Brigitte & Lorena's Review of MirrorMask by Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean
Now. MirrorMask is the cause of obsession for many people, ourselves included. Why you ask? Because it is amazing. That is all.
Now, serious mask on, MirrorMask is about a young teenager (Helena) who's having a not so great life. While young children may dream of running away to join the circus, she dreams of running away and joining real life. But one evening, while having a recurring argument with her mother, Helena wished she would be the death of her. Not too soon after, her mother falls ill and the overbearing guilt sends Helena spiraling into the labyrinth of her creation, the City of Drawings.
Now in this mysterious world she vaguely recognizes, she discovers that the city of light is in a predicament much like her own. The White Queen has fallen into an unbreakable slumber, and while she rests, The Darkness has begun to swallow her kingdom and it's inhabitants. Now Helena, with nothing more than her fluffy bunny slippers, and Valentine at her side, must embark on a journey to find the "charm" and wake the White Queen.
Gaiman's and McKean's ability to allow you to transcend into a world where anything can happen, the quirky characters that you can't help to fall in love with, and the humorous yet resonating dialogue makes MirrorMask one of the best books/movies I have ever seen. Visuals are also one of the strongest virtues of the movie. Supported by the rich storytelling and beautiful art direction, Mirrormask takes the phrase "So real you can almost step into it," to a new level of surreal-ity. It's a world where statements of common use to us, will become the basis for their laws. After all, we shouldn't leave A Really Useful Book lying around a library, it'll just depress the rest of them.
Warning: This movie/book should only be enjoyed by those who love blurring the lines of reality and dreams without the need of hallucinogens.
A fiery heroine that allows no man, no thing control her.
A man whose goal now is to charm his way through life and women.
What should happen if these two characters meet? Upheaval? Mass chaos? Understatement.
When Finnula's dear innocent sister gets herself pregnant and manages to waste all her dowry on trinkets, its up to Finnula (the sole Diana/Artemis of the village) to scrounge up the money to save her sister's reputation. Finnula then hears of a series of strange events occuring in her village: women holding men hostage and making their families pay a ransom for their safe return. Enter Hugo Fitzstephen on his way home from the Crusades with inconspicuous bags bulging with gold. A perfect target you might say. Wrong. He's also the Earl of her village along with the lands that surround it and she could have made the mistake of falling in love with the winsome hostage, with him all too willing to take the plunge. But their love soon attracts jealous enemies desperate for their money and their lives.
Meg Cabot's Ransom My Heart is a sweet romance novel with a twist regarding the average woman and a hearty serving of danger, secrecy and false identities. If you're looking for an escape from darker novels, pick up this book; its romantic plotline, humorous dialogue and unseen plot twists will keep your spirits high even when it exposes more serious topics just below the surface.
Brought to you by Lorena. With comments by Erika in blue, Brigitte in yellow.
The afternoon started just as any other event afternoon did with myself frantically calling Brigitte trying to figure out how we would manage to get to the bookstore on time/back home. When it was decided that I would pick up and she would drive back, we made our way to the store. It was probably sometime around 4:45 and Erika calls me telling me that Laurie is already at the store. Please note this is way early, even for an author. So I start freaking out and press my dad to hurry up (though that is impossible seeing as we live in Miami). I got there early, about 4:15 because Julie was selling cards for her New York trip. Once I saw Laurie, I immediately called Lorena and Debra. I felt all secret-servicey especially since Julie and I were still in our uniforms and hadn't changed yet, so we blended in.
Debra came a few minutes later and I told her that Laurie had gone into the east side. We met in the hall and Debra was all stressed out and confused. Then, she relaxed. Laurie went to the cafe to have dinner and since she had to leave at 8, we had her sign stock beforehand. So, Debra and I took down the nice Wintergirls display, flapped the books, and brought them over to the cafe for Laurie to sign. After a few minutes, Julie and I went to change into our white clothing. Right after we got back to the cafe, Brigitte and Lorena came. I now bring you back to Lorena...
We finally got to the store a bit past 5 and started searching for everyone. Laurie had decided to have dinner at the cafe so we found everyone huddled in conversation in the back of the store. Some light introductions on our part and we were off to figure out how we were going to announce the contest winners. We finally managed to get the poems/reader lists to print from the computer behind the register, and began our slow mingling trying to figure out how the evening would be run. At some point during this my friend Sacha arrived to lend an extra hand to our Wintergirl troop.
Debra came to remind us that Laurie had to leave early, so we had to figure out at what point in time we could do the Time Warp with her. So we set out to ask Laurie when she would like us to do it and to get our books signed. Though this ended up as a flurry of "where did so-and-so go?" Whether it was Julie or Brigitte, there can only be one who bears the Time Warp Question and tis I, Highlander!, every 5 minutes someone would disappear somewhere, so actually getting to Laurie took a lot longer than expected. Yep... And we also post-ited all our books in this time...
