The Lovely Bones

Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson has optioned the film rights to Alice Seybold's bestselling novel The Lovely Bones. I'll be curious to see how this novel, narrated by a young girl who details her rape and murder and the subsequent attempts of her family to solve the crime, will translate onscreen. I'll have to wait until 2007 to find out. (Guardian UK) --Kim

"Curious" Alert

Steve Kloves, who wrote the first four Harry Potter flicks, will direct the screen version of Mark Haddon's bestselling novel, "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time." The story is told from the perspective of an autistic teenager on a sleuthing mission to determine who murdered his neighbor's poodle; An entertaining and insightful read. -- Amy

Recommended Reading

"I am not so sure I should like the facts of life, but I have got over the bitter disappointment I felt when I first heard about them, and one obviously has to try them sooner or later." -- Cassandra Mortmain



A cross between a Jane Austen novel and "Are You There God? It's Me Margaret," Dodie Smith's "I Capture the Castle" is a charming novel about a girl's coming of age in a ramshackle English castle in the early part of the 20th century. There's a film version, starring Romola Garai, but I highly recommend checking out the novel as I don't believe the movie could ever capture the young narrator's endearing inner voice quite so well as the book does.



Thanks, Meg, for the recommendation...

--Amy

Tastes Great, Less Filling

The adaptation of Rex Pickett's novel Sideways is a critical success, garnering seven Golden Globe nominations. Here Karla Peterson explains that if you loved the movie, the book is a perfect complement. --Kim

Bawdy Bard's Tales to be Told on BBC

TiVo Alert: BBC will present four modern adaptions of stories from Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales, beginning Saturday night with The Wife of Bath. Details are here.

What's your favorite adaptation of the novel Les Liasions Dangereuse?



Valmont with Colin Firth, Annette Bening, Meg Tilly, Fairuza Balk, and Henry Thomas



Dangerous Liaisons, which starred John Malkovich, Glenn Close, Michelle Pfeiffer, Keanu Reeves, and Uma Thurman



or Cruel Intentions starring Ryan Phillippe, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Reese Witherspoon, and Selma Blair

--Kim

Forthright Firth

In this month's O Magazine, Colin Firth (Pride and Prejudice, Valmont) writes about "Books That Made a Difference." Here's his list:

The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge, Rainer Maria Rilke

The Power and the Glory, Graham Greene

The Leopard, Guiseppe di Lampedusa

Preston Falls, David Gates

Saint Maybe, Anne Tyler

Light in August, William Faulkner

The Corrections, Jonathan Franzen

--Kim