why don't we...

As promised, from now on, I will only be making reviews on a monthly basis. And as March has passed, it's time to look back on this month. March was basically about waiting. I waited for my new washing machine, I am still waiting for my new mobile phone, due to delivery shortages, and most desperately I waited for March 22nd for the Hunger Games movie to be released. While this wait was rewarded appropriately the washing machine came along with some installation problems. Although I asked my father if he was really sure that there would be no problems, before I made the purchase online, I was sitting next to a non-installed washing machine, when the conveyance left on wednesday morning, last week. The installment was supposed to be inclusive, but the haulers just refused to install the machine, since the connections were jammed, and they would have made a hole into the plasterwall, that was in their way. Long story short. I did it myself. Craftswoman, I am!

And the mobile. It was supposed to be purchaseable on March 16th. From this day on I refreshed the o2 website every day, I guess. And yesterday finally, the phone popped up in their shop. Outrageous!

Another thing that happed kinda proves my clumsiness again. I finally made it to the gym again this month. I wanted to do this much earlier, but I lost my lock, and had to get a new one, which took ages for me to do. Well two weeks ago on a saturday I went for the second time this month, and I just finished the training on the weights and wanted to get my Ipod from the locker for the endurance training, when I couldn't open the lock. Clever as I was, I forgot to remove the old keys, from the lost lock, which were still in my backpack. And when going to the training I simply confused the new keys with the old ones and voilà: there you have your very own little disaster. Of course I already saw myself walking home with my sweatpants on, without money or a bus ticket. Thanks to another key related disaster that had happed last summer, at least I would have had some spare keys hidden in the garden. But then I kinda reacted quickly and thought, well I am probably not the only idiot in the gym, and they must have a bolt cutter or something and went to see if there was still someone there from the gym staff. (Since it was already 10 pm, I feared they might have been gone already) But there he was, my hero, with the bolt cutter. He didn't actually use it, because he tried to open the lock with some dirty trick, that at least left it undamaged. Of course I threw away the wrong keys, immediately. Although life seems quite boring if you're always careful with everything, right? 

Well enough of the stories, I also wanted to give some small reviews about the books and movies I consumed this month. 

THE BOOKS I HAVE READ:

THE MAZE RUNNER by JAMES DASHNER

The first book of another dystopian trilogy, that gets often recommended when people would like to read something similar as THE HUNGER GAMES by Suzanne Collins. There are in fact some similarities, some kids, but only boys, get thrown into a big maze that seems to change everyday, and these boys have almost no memories about who they are or where they came from. Of course it would be kind of boring if there weren't any frightening creatures that always come out at nighttime. They are described as a mixture of machine and animal, and of course pretty lethal. So these boys are trying to solve this maze day after day, while they don't really know if there really is a solution. But hope keeps them going and soon it seems as if one of those boys, the protagonist of course, is coming really close to solving this riddle. James Dashner really knows how to create suspense, and I really enjoyed the read and am looking forward to the sequel THE SCORCH TRIALS which should come in the mail today. Also, when looking for the book cover today, I found out that there is a movie in production and is said to be in theatres 2013. Since there is no cast announced, yet, I guess the release date might get postponed again. Of course I secretly hope Josh Hutcherson is going to play the role of Thomas, the protagonist of the book.  (5/5)

PANDEMONIUM by LAUREN OLIVER

This book is the second part of a current trilogy about a society that believes love is a disease. I found that idea so amazing, and the first book DELIRIUM fulfilled all my expectations. I also enjoyed Oliver's writing style a lot. At first I thought the main character, Lena, was a bit naive and never questioning what the government did, but I guess if you are born in a society like this, of course you think the things that are happening are the way they are supposed to be. Never having experienced something different. But then Lena soon gets caught by the fatal disease called Amor Deliria Nervosa. And at first she refuses to believe it and questions how much she enjoys it, but then realizes how the government has built up this huge lie about love being a disease and so she tries to flee from her society The escape is successful but not without a huge loss. The second book basically sets place in the time after the escape and tells how Lena lives with her loss and tries to fight against her past folk as an undercover spy. The sequel was a dignified follow-up but at some point it left me a little unsatisfied.  (4/5)