Eventually we made our way to the cafe and asked Laurie if she would be willing to perform the Time Warp as part of our tradition. She was more than willing, and we decided we'd perform it after her Q&A. Apparently Debra had also mentioned to her our fear of higher education possibilities after reading Catalyst. So we entered this long conversation dealing with how the #1 university in the nation was not needed for a successful future. (I'm still a nervous wreck about this... Though a little calmer than before.) Laurie then got to signing our books (I finally beat Erika)(It's okay, it's just the once. :P And I still had 4 books signed.) and we proceeded back into the east wing to finish setting up for the event.
First order of business, contest winners. Debra introduced me to the audience and asked for me to announce the 3 winners of our Speak Up Poetry Slam. Though one was not present to read his poem, we had two amazing readings from Nicole and Bianca.
After the readings, both winners were presented with a copy of Wintergirls, and the floor was opened for Laurie to begin speaking. She discussed her reasons for writing Speak which then lead on to about Wintergirls.
Question and Answer began shortly after this, and we then got our chance to do the Time Warp. I have devised a new formula as to which way we all turn. Wherever the author is, we turn. Though Laurie sort of ruined my formula. (Maybe from now on we should go opposite author? It does back it easier for them so they can see where we turn.) I think we should go with the formula that makes the least sense.
As Laurie sat to begin signing, we opened the floor for anyone who had brought poems to read. We went on our usual post-it duties, and made conversation with anyone who approached us.
After work was done and Laurie had to leave, we grabbed a quick picture with her and bid our farewells.
Brigitte's review of The Shape of Mercy by Susan Meissner
If you want a light, fluffy read or a book that won't challenge previous moral and social beliefs, then skip this book. Thinly disguised as a novel about the Salem Witch Trials, The Shape of Mercy follows the life of rich college girl Lauren Durough as she struggles against her family's wishes to find her place.
All Lauren ever wanted to do was to free herself from the image of a spoiled rich kid. Her solution? To rebel against her parents and accept a job that her father would frown upon. Her task, given to her by an old woman whose sadness is visible to everyone, is to translate a journal penned by a girl who was accused of being a witch in the late 1600s.
This book reflects over the impulsive judging, even if unintended, of people and provides an insightful look at the human mind. Throughout the book, the growth of main character Lauren is visibly noted as she matures from a naive child to a perceptive adult with the help of the diary written by a doomed girl. The Shape of Mercy, with its dual plot and storyline is sure to entrap you in Lauren's world as she tries to break free from imposed perceptions and learns to see the people behind the facade.
Brought to you by Erika. With comments in Red by Lorena, Brigitte in yellow, and Julie in green.
The afternoon started like most days we have events. The one exception being that was there were a lot more books. Lorena, Brigitte, Julie, and Debra told me to bring them all, so I did. (No I didn't! I told you not to!) I have over 50 of Meg’s books, which filled up exactly two of the large Books & Books bags. One of which I had to carry.
Brigitte and I got there a bit after 4:00 and right off the bat got to work. After Debra showed off the crowns we would be using; and we printed quick copies of my, Party Princess menu for the cafe, we went to the West wing to start decorating. While most everyone was doing manual labor Brigitte and I were having a hard time trying to get my glue gun on so we could decorate my plastic shoes & swans for the tables. But right as soon as it started working, Erika called that she was outside and needed help carrying her books to the store.
So, Julie and I arrived about 4:30 and everyone else was already there.
We immediately started decorating. Lorena and Brigitte hot glued pretty flowers in plastic shoes and swans while Julie and I attempted to start with the tulle. (The main word being attempted)Everyone kept passing out table and exclaiming about how cute they looked while I burned my fingers. It was a failed attempt, which led us to start on the podium instead. We then realized we wouldn’t have enough to do the whole thing, so we used the blue to make a bow. When I finished the shoes and got the area cleaned up I went over to see how i could help, between my failed attempt and Stephanie's help we managed to create some sort of decent bow thing. Thanks Stephanie for helping!
We finished the bow, had some tulle hanging from the top, and decorated the signing table. That's was probably one of the worst idea we've had. I almost fell over from that footstool getting the tulle over the railing more than once. Getting the tulle to hang was difficult since I'm so short. I stretched and I still couldn't reachso we just tossed it over and hoped for the best. It also got hopelessly tangled.
The chairs were already set up, so we just put some of the paper crowns we got around on random ones.
By then it was already about 5:40 and we had to change. There was also an incident involving not being able to find the YAthenaeum bookmarks [which are still currently M.I.A. and not at the airport (those from Miami will get it)]. Though, I always carry some around and had a small stack in my camera bag.
Julie and I finally decided which dresses we were wearing, thanks to Brigitte and Lorena deciding for us. So while Brigitte and Lorena had to quickly go somewhere, Julie and I changed. Julie into my black dress, and me into Julie’s purple dress.Yes it does make perfect sense. Apparently no one in Coral Gables has a copy of the 6th Mediator book. I confess, we committed blasphemy, I was ashamed to wear my Books&Books shirt.
