Favorite Sci-Fi Book

Since we're reading a sci-fi book this week, Timeline by Crichton, we're telling you our favorite sci-fi book.

Mine is really a sci-fi series that I like, but with sci-fi, that's not uncommon.  The very first book in the series is called Stardoc.  Cherijo is a doctor, who, throughout the series spends time traveling the galaxy, healing people.  She also happens to be a clone with a super immune system and is running from her father/creator.

There's a lot of adventures and twists and turns and secrets revealed, and while each book COULD be read alone (I started on book three inadvertently and got through it without much problem), they really should be read in the series that they are.

That's a photo from my wedding, y'all. I think that demonstrates that yes, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy qualifies as my favorite sci-fi book. (This particular copy was mutilated in the name of holding our rings... totally worth the sacrifice.)

Beyond the usability as a prop in my nuptials, it's a great series. If you like British humour and non sequiturs and weird little side plots and you have an open mind about the state of things in the universe, it's perfect for you.

Some of the Best Time Travel

You should be warned now:  I'm 26 days out from my wedding, so probably a lot of my posts are going to be like today's.  Fun, easy, lists.

That being said, our favorites this week have nothing to do with time travel, and I know we both have favorite time travel books, so I'm just going to list a few of the best right here.

The Time Traveler's Wife

This story is so wonderful and heartbreaking and, despite the fact that time travel is a fantastical thing, it wasn't a fantastical book.  Niffenegger makes it seem like anyone could be a time traveler, could pop in and out of your life just like that.  Henry and Clare's love and their story is just so incredible, you can't help but love this book.

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Ok, so the first one isn't really about time travel, but the subsequent stories are.  The third book has the most, where they travel back in time to help with a war, though that wasn't their original intent.  The whole "Trilogy" (it has six books) is fun and sarcastic and very dry humor.  It's a great series, and pretty much loved by Alex.

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children

This book was recently thrown onto my radar, and my little sister actually gave it to me.  It's a fun story about a kid who grew up listening to stories about fantastical children who could do things like fly and life thousands of pounds with one hand.  His grandfather even showed him pictures.  Despite eventually disbelieving these things, our main character ends up stepping through a portal and FINDING these children.  It's a fun mix of time travel, real life, and fantasy with some old fashioned photos thrown in.

Kindred

I read this book in a class about Octavia Butler.  That's pretty much where I learned to love her.  Kindred was the first I read, about a woman who was constantly sent back in time, to try and make sure that everything went smoothly and she was, well, born.  It's an amazing story about life and family and slavery.  Definitely something I would recommend.

What are some of your favorite time travel books?

Author Bio - Michael Crichton

This week, we're reading Timeline by Michael Crichton (whose name I can never seem to spell correctly.)  Let's face it, if anyone has been alive in the last 20 years, you know who Michael Crichton is.

The book he's most well-known for is Jurassic Park, a number one selling book and movie (which... unfortunately, didn't stop at one movie, but that's certainly not CRICHTON'S fault.)  I'm not going to go into finite detail here about his life, because, well, you can find information on him literally anywhere on the internet.

Instead, I'm just going to share with you the facts that I really like.

• He thought that a teacher was purposely giving him bad grades in college, so he turned in an essay by George Orwell, which received a B-
• He got a degree in Biological Anthropology, then became a doctor, but after getting his MD, decided he didn't want to practice.
• Almost all of his first 11 books were actually published under pseudonyms.  Andromeda Strain, ironically the most successful, was the only one he published under his real name.
• He is the only person to have a number one movie (Jurassic Park), a number one television show (ER) and a number one book (Disclosure), all be number one at the same time.

Sadly, Crichton passed away in 2008, after about a year long battle with cancer.  He was only 66 years old.

Review Me Twice - For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide by Ntozake Shange

This week, Alex chose us a play, which I like.  Plays are a little different than our usual pick and they can be really fun.

Ok, so I didn't like READING For Colored Girls.  It was confusing and hard to follow and no one had names, they had colors, which is a little hard to keep track of when you're reading.  It's also a lot harder to imagine faces.  The whole title of this play is, For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When The Rainbow Is Enuf.  And all the woman in the play are wearing a color of the rainbow, which I think is cool.  But, again, not helpful when reading.

This play is very visual, so that's why I'm telling you not to read the play.  That's right, I am telling you NOT to read something.  Go SEE the play, or at least watch the movie that they made out of the play, which I did, and it WAS very good.  It was powerful and moving and made your heartbreak and showed you all the social commentary that Shange was trying to convey.

It's a WONDERFUL play, and I think it's very well done, you just don't get nearly as much out of it if you read the play.

