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Summer is here, friends! I hope you have a stack of books ready for your summer reading.
Spring has been busy, but here are a couple of books that I found time to read:
The bestselling “Daisy Jones and the Six” by Taylor Jenkins Reid has been in my to-be-read stack for a while. With the premiere of Reece Witherspoon’s 10-episode adaptation on Prime Video, it had to move up to the top. The story is choppy – it’s written as an interview, with easily a dozen points-of-view. Until I got into it, I was repeatedly asking myself who this new voice was. “Oh, yes. Eddy’s the guitarist. Pete’s the drummer.” Some voices had complete chapters. Others had one sentence. This format created tension in the story because few people see the same event or situation in the same way, and some don’t care. If, like me, you find privileged and talented people destroying their lives and complaining because people don’t understand them, or treat them unfairly, or whatever other tale-of-woe they’re sharing more than a little tedious, then you’re going to have to push through. Overall, the story is a little Fleetwood Mac and a little “A Star Is Born.” By the end, I enjoyed it. I still haven’t watched the series, so I’m not sure how the adaptation turned out.
Having read that, my daughter recommended another book by Taylor Jenkins Reid that is slated for an adaptation on Netflix, “The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo.” At this time, there are producers on board, but no script, so you have plenty of time to read it before watching it. Fans of the book are all over the internet with recommendations for the cast, including Rita Moreno, Jessica Chastain, Harry Styles and Alexander Skarsgard (is it me, or are the Skarsgards turning up everywhere?) and Ryan Gosling - just to name a few. Also written as an interview, this book has only two primary voices, those of Evelyn Hugo, bombshell and the queen of the Golden Age of Hollywood, and of her biographer, Monique Grant. Given the fact that Evelyn has had seven husbands, Monique’s very first question is who was the love of Evelyn’s life. That begins a complex tale of the scheming and sacrifice required to make it in the Studio System days of Hollywood, including the very reason that Evelyn, at 79 years of age, chose Monique, a talented but obscure magazine writer, to be her biographer. In the end you may love Evelyn, you may hate her, or you may struggle with both emotions, but you will have seen the humanity behind the films and photos that made Evelyn Hugo a household name.
Make plans now! This November, “All the Light We Cannot See” will be streaming on Netflix. If you have never read it, do yourself a favor and read it this summer. It is a BEAUTIFUL book by the incomparable Anthony Doerr.
Happy Reading and Happy Summer!
Spring has been busy, but here are a couple of books that I found time to read:
The bestselling “Daisy Jones and the Six” by Taylor Jenkins Reid has been in my to-be-read stack for a while. With the premiere of Reece Witherspoon’s 10-episode adaptation on Prime Video, it had to move up to the top. The story is choppy – it’s written as an interview, with easily a dozen points-of-view. Until I got into it, I was repeatedly asking myself who this new voice was. “Oh, yes. Eddy’s the guitarist. Pete’s the drummer.” Some voices had complete chapters. Others had one sentence. This format created tension in the story because few people see the same event or situation in the same way, and some don’t care. If, like me, you find privileged and talented people destroying their lives and complaining because people don’t understand them, or treat them unfairly, or whatever other tale-of-woe they’re sharing more than a little tedious, then you’re going to have to push through. Overall, the story is a little Fleetwood Mac and a little “A Star Is Born.” By the end, I enjoyed it. I still haven’t watched the series, so I’m not sure how the adaptation turned out.
Having read that, my daughter recommended another book by Taylor Jenkins Reid that is slated for an adaptation on Netflix, “The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo.” At this time, there are producers on board, but no script, so you have plenty of time to read it before watching it. Fans of the book are all over the internet with recommendations for the cast, including Rita Moreno, Jessica Chastain, Harry Styles and Alexander Skarsgard (is it me, or are the Skarsgards turning up everywhere?) and Ryan Gosling - just to name a few. Also written as an interview, this book has only two primary voices, those of Evelyn Hugo, bombshell and the queen of the Golden Age of Hollywood, and of her biographer, Monique Grant. Given the fact that Evelyn has had seven husbands, Monique’s very first question is who was the love of Evelyn’s life. That begins a complex tale of the scheming and sacrifice required to make it in the Studio System days of Hollywood, including the very reason that Evelyn, at 79 years of age, chose Monique, a talented but obscure magazine writer, to be her biographer. In the end you may love Evelyn, you may hate her, or you may struggle with both emotions, but you will have seen the humanity behind the films and photos that made Evelyn Hugo a household name.
Make plans now! This November, “All the Light We Cannot See” will be streaming on Netflix. If you have never read it, do yourself a favor and read it this summer. It is a BEAUTIFUL book by the incomparable Anthony Doerr.
Happy Reading and Happy Summer!
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