Tag: books | Amy C. Shaw

Catch Me If You Can: An Awesome Non-Fiction Adaptation

July 10, 2013 • 8 Comments

Awesome Adaptations is a weekly meme hosted by Picture Me Reading, focusing on the book to movie adaptations we love. This week’s topic is an Awesome Non-Fiction Adaptation.

As mentioned on yesterday’s Top Ten Tuesday, I have actually read the non-fiction account of Frank Abgnale, Catch Me If You Can. In the book he tells the story of how as a brilliant but bored young man he went from conning his dad with a gas card to how he passed himself off as a doctor, a lawyer, and a pilot.

There are differences between the two stories, obviously. The movie does dramatize and condense some events. One of the main ways the film dramatizes the true story is by giving Abagnale (played by Leonardo DiCaprio) one clear protagonist in Carl Hanratty, played by Tom Hanks. In the film, the two are engaged in a true cat and mouse hunt, that begins when Abagnale dupes Hanratty into thinking he is an agent also looking for the con artist, to their annual phone conversations on Christmas Eve. And at the end, the two actually end up learning a lot from each other. I really enjoy watching the dynamic between the two of them on the screen.

This scene is a true standout for me, so much so that every time I hear “The Christmas Song,” I can’t not think about this scene:

Though I do find the movie more enjoyable, I do appreciate the additional insight the book brings, especially in who Frank Abagnale is as a person, and what exactly was going through his mind throughout his exploitations.

He also feels remorse for what he has done in the past, especially for the people he had hurt. And as explained in both the book and the movie, Frank is now working to help stop fraud.

Catch Me If You Can is an easy and interesting read; and the movie is a fun romp with serious undertones, and I feel a standout early performance of Leonardo DiCaprio’s.

Have you seen the movie or read the book? What are your thoughts?

My Top Ten Best Movie Adaptations

July 9, 2013 • 30 Comments

There are so many movies based on books that sometimes, we might see a movie multiple times before we realize that it was actually based on a book! Usually in these cases, the movie has become something bigger than the book ever was. On the flip side, some movies have a built-in audience because of the wide popularity of the book. The Broke and The Bookish‘s Top Ten Tuesday topic this week fits in perfectly with the idea behind this blog, because it honors what I love about various forms of storytelling. My Top 10 for the week consist of the Top 5 (plus an honorable mention) Movie Adaptations where I have read the book, and the Top 5 (plus an honorable mention) Movie Adaptations where I have not read the book (but the movie makes me want to!). Here’s my list in no particular order.

Top 5 Movie Adaptations of Books I Have Actually Read

1. Pride and Prejudice

This is a case where I saw the movie first, LOVED IT, then read the book. Though I appreciate the content from the original source, I have to admit, the movie make me swoon much more! Of course, it helps to see it all play out before your eyes. And is just me, or does Mr. Darcy seriously become more attractive to us as the viewer the moment he becomes more attractive to Lizzie? How do they do that?!

2. Sherlock Holmes

I think I have read all of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, but if not, I’ve read at least a large portion of it. From my first Holmes story I was really intrigued with the character of Sherlock and his amazing skills of deduction. When I heard about the movie version with Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law, I was beyond excited. Some people seemed to doubt it would work, but I felt it would be a perfect match, and I believe it was! Though it is not a strict adaptation in terms of using one of Doyle’s stories, all the elements of a great Sherlock mystery are there for both the first and second of this Holmes franchise.

3. The Hunger Games

I started reading The Hunger Games in August 2011 after hearing a couple of recommendations for it as well as seeing hype for the upcoming movie. Since I was out of town and not constricted to my regular work schedule, I was able to fly through the first book in two days. I could barely stop reading. The same was true for the next two, even when I did have to go back to regular life schedule. I had high hopes for the movie, but I also knew a lot could change. Overall, I liked what they did with the film, though there was a little more I would have liked to have seen. However, Catching Fire looks like it is going to be completely amazing and I can hardly wait!

4. Catch Me If You Can

Despite some differences with the actual account of Frank Abagnale and his conning schemes, this movie really serves his story justice.