THE HUNGER GAMES by SUZANNE COLLINS

I didn't really plan to say much about it, since it's just a re-read in the original language.  I can only say I enjoy it as much as the first time. Although I am always sad that there is only one first time and the tension is gone then. (5/5)

BIRTHMARKED by CARAGH O'BRIEN

And here we have our fourth dystopian trilogy. Not as exciting as the first three mentioned series, but still the topic was kind of interesting. It's basically about a small elite society that tries to genetically control their population after a disease had spread amongst them. Therefore they choose newborns from the poor and excluded folk outside their border. At first the parents of these children feel priviledged, because their children get to live a wealthy life, but soon the rate of the chosen newborns grows higher and higher, and the poor folk of course gets suspicious about what really happens behind the wall on the other side. Although this story is set in a far away future szenario, the writing style always made me feel as if I was reading a historical novel. it was kind of strange when you imagined a medieval city and then suddenly highly developed technology was mentioned. I thought, that was kind of a minus in that book. But nevertheless I'll probably go and read the other parts somewhen soon.  (3/5)

THE MOVIES I HAVE WATCHED

THE HUNGER GAMES
Here, also, I don't need to say much anymore since I already made an extra post on that movie.
I saw it the second time on monday and it was still as amazing as the first time. (10/10)


SHAME
I must admit, I expected something more disturbing here. I might be jaded by movies like ENTER THE VOID or REQUIEM FOR A DREAM, but I always had the feeling that the character Michael Fassbender played isn't really that far away from the average image of manhood I have. Not even the suicide scenes with Carey Mulligan touched me emotionally, but that might be the fault of the director. All in all I think the movie is worth watching. (7/10)


JANE EYRE
I haven't read the book, I must admit, and wouldn't have watched the movie if it wasn't for the appearances of Michael Fassbender and Mia Wasikowska, whom I think is amazingly talented. Although I was very touched by the way Wasikowska was delivering emotional substance, and the beginning was kind of exciting and promising, the storyline in the end was a bit disappointing and not quite reasonable for me. (6.5/10)


LIKE CRAZY
What the heck was that? Seriously? I was looking forward to an independent romantic love story, a movie that won awards at the Sundance Film Festival. It started with a really nice atmosphere but then everything was ruined by cutting the movie on all the wrong places. I have never seen a movie being edited so badly that the viewer is no longer able to tell where the hell the characters are settled. It seemed to constantly switch between Great Britain and the USA. But then also the storyline got more and more unreasonable and illogical it was hard to keep watching until the end. The saddest thing about the movie is, that the amazing Jennifer Lawrence didn't get a chance to show what she is capable of, and her character was so pathetic. (5/10)


THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT
It started off a bit awkward, I can't really explain why. I didn't know where this movie was getting, if it wanted to be a comedy or a drama and it turned out to be a proper mixture of both. This movie is about five congenial characters who aren't perfect at all. It's about making mistakes and about forgiveness. (7/10)


WINGED CREATURES
This movie is about a killing spree and its aftermath on the people who witnessed the crime. It shows the different ways people deal with a drastic situation. There are these two kids, one of it just stops talking to the people around, the other one doesn't show any grief and almost makes the adults around her angry because she just flees into faith and justifies the death of her own father for the sake of her god. Then there are the adults who completely get out of control. The doctor who poisons his wife, and the mother who neglects her child. All in all an interesting story that shows how people deal with grief and the loss of a loved one. (7/10)


BRIDGE TO THERABITHIA
This one tells an interesting story about a friendship between two children among problems like bullying and poverty. It's about being creative and imaginative with only little means, but also, again, about dealing with loss. (7/10)

So that were like 4 movies including Josh Hutcherson. Does that already count as obsessive?