Death Comes to Pemberley

I am a huge fan of P. D. James, but not so Jane Austen, but I was interested to how James did writing in the style of Austen and combining it with a mystery. The novel is about a murder that threatens to disturb the quiet, settled married life of Elizabeth Barrett and Darcy (from Pride and Prejudice). Good sister Jane is there and also the youngest sister Lydia, who married the scalawag Wickham. It was not one of James' best mysteries, but she did a good job setting it in 19th century England with appropriate language.

It is presently #4 on NY Times Hard Cover Fiction bestseller list

Water For Elephants

I read two other books by Sara Gruen before I read Water for Elephants.  I was originally skeptical of the book because of the circus setting, but it's really not at all about the circus.  She has a knack for writing emotional dramas that pull you in and make you care about the characters, despite or because of their flaws.  It's basically a love story, but I couldn't really decide if it had a happy ending or not - the whole book has sort of a sad feel to it, even though the boy and girl do get together.

Currently #20 on the New York Times "Combined Print and E-Book Fiction" Bestseller list.

Hunger Games

I heard about this book at the National Book Festival in DC two years ago.  The third book in the series, Mockingjay, had just been released, and the author, Suzanne Collins, was a speaker at the event.  The description of her motivation for writing the book was pretty interesting - she said that September 11 defines the life of kids this day and that she tried to write a story of war from a kid's perspective.

There's a lot of trauma in these books.  I find it hard to believe it's appropriate for pre-teens, the books' target audience.  Of course, I watched Disney movies almost exclusively through high school.  :) 

I'm going to reread the books before the movie for the first book comes out in March.  I am curious to see how the movie script handles the political and social message of the books while portraying the action central to the games.

Hunger Games is currently the #1 bestselling Children's Series Book on the New York Times Bestseller List!

February Book Club

Thanks for a great discussion of books on the blog and at our meeting!  There are many, many more books that have been made into movies than I ever knew.  We chose our theme for February and we should get just as much variety out of our selections this month as well!

This month's theme:  Books on the New York Times Bestseller List

Have fun reading!

One For the Money

For fans of Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum series, I think the movie will be a huge disappointment.  It was soooo poorly cast.  I could not get over the fact that my mental image of the characters (through eighteen books now!) did not match in any way, shape, or form, the actors they chose for the movie.  I don't think I'm alone in this either.  The movie itself was cute, but I don't know how it would seem to those who hadn't read the books.  I'm hesitant to think anyone who hadn't read the series would be interested in seeing the movie.  They changed the storyline a little bit, but not outrageously.  The chemistry between Stephanie (Katherine Heigl) and Ranger and Morelli (actors I don't really know) was minimal.  It was just uncomfortable and weird.  In any case, I don't recommend the movie, but the books are amusing and fun!

Chronicles of Narnia

I actually really like the new movies.  Prince Caspian was a bit farfetched with Caspian being at least a teenager in the most recent movie and definitely younger in the book, but I liked some of the changes they made to Voyage of the Dawn Treader and they were quite faithful to the book in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.  They are, of course, much better produced than the original BBC mini series, but the big stuffed lion they used for Aslan in the TV version will always hold a special place in my heart.  :) 

Edmund has always been my favorite, even with the whole betrayal thing in the first book.  He grows up so much by the second book!  Peter is too self-righteous for me and Susan is too holier than thou.  I didn't realize when I first read the series that the Magician's Nephew was sort of tangential to the storyline.  I reread all the books before the new movies came out and they were much simpler that I remember them being.  I didn't read too much into the religious aspect - the Aslan/Jesus connection is fairly obvious, but I think I need to study more about Christianity to get all the details.

Princess Bride

Classic!!!  My brother and I could quote most of this movie.  I read the book way after falling in love with the movie.  It was OK.  I liked learning more about the background of Fezzik and Inigo, but for an adventure story, the writing was pretty blah.  I found the ending quite surprising - the version of the book I have has an excerpt from the unfinished sequel, Buttercup's Baby.  But the movie really brought the book to life.  Still love it!