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Book 326: Polite Society

“As Dimple waited for Fahim, she doubted Ania’s wisdom for the first time. There was no convincing reason why Fahim would be attracted to a woman like her, obviously provincial, still at times cloddish, when he had the pick of those sophisticated gazelles at media parties. Ania had kept insisting that she could see the signs. but Dimple was worried about the dangers of being wrong. It had taken her months of discipline and training to calm the anxieties that assailed her—worries about her position as some kind of interloper—and now her equilibrium was again wrecked. Ania was too fearless and her friendship too effortless, spilling from her without consequence, leaving a trail of easy generosity and advice. For Dimple that same friendship offered elation and play, but also apprehension and uncertainty, a fear that it would all collapse and crumble to dust.”

Dates read: July 9-12, 2019

Rating: 7/10

A few years before I started this blog, I started making a concerted effort to read the much-bemoaned classics. I wasn’t an English major (Psychology for me!), so apart from the standard high school mandatories like Gatsby and Mockingbird, I had read actually quite few of them. And what a surprise it was! While some of them deserve their boring reputations, many others have survived the test of time because they’re wonderful reading experiences. Turns out I love Jane Austen! Who knew?

When she wrote Emma, Austen famously described her as a heroine that she didn’t think people would really like. A smart, pretty, rich girl isn’t exactly the most sympathetic of heroines. Clueless proved that Emma could hold up well to adaptation, so when I read that Mahesh Rao had decided to transplant the book to modern-day India in Polite Society, I was curious. Instead of Emma Woodhouse, we have Ania Khurana, beloved daughter of wealthy businessman Dileep. Ania is bored with her socialite life in the most elite circles of Delhi, and when she successfully sets up her spinster aunt Renu, she decides her next project will be her new friend Dimple, who works in PR. Dimple grew up in the country, and though she met a nice guy, Ankit, when she first moved to the city, finds it hard to resist when Ania tries to steer her towards up-and-coming reporter Fahim.

While many aspects of the original are here, Rao puts his own, darker spin on some of the side characters: both the Frank Churchill and Jane Fairfax types have very different storylines than Austen gave them, and Dileep is drawn dangerously into the thrall of a faith healer type called Mr. Nayak. The broad strokes of the story play out more or less as expected, though: Fahim does not fall for Dimple and marries impulsively shortly thereafter, Ania grows closer to her longtime family friend Dev (standing in for Mr. Knightly) even as she develops a flirtation with the Frank substitute, Dimple and Ankit come back to each other eventually. But while Austen wraps things up neatly and happily, it’s much more unsettled at the end of Polite Society.

Taking a beloved story and adapting it is a tricky thing to do…too close to the original, and it barely seems worth the effort, but too far away and you risk enraging fans. I think Rao struck a good balance, adding plot twists that gave the story new complexity. I especially liked the addition of perspectives besides that of Ania, which had the effect of giving Dimple, Dileep, and even Fahim so much more richness and interest. I appreciated the generally edgier tone and the way it undercut a story that has a lot of romantic wish fulfillment and froth built into it. The story the book tells is compelling, and I think would work even without having read Emma (though the understanding that the heroine is supposed to be kind of annoying is definitely helpful to come in with).

While I enjoyed a lot of what this book did, it was not entirely successful. Rao’s prose lacks the wit and verve that really mark Austen as a master of her craft, and is less charming as a result of the inevitable comparison. And while many of the side stories were a welcome addition, it felt like there were too many to give them all time to really develop. The generally lightweight tone of the book (even in the heavier way Rao rendered it) would be compromised by the addition of too many extra pages, but I think another 50 or so would have given it all a little more room to breathe. Overall, though, I found this book very good and would recommend it both to those who already love Emma and those who haven’t experienced it yet!

One year ago, I was reading: The Death of Vivek Oji

Two years ago, I was reading: A Perfect Explanation

Three years ago, I was reading: The Coming Plague

Four years ago, I was reading: Love Medicine

Five years ago, I was reading: The Man Without A Face

Six years ago, I was reading: Zodiac

Top Ten Tuesday: Books That Will Make You Feel Good

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly linkup of book bloggers hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl! This week’s topic is actually “books guaranteed to put a smile on your face”, but I LOVE a downer so that would be a struggle for me. My heart doesn’t particularly care for warming. So I’m trying to go with a more attainable goal: books that will make you feel good!

