C.L. Causer's Blog, page 9

Top Ten - Pitch Perfect

Top Ten - Pitch Perfect scenes


Yes, it's that time again. I know it has been a while since my last one, you know back before the Christmas season started when I had plenty of free time. So to ease myself back into it, I'm going to start off with an easy one that has nothing to do with books. 
Pitch Perfect has got to be one of my favourite films this year. It's about a collegiate acapella singing competition, or as Jesse describes it "Organised Nerd Singing", that has songs you have to burst out singing to. With the Barden Bella's and Treble Makers both competing for the coveted trophy and more importantly, the bragging rights. 
A cast of talented actors with the likes of Rebel Wilson, Brittany Snow and Anna Kendrick, shows you into the world of acapella, with very funny results. 

10





Fat Amy -  "The Kraken has been unleashed! Feel the Fat Amy Force!"
This scene is brilliant. The Tonehangers,  a group with older graduates including Donald Faison ('Turk' from Scrubs) and Joe Lo Truglio (Superbad), start a 'fight' with The Treble Makers. As which Fat Amy intervenes and beats the s**t out of Superbad's Joe.


9





Aubrey -   "What are you doing?"Fat Amy  -  "Horizontal running."


If only I thought of this excuse in High School. 


8



Aubrey -  "Aca-cuse me?"Fat Amy  -   "Aca-believe it!"



They find out that the bus is out of gas. Despite stopping moments before the spontaneous sing song. But Fat Amy forgot to fill the bus up, after being hit with flying mexican food.


7




Lilly -   "I set fire's to feel joy."Donald  -  "That's adorable."

I love this couple. Not only are they kick-ass beat-boxers, but they are just adorable together.



6


Aubrey -  "You call yourself 'Fat Amy'?"Fat Amy -   "Yeah. So twig bitches like you don't do it behind my back."

This was the line that caught my attention the first time I watched the trailer.

5



Bumper -  "You girls were awesome...ly horrible. I hate you. Kill yourselves. Girl Power! Sister's before Misters!"

First intro to Bumper. Couldn't have explained his character any better.

4



Donald - "Here's the real question. Who do you think would be easier to sleep with, Captain America or a great white shark?
Bumper -  "Great white shark-"
Fat Amy -  "What are you turd burger's talking about?"
Bumper - "You are probably the grossest human being I've ever seen."
Fat Amy -  "Well, you're no panty dropper yourself."
Bumper -  "I have a feeling we should kiss. Is that a good feeling or an incorrect feeling?"
Fat Amy -   "Well...sometimes I have a feeling I can do crystal meth. But then I think...mmmm.... better not.

The whole post-initiation party scene is fantastic. From Anna's "Make good choice's" anti drinking quips to the song they all dance to, Andy Grammer 'Got to Keep Your Head Up'.

3



Bumper -   "What boring oestrogen filled set have you prepared for us this evening?"
Fat Amy -  "You guys are gonna get pitch slapped so hard, your man boobs are going to concave."

These two are the best people from each group. And they are ace together!

2



Fat Amy -  "I've just been shot?! I'VE JUST BEEN SHOT!!"

Awesome from "Pump and Dump" to the near lesbian interaction with "Black Beauty".


1



Tone Deaf Justin -  "If I could sing a lick, in anyway possible, I would. But I can't. And I hate myself everyday because of it!"


Justin has probably the smallest role in the entire film, but this line made me crack up so much. I love it! Just for the amount of times I've laughed at the line and the face he makes, this bit deserves first place!



Hopefully, I have converted a few of you aca-haters.


But in all seriousness, I recommend you see this film. The songs and mashup's are brilliant and the acting is first rate.


I'll leave you with this. It's the first video that got me obsessed with Pitch Perfect and had me watching out constantly for it coming out.

