September TBR // September 7, 2015

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Under a spell of temporary insanity, I decided that these are going to be all the books I will read in September. Considering the fact that September 10-20 will be devoted to TIFF (and my schedule there is pretty intense), this TBR pile is overly ambitious. Or outright crazy.

Nevertheless, I am excited. I have heard great things about these books, and I am super pumped about some of these (I'd say probably about the books on the right). I understand that there is a very high chance I won't have time to read even half of these, but I will try my best. Almost all of them were picked from the library, so I will just go in the order of which books are due sooner. (Worst scenario, I will just read the rest of the books in October.)

I have already started reading Margaret Atwood's collection of short stories, as you know. I am reading one story at a time, whenever I fancy it, so this book will be featured in my TBR piles until I am done with it.

I am 70% done with Rook and I love it. I thought I'd finish it in August, but August was a pretty busy month for me.

So here's the list:

  • Sharon Cameron “Rook” [still reading – almost done]
  • Margaret Atwood “Moral Disorder And Other Stories” [I started it but I am still reading]
  • Kelley York "Made of Stars"
  • Stephanie Kuehn "Charm & Strange"
  • Nina LaCour "Everything Leads To You"
  • Melissa Landers "Alienated"
  • Libba Bray "Beauty Queens"
  • Courtney C. Stevens "Faking Normal"
  • Becky Albertalli "Simon vs. The Homo Sapiens Agenda"
  • Patrick Ness "More Than This"

Eight books to read if you don't count Rook and Atwood. That's crazy! But I am super excited.

If you are going to see movies at TIFF this year and see someone reading one of those books in the line, that will probably be me. ;D

 

TIFF 2015: My Updated Schedule

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TIFF_Sep6 When I say that buying TIFF tickets is incredibly stressful - this is what I mean. The sale started at 9am, and I entered the website and got into the queue. I had to wait for about 45-50 minutes before I could get into the website (you see my number in the line). I didn't have high hopes, as previous years the queue didn't work properly, I was kicked out more than once, etc.

This year they must have made some major improvements, because this queue actually did work! I got into the website and I even managed to purchase tickets! Of course, The Martian, Legend and first 2 screenings of The Danish Girl, as well as Black Mass were off sale. No surprise there. But I got the ticket for the third and final screening of The Danish Girl which is better than nothing. I also got a ticket for Freeheld, which is a gala!

I made adjustments to my schedule and this is how it is going to look like. Yes, I will have to rush three movies (The Martian, Legend, Black Mass), but I already have 2 vouchers (unused from my package) plus those screenings are at rather convenient times, so I should be able to get to the rush line 2-3 hours before the screening. (It does not guarantee that I would get in, but it is a fair chance.)

I admit, I am not sure how I am going to manage this crazy schedule. I will probably need lots and lots of coffee.

Weekday Date Time Movie Location Ticket
Thursday 10-Sep 21:30 LONDON ROAD Elgin Theatre Yes
Friday 11-Sep 21:30 THE MARTIAN Roy Thomson Hall RUSH
Saturday 12-Sep 15:30 ABOUT RAY Princess of Wales Yes
Saturday 12-Sep 21:30 LEGEND Roy Thomson Hall RUSH
Sunday 13-Sep 11:00 LEGEND Elgin Theatre RUSH
Sunday 13-Sep 15:45 EQUALS Princess of Wales Yes
Sunday 13-Sep 21:30 FREEHELD Roy Thomson Hall Yes
Monday 14-Sep 21:00 BLACK MASS Elgin Theatre RUSH
Tuesday 15-Sep 19:15 Downriver Scotiabank Theatre Yes
Thursday 17-Sep 21:30 DISORDER Roy Thomson Hall Yes
Friday 18-Sep 21:30 STONEWALL Roy Thomson Hall Yes
Saturday 19-Sep 15:15 THE DANISH GIRL Princess of Wales Yes
Saturday 19-Sep 21:15 LEGEND Princess of Wales RUSH

TIFF 2015: Intro & My Plans

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TIFF 2015 is almost here and I want to share with you what I am planning to see. This year is going to be fantastic. There are a lot of great movies and a lot of celebrities coming, and most importantly TIFF is celebrating 40th Anniversary! Woohoo!