Pride & Prejudice: I feel like Jane Austen gets dismissed by people who haven’t read her as fluffy, but once you actually read it you’re treated to razor-sharp social satire…but also love stories! We have all at the very least seen an adaptation at this point, so it’s no surprise to say that at the end, three sisters are wed (two of them happily) and it’s all very charming.

The Rosie Project: If you want feel-good, romance is a genre that will probably offer what you’re looking for…after all, if there is no Happily Ever After, some people don’t think it’s even a romance at all. I’m not usually particularly compelled by the genre, but found this one quite enjoyable!

Matilda: A childhood classic, but if you don’t feel good by the end when Matilda and Miss Honey are both free from their unpleasant family members and have each other as chosen family, you have no heart.

Fangirl: This one isn’t quite a straight romance, it’s as much (or more) a story about a young woman coming of age, but there’s such a sweetness to the central love story that it’s hard to not feel good about it.

Less: This is a book I recommend all the time, because it is funny and feel-good without being light or treacly. Like the Oscars, the Pulitzers rarely reward comedy, which just goes to show how good this one is seeing as how it won!

Stardust: This is a modern-day fairy tale (not modern-day in setting, but in authorship), so while there are witches, and magic, and ghosts, and evil, there are also unicorns and of course true love, for a book that is ultimately uplifting.

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn: There’s a lot of dark stuff in this book: alcoholic parents, heartbreak, a girl being held back because of her gender. But it is still fundamentally hopeful, with just enough wins for Francie to counter her losses, and ends on an upbeat note.

About A Boy: Nick Hornby is a little cynical on the outside, but usually pretty sentimental on the inside. I appreciate that he avoids the kind of expected angle of getting the titular child’s father figure and actual mother together, but it’s still big-hearted and ultimately sweet.

A Wind in the Door: While I think all of the books in the Time Quartet are ultimately pretty feel-good, the central theme of this book in particular is the importance of human connection, even (and maybe especially) with those who you may not like.

Emma: I usually try to not include the same author more than once, but I was not joking about my fondness for bummer books, y’all. There are some definite similarities, plot-wise, between Emma and P&P, including a high-spirited heroine who thinks she knows best but has her assumptions and self-regard challenged pointedly but without cruelty and, of course, a clearly-meant-to-be couple who do get together at the end. But Emma has charms all of its own and is a fun read!

Top Ten Tuesday: Characters Whose Jobs I’d Love To Have

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly linkup of book bloggers hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl! This week, we’re talking about characters with jobs we would want to have. I don’t read a lot of books that take place in the workplace, but here is what I came up with!

Emma Woodhouse (Emma): Who doesn’t want to be handsome, clever, and rich…and bored enough because you don’t need to do anything productive that you start playing matchmaker with your friends?

Margo Manning (Death Prefers Blondes): I mean, I don’t know that I would have ever come up with “ringleader of a group of drag queen catburglars” as a job description, but now that I know it’s out there I want it.

Daisy Jones (Daisy Jones and the Six): A beautiful, talented singer developing a slow burn attraction to a hot, talented musician? There are worse jobs to have!

Selin (The Idiot): I sometimes wish I had the chance to go back to college and do it over, I feel like I would pick more interesting classes! Being a college student again, especially at Harvard, would be so interesting.

Georgie McCool (Landline): I don’t know that I think I would be any good at it, but working as a TV comedy writer sounds like fun!

Maud Bailey (Possession): There’s a part of me that always wishes I’d gone into academia, which may be one of the reasons I think longingly about being a college student again. Honestly, the idea of getting to research my interests all day every day is the dream!

Tess Durbeyfield (Tess of the D’Urbervilles): It’s not so much that I think I have any natural gift or even longing for outdoor work, but the book makes Tess’s experience as a shepherdess feel so idyllic that I want to give it a try.

