Books into Movies

I stumbled across an article about Chuck Palahniuk's Choke being made into a movie. Fox Searchlight bought it and it will be released August 1st. Patrick was not impressed because he already knew this. He is aparently in love with Sam Rockwell, despite his role in Charlie's Angels, and says he is a "freakin' genius". I did not know who Sam Rockwell was until I imdb'ed him, and realized I knew him from Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Angelica Houston will be playing Rockwell's mother. Sundance awarded 'Choke' with a Special Jury Prize: Dramatic, Work by an Ensemble Cast. It seems to me like it is off to a good start.

The other day I was looking through a catalogue for Random House and read that Dreamworks is making Revolutionary Road into a movie too. Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslett will be staring in it - you might remember them from a little movie they did called Titanic, which was the last movie they worked together on. I had to read Yates' novel, about marriage and domesticity in the '50s, for a class in college. I absolutely fell in love with it. It's a great story and I am fascinated to see it adapted into film. Sam Mendes will be directing it - he won an academy award for American Beauty. I guess it's kind of a backwords remake of American Beauty: suburbia...marriage? I suddenly realize this could break my heart. This movie is either going to be really good or really disapointing. I think this probably happens a lot to people who read a lot. Here's something that I love and is dear to me, and it is in the hands of strangers and they are giving it away to the masses. We'll find out December 19, 2008

This got all us thinking of all of the other books that are being made into movies in the near future. Here's the list we've compiled that is of interest to us:

Mysteries of Pittsburgh - novel by Michael Chabon, it has a ton of famous actors in it, and a plot that veers a little away from the original - it takes out an entire character?!

Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist - this young adult novel is set to release October 3. This is exciting news because Michael Cera is playing the title character Nick. We, in the store, love Michael Cera...a lot...and I'm pretty sure will see anything he is in!

The Tale of Despereaux - Kate DeCamillo's Newberry Award winning young adult book is being made into an animated film. Emma Watson (aka Hermoine Granger) leads an amazing cast of voices, to name but a few: Dustin Hoffman, Matthew Broderick, William H. Macy. This sounds like it might be plugged at the big holiday movie for 2008 - like Golden Compass but without the polar bears.

Brief Interviews with Hideous Men - David Foster Wallace's novel is in post-production. Here's what I've read that is exciting: John Krasinski is adapting the novel into the screenplay. John Krasinski is directing. John Krasinski is acting in it. To recap: John Krasinski, John Krasinski, John "Jim Halpurt" Krasinski. Also on the roster, Rashida Jones and Will Forte. There's no release date but you bet we'll be there with bells on. In the store we love The Office as much as we love Arrested Development.

I told Laura the topic of this blog and she immediately had a few things to say. "Silk should not be made into a movie, and it should not be starring Keira Knightly." Don't get me, or Laura, wrong, she has nothing against Keira Knightly, she just doesn't want Keira in all of her novels.

There's no steadfast rule about what makes a good book into a good movie, but we'll keep reading and watching and let you know what we think.

Young Adult News

The release date for Book 3 in The Inheritance Cycle has just been announced. Christopher Paolini’s first two books in the series, Eragon and Eldest, sold over 12.5 million copies worldwide. The third novel, Brisingr, will have a first printing of 2.5 million copies, and will be released September 20, 2008.

Recently announced, Brian Selznick received the 2008 Caldecott Medal for the most distinguished American Picture Book for Children. His young adult novel, The Invention of Hugo Cabret, stunned all of us in the store when we first saw it last year. The book comes in at 526 pages, but don’t let that alarm you, more than 300 pages of the book is illustrations, done by Selznick himself. Selznick uses both narrative and illustrations to move the story forward, the book could not stand on one of those alone. It is an amazing and inventive book.

Picture by Tony Cenicola/The New York Times

Top 10 Books of 2007

Design by Paul Sahre; photograph by Tony Cenicola

The New York Times Book Review announced the top 10 books of 2007 a few weeks ago.

We think their list is great, but we thought it would be fun to give you our personal top books of 2007.

In no particular order here are the books we loved, that moved us, and that we will remember well into 2008.

Jane
Here are four thrillers that Jane loved this year, and one novel that had to be on her list!

1. The Ghost - Robert Harris

2. No Time for Goodbye - Linwood Barclay

3. Body of Lies - David Ignatius

4. Killer Weekend - Ridley Pearson

5. A Thousand Splendid Suns - Khaled Hosseini

Lisa

1. Half of a Yellow Sun - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

2. Harry Potter Collection - J.K. Rowling
After an imense amount of peer pressure Lisa read the entire Harry Potter series this year. Like most of us she quickly fell in love with all things Harry Potter.

3.Then We Came to the End - Joshua Ferris

4. Richard Misrach: On the Beach
This oversized photography book is amazing.

5. Absurdistan - Gary Shteyngart

Laura

1. Bad Monkeys - Matt Ruff
It's a bizarre set of twists and turns that you want to make sense, but they don't. Bizarre, hard to keep up with, but funny. I didn't want it to end.

