Tag: Reading Challenges

My Week in Books – 28th January ’18

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MyWeekinBooks

New arrivals  

The Burning ChambersThe Burning Chambers by Kate Mosse (eARC, NetGalley)

Carcassonne 1562: Nineteen-year-old Minou Joubert receives an anonymous letter at her father’s bookshop. Sealed with a distinctive family crest, it contains just five words: SHE KNOWS THAT YOU LIVE.  But before Minou can decipher the mysterious message, a chance encounter with a young Huguenot convert, Piet Reydon, changes her destiny forever. For Piet has a dangerous mission of his own, and he will need Minou’s help if he is to get out of La Cité alive.

Toulouse: As the religious divide deepens in the Midi, and old friends become enemies, Minou and Piet both find themselves trapped in Toulouse, facing new dangers as sectarian tensions ignite across the city, the battle-lines are drawn in blood and the conspiracy darkens further.  Meanwhile, as a long-hidden document threatens to resurface, the mistress of Puivert is obsessed with uncovering its secret and strengthening her power . . .

The Illumination of Ursula FlightThe Illumination of Ursula Flight by Anne-Marie Crowhurst (eARC, NetGalley)

Born on the night of an ill-auguring comet just before Charles II’s Restoration, Ursula Flight has a difficult future written in the stars.  Against the custom of the age she begins an education with her father, who fosters in her a love of reading, writing and astrology.

Following a surprise meeting with an actress, Ursula yearns for the theatre and thus begins her quest to become a playwright despite scoundrels, bounders, bad luck and heartbreak.

TThe Pharmacist's Wifehe Pharmacist’s Wife by Vanessa Tait (eARC, NetGalley)

Love. Desire. Vengeance. A deadly alchemy.

When Rebecca Palmer’s new husband opens a pharmacy in Victorian Edinburgh, she expects to live the life of a well-heeled gentlewoman. But her ideal is turns to ashes when she discovers her husband is not what he seems. As Rebecca struggles to maintain her dignity in the face of his infidelity and strange sexual desires, Alexander tries to pacify her so-called hysteria with a magical new chemical creation. A wonder-drug he calls heroin.

Rebecca’s journey into addiction takes her further into her past, and her first, lost love, while Alexander looks on, curiously observing his wife’s descent. Meanwhile, Alexander’s desire to profit from his invention leads him down a dangerous path that blurs science, passion, and death. He soon discovers that even the most promising experiments can have unforeseen and deadly consequences…

Friends and TraitorsFriends and Traitors (Inspector Troy #8) by John Lawton (eARC, NetGalley)

It is 1958. Chief Superintendent Frederick Troy of Scotland Yard, newly promoted after good service during Nikita Khrushchev’s visit to Britain, is not looking forward to a Continental trip with his older brother, Rod. Rod was too vain to celebrate being fifty so instead takes his entire family on ‘the Grand Tour’ for his fifty-first birthday: Paris, Sienna, Florence, Vienna, Amsterdam. Restaurants, galleries and concert halls. But Frederick Troy never gets to Amsterdam.

After a concert in Vienna he is approached by an old friend whom he has not seen for years – Guy Burgess, a spy for the Soviets, who says something extraordinary: ‘I want to come home.’ Troy dumps the problem on MI5 who send an agent to de-brief Burgess – but the man is gunned down only yards from the embassy, and after that, the whole plan unravels with alarming speed and Troy finds himself a suspect. As he fights to prove his innocence, Troy finds that Burgess is not the only ghost who returns to haunt him.

Waking IsabellaWaking Isabella by Melissa Muldoon (ebook, review copy courtesy of Rachel’s Random Resources) 

While filming a documentary about Isabella de’ Medici – the Renaissance princess who was murdered by her husband – Nora, an assistant researcher, begins to connect with the lives of two remarkable women from the past. Unravelling the stories of Isabella, the daughter of a fifteenth-century Tuscan duke, and Margherita, a young girl trying to survive the war in Nazi-occupied Italy, Nora begins to question the choices that have shaped her own life up to this point. As she does, hidden beauty is awakened deep inside of her, and she discovers the keys to her creativity and happiness. It is a story of love and deceit, forgeries and masterpieces – all held together by the allure and intrigue of a beautiful Tuscan ghost.

On What Cathy Read Next last week

Blog posts

Monday – I took part in the blog tour for Hattie’s Home by Mary Gibson, publishing a fascinating Q&A with Mary.  Bermondsey, biscuits and ‘bambeaters’ were on the agenda!

Tuesday – I joined the blog tour for The Moral Compass by K. A. Servian and shared my review of this engaging coming-of-age story novel set in 19th century New Zealand.

Wednesday – WWW Wednesday is the opportunity to share what I’ve just finished reading, what I’m reading now and what I’ll be reading next.   I also hosted the final stop on the blog tour for Traitor (Mercia Blakewood #3) by David Hingley, publishing my review of this lively historical mystery set in the court of Charles II and featuring a fantastic female protagonist.

Friday – I shared my review of Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout for this month’s New Year, New Author theme of The BookBum Club on Goodreads.

