Shocking News

To My Loyal Fans,
   I have some rather shocking news to report. Or maybe it's not shocking as much as jarring, or well really just news. And as I am pretty sure all of you have already seen this news on Facebook this will be less news and more a reminder. So really I'm just using this time to repeat things to you that you already know. You're welcome. 

  I have decided to move on from blogger and go to WordPress. I have a new site up and running over there, slowly I am also bringing over  my body of work from blogger. If you would like to continue to support me and follow my journey through life as a bookwork please go here. It's exciting and new and the fun part is rereading my old posts from when I first starting reviewing things. Wanna see how I've grown? See my ups and downs? See when I used to review movies as well as books? Then head over to WordPress follow my new blog and  go through these new old posts. It's a fun and interesting journey I promise. At least I kind of promise. I promise that I think it is anyway and so does my dad. I'm sure that my mom, and best friend find it so too. Which means the coolest people in the world find it interesting so you should too because otherwise we will judge from far away. Only not really because I try not to judge. 

Anyway the site is up and running pretty smoothly and I have a bunch of old posts on there and a few new ones so if you would like to head over and check it out and follow that would be super. I would love you all forever. Blogger was swell for a very long time but now that I am getting serious about taking my reviewing and writing to a new level I needed a more user friendly space and blogger wasn't playing nice. At least with me. And when friends stop playing well together it is time to move on and remember the good times when things were shiny and new. This is a friendly breakup, I just feel that WordPress is going to be the place for me. I know a lot of people make here on blogger and are wildly successful but it just wasn't meshing with me. So it is time to move on. In a loving way with lots of fond memories that I am slowly stealing and bringing with me to my shiny new toy. Wanna come join us? Please do. 

Thanks for the memories blogger and for all of you who have stuck with me here for so many years. Here is to many more years on WordPress. 

With love and happy reading thoughts,
    The Girl in the Tiny Hat

P.S. The actual web address is www.thegirlinthetinyhat.wordpress.com. That way you can see it and click on the link embedded above or just copy and paste this or share this with your friends or favorite pet. Either way we now have it all ways. Which means we all win. 

"It Begins with Absence and Desire. It Begins with Blood and Fear. It Begins with a Discovery of Witches."-Deborah Harkness

It was almost exactly three years ago that I first came across a book called A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness. I was working at Barnes and Noble at the time and we used to have to do this thing during peak hours when the booksellers had to wander around the floor, asking customers if they needed help and then try to con them into buying a membership. It was during one of these times when I was wandering aimlessly, because peak hours were rather slow, and looking over the display tables when I happened to glance this book that intrigued me. Turning it over I read the back and as soon as I discovered that it revolved not only around a strong and stubborn woman but a book I was hooked. When it comes to books about books I'm a pretty easy sell so I decided to go ahead and buy it. It was such an unassuming book, and the title suggested maybe a little bit of a silly story maybe so I wasn't expecting much. The old saying 'never judge a book by it's cover' couldn't have been more right on.

As soon as I started reading I was taken into this world of books, and history, magic and love. It was all intricately woven together with different characters and personalities. It all started with Diana Bishop, Yale University professor on sabbatical at Oxford doing research into the history of alchemy. She is well read, history nut, tea enthusiast, a woman who loves a good row in her boat and who happens to be a witch. The witchy side is something that she has been hiding for as long as she can remember all she wants to do is do her research and teach her students. While at the Bodleian Library one day she calls up a mysterious alchemical text called Ashemole 782. All of a sudden she becomes the center of some very unwanted attention, from other witches (some creepy sinister seeming ones), demons (erratic and scatterbrained though they may be) and vampires. One vampire in particular seems to be annoyingly interested in Diana, a tall gorgeous rather overprotective vampire named Matthew. Despite being unsure of just what she has done to elicit such attention from the creatures of the world Diana finds it hard to resist Matthew's charming desire to protect her. In a non-creepy stalker kind of way, but in a way that she learns to find charming as well as annoying (she is a modern independent woman after all). 

