Musing Monday: Books into Movies

Today’s MUSING MONDAYS post is about movies …

How do you react to movies made of your favourite books (or even not-so-favourite books)? Do you look forward to seeing them, or avoid them? Do you like to have read the book before seeing the movie?

I would say that most of the time, I really look forward to seeing a favorite book of mine turned into a movie. I always go into it knowing that they are definitely not going to be the same though! I also always try to read the book before seeing the movie, if I know that the movie is based on a book. Although there are a few times when I see a movie and later realize that it was based on a book and if I enjoyed the movie enough, I like to go back and read the two just to compare them.

I think that one of the most true-to-the-book movies out there is Fight Club. A lot of the lines from the movie are taken right from the book. It really transerred well from text to screen. The Harry Potter movies are overall pretty great but they really have to be taken in as a seperate entity from the books because quite a few things are changed or left out in the movies (especially the fifth one...ugh...that was the worst). A couple of movie that I'm looking forward to seeing are My Sister's Keeper (even though I'm nervous for the change of ending) and The Time Traveler's Wife. I really enjoyed both of those books. The one that I'm definitely not looking forward to seeing a movie of is The Road by Cormac McCarthy. *yawn* I think that it would make a pretty boring movie but apparently, it's being released in October.

Review: Harry Potter 5

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

by J.K. Rowling

870 pages

I was taking a nice long break from rereading the HarryPotter series in preparation for the release of the 6th movie. But, I realized that July 15th is fast approaching so I had better get on it! The Order of the Phoenix is probably my least favorite of the Potter series. Before now, I had only read it once all the way through and only made it about halfway before the movie came out (I found my bookmark still in there). I actually made it through it this time and I have to say that I enjoyed it a little more this time around, although Harry still bothered me.

Okay, if you haven't read this book/series...well do it now. I'm going to skip the summary since so many already know what it's about.

This is the first of the series where Harry is REALLY stepping into his teenage years. He's full of angst, hurt, anger and, of course, confusion about girls. I can understand some of his hurt and anger. I mean, he's not being told ANYTHING about what's going on and the Ministry along with that horrible Umbridge woman are making it nearly impossible for anyone to believe him or take him seriously. Then, Dumbledore, his beloved mentor and friend, is avoiding him like the plague. On to top it all off, he's having dreams and experiencing emotions of Voldemort's. I'm sure that's not fun but seriously Harry. Quit with the angstiness and the "You don't understand!"-s. I mean, maybe they would get it if you just TALKED about it! Jeez. Keeping it all bottled in will just make it worse, as Sirius can probably tell him since he's locked up in an old creepy house full of his family's dark, nasty stuff.

The times spend with the secret Dumbledore's Army group doing Defense Against the Dark Arts lessons are probably my favorite parts. Harry is much less angst-ridden then because he's teaching others that actually believe him and doing something that he really enjoys. Plus, all that training really comes in handy at the end. Oh and the prophecy! I love that JK Rowling came up with this. "either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives" Ahh, what a great foreshadowing for the last two books. I'm just gearing up for that epic battle that I know will take place!*

8 out of 10 stars. I really liked it once I got past the angst, plus there's a ton of important back story and foreshadowing in this one.

THEN, I watched the movie again. I hadn't seen it since it was released in theaters TWO years ago! And truthfully, I didn't remember a whole lot about it, just bits and pieces.

Since rewatching it, I remember now why I wasn't really impressed with this movie. So much was left out!!! Nothing about Ron and Hermione being Prefects, or the feud between the Weasley family and Percy, or the cleaning of the Black house, and NO QUIDDITCH! None at all!!! So you didn't get to see Ron become the goal keeper and the twins and Harry never beat up on Draco so no lifelong ban! Ridiculous. Also, they didn't put Firenze in there at all so the angry centaurs weren't 100% explained. Oh and the battle at the end wasn't the same either. I mean, they didn't show any of the students that came to help Harry get hurt and they didn't show the different rooms within the Department of Mysteries. Oh oh oh! AND, Dumbledore didn't tell Harry WHY he needs to stay at the Dursley's! Dude! That is important.

I don't really understand how they are going to work all the left out stuff from the 5th movie into the 6th. I hope that they don't keep getting further and further away from the books because that'd be really disappointing. We'll see though! Only a couple more weeks until Half Blood Prince is released!

6 out of 10 on movie #5. I think that I would like it more if I had never read the book though. too much left out!

*Take notes Stephenie Meyer! This is how epic battles are done!!!!

