Giveaway!

In celebration of 800 posts, I’m happy to give one of you a signed copy of Brandon Mull‘s new book Beyonders: A World Without Heroes. You may remember that I loved this book and placed it in my list of top 10 favorite books. In other words, it’s really good. And the Romgi and I went in person to have the author sign a copy for you!

To enter, leave a comment on this post telling me what book you’d like to see made into a movie. (Common sense: please name a book that hasn’t already been adapted.)

I really like having people read my blog, so you can get an extra entry for telling someone else about the giveaway via Facebook, Twitter, or your own blog. Leave another comment with a link to your post – just one extra entry, even if you do all three things, please.

You can enter until 11:59 pm MDT on Tuesday, June 28. A winner will be drawn at random the following day, and I’ll announce it here and contact the winner via email.

Good luck!

P.S. I did a giveaway when I hit 500 posts, and the publisher provided a copy of the book then. This time, I bought Beyonders with the Romgi’s hard-earned money, so it really is a gift from me. Just because I like you guys!

The Dead Fathers Club

by Matt Haig

{ 2007 | Viking Adult | 336 pgs }

Several years ago I read a brief description of The Dead Fathers Club that went something like this: “Eleven-year-old Philip Noble receives a visit from the ghost of his father, who died in a car accident. But the ghost says it wasn’t an accident – it was murder. He introduces Philip to the Dead Fathers Club.” It also said something about Hamlet, and somehow I got it in my head that the ghost of Old Hamlet (you know, Hamlet’s murdered father) would be involved.

Actually, the book is a retelling of Hamlet itself, set in modern-day England. And it’s narrated by Philip, written with all the insight and grammatical prowess of an eleven-year-old. It wasn’t what I expected, and I’m not sure whether I liked it or not. Yes, it had a suitably vague ending, and Philip’s hesitation to exact the revenge demanded by his father is believable (maybe even more so than Hamlet’s). But…but. I can’t quite put my finger on it – I wasn’t awed by the book. Maybe it was the narration. I don’t like kids, so reading from a kid’s perspective (particularly when said kid did not use punctuation at all) got old.

That being said, I have been motivated to re-read both Hamlet and Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead. In an interview with Penguin, the author of The Dead Fathers Club said he doesn’t think you need to be familiar with Shakespeare’s Hamlet or to have recently read it. I disagree, based on this review by someone who I’m guessing has never read Hamlet…

Anyway, I think it’s worth a go if you like Hamlet. And if you don’t mind odd narration. Then again, if you haven’t read Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead, I definitely recommend that before The Dead Fathers Club. Just my preference.

Buy The Dead Fathers Club on Amazon

Favorites

Last night I wanted to get to bed early (why are little kids so exhausting?!), so I took some Unisom and had a hot bath around 9pm. (That is early, right? …Or do I just have no comprehension of what is a good time to go to bed?) I had just finished reading Beyonders, and I was thinking about my favorite books. Actually, I was trying to think of a blog post to write about the books I absolutely and completely want you to read. No! This blog is not my life! …But a little bit, yes.

The Unisom was making me so drowsy, though, that I couldn’t think very clearly. Luckily I remembered today that I was planning on writing this post and I looked back through my reading lists to see what I wanted to recommend.

Here you have it: my top 10 favorite books (that I can think of right now).

• Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray
• Brandon Mull, Beyonders
• Orson Scott Card, Ender’s Game
• Suzanne Collins, The Hunger Games
• E. Nesbit, The Wouldbegoods
• Cornelia Funke, the Inkworld trilogy
• Alan Paton, Cry, the Beloved Country
• Michael Ende, Momo
• Lloyd Alexander, the Prydain Chronicles
• Norton Juster, The Phantom Tollbooth

What are your favorite books? Do you read them often? I don’t have a copy of The Wouldbegoods or Momo. Or the second and third parts of the Inkworld trilogy. But I do have a very, very worn copy of Ender’s Game, and multiple copies of The Picture of Dorian Gray. (The reason: I really, really want this version, but I keep ending up receiving regular paperback copies. Sad.)