Chicago Day 3

Cramped, dusty and requiring a ladder to reach
the top = Used Bookstore Heaven

Okay, so Day three in an easy to follow 10 point list:

1) Woke up early, took great shot of the Cloud Gate
2) Had Breakfast at the Pittsfield Cafe - like stepping into historic Chicago (also super tasty!)
3) Saw Jason Segel talk about his book Nightmares!
4) Heard Jason Segel refer to The Goonies as "his people"
5) Wrote Yesterday's blog a day late
6) Immediately liked him a little bit more
7) Attended a board meeting with some lovely folks from the Reference and User Services Association (RUSA)
8) Walked to my hotel, then back to the RUSA Social, then to the Spectrum social (all in all about 10 miles)
9) Hit my third Used bookstore in Chicago (pictured right) and found a classic horror novel I've been looking for for about five years.
10) Chatted with my family over FaceTime and 

Wrote this blog for you!

Book Review: Nightmares!

Here's what you need to know about Nightmares!, the 2014 YA novel by Jason Segel and Kirsten Miller, it's pretty great.  The story involves some effective scares, a look at how dreams and nightmares can work, and a surprising amount of interpersonal and family relationship issues for a book aimed at Elementary school kids.

The book focuses on Charlie Laird, an eleven-year-old boy who has recently moved into his new stepmother's home with his father and younger brother Jack.  Since moving in with Charlotte (whom Charlie has dubbed "The Stepmonster"), Charlie has been having the same nightmare every time he falls asleep - which moves the book into some pretty creepy territory right there (Think Dreamscape, A Nightmare on Elm Street, and The Prince of Darkness territory, but toned down for younger readers), and add to it his difficulties getting along with his new family, and you get a surprisingly meaty story.

The book moves at a great pace, keeping you interested and invested in the characters and for me, moved from a "Hey this is pretty fun" to a "Darn it, I have to wait until September for the sequel!?!" kind of mindset.

Well worth the read.

Movie Review: Despicable Me

Early Saturday morning I went to see an advanced screening of the Film Despicable Me with my 13-year-old daughter Kaia, my BFF Mike and his lovely wife Trish.

Although I've never attended a movie screening at 10:00am before, I can say it was a fun but strange experience, there were a lot of families there with little kids, no introduction from anyone (usually there is a radio station sponsoring the screening so someone gets up and talks before the movie starts), and afterwords no one asked us for feedback.

The movie itself was a lot of fun and we all left the theatre talking about how great the film was. What I noticed about Mike's comments was that they focused on things like the great animation and story and totally avoided the best thing in the entire film.

One Word: Vector (pictured below)

Vector (voiced amazingly well by Jason Segel, who I've been following since Freaks & Geeks), dressed in a striking orange warm-up suit and using vast amounts of weapons and traps is clearly the superior super villain in the film. From his first appearance (wherein he excitedly shows the "main" character Gru a fascinating weapon) to the cleverness of his name (a vector has both a magnitude and a direction - excellent qualities for a super villain), Vector himself is the young turk of the film, out villain-ing Gru every step of the way while still being portrayed human enough that we can see his love of a good coconutty cookie.

In my humble (but often correct) opinion, a film is only as great as it's villains and this movie defintely features a great one.