Vianne Rocher (Chocolat): I don’t actually have any particular fondness for eating chocolate, though I do love the smell, so I think I might make a good chocolatier. At least I wouldn’t be tempted to eat my wares!

Lisbeth Salander (The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo): Being a genius hacker helping solve mysteries and take down hateful people wouldn’t suck.

Clarice Starling (The Silence of the Lambs): Doing criminal profiling for the FBI was at one point very much my dream job!

Top Ten Tuesday: Characters I’d Follow On Social Media

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly linkup of book bloggers hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl! This week’s topic is characters that we would follow on social media. But of course, social media comes in different flavors, so I’ve divided my list into those I’d follow on Instagram and ones I’d follow on Twitter instead.

Instagram

Emma Woodhouse (Emma): I am sort-of cheating here, because the Emma retelling I read (and liked!) last year, Polite Society, wrote its central character as a social media influencer…which is perfect because it’s exactly what she’d be doing!

Francis Abernathy (The Secret History): Francis would be the type to post mostly (amazing) outfit-of-the-day photos, with occasional picture of the exclusive things and places his wealth allows him access to.

Bridget Jones (Bridget Jones’s Diary): Bridget seems like the kind of messy friend that it can be fun to keep up with through social media. She would post lots of pictures of drinks with captions that probably overshared in an entertaining way.

Daisy Buchanan (The Great Gatsby): A socialite who married rich, Daisy would be all about showing off the glittering exteriors to hide the hollowness of it all.

Lily Bart (The House of Mirth): She’s basically trying to sell herself in marriage, and what better way to do that than to be the classiest kind of insta-model she could be?

Twitter

Lizzy Bennett (Pride and Prejudice): I’ll be honest, I am not a super Lizzy fangirl. But she is definitely witty and could be very entertaining in 280 character bursts.

Ifemelu (Americanah): She would be the queen of those long strings of tweets that manage to somehow blow up the things you think you know and give you an entirely new perspective.

Catherine/Birdy (Catherine, Called Birdy): Quality teen snark.

Yunior (The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao): The high-energy, pop culture reference-heavy way that Yunior tells the story would make for very entertaining tweeting.

Amy Dunne (Gone Girl): Anyone who could produce the Cool Girl speech could kill it on Twitter. I feel like she would mostly scroll and judge to herself, but every once in a while would give a truly inspired rant.

Top Ten Tuesday: Books That Could Use Better Titles Than Just A Name

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly linkup of book bloggers hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl! While last week we highlighted books with awesome titles, this week we’re considering the opposite: books with titles that could use a little more oomph. For me, I’ve always thought that just naming your book after a person in that book is a little bit of a cop-out (unless, of course, you’ve written a biography). So here are ten books with names as titles that I think could use an upgrade.

Emma: Austen’s most famous works use Ye Olde Ampersand, so how about calling this one Love & Matrimony after the central theme?

Rebecca: It’s symbolic that the book is named after a character who, though never alive during the narrative, dominates its events. But I would sort-of cheat and name it after its main character: The Second Mrs. deWinter, which I think creates intrigue about the first.

Lolita: Despite being the title character, young Delores isn’t actually the main focus of the book (rather, it’s narrator Humbert Humbert). I think No Choice would be a good replacement for this one…Humbert’s desperate obsession makes him feel as though he doesn’t have one, while she actually doesn’t.

Anna Karenina: Anna herself is a fascinating character, but I might call this one instead The Train, paying homage to both the driving passion of the central affair as well as the importance of trains in several scenes.

Jane Eyre: This is a great book about coming of age, with strong gothic overtones and a person locked in an attic. The title coveys none of that. I’d crib an episode title from Buffy the Vampire Slayer and title this Becoming.

Macbeth: Let’s just go with the theater tradition and official re-dub this The Scottish Play.

Tess of the D’urbervilles: The subtitle of this book is “A Pure Woman Faithfully Presented”. That doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue, so how about Purity?

Nefertiti: This novel was a little underwhelming for me, but a title like that isn’t going to help it stand out. For all the emphasis the book places on the physical loveliness of the Egyptian queen, For Beauty would make a more intriguing title.

