Why did they change the book to make the movie?

Flavorwire did a great article on some authors feel about the movie adaptations of their books.  My personal favorite is:

Richard Matheson on 2007′s I Am Legend, the third film adaptation to be made in his lifetime, and the third that he didn’t like:

“I don’t know why Hollywood is fascinated by my book when they never care to film it as I wrote it.”
 

Love it!!!!!!

 

Movie Review: The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Charlie does not want to be popular or fashionable.  He doesn't want to be on his high school team or be even be well-liked.  All Charlie wants to do is find his place in the world - a group of people who will accept him for who he.  But when you are starting high school, that's a lot to ask for. 

Perks is one of my absolute all time favorite books, so I really wanted the movie to be everything the book was.  It exceeded all my expectations.  Actor, Logan Lerman, did amazing job bringing Charlie's fragile sense of self to life.  He was able to capture the tentativeness and the vulnerabilty of the character's every moment in a way that I have never seen even grown actors able to portray. 

Emma Watson as Sam was breathtaking.  Even though the story is told through Charlie's eyes, making Sam the perfect manic pixie dream girl, Watson's portrayal of her grounded the character.  Yes, we still had the teenager that stood in the tunnel with the wind blowing through her hair, but we also felt the weight of how Sam's past decisions were determining her choices in friends and her relationship with Charlie.

Finally, I loved the setting - Pittsburg, PA in the 1990s.  Usually, when I watch movies, they tell you the date, but Perks is supposed to be of the times.  Everything is conveyed by sight - the hair, the plaid, the angsty emo rock music, the old cordless phones and baggy clothes.  For people like me, who were there, it was like going back in time.  It was genuine.

I could go on and on about this movie - how much I loved Patrick and Paul Rudd, but I will spare you.  It's amazing and everyone should see it. 

Review: A Vision of Murder by Victoria Laurie

Abby took the month of January to relax and get settled into her new home.  Nice try!  Nothing is ever relaxing for our girl.  Her injured boyfriend needs care and she just bought a haunted home to flip.  WAIT!  WHAT?  HAUNTED!!!!!!!!!

All in day's work, right Abby?

I won't gush about Victoria Laurie's books as I usually do, because everyone knows how much I love these characters.   (See my other reviews if you feel the need to see my praise) 

What was kinda fun, was releazing that the The Ghost Hunterd series was spun off from the Abby Cooper.  Small world, right? 

Anyways, go out and get some Victoria, so she'll keep wiriting!

Review: Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell

Park wanted nothing to do with Eleanor.  She started school a month late and her clothes were strange as her curly red hair.  Unfortunately, there were no other seats on the bus, so Eleanor sat down next to Park. 

Little by little, they both begin opening up to one another.  From a tentative smile or sharing a comic book, the two begin to forge a bond that neither of them ever expected to find.

There are so many books out there where clumsy, shy, or combative teenage girls fall in love with a teenage boy who then becomes the hero that saves her, draws her out or fights back.  Then they fall in love, but Eleanor & Park is such a different tale.

Rowell has created characters who are so guarded that watching their walls slowly come down is like seeing a series of tiny miracles that only Eleanor and Park share.  She captures the wonder of a brush of his hand or touching her hair for the first time, while also conveying fragility of that feeling - how scared a teenager can be that anything could shatter that the budding romance - without the drama that can occur in a typical teen love story. 

It was as beautiful as it was heartbreaking and by the time the book ended, I was not ready to let either of them go. 

This book is highly, highly reccomended for fans of:

• The Wind Blows Backwards by Mary Downing Hahn
• The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
• Sarah Dessen

Review: NOwHOre District by Bianca Da Silva

Tigra has problems.  She followed her American boyfriend from Hungary to Los Angeles on a student visa and now he has broken up with her.  With no money and no place to stay, Tigra has one summer to devise a way to stay in the US by getting money for college tuition or finding a husband.  A man it is! 

The book started out with a solid idea - to combine a fish out of water tale (European girl alone in LA) with a coming of age story (must figure out how to get her life in order, so she can stay in the US).  It’s a good story that’s worked before, but the writing style really prevented me from relating to the character.   

The author chose to break the story in bit size installments written from Tigra’s perspective either about her opinions on life or about an incident that happened to her.  These anecdotes could have been endearing, but because Tigra is young and/or experiencing culture shock, everything seemed completely random.  Instead of getting a unique perspective on American culture from an outsider, I got a couple pages on how farting in front of someone you are dating will eventually destroy your marriage. 

Not what I the perspective I was hoping for.

Review: Bared to You by Sylvia Day.

While she misses Southern California, Eva is excited to start her new life in Manhattan.  Fresh out of college, new apartment and a advertising job all lined up.  New York couldn't be better and then she catches the eye of playboy billionaire, Gideon Cross. 

Eva does not want to be attracted to him.  Gideon triggers too many memories and emotions, that she's locked away, but Gideon won't take no for an answer....

After my 50 Shades debacle, I was really hesitant to read Bared to You, but my mood dictates what I read. So I dedcided to give this trilogy a whirl and I was pleasently surprised. 

