Lit Flicks Challenge Update

Just a quick update on the Lit Flicks challenge that wraps up at the end of February.  To date, I've read 4 of the 5 books and only one of them was on my original list.  :(

For my final book, I think I will read Jumper, by Steven Gould, or Confessions of a Shopaholic.  But that would mean I'd have to pay movie theater prices to see the flick.  Not so much.

I could have sworn I had one more book I thought I'd want to read right now ... alas, it eludes me.

But isn't it funny that I couldn't stick to that list?

Historical Fiction: The Other Queen

As I noted HERE , I'm participating in the Historical Fiction challenge.  My first book was The Other Queen, by Philippa Gregory.

It can be sumed up in this quote:

"But in a way today, despite them all, the Scots queen has won the battle.  She always said that she was not a tragic figure, not a queen from a legend, but she saw in the end that the only way she would defeat Elizabeth - fully and finally defeat her - was to be the heroine that Elizabeth could not be: a tragic heroine, the queen of suffering, cut down in her beauty and her youth.  Elizabeth could name herself the Virgin Queen and claim great beauty, surrounded by admirers, but Mary Queen of Scots will be the one that everyone remembers as the beautiful martyr from this regin, whose lovers willingly died for her.  Her death is Elizabeth's crime.  Her betrayal is Elizabeth's single greatest shame. So she has won that crown.  She lost in their constant rivalry for the throne of England, but she will win when the hisotires are written." (Gregory, 431).

Gregory is crazy.  And to be honest, I read 200+ pages of this, got tired of the lazy writing and the constant point of view changes and skimmed through the rest and read the final chapters.  How do I know that this book was lazily done?  Aside from the POV issue, one of the major pieces of action, the treason that leads to Mary's execution, yeah that's given a paragraph of mention as Bess tells us that Elizabeth has put her to death because Mary signed an order calling for her assasination.  One paragraph on the second to last page of the book.

Really?  Are you kidding me?  So the rest of the novel was about what?

Well in brief, the year is 1568 and Elizabeth has been Queen of England for 10 years.  Mary, Queen of Scots (and briefly Queen of France) has had to fled Scottland because of an uprising against her.  Seeking assylum, she runs to her cousin in England.  Elizabeth, rightly nervous about a rival for her throne, keeps Mary imprisoned with George and Elizabeth Shrewsbury for a long time.  The book spans the first 3 years of her imprisonement, and in the final chapter, skips from June 1572 to February 1587.  To which I say, again, are you kidding me?

The book is boring.  The first 200 pages are George and Bess repeating themselves incessantly.  George loves the Scottish Queen, thinks his wife is a frugal crazy money grubbing peasant, and Bess (Elizabeth) is twice a widow and married to someone she now considers a fool.  Over and over again they say the same things.  In three page increments before Gregory goes back to the other persons POV.

Queen Mary, she's just as repetitive.  "Oh I hope some man will rescue me, I have to be free."  Over and over and over again.  There is hardly any dialogue, it's all internal monologue and there is no action because there was no action for these guys.  They were wardens.  The real action was taking place in the lands in the north were armies were fighting and at court where Elizabeth ruled and made these decisions.

The bigger problem here is Gregory is so biased against Elizabeth that I'm contemplating starting a blog titled "Why Does Gregory Hate Elizabeth?"  She thinks she's a spineless child that has had men / people push her into the position that she's in and that she has no mind to rule.  If that's not what she thinks, that's the way she comes across.  Elizabeth is an idiot, Cecil is the brains.  And not very nice brains, either.

The paragraph I posted above says it all.  It's as if the facts of that time period have completely avoided Gregory.  Elizabeth is widely regarded as one of the greatest rulers of England, and while I know that there were probably a lot of Catholics that were sad when Henry broke with Rome, a lot of people rejoiced in it, because there were so many corruptions.  Elizabeth brought peace and allowed her people to practice what they wanted without fear of religious persecution.  Why Gregory seems bent on tarnishing that with novel after novel that describes her as a wanton and a spoiled brat I have no idea.

My advice is to skip this novel.  And it will be a long time before I buy another one of Gregory's books without closely checking reviews.

Chick Lit Challenge

The Twiga Blog is hosting the 2009 Chick Lit Challenge and since that sounds like a fun and easy challenge, and I like the button, I'm all about it.

It's 10 books over the next year.  I can't remember picking up one Chick Lit book last year but I do enjoy quick light reads so I thought, what the hey.  There's a whole bunch out there that I've never read that I thought I might try.

So, for the first stab at this list (and it will definitely, more than likely change):


1. Vision in White - Nora Roberts - REVIEW
2. Queen of Babble - Meg Cabot - REVIEW
3. Queen of Babble in the Big City - Meg Cabot - REVIEW
4. Chasing Harry Winston - Lauren Weisberger
5. Good in Bed - Jennifer Weiner
6. Certain Girls - Jennifer Weiner
7. Something Borrowed - Emily Griffin
8. Something Blue - Emily Griffin
9. Baby Proof - Emily Griffin
10. Dogs and Goddesses - Jennifer Cruise (maybe - it's multiple writers again and I'm not sure how I feel on that.)

But, most of this list are staples in the industry and I've yet to read a one.  I did read In Her Shoes, by Jennifer Weiner several years ago because my sister read it and she said I had to because one of her friends read it and said that Megan and I were "just like" the girls in the book.  If you've read it, that's an insult to Megan.  We aren't really anything like those sisters, except that, we're sisters, and she has blond hair and I have brown.  And we both love dogs.  But that's where the similarities end.

