A Series of Unfortunate Events

Image: mvlteenvoice.com

I've read most of the books in A Series of Unfortunate Events as well as seen the movie version starring Jim Carrey. The movie had its issues so I was really looking forward to seeing how the Netflix series stacked up.

The first season was available yesterday, and since it was only eight episodes long, I watched the entire thing. What follows are some of my thoughts, including some spoilers so if you haven't seen it yet, don't read any further!

I honestly loved this series. Neil Patrick Harris was brilliant as Count Olaf. He had the perfect air of ridiculous and menacing that is in the books. The children were also perfectly cast and the supporting characters were all great as well.

I've read some reviews that says it's too dark, too morbid and too unfortunate. I read one review that was unhappy that the story is actually a series of unfortunate events the Baudelaire children go through which seems odd to me since it's right in the title.

It's gothic and dark, but so were the books. I didn't watch it with my daughter, but I wouldn't have a problem with her watching it. Yes, there is death and murder, but none of it is gory. Usually the dead person is either not shown, or is taken away rather quickly. 

There is bits of humor, here and there. Patrick Warburton's deadpan portrayal of Lemony Snicket adds a lot and of course, the outrageous behavior of Count Olaf's acting troupe / henchmen lighten the darkness.

The biggest surprise I found was the short bits showing a mother and a father. We aren't told who they are until near the end of the season. They bring hope but it is dashed away, sadly. But as we are told often in each episode, this is not a happy story.

All in all, this show is all I had wanted the movie to be. Each book is presented in two episodes which gives plenty of time to explore the story fully. The movie tried to cram three books in and it felt rushed.

I'd highly recommend A Series of Unfortunate Events to fans of the books and fans of gothic misery!

Bring Reading Rainbow To All Kids!

Image: Wikipedia

Levar Burton loomed large in my childhood. I watched him as Kunte Kinte in Roots and adored him as Geordi in Star Trek: The Next Generation. But it was Reading Rainbow that really shaped my young life.

I loved Reading Rainbow and it really helped foster my love of reading. Though I do have to give my parents, especially my dad, some credit because my dad had a half a dozen bookshelves in our house and was always reading.

But I have fond memories of watching and learning from Reading Rainbow. I was always excited when a book I owned was featured on the show and sometimes I asked for my parents to get other books that I saw there.

I've been trying to instill a love of reading in Emily. We read books every night and generally several times during the day. She's starting to learn to read herself which is great.

I have heard of the Reading Rainbow app, but never got it because Emily was pretty small when I heard about it the first time. We have watched a few of the old Reading Rainbow episodes on Amazon Prime. We started at the beginning and they were fun but really dated.

Emily, like the rest of her generation, is very tech savvy. She is able to use my phone, tablet and video games better than I can sometimes. And she is a very early reader at this point. But she loves the story apps we do have right now. Right now we don't have the Reading Rainbow app because I just got a tablet in the last week.

When I saw the Kickstarter to bring Reading Rainbow to all kids, I had to back it. A lot of people felt the same way because it reached it's goal in less than 24 hours. I think it's a great cause to back because so many kids aren't exposed to books and reading like they should be. And the best part is giving Reading Rainbow to schools in need for free!

I'm sure everyone has heard about this Kickstarter by now. But it makes my heart happy to think about having Reading Rainbow back. It was a big part of my childhood and hopefully it will do the same for Emily.

Happy Birthday J.R.R. Tolkien!

On this date in 1892, one of the most beloved authors of fantasy fiction was born. J.R.R. Tolkien and his books have fans of all ages that are all over the world. But I have a personal reason for being a fan of Tolkien and his books.

As a young child, I would sit on the arm my dad’s chair as he would read to me from J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings. It was my first taste of fantasy and I loved it. I think that was the start of my life as a geek as my love for Tolkien’s works haven’t diminished since I first heard them.

Today I'll be celebrating one of my favorite author's birth by watching the end of Fellowship of the Ring and the beginning of The Two Towers with Emily. She ended up watching part of Fellowship with me and she was fascinated by the Balrog. 

Happy Birthday J.R.R Tolkien and thank you for the gift you gave the world of Middle Earth!

The Book Club Cookbook

Swedish Meatballs

We like trying out new recipes in our house. My husband loves to cook and I love to bake, so we are always trying new things out. I’m also a big fan of books and have been a member of several book clubs in the past. The Book Club Cookbook by Judy Gelman and Vicki Levy Krupp, which is newly revised and updated, combines these two passions very well.

