Category Archives: Pop Culture

by

Things I’m Obsessed With

Welcome to the latest Things I’m Obsessed With!

TV:

Tonight is the season finale of Nashville.  Once I watch that episode (tomorrow), Mad Men will be the only show I’m watching.  (But Breaking Bad comes back in August!)  I’ve really enjoyed all the finales so far—especially The Office’s farewell on Thursday.  I’m sad my shows are (almost) all gone but it’s good for two reasons.  One is that I have more time to read and the other is that it means that we’re getting closer to the return of Breaking Bad.  (We won’t talk about the fact that there are only eight episodes left. EVER)

Movies:

I go on vacation for BEA after my work shift on Sunday (so 4 p.m.) and I am so excited because I will be seeing The Hangover 3 on Monday (I think).  I love the first two movies (even though the second one wasn’t as good as the first) and I have high hopes for this one.  And it’ll be nice to see Ed Helms again.  (Did I mention that I’ll miss The Office since it finally got really good again?)

Books:

I promise this is the next to last time I’ll talk about this, but BEA is NEXT WEEK.  We are at red alert, people!  I am excited to see Kathy again and finally meet Gae and just have an excellent time and get ALL THE BOOKS, but I have to tell you, I’m just as excited for a full week off work.  (My coworker is on maternity leave, so I took a bare bones BEA break in the hopes that it would ensure that I got the time off—which clearly worked.)  There are always surprises every year, so I’m almost as excited to see what my bonus favorite will be as I am to get the stuff I’m already looking forward to.  BEA is the highlight of my year and I am so ready for a highlight. :)

And we’re almost there!

So what are you obsessed with this week?

by

I’m Not Her: For Free! (This Week Only)

So this week, you can get a copy of I’m Not Her by Janet Gurtler for free! It’s the iBookstore Book of the Week! You can get it here.

Even better, she has a new book out this month, too. (How I Lost You.) I’ve bought it, but since I am currently reading only review books, there is no telling when I can read it. (You should buy it, too; after you read it, email me and let me know what I’m missing.)

Entertainment Weekly interviewed her for their Shelf Life blog; you can read that here. And on her blog, she’s been interviewing other YA authors about their own best friends. It’s a fantastic feature.

But since we’re here to talk about I’m Not Her (which, again, you can get for free because it’s the iBookstore Book of the Week), here are some fun facts about that book:

  1. In a hospital scene in I’m Not Her one of the nurses is named Tracey and she takes Kristina’s flowers home to her daughter, Carly. Tracey is the name of my sister, Carly is her daughter in real life.

 

  1. Every single one of my books has a character named Carly in it. This is a tribute to my niece, Carly. The characters are not based on her per se, but there has to be a Carly in my books. Like a superstition or good luck charm or something.

 

  1. This book is dedicated to my sister Tracey. I was able to keep it a secret until Final Page Proofs came in.

 

  1. My niece Ciara plays volleyball and her nickname is CEE. She got recruited by a university in the States and is playing there. None of the volleyball players in the book were based on her though. She is a cool like a rock star.

 

  1. I thought Clark Trent was a funny name because of Superman’s secret identity. The Superman cape Clark wears in a scene cracked me up.

 

  1. I named a couple of the teachers in I’m Not Her after dogs I’ve had. Peppsy (Mr. Pepson) and Meeko (Mr. Meekers)

 

  1. In a scene Tess listens to Hedly on her iPod. I LOVE Jacob, the lead singer for the band. He was on the only season of Canadian Idol I watched.

 

  1. I named the golf course that Nick works at and Tess’s Dad plays at after my husband. Largurt (Larry Gurtler)

 

  1. I’m Not Her was originally called The Weight of Bones, but when I first started writing it I titled it Dance Big Sister.

 

  1. Tess’s love of the Discovery Channel and Myth Busters were inspired by my son

 

by

Things I’m Obsessed With

Welcome to the latest Things I’m Obsessed With!

TV:

The rest of my Thursday night shows are all ending tomorrow.  I usually watch The Big Bang Theory and The Office live and then watch Grey’s Anatomy on Friday morning (which is generally the best part of my Friday) but now I’ll have to watch Grey’s and Big Bang Theory on Friday.  The Office has a one hour retrospective followed by the 9-10:15 series finale.  Last week’s episode was so great and really reminded me why I loved this series.  (Figures that they’re getting great again just in time to leave.)

I will miss my shows but this will also give me lots more time to read.  (See post below for reasons why this is a good thing.)

