Entries tagged as ‘book-movies’
These books are AWESOME! Of course I read Twilight too but these are so much better. The best part about the Saga of Darren Shan (better known as the Cirque du Freak series) is that Shan really wrote them with pre-teen children in mind. In fact, they seem to be for pre-teen boys. I really like the voice and how Shan ever-so-surreptitiously sneaks in little vocabulary lessons just to make sure it’s a didactic experience. I also really liked Shan’s vampire mythology, and how it’s presented somewhat meta-humorously: he constantly refers to what traditional vampire lore and tells you “No, that’s not really how we vampire folk are… those are just stories” and it all kind of made me giggle.
There are twelve books in the series but I swear it didn’t feel like it. I think I read about two or three books of the series per day, depending on how much time I had to read. But yes, I bought all 12 books in the span of about a week. Yikes.
Read it! Give it to your children/siblings/cousins to read!
Categories: Uncategorized
Tagged: adventure, book-movies, fantasy, series, shan, vampires, young adult
Cormac McCarthy’s The Road has gotten a lot of press lately since Oprah recommended it and it was made into a movie – and with good reason. It is one of the best books I’ve read in a while; it’s horrifying, yes, but amazing nonetheless. There are several scenes that are so absolutely wretched that I won’t likely forget them for a very long time.
The book is about a man and a boy who are on a journey towards the ocean after an unnamed (probably natural) disaster that killed off almost all of humanity and plant-/animal-life. For some reason they believe that they’ll be saved once they get to the ocean, and the whole time you’re thinking that there probably won’t be anything there, and they probably know it too, but it’s the hope that drives them so you keep telling yourself that it’ll be perfectly all right in the end. It’s an absolutely desolate, nerve-wracking journey that leaves you feeling as desperate as the man and boy.
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Tagged: book-movies, future, horror, mccarthy, post-apocalyptic
Kevin sent me this great article in which a physicist analyzes the time travel element in The Time Traveler’s Wife.
I think time travel is one of the most intriguing and most confusing concepts in literature and film. Thinking about the grandfather paradox makes my mind all a-whirl with so many questions. I suppose that’s why it’s been a regular topic spanning virtually all genres over several centuries. This writer explains why time travel actually seems quite plausible in Time Traveler’s Wife, of all works – certainly not what one would call traditional “science fiction”. It’s really very interesting.
I highly recommend the book as well. Don’t forget: the movie comes out today, starring Rachel McAdams and Eric Bana!
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Tagged: book-movies, niffenegger, science fiction, time travel
Being the books-turned-into-movies fanatic that I am, I had to read The English Patient
by Michael Ondaatje. In case you haven’t seen the movie, it takes place in the last stages of World War II and is about a Canadian nurse staying in a deserted village in Italy caring for a critically burned mystery man. He is known only as “the English patient”. Along comes Caravaggio, an old family friend of Hana’s, who is revealed to be a thief turned spy. Then Kip enters the scene, and he is a Sikh sapper who feels unwelcome everywhere because of his race. The only Englishman whom he ever felt any connection to was killed while dismantling a German bomb.
What I found most interesting about the characters in this novel was how they all seemed to have lost their identities – not just the English patient. I suppose I can relate most to Kip though, because his identity loss stems from having left his home country and coming to the West, where he is constantly underestimated and unwelcome.
At the same time it seems as if the English patient is the only one who is surest of his own identity even if it’s lost. Perhaps because he willingly shed his identity and nationality? Anyway I can’t imagine not feeling tied to a country; especially in a case of wartime in which nationalities and solidarity of nations were at their utmost importance! I’m not sure how I feel about his actions but I also don’t feel that he was necessarily guilty of anything but adultery.
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Tagged: book-movies, england, italy, ondaatje, war
The Reader
by Bernhard Schlink is about a fifteen-year-old boy who starts having a love affair with a much older woman. She suddenly disappears, only to reappear in his life when he is a law student and sitting in on her trial for war crimes during World War II.
I haven’t seen the movie yet but I did expect the book to focus on the relationship between Hanna and Michael, but really there was a lot more to it. It’s not just romance; it was law and morality and accountability. Really just very sad and not very much to be cheerful about in the whole book but well worth the read for its philosophical aspects.
It really did make me think – is it morally just to try to achieve moral justice for someone who doesn’t want it for himself/herself? Is our sense of justice coloured when it’s someone we love who is called to question? I really feel like Michael ought to have taken a different course of action from what he did (no spoilers here!) but at the same time it still seemed morally correct. The book really presented a situation of moral ambiguity for me. I don’t know that I approve of what Michael did, in terms of justice in general, and towards Hanna. But I suppose that’s what Schlink was going for.
And of course moral ambiguity and accountability and justice definitely come into play with World War II and the Holocaust. It was surprising how Schlink barely discussed the war and what happened except in terms of the trial, and yet it became evident as I kept reading that he was actually talking about it all along.