2. Special Topics in Calamity Physics - Marisha Pessl
The characters were great, but the story gripped you.

3. Thursday Next - Jasper Fforde
Had to get it! Had to read the sequel to such a good series.

4. What is the What - Dave Eggers
I never would have picked it up on my own, but it was for book club. I am so glad I did. The boy's experience is so real and so heartbreaking. It is astounding that all of this was going on a few years ago. I am glad I read it, and was able to learn from it.

5. Before I Die - Jenny Downham
Very well written. The author took a taboo subject, and made it a beautiful story.

Patrick

1. By Night in Chile - Robert Bolano
-- Technically, it didn't come out this year. I read it this year, though, and his "new" book The Savage Detectives was called the best Latin American novel of forever, so I think it counts. It's a dying Chilean priest's deathbed confession of his life in poetry and his complicity in Pinochet's rise. But the images! Woah! Hallucinations, right off the page. He's the new G.G. Marquez.


2. Then We Came to the End - Joshua Ferris
-- The funniest book I've read this year. Told in the third person plural, narrating the downfall of a Chicago advertising agency in the dot com bubble burst, you get sucked up in the office gossipy vibe -- who's sleeping with whom, and who stole a chair, and why does Benny have a totem pole? -- while feeling for these people who are all too much like you and me.


3. Collected Poems of Lynda Hull
-- You like poetry, or you don't. If you don't, skip to number 4. If you do, and you haven't read Lynda Hull, buy it now. Father, Son, and the Holy Ghost! She's got all of them, and a million more, crammed into single poems that are simple, accessible, and which will decimate you and rebuild you in the same breath.


4. The Yiddish Policeman's Union
-- Michael Chabon is my buddy, but only in my imagination. If we were buddies, though, this is our conversation:
"Hi, Mikey."
"Hey Patrick, that racketball last week was killer."
"Yeah, I know. So hey, the Yiddish Policeman's Union was brilliant. Jews in Alaska? Where do you get this stuff?"
"Um, they really were going to do that."
"Ho man, the government! You kill me! But the characters, the story (so gripping), and everything so detailed and vivid. You're so great. Wanna get a smoothie?"
"Fo Sho."


5. Five Skies -- Ron Carlson's story of three men at different points in their lives, brought
together to build a stunt ramp over a gorge in Idaho, made me cry. But it was a manly cry, and I'm not even kidding. He gets men, and tells a gripping story, and his descriptions of the landscape are awe-inspiring. I was really surprised by how much I liked this book.

Kristiana

1. Raw Shark Texts - Steven Hall
This book is amazing. It's a little strange, but completely compelling and original. I bought it for most of my friends this year because I needed to talk about it with others. It's Steven Hall's first novel and I can't really express how much I loved this book.

2. Special Topics in Calamity Physics - Marisha Pessl
Another astounding first novel. While the title may be intimidating the book is entirely accessible. It begins with a table of contents and ends it with a Final Exam. Special Topics has been compared to Donna Tartt's "The Secret History", and it is a fare comparison. Pessl makes the story of a close knit group of friends under the influence of their teacher completely her own. It is so good on so many different levels.

3.Divisadero - Michael Ondaatje
I had a friend in high school whose last name was Ondaatje - who was also Shri Lankinn - I wonder if they are related. I saw the movie the English Patient, and I know that is not the same thing as reading the book, but I liked the movie which is what made me pick up Divisadero. Having said that, I was blown away by Michael Ondaatje's most recent work of fiction. I was sucked into the story of a family on a farm in the 1970's - something I did not think I could be so enraptured by. The writing was beautiful and the story was absolutely moving and captivating.

4. Edible Woman - Margaret (Maggie) Atwood
I love Margaret Atwood. I would read anything by her so when Randy gave me Edible Woman (Atwood's 1969 novel) I read it with joy and abandon. It's the story of a 20 something girl who gets engaged and begins viewing the world and her life in new ways. It was great. Atwood's most recent works are: The Door, a new book of poetry with an audio cd of poems read by the author, The Tent, a collection of fictional essays, and Moral Disorder, a series of interrelated stories. Enjoy!

5. The Year of Magical Thinking a Play by Joan Didion
I read Year of Magical Thinking, the memoir, at the beginning of this year, and I loved it. I read the play on the plane ride home from New York after hearing Joan Didion speak. I was drawn into the story again, and was blown away by it. It is heartbreaking and beautiful.

Yet Another Reason to Visit the Store...

Thanks to the fine folks at msn.com, The Art of the Bookstore Pickup:

http://msn.match.com/msn/article.aspx?articleid=7453&TrackingID=516311&BannerID=544657&menuid=6&GT1=10678

I think this was my favorite bit:

Ed Lowe, a Chicago pensions analyst, recalls the time a woman interrupted him as he read a collection of short stories by the existential philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre: “I think I said something pithy about Sartre’s thoughts on human frailty,” he recalls.