Review - Slated

Slated by Terri Terry


Publisher - Orchard BooksNum of Pages - 489My Rating 



Kyla's memory has been erased, her personality wiped blank, her memories lost forever.
She has been Slated.
The government claims she was a terrorist, and that they are giving her a second chance - as long as she plays by their rules. But echoes of the past whisper in Kyla's mind. Someone is lying to her, and nothing is as it seems. Who can she trust in her search for the truth?


REVIEW

I managed to read this book within a couple of work days. It is a lengthy novel but the storyline is catchy and original that it draws you in every time you open the covers. You follow the main character, Kyla as she comes out of hospital, weeks after being Slated. Her memories, everything to do with her life, has been wiped clean. Or so they thought. Bit's of her old life, the echoes, start to seep through. Kyla begins to learn that she is unlike the other Slated's. Her wrist levo - a bracelet that monitors mood, 1 being...well... dead, and ten being very, very happy, is often stable when she knows it should be frighteningly low (like when she was attacked). Throughout the book, we watch as she tries to stay under the Lorders (the enforcing body) radar and try to be a normal, yet Slated, teenager. It isn't until after her love interest, Ben, tries to cut off his own Levo - which is connected to a chip in his brain that will kill them if tampered with, that she begins to truly remember her past life as a runaway called Lucy who had a sadistic abusive relationship with a man who she recognising as her temp Art teacher. She learns of his treatment of her and that he's grooming her for something. Something big. I love the technology with this book. It's not over the top as most futuristic fiction novels are. Apart from the Slating process and the Levo's, that is basically the only technological advancement within the entire book. I love that it is set in England. You don't find many popular young adult fiction titles set in in the UK and when they do, I find it much easier to imagine. The only problem I had with this book was the length. I felt that Terry could have cut 50 pages of it, and it would have still been as good. A lot of the time I just wanted to rush-read just to get to the action. 

Just a few days to go...

No, I'm not talking about Christmas and New Year, although I'm pretty excited about that. I'm actually talking about the reading challenges I set for myself at the beginning on the year. 
 I admit, at first thought it would be easy. I was like, 36 books...easy. I can read that in a few months! 
However, the end is in sight and I have yet to read 5 more Debut Author books and a whooping 20 horrors! 
It's not easy finding a Debut Author book, especially when I've got books from ongoing series that I'm more excited to read. As for the horror, well that was me biting off more than I could chew. Technically it was a horror and fantasy criteria. But I wanted to expand my horror collection. In doing that, I narrowed my available reading list considerably and have unable to find 24 books that I would like to buy. 
I will try and complete the Debut Author Challenge in the 24 days I have left of December. 

Next year, I will just have to try harder. 

Review - Throne of Glass

Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas

Publisher - BloomsburyNum of Pages - 405My Rating - 


Meet Celaena Sardothien.Beautiful.Deadly.Destined for Greatness. 
In the dark, filthy salt mines of Endovier, an eighteen-year-old girl is serving a life sentence. She is a trained assassin, the best of her kind, but she made a fatal mistake. She got caught. 
Young Captain Westfall offers her a deal: her freedom in return for one huge sacrifice. Celaena must represent the prince in a to-the-death tournament - fighting the most gifted thieves and assassins in the land. Live or die, Celaena will be free. Win or Lose, she is about to discover her true destiny. But will her assassin's heart be melted?