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Tagged: book-movies, schlink, war
I am quite literally on the first page of The Reader because I got distracted with the Harry Potter series. I had read the sixth book last week to reacquaint myself with the plot before the movie comes out (July 15!!!). But then I wanted to read the seventh to round out the series. But then I picked up the first book… then the second, third, fourth, and now I’m on the fifth. I hadn’t noticed that the first through sixth books all came out before I started keeping track so they’re all finally making it onto my list. However, I’m honestly not feeling up to writing an entry on each book! Too much to talk about with people who have read the series; too many spoilers for people who haven’t read, and probably quite boring for them as well. Suffice it to say, I will still always love the series and will probably keep reading them again and again.
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Tagged: book-movies, fantasy, harry potter, rowling
I power-read My Sister’s Keeper
by Jodi Picoult last night. It’s about a thirteen-year-old girl Anna who hires a lawyer to sue her parents for medical rights to her own body. It’s a well-known fact that the reason her parents went through the trouble of genetically engineering her to be a perfect match to her older sister Kate, who was diagnosed with a rare form of leukemia. So as Anna and Kate grow up Anna has to give Kate her cord blood, platelets, bone marrow… until Kate suffers renal failure and she needs a kidney. It’s at this point that Anna begins the lawsuit.
It was yet another book that had me crying. I was surprised at how multifaceted the characters are, especially both of her parents and her lawyer.
This quote had me thinking about my dad who absolutely loves taking pictures of his seven children, and to a small extent about ex-boyfriends who have by now deleted or burned pictures of me but once thought them important enough to take in the first place. Anyway it describes exactly how I feel about pictures, and I think how my entire family feels about pictures too. Not everyone really seems to understand why we’re always taking so many pictures but I think part of it is just that: that we want to save every bit of happiness we’ve got because things change so quickly, and before you know it your older brother is getting married and having children and your little brother is graduating from elementary school. And it’s all so important to you because they’re your life.
A photo says, You were happy, and I wanted to catch that. A photo says, You were so important to me that I put down everything else to come watch.
(Locations 1943-1945)
Still excited for the movie, which comes out on Friday!
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Tagged: book-movies, picoult
I’ve already read Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
but it was before 2006 when I first started keeping track so I’m counting it now. Mainly I wanted to re-read it before the movie came out to refresh my memory and I ended up reading it all in a day. I swear I can never put down a Harry Potter book once I pick it up.
Anyway I really liked Half-Blood Prince. It seemed, more than any other book, to take time out to explain a lot of the past which was still a mystery, and I liked that. I think that’s some of my favourite parts of the series, when there are flashbacks and explanations of the past, whether it’s about Voldemort, or James and Lily, or any of the Marauders. I think my favourite part of this whole book was Slughorn. Such a well-written character! It’s like he ought to be detestable, but you can’t quite hate him because he’s just so jolly.
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Tagged: book-movies, fantasy, harry potter, rowling, series
WHAT an adventure. I just read Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson (free at Amazon) and was totally entertained. This book is basically canon for all subsequent pirate tales afterwards. I found out that he started the idea of X marks the spot! How cool!
“Literarily” speaking, it’s a bildungsroman that follows young Jim Hawkins as he meets the old pirate Billy Bones, who dies, leaving a map of Treasure Island where Captain Flint’s booty is buried. Jim Hawkins sets out to retrieve this treasure but finds out that the crew has actually been infiltrated by Captain Flint’s old crew. This has such great characters, especially Long John Silver. Really great, definitely recommended for anyone.
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Tagged: book-movies, public domain, stevenson
by her side (or more likely, in her hand). Reads anything, especially old free stuff. For more riveting information such as this, try the aptly named 
Fight Club
July 25, 2009 · Leave a Comment
I guess I’ve been reading a lot of violent books lately… I swear it’s not on purpose! Anyway I read Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk because I always loved the movie (Edward Norton love all around!)
Fight Club is about an unnamed narrator who works for a car company as the safety recall analyst. He suffers from insomnia, among other things (ennui, general hatred of his life, etc.) One day he meets Tyler Durden, who is a super charismatic soap salesman who also works crappy jobs just to terrorize the modern consumer. They start a Fight Club, which is exactly like it sounds – a group of guys meet up and fight, mainly to relieve the stresses of living in what they find a vapid, consumer-driven society.
This book is pretty important, in my opinion, because it addresses society’s obsession with labels and material possessions. I know I’m definitely victim to brand-love but I also acknowledge that it’s unhealthy to be defined by one’s possessions.
For the record, the book is surprisingly very similar to the movie. There were several scenes that felt as if the actors just used the book instead of a separate screenplay. Then again, there were also other scenes that was added or removed or just tweaked. The denouement is similar (same great plot twist) but it’s also a little changed, which I feel results in a different mood to the ending.
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Tagged: book-movies, palahniuk, social commentary