September!

My Sister’s Keeper By Jodi Picoult

My Sister’s Keeper is a 2004 novel written by New York Times Best Selling author Jodi Picoult. It tells the story of 13-year-old Anna, who litigates her parents for medical emancipation when she is expected to donate a kidney to her sister Kate, who is dying from leukemia

In 2009 the American Library Association (ALA) and the office for Intellectual Freedom named My Sister’s Keeper the seventh most frequently challenged book in theUS. Schools and Libraries attempted to ban the book for the following reasons: Sexism, Homosexuality, Sexual Explicitly, Offensive Language, Religious Viewpoint, Unsuitability to Age Group, Drugs, Suicide, Violence.

 

New Line Cinema adapted My Sister’s Keeper into a feature film, which was directed by Nick Cassavetes and released on June 26; 2009. It starred Cameron Diaz as Sara and Alec Baldwin asCampbell. Kate and Anna were played respectively by Sofia Vassilieva and Abigail Breslin.

The film, with an alternate ending and more emphasis on certain subplots while entirely eliminating others, has significant differences from the novel.

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August!

The Enchanted April by Elizabeth Von Arnim

A recipe for happiness: four women, one medieval Italian castle, plenty of wisteria, and solitude as needed.

The women at the centre of The Enchanted April are alike only in their dissatisfaction with their everyday lives. They find each other—and the castle of their dreams—through a classified ad in a London newspaper one rainy February afternoon. The ladies expect a pleasant holiday, but they don’t anticipate that the month they spend in Portofino will reintroduce them to their true natures and reacquaint them with joy. Now, if the same transformation can be worked on their husbands and lovers, the enchantment will be complete.

The Enchanted April was a best-seller in both England and the United States, where it was a Book-of-the-Month Club selection, and set off a craze for tourism to Portofino. More recently, the novel has been the inspiration for a major film and a Broadway play

“This charming book is sweet but not too sweet. The backdrop of post-WWI England makes it easy to understand why these four British women would want to escape, and it lends depth to each woman’s own story. (For instance, the two young women travelling alone are instantly assumed by everyone to be widows.) The bleak background makes the glorious scenes of Italy and the touch of magic realism very welcome. It’s a page-turner — take it on vacation or keep it for a sleepless night.”

Review by http://www.manybooks.net

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