Classics Retold- Brainstorming for Robin Hood

I signed up for the Classics Retold project hosted by Alison @ The Cheap Reader, Alyssa @ Books Take You Places, Charlene @ Bookish Whimsy, Wendy @ Excellent Library, Brittany @ Book Addict's Guide. Alison @ The Cheap Reader came up with this idea after project Fairy Tale was such a huge hit. She tweaked the challenge a bit to include classic books and their adaptations. 

Credit

I signed up for the classic tale of Robin Hood. Robin Hood has been in the public domain for many years so it has many retellings and film adaptations. I'm going to try to cover as much as possible, but I realize I will barely be able to scratch the surface. I have to admit that I know little about the original tale of Robin Hood besides what I have learned from the Disney movie so I hope to learn a lot while doing this project. 

Books

The Outlaws of Sherwood by Robin McKinley  and Scarlet by A.C. Gaughen are going to be the two books on my must read list for this project. 

If I have time I would love to read the middle grade, Forestwife Saga which includes The Forest Wife, Child of May, and The Path of the She-Wolf by Theresa Tomlinson. It is based on the tale of Robin Hood.

There is a huge list of books on goodreads that I will start tackling if I get through the five above. As I mentioned before there is an endless supply of Robin Hood retellings since the tale has been in the public domain for so long. 

Movies

Disney's Robin Hood and Robin Hood Prince of Thieves are movies I would really like to watch for this project. Although I have watched the Disney movie many times I think I will have a different prospective after reading the original story. 

Robin Hood (2003) and Robin Hood (2010) are also on my list of movies to watch. 

There was a whole tv show made after the tale of Robin Hood on BBC. Unfortunetely I don't believe I will have time to watch all three seasons or even one season as I have a busy summer ahead of me. One of the five hosts, Alyssa @ Books Takes You Places, is also covering Robin Hood and I believe that she plans to watch the series. My problem is that we don't have Netflix or any other movie type thing so I would have to check out the disks from the library. I would only have a week to watch them and they would most likely skip around a lot. There are many individual episodes on various TV shows that covered Robin Hood and if I have time I will try to watch and review some individual episodes for the project. 

Overall I'm a bit overwhelmed, but excited for this project. I plan to have all the posts for this project typed up and scheduled by early August before I leave for university. It will be a nice way to take a month off blogging while I adjust to life at college. Of course as always even though you will be reading prewritten posts in September I will be replying back to comments. 

Thanks for reading 

Rachael 

This Week in Books (11) April 5th, 2013

This week in books is going to be a new feature I'm going to be doing on my blog. This week in books is in no way my original idea. It is a combination of Friday reads, its Monday what are you reading, weekly wraps up, and any thing else you can think of. The basic idea is I will be telling you what I read last week and what I would like to read this week which is always subject to change.


Read Last Week:

Breathing Underwater by Alex Flinn (Review)

44 Cranberry Point by Debbie Macomber (Review soon)

Breathing Underwater was a totally random book I picked up in the library after quitting Under the Never Sky by Veronica Rossi on page 102 because I didn't know what was going on. 44 Cranberry Point was the fourth book in the Cedar Cove Series and I thoroughly enjoyed it. 

Currently Reading:

Rapunzel Untangled has been an amazing book so far. I'm so in love with the story of Rapunzel that I just couldn't resist this book. I'm on page 80.

I started reading Robin Hood by Charles Pyle this week for Classics Retold. There will be an informational post up about the project tomorrow. So far I have read the first two chapters and I have really been enjoying the story. It is really hard for me not to imagine Robin Hood as a wolf. I downloaded the audiobook, but I quickly learned I couldn't stand the narrator's voice, but since I'm used to listening to books on my computer it is hard for me to read the book to myself. I have been reading the book out loud to myself. 

To Read:

When I finish Rapunzel Untangled I plan to start Firefly Lane by Kristen Hannah. 

Book Review:Breathing Underwater by Alex Flinn (no spoilers)

Book: Breathing Underwater
Author: Alex Flinn
Publication: April 24, 2010
Source: Local Library
Rating: 5/5 Stars












Summary (from Goodreads):

Like father, like son.

 Intelligent, popular, handsome, and wealthy, sixteen-year-old Nick Andreas is pretty much perfect — on the outside, at least. What no one knows — not even his best friend — is the terror that Nick faces every time he is alone with his father. Then he and Caitlin fall in love, and Nick thinks his problems are over. Caitlin is the one person who he can confide in. But when things start to spiral out of control, Nick must face the fact that he's gotten more from his father than green eyes and money

My Thoughts:
This was my first book by Alex Flinn and I have to say she didn't disappoint. I picked this book up totally random after quitting Under the Never Sky by Veronica Rossi. I just went to the library and picked up this book. I had heard about it on Goodreads and added it to my maybe I will read this book someday To Be Read list, but it was totally unplanned when I read it.

This is a book I'm so glad I don't relate to. Nick was abused as a child and he abused his girlfriend Caitlyn which lead to the restraining order she filed against him. This book is basically about Nick suffering the consequences of his actions and finding out more about himself in the process.