The Book Club Cookbook has recipes that work with or are actually featured in dozens of popular books. These books all have in common that they are often used as book club sections. In addition to the recipes, there is a brief synopsis of each book as well as little stories about different book clubs who used these recipes to make goodies for their meetings.

Irish Brown Soda Bread

Since it is a cookbook, my husband and I decided to each make one recipe. He picked the Swedish Meatballs from The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. The recipe was easy to follow and he was very pleased with how they turned out.

I picked Irish Brown Soda Bread from Angela’s Ashes.It was very easy to make because I just threw all of the ingredients into my Kitchenaid mixer. I did have to knead the bread a little and put it on a cookie sheet to bake. It was a great dipping bread for soup or veggie dip.

My husband and I have had a great time reading the anecdotes in this book as well as looking for new recipes to try out. I would recommend The Book Club Cookbook to anyone who is interested is trying out some recipes that are inspired by popular books.

Personalized Children’s Books

Image: http://www.chroniclebooks.com

When I was a kid, one of my favorite books was a personalized book. I don’t remember a lot of details about the story but I loved that it was a book about me. I do remember that the name of the dog in the book was Snoopy because we didn’t have any pets at the time and that was the name of my dad’s favorite fictional dog. I wish I still had the book because it was just so cool.

So I jumped at the chance to be able to do the same for my daughter. There are a couple of types of personalized books that My Chronicle books offers. One tells the story of a day in a life of a race car driver and another is the day in the life of a princess. There are other options as well like a fairy book and a pirate book. My daughter is very into princesses now, so I picked the princess book for her.

My daughter enjoyed the book a lot because it was about her. Because she is only five she didn’t pick up on some of the details in the story like how the book mentioned that her birthstone is the opal or how the name of her kingdom is the town that we live in. She did like that the princess was named after her and had purple hair, which is her favorite color. I think she’ll appreciate her story more when she is a little older and can read it herself.

You can learn more about these wonderful personalized books at My Chronicle Books’ website.

Note: I received a copy of this book  for review purposes.

Halloween 2013

Yesterday was my favorite Holiday of the year. We did a lot this year leading up to Halloween from trick or treating with our church to attending a couple of Halloween festivals. On Halloween, things were a little more laid back.

Last year, Emily threw up once the night before Halloween. She seemed fine but we decided caution was the best way to go so we kept her out of school. This year, luckily we didn’t have a repeat and she was able to go to school in costume.

We left for the mall to go trick or treating early so we could run some errands. We got to the mall earlier so Emily could spend the last of her birthday money. She got the Spike she wanted from Build A Bear Workshop. We had a little bit more time to kill so we went into Barnes and Noble to look at books.

Finally the appointed hour arrived and we made our way through the mall. Emily had picked one of the buckets she had gotten from McDonald’s last year and soon it was overflowing with candy. She also got to meet the Chick-Fil-A cow who was dressed as a fairy and get other things like stickers and pencils.

We were all pooped by the time we were done, so we got take out and headed home. Emily picked the Toy Story of Terror cartoon to watch before bed. I haven’t been sleeping well, so Todd and I watched some of the Roseanne Halloween specials instead of something scary.

It was a nice end to the Halloween season. Though I’m not going to take my Halloween decorations down until it’s time for the Christmas ones to go up since I just got them up last week!

Banned Book Week: Harry Potter and The Banned Book

I didn’t get into the Harry Potter books right away. I think I had heard about them but I didn’t get around to reading them until the next town over from my hometown banned them.

The fact that Zeeland, MI school system banned the Harry Potter books was big local news so my dad (who is a geek as well) picked up a copy of the first Harry Potter and got hooked.

We went on a family vacation to Arizona around that time and my dad brought Harry Potter with him. I started reading it then, and I became a Harry Potter fan at that point. My mom read them as well, and even my sister did, even though she didn’t like anything else remotely geeky.

I’m sure my family would have gotten into the Harry Potter series at some point, but I do think it’s funny that the reason we got into the series was because it was banned.

The Harry Potter series isn’t one of the top banned books, but it was the one that directly affected me. I thought it was silly that it was banned, but I’m glad I was able to get into the series at that point in time.