Category: classics (books)

From Page to Screen: Old Yeller

I’ve talked on here before about my hesitance concerning depressing animal books for children.

There are a lot of books/movies that could be added to the list of depressing animal stories for kids, and Old Yeller is definitely one of them.

However, even though it is the granddaddy of all depressing animal books for kids, it is a story that I have a soft spot for. In fact, I’ve reread it a few times and always enjoy it. I can’t deny that it is terribly sad, but I think it has a lot of good things to offer before it rips your heart out and depresses you for days.

Though the book is something I have revisited on numerous occasions as an adult, I have not watched the movie since I was a child. I remedied that this past weekend.

As always, beware–some spoilers do follow.

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From Page to Screen: In Cold Blood (1967) and In Cold Blood (1996)

My love for Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood (which some ungenerous souls might call an obsession) has been well documented on this blog.

But my interest in the story transcends the book. The 1967 film adaptation is one of my favorite movies and is one of the examples I always point to when people claim that a movie can never be as good as the book.

A few months ago, I watched the 1996 miniseries adaptation of the story with my coworker Jen. If the 1967 version is one of the best adaptations I’ve ever seen, the 1996 version is easily one of the absolute worst.

Usually the “From Page to Screen” series is a venue for me to compare and contrast books with their adaptations. But this is my series and my rules, and I’ve decided to bend the rules for this one. So, this month we’re comparing and contrasting two adaptations and exploring why one is considered a masterpiece and the other, well, isn’t. Let’s just call it Screen vs. Screen for this month.

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2016 Library Challenge: An Author with Your Initials (S. E. Hinton)

The Outsiders

The author with your initials challenge took me an embarrassing amount of time to find a book for. None of the authors with my initials seemed particularly interesting to me, until a few weeks ago when Mynette told me I really needed to read S. E. Hinton’s classic coming-of-age story, The Outsiders. In addition to being intrigued by her recommendation, I also realized that Hinton shares my first and middle initials. In the weeks since then, the book has come up a couple of times with other people, and whenever I would admit to never having read it, the response was always a confused “You’ve never read The Outsiders?”

Having finally read The Outsiders, I now understand everyone’s reaction. I’m actually  embarrassed that I hadn’t read it before.

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2016 Library Book Challenge: A Classic Romance

One of the categories in this year’s reading challenge is a classic romance, and the week before Valentine’s Day seems the perfect time to offer suggestions for this one.

The word “classic” means something different for everyone, so I tried to include a broad range of selections. Yes, there are books that most people would instantly describe as classics, even if it is not their preference–19th century, gets taught in school. But I also included some more contemporary titles that have been popular in recent years.

In addition, I know not everyone enjoys this genre, so I’ve tried to include enough variety that everyone should find something they like, even if “classic romance” isn’t a category they usually read.

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2016 Library Challenge: A Book Your Mom or Dad Loves

Every month at the Berryville Public Library, we celebrate a theme with our displays and programs. For February, our theme is “Home is where the heart is.” We have all sorts of displays highlighting this theme, ranging from home improvement/interior decorating books to music about romance and relationships.

I decided to blog about all of the challenges that seemed related to heart and home from the 2016 Library Book Challenge this month, as well, and “Read a book your mom or dad loved” seems like a perfect start. So far, we’ve been providing lists of suggestions to help you make selections, but this challenge is so uniquely personal for everybody that I decided to instead write a more reflective piece on the books that my parents–and grandparents, who helped raise me–shared with me.

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2016 Library Book Challenge: A Book Set in the Future

This month at the library, we’re celebrating the theme of “Exploring New Frontiers,” so we decided it would be fun to start the book challenge with a look at books set in the future. The following recommendations range from the recently released to old favorites, and span everything from hard science fiction to dystopian fiction to YA. Even if you’re not participating in the book challenge, give one of them a try. You might discover a new favorite!

If you’re interested in any of the books, just click on the image of the cover. Doing so will link you to our online catalog. You can search for the title from there.

Also, be sure to check out our science fiction display at the front of the library, which for the entire month of January will feature many more books set in the future.

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