Olive Kitteridge: I’ve actually always liked it when books that are short story collections (which is very much what this is, “novel” or no) are named after one of the stories within. It’s not the strongest entry, but A Little Burst is a story that’s both representative of the whole and that makes a good name.

Mildred Pierce: This is a noir, but the name Mildred has always made me think of mildew, which just makes it sound damp. It would be better served leaning into its potboiler style, so I’d call it From Bad to Worse.

Top Ten Tuesday: Characters That Remind Me of Myself

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly linkup of book bloggers hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl! This week, we’re highlighting book characters that remind us of ourselves. So there are a decent contingent of smart, book-nerdy girls on here, but also some that are probably less flattering comparisons.

Hermione Granger (Harry Potter): I know I just used her a couple months back in a similar topic. But is there an overachieving girl who doesn’t identify with Hermione?

Emma Woodhouse (Emma): I am not much of a matchmaker, but I do enjoy gossip and drama like our girl here. And Emma does have a brain in her head: we’re told she’s clever right there in the opening line.

Meg Murray (A Wrinkle in Time): For reasons not worth getting into right now, I was an often-angry little girl. It’s rare to find stories that center on a girl who gets mad and makes that part of her heroism.

Francie Nolan (A Tree Grows in Brooklyn): Francie’s determination to get an education and love for learning and reading make her a role model for plenty of nerdy girls.

Esther Greenwood (The Bell Jar): I struggled with mental health and depression growing up and still do, honestly. Esther’s struggle feels so familiar.

Daine Sarassri (Wild Magic): I tried getting into the Alanna series, but the central character’s bravery was never something I could identify with. Daine’s love of animals, however, really spoke to me!

Lee Fiora (Prep): I spent quite a bit of time reading this book infuriated at its teenage protagonist…because she made so many of the same mistakes rooted in hyper self-conciousness that I have made and to be honest, continue to make.

Jules Jacobson (The Interestings): Jules’s struggle to recognize that her talents and worth may not be in the same place as her friends and deal with the jealousy she feels is all too recognizable.

Briony Tallis (Atonement): Briony’s failure to understand what she’s seen and desire to be important and listened to lead to tragedy…my own childhood busybody-ness didn’t have disastrous consequences, but that was more luck than anything.

Bridget Jones (Bridget Jones’s Diary): Who can’t relate to the refusal to really adult?

Top Ten Tuesday: Characters I’d Like To Switch Places With

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly linkup of book bloggers hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl! This week, we’re looking at characters whose lives look pretty good…good enough to switch into for a bit, as long as I got to come back anyways!

Hermione Granger (Harry Potter): Being Harry Potter himself is dangerous and scary. Being Hermione, though, means you get to have all the adventures and be the smartest person in the room at all times, which is the dream.

Emma Woodhouse (Emma): The lessons she learns are fairly gentle, and she’s handsome, clever, and rich, which honestly seems like a great way to be.

Daine Sarrasri (Wild Magic): Growing up, her magical connection with animals was something I loved and really wished I had!

Vasya Petrovna (The Bear and the Nightingale): She’s brave, smart, beautiful, and magical, and one of my favorite recent series heroines.

Bridget Jones (Bridget Jones’ Diary): Her life is honestly pretty easy even if her escapades are hilarious.

Professor Maud Bailey (Possession): She’s lovely and smart and a feminist scholar and that’s not a bad way to find yourself being.

Natasha Rostova (War and Peace): I will never get over what Tolstoy does with her in the end, but right up until then she’s got the best, most interesting personality and journey of anyone in the book, and is one of the most unforgettable characters I’ve ever read.

Astrid Teo (Crazy Rich Asians): Okay, she’s got romantical problems. But so does everyone and she’s gorgeous and absurdly wealthy.

Cersei Lannister (A Game of Thrones): SHE’S THE WORST. But she’s also beautiful, rich, powerful, and utterly (albeit wrongly) convinced of her own intelligence and rightness.

