Literary Adaptations - July 2018

[Liz, Moderator]

Hi all,
It's literary adaptations for July. So, that is any book that has been adapted for film or TV. There's so much to choose from here.

I will need to look back over my to read list, but off the top of my head, I've had What Was She Thinking? Notes on a Scandal - which was made into a film with Judy Dench and Cate Blanchett - on my list for years, so I might start with that. Oh, and An Education has been hanging around for about the same time...

What will you be reading?

[Natalie]

'Call The Midwife' is in my TBR pile, this included?

[Liz, Moderator]

Yep, Natalie. certainly is.

[Liz, Moderator]

Any of you going for the double whammy of genre and time traveller challenge?

It may be an obvious choice, but Umberto Eco's 'The Name of the Rose' is one of my favourites. It's not for everyone (there's a lot of beautiful description in addition to , but I love it.

[Liz, Moderator]

Oops, pressed send before I was ready... But you get the picture.

[Liz, Moderator]

'The Pillars of the Earth' would also make it into both challenges this month, but I need something shorter, as I have read too many doorstops, so far, this year.

Really interested to hear other suggestions that might hit two challenges...

[Kate, Moderator]

I've just finished the first two books in the Hunger Games trilogy.
I went and bought Mockingjay this morning because I just couldn't wait to continue! So that will be my first book for this genre.

[Peter]

I agree with you, Liz about 'Pillars of the Earth' and 'Name of the Rose', both of which I read long ago. Others I could recommend are 'Atonement' by Ian McEwan and 'Schindler's Ark' by Thomas Keanally which was called Schindler's List when filmed. I also read 'The Godfather' in April as the Crime genre. For myself, I will probably plump for 'Doctor Zhivago'.

[Bill]

I'm currently reading The Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith which has just been turned into a TV mini-series.

[Em]

I like the idea of reading The Name of the Rose and getting the double!

Also, I've just bought The City & the City by China Miéville as I have TV series saved on my planner and feel that I should read it before I watch it. This also true for The Silkworm by Robert Galbraith. Ahhh decisions!

[Bill]

Em wrote: "I like the idea of reading The Name of the Rose and getting the double!

Also, I've just bought The City & the City by [author:..."

They sound like good decisions. :0)

[Mercia]

If I could squeeze it into my schedule (currently reading very slowly) I might get round to reading Roddy Doyle's The Commitments.

[Bill]

I'm starting Call the Midwife: A Memoir of Birth, Joy, and Hard Times by Jennifer Worth. The missus and I have been revisiting Season 1 of the TV series. It'll be interesting to see how the book and the show compare.

[Rachel]

I'm going for Gormenghast by Mervyn Peake

Theres supposed to be a new adaptation coming out

https://www.theguardian.com/books/201...

[Mercia]

As mentioned in the Medieval Time Traveller thread Roddy Doyle may have to wait another year and Ellis Peters (Brother Cadfael) is more likely to be my contribution to this challenge.

[Amy]

I'm enjoying the Outlander series at the minute, and I'm off to Harry Potter at Universal in the summer so I will be rereading those. I always try to read the book before watching the adaptation though.

[Natalie]

Can't believe I never thought of Harry Potter! Any excuse to read one of those again!

[Kate, Moderator]

Just finished Mockingjay I expect I'll read another one for this challenge later in the month.

[Abigail]

I'm going to try to get to The Cuckoo's Calling this month.

[Liz, Moderator]

Just started 'Brooklyn'. Already enjoying it - I haven't seen the film...yet.

[Bill]

Liz wrote: "Just started 'Brooklyn'. Already enjoying it - I haven't seen the film...yet."

I hope you enjoy the book. The movie is quite excellent.

[Liz, Moderator]

Rachel, I was about to say that surely it's a too soon to remake Gormenghast, but then I checked... the BBC made it 18 years ago!

Neil Gaiman is a good choice to write the new adaptation and the way visual effects have exploded (quite literally in many cases...) since the previous adaptation, should mean it will look impressive. But I wonder who'll they'll cast?

[Rachel]

Liz wrote: "Rachel, I was about to say that surely it's a too soon to remake Gormenghast, but then I checked... the BBC made it 18 years ago!

Neil Gaiman is a good choice to write the new adaptation and the ..."

would like to see how the Countess's cats are portrayed :)

[Mercia]

I've started reading the novel of my favourite Cadfael episode The Virgin in the Ice. I bought it a year or so ago when this edition of ebooks was first published (for about a quid) but only reading it now.

