Movie Adaptions

I haven't read a lot of books that have been adapted into movies, but the ones I have read have blatant differences from the movies. While some of these changes are necessary to make the movie more interesting for viewers, there are others that directors make that stray away from the book almost entirely.


A classic example would be the Harry Potter series. In my opinion, the movies were very good and followed the books very closely. But some of the changes that they made were just inexcusable. The most obvious one was in The Goblet of Fire:

There was no need to have such a drastic change in Dumbledore's character from the book to the movie; it just painted a beloved character in a terrible light.


In other film adaptions, whenever you talk about how they compare to the book, almost everyone emphatically says, "the book was WAY better". The main reason they say this is because the movie leaves out a lot of important details or events that were in the book. It's understandable that every single small detail from the book can't be in the movie due to time and budget constraints,  but when huge events  or characters are left out, you can't help but feel like you were robbed a little bit; you feel sorry for people that haven't read the book because they're missing out on such a great part of the story.


But I also think that films do a good job of expanding on things that may have only been a page or half a page in the book. They help us get a unique visual of the book and understand certain aspects of the plot that we couldn't quite see just by reading. Getting to see the story you love on screen helps you feel even closer to it (unless you hate the adaption; then you just cry).

Book Review

For this blog post, I am reviewing the book The Guilty by David Baldacci. It was published by Grand Central Publishing in 2015 and has 418 pages. The genre is mystery, thriller, and suspense. This book is about a man named Will Robie who fails a mission and discovers that his dad is being charged with murder. In order to save his father and confront his past, Will goes back to his hometown to clear his father's name.

The story takes place in a small, southern town named Cantrell, Mississippi. It is told from a third-person omniscient perspective and focuses on Will Robie. Will Robie is a top assassin for the United States government who fails to complete one of his missions after a traumatic event occurs. After discovering that he no longer has the will to continue, he goes back to his hometown to try to resolve his past issues and regain his skills. His father, Dan Robie, became a town judge while Will was away and was very respected by the other citizens of Cantrell. He refuses to state whether or not he committed the murder and represents himself in court. Jessica Reel, another top assassin and Will's most trusted partner, helps him with the investigation. The main theme of this book is redemption; even after being away from home for twenty years, Will and Dan Robie still wish to make amends and look forward instead of always looking back.

*I would love to give a plot summary, but there are a lot of spoilers that could be given away, so I think that the above paragraph is all the information I can give.*

I really enjoyed this book because you could never predict what was going to happen next; I enjoy thrillers and mysteries for that very reason. Even within the first twenty pages, there are so many twists that happen and keep the reader at the edge of their seats. The characters and plot are developed so well throughout the entire book that you feel like you're stuck in their situation along with them. Foreshadowing is also used throughout the book with the characters' actions and dialogue. The constant questioning and doubt makes you want to read more, and just when you think you have everything figured out, another twist or development comes up that changes the whole situation. I loved the way the story ended and how everything was resolved instead of having loose ends.

Overall, I would give this book a five out of five stars due to its unpredictability and its theme of redemption and hope for the future.

"'You[Will] were right. To go forward, you have to go back. You get this square, your foundation is set. You can move on. But until then, you're going to be damaged goods'" -Jessica Reel (Baldacci 276).





Author Research

The author of The Guilty, David Baldacci, has published close to 40 books and counting. Over 110 million copies of his books have been sold worldwide and he has had several books on the bestselling list for both adults and children. His books have also been translated in over 400 languages and sold in about 80 countries.

Aside from his writing accomplishments, David has donated to and become a part of many charities and even founded one himself. He and his wife Michelle started the Wish You Well Foundation, which helps support the education of people who can't afford books or school. His main mission is to teach everyone to read. "If everybody read, we'd have a much better world" (Baldacci from Fox 8 interview).

David mainly writes thriller novels, but explored the fantasy genre when he wrote The Finisher for a younger audience. He likes having the ability to create an entire new world rather than having to comply to the rules of the real world for his books.

Despite living a solitary life as a writer, David says that he loves interacting with other people and going to book events because he believes that it helps improve the quality of communities.

Helpful Links:

http://davidbaldacci.com/

http://myfox8.com/2015/09/11/author-david-baldacci-visits-fox8-will-speak-at-bookmarks-festival/

Why I Read

For me, reading is a way to explore other worlds or philosophies by seeing through someone else's eyes rather than being lectured or simply told about something. Reading is an experience that allows me to relate to characters and go through their story rather than worrying about my own. By relating to other characters, I feel like I'm not alone in how I feel or think. I read because I want to learn new words and further develop my own opinions rather than conforming to everyone else's.


