Unpopular opinion time: sometimes the movie is every bit as good as the book it's based on. And sometimes it's even better.
Hopefully no book lovers' panties are getting bunched reading this, but I have to admit that sometimes movies bring something special to the table that even a great book just can't deliver. Or sometimes, a movie turns a truly lackluster book into an awesome experience.
Of course, there are tons of movies that absolutely butcher the book on which they were based, but today's post is in honor of the movies that rocked it, and might even be better than the book they're based on. Just one girl's opinion here, of course, and you are more than welcome to disagree with me, as long as no one shows up at my house with torches and pitchforks :-)
It's that time of year when we embrace the creepy, seek out the eerie, and evoke the haunted. It's one of my favorite times of year! Did you know that some of the best scary movies were inspired by books?
Here's our Top Eight Delicious Reads Fright-Night-Movies that started out as creepy books…View at your own risk!!
The Ring
I watched The Ring at a cabin very late at night and have never recovered! It still scares me to this day! Be leery if anyone tries to hand you a copy to watch… Make sure it's really just the movie!
The Silence of the Lambs
This book and movie has been scaring the skin off people for years. If you haven't entered the mind of Hannibal Lecter… this is the year to do it.
I Am Legend
Who knew that the Will Smith movie with that creepy scene where they are all huddled together was inspired from a book?
The Shining
If you loved The Shining, you may be interested to know that Stephen King released a sequel to the story in 2013. The books is called Dr. Sleep: Stephen King returns to the characters in The Shining in this riveting novel about the now middle-aged Dan Torrence and a very special twelve year old girl he must save.
I Know What You Did Last Summer
You better be careful…someone always knows what you're up to.
Interview with the Vampire
We read this book in 2010 for our Delicious Reads Halloween Selection. It was interesting to read the book and then watch the movie. This is a very different take on Vampires than the more recent Twilight.
Here are a few pics from our evening back in 2010 for this book.
I haven't seen this one yet but it definitely looks creepy! Plus it's always fun to see an actor you've loved in other movies play someone totally different.
Jaws
This movie is the bane of every swimming encounter I have. I will forever feel like a gigantic shark is lurking beneath me! Congrats! You've made it to the end of our list. That means you're brave enough to try out the actual movies. Hopefully this helps you get in the halloween mood!! Happy Haunting! Your Writerly Ranter, Brooke
The Goldfinch Book Review (Post contributed by Brooke) TITLE: The Goldfinch 2014 Pulitzer Prize Winner!!!! Congrats to Donna Tartt & Little, Brown and Company! AUTHOR: Donna Tartt PUBLISHER: Little, Brown and Company We want to give a BIG SHOUT OUT to Little, Brown and Company! They invited us to be part of their Book Club Insiders and sent us copies of The Goldfinch for our members. THANK YOU LITTLE BROWN!!! NUMBER OF PAGES: 771 YEAR PUBLISHED: 2013 GENRE: Fiction Book Summary: Thirteen-year old Theo Decker's world is turned upside down when he loses his mother in a tragic bombing at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It's during this traumatic event that he comes into possession of a highly-sought-after painting, the Goldfinch, which changes the course of his life. This epic story of loss and survival, obsession and reinvention sweeps the reader up with its vivid characters captivating suspense. Our Star Rating: 3.5
We had very split votes as far as ratings. As we discussed the reasons for this, we figured out that some people wanted to rate certain sections of the book much higher than other sections, which could be attributed to the length of the book. It seemed like the very beginning and the ending generated the highest reviews from our group.
Our Book Review: We kicked the evening off by "visiting" the Metropolitan Museum of Art (Picture Recap I), then having Goldfinch Mocktails while we all took turns masquerading as Xandra/Sandra for her driver's license photo (Picture Recap II).
