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!

Braless in Wonderland, fun but thoughtful!

I just finished reading Braless in Wonderland by Debbie Reed Fischer. If you're looking for a quick read that's cute and intelligent at the same time, and if you're an America's Next Top Model addict like me, you will enjoy this book.

It's about overachieving, feminist high school senior Allee Rosen, who, to her surprise, is offered representation from a top-notch model and talent agency, Finnesse. Allee, who never thought herself particularly beautiful, finds herself heading out to Miami, going on castings, and landing commercials, print ads, and even some high-fashion photoshoots. At first she's reluctant to join the modeling world--she only gives it a chance so she can pay for Yale--, but in no time, she finds it enthralling. It unlocks a different part of herself, teaches her some valubable lessons, and is just plain fun. Eventually Allee has to choose between this glamorous world and the world of academia which she had always planned on entering.

As I said earlier, this book is both cute and intelligent, and that's a big deal to me. While I like books that are fun and accessible, I don't want to read shallow, stupid fluff. Braless in Wonderland managed to pack in some serious content about labeling ourselves and others (I have a soft spot for any book that examines intellectual snobbery, because I am sometimes prone to it, even though it is so wrong...and besides, it's just fascinating.), beauty and intelligence and if they can coexist, making choices about the future, what degrading really is, what femimnism really is, etc. However, I didn't feel like I was reading a book that's sole purpose was to make me think. All of this deeper content was inside of a cute, little package of entertainment, and entertained I was. I liked the colorful world of fashion and modeling. I liked the relatable voice of the main character Allee. I liked the interesting personalities of the fellow models and the relationships they had with Allee.

Overall, I just liked this book, period!

Even if I did feel a little funny carrying around a book with Braless in the title, ha ha.