I fell in love with the story, with the characters and all their stories and I fell in love with Deborah Harkness' writing. I was stunned to discover that this was her debut novel because her writing was so intricate and perfected in a way. I rarely see that in debut novels and so it was hard for me to wrap my head around that. But I liked her even more for it because I knew that she was going to be a force in the writing world and I eagerly awaited the next book. When the second book The Shadow of Night came out I was thankfully still working and Barnes and Noble and so was fortunate enough to be able to borrow the hardback book right away. I read it while in the middle of a move from Brooklyn to Harlem but it was so great that even despite that extra work I finished it long before the two week rental period was up. Again I was swept into the incredible magical world that Ms. Harkness created with Diana, Matthew and all the other amazing characters that come along in the story. I fear giving a description of this second book because I have no wish to accidentally give something away so I'll just say this, the second book was just as thrilling and amazing as the first and set me on the edge of my seat until the third one came out. 

It took awhile for book three, The Book of Life, to come out. And let me tell you it was a long wait. When I found out it was finally coming out I did something that is very rare for me and went online to pre-order a signed hard backed copy of it. Why is this so strange? I usually like to buy soft cover books (more portable), and I enjoy keeping trilogies and series in the same style so paperback series stay paperback etc. But I knew this was going to be a great book and it was one I didn't want to wait to read so I went ahead and did it. Due to quiet a lot of upheavals in my life around the time it was released it took me over a year to get to the book. But one night I decided it was time to read it because I was looking for a magical mystery that is intelligently and creatively written so I knew it was time to turn back to the world of Ms. Harkness' imagination. The Book of Life was even better than I thought it was going to be. 

In my new job at Starbucks I have rather strange hours, what do I mean? Well I have to be at work and clocked in at 4:30am most mornings which means my travel time is around 3am or so. Usually I am much to tired to read, my brain is still struggling to figure why I am awake and trying to function at that hour so reading on the way to work has become a non option. But this book was so good that it made me want to read on my way to work, and at work, and on my way home and at home and everywhere in between. I was so caught up in every aspect of the book and the story that I lost track of time a couple of times while reading. I got wrapped up in everything happening to Diana and Matthew that I would forget for a moment that this is only a trilogy and start finding myself unable to wait of the next book. Imagine my disappointment each time I was brought back to reality. 

The Book of Life is a whole other level of greatness from the other two. I loved them all equally, in fact the entire series has moved into my top trilogies of all time, but the third installment kept me on the edge of my seat unsure of how she was going to wrap things up  and I loved every thrilling second of it. This is a series of books that I highly, highly recommend to everyone! Don't let the title of the first book throw you or scare you away from it because the book is so good. So well written, so well put together that you will be hooked right away. Please if you love fantasy or good stories about books then go out and get a copy because you will not be sorry you did. The description doesn't even do it justice so you have to trust me when I say it is a world that you will want to fall into because it is a world that is worth losing yourself in. 

The Whores of Lost Atlantis-Charles Busch

Let me the first to admit that there have been times that I have indeed judged a book by its cover. Don't shake your head like that, I know you have all done it once or twice as well. With this delightful novel it was the cover and the title that really caught my while book shopping one fine day. I was browsing the $1 book section at a delightful little used bookstore in midtown Manhattan. A favorite past time of mine to be sure but with this particular run I was feeling less than enthusiastic. The selection seemed to be thin, and I just wasn't finding what I was looking for nor anything that I wasn't looking for. Until I came across something called Whores of Lost Atlantis by Charles Busch. I saw the title first and then pulled it off the shelf and saw the cover. At first I was just going to take a picture and send it to a friend who I thought would appreciate it as much as I did. But then I read what it was about and I got hooked. 

Let me give a little background, I have recently become kind of obsessed with drag queens and the whole drag world. Blame it on a truly great film 'To Wong Fu Thanks For Everything, Julie Newmar' Starring, John Leguziamo, Wesley Snipes and of course Patrick Swayze all as utterly fabulous drag queens. With a very special appearance by none other than RuPaul. Who is one of the most fabulous people in the world in my opinion. Anyway I saw it again a few months ago and just decided the hour plus was not enough to fulfill my drag queen craving. And so my roommate and I decided to venture into RuPaul's Drag Race. We were instantly in love. We have been faithful fans ever since. In fact we just finished the latest season and we are currently in withdrawal. 

