Book Review - Chitty Chitty Bang Bang: The Magical Car

I watched the movieChitty Chitty Bang Bang as a child and have vaguely fun and yet confusing memories of it. To this day I still find some of the tunes from the movie jumping into my head at random. Years later I was told that the original book Chitty Chitty Bang Bang was written by Ian Fleming...yes, the same Ian Fleming who was the creator of James Bond. Naturally my curiosity was aroused. From a very high level, it's not surprising to see both James Bond and Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang as being creations of the same author. Both feature some crazy high-tech gadgets and exciting adventures dealing with spies or thugs across multiple countries. Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang is just written for children while James Bond was written for adults.

I read Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang along with my 9 year old daughter. I haven't seen the movie in many years. She watched it a few months ago. As we started reading, it was quickly apparent some of the differences between the movie and the novel. Strangely enough, after the movie was released and widely enjoyed, they decided to make a "novelization" of the movie version of the story...which goes to show the large amount of differences present. They couldn't simply push film-goers towards the original novel...they actually wrote a new novel based on the film. Strange fun indeed.

As to the original book of Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang: The Magical Car, it starts off introducing us to Caractacus Pott and his family. Caractacus is an inventor who loves to invent but doesn't always find much financial success as a result. His wife and two children are very supportive and they enjoy his quirks and fun almost as much as he does. As in the movie, Caractacus invents the "Toot Sweet" and sells it to a candy shop. He has more success in the book, however, and with the money he earns, the family decides to buy a car. They find Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang in a scrapyard and immediately all four of them fall in love with it. Pott takes it home and spends hours/days in his workshop fixing it up.

I loved the narrative style of the book. It was written to be read aloud or at least for the reader to be very cognizant of the narrator's voice. The narrator speaks to the reader, adds additional commentary outside the scope of the main plot and asks questions about the reader's knowledge or thoughts on a particular point. As I read the book aloud to my daughter, I tried to be sure to add the inflections of the narrator as I read to try and draw her in to answering the questions or commenting on the points the narrator made. In reading the book I pictured the narrator as an extension of Ian Fleming and the style existing to put for the feeling of Fleming reading the story to his own children.

Movie Review - Iron Man 3

Super Hero movies continue to be a big force in theaters so much so that it's not financially realistic to see all of them. Especially knowing that some are better than others. Last year I was very pleased with The Avengers. Sure it had its cheesy bits and was a bit strained in points, but it's a "comic book" movie…come on folks. Still, The Avengers was amazing and raised the bar for what viewers expect.

So moving into this year's super hero season, I was a little unsure if Iron Man 3 could adequately follow The Avengers. I really enjoyed the first Iron Man film. I felt like it gave us a great origin story for Iron Man and created a fun yet obnoxious character in Tony Stark. The second Iron Man continued the fun and ramped it up with the great villain Whiplash. So what about Iron Man 3? Is it as good as the first 2 Iron Man movies? Worse? The Same but different?

In terms of overall plot and storyline, the idea was engaging. The special effects and action sequences were dramatically over the top as you would expect. Plenty of intense action, 'splosions and fights. The overall plot of the story is very character driven based on the interactions of Tony Stark with his "demons" both external and internal.

Book Review - NOS4A2

It's not often that I opt to not finish a book, especially a book that I picked for myself to read. But in this case, I just couldn't keep going. I decided this year to read some books from genres I don't normally read or that I haven't read for a while. One such genre was the "horror" genre. I'd heard that Joe Hill is supposed to be great, so when I saw NOS4A2, I thought I'd give it a try.

The premise sounded interesting…sort of "true crime" meets light supernatural magic. Sadly the book ended up being too vulgar and disturbing for my tastes. Too much swearing, too many violent and sexual references. Just too many graphic details that honestly didn't need to be included. All they really added to the story, in my opinion, was to make the book darker and more disturbing/distasteful. Now I'll admit that there really are some people who talk and act like some of the characters in the book…but I'm uncomfortable around people like that as well. With that in mind, I can't recommend this book for its content. I do find the premise interesting and intriguing. I had hoped it would be more in line with some of the TV Crime Dramas that I sometimes watch with my life…a sort of "TV-PG" rating rather than a definite hard "R" rating (though I think they'd probably have to tone things down even for an "R").

Basically the villain in the story (Manx) is a serial killer/kidnapper who has a magical car (with the license plate NOS4A2) that lets him drive to a place that doesn't exist in the real world. The place….Christmasland. He paints himself as a sort of heroic Santa Claus saving children for bad situations in the real world by taking them away to Christmasland where they can play and enjoy Christmas every day. Of course, Manx also "saves" the kids by killing their parents or guardians (who aren't winners per se…drug addicts or deadbeats or the like). There also seems to be some mystical soul sucking magic where Manx gains some sort of twisted immortality by living off the energy of the kids he's kidnapped. I stopped reading before it gave too many details about how that worked.

