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Book to Movie- Top Ten Adaptations I can’t wait to see!

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Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke & the Bookish. It’s awesome. Every Tuesday, the lovely ladies over there give us book bloggers wonderful and fun topics to create our lists! Check out what others have posted by going over there!

http://brokeandbookish.blogspot.com

This week’s topic is-

Top Ten Book to Movie Adaptations I am looking forward to

 

The Martian

I didn’t get through this book, but I have a feeling Matt Damon can keep my interest.

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them

I can’t wait to see this movie!

Room

I haven’t read the book yet, but it is on my winter TBR.  I think of curling up on the couch with a blanket and some good books.

Black Mass

I have had a big interest in Whitey Black ever since I saw him (when he was in hiding) at a friend’s wedding.

Brooklyn

I really think I read this book, but I am ashamed to say I don’t remember.  The movie looks great.

Me Before You

I made sure to finish the book before I found out anything about the movie.  LOVE Emilia Clark as Louisa!!

A Walk in the Woods

I loved this book.  I kept laughing the whole time I read it!

Burial Rites

My very first audiobook, and I loved it.  I can’t wait to see Jennifer Lawrence as Agnes.

Mockingly Pt 2

Also J Law- love her as Katniss.

Victor Frankenstein

The newest adaptation of this classic is told from the point of view of Igor, played by Daniel Radcliffe.

The Murderer’s Daughter by Jonathan Kellerman

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The Murderer’s Daughter

by Jonathan Kellerman

published by Ballantine Books

August 18, 2015

I received an advance review copy of this book from the publisher through Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.

My Review

Psychologist Grace Blades treat patients that have suffered extreme trauma.  As a child, she witnessed the murder-suicide of her parents and had to suffer through many difficult situations in foster care.  Now she helps people through the hardest parts of their lives, while keeping her own life sealed off from relationships.  When a new patient is murdered, Grace feels she must solve the crime herself.

I am sure I have read other books by Jonathan Kellerman in the past, but I honestly don’t remember them.  I was excited to read this book, because it wasn’t a part in a series, like many of his are.  While I enjoyed the book, I didn’t love it. The story is in alternating times- the past and present of the main character.  It did keep me absorbed for about 3/4 of it, but I began to feel the parts with the adult Grace were a lot less  interesting than those with young Grace.  I think that a reason for this is that young Grace, despite such a difficult childhood, still had the potential to become a happy person.  Adult Grace simply has not, but instead has crafted a very lonely life.  The murder mystery was pretty cool- I love anything to do with cults- but the idea of this beautiful, smart psychologist running around in disguise and breaking the law herself just didn’t seem that believable.

 

 

Summary

A brilliant, deeply dedicated psychologist, Grace Blades has a gift for treating troubled souls and tormented psyches—perhaps because she bears her own invisible scars: Only five years old when she witnessed her parents’ deaths in a bloody murder-suicide, Grace took refuge in her fierce intellect and found comfort in the loving couple who adopted her. But even as an adult with an accomplished professional life, Grace still has a dark, secret side. When her two worlds shockingly converge, Grace’s harrowing past returns with a vengeance.
 
Both Grace and her newest patient are stunned when they recognize each other from a recent encounter. Haunted by his bleak past, mild-mannered Andrew Toner is desperate for Grace’s renowned therapeutic expertise and more than willing to ignore their connection. And while Grace is tempted to explore his case, which seems to eerily echo her grim early years, she refuses—a decision she regrets when a homicide detective appears on her doorstep.
 
An evil she thought she’d outrun has reared its head again, but Grace fears that a police inquiry will expose her double life. Launching her own personal investigation leads her to a murderously manipulative foe, one whose warped craving for power forces Grace back into the chaos and madness she’d long ago fled.

Bookish (& Not So Bookish) Thoughts

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Bookish & Not So Bookish Thoughts

is a weekly meme hosted by Christine over at Bookishly Boisterous, where we post things that are on our minds.  Head over there and check it out!

 1. I am preparing myself already to totally fail my Goodreads reading challenge.  Last year I did great- I read 100 books.  This year, I decided to up that to 115- and as of now I am 13 books behind.  I hope I can at least get to 100.

2.  Just when I finally relented and bought the pumpkin candle, its back up to 85 degrees.  But goes to 49 at night.  September is a bitch.

3.  People shouldn’t be allowed to bring their adorable new puppies to high school sporting events.  It’s really not fair.  Especially that extremely smug man with the beautiful black lab puppy he is training as a seeing eye dog.  Actually Jackass, my dogs DO know who is boss- them.  or maybe its a democracy.  At least I love my dogs.

4.  Speaking of which, does anyone know the signs of dementia in dogs?  My 12 year old lab is getting a little wacky.

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5.  I watched Stephen King on The Late Show last week- he is so funny!  Any big King fans out there?

