Movie Monday: The Raven

How you feel about The Raven may depend on how you feel about John Cusack. I think he's a bit of a national treasure and the not-boyfriend likes to make fun of him. Thus, it was a good choice of movie for us to see together. (We were accompanied by a mutual friend because we roll like that on our not-dates.)

Just watching the trailer, you can probably see what happened.  One executive went, "We need an answer to Sherlock Holmes!"  Someone answered, "Edgar Allen Poe!  Intoxication!  Detectives!  Murder!"  Thankfully, it seems that a decent number of the people making the movie actually read Poe at some point in their lives.  Now, I'm not praising The Raven for historical accuracy.  I'm just saying they don't try to pretend Poe is a master detective.  He's a poor, drunken poet and critic who gets wrapped up in a series of murders because the killer takes inspiration from his words.  The police notice and ask Poe to help them figure out what the killer will do next.

Back to John Cusack.  He tries to be Poe, honestly.  Poe has some wonderfully twisty lines, to show off his intellect.  Cusack speaks the speech trippingly and does a beautiful job of getting the words out.  He is, however, never convincing as a drunkard or a temperamental man.  The Raven may give Cusack a pale complexion and a receding hairline, but it can't conceal his charisma.  He's more of a puppy dog than a scavenging bird.  Despite the prettiness of Poe's dialogue, the best lines came from people's reactions to him.  To paraphrase:

Poe (trying to buy a drink without money):  "I'm a poet!  I'm POE!"
Dude at bar who could care less: "Well, that's a given."

The most pleasant surprise was Alice Eve as Emily Hamilton, the love interest.  In her first scenes I kept thinking, "Oh, you're dead.  Dead, dead, dead.  You are doomed, love interest.  The narrative is calling for your blood."  I mean, I liked her.  She had some spunk.

Poe:  "I love you.  Most ardently!"
Emily:  "That's nice.  You gonna put a ring on it?"
Poe:  "Yes?"
Emily:  "Do it at my birthday ball.  Too many witnesses for my dad to shoot you."

But, when she gets inevitably kidnapped by the killer, I assumed it would be too late to save her and she'd die sadly in Poe's arms.  So I rejoiced when the movie cut to her in captivity.  Because Emily doesn't sit pretty and pine for her Edgar.  She disassembles her corset and sets to rescuing herself.  Seriously, the guys I was with compared her to The Bride.

The Raven is mostly what you're expecting.  It is a deeply silly, psuedo-historical detective story shot in a blue color palette.  There's gore.  (I closed my eyes during the Pit and the Pendulum scene.)  There's a shallow love story.  There's a serious policeman (Luke Evans) who plays second fiddle to the detective.  If that's what you like, you'll enjoy the movie.  To me, you're better off renting The Raven than going to see it in theaters.

Room to Read

Room to Read's mission?

We envision a world in which all children can pursue a quality education, reach their full potential and contribute to their community and the world.

To achieve this goal, we focus on two areas where we believe we can have the greatest impact: literacy and gender equality in education. We work in collaboration with communities and local governments across Asia and Africa to develop literacy skills and a habit of reading among primary school children, and support girls to complete secondary school with the life skills they’ll need to succeed in school and beyond.

Room to Read accomplishes this mission through programs such as building libraries and schools and publishing children's books in local languages.

They have a four-star rating from Charity Navigator, which means you can trust that money donated to Room to Read will support their mission.

Find out how to get involved here. Your help can be as simple as donating or as complex as creating your own campaign to raise money for Room to Read.

Keyword Fun

Lately I've been looking at searches bring people to In Bed With Books. Most of the searches are straightforward, but there's a few things I can offer updates on.

There's "kate spade emma clutch" - those searchers will want this post chronicling my lust for the expensive Kate Spade Romeo + Juliet clutch. They might also be interested in perusing the book collection of French designer Olympia LeTan, which are even less affordable. Natalie Portman carried her Lolita bag to the Black Swan premiere.

Follow Kate Spade on Tumblr.

"[S]exy reading pictures" is an evergreen search term for IBWB, somewhat strangely. I suppose they're being directed to this post on the reading mudflap girl. (I've spotted other variations on the theme since then; have you?)  I recommend those searchers check out this cool Wired article about Rachel Ann, the original mudflap girl.

But if you really want sexy reading pictures, you're probably better off going to the Book Porn Tumblr.

