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 […]
Fidelity to text: One gun. As in the previous Partners in Crime adaptation (The Secret Adversary), the names matched. Everything else, large and small, was altered and nearly always for the worse. Quality of movie on its own: One and 1/2 guns. The sets were outstanding as were the wardrobes. We laughed often, sometimes when […]
A Murder is Announced Geraldine McEwan January 2005 review Fidelity to text: 3 guns. You’ll get both major and minor changes, the biggest being complete rewrites of three separate relationships along with discarding the Vicar, his wife, and their cat. That forced the screenwriter to come up with a different, less plausible reason for Miss […]
(Note: You may also see this titled What Mrs. McGillicuddy Saw! That’s the title used in the American market since the British publishers believed that Americans wouldn’t recognize the railway reference in the title.) Fidelity to text: 2 1/2 garottes The screenwriter made a lot of changes. The largest, without a doubt, is reworking the […]
Fidelity to text: 3 guns. The overall storyline is there. However, the scriptwriters chose to insert an unnecessary, even egregious backstory for Miss Marple. Um, no. Just no. There were other issues as well, some relating to changing the date from 1930 (when the novel was published) to 1951. Quality of movie on its own: […]
Fidelity to text: one gun. The names match. Jane Finn remains a woman of mystery. The secret adversary of the title remains. Virtually everything else was altered from a little to a lot. Quality of movie on its own: one & 1/2 guns but only because it started off well and I like ’50s clothes […]
Fidelity to text: The original story is there but it’s been expanded far beyond what Agatha sketched out, especially considering how minimalist the source material is. Quality of movie: It’s good on its own merits and it’s a more interesting story than the original short story. Only purists will carp. This was our third watched […]
Fidelity to text Four poison bottles (it’s pretty close, with most of the major changes being made to minor characters along with one added major character, replacing someone else) Quality of movie four poison bottles (pretty good on its own merits) This was our second episode of the ITV’s Agatha Christie’s Marple television adaptation of […]