REVIEW
My sister put this book on the, ever growing, toppling pile of books she wants me to read. I drag my heels in with most of my sister's books because she has a very rigid genre that she will only read. It's alway supernatural, with a love triangle and a werewolf and vampire or two thrown in. I've tried to educate her with others, the least successful being my favourite series - The Stephanie Plum, Bounty Hunter series but she has taken to fantasy. It's a start. Anyway, after reading The Game of Thrones Series and Black Magician Trilogy (both series I highly recommend) she started (thankfully) buying books I might actually read instead of putting aside and politely making an excuse. JUST FYI - I have no problem with supernatural genre. In fact Deadly Secrets is a supernatural book that I wrote for my sister. But I dislike the repetitiveness in most of the commercially successful ones. So I picked up Throne of Glass because it kind of sounded similar to Poison Study by Maria V. Snyder. And I hate to admit this because I absolutely love Snyder's Study Series, but I thought in some ways this single book surpassed all of the Study Series books. The world Sarah Maas has created is fantastic and it flows so well. Not only has she taken the fantasy genre and created an intricate world, she has added her own flair that I have yet to see in other Epic Fantasy books. Where most deal with Gods, Magic and Evil, Maas's evil are demons from other realms. The World of Erilea is war torn and different aspects slowly come through during the course of the book. I'm looking forward to not just seeing what happens with Celaena as she fulfils her duty as the King's Champion but to find out more about the Kingdom of Erilea. This was given four out of five due to little bits. First was the front cover. The girl on the cover looks like a hard hitting bad-ass, decked out in her leathers and curved blades. And she has the most amazing hair I've seen on an animated drawing. But not once did Celaena wear anything like it. She nearly always wore girly dresses and when she was fighting, it was described as a tunic with trousers. I wanted to imagine her in this fighting gear on the cover, but was always disappointed. But the four stars was mostly because of the typical love triangle. As much as I like the Crown Prince's Dorian's character, I much preferred Chaol. And I sincerely hope she chooses wisely when it comes down the picking one.


''Damned Forest'', said an olive skinned soldier in their circle. A soldier beside him chuckled. "The sooner it's burned, the better, I say."The other soldier's nodded, and Celaena stiffened. "It's full of hate," said another."Did you expect anything else?" she interrupted. Chaol's hand darted to his sword as the soldiers turned to her, some of them sneering. "This isn't just any forest." She beckoned with her fork to the woods. "It's Brannon's Forest.""My father used to tell me stories about it being full of faeries," a soldier said.  "They're all gone now." One took a bite from an apple, and said, "Along with those damn wretched Fae." Another said, "We got rid of them, didn't we?""I'd watch your tongues," Celaena snapped. "King Brannon was Fae, and Oakwald is still his. I wouldn't be surprised if some of the trees remember him."The soldier laughed. "They'd have to two thousand years old, them trees!" said one. "Fae are immortal," she said. "Trees ain't."

Review - Uglies

Uglies - Scott Westerfeld

Publisher - Simon and SchusterNum of Pages - 425My Rating -


Tally can't wait to turn sixteen and become Pretty. Sixteen is the magic number that brings a transformation from a repellent Ugly into a stunningly attractive Pretty, and catapults you into a high-tech paradise where your only job is to have a really great time. In just a few weeks, Tally will be there. 
But Tally's new friend, Shay, isn't sure she wants to be Pretty. She'd rather risk life on the outside. When Shay runs away, Tally learns about a whole new side of the Pretty world - and it isn't very pretty. The authorities offer Tally the worst choice she can imagine: find her friend and turn her in, or never turn Pretty at all. The choice Tally makes changes her world forever. 
REVIEW
Uglies is set in a world in the future (though it isn't mentioned specifically, you just catch on as the time goes by) somewhere in America. The time of the Rustie's is long over after a bacteria infected the worlds supply of oil making it completely unstable. The new world is full of high technology of towering skyscrapers and amazing hoverboards. But something that sets Uglies apart from other dystopians, is this book focuses on teenagers angast of appearance's. Once the children turn sixteen they have an operations that completely changes their body and appearance. They become a Pretty. 
I enjoyed Uglies because it was action packed and they revealed information to the plot in steady points that kept your attention and made you want to keep reading. The love relationship between Tally and David isn't a typical teenage connection as their isn't the over the top 'love at first sight'. It was a gradual. This book is really a great start to a promising series and I can't wait to read the other two.  

