Book Chatter with Anne Michaud!

Two book lovers chat on the internet...

AM: So, did you read The Knife of Never Letting Go????

SL:  I did! And it was great!  I really liked the Noise concept.  I mean, could you imagine hearing the thoughts of every living thing around you? UGH I get a headache just thinking about it.  Although, it would be pretty awesome to be able to talk to you pet, which is why Manchee, Todd's dog, was my favorite character haha.  I also thought Todd and Violet's growing trust and friendship throughout the novel was really well done.

What did you think of the book? And have you read the other two books in the trilogy?





AM: I loved it but I must admit it took a little while to get accustomed to Todd's voice - the expressions felt very foreign and old, which I kinda liked by then end.  Oh, Manchee! I thought it was very clever of Patrick Ness to include a pet's thoughts. But yeah, I'd go INSANE with Noise.  I've read the second one...I'm a bit in shock. I was wondering if Ness could make it better than the first of the trilogy: he did.  It's a LOT darker, Todd and Violet face inner challenges more than any physical ones, as in the TKONLG. Jess, you'll love it. The book pulls you in, really. And at the end... well... ouch.

You know, I'v learned my lesson with The Hunger Games to not read all the books at once, the withdraw too painful once the series is over. So I'll wait a little before reading Ness' final.

What are you reading now?? Anything good???

SL: I think you should just read it! I'm always pretty happy when I find a book series that already has all the books out.  I am so impatient, and I just love to read everything and then digest it all later.  But then of course I have not read The Hunger Games.....*ducks* but I know a lot of people were very emotionally invested in the characters and were either happy or disappointed about how the series ended. I personally am just happy when a series does end, because I really love conclusions. I love that the characters that I have read about and loved, finally have an end to that chapter (haha no pun intended) in their lives.  Take for example The Mortal Instrument series.  In three books, Cassandra Clare gave us an evil father, friendship, danger, and love and the ending was all wrapped up in a pretty bow and everything in Clary's life was wonderful and I didn't have to worry about them anymore. Now Clare is coming out with books that continue on Simon's story.  Now I know that the books are not going to focus on Jace and Clary, but I was done with them.  I had my happy ending for them in my mind, and now I have to open up that beautiful story that I loved, and everything is going to change.  If it's for better or worse I don't know, but I think I have a right to be nervous about where the next story is going to take them. I dont know if I can deal with the drama of Clary or Jace finding someone else that might come in between what they have UGH.
Anyway, thats a rant for another time.  Yesterday I just finished Heaven's Bones by Samantha Henderson and it was wonderful!  It was like a combination of historical steampunk fantasy all rolled into one. Ahtough it was a bit hard to get into because there was a lot of back and forth between several different characters.  It was about this man named Robarts who went a little mad after his wife died during child birth.  He decided that the only way to make it up to his wife for her dying was to make girls into angels, and he does all these gruesome experiments and surgeries on them  There were also several other character point of views that you get to read from, but Robarts was my favorite because he was so out of it and what he was doing was so wrong, but you just felt sorry for him. Definitely an interesting read! And I liked the steampunk aspect of it as well

Have you read any steampunk-ish type books?  It seems like there is suddenly this big explosion of steampunk this year!



AM: Wait... you're a Hunger Games virgin?? How I envy you! To discover those books again, to be in the dark about the ending, to experience them for the first time... You. Will. Love. THG. No kidding, run to the bookstore and get the three books right away. BY FAR my favorite dystopian YA series: rich and complex characters, a very unique vision of the future, and inner struggle that never ends... oh, I'm weeping! What an amazing series. Vive Suzanne Collins, I say!
I'm a huge fan of the Mortal Instruments seres, too - and much like you, I fear the new additions to the original. Clary & Jace's story has been told, it's a done deal, let's move on.  I want to read it, and then I don't want to. It's like an old friend you lost touch with: can you connect again?  What if I don't like the new books as much as the old ones, will they change my first impression?  For me, these characters are alive, somewhere in a parallel universe, so to visit them once their story is finished... I'm not sold.  But I'll read them, I cannot NOT read them, I'm just too curious.

