Tag: books | Amy C. Shaw

The Top 10 Books I’d Love To See As Movies/TV Shows

June 2, 2015 • 26 Comments

Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. This week’s topic is Top Ten Books I’d Love To See As Movies/TV Shows. This one was hard because I think we all have love/hate relationships with movie adaptations of our beloved books… sometimes it goes well, sometimes it doesn’t. Here are some I think I would like to see though… just please don’t ruin them! This week’s list is in no particular order…

1. The Lunar Chronicles as Animated Movies

Source

I never would have dreamed I would suggest this (I figured they couldn’t do the story justice), but once I saw the above image (+more!) from Tumblr I was sold. MAKE THIS HAPPEN.

2. The Scorpio Races as a Movie

I think The Scorpio Races could make for a really interesting movie. The book is a little slow and the movie would have to be faster, more focused on Puck’s family, training, her and Sean’s backstories, not to mention more of the island and these dangerous horses!

See my Scorpio Races dreamcast here

3. For Darkness Shows the Stars and Across A Star-Swept Sea as Movies

Source

I have a lot of love for these books, and I would REALLY like to see them as movies!

4. Code Name Verity as a Movie

Source

As long as the movie didn’t linger too much on the brutality and was more focused on the backstory and the aftermath, I think this would be a really good one to watch (though we’d all still need tissues for sure!).

5. Crime & Punishment (a good modern-day adaptation) as a Movie or YouTube Series

For my thesis project to graduate from the honors college years ago, I made a short film based on Crime and Punishment, set in modern times. While working on this project one of the things I did was watch a few film adaptations of the story, including a modern one called Crime and Punishment in Suburbia which, quite frankly, was terrible. So I would like to see a really good, modern adaptation of the story (to say my short film was “really good” would be an overstatement, ha).

The reason why I also added “or YouTube series” is because I can see this working out really well. Raskolinkov (we can rename him; I did for my project) is an ex-student with a lot of ideas, and I can see him doing YouTube videos to share these ideas. He would have to commit a crime not nearly as heinous and felonious as murder though if the audience is going to know what’s going on with him, or maybe we just watch his degradation from guilt without explanation until later. There would be interactions with his friend, his sister, Sonia… I just seeing it working if done well.

6. Finding Alice as a Movie

This story about a girl diagnosed with schizophrenia has stayed with me for years, and I think it could be a really good movie.

7. The Mistborn Books as an Epic, High-Budget TV Mini-Series

This would be amazing. I don’t think there is need for elaboration.

8. Ready Player One as a Movie

Images Found Via readyplayerone.com

I know the film rights were bought recently and I honestly believe that, if done well, I could really end up enjoying the movie more than the book.

9. The Silver Chair as a Movie

Source

I was talking with some friends recently and one of them said this supposed to be happening so I REALLY hope so! Aside from The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, this is my favorite of the Narnia books.

10. Leviathan Trilogy as Movies

I think these books adapted to film would be such a fun ride! Alternate history, steampunk, interesting creatures, and adventures all around make these books an excellent candidate for the big screen I believe!

Also check out Jessi @ A Novel Heartbeat’s recent post about upcoming YA adaptations!

What books would you like to see on the big or small screen?

Discussion: The Hero’s Arc

May 28, 2015 • 8 Comments

I was thinking about what is it that makes me “approve” of a hero’s arc, because really, that is what makes or breaks an ending for me. Do I feel the hero’s journey changed them, was worthwhile, helped them grow? I discussed this briefly in my post Plot Vs. Character?, but wanted to go more in depth with the idea of a character’s arc.

If you’ve ever read any of my book reviews on the blog, you’ve probably seen me talk about character arc. If you’ve seen me fangirl about Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, you’ve probably noticed the character arcs were a big part of that show for me. I just love to see characters go through a significant change. I may be adverse to change in my own personal life, but that’s a different story. 😉

It’s like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger, they were. And sometimes you didn’t want to know the end. Because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened? But in the end, it’s only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with you. That meant something, even if you were too small to understand why. But I think, Mr. Frodo, I do understand. I know now. Folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back, only they didn’t. They kept going. Because they were holding on to something.

This quote from The Two Towers is one of my favorites. We want the character to overcome trials. In the end, we want them to come out stronger, that’s what makes the story worthwhile.

In Star Wars, we see Luke overcome the power of the Dark Side, even though it means opposition against his father. In Harry Potter, we see Harry defeat Voldemort and usher a new era for wizards through sacrifice. In Lord of the Rings, we see Sauron defeated through two little hobbits’ tumultuous journey. These are stories I think most all of us agree are powerful.

