Sunday, March 31, 2013

My Bollywood Indulgence: Movie Review of Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi

This movie was watched on March 25, 2013.

An interesting thing happened a week ago. I was browsing through Netflix and decided to take a hiatus from my watching standard American movies and instead journeyed to the obscure "Bollywood" corner of Netflix. Clicking through the list of foreign films,  I quickly scanned the titles and synopsis looking for a light movie to watch until I could fall asleep. As luck would have it, I stumbled onto what has now become one of my favorite movies of all time, Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi 

Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi is a movie that stars famed Bollywood actor, Shah Rukh Khan. Khan plays a geeky man named, Surinder Sahni who lives a mundane life working for a power company in Mumbai. By a luck of fate, he gets invited to the wedding of one of his old professors. At the wedding the mans meets the daughter who is named Taani. 

Taani who is played by Anushka Sharma is full of life and outgoing opposed to the awkward Surinder who watches her dance from the shadows as the pre-wedding party proceeds. Suddenly, all heck breaks lose ***SPOILER*** and the audience and bride to be finds out that the groom is not coming because he has been killed along with his family in a bus accident. The professor suffers from a heart attack and on his death bed ask Surinder to marry Taani so that he will know that his daughter is ok without him and both party's agree. From here, the movie gets realllly good.

Surinder and Tanni get married and of course Taani is heartbroken and Surinder is smitten with his new bride but, doesn't want to force her into loving him being he is such a gentle soul. In a twist of events, Surinder conjures up "Raj," a hip if not awkward alter-ego who he believes will impress Tanni and help her to heal her broken heart. Instantly, Raj becomes the third party in this loveless marriage and through him the action of the movie is transformed into a comedic rendition of a love affair gone wrong.


The thing I love about this movie is that it didn't go the way I was accustomed to in other films where somebody takes on an alter-ego and tricks their husband or wife. I initially thought Taani would be upset at Surinder for tricking her. However, she saw this as the ultimate showing of love. This twist had me sitting up going whaaaat?!? really?!? Which is definitely a good thing since most movies sort of stick to a preconceived script.

In addition to this, Khan was phenomenal as both Surinder and Raj. If I compared the two characters I couldn't even recognize that the two men were played by the same actor until I looked up the movie. However, in retrospect it was weird that the cosmetic elements (i.e., blonde highlights) that the makeup team used to turn Surinder into Raj could be so easily hidden by the character in the actual movie when he went home to his wife as Surinder. This was one point that urked me but, the acting more than made up for it.

 Sharma was also amazing. I've seen her act in another Bollywood film entitled, Band Baaja Baarat and her role in this film differed with her being more emotional in her acting for Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi. As Taani, Sharma embodied a woman who had experience lost thoroughly. Nonetheless, the director's choice to give her a love of dancing seemed premature in her current state of being in mourning for her ex.

Overall, I give this movie 5 stars. I'd definitely recommend this film to anybody who wants a feel good, goofy film to watch.

Saturday, March 30, 2013

April To Be Read (TBR) Pile

This Thursday I returned to the more practical way of sedating my book buying habit a.k.a I got a library card. Therefore, my TBR pile for this month is going to be extremely packed.

These are the books I plan to read in April:

1. The Spook Who Sat By The Door by Sam Greenlee: I'm currently doing a project for one of my graduate classes about this book and need to finish reading this book ASAP.


2. Mr. Potter by Jamaica Kincaid: This book happens to be one that was assigned to me for another one of my classes and takes priority over my would be pleasure reading.
Random fact: I bought this book off Thiftbooks and when I opened up my copy, I found that it was signed. I thought that was the coolest thing ever.

3. The End of Your Life Book Club by Will Schwab: I've had this on my TBR pile for a while and just recently picked it up at my local library.
4. The Iron King by Julie Kagawa: I saw this book on someone's BookTube wrap up video on YouTube and thought I'd give it a try since I'm a sucker for love and a good magical realm setting. Hopefully this book will live up to its hype.

5. Mr. Penumbra's 24 Hour Bookstore by Roban Sloan: so....yeah, I picked this book up on my last book binge and started reading it in March only to put it down once my homework beckoned me. Interestingly enough, I put it down on my dresser and when I put it there and turned off lights to go to sleep it started glowing. Needless to say, guess who was freaked out...

I picked this book up after seeing it in a bookstore and hearing other BookTubers rave about it. So far it's good.
6. All Roads Lead to Austen: A Year-long Journey with Jane by Amy Smith: I've been wanting to read this book since forever.  I'm a massive travel lit fan and saw this and wanted however, my local bookstore didn't have it so I got it off Amazon when I bought my school books and had money left over. I'm uber pumped for this book.

