View from Page Thirty: Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistlestop Cafe by Fannie Flagg

Hello, dear Readers! Since I'm still in quite a slump (damn you Netflix), I went to the list of books you call provided to me, the lovingly named Slumplist, and gave one of them a try - hence A View from Page Thirty*

As I perused the Slumplist, I decided to look up a book that I have been meaning to read for ages but never had - Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistlestop Cafe recommended by Ania.

The Book: Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistlestop Cafe by Fannie Flagg 
Release Date: 1987
Publisher: Random House
Genres: Historical Fiction

Summary: 

It's first the story of two women in the 1980s, of gray-headed Mrs. Threadgoode telling her life story to Evelyn, who is in the sad slump of middle age. The tale she tells is also of two women -- of the irrepressibly daredevilish tomboy Idgie and her friend Ruth, who back in the thirties ran a little place in Whistle Stop, Alabama, a Southern kind of Cafe Wobegon offering good barbecue and good coffee and all kinds of love and laughter, even an occasional murder.

A View from Page Thirty:
Erm I guess this section should more accurately be called the View from Page 81. I sort of just got lost and kept going. And I full blame the theme music playing in my head on that. The theme music from the movie from the early 90s. The theme music from one of my all time favorite movies.

So knowing that background, I can't really say if this is a valid View from Page Thirty. I already pretty much know the story from the movie (at least I think I do), and I heartily love it to pieces. It brings ALL OF THE FEELS.

I can't help but compare it to the movie and so far, I literally hear lines as I read them. I can't help but hear it narrated by Jessica Tandy. Personally I see this as a plus.

Things are a bit more disjointed than the movie though. The movie, while keeping the flashback reveal that the book is doing, seems to focus more on the four main ladies, while this is almost the story of Whistlestop, Alabama. I am getting more information on the lives of some of the background characters in the movie, which I find quite charming. The order of things is all over the place though so I am not sure if people who don't already know the characters and the story like I do would enjoy it as much. But honestly I am still leaning towards the "Still enjoyable" camp.

I was worried when I started this that all of the magic the movie has for me would be gone when reading the book because I know everything, but that's not the case. I am still loving the look at 1930s southern life. I am actually really looking forward to delve more into Ruth and Idgie's relationship and see how that compares with the screen.

I am going to keep reading for sure, but I do think that when this is all through, me and my well watched DVD are going to curl up for another session of feels.


So, is anyone else like me and avoiding reading a book a movie or tv show was based off of because you loved the adaptation so much? How about those that have taken the plunge, did it work out for the best or not so much?



*For those not familiar with a View from Page Thirty, basically it is me giving my thirty page first impression of a book. I have a personal rule that every book I start gets at least thirty pages. If I am not feeling it by then, time to move on. So I figured it would make a fun feature. 

View from Page Thirty: Every Day by David Levithan

Happy Monday, dear Readers! It's been a while since I went to the list of books you call provided to me, the lovingly named Slumplist, and gave one of them a try. Since I had to read a stupid work book (which actually wasn't too bad, just nothing I feel like reviewing) and I just started The Silkworm, A View from Page Thirty* post seems just what we need today!


Today, I am actually reading the beginning of something that I put back on my To-Read list on Goodreads in September 2012. It was suggested on the Slumplist post by Rachel saying that it had "that addictive quality" that I was requesting to get out of my slump.

The Book: Every Day by David Levithan
Release Date: August 2012
Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers
Genres: Contemporary YA, Fantasy

Series: I thought it was a stand alone, but apparently book two comes out this summer.

Summary: 
Every day a different body. Every day a different life. Every day in love with the same girl.

There’s never any warning about where it will be or who it will be. A has made peace with that, even established guidelines by which to live: Never get too attached. Avoid being noticed. Do not interfere.

It’s all fine until the morning that A wakes up in the body of Justin and meets Justin’s girlfriend, Rhiannon. From that moment, the rules by which A has been living no longer apply. Because finally A has found someone he wants to be with—day in, day out, day after day


A View from Page Thirty:
Well, those first two chapters went by fast! This book starts off right into the action. This person has an interesting life in that every day he wakes up as a different person. The author jumps right away into a decent enough explanation without getting too bogged down in the details from page one. Since his first body that I read about was a guy, I am going to call him a guy and use male pronouns, but the book says he can be either guy or girl though always around the age of how old he would actually be if he were a stationary person.

Anyway he ends up being this kid Justin and we get a glimpse into how his day usually works. How do you figure things out about a person without letting any of the people in their life know that somethings is off? It's quite a balancing act... and one that you would never get a day off from.

He meets Justin's girlfriend, Rhiannon, and ends up breaking all of his rules and forming an attachment to her. They actually have a really sweet afternoon together, but soon night comes and he wake as Leslie.

Leslie's brother and thus family is not having a good day, which makes it harder for the main character. Even harder still because he can't stop thinking of Rhiannon. But he navigates his way though the waters, trying to do things that seem like the would be Leslie's actions without trying to change the course of her life too much.

What I am Loving:
This concept is outstanding. I keep wondering off thinking about all of the consequences of living a life like this - no possessions, no family, no ties, no real sense of self. It truly sounds like an awful existence. I love that he gave himself a "possession" in the form of an email address. That's smart! I also wonder how this life would work as an adult with having to figure out jobs and how that would work. Urg, so much stress in this life!

I am curious about how he is going to cope with this attachment that he has made even though it broke his "don't interfere too much" rule. Is he going to start altering other people lives just to get to her? These are the big questions that suck you in!

What I am Unsure of
I don't know how I feel about the narrator. I get his life is horrible, but I am a little worried at how much I will be able to connect. But I am still curious to see where and how the story play out. Will he get to see and explain everything to Rhiannon?