Not every story that is told is going to be on the same epic levels as the aforementioned examples, nor do they need to be. The resolution of a story doesn’t even have to be tied up neatly where everyone and everything is happy for it to be satisfying. I just need to glean emotional satisfaction from the main character’s journey, that they are changed in the end, hopefully for the better. If not for the better, I need to feel satisfied with the reasoning of why, of what the journey was about then, instead.

I think one reason I enjoyed Jane Austen’s Emma so much is that, though the story is about romance, it’s also largely about Emma making mistakes, learning from them, and becoming a better person. It may not be a sweeping epic journey, Emma lived a pretty normal life in regency England, but she grew in the story, and there’s more to it than just her happily-ever-after.

In the movie Inception, Dom’s one goal is to get back to his family, but there are complications caused by his inability to let go of his deceased wife and what caused her tragic death. While the last image of the ending is left somewhat ambiguous (which is appropriate given the theme of dreams vs. reality), Dom has let go of his wife and is home with his children, thus completing his journey emotionally at the very least.

We get frustrated with TV series finales at times because we don’t like where the character ends up, what their absolute resolution is. I’ve discussed before how the TV show finales for Chuck and Star Trek: Enterprise really left the characters worse off than before for reasons that seemed senseless and meaningless, whereas the show Fringe resolved all the emotional aspects of the character’s journey and, even if it was logically confounding, put them back in a place where we wanted them to be and made it overall satisfying.

What about you? What makes a story’s ending satisfying, the character’s journey worth it to you?

Also check out this recent post on Publishing Crawl about writing about change.

The Top Ten Authors I Feel I Should Probably Read

May 19, 2015 • 22 Comments

Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. Today’s topic is a Freebie, so I decided to go with the top 10 authors I feel I should probably read. Some have specific books I have my eye on, some don’t, but either way, I want to read them eventually! Here are my choices, in no particular order.

1. Sarah Addison Allen, author of Garden Spells

I’ve heard good things about her fiction and I want to try to read more adult fiction, so she’s someone I think whose work I’ll have to check out.

2. L.M. Montgomery, author of Anne Of Green Gables

I had no idea how much people loved these books until I had been blogging for a while. I knew of them as a kid but I was just never interested in them (like Harry Potter… clearly my younger self didn’t know anything).

3. Ruta Sepetys, author of Between Shades of Gray

I don’t know why I’m so drawn to read Ruta Sepetys and yet haven’t yet. Too many other books! She was at a writing conference I attended last year, and though I didn’t get to hear much from her she seems really neat. And she lives in Tennessee!

4. Madeleine L’Engle, author of A Wrinkle in Time

Again, late to the game here. Actually, the book of hers I’m most interested in reading is called Walking on Water, which Annie quoted multiple times in a blog post and it really piqued my interest!

5. Shannon Hale, author of Austenland

I’ve heard good things about the Princess Academy books, and I love Jane Austen stories, so I think I’m definitely going to have to check out some Shannon Hale sometime.

6. Charlotte Bronte, author of Jane Eyre

I don’t know if I’ll like Bronte or not, but I feel I ought to at least try. After all, her biggest fan, aka Charlene, gave Star Trek a chance. 🙂

7. Susan Dennard, author of Something Strange and Deadly

I love her writing advice and get her weekly emails, so I feel like I should probably read at least one of her books (but hopefully more!).

8. Neil Gaiman, author of Stardust

He’s so prolific, so I feel ought to read something of his for sure!

9. Victoria Schawb, author of A Darker Shade of Magic

I know, I know. I fail at life.

10. Elizabeth Gaskell, author of North and South

I’ve heard some talk about North and South and after reading the synopsis I became interested in checking it out one day. Might be a hit, might be a miss, but I’ll never know unless I try!

Which authors do you feel you need to read?

Thoughts on The Deathly Hallows & the Harry Potter Series Overall

May 4, 2015 • 30 Comments

In case you are not a frequent visitor of my blog and thus unaware, I spent the latter part of last year and the early part of this year reading all the Harry Potter books and watching all the Harry Potter movies for the first time ever. I have really enjoyed my experience and am so happy that now I understand all HP references and don’t have to worry any more about spoilers!

I wanted to discuss briefly my feelings on Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, book and movies, and then give a bit of a recap on my feelings of the series overall.