The movie producer responsible for The Hunger Games, Nina Jacobson, has acquired the rights for the movie adaptation of The Goldfinch. YAY! We searched around online and pooled the actors/actresses that those in-the-know were recommending (to see the full spread of choices for each character, check out our Power Point Presentation). Since we are obviously qualified, we voted! Drumroll please…… …….. announcing …….the DELICIOUS READS PICKS for The Goldfinch Movie!
We decided that Rachel Weisz has the charming-young-mother thing down. Theo was thirteen when she would be in it, so Rachel would fit as his mother. Plus she's just so likable.
Who better to play Theo's handsome, washed-up actor dad than John Hamm? We know he's had enough practice on Mad Men with the alcohol and he can convey stress well. John- it's all you, buddy.
Xandra Terrell - Taryn Manning
(image source) After seeing Taryn Manning on the hit Nextlix series "Orange is the New Black" (as the religious crack-head Pennsatucky) we know playing Xandra wouldn't scare her off. We felt like she would be able to bring Xandra to life… XANDRA WITH AN X!
Theo to play Theo right? While he may be a little more handsome than how Theo is portrayed in the book (let's face it… Theo James is ridiculously good-looking), we felt like he would be able to infuse the stress that Theo feels throughout the book into his character. Boris - Ezra Miller
(image source) Collectively we had a hard time picking Boris. The three people the online-gurus recommended didn't match up with what was in our heads (to see the other choices, you can download our powerpoint presentation HERE). After much deliberation, we chose Ezra Miller. Of all the characters, we felt like this one had to be EXACTLY right. This spot still may be open for discussion...
We picked Jenna Malone for Pippa. We felt like she could portray both younger and older Pippa and she has that kind of understated beauty that can be toned down or ramped up. She has petite features which fits with Pippa and we felt like she could have that hauntingly-sweet-but-just-out-of-reach Pippa-ness. Kitsey Barbour - Leighton Meester
There's just no one who can do young, high society, honey-sweetness like Leighton Meester. Golden-up those locks and we'll be good to go. We love us some Gossip Girl. Hobie- Jeff Bridges
Ok, Hobie is another one we wrestled with. Of the three recommended choices we went with Jeff Bridges, but we're still not 100% sure. Later a few of us came up with some alternatives- Ian McClenllan, Donald Sutherland or Anthony Hopkins… what's your vote?
Mrs. Barbour - Gweneth Paltrow
(image source) We picked the lovely Gweneth because we felt she could really do a younger, immaculate Mrs. Barbour and then also a more fragile version of herself in the later years after she's been through everything.
We picked the handsome Pierce Brosnan to play the part of Mr. Barbour. We decided he would be able to talk for hours about the sea with Andy and he can convey that old-money ritz. He and Gweneth would portray the perfect Barbour duo.
Popper
And of course we had to have a casting call for Popchick!
Donna Tartt recently won the PULITZER PRIZE for the Goldfinch! We learned that Donna Tartt was born in Mississippi in 1963 and went to The University of Mississippi and Bennington College in Vermont. She has written for The New Yorker, Harper’s and The Oxford American. She lives with her two pugs and a Boston Terrier and divides her time between Manhattan and Virginia. She has written three books: The Secret History (1992), The Little Friend (2003) and The Goldfinch (2013). She won the WH Smith Literary Award for The Little Friend and the Pulitzer Prize for the Goldfinch. She was also just named to the Time 100, the most influential people of 2014. You can see her only AMERICAN TV INTERVIEW HERE.
We discussed the way the Goldfinch in the painting is chained up… and drew a parallel to the way Theo is essentially chained to the painting for most of the story. We thought the reason he couldn't ever let it go was because in his mind it was unalterably connected to his mother, to his affection for her and it was like as long as he kept it safe, his memory of his mother would stay in tact. It was his own personal way of honoring her.
