Hocus Pocus & The All New Sequel - Reshelved Books

Hello Dewey Readers!

There is nothing better than the movie Hocus Pocus.  It's 90s nostalgia at it's very best.  BUT the one thing that might even come close to being better than the movie is the book.  

Hocus Pocus & The All New Sequel is JUST like the movie.  Yes you read that right.  I am super excited that the book (based off the movie) is just like the movie.  It's like the movie is playing in my head right down to the dialogue and I am in love with it.  But while I was loving part 1, I became worried.  Would I love the "all new sequel"?     

I didn't.  An that's why this review has taken me so long to type. This is also why you are now reading a witchy book review at the very end of November.  While I devoured part 1, part 2 left me bored.  In fact, it left me so bored that I put down this book and read a few others in between. 3.5 others to be exact.  

So why didn't I love it?  Really it's mainly because I don't know what I read.  Hocus Pocus part 1 (and the movie) set the bar incredibly high.  I really don't know what I read in part 2 or why I finished it.  I guess I just wanted it to count in my GoodReads 2018 challenge.  

So Dewey Readers, my advice to you: read part 1, but don't other with part 2. I give it 2.5 out of 5 Coffee Beans.  

Until the next read!
~Jessica 

Someone like You and That Summer (How to Deal) by Sarah Dessen- Reshelved Books

I know... I know... 

Ya’ll can say it: “Jillian, you were doing so well for the last two weeks with posting every Saturday about a book and it’s moving!” and I would have to agree.  I was impressing myself! Which is why, I’m feverishly writing this to get it up from the stroke of midnight meaning that it would be Sunday. 

Aye!

This week we have a movie from the early 2000s! When I was a tween... (gosh that feels like a million years ago).

How to Deal is the movie this is being reviewed next to the, not one but TWO books that inspired it, That Summer and Someone Like You both of which are written by Sarah Dessen. 

I happened to be talking to my sister last week about these two books. She made a good point, between the two of us, at one point we had almost every book Dessen had written. About four years ago on my Goodreads, I gave these two books stars and saidthat I had read them. I don’t remember reading them. Even while reading them, I could not recall...

Someone Like You focuses on 15 year old Halley, her friend Scarlett and her budding relationship with Macon and the change in the relationship with her mother. 
That Summer tells the story about Haven (also 15 years old), how she’s coping with her father getting remarried, her sister’s marriage and how she reflects on a summer from so many years ago. 

In true form, Dessen focuses and discusses real life issues.  Dessen is really good (in my humble opinion) at handing the reader relatable topics. 
I think that every teenager out there has faced that shift in the relationship with their parents from sharing everything to wanting to be left alone. Every teenager has felt like they know better (even when you don’t have enough life experience yet). 

In Someone Like You, Halley went from telling her mother everything, to telling her nothing and wanting to make her own decisions because she felt she knew best. 
In That Summer, Haven was still looking for her mother’s guidance until the end, when she kinda had a nervous breakdown. (I did not like Haven. She was okay in the beginning but as the story went on, I was turned off to her character. She became whining and child-like. She started out as being naïve but then she digressed). 

I can totally see and understand why the movie writer(s) mashed the two up. It was fun to see that take.  I want to say that How to Deal focused more on Someone Like You and less on That Summer.  Yes, Ashley and Lewis were from That Summer (as was Haven's father and Lorna Queen BUT Halley's father was the radio DJ). 
Halley was the main character, unlike the book Halley, movie Halley had a sister, Ashley (this was Haven’s sister in the book.) I feel like Someone Like You’s charactes were used in the setting for That Summer. If that makes any sense at all. 

Now for the moment of truth! My ratings. 

Someone Like You gets 4 coffee beans out of 5. 
That Summer gets 3.5 coffee beans out of 5.
How to Deal gets 4 popcorn kernels out of 5.

- Jillian

Simon vs. The Homo Sapien Agenda (Love, Simon) by Becky Albertalli- Reshelved Books

Helloooooo.

So, last week we learned that Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist was a movie I had seen but a book that I had not read.

This week I'm focusing on the book and the movie that made me think of doing this book and it's movie month.

Drum roll please.... 

*drum roll*

Simon vs. The Homo Sapien Agenda and it's accompanying movie Love, Simon!

Guys... this movie was very cute!  My supervisor at work suggested that I watch the movie because as she said "it's cute".  She did not lie, the movie was very cute. (We have already established that though, didn't we?)

A few months ago, the book had come through as a donation.  I grabbed the donation, where it lived in my desk for some time before I actually had the availability to read it. 

For Simon, I followed the universal rule of reading the book before watching the movie. (Which is totally worth it). 

In Simon vs. The Homo Sapien Agenda, Simon has a secret, that he's not ready to share yet, he's gay.  Simon, under the pen name "Jacques", confides to another student at his high school, "Blue".  Simon doesn't know who Blue is and at first, he's okay with that.  As time goes on, he starts to develop feelings for Blue and protecting who he is, is becoming harder. 

In a twist of events, Simon is outed by one of his classmates.  His outing threatens the relationship that he has developed with Blue- especially once Blue puts two and two together. 

The book brings to light real issues, there wasn't anything that was sugarcoated. You could feel Simon’s emotions. The book was about more than what I’m typing out here now. I think it’s important to mention that. 

Love, Simon stayed pretty close to the content of the book.  There were a few differences- the biggest on that I found was that in the movie, Simon had one sister and in the book, he has two...

