today's the 28th of July...

... and two very exciting things popped up while I've been roaming around New England and stumbling over Rhode Island's beaches* these past few days (in the 100 degrees heat which is always great...NOT).

1) The Queen's Thief series by Megan Whalen Turner received the 2011 Mythopoeic Award! (Actually this was a couple of weeks ago, but I only found out about it like...yesterday.) :D I can't imagine a more deserving series. If you haven't read any of the books yet, go straight to the library to hold the Thief (the first book). Don't make me track you down to throw the books into your windows or hide them under your pillows! You wouldn't want that, and tracking you down would make me feel weird, so uh...please read these books?

2) Exclusive pictures of Josh Hutcherson as Peeta and Liam Hemsworth as Gale released thanks to Entertainment Weekly! I refuse to post the EW cover here because the photoshop is a tad ridiculous, so instead here are my favorite stills** from the movie they've shown so far.

Best friends.

Josh/Peeta. With an apron. And bread.

Before anyone freaks out about Josh's seemingly still brown hair, remember that it's just a lighting trick! Take a look at the slideshow. His hair is definitely dirty blonde and it falls in waves over his forehead; don't worry. :)

*takes sigh of relief*

I think the Hunger Games makeup crew got it right, don't you think? :D

* Rhode Island's beaches are made up of shells and rocks, so we couldn't have this dramatic run up to the water with our hair flying behind us, and with smiles and laughter etched onto our faces. Instead we had to slowly walk over rocks so we didn't fall and break our teeth, while occasionally letting out a tiny squeak or two. Still, the view was breathtaking.

** Is it just me being sappy, or is the still with Jennifer and Liam is too adorable? Awwww.

*** EDIT: More Hunger Games promo pictures are right here (thanks to Bookshelves of Doom)

Riddle: What do Katniss Everdeen, Tintin, and Colin Singleton all have in common?

(Answer to the riddle included in the comments.)

1) Twitter burst into excitement today, and the server died for a while and that’s probably because EW released a brand new and shiny exclusive picture of Jennifer Lawrence Katniss Everdeen!

Fierce and brunette with a bow and arrow in hand- YES, Jennifer Lawrence is Katniss! EEEEEEEEP. (I’m glad Gary Ross and his crew weren’t joking about sticking to the character descriptions in the books. :D) The Hunger Games outfit (bow, arrow and mockingjay pin included) is making the fangirl hidden inside of me dance, but I probably won’t give in to the temptation until the trailer comes out.

*cough* Now they just have to release Josh Hutcherson’s picture as Peeta.....and I’m praying hoping that his transformation will be good as Jennifer’s (since I put a lot of expectations on his makeup crew before) I’m waiting with bated breath and crossed fingers...

2) For any Tintin fans out there, the trailer for the movie came out a couple days ago!

The aeroplanes, fights, Thompson and Thompson, and the Unicorn crashing into the waves all give out a Tintin vibe so I’m pumped for the movie. The motion capture is kind of.....eerie or weird? I don’t know what I think of it but I’m just hoping I’ll get used to the animation before December (with it being directed by Steven Spielberg, there's no way I can't not watch it, even with the animation!).

3) If you’re into YA, and you haven't read An Abundance of Katherines by John Green yet, then

read it! That’s all. I keep on saying this, but I’m going to write a proper review for this soon (no, seriously, I will!), but I whole-heartedly recommend it. Just don’t get put off with Colin Singleton’s character too soon, because it's worth it in the end. Why yes it is. :D

Ciao for now,

Nonie

Because Thursday is the day before Friday

Because it’s Thursday and not Friday yet, I feel obligated to post this:

*****

Last week, I got my hands on a new camera so I scavenged around looking for good photo ops and angles and the like, and I ended up taking this picture:

I just like the colors....and the sun. :D

The sky turned into this like 10 min. later-

I realized that I take pictures of clouds...A LOT. But at least I'm not a cloudy person-hahaha!(All right, all right. I'll stop with the punny joking.)

*****

I JUST got the Girl Who Was on Fire from the library. (You know...it’s that anthology written by a group of YA authors about that one series...er...what was it? The Fire Games? The Hunting Games? The Hungery Games? Oh yeah, THE HUNGER GAMES!!!) I’m super duper excited to read this. I already read some essays that were available online for some time, and they were fantastic. Interesting, in-depth, thought-provoking, well-written, and fun, so I thought I would pick it up. And now it’s here so I can READ the whole thing!! I feel like jumping with happiness.