Review: The Road

The Road

by Cormac McCarthy

287 pages

This book was kind of creepy. Like the part in the beginning of 28 Days Later, before the infected people come out, where the guy is wandering around and there is NO ONE there and everything is deserted and just CREEPY. Yup, it's like that.

So a man and his son (young-ish...maybe 8 or 9? the age is never disclosed) are traveling through the now deserted and covered with ash remnants of America. There's little food, no government, very few people of which most are BAD, and you have no idea what happened. The whole story is just the man and his son trying to find food, shelter, and warmth while avoiding the bad people (who happen to be cannibals because ya know, cows are extinct).

I don't really have a ton to say about this book. I suppose that I kind of liked it. The writing was good (really good actually) and I felt for the man and his son because their situation was just so sad, but it was just so darn CREEPY! Maybe I feel this way because I don't think that it completely out of the realm of possibility that America may some day, with all its ego and pride, burn itself down to a bunch of empty abandoned houses and ash over everything? hmmm...maybe....either way, still just creeps me out! But, I'd probably recommend it to someone who didn't mind if a story had a very sad with a little teeny tiny glimmer of hope ending.

7 out of 10 stars. I wouldn't read it again necessarily, but it was worth the one read.

P.S. I heard that this is going to be made into a movie. BLECH. what a dumb idea! The movie would either have to make up things that weren't in the book to explain what happened to America (because in a book you can be all shrouded in mystery, but not so much in a movie) or it's just going to be a really boring, dark movie of a man and his son traveling down a road and seeing depressing, sad things.

P.P.S. Yes, I need a thesaurus to find a different word for CREEPY. ah well. That's just what it is!

Review: The Boy in the Striped Pajamas

The Boy in the Striped Pajamas

by John Boyne

216 pages

This book wasn't really what I anticipated. Okay, I'm kind of speechless about this right now so I suppose I'll start with the overview.

Bruno is a nine year old boy whose father is a Nazi officer. He is forced to move with his family from Berlin to Poland, next to a concentration camp. Bruno doesn't understand why the fence is there, who is behind it, or why. He does notice that everyone he can see beyond the fence is male and wearing the same striped pajamas. One day, Bruno goes exploring near the fence and meets another nine year old boy named Schmuel. They become friends and begin meeting every day at the fence to talk to one another. Bruno can never quite understand why his new friend has to be separated from him by a fence, why he's so thin and pale, and why they can't play together.

This book was just sad and oh-so-frustrating. How did Bruno not understand what was going on?? How could he not know that these people were behind the fence because they were Jewish? I mean, you would think that he would have been explained these things by his father, since his father was a Nazi officer. Although, there's argument to be made that Bruno and his sister weren't allowed to hear about it because of their mother since neither one of them were part of the Hitler Youth... AND THE ENDING! Oh my GAWD! I never ever saw it coming. I was horrified and appalled and somewhere I think that I was sort of happy thinking that it could have really happened so maybe some Nazi officer out there was able to realize what he was doing to those people and children....

I think that one of the most frustrating parts of this book is that it's not a children's book...and it's not an adult book....but it's a little too simplistic language-wise for it to be Young Adult even...so it really just doesn't fit anywhere neatly. Which I suppose is true because the Holocaust wasn't a "neat and tidy" event, but I do think that this story could have benefited from some more mature language and style. I suppose that John Boyne was trying to write it with the innocent view of a nine year boy to make the point that not everyone, even those with parents in the thick of it, knew what was happening or why.

Overall, I liked it. It was a very moving story and I think that it could be easily added to the standard Holocaust/WWII curriculum of The Diary of Anne Frank. Although, I wouldn't be surprised one bit if this book ends up on the Frequently Banned/Challenged Book List next year. I think I may have to rent the movie...

8.5 out of 10. Quick enough of a read with a good story line (and ending!) that there's no excuse not to read it. Definitely should be shared with older children interested in Holocaust history, but be around to discuss it with them. (there were even discussion questions in the back of my copy of this book)

Review: The Devil Wears Prada

The Devil Wears Prada

By Lauren Weisberger

360 pages

I think that this book is best suited to read when you are lounging in the sun by the lake/pool/beach. But, I read it for the Winter Book Challenge topic "Read a book that you've already seen the movie of." I really loved the movie The Devil Wears Prada. I thought that it was funny and touching and Meryl Streep and Anne Hathaway are great, so when I saw this at the library sale for a quarter, I picked it up!