A true smooth operator.

I don't think we've had an Laguna Beach Books love connections happen yet. Maybe we should have an event that crosses both Speed Dating and Speed Reading, or (what with the writers on strike), maybe a vie-to-be-his-bride reality show called The Protagonist.

J.K. Rowling!!!! (a.k.a. the longest blog ever)

For those who don't know, J.K. Rowling is on a three city book tour. It began yesterday in L.A. and will conclude in New York on the 19th. Rowling decided when she finished book seven of the Harry Potter series that she wanted to come to the States and thank her fans. To avoid the mayhem of trying to sell tickets (my speculation) to this event Scholastic set up sorting hats in local schools. 1,600 school children were invited to attend. When I arrived at the Kodak theatre there was a group of students in Hogwarts robes and scarves, their chaperone appropriately dressed as a Hogwarts teacher. No joke. It was a surprising - and perfect - touch.

J.K. was introduced by the superintendent of L.A. school district - who was introduced by the president of Scholastic (I think it was the president, but I didn’t have a pen to write down his name, so I’m not 100% certain). Both mentioned how Rowling has had such an impact on students. Harry Potter is the first book that many students have wanted to read for fun. It has also given students the confidence to read bigger books. It is an impact that I hadn't really thought of before, but it’s huge! J.K. mentioned that fact has meant so much to her.

There was Harry Potter soundtrack music playing while we waited for the event to start. There was a starlit backdrop and giant posters of the seven American book covers. In the middle of the otherwise bare stage was a giant rug, a giant throne like chair and a table with tea on it- I'm assuming it was tea because she's British.


When Ms. Rowling was introduced and came on stage she was met by a standing ovation (I'm embarrassed to admit I totally got chills). Ms. Rowling began by reading from chapter two (page 30) of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. She mentioned the page number and to my surprise tons of people flipped open their books to follow along. Also to my surprise, she did voices! She had amazingly good voices for each individual character. Who knew?! Chapter two is when the Dursleys and Harry part ways. There's a part in the chapter where Dudley says 'I don't think you're a waste of space Harry', and the whole audience awed. J.K. replied, "I know! I felt that way when I wrote it." It was adorable.

After the reading she answered questions from the audience. I was surprised that many of the questions were about J.K. rather than the plot, but there ended up being a good balance. An eight year old girl asked if J.K. had as big of an imagination when she was young as she does now, and another child asked what inspiration she had growing up. She answered that her parents did not think being a professional writer was very steady, so she got inspiration from various teachers along the way, concluding that “a good teacher is worth her weight in gold”.

When asked about all the deaths in the book Rowling apologized for putting us through that, but pointed out that if someone we don't care about dies we won't really care. She mentioned the (SPOILER) death of Doby and said that it was necessary, but understandably sad, primarily because Doby was so innocent. The saddest deaths to her were Tonks and Lupin (sigh). She said that it was the saddest because they left behind Teddy, but that it was important because it closed a circle in the story. Harry grew up as an orphan and as Teddy's godfather he will be able to relate to Teddy and give him all the things he missed out on growing up. She talked about Snape. Snape! Rowling said she knew all along why Snape was the way he was, and all the history between him and Lily, and that he is not cut and dry and not necessarily all good.

OH! A student asked if any characters were based on real people, and J.K. explained that Hermione was an exaggerated version of herself (isn't that fun?), and that there are pieces of different people she knows in some characters. Gilderoy Lockheart IS entirely based on someone real. Rowling said that she did not need to embellish anything, and that he would never in a million years guess that he was the mold. "He probably thinks that he is my Dumbledore." Loved it.

When asked if she would rather be the Queen of England or write more Harry Potter books, Rowling replied that she would rather write more Harry Potter books because being the Queen is a really hard job. She also explained that the next thing she works on will have to be something she loves just as much as Harry Potter because otherwise it just wouldn't work.

The whole event went by way too quickly, but it's understandable because she was going to sign 1,600 copies of the book for the students present. Scholastic is giving away 5,000 copies of the Deathly Hallows. Running along the width of the stage were the 1,600 copies of the book. It was impressive, and amazing that
1. Scholastic would do that
2. J.K. could sign that many books in one sitting

Since she was entirely busy signing books for children I did not get to take her out for coffee - I mean tea - and hang out. I'm sure she would have wanted to given the opportunity.

It was an amazing experience. It was like Christmas and I felt like Cinderella going to a ball - yes I'm mixing my metaphors, but that's how it felt.

Since I was at the Kodak theatre I'm going to thank people like I just won an Oscar,
I would like to thank:

• our Scholastic rep for inviting Randy
• Randy for liking me enough to let me go
• Lisa, Jane and Robyn liking me enough to agree to let me go
• Patrick for not reading the Harry Potter series, so I didn't have to arm wrestle him
• And you the reader for listening to my ramblings about the best day I've had as a bookseller.

Good night!

-Kristiana