—Kristi Spuhler for LitLovers—
We know—it can be difficult to find excitement in a story whose first sentence is a paragraph. (A Tale of Two Cities, anyone?) Just looking at a sentence like that can make us go cross-eyed! For this reason (among others,) younger readers are not as quick to devour antiquated works.

Enter sites like thug-notes.com (**Warning: The videos on this site contain some strong language**)

With modern lingo and a hip edginess, Dr. Sweets, (the moniker of comedian Greg Edwards,) takes well-known titles from the high school English classroom and breaks them down into bite-sized morsels fit to grab the attention of even the most attention-lacking reader. Distilling well-known titles down to their base elements, these video reviews break through the austere shell of many "classic" works and highlight the intrigue, violence, romance and excitement that many readers are seeking - but may not be able to find- in classic literature.

Using pop culture to interest audiences in classic stories isn’t a new idea. We highlighted a few examples of fine works that have been translated into movies in our last post (scroll down), and tv series like Wishbone filled roughly the same purpose to a younger audience. With the prevalence of vlogging* and social sharing sites, it seems that it was only a matter of time before literature would become a topic of conversation on these forums, too. As we should have suspected, the internet has allowed a number of unique interpretations to take hold.

What do you think about modernized video reviews of literature? Are they good for inspiring future LitHounds to explore the classics, or do these stylized versions detract from the original beauty of the work?

*video blog or video log

Our last post highlighted a sizeable list of 2013 films inspired by some of our favorite books. If the following list is any indication, it looks like we’ll be hitting the library before we go to the theaters again this year, too.

Books-to-Movies in 2014
Click on titles for Reading Guides

	Monuments Men (January) Book by Robert M. Edsel Movie with George Clooney, Matt Damon, et al. A group of American art specialists come together during World War II to recover world masterpieces stolen by the Nazis.
	Winter's Tale  (February) Book by Mark Helprin Movie with Colin Farrell, Jessica Brown Findlay Peter Lake, a thief, falls in love with a woman as she dies in his arms. After discovering his ability to revive the dead, he is determined to save her.
	Serena  (April) Book by Ron Nash Movie with Jennifer Lawrence, Bradley Cooper When Serena Pemberton discovers she cannot bear children, the life that she has built with her husband, George, begins to unravel.
	Child 44  (June) Book by Tom Rob Smith Movie with Tom Hardy, Joel Kinnaman Investigating a series of child murders in Stalin era Soviet Russia, Leo Demidov must battle the odds to expose a threat the State won’t admit exists.
	The Fault in Our Stars  (June) Book by John Greene Movie with Shailene Woodley Hazel and Gus are an inseparable pair of teens who meet in the most unlikely of places—a cancer support group.
	Under the Dome *  (June 2014) Book by Stephen King TV series (Season 2) An invisible and mysterious force field descends upon a small town, trapping residents inside, cut off from the rest of civilization. What is the dome and why is it there?
	The Giver  (August) Book by Lois Lowry Movie with Meryl Streep Living in a seemingly perfect community, a young boy is chosen to learn from an elder about the true pain and pleasure of the "real" world.
	Outlander (Summer) Book by Diana Galbaldan TV series (Season 1) Claire Randall, a wartime nurse, lives a double life: a husband in 1945 and, by inadvertently touching an ancient stone, a lover in 1743.
	This Is Where I Leave You  (September) Book by Jonathan Tropper Movie with Jason Bateman In order to honor their father’s final wish, a non-practicing Jewish family must sit Shivah together for one week.
	Gone Girl  (October) Book by Giullian Flynn Movie with Rosamund Pike, Ben Affleck It doesn't take long for Nick to become a suspect when his wife Amy goes missing. But are things always what they seem?
	The Hobbit (Part 3)  (December) Book J.R.R. Tolkien Movie with Benedict Cumberbatch, Evangeline Lilly In this third installment, the company of Thorin have reached Smaug’s cave, but can the group reclaim the dwarven treasure?
	Before I Go to Sleep (TBA) Book by S.J. Watson Movie with Nicole Kidman, Colin Firth As the result of a tragic accident in her past, Chrissie Lucas awakes everyday with no memories. One day, she discovers new truths that force her to question who she can trust.
	Wild  (TBA) Book by Cheryl Strayed Movie with Reese Witherspoon In order to cope with a series of catastrophic life events, Cheryl embarks on a 1,100 mile trek on the Pacific Crest Trail.

