Fidelity to text: 1 knife. The novel was eviscerated. Miss Marple was shoved in against her will as evidenced by her remaining defiantly offstage for long stretches. The central murder remains as does the séance, the escaped prisoner, and a few names. Characters are added, dropped, and altered beyond recognition. The murderer changes completely and […]
Fidelity to text: 4 and 1/2 garrotes. There are minor changes, the most important of which is probably the addition of the village idiot (Malcolm) who discovers the burned-out car with the body in it. They also changed the date to about 1950 or so, instead of 1942 when the novel was published. Otherwise, this […]
Fidelity to text: 2 poison bottles. Miss Marple was added to a Tommy and Tuppence novel. The overall arc of the original novel remains. There are numerous changes to time period, the main plot, subplots, minor characters, names, locations, …. It’s a long list. Quality of movie on its own: 4 poison bottles. I didn’t […]
The Age of Wood: Our Most Useful Material and the Construction of Civilization by Roland Ennos Three stars: nonfiction, history, wood, things you never considered about the infrastructure of the world around you. This was a nice little book that was less interesting (to me) than it should have been. It’s very readable. I finished […]
Teresa reviews “The Moving Finger” (2006) and thought it an improvement over the 1985 episode starring Joan Hickson. Fidelity to text: 3 poison bottles. The overall story arc remains the same. The changes range from condensing and removing characters (minor) to adding Miss Marple at the very start (major) and everything in between. The time […]
The Fabric of Civilization: How Textiles Made the World by Virginia Postrel Four and 1/2 Stars: nonfiction, aspects of life you never considered before I loved this book. Virginia Postrel covers a piece of civilization that affects us every day yet we rarely think about: textiles. Or fabric, to use a more common term. It’s […]
(This review is part of Teresa Peschel’s Agatha Christie movie project. Read more about it at the above link.) Fidelity to text: 2 garrotes. The producers made dozens of changes from irritating but minor (main character names) to wholesale rewrites. The Funnybones theatrical troupe is completely new. So are the dramatic changes to Gwenda’s mother […]
Before and After the Book Deal: A Writer’s Guide to Finishing, Publishing, Promoting, and Surviving Your First Book by Courtney Maum Two Sparkers; nonfiction, help for writers but not in terms of craft. As part of my continuing education as an indie writer, I read books about the business of writing. After all, anyone can […]
The Lost City: Discovering the Forgotten Virtues of Community in the Chicago of the 1950s by Alan Ehrenhalt Four sparklers; nonfiction, contemporary social history, American culture I’ve always been interested in why we do what we do as a culture. What is community? What is acceptable behavior? What has changed in the last seventy years? […]
Fidelity to text: 1/2 gun. There are similar incidents, particularly a young boy being shot by another young boy with a bow and arrow. Otherwise, nothing, zip, nada, not even the names match and for good reason, too. Quality of movie on its own: 1/2 gun. The house looks great! It’s a piece of Modernist […]