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What are you reading these days? (Part ELEVEN (2015) ongoing thread for 2015
message 201:
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Nina
(new)
Mar 15, 2015 06:45PM
You know there was a movie made from "Black Narcissus."
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Yes, Nina --we have that one at the BC library too, on VHS. It's now on my radar to watch sometime.
Nina wrote: "You know there was a movie made from "Black Narcissus.""Here's the IMDb link:
"Black Narcissus" (1947)(starring Deborah Kerr)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0039192/?...
"After opening a convent in the Himalayas, five nuns encounter conflict and tension - both with the natives and also within their own group - as they attempt to adapt to their remote, exotic surroundings."
Adapted from: Black Narcissus by Rumer Godden.
Seems to me I've seen this movie in the past. It sounds so familiar. YES! I searched my Netflix records and I see that I gave it 3 stars out of five.
http://dvd.netflix.com/Movie/60002699...
"Secular matters consume five missionary nuns who head to the Himalayas to establish an Anglican school. In the meantime, the quintet's leader (Deborah Kerr) must grapple with the envy of one nun (Kathleen Byron), the bitterness of a man (David Farrar) and the cruelty of the elements. The film received Academy Awards for Best Art Direction and Best Cinematography, in part for its Technicolor innovations."
http://www.amazon.com/Black-Narcissus...
"A group of nuns (played by some of Britain's finest actresses, including Deborah Kerr, Kathleen Byron, and Flora Robson) struggle to establish a convent in the Himalayas, while isolation, extreme weather, altitude, and culture clashes all conspire to drive the well-intentioned missionaries mad."
I'm tempted to watch it again. It's available to me as a Netflix DVD. Hmmm, should I or shouldn't I? :) Oh well, I'll put in on my Netflix DVD list and decide later.
Joy, Black Narcissus was a good movie. Great photography and interesting background. You know Rumer Godden grew up in India so it was reasonably authentic I believe. I would agree that is is not a five star movie but deserved your three stars.
Nina, I love Deborah Kerr in most any film. So I probably wouldn't mind seeing Black Narcissus a second time. We'll see.
I enjoyed reading Oh My Stars by Lorna Landvik. I'm so glad that Nina recommended Landvik's books back in January 2010 at this GR group. It certainly took me a long time to get around to reading Lorna Landvik's story. She has a refreshing writing style, filled with droll humor and touching characters. I didn't want the book to end! The character of Violet is so well-drawn. I truly enjoyed getting to know Violet and the interesting cast of characters in the story.The story went in a direction I never expected it to go. It was a wonderful story, full of the ups and downs of life and a lesson to keep on moving forward because life can be full of hope, even when we least expect it. Five stars!
I said the same thing in my review at: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
PS-Even Jackie (of this group) wouldn't have foreseen all the things in this story. ;-)
I started Bleak House, mostly to just get rid of it and be done with classics for good. And don't you know, I actually like this one, lol Still working on the Lost Swords book too and am enjoying it very much.
Jackie, I didn't read _Bleak House_ but I watched the film adaptation (TV Mini-Series) and liked it. I gave it 5 stars at Netflix.http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088485/?...
http://www.amazon.com/Episode-3-HD/dp...
http://dvd.netflix.com/Movie/70202555...
"An orphaned girl finds a happy home with a wealthy man and his wards, never suspecting the truth about her origins -- or knowing her fate. But as the plot thickens, a suspenseful yarn of legal justice unfolds in this drama miniseries."
See my review at: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Good for you for tackling the book!
If it continues to hold my attention, then I may watch the mini-series. There's undoubtedly a newer one also. Her origins were obvious, but it seemed like Dickens wrote it that way. I like the characters and all the dramas. It's better than anything else he wrote, IMO.
I didn't read "Bleak House," but loved the movie version.
I am reading "Fall of Giants," and liking it. Like, you Joy, it gets to me sometimes with too many descriptions that I just find myself skipping over until I get back to the characters and what's happening with them. It is number one of a triolgy so let's see if i am intrigued enough to follow through with two more books.
I just ordered, "The End of the Affair," on Netflix."When you sell a man a book you don't sell him just 12 ounces of paper and ink and glue-you sell him a whoe new life." Christopher Morley
"A good book should leave you...slightly exhausted at the end. You live several lives while reading it."
William Styron
About the film adaptations of Bleak House, there seems to be several adaptations but the two I watched are at the following IMDb links:(1985) - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088485/?...