Anywho - I have my beach reading for 2009!  And I think my bank account is going to suffer from all these challenges ... maybe I'll get these from the library instead.

PS - If you're looking for some interesting challenges for 2009, Jessica over at Bluestockings is doing 16 this year and has a complete list.  The What's in a Name may make it over here, but I have to ponder what I would read for that.  The other one I really like is 2009 Pub Challenge, read 9 books published in 2009.  I think that would help me stay current.  Also, if you haven't already, check out 5 Minutes for Books, they are doing a Classics Bookclub.  February they are reading I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.  March is Les Miserables.

Lit Flicks: The Secret Life of Bees

This review is a little premature, or a little late, depending on how you look at it.

The Secret Life of Bees is the first novel by Sue Monk Kidd.  I made the mistake of reading The Mermaid Chair (her second novel), first, and along with the 568 customers who reviewed the book over at Amazon, I disliked it.  So I did not immediately go pick up Bees for fear of a repeat waste of my time.  Every time I saw this book I was tempted, but Mermaid kept me for buying.

Lit Flicks and the combination of Dakota Fanning and Jennifer Hudson in the movie had me change my mind.  And I'm really glad I did.

The book is 300 pages long and I finished it in about 16 hours.  It takes place in the South in the 1960s and LBJ has just signed the Civil Rights Act.  That part of the book is fascinating, and the relationships the women have are interesting too.  Some of it feels underdeveloped or a little surface-y, if that makes sense, but it's 300 pages.  What can you expect?

Overall, highly enjoyable, and parts of the prose are just fantastic.  Kidd has kind of a flare for the dramatic, and every "scene" is ended with some dramatic line like: "And the spider went into the hole, peeking his eyes out to look at me, as if he knew I had done something wrong."  (That's not in there, I made that up).  It's almost like she needs a knew way to transition.

Sadly, the movie is no longer in theaters and doesn't come out on DVD until February 3rd.  Which is why this review is either too late or too early.  But I'll update with the movie review and how off it was.  Here is my prediction, they don't mention May's twin, gloss over Daughters of Mary (if mentioned at all), and ignore most of the back story on the mother.  I bet they keep the voting, the gun, that dad and a little on Zach.  Very little.

My question ... how is little Dakota Fanning going to handle such grown-up material?  I look forward to letting you know.

Historical Fiction Challenge

Royal Reviews is hosting the 2009 Historical Fiction challenge.  Information on the challenge is HERE.  The basics are 3 books in 3 months.  The books I plan to read have been sitting in my TBR pile for EVER so hopefully this motivates me to read them.

The Other Queen, Phillipa Gregory
To Hold the Crown, Jean Plaidy
The Lady Elizabeth, Alison Wier

As always, I probably won't read what I intend to read.  But if this helps me finish that Gregory book I will be very, very pleased.

Lit Flicks: The Nanny Diaries

I read this several years ago and found the movie version (with Laura Linney as Mrs. X and Scarlett Johansen as Nan) in the cheap bin at Walmart over the holiday. For the purposes of the challenge, I re-read the book yesterday and finished this morning.

The book is really funny.  Our heroine is Nan (Nanny), our child is Grayer (Grover), and the antagonists are Mr. and Mrs. X, a snobbish, uber-rich couple for the Upper East side of Manhatten.  Mrs. X is an absentee mother of the worst sort; she spends all day shopping or ... something and no time parenting and still manages to think she's a terrific picture of motherhood.  Meanwhile, Nan is taking the little charge to school, play dates and an assortment of lessons and raising him.

She gets way to invested, in both the kid and his parents assorted tawdry affairs, and is rewarded by being unceremoniously let go and does not get to say goodbye to Grayer.  If you have a spare 6 hours, the book is quick and easy and entertaining.

The movie isn't good.  I can't really put my finger on what went wrong with it and I think it has to be the casting.  ScarJo is a terrible Nan.  In the novel, Nan is a child development major at NYU and nannying is part of her field work.  She's nannyed before, she's smart, she knows what's up.  In the movie, ScarJo stares around like a fish out of water and "falls" into nannying.  Which is fine and all, but it doesn't do the character justice.

**Spoiler**
In the movie Mr. X hits on Nanny.  This just seems so cliche and stupid and unnecessary.  In the novel Mr. X would never even look at Nanny much less hit on her, she was too far below his social level.

And while I love the fact that Laura Linney divorces Mr. X and becomes a terrific mom in the end, that's not what the book was about.  The book was written by two women who nannied for the wealthy and elite in New York and the novel was a compilation of their experiences.  It was an expose, of sorts.  And in the end nothing changes.  The X'es get a new nanny, persumably, Grayer grows up warped, and Mrs. X has another child.  No one changes.  Except Nan.  Whom I would guess probably won't ever be a Nanny again.

So ... finally thoughts?  The book is excellent and the movie is okay as a separate entity.  But they do not tell the same story.

What's on My Nightstand?

I missed last Tuesday's "What's on My Nightstand?" so I thought better late than never.  Unfortunately for me, many of the books from last month are still there.  Mostly because I added the Sookie Stackhouse mysteries for November, and read three of those instead of reading what I'd already committed myself to reading.

But for the record I have to read the following:

Secret Life of Bees

Reading Lolita in Tehran
Keeping the Crown
The Other Queen (can not manage to get into this one)
Girls Guide to Hunting and Fishing
Marley and Me

I know I'm forgetting some.  I have a system on my bookcase; books that are lined up neatly I've already read.  Books that are stacked on top or resting on top of the other books I have not read.  Which reminds me ... I need to go to the library and pick up Brisingr on CD for Brian.