With the love and utter fascination I have for drag queens these days I am obviously on the lookout for anything related. With that in mind (and a rather strange sense of humor) I went book browsing at one of my favorite used bookstores. I came across a title in the $1 book section called Whores of Lost Atlantis and the title alone intrigued me so I pulled it off the shelf. When I saw the cover of a man in drag I got even more excited and so opened it up to read the synopsis. And when I read what it was about, an actor living in New York trying desperately to make his career finally take off by taking a bunch of his actor friends and doing a play where he plays a woman, I was hooked and knew that it was the book for me. And I was correct. 

A semi-autobiographical novel about a young man named Julian, an actor who until recently has spent most of his time traveling around   doing his one man show to great applause. Now he is yet another out of work actor going from temp job to temp job trying to make rent. He has a tight knit group of very loyal, very kind friends (most of whom are also out of work actors) all of whom are very convinced of their own brilliance and just need a way to show the world. When he meets a rather stuck up, annoying performance artist and is invited to her show at a tiny theater on the Lower East Side called the Golgotha he becomes overwhelmed with a certain knowledge. He suddenly knows that this is what he has to be doing, independent off the wall wonderful theater in a place like Golgotha. He gathers together his group of friends and during one day at a temp job writes the script for 'Whores of Lost Atlantis,' a play that is sexy, well put together and most importantly has him in the starring role as Milena the whore who has been dragged to Atlantis as a slave and then plots to overthrow the kingdom and rule. 

Along the way he meets some interesting characters that are inexplicably drawn into his world, finds himself beginning to find a certain type of fame and slowly finding his dreams coming true. With the ups and downs of popularity Julian finds himself wondering who he is, what is real and what is the act and if he makes a better Judy Garland or Sarah Bernhardt? It's quite a ride especially when you bring into it a love triangle, a mysteriously sexy man that takes over Julian's world, a vengeful rival who makes it her mission to ruin Julian and his band of players. I loved every minute of it. 

The author Charles Busch is a playwright and he has a unique voice for fiction writing. He is hilarious, every page, every chapter, every mishap had me laughing out loud. He also brought into it the harrowing truth of men watching their friends and lovers die of AIDS and what it was like to try and survive those losses. It was put together very well the story flowed and all I wanted was to find out what happened next. I always enjoy finding new authors with unique voices and Charles Busch was a truly great surprise. 

The story was wonderful and kept things interesting. Being in love with New York and theater, the fact that this all took place right at the beginning of the art scene on the Lower East Side was really exciting for me. Watching it unfold from the inside was delightful and left me wanting more knowledge. It was a fascinating tale that had me reaching for the book whenever I had the time. And the characters, where to start with them?! They were all hilarious and awesome and three dimensional. I felt like with anyone of them, Julian, his magician friend, the hard ass woman who does his wigs or the slightly off his rocker male stripper, I could be great friends and have strange and sometimes dark adventures. The characters made the book, the story was great, the writing was good, but these characters were the whip cream on top (I don't like cherries very much so the whip cream is the top). It's hard to describe them but they are characters that you don't want to miss. 

This book is hilarious and weird and fun and full of characters that I couldn't get enough of. It is a book that will probably not appeal to many people I know that but I still have to recommend it because I loved it. And what better way to show my love for a book then to try and spread it around to all my faithful readers. Whores of Lost Atlantis by Charles Busch has become one of those books, you know? One of those books that I loved and will always remember fondly but I probably won't go back to simply because the magic of that first read is just too good. But with that said I highly recommend it for anyone looking for a magical first read of a great and rather strange book. But I find that there are times when strange and funny are just what the doctor ordered. So my friends happy reading. 

