I am a Genius of Unspeakable Evil and I want to be your Class President

I Am a Genius of Unspeakable Evil and I Want to be Your Class President – Josh Lieb
Evan’s ESS = 8 out of 10
Erin’s ESS = out of 10
Content = PG – 13 (Mild Language, Mild Violence, Bullying, Name Calling, Evil Schemes)

“It’s simply the most adorable thing ever: My mother has joined a gang.”

“Sunrises and sunsets are real jerks about putting things in perspective.”


Why: The title alone should inspire you to check this one out. The actual content, well....

Actually, we really enjoyed I Am a Genius of Unspeakable Evil and I Want to be Your Class President, however, more than once we wondered what in the world we were reading. The rest of the time we were laughing wildly. Seriously, the narrator is a middle school boy, who happens to be the world’s premier mastermind bent on world domination. Oh, and little Oliver Watson doesn’t want anyone to know that he’s a genius or that he’s actually the 3rd richest person in the world. He LOVES grilled cheese sandwiches and he has a knack for bribing high ranking officials with a rare Boba Fett action figure. Oliver also takes time away from his busy schedule to run for class office.

We hesitate to brand I Am a Genius of Unspeakable Evil and I Want to be Your Class President as a mindless read, because there are several profound thoughts within the text, yet don’t be expected to feel “changed”. Maybe a little dirty... The novel wins several style points for its originality, although, at times, we were put off by the mean spiritedness of the main character. Despite his confident narrative, Oliver has some pretty significant daddy issues he must wrestle with.

Still, the novel hit its mark with us and caused a few untimely public outbursts of laughter. The title really does summarize the book quite well. As for Oliver’s success in the world of cutthroat middle school politics... you’ll have to read the book to find out.

Top 10 Books That Should Be Movies

Question: Top 10 Books that should be movies.

Answer: There are several movies that we desperately wish could be remade, but we’ll save that EXTENSIVE list for a later date *cough* Dune...  What you’ll find below are the movies that still haven’t had their shot at the big screen (assuming we didn’t overlook something in our research).

1. The Shadow of the Wind – There are more reasons than just witnessing the Cemetery of Forgotten Books – suspense, love, action, betrayal, pyromania.  We could literally go on for hours. 
2. The Hobbit – Yes, we know there have been several small scale interpretations of this novel, but we don’t consider the movie version of this epic novel complete until Peter Jackson does what he did with Lord of the Rings.  Hopefully, we won’t have to wait much longer.
3. The Eyre Affair – While this could turn out to be the most disorienting and disconnected movie of all time, we still want to see Thursday Next, the Prose Portal, and a few SpecOps-12 agents come alive on the big screen. 
4. Artemis Fowl – The LEPrecon population is woefully underrepresented in Hollywood.  This novel would make a great olive branch.
5. Bag of Bones – Thanks to Top 10 Tuesday, the vast research wing here at Two Bibliomaniacs has unearthed that this novel will soon become a 2011 mini-series!!!  We don’t have many details, but this is cause for celebration nonetheless (We really should give this department a raise)!
6. Napoleon’s Pyramids – The ultimate cross between James Bond and Sherlock Holmes (with a pinch of Dirk Pitt sprinkled on top). 
7. Dragon Rider – Every other book with a Dragon has been made into a movie.  We want to add this one to the list.
8. Life of Pi – What could be more enthralling than a man and a tiger marooned on a lifeboat together for a ridiculously long time?  We’re very interested to see what the movie people will do with this... coming in 2012
9. Ender’s Game – This movie is long overdue.  The movie people should also have the technology to do it right!  Coming in 2013
10. The Historian- Dracula at his finest with a love story and some digging and uncovering of the past – much like The DaVinci Code.

Have a great week and head on over to The Broke and the Bookish to join the fun!

Book Blogging Videos (Best Books Debate)

We’re baaaaack!!!!


As we described last week, the rules are eerily simple: Participants should substitute one written book review every other week with a video review. Any genre is acceptable and frankly, as long as the video is related to bookish topics, we want to see it (reading off camera while your cat sits on the couch IS acceptable)!


We took a slight detour this week and instead of an official book review, we decided to debate our favorite books of all time.  Fortunately, no one’s feelings were here (too bad), although there was some off camera drama involving a really bad British accent... Just watch the clip!

Please enter the link to your Vlog in the below linky so we can visit your masterpiece!!!

David Copperfield

David Copperfield – Charles Dickens

Evan’s ESS = 9 out of 10

Erin’s ESS = 9 out of 10

Content = PG (Adult Content, Mild Violence, Mild Violence, Hardship, Redheaded Villainy)

Why: For us it was so amazing to read about David Copperfield’s life.  Personally, we’re not that into magic, but as it turns out, the famous American illuminist had quite an extraordinary past.  Our only problem is that the text isn’t too clear on when his love for magic actually began and there’s not much about his marriage and subsequent divorce with Claudia Schiffer???

Fine, we’ll be done with this lame and overplayed joke, although by now you should have come to expect (and adore) our cheap juvenile humor.  In truth, David Copperfield is a story about a boy who is repeatedly placed in tragic situations.  His youth is filled with grief, abandonment, and physical violence, yet David perseveres.  There are bright spots along the way in the form of several friendships, and one loyal and dear house servant.  Even as the main character’s prospects improve, hardship is never too far away.  In the end, David must wrestle with love, betrayal, revenge and loyalty all of which will define him as a man.

