Wordless Wednesday: In a Rock Shop in Rural Illinois

For more wordless photos,

go to Wordless Wednesday.

Top Ten Best Movie Adaptations

Top Ten Best Movie Adaptations 

Please allow me to briefly rant. I hate it, but many bad movies have been made from brilliant books. This is one of my biggest pet peeves. So I say to you movie producers out there: If you aren't going to make a magnificent movie from that magnificent book, then just move on; there are plenty of fair-to-middling screenplays out there that you can use and you won't spoil my dinner.

These very-good movies from very-good books are the exception, I think:

 To Kill a Mockingbird

 Gone With the Wind

 The Grapes of Wrath

 The Remains of the Day

 Breakfast at Tiffany's

 Do Androids Dream of Electric Sleep?/Blade Runner

 The Princess Bride

 Game of Thrones

 Lonesome Dove

 Life of Pi

What are your thoughts? What do you think are the best movie adaptations ever?

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created at The Broke and the Bookish. This feature was created because we are particularly fond of lists here at The Broke and the Bookish. We'd love to share our lists with other bookish folks and would LOVE to see your top ten lists!

Each week we will post a new Top Ten list that one of our bloggers here at The Broke and the Bookish will answer. Everyone is welcome to join. All we ask is that you link back to The Broke and the Bookish on your own Top Ten Tuesday post AND add your name to the Linky widget so that everyone can check out other bloggers lists! If you don't have a blog, just post your answers as a comment. Have fun with it! It's a fun way to get to know your fellow bloggers.

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?!

We've just arrived home late last night after a ten day trip. I brought home an astounding 225 books from the library conference and I found a huge stack of books on the kitchen table that must have arrived while I was gone. 

So, I'll save the mind-boggling photos of books obtained last week until I can actually unpack and wake up. For now, I'll share what I've been reading.

What I've Been Reading Last Week

Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell

From Amazon:   "David Mitchell combines flat-out adventure, a Nabokovian love of puzzles, a keen eye for character, and a taste for mind-bending philosophical and scientific speculation in the tradition of Haruki Murakami, Umberto Eco, and Philip K. Dick."

Under the Wide and Starry Sky: A Novel
by Nancy Horan

From Goodreads: "The much-anticipated second novel by the author of Loving Frank, the beloved New York Times bestseller, this new work tells the incredible story of the passionate, turbulent relationship between Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson and his wild-tempered American wife, Fanny."

The Mouse-Proof Kitchen

by Saira Shah

From Kirkus Reviews:  "When Anna, a chef by profession, discovers she’s pregnant, she prepares to leave dreary London behind and move to idyllic Provence, France, with her husband, Tobias, and her lovable baby-to-be. But she’s suddenly forced to reevaluate her dreams when their baby is born less than perfect. Little do Anna and Tobias know that the change in plans sparked by Freya’s birth is the beginning of an incredible journey of the heart. Along the way, they discover that there truly is no such thing as a mouseproof kitchen, and though life sometimes gets a little messy, it’s the messy bits that give it meaning."

The Other Typist: A Novel

by Suzanne Rindell

From Kirkus Reviews: "Take a dollop of Alfred Hitchcock, a dollop of Patricia Highsmith, throw in some Great Gatsby flourishes, and the result is Rindell’s debut, a pitch-black comedy about a police stenographer accused of murder in 1920s Manhattan.... A deliciously addictive, cinematically influenced page-turner, both comic and provocative."

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? is where we share what we read this past week, what we hope to read this week…. and anything in between!  This is a great way to plan out your reading week and see what others are currently reading as well… you never know where that next “must read” book will come from! I love being a part of this and I hope you do too! As part of this weekly meme Book Journey loves to encourage you all to go and visit the others participating in this meme. 

Wordless Wednesday: My Kind of Vending Machine

For more wordless photos,

go to Wordless Wednesday.

Top Ten Most Intimidating Books

Here are the books that have me stymied:

Why? 

Challenging word choice and sentence structure.

Why?

Long. Very long.

Why?

Difficult subject matter.

 Why?

I don't know,

but I'm determined to read these this summer.

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created at The Broke and the Bookish. This feature was created because we are particularly fond of lists here at The Broke and the Bookish. We'd love to share our lists with other bookish folks and would LOVE to see your top ten lists!

Each week we will post a new Top Ten list that one of our bloggers here at The Broke and the Bookish will answer. Everyone is welcome to join. All we ask is that you link back to The Broke and the Bookish on your own Top Ten Tuesday post AND add your name to the Linky widget so that everyone can check out other bloggers lists! If you don't have a blog, just post your answers as a comment. Have fun with it! It's a fun way to get to know your fellow bloggers.

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?!

WHAT I REVIEWED LAST WEEK

The Hottest Dishes of the Tartar Cuisine

Whew! Is there a narrator of a book out there anywhere who is more savage, more self-satisfied, and more manipulative than Rosa Achmetowna...more

The Spiderwick Chronicles: The Field Guide

A bit mysterious. A bit about fairies. A little scary. Perfect for kids.

The Obituary Writer

Ann Hood...Anita Shreve...Anne Tyler...We all have our favorite authors. You know you will get a good book from these authors, though you never know exactly...more

The Soul of All Living Creatures:
What Animals Can Teach Us About Being Human

Virga shares little stories and philosophical observations about animals he has encountered from his twenty-five years of work as a veterinarian...more

Relish: My Life in the Kitchen

What a fun book. With panel drawings and illustrated recipes, Lucy Knisley tells the story of the big events of her life through the stories of the food...more

The New Kings of Nonfiction

How can you go wrong when you include in an anthology of recent nonfiction the work of such greats as Susan Orlean and Malcolm Gladwell and David Fost...more

Martin & Mahalia: His Words, Her Song

What a partnership! Get Martin preaching and get Mahalia singing and what do you get? Magic. Pure magic. 

Duel With the Devil:

The True Story of How Alexander Hamilton 
and Aaron Burr Teamed Up to Take on 
America's First Sensational Murder Mystery

A young woman, Elma Sands, is found dead in a well and all fingers point to her suitor, Levi Weeks. The unlikely team of political opponents...more

Bad Boy:
My Life On and Off the Canvas

I don’t follow art, but I’m intrigued by art. So I chose to read and review this book without any knowledge whatsoever of Fischl or his art...more

The Vast Unknown:

America's First Ascent of Everest

In 1963, America was dazed: the Cold War was in full swing and America was falling behind. What to do to restore American pride? Why not try to beat R...more

Hold Fast
by Blue Balliett

If you are like me and you have almost begun to think that there aren’t any functional families out there, then you need to read this book. At the heart...more 

The Road to Burgundy: The Unlikely Story of an American Making Wine and a New Life in France

Ray Walker didn’t even like wine until he took a sip of an amazing wine in Italy. Then he was hooked. He single-mindedly began a quest to learn...more

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? is where we share what we read this past week, what we hope to read this week…. and anything in between!  This is a great way to plan out your reading week and see what others are currently reading as well… you never know where that next “must read” book will come from! I love being a part of this and I hope you do too! As part of this weekly meme Book Journey loves to encourage you all to go and visit the others participating in this meme. Book Journey offers a weekly contest for those who visit 10 or more of the Monday Meme participants and leave a comment telling BJ how many you visited.