Thursday 18 October 2012

Coming Soon to a Theater Near You....

This fall / holiday season, Hollywood is taking the literary world by storm by adapting a number of well loved novels into feature films.  Here are some of the biggies coming to a theater near you (all plot summaries from Goodreads):

Cloud Atlas 
by David Mitchell

"A reluctant voyager crossing the Pacific in 1850; a disinherited composer blagging a precarious livelihood in between-the-wars Belgium; a high-minded journalist in Governor Reagan’s California; a vanity publisher fleeing his gangland creditors; a genetically modified “dinery server” on death-row; and Zachry, a young Pacific Islander witnessing the nightfall of science and civilisation—the narrators of Cloud Atlas hear each other’s echoes down the corridor of history, and their destinies are changed in ways great and small.

In his captivating third novel, David Mitchell erases the boundaries of language, genre and time to offer a meditation on humanity’s dangerous will to power, and where it may lead us."






Les Miserables
by Victor Hugo

"In this story of the trials of the peasant Jean Valjean--a man unjustly imprisoned, baffled by destiny, and hounded by his nemesis, the magnificently realized, ambiguously malevolent police detective Javert--Hugo achieves the sort of rare imaginative resonance that allows a work of art to transcend its genre.

 

The Great Gatsby
by F. Scott Fitzgerald

"In 1922, F. Scott Fitzgerald announced his decision to write "something new--something extraordinary and beautiful and simple and intricately patterned." That extraordinary, beautiful, intricately patterned, and above all, simple novel became The Great Gatsby, arguably Fitzgerald's finest work and certainly the book for which he is best known. A portrait of the Jazz Age in all of its decadence and excess, Gatsby captured the spirit of the author's generation and earned itself a permanent place in American mythology. Self-made, self-invented millionaire Jay Gatsby embodies some of Fitzgerald's--and his country's--most abiding obsessions: money, ambition, greed, and the promise of new beginnings. "Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgiastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that's no matter--tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther.... And one fine morning--" Gatsby's rise to glory and eventual fall from grace becomes a kind of cautionary tale about the American Dream.
It's also a love story, of sorts, the narrative of Gatsby's quixotic passion for Daisy Buchanan. The pair meet five years before the novel begins, when Daisy is a legendary young Louisville beauty and Gatsby an impoverished officer. They fall in love, but while Gatsby serves overseas, Daisy marries the brutal, bullying, but extremely rich Tom Buchanan. After the war, Gatsby devotes himself blindly to the pursuit of wealth by whatever means--and to the pursuit of Daisy, which amounts to the same thing. "Her voice is full of money," Gatsby says admiringly, in one of the novel's more famous descriptions. His millions made, Gatsby buys a mansion across Long Island Sound from Daisy's patrician East Egg address, throws lavish parties, and waits for her to appear. When she does, events unfold with all the tragic inevitability of a Greek drama, with detached, cynical neighbor Nick Carraway acting as chorus throughout. Spare, elegantly plotted, and written in crystalline prose, The Great Gatsby is as perfectly satisfying as the best kind of poem."


 
Anna Karenina
by Leo Tolstoy

"Described by William Faulkner as the best novel ever written and by Fyodor Dostoevsky as “flawless,” Anna Karenina tells of the doomed love affair between the sensuous and rebellious Anna and the dashing officer, Count Vronsky. Tragedy unfolds as Anna rejects her passionless marriage and must endure the hypocrisies of society. Set against a vast and richly textured canvas of nineteenth-century Russia, the novel's seven major characters create a dynamic imbalance, playing out the contrasts of city and country life and all the variations on love and family happiness."









 The Hobbitt
by J.R.R Tolkien

"Written for J.R.R. Tolkien’s own children, The Hobbit met with instant critical acclaim when it was first published in 1937. Now recognized as a timeless classic, this introduction to the hobbit Bilbo Baggins, the wizard Gandalf, Gollum, and the spectacular world of Middle-earth recounts of the adventures of a reluctant hero, a powerful and dangerous ring, and the cruel dragon Smaug the Magnificent."  







Life of Pi
by Yann Martel 
  
"Growing up in Pondicherry, India, Piscine Molitor Patel -- known as Pi -- has a rich life. Bookish by nature, young Pi acquires a broad knowledge of not only the great religious texts but of all literature, and has a great curiosity about how the world works. His family runs the local zoo, and he spends many of his days among goats, hippos, swans, and bears, developing his own theories about the nature of animals and how human nature conforms to it. Pi’s family life is quite happy, even though his brother picks on him and his parents aren’t quite sure how to accept his decision to simultaneously embrace and practise three religions -- Christianity, Hinduism, and Islam.