I liked getting locked into a story that I can't escape without knowing the ending. Even though characters aren't real people, when they feel like they are, it's such an incredible thing. I love it when books teach such incredible lessons that can apply to my life and help me through a tough situation or prepare me for the future. I love seeing how writers create such complex worlds and navigate us through them.


Books that can travel you back to another time period help me learn more about what it was actually like to be a person in that time, whereas history class only talks about the important events, not that the everyday person going through that event. It's important to know contrasting views about history, which I think books like All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr do so well. Rather than getting the typical American view of World War II, this book gives you the perspective of what people experienced in Europe before, during, and after the war. Books like this are the reason I read.

Hard to Read

Ok, I'm gonna be honest here... I haven't read in like a week or something. Why? Well, it's not that my book is all that boring or too confusing to read, it's just... it kind of blows up in your face and then run away really fast. I'm not even joking.

For example, in one part of the book (I'm not leaving a quote because it's very inappropriate), you find out A LOT of stuff about Winston and his past. You find out some of the sketchy and nasty things that he's done. You read it and go, "WOW! I never would've expected that!" Now, normally, you expect the book to reveal more shocking and juicy secrets in the next few pages. But no. Not in this book.

Instead, we switch to a completely different, basically repetitive topic. As I'm reading, I'm thinking to myself, "...Ok... Soooo you just threw that bombshell at me, and now we're back to this? Really? You're not gonna elaborate on that at all?" The more frustrating thing though is that I don't event think anymore secrets are going to be revealed for a loooong time, which sucks as the reader.

I don't know, maybe I'm just impatient. I probably am, but hey, if something interesting doesn't happen for a while in a book, that's what happens. I just kind of check out.  This book seems like it has a lot of secrets to tell, but it seems it'll be forever before any of them come to light. To be honest, I don't want to read another 50 pages of just plain old text before more good interesting stuff happens.

The Flaws of 1984

I wrote a post earlier about the best things about the book 1984. Well, on the flip side of that, there are some not so good things about it. Even though I'm not too terribly far into it (still), I'm starting to notice some things that are kind of bothering me.

First of all, there are some pretty sketchy things that happen in this book. First of all, women are all stereotyped as being haughty and uptight. They all want the exact same things in life, and there really is no difference between any of them (except appearance). But, that isn't really all that sketchy... The REALLY sketchy things is- Wait... How do I put it... Well, I really didn't think this through, but all you need to know is that there are some *cough* *cough* inappropriate and illegal things that Winston does that just makes you cringe and barf in your mouth a little. You're all probably like, "I wanna know what it is! I wanna know what it is!" Well... Just read the book, ok? Or look it up. Google probably has the answer.

Anyways, the second thing that's not so great about this book is there are two INCREDIBLY long paragraphs of pure text (no dialogue) on each page for five pages; at least. It's almost painful to read through. I just look at the pages and groan, because I know a lot of stuff is going to be explained, but my brain will just be focused on the fact that there is still no dialogue, instead of digesting the important facts. I feel like dialogue is a crucial part of any story, and without it, you feel like something's completely missing. In my opinion, characters' interactions with one another tells the story all in itself.

Don't get me wrong, I still love this book overall, but seriously, can't there be just a smidge of dialogue every now and then?

Why 1984?

I feel like this is a topic that I should talk about, since it's a question I ask myself sometimes; why did I choose to read 1984? Out of all of the books on Amazon, in Barnes and Nobles and libraries, why this book?

Well, the first thing that caught my eye about this book is that it was on my Amazon recommended list. I thought it looked intriguing (after skimming the synopsis), and so I brought my Kindle over to my mom to ask if I could buy it. Since, you know, my mom likes to make sure that I don't spend money left and right on things she doesn't know about. She looked over it briefly, and then said, "Actually, I read this book when I was in high school! We might still have it here..." And sure enough, after looking through the old books we had, there it was; 1984, my mom's original copy. At first I thought, oh great... now I get to carry around an old, worn down book. But my mom insisted that it was great.

I don't know what it is, but something about the fact that it's an old book, and my mom (as well as many other people in her generation) have read that book. I was curious to see how dystopian style books were written back then. I wanted to see how the future looked from the eyes of someone in the '50s or '60s. Call me weird, but I think it's kind of cool.

I have an even stronger connection to it now that I know that my mom read it. I try to imagine what her and her classmates thought as they read it... Were they scared for the future? Did they just ignore the messages throughout? I don't know, because I've never asked her. But one thing her and my dad have both told me is that I should find it very interesting. "I think you'll be shocked when you read this book and see that many of the things predicted in this book are actually happening today."