Month: July 2012

Friday Movie Talk – Are some books just too long to be good movies?

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I love last week’s discussion about Tom Cruise as Jack Reacher.  There is an overwhelming dislike for this casting and I’m happy to be validated on at least one of my choices for a recast.  Several of you thought Hugh Jackman could pull it off and two of you were on board with Shemar Moore.  Any other suggestions for the perfect Jack Reacher?

Over the past week Jason and I have watched War & Peace – all 209 minutes of it.  I had planned to do a book vs. movie post about it, but even just thinking about comparing the two gave me a headache.  War and Peace by Tolstoy is a powerhouse of a book.  It takes time, reflection, some notes, and a great deal of concentration.  It’s a worthwhile endeavor and one best tackled with a friend (thanks Molly!).  The movie starring Audrey Hepburn and Henry Fonda is fine, but surely a watered down version of the novel. It was good, but not a powerhouse by any means.  Jason hasn’t read the book but he still enjoyed the movie, especially the war parts 🙂

What I’m wondering is if some books are just too long and involved to make good movies.  I checked out Pillars of the Earth the miniseries from the library and am thinking that a miniseries has a better chance of being faithful to at least the spirit of the book.   As much as I love the Outlander series by Gabaldon I can see it failing as a movie.  Same for Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts.

Any other books that are just too long or complex to make a good movie?

The Best Advice I Ever Got by Katie Couric

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The Best Advice I Ever Got: Lessons from Extraordinary LivesFinished audio 7-10-12, rating 3/5, inspirational, pub. 2011

Unabridged audio 7 1/2 hours.  Read by Katie Couric and Paul Boehmer, Hillary Huber, Mirron Willis, Adenrele Ojo, Rosalyn Landor

Katie Couric was asked to give a commencement speech a few years ago and it became the inspiration for this book of advice from well-known people from all avenues of life, the only common trait being that they are successful.  Katie tells a little bit of her life in each of the sections, but this is really about the  other 114 people who contributed their two cents.

I was inspired by the do not let fear stop you crowd – and there were many (Anna Quindlen, Helen Mirren, Maria Shriver to name a few).   There were a few stand out stories to me.  Bill Cosby’s story about his first big stand-up gig was funny and with the take home lesson to always be yourself and not be intimidated.  I am not a Suze Orman fan so I didn’t really know anything about how she came to be a financial guru and I found her story so surprising.  I had no idea that a waitress could walk into a bank and get a job as a stockbroker, essentially.  And how she kept the job was even more surprising.  Oh, and Couric could have taken out Donald Trump’s advice and I would have been okay with that. Seriously, the guy may be successful but he’s a nut.

I liked the book.  As an audio book it only half worked for me.  After a few hours the entries all started to run together and kind of ruin the importance of the whole project.  I think this would work better in print where you could pick it up and read an entry or two at a time.  Katie’s warmth came through loud and clear and the other readers were fine.  It was more the nature of the book that led to my disappointment in the audio.

I think the book would be a nice gift for graduates or anyone starting a new phase in their life.  I checked out the audio from the library.

Are you looking for a quiz?

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This is how I’m feeling about the quiz this week.  After half-heartedly working on two quizzes, I’ve decided to wait for inspiration to strike and come back next week with something fun and exciting.  Okay, at least I’ll try for something fun and exciting, but I don’t want to put too much pressure on myself.

If you take a photo of yourself making this face and post in on your blog, Twitter, or Facebook, you’ll get an automatic 100 points!  Please let me know where I can find the evidence, LOL.

UPDATE- FIzzy Jill has taken me up on the 100 point offer.  Please go take a look at her imitation pucker 🙂

If you are looking for a good word challenge I always enjoy the daily one at m-w.com. (Here)

Answers to last week’s quiz here.

We have a winner…

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I forgot to draw a winner for the Cinder audio giveaway last week, so Gage decided to help me…Wrighty wins!!  The audio will be on its way in the next few days, Debbie!  Thanks to all who entered.

Sundays with Gage – Beating the heat

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It’s been sweltering here, like most of the US, and there are only so many ways to keep your toddler entertained in air conditioning.  Last Sunday we headed to the JCC (Jewish Community Center) and took advantage of a free week at the facilities.  Lucky for us being Jewish is not a requirement and they finished an $18m renovation two years ago so the place is very nice.  Gage got to go to the pool four times and loved this fountain pool best.  We’re considering joining for the summer just so he have this much fun every weekend.

 You can’t even see half of the fountains in this photo.  A total homerun for little kids. And all free!

We also had the grandparents here this week.  A storm took out their electricity last Friday and it didn’t come on til late Wednesday, so they packed up and spent some time enjoying their grandson, air conditioning, and TV.