But despite the lush and nurturing variety of Pi’s world, there are broad political changes afoot in India, and when Pi is sixteen his parents decide that the family needs to escape to a better life. Choosing to move to Canada, they close the zoo, pack their belongings, and board a Japanese cargo ship called the Tsimtsum. Travelling with them are many of their animals, bound for zoos in North America. However, they have only just begun their journey when the ship sinks, taking the dreams of the Patel family down with it. Only Pi survives, cast adrift in a lifeboat with the unlikeliest of travelling companions: a zebra, an orang-utan, a hyena, and a 450-pound Royal Bengal tiger named Richard Parker.

Thus begins Pi Patel’s epic, 227-day voyage across the Pacific, and the powerful story of faith and survival at the heart of Life of Pi. Worn and scared, oscillating between hope and despair, Pi is witness to the playing out of the food chain, quite aware of his new position within it. When only the tiger is left of the seafaring menagerie, Pi realizes that his survival depends on his ability to assert his own will, and sets upon a grand and ordered scheme to keep from being Richard Parker’s next meal.

As the days pass, Pi fights both boredom and terror by throwing himself into the practical details of surviving on the open sea -- catching fish, collecting rain water, protecting himself from the sun -- all the while ensuring that the tiger is also kept alive, and knows that Pi is the key to his survival. The castaways face gruelling pain in their brushes with starvation, illness, and the storms that lash the small boat, but there is also the solace of beauty: the rainbow hues of a dorado’s death-throes, the peaceful eye of a looming whale, the shimmering blues of the ocean’s swells. Hope is fleeting, however, and despite adapting his religious practices to his daily routine, Pi feels the constant, pressing weight of despair. It is during the most hopeless and gruelling days of his voyage that Pi whittles to the core of his beliefs, casts off his own assumptions, and faces his underlying terrors head-on.
"


The Perks of Being a Wallflower
by Stephen Chbosky

"This is the story of what it's like to grow up in high school. More intimate than a diary, Charlie's letters are singular and unique, hilarious and devastating. We may not know where he lives. We may not know to whom he is writing. All we know is the world he shares. Caught between trying to live his life and trying to run from it puts him on a strange course through uncharted territory. The world of first dates and mixed tapes, family dramas and new friends. The world of sex, drugs, and The Rocky Horror Picture Show, when all one requires is that perfect song on that perfect drive to feel infinite." 





 


"But in the country death comes, uninvited, during the day."

I have recently discovered the wonderful Canadian author, Louise Penny, and I have fallen head over heels in love with the Quebec village of Small Pines where she has set her Chief Inspector Gamache series.  The setting is picturesque, the type of place you would love to visit and then possibly stay forever.  The town's people jump out from the page and make you feel as if you've know them your whole life.  They are delightfully flawed and yet still irresistible. 

I have so far read the first three books in the series and I can't wait to get my hands on the next installment.  The central crime / murder of each novel is very simple at first glance but as the story weaves around the village and the locals, the reader is treated to a plot that is not simple at all but very complex and left me guessing right up to the end.

A wonderful 'cozy' mystery series that will keep you reading past your bedtime!

Chief Inspector Gamache
1. Still Life (2005)
2. Dead Cold (2006)
     aka A Fatal Grace
3. The Cruellest Month (2007)
4. The Murder Stone (2008)
     aka A Rule Against Murder
5. The Brutal Telling (2009)
6. Bury Your Dead (2010)
7. A Trick of the Light (2011)
8. The Beautiful Mystery (2012)
The Hangman (2011)

Thursday 11 October 2012

Get Your Spook On!

In honour of Halloween, I decided to make a list of recommendations for the upcoming spooky season.  If you are looking for something scary or just plain fun, check out some of these books!

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

"After the grisly murder of his entire family, a toddler wanders into a graveyard where the ghosts and other supernatural residents agree to raise him as one of their own.

Nobody Owens, known to his friends as Bod, is a normal boy. He would be completely normal if he didn't live in a sprawling graveyard, being raised and educated by ghosts, with a solitary guardian who belongs to neither the world of the living nor of the dead. There are dangers and adventures in the graveyard for a boy. But if Bod leaves the graveyard, then he will come under attack from the man Jack—who has already killed Bod's family . . ."


