book recs

[psychic_serpent]

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com, "Coble, Katherine" 
<katherine.coble at c...> wrote:
> Lilahp:
> > Anyone else out there read Holes, too?

Yes!  My son and I just finished reading it together for part of his 
home-schooling.  My daughter was intrigued by the idea of the book, 
so she sat down to read it and finished in one day!  I wouldn't let 
my son see the film until we were done reading, though.  With the 
exception of very, very minor details, the film was wonderfully 
faithful (screenplay by the author himself) and had marvelous 
performances by the youngsters; my husband commented that none of 
them SEEMED to be acting, which is usually not the case in films 
with such a large and young ensemble cast.  The young actors who 
play Stanley and Zero are particularly fine.  

The adult actors were good, too, although my husband's comment about 
Dule Hill was that he simply seemed to be playing his "Charlie" role 
from "West Wing"--a decent guy who finds himself in the wrong place 
at the wrong time.  I thought he was very good, sweet and romantic 
in an understated way.  Sigourney Weaver adds class to what could 
have been a cartoonish role, and I very nearly didn't recognize 
Patricia Arquette.  Jon Voigt is very funny.  (That's probably the 
first time anyone's ever said that.)  It's just really well-done, 
and my son and I had some good discussions about the book.
  
Since the original poster mentioned being interested in fantasy 
books, I just finished reading Ursula K. LeGuin's "The Other Wind," 
which is a continuation of the Earthsea saga.  For the most part I 
thought it was good and evocative, although I might have benefitted 
from rereading some of the earlier Earthsea works to remind myself 
of some of the peculiarities of that world.  I was tickled to see 
that our family friend Michael Swanwick had a blurb on the back of 
the book! 

I'm now reading some non-fiction by my favorite architectural 
critic, Witold Ribcynski, "The Most Beautiful House in the World."  
I highly recommend everything he's written.  His book, "Home: The 
History of an Idea" is a fabulous read whether or not you think you 
have any interest in architecture.  You just might not look around 
your house and think of it in the same way again.

--Barb

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