Category Archives: Pop Culture

The 100 All-Time Greatest Novels… depending on who you ask.

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Have you seen the newest issue of Entertainment Weekly? The cover proclaims that the double issue includes “The 100 All-Time Greatest” of all things EW-ish: movies, TV shows, albums, and yes, novels. It’s actually quite fun to read through, doing the quick mental “saw that”, “didn’t watch that”, “liked it”, “are you kidding me??” checklists.

Annoyingly, the EW website only provides the top 10 for each list, so you have to actually pick up the magazine or subscribe online to see their full top 100 list… or head to this website, which has helpfully listed the top 100 novels as selected by the EW editors.

So how did the EW editors do? Overall, I think it’s a pretty great list. Anna Karenina at #1? I suppose I could argue for any of several other great novels — but AK works too.

I was thrilled to see that the Harry Potter series made the top 10, and equally happy to see other fantasy favorites on the list, including His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams, and The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien.

By quick count, I’ve read 41 out of the 100 books listed. Of the ones I haven’t read, in many cases I’ve read other books by the same author, just not the specific one(s) listed. For example:

  • Charles Dickens: I haven’t read Great Expectations or Bleak House, which were listed (I know, I know…) — but A Tale of Two Cities, which wasn’t listed, is always on my personal top 100 list.
  • I have read Anna Karenina, but not War and Peace (#28) or the various other classic Russian novels that also made the list.
  • I’ve read Beloved (#9) and several other Toni Morrison books not on the list, but not Song of Solomon (#52).
  • Bring Up The Bodies (#79) by Hilary Mantel is on the list, but not Wolf Hall, which I recently read.
  • I could go on with Faulkner, Forster, and Bellow, but that’s enough of a sampling!

I do have to question the selection of The Hobbit but not the Lord of the Rings trilogy. In my mind, The Hobbit is fun but LOTR is a masterpiece.

I love that they included Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret. by Judy Blume. I wrote a post early in my blogging days about the influence of this book on countless women who grew up during a certain time, wondering if girls today still read Judy Blume. For me and my friends, this was the book for pre-teen girls.

I don’t neccesarily put too much stock in any one “greatest of all time” list. It all comes down to perspective and opinion, after all. Still, I found EW’s top 100 to be a great representation of a mix of genres, eras, and authors, with everything from centuries-old classics to newer books from the last year or two.

So what do you think of EW’s selection of the 100 greatest novels of all-time? Any glaring omissions? Anything that just doesn’t deserve to be there?

For me, I’m feeling a bit inspired to check out a few of these titles that have always been “oh, gotta read it someday!” books for me. And it’s a terrific reminder of some books from my long-ago reading days that need a re-visit ASAP.

And for fun, check out their top movie and TV lists too. You may be pleasantly surprised!

Much Ado: A fangirl goes to the movies

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Today, I had the absolute pleasure of seeing the newest movie version of Much Ado About Nothing, which was screened as part of the San Francisco International Film Festival.

What can I say? It was fantastic.

I’m an unabashed fangirl when it comes to Joss Whedon and his world, and the fact that so many actors from the Whedon-verse — Amy Acker, Alexis Denisof, Fran Kranz, Nathan Fillion, Sean Maher, and more — had key roles in Much Ado made it all the sweeter to see.

On top of which, I’m a book geek with a fondness for Shakespeare, and although I’m much more familiar with the tragedies, I’m always up for a good Shakespearean comedy. Much Ado About Nothing happens to be one that I’ve never read and had never seen before, and I did have a bit of trepidation ahead of time as to whether I’d actually “get” it. Not to worry, though. From the opening scenes, it was easy to pick up the rhythms of the language, and it all flowed beautifully.

