Booktalk

[listersgirl]

Guy Gavriel Kay The Lions of Al-Rassan

They're making this into a movie, did you hear? So of course I had to read it again so that I would be in prime position for complaining about all the changes they're bound to make. Heh. I had totally forgotten how much I love this book, though. Love! Usually in most fantasy books that feature grand-scale conflicts, we know who we're supposed to be supporting. But in this book, I didn't feel like I was being pushed toward any side, which gave the whole thing an air of poignancy (and even futility). Plus I loved all the characters, and the relationships between them.

Jayne Ann Krentz Falling Awake

Please don't let me read romance novels anymore, ok? I love them, at least those few that I think are worth reading, but I know they've totally warped my view of how relationships work. I will always have a soft spot for Krentz and all her pseudonyms, though.

Ann-Marie MacDonald The Way the Crow Flies

God, what an amazing book. The story centres around one family on a Canadian Air Force base during the cold war, but really it's about secrets and lies, and the dramatic consequences they have. I love the language that MacDonald uses, and she captures the feel of the time and place beautifully.

Susan Swan What Casanova Told Me

What a neat book. An archivist, Luce, finds an old family journal and letters that tell of a trip her ancestor, Asked For Adams, took through Europe where she met the legendary Casanova. After her mother's death, Luce goes to Europe with her mother's lover for the funeral, and reads the diary and the letters while dealing with her own emotions about her mother being gone. I sometimes have a hard time reading historical characters placed into fiction, but the letter and diary style made it work.

Comments

[blue-lotus.livejournal.com]

Have you read Susan Swan's other books "The Wives of Bath" and "Stupid Boys are good to relax with"?

She has some other ones too, but those two are my favourites.

(Adds Casanova to list of holds at library)

[listersgirl]

The Wives of Bath was great. I haven't read the other one yet, though.

Did you see the movie that was based on TWOB? I think it was called Lost and Delirous. I haven't seen it yet, but I'm curious to see what they do with the book.

[blue-lotus.livejournal.com]

I saw the movie. It was completely different and not at all like the book. Still, it was a decent movie.

[listersgirl]

Oh, hah. I just happened to look at my "to be read" shelf, and apparently I bought a used copy of another Susan Swan book, The Last of the Golden Girls. Well, that's kind of exciting.

[starfishchick]

I really need to re-read Lions of Al-Rassan. *makes a mental note*

[listersgirl]

It was the cause of me having another lunch hour of pretending that I'm not crying even though I obviously am and people are looking at me warily.

:)

[gmajor.livejournal.com]

Awww! *sends hugs*

Thanks for this tidbit. I've passed it on to Gmajorette, who's a GGK fan (even got to edit a book of his poetry and all! There was a reading at U of T Hart House Library that we went to and he acknowledged her work, which was great!).

[gmajor.livejournal.com]

I checked IMDB and Edward (Glory, Last Samurai) will direct, so YAY, but I've never heard of the screenwriter before, and haven't seen her previous credits, so I have no idea how good the adaptation will be.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0443572/

In true IMDB form, the users are bitching about it and the first frame of film hasn't been shot yet, let alone a complete script written. Ah, gotta love the Internet.

[sarcasma.livejournal.com]

Funny, I would have thought the letter/diary treatment of a historical person would bug you even more than having them just wander around in the plot. I mean, actual phsyical letters and diaries they never really actually wrote for real! Arrrgh!

[listersgirl]

I think, though, that I didn't find it as odd because there was less conversation, and because there wasn't that omniscent narrator telling me how this historical character was feeling at the moment. The letters and the use of first person made it feel more realistic.

Or something.

[sarcasma.livejournal.com]

You're just going to have to admit that you don't hate historical figures in fiction as much as you used to. Time was you'd have hurled the book across the room, letters and diaries notwithstanding. :D

[listersgirl]

FINE.

Ok, I admit it. Historical figures in fiction no longer make me cringe and cry 'Unfair!'.

[dramaqueen-23.livejournal.com]

I love how much you love your books. I think I've told you that before, but I think it bears repeating. :)

[listersgirl]

Books are our friends. :)