The Book You Were Never Really Here is a novella by Jonathan Ames. It was originally approximately fifty pages, though it was extended to about 100 when the movie adaptation came out. I read the new version for the purposes of this comparison. Here’s the short synopsis of the book from Amazon: Joe has witnessed things…
Continue ReadingSo, it’s fair to say Netflix’s Bird Box set Twitter tweeting and Facebook and instagram into meltdown! Immediately everyone started sharing opinions and Bird Box-inspired memes, plus Netflix took the step of sharing that over 45 million accounts watched the movie in its first week. Given how closely Netflix guards its viewership figures to its chest, this…
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The Book So, this one should be called ‘TV Versus Book Versus Film’! I’d assumed the book had come first, then the TV show, but apparently not. Lynda La Plante is a bit of a heroine of mine. I was absolutely thrilled to meet Lynda briefly a few years’ back at London Screenwriters Festival. It…
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It’s Halloween, so for this year’s horror-themed Book Vs Film we’re comparing one of the classics. It’s the book that remained on The New York Times bestseller list for over a year. It’s the film that became the first horror to be nominated for the Best Picture Oscar.It’s William Peter Blatty’s The Exorcist! So say a…
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The Book Molly’s Game tells the story of a young women who built one of the most exclusive, high-stakes underground poker games in the world. Billed as ‘an insider’s story of excess and danger, glamour and greed’, the book promises to be a no-holds-barred, behind-the-scenes look at the game, the life she created, the life…
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Every so often a book comes along that proves pop culture isn’t confined to Netflix, superheroes, or Kardashians. It’s normally a debut novel, usually a thriller, and naturally a lure for any Hollywood studio keen to board the gravy train. In 2015, that book even had train in the title, and keeping up with this…
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I watched the old BBC version with Sir Alec Guinness in my childhood. Soon after I had my first experience with Eastern Germany, en route to West Berlin. Luckily Le Carré had prepared me for terror and intimidation! Still, it terrified me and intensified my respect for Le Carré (the pen name of Bernard Cornwell)….
Continue ReadingAdaptation So, this time I thought I’d take a look at the revisionist history novel, The Revenant and its subsequent adaptation, which earned Leonardo DiCaprio the Oscar that’s eluded him for decades. At last!! What did you think of this one – were you a lover or a hater? Add your comments at the end…
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The Book So, READY PLAYER ONE has got everything that ticks all my boxes: a teen hero and his rag-tag bunch of friends; a shadowy evil corporate cabal; dystopian real world; even giant robots! And there ARE some flashes of brilliance that I really liked: the idea of The Stacks (trailers on top of one…
Continue ReadingThe Book I LOVE this book. I have posted before that I love memoir anyway, so I should have known the chances were high I would enjoy this tale of suffering and stamina … But I had no idea how much I would recognise here! That said, a memoir about hiking did not feature high…
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