On the other side of the story is our hero, Victoria ("Vic") McQueen. The book follows her life from childhood to adult and it does bounce forward and backward a little bit with foreshadowing and flashbacks. As a child, Vic isn't super satisfied with her life and family but she doesn't have it that bad. One day after a family fight, she happens to ride her bike into the nearby forest and across a rickety wooden bridge. She is transported many miles and finds a piece of her mother's jewelry (which was the cause of the earlier fight). Her bike (combined with the wooden bridge) have a magical element like Manx's car which allows Vic to go to certain places and "find" things. She hears about Manx and his car (a Wraith) and one day goes to find him. It's a frightening confrontation but he ends up getting captured as a result. Naturally, he later escapes and decides it's time to come after Vic and her son.

Again, the plot seems interesting and it could be an exciting story. Apart from the violent and vulgar writing, I can applaud Joe Hill for his writing and storytelling. There were some excellent descriptions of character, setting and motivation. I legitimately enjoyed some of the less disturbing action sequences. I'm a bit disappointed that my recent re-foray into the horror genre was so over-the-top violent/vulgar/graphic. As a result, I think I'm giving up on Joe Hill and likely won't seek out any "horror" novels for a while (at least nothing above the Middle Grade or Teen level).


1 out of 5 stars


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Book Review - Mom Rules: Because Even Super Heroes Need Help Sometimes

Well, I realize I'm just missing the Mother's Day gift buying timeframe with this review, but maybe this will come in handy for a "just because" gift for mom/wife/etc. Or maybe you can pick it up and hold onto it until next Mother's Day. Whatever suits your fancy. :)

As the adage goes, there is no manual about how to be a good parent. As more and more time goes on, that adage isn't quite as accurate as it once was. Each year there is a new smattering of parenting books, magazines, posts and articles filled with new or modified advice for prospective parents, new parents or long time parents. A lot of the advice is similar though sometimes the different books contradict one another or try to come up with some radical new idea to differentiate themselves from the crowd. Whatever your take on parenting, you'll find that there are a ton of places to turn for advice.

Mom Rules begins by graciously acknowledging that moms are superheroes but then also acknowledges, as the cover points out, that even superheroes need help sometimes. This book is the follow up and companion book to Dad Rules released last year. Like its predecessor, Mom Rules is filled with dozens of "rules" for parents ranging from prospective parents to empty nesters. Each rule is short and to the point often taking no more than a single page. The rules are divided into three main sections of parenting advice and often reference other rules in this book as well as corresponding rules in the Dad Rules book.

For readers or parents looking for deep psychological insight into parenting and child rearing, this is not the book for you. Similarly for those looking for specific tactical advice or in-depth instructions to put into practice, you may want to look elsewhere. However, if you are looking for some quick insightful ideas that can make your parenting smoother and more effective, this book is a great place to dive in. Don't take that to mean that this lightweight book doesn't have merit. Many of the rules include reference to scientific studies and many of them also include humorous and poignant real-life examples to illustrate their points.

The light, easily accessible nature of the rules is actually one of the strengths of the read. Rather than getting bogged down in a lot of psychology or analytics, the authors "cut to the chase" and present straight forward no-nonsense advice to help work your way through the parenting minefields.

Books Read in 2013

For the past few years (2012, 2011, 2010, 2009) I've had a goal to read and review a bunch of books over the course of each year.

My goal has been to average a book per week and end up with 50 books read and reviewed at the end of the year. If I included the short grade school or picture books that I sometimes read with my kids (or even just on my own for fun), I'd easily hit the 50 mark...but I usually just count the books that I actually review here on my blog. I've come a bit short of 50 each year. And yet, I don't consider it a failure in the least. The fact that I feel like I continue to get more and more wonderful books read each year tells me that the goal is a success.

So I'm modifying the goal for 2013. I'm still going to have a number to shoot for but the main goal is that I get through some of the many many books waiting on my bookshelves to be read (my "to be read" pile is huge). My goal will be to read and review at least as many books as I did in 2012...which means at least 45 books. But my goal also expands to include a few more aspects: 1) Read at least 8 "classic" novels, 2) Finish at least 3 "series" that I've already started, 3) Read more books in genres I don't normally read (such as mystery, romance, poetry).

If you have any suggestions for books to read or ways I can make my reading goal more exciting, please let me know.

And now, without further ado, here's the list of books I've read so far in 2013:
(I will be updating this post each time a new book is read/reviewed)

1. The Madman's Daughter
2. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
3. Ender's Game
4. Beastly
5. The Measure of the Magic
6. Head Games (Locke & Key: Volume 2)
7. Seventh Son: Tales of Alvin Maker (Book 1)
8. Dead Men Kill
9. Mom Rules
10. NOS4A2 (Did Not Finish)
11. 
    

And for additional reference, here's a link to my "to be read" list over at Goodreads. This list includes purchased books on my bookshelves (but not read) as well as tons of books that have been recommended to me over the years. As you can see, the list is huge...and never really shrinks since there are always new recommendations coming in.

So tell me...what good books have you read lately that I should add to my list? Any that I "MUST" get to ~immediately? :-)