Feeding Your Soul

Is there a safe haven for everyone? That is the question the main character Katie deals with in Nicholas Sparks’ book Safe Haven.   Sparks delivers yet again a powerful and emotional read with a twist that I have not read from him yet – suspense and mystery.   In this book, it isn’t all about love and loss. It’s about survival and protecting yourself even if the thing you are protecting yourself from is you. The novel starts with the newest resident of a small North Carolina town, Katie.   She came to Southport, NC to start over and hopes no one notices. She rents a small cottage on a gravel road out of the way and takes a waitressing job at a local watering hole.   As much as she wants to blend in people start to notice her and ask questions as Southport is a very small and tightknit community.   She befriends the local general store owner Alex and his 2 kids, Kristen and Josh.   Hints about Katie’s past start to pop-up both for herself and Alex. ...

In the original stories by the Brothers Grimm, not all were pretty and magical and had happy endings. They were bitter, dark, and cruel.   The movie Snow White and the Huntsman starring Kristen Stewart, Charlize Theron and Chris Hemsworth took the same route.   Snow White and the Huntsman begin with Snow White as a child, losing her mother and her father remarrying.   The night her father gets remarried, Ravenna kills him and takes over his kingdom locking Snow White in the north tower until she is useful.     When Snow White comes of age, Ravenna sends her brother to kill her as Snow White has become fairer than the Queen.   Snow White escapes and so begins the pursuit of Snow White by the Huntsman and the search for her by her father’s faithful following that survived the purging of the kingdom so many years ago. This was Kristen Stewart’s follow-up movie to the Twilight Series.   Was it good – was it bad? It was hard to tell.   The ...

In my experience, you either love or hate Nicholas Sparks. Even if you hate him, it is a loving hate because he writes such powerful and emotional love stories.   In his book, The Choice I have a loving hate for him this time around mainly because for the first time while reading one of his books, I have someone in my life who I think about when reading.   The Choice tells the story of Travis, a veterinarian in South Carolina and Gabby, a physician’s assistant at a small practice in the same town.   The novel starts with the present Travis reminiscing about how he met Gabby and fell in love.   Only later when the novel comes back to the present does the reader fully understand the meaning of love and what Travis was thinking when he thought of the past. The book kept me thinking the whole time.   I found myself having to reread passages to see if my hunches were correct.   As Sparks moved from the present to the past back to the present, he wove a...

The New Year has come and gone without much fanfare for this blogger.   New Year’s was spent with close friends, at home and in bed by 12:05am.   It was a great, relaxing and inexpensive New Year’s.   As 2012 came to a close that night I realized that I had yet to make any resolutions.   I was in shock.   How could I have forgotten about the most important part of my year – planning!   Well here it is a few days late but here nonetheless.   2013 promises to be the best year on record. Not just for me but for my fiancée. We are getting married this year. 9 months and counting.   All of my resolutions this year revolve around my wedding – getting healthier, saner and less stressed.   In the past few years I haven’t been able to keep many of my resolutions except for reading and writing because I love to do those things. Even though I haven’t read 26 books every year I never gave up and won’t this year.     Goodreads.com makes t...

If it wasn’t for the hype, would I be reading this book? Strange way to start a blog but as I was reading it, I couldn’t help but think that I might have stopped reading all together if it wasn’t for the hype around it. 50 Shades of Grey is the story of Anastasia Steele, a recent college graduate who meets the elusive and dark Christian Grey after interviewing him for her roommate Kate. Christian Grey is immediately smitten with Anastasia as she is with him. He finds all kinds of ways to meet her and take her out – suck her in before he tells her who he is and what he wants. Anastasia gets pulled into the world of BDSM (bondage/discipline, domination/submission and sadism/masochism) to please Christian and be with him. From here it gets kinky or scary depending on your point of view. To me this book is not about the sex and dominant versus submissive. That’s not my cup of tea anyway. To me, this is about change – Anastasia changing to suit Christian and Christian having h...

In every good book, movie, or television show there has to be an end.   No matter how much the fans scream for more or cry that they won’t see their beloved characters in print or on the big screen, no story can go on forever.   Not even one with vampires.   The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2 brings the final tale of Bella, Edward and Jacob to a close in a way that not even the book did. Part 2 started off right where Part 1 ended – Bella waking up from her transformation into a vampire.   This first scene between Edward and Bella was emotional and sensual.   They were taking in each other for the first time and really feeling and sensing each other’s presence.   It had all of the heat and passion of a good sex scene.   It was more passionate and personal because for the first time Edward and Bella were the same – there was nothing keeping any part of themselves from each other. They could experience anything they wanted with each other....

With the release of The Dark Knight Rises on Blu-ray and DVD, the most iconic Batman trilogy according to some is coming to an end.   But the question remains is this the last trilogy for Batman or is this just another movie set to put up on the shelf, waiting for the next big director to come through and remake a classic. The Dark Knight Rises takes place 8 years after The Dark Knight – Batman has disappeared and Bruce Wayne is rumored to be a drunk, withdrawn man.   His company stands on the brink of bankruptcy after investing in a nuclear fusion project only to shut it down after learning that the reactor core could be weaponized.   Organized crime has been all but eradicated with the help of the death of Harvey Dent.   Commissioner Gordon almost confesses to what really happened to Harvey Dent but decides against it at the last minute then gets captured after a chase in the sewers by Bane and his minions.   All sorts of characters and plot lines return ...