Eat, Pray, Love… Watch?

My morbid curiosity about the film version of Elizabeth Gilbert’s Eat, Pray, Love is nagging at me.

Part of me thinks that I’ll spend the film rolling my eyes at how Hollywood sees women – as brainless beings that will only open their wallets for pretty things (travel to pretty places, pretty clothes, pretty Javier Bardiem) and will sit through absolute crap (Sex and the City 2) if such things are present. Oh, and that we all like Oprah and lust after shoes above and beyond all other things – but that’s probably a feminist rant I shouldn’t get into.

(Also,  a bit of me cringes at at the casting of Julia Roberts as the film’s heroine. While I admire Ms. Roberts, I’m just not seeing it. But I’m willing to be proven wrong.)

I adored this book when I first read it. As a woman who has the travel bug, Gilbert hit all my buttons.  Reading the book, I was there – in Italy, in India – alongside our searching heroine.  However, I’m starting to feel like the thing I loved is now watered-down and secondary.  Admittedly, all the hype has made me a wee bit bitter about the whole sensation it’s become. I mean really, did there need to be a perfume collection?  Did World Market really need to launch as a clothing and accessories line?

Regardless, I’m sure I’ll wind up seeing this film.  I guess the question is whether I’ll shell out the bucks to see it in a theater (it’s currently playing all over the place) or whether I’ll wait until it hits the glory of Netflix.

theater for book nerds!

Adaptation is an art all in itself.

As a book nerd, one of the great joys of theater for me is when I get the chance to see a story/book I’ve read and admired adapted to the stage.

Friday night, I had the pleasure of attending Idle Muse Theatre Company’s well-directed, well-acted, Jeff-recommended production of Sherlock Holmes: The Final Adventure, and this piece got me curious about what other book-y theater events are coming up in Chicago in the coming months.

Here’s what I found – all of which are exciting to me:

#1 – Lifeline Theatre‘s 2010-2011 season is called “Unforgettable books brought to life,” which set my heart a-patter as soon as I saw the flyer. The three shows in their mainstage season are three books I revere – Wuthering Heights, The Moonstone, and Watership Down. Seriously, I’m so in love with this season I debated subscribing – and I never do that.  If you bring me Bronte, I will follow you anywhere, seriously.

#2 – Livewire Theatre will be presenting Emily Dendinger’s Hideous Progeny beginning in late August at the Storefront Theater downtown.  The piece is apparently supposed to be about the infamous weekend when Mary and Percy Shelley joined Lord Byron in a ghost story competition – which is where Frankenstein was created.  The show is right up my alley, and I’m looking forward to seeing it. (Also, I happen to know two of the cast members – and they’re terrifically talented performers.)

#3 – The Goodman Theatre is in rehearsals for a new take on Candide.  Apparently using Bernstein’s score, but a whole new book, Mary Zimmerman is directing a cast that includes Chicago favorite Hollis Resnick, as well as Lauren Molina (who was so ethereal in the John Doyle Sweeney Todd revival.)

#4 – Chekhov-wise (there’s always some Chekhov in Chicago)  Strawdog will be tackling Uncle Vanya this year, while Raven Theatre does The Cherry Orchard. (Interestingly, last time I saw the Cherry Orchard done was at Strawdog, directed by Kimberly Senior, who is helming Uncle Vanya. Small World, right?)

#5 – Steppenwolf Theatre’s Young Audiences program will open To Kill a Mockingbird in October. July 11, 2010 was the 50th anniversary of the publication of the perennial novel, and theater is a great way to bring Scout, Atticus, Boo, and the other classic characters to young audiences.

#6 – TimeLine Theatre will be presenting Mastering the Art, beginning in October.  The show is about Julia Child and her life in France.  As Julia Child fever is a thing right now, this show should find a sizable audience.

#7 – If I didn’t include CityLit Theatre, something would be wrong with me. The Company’s 2010-2011 season includes a Sherlock Holmes pieces, as well as a production of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow just in time for Halloween.

#8 – First Folio Theatre is producing The Madness of Edgar Allen Poe in October/November.  People who present Poe around Halloween are always in my good graces.

Also — in the pipeline are four projects that sound promising.