The book starts out pretty similar to the movie. Andrea "Andy" Sachs is hired as a junior assistant for the editor of Runway magazine, Miranda Priestly. Miranda is an insanely powerful woman in the fashion industry and is not the easiest woman to work for, to put it lightly. Andy is hoping that her year of servitude to a demanding and bitchy Miranda will help her to be placed in a position as a writer for The New Yorker. As she gets her life more and more taken over by Miranda's "needs", Andy begins losing her friends, family, and self along the way. Finally, Andy has to make a decision between her career and her friends and moral values when something happens to her best friend while she is in Paris with Miranda. Does she stay and lose her friend? Or does she go and lose her job and future opportunity?

SPOILERS: The main difference between the book and the movie is that in the book, Miranda never has a real human moment. There's one short conversation with Andy where she tells her that she's not doing a terrible job and says that she may get a referral from her for The New Yorker, but that's it. She's really just a mean, nasty person. In the movie, Meryl Streep's Miranda is trying to be unseated from her editor position and is having marital problems so you begin to sympathize with her (as does Andy). Movie Andy quits her job solely because Miranda tells her that Andy is just like her when she was younger. Book Andy quits because not only did Miranda say that Andy was like her, but also her best friend was in a car accident (due to her downward spiral into alcoholism) and is in a coma back home and when Andy tells Miranda that she is going to stay in Paris despite her friend being in the hospital and Miranda approves, Andy gives her a hearty "F*$& you!" and storms off to return to her family and friends.

It seems like the movie just tries to make everything less controversial than the book. No alcoholic best friend, no mean but with a good heart boss, and no huge moral dilemma facing main character. It's tough to like a movie, then read the book and see how much more the movie could have been because I'm starting to feel that I didn't like the movie as much as I thought. I think that the movie people could have hit on some much tougher issues (like alcoholism and making the right choices) than it did now that I've read the book. But oh well, just another case of "book better than the movie" syndrome! Luckily I got to enjoy the movie first this time!

8 out of 10 stars for the book. Would be a great, light summer read.

Teaser Tuesdays: The Devil Wears Prada

Teaser Tuesdays is hosted by MizB.


TEASER TUESDAYS asks you to:

• Grab your current read.
• Let the book fall open to a random page.
• Share with us two (2) “teaser” sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
• You also need to share the title of the book that you’re getting your “teaser” from … that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you’ve given!
• Please avoid spoilers!

My Teaser:

My head pounded to the tempo of her voice, and it seemed that not matter what I did or how I responded, I was sentenced to forever listening to her talk about bikini waxes. It may have been better to have her scream at me about interrupting Miranda's dinner.
From The Devil Wears Prada p. 115

This is a fun, easy read probably best fit for a couple of afternoons on the beach...but I'm reading it for the Winter Book Challenge as a book that I haven't read before but have seen the movie. It's actually very similar to the movie!

BTT: Book into movie?

This week's Booking Through Thursday question is:

What book do you think should be made into a movie? And do you have any suggestions for the producers?

Or, What book do you think should NEVER be made into a movie?

The book that I really think should be made into a movie is Outlander. Throughout the whole thing I was sitting there going "Oh my gosh! This would be SUCH a good movie!" And, it turns out that they are making it into a movie!! I think that it's going to be great (hopefully). The Thirteenth Tale could make a good movie too, as long as it was done well. Although, all the people who had read the book would know the surprise ending. Middlesex might be good as a movie also. But, it'd be tough to do a smooth transition from the present time to the flashbacks of family history.

Of books I've read this year, The White Tiger should definitely NEVER be made into a movie. The letter format that it's written in is part of what makes the book so good, and that just couldn't be transferred to the big screen. Oh, and the book that was made into a movie that shouldn't have would be Love in the Time of Cholera. I thought that that was a really great book with a great message about love and fate, but all the internal dialog in the book was lost when it was made into a movie and it turned out just boring and awful.

I love watching movies that are based on books in general, even though the book is almost always better, if for nothing else than to just see how someone else imagined it.

Book Review: The Secret Life of Bees

The Secret Life of Bees
By Sue Monk Kidd
336 pages


I've been wanting to read this book for a long time, since before I even knew they were making it into a movie. I just never got around to it! I even had it held at one point at the library, but never got to it. Then I went to the library book sale and as I was checking out with my goods, I saw the woman collecting money sorting through a stack of books. This one was in that stack so I asked if it was going back into the "sale" piles and she said that it was one of the ones that she was taking. I just shrugged and said alright and went to pay for my books. Then she turned to me and goes "ya know what? I have a huge stack of books to read yet...are you going to be coming back next month?" Um, YES! I love rummaging through piles and piles of books. "Alright," she says, "I'll put my name on a post it in this one and you take it tonight and just bring it back to me next month." I was kind of in shock that she would let me take her book, when I've never met her before! Who says there aren't kind, trusting people still out there in the world!? So, it was by a stanger's act of kindness that this book ended up at the top of my nightstand pile, and boy, am I happy it did!

