November

Books Bought:

• The Lady of the Rivers (Philippa Gregory)

Books Read:

• A Game of Thrones (George R. R. Martin)
• High Fidelity (Nick Hornby)
• Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (Mindy Kaling)
• Girl at Sea (Maureen Johnson)
• Ender's Game (Orson Scott Card)
• Last Chance Saloon (Marian Keyes)

Clearly, I had more time on hand to read this month...mainly because I spent two weekends out of town, so I had a good amount of plane rides/airport time to fill. I finally finished GOT - now to tackle the (even longer) sequel.

I've read High Fidelity before, but I needed to reread it because it's basically the ultimate break-up book - and very revealing because it's written by a man from a man's perspective. I watched the movie adaptation with John Cusack after finishing the book this time, and I was unimpressed - perhaps because the setting was transferred from England to America. This was disappointing, because I generally love John Cusack, even in overall weak movies. 

I read Mindy Kaling's book because I needed more cheering up, and this book is definitely an easy way  to brighten your day! Now, I have to admit that I wasn't exactly sure who Mindy Kaling actually was before I read this book, but now I am inspired to start watching The Office (I'm pretty sure I've seen maybe five episodes...ever). She is so funny and open about making fun of herself, which makes her easy to relate to even though she's incredibly successful and probably super rich.

I had to reread Ender's Game after seeing the movie...I flew through it in about a day. I really enjoyed the book the first time around, so I was very apprehensive about seeing the movie. However, I have to say that ultimately I think it was a good adaptation. There were obvious challenges with adapting the book: the book covers a much greater period of time (Ender is 6 when he arrives at Battle School and 10 at the end of the book); the amount of graphic violence in the book would probably have been controversial with child actors; and much of the book explored psychological and emotional issues that don't transfer well to the screen. Because of these issues, the movie didn't pack the same punch as the book (and I was disappointed that the side-plot with Valentine and Peter was entirely left out), but it's definitely worth seeing.

Last Chance Saloon was another re-read this month...as I've mentioned before in this blog, Marian Keyes is one of my favorite authors. I enjoyed this book more than the first time I read it, perhaps because I'm older now and identified with the experiences of one of the characters in particular. I'm just going to go ahead and leave it at that and recommend ALL of Marian Keyes's books. :)