Glens Falls (NY) Online Book Discussion Group discussion
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ABOUT BOOKS AND READING
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What are U reading these days? (PART EIGHT (2012) (ONGOING THREAD for 2012)
I hear most it Jackie. I try not to get frustrated when I miss some dialogue. If the plot is still clear, than I perservere. Otherwise I bail out.
It would bother me. Maybe people should complain or make suggestions to Netflix. This has to be a big issue. Just the amount of people I personally know who use captions for various reason is considerable.
You're right, Jackie. It might be worth a call to Netflix. I did mention it to a Netflix rep on the phone a while ago, but it wasn't a complaint or a suggestion. It was a question. I'll think about this and perhaps I'll call them.
What was the title of the long excellent historical novel? I am reading "The House at Tyneford," which takes place pre WW II and it is good. It's British. My best book last year was, "The Forgotten Garden." I would say it was the best book of several years.
Nina, I've moved The Forgotten Garden up to #1 on my to-read list. I'll read it eventually. First I have to finish reading John Jake's Kent Family Chronicles. Right now I'm in the midst of planning an 80th surprise birthday party for Eddie. It's taking a lot of time because there are so many details to think about.Today I watched "The Descendants" (with George Clooney) via a Netflix DVD.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1033575/
http://movies.netflix.com/Movie/The_D...
I'm going to give it 5 stars. It really drew me in. The scenes of Hawaii were breathtaking.
From the credits, I learned that it was adapted from The Descendants (2007) by Kaui Hart Hemmings.
PS-The movie won an Oscar in 2012 for Best Writing, Adapted Screenplay.
PPS-I admired George Clooney's acting in this movie. His facial expressions are so nuanced. They show so many different shades of emotion.
BTW, While I was watching the movie, I realized how much George Clooney resembles Tyrone Power. Here's a pic of Tyrone:
http://image.toutlecine.com/photos/p/...
Wow, they really do look alike!I saw The Descendents, the scenery was gorgeous and I liked that the Hawaiian music lent authenticity . I liked the story regarding the Trust, but that rest about the wife was annoying.
Jackie wrote: "Wow, they really do look alike!I saw The Descendents, the scenery was gorgeous and I liked that the Hawaiian music lent authenticity . I liked the story regarding the Trust, but that rest about t..."
About "The Descendants", at first I was annoyed at the kids' behavior in the beginning. I thought it wasn't true to life. I felt that most kids are more respectful than that. But it could be that some are not. For example, the boy laughing at the lady with alzheimer's. He should have realized her condition.
Another thing, I feel that the movie was more about dealing with a relative in a coma. So the title was a bit misleading, IMO. The other plots with the Trust and the property, and the cheating, seemed to me to be more like sub-plots. All in all, it turned out to be an interesting film, well-acted. The sub-plots were well inter-weaved.
Do you think the wife in the coma was portrayed by a dummy or a real person? There were no bonus features on the DVD. So there was no way to find out... unless I search the Net.
And yes, I thought the music was very appropriate. The art work (with the changing colors) in the closing credits was mesmerizing. It referred to it being something from a book on women's O's. Did you pick that up? At least I got that impression.
PS-Another thing about "The Descendants", I didn't think it was true to life to gather people together to explain that his wife was in a coma and may die. IMO, the situation is probably kept very private until it's over and people can express their sympathies in a less social way. Of course, very close relatives must be notified but not all acquaintances need to be kept abreast until the end. It's a matter of emotional privacy, IMO.
PPS - James Berardinelli wrote yet another great review ("The Descendants": http://www.reelviews.net/php_review_t... )Among his comments was this: "And the incorporation of humor into narratives that could be unbearably painful if told straight allows viewers to experience sadness without drowning in it."
Yes, there were times when I chuckled even though the rest of the story was sad.
I'd assume an actress played the wife in a coma, but I don't know. I didn't watch the credits. I agree about the gathering. All he had to do was call a couple of close relatives and they'd call others who'd also call others. People can't help but spread bad news.
I hated that he dragged his daughters all over trying to find out info about who his wife was sleeping with. Two thoughts on that: have some dignity, and don't use your kids.
I didn't think it was that great of a movie. It was good, I didn't resent the time spent but it's not something I'd ever want to see again...or anything like it.
jackie, I agreed with you concerning, "The Descendents," great music and scenery but the plot a bit contrived.