Why I'll Never Be As Well Read As Rory Gilmore

Let me start off by saying that yes I do know that Rory Gilmore is a fictional character and that she didn't actually read all the books that she said did. However knowing all of this has not stopped Rory Gilmore from becoming one of the most beloved reading icons of our time. There are lists on goodreads.com that are dedicated to her books and reading challenges that ask the question 'can you read as many books as Rory Gilmore?' Book nerds all over the place have taken the test on www.listchallenges.com that has a list of 339 books that were mentioned through out the entire 'Gilmore Girls' series and asks 'how many have you read?' I've only read 67 of the 339 books listed which according to the site puts me in the top 25% of challenge takers. For a goodreads list of Gilmore Girls titles go here.

Taking into account that fictional characters have often become ideals for us I set my sites on Rory Gilmore as a reading icon. Basically I hope to be just like her when I grow up. In the sense that she reads everything. I pride myself on being an eclectic reader, I'm not sure if I am one but I certainly like to think of myself as one. But even so I'm sure that I could branch out even further into unknown reading waters and every time I rewatch the 'Gilmore Girls' series I am reminded that there is still so much more for me to read.

Rory doesn't discriminate when it comes to reading, Dorothy Parker, Sylvia Plath, Jane Austen, Tolstoy, books about beatniks in Venice beach, history, fiction, philosophy, she reads it all because she loves the act of reading and retaining knowledge. She reads newspapers daily and not just the Stars Hollow Gazette but papers like the New York Times, and the Wall Street Journal, she knows what is happening in the world. I admire her for this non-discrimination in her reading, I know that I have some discriminations, as do we all, when it comes to reading. Most of us, no matter how book nerdy we are, stick to one genre or sub-genre. Young adult, mystery, romance, paranormal romance, fiction, 'chick-lit,' teen, we can't help ourselves we find an author or genre or series that we can't put down and we get stuck. It's usually very hard for us to break out of our molds and venture into uncharted territories. I try to force myself now and again to try something new or pick up something that someone has suggested to me that I feel isn't really my style. But I know no reader that is as voracious and widely read as Rory Gilmore.

The reason I could never be as well read as Miss Gilmore is simple, I never read the newspaper, and quite a few of the books she has read are ones that I will never pick up. According to www.listchallenges.com one of the many books that were mentioned in the series was 'Middlesex' by Jeffrey Eugenides now I tried three times to read this book and was unsuccessful each time. I just couldn't get into it no matter what, the same with 'The Kite Runner' by Khaled Hosseini I tried and tried but just couldn't get through it. Rory never puts a books down, she tries everything once and moves on to the next. I can't do that, if a book doesn't grab me or the writing is awful or the story so stupid that I just can't get into I have to put it down. Not to say that either of those books are poorly written and I know for a fact that they are both extremely popular books but they weren't my cup of tea.

Rory Gilmore is an inspiration to me, an inspiration to read things that have never tried before, an inspiration to try movies and music that I have never heard of before. I hope one day to be almost as well and widely read as her but I never will be because I know myself and I have limitations on my reading. No matter how hard I try to break out of my molds, one day reading Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes mysteries and the next Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate events and then the next 'Snuff' by Chuck Palahniuk, I just know that I won't be able to pick up 'Beowulf' or 'The Art of War' and sit down and read them cover to cover. I know they are important books and to be fully well read these are ones to read but they aren't books that I will read. I know this about myself and fully except my limitations as a reader.

Reading is about the pleasure of entering a new world, meeting new people, learning something new. If a book isn't bringing pleasure to the reader then the reader has every right to put the book down and start something new. I am very adamant about enjoying what I read so if a book and I aren't getting along then I will graciously put it aside, thank it for its time and move on. Rory Gilmore is a true reading fanatic and will never say no to a book or a subject which is why she has been an icon for book lovers every where. This is why I could never be as well read as Rory Gilmore, I have my few discrimintations. But I intend to keep on trying.   

Thursday Next, Jane Eyre and the Future of Literature

Meet Thursday Next a LitraTec with SpecOps-27 in London 1985. In a world where people routinely have protests over Surrealism vs. the realism of the Renaissance movement and the greatest crime one could commit is the stealing of an original manuscript of Dickens' Thursday's day to day life is anything but extraordinary. She works, goes home to her pet dodo and occasionally runs into her time traveling father and hopes to one day move up in the SpecOps department maybe one day being a SpecOps 9, although no one is very sure what they do.