Whelp, these are the books I have "planned" for April but, I might pick up some more along the way since it is my \^0^/ birthday month!!!!!!

With Brothers Like This, Who Needs Boyfriends: A Series Review of The Mortal Instruments by Cassandra Clare

I finished reading the first two books sometime in February 2013.

I gave the City of Bones 5 stars and City of Ashes 4.5 stars. I am currently reading City of Glass.


Sooooooo...this book review is going to be a general review of what I think about the series so far.

Things I Like About The Series:

1. Cassandra Clare's description of the Shadowhunters' world is phenomenal. We're talking kickbutt, over the top action, in-depth mythology, jaw dropping magical realm, coo-koo villains type of good. Clare makes her characters believable if not annoying. I never felt as if she was stretching the reality of her world too far to a point where it was like,"ummmmm...okay if you say so, I guess portals can be opened in the sky and weird crap can reign down on Earth." Her writing style really makes you feel like this magical world she created exist somewhere.

2. Two words: Magnus. Bane. The way that Clare integrates today's social issues into her novels didn't feel preachy nor, unrealistic. I knew that Magnus's character was a fiercely fashionable warlock and I was totally okay with that. His dialogue in the novel was sarcastic and witty and added life in places where the novel could have easily turned into a constant battle loop. I especially looked forward to hearing what outfit this warlock had thrown together for each random adventure the Shadowhunter crew went on.

3. Clare integrated so many supernatural characters into her novel I couldn't even keep up. The way she used the creatures (i.e., werewolves, demons, demon hunters, etc.) was fresh and exciting as well. Often times, this genre of YA gets saturated with the same type of storylines and for Clare to pick up these time worn archetypes and dust them off and breathe new life into them left me seriously impressed. I was especially in love with Luke and his ragtag gang of werewolves.

4. The fact that these novels aren't written from a dystopian point of view sent me into a gleeful dance...seriously how many ways are authors and film directors going to imagine our end? The creation by Clare of a world that is slotted into ours made me pretty excited and interested at what would happen next.

Now.....

Things I AB-SO-LUTE-LY ABHORRED About This Series:

1. How many time can Clary fall in love with her brother or someone who is supposed to be her brother? I seriously need her to be given a portable family tree so that she can know who is and who isn't her family so she can stop exchanging saliva with her brothers. smh Even if her brothers/psuedo-brothers are extra fwine incest is still disgusting. Clary seriously just needs to find a nice werewolf or vampire and settle down away from the Shadowhunter men....speaking of Clary...

2. Once again...smh...Clary's character is seriously one of the more annoying female leads that I've seen in YA. In the beginning, I was totally rooting for her but somewhere between the second book's end and the third book's beginning, I became frustrated with her outside of her above mentioned tendency. It seems to me like Clary suffers from "helpless syndrome," an affliction that gets handed to pretty female characters who really have no real weight in stories except to be the damsel in distress and get thrown around the story by authors to drive books' action. Clary's character needs to be schooled in Shadowhunting 101 or giving training in her new "gift" so that she can be made useful instead of forcing everybody into uncomfortable situations with her helplessness since she needs to be rescued every few chapters.

3. I sometimes feel as if Clare is dragging certain things out and could skim a good 100/200 pages from each novel. There are times when I have to refrain from skipping ahead due to Clare's longwindedness.

4. Valentine's character probes a question I've always had about men who become evil dictators. At what point in these men's rise to power do their followers/society not realize...hmmm...this man is a psycho? I swear Valentine's back story made me skeptical that absolutely NO one saw the telltale signs that this man was fifty shades of cray. Even Jace defends his "father" to a fault causing me to want to shake him and yell, "WAKE-UP!, HE IS CRAAAAAAAZY!"...But, I digress.

Love it or Hate it, Clare's depiction of life as a shadowhunter is totally making me want to dig into the back of my closet and pull out my black hoodie along with my black converse and ride into the night to hunt demons...ok maybe just ride on over to my local Half Price Bookstore but, still, I totally love this series.

Sidenote: How many city's are in the Shadowhunter world?

The Question of Polygamy:A Book Review On "Changes: A Love Story" by Ama Ata Aidoo

This book was finished on March 15, 2013.

I gave this book a 4.5 stars.

I found that this novel was a lesson in love for me. Aidoo presents us with the story of Esi, a Ghanain woman who has been thoroughly educated about the world but, not about love.

