branquignole (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
branquignole) wrote2010-09-07 08:21 pm
branquignole) wrote2010-09-07 08:21 pm
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This Is Kind Of Gleeky
I was wavering a bit whether I should watch another episode of GLEE or blog. Blogging won, since I haven't blogged in almost a week. (Whew, imagine that!) Anyway, I've now become such a Gleek that it takes me ages to finish reading a book because I soooo want to watch another episode. Today I've already seen #7 and #8, and I can't really decide whether I want to read another Sherlock Holmes, or watch #9. Hell, this is difficult!
Part of the reason I fell in love with GLEE so quickly is probably the fact that there are a tons of awesome singers that sing on it. I don't know most of the songs (so far) since I'm not so much into pop music and what not (yes, that is the sad reality of being a musical freak), but I love all the singing that's going on nonetheless! And then there's the cast, and they're all awesome. All of GLEE Club are made of win. The people I want to squish most are probably Kurt (KURT! He is so effing adorable! And he wears hats!), Mercedes (what a woman) and Tina. Well, and everybody else. Puck's been growing on me, because frankly, he has a beautiful voice and I don't care if he's a jerk, he looks all beautiful and lit up when he sings! Finn always reduces me to giggling because he's so naive and cute ("You're so chivalrous, Finn." - "Thanks. That's a good thing, right?") And I totally love Emma although I don't agree with her choices, but she's fun and weird and CAN YOU TELL I LOVE THIS SHOW?
And although it sounds like I've been doing nothing but watch GLEE, I'm actually blogging to tell you about the book I read. (Yeah, right, who am I kidding?) After reading Kirsten Boie's Die Medlevinger I absolutely wanted to pick up one of her other books, and when I spotted Alhambra at the library, I checked it out at once. It's about Boston who goes to Granada with school. Rummaging through some wall tiles in a souvenir shop, he finds one that looks pretty old and worn and real and decides to buy it for his mum. When he touches it, though, it takes him back in time about five hundred years. Back in 1492, he lives all kinds of adventures. It's the time when Christians reconquered Granada which had been taken by the Moors, and he witnesses a lot of misery - and then he gets caught up in the events himself, and is accused of having made a pact with the devil.
What I actually don't like about Boie's YA books is that there are no fathers around. It's like that in Die Medlevinger, and it's the same in Alhambra. I know that there are a lot of children whose families are not intact, but I think it would be nice to read one book where a child has a mother and a father, where none of them is dead, where they're not divorced, where they're kind of present in the kid's life. I think that Kirsten Boie's writing is otherwise pretty flawless though. She is really good at fleshing out characters and I get the feeling that she really gets young people. She also manages to have a lot of threads of the plot running parallel to each other and she's good at tying up the knots.
I'm not completely in love with this book as I am in love with Die Medlevinger. That one just was magic. Alhambra is good, no doubt, the historic background is interesting, and what's lacking is just a little something I can't put my finger on. I just didn't get as caught up as in Die Medlevinger. But that doesn't change the fact that Boie is a great author with a knack for intriguing stories. Her books are not books I miss all the time once I put them down (it's like that with Sanderson's book), but once I've picked them up, I don't want to stop reading for a long time.
Part of the reason I fell in love with GLEE so quickly is probably the fact that there are a tons of awesome singers that sing on it. I don't know most of the songs (so far) since I'm not so much into pop music and what not (yes, that is the sad reality of being a musical freak), but I love all the singing that's going on nonetheless! And then there's the cast, and they're all awesome. All of GLEE Club are made of win. The people I want to squish most are probably Kurt (KURT! He is so effing adorable! And he wears hats!), Mercedes (what a woman) and Tina. Well, and everybody else. Puck's been growing on me, because frankly, he has a beautiful voice and I don't care if he's a jerk, he looks all beautiful and lit up when he sings! Finn always reduces me to giggling because he's so naive and cute ("You're so chivalrous, Finn." - "Thanks. That's a good thing, right?") And I totally love Emma although I don't agree with her choices, but she's fun and weird and CAN YOU TELL I LOVE THIS SHOW?
And although it sounds like I've been doing nothing but watch GLEE, I'm actually blogging to tell you about the book I read. (Yeah, right, who am I kidding?) After reading Kirsten Boie's Die Medlevinger I absolutely wanted to pick up one of her other books, and when I spotted Alhambra at the library, I checked it out at once. It's about Boston who goes to Granada with school. Rummaging through some wall tiles in a souvenir shop, he finds one that looks pretty old and worn and real and decides to buy it for his mum. When he touches it, though, it takes him back in time about five hundred years. Back in 1492, he lives all kinds of adventures. It's the time when Christians reconquered Granada which had been taken by the Moors, and he witnesses a lot of misery - and then he gets caught up in the events himself, and is accused of having made a pact with the devil.
What I actually don't like about Boie's YA books is that there are no fathers around. It's like that in Die Medlevinger, and it's the same in Alhambra. I know that there are a lot of children whose families are not intact, but I think it would be nice to read one book where a child has a mother and a father, where none of them is dead, where they're not divorced, where they're kind of present in the kid's life. I think that Kirsten Boie's writing is otherwise pretty flawless though. She is really good at fleshing out characters and I get the feeling that she really gets young people. She also manages to have a lot of threads of the plot running parallel to each other and she's good at tying up the knots.
I'm not completely in love with this book as I am in love with Die Medlevinger. That one just was magic. Alhambra is good, no doubt, the historic background is interesting, and what's lacking is just a little something I can't put my finger on. I just didn't get as caught up as in Die Medlevinger. But that doesn't change the fact that Boie is a great author with a knack for intriguing stories. Her books are not books I miss all the time once I put them down (it's like that with Sanderson's book), but once I've picked them up, I don't want to stop reading for a long time.