It’s a lesson I’ve learned the hard way, but when there is a movie based on a book, I always try to read the book first. Sometimes a book is so good, I just won’t see the movie afterwards at all because I don’t want to alter the image the author has created for me. The main reason, though, is that I don’t want to imagine characters in books as actors instead of who the author describes.This Is Where I Leave You by Jonathan Tropper has been on my To Read list for a while. When I started seeing movie previews, which looked fabulous, I knew I need to get a move on it. On page fourteen of the book, I paused to text my mom. “Don’t see the movie yet! You have to read this book.” Quite the endorsement so early into the book!
Unfortunately, the previews had already done their work and so I read the novel imagining Judd Foxman as Jason Batemen and his siblings as Tine Fey, Corey Stoll and Adam Driver. In this case, I fully endorse the casting for this book adaptation so I didn’t mind how it changed my reading. This Is Where I Leave You was so funny. The family is crazy and neurotic, but in a way that so many of our families are.
Life for me has been a little nuts lately so I haven’t seen the movie version of This Is Where I Leave You yet, but I’ve been assured it’s funny and am looking forward to it sometime soon.
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In my ongoing “research” for travels to Nepal, I read While the Gods Were Sleeping: A Journey Through Love and Rebellion in Nepal by Elizabeth Enslin. I would highly recommend about 90% of this book as a great way to learn about Nepal and, specifically, the status of women in that country. The author lived there for a period of time and had a traumatic childbirth experience that she uses to tie together the beginning and ending of the book. Fail. I slogged through the beginning, wondering what it had to do with anything. I skimmed the end. I think it was meant to be some powerful insight into women in Nepal versus the US but it missed the mark.
The rest of the book, though? Ach! Loved it. Enslin lives with her extended family in a relatively small town and discusses some of the rituals and festivals taking place in Nepal. I was especially interested in the practices around women and menstruation, which looks weird now that I’ve typed it, but was actually pretty interesting. If you want some anthropological reading or are planning a trip to Nepal, check out While the Gods Were Sleeping. Just be forewarned about the first 10 or so pages and the last 20ish.
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I’ve caught up on too many of my podcasts, by which I mean I have gone back and listened to all past episodes. While I try and discover some new ones to check out, I thought I would give audio books a try. Scholastic shared a listing of places where you can get free audio books and I’m starting with some classic Sherlock Holmes. The first book was A Study in Scarlet by Arthur Conan Doyle. I think I used to read Sherlock Holmes in grade school. I definitely read a lot of Agatha Christie then, so maybe I’m confusing the two.
A Study in Scarlet is good but I just kept thinking what a conceited bastard Sherlock was the whole time. I’m hoping that doesn’t hold true for future books or that I get over it. I like listening to story lines while I drive and do monotonous chores around the house. It helps the time move faster! As a first attempt, I think audio books might work as a good podcast alternative for me.
At the end of the book, which I downloaded from Project Gutenberg, it launched straight away into a story about Mormons. I’m not sure if that was a mistake or a thinly veiled attempt at proselytizing… But free is free.