What is your favorite book by him?

6.  I know I need to start running, so today, as soon as the kids left, I went back to bed.  But I am going to go for a run in a little while. Maybe.

7.  I watched the debate last night- I wanted to dunk my head in a bucket of ice water afterward.  Thank god for wine- 2016 is going to be an ugly year.

8.  I am still reading The Girl in the Spider’s Web.  It is going a little slow for me, but I am hoping we are getting to a good part.

9.  I walked into the library yesterday and didn’t take anything out- yah willpower!

I was actually returning a book that was 2 days late, and I had an appointment, so I had no time, but still.

10.  They revealed the short list for the Man Booker Prize.  I have not read any of them.  I am ashamed.

Shortlist---Splashzone

Black-Eyed Susans by Julie Heaberlin

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Black Eyed Susans

by Julie Heaberlin

published by Ballantine Books

August 2015

I received and advance review copy of this book from the publisher through Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.

My Review

That cover!  It totally caught my eye and piqued my interest.  In this case, you can judge the book by the cover because the story inside is just as catching and captivating!  This was a suspenseful, fast read that I didn’t want to put down.  As with many books today, it is told in two parts: the past and the present of Tessa Cartwright.  After she is found in a field of black eyed susans, the only living victim of a serial killer, Tessa struggles to cope with her experience.  Despite having no recollection of the actual crime, prosecutors use her testimony to convict and sentence a man to death.  Fast forward almost twenty years and Tess is now living a happy, if very sheltered life with her daughter.  When she sees a fresh batch of the infamous flowers planted outside her bedroom window, she begins to fear the wrong man is about to be put to death.  Agreeing to help the lawyers fighting for appeal, Tess struggle to open her mind, daring herself to remember the worst thing that has ever happened to her.

What I really enjoyed about this book was that it wasn’t as predictable as so many suspense novels out there.  Tess wasn’t just a victim, she was a heroine in my eyes.  The writing keeps you engaged and always a little surprised.  If you enjoy a good suspense story this is a must read for you.

 

Summary

As a sixteen-year-old, Tessa Cartwright was found in a Texas field, barely alive amid a scattering of bones, with only fragments of memory as to how she got there. Ever since, the press has pursued her as the lone surviving “Black-Eyed Susan,” the nickname given to the murder victims because of the yellow carpet of wildflowers that flourished above their shared grave. Tessa’s testimony about those tragic hours put a man on death row.

Now, almost two decades later, Tessa is an artist and single mother. In the desolate cold of February, she is shocked to discover a freshly planted patch of black-eyed susans—a summertime bloom—just outside her bedroom window. Terrified at the implications—that she sent the wrong man to prison and the real killer remains at large—Tessa turns to the lawyers working to exonerate the man awaiting execution. But the flowers alone are not proof enough, and the forensic investigation of the still-unidentified bones is progressing too slowly. An innocent life hangs in the balance. The legal team appeals to Tessa to undergo hypnosis to retrieve lost memories—and to share the drawings she produced as part of an experimental therapy shortly after her rescue.

What they don’t know is that Tessa and the scared, fragile girl she was have built a  fortress of secrets. As the clock ticks toward the execution, Tessa fears for her sanity, but even more for the safety of her teenaged daughter. Is a serial killer still roaming free, taunting Tessa with a trail of clues? She has no choice but to confront old ghosts and lingering nightmares to finally discover what really happened that night.

Shocking, intense, and utterly original, Black-Eyed Susans is a dazzling psychological thriller, seamlessly weaving past and present in a searing tale of a young woman whose harrowing memories remain in a field of flowers—as a killer makes a chilling return to his garden.

If I Could Turn Back Time by Beth Harbison

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If I Could Turn Back Time

by Beth Harbison

Published by St. Martin Press

July 28, 2015 release date

I received an advance review copy of this book from the publisher through Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.

My Review

Ramie Phillips is celebrating her 37 birth day with friends on a yacht and thinks she has it all.  Single, wealthy and successful, she has never regretted the decisions she mad that led her where she is.  The joyful pregnancy announcement sends Ramie reeling and she proceeds to get good and drunk.  When she her drunken dive winds up smashing her head on the boat, Ramie wakes up- not 37, but 18 and in high school.  As she relives the days leading up to her high school graduation, she begins to second guess her big choices- what  and where to study in college, breaking up with her high school sweetheart, etc.

This was a fun, fast book that I really enjoyed.  I loved the beginning and the end, but felt the middle  became bogged down with too much “reflection” that really didn’t tie into the story or the main character.  It felt like it disrupted the flow of the story in order to make it major meaningful.  Once past that, it was really terrific, and I loved the ending (no spoilers).  I love the idea of revising major life decisions and possibly seeing the aftermath of the path not taken.