Me LOVEZ steampunk novels - and once again, Scott Westerfeld's Leviathan & Behemoth come to mind.  I love the mix of historical facts and futuristic elements, twisting it into something new and completely (most of the time) crazy.  It's addictive.  I've never heard of Heaven's Bones, but now that you've mentioned it, I just might have to get it :_  It's like dystopian books: we learn about human nature through something no one will ever get to live, in worlds that (hopefully) will never exist.

But tell me, which book/ character is your favorite? You know, the kind of story you can't put down and suffer from withdraw symptoms for a week or two?




SL: Oh man, I knew I would be in trouble when I told you I hadn't read The Hunger Games yet Haha!  Would you believe me if I told you that i hadn't even heard of the books until about five months ago?  Just cast me into the fire and be done with me!  *throws an arm over her eyes and faints*

Hmm which book/character is my favorite?  This is a hard one!  I guess I'll separate my answers into three categories, fav book, character, and series.
Ok I think my favorite book is actually one that I read recently, Jennifer Donnelly's Revolution. Wow wow wow this girl can write!  Anything she writes, I seriously recommend.  She's got this way that she blends in so many different elements into her stories and makes them all into one cohesive story line.  I love her books so much that I can't even explain their awesomeness, you just have to read them.
My favorite character is also from a book I read recently and it's Sophie from Hex Hall by Rachel Hawkins.  This girl is fun-ny!  And she's so down to earth, and actually thinks for herself.  It was refreshing to see some character development between Sophie and her love interest instead of them meeting each other once and falling madly in love.  I'm SO sick of that.  When I read about that in the recent YA books that have come out I want to chuck the book out the window and scream and throw a tantrum.
And last but not least, my favorite series is the Dresden Files by Jim Butcher.  I mean really, what's not to love about a wizard as selfless as Dresden?  A wizard who struggles with his darker half everyday and still manages to keep his sense of humor and loyalty to his loved ones.  And book 13, Ghost Story is suppose to come out in March and I am literally on pins and needles waiting for it squeeeee!
Since we are on the topic of favorites what I really want to know is who is your favorite villain?  Good guys are great and everything, but sometimes they are too cookie cutter.  What character do you love to hate, or just loved because they were so awesomely evil?

AM: I LOVE evil people - in books. the baddest = the best.  But how can I choose just one?  I love them all!!!! So I'll do like you, I've come up with three, the first not a surprise for anyone: President Snow from The Hunger Games.

My heart beats faster when I see someone so feared and evil on the page, a little thrill at the pit of my stomach.  How will Katniss react?  How would I?  He's at the head of what that crazy world, he can stop everything wrong with it but chooses not to.  Blood on his breath?  Me lovez it.  And the way he's so sharp and composed, but so rotten and dead inside... He could save lives, he could end the games, but he can't be someone he's not.  Much like the good guys, the villains are who they are: such a shame books don't give them more page-time.  Which gives me an idea...
Next favorite villain: Eli from Let the Right One In by John Ajvide Lindqvist.  I love her because she's the bad vampire who kills, but also who falls for her friend.  She's feral, she's heartless, but not when it comes to Oskar.  The book is quite thick, but as I read on, I couldn't wait to see her do something totally creepy... a must read for any horror fan, not suitable for younger readers.
And last but not least, straight from my beloved Jane Austen's Pride & Prejudice: Lady Catherine de Burgh.  Talk about a snotty, machiavellian, scheming woman - the worst kind in real life, but the best for drama.  Much like Elizabeth Bennett, I felt like rebelling against the evil blue-blood, and don't I wish I'd marry Mr. Darcy!!!
Speaking of villains, I always come back to Garrett (not a book, I know, but still...) in The Labyrinth -- do you have a favorite book adaptation to the big screen? If so, what did you love/hate about it?




