I have just started “Obitchuary:The Big Hot Book of Death”, by podcasters Spencer Henry and Madison Reyes.

Fascinating and at times a little stomach turning but always informative with plenty of humor thrown in.

It comes for all of us. Might as well have a few laughs about it.

I'll be searching for it.
A little late-night entertainment.
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So do we, they're a lot of fun.

Those stories were my gateway into cozy mysteries.

I just started the Flavia de Luce series of mysteries by Alan Bradley. Flavia is a brilliant (genius at chemistry) 11YO girl growing up in post-war England. The stories are told from her PoV and can be quite funny. Would recommend!

Amanda from Seattle recommended these once. Very enjoyable!

I'll have to check out Obitchuary both book and podcast... it sounds right up my alley.

I finished The Witches of El Paso 3/5 stars from me. There were several elements I liked, but there were a lot of plot elements that just didn't gel or get resolved. The characters were pretty well drawn, and the story is well written, it just doesn't really go anywhere.

Here's a fuller Goodreads review from me: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8199203884#

For those that like to watch movies based on books, do you prefer to read the book 1st, or watch the movie??
It seems I'm always judging the movie. Like "That's not what happened!" OR, "He is supposed to die, not her!" The one series of books now movies, is the Divergent series. Sooooooo disappointed in the final movie because they left out so much at the end that I felt was not only important, but gave the story closure. NOT THE MOVIE!! lol

I prefer the book before the movie... and I agree that sometimes I watch the movie and have a great big WTH moment. In my head - when I'm reading - my imagination is already adding color, voices, etc. So usually, I'm let down completely by the on-screen adaptations.

Garfield and James and the Giant Peach were treasured childhood memories - ruined by the on-screen versions.

Though I LOVED the cinematic version of Memories of a Geisha. I read it first and while the story was greatly edited - the cinematography was superb.

I read Silence of the Lambs - afterwards there was NO WAY I could watch it...

It depends... I usually read books first if I'm aware they exist. Two times come to mind where I thought the movie was better than the book: "Practical Magic" (although the book helps to fill in the plot gaps I wouldn't have understood otherwise) and "All the Light We Cannot See" (I just thought it was too slow paced and had a hard time paying attention).

I think movies/shows should follow books more closely if they do adaptations, in my opinion. I abhor when they change the ending because it doesn't do the author or the book justice! Sigh

I'm a movie fan - though I have read a lot. I took a screenwriting course once and learned a lot about how movies work. They are a different animal than books, and have to be. Knowing that, and why, I understand that there will be a lot left out when adapting a book to a movie.

So I much prefer watching the movie version first. That way, when you read the book after and it is richer and denser than the movie, it's like a bonus into that world.

If you read the book first, all too often you are disappointed at the things they left out.

Take the movie, The Door in the Floor (great movie!). It is based on the first third of John Irving's A Widow for One Year. I saw movie first - then read the book. I can only imagine how unfulfilled I would have been had it been the other way around.

Or even Fight Club. It's one of my favorite movies. I read the book after. They are different but I'm glad I saw the movie first. Incidentally, there is a commentary track over the movie (if you have a DVD of it) where the book author (Chuck Palahniuk) discusses the changes with the screenwriter. It's a good insight into why movie pacing has to be different than books. It's also one of my favorite books now.

I also prefer reading a book first.
3 movies that did the book justice are:
To Kill a Mockingbird
The Last Thing He Told Me
Where the Crawdads Sing

I remember reading a book in high school(70’s)called A Patch of Blue, it was made into a movie 1965, starring Sidney Poitier, Shelley Winters & Elizabeth Hartman. The movie was great, chilling, thrilling, emotional, but I was glad I read the book first, to get the full details & to feel the different personalities of each person. Loved it.
The Outsiders was another book I enjoyed reading first, Ponyboy Curtis was my favorite, the movie was also great with an excellent cast.

SAME! Everyone thinks I'm weird for this, but it's like watching the cliff notes then getting to do a deep dive when reading.

I can almost always enjoy the movie if I have nothing to compare it to, but if I've read the book and loved it, I can't enjoy the movie. I spend the entire time thinking about the differences and cut out scenes. Even descriptions/character appearances will turn me off from the movie.

Some films do a pretty good job with a book and some do not. If I read the book first I’ll probably be annoyed with the film.

But I think that it’s very rare that a book translates well to film, simply because it’s too very different mediums.

Recently on Facebook someone complained that an author took several pages to illustrate what a movie showed in a few minutes. I don’t think that’s a valid complaint.

Film can very easily show a mood and location in minutes. An author has to use the printed word to bring the reader to a place and feeling. This can take pages to describe. It’s apples and oranges.