(2005) - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0442632/?...
I liked the 1985 version because it starred Denholm Elliott playing the part of John Jarndyce. Here's Denholm's picture. http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001186/?r... I mentioned him in my review.
However, I liked the 2005 version because it starred Anna Maxwell Martin (who plays the orphaned girl, Esther Summerson). In my review I said that she is someone you can truly sympathize with. She has the perfect face for it. Here's her picture: http://www.bbc.co.uk/drama/bleakhouse...
Nina wrote: "I am reading "Fall of Giants," and liking it. Like, you Joy, it gets to me sometimes with too many descriptions that I just find myself skipping over until I get back to the characters and what's h..."Just to remind myself: Here's the GR link: Fall of Giants by Ken Follett.
GR description: "This is an epic of love, hatred, war and revolution. This is a huge novel that follows five families through the world-shaking dramas of the First World War, the Russian Revolution, and the struggle for votes for women."
Nina wrote: "I just ordered, "The End of the Affair," on Netflix. ...Nina, I'm sure you'll be captivated by the story and the acting. Watch out though, there are some very "intimate" scenes! Sometimes I wonder how they differentiate between pornography and art. I guess it's the setting, the story, and the acting which contribute to the depth of feeling and avoid the more shallow interpretations.
"The End of the Affair" (1999)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0172396/?...
Based on the book, The End of the Affair by Graham Greene.
Thanks for the hints. I agree, they don't need the "porn." CAn't anyone use their imagination?
Nina, you won't need your imagination for this one. LOL
Your comment Joy brought a smile. I needed it as my cousin I really cared about died a couple of nights ago. it was expected and she was ninety but still i am saddened. Her passing leaves only one other person alive that knew me as a child. Sobering.
Nina wrote: "Your comment Joy brought a smile. I needed it as my cousin I really cared about died a couple of nights ago. it was expected and she was ninety but still i am saddened. Her passing leaves only one ..."Sorry to hear that, Nina. Thoughts like that are truly sobering. I have an aunt and a cousin who are in their nineties. Only they and my sisters are alive to remember the wonderful old family reunions we used to have. Precious memories.
Just finished, "The Fall of Giants," and ordered the second book in thr triolgy. I wasn't enamored with the story but the characters have me hooked as to what happened to them next.
Nina, once you're hooked, you're hooked! LOLI just got hooked on another book by Nancy Moser. The title is Masquerade. I'm happy to be hooked. It's easy reading and a good story too!
PS-A short time ago I read Moser's An Unlikely Suitor. Another good story which I mentioned here in Message #174.
I like Nancy Moser but have forgotten which title of hers I read. I will look it up. Thanks for the suggestons. I think I mentioned this movie earlier but I thought it was fun/"Confessions of a Shopaholic." With it's NYC setting and all the stores it was interesting and I really liked the story line/wasn't just about clothes.
Yes, you did mention it in the movie thread. I put it in my Netflix DVD queue. Thanks.
Going to start The Rithmatist sometime today. Finished The First Book of Lost Swords: Woundhealer's Story, it was just as good as the original three books of the series. I'm pleased there's more. I'll get the rest if they become available.
Don't forget that I have all of them, Jackie. I can loan them to you, if you want.
OK, at some point in the future, I will do that. I don't have time for them now, still trying to thin down my over-burdened shelves, lol
A cheery quote for this Monday morning: Mark Twain once said: "Cauliflower is nothng but cabbage with a college education."
Thanks, Nina. Cabbage and cauliflower give me gas. Can't eat them even though I like them.
Joy, regarding message 229: I remember as a teen who could eat anything and everything, asking my mother at a picnic "Mom, don't you like coleslaw?" as she refused some.Her reply puzzled me at the time--"I like it, but it doesn't like me". Now that I am much older, I am in the same boat. Many foods I used to love now are on the "do you really want to risk that" list,lol.
I have started 11/22/63. It is another Stephen King novel.The title is the date of the Kennedy assassination and our narrator has discovered a portal through time. He is going to attempt to change history and stop Oswald.
It did start out pretty good.
I thought 11/22/63 was a page turner. Stephen K. is a true storyteller.
A couple of years ago, I read a self-published first novel by a Goodreads friend named Mackenzie Dare, Fire Storm, and rated it three stars. She subsequently rewrote it, to incorporate some of the constructive criticisms she got from me and other readers (although the new version has the same cover and ISBN as the old one); and I promised her that I'd read the new incarnation sometime and revise my review accordingly. It's taken some time to get a copy (long story!), but I was finally able to; and I began reading it this morning.