When we were finished, Lorena and Brigitte managed to return and changed themselves. This was more or less an episode of yelling back and forth across the stalls about god knows what.
At about 6:20, Meg walked in and Debra introduced her to us. Debra also warned her about my collection of her books. (But nobody could create a proper warning without it being an understatement)
Then, Meg went to give an interview with a girl from Times for Kids.
We were the greeting team while Lorena put our corsages on. This proved to be a more difficult task than it ought to have been, especially on myself.
A little while later, Debra called us in and Lorena gave her her corsage as an honorary member of the Royal Order of YAthenaeum.
Meg then started signing all my books. (Thanks so much Meg!) She signed every single one. At one point while she was finishing Erika's pile she asked "These are all Erika right?" I was in charge of putting Erika's books back after Meg signed them, since they quickly overwhelmed the table.
While she was signing, we had a short interview with her, which will have up soon enough.
After Meg finished signing all of mine, she signed the rest of ours. Then, she opened the card we made for her. (Thanks Emma for helping me make it!)
After that, we grabbed our cameras and it was time to start.
The room was full… Debra introduced us and then I introduced Meg. (I’m SO sorry for pronouncing your name wrong, Meg, if you’re reading this. I realized right after… I was just nervous and had for years thought it was pronounced that way and it grew into a habit I’m trying to break.)Erika just hangs around me too much, I grew to mispronouncing Meg's name and it's stuck to everyone around me. I'm such a bad influence.Why yes, you are. Aside from that, I think I’m getting slightly better with the introductions; I’m not a complete wreck up there anymore. Sure... If it makes you feel better, Erika.
Meg spoke and answered questions. She is amazing!Erika's on the verge of obsession here so don't mind her. Correction: She is obsessing. Ignore the excessive fangirling.
We then went to the other side and began post-it duty. Once we were done, we went and ate chocolate… Most of us anyway, I sat on a stool and moped about not being able to eat chocolate. But you stayed strong and we are all soo proud of you! :D
Eventually, when it was time for stock, I handed to Meg and Debra took away. Meg is an incredibly fast signer; I could barely keep up. I was at first in charge of moving them to the table but we also needed to put Autographed stickers on them so I called Brigitte over to haul them back and forth while I put the stickers on. Becky came eventually and helped me finish the job.We took a few group shots with our assigned book.I didn't know my tiara was tilted so far back. Afterwards, though Meg was probably exhausted, she agreed to do the time warp with us.
The Brians (the DJs) started playing the song and this is what happened: (I was a fail.)
We then said goodbye to Meg and were ourselves exhausted from a great night; it's too bad Princess Mia had to miss it.
Brought to you by Erika. (With comments by Lorena in Red),(Julie in Green) (and Brigitte in yellow)
The day started at the Jr. Orange Bowl golf tournament, which my dad runs. We were all volunteering on holes doing the live scoring. (Asking players for the scores of their past few holes).Blegh, nasty farmer's tan is what we ended up with. (I've always had a farmer's tan so no complaining!)
Lorena and Brigitte stopped around 2 and started getting ready. A damn good thing too since Brigitte is notoriously known for ridiculously long showers. When you have gorgeous hair like mine, you have to pamper it. Julie and I started about 3. (Because WE work as hard as possible. Cough...Cough...)
So, we took showers, you know for all the prestige of the Biltmore, you'd think they could spring for a lock on their showers, (seriously)got into our purple dresses, blow dried/curled/did nothing our hair, and then attempted to walk in high heels across from the pro shop to the tournament office. Yeah, I've made a vow to only wear flats to signings from now on. Seriously, no more limping around everywhere even if heels do look nicer than flats. Once there everyone was repeatedly saying how beautiful we looked, so embarrassing, and in front of the golfers who happened to be GUYS, and we put on our which hats. Though we had a bit of a dilemma since I made one hat much too small and it didn't fit anyone.
Since my mom was alone at the scoring table, I went over and helped her. Players came in and were probably wondering why in the world we were wearing dresses.
We went outside by the fountain, my dad attempted to take pictures, but my camera wasn’t cooperating, so that failed. We went back, took everything we could and walked to the parking lot. We were carrying a ton of stuff and had no idea where my mom had parked. Who sends someone to a car, when that said person wasn't there when the other person parked it? Back and forth, back and forth, was it 4th row from the front or from the back? So in heels we were wandering around the parking lot… Then, we eventually found the car, put everything in it, started walking back, but my mom met us halfway. All throughout our escape there were some golfers putting away their clubs, we must have passed them by at least 4 times.
After getting in the car, there was some scoring emergency, so my dad called and we waited in the car as they discussed what it was. One of the golfers previouslty mentioned was sitting in a bench near the car and kept looking at us quizzicaly. Eventually at about 4:30 we left the area and began driving to Bal Harbour.
Lorena and Brigitte fell asleep in the car. Long car ride, what else did you expect?I wasn't sleeping! I was merely resting with my eyes closed.Yeah but imagine being me stuck in the corner watching you two sleep. And you, Julie, as I recall were reading a book, not staring at us.I wrote my introduction in my i-pod for Sarah.
