Movie-
Premium Rush
This movie was a complete surprise. We hadn’t heard much about
it, but Joseph Gordon-Levitt has been making so many fantastic movie choices lately,
we had to check it out. This movie was pure fun. It was about bike messengers in
New York City. Joseph plays one of the best, Wilee. One of his deliveries becomes
dangerous when a cop starts chasing and bullying him to hand over the envelope he’s
supposed to ride across town. There are a few twists, good action sequences, funny
jokes, and good performances. If you are at the theater looking for something to
see, don’t have anything in mind, and don’t know of a good crowd-pleaser that won’t
get you in trouble with your group, pick this one.
Movie grade: B+
Books-
Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein
This story is set in World War II, and it involves a friendship
between two women, a pilot and a secret agent resisting the Third Reich. (The afterward
of the book explains that this is historically plausible.) Anyway, the book is powerful
and emotional, with a good story and characters you’ll care about, as well as lots
of fun historical details. The climax and ending didn’t disappoint. The first part
is rough, because it has lots of flashbacks that aren't as intense as the real-time storyline and too much airplane talk (the author
is a pilot herself). But the second half stays in the present, answers nagging questions,
and brings the book to an effective close. So plow through. It’s well-written, smart,
and it will appeal to teens and adults. It blows that Sarah’s Key book away, so
if you like the subject and setting, go for this one. It deserves all the attention
it should (and might) get in the future once people start reading it.
Book grade: B+
Damned by Chuck Palahniuk
The other of Fight Club is back with a book about a 13-year-old,
fat daughter of celebrity parents who winds up in Hell, makes friends there, and
slowly remembers the details of her death. The first half kind of bummed and grossed
us out, but it improved from there. It never sucked us in to where it was an easy
read, but we liked it anyway. We liked the witty narrator, and the book had some
great things to say about identity. It’s cool that Chuck can write a 13-year-old
girl (albeit a brilliant one) and have us believe it. There were a few laughs, and
we’ll probably check out the sequel. The book’s ending is its weak point. We hate
a cliffhanger in a freaking book.
Book grade: B-
The Many Deaths of the Firefly Brothers by Thomas Mullen
Two bank-robbing brothers die and mysteriously come back to
life, evade the police, deal with family issues, worry about/look for their molls,
and get into trouble. We’d heard good things about this one, and we were impressed
by Mullen’s obvious intelligence. A few lines and themes were really well thought
out. Weaknesses include an insanity plot that didn’t really go anywhere, an ending
that didn’t answer the book’s central question, and an ending that was open-ended
in a lot of ways. The ride to that ending was great though. It was fun, easy to
read, well-paced, and twisty. We liked the magic aspect, the relationships in the
book, the central characters, the revelations, and the flashbacks, which surprisingly
didn’t slow things down too much. Read the first couple of chapters, and if you
don’t like the writing or want to know what happens next, don’t read it. If you
do, it’s not a waste of time. It has some of the most enjoyable prose we've read in a while.
Book grade: B
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