Spotlight: "The Other Boleyn Girl" and "Live A Little"

I should never have put off reading this book. That it's so thick has always discouraged me from getting started, but once I jumped over that hurdle, I found myself completely engrossed in it. It is so much better, so much richer than the movie (though Natalie Portman and Scarlett Johanssen were both really hot).

This novel was so good, it made me research on Henry VIII and his wives, and just how much of the novel was factual. As it turns out, everything is based on facts-- the only points that are fiction are the thoughts, intentions, motivations of the characters. But Anne Boleyn really did have a sister named Mary who was a mistress of the King and bore him two childern. The affair with Anne really did prompt Henry to seek an annulment from his marriage to Katherine of Aragon. And so on, and so forth.

The best thing is, I researched on the rest of Philippa Gregory's novels, and it turns out that a couple more revolve around the same time period: The Constant Princess is about Katherine of Aragon and how she ended up marrying Henry VIII (so it's actually the prequel to The Other Boleyn Girl in a chronological sense); The Boleyn Inheritance takes place immediately after The Other Boleyn Girl and talks about the rest of Henry VIII's wives; The Queen's Fool seems to be the transition novel before the reign of Queen Elizabeth; and The Virgin's Lover is during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. So even if these novels all stand alone and have separate plots, reading it in order would probably feel like reading an entire saga on English history. Now if only they weren't so long.

I was excited to start reading this novel, and in the beginning, I was amused by her humor. Then it started getting tiresome. Then I couldn't wait for it to end.

It's actually a little difficult to explain what I didn't like about it. While I liked the premise, I felt that everything was becoming too unbelievable. Becoming a breast cancer advocate overnight, thanks to guesting on her sister's talk show (apparently, the sister is like Tyra). The sudden reawakening of her artistic side because she is commissioned to make a series of sculptures using casts of actual breast cancer survivors. By this time, it kinda became more about a mid-life crisis than about her not really having cancer and not knowing how to come clean about it. Add to that too many pop culture references --the daughter wanting to be emancipated because she thinks she's Lindsay Lohan, the image of a pregnant Britney Spears as a deterent for unwanted pregnancy, a breast cancer survivor named "Imelda, like the dictator... and I could imagine her with a closet filled with Manolos"-- and the one phrase that popped into my head was, "This novel is trying too hard."

Too bad, the premise was intriguing, but the execution was nothing great. What a waste of promise.

The good thing is, I'm officially 11 out of 18 on my reading list now! Woohoo!

on books and DVDs

As I mentioned before, I love anything that tells a story. That means that as much as I hoard love books, I also love DVDs. Last year, I was hooked on F.R.I.E.N.D.S., which I appreciated so much more now that I'm in my twenties. Then I watched Sex and the City, The Apprentice season 3, Pushing Daisies season 1, Top Design season 1, and How I Met Your Mother seasons 1-4 (and this is the only series that I'm downloading!). Now, I'm hooked on this:

After much consultation with other fanatics, I finally decided on getting the boxed set of CSI Las Vegas seasons 1 to 7. I just finished watching the first season and I'm currently three episodes into the second, already I'm showing signs of being addicted. For one, I go to bed at night with the feeling that maybe someone is just outside my door, or that I will suddenly see the curtains blowing to reveal an open window big enough to fit a human-- until I remember that my windows are not that big and I don't even have curtains in my room. So I sleep a little easier after that realization. I also caught myself looking at my cellphone and, upon seeing my fingerprints, thinking, "Wow, this cellphone is loaded with prints. Let's hope one of them is our killer's." Then I realize that it's my phone and there is no killer. I just love how they solve crimes, how they connect the dots to lead them to unlikely suspects, how sometimes they discover that the killer is someone who was right under their nose. I have yet to really compare to CSI Miami and CSI New York (my brother thinks Miami is too action-loaded, while a friend thinks the crimes in New York are too similar), but I think that after this, I will buy CSI New York just for Gary Sinise, who I think rocks.

As I go on CSI marathons, I have somehow found the time to finally get started on the one book that I've really put off reading-- The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory (how strange that Amazon doesn't have a synopsis of this book). I bought the book primarily to compare it to the movie, but I've been putting off reading it because it's too thick. I got intimidated. But after finishing my last book, I realized that to finish my reading list, I would have to get to this book sooner or later. So I decided to make it sooner. I've been reading this book steadily, which means I've been bringing it with me to the dentist and leaving it in the car so I can read while waiting for parking. But hey, at least I'm making some progress with it!

I cheated. Just when I said I wouldn't buy any books, I went out and bought this one. In my defense, I had seen copies of Something Blue by Emily Giffin, but it wasn't in this particular edition, so I didn't buy it. My thinking is that sequels should be bought in the same editions. Apparently, this particular edition was hard to find. So when I saw three copies in Fully Booked High Street, I didn't think twice about buying it. Of course, this goes on the bottom of my list, and I will have to resist the temptation of finding out what happens to Darcy now that she's pregnant and all alone. My reading list is now 9 out of 18, which means I'm exactly halfway down the list. Once I finish reading The Other Boleyn Girl, that will make it 10 out of 18, and I can't wait!

Happy Sunday, everyone!