We talked at length about the characters in the story and their relationships with Theo. Donna Tartt does an amazing job of making all the characters come alive. Several of the characters were someone's favorite- not everyone liked the same character best, which was interesting. We seemed to have a love/hate thing going on for Boris. Some of us thought he was the most interesting and enigmatic character and others were so frustrated with his choices and the mess he gets Theo into. But overall we decided our differences in opinion was the mark of a great book because Boris moved all of us to FEEL something. Right after the bombing, Theo has to pick somewhere to go and he chooses the Barbour's. We talked about how such a quick decision changed so much of his life and then we discussed how that has happened in some of our own lives- one small moment affecting everything. We discussed Theo's duplicitous relationship with Hobie and how he didn't want to let Hobie see the darker side of him. We discussed under what circumstances people do that in every day life. We discussed the black and white, or lack there-of, from Bori's point of view, between good and evil.
“Well—I
have to say I personally have never drawn such a sharp line between ‘good’ and
‘bad’ as you. For me: that line is often false. The two are never disconnected.
One can’t exist without the other. As long as I am acting out of love, I feel I
am doing best I know how. But you—wrapped up in judgment, always regretting the
past, cursing yourself, blaming yourself, asking ‘what if,’ ‘what if.’ ‘Life is
cruel.’ ‘I wish I had died instead of.’ Well—think about this. What if all your
actions and choices, good or bad, make no difference to God? What if the
pattern is pre-set? No no—hang on—this is a question worth struggling with.
What if our badness and mistakes are the very thing that set our fate and bring
us round to good? What if, for some of us, we can’t get there any other
way?” --Boris
We talked about the guilt factor after everything that happens in Amsterdam and discussed if we would be able to live with the consequences as they were laid out in the book. We brought up several stressful moments in the book and each decided what was the most stressful to us personally. We all agreed that Donna Tartt does an excellent job portraying the dire circumstances in a way that left us needing to turn those pages. The ending is sort of open-ended on several fronts and leaves the reader to ponder many questions brought on by Theo's musings. Some of us felt like the book was an "anti-epic," meaning a whole lifetime has passed but there's not much movement or growth for the character (as there would be in a true epic story), but others disagreed. They felt like once Theo was no longer "chained" to the painting, his thoughts went in a different direction, hopefully towards finally healing from what happened so long ago in the museum. In that way, the way the book ended was the only way it could end- that Theo just needed to release that albatross from around his neck in order to move on with his life. Either way, we are left with some huge questions at the end of the book, about the heart and what it wants, about life and the meaning of love, art, and reality. We had amazing discussion of The Goldfinch! Thank you again to Little, Brown & Co. for the books and thanks to everyone who had a hand in making this evening such a special event. And finally a heartfelt thank-you to Donna Tartt for creating such an amazing and fascinating read! If you missed the first two posts on our special Goldfinch evening, you can see them here: The Goldfinch Picture Recap I The Goldfinch Picture Recap Part II
It's that time of year again! School's out, vacations are planned, the days are long and everything can be done poolside! Besides our amazing 2014 Delicious Reads Line-Up there are lots books we're looking forward to reading this summer. Today I'd like to share our Top 10 Summer Reads for your reading pleasure. Let's get this party started!
Rainbow Rowell is the author of another awesome book, Eleanor and Park, which was a fantastic young adult novel. This new book, Landline, is geared to adults- it’s about and woman named Georgie and her struggling marriage to Neal. Georgie discovers a way to communicate with Neal in the past, and has to decide if she wants to fix her marriage or if it would be better if they had never been together in the first place. They depth and description of the relationship in Eleanor and Park was fantastic so I’m hoping this one is just as amazing.
I’m going to put the book blurb for this one because it’s so interesting and different:
A beautiful and distinguished family.
A private island.
A brilliant, damaged girl; a passionate, political boy.
A group of four friends—the Liars—whose friendship turns destructive.
A revolution. An accident. A secret.
Lies upon lies.
True love.
The truth.
We Were Liars is a modern, sophisticated suspense novel from National Book Award finalist and Printz Award honoree E. Lockhart.
Read it.
And if anyone asks you how it ends, just LIE.
