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What Do Teen Choice Awards & Books Have In Common?

Books win!

How many of you caught the Teen Choice Awards last night? Now I may not be a teen, but I’m still interested on how certain movies and television shows do, particularly when they are based on novels.

So I’m here to give you the run down and save you from watching reruns of Selena Gomez accepting 5 awards. What is that all about? Oh ya, Teen Choice Awards. Did I mention they gave her an award for “choice female hottie”? Well they did!

Anyways, to more important matters, Harry Potter and Twilight. Before I get into the details, I wanted to inform you all that The Teen Choice Awards created a “choice vampire” category. Now, everyone can get recognized and given what they deserve. Oh goodie! What next, best Zombie? Anyways, that being said, Robert Pattinson’s Edward Cullen for The Twilight Saga: Eclipse won! I have one problem with this, he apparently beat out not only Nina Dobrev, Ian Somerhalder, and Paul Wesley from The Vampire Diaries, but Alexander Skarsgård’s Eric Northman from True Blood! How does that work? Oh wait, target demographics for the Teen Choice Awards verses True Blood. Clearly different audiences.

Now, there was rumored to be a big showdown between Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Parts 1 and 2 and The Twilight Saga: Eclipse, but everyone seemed to be getting awards. Taylor Lautner won for best sci-fi actor, Kellan Lutz and Ashley Greene won the scene-stealers prize. Pattinson won, as mentioned above for best vampire but also for best movie actor for Water For Elephants.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows- Part 1 claimed best sci-fi movie, but part 2 got the best of them all, Choice Summer Movie. Tom Felton won for best villain, and Daniel Radcliffe and Emma Watson won choice summer male and female stars and even the best “movie liplock” award!

I think it’s fair to say most fans were happy to see the split of awards. It’s nice to see films like Water for Elephants (a great audio book might I add) represented at the Teen Choice Awards too.

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Betty White Narrates Her Own Audio Book!

We’ve all seen this woman in action, as an actress, comedian, former game show host and now an author. Although best known as the devious Sue Ann Nivens on the classic sitcom Mary Tyler Moore, I adored her character as the ditzy and naive Rose Nylund the most on The Golden Girls.

But now, we have the opportunity to really get to know the reputable Betty White in her new memoir If You Ask Me (And of Course You Won’t) which hit shelves this past Tuesday.

We obviously can’t get enough of this woman, appearing in commercials, SNL and having fans swooning over her, like Robert Pattinson, the star from Twilight. His quote “Betty White is one of the sexiest women in America”, even appears on the back cover of her new book.

So what is it about Betty White? Well the 89-year-old shows no signs of slowing down! The seven-time Emmy award-winning actress, shares several stories about her seven-decade career and simply states, “I’m the luckiest old broad on two feet”.

The best part of her new memoir is that the audio book is actually narrated by the It-girl herself, Betty White, delivering a hilarious, slyly profound take on love, life, celebrity and everything in between. Her wit and wisdom takes center stage again, on topics we can all relate too.

So why not indulge a little and check out her audio book. Or better yet, what mom wouldn’t love Betty White’s memoir for mother’s day? It’s the perfect time to buy it for that special mother in your life and share the laughs together!

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Can the movie top the audio book?

So I finally did it. This past weekend I went out and saw the film Water for Elephants. Although I was originally a huge fan of the novel by Sara Gruen, I must say I can understand why the film was also a huge success. This pulse-pounding, heart-wrenching story truly captured the spirit of a man finding true love, fighting for it, and holding on to the memory amongst a circus. The film captured the same thing.

The film had the power to make you forget that you were sitting in a theater, and rather made you believe that you were a part of the greatest show on earth, while also witnessing the beautiful and abused menagerie, clowns, dogs, and of course the elephant, Rosie.

The big difference I felt between the novel and the film was that as a reader I felt as though Jacob Jankowski was truly telling me the story, as though he was sitting right next to me as I turned each page. However, when I was watching the film I felt like I was an audience member at the circus, getting a special access pass to go beyond the stage and witness what really goes on behind the curtains.

Both experiences are great and hope you all have the opportunity to read/listen to the novel and go check out the movie.

However, if I could do one thing differently in the film it would have been picking unfamiliar faces for the leading roles, Jacob and Marlena. Although I believe Robert Pattinson and Reese Witherspoon played their roles well, these two characters were supposed to be people who had no one to go home too, individuals who no one would be looking for or recognize. I wanted to see unknown actors pop up and take the leads, fresh faces that show up out of nowhere, like on a passing train.

