Taken with iPhone
Weekly Ordinary PhotoJune 27th, 2009
Books and their movies
My Sister’s Keeper just started showing in the US and will be out in August here in the Netherlands. I decided to read the book first and then see the movie. A movie can never tell the whole story and details like a book can.
The book was written by Jody Picoult. This is the first book that I read written by her. From what I can see on her website her other books also have the same genre as My Sister’s Keeper.
Anna is not sick, but she might as well be. By age thirteen, she has undergone countless surgeries, transfusions, and shots so that her older sister, Kate, can somehow fight the leukemia that has plagued her since childhood. The product of pre-implantation genetic diagnosis, Anna was conceived as a bone marrow match for Kate – a life and a role that she has never questioned… until now. –Synopsis
The book is real emotional and deep and it keeps you reading till the end without stopping. The ending is heart breaking and you don’t see it coming, it leaves you shocked. I’m glad I read the book first seeing the comment by the writer on her website.
Yes, I know the ending is different. Yes, I know some of you are very upset. I didn’t change it. The author has no control over the movie, and it was hard for me to accept too. However, there’s a great deal in the movie that I think is great, and I enjoyed watching it – and I hope you did too. Please don’t email me asking me why I changed the ending, or “let” Hollywood do that – it wasn’t something I had any control over. -Jody Picoult
This again proves how Hollywood can butcher good books into lesser movies. Although I must say I haven’t seen the movie yet so I wonder what my opinion will be of the movie in contrast to the book.
Julie and Julia
Today while browsing in the book store I saw a book by Julia Child and the cover had a feature of the soon to be released movieJulie and Julia. A while back I saw the preview and was instantly sold, but the release date here is October so I soon forgot about it till today. I wondered if the movie is based on a book, so rather stand in line at the info counter I took my iPhone and did some quick googling and yes the movie is based on a book. I did take some extra minutes to find the book as it wasn’t in the regular books sections but in the cooking section and very well hidden too between all other books. But I got the one and only copy they had.
The movie stars Meryl Streep so I’m pretty confident it will be a good movie as Meryl Streeps movies almost never disappoints. The book on the other hand has a 3 out of 5 stars review on Amazon. I bought this book on a whim today, I’m just reading through the reviews on Amazon, and people really dislike this book. From what I take out of the reviews the ones who thought it was bad had they expectations set before even reading it and the ones who liked it just took the book on a lighter note.
A one star review:
As an avid blogger and foodie, I looked forward to buying this book for over a year. Now that I have it, I can’t even finish reading it. Powell is not only a bad cook but a bad writer as well. This book doesn’t stick with any audience. Bloggers think it’s overrated. Foodies think it’s insulting to Julia Child. Readers feel it’s a bad piece of writing. Overall, it’s just bad. On top of everything else, her constant b*tching about her botched recipes got on my last nerve.
A five star review:
I’m truly surprised to see so many negative reviews. Really, it’s not a foodie book, and I don’t think ever sold as such. It’s also not even really about Julia Child (though the touching eulogy from the author is nice). It’s just about one woman and how she used a year of cooking some old, rather out-dated and often over-complicated recipes, to find something new within herself.
After I finish the book I’ll update this post which how many stars I’ll award the book.
Back to the movie, from what I gather from the Julie and Julia trailer the movie is based on Julie Powells book and Julia Childs My Life in France The director and writer is Nora Ephron so the movie has high expectations.