So I watched the Memory Keeper's Daughter(a new Lifetime movie) tonight after I got home. I had been recommended the book by my grandma last summer but her buddies never gave her copy back and I forgot about it. A month back I remembered about it and put it on hold at the library. So when did I get a call about it being in? Saturday night!!
The movie was on this weekend but I DVR'd it since I was working at the hospital. I picked up the book today, but now I am wondering...do I want to read it? I already watched the movie and it was just OK. Dermot Mulroney and Gretchen Mol are now on my short list of actors who cannot act extremes of emotion. Watching her give birth and cry and him cry ......ACK!! So bad!! I am wondering... since that started out the movie on a bad note, did it prejudice me?
Anyone read it that can give me comments? I feel like I need more detail about the characters to really attach myself to the story. Was this version shortened?
Ug. What a disappointment. I wanted a good cryfest and nada.
In other good news I also picked up my hold for the DVD of The Mayor of Casterbridge BBC movie. Wheeeee! I heart Ciaran Hinds. I hope this is good for my movie and study time tomorrow. I find that BBC movies of literary classics are like Pizza. Even a bad one is still good.
In my never-ending quest to survive the writers' strike, I started renting an old Hugh Laurie series a few weeks ago from the library. It's called Jeeves and Wooster. If you enjoy him as house, this will give you an ENTIRELY different picture of him. I already knew he was a loon from watching Black Adder, but in this series his Bertie Wooster is so cute! He has rosy cheeks dang it! Who knew?
If you hear me saying " I say, I say" or "dashed bad luck" later on it's his fault.
Hmmm.....To Read or not to Read?
Monday, April 14, 2008 Posted by Erica at 11:31 PM | Labels: All Things British and Beautiful, Books, TV
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4 comments:
Like I was telling you a while back, I knew that I LOVED Oscar Wilde when I saw the BBC version of The Importance of Being Ernest and thought it was awesome, even though the whole thing was shot as if a stage production being recorded. Mmmmmm...pizza.
Oh, and I like the new layout! It is very "you." :)
What, ho!
1. Jeeves and Wooster rocks! I like the short stories even better.
2. The Mayor Casterbridge is very good, superbly acted, and well put together. But, as it is Thomas Hardy, prepare to be depressed. Not as bad as Tess of the D'Urbervilles, though.
3. Personally, I thought The Memory Keeper's Daughter stunk. I admit I'm a little prejudiced against contemporary literature (although there are some real gems out there), but I don't think that book deserved to be a bestseller. The author has an obsession with describing skin (straight out of a creative writing class, I'd say), one story (the nurse) is completely sap-filled, while the other is the two married people depressed about how bad their marriage is going, and not trying to do anything about it. They just coast, and coast, and the wife has affairs, and their son is messed up, and more bland stuff happens, and there is nothing special about the ending either.
But, as I said, I'm biased.
That's good to know Melanie. I probably won't read it then as I don't have much time before I have to return it and I have other stuff to read at night before I go to bed.
I read the Lovely Bones a while back and was all.....Ok .... interesting idea but ....I just hate reading contemporary stories that primarily focus on a miserable marriage. You must be psychic cause you gave me the exact info I need to pass on reading this.
Not that I'm against all contemporary stuff. I LOVE The Kite Runner with every fiber of my being(for the RMs out there).
Another new love of mine is The #1 Ladies Detective Agency. I can't wait for the movie. I assume that with Anthony Minghella making it, it will rock.
Glad to help! The Kite Runner was definitely one of the gems, although I didn't like his 2nd book, A Thousand Splendid Suns, nearly as much. I also really liked #1 Ladies Detective Agency, and it'll be interesting how the movie turns out!
I really don't read a lot of contemporary adult lit (juvenile is a different story), but the best I've read in the past few years besides the aforementioned:
Peace Like a River, by Leif Enger
Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, by Lisa See
The Thirteenth Tale, by Diane Setterfield.
Now George Eliot can portray a miserable marriage--extremely well. I wouldn't trust it in the hands of a contemporary author though, because all the characters do is have affairs or languish away until they finally get divorced.
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