*Babes with Blades is going to be doing an all-female production of Romeo & Juliet.  As this group often features incredible Chicago female performers and impeccable stage fights, this show is most likely going to rock. (Apparently Chicago Shakespeare Theatre and at least two other groups are currently performing or planning to perform R&J in the coming months, so if you’re a fan of the show, you should have plenty of opportunities to catch a production – but my money’s on The Babes.)

*It seems that the good people at Idle Muse (whose Sherlock spawned this blog post) are going to be tackling Steven Dietz’s Dracula adaptation as their next project. Dietz’s script for Dracula is widely acclaimed, and it’ll be neat to see this clever young company take their turn at it.

*Last season, Redtwist Theatre had announced that they were bringing Stephen King’s Misery to their stage. That, however, was before their knock-out production of The Pillowman ran for a hundred years (and might still be running, I’m really not sure?) so at present it appears Misery may have gotten shoved to the back-burner. However, with as great as that group is, whenever they decide to bring on the Misery, my a$$ is there.

*Last but definitely not least, my friends at GreyZelda Theatre Co are adapting Denise Giardina’s fantastic novel Storming Heaven for the stage in their 2011/2012 season. It’s a far way off, but I’ve a feeling it’ll be incredibly worth it.

Whew!

I’m truly excited to see as many of these pieces as possible.  If I’ve missed something particularly book-y, please let me know! I’m just one little person and there’s a whole boatload of theater in Chicago to follow, so I admittedly miss stuff.

on the newberry book fair, and the stinky book

For as long as I’ve been in Chicago, I’ve pined after the chance to attend the Newberry Library’s annual book fair.  Yet, somehow, things always got in the way.  Finally, on Sunday, I was able to make the trek down to the gorgeous Newberry and partake of closing day of the 2010 book fair.

I’m a book person, and I’ve been to more than my share of bookstores, used bookstores, book fairs, book drives, estate sales, yard sales, libraries, and pretty much any other place where books can be obtained. One of these days I will make it to the Library of Congress, where I will probably curl up in a corner and die a happy lady, but .. I digress.

Surrounding me at said book fair were other book people.

Now, people who loves books as much as I do are not always the same sorts of people who have well-polished social skills.  Being a book person doesn’t automatically make you witty or cool, despite how the movies might make it seem.  Book people in films are always smart, and witty, and shy until their real personality has a chance to shine through.   In reality, sometimes being a book person means you’re socially clueless and pushy.  I was shoved aside by a lot of bags and peer pressured away from racks of books I really wanted to look at.  At one point, I was delighting in a rack of travel books, until two middle-aged women came up and stood right behind me (like, bags shoving into me) until I moved away… and they stepped to where I’d been standing and proceeded to talk about their medical ailments and ignore the travel books completely.

I adore the Newberry, but the book fair really wasn’t the heaven on earth atmosphere I was expecting.

(This is absolutely no fault of the Newberry Library and their volunteers.  The event was supremely well-organized and laid out.  We were given a shopping bag and a map as we walked in the door, and everything was clearly labeled.   I also have to hand it to the volunteers who literally went from room to room picking up books that people had dumped somewhere and return them to their rightful category/room. Not to mention, the collectors edition room was purely lovely – I saw a first edition, signed copy of “The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle,” which was one of my favorite childhood books. I nearly swooned.)

That said, I left with a total of six books for a whopping grand total of eleven dollars.

SCORE!

Among my finds were a fantastic book on the world’s toughest golf holes (a perfect gift for Dad, who arrives this weekend) and a book on the history of the Mame character, from the earliest writings to her Broadway musical beginnings (which, of course, is going to go to my dearest Bob).

In addition, I got a copy of James A. Michener’s supposedly epic novel, “Hawaii.” As I’m prepping for my first visit to the Hawaiian islands (in less than 3 weeks) I’ve been looking for a copy of this book.

And I found one.

And I started reading it, and it’s good – Basically it’s a loose historical fiction novel.  Sort of like the history of Hawaii as told through the gauze of a Jacqueline Susann novel. A little campy, not really factual, but sweeping and romantic.

However, there’s a problem with this book.

Old books have a distinct smell.

Normally, I like said smell.

In the case of this copy of “Hawaii,” I can’t deal with it.

