Mudbound by Hilary Jordan

I loved this book. 

Mudbound is one of those books that I dive right into, and literally CANNOT stop reading until I finish. Professional reviews of the book were mostly positive, although there was some criticism of the character development (or lack thereof) and what some perceived to be the rather basic "good v. evil" subplot involving the black and white characters. I felt that the book was pretty true to what the climate of the South was at the time, particularly the deep south - insofar as the main characters had no real righteous feelings about the indignities visited upon their black neighbors. They neither liked nor disliked each other - it was an accepted, albeit from our perspective morally wrong and reprehensible, social code. I enjoyed the book very much, and for me, it flew by. There's lots to talk about here - from the deep, almost evil character of Pappy to the plain indifference of Henry, the husband of the main narrator - to the pathos of Jamie and Ronsel - for a variety of reasons. 


The story was simple but also very complex - and so I have chosen it for one of my upcoming book discussions.

The Hunger Games Trailer

Apparently the official trailer for "The Hunger Games" came out yesterday, or this week, or something.  I watched it last night.  I have to say - it makes me want to see it.  So far it looks pretty true to the book.

Wikipedia Lets you Make Stuff Up

...from the folks who bought you the "This Shit Writes Itself" t-shirt...I bring you "I like Wikipedia 'Cuz it Lets you Make Stuff Up" t-shirt.

This would make a great giveaway.

Catching Fire and Mockingjay

I just finished Mockingjay, and I must say, I miss my friends from The Hunger Games.  That may sound weird, because it is weird...but I loved those books.  I just hope they don't totally ruin the movie version...seriously, they're already comparing it to Twilight, which, well...yeah.  I've never seen those movies.

This is the first set of books in a long, long time that I didn't go all Billy Crystal from When Harry Met Sally on...you know, how Harry reads the last page of a book to find out how it ends in case he dies before he finishes it?  Yeah, I usually do that, and I did not with any of these books, because the buildup was so worth waiting for.

Incidentally, if you're not familiar with "going all Billy Crystal" on a book...here's a clip from When Harry Met Sally, to explain it all to you:

Anyway, I'm not going to spoil it for anyone else - but the thing I loved about these books is that they kept me constantly moving - guessing, trying to keep up with the action of the story and what was going on.  I cared about the characters...I developed relationships with them.  This is what happens to me when I read books I love...I finish them, and then I'm depressed because I've become emotionally attached to the story.  It's weird, I know.

I'm really hoping Suzanne Collins writes at least one prequel to The Hunger Games, if only to explain how Panem came to be - what happened to the world to create it?  I love the detail of these books, but I also love the way she doesn't include some of that information - it's left to your imagination.  She has a real gift for storytelling.  As interested as I was to see how the Katniss/Gale/Peeta triangle would work out, what really captivated me about the books was the world in which Katniss, her family and her friends lived in - the idea of a world not too terribly different from ours, but at the same time radically different.  Collins really captures and creates a realistic world that's scary because it's really not all that different from our own, and it's a completely plausible future world, even though we have no idea how that world came to be.

And that, my friends, is a dark side.

Bossypants by Tina Fey

Hysterical. Awesome. Fun. Fast. Tina Fey is totally "da bomb".  I am so not cool for using a 20 year old descriptive...but she is.

Movies That are Better Than Their Books, part I

The other night my 8-year old daughter was lying on my bed, looking at a rather large, looming stack of books I have on a rickety old Art Deco-y chair.  (It's how I decorate) 

"Have you read all of these?" she asked.

"Most of them," I replied

"What about Gone with the Wind? That's a book, too?" (Oddly she picked the one book in the stack I've never actually finished.)

"Yeah..well, no.  I've read most of it, but I like the movie better than the book."

We went on to have a discussion about how the movie differs from the book - lots of things are left out, presumably to make the movie a) flow better and b) not be 10 hours long.  Anyway, it got me thinking about other movies I've seen that I liked better than the book.  Gone with the Wind isn't really a great example, because both the book and the movie are great...I just happen to prefer the movie, I think,  because I saw it first - when I was about my daughter's age.  It's still my favorite movie.

A few summers ago, I started library school and was doing a lot of driving from my mother's house to the University of Illinois for my 10-day Library School "Boot Camp".  At the time I was reading Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert for a book club.  Just in case you're not familiar with the story behind the book, Elizabeth Gilbert is a writer who, in her thirties, went through a devastating divorce, lost all her money, and embarked on a quest to find herself, by visiting three significant countries beginning with "I"...Italy (Eat), India (Pray), and Indonesia (Love).  I listened to the Italy part of the book, and liked it - but, try as I might, I coud not slog through the India part.  I made it through the Indonesia part, but something about the book as a whole - maybe the way it was written - just didn't work for me.  I remember thinking that it was rather self-indulgent, which, I know - was the point, and maybe it's because I am pretty close to the same age as Elizabeth Gilbert.  It just all seemed a little too contrived to me, the way her book - and her life - panned out. 

So when I heard it was being made into a movie - blarg.  Not interested.  When I heard Julia Roberts was in it - blarg.  Even less interested.  However, I knew Javierf Bardem was in it, and I love Javier Bardem, and if I could stomach him as Anton Chigurh, well, hell - I could endure Julia Roberts for two hours.

I was pleasantly surprised that this movie is much better than the book - it flows quite well, stays true to the book and manages to be entertaining.  Liz's experiences in Italy were right in line with what  they were in the book - the India section wasn't as torturous as it was in the book (really, I kept thinking this person needs to get over herself...) - you kind of get that she's really wrestling with the pain she inflicted on her ex-husband - which I don't think comes across in the book at all.  Indonesia was also great - thanks to Javier Bardem.  (He's justs great in whatever he's in, frankly.  Sigh.)  Plus, the cinematography was wonderful - I've been to Rome, and recognized a lot of the places she visited. 

One of the things I enjoyed most about the movie was the casting.  I don't dislike Julia Roberts, but it seems that she's often cast in roles that play up to her superstar status.  Here, she seemed really comfortable in the role and very natural as Liz Gilbert.  Billy Crudup plays her ex; James Franco the younger man with whom she has an affair after her marriage crumbles, Richard Jenkins plays "Richard from Texas" - a man she meets in an ashram who refers to her as "Groceries" and helps her find inner peace; and, finally, Javier Bardem as the man she meets and falls in love with in Indonesia.  All of theses casting choices were spot-on, and, most importantly, age appropriate, which made the movie even more believable/enjoyable. 

One thing does sort of bother me about both the book and the movie, and that is this - why is the key to finding oneself, for this woman at least, invariably tied in some way, shape or form to men? 

I found Eat Pray Love (the book) tedious and a little too perfectly packaged for me to believe that everything happened so serendipitously.   It translated well into a movie, I think, because really - nothing happens by happy accident.  Especially if you're in search of yourself.

Reference Fun Fact #532: Why Wikipedia is Never a Good Idea

Anyone out there seriously considering Wikipedia as a source, should pay heed to this (sorry for the crappy quality) clip from "30 Rock".