I enjoyed this a lot more than I thought I would. After learning about Ntozake Shange and what a passionate activist she is (which is great, you should fight for what you believe in, but usually those types of people make okay writers at best, because they're too focused on the message, not the story) I was concerned, but she tells great stories in this play.

I actually liked the colors-instead-of-names bit. I like that it makes the characters more of an everyman (everywoman, I guess) and I'm terrible at keeping track of characters' names when reading anyway, so it was helpful to me.

However, I do agree with Cassy that this play is probably better watched than read. I know that Ntozake Shange liked the movie version (the Tyler Perry one) but she said she wasn't sure she'd call it a finished movie... just something to keep in mind if you choose the film over the live version.

What is a Choreopoem?

According to Wikipedia (and all her librarian colleagues groaned collectively) a choreopoem is "a form of dramatic expression that combines poetry and dance."

Sort of like this, I guess.

This week's author, Ntozake Shange, created the term in 1975 to describe this week's review book, For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf.

For Colored Girls... has been performed on Broadway and off Broadway, plus adapted for television and film. It was nominated for a Tony in 1977 for Best Play.

For Colored Girls... is performed by seven women,
each identified by the color they're wearing.

So the format of choreopoem seems to be the sort of thing you have to see to get. (Expect to hear more about that in my review tomorrow.) You can write all the stage directions and visual descriptions you want, but a choreopoem - like a play or a screenplay - is meant to be seen.

Favorite Bad Book

This week, our favorite has absolutely nothing to do with the book we're reviewing this week.   We're just doing it because we think it's fun. :)

Modelland is the best worst book I have ever read in my life.  The plot line is terrible (about girls striving to be super models in a super special city in the clouds where they get super powers.)  The names are ridiculous.  Tookie, Myrrcle, Exodus, Katoocha, and Sinndeesi are just a few of the names in this book.  

Tyra also beats you over the head with her messages.  Don't share your makeup, love your mother no matter what, plain can be beautiful.  I mean, it's insane.

But you know what?  Yes, it's a horrible book.  I mean, it's awful and probably one of the worst books tht I've ever read.  But it's one of those books that SO BAD, it comes back around to being good again.  It's good because it's SO HILARIOUSLY BAD.  And how could it not be, with lines like, "You begin your mornings staring at the fog, longing for the fateful evening when it will turn a golden yellow and then, finally, like a push-up brassiere, lift."

And book trailers like this:

Is it fair for me to choose a book I haven't read in its entirety? No, probably not. But I'm going to do it anyway.

I know; I'm a hypocrite. I tell people to read the popular crap before they diss it, but this one is a fair exception. The protagonist talks to herself... like, a lot. There are so many lines dripping with cheese, I'm surprised each copy isn't shrink-wrapped to protect the other books unfortunate enough to be shelved near it.

I want to be entirely clear... I have no problems whatsoever with the story. Okay, from what I understand, Ana is an idiot. But other than that, it's basically nothing but BDSM scenes, right? And that's fine. I just wish they were well-written BDSM scenes. Or well-written scenes of any kind. These books have actually done some damage to the BDSM community, and for that reason alone, I dislike them. (Don't you think they have enough problems with society at large being judgy?)

I've read enough pages of this book to know that I will never pick it up and read through it, and it certainly belongs on my list of "books to recommend to people you hate."

Why You Should Watch The Movie

This week, we're reading For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide by Ntozake Shange.  It's a play that we read, but you'll hear more about that later.

Today, I'm here to tell you, watch the movie.  Now, that may be counter-intuitive since this is a book blog and we, pretty much always, recommend the book before we'll ever recommend the movie.  But plays are a horse of a different color.

Plays are meant to be watched.  They're written to be watched and there is so much more than you can glean from a play if you watch it being acted.  When you read a play, all you're really reading are the lines.  When play writers write plays, I'm sure they have SOME sort of vision when they write (and you can see hints of that vision in the stage directing), but the point of the play is for it to be interpreted by the actors and the director and the set makers.

If you've ever read a play, you'll notice that they're short (certain bards excluded, of course), for the most part, and that's because it's nothing but lines.  Nothing but the dialogue.  And this allows you to get multiple interpretations of the same thing.  And they're all right.

Shakespeare is the fastest example on reimaginings.  10 Things I Hate About You?  Shakespeare (The Taming of the Shrew).  West Side Story?  Also Shakespeare (Romeo and Juliet.  I had Clueless on here earlier, but that's not Shakespeare, as was pointed out to me by one of our readers! Thanks, Artie Moffa).  They have all been repurposed and reimagined and repackaged.

Plays can also be a little hard to understand if you don't have the visual to go with it.  Plays are MEANT to have the visual, so sometimes, the dialogue itself doesn't give up what you need it to.

So, go ahead.  Watch the movie.  It's the only time I'm going to tell you to do so.