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Category Archives: Books to Screen
The time traveler’s wife
The time traveler’s wife by Audrey Niffenegger
Summary
The story of Clare, a beautiful art student, and Henry, a librarian, who have known each other since Clare was six and Henry was thirty, and were married when Clare was twenty-two and Henry thirty. Impossible but true, because Henry is one of the first people diagnosed with Chrono-Displacement Disorder: periodically his genetic clock resets and he finds himself misplaced in time, pulled to moments of emotional gravity in his life, past and future. His disappearances are spontaneous, his experiences unpredictable, alternately harrowing and amusing.
Comments
Snippets of time filled with highly charged emotions deliver us the life-long love story of Claire and Henry. This story highlights themes of deep, unconditional love, loss, loneliness, abandonment and grief. Complex characters and a love story spanning years from childhood to adulthood draw the reader into the world of time travel and lives lived in secret.
Claire and Henry have a unique love and a trust that many relationships never fully develop. But this is often overshadowed by the sudden departures and reappearances of Henry as he battles with his “gift”. The deep connection these two share isn’t without it’s issues. The time travel raises issues of loss, abandonment and ultimately grief.
It is a world unfamiliar and surreal to those of rational thought, yet the detail and development of the story line, transport the reader with Henry on his journeys and back into the arms of “his” Claire with ease.
This was a most enjoyable read, however, attention needs to be paid to the dates, times and ages of the travel. Made into a major motion picture starring Rachel McAdams and Eric Bana, it made for the perfect prelude to a girls movie night.
Rating – 7/10
Read by – Cultcha Club Book Club
Orange is the new black
Orange is the new black by Piper Kerman
Abstract
With her career, live-in boyfriend and loving family, Piper Kerman barely resembles the rebllious young woman who got mixed up with drug runners and delivered a suitcase of drug money to Europe over a decade ago. But when she least expexts it, her reckless past catches up with her; convicted and sentenced to fifteen months at an infamous women’s prison in Connecticut, Piper becomes inmate #1187-424. From her first strip search to her final release, she learns to navigate this trange world with its arbitrary rules and codes, its unpredictable, even dangerous relationships. She meets women from all walks of life, who surprise her with tokens of generosity, hard truths and simple acts of acceptance. Now a major original televison series, Piper’s story is a fascinating, heartbreaking and often hilarious insight into life on the inside.
Comments
The United States has the highest number of people in prison in the whole world.
The author of the book was incarcerated for 15 months in a US prison after pleading guilty to drug0-related crime.
One reader was really surprised at how much she enjoyed the book. The insights into the US prison system were very interesting.
The book reviews were not good, but the book group found it a good read.
The writing is not in a classic style but it was easy to read and the group is glad to have read it.
Read by – The Second Tuesday Evening Book Group
The one hundred year old man who climbed out the window and disappeared
The One hundred year old man who climbed out the window and disappeared
Abstract
Sitting quietly in his room in an old people’s home, Allan Karlsson is waiting for a party he doesn’t want to begin. His one-hundredth birthday party to be precise. The Mayor will be there. The press will be there. But, as it turns out, Allan will not …Escaping (in his slippers) through his bedroom window, into the flowerbed, Allan makes his getaway. And so begins his picaresque and unlikely journey involving a suitcase full of cash, a few thugs, a very friendly hot-dog stand operator, a few deaths, an elephant and incompetent police. As his escapades unfold, Allan’s earlier life is revealed. A life in which – remarkably – he played a key role behind the scenes in some of the momentous events of the twentieth century. The one hundred-year-old man who climbed out the window and disappeared is a charming, warm and funny novel, beautifully woven with history and politics.
Comments
Light hearted, humorous and sometimes obsurd.
Never too old to experience life.
Repetitious, flowed through life.
Average reading, enjoyable.
Not recommended, not funny.
Read by
Second Tuesday Evening Book Group