Same as last year I purchased a tickets package - My Choice Premium Pack of 6 tickets. Which means that I get 6 tickets for gala and special presentations (which involve red carpet and often cast Q&As). This is my favourite type of screenings as they usually bring the top movies as galas and special presentations.

I admit that the choice was tough. There are amazing movies that are coming, but I had to narrow the choice down to six. To be honest, my list has at least 20 movies, but seeing as the festival runs only between 10-20 September, I won't be able to see all I want.

You can have a look at the full list of TIFF movies here - http://tiff.net/festivals/festival15/films

My priority list of movies that I would like to see is:

  • The Martian
  • The Danish Girl
  • Black Mass
  • Freeheld
  • Legend
  • Stonewall
  • London Road

The top three movies are my top choices, but sadly I didn't tickets for them. What happens after you buy a tickets pack is that you are given a certain time window (a date and a time) to select tickets. How soon you are able to do that depends on the level of your membership (priority is given, obviously, to sponsors), so my window was September 3, almost a week after the selection was open. I wasn't really surprised that those tickets got sold out as those are quite highly anticipated movies. I did get 4 tickets out of 6, which means that I will get the two remaining ones as vouchers.

Individual Tickets go on sale to general public on September 6 at 9am. I will try to buy what galas and other screenings that I want, and whatever I don't get - I will rush. I successfully rushed a lot of movies the last two years, so it should be ok. And the schedule looks quite good.

Weekday Date Time Movie Location Ticket
Thursday 10-Sep 21:30 LONDON ROAD Elgin Theatre
Friday 11-Sep 21:30 THE MARTIAN Roy Thomson Hall
Saturday 12-Sep 15:30 ABOUT RAY Princess of Wales Yes
Saturday 12-Sep 18:15 THE DANISH GIRL Princess of Wales
Saturday 12-Sep 21:30 LEGEND Roy Thomson Hall
Sunday 13-Sep 11:00 LEGEND Elgin Theatre
Sunday 13-Sep 12:00 THE DANISH GIRL Roy Thomson Hall
Sunday 13-Sep 15:45 EQUALS Princess of Wales Yes
Sunday 13-Sep 21:30 FREEHELD Roy Thomson Hall
Monday 14-Sep 21:00 BLACK MASS Elgin Theatre
Tuesday 15-Sep 19:15 Downriver Scotiabank Theatre
Wednesday 16-Sep 19:15 Heroes Reborn Scotiabank Theatre
Thursday 17-Sep 21:30 DISORDER Roy Thomson Hall Yes
Friday 18-Sep 21:30 STONEWALL Roy Thomson Hall Yes
Saturday 19-Sep 12:30 Desde Alla Scotiabank Theatre
Saturday 19-Sep 15:15 THE DANISH GIRL Princess of Wales
Saturday 19-Sep 21:15 LEGEND Princess of Wales
Sunday 20-Sep 18:00 LONDON ROAD The Bloor Hot Docs

Some of the movies' screenings overlap, so I won't see them all, but still I am excited. I won't be able to see The Danish Girl on the first day, which is a bummer, but I hope to catch it later. I am still not sure if I should watch Heroes Reborn as they are coming quite soon on cable, plus it is not the first screening, so I might end up skipping that.

For now this is my schedule and what I plan to do. Some days will be quite intense, but thankfully those fall onto weekend. (Some movies show up more than once in my schedule but it is only for my reference. I plan to see each movie only once.)

Whatever I don't get to see at TIFF, will either hit movie theatres later this year or will be screened at TIFF Lightbox after the festival.

I am supper pumped. Are you?

