I completed my 2014 reading challenge with a whopping 76 books! Patting myself on the shoulder as I write this post. Let the good ride continues onto 2015!
2014 Reading Challenge
Time and tide wait for no man.
I can’t argue with that quote when I look back at year 2013. I need a breather after the year 2013 but no relief can be seen in the near future. What did I do in 2013? I took a semester of two MBA classes in spring semester which caused me to realize that MBA is not for me and I’m still looking for interesting major for career change. I took a full two-week national park road trip with my family in the summer which I haven’t done since 1997. I started another part time job putting crazy hours. I bought a new house and moved after completing simple renovation with new paint and cork floors which I promised myself to never do foreman duties ever again in any future home renovations no matter how easy it looks on HGTV home improvement shows.
If busy year is a good year, then I can conclude I had a great year in 2013. I hope 2013 will keep on rolling into 2014, I can write more and maybe squeeze in a little world traveling. Failing to achieve my reading goal was the only thing I regretted and here’s the new goal for 2014. Smooth sailing so far and hope I can keep it up.
Now You See Me
NOW YOU SEE ME pits an elite FBI squad in a game of cat and mouse against “The Four Horsemen”, a super-team of the world’s greatest illusionists. “The Four Horsemen” pull off a series of daring heists against corrupt business leaders during their performances, showering the stolen profits on their audiences while staying one step ahead of the law.
My Review
Now You See Me is pure magical. Who doesn’t like a good magic trick? If you do like magic, this is a must-see movie. Magic shows usually leave the audience with their mouth gape opened asking how the magicians did their trick. This movie showed the incredible magic tricks disguising multiple robbery attempts and the behind the scenes revealing how the magic tricks were done.
Playing a FBI agent tasked to detain The Four Horsemen (four arrogant illusionists played by Isla Fisher, Woody Harrelson, Dave Franco and Jesse Eisenberg), Mark Ruffalo did a great job playing a magic non-believer and keeping the mystery at bay. Great performance from Morgan Freeman and Michael Caine.
This movie received some bad promotion due to Morgan Freeman falling asleep during an interview. The movie moved fast-paced, full of mystery and have my full attention throughout the entire movie as well as entertained me until the end. All the gimmicks hiding the bigger hidden little plot twist at the end of the movie made it memorable.
My Grade: B+/A-
Down London Road by Samantha Young
Goodreads Summary
Johanna Walker is used to taking charge. But she’s about to meet someone who will make her lose control….
It has always been up to Johanna to care for her family, particularly her younger brother, Cole. With an absent father and a useless mother, she’s been making decisions based on what’s best for Cole for as long as she can remember. She even determines what men to date by how much they can provide for her brother and her, not on whatever sparks may—or may not—fly.
But with Cameron MacCabe, the attraction is undeniable. The sexy new bartender at work gives her butterflies every time she looks at him. And for once, Jo is tempted to put her needs first. Cam is just as obsessed with getting to know Jo, but her walls are too solid to let him get close enough to even try.
Then Cam moves into the flat below Jo’s, and their blistering connection becomes impossible to ignore. Especially since Cam is determined to uncover all of Jo’s secrets even if it means taking apart her defenses piece by piece.
My Review
This is the second installment from On Dublin Street series by Samantha Young. On Dublin Street, Joss and Braden hot, can’t keep their hands off each other, couple left me breathless and Down London Road was no exception. Thumbs up for some of the hottest and steamiest scenes in the book.
The beginning of the book was portraying Jo as gold-digging bitch but the way Jo’s inner thought wrote out contradicted that image. The initial tension between Jo and Cam were intriguing and the more Jo revealed herself, the more it changed Cam’s point of view of Jo. As I was reading the book, I was waiting for the other shoe to drop to cause a rip in the relationship between Jo and Cam but nothing major. Sure, the ex-girlfriend showed up, still hung up on Cam but that misunderstanding was smoothed out pretty quickly.
The low insecurities in Jo was driving me crazy. The repeating self deprecating was annoying almost made me want to give up on the book. The teenagers, Hanna and Cole, were interesting add-ons and Joss and Braden glued the falling parts peices. I have to keep pushing myself to keep on reading and finishing up the book. That’s the only reason I gave this book a lower rating. Overall, the story moved too slow with too little bumps for me.
My Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
2013 Summer Blockbuster
Here’s 2013 summer blockbuster line-up preview. Iron Man 3 kicks off this year’s summer blockbusters.
| May 3rd, 2013 | Iron Man 3 |
| May 10th, 2013 | The Great Gatsby |
| May 17th, 2013 | Star Trek Into Darkness |
| May 24th, 2013 | Fast & Furious 6 The Hangover Part III Epic |
| May 31st, 2013 | After Earth Now You See Me |
| June 7th, 2013 | The Internship |
| June 14th, 2013 | Man of Steel aka Superman |
| June 21st, 2013 | Monsters University World War Z |
| June 28th, 2013 | White House Down The Heat |
| July 3rd, 2013 | Despicable Me 2 The Lone Ranger |
| July 12th, 2013 | Pacific Rim Grown Ups 2 Turbo |
| July 19th, 2013 | Red 2 |
| July 26th, 2013 | The Wolverine |
| July 31st, 2013 | The Smurfs 2 300: Rise of an Empire |
| August 9th, 2013 | Planes |
| August 16th, 2013 | Kick-Ass 2 Percy Jackson & The Olympians: Sea of Monsters |
| August 23rd, 2013 | Mortal Instruments: City of Bones |
This year has a great movies lined up and I can’t wait to be in theatre every Fridays.
There are a couple of movies worth being mentioned but they are not part of the summer blockbuster line-up. They are G.I. Joe: Retaliation, Oblivion, and Pain and Gain. They are being release between March and April. There is two movies I’m looking forward to are Riddick and Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 after summer.