The Secret Life of Bees is a story of a 14 year old girl whose mother died when she was young and she is living with her jerk of a father, T. Ray, and a black "stand in mother" named Rosaleen. It's 1964 in South Carolina so you can cut the racial tension with a knife. When Rosaleen heads to town (with Lily) to register to vote, she gets in a load of trouble by insulting three white men. Lily, wanting to escape her life with T. Ray, help Rosaleen, and learn more about her mother, breaks Rosaleen out of jail and heads to Tiburon, SC. This particular town was written on the back of a picture of a black Mary that had belonged to her mother.

In Tiburon, Lily and Rosaleen are taken in by the Boatwright sisters, three African American women named August, May, and June. They are beekeepers and August teaches Lily the ropes. Through it all, Lily begins to trust and love August despite the racial stigmas in place in the time and learns about her mother and who her father used to be.

The story is touching and the writing is just beautiful. I thoroughly enjoyed this one and will be looking to pick up the other novel by Sue Monk Kidd, The Mermaid Chair. Oh, and I want to see the movie now. Dakota Fanning isn't what I pictured Lily looking like (since she's described as having dark hair) but I love her and I thought that Queen Latifah would play Rosaleen but really QL is playing August and Jennifer Hudson is playing Rosaleen...not what I was picturing but it looks good!

9 out of 10 stars.

The Golden Compass

by Philip Pullman

399 pages

I can't believe that I hadn't read this book until now. Growing up, I LOVED The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe and I feel like this could be put into that genre of literature. Maybe it was just printed too late in my childhood...Regardless, I'm glad that I've read it now! I really enjoyed this book.

The story is about Lyra, an eleven year old girl who lives in a world where people's souls are in the form of daemons, or animals, that walk along side them. In childhood, your daemon can change shape at will but once you reach adulthood, your daemon settles into one particular animal form (which usually tells something about your own character, for instance servants tend to have dog daemons). Lyra is orphaned as a baby and her uncle takes her to live at Jordan College in Oxford, England. It is here where she learns about the Gobblers who are stealing children who are never seen again, and about Dust, which settles on adults whose daemons have settled into one form. One night, a woman named Mrs. Coulter comes to dinner and is given permission by the Master of Jordan College to take Lyra on as an assistant. Before Lyra leaves the Master gives her an Alethiometer, a device that when read properly tells the truth, and she is not to let Mrs. Coulter know that she has it. The alethiometer looks like a golden compass, with symbols all around the face instead of directions, hence the name of the book.

While living with Mrs. Coulter and waiting to be taken to the North, as promised, Lyra discovered that Mrs. Coulter is the head of the General Oblation Board (Gobblers) and is responsible for all the children that have been taken. She flees and is rescued by the gyptians who take her on their boat, to the North, to save the stolen children. Along the way, Lyra learns to read the alethiometer, decides to save her uncle, Lord Asriel, since he has been taken prisoner, and discovers what is happening to the stolen children. Also, she learns why the church and GOB are so afraid of Dust. Dust is the elementary particle that is Original Sin. It allows for the connection between humans and their daemon, and allows for free thought, intelligence, and wisdom. The ending of the book was particularly chilling and thought-provoking as you realized that the things that seems to be good throughout the book, very well may not be. So, in the end, Lyra must go on on her own.

Now, I had to watch the movie version in order to count 25 points towards the WBC! I was pretty excited to see this movie since I heard about all the controversy surrounding it when it first came out and, now having read it, I wanted to see how the book was going to transfer into cinema.

I thought that the first 2/3 of the movie was great. It was pretty much the same story line and time period as the book and flowed really nicely. However, as soon as Lyra set out for the North, it started to deviate a lot from the book. The whole escape plan for the children was rushed, the scene with the King of the armored bears was much shorter than it should have been, AND (most importantly!!!) they left off the ending!!!!! Yes, the end is sad and controversial, but it's KEY to the story! you can't have another movie without that part! And, you can't grasp the underlying idea of the fine line between good and evil that the author is trying to portray. This was just so dissappointing. The only redeeming qualities of the movie were that Nicole Kidman was fantastic as Mrs. Coulter, Daniel Craig always looks good (even though he should have been at the end!!), and the CGI bears were really well done.

Overall, for the book, I'll most likely read the next two in the His Dark Materials series and for the movie, I'm glad I saw it and would see the sequel (if they make it but I don't think that they are) but only to see the part left out of the end of the first movie!


book: 8 out of 10 stars
movie: 6 out of 10 stars.