Books:

We are two weeks away from BEA and I am beyond excited! I have so many books that I want to get and 10 I would bite someone for and I just want to get to the part where I am there already.  So let’s get on that, okay?

I am still crazy behind on review books and while this is an excellent problem to have, it’s also keeping me away from books I’m desperate to read.  (Those include, but are not limited to, Clockwork Princess, The Obituary Writer, the last Across the Universe book and the new Jessi Kirby [Golden]. )  I am considering taking a review book vacation during BEA, but what I may do instead is just take a vacation from restricting myself to reading by release date.  Maybe while I’m on BEA vacation, I can also read some of the review books I’m most excited for, even if they’re farther ahead than I’d like (and many of those are books that you can read right now—books like The Program and Wedding Night and The Other Typist and Icons and The Lucy Variations and The Originals).  Although I may be pretty close to them by the time BEA starts anyway, since I’m about a month behind.  There are so many amazing books ahead for me, you guys!  I wish I had enough money so that I could do nothing but read.  That’d be awesome.

So what are you obsessed with this week?

by

Kelly Hager Movie Hall of Fame (Latest Inductions)

BACKSTORY:  A conversation with my best friend John resulted in the creation of The Kelly Hager Movie Hall of Fame.  The first six movies chosen were The Godfather, Heathers, Casablanca, The Princess Bride, Rocky and When Harry Met Sally…

CRITERIA:  Each month, two movies will be chosen.  One will be a classic and the other will be contemporary (read: within my lifetime).  The contemporary movie will be at least 10 years old, as that way, the movie will have proven staying power.

THE NEW PICKS:

Jaws.  I absolutely adore this movie, and so many of the reasons why were more or less accidents.  Jaws is one of the scariest movies ever made and a huge part for that is because the shark wasn’t working properly.  Because of that, for most of the movie, you only see a fin and hear the music.  (Also, reportedly the first time Spielberg heard the score, he thought it was a joke…until he saw a scene with the music playing during it.) I seriously live in fear of the day they decide to remake this movie because there’s no way Hollywood will manage to get it right a second time.

The Shawshank Redemption.  This is one of the best movies ever made and I’m sure you’re all sick of me complaining about how it should’ve won Best Picture but didn’t (I would’ve also accepted Pulp Fiction over the comparatively awful Forrest Gump).  But this movie is so much better than it had any right to be.  Conventional wisdom says that if you set a movie in a limited setting and make it probably, what, 95% talking to 5% action at best, it will fail?  Well, not when you cast Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman, base it off a Stephen King novella and get a great screenwriter and director.  If you haven’t seen this movie…well, I’m sad for you, but it’s on cable all the time.  Change that.

by

Things I’m Obsessed With

Welcome to the latest Things I’m Obsessed With!

TV:

LAST WEEK’S NASHVILLE.  That is all.

Books:

In three weeks, I will be heading to New York for BEA!  BEA officially begins on a Thursday and this year, I’m not doing the bloggercon, which is Wednesday (too expensive coupled with the fact that this year attendance doesn’t include entry to BEA, and the bloggercon was almost as expensive as a three-day pass to BEA).  This Friday, we get the full BEA schedule (I hope) and I am excited to see who else will be there.  And also nervous, because just the autographing tables schedule has required me to make some hard choices.  I’m sure this one will require hard choices, too.  Even harder, possibly, because I’ve already whittled it down so much.

So what are you obsessed with this week?

by

Things I’m Obsessed With

Welcome to the latest Things I’m Obsessed With!

TV:

It’s May, which means most of my shows are about to end for the season (Parks and Recreation ends TOMORROW) and for some of them, I’m just excited to get a new episode.  (That would be you, Nashville!)  I’m still in love with Bates Motel, which is my favorite new show (and, with Nashville, the only two I stuck with).  But really, it’s been a great year for pretty much every show I’ve watched.  I do miss 30 Rock.

Books:

It’s May, which means BEA is THIS MONTH!  Yesterday, I talked about some survival tips and tomorrow, I will talk about the books I’m most hoping to get.  (The books I would bite someone for, as it were.)

I also recently read Z by Therese Anne Fowler, and I absolutely loved it.  If I haven’t successfully peer pressured you into buying it, please consider doing so.  Zelda Fitzgerald is such a fascinating woman, one who immediately became my imaginary BFF, and I really want to read more about her.  I’ve ordered an anthology of her writing, and while I don’t know when I’ll be able to read it, I can’t wait to get to it.

