All Around the World

You all have my sincerest apologies for the late post this month. Our computer went down on Monday and I didn't get it back until today. Thank you so much to those of you who emailed me. I very much appreciate that you cared about my well being. We are fine, we just weren't able to use the computer. So now that you've waited long enough... here is my short thoughts on Around the World in 80 Days.

Whoa, did Disney take liberties! This book was much different than the movie I've seen, which was my only experience with this story yet.

I did think that it was a fun, fast moving story though. I was a little worried before I started the book, because I've read Journey to the Center of the Earth; and while my son and I found it to be a fun story, it was very long, and full of very big words, and parts of it really dragged on. This one was much easier to read.

I was very intrigued by Phineas Fogg's personality. I admired Fogg's calm and forgiveness throughout the trip. I really admired and was thankful for his bravery and humanity, in reference to Aouda and Passpartout, when they needed rescuing.
It made me incredibly upset at how Disney made him such a scatter brained proffesor/scientist. They took all of the chivilry and good character lessons out of the story.

I loved that Aouda was able to see past his sometimes cold-ish properness, and that they were able to get their "happily ever after"- ending up together.

I found the story easy to read. I found it to pace at the same speed as the story. It moved very quickly, just like their whirl-wind trip. The only time I felt the story dragged was for a short time when they were on the train, in America. And even then, that is the part in their trip that seemed slow to them.

I was surprised, and impressed, when Ogden, was mentioned and given credit as being huge for the railroad. (For those of you who don't know I live quite near Ogden, in Utah.) As well, when I saw there would be a chapter on Mormons, I was curious and nervous; both of which turned out to be warranted. I was pleasantly surprised in the parts that were right. (History of the LDS church migration etc.) and a little bummed out, but not at all surprised by the mistakes. (The words the missionary preached etc.)

I also liked/appreciated how it was all real modes of transportation during that time period. (Unlike some movies I've seen, and one of Jules Verne's other novels, Journey to the Center of the Earth, which is a bit far fetched for me.) I came out of it thinking that his trip really was possible. Which even with todays faster modes of transportation seems like quote a feat.

Poor Mr. Fix. I never did like him though. I realize that he thought he was doing his job, and even apologized at the end of the story. But because I knew that Fogg was innocent, I never could like him. Especially when he pulled a couple of things on Passepartout. (Like the getting him drunk and drugging him escapade.)

I hope that you all enjoyed this lighter classic as well, this last month. And I can't wait to read your interpretations.

*hugs to you all*

Books VS. Movies

Another in between questioned borrowed from Booking Through Thursday.
Books and films both tell stories, but what we want from a book can be different from what we want from a movie. Is this true for you? If so, what’s the difference between a book and a movie?

I don't know that I want different things from a book and a movie. I want a good story. However, I have noticed about myself, that I'm much more forgiving of the movie if I saw it first. Here are some examples:

I read the Chronicles of Narnia, before seeing the Disney version movies. When I saw the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, I had this lingering erk that the White Witch was supposed to have black hair! And don't get me started on my issues with Prince Caspian.

However, I grew up watching "The Sound of Music", I loved it, it's still one of my favorites. I read Maria, around my senior year of high school. I was upset about some of the things that they changed, but I understood why they did. The movie wouldn't have flowed and had as many highs and lows if they'd totally stuck to true time frames and personalities etc.

It was the same with The Counte of Monte Cristo. I saw the movie first and really liked it. When I read the book I thought, "That's not even the same story!" I liked most of the book better, but I totally understood the movie changes, even liked one of them.

I've read Janette Oake's "Love Series". When they made Love Comes Softly into a Hallmark movie, I was so excited. I couldn't wait to see it. When I did see it and the sweet and loving two year old in the book was a snotty, rotten 7 year old in the movie, I was furious. For years I thought, "They ruined the book!" In truth, they told a very cute story, it's just not the same story.

Most recently was Journey to the Center of the Earth (by Jules Vern) My son and I finished reading it a couple of weeks ago, so last night we rented the old 1959 version, because I knew that the newest version was really different-just from the commercials.  I got onto netflix and looked up all the different versions. Read about the plots of the movies and chose the one that sounded most like the book. When we watched it last night, even my son kept looking at me saying, "That's totally different that in the book!" or "He wasn't even a character in the book." "Where did the girl come from, they don't have a lady with them in the book."