Filmed in black and white in a modern setting, the art direction and style of the movie is contemporary and quick. The staging allows the actors to shine, particularly in their use of body language and interactions, and their comedic timing is impeccable. Nathan Fillion in particular was hilarious, Amy Acker and Alexis Denisof were sharp and witty as Beatrice and Benedick, and Fran Kranz as the love-smitten Claudio was both puppy-dog sweet and quietly dangerous. Really, I could go on and on about the cast, but suffice it to say that there was not a one that I could find fault with. Their line deliveries were as smooth as they’d be if they were, well, in some other Joss production. For the man who perfected the art of quippiness, directing Shakespeare must have been a natural fit.

Both Amy Acker and Alexis Denisof were present for the screening, both to introduce the film and to participate in a Q&A session afterward. They were funny and charming, and got Joss on speakerphone before the movie to say hi to the audience. Adorable.

So here’s the trailer:

The movie opens June 7th in New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. Don’t miss it!

Spike — A Dark Place: Comfort Food for the Buffy-phile

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Mini-review: Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Spike — A Dark Place by Victor Gischler, Paul Lee, Jo Chen et. al.
(Release date: June 18, 2013)

The world has been a darker, lonelier, and far less quippy place since the TV series Buffy the Vampire Slayer went off the air almost ten years ago, in May of 2003. (Bow your heads for a moment of silence, please. Thank you). But the devoted fans of the Buffy-verse had not heard the last of the Slayer and the Scoobies. In 2007, Dark Horse Comics began publication of Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season 8 — in comic book format! Legions of fans cheered! Currently up to season 9 and going strong, the comics are written under the imprimatur of Buffy creator and geek god Joss Whedon, and are considered “canon”, for those who care about such distinctions. The comic follows Buffy and the gang forward from the end of the TV series, and it’s a wonder to behold.

Coming in June 2013, Spike – A Dark Place is somewhat of a sidebar to the main storyline of season 9, picking up right after the events of On Your Own (season 9, volume 2), and focusing on everyone’s favorite bad-boy-vampire-with-a-soul (and amazing cheekbones), our dearly beloved Spike. Spike’s going through some stuff and has fallen into a deep depression, and even his trusty team of adoring spaceship-flying bugs (it’s a long story) can’t quite get him to snap out of it. Of course, bad guys pop in, as bad guys do, and Spike is caught up in the action once again.

I realize that none of the above (bugs! who fly spaceships!) will make sense to anyone who hasn’t kept up with seasons 8 and 9. Which raises the question: What are you waiting for? If you watched the TV show, then good gods — get thee to a comic book store at once! Of course, if you never watched Buffy at all… well, first of all, I’m not sure that we have anything left to say to one another (kidding!), and second of all — drop whatever else you’re doing and get yourself some Buffy DVDs! And don’t stop until you’ve watched all seven seasons of Buffy, five seasons of Angel, and you’re ready to read some amazing comics!

Okay, so this supposedly-a-book-review has devolved into a fan rant. Sorry ’bout that.

But check out the comics. The new Spike book features terrific artwork, especially Jo Chen’s magnificent covers, which represent Spike actor James Marsters in all his Buffy-era glory. The storyline is funny, action-packed, and quite faithful to the Spike character that we know and love. Once I picked up Spike – A Dark Place, I couldn’t put it down, and I’m eager for more, more, more — more Spike, more Buffy, more of the entire wonderful Buffy-verse! Please, Dark Horse, don’t ever stop! I’d happily continue reading the Buffy comics and spin-offs for years — decades — to come.

Was my high school reading list really this exciting?

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Have you seen the trailers for the new version of The Great Gatsby?

I know it’s been a lot of years, but I really don’t remember the book version of The Great Gatsby being nearly this eye-popping-ly exciting. The music, the cars, the mansions, the parties — this looks big and glamorous, candy-coated and full of adrenaline. I’m pretty much dying to see this now, and I can’t get the music out of my head.

On the other hand, I barely remember the plot details from the book, so I can’t tell at all if this is a faithful adaptation.

So, should I re-read the book? Or just wait and enjoy the glitz of the movie?

A Daily Dose of Happy

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While working on something completely different, I Googled “people reading” and this is one of the images that popped up:

Credit where credit is due: Apparently, it’s one of many awesome pictures which can be found at the Awesome People Reading site. A place where I really need to spend more time.