SL: OOh movies!  I love movies! I've found that if I watch the movie before I've read the book, chances are that I will like both the book and the movie.  However, if I've read the book first and then go see the movie, most likely I'll hate the movie because all I can think about is how much good stuff they cut out!
I'm gonna have to say that my favorite book to movie adaptation was Practical Magic, because it was SO much different than the book.  I mean, really all they did was take the character names and the fact that they did some magic.  Which was great because I really didn't like the book.  I thought it was boring and dragged on, and I was looking for the characters that I loved on the screen to be in the book, but sadly they weren't there.  I'm pretty sure that this is the one and only time you will EVER hear me say that I liked the movie better than the book.  Everyone needs exceptions to their own rules though right?  :D
My second book to movie adaptation that I enjoyed was Jurassic Park!  Oh baby that movie was so awesome when it came out!  Yeah they left a lot of stuff out from the book, but I think they did a pretty good job of uncomplicating the story and having one cohesive story line.  And for the time it was released, the dinosaurs looked amazing!
I also really liked The Princess Bride and Lord of the Rings!
But do you want to know which one I hated? Twilight.  Oh MY GOD that movie was so painful to watch. Ugh I get the creeps just thinking about Robert Pattinson's eerie stare and Kristin Stewart's stupid lip biting thing!  I nearly ran out of the theatre!

What about you?  Any favorite book to screen adaptations? Or any books that you think would turn out to be really good movies?




AM: See, I didn't mind the first Twilight - but the second, ugh!  Although I wasn't surprised since the director also screwed up one of my favorite MG books, The Golden Compass by Philip Pullnam.  And Eclipse with its lack of blood?  Especially when you've seen 30 Days of Night by David Slade, which is one of my favorite vampire movies ever...  Anyway, let's just hope the hysteria surrounding Twilight will die down with the last film: it's just not healthy!
Ouh, movies adaptations are tricky, but me too, when I see the film first, I find it as good as the book.  It happened with Stardust from Neil Gaiman and Blade Runner years ago, and Let the Right One In, too, was gorgeous and haunting.  But those were exceptional films in their respective genre, which can't be said for most films made today.  Don't you find it hard to see good films at the cinema, lately?  Scary...
Of course, can't wait to see if The Hunger Games will be as good as the books, thank whatever god Suzanne Collins is writing the script!!  And the last Harry Potter will make me line up on the day it comes out at the cinema  And now that we know who'll play Clary from the Mortal Instruments, well, I guess I'll go check it out in 2012.
The book I'd really like to see turned into a movie: none.  I'm always disappointed, always feel robbed, always prefer my own interpretation than the one on the screen.  But that's just me, such a cynic.
So tell me: what's on your book list to read for 2011?




SL: I loved Stardust the move!  Stardust the book was eh.  I think that might just be because I am not a fan of Neil Gaiman's writing. :(  And as far as them making a movie of The Mortal Instruments go, I'm just about as nervous for that to come out as I am fro the continuation of the series.  Yikes!  I'll probably still go see it thought cuz I'm a sucker for torture!  Good thing I've got two more years to think about all the ways they might ruin it....like getting rid of Magnus *gulp* Really REALLY hope that doesn't happen.

My most favorite book series have got books coming out this year.  There's Patricia Briggs and her Mercy Thompson series, Kim Harrison and the Hollows series (LOVE), and of course, Jim Butcher with the Dresden Files.  But mostly this year I am trying to get through all the books that I collected (hoarded) last year.  If I see a pretty cover, I pick it up.  I get extreme cover lust, and for the most part it's worked out for me to find some really great books!  However with all my book buying, a lot of books got thrown to the wayside and I feel sorry for them.  So this year I decided not to buy any new books, unless they are from a series I already read  :D   Want to know what I got on my shelves?  Hmm let's see, Paranormalcy, Nightshade, Let The Right One In, The Vampire Academy (just found out about this series last year! How sad!), Bleeding Violet, Shiver, a few J.R. Ward books, The Name of the Wind, and Phantom of the Opera, just to name a few.  Even with all these great books to read, I'm pretty sure I won't be able to stop myself from buying a few books on the Kindle!




Tune in next month for more chatter with Anne!

                                       **Anne Michaud blogs at Livy Parker's Journal**