Esi's character reads like a modern soap opera about a woman who has grown tired of her neat marriage and has started to crave adventure even though Esi herself labels this longing as a desire to not be under the thumb of any man especially, her husband, Oko who she sees as a mama's boy who is looking for a maid opposed to a wife. To rectify this conundrum, Esi decides that she will separate from her husband to live the life that she has always wanted. However, while living this life, she finds a new love interests in Ali, a devout Muslim man who offers her the chance to be his second wife after their torrid love affair. From here many emotional and social problems commence.


Aidoo writes a novel that is full of cultural nods toward the ever present battle between European and African civilizations. Thankfully, none of these nods come off as preachy or as being blatant PSA's on what the "White man has done to us." This novel shapes up to be an intellectual version of chick lit. Well written and persuasive at some points, the novel gives the reader a look into a modern Africa that is not often talked about. The novel is good for anyone who wants to expand their horizons into a broader sphere of world literature without becoming too overwhelmed. I would definitely recommend this novel to anyone who wants a chance to look at postcolonial African cultures or just wants a different type of beach read.



Sadness Between The Pages: A Book Review For "The Fault In Our Stars" by John Green

This book was finished on March 12, 2013.

I give The Fault In Our Stars a solid 3 stars

I'd like to preface this review with the disclaimer that I do not mean to be jerky however, my feelings in this review come from a place of wonderment at the state of emotion that come from bringing certain topics up in our society.

That being said, something that I find so interesting about stories that deal with illnesses is that they seem to skirt the issues of being sick and the "perks" that terminally ill people seem to receive. However, John Green stands stoically in his authorship and calls us all out on our bull****.

Both, Augustus and Hazel are made into optimistic if not angsty teenagers who are speeding toward oblivion furiously reaching out for a lifeline to keep them tethered to this world. While,I respect Green's writing style and story, I found that the characters themselves are not entirely new to literature. Hazel becomes the symbolic character that gets left behind once her boyfriend gets spirited off (no pun intended) to the after world and Augustus is the character who dies before his time. Together, their story while cute in some spots and heart-wrenchingly sad in others is not one that was fresh enough for me to fall down in total awe upon it's ending.

Yet, I can say that I was enticed by the idea that two people could go on this sort of journey together to excavate a story's ending from their favorite author half-way across the world. Green produces this adventure in a way that's so realistic that I found myself seriously thunderstruck when I got to the scene where Peter Van Houten denies these two cancer-ridden teenagers their last grand "wish." At this point in the story, I came to the conclusion that maybe what people like Augustus and Hazel really need is not so much our pity for them but, our understanding that they are really just individuals who are just like their "healthy" contemporaries who are searching for life's answers. Therefore, the one thing that seriously struck me in this novel is that people like Augustus and Hazel are no different than you or I. Like us, their death is inevitable. However, unlike us, they have a ballpark figure of when their final days are going to draw to a close.

Overall, I found the book to be an interesting and funny read with a light romance laced throughout the plot. I would recommend the book to others as a conversation starter but, not as a book that needs to be continuously read to understand it.

Reading Fairy Tales As An Adult: Book Review For "Cinder" by Marissa Meyer

 This book was actually finished on March 27, 2013

I gave this novel 5 stars! Cinder was EVERYTHING!

You know how you see certain books in other people's reviews and just side-eye the book and think, "really?... how old are you again? Fairy tales are for kids!" Yeah...This was one of those times where I was totally wrong!


******SPOILER******Cinder's story starts two centuries into the future after Earth has gone threw a destructive Fourth World War and the world is broken into new factions known as The Earthen Nations and their enemy, Luna a.k.a "The Moon."In what we would now consider to be Asia, Cinder, a cyborg girl lives in New Beijing and works as a mechanic. Orphaned at a young age and lacking a sufficient memory of her childhood, she is adopted by the Linh family and taken in as their third daughter. However, once her stepfather dies after falling ill with the Leutomitis Plague, Cinder's life becomes a fictional Hell. Not knowing who she really is, Cinder lives life as an outcast and her stepmother's personal verbal punching bag. Yet, things start to look up one day when the Prince of the Eastern Commonwealth (a.k.a Asia) stops by her mechanic booth and gets her to fix his droid. From there, the fun begins. Love sparks start flying and secrets become the backdrop to a kick butt storyline.

Things that I enjoyed about this story:
1. Marissa Meyer seems to have thoroughly thought out what pieces of the Cinderella fairytale she would use to create her story. Instead of just extracting the whole tale, Meyer takes what she needs and leaves the rest of the tale alone. Her story never feels as if it was written between the lines of the Grimm brother's fairytale or in between the scenes of the Disney film adaptation. Meyer's story takes on a life of its own standing in the forefront in a saturated genre of literature where most stories have already been re-written to death. Her characters are well thought out and so is her setting for the story. Which brings me to point #2...