Yes, I supposed the plot was contrived but sometimes that's what makes a plot interesting. :) As a matter of fact, life is full of ironies which might actually seem contrived if they weren't random. I can look back and see a few from my own life.Yes, Clooney's character probably should have left the daughters home. But without his daughter, perhaps the other guy's wife wouldn't have been so open to his conversation. That's how he got his foot in the door.
I guess I was most impressed by George Clooney's acting. The dialogue was excellent.
The movie also made me think about the issue of a loved one being in a coma. My cousin was in a coma for several years. So I could relate. I'll never forget my visit to see her in that state. Very traumatic. She had been so vivacious before. You wonder how the immediate family manages to deal with such pain. I think the movie portrayed that well. It was so heartbreaking when the father of the comatose girl had to say his last goodbye.
Jackie wrote: "Just the amount of people I personally know who use captions for various reason is co..."Except the people we know, at least me, are exactly the type who need captions. Canvas the 18-25 year olds who can hear a pin drop. Captions are just an annoyance to them.
Then they don't have to turn them on. It should be offered as an option, not a permanent feature, just like on DVDs.
Joy H. wrote: "Yes, I supposed the plot was contrived but sometimes that's what makes a plot interesting. :) As a matter of fact, life is full of ironies which might actually seem contrived if they weren't random..."Joy, when you can identify with parts of a movie it does make it seem real. I can only imagine the trauma of the family when a coma is involved. Did your cousin actually come out of it?
As recommended by a good friend of mine, "Wolf Hall," that won the Booker prize in England in 2010. It is an historical novel and she says the writing in brilliant but some critiques say the characters are hard to keep track of unless you keep referring back to a chart. I am trying it out.
Nina, to answer your question, no, my cousin never came out of the coma. She passed away after what seems to me to have been a long time. I'll have to ask how long it was when I see my other cousin.
I mentioned above that sometimes the ironies of real life seem contrived. A good example is the situation which developed regarding Princess Diana and Camilla Parker Bowles. Who would have ever imagined it would turn out as it has, with Diana being killed in an accident and Camilla Parker Bowles being a possible future queen? In a novel that would seem very contrived.
Nina wrote: "As recommended by a good friend of mine, "Wolf Hall," that won the Booker prize in England in 2010. It is an historical novel and she says the writing in brilliant but some critiques say the characters are hard to keep track of unless you keep referring back to a chart...."Nina, I try to steer clear of books in which it's hard to keep track of the characters. Good luck with that. LOL
I see that Earl has read that book (Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel). He mentioned it in Feb. 2011. He wrote: "a few weeks back I finished Wolf Hall which I had to wade thru it and only awarded 2 stars.
But it did introduce me to characters in Henry's bio and I had a small head start with the show [The Tudors]."
Nina wrote: critiques say the characters are hard to keep track of unless you keep referring back to a chartI'd like to see those critics read The Song of Ice and Fire series; the section for characters is 100 pages long in some of the books, close enough in the rest.
Jackie wrote: "I'd like to see those critics read The Song of Ice and Fire series; the section for characters is 100 pages long in some of the books, close enough in the rest."Wow, Jackie, that series (A Song of Ice and Fire) must take a lot of concentration to read!
I didn't have much trouble with the characters at all.
Joy, not at all. It was easy for me, I enjoyed it and while there were a lot of characters, it didn't have to look them up in the 'House' pages. Only a couple of times did I have to look up which House they owed allegiance to and that was only in the very beginning when I was getting settled in.I didn't either, Jim. I think it's our scifi/fantasy minds that enable us to do so.
Jim wrote: "I didn't have much trouble with the characters at all."Jim and Jackie, there are several possible reasons for the fact that you have no trouble remembering which characters are which:
1. You have great memories! (Mine was never great and as I get older it's getting worse!) :)
2. The characters in the book in question are well fleshed out with good character development.
3. You are highly motivated by scifi/fantasy. This helps you pay better attention and have better focus.
4. All of the above.
I don't know, Jackie. I'm not good with a multitude of players with oddball names. As odd as some of his names are, he never seemed to name two people all that closely either. Show me Ehlronnix & Ehlzonnic in one situation, tell me they're a boy & a girl, a sorcerer & a warrior, & I still can't keep them straight. I think a lot of it was that Martin made each player with a fairly pronounceable name & then gave me a lot of hooks to hang them on - fleshed out the characters enough. He also introduced them slowly & in different enough situations.
I hate it when a dozen people are introduced at a conference table, for instance. No matter how they get described, but especially if there are long descriptions, I just can't keep them straight. They can be completely different & still blur in my mind. This is worse when I can't tell the sex, race, or status of a person by their name. Martin uses a lot of odd names, but avoids most of those issues.
