The historical fiction genre provides a wide array of options to read. Historical fiction also contains other genres within it too. Lately, I’ve been gravitating more to the historical fiction genre, especially 20th-century historical fiction. I usually avoid these books because I know they will be sad. When I read, I try to stay away from sad books because I’m trying to escape into a different world for fun and crying isn’t very fun. These books tend to be sad because they’re centered around a historical point that contains some sort of tragedy like war, the Great Depression, segregation, etc. Since I started reading these books, I’ve realized how good they are even with the tears.

Some of the books that I’ve recently been reading take place during World War 2 in France. The first one I read was The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah. I’d heard good things about the book and I liked the cover. I read the book last year in December. I thought the book was well written. The story and the characters were very compelling. I couldn’t put it down. I did cry in a few spots. The crying wasn’t helped by the fact I was mainly reading the book at night while trying to rock my daughter to sleep because my daughter didn’t want to sleep without me holding her at the time, so I was a bit stressed and sleep-deprived too. My daughter was only six months old at the time. I tried not to cry too loudly or I’d wake her. My husband asked me why I was reading the book since I was crying and sad. I told him it was a good book and I wanted to know how it ended. It was a bittersweet ending. Parts of the book were predictable, but that didn’t impact how well the book was written or the story. I liked that the story was told through both sisters’ perspectives about occupied France, especially since each sister lives a different life. I’d recommend reading the book to others, but make sure you have some tissues ready.

Another World War 2 book I read that also takes place in France was When Leaves Fall in Paris by Sarah Sundin. I hadn’t heard anything about the book ahead of time. I saw the book on the Overdrive app when I searched through available ebooks. I thought the description was interesting and might be something I would like. The book was different than I expected it to be, but I still liked it. I had a few problems with the end of the book. In the end, it felt like the author was coming up with every possible perilous scenario that could happen and probably did happen to people, just not one right after the other so much. This book was a happier, more light-hearted book about World War 2 than The Nightingale. I didn’t cry that much while I was reading the book. I also enjoyed having two different characters telling the story throughout the book. I’d recommend this book to people, especially someone who prefers not to cry as much while reading a World War 2 book.

After I read The Nightingale, I looked up what other books Kristin Hannah had written because I like her writing style so much. I ended up reading The Four Winds. This book takes place during the Great Depression and centers around the Dust Bowl for a good chunk of the book. I haven’t read many books that depict this era so well as this book. In the other books, I’ve read that take place during the Great Depression, I don’t connect the stories with the era because they seem almost separate entities. The Four Winds was also another well-written book. I think I cried more while I read this book than The Nightingale. The story felt so real. I like how Kristin Hannah tells her stories from two different characters’ perspectives. It lets you see more than one person’s take on the situation. During the story, you are reading from the perspective of the mother and the daughter. The one part I didn’t agree with the author was the final death. It felt like the reader was given so much hope, and having that hope taken away like that felt wrong. Maybe a serious lifelong injury for the character or a different character dying instead would be tragic and more predictable but not slam you in the face upsetting. I guess that’s the point of why the author went that way, to show anything was possible and could happen to any of the characters. This is another book I’d recommend to someone but add that it’s depressing, yet has hope.

The Christie Affair by Nina de Gramont reimagines the story surrounding the 11-day unexplained disappearance of Agatha Christie. The story’s told through multiple different characters. The main story is not about Agatha Christie at all. Based on the title and description of the book, the story was completely different than what I expected. When I first started the book, I considered stopping because it was slow, a bit confusing, didn’t flow quite right and wasn’t the type of content I usually read. I’m glad I stuck with the book. The book wasn’t one of my favorites, but it was interesting. I did cry at two parts that were quite upsetting. I think the story would make more sense if Agatha Christie was replaced with a fictional woman because it feels like Agatha Christie was only used to bring in potential readers. The book is more depressing than I think it needs to be, but overall it was interesting. I would recommend this book to certain people but let them know it’s not an Agatha Christie story.

The most recent historical fiction book that I read, I listened to the audiobook, is The Help by Kathryn Stockett. The book follows the story of African American maids living in Jackson, Mississippi during the early 1960s. It also tells the story of a young white woman, who wishes to become a writer and ends up writing about domestic help. It’s an interesting and eye-opening book about what life was like during this time in parts of our country. I liked the different characters that were telling the story. Each person gives a unique voice and perspective on the situations happening throughout the book. I don’t know how I thought the book would end, but I thought the author ended the book abruptly. I wish a few more characters' lives would have been explained more about what happened to them, otherwise no complaints about the book. The content in the book can be hard at times to read, but that has to do with trying to keep things real about the period and everything happening at the time. It’s also a hard subject to read about but should be read so we can learn from the past and do better in the future. Even though this was just a historical fiction book, it brought real topics to light including some that still need to be addressed today.

