by admin
May 4, 2013 in Podcast
We’ve been a little lax with the podcast episodes as we’re now on opposite coasts and Skype time is hard to come by. In this second installment of 2013, we update our respective reading/watching lists, and then Jon goes on a rant about being accused as an “overhyper.” Following that, Lilly takes the stage as we muse over what the appropriate length for a celebrity biography. [19:40 min]
Download fiftyfiftyme Podcast Episode 002 | (Direct MP3 link)
by admin
March 28, 2013 in Books, Movies
BOOKS READ:
MOVIES WATCHED:
Three months in, my fiftyfifty.me is suffering. You would think that being stuck inside for multiple storms and winter weather would increase the number of books consumed. That wasn’t the case. After (barely) successfully completing the challenge last year, 2013 is going to be a struggle. So far I’ve completed four books and seven movies. That’s a good bit off the pace. I’m unconcerned about movies, of course, since I’ll easily eclipse fifty this year, but books, uh oh.
The books I have read have been mostly gems. I talked about how much I loved Ann Patchett’s Truth & Beauty last year, and while The Getaway Car is only a Kindle single, I just had to read it. It’s a short memoir about her writing life, and it made a nice companion piece to Truth & Beauty.
We did NW for book club, and if were not for that enforced completion, I probably would have put it down. I generally love Zadie Smith but this was a tough read. I think most of it could be attributed to the beginning section, told in a first person perspective that I found difficult to get into. I found myself being constantly distracted by reading other things by Zadie Smith, such as her book of essays, Changing My Mind and her famous article from 2008, “Two Paths for the Novel.” I had trouble shaking the idea that Smith was experimenting a lot with her form for NW. All in all, while the book eventually improved for me, I couldn’t in good conscience recommend it except to Smith completists.
Two books I can wholeheartedly recommend are Deadweather and Sunrise: The Chronicles of Egg and Adaptation. The former is the first in a new middle grade series about pirates. Sorry, let me say that again: Pirates! The setup reminded me of so many classic adventure stories I read growing up, but jazzed up with sophisticated humor for older readers and compelling action for younger kids. I’ve read a lot of middle grade and can report that Deadweather and Sunrise stands out in a big way. I just saw Geoff — whom I met at last year’s KidLitCon — and told him how excited I was for the next two books in the series.
As for Adaptation, fellow 2009 Deb Malinda Lo smoothly switches genres from fantasy (Ash and Huntress) to scifi. Adaptation starts with a mysterious series of plane crashes — caused by flocks of birds — and the race is on to find out what’s happening. As fair warning, I was compelled to shoot through most of the book in one day, and you likely will be too. Malinda is a huge X-Files fan and that shines through. Adaptation’s sequel, Inheritance, is coming this fall, so that’ll give you plenty of time to get on-board the conspiracy train before September.
Short shots on the movies I’ve seen this year. Zero Dark Thirty was tensely majestic, Gangster Squad had Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone (’nuff said), Side Effects had a hilarious plot twist that made me question if Soderbergh was even a deft director anymore. The Gatekeepers is an Oscar nominated documentary that interviewed six former heads of Shin Bet, Israel’s internal secret service. If you’re into that kind of thing, it’s definitely worth a watch.
Beautiful Creatures is from a pair of 2009 Debs, Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl, and their best selling novels worked wonderfully on the big screen. The movie was beautiful and atmospheric, and let’s be real, the film is way better than the first Twilight. I’ve been following along on Kami and Margaret’s Tumblrs, which have been full of behind-the-scenes tidbits. Kami and Margaret both have new series coming out later this year, Unbreakable (The Legion) and Icons, respectively.
I was terrified that Oz the Great and Powerful would suck, since I love anything Oz-related so much. If it flopped — like 1985′s Return to Oz — we might not see another Oz movie for decades. Luckily the movie came out huge, to the tune of an $80 opening weekend, and a sequel is forthcoming. Sure it wasn’t the greatest movie ever, and maybe Mila Kunis’ huge head was distracting, but overall I found Oz to be humorous, gorgeous to look at, and with some nice hat tips to the original. A lot of critics thought James Franco mailed in his performance but I appreciated his wry take on the Wizard. I think I giggled a lot, mainly at some of the lines by the little China Girl.