Saturday – As part of my From Page to Screen reading project I published my (spoiler free) comparison of the book and film versions of Carol by Patricia Highsmith.

Sunday – I published my review of The Coffin Path by Katherine Clements, a creepily atmospheric story set in 17th century Yorkshire.

Challenge updates

  • Goodreads 2018 Reading Challenge – 14 out of 156 books read, 5 more than last week
  • Classics Club Challenge – 9 out of 50 books read, 1 more than last week (Yay! Progress…)
  • NetGalley/Edelweiss Reading Challenge 2018 (Silver) – 4 ARCs read and reviewed out of 25, 1 more than last week
  • From Page to Screen– 10 book/film comparisons out of 15 completed, 1 more than last week
  • 2018 TBR Pile Challenge – 3 out of 12 books read, 1 more than last week
  • Historical Fiction Reading Challenge 2018 – 9 books out of 50 read, 3 more than last week
  • When Are You Reading? Challenge 2018 – 4 out of 12 books read, 2 more than last week
  • What’s In A Name Reading Challenge – 0 out of 6 books read, same as last week
  • Buchan of the Month – 1 out of 12 books read, 1 more than last week

On What Cathy Read Next this week

Currently reading

Planned posts

  • Blog Tour/Review: Court of Lions by Jane Johnson
  • Blog Tour/Spotlight: An Argument of Blood by Matthew Willis & J. A. Ironside
  • Review: Call Me By Your Name by André Aciman
  • Review: The Power-House by John Buchan
  • Blog Tour/Q&A & Review: Miss Boston and Miss Hargreaves by Rachel Malik
  • Throwback Thursday: The Existence of Pity by Jeannie Zokan
  • My Five Favourite January Reads
  • Blog Tour/Review: The Renaissance Club by Rachel Dacus

From Page to Screen: Carol by Patricia Highsmith

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Carol BloomsburyFrom Page to ScreenCarol Film Poster

About the Book: Carol (The Price of  Salt)  by Patricia Highsmith

Therese is just an ordinary sales assistant working in a New York department store when a beautiful, alluring woman in her thirties walks up to her counter.  Standing there, Therese is wholly unprepared for the first shock of love.  Therese is an awkward nineteen-year-old with a job she hates and a boyfriend she doesn’t love; Carol is a sophisticated, bored suburban housewife in the throes of a divorce and a custody battle for her only daughter.  As Therese becomes irresistibly drawn into Carol’s world, she soon realises how much they both stand to lose…

Read my review of the book here.

About the Film: Carol (2015)

Carol is directed by Todd Haynes from a screenplay by Phyllis Nagy based on Patricia Highsmith’s novel.  It stars Cate Blanchett as Carol Aird and Rooney Mara as Therese Belivet.

More information about the film can be found here.

Book v Film (Spoiler free)

In the book, the reader sees everything through the eyes of Therese so, as I remarked in my review, Carol remains ‘something of an enigma, slightly distant and often unreadable’.  At times, Therese is unsure exactly what Carol’s feelings for her are.  The film gives us much more insight into Carol’s character and her domestic situation.  For instance, there are scenes between Carol and her daughter, Rindy, that demonstrate the strength of Carol’s love for her daughter.  We also get to understand more about the strains in the relationship between Carol and her husband, Harge.   I’d have to say that possibly the film gives a more rounded picture of Harge or at least we start to understand a little why he feels as he does.

Conversely, the film gives us less of Therese’s back-story and her struggles to make her way in her chosen career (which for some reason has been changed from stage design to photography). It struck me watching the film that both Therese’s boyfriend, Richard, and Carol’s husband, Harge, want to control them, make them part of their own respective families,  make them conform to some conventional picture of womanhood/motherhood.

From a structural point of view, I liked the way the film opens with a scene near the end of the book and then proceeds in flashback until it returns us to that same scene at the end of the film.    The story line follows the book pretty closely although Highsmith, as you might expect, inserts a more suspenseful element into some scenes.  The film includes additional scenes that show just what Carol is expected to go through to win access to her daughter in the custody battle with Harge.  Similarly, the viewer witnesses the decision she finally makes about how she intends to live her life and whether Therese will have a place in it.

As you might expect from an experienced director like Todd Haynes, the film is beautifully shot with a wonderful period atmosphere, whether that‘s the crowded streets of New York or the slightly rundown look of Therese’s apartment.  The costumes are simply gorgeous.   When it comes to the leads, Cate Blanchett is Carol for me and Rooney Mara, with her gamine look reminiscent of a young Audrey Hepburn, is perfect as Therese.   They are really mesmerising in those key scenes where Carol and Therese lock eyes with each other across a room.

The Verdict

The film respects the main story line of the novel and is a beautifully crafted piece of work with superb acting. It is also great to see a film that provides not one but two strong lead roles for female actors.  I really loved it.  The film does however shift the emphasis from Therese to Carol, making Carol a less enigmatic character than in the book.  I think the book gives a more complex picture of the relationship between the two women.  The film is wonderful entertainment but I think the book wins out for its more nuanced examination of the relationship between two people at a time when such a relationship was considered immoral by many.

What do you think?  Have you read the book or seen the film?