So what are you obsessed with this week?

by

BEA Survival Tips

This will be my fourth year attending BEA and so I thought it might be fun to talk about what to do in case you’re attending for the first time.  (And if not, try to go next year; it’s so fun!)

1)  COMFORTABLE SHOES.  Javits is huge and you will be on your feet for most of the day.  There are places to sit, but you’ll probably still be upright and moving for multiple hours and toting several books, as well.  Do all you can to help yourself out.

2)  Business cards!  Mine have my name (obviously), blog name and URL, address and Twitter and Facebook URLs, too.  Some people go back and forth over whether to include their address, but I feel like the less work publicists have to do, the more likely they are to help you. 

3)  Plan.  My BEA BFF Kathy and I have been planning for months now and since they’ve finally started releasing signing information, we have kicked that into overdrive.  Obviously not everybody is going to plan as thoroughly as we do, but it’s a good idea to have at least a basic idea of what you want to do each day (galleys you want; signings you must attend, etc.) so that you’re not running around completely overwhelmed.

4)  Accept the hard truth of BEA: you will not get everything you want.  This is where prioritizing comes into play.  This year, for example, Kendare Blake, Diana Peterfreund and Gretchen McNeil are all signing at more or less the same time.  And all are pretty likely to have ridiculous lines.  I will probably not be able to get all three, but I’m probably going to be able to get two. 

by

Things I’m Obsessed With

Welcome to the latest Things I’m Obsessed With!

Books:

We’re now five weeks away from BEA!  I’m probably going to do a pre-BEA post sometime soon and that will include the books I’m most excited to get.  They’ve released part of the schedule and I am starting to plan.  But in five weeks (exactly!), I will be in New York and I am SO HAPPY.

Movies:

I got The Hobbit for my birthday from my goddaughter.  It’s her favorite movie and she wanted me to see it so we could talk about it.  I still haven’t seen it.  It’s become my Holy Grail, the idea of having the necessarily three hours to watch this movie.  (I am determined to get everything done over my weekend so that I can watch it Friday.  This WILL happen, A.!)

So what are you obsessed with this week?

by

You Haven’t Seen THAT?!

So as I’ve said before, one of my favorite ways to hide from the world is in a movie—in the theater, in my living room, wherever I can.

And after reading Double Feature, I realized that I’ve been so behind in watching movies.  Every movie, really, but especially the AFI project.  Remember that?  And while there’s a theory there that it’s stupid to be all, “YOU HAVEN’T SEEN THAT?” to people, because it’s impossible to see all the movies that are worthy of being seen, I do want to work on eliminating my own “YOU HAVEN’T SEEN THAT?!” movies.

I definitely want to see Dog Day Afternoon (which is mentioned several times in Double Feature), but I also want to see Harold and Maude, Blade Runner, On the Waterfront, The Sting, Unforgiven, Saving Private Ryan and Caddyshack.  There are about a billion more, but that’s a pretty good start, I think.

No idea when it’ll happen (I’m still ridiculously behind on review books) but I’ll eventually get to everything, right?

Don’t answer that.

So what movies do you get teased for not having seen?

by

Things I’m Obsessed With

Welcome to the latest Things I’m Obsessed With!

Books:

I’m currently reading Double Feature by Owen King (review should be up tomorrow) and it’s the seriously the funniest book ever.  It’s also a book for people who love movies (and for people who love good books) so unless it falls apart hardcore in the final act, I endorse it wholeheartedly. 

TV:

I am so in love with Bates Motel.  I liked the pilot of Hannibal okay but I don’t know that I’m going to stick with it, primarily because of the guy they cast to play Hannibal.  He’s not really believable in the role for me, and I think it’s probably because he’s in a role that’s so completely identified with Anthony Hopkins, and this new guy (the one who was the villain in Casino Royale) is just no comparison).  And I am just not excited to watch it. And you compare that to Bates Motel, which I am always happy and eager to watch…well, no.  And I’m so behind with my reading that if I’m not excited to watch a show, I’m not going to keep it on my viewing schedule.  Which means that I am currently left with approximately five shows.  (And probably The Office, out of a sense of obligation.)  And most of them are probably almost over, anyway, right?  So after a few more weeks, it’ll just be Mad Men and then my beloved Breaking Bad comes back soon.

Also:

Did I mention BEA is coming soon?  That’s next month.

What are you obsessed with this week?