Speaking of James Franco, who’s ready for Spring Breakers?! Aka possibly either the best or worst movie of the year…
by admin
March 24, 2013 in Books
I just finished reading The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh and I’m here to tell you that you should probably read it so that we can pass notes, by which I mean flowers. The writing in The Language of Flowers is strong, and Diffenbaugh’s pacing is on point, flipping back and forth as she tells the story of Victoria Jones, modern day misfit, orphan, foster child, and ne’er do well (I’m not sure if she’s a ne’er do well, but I wanted to call her that. And did. So today is quite satisfying already.)
Whether or not you take to Victoria (and most socially adjusted people won’t, at least at first), you will be entranced by how she slowly unveils the Victorian art of message through flower. Bouquets and flowers were once upon a time imparted with meaning, and the novel tells you bit by bit what those meanings were. (“Lily” was majesty, in case you were wondering.) This is a book we’ll hear much about in the coming months because it’s ties a thread between past and present. In a world that’s moving so fast, it takes a moment to stop and embrace what the world was like when people put deep thought into their interactions, their exchanges, and their romances.
Read another review of The Language of Flowers from our friend Jennifer Lyn King at Great New Books here.
The book got me thinking of other spring-y titles, so if you’re feeling oh so floral yourself consider these. Disclaimer, I haven’t screened them all, but I intend to dive into some and you might want to check them out if you’re feeling somewhat thematic, too!
-Lilly
Books:
Movies:
by admin
February 15, 2013 in Books
Hello Overachievers, how’s February going? If you’re anything like us, you’re wondering how it got to be the middle of the month already. Right?
Among our fiftyfifty.me participants, we’ve got quite a few professional creatives lurking around and when they release something awesome, we’ve gotta celebrate!
Susie Ghahremani (boygirlparty), who kindly donated her time and expertise to making all the illustrations for our new website, has just released her first book. It’s a picture book called What Will Hatch? and is available now. I saw the F&G for What Will Hatch? and it looked incredible. If you love animals, Susie’s art is irresistible, as always. Susie and author Jennifer Ward have previously on a few other books, including Love Dirt!: 52 Activities to Help You and Your Kids Discover the Wonders of Nature and their partnership obviously results in a perfect pairing.
“Jelly, jiggly. What will hatch? Wiggly, squiggly. . . tadpole.
What is more exciting than waiting for an egg to hatch? Creatures of all varieties begin inside an egg-and those eggs also come in all shapes and sizes. From a squiggly tadpole to fuzzy robin to a leathery platypus, this charming text and unique illustrations show eight different animals as they begin life. With a cut-out on each page readers will have fun guessing… what will hatch?”
If you’ve got a book — or movie — or anything coming out that might be of interest to other Overachievers, please tell us so we can share it with people! Thanks and good luck for the rest of the month!
by admin
February 5, 2013 in Podcast
We’re back with our first podcast of the season. Lilly and I discuss new beginnings and then recap our rush to finish out 2012. Come listen along (sorry for a bit of sound quality issues)! We’d love to have a guest so get at us if you have Skype and would like to podcast about your fiftyfifty.me journey! [20:00 min]
Download fiftyfiftyme Podcast Episode 001 | (Direct MP3 link)
by admin
January 30, 2013 in Books, Guest
Here’s a fantastic guest post from Stuart [ likhaavat.blogspot.co.nz | @maxqnz | fiftyfifty.me profile ]
One of the things I most enjoyed about last year’s fiftyfiftyme challenge was the opportunity to choose minors and majors. This year’s reduction in the numbers required gives us grizzled veterans of last year’s campaign the opportunity to reminisce about how much tougher we had it back in the good old days, when a major was a real major of ten, and a minor was a meaningful five, not an easy-peasy three. Clearly fiftyfiftyme, like the English language, is changing for the worse, dumbing down and catering to the lazy, unwashed masses.
