strange and random happenstance: The Time Traveler's Wife

Showing posts with label The Time Traveler's Wife. Show all posts

Wednesday, June 20, 2018

Amaranth Books

Bookstore: Amaranth Books

Location: Evanston, Illinois

Why I Love Them: Amaranth Books is a bookstore I found by accident. I had headed to Evanston for a book signing at the local Barnes and Noble but what really drew me to the area was Bookman's Alley. This labyrinthine bookstore was mentioned in Audrey Niffenegger's The Time Traveler's Wife and was, to me, the most memorable part of that book. So I made the pilgrimage and as I looked through the shelves and stepped over the piles of books I heard the owner, Roger Carlson, talking about the time Frank Sinatra hit on his wife. After I went into sensory overload from the sheer number of rooms and artifacts I decided to wander around the neighborhood and saw a Red Mango frozen yogurt shop. My friend Jess had recommended them to me so I went in for a post book binge treat and as I sat eating my pomegranate infused dessert I noticed a small storefront that said Amaranth Books: Used and Rare. I HAD to check it out. The store is very small, only a few aisles wide and not that deep. But for how small they are they have an amazing collection, especially of British authors that are rather hard to find stateside. There's something to be said for small stores that are well curated. Amaranth might not have had the lure of Bookman's Alley, but for all that, I bought more books at Amaranth...

Best Buy: While I have only been able to get to the store a few times, my first visit was a true book buying success story. I adore P.G. Wodehouse. More than that I adore Overlook Press' amazing hardcover re-releases with the vintage style covers and the stripped endpaper. The problem is they are rather pricey, coupled with how prolific Wodehouse was as a writer, and this can put a serious dent in your wallet. Therefore, aside from the Jeeves and Wooster series which was worth any price, I have attempted to find all the rest of the books at used bookstores. I sometimes am successful, occasionally I have been very successful, but more often than not I strike out. That first day in Amaranth, oh, they had SO MANY of the Wodehouse books I just wanted them all. I NEEDED them all. But I was trying to be good. So I bought only the first Blandings story, Something Fresh, and then went to my book signing and then went home and stewed. I felt that I had just missed a big opportunity. I should have bought all the books they had, but I didn't. I held out hope that when I returned in the future they would still be there. But I knew, in my heart of hearts, they wouldn't be. Ironically when I did return for a book buying spree it was at Bookman's Alley and a local Half Price Books where I found more Wodehouse, because of course Amaranth had sold theirs. But I know that whenever I get the chance to return they will surely have something I need to buy.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments

Labels: Amaranth Books, Audrey Niffenegger, Blandings, Bookman's Alley, Illinois, Jeeves and Wooster, Overlook Press, PG Wodehouse, Something Fresh, Support Your Brick and Mortar, The Time Traveler's Wife

Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Book Review - Rebecca Stead's When You Reach Me

When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead
Published by: Wally Lamb Books
Publication Date: July 14th 2009
Format: Hardcover, 197 Pages
Rating: ★★★
To Buy
Miranda's life seems pretty normal, until her best friend Sal gets punched by Marcus, even if she didn't know the kids name was Marcus till later. After that everything changes. Sal will no longer speak to her, so she now has to walk home alone, everyday, past the crazy guy on the corner. She would be very isolated if it wasn't for her new friend Annemarie and her battered copy of A Wrinkle in Time. But slowly something bizarre and almost sinister happens. Anonymous and cryptic notes start arriving foretelling death and doom. Notes that with each appearance make Miranda realize this stranger knows way too much about her life. But can Miranda figure out who will die and why before it's too late?

I am truly at a lose as to why this book won the Newbury. Last year The Graveyard Book was right on, complex and interesting. This book was simplistic and it felt dated, like it was not just set in the seventies, but written in the seventies, and not in a good way. Plus can we say dense heroine! I can only assume that the librarians felt an overwhelming sense of nostalgia for all the Wrinkle in Time correlations and references that they thought it should win. Personally, I never liked A Wrinkle in Time, despite having read it many times I just don't get what there is about it that keeps people coming back. Then again, maybe everyone's just going back and re-reading it to see why everyone's talking about it making it some bizarre loop appropriate for this book. The fact that Miranda could not grasp the basics of time travel, even though she's read A Wrinkle in Time millions of times makes her irredeemable as a heroine. They had Doctor Who in the seventies, she can't be this thick. I can't believe children, who in this day and age have grown up with Harry Potter and the time-turner, could stand her not grasping the simplest ideas of time travel and having to sit through explanations that a kindergartner could grasp. I really just wanted to smack her upside the head and go wibbly wobbly timey wimey bitch. Sorry for the profanity, but I think she needs a right old smack down.

