Hatchet by Gary Paulsen

I first read this book in 4th grade, and I thought it was pretty good. The movie didn't do it justice, but that was no surprise. It probably wouldn't be right to make a teenage actor lose 40% of his body weight for a role.

I don't know what your schooling was like, but most of our required reading was done in-class, and followed by a screening of the required book's film adaptation. However, it wasn't until fifth grade that I realized what a waste of time it was to show interest in my school work.

So returning to Hatchet, I still thought it was pretty good, a good primer for the sequels I've heard about. Books on wilderness survival have always interested me, since it's always possible that I'll someday find myself in a situtation like Hatchet's Brian. I don't know how much the writer truly knew about surviving in the wild, but it seemed like enough.

Number the Stars by Lois Lowry

I never read this book in school, and when I figured out it was about nazis during world war two, I wasn't sure if I was ready to continue. I know the nazis are/were bad, but I'd rather not dwell on the darkness of it all, so soon after reading Everything is Illuminated.

Nevertheless, Number the Stars is short, and I decided to perservere. It's the story of a young girl in Denmark, a country that surrendered itself to the Nazis, because they knew that if they fought, they'd lose.

So the Nazis start on their plan to exterminate the Jews in Denmark, but there is a resistance. Aside from the fact that our young hero shows great courage and saves the day, I found more value in the information about the real-world aspects of this story than in its inspiring nature.

Left Behind (feat. Nicolas Cage)

For those of you who don't know, Left Behind is a book series about the end of the world as imagined by some Christians. It was also a movie series in the early 2000s, starring Kirk Cameron. So this 2014 film is a reboot, too soon. While Leah Thompson is named in the opening credits, but she only appears in one short scene. This film does star Nicolas Cage as a non-christian, sinning commercial pilot who has to deal with a _the rapture_ happening on his plane. His daughter, also a non-christian, is played by Crissi Thomson. Don't worry, by the end of the film our heros know God is real.

I don't think it's bad for a film to have an evangelical intent. However, the bar is pretty low for Christian Films, and I think the makers of Left Behind knew that. So they let a lot of things slide, making this movie with a pretty good premise turn out pretty bad.

And it became pretty clear to me what the writers, pretending to know what it is that turns people off of Christianity, think it must be like for a sinning non-christian. It's not the preaching and the glorifying of God that turns people off. It's the polarization and the hypocrisy. Speaking of polarization, I don't see why any film needs to be explicitly Christian unless it's meant to be viewed only at church. It's not like anyone sets out to make "secular" art.

After all, religious themes exist in every other form of media. We've seen how Christian Rock turned out. While just as good as other music, pretty much any band could call their music Christian so they could exploit a decidedly separate industry. Do you think Michelangelo would have painted so many religious things if it wasn't for the money? So what's the point in dividing Christian Films from Secular Films when almost every story contains some form of allegory.

So what was wrong with Left Behind? None of the characters were believable. In fact, all the sinning non-christians were caricatures. There seemed to be little effort put into making this movie believable or good. But obviously main agenda here wasn't to make a good movie.

1. Raising Arizona
2. Leaving Las Vegas
3. Red Rock West
4. Adaptation
5. Birdy
6. Wild at Heart
7. Joe
8. Dog Eat Dog
9. Color Out of Space
10. Mom and Dad
11. Peggy Sue Got Married
12. Zandalee
13. City of Angels
14. Bangkok Dangerous
15. Drive Angry
16. Lord of War
17. Gone in 60 Seconds
18. Matchstick Men
19. Vampire's Kiss
20. Con Air
21. Face/Off
22. The Boy in Blue
23. Honeymoon in Vegas
24. Amos and Andrew
25. Moonstruck
26. The Sorcerer's Apprentice
27. Bringing Out the Dead
28. The Family Man
29. Knowing
30. It Could Happen to You
31. 8mm
32. Looking Glass
33. Between Worlds
34. Left Behind
35. Ghost Rider
36. The Humanity Bureau
37. Next
38. The Weather Man
39. 211
40. The Croods

Reading Like a Writer by Francine Prose

This book has a lot of the lessons you might have gotten from a professor in your classes on literature or creative writing. Francine Prose likes the classics, and she dissects them; not for the quality of their plot, but for the quality of their words. She teaches us what the great writers did that made their works great, which is useful. Reading a lot of books, it would make sense for me to notice the good and useful techniques of others.

Most books I've read so far on writing have focused mainly on producing a sellable novel, which is a pretty normal goal, completely ignored by Francine Prose. So there is the goal of getting published and the aspiration of creating great literature, but what about retaining a love for the work? There must also be a book on that, somewhere.

Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of Nimh by Robert C. O'Brien

To tell you the truth, I've never made it to the end of the movie that was based on this film. I've always fallen asleep, or found myself not paying attention. And I had no great reason for this. I know the film was a Don Bluth production and probably rules.

