Tuesday, March 18, 2008

A true book friend has died.

It is a sad day Anthony Minghella has died. He was only 54 yrs. old, young!
He is the director of such books as "The Talented Mr. Ripley" "The English Patient"
and "Cold Mountain". If you ever get to see those added information at the end of the
DVDs there is a good amount of information on all that the directors do to stay true to the
books they are in trusted to bring to film.
Mr. Minghella was an incredible director who soaked in as much matter surrounding
the story he was working on. Not just the book, but the time and customs of the era
when the story takes place. When possible he worked with the authors to stay as true
as possible to what the author meant.
I had been looking for my list of books of Alexander McCall Smith and his variety of topics.
And to find out he (Minghella) had just finished one of those good books really made me
even more sad. God bless his soul for all he did to make so many readers happy.

Friday, March 7, 2008

Cold Mountain-movie-book

Have you ever seen a movie that you really like? I have found several, the last one was the
movie Cold Mountain (2003). I had seen the book years before but never tried to read it.
Somehow I saw a bit of it on t.v. and decided to see it all. I did find it to be very well done and Kidman was good in this one, but Renee Zellweger glowed in it. Once I fall for a movie I go to the library catalog and see if there is a book for this or in the titles at the end of the movie they will state if it was based on a book or just the words- written by- big clues!
The book was good but after reading it I realized that Minghella (the director) did even a better job in condensing it and giving the viewer the essence of the book without the long, long journey.
Then there are times I like a book, like Gone With the Wind and find that the movie only skimmed the top, there were so many smaller stories left out in the movie version, I was so
surprised that it won so many Oscars. I kept telling my mom, if you love the movie read the book! Mom is not a reader, and I feel sorry people like mom, who miss out on so much more to these stories.

Sunday, March 2, 2008

Sister Wendy's Book on Prayer

This book is not a mystery but a treasure I found, almost by accident. We had chosen it at our laddies book club mostly because we've seen her on T.V. and is a good critic on art.
But she has written a book easy to understand and simple to follow or to see how easy it really is to feel comfortable with the way we each choose to communicate we Our Lord.

If you find yourself wondering like most of us at one point or other "am I doing it right?",
this book will help a lot.
This blog is the inspiration of one of the sisters (Daughter's of St. Paul community) who know how much of a reader I am. And my interest in sharing some of what I have gleamed from my journey in life with books or my book journeys or my love of books ; if you love books you know what I mean.

I think I have been reaching for a book to read (in contrast to being given an assigned book)
since I was 10 yrs. old. In high school, I worried my mother who thought she had raised a spinster, she would practically chase me from my room, untill I met my future husband in junior year and then I was watched well untill I married.

Luckily I married someone who also likes books. At times I think is was the 'link' that kept us together these 37 years and God's blessing of course.

Mysteries are for some time now my passion when I don't see anything interesting.