Finally, we come to "games wizards play release date." This is because I once said GAMES WIZARDS PLAY (Diane Duane) doesn't have a publication date yet. Unfortunately, there is still no release date. But . . . in late 2012 an anthology entitled THE WIZARDS' YEAR will be published. THE WIZARDS' YEAR will contain twelve short stories set in the Young Wizards universe. See the bottom of this post.

For parallelism, Diane Duane is on Tumblr.

Review: Kill Switch

By Chris Lynch (no website found)
Available now from Simon & Schuster BFYR
Review copy

I will never forget the name Chris Lynch. INEXCUSABLE, published in 2005, was a National Book Award Finalist and one of YALSA's Top Ten Best Books for Young Adults. And I have yet to have anyone tell me something nice about INEXCUSABLE in person. So I've never particularly wanted to read that book, but I've been curious about Chris Lynch.

I couldn't resist the blurb for KILL SWITCH. You mention assassins and I am there. Of course, it also mentioned dementia. At this point I have to accept that books about dementia are going to keep coming my way and there's nothing I can do about it. Daniel never truly realizes how lucky he is that his grandfather is so coherent. The bad days may be coming, but it's a blessing to have any time between sanity and the bad days. Of course, he doesn't have a ton of time to stop and reflect since he and Da are in danger.

Da used to be a very bad man, a sort of black ops operative. And now that his mind is going he can no longer remember to keep his mouth shut. Thus, his old coworkers want to shush him. Daniel can't let that happen. The close relationship between Daniel and Da gives the spare, predictable plot life. Daniel struggles to understand the new things he's learning about his grandfather, which is something you can understand even if your loved ones aren't former assassins. When affairs are put to order, those affairs come to light.

The slim volume begins to go off the rails in the last third. Normal, shocked-by-the-offer-of-a-gun Daniel suddenly turns into a beatdown machine. Now, I'm not saying the events of the book might not push someone to violence. But Daniel goes extreme and he's good at it. Generally, beating the crap out of somebody takes a bit of practice. (Okay, so it's not that hard with a blunt weapon, but he does it once with his bare hands.)

KILL SWITCH didn't make me want to run out and buy INEXCUSABLE. It was a pleasant diversion, a clever merging of the family drama and action thriller genres. But it was a bit too abrupt to really get under my skin. And this is a story that needs to get under your skin.

Review: Life is But a Dream

By Brian James
Available now from Feiwel & Friends
Review copy

I have read several books by Brian James, but he's never made much of an impression.  While none of his books struck me as particularly memorable, I enjoyed reading them.  Still, I felt some trepidation when I began LIFE IS BUT A DREAM.  Mental illness is not well understood and stories are one way to spread knowledge and empathy.

It is extremely common to hear tales about how people with schizophrenia, manic depression, or other illnesses are more creative when they don't take their medication.  That their medicine turns them into low-functioning zombies.  It's a dangerous meme.  Everyone has a right to make their own decisions about treatment as long as they aren't dangerous to themselves or others.  But sometimes people avoid treatment that could help them based on nothing more than hearsay.

Sabrina seemed like a poetic dreamer when she was a child.  But eventually, she was diagnosed with schizophrenia.  Then she had to be put into a mental wellness center.  She's on the mend when Alec enters her life.  He convinces her that it's the world that's crazy, not them, and that they can escape together and live without drugs.  It's pretty easy for Alec to say, since he's your basic rich kid for attention issues.

I loved getting lost in Sabrina's narration.  It's easy for the reader, at first, to think Alec may be right.  Then the things Sabrina lies to herself start coming to light and her narrative frays around the edges as she spirals down.  It's pretty rough to see her regress after she stops her medication regime.  Meanwhile, Alec is blithely oblivious to the damage he's causing.

But despite LIFE IS BUT A DREAM being intensely shaped by Sabrina's  worldview, you can tell that Alec matures.  The scene wherein he realizes Sabrina is actually schizophrenic is a brutal wake-up call.  And, in the end, things do work out well.  Sabrina, after all, must choose her treatment for herself.  Alec's words wouldn't affect her so much if she hadn't believed she wasn't ill at the beginning of LIFE IS BUT A DREAM.

James has written an affecting and realistic portrait of schizophrenia.  Even better, he created a wonderful protagonist who happens to have schizophrenia, just as she happens to fall in love and come of age.