So how was the book? It was good. I prefer gerbils over mice and rats, but I do like stories about small animals who talk and are civilized. I liked the characters maybe more than I generally like wild animals. And I don't know why, since I can only assume the Wild need a lot more courage than human-types, sitting in their houses and typing on their computers. There might have been a philosophical element to this story, but I might have missed it, being not of the story's target demographic. Well, maybe I am. It's a good time to feel young.

Heirs of the Force by Kevin J. Anderson and Rebecca Moesta

It was the month of my birthday, and to feel young, I decided to dedicate the month to reading "young" books because sometimes it takes some extra effort to tame that "old" feeling. Heirs of the Force is the first of many in this series of Young Jedi Knights, about the twin children of Han Solo and Princess Leia, training to become Jedi Knights at Luke Skywalker's academy.

As a preteen, I remember reading one from this series but now I've looked at the covers so much, I've forgotten which it was. Regardless, Heirs of the Force was a pretty good Star Wars story. It was fun, featuring a translator droid who talks just like See Threepio, named Em Teedee, made for Chewbacca's nephew. This adventure on the planet/moon Yavin 4 was told by Kevin J. Anderson, a known master of popular space opera and science fiction, along with his wife Rebecca Moesta, who has written a lot of Star Wars books. Needless to say, it was a treat to take in this most special of collaborations.

In fact, I had such a good time that I think I'll go ahead and (in due time) read every Star Wars novel from the Legend timeline, disregarding the new Star Wars canon with the Disney take-over. It's not that I'm against Disney and new Star Wards, really. I just can't expect myself to read every future Star Wars novel for the rest of my life. Anyway, we'll see if I stick to this dream. Next month I'm going to read Dawn of the Jedi: Into the Void, by Tim Lebbon. Yes reader, I am going to try to go in chronological order with these.

Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer

I briefly visited Saint Augustine in April, and asked my friends to let me borrow their favorite books, with the promise of reading them.The only book I got was this one, loaned from my pal Dawson, who says it's amazing.

Much of the story in this book is told through letters between Jonathan (the american hero) and Alex, who lives in the Ukraine and speaks some english. Alex has a very unique verbiage, choosing English words that relate to what he intends to translate from Ukranian. But the story told is mostly about Jonathan's ancestors and their village (shtetl) of Trochenbrod, which was annihilated in World War 2.

Like most highly-acclaimed literary novels, Foer is very liberal with his syntax. You know what they say about Picasso. He was a master of traditional painting, so when he broke the rules, his art was made better. I don't think that's the case here. Some of this book's "scenes" made no sense.

You might have already guessed it, this book sheds a little extra light on just how bad the holocaust was. I know it was bad, but my understanding is very small. So you might credit much of this story's acclaim to the fact that these kinds of stories need to be told. The world should never forget how bad Nazis really were/are.

But the story isn't all about the holocaust, or else it would be a joyless horror story. Within the tale of Foer's family and shtetl, there are some very romantic romances. Others tales were likely weathered and imbelished the way legends are. And that's okay. I'm not going to forget Trochenbrod.

Looking Glass (feat. Nicolas Cage)

Directed by Tim Hunter (of great tv shows like Breaking Bad), I had high expectations for this atmospheric thriller. But do thrillers need to be good aside from their grim aesthetic? I do get the impression that fans of scary movies care mostly about mood, cinematography, and directorial vision; putting little value on the substance of characters and story.

But for any other kind of film, these aspects matter. So I've had mixed feelings about Looking Glass. It's the story of a couple who buy a motel in a little desert town. The motel has a dark past, leaving viewers wondering exactly what happened while our heroes try to keep it together in the suspicious town. So there's an element of mystery.

However, the mystery wasn't clever or creative, or any of the things you might have kept hoping for while waiting for the movie to get good. But still, it was an immersive experience, requiring you to pay attention in order to know what was going on. But it didn't really matter in the end. Just like life, there's no way of knowing what's going to happen until it does, and sometimes it's bad. And in the case of Looking Glass, I never felt a sense of fear on behalf of any of it's flawed, and unsympathetic characters. Still, I'm sure some people really like this kind of movie. Not me.

1. Raising Arizona
2. Leaving Las Vegas
3. Red Rock West
4. Adaptation
5. Birdy
6. Wild at Heart
7. Joe
8. Dog Eat Dog
9. Color Out of Space
10. Mom and Dad
11. Peggy Sue Got Married
12. Zandalee
13. City of Angels
14. Bangkok Dangerous
15. Drive Angry
16. Lord of War
17. Gone in 60 Seconds
18. Matchstick Men
19. Vampire's Kiss
20. Con Air
21. Face/Off
22. The Boy in Blue
23. Honeymoon in Vegas
24. Amos and Andrew
25. Moonstruck
26. The Sorcerer's Apprentice
27. Bringing Out the Dead
28. The Family Man
29. Knowing
30. It Could Happen to You
31. 8mm
32. Looking Glass
33. Between Worlds
34. Ghost Rider
35. The Humanity Bureau
36. Next
37. The Weather Man
38. 211
39. The Croods