5. Little Women

I completely adore both the book and the movie, and feel the 1994 movie does a good job with highlighting the main elements of the novel. And hello, Christian Bale as Laurie?! What’s not to love?

Honorable Mention: The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe

I completely love the book, and I love how the Disney movie really brought the story to life. I think all the children were perfectly cast, it’s just too bad that Prince Caspian was not quite as good.

Top 5 Movie Adaptations of Books I Haven’t Read (Yet!)

1. The Prestige

I have listened to part of The Prestige the novel in audio book format, and the only reason I stopped was due to the fact that while listening from Overdrive (the app/program my library uses to borrow audio books) I was apparently streaming the book with my phone’s data and totally eating it up. I definitely intend to finish one day, as I was intrigued by both the differences and similarities between the book and movie. But regardless of the fact that I have not finished the novel, I feel like the movie does capture the spirit of the book. It is also just a fantastic film that really got me to recognize Christopher Nolan as a filmmaker.

2. Emma

Though I enjoy the Gwyneth Paltrow version, I absolutely love the more recent BBC minis-series version, starring Romola Garai and Jonny Lee Miller. And though I have not read the book yet, since there are many similarities between it and the Gwyneth version (though this one is more detailed), I feel it must be fairly true to the book.

3. Phantom of the Opera

Technically the movie is based on the musical based on the book. I have not read the book and am not sure how much the musical and movie hold true to it, but the movie is pretty close to the musical (which I saw on Broadway in New York when I was in college, scratching an item off my bucket list!). Joel Schumaker gets a lot of flack for many of his directional efforts, but Phantom is a beautiful film to watch and listen to. And it makes me more curious about the original story!

4. Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

The movie is such a fun romp, and though greatly condensed from the book, it was fortunate to have the author of the book as a screenwriter. So while I have not the book for comparison yet, I feel comfortable saying that the spirit of the movie is much the same as the book.

5. A Beautiful Mind

I first saw this movie in my high school psychology class and fell in love with it. It’s beautifully shot, and the story is powerful as well. Though I have not read the book, I know of some of the differences, especially in the portrayal of schizophrenia. Schizophrenic hallucinations are based on hearing things and if I recall correctly, even smelling things, but not so much seeing things. For film, however, this had to be adjusted. I definitely want to read the book though, as schizophrenia is a subject that has fascinated me since watching this film.

Honorable Mention: The Return of The King

All these movies are great, albeit very different from the books based on what I have been told. I find The Return of the King to be a very powerful conclusion to the franchise, even with its ridiculously long and screenwriting-rule-breaking ending.

What book-to-movie adaptations are your favorite? And have you actually read the books?

Review: Till We Have Faces

June 29, 2013 • 10 Comments

Sorry, but this review will be a little different due to the fact that this was a hard book to review. I bought Till We Have Faces by C.S. Lewis in college after a recommendation from a friend, but it has taken me this long to finally get around to reading it. There were a couple of times that I tried to start, but it’s not the sort of story that grabs you from the beginning. In fact, the whole story is pretty slow-paced, though the book is not all that long. It’s “a myth retold” of Psyche and Cupid, who I knew nothing of going into this. It might have helped to know beforehand, but knowing after did not help me feel an absolute resolution from the end. Nor did it help me fully understand all the things I know C.S. Lewis was probably trying to say and I feel I did not quite understand. This book could be slow, confusing, captivating, clear, mysterious, or thoughtful, and who knows, maybe that’s the point.

The ending did not feel very resolute for me. At some point, I found myself connecting with the main character, Orual. I wanted the answers to her questions just as she did. Why did the gods demand her sister? Or did they? What happened to her on the evening she last saw her? Why would they make her suffer? The ending that I felt was supposed to reveal all this did not give me all the answers I hoped for. Maybe I missed the point. Or maybe the point was we can’t know all of God’s mysterious ways.

