A few library loans to tide me over my bookish break

 While I am taking a break from book buying this month, that doesn’t mean I can’t do a little borrowing from my local library to help me curb any new book cravings there!

My latest library visit lead to a nice trio of novels that should liven up my spring reading and I’m already in the midst of one of them here; Beth is Dead by Katie Bernet, a debut YA novel that reimagines the Louisa May Alcott classic.

Yes, Beth March has died at the beginning of this story set in our present day and even before her untimely demise was rather famous as a character in the book written by her father( entitled Little Women, of course) which strangely enough, had Beth dying as well.

Since the book became controversial due to their father openly basing it on the real lives of his four daughters , he left town for awhile yet might be a suspect although most folks are hard pressed to believe that gentle, shy Beth had any enemies.

Determined to find answers and not trusting the police, particularly a certain detective, Jo decides to seek the truth out herself. 

While plenty of their friends and relatives do have something to hide(especially  her younger sister Amy, who took Beth to a party that night and Meg, whose college career is more complicated than anyone in her family knows)the secrets and lies that are revealed could either lead to mending hearts or destroying many other lives in the process.

As a longtime fan of the Alcott original, I’ve wanted to dive into this book as soon as I heard about it . Based on what I have read so far, Berber clearly knows the source material by heart and has crafted an engaging narrative that mixes Little Women with a CW style teen drama and yes, that is intended to be a compliment!

The smart and savvy storytelling doesn’t hesitate to keep the strong emotional notes held by the characters in tune while arranging them into her own operatic composition. I  am trying not to rush through the book as such a modern blend with old fashioned flavor deserves to be slowly sipped as any storyteller’s brew ought to be:

Meanwhile, during that last library visit, I came a new Jane Austen themed novel from Gil Hornby(who wrote the lovely Miss Austen, a recent BBC/PBS adaptation) that was another must have for me.

 

The Elopement has as it’s leading lady Mary Dorothea Knatchbull, who becomes the stepdaughter of Jane Austen’s niece Fanny Knight once her father marries into the family.

At first, Mary is less than thrilled about this new extension of her family line but as time goes on , she begins to make friends with some of her new cousins and even Aunt Cassandra, who has some helpful hints to share about life and love.

When Mary becomes of age, those hints prove to be more useful than she ever imagined and like many an Austen heroine, she must make a choice between listening to sensible advice or following the sensibilities of her heart.

As I did greatly enjoy the Miss Austen miniseries and wound up reading one of Hornby’s other Austen family books (Godmersham Park), this new look at classic romance felt like the perfect page turning party to attend this season:

Speaking of romance, my last pick was Say You‘ll Remember Me by Abby Jimenez.

When Samantha meets Xavier, it’s not a magic moment at first due to his diagnosis of a wounded kitten at his veterinary clinic.

However, they do find some common ground (yes, the cat gets better) and after one wild time in an escape room, the possibility of love is definitely in the air. 

Unfortunately, Samantha must move back home to help her mother out(she has Alzheimer’s disease) and forces herself to break things off with Xavier before they get too serious about each other.

That doesn’t deter Xavier from trying to make a long distance relationship work, down to sharing musical playlists and providing emotional support when needed. Can their love really hold up under such pressure or should they truly go their separate ways?

Jimenez knows how to create realistic romantic couples that you can’t help but root for despite their situation and this sounds like a bittersweet joy to behold here:

Well, my bookish needs certainly feel met for the moment but rest assured, I will be back in buying mode for summer reads all too soon.

To wrap this post up, I just wanted to share my thoughts about the new movie version of Wuthering Heights that I watched on HBO Max the other week.

Let me start off by saying that I am NOT a big fan of the original Emily Bronte novel-read it once and once was enough-more of a Jane Eyre person( and yes, I need to read more Charlotte Bronte).

However, that doesn’t mean that I can’t appreciate a good film adaptation of WH such as the iconic 1939 movie with Laurence Olivier and Merle Oberon and the 1992 rendition starring Ralph Finnes and Juliette Binoche. Those films made changes from the source material yet still managed to invoke the spirit of the original work successfully enough to inspire viewers and readers alike for generations.

This current movie has it’s fans, no doubt, yet this fever dream take on the doomed love story and the traumatic consequences of that relationship is more fever than dream and not in a good way.

Setting aside the casting controversy, many of the changes made by writer/director Emerald Fennell(whose original film Promising Young Woman, I did like) just seem to be nonsensical; the wallpaper meant to look exactly like Cathy’s skin, a reoccurring bit between Cathy and Heathcliff to hide eggs under the bedcovers as a gag, the costumes that would be over the top even at the Met Gala?

I don’t even want to get into how Heathcliff turns into some BookTok Shadow Daddy(I know his character is supposed to be disturbing but this was repulsive in more ways than one) or how Nelly Dean seemed to be most sympathetic character out of the bunch. 

If this was meant to be some sort of satire or twisted homage to old school Hollywood adaptations of classic books, I could be onboard with that yet Fennell insists that was her teenage fantasy take on the novel, one that I hope no one uses as a source for a book report there!

It’s a shame that such an immature overblown version like this got a green light in the first place. Look, I’m all for adding a new creative touch to classic material but when I’m reading a great updated take like Beth Is Dead and then seeing what a hot mess this version of WH is, the disappointment is great indeed.

On the positive side, the original songs created by Charli xcx for the movie are awesome and could’ve been a better blueprint for what this Wuthering Heights could have been; a gothic chiller with haunting flair.

 Perhaps this take on Emily Brontë ‘s work will inspire a more thoughtful and innovative film in the future. My best recommendation is to just stick with the soundtrack and watch an earlier WH movie or play this music along with your favorite adaptation instead-now, that’s imaginative meta mixing there!: