As You Wish: Inconceivable Tales from the Making of The Princess Bride by Cary Elwes

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From actor Cary Elwes, who played the iconic role of Westley in The Princess Bride, comes a first-person account and behind-the-scenes look at the making of the cult classic film filled with never-before-told stories, exclusive photographs, and interviews with costars Robin Wright, Wallace Shawn, Billy Crystal, Christopher Guest, and Mandy Patinkin, as well as author and screenwriter William Goldman, producer Norman Lear, and director Rob Reiner.

The Princess Bride has been a family favorite for close to three decades. Ranked by the American Film Institute as one of the top 100 Greatest Love Stories and by the Writers Guild of America as one of the top 100 screenplays of all time, The Princess Bride will continue to resonate with audiences for years to come.

Cary Elwes was inspired to share his memories and give fans an unprecedented look into the creation of the film while participating in the twenty-fifth anniversary cast reunion. In As You Wish he has created an enchanting experience; in addition to never-before seen photos and interviews with his fellow cast mates, there are plenty of set secrets, backstage stories, and answers to lingering questions about off-screen romances that have plagued fans for years!

With a foreword by Rob Reiner and a limited edition original poster by acclaimed artist Shepard Fairey, As You Wish is a must-have for all fans of this beloved film.

I remember the first time that I watched The Princess Bride. It immediately captured my full attention and changed my view of movies. I have always loved movies that don't fit into one genre much like The Princess Bride. It has something for everyone...adventure, romance, fighting, danger, and a fairy tale like atmosphere. I never understood why it didn't do as well in theaters when it came out but after reading As You Wish a lot of things became clear. 

If you love the movie then you will definitely love this book! Cary Elwes talks at length about the making of the movie and tells stories about many of the actors in the film. I listened to the audio book which I would highly recommend due to the impressions that Cary does of people as well as the cameos from the director and other actors in the movie. It was great to hear their take on the movie and each other. I loved hearing all of the funny stories they told about each other. It was clear that they all grew to become an extremely close-knit family. 

I think that my favorite part of the book was being able to experience the love that clearly went into the making of this film that is so beloved by many. I always thought that it seemed like all of the actors were enjoying themselves whenever I watched the movie but it meant so much to me to know that it was so important to them as well. Some of the actors even experienced anxiety over their part in it because they were worried that they weren't good enough in their role including Cary Elwes (Wesley) and Wallace Shawn (Vizzini). 

There were many times when I was listening to the book that I laughed out loud and times when I teared up especially when they were speaking about Andre the giant. I felt like I was watching the movie along with many of the actors and it made me love the movie even more! I highly recommend listening to As You Wish! I promise that you won't regret it!

Lord of the Flies by William Golding

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At the dawn of the next world war, a plane crashes on an uncharted island, stranding a group of schoolboys. At first, with no adult supervision, their freedom is something to celebrate; this far from civilization the boys can do anything they want. Anything. They attempt to forge their own society, failing, however, in the face of terror, sin and evil. And as order collapses, as strange howls echo in the night, as terror begins its reign, the hope of adventure seems as far from reality as the hope of being rescued. Labeled a parable, an allegory, a myth, a morality tale, a parody, a political treatise, even a vision of the apocalypse, Lord of the Flies is perhaps our most memorable tale about “the end of innocence, the darkness of man’s heart.”

I decided to read this to complete the part of the reading challenge to read a Nobel prize winner's book. I purposely selected Lord of the Flies because it is short and I had a feeling that I wasn't going to enjoy it. I don't tend to like the classics or books that teachers usually make students read for English class in school. 

I had heard a lot of things about this book including that it is about a group of boys that go crazy and begin trying to kill each other. After hearing something like that, this book wasn't at all what I expected. There is a clear tension between all of the boys throughout the book but it doesn't come to a head until the last 40 pages or so. The majority of the book is just a bunch of the older boys continuing to talk about their duties on the island and arguing about what they are going to do next. I don't think that the writing was bad per say and it did manage to keep some of my attention but I didn't enjoy the book at all. 

Reading Slump

So...I've been in and out of a reading slump for a while now. I know that I have still been reading a lot so it may not seem like I have been in a slump at all. I feel like many readers go through this so I thought that it might be a good idea to go over some tips that I have either heard from other readers or that I have used to get over a reading slump.

• Get a feel for what genre you are in the mood for

The majority of the time I read fantasy books but there are times when I just don't feel like getting to know the ins and outs of a new world. Fantasy can be overwhelming at times...especially high fantasy. There are times when I just want to read a good thriller or if we are discussing a week or two ago I was reading a lot of memoirs. I would suggest browsing your local library, the book store, or any books on your shelves you haven't read and see what jumps out at you. 

