Devourer of Books

What book do you think should be made into a movie? And do you have any suggestions for the producers?

Or, What book do you think should NEVER be made into a movie?

I had a super hard time answering with question, and had to go through my entire library on LibraryThing to even think of anything, but here’s what I’ve come up with.  Any book title links go to my reviews.

• The Lace Reader – “The Lace Reader” was a great summer time read and could be a great summer time movie with lots of flashbacks.  They’d have to do the first lines as a voiceover, I think, but it would be a very dramatic mystery.  It seems like a Sandra Bullock type of movie.
• Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet – Let’s be honest, there’s a good chance they’d turn this lovely book into a really cheesy movie, but with the right director it could be great: young love, war, racism, regret in old age – what more could you want?
• Water for Elephants – Think how gorgeous the circus scenes could be!  And the nursing homes scenes could be quite poignant.
• The Aviary Gate – If the whole ‘modern day’ portion of this story was just omitted, this could be a good movie with gorgeous sets.
• Sunne in Splendor – I’m actually sort of surprised there aren’t any movie execs cashing in on the Richard III thing already, actually.  Of course, they’d have to condense so much of this that it would probably just end up annoying me.  Maybe they can turn this book into a movie trilogy?
• The Dracula Dossier – What a great Halloween movie, it is a spooky, spooky period piece.  I’d see it.

Have you read any of these?  What kind of movie do you think they’d make?  What other books would you love to see as a movie?

By the way, if you were subscribed to my feed, you may need to redo it.  I recently moved my feed to feed burner and it seems to have screwed up the old feeds.

TEASER TUESDAYS asks you to:

Grab your current read.

Let the book fall open to a random page.

Share with us two (2) “teaser” sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.

You also need to share the title of the book that you’re getting your “teaser” from … that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you’ve given!

Please avoid spoilers!

Today’s teaser is from a book I’m about to start and about which I am very excited.

“He got closer to the cranes – it was the spot they had found her.  In the actual lock channel they spotted her, it was only because of the contrast against the light cement walls.”
- American Rust by Philipp Meyer, p. 106

The Four Queens: The Provencal Sisters Who Ruled Europe by Nancy Goldstone

In 13th century Europe, women were primarily seen as pawns, almost property that would bring riches or glory to their family by how they married; sons were prized over daughters as heirs to the family land or fortune.  Into this climate, the Count and Countess of Provence delivered four daughters and no sons.  Yes, they were probably very disappointed at the outset, but their four daughters ended up changing the history of Europe.

Each of the Count’s daughters ended their lives as European Queens.  The oldest, Marguerite was married to French King Louis IX and the second oldest, Eleanor, married the English King, Henry III.  Both of these kings had ambitious younger brothers, each of whom married another one of the sisters and won a kingdom, at least partially because of his wife’s family connections: England’s Richard of Cornwall married the third daughter, Sanchia, and got himself crowned Holy Roman Empire and France’s Charles of Anjou married the youngest daughter, Beatrice, and conquered Sicily.

Certainly the family of these women, particularly their maternal uncles, influenced their husbands and the policy in their kingdoms to varying degrees.  What was slightly less convincing was how the women themselves influenced their kingdoms.  Eleanor was certainly a strong queen who influenced her husband but some of the others, Sanchia in particular, seem to be more notable because of their family connections.

Goldstone did not use many citations – although she did often quote primary sources – so I’m not entirely sure how good her history is, since this is not a period I’ve ever studied.  Whatever her biases may be, however, I am reasonably certain that she has her basic facts and timelines down.  She writes a very readable narrative history book and it is fascinating to see how women could work within the context of their societal roles, even in the 13th century, to shape the fate of a continent.

If you’re interested in this book, check out Penguin’s Reader Guide.

Buy this book on Amazon.

Today is not a day to leave the house.  It is raining pretty hard and we’ve even got thunder loud enough to freak out my cat (thunder storm in March?  Seriously?).  Unfortunately I may need to leave the house and buy some food.  

Luckily, though, most of my plans today are indoors.  This weekend I’ve been working through the book “Throw Out Fifty Things” (you can track my progress here).  I’m not totallysure I’ll completely finish today, because this is the sort of day I just want to lay around and read a book.  

It is going pretty well at this point.  I’ve got a whole lot of stuff to throw out and take to Goodwill.  I wonder if I can even fit all this stuff for Goodwill in my car in one trip…

Hope you’re all having a fantastic weekend!  What are you doing today?