Book #2 Game of Thrones: Need I say More?

So, as some of you may know I am slightly obsessed with "Game of Thrones."  Maybe you don't know this, but I am sure you will find out soon enough.  I love Game of Thrones, the HBO TV Show, and "Game of Thrones" the book by George R.R. Martin.  I mean, I became so excited about this TV show that I contacted some form of a producer/director/manager of the TV series to see if I could become an extra -- unfortunately only people with an international insurance number (aka Brits) are only allowed to be extras.  But I am fairly certain that if it weren't for my nationality, I'd be all up on the TV show as an extra!

First of all, this is one of those rare combinations of book meets TV show where it works.  It follows the plot, the characters don't deviate from the descriptions in the book, and the blood, gore and sex you see in the TV show are actually described in the book.  I was kind of surprised by this because there is a lot of raunchy stuff.  It's even more descriptive in the book than the show.  (Oh and just FYI I saw the show before I read the book.)

As with many book to TV show productions, there are some things left out.  For example, in the book you get a lot better read on the character Bran.  The book better describes his thoughts and desires.  It's a hard thing to communicate on TV, however, the actor portraying him and the crew involved in production, still manage to do a phenomenal job.

The only other major difference in the book versus the TV show (that is currently in mind) is that the characters in the book are a lot younger.  The character of Daenerys Targaryen is supposed to be a 13 year old girl, and when she becomes pregnant it is on her 14th name day; however, I am sure due to a lot of legal reasons and disturbances to the general public, you can't watch on TV a 13 year old girl go through what is essentially (initially rape), and being beaten and molested by her brother.   Even though they don't show this on the TV show, you do watch her character evolve into a woman and a strong Kaleesi.  (In general, the children on the show are older, with a few exceptions.)

That is one of the reasons why the book and the TV show work so well - the character development is believable, and it's really interesting to see how certain characters (like Tyrion Lannister) react to certain situations.  It's not necessarily what you would consider a "normal human reaction," i.e., when The Kingslayer pushes an 8 year old boy out of a tall castle window.  Tyrion Lannister is probably my favorite character in both the book and the show, because he is to some extent an underdog.  But he is so fucking smart and manipulative, it is fun to watch and read about.  He is clever, like most of the Lannister family, but he isn't necessarily evil.  However, I've only read book one, so I'm not sure how the war will affect his personality.

The other thing that I really love about this book is that it is not a difficult read; it's really long, but the language used isn't so convoluted and embellished like you find with some fantasy novels. Another enjoyable aspect is that there are characters that you find yourself despising.  A good book always has someone that the reader dislikes; that is one thing that really torments me and disturbs my reading habit.  If there is a character that I don't like and I think they are being really stupid, I get frustrated and stop reading.  I think overall the book took me something like 2 weeks to finish, so the time frame isn't too bad.  It would probably vary depending on your reading habits.

I hope you all enjoy and check out this book.  If you have little impressionables, don't watch the TV show with them!

Read on!
-Jackie

#GeorgeRRMartin #gameofthrones

What Not To Read

So as most of you know, vampires are everywhere.  EVERYWHERE!  Of course not in real life, I mean on the shelf.  The shelf of a bookstore the shelf of a movie store--vampires have officially taken over main topic events, and while sometimes it works I find it often does not.  Especially when you read a vampire novel that has been translated from another language.

Now you have to understand I didn't choose this book (what book you ask? well you will find out).  It was left in my apartment's "free book" book shelf.  The cover and the title caught my eye, so I thought, hey, why not?  "Let Me In" (aka "Let The Right One In") sounds like it could be a good book about something, and on the cover there are two kids, holding hands looking towards the woods standing in snow.  For some reason it didn't dawn on me that this would be a vampire book.  Mainly because most vampire books are about sex and stuff.  Is this one?  I don't know, I didn't finish it.

Here is why this book doesn't work.  It is translated from it's original language, Swedish, to English.  Whenever you translate a book of course there are going to be misunderstandings; however, there have been many novels translated from one language to another and have been translated well - this just isn't.  Whenever I read a book I read it for enjoyment.  As soon as I find myself with a pen in my hand, scratching out words and rewriting the sentences in the correct tense, I realize it's time to give up.

Another reason why this doesn't work is because it's slightly disturbing.  I mean, I get it.  It's hard to put in a shock and awe factor in today's modern, fucked up society, BUT that doesn't mean you should be gross and write about messed up things.  Try being creative instead of writing about how this 12 year old boy hates life so much he imagines himself killing people (it's with fleshy details).  I got to Chapter "Friday" before I gave up and decided I didn't need this.

If this sounds interesting to you, go ahead and read it.  Maybe let me know how it goes, but I'm fairly certain it loses a lot in translation.

Book # 1 in 2013: This is How You Lose Her

I've decided this year that I am going to try harder to write a review on each book that I read (which should also help me keep track of how many I've read and what they are about), and I realize could potentially be a lot of writing.  However, I need the practice and the discipline, and to be able to follow through with one of my thousands of writing projects/ideas.  That being said, some of these may be really sloppy until I figure out a good rhythm and how to write a solid book review.

This is a review of Junot Diaz's book "This Is How You Lose Her."  Junot Diaz is best known for his novel, "The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao," which I've not read, but have heard good things about.

Anyway, as you may have guessed, "This Is How You Loser Her" is about how Yunior, the main character of the story, loses the love of his life.  Yunior is Dominican, moved to the states as a child, and grew up in the United States' Dominican culture.  It is written in a semi-autobiographical form, although I don't think it is necessarily a reflection of Junot's biography.  (In fact, I know nothing about Junot Diaz.)  The book begins with the author expressing the idea that all Dominican men are the same, they have this "gene" that ends up ruining relationships, because they can't help themselves but to love and fuck women.  The story then continues with small stories and interludes of events in his life that possibly influenced his behavior.  At times we see Yunior through the eyes of the women he is sleeping with, which brings a really interesting perspective.

If you don't have a good grasp of the Spanish language, I don't recommend reading this because Junot code switches throughout the entire book (code switching is when you use one or more words of one language throughout your dominant language.  For example, if you use Espanol in a sentence like this, esta es considered "code switching").

This book overall is really interesting; however, it takes about 100 pages before you can really get into the story.  I felt like when this book started to get good was when it was finished, but that is probably just the writing and artistic style of this particular author.

Why not give it a read, it's relatively short and easy to get through if you have few days off.  It took me four days of off and on reading.

Enjoy!

Oh, also if you have any feedback of what you would like to see in book reviews in the future, that would be great.