Books and Movies

It isn't often I recommend movies, but I saw one recently that I really liked...and I don't mean Captain Underpants!  Although we did see Captain Underpants (and I did read Captain Underpants, but have declined the sequels, he is no Greg Heffley).  And I did find the story of Jeff Pikley (the author) interesting - basically he's been drawing Captain Underpants since he was a kid being told that he'd better stop drawing nonsensical comics about potty humor or he'd amount to nothing.  Somehow that says something very philosophical about education in general...

The movie I actually have been recommending is based on a book too - Twelve Years a Slave.

Rob and I watched the movie Twelve Years a Slave a few weeks ago and I was really amazed at the beauty of the film.  It isn't really your typical slavery movie and it is at the same time.  The cruelty of the system of slavery is juxtaposed visually with the amazing natural beauty of the south.  And nothing anachronistic (Anachronism is a big pet peeve of mine.).

The movie is based on the book Twelve Years a Slave which is a slave memoir.  Reading it after seeing the movie was eye-opening to me because I have always thought that you should read the book first and then watch the movie, but I appreciated the movie first and then reading the book just filled in all the blanks the movie provided.    Sometimes not with the words I hoped to find!  It turned out that one of the men who tried to hang the main character had my maiden name!

(that is glitter polish on my nail)

But on the whole learning the details was very satisfying.  The movie does not include all the details (do they ever?), but the ones it does are pretty accurate. 

Two other books I've read in the last few months are Let the Hurricane Roar by Rose Wilder Lane and And Both Were Young by Madeline L'Engle.  Neither of these books seems to have been made into a movie.  Maybe Lane's book is too much like the Little House books - and it is, but it is different and it is excellent.  And Both Were Young is such a lovely young adult book, I look forward to recommending it to my kids when they are a little older.  I also re-read A Wrinkle in  Time, which led me to A Wind in the Door, but I got kind of bogged down in Charles Wallace's mitochondria and left Meg and Calvin in there.  I really should get them out, don't you think?