Summary

Thirty-seven year old Ramie Phillips has led a very successful life. She made her fortune and now she hob nobs with the very rich and occasionally the semi-famous, and she enjoys luxuries she only dreamed of as a middle-class kid growing up in Potomac, Maryland. But despite it all, she can’t ignore the fact that she isn’t necessarily happy. In fact, lately Ramie has begun to feel more than a little empty.

On a boat with friends off the Florida coast, she tries to fight her feelings of discontent with steel will and hard liquor. No one even notices as she gets up and goes to the diving board and dives off…

Suddenly Ramie is waking up, straining to understand a voice calling in the distance…It’s her mother: “Wake up! You’re going to be late for school again. I’m not writing a note this time…”

Ramie finds herself back on the eve of her eighteenth birthday, with a second chance to see the people she’s lost and change the choices she regrets. How did she get back here? Has she gone off the deep end? Is she really back in time? Above all, she’ll have to answer the question that no one else can: What it is that she really wants from the past, and for her future?

 

 

 

Circling the Sun by Paula McLain

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Circling the Sun

by Paula McLain

published by Ballantine Books

July 28, 2015

I received this book as an advance review copy from the publisher through net Galley in exchange for an honest review.

My Review

I loved McLains’ The Paris Wife so much and I was so happy to receive Circling The Sun from the publishers.  I was not disappointed!  First- this makes me want to read, and then watch Out of Africa, which I never have.  Then I want to read Markham’s own memoir West with the Night.  The author has presented an amazing description of aAfrica in the early 20th century, as well as one of the Europeans who either treated it as a part of heaven, or a playground for the wealthy and bored.

Beryl Markham lived an amazing life.  She grew up on a farm in Kenya, raised only by her somewhat neglectful father after her mother leaves them to return to England.  She was permitted to run wild, learning how to hunt and shoot with the native boys.  When her father tries to send her to school in her teens, she repeatedly runs away until she is kicked out.  She lived her life in such an unconventional way, at at time when there weren’t many choices for women living on their own.  She did marry two times- both were very unhappy and ended quickly.  Markham had many affairs, but was only made truly happy but three things- horses, Denys Finch- Hatton, and flying.

This might be one of my favorite books of the year so far.  The writing was wonderful and the author obviously did a meticulous job with her research.  My favorite part of the book is the descriptions of Africa, and the obvious love Markham had for it.  I would definitely recommend this book.  A big thank you to Ballantine Books and Net Galley for sharing it with me!

Summary

Paula McLain, author of the phenomenal bestseller The Paris Wife, now returns with her keenly anticipated new novel, transporting readers to colonial Kenya in the 1920s. Circling the Sun brings to life a fearless and captivating woman—Beryl Markham, a record-setting aviator caught up in a passionate love triangle with safari hunter Denys Finch Hatton and Karen Blixen, who as Isak Dinesen wrote the classic memoir Out of Africa.

Brought to Kenya from England as a child and then abandoned by her mother, Beryl is raised by both her father and the native Kipsigis tribe who share his estate. Her unconventional upbringing transforms Beryl into a bold young woman with a fierce love of all things wild and an inherent understanding of nature’s delicate balance. But even the wild child must grow up, and when everything Beryl knows and trusts dissolves, she is catapulted into a string of disastrous relationships.

Beryl forges her own path as a horse trainer, and her uncommon style attracts the eye of the Happy Valley set, a decadent, bohemian community of European expats who also live and love by their own set of rules. But it’s the ruggedly charismatic Denys Finch Hatton who ultimately helps Beryl navigate the uncharted territory of her own heart. The intensity of their love reveals Beryl’s truest self and her fate: to fly.

Set against the majestic landscape of early-twentieth-century Africa, McLain’s powerful tale reveals the extraordinary adventures of a woman before her time, the exhilaration of freedom and its cost, and the tenacity of the human spirit.

To learn more about Beryl Markham, check out some of these site-

http://scandalouswoman.blogspot.com/2013/04/the-many-lives-of-beryl-markham.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beryl_Markham

http://womanpilot.com/?p=67

Go Set A Watchman-Are You Going To Read It?

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The much talked about, much anticipated prequel to To Kill A Mockingbird is set to be released tomorrow and there is already a whole lot of talk out there.  I have not read the first chapter, but I have heard that Watchman portrays our beloved Atticus Finch in a less than flattering light.

This comes on top of the debate over whether author Harper Lee really wanted Watchman to ever be published, or if she has been manipulated by lawyers/publisher just to make $$.

So, I am asking everyone out there- what are your thoughts here?  Will everyone read it?