*****

Um...what else? Well, there’s the new (and pretty good) trailer for the last part of Harry Potter:



Heh. :P (I mean, I am a Harry Potter fan, so I had to stick the trailer in a post sometime.) And I sort of already watched it like 35 times (hmm...or was it 37?) Analyzation (aka Nonie’s ramblings about it): SNAPE! I’m overjoyed (really) to see Snape so many times (epic Snape apparation scene at 1:18 with some amazing music playing in the back) and a glimpse of the Prince’s Tale. I got depressed when I saw Tonks and Lupin reaching for each other’s hands, but the depression turned into happiness when I heard Ron speaking his one line, and when I saw (I think) Oliver Wood (yay!) flying over the castle. And the Battle at Hogwarts scenes with their brilliant special effects made the trailer even more fabulous than it already was (yay for Professor McGonagall’s army!).

Oh, and I really can’t tell you how much I love how the trailer starts with the original Harry Potter theme sort of. (I LOVED the whole trailer, but Harry Potter trailers are always good, and it’s been a while since I heard the original John Williams theme.) The most randomest/most amusing part was the Harry-grabbing-Voldemort-and-jumping-off-a-roof scene. My first thought about that: UMM...Harry/Daniel Radcliffe did NOT just grab Voldemort and jump of a roof. So I replayed it, and I realized that he did, and now I can’t wait to see what that’s all about on July 15th. :P

(And this is random but I just realized that Voldemort doesn’t wear any shoes and seeing him walk bare-footed threw me off for a min. Er, that’s probably because I never thought about Voldemort’s shoes before...that’s a bit weird...okay, I'll stop now.)

*****

Recent Book Recommendations:
Castle in the Air by Diana Wynne Jones
A Conspiracy of Kings by Megan Whalen Turner
The Running Dream by Wendelin Van Draanen
Smiles To Go by Jerry Spinelli

and

The Girl Who Was on Fire (because I already know that I'm going to think that it's amazing by the end of the read.)

I’ll write some reviews soon and actually put some bookish content here, hopefully as soon as AP testing week is over (in only two weeks...eek!). Right now, I need to go back to studying. :)


Happy Thursday!

So the Hunger Games Cast Came Out...

So, I've been somewhere else for a while (and totally skipped writing in March-oops) working on the usual- schoolwork, tennis, final exams, worrying about college, and whatnot, but I had to come back to lay out my thoughts about some important news here:

The Hunger Games movie has been cast (but just the main trio though)...

and it was announced back in March that Jennifer Lawrence will be playing Katniss Everdeen!

I’m absolutely thrilled about it because a) She CAN ACT (as seen in Winter’s Bone- Her character is actually very similar to Katniss’s in the movie, and she’s gotten numerous awards/nominations/*Oscar nomination for Best Actress* for the role), b) She went through a grueling audition with Gary Ross, the film’s director, and she passed, so obviously she captured Katniss pretty well, and c) Suzanne Collins thinks she’s awesome.

Yes, I'm very excited to see her as Katniss. :D

Then, just last Monday, castings for Peeta and Gale came out! Peeta will be played by Josh Hutcherson (left), and Gale will be played by Liam Hemsworth:

The good news is that when I read about casting is that I didn’t cry out/scream “What?!!!!” like I did when the Percy Jackson movie casting was released a couple years ago. My first thought was, “Okay, this can work."

And after thinking about it for a while (and seeing fan art), I believe that it actually can.***

I actually don’t know anything about Liam except for the fact that he acted besides Miley Cyrus in the Last Song and I haven’t seen that, so I can’t say anything about his acting, but I think he has the-Gale-look. He’s tall, lean-ish, has a rugged look about him, and I can totally imagine him with black hair, leather-soled boots, hunting gear, and squirrels and rabbits strapped to his belt and around his shoulders, and walking around looking a bit solemn. (And he and Jennifer Lawrence look like cousins! Yay!)

Now about Josh Hutcherson...It’s been amusing, but a little bit more shocking/disturbing to see all the hate he’s been getting (more than the other cast members) because he’s Peeta and not Hunter Parrish or Alex Pettyfer. So I really wanted Hunter to get the role, but for more superficial reasons. (I mean, he LOOKS THE PART already.) But thinking about it now, I'm really happy that Josh got the role, even though he doesn't look like Peeta, who by the way (to non-Hunger Games fans), looks like this:

JH is basically the exact opposite of who Peeta is physically. He’s got brown eyes instead of blue, really dark brown hair instead of blonde, and OMG his hair is definitely not falling in waves over his forehead. But who really looks like Peeta anyway except Hunter Parrish?

