10 down, none to go and it’s sad

Finished Forever Princess yesterday. Well, more like today, since it was already four in the morning. Don’t want SPOILERS, don’t go any further.

10th book of the Princess Diaries series is done and now I’m feeling sad. No more of Mia’s snarky and funny comments. No more Grandmére. No more Michael. But it was, in fact, one of the best out of the 10. My favorite, though, is still the undefeated champion Princess Mia, but this one is a close second. As it evolved toward the end, I couldn’t help but to fear my loving admiration for Meg Cabot growing scarcer. That was because she was making J.P., Mia’s boyfriend who is nothing but adorable, a complete phony just so her character Mia could have a good excuse for dumping him for Michael, who had just returned from Japan. This is what every lame author does when a circumstance such as that one arrives. But to my surprise, as the end got nearer I was flabbergasted to find that I, same as Mia, was completely blind and stupid about J.P. Meg Cabot has been writing him this way since he ever appeared on the story, she had been perfectly designing him that way. So that every move he made could be traced back and shown to us as a lie or an act in the end. And I was like, no way!

Meg Cabot is the first woman in the history of literature (that has come upon my way, anyway) who ever tricked not just her character, but the reader into falling in love with a character, but working it so well that we actually didn’t realize what a douche he, in fact, was. I was just as angry with J.P. as Mia. Not really, I believe I was angrier. He had fooled me too. How well did he do it too, by the way. I don’t know, maybe she only thought about making him a douche in the end, but she certainly made it so well it seemed like she had been planning it since the start. Which doesn’t in any way take any credit off her.

And, of course, it’s needless to say how perfect Michael was. It’s like he can’t help being perfect.

So now I’m going to start (re-start) the long-awaited Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy. Wish me luck!

“Anna read and understood, but it was unpleasant to read, that is to say, to follow the reflection of other people’s lives. She was too eager to live herself”

Most recent movie night

Just finished watching two movies. Brothers and Julie & Julia. Don’t want spoilers, don’t go any further.

I have to say I found Tobey Maguire sort of disturbing. In a good way, though. That means he did a very good job. Broke my heart. I just thought he could ease up on the buggy eyes, that was kinda too much I think. Jake Gyllenhaal was, in fact, a surprise. I didn’t utterly hate him this time. I usually do. In this movie, he was actually decent. Not that his role was that much demanding, but he didn’t suck at it. Natalie Portman, on the other hand, was the deception. I have no more than three actresses I like, and she is one of them, don’t get me wrong. I do love her. But in this particular film I just didn’t feel it. It was like she wasn’t all there. Sometimes I would think, for crying out loud, her husband just died, she doesn’t seem too sad at all. I suppose perhaps her character was more closed, cold, I don’t know. But it just didn’t work for me. I really felt for Maguire’s character Sam, but I honestly felt kinda bad he killed Joe. I know I am in no position to judge him, I know he were under intense circumstances. But he killed his friend. It was awful. To finish I just cannot seem to get over that little girl Isabelle, played by the amazing Bailee Madison. That performance was simply the best out of all the others in the movie. Just downright perfect. 

Julie & Julia wasn’t at all what I expected. One of my friends who watched it some time ago told me it would appeal more to people who like cooking. Well, I beg to differ. I actually enjoy movies about food, it has the only downside of making you desperately want to eat, though. To me it meant nothing about cooking, but publishing. Alright, I’m writing a book for fun, but sometimes I can’t help but to wonder if a publisher would like it. I could happen. Right? Amy Adams was delightful as always, and I just couldn’t get enough of Meryl Streep’s weird high pitched voice. Very good performances.

I’m going to try to finish reading Forever Princess now, only about 50 pages to go.

“I could have ran into him at Bigelow’s or Forbidden Planet and without having any advanced warning he was back, I might have done something incredibly stupid when I saw him. Such as pee myself”

Long live Meg Cabot.

Challenges

So I’m just going to start this by saying that, I’m not gonna lie, I don’t believe anyone will be reading this ever, but, you know, what the heck. Needed something to do tonight.

Got home from work today (still in college, though) and went to my room to watch Golden Globe movies, been doing that since God knows when, all my family already gets the sort quarantine I experience during award season. Finished Brothers. Review it later. Listened to music, read a bit. So, I got to wondering… I should put my hobbies to some use. Years ago I had this list with stuff I want to do before I die. Haven’t done half of it, more than half doesn’t even interest me any more. Good to know I’m not that materialistic anymore. But I was reading it the other day and it had some pretty awesome items. And I could put them together and write all about them at this blog. It pretty much gathered most of my hobbies into 3 big challenges.

• Watch all the movies ever awarded by the Academy Awards;
• Read Anna Karenina;
• Write a book.

Alright, I am not going to watch ALL the movies ever awarded by the Academy Awards, but I could enhance my cultural knowledge by trying, right? So, I finally gave up on that and upgraded my challenge to:

• Watch all the movies ever awarded BEST PICTURE by the Academy Awards;

Maybe that I can do, I guess. I’ll watch them and report my opinions here promptly. Next was the Anna Karenina challenge. That probably sounds rather silly, but I started reading that book 2 years ago and never finished it. I still have about 6 hundred pages to go. o/ You would be delighted to know that I will be reading it, and writing about it, soon. I can’t start now ’cause I’m finishing Forever Princess by Meg Cabot and I’ve made a personal rule not to ever read two books at once, this due to past troubles.

Now, the third challenge is my favorite. Because for the last 6 months or so I’ve been, indeed, writing a book. And I only got to reading this list of mine a week ago, I had already forgotten that I’d put the “write a book” item there. It has been pretty hard, actually I honestly cannot remember the time I was writing it just for fun. It has become an obsession, I rewrite the same paragraph over, and over, and over again, it is never good. But it’s coming along. It already has a title and two and a half chapters. Talk more about it later.

There’s this girl on YouTube who’s quite awesome. She’s called Meghan Camarena (http://www.youtube.com/user/Strawburry17) and she sort of records herself doing just about everything. She shares with people from all over the world (belive me, I know it, I live in Brazil) her likes, her days, travels, friends… You know, it’s not much of a big deal, I think “what’s the point to all of it?”. But then I remember she made me smile on her Hot Air Balloon video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lD7JsHWw3vg). Oh, well. Making people smile is important, I suppose. I love Owl City too, by the way.

Anyway, she is part of what made me want to do this. Write a blog, I mean. So, thanks!