That last sentence was total baloney, of course. Fiftyfiftyme is as fun and challenging as ever, and English has not changed for the worse, and is not devolving from a Golden Age of eloquence into a Neanderthal series of grunting text messages and inane tweets. Sadly, many people think otherwise, which is why I enthusiastically seized the chance to write about my books minor for last year’s challenge, in which I elected to read five books about linguistics.
I love languages and linguistics, and have done ever since reading Lord of the Rings for the first time as an impressionable seven-year old. Then, and each of the 18-20 or so other times I read that book, I spent more time devouring the linguistic appendixes than reading the story. Tolkien’s epic gave me the languages bug, and I’ve loved learning about them ever since. Last year’s fiftyfiftyme challenge provided the perfect motivation to indulge my passion by reading more widely on my favourite subject.
Books like Eats, Shoots and Leaves and Strunk & White’s The Elements of Style perpetuate the myth that fabricated personal peeves are actually ineradicable elements of English grammar. From rants against split infinitives to attempts to impose the rules of mathematics on language by insisting that “a double negative equals a positive”, through to assertions that non-standard spelling is “a grammatical error” and the promotion of the etymological fallacy by denying the simple reality of polysemy, English has plenty of peeves and peevers. It seems that some people will readily accept that everything in the Universe from galaxies to amoebas evolves, but cannot accept that language does too.
Happily there are many excellent works written by real linguists for the general public that try to address that mind-set, and set out to show that as with everything, the only constant in language is change. No language is without rules, but those rules are not arbitrarily imposed by some peevish academic obsessed with imposing artificial order on the organic chaos of language. The beautiful reality is that language is the ultimate democracy – words mean what the majority of their users decide they mean, and every language user gets to be part of the never-ending process of making up the rules as we go along.
The endless fluidity and change in language should be celebrated, not mourned or railed against, and that’s why I urge anyone looking for a non-fiction minor for this year’s fiftyfiftyme challenge to consider linguistics as a candidate. Here are five of my favourites:
by admin
January 23, 2013 in Books, Guest, Movies
This week we’re honored to be joined by Jennifer Lyn King, founder of Great New Books (www.greatnewbooks.org), a new site devoted to sharing their bloggers’ reviews – the catch? They only share the reads their reviewers love. During fiftyfifty.me it’s not uncommon to hit a wall and be unsure of what to read next – Great New Books is your solution to that, so bookmark it! Jennifer and her co-authors at Great New Books have devoted themselves to encouraging others to read. So why do we read? She tells us. – Lilly
My love for books started years ago under the giant shade tree where I read as a child. A certain magic happened the first time I read a book and could not put it down.
You know the feeling, right? You open a book with the intent of passing a bit of time, maybe in a waiting room, or while riding the subway, but somehow, word by word, you get lost inside a story and you don’t want to climb back out.
Those books are the ones where I’m living in the character’s shoes, living through their journey, learning what it is to struggle through their situations and come out on the other side a different person. They’re the ones in which I’m sad to turn the last page and read The End. They’re the books of the most dangerous kind. They stay with us.
Long after I’ve finished a book I can’t put down, the story and the character’s actions turn over in my mind. The meaning comes to find me, haunts me, and teases me until I can fully understand what the book was about.
A great book and its meaning do not let the reader go. I call those books unputdownable, if that can be a real word. To me, it is the mark of a great book, and of books I love.
A few books I read, or start and don’t finish, don’t have the great book magic. Somehow, they don’t pull me in and draw me into the world of story. You’ve surely read some. Those books are ones I’m not able to connect with, or find the deeper meanings.
The key to reading, and reading many books, is in finding the right book.
Though it takes some work to find a great book (or 50, for the year with FiftyFifty.Me), the results are worth it. Great books change us for the better.
The Top Five Reasons to Read (50) Great Books:
1: To connect with others: When we read a great book, we want to share the experience with others, to pass one on, join a book club, or share it in water cooler conversation.