• Don't force it / Don't be afraid to DNF

I know that there are many people who think that not finishing a book is like a heinous crime because it is essentially quitting. I will admit that I used to feel like this but I have since changed my mind. What is the point in continually to read something that you already know that you aren't enjoying? Then you are just wasting your time trudging on when you could be reading something that you enjoy. I try to give a book at least 100-150 pages before I stop reading because you can usually get into the story a good bit to know what is going on and get a feel for the characters personalities. Sometimes I will try to go back to that book at a different time to know for sure if I disliked it or if I just wasn't in the mood for a book like that. I actually did this with Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and I can say for certain that I DO NOT like that book. 

• Sticky Notes / Set Goals 

Another great tip for getting out of a reading slump would be to set goals for yourself. I heard from a booktuber about how they use sticky notes to mark the page that they wanted to reach and then will write down a few thoughts about the book up to that point. The thoughts can be guesses about what will happen next or things that you are really enjoying thus far in the book or in the past few chapters. You can also set a goal to set aside a certain amount of time each day to read. 

• Keep a book with you at all times

I find that always having a book with you can help you to read when you are out and about or at home and bored. I always try to have  a book in my bag at work if I have a client not show up or some books on my night stand by my bed. If you surround yourself with books than you will usually turn to them when you are bored or need something to do.

• Turn off the electronics

I don't know about you but I find that my phone and the TV can be a huge distraction for me. I will usually reach for my phone to play a game or check my email. It is so easy to binge watch a show when you feel drained from running errands/working but it can be far more satisfying to read. You can immerse yourself in another world that you can imagine yourself rather than relying on a screen and what a director wanted something to look like. (Don't get me wrong...I love movies and TV shows. If you haven't seen The Umbrella Academy on Netflix, I highly recommend it!)

• Buddy Read 

Sometimes it really helps to have a friend read a book with you. They can hold you accountable to reach chapter 4 by the end of the week, etc so that you can discuss what you thought of those chapters. You could also join a book club and then you have a group of people to share opinions and thoughts with. 

• It's okay to read more than one book at a time

I understand that not everyone can read one book at a time or even multiple books at a time. This suggestion plays off of read what you are in the mood for because I find that I might read half of one book and I'm really into it but then the next day instead of finishing it I find that I am wanting to read something different. This happened to me the other week. I started reading Uprooted by Naomi Novik and got a little over halfway through it and when I went to pick it up the next day I found that I wasn't in the mood for fantasy. I ended up reading a nonfiction book as well as a thriller before picking it up again. It doesn't mean that I didn't enjoy the book, I just needed to read other genres before coming back to it. 

• Audio books

I'm going to start this tip by saying that I am not in love with audio books. The only time that I can enjoy them is when I am listening to the actual author narrating their own memoirs. However, you can accomplish other activities while you listen, you can change the speed of the audio, and you don't have to concentrate as hard. You can listen while traveling in the car or before bed during which you can set a time for it to turn off if you start to doze off. 

• Pick out shorter books / Re-read

Short books are an excellent idea when you are in a slump because they don't take as much time. They give you a sense of accomplishment when you are able to finish them. There is also another side to this tip in that short books can still be slow going if they are classics or just plain boring. For example, I started reading The Lord of the Flies and I can honestly say that I am not enjoying it after getting 70 pages in. It is a really short book but still difficult for me to get through. In cases like this, I would suggest re-reading books that you have really enjoyed. I know that a lot of reviewers suggest Harry Potter for this but I usually read A Court of Thorns and Roses or a romance. Re-reading a book is like getting a hug from a friend or as I like to refer to it...comfort food reading. 

Uprooted by Naomi Novik

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“Our Dragon doesn’t eat the girls he takes, no matter what stories they tell outside our valley. We hear them sometimes, from travelers passing through. They talk as though we were doing human sacrifice, and he were a real dragon. Of course that’s not true: he may be a wizard and immortal, but he’s still a man, and our fathers would band together and kill him if he wanted to eat one of us every ten years. He protects us against the Wood, and we’re grateful, but not that grateful.”

Agnieszka loves her valley home, her quiet village, the forests and the bright shining river. But the corrupted Wood stands on the border, full of malevolent power, and its shadow lies over her life.

Her people rely on the cold, driven wizard known only as the Dragon to keep its powers at bay. But he demands a terrible price for his help: one young woman handed over to serve him for ten years, a fate almost as terrible as falling to the Wood.

But Agnieszka fears the wrong things. For when the Dragon comes, it is not Kasia he will choose.

