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Ender in Exile by Orson Scott Card I just finished Ender’s Game, so I’ll be reading this one soon. My son feels I should read Speaker for the Dead first, but I don’t know if I can fit both of them into the schedule right now.
Movie Adaptation of The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins I had these two movies on my wishlist at swapadvd for a full year, and I finally got them. Yay! I haven’t read The Moonstone yet, so I may hold off viewing that one until I’ve read the book, but I can’t wait to watch The Woman in White I could have gotten them at Netflix, but I prefer to own and keep classics.
I haven’t read the books yet, but I went to see Twilight today and dragged my husband and sons along. My kids were familiar with the basic story because all the girls (and a few boys) at their school are reading the series. They liked the movie but aren’t sure they’ll start reading the books. I think they were secretly hoping the movie would be awful so they could make fun of it at school. I used to be an advocate of always reading the book before seeing the movie adaptation, but that is slowly changing. Earlier this year I wanted to just enjoy the latter two Harry Potter movies just for the movies themselves so I watched The Goblet of Fire and The Order of the Phoenix before reading the books, and I was glad I did. I’ll probably be glad I did in this case as well. My thoughts on the movie without having read the book: First, I always think it’s cool when the author (or director) has a cameo. I was glad I saw Stephenie Meyer’s scene. I didn’t even know about it before hand, but of course, I knew what she looked like, so I was able to tell my kids who she was when she came on screen. I thought the acting was okay but not stellar. Some of it was shaky in spots. I did like Bella’s dad. He was great. I didn’t think James was scary enough. I thought the baseball scene was cool. Overall, I liked it, and I’m happy for Stephenie Meyer as this looks like it’ll be a successful movie series as well. I’ll be reading at least the first two books of the series, probably next year.
My theme is NYT Notable Books from 2004-2008. I may choose just the 4 books required, or I might choose 5 female authors. These are the ones I’ll choose from:
J. Kaye is the new host for the 2009 2nds Challenge, and this time it lasts all year and has 12 selections. I’m looking forward to reading a second book by many authors, and I’ll choose from the list below:
Downtown Owl by Chuck Klosterman
The residents of Owl converse and care deeply about the weather, crops, the high school sports teams, the bars, and the fact that the local movie theatre is closing down. (Check, check, check, double check.) The day doesn’t seem complete if the farmers don’t get together and talk about all these important events over coffee every day. (Triple check.) And last but not least, the English teacher is having the high school classes read 1984 in 1984. (Quadruple check.) Klosterman could have been telling this story about my own hometown in the very year of 1984 when I, too, was reading 1984 as a high school sophomore. Eerily familiar, I tell you! Oh, and the music, too. All the popular music of the day gets a mention, and that was a nice blast from the past as well. The three main characters in the book are Mitch, a high school student on the football team; Julia, a young, brand new teacher who is the new celebrity in town; and Horace, a 70ish widower whose wife died of insomnia. I really don’t want to say too much about the characters because they each have their own unique voice and slant on living in Owl that is best experienced yourself. If you want to know more about them, read the book! The book does have quite a bit of bad language in it, one scene of animal cruelty that was graphically described, and an ending I wasn’t sure if I liked or not, BUT… I will definitely be looking into Klosterman’s next novel, particularly if it contains plains people in a plains town. 2008, 288 pp. |
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