When I learned what this book was about I immediately thought I was absolutely going to hate Nick as a character. The funny part is that I didn't. I hated Nick's dad, but I didn't hate Nick totally as a character. Alex Flinn was able to make me sympathize for Nick in some parts and really not like him in other parts. I think she created a good balance. Caitlyn was a character I felt sorry for throughout the book, but I thought she was smart for filing a restraining order against Nick. We have all heard the story of it was my fault not his when in all truth if the guy is the one being abusive it is his fault.

This books main theme was paying for your actions and the consequences of your actions. Nick learned throughout the book more about himself than he expected to learn. Through his journal we got to learn more about his relationship with Caitlyn and his present life. The underlying theme I noticed towards the end was forgiveness. People have the power to change if they admit that they have a problem and want to change. Although things may not have turned out the way Nick would have liked them to he learned to forgive people. The ending was very powerful in Breathing Underwater. I was in awe as I finished this book that brought forward so many mixed emotions for me.

Overall I loved Breathing Underwater and I can't wait to read another book by Alex Flinn. The writing was simple, but amazing overall. The writing made me feel like I went to school with Nick and Caitlyn instead of being an outsider looking in. This book wasn't what I expected at all, but this book impressed me more than words can explain.


Thanks for reading


Rachael

Cover Face Off Breathing Underwater by Alex Flinn

I have never done a cover face off before, but Breathing Underwater by Alex Flinn intrigued me to do one. The older version is on the left published in 2001 and the newer version is on the right published in 2002. 

I checked this book out from the library so I obviously got the yellow cover. What I like about that cover is that it has pretty cool sayings throughout the cover that tell you a lot about what you are going to find within the book. This cover captures Nick as the controlling person he is while the other one doesn't as much. 

Some things I dislike about the yellow cover is it doesn't leave the character of Nick up to your imagination. I  usually stay away from books with people on the cover because I like to imagine my own characters and I can tell you I didn't imagine Nick looking like that. 

The cover on the right is the picture of a typically YA book. A lot of YA books have people on the cover that are kissing are are almost going to kiss. I love the simplicity of the 2nd cover where I think the first one is much more complex. I love the background in this cover also just because it is simple. 

Again I dislike people being on the cover. This time it takes both Nick and Caitlyn although I didn't imagine either one of them that way. 

In my opinion the 1st cover at the left is the better of the two. What do you think? Which cover wins? Tell me below in the comments. 

Thanks

Rachael

April Wrap Up Continued... Reading Challenges

I can't believe we are already done with four months of 2013. I read 6 books again in April.  I had a great reading month. Last month I was only entered in 21 challenges, but in March I joined 2 more challenges bringing my total up to 23 challenge plus challenge addict. The 2 challenges I joined both have to be done by June so I will need to get them before any of the others. To keep up to date on my challenges throughout the month click on my reading challenge tab at the top of the page. To find the links to sign up for any of the reading challenges click here. To sign up for the two I joined last month click here and here. Below is my update enjoy.

A-Z reading Challenge

April: Y fulfilled= 10 letters to go (I'm down to the more difficult letters now so I will need to strive to make the rest of the letters before the year is over)

Mar: A, G, H, and M fulfilled =11 letters to go

Feb: D, F, L, N, and S fulfilled = 15 letters to go

Jan: B,C, O, P, R, and T fulfilled = 20 letters to go

Library Reading Challenge

23/36 books

Book to Movie  reading Challenge

6/12 books

Let Me Count the Ways reading Challenge

9320/10,000 plus pages

Nicholas Sparks reading Challenge

2/1-4 books

Outdo Yourself reading Chaellenge

28/50 books

The Year Long Memoir reading Challenge and Nonfiction challenge

1/4 books

Chunkster reading Challenge

6/6 books finished April 3rd, 2013. I will continue to add books as I read them. 

Seriously Series reading Challenge

0/4 series

Jodi Picoult reading Challenge

2/5 books

Quick Fix reading Challenge

12/10 books finished April 9th, 2013. Again I will continue to add books as I read them. 

Pick An Author reading Challenge

1/9 books

Fairy Tales Retold and Telling Tales Reading Challenge

I bumped myself up after finishing my original goal of April 23rd, 2013. 

3/4 to 6 books

Book Bingo reading Challenge

12 boxes completed

In the Middle Reading Challenge

10/15 books

Books in a Series Reading Challenge

7/16 books

Monthly Keyword Reading Challenge

Apr: 5/12 books

Mar: 4/12 books

Feb: 3/12 books (although I did complete more than one for the words for February.

Jan: 2/12 books

New Authors and First Reads Reading Challenge

13/15 (Matthew Quick, Patti Callahan Henry, A.G. Howard, and Jodi Lynn Anderson)

The Spring of Sarah Dessen Challenge Must be completed by June 1st
0/3 books

Spring Reading Thing Must be completed by June 20th
6/14 books

Reading Challenge Addict

2/16+

1. Chunkster Challenge - Completed April 3rd, 2013

2. Quick Fix- Completed April 9th, 2013