Looking for a roarmantic read?

Or okay, in regular terms, a romantic read?

I suggest Beastly by Alex Flinn. It's a modernized retelling of Beauty and the Beast. In it, the popular, gorgeous, and pretty darn mean Kyle Kingsbury is transformed into a beast by a witch. Because of his one act of kindness, he is given a chance to escape the curse: he has two years to kiss someone and have it be true love. This is pretty difficult, seeing as he's monstrous looking and can't even leave the house. That is, until he discovers a way to have Lindy, a sweet, plain scholarship student Kyle once would've overlooked, stay with him...The book is cute and romantic. It was a touch predictable, but it had enough to make it unique. For example, I loved all the transfiguration chatroom stuff. This book even made me cry a little bit, though I don't guarantee you the same results; I can be pretty sappy. If you do decide to give Beastly a try, bear with Kyle in the beginning, since he's a major jerk. Trust me, though, he has a very rewarding transformation.

Other people must have seen what I saw in the book, since it's being turned into a movie, due out in 2010. I'm so excited about Neil Patrick Harris's involvement; he'll be playing Kyle's blind tutor Will. Knowing Neil Patrick Harris, he'll be perfect at the part. Playing Kyle is Alex Pettyfer. He was in the Alex Rider movie, if anyone's seen that. He's pretty gorgeous, so I see that working, though I'm not too sure about his acting ability yet. I'll give him the benefit of the doubt. I am a bit worried, however, about the picture I've found of him in presumably his beast state, which I've included in the post. It doesn't strike me as quite beastly enough. The author describes him as having hair all over and looking less human. I pictured him looking a bit more werewolf like. Anyway, Mary Kate Olsen is also in the movie, playing the witch. The person that gives me most pause is Vanessa Hudgens as Lindy. I'm not a huge Vanessa fan, and I can't picture her as the character at all. In the book, Lindy is a plain and sweet rehead.

I guess I'll just have to wait and see, right? With most of these movie adaptions, you have to accept the movie as a seperate entity from the book, which reminds me, I'm off to see Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince for the second time today. WOOO!

Summer Reading

It's been forever since I've posted. I got caught up in the busyness of school--and then in the laziness of summer! I've finally decided to grace you all with my posting, though. (Ha, yeah, right, if anybody out there is reading.)

The topic for my first post back?

Summer reading.

And, for the beginning of this post at least, I'm not talking about the fun, beach kind. I'm talking about required-by-school kind. I have four books to read this summer: Crime and Punishment, Their Eyes Were Watching God, The Awakening, and Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong. As of this post, one down, three to go. I'm currently trudging through Crime and Punishment, and I've got to say, I'm not exactly riveted. I want to like classics. I really do. It just hardly ever ends up happening. I keep wondering to myself if the authors even tried to be slightly entertaining.

Anyone else struggling through summer reading? Or do you have opinions on any of the books I'm reading this summer? I'd love to hear them!

Amidst all the school reading, though, I have had time for one fun book: Prada and Prejudice by Mandy Hubbard. I stayed up til almost 3 reading it last night. It was adorable and a fun, quick read! I loved seeing the contemporary character in that historical setting, and I also loved the romance. I recommend it!