Well, hello there. So, as I’ve mentioned before, summer = slacking where this blog and everything else was concerned. But I’m back at it, and so I present my quick and dirty weekly round-up, which is actually like a two-month round-up, of the books and TV shows I think are worthy of your attention, or sometimes distinctly not worthy of your attention. ‘Cause I’m complicated like that.
BOOKS
So, I unofficially set a 50-book challenge for myself for the year and I’m happy to report that I made good headway over the summer. Whenever I read a book, I automatically cast the main characters in my head. I’ve been doing this since I read Flowers in the Attic and cast Ricky Schroeder as Chris and Alyssa Milano (with a blonde wig) as Cathy back when I was far too young to be reading books full of incestuous sex. In any case, here are 5 of the most noteworthy novels I read over the summer (I’ll save the non-fiction for another time), and my suggestions for the actors who should play the main characters. Hopefully for fans of the books, my choices are a little less controversial than the choices for the Shades of Grey movie.
1. Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese: This is a beautiful novel about conjoined twin boys born to an Indian nun in Ethiopia during the fifties, but it’s also about medicine and family and revolution and love. As someone who, embarrassingly, really only associates Ethiopia with the famine in the eighties and the song “Do they know it’s Christmas?” , this book was an illuminating piece of historical fiction. I’m pretty pscyhed that a film is in the works, because it’s one of those epics that will make a great 3 hour film if done right. Tom Hiddleston gets my vote for baby-daddy/brilliant surgeon Thomas Stone because I think he can do smart and crazy and restrained well and all at once, and Frida Pinto as Sister Mary because she’s just so beautiful and can do pious. Naveen Andrews and Parminder Negra should play adoptive parents Hema and Gosh because they were my favourite parts of Lost and ER respectively, and I miss them and think they’d have a playful chemistry. I’m giving MarionShiva to wild card Maulik Pauncholi, who’s really only done comedy. This will be his breakout role (well, he really broke out in 30 Rock as Jack’s assistant/Liz’s nemesis, but this will be his dramatic break out role. You’re welcome Maulik!). Liya Kebede owns the part of revolutionary love interest Genet:
2. Where’d You Go, Bernadette: A Novel by Maria Semple: This was by far the quirkiest book I read over the summer. 13-year-old Bee tries to piece together what happened to her anxious and brilliant mother in a witty mystery that skewers Seattle, Canadians, helicopter moms, the patriatchy, and modern social relations. It’s this year’s happier Gone Girl. Semple used to write for Arrested Development, which I didn’t know before I read the book but now seems obvious given the witty dialogue, inside jokes and quick pace of the story. This, too, is a future film – I see a 90-minute comedy starring Julianne Moore as Bernadette and Mad Men‘s Kiernan Shipka as Bee (please make this happen, Hollywood producer people). Jon Hamm can even play dad Elgin – he’s totally got the laid-back, charismatic-yet-dishevelled, humble genius vibe.
3. And the Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini. Unlike his previous books, this one doesn’t focus on regional or religious conflict, and I didn’t think it was quite as beautiful or clear as his earlier books - not sure if those two things are related. I really wanted to love this narrative of familial love and sacrifice, but I found it cold and uncastable. That’s, like, the kiss of death from me.
4. The Twelve Tribes of Hattie by Ayana Mathis. This is essentially Hattie’s narrative, as told through her children’s stories. Many people found the book misandrous, and certainly the male characters are complex and sometimes unsympathetic, but I thought their actions were contextualized quite well. In any case, the prose was pretty and the characters and their stories compelling. Basically, Hattie is Kerry Washington and Jaime Foxx is August and you will never wonder how they could make a dozen babies because their chemistry would just make that self-evident.
Yeah, I know they did Django, Unchained together. And they were awesome. And they should do everything together.
5. Freedom by Jonathon Franzen. So, I’m really only including this book here because it was really long, and because Franzen is a literary darling who is kind of a diva. The book was interesting for the first half then…well, I already know a lot of self-involved middle-aged people and I just don’t have the energy to be dragged into anyone else’s angst when they’re so unlikeable on top of it all. This movie would be fairly boring, but in my head I’ve cast Naomi Watts and Mark Ruffalo as Patty (because she’s blonde and all the power-moms are blonde) and Walter Berglund (he’s an environmentalist so obviously only Ruffalo can play him well), and I think Jeremy Renner would kill it as almost-rock-star Richard Katz (because he oozes charisma and nonchalance) and they could make the movie better than the book, despite Franzen’s protests against the pedestrianization of this work (note: I think I made that word up, and that might make me even more pretentious than Franzen!)
TV
So, I have to admit I haven’t yet seen Breaking Bad. I know, I know. I’ve pvrd all the episodes of every season and will watch them all back to back and want to write about it when everyone else has moved on. I know.
But over the summer I have been watching Dexter which is soooo boring this season and which I’m not going to miss at all. Honestly, Dexter, just put me out of my misery. It may be against the code, but it would be a mercy. Yes, I could just stop watching it but there’s only a few eps left and I’ve stuck it through this long, ok?
True Blood, however, got so over the top and campy that I actually started liking it again. And now, finally, there are zombies, too, so the population of Bon Temps with every potential paranormal kind of being is complete. Like I said, so over the top that it’s entertaining again.
More camp, less creep and a lot of huh?
Finally, The Newsroom, which everyone loves to hatewatch but I actually just kind of love. I’m sorry – I feel about Sorkin the way I feel about Franzen (see above), but dude can write dialogue and I have a soft spot for Jeff Daniels. Go ahead and judge me. I just admitted to faithfully watching The Newsroom and not Breaking Bad. I deserve your judgement.
OTHER STUFF
I reviewed a bunch of movies/dvds for The Cinefilles and would rather not repeat myself so go check that link out if you need some more recommendations/stuff to avoid.
I was also featured on Ironic Mom and local author Leanne Shirtliffe’s blog here.
Happy Wednesday (or Thursday, depending on your time zone)!