Eventually as we were getting close, Julie woke them up. Then, we saw there was a toll and all of our coins were in the trunk. Luckily my mom got behind someone else who didn’t have exact change and was able to get out and get her and Lorena’s bag. We managed to find a dollar and made it inside Bal Harbour. My mom decided to call 2 minutes after we escaped the toll and I was trying to explain what had happened without laughing. She failed.Then, we got to the parking garage, but weren’t exactly sure where the Books & Books was inside, so I called Debra. She told us, so we parked where we needed to and headed on in. That walk to the store must have been the most agonizing walk of my life. So, so true.With 1 being "Skipping through a meadow with puppies and butterflies" and 10 being "the Trail of Tears", I'd give it a 9.
It was now about 5:10, and it was supposed to have started at 5:00, but Debra said Sarah had just gotten there so we weren’t too bad.
We found the Books & Books and made a grand/exhausted entrance. Sarah saw us and immediately said how great our dresses and hats were. We gave her her hat as well as the baby one we made (which she adored) and she hugged us all. It was my first time meeting her and I was surprised at how nice she was! She was also so surprised that we had known it was her birthday in a few days (Thanks to facebook) and was overall delighted. Apparently it was the first time she had ever had cake at an event. Gee, I wonder why...
Debra brought us to the back, going through the front of all the seated fans (The seats were practically full!), and we put down all our stuff.
Then, we made our proper entrance with Sarah. Debra introduced us all and then I stumbled through my introduction of Sarah. Hey, least it was better than my Nerfighter lingo intro at John's event. Yeah it was better than that... They were both alright, all things considered.Sarah began saying how great we were and began reading from Parties & Potions. We stood in the back and Lorena began filming. Haha! The memory card kept getting filled so I spent a good 5 minutes deleating all the videos from past events to make room. She then began taking questions, by which point our feet were killing us and we sat down.
Afterwards, we brought out her cake and began singing Happy Birthday to Sarah, then there was signing. Everyone had kind of bunched around her table, so we only got to do post-its for the second half of the line. I tried to give out bookmarks to whomever wasn't crowded around the table, which weren't that many people. Me too.
Once most people were gone, Sarah began signing stock while we talked to her (taking a few breaks for cake).
Then, she signed Debra and my own books. We took a few pictures with her and she thanked us all again repeatedly. More hugs!
We raided the ARC stacks, talked to Debra, then went to eat.
Exactly a week ago, the entire YAthenaeum team went to the midnight showing of Twilight on Thursday night/Friday morning. Here is our recap of the night and our review of the movie. Just as a warning, spoilers will follow and we did not like it. Not just because of the differences in the movie from the book, but also the movie itself alone. So, we’re sorry if you loved it and are annoyed by our opinion, but it is just that and only that, our opinion.
Brought to you by Erika, with comments by Julie in green andLorena in red. Brigitte in yellow.
It was an early release day, so I got home about 1…(I got home at 3 and got no sleep at all.)Bwahaha I got home at 11, small high schools for the win! not sure what I did for an hour and a half, but at 2:30, I took a nap because I knew I wasn’t going to be getting much sleep that night. At 5:30, I woke up, got ready and at 6:10, Julie, my mom, and I were out the door, with a book bag of homework in tow and Nerdfighter shirts on.
We went to the movie theater and decided to wait in line while we waited for Lorena, Brigitte, and Lorena’s cousin to come so we could pick up our tickets together. They arrived and they got the tickets and my mom left.
The theater then decided they didn’t want everyone waiting outside, so began letting us into a theater. We walked around the entire thing trying to find seats. We considered the far back corner, but since I had to do homework and it was the darkest part, we decided against it. We (I) then found a row on the left side with exactly 6 seats and since it was the first 6-seat row, three of the seats were right above the walkway, so we had somewhere to put out feet. It actually wasn't the most comfortable alternative, but at least we didn't have any heads blocking the way.
Once we put our stuff down, we left to go get some of the overly priced theater food. 16 dollars for a candy combo, honestly! Somehow we managed to carry it all back and also show our tickets on the way. We ate… Lorena filmed me eating, which I wasn’t happy about… Then, I started by history homework. I drew in my sketchbook the seats in front of me and wrote Seeing Twilight at Midnight across it. I decided we would write down all of our comments of the movie in my scketchbook and review them later.I had Pre-Cal homework that no one, including me, understood. The entire 4 and a half hours that followed consisted of me doing homework. We also filmed Fangirl, Fangirl, Boyfriend… We were in a theater hence the darkness. Brigitte started watching Labyrinth on my PSP, but Erika asked me to help her with Spanish, so she ended up stealing it and skipping to all the Bowie scenes. Then we played Diddy Kong Racing on our DS's till we went to get Emily. Which I completely beat her at. Repeatedly. Really, it was almost shameful.