But I haven't gotten to what really bugged me, and this would be aside from the dentist's office being in the school, wtf really. Let's go back to a book I hate. I know other's love it, I just don't. This book being The Time Traveller's Wife. This was truly The Time Traveller's Wife written for children. All great deeds and true love and yadda, yadda, didn't like it then, and I sure as hell didn't like a dumbed down version of it. Right about now you're probably thinking, and why did she give it three stars? Because it was fast, and even if it was predictable, linearly convoluted with an annoying character who loves a book I don't, I still had some kernel of fun reading it. Award winning? Not in my book. But it's a quick read if you want something to divert you for an hour or two. Plus love and self sacrifice, not bad themes to promote.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 4 comments

Labels: A Wrinkle in Time, Doctor Who, Harry Potter, Miranda, Neil Gaiman, Newbury, Rebecca Stead, The Graveyard Book, The Time Traveler's Wife, Time-Turner, When You Reach Me

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Movie Review - The Time Traveler's Wife

The Time Traveler's Wife
Based on the book by: Audrey Niffenegger
Release Date: August 14th, 2009
Starring: Rachel McAdams, Eric Bana, Ron Livingston
Rating: ★★

I must first preface my review with this, I hated the book. I wanted to like it, really I did, but I hated the characters, I hated every single thing about them and at times I found the book verging on the creepy. I know many people will disagree with me, that's fine, that's your opinion, I'm just telling you the facts so you know where I come from in reviewing this adaptation. Anyway, you might find it odd, as a hater of the book, that I willingly went to the movie. Well...I was hoping that some of the issues I had with the book would be ironed out in the process of adapting it, plus I love Rachel McAdams and Eric Bana. I was partially right, I liked the movie more than the book, but I still have issues.

If you aren't familiar with the plot of the book it's a "dazzling novel in the most untraditional fashion, this is the remarkable story of Henry DeTamble, a dashing, adventuresome librarian who travels involuntarily through time, and Clare Abshire, an artist whose life takes a natural sequential course. Henry and Clare's passionate love affair endures across a sea of time and captures the two lovers in an impossibly romantic trap, and it is Audrey Niffenegger's cinematic storytelling that makes the novel's unconventional chronology so vibrantly triumphant." In other words, Clare has always known Henry, from when she was young, and knew that they would eventually be together while Henry jumps about in time. Epic romance, yaddayadda. The predestination, yeah, it's kind of sweet, put also kind of creepy. Clare's been in love with an older version of Henry and when they finally meet for the first time in his chronology she has to re-adjust to young Henry. It all has a bit of the ick factor with two peoples chronologies being all messed up with each other, an older version of Henry actually marrying Clare because the current Henry has gone elsewhere.

But what about the adaptation? The bones of the book are there, but I think they didn't explain themselves enough. You were kind of thrown right into the story, and in the book, which is written with Clare and Henry being duel narrators to ease the narrative transitions, this is gone in the movie. Instead you get kind of a mash up of everything without any explanation. In fact I was thinking due to the diary nature of the book I'm surprised they didn't employ some voice over narration, which would have fixed some of the bumps. They never go into the why these two people, why certain places, times, events, or what really is the cause. There is no questioning and it's just either as a viewer you have to accept it and move on or go read the book. As Ebert said: "They deal with these difficulties by not dealing with them at all." Also everything seems kind of drained of emotion, it's very wooden almost, which I blame on the director, because I have seen these two act well, Slings and Arrows anyone? Also there where little funny parts, like with the lottery ticket...which were the only scenes where you could really see the actors connecting. I think it needed some more infusion of dark humor. Just because this is a timeless love story that is destined to end doesn't mean you can't have a laugh.

In the end the thing that annoyed me most is that the two of them were so insulated in their own little world. Their families take on background roles. Clare's childhood home, which is a character onto itself in the book is just a place. Plus this is set in Chicago, could we get some nice cinematic shots of the city occasionally? In the end, they took so much away, emotion, familial connections, location, that you are left with this little microcosm of two people who have been almost taken out of time, and that doesn't work. While Henry IS a man out of time, Clare is very much living her life linearly, and they did not successfully convey this feeling of her isolation and loneliness. She is separated from Henry but not the rest of the world. She must face the world on a day to day basis uncertain of Henry's fate, and this central concept was lost in the movie.

As a final note, it's not surprising to me that the movie is 36% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes. If you were a fan of the book you are probably pissed at all that was omitted. And if you weren't a fan, there's nothing really there to engage you. Final note, the few things omitted that I'm glad about. They didn't make Gomez nearly as creepy or letching on Clare as in the book. Also Henry's self-love as a teenager, really glad that was gone too.