A great story for both young and old by master storyteller Neil Gaiman. 

Dracula by Bram Stoker

An oldie and a goody for a reason! Written in entirely in letters and diary entries, the classic vampire story is a must read, especially for those of you who think you know all about vampires (hint: they don't sparkle)


Relic by Douglas Preston 
and Lincoln Child

This book scared the hell out of me the first time I read it and has continued to do so on my multiple rereads.  Definitely will make you nervous to go into a museum after hours!

 
The Passage by Justin Cronin
 
So scary I haven't even been able to finish it! If you want to be scared for a weekend then this is a must read! Have had so many recommendations from friends and coworkers that I know I'm going to have to tough it out and finish it.  I'll just have to make sure I leave all the lights on in the house while doing so... 


Happy Halloween!


The Happiest Place On Earth (For Book Lovers)

I was recently down in Portland visiting my sister-in-law and was able to visit one of my favourite places in the world...Powell's City of Books.  This is like Disneyland for book crazed adults with its floor to ceiling bookshelves taking up an entire city block.  Everytime I get so excited I almost need paper bag assisted breathing; it's that fantastic.  I have learned after my many visist that it is just to overwhelming to go into Powell's without some sort of plan or strategie.  The first few visits consisted of me wandering up aisle after aisle for hours on end and somehow accumulating more baskets of books then I could carry (I started sliding them down the aisles with my foot), much to my husband's chagrin as well as the already full bookcases in our homes.  This time I was smart and developed a list of specific books I wanted to look for as well as certain sections I wanted to browse.  We got out of the store after only a measly 2 hours and with only a little over $100 spent.  A personal best if I do say so myself.  Here's what I got:

The Cater Street Hangman (Book 1 of the Charlotte & Thomas Pitt Series)
The Face of a Stranger (Book 1 of the William Monk Series)
Both by Anne Perry

I had heard that both Anne Perry's Victorian mystery series were excellent not only as mysteries but as novels depicting life during the Victorian Ages, especially dealing with gender and class issues.  I have so far read The Cater Street Hangman and really enjoyed it.  This novel introduces us to Thomas Pitt and when he first meets Charlotte before they are married.  They have great chemistry as a couple and I look forward to reading about more of their adventures in later books.

Cleopatra by Stacey Schiff

Ever since this biography came out I have been wanting to read it.  It sounds so interesting and I really enjoy historical bios based on famous women.  I always seem to need more time reading non-fiction so I don't often get them out of the library since I always need more time then the alot 2-3 weeks.  I'm looking forward to this one!

Song of the North (Dalriada Trilogy, Book 3) by Jules Watson

I read the first two books in the Dalriada Trilogy (The White Mare and The Dawn Stag) some time ago and really enjoyed this series set in Roman Britain.  I had heard there was a third book but could never seem to find it anywhere.  It will be nice to be able to finish this epic story.

I Was Told There Would Be Cake By Sloane Crosley

I have been looking for a book of comedic essays that could hold a candle to the wonderful Jenn Lancaster and this was one of the authors that was recommend to me.  I've read a few essays and so far so good! Though not as laugh out loud funny as Lancaster, Crosley has a subtlety to her that I find delightfully amusing. 

The Book of Mordred by Vivian Van Velde

  A coworker recommended this to me and being a fan of Arthurian Legend, I decided to pick it up.  I'm interested in the idea that the story is from Mordred (a usual villain) point of view so we shall have to see how this one is.

Christmas Eve at Friday Harbour and Rainshadow Road by Lisa Kleypas

I have never read anything by Lisa Kleypas, however she sounds like my cup of tea.  I grabbed the first two novels in her Friday Harbour series and am looking forward to curling up with them closer to the Holiday season.

Wednesday 3 October 2012

Banned Book Week!

Banned Book Week is happening right now! It's from September 30th - October 6th so make sure you celebrate the freedom to read by reading one of the many banned books from this year or previous ones!  There is a lot if great information here as well as links to lists of the books that have been banned over the years as well as reasons why...my favorite? "The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian" is apparently racist....have they read the book / understand what it's about?

Also, here is a fantastic cartoon by the wonderful Grant Snider for your enjoyment!


“Most of the time, there is no truth, only various levels of interpretation. Fact is a construct we provide to the public.”

The Ashford Affair  by Lauren Willig I really enjoyed Lauren Willig's Pink Carnation series and thought I would give one of her stan...