August Wrap-Up // September 4, 2015

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So, here is the list of books I read in August:

  • Andy Weir “The Martian” (my review)
  • Charles Bukowski “Absence of The Hero: Uncollected Stories and Essays Vol.2 1946-1992” [I didn't really like it as much as I expected]
  • Margaret Atwood “Moral Disorder And Other Stories” [I started it but I am still reading]
  • John Green “The Fault in Our Stars” (my review)
  • Vera Brosgol “Anya’s Ghost” (my review)
  • Andrew Smith “Grasshopper Jungle” (my review)
  • Patrick Ness "A Monster Calls" (my review)
  • Sharon Cameron "Rook" [still reading - almost done]
  • Justin MacCormack "Twilight of the Faerie - Book 1: Spring" [the ebook I was sent to review - my review is on GoodReads]

Compare it to my planned TBR list.

I didn't read "Shiver" by Maggie Stiefvater as I really want to marathon the whole series, but I still haven't bought book 3. I also started but haven't finished Margaret Attwood's collection of short stories. But I did read one eBook which was not on the list and I almost finished "Rook", so it was a really good reading month! Almost all of the books I've read were fantastic!

But if I have to choose, The Martian, A Monster Calls and Grashopper Jungle are my favourite reads of the month.

Book Review: The Fault In Our Stars by John Green

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There was so much frenzy surrounding this book and the movie, that I finally decided to pick up. I had my reservations about it, as the topic of cancer is very sensitive for me personally, and I was very wary. I worried that the book would be cheesy, or would gloss over some aspects of the disease, or that it would be just too difficult to read.

Somehow (and I still don't know how) I managed to avoid any spoilers regarding the ending. That is why what happened at the end, that death, came as a total surprise to me. (Yes, I must have been living under the rock, because I didn't see that one coming.)

I am not going to go into many details, as pretty much everyone knows what this book is about. Let me tell you about the things that I liked about this book.

When you face something as scary and huge as a terminal illness, after the shock wears off, you sort of accept it and it becomes part of your life. You become, for the better word, desensitized. You joke about it, you joke about death, about dying. Perhaps, it is a way for our brains to cope with it. This part of the book, from the perspective of all characters, was written beautifully. I know that some may think that it was too "teenager-ly", too playful or exaggerated at times, but it is not. This is how it is. This is how teenagers would be dealing with it (with laughter and hookups and egging somebody's car). Or anyone else for that matter.

Descriptions of medical procedures, hospitals, emotional strain and exhaustion of both the main character and her parents - they were described to the point. When you see someone you love dying from cancer and you know you can't do anything to help them, and everything which is done, medically, just prolongs the torture - yes, at some point you just think: God, I just want this to be over with.

A trip to Amsterdam was an unexpected treat, as I love that city.

Being disappointed in someone whom you used to admire tugged at my heart strings no less than the rest of the novel.

The book has several great passages that I saw quoted before, so kudos to John Green for not only breaking the hearts of teenagers but also creating memes.

I liked the book. I didn't love it, because I can't imagine ever loving a book about cancer. It was well written, although I admit that at some points I kept thinking that it was a bit too commercial novel. Nothing about this book could do wrong for readers, and it by all means just HAD to be made into a movie. I am not saying there is anything wrong in writing such a book (or recognizing the gap in the market for this sort of a story), but I admit that at certain tear jerking times I was almost rolling my eyes, as those moments were way too predictable for me.

I was a bit indecisive regarding the rating, as it is a good book, and I strongly recommend it for teens (not because of the love drama, but because the matters of life and death are important), but I just can't give it the top rating.

Rating: 4/5 stars.

Doodles In The Park // August 15-16, 2015

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I haven't posted any pages from my art journal for over a month. I did some art journaling and doodling in June, but when July came I wasn't very inspired and at the end of July due to some circumstances I had to pack all of my things. All of my art stuff is still packed. I did sneak out one journal and a handful of pens.

So here are some of my weirdly dimensional doodles in the park.