Sookie Stackhouse (Dead Until Dark): Yes, the constant unwanted intrusions of others’ thoughts would be stressful, and the frequent murder concerns are a problem, but she also gets to have a bunch of love affairs with hot dudes, so…

Top Ten Tuesday: Classics You Shouldn’t Be Intimidated By

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly linkup of book bloggers hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl! Since I shuffled a bunch of December topics, here’s the freebie I was supposed to do like two weeks ago! Since today is Christmas and some of you may have gotten gift cards, and next week is New Years and some of you may be resolving to “read more classics” (a resolution I made for years before I actually started reading them), here are ten that aren’t nearly as intimidating as you might think!

Emma: If you’ve seen Clueless, you know the basic gist of Emma. A wealthy, pretty, smart young woman decides to play matchmaker for a less fortunate friend, and experiences her own romantic complications. It’s a great way to get introduced to Austen’s sharp satire and wit.

Anna Karenina: Yes, it’s super duper long. And yes, there are some boring parts about farming in rural Russia. But this book has a love rhombus that rivals any in a modern-day YA book and tells an absolutely fantastic story.

Tess of the d’Urbervilles: A modern feminist audience will recognize the slut-shaming, madonna/whore complex, and double standards that Thomas Hardy presents as the nonsense they are.

Great Expectations: Dickens was paid by the word, and it shows in all his work. But this, for me, is his best, and once you read it you’ll recognize it as the source for a lot of other literature. It is funny and smart and full of incredible characters.

The Picture of Dorian Grey: This story about the rot that can fester beneath a perfectly curated facade and how people often mistake visual appeal for moral goodness is definitely relevant to our time.

A Tree Grows In Brooklyn: Anyone who was a bookish child will likely recognize themselves in Francie Nolan, and her journey towards maturity is a deeply affecting one.

Jane Eyre: I’m not big into Gothic lit, so I avoided this one for a long time, but it turns out it’s an amazing story about a young woman determined to make her way in the world despite many obstacles…and there is a truly WTF plot point that’s fun to talk about!

1984: There’s a reason this one gets referenced all the time lately…in a world where “alternate facts” are trumpeted, this has very real lessons for us all.

Vanity Fair: This book is lengthy and there are some boring-ish bits, but Becky Sharp’s scheming her way up the social ladder is entertaining. The OG scammer.

The Age of Innocence: This is truly A+ drama about super rich people in Old New York having romantical problems.

Top Ten Tuesday: Ten Characters Worth Following

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly linkup of book bloggers hosted by The Broke and The Bookish! This week, we’re looking at characters that would make great leaders, so here are ten characters that I think would be worth following.

Hermione Granger (Harry Potter): The Harry Potter series would have been, like, one book long without Hermoine making sure Harry and Ron didn’t kill themselves by accident. She is smart, capable, and I would be more than happy to follow her wherever she went.

Lyra Belacqua (The Golden Compass): Lyra’s just one of those “natural leaders”…it’s no accident that when the Jordan College kids are fighting the townie kids, that it’s Lyra that leads them into battle. Her natural charisma is obvious even on the page.

Gandalf (The Fellowship of the Ring): When the Fellowship sets off on their quest, it’s the wizard that leads them…in part to quell arguments between the races about leadership, but also because he’s wise and thoughtful and anyone who’s beloved in Hobbiton is someone I’d be okay trailing behind.

Madeline Mackenzie (Big Little Lies): After reading this book (I still haven’t seen the show and I really need to!), I so appreciated Madeline’s take-charge attitude that I’d have happily joined her book club (or anything else she wanted me to).

Charles O’Keefe (A Wrinkle In Time): While Meg is my favorite character from this series, she’s too short-tempered to make a good leader. Leaders are most effective if they’re liked, and who wouldn’t like and line up behind Charles?

Emma Woodhouse (Emma): England in Austen’s time didn’t have a lot in the way of formal leadership roles for women, but clever Emma was clearly the queen bee of her social set, which is about as much as an upper-class lady could aspire to.

Mr. Wednesday (American Gods): There’s a reason he’s the one that goes on the journey to round up the old gods across the country…he’s the one that’s got the persuasiveness to get them to join up!

Achilles (Song of Achilles): He’s a strong, true, and fair commander of his troops, who wouldn’t want to follow him…and who would care that he’s gay, for that matter?

Ned Stark (A Game of Thrones): Noble, brave, and always doing the right thing, Ned is pretty much the platonic ideal of a hero and a worthy leader.