[Bill]

I'm starting Plain Murder by C.S. Forester. It seems that it was made into a TV movie in 1978 by the BBC.

[Bill]

I'm starting a Canadian book, that was recently adapted by CBC to an excellent mini-series starring Alan Hawco and Paul Gross; Caught by Lisa Moore.

[Lep]

Liz wrote: "Any of you going for the double whammy of genre and time traveller challenge?

It may be an obvious choice, but Umberto Eco's 'The Name of the Rose' is one of my favourites. It's not for everyone (..."


Very good book and the TV version starring Sean Connery was good too.

[Abigail]

I finished The Cuckoo's Calling yesterday and enjoyed it. The story carried me along so that I didn't really notice the gaps in logic till the end.

[Bill]

It seems every book I've picked up this month has been adapted for either movies or TV.. I'm just starting The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle. It was turned into an animated movie in 1982.

[Liz, Moderator]

Finally, I am catching up on my yearly reading challenge. I've read loads this month and happily mopped up a bunch of titles that had been lingering on my to read list for far too long:

Brooklyn - excellent, one of my books of the year so far. Nothing dramatic actually happens, but it is the beauty of the writing and the keenly observed characters that make this brilliant. It looks at the migrant experience and identity. I was particularly moved, as it really nails down homesickness - something I've been dealing with over the years, here in Singapore.

An Education - an easy read and excellent in places. I can't believe that the film was based on just one chapter! (The most interesting chapter, although the final one contains the biggest emotional punch).

What Was She Thinking? Notes on a Scandal - Very good, story of obsession and (surprise, surprise) scandal in a London comprehensive school. The narrator, Barbara, is scarily believable.

Postcards From the Edge - Carrie Fisher's entertaining, if slightly fractured* novel about an actress attempting a come back after drug rehab. (*intentionally to mirror the effects of the drugs?) It's warmer and funnier than most drug-addled tales. I liked it a lot more that Brett Easton Ellis et al.

And now I'm nearly finished The Reader, which is very good so far. It's set in Germany after the 2nd world war and partly focuses on the trials of the Nazi war criminals. It's about personal responsibility, moral choices, love, betrayal and a whole lot more.... And it's only just over 200 pages! I think Kate Winslet won her Oscar for this one, but I'd have to check.

[Bill]

An excellent selection of stories, Liz.

[Rachel]

Finished an audiobook if that counts - The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne. It was ok I don't think if I was reading a print version I would have persisted with it though as the style was quite challenging and the story/characters not that engaging.

[Mercia]

I have almost the perfect book (for me) for this challenge. My favourite TV episode of Cadfael is The Virgin in the Ice which I have seen at least twice, but I had not read the novel before, although I have owned it for a few years. This is not standard Ellis Peters fare as the murder mystery is a mere backdrop to a story that goes deeper into the context of the Stephen vs Maud civil war and also into Cadfael's military past. I thought I might struggle to finish on time as 29 July I still had read just 75% then the novel ended at 77%, with copious previews of other books in the series for the final quarter of the book. I should not complain these Kindle editions of the Cadfael mysteries were offered cheap when they first came out and I grabbed a couple or three. I made sure that The Virgin in the Ice was one and A Rare Benedictine was another, which focuses very much on how Cadfael the soldier became Cadfael the pharmaceutical monk detective.

[Liz, Moderator]

Rachel, I felt the same about The Scarlet Letter. Audiobook definitely sounds the way to go.

[Liz, Moderator]

Once you've seen the film, it's hard to get the image of the actor out of your head when you read the book (possibly the reason I usually prefer to read the book before I see the movie - no preconceptions).

I realise that this month, my head has been filled with a stellar cast: Saoirse (sp?) Ronan, Carey Mulligan, Cate Blanchett, Judy Dench, Carrie Fisher, Kate Winslet & Ralph Fiennes.

[Rachel]

Agree about reading the book before seeing the adaptation although have to bite my tongue when watching with my partner -who is not much of a reader and prefers visual stuff as know I can be annoying saying things such as "wasn't like that in the book" !

Just finished Gormenghast (really enjoyed though slow to start) and bought the BBC adaptation to watch in the next couple of weeks so looking forward to that.