Hope you are all finding ways to stay cool.

Tom Cruise is Jack Reacher?

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I don’t think so!  I hate to send more negative energy Tom’s way this week, but when I saw the stills from the upcoming Jack Reacher movie I had a visceral reaction and it wasn’t good.  Jack Reacher (of Lee Child’s awesome series) is a 6’5″ vigilante killing machine.  His size and mere look are imposing.  Tom Cruise is many things, but that he ain’t.  Lee Child has said this about the choice, “Reacher’s size in the books is a metaphor for an unstoppable force, which Cruise portrays in his own way.”  Um, okay, but I don’t believe you.

Have you read the series?  How do you feel about Tom as Reacher?  If the studio wanted a big name attached they could have gone with these two perfect choices, both over 6’2″ and highly watchable…

 or

Who do you think would be the perfect Jack Reacher?

Never Tell a Lie by Hallie Ephron

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Never Tell a LieNever Tell a Lie  Finished 7-4-12, rating 3.5/5, 271 pages, pub. 2009

After several miscarriages Ivy and David Rose are finally nine months pregnant.  They hold a yard sale to clean out the house before baby Sprout arrives and a surprising customer shows up, an oft maligned girl from their high school who looks like a new woman and who is nine months pregnant as well.  When the woman disappears and no remembers seeing her leave the yard sale, David and Ivy come under police scrutiny.

Having just been pregnant two years ago I could really feel for Ivy. I completely understood the need for a yard sale and house clean/purge.  I was worried that she had to deal with so much stress and something would happen to the baby or even that the experience she’d waited so long for would be tainted by media attention and David’s lies.  This is the driving storyline that kept me reading.  I wanted to know that Ivy and baby were going to be okay.

The mystery itself, what happened to Melinda White, was solid, but could have used a few more twisty turns.  I suspected what happened from the beginning and I was right, although I had no idea the motive behind it or the extreme, crazy plot that played out in the end.  It was super fast-paced and hard to put down.

This is Hallie’s first novel.  I reviewed Hallie’s 1001 Books for Every Mood a few years ago (here) and I also interviewed her (here).  She is a lovely author and I thought of her after her sister Nora died last week.  So I picked up her book from my shelf and dug in.

Picture This Debut Novel Quiz – guessing closed

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I haven’t done one of these in a while and I hope all of the images work (if not let please let me know).  See if you can guess these classic debut novels.  I’ll even help you out by listing the authors (with a few extra thrown in – this is a quiz after all!) but I only need the title for the answer.

You have until noon Sunday to submit your answers as a comment.  Comment will be hidden until I post the answers.  No Googling!

This round will last til August.  The person with the most points will win a B&N gift card (total $ based on # of total participants, so please play) and a randomly selected participant will win a fun prize from me.

Have fun and Good Luck!  Last week’s Cinderella Quiz here.  Leaderboard and rules here.

Authors of these books (with an extra few thrown in for fun)-Eugenides, Smith, Sewell, Wells, Golding, Shelley, Tartt, Adams, Plath, Wiesel, Hosseini, Amis, Salinger, Roy, Palahniuk

1.  Night by Elie Wiesel

2. The    The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

3.  Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk

4. White Teeth by Zadie Smith

5. The   The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

6.  Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

7.   Black Beauty by Anna Sewell

8. The   The Time Machine by HG Wells

9. The  in the Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger

10. The   The Secret History by Donna Tartt

Sundays with Gage – Parties and Allergies

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This is Maddie, Gage’s first non-family babysitter and her graduation party was yesterday.  She heads to the University of Dayton in August.

I love parties.  I love to mingle.  I like to talk to everyone there.  Imagine trying to do this with a squirmy kid in tow who only wants to run wild.  And this kid cannot eat anything with dairy or peanuts.  Being only 20 months old he is likely to put anything interesting he finds on a chair, table or floor in to his mouth.  At our last graduation party I barely grabbed a m&m off the floor before he saw it.  Hard to be social when you are trying to be vigilant.

We stopped taking him to church in January because he had graduated to the next nursery (walkers) and when I dropped him off the first time there were kids walking around with their bottles of milk.  I scared the woman who signed him in by telling her that one sip of milk would mean a trip to the hospital for us and after a tense 45 minutes of a sermon I don’t remember we picked him up.  She was holding onto him, reading a book.  It really wasn’t fair to her or the other kids so we’re going to wait.  Wait for the allergy to go away.

Gage’s allergist and tummy doctor disagree on his diagnosis but both think that we should try milk again when he is two (October).  And both of them want him in the ICU hooked up to an IV overnight.  This is not something we want to do but it would be a relief to know if the allergy has gone away.  Maybe then a party would be fun again.  Someday 🙂