We also rented Moby Dick after we finished that and that movie had big differences as well, although, after reading the novel, I totally understand why.

I haven't figured out why I can forgive the movie makers if I see their versions first, but I do know that if you want me to go watch Twilight with you, you better ask before I get around to reading the books.

Well, now it's your turn. Which do you prefer Movies or Books? What do you expect out of them?

And the Winner Is...

Well, we did get a couple more votes and the book selection for May will be....

Anna Karenina by Tolstoy.  

The Three Musketeers came in a very close 2nd place and will be added to my list of previously voted on books to be chosen from again early next year.

I hope that you are all enjoying this months read, Around the World in 80 Days by Jules Verne.

Happy Reading.

We Like Ties Around Here Don't We?

Once again it looks as if this months voting is going to end in a tie.  If you have not voted yet PLEASE do so. If the result is still a tie when the poll ends tomorrow, I will remove my vote to break the tie.  (The only reason I didn't vote for the other favorite is because I've already read it, but I can read books twice *wink*)

About The Author

Harriet Beecher Stowe was born in Litchfield, Connecticut, on June 14, 1811. She was the seventh child in her family.  Her father was a Calvanist Minister of the Congregational Church.  Two of her brothers ( Henry Ward and Edward) followed in their father's footsteps. (Henry Ward Beecher also became a famed abolitionist.)

She experienced slavery for the first time when her family moved to Cincinnati.  She met run away slaves, abolitionists and heard their stories, she also saw race riots and began to aid fugitive slaves from the South.  She was very "stirred up" to hear of the "heartless hypocrocy" of forcing children from parents, husbands from wifes and the fact that even though slaves were expected to be Christians, sometimes even married in churches, their marriages were not legal and when spouses were separated they were expected to marry someone else where they went.  The quote that upset her the most, she heard among slave owners, traders, and catchers, was "they don't have the same feelings that we do." (She even puts it in the book.  Mrs. Marie St. Clare says it.)

In 1836 she married Calvin Stowe and in 1850 the moved to Maine (where he worked at Bowdoin College). They had seven children. The first two were twins, one of which was named Eliza. Their fourth child Samuel died a year after he was born from Cholera.  It was there, after the passage of the Fugitive Slave Act, that Harriet wrote Uncle Tom's Cabin.

It was first published as a series in an abolitionist paper.  When it was published into a book, by a Boston publisher, it sold 10,000 copies in the first week and 300,000 copies in it's first year.  But the book later became almost out of print in the middle of the twentieth century because of the harsh feelings left over from both sides of Emmancipation.  It wasn't until the 1960's (during yet another civil rights movement) that it regained popularity.

Of, Uncle Tom's Cabin, she said that she felt it was "forced upon her by the horror of slavery".  She was not worried about creating a work of literature as much as she was to persuade people through reading literature.  The book made her an instant celebrity and she traveled much to promote the book and to urge those that read it to stand up against slavery.

Uncle Tom's character was symbolic of Christ.  She said that the death scene of his character came to her as if in a vision, that "I only put down what I saw.  God wrote it."

Stowe won the respect of famous people like, Tolstoy and Abraham Lincoln.  In fact when she met Abraham Lincoln, he greeted her as, "the little woman who wrote the book that made this great war."

She also met and corresponded with people like, George Elliot, Oliver Wendell Holmes and Lady Byron.

When asked if Uncle Tom's Cabin was a true story Harriet wrote a Concluding Remarks chapter to ad to the book in the second paragraph it reads: 

"The separate incidents that compose the narrative are, to a very great extent, authentic, occurring, many of them, either her own observation, or that of her personal friends.  She or her friends have observed characters the counterpart of almost all that were introduced; and many of the sayings are word for word as heard herself, or reported to her."

Her work has since been made into a play and is considered today to be a classic.

Harriet went on to write almost another book a year as well as poems, biographical sketches, childrens books and travel books, but was always in financial hardship.  Before she died she had written over 30 novels. She is only remember, though, for her first.

Harriet died on July 1, 1896