* Carry-over from 2013.

We know we've missed a few, so let us know which ones. And tell us which ones you can't wait to see.

Books hit the box office in a big way last year. Just in case you were visiting another planet—here's a list of notable books found on the screen in 2013. Don't worry, though: if you were clueless about a few...so were we!

Books-to-Movies in 2013
Click on titles for Reading Guides

	Austenland Book by Shannon Hale Movie with Keri Russell Jane, a single, modern day New Yorker, is in search of her own Mr. Darcy. What else to do but sign up at a two week fantasy resort for Austen obsessed women!
	Beautiful Creatures Book by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl Movie with Alden Ehrenreich and Alice Englert In a few months, when Lena turns 16, she will be "claimed" by the Light or the Dark. Along with her boyfriend Ethan, she must fight off supernatural powers.
	The Book Thief Book by Markus Zusak Movie with Sophie Nelisse, Emily Watson Coming-of-age story story in Nazi Germany. Leisel learns to read, and is driven to collect stolen books and a set of peculiar friends, including a Jewish refugee.
	Catching Fire Book by Suzanne Collins Movie with Jennifer Lawrence Katniss won the Hunger Games and should feel secure in her family's safety. But she becomes the face of a popular rebellion—and now the capitol wants revenge.
	City of Bones Book by Cassandra Clare Movie with Lilly Collins Teenager Clary Fray witnesses a murder, but the body disappears into thin air. Then she meets Jace and is suddenly pulled into the world of the Shadow Hunters.
	Enders Game Book by Orson Scott Card Movie with Harrison Ford Government agencies breed child geniuses and train them as soldiers to fight a hostile alien race. One future soldier is brilliant young Andrew "Ender" Wiggin.
	The Great Gatsby Book by F. Scott Fitzgerald Movie with Leonardo DiCaprio Baz Lurhmann's take on the great Great Gatsby, an American classic that highlights our penchant to remake ourselves. Upper class shinanigans lead to tragedy.
	The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug Book by J.R.R. Tolkien Movie with Ian McKellan Bilbo Baggins, Gandalf, and the Dwarves continue their quest to reclaim their homeland, from Smaug. Bilbo Baggins is in possession of a mysterious and magical ring.
	Labor Day Book by Joyce Maynard Movie with Kate Winslet and Josh Brolin Henry Wheeler's life is changed forever when he and his emotionally fragile mother show kindness to a stranger with a terrible secret. A story of love, and treachery.
	The Reluctant Fundamentalist Book by Mohsin Hamid Movie with Riz Ahmed and Kate Hudson Changez is living an immigrant’s dream of America. Princeton, Wall Street, and beautiful Eric. But 9/11 changes everything as he discovers more fundamental allegiances.
	Safe Haven Book by Nicholas Sparks Movie with Julianne Hough and Josh Duhame A young woman with a mysterious past lands in Southport, North Carolina where her bond with a widower forces her to confront the dark secret that haunts her.
	Silver Linings Playbook Book by Matthew Quick Movie with Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence A young woman with a mysterious past lands in Southport, North Carolina where her bond with a widower forces her to confront the dark secret that haunts her.
	12 Years a Slave Book by Solomon Northup Movie with Chiwetel Ejiofor The memoir of a black man born free in New York state but kidnapped, sold into slavery and kept in bondage for 12 years in Louisiana before the American Civil War.
	Under the Dome Book by Stephen King TV series (Season 1) An invisible and mysterious force field descends upon a small town, trapping residents inside, cut off from the rest of civilization. What is the dome and why is it there?

