My Friday Favorites [15]

It's Friday! Now that the weekend is here [woohoo], it's time to step back and reflect on all of my favorite things this week. From music, food, books, movies, and everything else in between, there's a bunch of reasons why my week was made better. Those little things that brought a smile to my face. Every Friday, I'll be sharing My Friday Favorites in a quick list format. Links will be provided.  

Note: If you'd like to join in, please link posts to Dog-Eared & Bookmarked.

Adding my own twist to the Friday Five. Instead of making these weekly posts all about books, I'm going to do TWO separate list's of five. The first one will be book related, and the second one will be miscellaneous. Each week the five prompts will remain the same.
 

Book: The Host by Stephenie Meyer
Author: Stephenie Meyer
Cover: The Elite by Kiera Cass
Character: Melanie via The Host by Stephenie Meyer
Boy: Jared via The Host by Stephenie Meyer

Song: Just Give Me A Reason by Pink feat. Nick Ruess
Movie: Les Miserables
Quote: “When life offers you a dream so far beyond any of your expectations, it's not reasonable to grieve when it comes to an end.” - Twilight, Stephenie Meyer

Veronica Roth and the 'Romantic Gesture'

A couple of days ago, Veronica Roth took to the YA Highway blog (which she shares with fellow YA writers) to talk about romantic gestures. As an English Major, and a mega fan of Pride and Prejudice... especially this movie adaption, I am so excited she chose it to talk about.

A Different Kind of Romantic Gesture by Veronica Roth:

Recently, while discussing the Pride and Prejudice movie of 2005 (Keira Knightley-style), one YA Highwayer brought up this moment as one of her favorite almost-kiss moments ever (and I agreed):

I mean, come on. The silhouettes of their faces are showing up against THE RISING SUN. They're sharing air and they look pretty happy about it. It's beautiful, I don't care what version of Pride and Prejudice is your favorite.

This got me thinking, though, about how important specific gestures are to romantic scenes, whether they're "this romance is building" scenes or "this romance is about to explode into major smooches/sexytimes" scenes. One of my college professors said that a writer's job is to make the reader experience a familiar thing as if for the first time, and this is especially relevant during romance. Almost all people have experienced a kiss before, even if it's just from your Aunt Mildred or something, so we all know what it feels like, and it can be easy to feel disconnected from the word "kissed," or phrases like "their lips pressed together," just because they're so familiar. These phrases are so common as to be almost negligible, which means the reader's eyes might float right over them like they don't exist.

First, let's examine what some of these gestures...all from P&P adaptations, just for fun:

(stills from here.)

Those stills are from the first time Darcy touches Elizabeth-- to help her up a step. This is early in their relationship, when she's not feeling particularly warm toward him and (from what I can recall) he's probably starting to like her, given what happens with his hand in that second panel. I remember watching this moment in the theater and getting a weird chill when their hands met, and another one when he stretches out his fingers afterward, like he can't believe he just touched her. That second moment was a little bit weird, unexpected-- it made the first moment more powerful, because it suggests an emotional impact as well as physical contact.

Veronica went on to discuss the modern take of P&P: The Lizzie Bennet Diaries which you can read at YA Highway

This was originally posted at my Divergent blog The Faction Four

My Divergent Soundtrack (inspired for the movie)

So, I worked on this for a really long time.... There's no rhythm or reason to the songs matching up perfectly to the book, or to exact scenes. As soon as I reread Divergent, and everything is fresh in my head, I'll go back over this playlist and see if I want to change things up.

For now, these are the songs I think would be good in the movie. I tried to place them in an order that flowed, so make sure to listen to it from beginning to end!!!
 

Just a fan having some fun while waiting for more details on the movie. If you'd like to follow my Divergent blog go here: The Faction Four

Waiting On [55]: "Detergent" by Veronica Roth

"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted by Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.

Title: Untitled (Divergent #3)
Author: Veronica Roth
Publisher: Harper Collins Children's Books
Release Date: October 22, 2013 

What if your whole world was a lie?What if a single revelation—like a single choice—changed everything?What if love and loyalty made you do things you never expected?

The explosive conclusion to Veronica Roth’s #1 New York Times bestselling Divergent trilogy reveals the secrets of the dystopian world that has captivated millions of readers in Divergent and Insurgent.
(Goodreads)

I'm a huge fan of Veronica Roth's dystopian series, Divergent, so I'm impatiently waiting  for the third (and final) book in the series to be released!

Top Ten [49]: Books Read Before I Was A Blogger

Created by: The Broke and the Bookish

If you are fond of lists, especially Top 10 lists, this feature is the one to go with! Every week, the lovely ladies over at The Broke and the Bookish post a topic of their choice. Participating bloggers are asked to list their top 10's. I like to participate whenever I can. I love this idea, and often go a little crazy with adding 15, even 20 in my posts. Hehe!

This week's topic is: Top Ten Favorite Books I Read Before I Was A Blogger: Before I started blogging, I was a huge adult fiction reader, romance reader, etc., I didn't start reading YA until after I watched Twilight. After that, I bought the Saga, and everything changed in my life.

Pictures Only / Links Below

Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen, The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks, Twilight by Stephenie Meyer, A Walk to Remember by Nicholas Sparks, Sarah's Window by Janice Graham  Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, Bet Me by Jennifer Cruise, Dance With Me by Luanne Rice, Sunset Embrace by Sandra Brown, Catch of the Day by Marcia Evanick, Dancing in the Dark by Sandra Marton, The Iron King by Julie Kagawa

Hiya! It's Monday, so this is what I'm reading...

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? Is brought to you, every Monday, by:   

One Person's Journey Through a World of Books

Heya Bloggers! It's Monday, how many of us are slagging and wishing for an IV coffee hookup? I always dread starting a new week. Who doesn't, right? It's the beginning of a new work week, or school week, or just a suck week altogether. One of the things I have that keeps me going is books. Without books I think I'd die. Maybe that's dramatic... yeah, not so much! 

To start off this week, I'm sharing my current read, past read, and my future read! 

Currently Reading  |  Just Finished Reading |  Planning To Read

Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl is really good! I liked that it's in Ethan's point-of-view. A nice change-up from always hearing from the female perspective.

Beautiful Darkness the next book in the Caster Chronicles' series is off to a good start. I'm only about 5 chapters in, but Ethan's voice is just as lovely as before.

And, Beautiful Chaos the third book in the series is lined up waiting once I finish Beautiful Darkness.

What books are you reading, already read, and planning on reading? Make sure to tell me in the comments.

Remember, reading is sexy. At least Rob thinks so. *wink wink*

Disclaimer: the pic used [above] is not made by me [here].
Also, it was taken from the movie Remember Me starring Robert Pattinson.

Have you seen Pitch Perfect? Check this!

I know I'm pretty biased here, but I can honestly say this is the CUTEST "Cups" cover I've ever seen!

My ten year-old niece, Kaylee, had been practicing her version of "Cups" from the movie Pitch Perfect, without any of us knowing. Today, when they came over for a visit, she pulled out her cup and said she wanted to show us something. After she started, I stopped her and made her do it again with me capturing it on video.

Here she is!

Isn't this adorable?!

Here's the original to compare it to: