Magic in the Kingdom

I am so glad I finally got around to reading Kingdom Keepers: Disney After Dark by Ridley Pearson! I, being a self-diagnosed Disneyphile, love any and all things Disney related, none so much as Walt Disney World itself. This book, while a work of fiction, relied heavily on several little-known truths about Walt Disney World, the Magic Kingdom in particular. For example, the book takes you into the Utilidors, a system of tunnels that runs underneath the Magic Kingdom. These Utilidors are not typically seen by park guests unless you take a special tour. These Utilidors play a very important role in the book. If you are, like me, interested in all things Disney, I think this book would be a fun read for you.

Oops!

I meant to update this yesterday when I only had one book to write about, but now I've finished two books without writing a word! First up, we have Bad Moon Rising by Sherrilyn Kenyon. This is more or less the sequel to Acheron which was a huge book and a little hard to get through. There was just so much backstory that I thought I'd never finish it! Not so with Bad Moon Rising this books plot was more straight forward and to the point. It was much easier to get through and I enjoyed it a lot more. However, I have to say I enjoyed this next book even more: The Glass House by Rachel Caine. It is the first book in the Morganville Vampires series. In Morganville, Texas the vampires run the town. If you are a human, you are either protected by them or you are prey. What makes it even more fun is that Morganville is a college town, so there are lots of tasty co-eds for the vampires to feed on. The university actually lets the vampires have a set number of students each year. The majority of the town is extremely screwed up, and trusting anyone is always a risk. I look forward to learning even more about this crazy town in the next book.

Elephants Never Forget

I'm surprised to be able to say that the movie and book Water for Elephants are very similar. There are a few differences, but for the most part the movie makers stayed pretty faithful to the book. The most notable difference is the absence of the character of Uncle Al in the movie. (It is my understanding that they combined Uncle Al and August into one character for the movie). The book also interspersed present day happenings with flashbacks, while the movie stayed in the flashback once it had started. I was impressed with how faithful the movie makers were to the book. There is one small (and I feel important) plot point in the book that is not mentioned in the movie, but I will not reveal that here because I'm not a fan of posting spoilers! I loved the book. I thought it was fantastic! I also loved the movie. I can't wait to add it to my home movie collection.

I also feel the need to tell you that "The Stack" has multiplied into several stacks. There are 70 books in total, ten in each stack. I really need to stop getting books and read what I have!

Guilty Pleasure

I read through Stephenie Meyer's Official Illustrated Guide quite quickly. It is amazing to me how much thought she put into the history of all of these characters. Characters that might have only appeared in one chapter of The Twilight Saga had completely realized backstories. It was really interesting to read about her thought process and how each character was connected. I really wish I could do something like that. So, now that the guilty pleasure is out of the way I've begun reading Water for Elephants. Yes, I've seen the movie, but I really wanted to read the book anyway. I've only read the prologue and the very beginning of the first chapter, but I can already tell a few differences. We'll see just how much they changed.

Selfish, Self-Centered People

I knew what Something Borrowed was about before I picked it up. However, I could not anticipate how much I would dislike nearly every character in the entire book. Most of them are immature and self-centered hypocrites. Two sets of best friends, both of them incredibly disfunctional. I have to say, the character I hated the most was Darcy. She was incredibly manipulative and the biggest hyprocrite of all. I cannot stand those women who constantly try to "one-up" their friends. The kind who only take and never give. They are the women who are selfish, but are thoroughly convinced that their very giving friend is actually the selfish one. I have personal experience with people like this, so I have to say I took Darcy's behavior to heart. I truly felt that Darcy and Dexter did not need to be together, but I also felt that Rachel should never have gone down the path she did with Dexter. Dexter should have been man enough to end things with Darcy before he ever started anything with Rachel. It just made me absolutely crazy!!

Up next for me is something I've been waiting on for quite awhile,The Twilight Saga: The Official Illustrated Guide. Oh yes! Time to immerse myself in one of my favorite guilty pleasures!

Heroes and Gods

It's no surpise that I zoomed through through The Lost Hero with relative ease. Rick Riordan's books are always engaging, and I always read them quickly. The Lost Hero begins shortly after the end of The Last Olympian, the final book in the Percy Jackson & the Olympians series. At the conclusion of The Last Olympian a dangerous prophecy is revealed. This book begins the journey that will see this prophecy fulfilled. In The Lost Hero we quickly discover that Percy has disappeared. Three new demigods have appeared at Camp Half-Blood and they must complete a quest to save Hera, the Queen of the gods, before the world is thrown into even greater chaos. In The Lost Hero, we join Jason, Piper, and Leo on this quest and discover that this quest will solve only part of the problem. An even bigger and more dangerous quest awaits. A quest that will require the skills of the seven greatest demigods of the age. Will they unite and save the world as they know it? Or will age-old feuds destroy this quest before it even begins? With an author like Rick Riordan, I guarantee the answers will come in interesting and unexpected ways. I can't wait unitl The Son of Neptune is released this fall.

Next book, Something Borrowed by Emily Giffin. I'm only two chapters in and it's already a sordid mess of adultery and guilt.

Yay for Readable Classics!

Classic literature and I don't always get along (i.e. Jane Austen), however, I am happy to announce that I read The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald and actually enjoyed it. On another high note, it also only took me days to read. (This post is a little late since I actually finished the book Friday evening). I found the book to be nicely paced and not overly long. Somtimes I feel authors write a little too much. (Suzanne Collins, I'm talking to you. Mockingjay didn't need to be that long). While the book in no way has a happy ending, I didn't feel let down as is sometimes the case with a tragic ending. Every character was flawed, but could not see past their own gratification and self-preservation. Perhaps Nick was a little more concerned with others than the rest, but he too had his flaws.
My husband finally finished reading The Lost Hero by Rick Riordan, so I am now reading that. I think he finally finished it because the next Rick Riordan book comes out this week. My husband always gets to read new Rick Riordan books first, per his request. I wish it were the other way around because I finish books a lot faster than he does. However, I let him have it because there's not too many books he actually enjoys reading.