*We snuck Silver Linings in from late December 2012.

Let us know if you've got a favorite...or about one that disappointed. Are any of the films better than their books? (Most of us think it's the other way around...but not always.) Did any film inspire you to read the book afterward?

Next up—Books-to-Movies scheculed for 2014. Stay tuned!

It was hard not to notice the number of recent books with birds on the cover. So I made a brief little survey of book covers just for fun.*

Pause over the cover mage to see title and author; click for a link to our Reading Guide or Amazon (if we don't have a guide).

*A few others got there before me. See...Pretty Peculiarities and HTML Giant.

Feeling guilty about all the reading you do ... and all the chores you DON'T do? Relax. It turns out you're a finer person for keeping your nose in a book. So keep reading.

A new study shows that books enable us live up to our better selves. The researchers, Emanuele Castano and David Comer Kidd, found that people gain empathy and social intelligence after reading certain kinds of books. 

What kind of books? Well, not the blockbuster kind. So nix the heart-thomping thrillers or the steamy romances. The study refers specifically to "literary fiction"—well-developed characters and storylines that explore complicated human relationships—the very kind of books we read in book clubs.

One of the books used in the study was Round House by Louise Erdrich, which (at the time of this writing) happens to be the 3rd most requested book on LitLovers. (See our Popular Books page.)

There's a reason why books like Round House matter. According to the New York Timesarticle:

[L]iterary fiction leaves more to the imagination, encouraging readers to make inferences about characters and be sensitive to emotional nuance and complexity.

You can read the full story in the NY Times HERE. It's fascinating and well worth the time.

For Book Clubs: Consider taking time during one of your meetings to talk about the books that have altered the way you perceive people and the world around you. Which books have enlarged your ideas about life and your role in it?

Mention worthy:  Publishers Weekly (PW) posed a question to Claire Messud in a recent interview that roused a remarkable response. So remarkable, it's worth reporting on here.

The question concerned the heroine in Messud's new book, The Woman Upstairs.

PW said: "I wouldn’t want to be friends with Nora, would you? Her outlook is almost unbearably grim."

Messud Responds . . .

For heaven’s sake, what kind of question is that? Would you want to be friends with Humbert Humbert?

Would you want to be friends with Mickey Sabbath?
...Saleem Sinai?
...Hamlet?
...Krapp?
...Oedipus?
...Oscar Wao?
...Antigone?
...Raskolnikov?
...Any of the characters in The Corrections?
...Any of the characters in Infinite Jest?
...Any of the characters in anything Pynchon has ever written?
...Or Martin Amis?
...Or Orhan Pamuk?
...Or Alice Munro, for that matter?"

If you’re reading to find friends, you’re in deep trouble. We read to find life, in all its possibilities. The relevant question isn’t “is this a potential friend for me?” but “is this character alive?"

Don't Mess with Messud!—was how PW responded to Messud's response. It's comment had clearly "rankled" the author, PW admitted, BUT...it gave Messud a chance to "show her chops. We're so glad we had that conversation," ended PW graciously.

Messud is the author of the 2006 The Emperor's Children (see reading guide here; see LitLovers review here), as well as this most recent 2013 novel, The Woman Upstairs.

For book clubs to consider:
1. Do we read to find friends?
2. How important is it to like the characters in the books?
3. Do we feel let down when we dislike them?
4. Talk about some of the books you've read and whether or not your enjoyment of them—or disappointment in them—had to do with the likability of the characters.

Book marketers have given in...or smartened up. Either way, they've taken a page from the movie folks and now create film trailers to promote new books. Some of the trailers are pretty ho-hum. But we've found a couple that are ho-ho-hilarious. Really funny.

The first is Teddy Wayne's The Love Song of Jonny Valentine. Wayne is a wonderful comic writer, a terrific satirist, who in this book sets his sights on the commercialization of an 11-year-old rock star sensation, a la Justin Bieber. A child prodigy, Jonny is there for the taking: his life is commodified by just about everyone, including his own mother.