[Fangirl, Fangirl, Boyfriend Video Coming Soon]
At about 8:15, Emily texted that she landed (she had flown up to Boston that morning and back… In all she was going to be awake for 23 hours straight!) and about an hour later, she texted again letting us know she was outside. We all went out to greet her and give her her ticket. She bought food and we did the time warp in the middle of the lobby…FUN STUFF!!! While waiting to get back into the theater, a lady asked us if our shirts spelled anything, so we told her yeah, Don't Forget to be Awesome, but she somehow thought it was connected to our dancing.
I continued doing my homework… Oh, and someone had a laser…That was so annoying!!! It was more amusing than annoying since the employees actually came in and scolded the audience on it. True... That was hilarious!
Some time around 11 Emily decided to go out and stretch, so we went back out for some quick refills and curly fries. Once it was 11:45, I stopped and I’d actually finished mostly all of my homework. The next 15 minutes went by, the lights dimmed, and the previews began.
I complained to both Julie and Lorena when the Harry Potter trailer came on that I should be watching it that night… Sigh... it looked so good compared with the trailers for "Bride Wars" and "Confessions of a Shopaholic".
Once the movie began, there was screaming, (which was shushed by a bunch of people) but as the movie went on it was actually really quiet… I was surprised. Of course there was the occasional screaming when a new character came on the screen, but that was to be expected. I was the only one who screamed when Jacob appeared.The entire time I was laughing hysterically on the outside while crying on the inside because of how bad it all was. (Reasons will follow.) Brigitte and I kept laughing during "dramatic" scenes and people kept telling us to shut up, but we couldn't help it, it was just that bad. Luckily, not for me though, that Lorena kept slapping her hand over my mouth to quiet the worst comments and bits of hysterical laughter.
Once it was over, we left… Complaining as we walked… The best line was when Emily said, “I realized why we wore the nerdfighter shirts. Robert’s puff levels were high.” That was the BEST!!!
Emily took Julie and I home and I went to bed for 3 hours of sleep. (I had 3 and a half)
Reasons we didn’t like the movie (Yes, some are differences from the book, but we couldn't help it... And there are most likely more we are forgetting at this time.):
Everything seemed completely awkward.
The acting was horrible. It was all generally just bad acting, the characters were too forced. Edward looked like he was constipated throughout the movie and don't get me started on Jasper.
The meadow scene was ruined and that was the reason for the book's existence. I actually liked the movie version of the meadow scene, just not the overly violent and slightly crazy/hysterical way Edward showed Bella his vampire-ness
Can the Cullens go to a greenhouse? Please inform me how this is possible.
Why was there a Tarzan scene? Ah, the Tarzan scene was just so unnecessary. But good for the laughs.
Robert sounded like he had a speech problem because he was trying too hard to sound American… A few times the British came out.
No “She’s probably hyperventilating in the kitchen right now?”/“Do I dazzle you?” scene at the Port Angeles restaurant. How about the restaurant scene in general?
Why did they go to a diner every night? Bella was supposed to cook.
Edward’s supposed to look frozen and stiff when he first smells her in Biology, not that he’s about to be sick.
They made Jasper (my favorite character) into a joke.
I'm pretty sure Kristen Stewert has some sort of blinking problem.
Bella's "Great Escape" from Jasper and Alice was ruined. All she did was run out of the hotel while they were checking out. (Don't you think they would have been faster than her?)
Tyler doesn't ask her to prom.
Their "incredible speed" was just badly done.
That was a sad execution of the "sparkling", it honestly just looked like sweat mixed with glitter glue.
Rosalie sounded more modern than she was supposed to and honestly she looked like a chonga rather than a drop dead gorgeous woman.
Emmett was about as beefed up and muscular as a new born kitten.
(And because this can not be said enough) The bad acting! Oh all that is holy, the acting! I honestly hope they weren't giving it their all because it was eye gouging bad.
Brought to you by Brigitte. With comments by Lorena in Red, Erika in Blue, and Julie in green.
I am saddened to say that Lemony Snicket did not come to Books & Books but instead sent a representative,Daniel Handler, that just so happened to be dressed like him, as tall as him and look exactly like him. We suspect foul play.
I arrived after an open house at a high school just before Erika did and I found Emily and we talked a little until Erika came...
I arrived and found Julie with Emily. We stood out in the front and talked. Emily then told us that we should get our books signed now, so we bought them (since Julie forgot hers at home...), which is when we saw Lorena and Brigitte arrive...
When we arrived, Erika and Julie before us for once, (No, we got there before you once remember that time and we were at Books & Books and there was that author...) Lorena and I ran into Emily along with a huge crowd of Handler fans. Putting our stuff down behind the counter we headed off to the back room to meet Handler... except that he wasn't there. The first author to wander on his own, which is great, but we never knew where he was. We found him in the west wing, where his event was going to take place, and we talked with him and his representative for a while. We headed to the back room when people started to come in and he signed our books.