2. The setting of Meyer's story made me extremely happy due to me not really being a fan of dystopian novels. I always feel as if dystopian writers are trying to prove something when they write about worlds that have gone wrong in their quest for perfection/one country dominance/etc.. Yet, Meyers makes me feel as if this world has naturally evolved even though she makes it clear that their was once a war that took place. Unlike her contemporaries though, she doesn't force the issue of gore and death or other bad things upon the reader.

3. The technology in this novel was so cool! I really felt like the portscreens were really just amped up smart phones and this made me a little giddy about where technology might go in the future (LOL I know...how very nerdy of me). Cinder's BFF/Sidekick was one of my favorite characters. Iko, a humorous droid kept me laughing continuously whenever she oogled over the Prince or did some other human-like thing to cheer her buddy.Also, the ball scene where Cinder drives the car through New Beijing's streets seriously amused me. LMBO It was like a slight PSA about what'll happen if we don't learn to clean-up our Earth and recycle and all that Jazz.

4. The ending was also my favorite part of the novel besides the ball scene when Cinder danced with the Prince/Emperor. ***SPOILER***The fact that Cinder is ended with her in jail makes me giddy at what's going to happen next. I always feel like the best stories end with the character in a hard place.

Overall, Cinder was an excellent read. That I am glad that I picked up. I am now a true believer that fairy tales are not just for kids.

Book Review For Scarlet by Marissa Meyer

I gave this book 3.75 stars...Yeah, I know I shouldn't have been so harsh but, the book lover in me couldn't let certain details of the story fall by the wayside.


The premise of Scarlet is interesting and promising however, Marissa Meyer seems to be trying to either a) give too much detail on Scarlet's search for her grandmother or b) have added too much fluff along this storyline. When reading Scarlet's part of the novel I found myself wrestling not to skip ahead to the next chapter.

*****SPOILER***** The fact that she spends most of the time looking for her grandmother yet, there was no actual action until half-way through the novel was problematic for me. I understand that the Wolf pack let her father go to "warn" her/string her along but, the whole idea that no harm would fall on her until 3 weeks later is a little sketchy to me. Which brings me to my next problem with this story...Wolf.

Wolf's character was hot and cold for me. I loved the parts of his personality that were somewhat childlike and curious however, when he got to the point where he became less transparent with Scarlet and started to back away/fall into her advances I became frustrated. Meyer's formation of this character lacked something on this front because, I felt as if Wolf was holding back from the reader. To rectify this issue in further installments, I would suggest Meyer's give Wolf his own chapters so the reader can hear his thoughts and understand his motives first hand instead of through Scarlet's point of view.

Unlike, Cinder and Kai, Scarlet and Wolf's romance while somewhat adorable and promising did not cause me to be emotionally invested in what was happening to them like when I read Cinder and Kai's story. With Scarlet and Wolf I found myself yelling at them (mostly Scarlet) to get it together! Scarlet's mind seemed to be one tracked and outside of that, her likeability as a character was a few notches lower than what I'd give Cinder due to her not really getting a back story outside of the "privileged kid abandoned by divorced parents who gets sent to live with her grandma in the country then has to grow a pair to rescue said grandma from the bad guys" storyline. Usually, when a character's loved one gets taken, you understand their motives but, in this novel I felt as if Scarlet was just searching for her grandma because she had nothing else to do.

I really love Melissa Meyer's creation of Cinder and Scarlet's world and can't wait til Cress and Winter come out. I personally hope Meyer's gives Thorne and Wolf more speaking chapters so that I can get to know them better.

Predictions:
1. I am convinced that the girl who talked to Cinder in the first book through D-COMM is actually the Dr.'s daughter who is also made Thaumaturge Sybil's slave. I think she is Cress and the next novel will follow her on Lunar and show her interacting more with Cinder.

2.I really want Cinder to apprehend an Earthen satellite or even just a netfeed to broadcast to the Earthen nations that she is really Princess Selene. I feel like her doing this BEFORE Queen Levana and Emperor Kai's wedding would totally shake things up a bit and add some kick to the next novel.

Lastly, is anybody else wondering how long it's going to take Kai to figure out who Cinder actually is? I swear something should have clicked in his head 350 pages ago why Queen Levana really wants Cinder. I mean seriously why hasn't she asked for any other Lunar to be returned to her. GET IT TOGETHER KAI!