Here's the Video Trailer.
Here's our Reading Guide.

---

Second up, is John Kenney's novel Truth in Advertising. Again, like Teddy Wayne's, this is a comic novel: a sardonic take on the advertising world of New York. Finbar Dolan, the book's hero (not a River Elf), carries around a lot of angst—about the job, his family, and his love life. He sweats the big stuff.

Here's the Video Trailer.
Here's our Reading Guide.


Have fun with these. The more you watch them, the funnier they are. If your book's trailer is any good, play it at the book club meeting—it's a great way to break off socializing and signal the beginning of the discussion.

I've written twice* before about what's to become of libraries in the digital age. A widely emailed New York Times article should give heart to all of us who have worried about their fate. Here's the gist...

A Pew Survey found recently that the percentage of those who believe book borrowing is a "very important" library service (80%) is about the same as those who believe computer access is a "very important" library service (77%). As it happens, libraries have been meeting the challenge of the digital age all along:

In the past generation, public libraries have reinvented themselves to become technology hubs in order to help their communities access information in all its new form.
                               —Kathryn Zickuhr, Pew Research Center

It's possible to have too much information. Back in the dark ages, when the web was in its infancy, a friend of mine quipped that it needed a good librarian to get the stuff organized. This was a few years before Google. Today, the web clocks in at nearly 15 billion web pages, and it's still growing at a mind-boggling rate. Google or no Google, we have digital overload.

All of which makes an "information manager" more important than ever—specialists who know how to search, locate, categorize, and vet information. And guess who does that really, really well? Librarians.

What's more, librarians share their skills. Every major library now offers its patrons—not just access to digital equipment—but courses in how to use it...and how to maneuver the vast information galaxy.

So 100 years from now, even if we find their shelves bereft of the printed book, libraries and librarians will be more important than ever—as communal centers of knowledge. We'll still need them—so we better damn well make sure they're around! A warning to us all: we need to keep a close watch on our municipal budgets.

* See Whither Go Libraries in the Digital Age—Part 1 and Part 2.

Art imitating life ... imitating art. A new nonfiction book by three academics gives credence to The Help, Kathryn Stockett's novel of black domestics in white families during the South's Jim Crow era.

The real maids interviewed for The Maid Narratives encountered much the same treatment we all read about in the fictional version—separate entrances, toilet facilities, and dining areas.

Yet co-author Katherine van Wormer found much that surprised her: stories that were more positive than expected, a sense of forgiveness, and lack of bitterness.

A few deep bonds were forged between black maids and their white employers. "Love can cross over color-lines," says co-author Charletta Sudduth, whose own mother was a domestic and interviewed for the book:

I think that a lot of women—black and white women—shared a relationship that was genuine and true. They found ways to help each other, found ways to cry with each other, found ways to laugh.

Nonetheless, it was still a one-way racial street. As co-author van Wormer points out:

The whites thought of the maids as members of the family. The blacks didn’t see it that way. They had their own families, and the white people didn’t pay any attention to that.

The Maid Narratives was in research stage when The Help came out. Rather than feeling dismay at having been beaten to the punch, the book's authors saw only benefits. The huge publicity surrounding Stockett's best seller convinced many former maids to come forward and tell their own stories.

"For many of the women," says third co-author David Jackson, "this was the first time they could talk about it and begin to heal. It was therapeutic."

 

Take a look at these cool t-shirts by Classic Coup, a literacy project started by devoted teacher and avid reader, Cindy McCain in Nashville. For Each T-shirt sold, money is donated to schools and orphanages in Ecuador, where Cindy taught this past summer (2012).

Lots more where these come from. So head over to her Classic Coup Blog and her Classic Coup Store...and buy t-shirts for all your kids, grandkids, nieces and nephews. Spend some time learning more about what she and her students are doing to make the world a better place for those who need it most.