If you haven’t heard the buzz, you can read here-

Cnn

NY Times

The Guardian

I Can’t Wait! A Top Ten List

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Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke & the Bookish. It’s awesome. Every Tuesday, the lovely ladies over there give us book bloggers wonderful and fun topics to create our lists! Check out what others have posted by going over there!

http://brokeandbookish.blogspot.com

This week’s topic is

Top Ten Mostly Anticipated New Releases

1.  Go Set A Watchman by Harper Lee

Go Set a Watchman features many of the characters from To Kill a Mockingbird some twenty years later. Returning home to Maycomb to visit her father, Jean Louise Finch—Scout—struggles with issues both personal and political, involving Atticus, society, and the small Alabama town that shaped her.

1.  Finders Keepers by Stephen King

A masterful, intensely suspenseful novel about a reader whose obsession with a reclusive writer goes far too far—a book about the power of storytelling, starring the same trio of unlikely and winning heroes King introduced in Mr. Mercedes.

3.  Rogue Lawyer by John Grisham

Sebastian Rudd is one of John Grisham’s most colorful, outrageous, and vividly drawn characters yet. Gritty, witty, and impossible to put down, Rogue Lawyer showcases the master of the legal thriller at his very best.

4.  No Better Friend by Robert Weintraub

Flight technician Frank Williams and Judy, a purebred pointer, met in the most unlikely of places: a World War II internment camp in the Pacific. Judy was a fiercely loyal dog, with a keen sense for who was friend and who was foe, and the pair’s relationship deepened throughout their captivity. When the prisoners suffered beatings, Judy would repeatedly risk her life to intervene. She survived bombings and other near-death experiences and became a beacon not only for Frank but for all the men, who saw in her survival a flicker of hope for their own.

5.  The Rumor by Elin Hildebrand

A friendship is tested in this irresistible page-turner from New York Times bestselling author Elin Hilderbrand. 

6.  The Girl in the Spider’s Web by David Lagercrantz

In this adrenaline-charged thriller, genius-hacker Lisbeth Salander and journalist Mikael Blomkvist face a dangerous new threat and must again join forces. 

7.  Eight Hundred Grapes by Laura Dave

A breakout novel from an author who “positively shines with wisdom and intelligence” (Jonathan Tropper, This Is Where I leave You). “Laura Dave writes with humor and insight about relationships in all their complexity, whether she’s describing siblings or fiancés or a couple long-married. Eight Hundred Grapesis a captivating story about the power of family, the limitations of love, and what becomes of a life’s work”

8.  The Truth According to Us by Anne Barrow

From the co-author of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society comes a wise, witty, and exuberant novel, perfect for fans of Lee Smith, that illuminates the power of loyalty and forgiveness, memory and truth, and the courage it takes to do what’s right. 




Off to the Outer Banks

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I am off to the Outer Banks for a week with the family!!  We are renting a home in Carova- the 4 X 4  area of OBX where the horses roam free.

The kids’ school lets out early and this is actually the only week we are able to go for the WHOLE summer!

Between classes, work, business trips, and preseason, we are all booked up.

So, I might not be posting as much this week, but here is a fun little fact-

Before I had the chance to download King’s newest- Finders Keepers, I ran some errands.  As I walked into the library- BAM- there it was just waiting for me.  This should make that 8 hour drive go by nicely.  

The Third Wife by Lisa Jewell

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The Third Wife

by Lisa Jewell

published by Atria Books

June 9, 2015

I received an advance review copy of this book from the publisher through net Galley in exchange for an honest review.

 

I jumped at the chance to review the newest Lisa Jewell Book, The Third Wife.  I haven’t read that much by the author, but I loved The House We Grew Up In so much that I had to read her newest, and I was very excited to receive it through net Galley.  It was one of those magical times where you accept a book for review (or you are accepted) and you love it!  I raised this book in about 7 hours- taking time out for “life” and I was sad to put it down, though very satisfied.

The story centers around Adrian and his large extended family as they deal with the loss of his third wife, Maya.  Adrian has two, mostly grown children with his first wife Susie, and three young children with his second wife, Caroline.  Along with Maya, this family has seemingly embraced their large non traditional life.  When Maya is hit by a bus, Adrian is immersed in grief.  Almost a year goes by before a chance encounter forces him to take a really close look at Maya’s death and his family.

I really don’t want to give anymore into since this story unfolds perfectly.  I though Jewell did a wonderful job here creating a family that seems so perfect until you start looking closer.  I loved the pace- not too fast or too slow.  Adrian is an interesting character, and the reader has a chance to actually see him grow and come to certain painful realizations.  This is a great- very fast – read, and I would definitely recommend it.

Summary

In the early hours of an April morning, Maya stumbles into the path of an oncoming bus.

A tragic accident? Or suicide?

Her grief-stricken husband, Adrian, is determined to find out.

Maya had a job she enjoyed; she had friends. They’d been in love.

She even got on with his two previous wives and their children. In fact, they’d all been one big happy family.

But before long Adrian starts to identify the dark cracks in his perfect life.
Because everyone has secrets.
And secrets have consequences.
Some of which can be devastating.