Review - The Forest Of Hands And Teeth

The Forest Of Hands And Teeth by Carrie Ryan


Publisher - Gollancz/OrionNum of Pages - 308My Rating - 



In Mary's world there are simple truths.The Sisterhood always knows best.The Guardians will protect and serve.The Unconsecrated will never relent.
And you must always mind the fence that surrounds the village; the fence that protects the village from the Forest of Hands and Teeth.
But slowly, Mary's truths are failing her. She's learning things she never wanted to know about the Sisterhood and it's secrets, and the Guardians and their power, and about the Unconsecrated and their relentlessness. When the fence is breached and her world is thrown into chaos, she must choose between her village and her future - between the ones she loves and the one who loves her. 
And she must face the truth about the Forest of Hands and Teeth. Could there be life outside a world surrounded by so much death.

REVIEW

Here's how it went:

Me: Take that, ya ******
(Slamming my finger down on the x button. My eyes watching the television screen as my character Wei on 'Sleeping Dogs' dies, yet again.)
Me: *sigh* Forget it.
(Throwing the controller on the bed and turning the PS3 off, I gaze over the bookcase of The Unread. Book after book passes until I come across Forest of Hands and Teeth that has been sitting on the shelf for two years.)
Me: Okay. Lets give you a shot.

10 Minutes Later....

Me: Holy Moly. This is like M. Knight Shyamalans 'The Village'...but with zombies! I loved that movie! This is going to be great.

10 Minutes Later...

Me: How could her brother just chuck her out like that. The prick. Team Mary.

10 Minutes Later....

Me: Woah, woah, woah....Who the hell is this guy she's getting into bed and confessing her undying love for. He came out of nowhere. What happened to the other guy....

10 Minutes Later...

Me: Mary, love, I get you want to see the ocean but seriously, it's not worth getting yourself turned into a zombie for if the Sisterhood catches you snooping.

10 Minutes Later....

Me: Okay. Let's see if this is right? Mary loves Travis who is 'betrothed' to her best friend, Cass who actually loves Henry and he loves her back but can't marry her because his brother, Travis, choose Cass, but he actually loves Mary...?
Well, why don't they just swap. It's not rocket science.

10 Minutes Later...

Me: What's happening...I Don't ...Oh No. There goes the village. Zombie's and falling bodies everywhere.

10 Minutes Later...
Me: *Sigh* Maybe if I just skip this chapter.

1 Minutes Later.

Me: Okay maybe another.

30 Seconds Later:

Me: I bet the endings really good. Let's just take a peek and fin- WHAT! After all that, the group is broken up. Travis is infected. Her brother is dead and the others are still in the forest. Oh, but don't worry. Mary's finally found the ocean. Are ya happy now, Mary! Now that you've killed everyone. Congrats buddy.
(Throws the book aside and looks back at the bulging bookcase.)
Me: *Sigh* Let's try something else. Let me see. Aha! Aliens. That's new.





So that is basically how the reading of Forest of Hands and Teeth went. I gave it two stars instead of one because the beginning was really promising. The Village was a really interesting film that had a great and surprising turn in it. Which is hard to do now with film creativity at it's lowest. And I thought that's how this book would go. The introduction of zombie's were surprising, but I felt a little deflated. I was hoping for something new. Then again at least it wasn't vampires or werewolves. As soon as the love quadrangle began, my interest started waning and I'm afraid I couldn't keep it stoked enough to even read the middle. 

Review - Second Chance Summer

Second Chance Summer by Morgan Matson


Publisher - Simon and SchusterNumber of Pages - 468My Review


'Taylor Edwards has made leaving things behind into an art form. When things get tough, she gets going. Then her Dad gets some terrible news and the whole family decides to spend the summer at their old lake house, where Taylor is forced to confront her past. She hasn't been to the lake for years and isn't keen to go back, but then she starts to reconnect with the people she thought she'd left behind - including Henry, her first crush, who's even cuter at seventeen than he was at twelve.   With fireworks, fireflies, and midnight swims, the summer feels full of possibility and for the first time, Taylor wants to hold on to the moment. But is one summer really enough to have a second chance - with family, friends and love?'


