Armchair BEA Day 4: Book To Movie Adaptions

It's Day 4 already!! It all went too fast! Today's topic is Book To Movie Adaptions . I don't know if there has been any official research but it seems like there have been more Book to Movie adaptions in the last 15 years then ever before. Today I'm going to talk about three books. Though the have been adapted to Television mini-series vs movies I still feel they fit the topic:
Wolf Hall

I hated this book. I thought I would love it because it is Historical Fiction (one of my favorite genres), but I found it sooo boring! When the Masterpiece Theater episodes started popping up on my DVR I chose to give it five minutes,and became completely obsessed with the show. I 'm really looking forward to the next season  of the show. The adaption is perfectly cast and manages to make a cohesive whole of the many flashbacks and story threads from the novel.

Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell

In the before time, more specifically 2004,  you would only learn about upcoming books from Sunday review sections and little pamphlets in book stores. It was in one of these pamphlets that I heard about Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell. This is a gorgeous British fantasy set in an England where magic had once existed but is now mostly dormant until a young man comes on the scene and changes the nature of English magic forever. I seriously felt dread when I heard this book was going to be adapted into a mini-series. Just recently however, I saw a scene from the show and it looks spectacular! If you haven't read this book give it a try.

Soulless

It was so hard to pick from my many book loves a book that not only would transfer well to television/movies. Soulless fits both these categories. With the right actress and director this could be an amazing series. I'm looking forward to every one else's posts. Happy Saturday!

Armchair BEA Day 4: Diversity Undercover Giveaway

Diversity Under Cover Twitter Giveaway

Hello Everyone! Today is Giveaway day at Armchair BEA,  so I thought I would combine my two favorite things in this giveaway: Diverse Books and Simplicity !

A book is more than it's cover of course, but when there is such a lack of diverse books covers are very important in letting readers know there is something different between the pages.  I get equal parts Excited and Disappointed when I see diversity on a cover, or read a book with a great diverse character that isn't reflected on the books cover at all! Here are some examples of both:

Stellar

Star Wars is an interesting franchise. On the one hand their is something that is universally welcoming about the franchise however the original trilogy has only one female character, and one racially diverse character. This series is the story of a young cadet in the Imperial academy called Zare Leonis.  I commend Disney for not only putting this character in a three book series but also have him appearing on the hit Rebels animated show on Disney XD. Also the main female lead in this series is appearing on the cover besides Zare in the third book.

Undercover!

 

 Both of the books above have really fantastic racially & sexually diverse, characters that you wouldn't know about by the covers. However these covers are perfect for the storyline of the books and Lords of the Sith got tremendous press for the diversity in it's story.

Missed Opportunity

If you look extremely closely to this cover you might notice the racial diversity in the top character. I received this book as an arc years ago and was very pleased to discover that a large chunk of the cast of this novel *spoilers* were people of color.  The blogging  community was very vocal about the cover design, many claiming it was "whitewashing" of the male character. At the time I thought it might have been to prevent spoilers, but when they reissued the entire series with new covers, I really was disappointed that they didn't take the opportunity to show the main male character's racial diversity.

Now For The Contest!!

One Winner Will Receive a $10.00 Amazon Gift Card

Send Me a Tweet at @yogikai with a picture of a book that has a diverse character as the main or supporting character. In the tweet tell me if you think the cover is Stellar, Undercover or  a Missed Opportunity in regards to showcasing it's diversity include the hashtag #ArmchairBEA. I will number the @ replies in the order they come in and use the random number generator to pick a winner. The Gift Card will be e-mailed .

The contest will run until midnight 5/31/15

Rules

You Must be an Armchair BEA participant

You must reply in 48 hours when you receive the winner notification.

I'm so excited to see what books everyone showcases!