For us, we constantly go back and forth between Great Expectations and David Copperfield as Dickens greatest novel.  Yesterday it was Great Expectations, but the more we reflect on the latter, the more impressive David Copperfield stands in our mind.  The narrative is delightfully complex and the characters are as real as any we’ve encountered in classical literature.  The cast understands how to stir emotions and can be both infuriating and enduring.  Some of our favorite characters include Agnes Wickfield, Mr. Dick, and Dora Spenlow (and her dog Jib).  Divulging our list of most loathsome characters would cause PPR (premature plot reveal).  Here’s a hint, though.  If someone has to keep telling you how “umble” he is, chances are he’s JUST the opposite. 

The novel also contains a couple great “what goes around comes around” scenes.  In many cases revenge comes in the form of perseverance, yet in a few deliciously rewarding scenes retribution comes in the form of a cold slap to the face (literally and figuratively).  The figurative example comes from one of David’s relatives, while the literal example comes from the main character himself.  The novel is truly coming of age fiction at its best and as of this day forth, Two Bibliomaniacs can proclaim, in accordance with Leo Tolstoy, that David Copperfield is Dickens’s greatest novel.

Shutter Island

Shutter Island – Dennis Lehane

Evan’s ESS = 9.5 out of 10

Erin’s ESS = out of 10

Content = R (Language, Violence, Language, Eerie Settings)

Why:  Shutter Island will absolutely make you shutter (in a good way). 

The book opens as US Marshal, Teddy Daniels, arrives via ferry boat at a hospital for the criminally insane.  His assignment is to investigate the mysterious disappearance of an inmate on the island.  Seems pretty straightforward, right?  Wrong.  Almost at once Teddy realizes something is terribly amiss on the creepy and harsh island.  No one can be trusted and in the end, the web of deceit is arguably more preferable than the truth. 

As a rule, psychological thrillers aren’t really our favorite genre, but Shutter Island knocked our socks off (and turned them a little yellow).  The novel is fast paced and veiled in lies and half truths.  It’s impossible to know who to trust and even more difficult to predict the ending – we tried multiple times and failed.  Teddy Daniels is an incredibly complex character and extremely well written.  In fact, all the characters received our Two Bibliomaniacs stamp of approval for realness.  Additionally, the setting is epic-scary and enough to give any reader nightmares for a week to ten days.

We should also mention that our primary motivation for reading this novel was to allow the viewing of the movie.  (We maintain a very strict book before movie policy in our family).  We are very happy to report that the movie also scored high on our Likeability Scale.  Probably an 8 out of 10 or a 4 out of 5 depending out your preferred rating methodology.  While it was a little difficult to actually watch the pivotal lake scene from the book, overall the screen play was faithful and the suspense was maintained throughout.  

For us, its full speed ahead to Mystic River... as soon our library copy becomes available.  Hopefully Lehane will deliver for us again! 

2011 Reading Challenge Update - March

All things considering March was a very strong bookish month.  We (Evan) completed 9 total books bringing our (Evan’s) 2011 total to 32.  We’re also happy to report that Two Bibliomaniacs now has a brand new MP3 player to help with our audio listening needs.  Finally, we’re nearly through season 3 of Lost, which, from an episode count, means we’re over half way finished.  While captivating, this series has had a measureable impact on our reading levels...  By mid April we fully expect to be rereleased back into the literary world (baring any new addictive television shows, of course).     

Here are the reviews that we posted in March that fit into our 2011 Challenges.

Murder on the Orient Express – Agatha Christie

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo – Stieg Larsson

The Hunger Games – Suzanne Collins

Here’s an update on our 2011 Challenge.  All the gory details can be found HERE.

Gothic Reading Challenge – 2/8

Back to the Classics – 6/8

What’s in a Name Challenge – 2/6

2nds Challenge – 9/20

100+ Reading Challenge – 32/100

Our TBR list for April is filled with all kinds of good stuff.  Titus Groan, The Haunting of Hill House, The Drawing of the Three, and The Well of Lost Plots.  How did everyone else do in their March reading endeavors?  Send us a link so we can check out your progress!

Blog Hop and Follow Friday - April 1st

Thanks to Crazy-For-Books and Parajunkee’s View for hosting these fun events. On to the questions!

Blog Hop – Since today is April’s Fool’s Day in the USA, what is the best prank you have ever played on someone or that someone has played on you?

I know we’re going to lose some street cred on this one, but our practical joke résumé isn’t that impressive.  Inversely, our remarkable cleverness and sense of awareness has prevented us from being an April’s Fool’s Day victim... okay, maybe we've just been lucky!

Follow Friday – What is the book that you really don’t want to admit to loving?

Up to this point, a book has not come across our desk that we’re ashamed of loving.  We (Evan) have taken some heat for including Gone with the Wind on our (his) Top 25 list, but we refuse to apologize for awesomeness!!!

Also, don’t forget to check out our first ever (critically acclaimed) video review!!!  The Other Boleyn Girl.