Between the Covers: Stories from My Bookcase

Saturday, October 18, 2008

Lisa Scottoline's Daddy's Girl

If you need to get to bed but would like to catch up on some light reading just before you turn in, then don't read this book.

I'm saying don't because that's exactly what I did. On Thursday night (more like Friday wee hours of the morning) last week, I came home, was online for hours and then headed up to to bed at daybreak. I noticed Scottoline's Daddy's Girl on the shelves right outside the bathroom. I figured my Mom was done reading it, and since it mine and it's been on my TBR pile for months, I decided to read the first chapter before I went to get my much needed sleep.

I lay down, propped the book open, and didn't stop reading until I finished all of it. So much for the much needed sleep.

I don't regret it though. Imagine: I was already sleepy but she kept me awake. It was definitely a good read. I think I went through this one in about three hours or less.

As you can see here, I have read other Scottoline books and I could really tell that this was one of her latest books. Her style is the same but you could sense that she has also improved (not that she wasn't already great). Plus, the scenes and some details in the novel are also current.

Nat Greco, the main character, is a law professor who lives a quiet life. She has a boyfriend who seems to be so much a part of her family - he actually seems to belong with them more than she does. Her lifestyle and character is so different from her parents and siblings - not to mention her physique.

Her almost predictable life changes forever when she finds herself inside a prison during a riot. Nothing exciting ever happens to her - then all of a sudden something does. And having her life threatened at that riot wasn't even the worst (or best, depends on how you look at it) of it.

I must admit, I was developing a crush on that Angus character - pony-tailed, passionate for his work, does pro-bono stuff to seek justice. He really was much more appealing than Hank...

Honestly, I was a bit puzzled by the choice for the title. While reading, I couldn't help but think that she didn't seem like a Daddy's Girl. I'm still not a hundred percent sure that I got that part of it. But I do think that more than finding herself (Nat), the most important realization that she got from the events that have happened, is finding herself in relation to her family.

There are many people out there who feel that they were born to the wrong family. Some resent what their family members do, or even resent just the way they are. But what Nat found was that this family actually did know her, and accepted her and loved her. And they would be there for her in every way that she needed them - if she only let them.

*This is a repost from my personal blog http://verabear.net

Friday, October 10, 2008

THE job a million girls would die for!

The book and the movie versions of The Devil Wears Prada, though sharing the main plot and principal characters, are independent of each other.

One could already feel the difference in treatment from the beginning of the movie - the interview scene. There was no attempt to lead Andy into thinking that Miranda was the sweetest person and the greatest boss. Andy had the same job and did pretty much the same insane tasks she did in the book version. Seriously, feels like Andy (and Emily for that matter) needed a streaming supply of energy pills just to survive. I'm surprised Miranda didn't have pill-popping staff.

They gave Miranda's character a redeeming feature in the movie - something she didn't get in the novel. The book Andy was constantly smoking; and her relationship with her bestfriend Lily and boyfriend Alex was more central to the story than it was portrayed in film. Movie Emily was snooty through and through whereas they had shared some moments in the book version.

Ugh that writer Christian character was as yummy on paper as he was on film. But I'd prefer how Andy handled that part in the book. Just that the film version didn't give Alex a fighting chance. Perhaps maybe that's why they came up with a totally different character in Nate for the movie?

Reading Prada reminded me of Lisa Armstrong's Front Row, probably one of the first books of this genre that I've read. Front Row's fashion mag EIC is so different from Miranda - polar opposites! :)

It's a good read and an entertaining movie. :)

*This is a repost from my personal blog http://verabear.net