hospital. There he tells her to take other lovers so that with her extra love (generated by boning, apparently) can help heal him. So obviously the thing for her to do is become a prostitute (paid in love?) who goes around having sex with random men. Long story short (unlike this 2 and a half hour movie) she becomes uncomfortable with two men one night, runs out on them, wanders around with a bike, and then is stoned by random children ( kids can be so cruel). And then she dies and Jan can walk again.

Soooo yeah. I guess I’m not really sure how I feel about this film. It’s kind of grainy, which I know is Lars von Trier’s thing (I slept through a lot of my European cinema class, so I forget what it’s called), but I prefer to clearly see things I’m watching. And it was long, which I don’t do well with. The chapter bits drove me insane; they lasted forever and I kind of just fast forwarded through that. Emily Watson is great as Bess, I love her innocence throughout even though she’s doing things that don’t match up with the word. Basically Dogville ruined Trier for me so most every film of his I see now I’m going to judge harshly, watch once, then never watch again. If you’re really into European cinema, I would suggest you do the same.