The good things about Josh: He's a little more stocky than the others, but that’s what Peeta’s described as right? Stocky not lean. Medium height. Strong enough to haul 100 lb flour bags arond. Soft-looking. Boyish. Not a pretty pretty boy. JH fits each requirement perfectly. All I have to say about his dark hair and brown eyes is that if the LOTR makeup crew transformed dark-brown haired Orlando Bloom into white-blonde haired Legolas convincingly, I have no doubt that the HG makeup crew will be able to do the same.* (There’s nothing a little Hollywood make-up and magic won’t fix!)

About his acting, I’ve seen Josh Hutcherson in almost every movie he’s been in (Zathura, Journey to the Center of the Earth, etc) and he’s a great actor (which is probably why I’m not worried about his casting). He knows about emotions, he knows how to be charismatic, and he’s good with action sequences, so there's no way he won't be able to pull Peeta's role acting-wise. JH beat out Hunter and Pettyfer (and......everyone else who auditioned), so he was much better at being Peeta than everyone else. Gary Ross and Suzanne Collins both said that they knew that he’s perfect for Peeta, that he was their first choice, and that he had great chemistry with Jenn in the screen tests, and I believe them and I have faith in Josh. He wanted this role badly, and he got it, so we should give him a chance and see what he’ll do with the character.**

No director or author wants to purposefully ruin their story, and it sounds like the HG movie team is trying to make the best movie they can. The whole cast (so far) is enthusiastic about their characters and the series (especially Josh :P), they know how big this series is and how much responsibility just landed on their shoulders to get everything right, and since Gary Ross promised to dye each character’s hair their respective hair colors, I don’t think we have anything to worry about. So...thinking optimistically, JH, Jenn, and Liam will of course blow our minds away when we see the movie opening weekend March 2012 of course.***

Meanwhile, we should trust Gary Ross's vision for the movie. He and his crew know more than us about what's going to happen. (Now I'm really excited about the trailer! :D)

Thoughts, complaints, revelations, etc about the Hunger Games movie or something of the sort? Write away below in the comments. :D

*Hey HG Makeup Crew! *Waves* If you guys are reading this somehow, you know I’ve put a lot of expectations on you. Sorry about that, but you will be able to change JH’s hair right? And make sure his hair is falling over his forehead in waves right? Because that’s sort of important to the HG fandom (*cough* and me *cough*). If you don’t change his hair, there’s going to be a lot of angry fans...

** Disclaimer #1: I am NOT JH’s agent who stole Nonie’s Blogger account to put her client in a positive light or a devoted JH fangirl (definitely NOT the latter!). I just think he shouldn’t be judged so quickly and be given a chance. He won over Suzanne Collins (and Peeta’s her character), so who knows? Maybe by the time we see Josh in March, we'll all be saying,"Hunter Who?"

*** If the movie doesn’t turn out so well, and everyone ends up being horrible, then that just means I wasted the whole post (hopefully) boosting everyone's morale about it, but I actually think it’ll turn out well. I think Suzanne Collins being in the movie crew will mean that the movie will go in the right direction and it certainly looks like it is so far. :)

P.S./Disclaimer #2: If the movie doesn't end up being too good, and you've raised your expectations about the movie because of this post, but are disappointed in March, then I am not to be blamed. Personal opinions are opinions of that person alone, and I am just stating mine. Heh.

Mockingjay

by Suzanne Collins

Against all odds, Katniss Everdeen has survived the Hunger Games twice. But now that she's made it out of the bloody arena alive, she's still not safe. The Capitol is angry. The Capitol wants revenge. Who do they think should pay for the unrest? Katniss. And what's worse, President Snow has made it clear that no one is safe either. Not Katniss's family, not her friends, not the people of District 12.

(Don't worry. There aren't any spoilers.)

Suzanne Collins is brilliant. She created a story like the Hunger Games trilogy and ended it amazingly. I loved the book. I did. I absolutely loved it. When I first started reading the book this afternoon, I promised myself that I would go slowly. Savor each line and word. Laugh at all the jokes, tear up at all the sad parts, etc. That definitely did not happen. I breezed through the pages in a couple of hours, because I couldn't put the book down. Mockingjay was breathtaking and stunning (not to mention inevitably devastating) conclusion.

