There have been a number of new adaptation of Alcott's Little Women recently, including one that just aired last month on PBS. It was delightful and had a stellar cast, but I always wonder if these adaptations are going to be true to the original novel, which I've read several times and loved. Now there's this trailer for a "modern" retelling of Little Women, placing them in the 21st century. Since it will be going outside of the confines of the novel, I wonder if it will mess with the storyline enough that it will become like the book "in name only." Still, it looks good from the trailer, and it has a great cast, so I will probably go see it.
Movies: Little Women
A trailer has been
released for Little Women
retelling of
Louisa May Alcott's classic novel directed by Clare
Niederpruem,
adapted by Niederpruem and Kristi Shimek, and featuring
cinematography by
Anka Malatynska. The film hits theaters nationwide
September 28.
The cast includes
Lea Thompson (Back to the Future) as Marmee; Sarah
Davenport (Jo),
Melanie (Meg), Taylor Murphy (Amy), Allie Jennings
(Beth), Ian Bohen
(Freddy), Lucas Grabeel (Laurie) and Bart Johnson
(Papa March).
On the 150th
anniversary of the novel's publication, the filmmakers
imagine Jo
"as an aspiring writer who leaves for New York determined to
publish a novel,
but her editor challenges her to write about something
more
interesting--her family. When tragedy brings the sisters back home,
sticking together
takes on new meaning. As Jo comforts her sick sister,
Beth asks for one
thing: a story. Jo knows the perfect one... by heart."
On Stage: Ted
Hughes's The Iron Woman
Later this year,
the Other Palace, a London theater owned by Andrew
Lloyd Webber's
Really Useful Theatres Group, will stage an adaptation of
Ted Hughes's
children's book The Iron Woman
which first
published 25 years ago as a sequel to The Iron Man, the
Bookseller
reported.
Carol Hughes, Ted
Hughes' widow, said she approached Andrew Lloyd Webber
about doing a play
to mark the 20th anniversary of the poet's death "in
a positive way by
highlighting his writing for children and also his
lifelong passion
for the environment. This story of Lucy and the Iron
Woman is a
gripping, magical fable of what we can achieve once we, and
the generations of
children who follow us, realize we do have within us
the power to fight
back against the seemingly-relentless pollution that
is blighting our
lands, rivers and seas."
The play will be
written by Mike Kenny (The Railway Children), with
music by
songwriter Pippa Cleary. It will open at the Other Palace
theater October 9.
This past week the news has been full of Trump's heinous policy of separating immigrant adults seeking asylum in this country from their children, and then putting these kids, some of whom are infants and toddlers, in cages and treating them like criminals. The outrage has been immediate and heard from all over America and the world. Here's just one segment of protesters, authors of children's lit,who are condemning the treatment of children who have done nothing wrong and are being traumatized without their parents.
Children's and YA
Authors Call for 'No Kids in Cages'
On the eve of
Children's Institute 6 in New Orleans, La., a group of 20
prominent
children's and YA authors, including Marie Lu, Veronica Roth
and Adam Silvera,
have spoken out in protest
against the
Department of Justice's treatment of immigrant children and
the separation of
children from their families.
In an statement
posted online on Monday, the group wrote: "We jointly
and strongly
condemn the inhumane treatment of immigrant children
evidenced by the
[DOJ] in the past week. We believe that innocent
children should
not be separated from their parents. We believe the
'Zero Tolerance'
directive issued by Attorney General Jeff Sessions is
cruel, immoral and
outrageous. We believe the Department of Justice is
engaging in
practices that should be restricted to the pages of
dystopian
novels."
The authors have
called for others to add their names
to an online
petition and make contributions
to a
group of
organizations that includes the ACLU, the Florence Project and
Kids in Need of
Defense.
Within 24 hours
the group had raised more than $42,000. By Tuesday
afternoon, nearly
1,400 people had donated a combined $84,562, and a new
goal of $125,000
has been set.
Starless by Jacqueline Carey is the first novel in a new series by the author of the Kushiel's books and the Agent of Hel series (and Miranda and Caliban, a retelling of Shakespeare's The Tempest, my favorite of his plays). Let me start by saying that Carey is one of the few authors whose work I will purchase and read sight unseen, every time. She's a master storyteller and prose stylist whose plots never flag and whose characters never let you down. And, as a fan of fantasy in most all of it's forms, I was thrilled to learn that Starless was a fantasy novel based in an African/Middle Eastern universe of deserts and nomadic warrior tribes. So my expectations for Starless were high, and I'm happy to say that Carey didn't let me down! I was treated, instead, to a nearly 600 page thrill ride of a novel whose characters are so well written, they seemed real. I could not put this book down! Here's the blurb:
Jacqueline Carey is back with an amazing adventure not seen since her New York Times bestselling Kushiel's Legacy series. Lush and sensual, Starless
introduces us to an epic world where exiled gods live among us, and a
hero whose journey will resonate long after the last page is turned.I was nine years old the first time I tried to kill a man...
Destined from birth to serve as protector of the princess Zariya, Khai is trained in the arts of killing and stealth by a warrior sect in the deep desert; yet there is one profound truth that has been withheld from him.
In the court of the Sun-Blessed, Khai must learn to navigate deadly intrigue and his own conflicted identity…but in the far reaches of the western seas, the dark god Miasmus is rising, intent on nothing less than wholesale destruction.
If Khai is to keep his soul’s twin Zariya alive, their only hope lies with an unlikely crew of prophecy-seekers on a journey that will take them farther beneath the starless skies than anyone can imagine.
