Sara Reyes | Tea, a Saturday Tradition Bears Fruit...With Vampires!

September 12, 2009

Today is tea day, Means gathering books, getting dressed somewhat nicely (no "work" pants, jeans okay), putting on the minimal amount of make-up (mascara, lip gloss) and heading out the door by noon to go meet the girls. Sorry, no guys allowed in this part of the book club. Then we gather at a tea room and enjoy at least two hours of conversation, book chatter, life chatter and consume a four course (sometimes five if we're lucky) tea. We do this at least once a month, sometimes we luck out and get to do it twice in a month. I can't remember a three-time but hey it could happen! It's really lots of fun and since we usually ALWAYS do a book exchange, you come home loaded to the gills with new books to try. It's the closest thing to a reader paradise I know.

Fun Books to Read!

Except maybe book club night, a whole different concept.

So, anyway, today is the Saturday after "Vampire Diaries" and with all the vamp talk being going on about this one, starting in the 1990s when the L.J. Smith books first came out and Gwen discovered them. Those were the books that allowed her to participate more fully in that Saturday ritual of tea book group. Before the Smith books, Gwen was bored. And there is nothing worse than a bored teenager at a forced to go because you've-got-to-spend-time-with-your-mother outing. And it was a regular type thing. Once a month seemed like it went on forever. How do I know, because as a mother I was on the receiving end of this treatment. But I digress, L.J. Smith's books were read even back in the 90s by both teens and adults. And there were several adults in the tea group who loved all of them as much as Gwen. So began a common discussion of books. Something to even look forward to. And with a couple of booksellers in the group, it made it so much easier to get all the copies, even first edition versions of Smith's books.

So, spin forward a dozen years or so...Vampire Diaries is a television series. On the CW no less, and so we've heard chatter all summer about the expectations. Would they get it right, who would be new, who would be left out, would the acting suck. You know, all the stuff an avid reader dreads when seeing the book they've read translated to the screen. I'm anticipating a lively discussion today, so we'll see.

My question for the weekend is...what books have been made successfully or not into a movie, series, or other media performance? Which ones do you hope will never make the transition?

And for those of you commenting you're in for a very special treat. Avon Books has given us a set of Dixie Cash books CURING THE BLUES WITH A NEW PAIR OF SHOES and DON'T MAKE ME CHOOSE BETWEEN YOU AND MY SHOES to give away. These are a series I'd LOVE to see as a television series. They would be hysterical! What do you think?

Until next time...
Get out there and READ a book...
Sara Reyes
DFW Tea Readers Group
Join us at Readers 'n 'ritas November 13-15, 2009!

Comments

10 comments posted.

Re: Sara Reyes | Tea, a Saturday Tradition Bears Fruit...With Vampires!

Great blog today I enjoyed reading this. Yes I think they would be great to read.
Thanks for being here today,
Penney
penneyw AT sbcglobal DOT net
(Penney Wilfort 11:22am September 12, 2009)

I enjoy Charlaine Harris' Sookie Stackhouse series of books and like watching TrueBlood, but the HBO series is not much like Ms. Harris' WONDERFUL books. I have to really keep that in mind whether I'm enjoying one of her books or watching the show.

I'd love to see any or all of Dixie Cash's books made into a series. Think it would be hilarious!
(Kay Martinez 12:25pm September 12, 2009)

I was just thinking about this- I don't mind the True Blood series, and that is a first for me as I hate when a movie/tv show deviates from a series I really liked. I also like the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series (also on HBO). I missed the Vampire Diaries on tv- good thing for TiVo. I would really like to see how the Janet Evanovich books would translate into tv.
(Sara Edmonds 1:13pm September 12, 2009)

I think The Harry Potter books made great movies. Timeline was another book to movie, also good. I've tried to think of some of my favorite romantic movies and not really sure if they started out as books first except Twilight. One of my favorite book series was Clan of the cave bear, the movie did not translate well. I would love to see more time travel movies or T.V. series.
(Theresa Buckholtz 1:58pm September 12, 2009)

Like Theresa I also believe the Harry Potter books were made into good movies. I also thought that a great job was done making Pride and prejudice, one of my all time favorite books into a movie. I loved the version starring Colin Firth. Most times I prefer some of my bookS not be made into movies because too many liberties are taken and sometimes it actually has ruined it for me.
(Cherie Japp 4:15pm September 12, 2009)

Sara: Thank you for your article.

My favorite recent novel-to-film project? No contest here; it's "The Lord of the Rings" series. Doing justice to the original novels is a tall order; this one does so beautifully.

In one respect, the film series does the impossible and improves on the originals. Tolkien's novels contain almost no romance and pay little attention to female characters. The movies take care of both.

The film version of "The Da Vinci Code" was okay, but it should have been more than that. It didn't send me the way the novel did.

My favorite romantic novel-movie combo is "Somewhere in Time". The film version is considerably better known than the original Richard Matheson novel, "Bid Time Return". However, I give both the highest recommendation. The movie, released back in 1980, is especially poignant nowadays in light of what eventually happened to its leading man, Christopher Reeve.

If I can think up more examples that other Fresh Fiction fans might be familiar with, I'll let you know. Happy blogging!

---Mary Anne Landers
www.facebook.com/maryannelanders
(Mary Anne Landers 8:27pm September 12, 2009)

I'm not sure any movie could do
justice to a book I've already read. I
think readers brings so much of
oneself into the reading process that it
is like we personalize a book. With
that said I've enjoyed movies when I've
seen them before reading the book it
was based on. That way there's no
expectation and less disappoint. I
loved the movie Silence of the Lamb
so much I had to read the book, which
was also enjoyable.
(Sue Ahn 10:44pm September 12, 2009)

So many of Nora Roberts books have been made into movies and I think I've read and seen everyone of them. She's a great author. But I would love to see Tina Leonards " Cowboys by the Dozen made into a series. That would be a riot.
(Evelyn Day 11:39am September 13, 2009)

Nice blog today, I have two daughters one born in the 70's the other in the 90's. The oldest and I matched similar tastes in literature but other I started out in 1st grade reading with Darren Shan books. Now that she is in high school we have resumed our love for Vamps. We giggled through "How to marry a Vampire Millionaire" and wiped our eyes with the "Twilight" series. So I am no longer the fossil she thought I had become when her birthday present last month was a set of Charlaine Harris' Sookie Stackhouse. The"Vampire Diaries" now is the new bonding discoveries we share and a TV series as VISA says is "priceless".
(Susan Lathen 4:07pm September 13, 2009)

I thought they did a decent job with The Notebook and The Harry Potter books. I have to agree with The Lord of the Rings too. Personally the books are always better but once in awhile they get it right.
(Suzy F. 6:56pm September 13, 2009)

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