Another thing is that I am fearful this could turn into a story that I have read before (boy meets girl, boy has problems getting to girl, YA drama, love triangle, etc) and thus lose site of the awesome concept.

Final Verdict:
I am definitely going to keep going on this. It seems it's only a few hungered digital pages long. I like the concept and I think it has a lot of potential, but I am a little concerned that it may turn into every other YA model love story and the concept will fall to the wayside...

So have you guys read this? Should I keep going? Try to keep it spoiler free for me if you will. :) Also if you have any books you want me to read for the Slumplist or this feature, please feel free to suggest some!


*For those not familiar with a View from Page Thirty, basically it is me giving my thirty page first impression of a book. I have a personal rule that every book I start gets at least thirty pages. If I am not feeling it by then, time to move on. So I figured it would make a fun feature. 

View from Page Thirty: The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness

It's been a while since I've done A View from Page Thirty, so I thought I would bring it back. And what better way to bring it back then with a new graphic and using the list of suggestions that you guys gave me during my reading slump post.

For those of you not familiar with this, A View from Page Thirty is a feature where I read thirty or so pages into a book and give you guys my first impression. Some books are great out of the gate, some take a little bit of warming up to. Some are just books that you know right away are going to be tough to read.

My general rule with books is that if I am not interested at all by around page thirty, I don't have to go on. There are too many books in this world for me to waste my time on something that I don't enjoy. But every book I start (barring some rare cases) get's thirty pages.

Hence was born A View from Page Thirty.


Today's book as I mentioned comes off of the reading slump post. I compiled all of the suggestions into a list of 65 books, which I am lovingly calling the slumplist, and I plan to look at them all. Of those 65 books I've already read 4, so only 61 more to go. I decided to start with Patrick Ness' The Knife of Never Letting Go. Four people, Hayley, Susan, Kritika, and Rockyriverteenlibrarian recommended it saying:

"It's the first in the Chaos Walking series, and it's really amazing. I've been recommending it to everyone since I read it in January." - Hayley

"The narration in the Ness series is a little hard to get used to at first, but don't let that dissuade you -- it's a great, unique YA series." - Susan

"I love both of those series! I'd recommend the audio for both of them as well - the narrators are excellent." - Kritika

I am going to go into detail on what happens in the first thirty pages. While it is nothing that isn't in the summary, if you consider that spoiler territory, jump down to my Final Verdict.

The Book: The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness
Release Date: January 2008 
Publisher: Walker
Genres: YA, Dystopian, SciFi Fantasy

Series: Chaos Walking #1

Summary:

Prentisstown isn't like other towns. Everyone can hear everyone else's thoughts in an overwhelming, never-ending stream of Noise. Just a month away from the birthday that will make him a man, Todd and his dog, Manchee -- whose thoughts Todd can hear too, whether he wants to or not -- stumble upon an area of complete silence. They find that in a town where privacy is impossible, something terrible has been hidden -- a secret so awful that Todd and Manchee must run for their lives.
But how do you escape when your pursuers can hear your every thought?

The View From Page Thirty:

The book starts off with a first line that is quite intriguing, "The first thing you find out when yer dog learns to talk is that dogs don't got nothing much to say." From that I have learned that this is some sort of alternate Earth where dogs can talk I guess, and that this is going to be a book with annoying first person misspelled like the person thinks narration. Surprisingly both the first person and the 'yers' and 'thrus' stopped annoying me almost immediately because the story starts off right away.

Our narrator is Todd, the youngest boy in a city of men on the verge of becoming a man himself (he's 13 turning 14 in our years. Years in this world at 13 months so he keeps mentioning his 13th birthday, but I stopped and did the math). Todd explains through these 31 pages (first three chapters) that this is a new world of some kind where women and men went to colonize for maybe religious freedom (?). But once they arrived they got into a war with some sort of native people they call the Spackle who release some sort of chemical weapon that killed all the women. Todd was the last baby to be born before the women died. 

That right there would be interesting enough right? But remember that talking dog? Apparently when that happened it also warped reality into making every human and animal telekinetic. So Todd can think to his dog Manchee and Manchee can think back. They call this noise because there isn't really much control over it. Holy hell, is that a scary thought. I couldn't imagine being around people who can always hear my thoughts. No secrets, no privacy. But I guess it would be cool to talk to dogs and things...

Anyway, the story kicks off in the first chapter with Todd coming across silence. Something is there and it has no noise. He high-tales it back to town where since there are no secrets his adoptive fathers immediately know what's up. The last line I read in the selection was, 

"But all Ben says is, 'Oh, my God," real quite like, and then he says it again, 'Oh, my God," and then, without even moving or looking away, he says, "We have to get you outta here. we have to get you outta here right now."

What I am Loving:

I am really liking the pace of this. It is clipping right along and getting me into the action. At the same time, it is slowly revealing the rules of this world and not just telling me how it works. It's all show. I love that. I'm interested to find out more about their enemies and why all the women died off. And obviously what this silence is and why it is chasing him...

What I am Unsure Of:

I was unsure of the narration, with the colloquial speech patterns in the writing, but that grew on me quickly. I guess I am still unsure of my narrator Todd. Will I be able to connect with the 13 year old boy who is coming of age? I had a hard time of doing that when I read The Outsiders in my twenties (I loved it when I read it at 13 though). This isn't going to deter me from reading on though. I am very interested in this story.

Final Verdict:

Yeah I am totally reading on. I am really curious to see how the story unfolds and what the rules and limitations of this world are. It sounds like a different twist on the dystopian thing, rather than just the controlling government makes us do something strange that our main character is rebelling against. I want to know more and can't wait to continue on!