“Sometimes, you read a book and it fills you with this weird evangelical zeal, and you become convinced that the shattered world will never be put back together unless and until all living humans read the book.” ― John Green, The Fault in Our Stars
2: To feel more: A great story opens our hearts to new things, and tugs at our minds to new understandings.
“For some of us, books are as important as almost anything else on earth. What a miracle it is that out of these small, flat, rigid squares of paper unfolds world after world after world, worlds that sing to you, comfort and quiet or excite you. Books help us understand who we are and how we are to behave. They show us what community and friendship mean; they show us how to live and die.” ― Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life
3: To experience: A great book transports us to places we have never been before.
“A good book should leave you… slightly exhausted at the end. You live several lives while reading it.” – William Styron
4: To live more fully: A great book inspires us to be a better version of ourselves.
“Story, as it turns out, was crucial to our evolution—more so than opposable thumbs. Opposable thumbs let us hang on; story told us what to hang on to.” –Lisa Cron, Wired for Story
5: To become a better communicator: We more fully understand ourselves and our thoughts.
“If you don’t have time to read, you don’t have the time (or the tools) to write. Simple as that.” ― Stephen King
The trick to going deeper is in finding great books. At Great New Books, we believe words have the power to change us, and open doors to a better world. We hope you’ll check in with us on Wednesdays as our team of five shares a favorite great book each week.
Jennifer Lyn King is a writer and author who loves to read and share great books with others. She’s an American expat living in Prague with her husband and three sons, and enjoys photography, oil painting, tennis, and traveling. She is currently at work on a novel set in New Orleans and coastal Italy. Her 5 favorite books are (in no particular order) Jane Eyre, The Language of Flowers, State of Wonder, The Shell Seekers, and The House at Riverton. For more about Jennifer, visit her website and blog at http://jenniferlynking.com.
by admin
January 18, 2013 in Site
Hi all, sorry but I know some people are experiencing sign up issues. The way the system should work is that you just sign in and fill out a few basic questions — not the whole profile — and then two emails should come. An activation email from a box677.bluehost address that might go to your spam folder (please check there), and one from MailChimp confirming your subscription to the email list.
We’ve had problems with the activation email not arriving, so we’ve gone ahead and streamlined it so you should get NO emails. Once you sign up, you should just be logged in and everything should work great. If you have any problems with signing up or activation, please contact us via email or Twitter @fiftyfiftyme.
Also, we turned off SweetCaptcha because we noted that on some browsers, the drag and drop was not working. So no more captchas and that makes signing up even easier!
Running list of issues seen (please comment below if we’ve missed something):
by admin
January 7, 2013 in Site
Well here we are again.
Happy New Year, everyone! As other people make resolutions to torment themselves with weight loss, saving money, being kinder to others, and other absurd shenanigans that we can’t fully support, we’re back to offer you the only New Year’s resolution you’ll want to keep!
Some of you can’t even fully read this message because your eyes are still sore from participating last year and going through December panic that put you in finals crunch mode. For new Overachievers (that’s totally what we’re calling ourselves this year), read up on the fiftyfifty.me challenge right here! We’re thrilled all of you will be joining us and we hope you’ll like what you find here.
The new and improved fiftyfifty.me site offers:
So here’s how you get started for 2013′s fiftyfifty.me challenge:
Please stay in touch with us on the site and on Twitter. Let us know what you’re starting with and how you plan to stay motivated. We often repost links to people’s reviews, so please share any posts/reviews you’re particularly proud of.
And we’re off!
by admin
January 5, 2013 in How To, Site
There’s a lot more you can put on your profile than just the basics. We didn’t want to slow down the sign up process by bogging it down with too many questions, but we did want to give everyone the chance to showcase what they’ve been reading and watching.
It’s a few simple steps to add additional information to your profile, stuff like your social media accounts and even a way to list what you’ve read/watched in 2013 so far!
Remember, you can comma separate out on each blank field. The coolest part about having updated profiles is that you can click on the name of a book or movie and then see the profiles of other Overachievers who’ve read/watched the same thing. Neato right?
If you have any suggestions for other profile questions you’d like to add, please give us a shout!