I read a lot and I see a lot of movies. In college, I was an English major with a Film Minor. So I love both. I usually have read the book first, especially with classic texts (Jane Austen, Edith Wharton, Steinbeck, Hemingway, Fitzgerald etc etc ) and sometimes I’ll see a movie and I will seek out the original book — I often look forward to a movie made from a book specifically to see how they interpret it. Most recently, The Martian and Project Hail Mary from the books by Andy Weir

Amanda from Seattle

True. There are lots of differences. And in my opinion, the biggest of these is that the author is trying to make art, production companies are trying to make money. There's largely one person involved in the vision of a book, there's dozens if not many, many more involved in the vision of a movie.

Because it’s their money being spent, producers believe that they know what will make them money, and in their world to sell and make money they need a movie that will appeal to as large an audience as possible. It’s a business, and there are tens of millions of dollars at stake. I’m not always happy with their decisions either, but it is their money and they have a right to spend (invest) it as they see fit. An author basically only has his time invested.

Without visuals, books rely heavily on portraying the message through characters’ dialogue and thoughts. This gives the audience a good grasp on not only what’s going on in the story but also dives deeper into characters’ thoughts—an aspect movies often struggle to capture. Books also tend stretch out time, giving readers time to process and interpret the text. Whereas movies tend to be much more condensed, leading straight to the point but condensing the time that viewers have to process the storyline.

Very good points!

I’m fairly cynical about a handful of particular and popular authors who shall remain nameless, who have had quite a few movies produced from their books with what in my never humble opinion have been embarrassing results in many cases.

But those authors made a lot of money after already making a ton on best sellers year after year. Money talks.

I typically read the book first and then see the movie. I’m often disappointed by the movie version, but the Harry Potter movies were great. And then there’s The Shining—one of the few movies that was even better than the book.

I also started reading the Game of Thrones books as they came out, long before the TV series was a gleam in George R. R. Martin’s eye. I enjoyed the books but LOVED the series, even though I shouted at the TV a few times “that’s not how the story went!” Of course, since Martin never finished writing the books, I eventually stopped shouting.

You’re right. The Shining was great. Jack Nicholson was the perfect choice for that character.

How was the book? I own it but haven't read it yet. I liked the movie! Was it at all similar?

We watched that movie. What a twisty movie. We liked it. I'll have to check out the book.

Another one where I thought the movie was better than the book was Fault In Our Stars. It's was great, both book and movie, but I liked the movie better.

Loved the book and the movie did a good job, I was not disappointed

Amanda from Seattle

The Martian is one of the few that does a great job as book and movie!

I almost always read the book before viewing any movie that spawns from it, at lest if it's a book I'm invested in reading. One of the exceptions was watching No Country For Old Men by Cormac McCarthy. I enjoyed the movie and really wasn't that familiar with McCarthy, so I decided to backtrack and read the actual book... That's when I found out that he was such a spartan author that his novel was basically scene for scene with the movie... almost no interior thoughts just bam what was in the film is that which was in the novel. He and the Coen's are very well suited for each other!

I guess I will finally have to crack the spine on The Martian. Thank you!

Project Hail Mary also by Andy Weir has been made into a movie set to come out this March! So if you want to read it beforehand, now is the time to do it !! :-) There has also been a lot of talk about the new Devil Wears Prada 2 and if it will go along with the book that is also the sequel to the original book. (Revenge wears Prada )

Amanda from Seattle

For those of you who like book to movie adaptations. Harper’s Bazaar has a great list of their 50 best. I don’t agree with all their choices, but it is a fun list

https://www.harpersbazaar.com/culture/film-tv/g65427325/best-movies-adapted-from-books/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=mgu_ga_har_md_pmx_prog_org_us_17944069560&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=17944089348&gbraid=0AAAAADA2MkJ0Sg5vloA5iHJIn2XNmScRC&gclid=Cj0KCQiA4pvMBhDYARIsAGfgwvxFBOWASgRASMzqBnT0AeHGkLBqKB_gqi20YnyTWvBztvde_m21V7waAmpZEALw_wcB

Amanda from Seattle

You would probably like his book ‘The Road’. It’s a post apocalyptic novel and was made into a movie in 2009.

This is a good list. I've seen many of these and they were all worth watching. I'm going to pick a few off this list to view. Thanks Amanda!

Old Blue

Yes, I did like it! Definitely not an 'up' movie, but I really enjoyed it. I don't know how much was changed from the book, but if it's anything like the 'No Country for Old Men' situation, you're not going to get a lot out of the book that you got from the movie.