While reading reviews of the book on Goodreads while still trying to process it all, I learned that C.S. Lewis started writing this book when he was an atheist, but at some point stopped, and then picked it up years later when he was a Christian. I didn’t see any clear parallels to Christianity or theology, which again, makes me wonder if I missed something. I saw a couple of theories and ideas in reviews, but I didn’t want to read too many of them because I wanted to figure it out myself. Well, over a week later I haven’t. Maybe years from now, I’ll try re-reading it.

Here’s what I will say. This book is based on a myth, and mythology does not really interest me much. C.S. Lewis was a much smarter man than I am, so I believe there is a message in here I am missing. Though it was slow in parts and not always exciting, there were parts that piqued my interest and kept me turning the page.

I’ve had an extremely hard time deciding on a rating for this, and nothing feels right. 3 stars feels like a slap to Lewis since this was his favorite work, and four stars makes it seem like I was just a little bit more into it than I was. I don’t want to do a half rating, and I can’t for my Goodreads rating, but I’m giving it a 3.5 anyway. I liked it. I almost really liked it. It was just a hard read in the sense that I just don’t completely understand it and that frustrates me.

If you’ve read Till We Have Faces, please let me know your thoughts! And if you haven’t read it but are considering it, I would recommend you check out multiple reviews before deciding if it’s your cup of tea, unless you really love Lewis and just want to read it for that purpose alone. I don’t believe it would be a waste of your time.

What book was hard for you to process?

Book Covers and Marketing

June 21, 2013 • 16 Comments

As an aspiring writer I have to confess, I can have a half-baked idea stewing in my brain and already have the cover for the story in my mind. This doesn’t always happen, but it does happen. Something I never really considered until reading various blog posts on the subject (unfortunately I didn’t take note of which ones they were so I don’t have links), was how important the book’s cover is for marketing your target audience. I have certainly taken notice of covers I like and covers I don’t, but a lot of the covers I like are girly, and I never considered the obvious: that a guy is most likely not going to want to pick a book that looks like these:

And even though these

are also dystopias told from a female POV, the covers are a lot more gender neutral. And while I have to admit the first three book covers catch my eye in the bookstore more than the latter three, what matters is the story inside. And if it’s a good story that guys and girls alike would enjoy, I think marketing it as such is important.

I have to admit though, I can’t imagine a better cover for Cinder. And honestly, guys probably don’t want to read Matched or The Selection anyway. And that’s OK, not every book has to be for everyone. But it made me think of think back to one of my girly cover ideas for one of my dystopia stories, and how sometimes I tend to dominate plots with romance (which I have seen bloggers complain about), and what kind of stories I truly want to tell. And I want to tell stories that can resonate with anyone; I don’t want to market to only one sex. But I know that all my stories have quite a lot of reworking and rewriting ahead of them before they see the light of day anyway, so story can be worked on. And a cover is certainly far, far away. Still, it’s important to consider the audience I would want to market to, and it’s fun to think about covers.

I don’t really LOVE the covers for The Hunger Games, Divergent, or The Testing. They’re fine, but as I said before, they don’t make me want to reach for the book off the shelf when I have no knowledge of the story. I tend to prefer people, a la these covers:

But as I was considering what actually makes a cover gender neutral I wondered, What kind of books do guys actually gravitate towards?

So I asked my husband if he was browsing in a bookstore for fun, not looking for anything in particular, what kind of cover would catch his eye?

He said something with a cool spaceship on it. I assume this qualifies. So while he might not be repelled against some of these gender-neutral book covers, they probably wouldn’t draw him in. Several of them don’t draw me in either. So I wondered… can pretty dresses and spaceships be combined for maximum draw to a book cover?

This was the best real-life example I could find; sci-fi look plus romance but not too swoony for the guys. But let’s face it, no one cover is going to speak to us all. And not all books can put spaceships on their covers. But I do think it’s important to consider the target audience when creating a cover. What can you say about the story with the cover, that you might not even have to read the story to at least somewhat understand? Or at the very least, what emotion can your cover evoke just by its picture and coloring? I think the psychology behind creating a cover for a story can be fascinating!