I've been trying to read more adult fantasy books to branch out of YA a little bit more. I'm not sure why exactly. It may be due to reading Sara J. Maas's books which venture into New Adult territory. Her books made me curious about what else is out there in the adult fantasy realm. 
I decided to pick up Uprooted because it had great reviews and it sounded different to me. I wondered, initially, if it was going to be another Beauty and the Beast retelling but quickly learned just how wrong I was when I began reading it. It was an intriguing premise that hooked me immediately. You might even say that it planted roots in me...ba dum shh! Okay, all bad jokes aside, I was really impressed with this book. 
I really enjoyed the characters and thought that the story was different from anything that I had read before. Agnieszka was vulnerable and flawed but also had a moral compass and thirst for knowledge that seemed to give her a unique kind of strength. I also loved the Dragon even though other readers might find an issue with that. I didn't see him as abusive but rather as a person that purposely attempted to distance himself from others by being his prickly self but at the same time was lonely without companionship. The best part of the story in my opinion was learning about the ins and outs of the Wood and why the people needed the Dragon to protect them from it. 

Uprooted is very much a twist on fairy tales in a way but it takes things a step further. It is darker than you would think and involves a surprising amount of bloodshed. I wouldn't say that it was a crazy thrill ride all the way through but it kept up a good pacing throughout. I really enjoyed the book and the only reason I didn't give it five stars was because I was able to put it to the side to read other books before finally picking it back up to finish it. In my mind, that sends me the signal that I wasn't completely in love with it. 

My Story by Elizabeth Smart, Chris Stewart

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For the first time, ten years after her abduction from her Salt Lake City bedroom, Elizabeth Smart reveals how she survived and the secret to forging a new life in the wake of a brutal crime

On June 5, 2002, fourteen-year-old Elizabeth Smart, the daughter of a close-knit Mormon family, was taken from her home in the middle of the night by religious fanatic, Brian David Mitchell and his wife, Wanda Barzee. She was kept chained, dressed in disguise, repeatedly raped, and told she and her family would be killed if she tried to escape. After her rescue on March 12, 2003, she rejoined her family and worked to pick up the pieces of her life.

Now for the first time, in her memoir, MY STORY, she tells of the constant fear she endured every hour, her courageous determination to maintain hope, and how she devised a plan to manipulate her captors and convinced them to return to Utah, where she was rescued minutes after arriving.  Smart explains how her faith helped her stay sane in the midst of a nightmare and how she found the strength to confront her captors at their trial and see that justice was served.

In the nine years after her rescue, Smart transformed from victim to advocate, traveling the country and working to educate, inspire and foster change. She has created a foundation to help prevent crimes against children and is a frequent public speaker. In  2012, she married Matthew Gilmour, whom she met doing mission work in Paris for her church, in a fairy tale wedding that made the cover of People magazine.

I have been wanting to read Elizabeth's book for quite some time. A lot of people have told me that this book meant so much to them and that it was so inspirational. I would have to agree with this opinion. I decided to listen to the audio book because I have found that memoirs are best digested by listening to the author read their own book. It was interesting to hear her tone throughout and understand the emotions she must have felt reliving the story while talking about it. 

My Story is a book about strength to persevere and what it takes to survive when you feel like all hope is lost. There were moments where the book was difficult to listen to even though she did not include the graphic details of the rape and other activities that she was forced to participate in. It is clear that Elizabeth has a lot of courage and strength to survive such an ordeal. I thought that it was interesting to hear from someone that had survived trauma like she had and to come out the other side stronger and able to use her story to help others to feel less alone in their trials. 

There are some other points that I feel are necessary to make that have less to do with the book and more to do with some of the reviews that I have seen. I've seen a lot of reviews of this book where people complain about how the writing/voice appears young, that she clearly suffered from Stockholm syndrome, she should have spoken up/tried to run away, and that she was clearly out of her mind to think that God would bring her water. I think that these comments are shameful. It is fine if you don't like a book and want to give it a low rating. I have done this myself a time or two but I think that some of the comments in reviews for this particular book are terrible! This happened to her when she was young so why wouldn't her book have the same young voice to it?! How can anyone judge someone when you haven't been in the situation that they were in. Why would you say things about their faith? It just boggles the mind! 

Anyway, I thought that Elizabeth's book is a good one to read if someone has been through a trauma or just wants to understand what can go through someone's mind when they are put in that type of situation. 

Truly Devious (Truly Devious #1) by Maureen Johnson

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Ellingham Academy is a famous private school in Vermont for the brightest thinkers, inventors, and artists. It was founded by Albert Ellingham, an early twentieth century tycoon, who wanted to make a wonderful place full of riddles, twisting pathways, and gardens. "A place" he said, "where learning is a game."

Shortly after the school opened, his wife and daughter were kidnapped. The only real clue was a mocking riddle listing methods of murder, signed with the frightening pseudonym, Truly Devious. It became one of the great unsolved crimes of American history.