Mary JL, Nina, and Werner, thanks for posting. I came here to post a message and found your messages waiting. So far, Goodreads hasn't sent a notification even though your messages were posted only a few hours ago.My message is short one: Today I finished another good story by Nancy Moser. Easy reading but engrossing enough to keep you reading: Masquerade
I am reading the second book of the Ken Follett triligy that starts with "The Fall of Giants," and there is such a major, according to my calculations in it that I can't see why they published the third book. Are there any editors reading manuscripts any more or do they just publish anything a well known author presents them with? What do you think?
I don't know, Nina. I often wonder what film-makers are thinking of when they open a movie with boring scenes that really turn me off. Don't they know I need a really good hook? :)
What did you folks think of "The Wolf of Wall Street" with Leonardo DiCaprio ? I bailed out early on because it was so vulgar in so many ways.http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0993846/?...
I didn't watch Wolf of Wall Street, it had nothing to interest me. I know what you mean about the hook, Joy. I give a movie 20 minutes to catch me, if it doesn't then I dump it and move on.
Jackie, thanks for the validation.
Nina, I don't have any inside information on the workings of the publishing industry, especially the big operations that publish superstar novelists like Follett. But just based on the output we can see, I'd say it's a fair assumption that they pretty much just print anything their big name authors send in, with little or no editing. Those books are bound to turn in a huge profit whether they're edited or not --so the assumption seems to be, why bother? :-(
Werner wrote: "...I'd say it's a fair assumption that they pretty much just print anything their big name authors send in, with little or no editing. Those books are bound to turn in a huge profit whether they're edited or not --so the assumption seems to be, why bother? :-( ""Nothing succeeds like success!" ---Alexandre Dumas, Ange Pitou Vol. 1 chapter 7 (1854)
This is REALLY good - the Vietnam War from a Viet Cong's perspective. http://www.cracked.com/article_22206_...
So much news to deal with! TOO much!BTW, Jim, I saw your Facebook post about how depressing the news articles are these days. (I'm not referring to the Vietnam article you linked above.) As someone said, it's the editors who choose the articles to spotlight. They are just appealing to the lowest common denominator because it attracts the most viewers/readers. What a shame.
Jim wrote: "This is REALLY good - the Vietnam War from a Viet Cong's perspective. http://www.cracked.com/article_22206_..."Interesting viewpoint but he didn't seem to mention the POW prisoners and the torture that transpired. It is strange now that I lived during our involement with the Vietnam War/my sons would have been drafted but one stayed in college and the other one enlisted. He was actually sent to Germany. Now I have a granddaughter who teaches school in Hanoi.
Nina, how did she happen to be teaching in Hanoi?
Nina wrote: "Jim wrote: "Interesting viewpoint but he didn't seem to mention the POW prisoners and the torture that transpired...."Actually, he did, at least enough for me, although he didn't dwell on it. He mentions shooting wounded men & said they did a lot of nasty things. He mentions how they wiped out their own villages - his home village for one. He also spoke mostly of his personal experience. Sounds like he didn't have a lot of contact with the enemy.
Well, like you said, Jim it was interesting because it was from a viewpoint we don't often hear. Joy, my granddaughter is in a division of teaching English as a Seoond Language. She started teaching kindergaten children three years ago and now she is teacing English Literature in high school.
Nina, that's wonderful about your granddaughter's teaching positions. She's doing well!
I ran into an interesting situation with The Ridge by Michael Koryta. I've read & really liked a couple of mystery-thrillers by him, so expected this to be the same. It starts out as one, but is also supernatural horror. I wasn't expecting to turn down that road half way through the book & I found it jarring. I'm not a fan of pigeon-holing books by genres, but in this case I would have appreciated knowing that bit of information up front. It requires a different mind set.I gave his other 2 books 4 stars, but only gave this one 3 & felt I was rounding up. My review is here:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Jim, nice of you to give Koryta the benefit of the doubt in your rating of 3. Apropos to your review, I hate it when writers repeat themselves too much in one story. I also hate long, boring descriptions which have no artistic merit. Even "artistic merit" can bore one after a while. Of course, to each his own taste... I usually have no patience with long descriptions. I want plot, plot, plot... but not too much confusion and not too many characters to keep track of. :) Fussy, ain't I? lol
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