redfiona99

During the Spanish trip (see posts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 and 11) I was reading LA Confidential.

It is an awesome book. It's thick and dark and rich (like good goulash) and I want to return to it to spend more time in that world. James Ellroy puts words together in a pleasing way.

This bit is more about how well they adapted it because yeah, I can see why they said it was unadaptable (see also there are many bad goulashes out there).

What interests me is how well they caught the characters even when they really changed them (especially Jack Vincennes). Because they really get how Bud White is a great hulking brute with a giant squishy heart and that's both his greatest strength and his greatest weakness. (And that he adds the heart that Ed Exley, bless his cotton socks, does not have. He is a great man, not a good man.)

They do cut the bit where it's not his violent qualities which help him hunt down the bad guy, but the brains that everyone assumes he doesn't have because he's a hulking brute. (Also Russell Crowe is perfect as him. Like actually perfect.)

They also cut a lot of Inez but I can see why because to do everything in the book, you'd have to make it a mini-series.

Jack Vincennes is interesting because they make him both less relatable (corrupted by fame vs hiding a terrible secret) and a lot more (because his secret makes him a terrible human being while you know corrupted by fame is at least relatable). I'm presuming they had to to hook a big name actor (I am eliding for a reason).

I think it's that actually getting the characters to feel right is the difference between a good adaptation and a bad one. It's like Ran and King Lear, they get the important bits of the characters so all the changes work. This is versus say the Disney Musketeers, which gets Milady and the Cardinal so wrong that the whole thing cannot work, no matter how closely (or not) they stick to the rest of it.

Much like with the Janet Neel books, I am jumping in in the middle of a series.

I liked this book much more though. I think it's partly because I have a horrible feeling I recognise his Cavanaugh Street neighbourhood and the characters in it, but also because, there's less of a feeling of happenstance to the solution.

I also loved several of the "this mystery only" background characters, like DeAnna Kroll.

( LibraryThing recommendations )

Probably my own fault for joining mid-series but I felt this spent too much time on the character's personal lives. But it was all really well and sharply observed.

The author states that his aim is not to give all the information about any one area but instead to give an overview of interesting facts from many areas. He succeeds in this - while I was reading it, I would tell my Mum some of the fun facts when she rang me. So I feel a little churlish saying I almost wish the author had included fewer things so he could spend more time on less so there would be less bouncing about between topics. Less bouncing about might also make the book read more smoothly, and might have ironed out a couple of peculiarities, for instance, on one page there is a truly terrible description of enzymes, what they are and how they work, and then, not more than two pages later, there's a perfectly good and workable description of the same thing. Yes, that description of enzymes is bad enough that I've docked half a star.

The book is a fun race through some interesting science, but I am left with a feeling that less would have been more.

( LibraryThing Suggester )

They all sound like my kind of thing.

Any suggestions for an easy reader for a 4-5 year old?

I have this terrible habit, when I like a book, of reading chunks of it out to my friends, family, anyone foolish enough to give me their phone number. When I started reading this, I read the entire preface down the phone to my poor unfortunate mother.

It is that good!

cleoselene, you'll enjoy the baseball-related answers. Actually, that's the thing, it's one of those books where you go, "ooh, x will really love that," or "y is going to flip their lid".

It's a pleasing mixture of funny, accurate and that peculiar fire-bugginess that you find in scientists of all stripes.

The cartoons made me giggle, and the rest of it made me think. Definitely recommended.

I think that I might have found an explanation for how the Moon escaped in Space: 1999 (and a bit of Sapphire and Steel).

I mean, I am going to ignore the idea that Charles II was the last Habsburg because I do not expect an American author to know that the Spanish Habsburgs were not the be all and end all of the Habsburgs. No matter how miffed I become each time.

Also, mild humblebrag hiding as a conflict of interest statement, I have exchanged emails with the book's chemistry advisor.

( Librarything Suggestions )

I have two of those books, even if I haven't got round to reading them yet.

On behalf of @psychemedia on Twitter - just finished reading Three Body Problem trilogy - incredible - & wondering if there's a Chinese equiv of William Gibson or Bacigalupi available in translation?

The yearly update on where the books I have read are set.

( All Books )

There's been a slight increase in non-UK set books, but in total, still more than half are set in the UK.

For UK-based books:

( UK based books )

Still completely dominated by England. Theoretically, there should be one set in Scotland but I have had forgotten to write down the name of the book so it is not counting (until I can find it again).

Spent the weekend at home, mostly finding out why some of the books on my Mum's "to the charity shop" pile are on there.

I, once again, failed to get into an Elizabeth George. I try, about once every 4 years, to read one of her books to find out what it is that people see in them. And I can't. I legitimately can't. This one wasn't so Lynley-centric, but still had Tottenham man-dem speaking like they were Bristol, blud. And my knowledge of local slang of anywhere south of Manchester is limited, so if I notice the discrepancy, it's pretty bad.

Then there was the author who, due to the American habit of giving male Celtic names to female offspring, I had to reassign from men who can't write women, to women who can't write women. Or historical settings. Which, when both of her books that I read were first person historical krimis is a problem.

Apollo 23 is an Eleventh Doctor and Amy adventure.

I really enjoyed it. It reminded me a lot of an Old School Who episode, sinister goings on at an isolated base, with the Doctor blundering in.

The book has lots of really neat touches, like the Doctor's child-like glee at getting to ride in an Apollo spacecraft, and something which feels like the author using descriptive flannel turns out to be a vitally important detail.

It catches the Doctor just right, I particularly like the line about "I've got a different ridiculous plan to defeat you". Amy is also nicely done, as are the rest of the characters. The creepy bits are suitably creepy, and the atmosphere (or lack thereof on the moon) is well rendered.

Definitely worth reading.

( LibraryThing Suggester )

Good suggestions, especially as I've already read two of them :)