A requirement for each and every event is the passing out of YAthenaeum bookmarks to the sometimes unwilling multitude. We split up, Lorena and I took the children's section which was bursting with kids and parents. Small children get frightening in the masses. After a while, Erika and Julie appeared and told us that we were going to take the picture before the event instead of during/after. (This was after going around the store not knowing where they were and found them drowning in kids.)(So many little kids!!!) The hunt for Handler began. Much confusion ensued with comments like "I think he went to the bathroom." and "I think he went this way.". We ended up not finding him, he found us. We took the pictures. We couldn't take it outside the backroom, due to the um...crowd, and the backroom, despite the amazing scenery it would set for the picture, didn't seem adequate. So we ended up going to the parking lot to take the picture. Which seemed to fit the mood of the signing... We were lumps of coal, hence the black/burglar look.
Then started on the enjoyable task of post-it duty. -cue happy music-. The fans were separated into groups by letters so we did A first. (To get a head start for later)(Which was a VERY good and helpful idea)
Handler entertained everyone, even though there were lots of different age groups, with his sarcasm and getting people to leave so that Group A could get there books signed and talk to him was hard. Some of his remarks included how he looked like Lemony, we were the first bookstore to grade readers, and how unfortunate it was to all be cramped into a room by people dressed in black. I wouldn't have willingly left, honestly. We then went through and finished the A's we had missed and I went around with the embosser and embossed every book... Every time someone was taking a picture of him signing a book for one of the kids, he would ask who it was taking the picture and if they were a good mom or dad. Then, he would say "I know your lying". Though he had a few other hilarious comments that he would say as well. We were all starving so we sat down and ordered something at the Cafe, but we had to get up while waiting/eating to complete post-it duty to the other groups. I went every time to emboss the books, which somehow my hand didn't hurt even after all of the embossing. This went on for a while of; "ok you leave, no I'll go, ok you go, I'll protect your food", and arguing over who ate the banana cake. After we finished eating, we hung out with Handler and the last of the fans waiting in line. He topped off his signing with a few snazzy remarks and went off to eat lunch, leaving us to comb through the children's section. Our parents were already there, so we left, but then my mom heard he had written a book called The Latke that Wouldn't Stop Screaming, so Julie and I had to go, buy it, and then interrupted their lunch and had Daniel sign it.
Brought to you by Julie. (with comments by Erika in blue) (Brigitte in yellow) (Lorena in red)
Technically there are two starting points since I was there way before hand. We were already decked out in our lab coats and Emily showed up rather early so we got things moving pretty fast. She brought in a science experiment book with "cool tricks" so we could entertain little kids before the event started. Sad to say only one worked. Apparently one was suppose to use the static from rubbing a balloon on your head to turn on a light bulb, all that did was mess up Em's hair. We ended up only doing the Frankenstein hand trick, then started blowing up balloons to decorate the event room.
(2nd starting point) It all started when we arrived at Books & Books. Brigitte and Lorena were already there in lab coats and handed us our own. While putting them on , noticed the signing room was already set up with chairs and on one end was an awesome banner that read “Books & Books Middle School Science Fair.” I then began the tedious task of putting my hair into a messy yet not too messy bun, which was difficult, yet it eventually got done.
I helped tie a couple balloons and then placed the balloons near the gate. Erika and I started to put up streamers where you enter the book signing room, but then we were told they were going to put a curtain there so we only put up a few. (That was a waste of a few minutes...)Meanwhile Brigitte and I were tying balloons to the rail above the shelves. Needless to say Brigitte is quite short, I'm not all that tall myself, and Julie had the ladder. So this seemed to be quite an impossible task. Miraculously our friend Euckee arrived with great timing. And with him being a giant and all, we dumped our balloon work on him. After that we had the task of making the podium look pretty, so we (being Erika and I) added streamers and balloons to it. The room looked pretty nice once we were done with it.
Next the task came of greeting people by the gate. We gave every child who was coming to the signing a little “gift package” consisting of: 1 Science Fair bookmark, 1 YAthenaeum bookmark, 1 test tube with an excerpt from the book in it, and 1 pirate eye patch. I tried to wear an eye patch for a few minutes but frankly, I'm blind enough without my glasses, I think one eye just made things worse. Since the books are with Disney we had Radio Disney there. So the whole time we were greeting people we got to listen to the wonderful tunes of High School Musical, Hannah Montana, and The Jonas Brothers. (At least most of the people coming enjoyed the music.) Julie was whining in pain from said music...
We also had a “science experiment” at the entrance, in which we poured vinegar in a cup then put some baking soda in a rubber glove, then put the rubber glove over the cup and watched some sort of chemical reaction take place, and the glove inflate. When Dave Berry and Ridley Pearson finally arrived we performed (attempted to perform) the experiment for them, but may have added a tad too much baking soda. If we weren’t holding the glove down, it would have flown off. Actually the first time around it did fly off, but when we tried it a second time we kind of, sort of, overdid it, and all the excess liquid from the gas spilled onto the table.
