The vibe of the book is entirely different. Instead you get Ephron's chatty narrative with many recipes thrown in. The type of intimacy is much different in the book, as you get to know a lot more about the narrator's opinions and general take, instead of just taking in the visuals of her story.
So I would highly recommend this one, along with the film. If you're not having fun with reading, Heartburn will cure that and really suck you in.
It tells the story of a sheltered young girl, stupidly innocent, and hungry for a real experience. As it turns out, these real experiences in life can be pretty awful. And she finds herself a dangerous attachment to a racecar driving man whose talent leans heavily on detachment and dysfunction.
While this isn't my favorite of Oates's novels, it's overflowing with the darkness, juice, and drama her fans have come to expect. If you haven't read anything by her before, I think this is a fine place to start, seeing how it's easier to stomach than some of her other books.
Cage plays Captain Corelli, and Italian officer deployed to occupy a little Greek island, home to Penelope Cruz's character whose husband (played by Christian Bale) had a hard time fighting the Germans. But Captain Corelli and his fun-loving, drinking, and singing band of Italians are not Nazis. In fact, they have no interest in fighting anyone. But the treacherous Germans are unhappy when the singing Captain's troops try to withdraw.
So this wartime story stretches a lot to fit the beats for a romance. But I don't think it's a bad movie. I just think it goes on for too long. But even that, I can forgive because there's a lot of story. It wouldn't have bode well to turn the tragically violent war moments into a montage. So it feels like they tried to make two movies into one in attempts to broaden appeal, but the result is kind of a drag.
So this isn't the type of thing I try to write, and I could have read more into the existing reviews. Oh well. I don't consider the experience wasted. Obsidian is about aliens in the mountains of West Virginia, with some connection to the Moth Man. For those of you who don't read fantasy, there are certain rules about Hard Magic and Soft Magic. Armentrout clearly didn't understand these rules. You see, Soft Magic is mysterious and chaotic, and shouldn't be deployed as a means to resolve a story.
Sorry if that's somewhat of a spoiler for those of you who thought this supernatural teen romance was really going to have a tragic ending, only to grow more tragic in its two sequels. The biggest tragedy was the lack of sex in this book.
But was this a great film? I think it was pretty good. Instead of setting out to make a 'great' blockbuster, it seems like the creators went ahead and made exactly the kind of self-indulgent film they wanted. And it turned out pretty good, not perfect but pretty good. I enjoyed it.
Jane, modeled after her writer, went to a very strict school for girls, and came out very religious and disciplined, probably a better person for it all. Then comes the love story, which is fine as far as love stories go. It's hard to approve of Jane's choice of man, since her story takes place in a time when most men were probably worse for their disposition. But he was an extremely eloquent guy, nearly as verbose as Frankenstein's monster.
On insanity, Cage's character Ronny is an actual psycho, smashing things with his "fake-wooden hand", threatening to kill himself, and perpetually blaming his brother for an accident that was his own fault. Maybe that's just how all Italian-American bakers are, only wearing tank tops, never full shirts unless they're going to the Opera. They call this film a romantic comedy, but the comedy aspect is playing on a wheelchair of Italian stereotypes. Maybe if I considered myself more cultured, I'd feel obligated to think it's funny. Like, maybe the Academy thought it was funny because they are laughing at themselves, and they are in the know. Maybe it is considered a comedy in the traditional sense, leaving you wondering what the plot is before revealing it in the end.
What about the romance? Maybe it is the absence of rational motivation that makes this film romantic, because love is not rational. Love can make you deny the factual "bad luck" that might lead you to get engaged to a guy you have no reason to like, the way Cher's character (Loretta) did. Perhaps love is just it's own force, at odds with the world, yet moving the world at its own whim. So maybe my unwillingness to accept this principle is the reason why I didn't think this movie was amazing.
Do you remember the 90s, when images of Fabio Lanzoni graced the walls of every Walden Books store? I do. The original pressing of Fires of Winter didn't have Fabio on the cover, but the repressing did. I like that. For my month of Romance-focused reading, I needed a Fabio book.
After a few pages, I thought this would be the equivalent of a Harlequin Romance, only longer. The font seems big, and the spaces between the lines are huge, like in an abridged classic from the (not to be named) dollar store.
I found this book at a Goodwill store, very well-loved. For those of you don't know, Noraa Roberts is a big shot in the world of popular fiction. It says so all over the spine, cover, and afterward. From the back cover Nora sneers at us condescendingly in her pearls and power suit. How often should a novelist need to wear a suit, anyway? Does she know that she has more books at Goodwill than every author ever?
Picture it, Queens New York 1994, there's a good cop named Charlie; a self-sacrificing hero, married to a greedy woman named Muriel. Charlie befriends a waitress who can't afford a divorce and has filed for bankruptcy, thanks to her sleezy husband. Every day Charlie buys a lottery ticket for his wife. I bet you can guess the rest. No stress.
I’d never read a ‘sheikh romance’ before but I knew it needed to happen. This one wasn’t recommended or anything. In fact, I just picked it up at a thrift store. By its worn spine, I could tell it had been read a couple times and must be good. The Daughter of Hassan is the love story of little English Danielle and half-middle eastern, half-French Jourdan. He says French things and Penny Jordan often refers to his chest hair as ‘crisp’.
In this 1992 film, Nicolas Cage starts to get really Cagey. He plays a private detective named Jack Singer who, on his mother's death bed, swears never to get married or to love anyone as much as he loves her. Eventually he does agree to get married in Vegas, to his girlfriend Betsy (played by Sarah Jessica Parker). All sorts of strange things can go wrong in Vegas, especially with Jack, who has a personal interest in poker.
There is a certain brand of humor, most prominent in 80s adventure games, which parodies the human condition, highlighting the absurd within the mundane. It is with this sense of humor and a stark infatuation with Americana, that the Coen brothers bring us Raising Arizona (featuring Nicolas Cage).
As a young man, Jack Campbell parts ways with the love of his life to pursue an internship. Later on, Jack is a rich executive at a big holding company on wall street. He makes everyone work on Christmas, but that’s okay. Work is important and at least he gets to have eggnog. So he goes to a jiffy store to buy said eggnog and prevents a robbery. The robber gives Jack a glimpse at the life he never had.