One of the the novel's main strengths is that the protagonists, Khai, a transgender girl raised as a boy and Zariya, handicapped by a murder attempt within her family (she is paraplegic and can't use her legs) are in love and yet manage to save the world between the two of them, though they're discounted again and again by the people around them because of their gender and handicap (and because they are defying society's rules and norms by not wanting to marry and produce children). Yet these two legendary young women just keep kicking arse, chapter after chapter, and making all the men surrounding them scratch their heads in wonder. I hope that school libraries carry this book, and that teenage girls around the globe read it and learn that they, too, can be unstoppable, regardless of gender or physical handicaps. And of course, the message that it is okay to "love as thou wilt" is also a strong one for LGBTQ youth, who need to see themselves represented in beautifully written novels like this more often. If I could give Starless a higher grade than an A, I would. I loved every minute of reading this delightful tale, and I sincerely hope that anyone and everyone who reads my blog will do the same.
Death of An Avid Reader by Frances Brody was a library book sale find, and though I was skeptical, it proved to be a nice little distracting mystery about a library ghost and a dying woman looking for the illegitimate daughter she gave up for adoption. Though there was plenty of sexism and classicism, (the novel takes place in England), reluctant sleuth Kate Shackleton manages to solve several mysteries at once in 1920s Leeds. Here's the blurb:
An intricate plot set in the 1920s English countryside and Frances Brody's Kate Shackleton make Death of an Avid Reader an absorbing 6th installment in this mystery series.The Search for a Daughter
Lady Coulton gave up the baby that would have ruined her marriage, born when Lord Coulton was abroad. Now that her husband is dying, she asks Kate to find Sophia.
A Haunted Library
It is forty years since the ghost of a dead librarian haunted the old library, yet the stories have begun again. Kate does not believe in ghosts but obligingly takes part in a ceremony to expel the restless spirit. Shockingly, there is a body in the basement, strangled, and covered in dusty volumes from a fallen bookcase. It is Dr. Potter, a mathematician.
A Killer on the Loose
Dr. Potter’s body is taken away. The police find a sick man sheltering in the basement. He is an Italian, Umberto, an organ grinder and owner of a lively Capuchin monkey. Umberto becomes the prime suspect and will be charged with murder. Kate goes with Umberto to the infirmary. But he is too weak to be a suspect. And now Kate must set out to find the real culprit.
Brody's prose is crisp and lovely, but her plot slows and meanders several times while Kate takes her time figuring things out. I disliked the sexism and cruelty of most of the male characters in the book, and the casual racism of assuming anyone who isn't English is obviously suspect and up to no good. Still, I'd give the novel a B, and though it isn't on a par with Jacqueline Winspear's Maisie Dobbs mysteries, it's still worth a read for those who like cozy historical mysteries set in Britain.
The Incarnations by Susan Barker was, as advertised, brilliantly written, with lush prose that is evocative and beautiful. However, this lovely prose outlines a grim and horrific tale of madness and murder that spans centuries of bloody conflict and political upheaval in China.
In other words, you will need a strong stomach to read this book, and the determination to see the story of the brutal reality of homosexuality in a country that has ingrained prejudice against it, play out time and again. Here's the blurb:
Hailed by The New York Times for its “wildly ambitious...dazzling use of language” and “mesmerizing storytelling,” The Incarnations
is a “brilliant, mind-expanding, and wildly original novel” (Chris
Cleave) about a Beijing taxi driver whose past incarnations over one
thousand years haunt him through searing letters sent by his mysterious
soulmate.Who are you? you must be wondering. I am your soulmate, your old friend, and I have come back to this city of sixteen million in search of you.
So begins the first letter that falls into Wang’s lap as he flips down the visor in his taxi. The letters that follow are filled with the stories of Wang’s previous lives—from escaping a marriage to a spirit bride, to being a slave on the run from Genghis Khan, to living as a fisherman during the Opium Wars, and being a teenager on the Red Guard during the cultural revolution—bound to his mysterious “soulmate,” spanning one thousand years of betrayal and intrigue.
As the letters continue to appear seemingly out of thin air, Wang becomes convinced that someone is watching him—someone who claims to have known him for over a century. And with each letter, Wang feels the watcher growing closer and closer…
Seamlessly weaving Chinese folklore, history, literary classics, and the notion of reincarnation, this is a taut and gripping novel that reveals the cyclical nature of history as it hints that the past is never truly settled.
I feel it is necessary to insert a spoiler here, but the soulmate who is in search of Wang is his insane mother, whom he was told died in an insane asylum but who is very much alive and is completely, utterly mad. She believes that Wang is not her son, but instead is her homosexual love reincarnated, and therefore seeks to break him away from his wife and child and from his gay lover, whom he ends up killing (along with himself) in a car accident. Meanwhile, his mother writes him chapter-long letters detailing their lives in past centuries as lesbian courtesans to a vicious mad emperor, or their time as runaway slaves from the Mongol armies of Genghis Khan. Every single time the lesbian or gay lovers die either by being murdered or via suicide, and it's always bloody and horrific. While I've always found Chinese history fascinating, this book takes us inside of the various eras and shows us the dark underbelly and utter waste of human life that was part and parcel of Chinese social movements for centuries. I'd give it a B-,with the caveat that if you don't mind the blood and gore of the average horror novel, then you will enjoy this novel without any qualms,and you will learn a bit of Chinese history as well. However, not being a fan of the horror genre, I have to say that if I would have known how blood soaked this book was going to be, I would not have read it, no matter how sterling the prose. Still, I don't think I will forget this book and the plight of poor taxi driver Wang for a long time.
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