As a LitraTec (a Literature Detective) Thursday usually runs down leads on forgeries of Shakespeare's works and occasionally helps out with security on important pieces of literature. Her most recent being the protection of the very rare and very important original manuscript of Dickens's 'Martin Chuzzlewhit,' something she is rather proud of. When the book is mysteriously taken the London LitraTec's are rather befuddled. They bring in Thursday Next to take the case to see if she can figure out how a highly secure book can disappear without a trace. After viewing the security tapes Thursday begins to suspect that maybe an old enemy of hers might just be behind the theft.

When a mysterious man from the mysterious SpecOps-5 approaches her to help them capture one Archeon Hades a mastermind criminal that they believe to be behind the theft Thursday jumps at the chance. After a night that goes bad quickly and lands Thursday in the hospital she decides to move back to her hometown to work for the LitraTec department there. And it is there that the adventures really begin.

It's a world where characters are being kidnapped out of books and people are being trapped in poems. Where bookworms spend their time eating double negatives and extra commas and where cloning has become the natural order of things and dodos are the best pet one can have. When her uncle and his device for jumping into books gets stolen Thursday knows that she will have to find a way to track Hades and stop him once and for all. What follows is quite a journey into some of literature's most well known stories, through a surreal England countryside and at times trough time itself.

Back when I worked at a bookstore, on the book floor, I used to hear about "The Eyre Affair" quite a bit. And although I heard it was good I was never all that interested in reading it. For some reason though it stuck with me and while out book shopping a few months ago at one of my favorite used bookstores I came across it and decided to go ahead and give it a try. After it sitting on my 'to read' shelf for awhile one day I had an urge to pick it up. I don't think I have been so happy that I randomly picked up a book in quite awhile. It had everything in it that I want in a good book. Adventure, romance, suspense, humor, good writing, and love of books. I was hooked from the very beginning and all I wanted to do was read.

It's hard to describe exactly what it is that hooked me so intensely but this book did it. It was well written, funny and full of book humor that only true book nerds would get. I loved the characters and the whole story idea of people being able to jump into there favorite books and mingle with the characters during their down times. I was blown away by the book and I ended up loving it so much that I went out right away to buy the second. I think that I may have a brand new favorite series. The second book was just as good and we got to interact with a lot more fantastic famous characters, the Queen of Hearts makes an appearance and the infinitely interesting Miss Havisham spends some time with us.

The books are just so imaginative and well put together and hilariously written. It is just such a treat to read them and each time I enter the world is so incredible and special. I really love them and have become a huge fan of Jasper Fforde. And if you really love books like really, really love them then I highly recommend the Thursday Next series by Jasper Fforde because they are incredible books and I can't wait until I can get my hands on the third book. It's a wild ride each time you crack open a Thursday Next story but it's a ride that I have loved and I think that I will continue to love it for as long as Thursday keeps finding herself in literary upheavals.  

The Enchanted Forrest Chronicles-Patricia C. Wrede

So I am a big fan of a lot of things, fairy tales, dragons, quests, witches, a little magic here and there, and of course bad-ass women that take care of their own problems and have a good time doing it thank you very much. Naturally being a book such I am I go in search of books that will meet some or all of these criteria. One day my good friend and I were scrolling through a list of the 50 top women in fiction or something of that sort and I came across one Princess Cimorene and The Enchanted Forrest Chronicles. As soon as I read about Princess Cimorene and how she abandoned her kingdom to go live with dragons I knew I had to read the series.