We stayed out there the remainder of the time, greeting more people until the event started. Finally we went out there and the room was PACKED, I wasn’t even sure there was enough room for us to stand. Emily introduced us (almost forgetting my name) and then them, dressed like a “sith lady” because of the Star Wars tie in the book, and they were escorted in by Princess Liea. We found a place to sit on the floor. We couldn’t see much, but it was still awesome. And considering Lorena was forced to stand the entire time filming and taking pictures, the floor seemed even nicer D: There was hardly room to stand to begin with, I couldn't move an inch without bumping into cranky ladies on either side of me.
Mitchell, Dave, and Ridley were all presented with some plaques from New World School of the Arts.
At first they felt bad for us all who gave up seeing High School Musical 3 (which premiered that day) for their book signing. So they did a reenactment of two actual scenes from the movie. (Dave being Troy, Ridley being Gabriela, and Mitchell being the narrator.) This we caught on video. Watch! It's hilarious! I'm deeply sorry for the shaky camera, I can't help it when I'm laughing. We've sworn to use tripods from now on.
They then told some hilarious stories and read an excerpt from the book. After that they did the “Coke and Mentos” experiment by taking a 2 liter bottle of Diet Coke and dropping inside it 2 mentos. It must have shot a geyser at least 5 feet into the air. Julie's forgetting the best part right before this occurred, when they were trying to decide on the amount of Mentos to use. Dave said 2, the audience screamed 3, Mitchell said he had no clue what 3 means, and Dave decided he liked Books & Books, so he decided two.
Thanks to amattke for the video:
Finally, the presentation came to an end and they started signing on the other side of the bookstore. We went to post-it duty, which didn’t take that long with all of us helping out. (I don't recall someone by the name of Brigitte helping out.) I protest! I was in the bathroom and when I came out I went looking for you guys. When I couldn't find anyone I called Lorena WHO DIDN'T PICK UP.Okay, okay, I'll admit, I didn't notice I had 3 missed calls till I was out of the line. When we were done we just stood around and waited for the line to die down. When I managed to ge through it I handed my cousin (did I mention he tagged along) my camera and threw myself of the floor since my feet were in pain. Once it did, we got our own books and Erika and I came to a reasonable decision of who gets what books. (If you are new to reading this blog, or just never noticed us mention it before, Julie is my sister.) I got the second and third Peter and the Starcatchers books and a poster, she got the first book, and we had Science Fair signed to both of us. (Trust me if you knew how many books she’s gotten at the past signings it is more than fair.) (No comment.)
Finally we got our own books signed and took pictures with them (Dave and Ridley, not the books. Sophie was in the picture as well with her frog).
All and all it was a very successful, fun, and hilarious event.
Sorry for the abnormally long post, but we had to fit all the awesome in. Brought to you by Erika. (With comments by Lorena in red), (Brigitte in yellow) (And Julie in green)
There’s only one word to describe last night: AWESOME! I protest, no words can describe last night.
Meeting John Green was just about everything we hoped it to be. (and more)
I’ll fast-forward the day to when we arrived at Books & Books. Lorena and Brigitte were already there and so were some Nerdfighters! (This was about 5:30; the event started at 7.) People kept pointing us in the direction of the event room and we kept pretty much yelling that we were working there. Then, we ran into Jeanne (the lady in the Children's room) and she mentioned that she had been on the site a couple of times (yaaaaay!).Yup and some of the Nerdfighters have been on this site -happy dance-. We all changed into our t-shirts and jeans in our typical hog the bathroom fashion. Yeah except there was someone in the bathroom so we had to wait a little unlike it usually is.
Then, we signed the card I made John (in a gold pen), after my failed attempt to draw evil baby Hitler, picked a charity for our swear jar (so totally my idea) (not just if you swore, just to donate money to decrease world suck). We ended up picking The Children’s Home Society. During this we were running back and forth between the children's room and the register because apparently we just had to buy more and more copies of Paper Towns. We just couldn't stop buying. Oh, and we played "In my Pants" with the children's books. Which I can proudly say I started AND won.
Time went on and we attempted to figure out what to say for our introduction… Lorenathen realized that she hadn’t taught Julie and I the time warp yet. So, we went to the children’s section next to the table and began learning. Once we did it once, the door to the staff room opened and who stood there in the middle of putting our hands on our hips… Emily… and John Green! I'm being completly honest here is was like one of those time stopped moments, it may have been the awkward stance we were in (I mean it literally looked like we were waiting out there for him (which we weren't)) but everyone was just dead silent in an unannounced staring contest.
Lorena casually tried turning the hands on hips motion into a wave and said hello. You have to admit that was completely and utterly the most slick thing I've ever pulled.Because Lorena is never slick. He was wearing the same color green shirt as us with jeans! It was an awesome coincidence! Although, it may have looked like we were really stalking him. (I’ll take this opportunity to describe the shirts… Each of us on the back had a letter spelling DFTBA, Emily, me, Julie, Lorena, and Brigitte respectively. Though the B was backwards because of my horrible ironing skills and there also was need for sharpie to make the F black again since I turned it brown... The fronts were all different Nerdfighter/John Green references.) It was insaaaane!-swoon-
Emily introduced us, and then they went to go figure out the Internet in the event room (we followed). We walked into the event room and everyone stared cheering but John was saying things like "Not part of the show, this never happened." But Nerdfighters took pictures anyway.Afterwards, we all, John included, went to the café, sat down, and began randomly talking. Well, they did. I could barely string two words together the entire conversation. Yes, John Green is just that awesome. Amazing no? Usually I can never get her to shut up.