Jean Valjean (Les Miserables): He spends most of his life repenting for a criminal act by becoming selfless and kind and the kind of man who gets elected to be the mayor of his town.

Top Ten Tuesday: Books I Love That Are At Least Ten Years Old

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly linkup of book bloggers hosted by The Broke and The Bookish! This is a topic that was MADE for me, since I am a devoted backlist reader. I tried to mix in both books I’ve read several times over the years, and books that I’ve read more recently but that I’m looking forward to revisiting. There’s definitely something exciting about reading the new buzzy book that’s on everyone’s mind, but there are so many amazing books that are older but just as worthy of your time. Here are ten of my favorites!

The Virgin Suicides: Middlesex might have been the award-winner, but I’ve always enjoyed Jeffrey Eugenides’ debut more. It’s tightly constructed and beautifully told and I’ve been on a months-long mission to make it a book club read because I’d love to have a reason to revisit it yet again.

The Secret History: Every campus novel I read gets compared to this incredible story about a group of students who commit a murder…and none has quite measured up to the engrossing story and well-drawn characters of Donna Tartt’s book.

Anna Karenina: I’d made a stab at this one in high school and only gotten through about 50 pages, but when I picked it back up a few years ago I ate it up. The portions about farming get a little dry but the bulk of the novel is incredibly good.

Emma: Austen, like Tolstoy, is an author I only was able to get a handle on later in life. I’m going to confess my unpopular opinion that Pride & Prejudice is overrated, and instead recommend Emma. If you’ve ever seen Clueless, you’ll recognize the broad strokes of this story of a wannabe matchmaker.

The Namesake: I’d heard great things about this novel for years before I finally picked it up, but I’m glad I did. If you like books that are all about delving deeply into a character, you’ll love this one about the son of Indian immigrants who hates his name.

All The King’s Men: If you pay attention to politics for long enough, you’ll probably realize that there are very few people in it who are either all bad or all good. This story is told through the eyes of a cynical reporter who becomes a right-hand-man for a governor and watches the once-idealistic candidate become a ruthless operator.

1984: I first read this book when I was about 12 and even though I didn’t really get all of it, I got enough to understand its timeless message about government manipulation and control of information. It’s a book I get something new out of every time I revisit it.

The Great Gatsby: I loathed this classic when I first read it as a junior in high school. I thought everyone involved was selfish and whiny. But when I picked it up again in college, I fell in love with its powerful language and indelible characters.

In Cold Blood: The first true crime novel, this book tells the story of a heinous murder in the middle of nowhere, Kansas, and the men who committed it, and what happened to them. It’s almost impossible to put down.

The Stranger Beside Me: Another true crime classic, this brought Ann Rule to immediate prominence in the genre as she recounted working at a suicide crisis call center along a handsome young man named Ted Bundy as a series of murders swept Washington.

Top Ten Tuesday: Characters I’d Name A Child After

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly linkup of book bloggers hosted by The Broke and The Bookish! This week’s topic is characters we’d name a child after. I’ve got lots of thoughts about baby names (as a nine-and-ten year old, I’d read baby name books like they were actual books, cover to cover) and I’ve got lots of characters I love, so here are my ten!

 

Lyra Belacqua (The Golden Compass): I love this little hotheaded, stubborn, intelligent girl so much that I’d love to name a child after her and hope she could be nearly as delightful and challenging as her namesake.

Sabriel (Sabriel): Her strength and resourcefulness make her a wonderful role model for a little girl to look up to…and the name is familiar and yet different enough to be special.

Emma Woodhouse (Emma): A little more morally complex of a heroine, Emma is handsome and clever…and spoiled and selfish and convinced of her own rightness even when she probably shouldn’t be. But she’s charming and she learns a lesson by the end and no one’s perfect, right?

Jane Eyre (Jane Eyre): I didn’t expect much when I read this one a few years ago…gothic drama has not tended to light my fire. But I really liked it, and Jane herself is strong and bright and while Mr. Rochester is problematic, Jane herself is very much rootable-for.