What do you think? What covers do you gravitate towards? What covers do you feel are properly marketed towards their target audience?

Review: The Book Thief

June 13, 2013 • 17 Comments

Where do I even begin?

First, I am going to steal like Liesel and post the beginning of Goodreads’ user Tamara‘s review of The Book Thief (Is it stealing if I credit her? I mean, I don’t actually want to steal her words and her be mad at me should she ever see this!): “I give this 5 stars, BUT there is a disclaimer: If you want a fast read, this book is not for you. If you only like happy endings this book is not for you. If you don’t like experimental fiction, this book is not for you. If you love to read and if you love to care about the characters you read about and if you love to eat words like they’re ice cream and if you love to have your heart broken and mended on the same page, this book is for you.”

I have to say, if I had read those words before reading the book, I might have been more hesitant to read it. But the choice to read this was actually a whim, based solely on the fact that I found I could borrow it as an e-book from my library without having to wait, so I thought, Why not?

But… Not a fast read? Maybe I’ll read it later when I have more time. Not a happy ending? I definitely don’t want to check that out. Experimental fiction? Well, I don’t know how I feel about that.

But wow, the words… the way Markus Zusak crafts words in this story is truly magical, and as an aspiring writer, that alone makes this book a worthwhile read. But then there are the people inside, whose story is so simple and tragic and believable and you cannot help but root for them.

I could quote so much of this book, because the book permeates beautiful imagery that you experience with all five senses, but I will let you discover the words yourself when you read them. What you need to know is that the narrator of the book is Death, and despite what you might think, he’s not all bad. In fact, he’s fascinated by colors in the sky and by the spirit of humans who are living and dying. And he is particularly taken by the story of Liesel, a young girl sent to live with a foster family while living in Nazi Germany.

Her brother has died, she has been separated from her mother, she never knew her father, and she feels all alone in the strangers’ house with an empty bed beside her. But she grows to love her new Papa, she makes a best friend named Rudy that the people in town find strange, and she makes it her personal mission to learn to read the book that she stole at her brother’s grave site.

I won’t delve any further into the story, except to say that books, reading, and words all play an important part in Liesel’s life throughout the story. This is what carries her through hard times and what bonds her with certain people. I love when a book focuses so much on words.

I will say, however, that The Book Thief is not a perfect book. I actually found the pacing slow at first, because the story is so simple (and the first chapter or two is confusing I think because of Death’s narrative), but the more you read, the more you care about the people. Also, about halfway through the book Death gives you a major spoiler alert for the end. I guess in a way this was good, to soften the blow as he even says (plus he hates suspense!), and it made it less hard later. Yet, it also made it maybe a little less emotional as well. But don’t get me wrong, I still cried at the end.

And then there’s the language. There’s a lot of it, a lot more than I prefer. I considered knocking off a star for it, but it felt wrong to give this book the same number of stars as other books I did not feel nearly as inspired by, so I give it five stars with that caution of language. There were not any f-bombs, but there was a large amount of “moderate” language.

This book is very stylistic. If you can’t get on board with what the author is doing, you won’t like it. But I hope you give it a chance if you haven’t yet. And while the book is incredibly sad, there is some hope in the epilogue (without it, this may have been a four star review instead). Though it’s small and I wish there was more, it was poignant and was probably just the right amount for proper closure.

Stephen King once said: “There are books full of great writing that don’t have very good stories. Read sometimes for the story… don’t be like the book-snobs who won’t do that. Read sometimes for the words–the language. Don’t be like the play-it-safers who won’t do that. But when you find a book that has both a good story and good words, treasure that book.” I believe this book is both good story and good words, a book to treasure.

Content Advisory

Language: A large amount of moderate language, as mentioned above. You can also read more about it at Rated Reads.

Sexual: None, except a mention of imagining someone naked, but there is no description.

Violence: Mild/moderate. There is death in this book, but it’s not described in too much detail. There is also some other violent incidents, some which are mentioned with some detail, but nothing too graphic.

I know this is a favorite for many. If you’ve read The Book Thief, what were your thoughts?

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