Joy, I had an odd memory, some things I remember some I don't. I retain the written word better than the spoken word. When I read something I'll remember it but tell me something and I'll have forgotten in 5 minutes. Makes my family crazy.Jim, I agree with the oddball names, or closely spelled names, it's confusing until I get to know them. Sometimes I give them my own version of the name to help me.
You're also right in how it's done. I have a hard time when multiple people are introduced.
I guess it depends on how it's presented.
Jackie wrote: "... I guess it depends on how it's presented."Yes, I agree, that's the key to keeping track of characters. Why don't the author's realize this?
Joy, I finished Grippando's Got The Look.It went fast and was suspenseful but it was more violent that his other books--almost too violent for me to finish! (But I had already started and I HAD to know what happened1) I did want to advise you of that as you put it on your mabye list.
I appear to be in the mood for historical fiction this year. I am now starting The Scourge of God. So far, so good.
Mary JL wrote: "Joy, I finished Grippando's Got The Look.It went fast and was suspenseful but it was more violent that his other books--almost too violent for me to finish! (But I had already started and I HAD ..."
Thanks for letting me know, Mary JL. There was a lot of gory violence in the movie, "Dune", too. After a while one becomes inured to it.
Mary JL wrote: "I appear to be in the mood for historical fiction this year. I am now starting The Scourge of God. So far, so good."Wow, MaryJL, you're going way back to Attila the Hun and the Roman Empire. That's an historical subject which I know practically nothing about. I don't know much about the author either. Wiki says:
====================================================
"William Dietrich (1951) is a novelist, non-fiction author, journalist, and college professor. His historical novels and thrillers have made bestseller lists and his Ethan Gage series, set during the Napoleonic wars, have sold in 28 languages. He has also written novels set during the Roman empire, Antarctica, and Australia. His non-fiction works are natural history and environmental history of the Pacific Northwest."
...
"In 1990 while at The Seattle Times, he shared a Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting on the Exxon Valdez oil spill."
FROM: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_...
====================================================
Joy H. wrote: "Nina wrote: "As recommended by a good friend of mine, "Wolf Hall," that won the Booker prize in England in 2010. It is an historical novel and she says the writing in brilliant but some critiques s..."Nina, I see that Hilary Mantel, has written a sequel to her "Wolf Hall". It's called Bring Up the Bodies and traces Anne Boleyn's fall. See the NY Times book review here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/27/boo...
I'll be starting Homeland momentarily, the first in the Dark Elf Trilogy series by R.A. Salvatore. I've heard so many good things about the main character Drizzt and the series that I have to try it myself. I've been away from elves for a while, time to jump back in. And evil elves, no less! How interesting. I have the rest of the series and plan on reading them back to back, if the story interests me enough. If not, I'll get to them when I get to them.
This series is on the 100 Best Fantasy list, so we'll soon see if it measures up. I hope so.
Jackie wrote: "I'll be starting Homeland momentarily, the first in the Dark Elf Trilogy series by R.A. Salvatore. I've heard so many good things about the main character Drizzt and the series that I have to try ..."Impressive cover pic! Is that a panther or a fantasy animal?
Yes, it's Drizzt's panther, but I'm not sure what their deal is; this is Drizzt's origin story so it's starting at the very beginning. I haven't read the other books with him but I do know he has a panther with him.Also, it's one of those books with really long and unpronounceable names. I'll have to shorten them or make up new ones, lol
Drizzt isn't a bad name. In fact it's easy to associate with "drizzle". Or "Ritz". The trick is to make an association you can remember. They say the the more ridiculous the association, the easier it is to remember. "Ritzy Dritzy". :)It's annoying to try to wrap your tongue around "Drizzt". Oi.
What are some of the unpronounceable names? "Unpronounceable" is a good way to describe them. Utterly unutterable. :)
Drizzt is fine, but it's his full designation that gets me: Drizzt Do'Urden of D'aermon N'achezbaernon, Ninth House of Menzoberranzan. Whew, that's mouthful, lol
Jackie wrote: "Drizzt is fine, but it's his full designation that gets me: Drizzt Do'Urden of D'aermon N'achezbaernon, Ninth House of Menzoberranzan. Whew, that's mouthful, lol"That IS a mouthful. Let's see. It can be transformed: Dritz Durden Dermon Nachezbarnon. Dritz Dirty Doorman Nachos ... Ninth of Menzoberry. Ritzy Dirty Doorman. LOL
LOL, I love it! Dirty Doorman Nachos! I can't stop laughing.
