War and Peace and Incest? Tolstoy scholars are hollering blue murder at Andrew Davies’ (House of Cards, Sense and Sensibility) adaptation for the, BBC charging that the small screen version is playing fast and loose with the Russian nobleman’s classic. From The Telegraph: Tolstoy scholar Andrew Kaufman said of the incest scenes: “That has absolutely no justification in the text. It just doesn’t exist in it. “I think they may be imposing a 21st Century […]
We’ve noted before that talent often arrives in birthday batches. Today, for instance, is the birthday not only of Canada’s beloved children’s author Lucy Maud Montgomery (1874), but also of Mark Twain, who was born in a Missouri log cabin in 1835 and controversial playwright David Mamet (1947) who won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for Glengarry Glen Ross in 1984. This year, the spotlight is on Ms. Montgomery who is today honored for her […]
Habitual readers agree: nothing can transport you in quite the same way as a novel. The experience is not possible to duplicate. And, anyway, why would you want to? But what about something that does not try to duplicate it, but rather takes elements of the novel-reading experience and wraps it into something new? Some of these are already in play. From The Economist: IAIN PEARS’s new novel “Arcadia” comes as a 600-page hardback, as befits […]
Kenneth Branagh (My Week With Marilyn, Wallanader) has been tapped to lead and direct a new on-screen version of Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express. Ridley Scott (The Martian) will co-produce. From BBC News: The last, and most famous, movie version of Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express was in 1974. British actor Albert Finney starred as the detective with Lauren Bacall and Ingrid Bergman co-starring. Ustinov made three big-screen Christie mysteries, including Death […]
Like many Black Americans of the mid-20th century, Phyllis Lawson’s parents moved from their hometown of Livingston, Alabama to the big city in search of a better life. It wasn’t long before hardships left them unable to provide. Soon, four-year-old Phyllis is plucked off her front porch, ripped away from the only family she knows, and sent to live with her grandmother Lula on an Alabama farm with no electricity, plumbing, or running water. Heartbroken […]
Amazon has just cast Matt Bomer (American Horror Story: Hotel, White Collar) to play the lead in The Last Tycoon, Amazon Studios’ drama pilot based on F. Scott Fitzgerald’s final unfinished novel. From Deadline Hollywood: Inspired by the life of film mogul Irving Thalberg, on whom the book’s protagonist Monroe Stahr was based, The Last Tycoon centers on Stahr (Bomer), Hollywood’s first wunderkind studio executive in the 1930s as he climbs to the height of power […]
Did you read the book about a girl on a train? It’s possible you read the wrong book. From the Wall Street Journal: Alison Waines didn’t expect her two-year-old psychological thriller to hit it big. But it suddenly took off this year, selling tens of thousands of copies, climbing to the top of Amazon.com Inc.’s U.K. and Australian charts for e-book downloads, and becoming a topic of discussion in book clubs. “I’m making more money […]
In 1976, feminist author Germaine Greer (The Female Eunuch, Sex and Destiny) wrote a 30,000 word love letter to author Martin Amis (The Rachel Papers, Money) that was most likely never sent. She was 37 and he was 26 and they had recently embarked on an affair. Fast forward to 2013, when Greer sold her papers to the University of Melbourne. Australian academic and journalist Margaret Simons found the notebook among Greer’s papers. From The […]
In Catherine Jinks’ latest novel, Theophilus Grey and the Demon Thief (Allen and Unwin), 12-year-old Theophilus Grey, known as Philo, is the leader of a team of link boys. In 18th century London, theirs is a necessary job, escorting clients home late at night by torchlight. There is rivalry between them and the newer lamp lighters, but they still have plenty of work. Philo and his crew work for a former law clerk, Garnet Hooke, who […]
If you feel disempowered and disconnected in a world that doesn’t make sense to you, The Indigo Journal holds the answers and healing tools you’ve been looking for. From her mystical experiences, channeled messages and encounters with enlightened teachers to the cosmic memories that led her to an in-depth exploration of the wounded Feminine, the author takes you on a spiritual healing journey of self-discovery and personal growth to unlock your hidden power, fulfill your […]
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