Seriously, I’m just going to have to go to Borders and get a new copy in order to finish reading. I’m about 100 pages into the novel, and I’m engrossed, and yet as I’m holding the book to read it the smell is surrounding me, and after I’ve put the book away I seriously need to wash my hands. I bet it used to belong to a smoker – it has a very specific lingering odor.

I mean, in all fairness, it was a dollar.

But yeah – I have been defeated by the smell of a book.

Defeated by a stinky book.  There’s an obituary for you.

hawaii & i: literary preparation

I prepare for adventures by reading about where I’m going.

In addition to my growing collection of Hawaii travel guides (Personally, Lonely Planet’s guides are my all-time favorites) currently I’m reading a collection of Mark Twain’s writings about his time in the Hawaiian islands – Mark Twain in Hawaii: Roughing it in the Sandwich Islands.  Of course, the book is a little dated, and not always totally politically correct, but it still has some gems.

Such as my new favorite line ever written:

“By and by, after a rugged climb, we halted on the summit of a hill which commanded a far-reaching view.  The moon rose and flooded mountain and valley and ocean with a mellow radiance, and out of the shadows of the foliage the distant lights of Honolulu glinted like an encampment of fireflies.”

Well said, Mr. Twain.

Well said, indeed.

On Dave Cullen’s “Columbine”

“What’s amazing is how much of Cullen’s book still comes as a surprise.”

- The New York Times.

I read Dave Cullen’s masterwork, Columbine, in much the same way that I read Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood for the first time.  Though I was fully aware that what I was reading was a true story, it was almost easier to believe it as a genuinely well-crafted piece of  fiction.  Stories like the Columbine murders and the Clutter family murders, though very much real, seem the creation of some writer’s imagination and pen.

However, these things happened.

Columbine happened in my lifetime.  Heck, I was in high school when Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold opened fire on their classmates in April of 1999, in what was then largely reported to be a case of outcasts getting revenge on the jocks that tortured them.  I’m familiar with the term “Trench Coat Mafia,” and familiar with the story of Cassie the martyr (the girl who reportedly got shot after confessing her belief in God.)

Having seen Cullen on Book TV talking about the book, it peaked my interest. Though, I admit, I approached it with serious dread and a lump in my throat, scared of what I might learn.

Yeah, this book astonished me.

I cried twice while reading it.

Cullen’s writing reminded me not only of Capote, but also of another of my non-fiction favorites: Jon Krakauer’s Into the Wild.  Both books are written by gifted journalists who are armed with unbelievable true stories about remarkable and troubled young men. (When I say ‘remarkable,’ please understand that it’s not in praise of the killers.  Reading Cullen’s book offers a ton of insight into the evolution of two seemingly normal young men into two mass murderers.  Though Eric Harris was a textbook psychopath, the development of Dylan Klebold from suicidal and troubled teen boy into someone who joined forces with Harris is unsettling, while being riveting.)

The media, teachers, students, parents, SWAT team, local churches, sheriffs department, and the killers themselves all get dissected.  Was there a police cover-up of potential errors in the investigation? Probably.  Did the media take nuggets and half-truths and run with them? Definitely.  Did the parents know their boys were on the road they were on?  Probably not.  Did the killers – particularly Harris – show warning signs along the way? Absolutely.

You feel for the students (and teacher) who were wounded or killed in the attack.  Through Cullen’s writing, it feels like you get to meet them and put names to faces.  For example, you may recall the images of the young man bloodied and falling from the window at Columbine.  His name is Patrick, and his story (from the day of the attack through his recovery) is told here.

It’s a horrifying book.

It’s a fascinating book.

I recommend it, highly, but not for everyone.  I like non-fiction.  I like trying to understand why terrible things happen.  I appreciate journalists who dedicate their lives to a story or event. (Cullen has spent the years since the attack covering Columbine for both Salon and Slate, and is considered the foremost authority on Columbine.) I mean, it’s not like anyone really wants to revisit Columbine.  However, this book will challenge your presumptions, shatter your illusions, and make you look at this terrible tragedy from the point of view of a sociologist, psychiatrist, and journalist.

Watch a trailer for the book. (It’s pretty tame, and will give you a good idea of if this book might be for you.)

Two New Non-Fiction Faves -

In this post, I will recommend two non-fiction books I recently read and was thoroughly taken by.

One is about Presidential Assassination.

The other is about dead bodies.