The plot was laid out well enough that I was able to concentrate on the story and while I found Eva's trust issues a bit tedious at times, she was developed enough that I could understand her motivation - at first.  However, by the time Eva stormed out of Gideon's life for the 20th, I was getting bored with the book.  If Day could have edited out a couple of these scenes, it might have receive 4 stars rather than just 3 stars. 

Do I feel compelled to read the reast of the Crossfire trilogy?  Not particularly, but I did enjoy my time with Gideon and Eva.

An Interview with Inigo Montoya on NPR

Sigh.  I never get tired of The Princess Bride.  My copies of the book (each with a different cover) are worn out and in one case the cover even fell off.  Both the book and the movie contain some of the most treasured memories of my childhood.

So today, when I heard this interview on NPR Mandy Patinkin, aka, Inigo Montoya, I was suddenly 10 years old again reliving scenes from one of my favorite movies and I had to share it with everyone. 

Please enjoy!

PS.  Don't forget to listen to the section about Andre the Giant further down the page.  It's fabulous!!!!

Review: Bad Sisters by Rebecca Chance

Maxie and Devon have the perfect lives.  

Maxie runs a fictional version of Burberry, while her husband is a member of Parliament and they are on the verge of adopting a baby girl.  

Devon is Britain's sexier version of Martha Stewart and married to one of the top footballers in country.

Everything in their lives is picture perfect until her youngest sister Deeley arrives home from Hollywood, where she was just "dumped" by her in the closet boyfriend.  Trying to make a new a little money for her new life, Deeley gives an interview where she hints at her poor childhood and suddenly all the carefully constructed walls Devon and Maxie had erected, begin to crumble.

God bless Rebecca Chance!  Her books are always the right amount of glamour, sass and sex.  Chance encounters, hands brushing, hot kisses, all building up to perfect moment for her characters to finally...connect.  

Ladies, if you are looking for fun and sexy, this is definitely the book for you!  

PS. I should note that Chance's books are UK imports, so if you are looking for one in the city of Houston, you'll have to contact my favorite store, Murder by the Book.  You might even see me there when I pick the this Chance's latest book.  

Review: Better Read Than Dead by Victoria Laurie

For covering for her while she was recovering from injuries, Abby Cooper owes fellow psychic Kendall a big favor, so when he asks her to assist him at tarot reading for a wedding, Abby can't say no - even though it's the first night she'll see her boyfriend in 2 months.  The gig goes well until our heroine realizes that she is not just at a regular wedding - the bride is the daughter of a major crime boss, who happens to be very interested in psychics.

Now that Abby has his attention, he'll make her an offer she can't refuse.

Not only is Abby a wonderful heroine, but I love the cast of characters that she comes with - the overachiever sister, her affable handyman and the super sexy boyfriend.  Not only do they further the plot, but Abby's relationships with them add depth to her story that makes the books even more enjoyable. 

I can totally see myself devouring the rest of the books in the series and constantly rereading them as I wait for the next book.

Review: The Trinity Game by Sean Chercover

Daniel Byrne is not a typical investigator.  He is priest who investigates miracles for the Vatican and in over 700 cases Father Daniel has not certified any miracles.  And then he gets his new case.  A con artist/televangelist, named Tim Trinity seems to be predicting the future and it's Daniel's mission to prove that it's another con.  

The closer he gets to the truth, the more everything begins to unravel and Daniel realizes that he can't prove anything if he and Trinity are dead.  

This book was a great ride.  Chercover kept up the pace up by breaking each chapter into relatively short digestible chunks that some times left me curious and at other times, breathless.  

Recommended for anyone who enjoyed Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code series.  

Banned Books Week!

Hey Everyone!  It's Banned Book Week.  I plan on reading 1984.  What are you doing to celebrate? 

For more information go to http://bannedbooksweek.org/

Review: Unspoken by Sarah Rees Brennan

Everyone has grown up in Sorry-in-the-Vale, has heard the whispered legends of the revered and feared Lynburn family dynasty and even though the family left the town a generation ago, their affects on the town can still be felt.

Enter Kami Glass, a determined high school newspaper reporter, who has a secret - she's a in love with Jared, a boy she's never met, but speaks to through a telekinetic connection they share.  Imagine how she feels when finally sees him for the first time and he's a Lynburn.

I picked this up based on the entusiatic reviews seen on blogs, Amazon and Goodreads, but I must say I was very disappointed.  Everything that I saw lead me to believe that this was a well written, well crafted plot with elements of the supernatural.  What I found was a book about wandering and teenage angst. 

There is a considerable amount of time spent describing the characters walks to one spot to the next.  Our heroine Kami, spends quite a bit of the journeying through the woods, to the Lynburn Estate or Monkshood Abbey.  While the cast needed to get to these places, the book would have been just as effective if Brennan had cut some of the sections. 

And the angst.  While I love some good teenage angst (John Hughes films, The Wind Blows Backwards by Mary Downing Hahn), this seemed tedious.  When they weren't walking, Kami and Jared were trying to discern their feelings for one another as well as how to behave.  It lead to a series of frustratingly repetative sequences of tiffs followed by apologies a few pages later.  While I understood the complexities of the situation, I just got tired of cycle and it took me from a plot story and also detracted from some of the other characters, who could have been fleshed out more.

I was expecting the caliber of storytelling, I received in The Hunger Games series and Mara Dyer trilogy, and I found myself very disappointed.