I went in search of it for the first time back in the summer to no avail. During the fall I had a lot going on and so the search was stalled. But then it was time for the holiday shopping to begin and so I thought how great would it be if I could find the first in the series "Dealing with Dragons" and give it my best friend and fellow book nerd for Christmas, with the intention of borrowing it of course. But alas, alack it was nowhere to be found on my search. Christmas was coming closer and I was getting discouraged, finally I decided to give up the search for the time being and try again another day. On Christmas day my best friend/roommate and I started opening presents and I came across a small book shaped one. Loving books of all sorts I was naturally excited which became overwhelming joy when I opened it and saw that it was 'Dealing with Dragons' the first Princess Cimorene series. Turns out while I was looking for the book as a gift for her my friend was searching for the same book for me. Great minds really do think alike. I started reading that day and couldn't stop. The closer I got to the end the more I realized that I didn't want to read anything but this series. And so I went to amazon.com and purchased the box set of The Enchanted Forest Chronicles.

Reading these books was like eating potato chips, you can't have just one. I devoured one book after the other loving each and every one of them. Each book brought about a new story, more characters to fall in love with and through them all was kick ads, hardcore, over the top awesome Princess Cimorene. In the first book Princess Cimorene decides that seeing as she can't be a proper princess loving embroidery and table manners she decides she would much rather be a captive princess with the dragons. And so she heads off in search of the dragon caves and when she finds them offers herself up as a willing princess. Although most of the dragon are wary of a 'willing' princess Kazul decides she could use a feisty princess around the place and so their friendship begins. Together they fight off evil wizards, dust treasure and  fend off annoying knights that keep coming around to try and 'rescue' Cimorene. The result of all this fending off and thanks to Cimorene's unbelievably cherries jubilee Kazul and Cimorene become the best of friends.

I have a deep dislike of spoilers and people that ruin great books by revealing too much of the story. I may err on the side of too much caution at times by not telling any part of the story for which I apologize. But with a series you really have to be careful about what you say and the details you reveal. With that in mind all I will tell you about the next three books is this, each book brings a new bunch of characters that are just as loveable or just as hateable as the next bunch and brand new adventures that leave you breathless with excitement. Are these children novels? Yes, yes they are. And I think that that just makes them better! I have no discrimination in my heart when it comes to reading. Or anything else for that matter, so be it children's, adult's, young readers or whatever it may be if it's good I will like it! And with the Cimorene stories especially I felt that because it was written for children and the stories were fun and simple it made them perfect. If it had tried to be more complicated or intricate it would have taken away from the greatness of the characters and the story itself.

All of that is meant to say this, don't be turned off by the fact that they are indeed children's fantasy. They are amazing books and utterly engaging stories for any age as long as you are young at heart!
  

Joss Whedon is Even Cooler Than I Thought He Was

I have internet again!!!! I am soo very excited to be back up and running! With that being said it is a well established fact, that is if you have been paying attention, that I am a book nerd. What is less well known is that I am a nerd in many other ways as well. There is the comic book hero nerd in me, such as worshipping Batman and all things Batman (my phone case is the Bat symbol). The movie nerd, rather obsessed with movies and TV (thank the Netflix Gods for making it easier for me to enjoy such things) and then there is the Joss Whedon nerd. What does this mean you may ask? It means that I am totally obsessed with all things Whedonverse. Ever since the very first time I saw the show Buffy the Vampire Slayer I was hooked. There was just something about the perfect blend of humor and darkness that I just couldn't get enough of. Luckily for me one of my best friends is also a huge fan of Joss Whedon and when I went to visit her, many years ago now, she introduced me to the wonderful world of Firefly also by Joss Whedon. We spent a very rainy weekend watching all 14 episodes plus the movie 'Serenity.' This just cemented my obsession even more.

When I read that there was going to be a biography coming out about him I naturally was immediately intrigued and just knew I had to read it. I borrowed it from work and it was awesome, no it was amazing, no, no tubular? No matter what word you use to describe it, it is super good and well worth the read. The book 'Joss Whedon: the Biography' by Amy Pascal was filled with not only factual tidbits like the fact that when he was young he went to school in England and grew up in a feminist household where his mom would hold Shakespeare dinners. But fun facts as well such as while growing up he loved old westerns and science fiction so much that when he was grown and trying to decide what his next project was going to be he decided why not mix the two? And the magic that was Firefly was born.