If you haven’t listened to this audio book yet, I highly recommend you do. It takes you on an adventure you’ll never forget, about a young man who runs away and joins the circus during the Great Depression. What could be better than that?! If you’ve seen the film, what did you think of the film and novel?

Happy Birthday Robert Pattinson!
…I thought Edward Cullen never aged?

Sadly, the actor behind the flawless beauty of Edward Cullen does in fact age. But Simply Audiobooks would like to extend a Happy Birthday to Robert Pattinson – who today, on May 13th 2010 – has turned 24!

The world is sitting in painful anticipation as we await the theatrical release of Eclipse, coming to theaters June 30, 2010 based on the book Eclipse from the Twilight saga by Stephanie Meyer.

To view the Eclipse trailer on YouTube, click here.

Celebrate Robert Pattinson’s birthday with a perfect gift for someone else! Visit our Gift Center, or if you haven’t read the story yourself yet, get listening and rent the audiobook – or others alike from the series – today.

For He’s a Jolly-Good Fellow!

They were books.

Lately it seems like there are a lot of books being made into big budget movies, but I tend to lean toward the old adage that the book is always better. Check out some of these books-made-movies and tell us which you think is better: the book or the movie.

The Last Song, by Nicholas Sparks

The Last Song is the latest of Spark’s books to be adapted for the big screen. The book follows seventeen year old Veronica “Ronnie” Miller as she visits her estranged father and finds her first love. The book is set in North Carolina, but was changed to Georgia for the film after states campaigned for months to host production. The movie, starring Miley Cyrus (a.k.a. Hannah Montana) and Greg Kinnear, is set to hit theatres at the end of this month.

New Moon, by Stephenie Meyer

Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight series has sold more than 85 million copies, captivated teens and adults alike and has sparked Team Edward vs Team Jacob arguments the world over. The books enjoy must-have status among teenage girls, and the movie versions, starring every young Hollywood heart throb under the sun (Robert Pattinson, Taylor Lautner), are becoming their own phenomenon. New Moon was just released on DVD, and the third book in the saga, Eclipse, is set to hit theatres this June.

The Road, by Cormac McCarthy

I have to admit, I’ve never actually read a Cormac McCarthy book, BUT, I did see the movie version of The Road, and I have to say, I really liked it. I can only assume then that the book is *amazing*. It’s on my rental shelf, and I’m really looking forward to giving it a listen. This post-apocalyptic tale follows a father and son as they walk alone through a burned America, searching for food, hiding from cannibals, and trying to make the best of nothing. The movie stars Viggo Mortensen and Charlize Theron.

The Lovely Bones, by Alice Sebold

The Lovely Bones was a surprise success when it was first published in 2002. Sebold had previously written a memoir, but she was a young author and this was her first novel, and the plot and narrative device was unconventional. It ended up selling more than a million copies and remained on the New York Times bestseller list for more than a year. The movie version, released last month, was directed by Peter Jackson (of Lord of the Rings fame), and stars Mark Wahlberg.

Dear John, by Nicholas Sparks

Dear John is the story of John, an angry rebel who drops out of school and enlists in the Army because he doesn’t know what else to do with his life. Then he meets Savannah. They fall in love and want to settle down, but 9/11 changes everything. The movie, starring Channing Tatum and Amanda Seyfried hit theatres earlier this year.  Dear John follows a long list of Sparks novels that have been optioned into feature films, including The Notebook, Message in a Bottle, A Walk to Remember, and Nights in Rodanthe

The Blind Side, by Michael Lewis

The Blind Side tells the story of Michael Oher. One of thirteen children by a crack-addicted mother, Oher doesn’t know his real name, his father, or even his birthday. He is taken in by a well-off family who introduce him to love, and football, and change his life completely.  Sandra Bullock stars in the film adaptation as Leigh Anne Tuohy, the woman who takes Oher in. She won the Oscar for Best Actress for her performance.

And there’s more:

Push, by Sapphire, was made into the Oscar-winning film Precious.

Percy Jackson and The Olympians: The Lightning Thief became a movie by the same name.

Diary of a Wimpy Kid, the extremely popular kids series, just hit the big screen.