I loved that the relationships are fully explored between the characters. The relationship between Haymith and Katniss was the most profound and heartwarming, and I loved the Haymitch/Katniss/Peeta team. Speaking of relationships, I thought Suzanne Collins wrapped up the Peeta vs. Gale battle nicely, though it was bittersweet for me.

Characters like Gale, Prim, Finnick, and Annie have much larger roles than in the past, so seeing them sort of break out of their shells was great. I did miss several characters though, and I was completely saddened by what happened to a few of them.

Most people seem to not like the epilogue, but I thought it was beautifully written and haunting in a way. If you read it, what did you think about it?

---------

That's all I can write about Mockingjay right now without ruining everything. I still have to take in a few things. When I first finished it, I was literally stunned. I started sobbing on the last page, and I didn't know what to think about it at all other than it was incredible and that it's over. Now I'll say that Mockingjay is an amazing finish to one of the best stories I've ever read in my life, and I'll miss Katniss and Peeta and Haymitch and everyone else. It was a wonderful ride and I'm thankful for Suzanne Collins for it. :)

To appease our appetites for Mockingjay until tomorrow...

Scholastic just released a sneak peek of the first chapter! *hyperventilates*



Just a couple more hours...I think I'll be able to make it. ;)

(Oh, and we all know what Katniss thinks at the end is not going to be true, right? Because if what they think happens to be true...I'll be very, very sad. The good thing is...it's probably not true...)

Eeep!!

Ok, I know I say eep!, or eek! in every other post, but this time I finally do have a really exciting reason to say it for.

The title and book cover for the third and final book of the Hunger Games trilogy has been revealed today by Scholastic! And here it is, basking in all it's glory:

Isn't it so brilliant?! It's so peaceful and majestic...eep!! :-D Mockingjay is coming out August 24th. I don't think I can wait that long...

aaahh!!

*faint*

In 2010, I'm looking forward to...

Books (in the order they come out):

Calamity Jack- Sequel to Rapunzel's Revenge, of my favorite graphic novels of all time. It also happens to be coming out this Tuesday (Jan. 5th). As you can probably tell from the title, the main character is Jack (a thief who belongs to a certain fairytale that involves a beanstalk), who I fell in love with while reading RR, so of course I have to read it as soon as it comes out!

Heist Society (Feb. 9th)- written by Ally Carter (author of the Gallagher Girls series), and it's about clever, teenage thieves. What's not to get excited about? (And isn't the cover just gorgeous?)

A Conspiracy of Kings (March 23)- The fourth book in the Queen's Thief trilogy (but I guess it can't be called a trilogy anymore :P). I LOVED the first three, so I was ridiculously happy when I heard there was a new one coming out! Can't wait to see Gen again, though I read it's mainly about Sophos, another charming character who was first introduced in the Thief. (Hmm...what is it with all these theives? First Jack, Kat, and now Gen.)

Only the Good Spy Young- the fourth book in the Gallagher Girls, but it's about spies, not thieves this time. Coming out June 15th! Just in time for my birthday. :)

Films:

Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief (Look, another thief!)- I hope it'll be good, for Rick Riordan's sake at least. If they mess it up...well...let's not go there yet...

Alice in Wonderland (March 5th)- Tim Burton + Johnny Depp + Roald Dahl + Charlie and the Chocolate Factory= most hilarious movie ever, so Tim Burton + Johnny Depp + Lewis Carroll + Alice In Wonderland should be pretty good.

Toy Story 3- Yay! I can't believe a third one is coming out! It looks like it would be a great movie judging from the sneak peeks.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part I - Er, does this need an explanation? I CANNOT WAIT. I know it's going to be my favorite HP movie ever. It'll be torture waiting for the second part to come out in July 2011 though. (I can't believe it's ending....*sob*)

Life:

I can't think of any exciting thing happening to me except that I'm turning 16 this summer. (Actually, I'm more nervous about this than excited, but I guess it's not everday you turn 16).

Oh, and if all goes well, my family might be going to Italy this summer for a couple of weeks.
--------
Looking through the list again, it looks like 2010 will be an epic year full of thieves, traveling, and awesome films! Hopefully, this year will be as good as it looks like. :P