Read. Watch. Discuss.
Posted by: Kaite Stover
Harking back to suggestion #8 in Neil’s list of “how to beat the book club doldrums,” here are some books-into-movies that are coming soon to a book club/movie theatre near you:
Book club favorite from 2003, The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger is scheduled to open around the holidays (dates, of course, subject to change due to the whim of those movie-types). Readers enjoyed the deft mix of science fiction time travel with romantic love story. The structure of the novel intrigued other fans. The author would jump from time to time, much like her hero, to tell a very non-linear story that had an easy-to-follow narrative. Topic to discuss: How well did the movie capture the novel’s narrative structure? Did it work?
Critical darling, Pulitzer winner and Oprah pick, The Road by Cormac McCarthy will be coming to the big screen in November of 2008. The post-apocalyptic drama boasts a stellar cast. This title is great book/movie bait for those discussion gro
ups wanting to reel in some of those twenty- or thirty-something readers.
Pair the books, pair the movies: James McBride‘s Miracle at St. Anna, slated to open in September 2008, is a first-rate military thriller set in World War II Italy. Consider making this title the star of a book group “event,” a double discussion/viewing of Flags of Our Fathers. Read the book by James Bradley and Ron Powers and consider discussing how all the authors/filmmakers view “the greatest generation.”
For those book groups and movie goers who relish a challenge, get ready for Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh. A very literary novel full of dramatic relationships and conflicts. Look for the film version in August of this year.