Day? Made.

Now I can go to sleep.

Anne Hathaway made me cry: A trip to see Les Miz

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The rain was pouring, the theater was packed, and I was a big soggy mess. I saw Les Miserables today, and it blew me away, start to finish. I’d read some not-so-favorable reviews, complaining about everything from the length to the singing to the production values. I don’t know what they were talking about.

Yes, the movie is long. But so what? It was simply stunning. Hugh Jackman was a strong, fiery, tormented Jean Valjean, and man, can he sing!

I didn’t expect to be so moved by the story. After all, I’ve read the book, I’ve seen the stage version several times, I’ve listened to the soundtrack about a zillion times more than that. So it’s not like there were any surprises.

And yet, once Anne Hathaway’s Fantine started her descent into her own personal hell… instant waterworks. And stupid me, with only two measly tissues in my pocket. Every time I recovered, another tear-wrenching scene would come along to start me crying all over again.

The cast was fantastic. Even Russell Crowe (who — according to our local film critic — can’t sing) pulled off a stunning turn with his acting and singing as Inspector Javert. I’m not going to list the entire cast here, but I was especially moved by the young men playing the revolutionaries, taking a hopeless stand on the barricades for the sake of what they believed.

I’m no film critic, not by a long stretch, so all I can do is voice my opinion and relate my own reaction, which is this: Les Miserables is certainly the best movie I’ve seen in a long while, and judging by the faces of the people leaving the theater with me, I’d say they all felt the same.

I feel like I’ve been through the wringer, but at the same time, I feel quite uplifted. And when’s the last time a movie made you feel that way? Go see it. But bring tissues.

News for bookslovers: Oddities and goodies

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All sorts of good book news came our way this past week. In case you were snoozing and missed something, consider this your friend public service announcement from the land of book obsessives:

In book-to-TV news:

  • The BBC announced that it will be producing a TV adaptation of Susannah Clark’s wonderful Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell. So far, it sounds like this will be a six-episode mini-series airing in the UK sometime in 2013… let’s hope it crosses the pond to the US soon thereafter. You can read more about this delightful news here.
  • Coming next summer on CBS: Stephen King’s Under The Dome! This was one of my favorite books read in 2011 — big, creepy, and scary in an all-too-human sort of way. I can’t wait to see how this translates to TV. Read about it here.

In sheer insanity news:

  • Because apparently it’s not enough to have read and loved the Harry Potter series… Amazon is selling a $1,000 gift set about the Harry Potter movies. Sure, why not milk this cow for all it’s worth? If you’re thinking, “So worth it! Where do I get one?”, click here to read more. As of today, Amazon is offering this item at a 40% discount… so for just $600, all this can be yours:

hp set

Author updates:

  • Herman Wouk has published a new novel — at age 97! The Lawgiver, an epistolary novel about screenwriters working on a movie about Moses, is Wouk’s 18th book, and, he says, not his last. According to this article in the New York Times, he’s already begun his next writing project.
  • In early November, Philip Roth announced his retirement from writing. His last book, Nemesis, was published in 2010.

And in other bookish news:

  • British author Nick Hornby will be writing the screenplay for the movie adaption of Cheryl Strayed’s memoir Wild. I haven’t read the book yet, and I always enjoy Nick Hornby, so… wait for the movie version?
  • Remember the Janie series from your distant or not-too-distant teen days? Starting with The Face On The Milk Carton, published 20 years ago, Caroline B. Cooney’s engrossingly addictive series focuses on a teen girl named Janie, leading a happy suburban life, who accidentally discovers that she may in fact have been kidnapped as a child. If you walked away from the final book in the series wishing for more, your wishes are about to come true! Janie Face To Face will be published in January, and promises to reveal (according to the Amazon blurb) “if Janie and Reeve’s love has endured, and whether or not the person who brought Janie and her family so much emotional pain and suffering is brought to justice.”
  • Did y’all see this awesome creation from EpicReads? It’s a YA fiction map to the US, with a book for each of the fifty states. Pretty amazing — check it out. You may even want to hang up a copy, or use it as a checklist, or — just thinking here — put it up on the wall and throw darts at it in order to pick your next book. I’ve read 10 out of 50, and can definitely see a bunch more that I’d like to add to my TBR list. Fun!
  • And finally, on a hopeful note, NPR Books reports that this is looking to be a good holiday season for independent bookstores. Which reminds me, I have more shopping to do…