This book promises to be one of those books that will stay with you for a long time. It’s about a social worker named Pete who helps a undernourished, almost feral eleven-year old boy in the Montana wilderness. Pete’s journey to help this boy lands him in the middle of an FBI manhunt that will make it impossible to put down.
We just read The Husband's Secret by Liane Moriarty and we loved it! Here's our Picture Recap I, Picture Recap II and Our Book Review. Liane Moriary's new book, Big Little Lies comes out July 29, 2014. Big Little Lies is the intersection of three women’s lives: Madaline, the funny, 40 year old woman who is working through the fallout from her divorce, Celeste, the beautiful mom who seems to have everything lined up perfectly and Jane, the young mother who has been mistaken for the nanny. Big Little Lies is a brilliant take on ex-husbands, second wives, mothers and daughters, schoolyard scandal, and the dangerous little lies we tell ourselves just to survive.
Everyone loves The Office right?? Well B.J. Novak, aka the actor, writer and director of The Office delivers his debut book this summer. It should be an endlessly entertaining, surprisingly sensitive, and startlingly debut collection that signals the arrival of a welcome new voice in American fiction. Across a dazzling range of subjects, themes, tones, and narrative voices, Novak’s assured prose and expansive imagination introduce readers to people, places, and premises that are hilarious, insightful, provocative, and moving-often at the same time.
Killing Ruby Rose by Jessie Humphries is about a seventeen year old vigilante with killer taste in shoes. When she ends up taking out a murderer to save his victim, she discovers she's gone from being the huntress to the hunted.
Ruby must discover who's using her to implement twisted justice before she ends up swapping Valentino red for prison orange. With a gun named Smith, a talent for martial arts, and a boyfriend with eyes to die for, Ruby is ready to face the worst. And if a girl's forced to kill, won't the guilt sit more easily in a pair of Prada peep-toe pumps?
I heard about this book at the Storymakers 2014 Writer's Conference and I was swept up by this young author's story. Fifteen-year-old Maya Van Wagenen made the brave decision to spend a year following the advice of a 1950's popularity book, Betty Cornell's Teen Age Popularity Guide. She followed it step by step and didn't tell anyone what she was doing. This memoir is her story, which has already landed a movie deal. The real-life results are painful, funny, and include a wonderful and unexpected surprise—meeting and befriending Betty Cornell herself. Told with humor and grace, Maya’s journey offers readers of all ages a thoroughly contemporary example of kindness and self-confidence.
If I Stay, by Gayle Forman is on our list because the movie adaptation is coming out in August! If you haven't read it yet now's your chance! It's about Mia, a girl who has everything: a loving family, a gorgeous, admiring boyfriend, and a bright future full of music and full of choices. In an instant, almost all of that is taken from her. Caught between life and death, between a happy past and an unknowable future, Mia spends one critical day contemplating the only decision she has left. It is the most important decision she'll ever make.
Here's the official trailer!! I can't wait to see it!
The premise of this book just sounds so interesting I have to pick it up: Paul O’Rourke is a man made of contradictions- he loves the world, but doesn’t know how to live in it. He’s a Luddite addicted to his iPhone, a dentist with a nicotine habit, a rabid Red Sox fan devastated by their victories, and an atheist not quite willing to let go of God. Then someone begins to impersonate Paul online, and he watches in horror as a website, a Facebook page, and a Twitter account are created in his name. What begins as an outrageous violation of his privacy soon becomes something more soul-frightening: the possibility that the online “Paul” might be a better version of the real thing.
This thriller sounds really exciting! Check out the blurb: Can you commit the perfect crime? Pilgrim is the codename for a man who doesn't exist. The adopted son of a wealthy American family, he once headed up a secret espionage unit for US intelligence. Before he disappeared into anonymous retirement, he wrote the definitive book on forensic criminal investigation. But that book will come back to haunt him when there's a textbook murder… because Pilgram wrote the book.
There you have it! Our Top Ten 2014 Summer Reading Suggestions! Now all you need to do is head to your nearest bookstore, jump online to order or get downloading! I hope you saw something that piqued your interest!
