Better World Books » Books on the Big Screen

Books on the Big Screen: Julie & Julia

admin — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 20:32:29 +0000

Today’s Recipe: Movie About a Book About a Blog About Two People Who Cook and Have Never Met

Ingredients:

2 Incredibly Talented Actresses (specifically Meryl Streep and Amy Adams)
1 Stanley Tucci playing the role of Julia’s husband Paul.
3 cups of direction by Nora Ephron
1 large dollop of another book (My Life in France by Julia Child)

Stir all ingredients together until smooth and bake at 350 degrees for an hour or two. Serve warm on August 7th with popcorn and the soft drink of your choice. Recipe makes a great outing for foodies and moviegoers alike.

If you can’t wait for the movie you can check out the books now:

Julie & Julia: My Year of Cooking Dangerously

by Julie Powell

Nearing 30 and trapped in a dead-end secretarial job, Julie Powell resolved to reclaim her life by cooking, in the span of a single year, every one of the 524 recipes in Julia Child’s legendary Mastering the Art of French Cooking. Her unexpected reward: not just a new found respect for calves’ livers and aspic, but a new life–lived with gusto.

My Life in France

by Julia Child

Julia Child singlehandedly created a new approach to American cuisine with her cookbook Mastering the Art of French Cooking and her television show The French Chef, but as she reveals in this bestselling memoir, she was not always a master chef.

Happy Eating – or Watching – or Reading!

–Dana

PS – If they decide to make a movie about a blog about a book – I’ll let you know!

Books on the Big Screen: Angels & Demons

Dana — Thu, 28 May 2009 13:47:43 +0000

So the summer movie blockbuster season is here. This past weekend after some Memorial Day shopping, my daughter and I hit the movie theater to see Angels & Demons.

I’m going to go out on a limb here and say I think the movie was better than the book. Don’t get me wrong, I liked the book, but I think there is a reason Dan Brown didn’t really hit it big until The Da Vinci Code. For me it was a weird and unbelievable action scene in Angels & Demons at the height of the suspense. The movie fixed this problem and for me it worked much better.

In addition to liking the movie better than the book, I also liked the movie version of Angels & Demons better than the movie version of The Da Vinci Code. It moved faster than Code, and thankfully Tom Hanks hair was not so weirdly distracting. I’m just sayin’.

So – even though I liked the movie better, I’m a purist and still think you should read the book first. Despite the strange ending, it is a page turner and does fill in some of the details on the history of the Illuminati and the mystery of the symbols.

And of course, if you’re a Dan Brown fan, you’ll want to pre-order the new Dan Brown book THE LOST SYMBOL – coming out September 15, 2009.

Books on the Big Screen: My Sister’s Keeper

Dana — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 15:28:40 +0000

If you’re a huge Jodi Picoult fan – you surely already know that MY SISTER’S KEEPER is about to be a feature film starring Cameron Diaz, Abigail Breslin and Alec Baldwin.

The story is about a young girl who sues her parents for emancipation because she no longer wants to be used as an organ and tissue farm for her older, sickly sister.

If you haven’t already read the book — I recommend reading it before you see the movie. For no other reason than I rarely want to read the book after I’ve seen the movie!

As with all Jodi Picoult books the ending of this one was a shocker and if I’m being honest, one that I didn’t like. But here’s a little insider info for you: I interviewed Jodi Picoult recently about her latest book HANDLE WITH CARE and when I asked her about the upcoming MY SISTER movie, she admitted that they had changed the ending. I’ll be curious to see if they changed it to something that works better for me. I’ll get back to you on that.

The movie comes out June 26, 2009 — so you still have plenty of time to read the book! (And my interview with Jodi will be posted soon – so keep your eye on the blog).

Books on the Big Screen: He’s Just Not That Into You

Dana — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 18:07:11 +0000

What will they think of next? Of course they make movies from comic books, and from great classics like Pride and Prejudice or Romeo and Juliet – but now apparently the movie biz is tapping into self help books too. Of course I’m talking about the new Warner Brothers release of He’s Just Not That Into You coming out this weekend with a pretty impressive cast including Ben Affleck, Jennifer Aniston, Drew Barrymore, Jennifer Connelly, Kevin Connolly, Bradley Cooper, Ginnifer Goodwin, Scarlett Johansson and Justin Long.

The book by former “Sex and the City” writers Greg Behrendt and Liz Tuccillo was a runaway hit for good reason. Who doesn’t have a friend that you just want to smack upside the head for staying with the wrong guy? Who isn’t themselves in need of some good old fashioned head smacking that only a non-interested third party like this book can give you? While I certainly don’t think this is one you have to read before you see the movie, (note the lack of plot, character and surprise ending in the book), I do think you might want to have a copy on hand if you happen to be, well…female. I’m not saying you necessarily need the advice. Maybe it’s your sister or your best friend. You could just casually slip it into her backpack or leave it on her coffee table. I’m just saying…

I’ll definitely be checking out the movie (what can I say – I’m a sucker for the chick flicks). Will you? Let me know what you think of it!