Cheers, all! If you have any other interesting tidbits from the world of books, please share in the comments!

Fictitious fiction, TV-style

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Earlier this week, I put together a photo collection of TV characters reading books. Why? Because I wanted to. And I read. And I watch TV. And it gave me a good excuse to search for cool pictures.

The one that was hardest to find was from an episode of Sons of Anarchy [SPOILER ALERT], in which the dearly departed Piney (RIP) sat in his mountain cabin, drinking heavily and reading a Stephen King novel.

Boards were a-buzz the day after the episode originally aired. Shock, outrage, and sorrow were rampant. Me? I wanted to know what book Piney was reading, and so, apparently, did lots of other book-loving viewers. The question kept coming up: Was it The Stand? Nah, not thick enough. Christine? Nah, the artwork didn’t seem right.

Show creator Kurt Sutter was kind enough to put the debate to rest by sharing this image, with the explanation:

February 11, 2012did anyone notice what piney was reading right before clay killed him? asked SK if he wanted to plug a book, he said have piney reading CYCLE ZOMBIES. our art department created this —

Mystery solved! Wouldn’t you love to read Cycle Zombies by Stephen King?

Read a book. All the cool people are doing it.

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Taking a brief pause to appreciate TV characters who read… for no real reason except that it gives me a good excuse to Google stuff. Without further ado:

Damon Salvatore thinks sparkly vampires are stupid.

Sawyer rockin’ the reading glasses.

Don Draper is a very serious reader.

Good slayers always do their homework first. But where are the Scoobies?

Good slayers always do their homework first. But where are the Scoobies?

No, the other Scoobies!

Joey found Little Women kinda scary.

Gemma hitting the medical texts. Career change?

Trying to read here, Varys.

Never too old for a bedtime story.

Updated 8/24/2012 to add:

Piney reading a one-of-a-kind Stephen King novel. That’s “Cycle Zombies”, and it exists only in TV land.

That’s all I’ve got! If you come up with any other good ones, please share.

11/5/2012: Updated to add this additional cute photo:

Some scary things happen in “The Angels Take Manhattan” episode of Doctor Who, but this reading-friendly picnic scene is just adorable.

When worlds collide, part I

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That sound you’re hearing is the collective sigh of millions of Outlander fans, having achieve superior mental orgasms due to the following announcement:

Sony Pictures TV has closed a deal for the rights to Outlander, Diana Gabaldon’s bestselling fantasy/romance/adventure series of books. Battlestar Galactica developer/executive producer Ron Moore will write the series adaptation, with Jim Kohlberg’s Story Mining and Supply Co producing. The project will be taken to cable networks this week.
 

Source: http://www.deadline.com/2012/07/ron-moore-to-adapt-outlander-novels-into-cable-tv-series/#more-302257

Not only does this thrill my inner Outlander fan, but also… Ron Moore! Battlestar Galactica! One of my all-time favorite TV series mentioned in the same breath as one of my all-time favorite books!
My head is spinning over the potential awesomeness of the entire thing.
But can you imagine the casting nightmare this will be? Millions of women, madly in love with Jamie Fraser, have been arguing over their dream casting for years, possibly even decades. No matter who they pick, someone is going to be mighty pissed off. You do NOT want to mess with Jamie Fraser fantasies, that’s for sure.

Let’s hope some wise cable network (yoo-hoo, HBO? are you listening?) snaps this deal right up. The world needs men in kilts on TV, pronto!