Historical fiction books end up being fascinating to read even when there’s not a lot happening in the actual plot. These stories deal more with the characters' relationships than with action or even plot. The characters make the actual historical events surrounding them more relatable to people who didn’t experience the event themselves. The stories and lives are surrounded by hardships and disasters, but there’s always hope that surrounds it all. Hope makes you keep reading, even through the tears. There are some truly amazing books in this genre and I can’t wait to read more!

11/29/2022

I’m sure you’ve seen somewhere online that there should be a job in Hollywood where a person makes sure that the movie being made from a book is staying accurate to the actual book. I’ve always said that that would be awesome. I’d love to see a specific book be made into a movie exactly like the book. I’d even see the movie in parts to get everything in it. Some scenes would be totally epic to see with your own eyes. To be honest, I’d also love to have the job of telling the writer, the director, and anyone else that that’s not how it's like in the book and you need to fix it. (Then again being shy would get in the way.) Yes all of this would be awesome but guess what I think that’s wrong. You heard me right. That would be wrong.

First of all, as much as I and some other people would be willing to sit through either a long movie or go see the movie in parts, most people would not be willing to pay or watch a movie like that. It would take a long time to make that length of a movie. It’d cost more money to produce something like that, which would probably mean that the tickets, DVDS, Blu-rays, digital copies, and streaming services would probably increase prices. Having many movies coming out with increased lengths or in multiple parts would start to get old pretty quickly. Also depending on how many parts a movie would turn into, it would make more sense to just make a tv show instead. If the movie is non fiction you’d run the risk of losing a few years of your life, which I don’t have time for watching that length of a movie. I’d rather live my actual life which most other people would probably agree with me.

When making a book into an exact movie, there’d be quite a few scenes that would be impossible to create in real life. Like some of the scenes, locations, or even creatures in sci-fi or fantasy books. This would lead to using a lot more CGI to create scenes. Current CGI technology may not be able to create some of these things at all or in a way that would be acceptable to put into a movie that people would actually like to watch. Some of the scenes would look good in CGI and other scenes wouldn’t. CGI scene quality would also be dependent on the movies’ budget. Good CGI can be appealing to watch, but too much CGI all the time would become boring. The movies would start losing some of its magic by not being real.

If the movie was completely accurate to the book, actors wouldn’t be willing or able to perform some of the scenes. Some scenes would just be unreasonable to even put actors through. All of the extra performances and time that the actors would be required to do, would make the actors require more pay for doing the movie. Once again upping the cost of production for the movies. This could lead to some actors not being willing to take on these acting roles. This could mean we would end up with more new actors who wouldn’t care about the possible risks or requirements they would have to take for their role. This could be good or bad because new actors could be discovered and actually get a chance to make it big or the new actors might realize it is not worth the money acting for these movies. Or worse, the new actors could get injured, develop a mental problem, or even potentially be killed.

If the movies were exact to the books, there’d be no additional views on the book or a way to add creativity. The directors and writers want to be able to add their own mark to the movie. Wouldn’t we want to do that too if we were in the director’s or writers’ shoes? Also the writers and directors want to use their creativity to visualize certain scenes differently to make their movie work properly. There are also some book authors and publishers that want the movie to be different from the book for their own personal reasons. There are some movies that the author helps write or produce. So they actually have a say in how the movie was made meaning that they gave permission for the change. For example Harry Potter by J. K. Rowling and Holes by Louis Sachar. Book authors understand that not everything they write in a book can translate into a movie. Just like certain aspects of a movie can’t work in a live play.

In the end, I think it’s actually an adventure to see how the book is made into a movie. It can be exciting to actually see the book you like become a movie. It’s fun to see what the differences are between the two and to see how someone else envisions the book in their own imagination. Also knowing that the movie will be different from the book going in means you can judge the movie on its own merit. It’s impossible to please everyone in general, but especially when you make a book into a movie. This is true if you read the book. You have created your own picture, or movie, in your head while reading and nothing can compare to your own imagination. Yes, it would be awesome to see a book turned into an exact movie, but it would not be practical. After all, the best version of a book to a movie is the one in your head as you read. So why not admit you probably edited a few parts of your book to movie adaptation yourself. I know I have.

11/01/2022