REVIEW

I'm not to big on books or movies with sad endings. I have never been. I flatly refuse to watch 'Marley and Me' and I almost lost it when I first read Romeo and Juliet in school. I couldn't understand how such a sad and depressing ending could make the play one of the most famous love stories of all time. But I love summer books, so 'Second Chance Summer' quickly found it's way into my basket.  The issue of a dying loved one has been done successfully over the past couple of years, most predominantly with 'My Sister's Keeper'. Like Marley and Me, these type of books I have stayed clear off. But it's not because I dislike the author or the book itself. I know first hand what it is like to watch a loved one wither and lose themselves in front of your eyes. It is a hurt so deep that it scars your soul. And when I read a book, I get transported to that world. A world full of love, hate, jealousy, suspicion, horror or whatever your poison. And when I see a book like 'My Sister's Keeper' no matter how critically acclaimed it is, I can't bring myself to read it's words because that hurt will never go away and you don't need to itch at old wounds.   The difference with 'Second Chance Summer' was it focused on the good. That before they were almost a broken disconnected family. But that one summer, their last summer, they became a family again. Perhaps the best they have ever been. Each member of the family grew and progressed evenly throughout the story and it was hard to find fault in any of it.  I couldn't bring myself to put the book down. When I got to the ending, I had to excuse myself from the family room, where everyone was doing their own thing, because I knew that once I start reading the part where he dies, I would be a blubbering mess of tears and sniffles.  And I was right. Curling up in bed, I read the last words while my chin refused to stop shaking and my eyes were red and puffy. Yet despite the sadness and sorrow that comes with grief, there was happiness and love that cut through it like a life raft. And to leave a book of this type, much like in real life, on a light note full of love and promise, is all you can hope for.  

"...He was so brave, considering what he was facing. He didn't run away from it. And he was brave enough to admit that he was afraid." I wiped my hand across my face, and took another shaky breath, to try to finish."I'm just glad that I got the time I did with him, even -" my breath caught in my throat, and the view of the crowd got blurry. "Even if it wasn't enough time," I finished. "Even if it wasn't nearly enough."

Review - Night Circus

Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern


Published - DoubledayNumber of Pages - 387My Rating - 

The circus arrives without warning. No announcements precede it. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not. Within the black-and-white striped canvas tents is an utterly unique experience full of breathtaking amazements. It is called Le Cirque des Rêves, and it is only open at night.

But behind the scenes, a fierce competition is underway—a duel between two young magicians who have been trained since childhood expressly for this purpose by their mercurial instructors.

The challenge must play out, and the fates of everyone involved, from the cast of extraordinary circus per­formers to the patrons, hang in the balance, suspended as precariously as the daring acrobats overhead.


REVIEW
I was 5-years-old when I went to the American Circus that toured around many of the North Wales bigger towns. I was bewitched from the first second I saw the three tapered pointed circus tent. With the smell of popcorn, dry ice and gunpowder sparklers, me and my family went into the open flap of the tent and created one of the best memories of my entire childhood.

Though I didn't entire agree with the idea of their use of live stock, like the beautiful elephant me and my sister are pictured with above, I love the circus. I fell in love with the majesty of it. And this feeling echoed throughout Night Circus. The Night Circus is a book you to take your time with. While I usually read a book within a day, easily, I wanted this one to last. The descriptive imagery is so vivid it sticks in you mind for days afterwards. Each of the tents, as fantastical as they sound, you wish were real. The Cloud Maze, where you slowly climb higher into the sky and should you fall, you simple float to the white fluffy pool waiting to cushion your fall. From the Wishing Tree that holds a candle for every wish a patron makes to The Ice Garden, where every single plant and object in the room is made out of frozen, crystal like ice.  And it's not just the circus. Each person within the book holds their own. The unusual twins Poppet and Widget are my favourite characters despite there small subplots. They hold the key to the magic of the Circus and their personalities are some of the strongest within the book. The main character arc between Celia and Marco is surprisingly refreshing. Their unique love story is slow, unlike most of the books out today where the simpering female lead falls pathetically quickly for the impossibly perfect guy. 
For me, all these factors is what makes this book stand out from the rest. And just as I regretfully come up to the last chapter of the book, I found one of the best paragraphs I've read in a long time. It struck home for me, not just as a reader, but as a writer.