True-crime aficionado Stevie Bell is set to begin her first year at Ellingham Academy, and she has an ambitious plan: She will solve this cold case. That is, she will solve the case when she gets a grip on her demanding new school life and her housemates: the inventor, the novelist, the actor, the artist, and the jokester. But something strange is happening. Truly Devious makes a surprise return, and death revisits Ellingham Academy. The past has crawled out of its grave. Someone has gotten away with murder.

I was hesitant to read this because of all of the hype and I thought that the historical element would take over the story. I have to say that Truly Devious is worth some of the praise and hype that it received. I wouldn't say that I'm in love with the book as a whole but it scratched the itch that I had to read a good, solid YA mystery/thriller. 

I thought that the author did a good job of making the story current without getting bogged down into the historical aspect of the story. Maureen Johnson switches between the past and current time in a fluid manner which adds to the plot of the book. I enjoyed getting the chapters from the past regarding the cold case. I was adding up the clues and the suspects as I went along. 

There were quite a few likable characters but only two of them stuck with me. I enjoyed being in Stevie's head. She was an interesting character because she was very intelligent but that could get into her way at times when she tried to interact with other students. I think that she was like Sherlock Holmes due to the way that she was so in tune with picking out clues but dislike him also because she seemed to want to have relationships with people. David was another character in the book that I found intriguing simply for the fact that he has a ruff exterior to him and lies about nearly everything to do with his life. Ellie also made an impression on me but it was not the good kind. I was happy when there were chapters where Stevie didn't spend time with her because I found her so incredibly annoying. 

I didn't see the ending or the primary suspect coming. They both came as a surprise to me so I hope that the author will give more hints and details in the sequel to help me understand how both of those conclusions were reached. I hate cliff hanger endings and knowing that that was how the book would end going into the read didn't help. There is usually a solid conclusion reached at the end of these kinds of books so I'm a somewhat out of my element with Truly Devious. I will definitely be reading the sequel to find out what happens with the cases and Stevie. 

The Gilded Wolves (The Gilded Wolves #1) by Roshani Chokshi

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From New York Times bestselling author Roshani Chokshi comes The Gilded Wolves, a novel set in Paris during a time of extraordinary change—one that is full of mystery, decadence, and dangerous desires...

No one believes in them. But soon no one will forget them.

It's 1889. The city is on the cusp of industry and power, and the Exposition Universelle has breathed new life into the streets and dredged up ancient secrets. Here, no one keeps tabs on dark truths better than treasure-hunter and wealthy hotelier Séverin Montagnet-Alarie. When the elite, ever-powerful Order of Babel coerces him to help them on a mission, Séverin is offered a treasure that he never imagined: his true inheritance. 

To hunt down the ancient artifact the Order seeks, Séverin calls upon a band of unlikely experts: An engineer with a debt to pay. A historian banished from his home. A dancer with a sinister past. And a brother in arms if not blood. 

Together, they will join Séverin as he explores the dark, glittering heart of Paris. What they find might change the course of history—but only if they can stay alive.

I fell in love with Roshani Chokshi's writing as I read The Star Touched Queen and automatically knew that I would want to read anything else that she wrote. I was over the moon when I found out that she was writing a new series but I have to admit that I was somewhat hesitant when I found out that it was set in the 1800s. 

Gilded Wolves had Roshani Chokshi's usual flare to it with her descriptions being beautifully done and the characters coming to life as you read. 

After I started reading, I realized that the book has multiple points of view (5 and an added 6th at the end). I usually hate it when authors do this because it can become confusing as well as frustrating. I usually end up disliking at least one of the characters and their portions of the book will usually hold little to no interest for me. I was extremely impressed with Chokshi's use of the multiple points of view because she blew me away with it. I loved every single one of the characters! There was no confusion as she titled each of the chapters with the name of the character whose point of view that it was and the book continued to flow as if it was done in only one point of view. I was really impressed by this as no author has ever managed to do this before in my opinion. 

I loved the story and I'm sure that many readers will compare this to other heist-like stories such as Six of Crows and The Lies of Locke Lamora. I'm not sure how I would rate it in comparison as I have not read the other two but it was solidly done. 

My only issue with it will probably be my own thing. I didn't feel as much chemistry with this book as I did with The Star Touched Queen. It didn't come alive for me as much. I'm not sure if I even know how to explain it but there just wasn't as much of a connection. That being said, I still really enjoyed the world and the cast of characters that the author created. The story was unique as I have not read a book that deals with an order of babel story-line before. I will definitely be reading the sequel. I don't think that there is a release date for it yet but I would assume that it is coming out this year.