Natasha Rostova (War and Peace): I LOVED Natasha for most of the (long) runtime, so to speak, of this classic that more people should actually tackle. She’s a shining presence in the midst of a lot of very Russian sturm-und-drang (I know that’s German, but I don’t know what the equivalent would be in Russian). Like many, I’m disappointed in how the best character ended up…if you want to know why, you should read it!

Daine Sarassri (Wild Magic): I never got into much else in the Tamora Pierce bibliography, but I think it’s because none of her other heroine spoke to me the way that Wild Magic’s Daine did. Literally raised (in part) by wolves, she’s connected to nature and animals and spunky and brave and great.

Sherlock Holmes (The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes): He doesn’t seem to be much of a functional human, but damn Sherlock is clever and interesting and it’s weird but not too weird of a name for a kid, right?

Rhett Butler (Gone With The Wind): I will say that he’s not as dashing on the page as he is on the screen, but it would have been really hard to measure up to Clark Gable at maximum charisma no matter what. And even on the page, he’s still way better than Scarlett.

Samwise Gamgee (The Lord of the Rings): He’s not the protagonist of LOTR, but I would argue that steadfast, truehearted Samwise is the hero. When I first read the books as a teenager I found him an irritating tag-a-long, but as you get older you see that the power of his devotion to his friend is the power that really destroys the Ring at the end.

Tyrion Lannister (A Song of Ice and Fire): There are so many indelible characters in this series that it’s hard to pick just one. But to name a child after? The deliberate, strategic Tyrion, who recognizes that his body isn’t going to be what gains him the respect he craves and develops his brain instead.

Literary Adaptations…The Good

Any book snob will tell you that the book is always better than the movie. Always! I’m not a very good book snob, because I think that’s baloney. A book is a different medium, but that doesn’t mean that it’s always the superior one. So get ready to hate, because here is my list of movies that I like more than the books they’re based off of:

Practical Magic: Ok, qualifier here. This isn’t a “good” movie. But it’s really fun to watch. I remember being SO excited when I found out it was based off a book and eagerly tearing in…and hating it. The fun and lightness of the movie were nowhere to be found and while I’ve watched the movie over and over again, I’ve never been tempted to reopen the book.

Gone With the Wind: A lot of people love Margaret Mitchell’s novel and it’s widely considered a classic. But I’d seen the movie, with the absolutely perfect Vivien Leigh and Clark Gable so many times before I read it that it just couldn’t measure up. The movie sheds some of the side plots that are more narratively deadweight, which helps it feel like it’s moving along even through a run time long enough to require an intermission.

Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo and Juliet: Reading the play is one thing, but seeing it come to vibrant life, original language and all, is awesome. Luhrmann finds the youth and impetuous energy of this play about young people and with the help of a well-cast Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes makes the Bard’s words resonate way more than your randomly assigned classmates in 5th hour English.

The Godfather: The first two movies in this series (I pretend the third doesn’t exist), tell what I will argue is the greatest American tragedy ever presented: the rise and fall of Michael Corleone. The story that Mario Puzo’s The Godfather tells is a pretty boring gangster drama. Skip the book and watch the movies until you can recite them from memory instead.

Clueless: This is saying something, because I LOVE Emma. But Alicia Silverstone is so delightfully vapid but good-natured as Cher Horowitz that it’s impossible to not just fall in love with her. It’s not an especially faithful adaptation, but there are a lot more of the major themes and plot points in there than you might give it credit for unless you think about it. It updates and refreshes the story without being too revisionist.

The Shining: Stephen King’s tale of claustrophobic horror is legitimately great, even though I honestly don’t much care for horror as a genre. Either in books or movies, but Kubrick’s version of the story (which shares only broad outlines with the original, much to King’s dismay) is so weird and visually stunning that its domination of the source novel can’t be denied. 

Breakfast At Tiffany’s: Truman Capote was famously displeased with what the movie did to his novella, which is beautiful written. Instead of casting Capote’s friend Marilyn Monroe as Holly Golightly as he’d wanted, they gave the role to Audrey Hepburn and completely changed the ending. But I feel like the movie works even better, somehow, as Capote didn’t want it, with a staying power much more durable than the original slim volume. 

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