Nowadays everyone knows who Joss Whedon is, 'oh yeah he's the dude that did the Avengers right?' And everyone nods in unison and smiles 'oh yeah that guy. The Avengers was awesome.' But Mr. Whedon didn't always spark that kind of recognition to the public. He was this kind of strange wide eyed hopeful young guy that was trying to make it in Hollywood's cut throat world of script writing. Landing a job on the new show 'Rosanne' was a huge deal for young Joss. A new type of show talking about some real issues was just the place that Joss was hoping to find a home. But it wasn't all that he was hoping for and though one of his scripts made it on air, with quite a few rewrites, 'Rosanne' turns out to be just a place to stop for awhile and not the home Joss was looking for.

Joss started bouncing around trying to find a place that felt right. He worked as a script doctor for awhile, including doing some work on the dialogue in 'Toy Story,' making a name for himself as an excellent wordsmith. While making a name for himself as the go-to script doctor Joss was writing a full length script if his own. A script that would go on to become a niche classic that took the 'vulnerable' young girl running from the bad guy story and turn it on its head. A script titled 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer.' When the directing/producing team, the Kuzuis, bought the script Joss had a feeling that this was finally going to be the break he had been hoping for. He got especially excited when the project was greenlit and the cast was in place. Things were looking up and he started getting excited, the cast was listening to him about his ideas for his characters and things were moving along rather smoothly. And then they started filming. And the studio had all these ideas and the Kuzui team had all these ideas and Donald Sutherland who was playing Buffy's watcher (don't know what that means? Look it up! XD) had some very specific ideas about his character. Eventually the rewrites to his script and demands from the studio make more than Joss wanted to deal with and he walked away before production finished.

With his pet project not panning out the way he was hoping Joss started thinking on a smaller scale. He thought to himself 'why not try writing my Badass girl story for TV?' And so the show 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' was born. A show that would continue on for seven seasons, inspire a spin off series, comic books, video games, and a cult following unlike anything that had been seen before. From the fame of Buffy Joss went on to start 'Firefly' (which was unappreciated in it's time and therefore cancelled before it should have been) and with Buffy's success came Angel's and he went off to start his own show. Joss continued to work on projects and ideas that he was passionate about. Creating not only 'Angel,' 'Firefly,' and 'Dollhouse' but also writing, directing and producing a mini web series/musical 'Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog.' A brilliant piece of musical theater about a wannabe super villain that just wants to get the girl. Later Joss would go on to produce a film version of 'Much Ado About Nothing,' filmed at the beautiful home that his amazing wife Kai designed and built for them. Who starred in it? His 'found' family of actors that had been working in the Whedonverse for years at this point.

Let's recap shall we? Why do I like Joss Whedon so much? He is a feminist with some of the greatest ideas about equality I've heard in a long time. He says of women that he has '...an unseemly fascination with these women and at the same time a desire to empower and protect them so that they could in return empower and protect me.' I mean how right on is that? Although he has been clear about his views on equality 'Q: so why do you write these strong female characters? A: Because equality is not a concept. It's not something we should be striving for.  It's a necessity...' Some people don't seem to quite get it:

He has a brilliant mind, a healthy love of Shakespeare (he has dinner parties where they sit around and read Shakespeare plays with each other) and is an absolute genius when it comes to writing. He is all around a pretty cool guy. I just think he is brilliant. And to illustrate such a brilliant man properly you have to have a brilliant biographer. And with Amy Pascale we as readers get just that. She takes the life and times of Joss Whedon and turns them into an ongoing conversation that you never want to end. She not only gives us the facts and fun but she does it such a Joss Whedon way that it felt like talking to him. She captured not only his style, that unique ability to blend action, comedy and tragedy seamlessly, but she captured his essence on the pages as well. I thought that Amy Pascale did a great job of bringing Joss Whedon to the page.

 

Basically this book is for Whedonverse junkies such as myself. In order to truly appreciate this book and the man that it is about you have to really love and respect Joss Whedon and all that he does. I do and I thought this was a great book. It really made me want to meet Joss and Kai and sit and shoot the shit for awhile. They seem like the type of people that would be really great to just chat with for a few hours about anything. Of course this sitting and chatting would come after the crazy fan girl nerd out that I would have. But that happens to the best of us right?