You know.

Light, happy reads.

In actuality, both books are clever looks at the darker side of life.

Both are incredibly informative while at the same time being massively entertaining.

First, there’s Mary Roach’s “Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers.”

In this book, Roach travels around and meets with a variety of people who work with dead bodies.  She talks to, and presents the history of, everything from decapitated heads used for plastic surgery training to a man whose job it is to piece together tragic events like plane crashes using the remains of people. We as humans are terrified and fascinated by death, and I think a read of this book would shed some light on what could happen to your body after you die.

Will I, inspired by the book, donate my body to science? I’m not sure yet, but I definitely enjoyed this book and recommend it to anyone who likes their books smart and true.

The second book is “Assassination Vacation,” by Sarah Vowell.

Vowell, like Roach, travels around to explore and present the history of Presidential Assassinations. Mostly, she goes in depth over John Wilkes Booth and the murder of Abraham Lincoln, but decent coverage is given to Leon Czolgosz (who shot William McKinley) and Charles Guiteau (who killed James Garfield.) I’ve always had an interest in the history of Presidential Assassination (Blame Sondheim) and I found this book completely endearing. Vowell is unabashedly candid about her history-nerdiness, and it’s a joy to follow her on her vision quest of historical landmarks.

Admittedly, my heart belongs to fiction – but there’s really nothing like a well-written non-fiction book about a topic you’re interested in.

(On a somewhat downer of a note, after a few years of wanting to read it, I finally read Robin Gerber’s “Barbie and Ruth,” about the history of the Mattel Corporation. I’ve been a big Barbie fan my whole life, and love to hear all the rumors and backstory about the creation of the icon of all icons. However, the book was a bit dry, though definitely informative. I guess I just wanted it to be more salacious than it wound up being. Oh well C’est la vie.)

Read a book. Geez.

Tolstoy goes Steampunk: “Android Karenina,” by Leo Tolstoy and Ben H. Winters

“Literary hybrids of Jane Austen novels and zombie stories? That’s so last year.“

- The New York Times.

In the interest of full disclosure, I’ve been trying to read Tolstoy’s original Anna Karenina for probably about ten years now, and have failed miserably.  Its sitting on my bookcase even now with a bookmark at about the halfway point, where I inevitably lose interest and set down the book.

And this comes from a huge book nerd, so take that as you will.

Now you understand why I was so excited when I first heard about Android Karenina, the newest literary mash-up from the people at Quirk Classics. (AKA, the people who brought the world Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.)

In it’s basest form, Anna Karenina is a soap opera played out by awkward wealthy Russian people.  Roughly, Anna is married to Alexi but in love with Vronsky. Levin is in love with Kitty, who refuses his marriage proposal in the hopes that Vronsky will turn his attentions to her. There are opulent social events, stolen kisses, entrances into society, and a whole lot of internal struggle and angst.

Android Karenina doesn’t really change that plot.  Despite what the book’s cover and title may suggest, rather than turning the main characters of this classic novel into robots themselves, Winters wisely surrounds our protagonists with robot sidekicks.  In this steampunk version of Russia, the wealthy are given robotic sidekicks (called “beloved-companions”) who are at times both personal assistant and therapist to their human counterparts.  These sidekicks can do anything from fighting off evil robots to re-playing the memories of their masters.

Behind the romantic entanglements of our five main characters is a cyber-war beginning, as the robots (clearly serving as a symbol of industrialization) get more and more powerful and begin to think for themselves. Technically, they’re bound by “Iron Laws,” but laws will only hold back enslaved beings for so long, as we know from history.  There’s also another threat looming, which I won’t spoil by mentioning here, but it’s a sci-fi dream come true.

The book is a success largely due to it’s welcome injection of sci-fi, which enhances the original novel without taking all that much away from the source material.  It reminds me a little of the Baz Lurhman/Leonardo DiCaprio Romeo & Juliet movie in how it grabs your attention from the very beginning to help the daunting text go down a little smoother.  The robots and cyber-war begin slightly gimmicky, but eventually manage to become such a vivid and vital part of the novel that I honestly can’t imagine ever reading Anna Karenina the same way again.

Android Karenina hits stores today – I’m one of the lucky bloggers who got an advance copy to review. Pick it up and check it out for yourself.

