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

Ghosted by Rosie Walsh- Reshelved Books

Another review, another psychological thriller. 

Ugh. 

I firmly believe that this will be the last psychological thriller for me for a while. 

At the same time, I am a firm believer that every book I've been picking up lately HAS been a psychological thriller.

The psychological thriller in this review is "Ghosted" by Rosie Walsh.  "Ghosted" is her American Debut.  It did get good reviews on Goodreads and on Amazon. 

The cover on this book is sooooo pretty! It's flowy and the colors are beautiful.  The synopsis of the book had me interested in it. 

The book didn't live up to the synopsis. It just fell flat. 

Sarah Mackey is a 37 year old woman, who is recently separated.  She and her husband, Reuben had decided that it was best that if they ended their marriage and moved forward with their lives.  Every year around the beginning of June, Sarah flied back home to England to visit the site of a fatal accident. 

This time, her visit is different.  Sarah meets a man named Eddie David.  Eddie is sitting in the grass, playing with a sheep when Sarah approaches him. 

Sarah and Eddie hit it off immediately! They happen to go to a pub, where they drink cider and share chips. Sarah leaves with Eddie to spend the night and thus, begins a torrid affair between them that lasts for 7 days. 

On the seventh day, Eddie and Sarah part ways- Eddie is heading on a holiday with his friend and Sarah needs to return to San Francisco. 

Eddie is supposed to call Sarah from the airport but he never does. 

He just disappears into thin air. 

Sarah has been... ghosted...

Sarah firmly believes that something might have happened to Eddie.  That he just wouldn't have gone off and left, and not try to reach out and communicate with her. 

Like any 37 year old woman, Sarah decides that she is going to basically try and stalk Eddie, reach out to his friends and find out what the heck actually happened to him. 

Gah! NO. 

Just noooooooo.

No one wants to be ghosted but you can't just stalk people and be creepy.

Sarah's character was very pushy.  I didn't really care for her as a character for her personality. 

In a way, I felt like the story was a little disjointed?  There was an element of mystery, yes. There was also a component that was a love story...?  The ending wasn't like any other psychological thriller I've read before. 



With that, I give Ghosted 2 coffee beans out of 5.  

~ Jillian

Battle of the Book: The Lying Game by Ruth Ware

Hello all!

For our readers who are here in New Jersey, I hope everyone made it out of Winterstorm Quinn okay. 

I thought I would start a new series.... Battle of the Books. 
Jess and I will both be attending the "Spine Breakers" book club next week.  The book this month was The Lying Game (obviously, lol.)

Last week Jess posted a review on The Lying Game by Ruth Ware. She beat me to posting a new review! Which isn't hard to do when you have a million things going on and you only get sit down in front of your computer once a week.

I know that Jess and I usually read different genres but novels that have the same themes.  I thought though that it would be interesting for you guys to see what I thought of The Lying Game versus what Jess thought of the same book. 

You can check out Jess's review here. 

Unlike Jess, I hadn't heard much about this book prior to reading it.  I knew of two people (excluding her) who read the book and the opinions there this: one loved the book and the one hated it. 

Ware's story opens when someone finding a body. Very vague. Very creepy. 

The first character that we met is Isa Wilde, a lawyer and a new mother to a 6 month old baby girl, Freya. 

Isa receives a text message a three word text "I need you". It's not only Isa who gets this text, it's also Fatima and Thea.  
The person who sent the text is Kate. 
It's been FIFTEEN YEARS since these four women have spoken to each other. 

Fifteen years ago these four women were in a boarding school together - fifteen years ago these four women participated in something that you could easily say was criminal. 

Lies that they had spun and woven for the fifteen years are falling apart right before their eyes. 

When the girls were completing their fifth year at school, Ambrose Atagon (the art teacher, who is Kate's father) committed suicide.  No one at the time knows why he committed suicide.  What they do know is that private sketches of the girls done by Ambrose ended up in the hands of the head mistress at school. 

The actions from the night that Ambrose died, tied in with the sketches is what ultimately gets the girls kicked out. 

Ware spins a story that follows these 4 women as they navigate the past and their lies.  There are peaks, twists and turns. There is some confusion but the story does come together at the end.

My feelings on this book? I'm feeling neutral on it.  I didn't love it and I didn't hate it.  It was just there. 

I feel like the focus of the book is Isa. 

I did not like Isa. 

I didn't like how she canoodled with Luc! I didn't like how Luc took the baby! I didn't like her character; I left like she was whiny. I was impressed with the way that Ware was able to tie the story together at the end.  I left like there were a lot of different things happening (Luc and Isa is the perfect example!!) I personally don't feel like any strings were left undone....

I also didn't feel like the book was that much of a thriller. I thought it fell both short and flat on that. I wouldn't say that it was easy to figure out right away, but once all of the evidence was presented, you could definitely follow her thought process. 

I give this book 2 coffee beans out of 5 coffee beans. Sadly, there is no conflict between our reviews for our first battle of the book!

Stay tuned to see what next month might bring!

~ Jillian