"You tell stories?" the man asks, the piquing of his interest almost palpable. "Stories, tales, bardic chronicles," Widget says. "Whatever you care to call them. The things we were discussing earlier that are more complicated than they used to be. I take pieces of the past that I see and I combine them into narratives. It's not that important, and this isn't why I'm here-""It is important," the man in the grey suit interrupts. "Someone needs to tell those tells. When the battles are fought and won and lost, when the pirates find their treasures and the dragons eat their foes for breakfast with a nice cup of Lapsang souchong, someone needs to tell their bits of overlapping narrative. There's magic in that. It's in the listener, and for each and every ear it will be different, and it will affect them in ways they can never predict. From the mundane to the profound. You may tell a tale that takes up residence in someones soul, becomes their blood and self and purpose. That tale will move them and drive them and who knows what they might do because of it, because of your words. That is your role, your gift..."

It's been over a month since my last confession...

The past four weeks have past with a blur of long days filled with monotonous, soul-crushing work that I have barely had time to write. Groaning as I roll out of bed at 7.30am and then falling into bed when the day is finished at 11.30-Midnight. 
    But the light at the end of the hard work slog is in sight. Doubtful that I will be able to finish any of my writing projects on time, I will have to knuckle down. Hopefully I will have Potential finished on time, or at the worst, only a couple of weeks behind schedule. So keep tune, readers. 


Things happened since the last time you heard from me:

1)    I'm addicted to MTV's television show ' Awkward'. 



I love Jenna, Ming and Tamara. They are hilarious. Team Matty!

2) I have three knew story ideas


AND
I tried to make Macaroons for the first time.
I failed miserably. 

Review - Under The Dome

Under The Dome by Stephen King


Published - Hodder & StoughtonNum of Pages - 877My Review


'On an entirely normal, beautiful fall day in Chester's Mill, Maine, the town is inexplicably and suddenly sealed off from the rest of the world by an invisible force field. Planes crash into it and fall from the sky in flaming wreckage, a gardener's hand is severed as "the dome" comes down on it, people running errands in the neighbouring town are divided from their families, and cars explode on impact. No one can fathom what this barrier is, where it came from, and when -- or if -- it will go away.'

REVIEW
Since I was a kid, people have been giving me books. At my sixth birthday I was given almost every Disney book available from the kids who came to my party, I received thesaurus, encyclopedias and heavy non fiction hardbacks for Christmases while my friends got make up and clothes, and the ladies my mother worked with gave me crease well used novels, most about old war time romance, that I would never have bought myself. But I kept them all the same.   But some of those books were written by Stephen King. Although they looked like they have been lovingly reread over and over again, I had yet to read them. That was until I received Under The Dome. During the time it took for me to read the massive book, I slowly got to grips with Kings writing style and instantly feel in love with it. He writes not just from one persons perspective, but numerous people. However, you can't get to attached, as not all of them reach the end. With Under The Dome, you followed a dozen different townspeople from Chester's Mill just before and during their time the extraterrestrial dome was erected. I felt that as soon as I began to get into one person's perspective, they succumbed to a cruel and very quick death. The characters were well varied and show a different ends of the morality scale. While most books will have the bad guys reach bad ends, King fails to follow this idealism. Which is refreshing in its own way. The technology of the dome is fascinating and after the large explosion, it releases a toxic smog like cloud that quickly tries to extinguish the life within the town. It's a definite read for someone interested in not only King's work, but for something a little bit different.