On the Thursday I intended to start reading The Deathly Hallows, I got some bad news that ended up kind of working out for me. I felt pretty terrible the night before, and woke up feeling not significantly better, so I decided to go to a walk-in clinic. I ended up testing positive for strep throat and was instructed to stay home for the next two days. So while I didn’t feel so great, and would have rather been at work than not feeling good, after taking my first antibiotic and a quick nap, I was feeling well enough to start reading.

And in my time home sick, I devoured this book. A book that would have normally taken two weeks to read over my lunch breaks took me just slightly over 2 days at home (a friend of mine told me recently that he read this book in 4 hours, and I pretty much hate him for that because I don’t even know how that’s humanly possible). So while I wonder if I might have had a problem with all that camping out had I taken my time to read this book, I had no problem with it while reading it in large chunks. In fact, I really never wanted to put the book down. I was completely engaged and wanted to know exactly what was going to happen.

Truly, all the fantastic character moments in this book was what I had been waiting the whole series for. Everyone who’s read Harry Potter talks about how much they love the characters, and while reading this book I completely understood why. I don’t even know how to express in words my strong love for Hermione, Luna, and Neville now, but I think you guys understand. And I had somehow (thankfully) been spared of details of how it all went down between Harry and Voldemort, and all I can say is WOW.

And the movies? They were near flawless. Seriously, again, these were the Harry Potter movies I had been waiting for! I gave them both 4.5 stars, which considering I pretty much only give a movie 5 stars if I know it’s going to be one of my absolute faves, is pretty dang good. There were a lot less changes, and the ones they had didn’t bother me. Like that scene of Harry and Hermione dancing? LOVE. And that cute Neville and Luna thing? Oh yeah, you know the director totally shipped them (me too!).

I will voice one opinion I have that will not be popular. I still don’t really get the Snape thing. I will say, I thought I could never forgive him or find him redeemable and actually found myself doing so (but he was still a bullying jerk to Harry and it was not cool), so that’s not “the Snape thing” I’m referring to. It’s referring mostly to these famous lines…

After all this time?

Always.

When I read those words I was like, “Wait? What?” I was confused as heck. He’s just cast a Patronus and is talking to Dumbledore. This exchange made literally no sense to me. I had a hunch, and it was right, but until it was spelled-out I felt myself frustrated for reading these famous lines and not feeling whatever it was I was supposed to feel. So just that moment being over-hyped kind of made me not care for it much. And really, why does this surprise Dumbledore? It’s clear Snape isn’t Harry’s number one fan, and that his motivation to care about him at all in the first place would still be in tact otherwise he would have pulled the ripcord and gone back to Voldemort the second he had the chance.

All in all though, I was extremely satisfied with the series. The ending was pretty close to perfection. I understand all the love, it’s well deserved. Bravo, J.K., bravo.

Overall assessment…

My ranking of the books:

1. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (5 stars)

2. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (5 stars)

3. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (4.5 stars)

4. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (4.5 stars)

5. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (4.5 stars)

6. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (4 stars)

7. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (3.5 stars)

My ranking of the movies:

1. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Parts 1 and 2 (4.5 stars for both)

2. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (4 stars)

3. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (4 stars)

4. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (4 stars)

5/6. (tie) Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone/Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (I don’t remember the differences enough to choose one over the other) (3.5 stars for both)

7. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (3 stars)

And then of course, like everyone else, I have fantasized about living in Harry’s world, going to Hogwarts, and all that jazz. After I finished the book I signed up for Pottermore solely for to get my official House Sorting. I knew it was between Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff, and I had even taken an “are you a Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff quiz” shortly before and gotten Ravenclaw, but the Sorting Hat spoke and…

Source

Even before I read the series I was aware of the Hufflepuff hate, so this sorting made me a little less excited than I feel it should have. I mean, Hufflepuffs are good people. They are loyal and hardworking. For some reason people don’t like that. Cedric was a good guy. So, whateves. I’ll claim it.

Also: like half the reason why I wanted to be Ravenclaw so I could be BFF’s with Luna, which I think ironically just proves I’m probably more Hufflepuff.

What are your thoughts on The Deathly Hallows book and movies? Who are your favorite characters? Which house do you belong in?

Tag Archives: books

The Top 10 Books I’d Love To See As Movies/TV Shows

Discussion: The Hero’s Arc

Top 10 Beach Reads

The Top Ten Authors I Feel I Should Probably Read

Thoughts on The Deathly Hallows & the Harry Potter Series Overall

Tag Archives: books

Share

Share

Share

Share

Share