One For The Money

I cannot remember how many years ago a Secret Santa gave me the first three books of this series for a gift.  That person is long gone from our department.  I cannot even remember her name.  Easily, one of the best gifts I have ever received from a non-family member.  She opened my world to so much laughter.  These were the first books that made me laugh out loud.  Seriously, laugh out loud even if I was reading in public.  These for the first books that made me feel the need to read passages out loud to my Hubby to see if he would think it was as funny as I did.  Of course, he did not.  As the series progressed, so did the characters.  Grandma's character became larger than life.  I will say that the last few books have not been as funny as the first ten.  I will even say the first 15 were amazing.  The last few books I have wanted her to end the series.  I think it has gone as far as it can.
With all this in mind, I went to the movie last night to see, One For The Money.  When I read the books, Stephanie was always Sandra Bullock.  Grandma Moser was the little old lady from The Golden girls. Those characters were set in stone in my mind.  Debbie Reynolds played Grandma.  She did a good job.  There was just not enough of her in the movie. There were six of us at the movie.  I think only a few of us had read any of the books.  We laughed hard.  A few times I wanted to clap and holler.  I never feel like that in a movie.
I have a new Book/Movie philosophy.  I have mentioned it before.  I know the movie is not the book.  I can separate the two.  The book is like a back drop to the movie.  Gives me more understanding of what I am going to watch.  Having read all but one of the series, I can say, the movie was much more hilarious because I have read the books.  Just knowing who Lula was made me laugh out loud.  Knowing what she was capable of made me laugh.  I was surprised that Katherine Heigel played a good Stephanie.  Unfortunately, she underplayed her.  Stephanie is more dramatic, larger than life than she was shown in the movie. 
I like the actor that played Ranger.  The Ranger character could not be done justice in a movie.  There was more background to him.  He was more mysterious.  In the movie Joe Morelli was HOT.  Major, HOT.  I seriously did not know stomach's could look like that.  (My apologies to my Matthew.)  When I read the books, Joe was not that hot.  Joe had been a high school jock that had let himself go, just a little bit.  It has been so long since I read the series I do not know if he was originally described that way or I just imagined him that way. 
The joy of reading a story is we get to use our imaginations.  We can take the stories to other levels.  I do not think I would have thought this movie was as funny if I had not read the books.  It would have been a nice movie to rent.  After seeing the movie I think they made a big mistake making the book into a movie.  The should have made it a TV series.  Would have been easier to ease the characters into the story line.  The first three books characters were introduced and grew more interesting in every book.  That cannot be done in a movie.
If you loved the books, go see the movie.  You will laugh.  If you have not read the books, wait and rent the movie.  You will feel like you wasted your money.

Friday Night Party Time

I have never been Friday night, party night kind of person. I am a Friday night, pizza night, pajamas, slippers and a book. Many of my Friday nights I share with my grand kids. If it is my grandson, he shares my passion. My favorite Friday night is the two of us in pajamas & robes, curled up reading books. He is the only eight year old I have known that can enjoy an evening with the television off, book in his hands. Some Friday nights we research things on the computer. Places we want to vacation, animals he wants to learn more about. The evenings are always relaxing.
Tonight the kids went home with their parents after dinner. That left me to entertain myself. I had a headache so reading was not an option. I was flipping through the TV Guide channel and found the movie, The Reader. This book is in my short stack of things to read. Normally, I do not like to watch movies before I read the book. Many times, if I read the book, I do not want to see the movie at all. Recently, I have been trying to teach myself to separate movie and book. Read the book and enjoy it. Watch the movie and enjoy it. Try not to compare. A wise friend who will be referred to lovingly as, The Old Lady, told me I analyze books too much. I should just read them. (By the way Old Lady, I debated on calling you The Owl for your wisdom. Not going to happen as long as my books are being held hostage.) So far that worked for My Sister's Keeper. I know that The Reader was an Academy Award movie. With that in mind, I made the decision to watch the movie first.
It was a good movie. I would rate it a 3. It was sad. Not sure I got it 100%. I am looking forward to the book making sense of it all. I have an upbeat book I hope to start later tonight. After that I am going to start The Reader. I am very anxious to see how it will stack up against the movie. Does not matter which one I like better. I am already a winner. I get two blog postings from one book! Happy Friday to me.

The Oscars

I do not go to the movies very often. This year I went to my first movie in about five years. I wanted to make it memorable so I saw, Hangover. If every movie I saw was that funny, I might go every 2-3 years. It was great. Not Oscar material. I do not even rent very many movies. I do read. When I hear about a great movie, I have to get the book. Now my son in law will be the first to say, why read a book when you can watch a movie. The obvious answer to that is if the book is good enough to make a movie for the remedial movie crowds, it must be a fantastic read.
I read two of the Oscar nominated movies this year. I am anxious to see both books as movies.

Both books are based on true stories. Both are about young people that have tough lives and how they work to overcome obstacles. I am hoping to see Sandra Bullock win. I do love to watch Sandra Bullock movies. Feel good, romantic comedies, my favorite type of movies. Blind Side is not a romantic comedy. The book is a feel good story. The book is very heavy on the football details. I like football and do not mind this part of the story. I would have appreciated more story, less football. I rated the book a 3. I know I can watch the movie and not feel disappointed after reading the book. It is rare that I say this, I think the story will play better as a movie than a book.

Precious will be a hard book to watch as a movie. It is a difficult story to read. The abuse Precious lived with is hard to imagine. I gave the book a 4 rating. Quite a bit of the book is written through essays that Precious wrote. They can be hard to follow. It is a short book. I read it in a few hours. If it were longer, I might not have been able to keep reading. It is worth reading. Amazing to know obstacles that some children have to overcome. It is also a great reminder to kiss your kids and be thankful of all that you have. I am glad I read the book. Just not sure I will be able to enjoy it as a movie.