These utterly unutterable names can be fun after all! LOL
I am reading a few books, I will tell a little about each(so far) the one I read the most is Harry Potter and the sorcerer's stone. I think it's really good so far Harry is basically finding everything out in a short amount of time(not going into too much detail for those who have not read it). The next book is the stand by Stephen king, what this book is, it's suppost to be(based on the summary) kind of like an older version of Fever 1793 by Laurie Halse Anderson, but it is also very different. Here is some of the summary: "An accident occurs in an army lab doing research on biological warfare. A virus breaks through the isolation barrier, and rapidly causes death of nearly everyone in the plant. One survivor races home to his wife and child and bundles them in a car, makes it to a gas station in texas, where his wife and daughter die a horrible death." so that seems very good!Finally, probabally my favorite: The Action Bible!!!! This book is the bible story and in order, but here's the real twist it's a COMIC!!!! I absolutely love it and would reccomend it to any one!!!!!
That is what I'm reading+ a little review/summary for each.
~Mike
The first two are excellent choices, excellent books. HP is a fantastic series, very well done.The Stand is one of my favorite books by King, even though it's long, the characters and situation were interesting and I just couldn't put it down.
Mike wrote: "I am reading a few books, I will tell a little about each(so far) the one I read the most is Harry Potter and the sorcerer's stone. I think it's really good so far Harry is basically finding everyt..."I've never read anything by Stephen King and I haven't read any of the Harry Potter books either. But I found your post very interesting. Thanks for the summary.
Here are links for reference:
The Stand
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
Fever 1793
Mike, I'm a big Harry Potter fan myself; I gave all the books in the series five star ratings, so it's good to hear that someone else is getting started on it. (Hope you enjoy it as much as I did!) The Bible is another of my five-star rated books. I never got to read it as a comic, though; back when I was a kid and reading comics quite a bit, I don't think they'd adapted it as one. (Too bad --I'd probably have gotten more out of it that way when I was younger than I did trying to read the King James Version!)The Stand is one book I haven't read; but a lady I used to work with here in the Bluefield College library says she considers it King's best work. I'll be interested in hearing what you think of it when you're finished!
I've often confused the names "Mowgli" and "Malgudi" and never had a clear idea about either of them. Of course they are from the following books:Malgudi Days by R.K. Narayan (first published 1942)
The stories capture daily life in the fictional southern Indian town of Malgudi.
The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling (first published 1893)
The story of Mowgli, a man-cub raised by wolves and schooled in the jungle who returns to civilization as a young man.
Since my curiosity was aroused I looked into both by acquiring the movies adapted from the books.
MOVIE: "Malgudi Days" (1986)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0244911/
http://movies.netflix.com/movie/Malgu...
My GR review is at:
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
MOVIE: "Jungle Book" (1942)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0034928/
"A boy raised by wolves tries to adapt to human village life; tenuously based on Kipling's stories."
http://movies.netflix.com/movie/Jungl...
"After being lost in the jungle as a child, Mowgli is raised by a she-wolf and learns to communicate with the animals. When he returns to his home village, he must deal with the treachery of men while combating his mortal enemy, the tiger Shere Khan."
Cast: Sabu, Rosemary DeCamp
It was interesting to see Rosemary DeCamp in her younger days. She played the part of Mowgli's real mother.
Seeing Sabu again was a blast from the past. After his character, Mowgli, started speaking perfect English, I lost interest in the movie.
The best part of the movie is the beginning in which there are marvelous shots of wild animals of all kinds. They remind you of what a dangerous place the jungle is. I can just imagine the difficulty of getting all those shots and putting them together.
PS-Below is a link to Werner's excellent review of Kipling's The Jungle Book:http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
Thanks, Werner! :)
PPS-I just noticed that, if you go to the book page of The Jungle Book, there's a button under it which says "Read book". When you click on it, you can actually read the book! What a great feature for Goodreads to have! I know you can do that elsewhere online but I didn't realize Goodreads provided that feature as well.I suppose this is only done with books which are in the public domain. Of course there are samples of books to read free online, but complete books must be in the public domain.
You're welcome, Joy; thanks for your kind words!
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But not getting to hear it! Well, half a movie is better than none, right? lol
I finished Hundred Thousand Kingdoms and it was really good. It was deeper than I first realized, and the characters were fantastic, they really got under my skin. I'm starting the next in the series sometime today: The Broken Kingdoms