I must say, Albertalli did a great job of keeping me guessing and wondering who Blue was!  I was following Simon and I was totally agreeing with who he thought they might be.  I never would have ever guessed who it actually was! (No, I will not be giving the spoiler here). 

Book: 4 out of 5 coffee beans!
Movie: 4 out of 5 popcorn kernels!

I liked both the book and the movie.  I would definitely recommend them :) 

~ Jillian

Every Breath by Nicholas Sparks - Reshelved Books

Hello Dewey Readers!  

At least the book is kind of pretty.

I usually adore Nicholas Sparks novels.  Who doesn't like a romance novel every now and then that could make even the coldest of hearts believe in love?  So I was super excited to get my hands on Sparks' latest novel Every Breath.

What a disappointment it was.  

This novel follows the story of two people who fell in love over the course of a couple days.  Hope, from North Carolina, is having relationship troubles with this man the she's been with for 6 years.  She wants to get married and have kids, while Tru is from Zimbabwe.  He has a son and is now sterile due to a complication from an illness.  They live in different countries, and Hope wants kids so their romance ends.  

Or does it?

Eh.  You can probably can guess what happened and how the story ends.   

I used to feel like I was immersed inside the the text of Sparks' novels.  I DEVOURED At First Sight, The Best of Me, The Choice, etc.  With those novels I felt like I was with the characters.  The writing style of Every Breath lacked this quality and I became bored with it. 

So Dewey Readers, I leave you with  a rating of 1.5 out of 5 Coffee Beans.

Until the next read!
~Jessica 

P.S.  The epilogue left me with weird stalker vibes from the narrator (who may be Sparks? I skimmed through it.)  Did anyone else feel this way?

Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan- Reshelved Books

I'm kicking off my book to movie adaptation month is...

Let us all ignore the fingerprints on my iPad. 'Kay? Thanks!

Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist!!! (Which I am sure that you have gathered from the title)

This book, originally published in 2006 was turned into a movie in 2008.  The storyline follows two teenagers, Nick and Norah, over the course of 1 night in NYC- where they navigate the city and their feelings for one and another. (You guys, I remember when this movie came out! I lived for this movie.  I remember when VH1 did a special on the movie before it came out.)

When I thought about doing this theme, it occurred to me that while this is one of my favorite movies, I never have read the book.  (I've read and watched both Naomi and Ely's No Kiss List though!)

I would say that you should always ALWAYS read the book first and then go see the movie.  Sometimes, when you see the movie before reading the book, the book doesn't live up to your expectations.  (If you're with me on this, raise your hands!).

Having waited ten plus years to read the book... after seeing the movie COUNTLESS AMOUNTS OF TIMES- I hate to say this... I feel like a traitor... I LIKE THE MOVIE BETTER!!!

 :((((

I'm going to be honest and it kills me to write this but... 
If I had read the book first, I probably wouldn't have gone to see the movie ><

What can I say? Reading the book, I was envisioning and imagining how Nick (Michael Cera) and Norah (Kat Dennings) were in the movie.  It just did not compare.  No way, no how. 

They took some stuff from the book changed it and rearranged it around.

What was weird was that they had flipped how Nick and Norah ended up getting together for the movie.  I didn't realize it at first, even when I read it (!), I automatically was re-playing the movie in my head.

Dev in the book is Thom in the movie.
A lot of what Norah said in the movie, was said by Nick in the book. 

Yes, it is rather cool to see how the book influenced a new and different take in the form of the movie. 

I liked how Caroline, Thom and Dev were more involved in the movie. Their characters had more lines and more interactions. Even though, it was a little trippy to see their lines all flipped around.  It was fun to see their adventure around NYC looking for Where’s Fluffy? too. Only a few scenes from the book seem like they were used in the movie. Book Norah didn’t mind sharing who her father was. Unlike movie Norah, who didn’t want anyone to know.  

Book Norah though...?  She was crazy and not in a good way.  I would describe it as psycho crazy. 
Book Nick though was very true to movie Nick. At least, I thought he was. haha. 

Because we love to be original here with our ratings...

I give the movie Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist 5 popcorn kernels out of five!!
I give the book Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist 2 coffee beans out of 5 :(

Come back next weekend for the next book to movie adaptation! 

~ JMB

Carrie by Stephen King - Reshelved Books

Hello Dewey Readers!

It's the end of October. (Okay, it ended yesterday.  I forgot to post).  The end of the month of witches, goblins, and ghouls, scary movies, and horror novels.  This October, I decided to give the horror genre a try with Stephen King's Carrie.  

Carrie is about a girl with telekinetic powers triggered by stress and a crazy religious mother who is quite psychotic.  In the novel, Carrie gets her period at 17.  Her mother never told her anything about menstruation (apparently the school didn't either), which lead to a very embarrassing event during gym class.  Carrie even grew up thinking that tampons were lipstick blotters. Anyway, throw in a prom, a contest for prom queen and king, a bucket a pigs blood, and a fire that destroys the town all on prom night, and you get Carrie.    

I was disappointed that this particular example of "horror" was not as scary as I thought it would be.  It wasn't terrifying, it was just dark.  However, I was immersed in the story and read it pretty fast.  I liked how King told the story from different POV's, and included segments of research papers and thesis about Carrie and here telekinetic energy within the novel to tell the story of the town as a whole.  

I'd give it 4 out of 5 Coffee Beans, and because it wasn't scary I'll be giving it to my grandma to read as well.

Until the next book!
~Jessica