Visit the Quirk Classic’s official Android Karenina site.

In addition, head to the Quirk AK board where you can enter to win a Quirk Prize Pack, which contains copies of the P&P&Z prequel Dawn of the Dreadfuls, by Steve Hockensmith, How to Survive a Horror Movie by Seth Grahame-Smith, How to tell if your boyfriend is the Antichrist by Patricia Collins, and others!

Tonight: Neverwhere @ Lifeline Theatre

Because this is apparently a theatre-tastic week:

Tonight we’re attending Lifeline Theatre’s World Premiere production of Neil Gaiman’s “Neverwhere.”

Hooray! Neil Gaiman + Theatre!

“Jane Slayre,” by Charlotte Bronte and Sherri Browning Erwin

My obsession/appreciation for Charlotte Bronte’s masterwork – Jane Eyre – began at an early age.  For the majority of my life, no book has held me as enraptured.  I think it’s nearly perfect (if, admittedly, a tad wordy and overwrought in a few brief places.)

My love for this fantastic book is so strong that even the unsuccessful Broadway musical is incredibly dear to me, as I hold to my belief that the composers and creators of the show revered the novel as I do.

What I’m trying to say (and admittedly, being a tad wordy about it all) is that Jane Eyre is one of those books that, if done wrong, would piss me off.

I’m admittedly also a fan of this new trend of infusing classic works of literature with vampires, zombies, werewolves, or what have you. I got a kick out of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, like nothing I can remember, and am excited to be able to say that I’m going to be reviewing Android Karenina (the latest from the Quirk Classics people who brought us P&P&Z.) in advance of it’s release.

However, until recently I must have been living in a fog.

I had no idea anyone had taken the works of my beloved Brontes and given them the monster treatment.

In fact, they have.

Not only is a book called Wuthering Bites about to hit shelves, but a clever woman named Sherri Browning Erwin has worked some magic and given the world my newest favorite book – Jane Slayre.

I got this book over the weekend, almost by accident, as I wandered into Borders during an afternoon stroll and found myself staring at the cover in awe and wonderment.

Seriously, it was like Christmas.

So I bought it. And I read it.

And – Honestly, it’s a complete and total joy.

(And I say this as someone who has gotten in arguments over the best movie version of Jane Eyre.)

I devoured this book, and relished every page. The novel was always rather dark and foreboding, with foggy moors and secrets in the attic, but it’s never been told like this. Ms. Browning Erwin has to be a fan of the original novel, as her grasp on these characters is so perfectly dead-on.  I am hesitating to write more as I would hate to spoil any of the secrets of this novel for those about to read it – but know this…

Vampires.  Werewolves.  Zombies.

It’s a little bit Buffy, a whole lot of Bronte, and a great deal of fun. I loved reading characters I’ve known my whole life as though I’d never met them before.

(And, I’m happy to say, the Reeds finally get their comeuppance.)

Much like Wicked (the book and the musical) have forever tainted my viewing of The Wizard of Oz,” I may never be able to look at my beloved residents of Lowood, Thornfield, and Morton the same way again.

Thanks, Ms. Browning Erwin, for injecting some fresh blood into my favorite classic.

(Pun intended.)

The Jane Slayre page at Simon and Schuster.

“Blankets,” by Craig Thompson

“Blankets,” the autobiographical 2003 graphic novel by Craig Thompson, touched my heart.

I’m just getting into graphic novels. Prior to “Blankets,” I confess that I’d only previously read Art Spiegelman’s classic Holocaust tale “Maus” (for a college modern Lit class) and a novel called “Clubbing” (which was frothy fun about a goth girl solving a murder while stuck with grandparents in the English countryside) so – long story short – I didn’t expect the medium to be as powerful as it is. But it is, and this fantastic book hit me.

Thompson is a Midwesterner. In fact, he’s a Northern Michigander (like myself) and the novel deals with his growing up in a religious family and struggling with first love, the role religion will play in his life, his family members, and growing into himself.

It’s beautifully drawn, even the gut-wrenching parts, and incredibly realistic. Not everything has a happy ending. Not all loves last forever.  Thompson’s life is at times both perplexing and delightful. In essence, it’s just life.

I wish I hadn’t finished this book, so I could keep reading it. It’s that good.

Do yourself a favor and read it.