I can’t even remember all that we talked about… But it was very entertaining and we (well, I) were definitely nervous. For the most part we started discussing the authors that we had helped at their events before, John pointed out we've met pretty much most of his author friends. Then it went into self publication, when it seems like a nice thing, and when it's just unnecessary. Mitchell came in a few minutes later and joined in our conversation; John just kept complimenting the store. Apparently we were the reason he came to Florida. YAY INDIES!No, YAY BOOKS & BOOKS!
Soon it was 7, so we went out to begin the show. We were in a single file line in letter order and John following at the end into a packed room. (It probably did look like we planned the matching shirts.) (Or stalked him)
The four of us gave a horrible introduction, thank goodness for Lorena or it would have been a thousand times worse… Okay more like, the four of us minus Lorena stayed quiet while Lorena had to try and make up an awesome speech that revolved around the words "awesome" and "jokes" which she failed miserably at doing.Well, I laughed so it wasn't that bad. And I did help; I got John Green to laugh along with several knowledgeable Nerdfighters. We turned around to reveal our DFTBA, which made it slightly better, and then John then took the podium and turned it into awesome.
He went on at first just talking (which included the first public announcement that he's a New York Times bestseller! We're honored that it was at our event! Congrats John!), then read the famous page 23 (you can watch these ten minutes on Alan’s recorded BlogTV show), then it went into a Q&A question Tuesday style.
This included his happy dance! [Thanks to: Teresa (ImperfectlyPerfect2)]
When there was no more time for questions, Emily went up and then said, we had one more question for him. Lorena asked him if he would do the time warp with us. (When we sent him a short Q&A posted here, he had said he could), but he said he didn’t know how. Disappointment ya know?Kind of like being promised presents on Christmas and then ending up with a bag of coal sort of disappointment.
Here’s how that played out (Thanks to : Epiphany131)
We then did the time warp ourselves and Lorena and Brigitte argued over which way to turn… See basically everyone went left, and I went right on instinct. That caused quite an eruption of laughter from the audience (though I think the arguing just made it worse) (If someone recorded that, please send it to us, though Lorena and Brigitte may not be too happy. It was hilarious.) Yeah, yeah I'm sure it was. I would be happy, it just supports me being right.I didn't even get to see the collision due to the fact I was on the end and turned the right way.
John then began to sign books. We went on post–it duty. Once that was done we just basically stood in the center of the room watching the long line slowly shrink.
Since our poor swear jar was getting no attention, Brigitte took it upon herself to go down the line and beg. I do not beg. I ask prettily.Basically all the money in it so far was hers since well lets face it, she puts sailors to shame. I'm so lucky I'm here to defend my honor. And since Nerdfighters are awesome, they donated! (We collected a grand total of $29.62) GO NERDFIGHTERS!!!
After a while, we went and brought all out stuff to the center of the room, sat on the floor and post-ited our own books. (Most of them said "Erika")
Eventually there was only one group of people left. We waited and then once they left, we got our own books signed. I myself had 6 books… Paper Towns ARC, Let it Snow, Looking for Alaska, An Abundance of Katherines, Paper Towns (Happy Margo), and 21 Proms [Which John thinks I may have the copy with the most authors signatures (5) and that he likes me better than the others do lol :) ] Stupid Melissa De La Cruz signature -grumble-.
We then made him take multiple pictures with us…
He thanked us repeatedly for making the shirts and he offered all those in the room the candy left over from the bag he was given of the towards-the-end-of-Paper Towns-gas-station-shopping-spree. I got the Nerds! (Which may possibly be the same ones John is holding in this video.) I got Snickers! I got Grandma's cookies! You can never go wrong with Grandma's cookies.I got to share Erika's Nerds!
Michael (the manager of the Books & Books in Bal Harbor) asked John to sign his manual typewriter. John was spazzing out from the authors that had previously signed it, repeatedly stated he couldn’t ruin it (he wouldn't ruin it but simply add to its majesty), but then gave in when Michael continued to insist.
We then all had to leave. Though we didn’t want to leave John we had to (I had a ton of homework to finish… ended up going to bed at 1:30am, but it was worth it).
Thanks so much John for making the night possible! And to all those who came that made it even more awesome! If anyone has any pictures or videos they’d like us to share, feel free to e-mail us the link and we’ll add them in! Well Erika's nice, but I'm not, so I'm demanding you send them. Just kidding :), but please do send them. Brigitte demands pictures! Pictures would be awesome!
Welcome to the YAthenaeum Movie Script Special! 
