I See What You Did There

After several days' worth of posts on awards for literature, now we finally get to the good stuff - the ITV3 Crime Thriller Awards, celebrating the best in mystery/thriller writing for books and for television. I note that they are sponsored by Specsavers, a chain of eyeglass shops across the UK, which is appropriate because this is the award program most likely to ruin my eyesight.

I usually find myself in a frenzy of reading/watching to catch up with all of the nominees before the awards are announced, which leaves me a scant 10 days at this point. Good thing I just got my own new pair of specs. So let's get started with the lists of nominees!

Crime Thriller Book Club Nominees

Before We Met, by Lucie Whitehouse

Entry Island, by Peter May (love him!)

Letters to My Daughter's Killer, by Cath Staincliffe

Treachery, by SJ Parris

The Tilted World, by Tom Franklin and Beth Ann Fennelly (fabulous book)

Watch Me, by James Carroll

Living Legends Nominees

Best living writer of crime/thrillers.

Michael Connolly

Robert Harris

Dean Koontz

Lynda La Plante

Val McDermid

Denise Mina

Wow - tough category!

CWA Gold Dagger Nominees

Crime Novel of the Year from the Crime Writers Association.

This Dark Road to Mercy, by Wiley Cash

Keep Your Friends Close, by Paula Daly

The First Rule of Survival, by Paul Mendelson

How the Light Gets In, by Louise Penny

CWA Steel Dagger Nominees

For the CWA's Ian Fleming-esque thriller.

Apple Tree Yard, by Louise Doughty

An Officer and a Spy, by Robert Harris

I Am Pilgrim, by Terry Hayes

Natchez Burning, by Greg Iles

CWA New Blood Dagger Nominees

CWA's nominees for the best crime novel by a first-time author. 

The Strangler Vine, by MJ Carter

The Axeman's Jazz, by Ray Celestin

The Devil in the Marshalsea, by Antonia Hodgson

The Silent Wife, by ASA Harrison

Best Film Dagger Nominees

Cold in July

Dom Hemingway

Filth

Prisoners

Starred Up

Best Television Dagger Nominees

Happy Valley (a must-see on Netflix)

Line of Duty, series 2

Sherlock, series 3 (so amazing)

The Bletchley Circle, series 2

The Honourable Woman

Luckily for my eyes, I've seen many of the film and television nominees. But now it's time to buckle down to those books. Let me know which of the nominees you've read or seen! The winners will be announced on Oct. 24.

Books Gone Bad

I've said here many times that I really like Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum series. Is it Pulitzer-worthy writing? No. But it is highly entertaining and fun, and I have laughed my way all the way through the books. So it's a shame that it didn't translate to the screen with the same entertainment value.
In fact, on Rotten Tomatoes, One for the Money received a 3% rating. How bad is that? Well it's worse than the most recent Alvin and the Chipmunks movie. Heck, even Gigli and Glitter received 6% ratings. Ouch.
You can nitpick whose fault that is (poor casting, Katherine Heigl's acting, bad directing, editing performed with a ham-fist), but there is one thing that really stood out to me – there are four screenwriters credited for the movie. Four? That must have made for some fun writers' meetings. Or did each one get fired before the next one stepped up? Either way, it's almost impossible to have four people write one project with one clear vision.
Isn't it sad when good books go bad onscreen? I'm thinking particularly of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, Percy Jackson and the Lightening Thief, and The Other Boleyn Girl.
Fortunately, we also have good-to-great movie adaptations, like The Help, Hugo, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, and the Harry Potter films.
There are some new movies scheduled for release, or that are filming now, that I hope don't disappoint me. Hunger Games will be out in March, and I really want that to be a great movie. Filming is beginning on The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society (starring Kate Winslet), The Thin Man (starring Johnny Depp), The Night Circus, Wicked, The Graveyard Book, and Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.
Cross your fingers that they only have one screenwriter each.

What the Dickens?

Charles Dickens had the power to shape history and to change behavior. His classic A Christmas Carol helped revive Christmas traditions and to usher in new ones (for the time) like Christmas trees and holiday cards.

He also inspired a renewed interest in charitable giving and in helping other less-fortunate people. A Christmas Carol has become such a beloved holiday tale that it has not been out of print since it was first published in December 1843.
It's probably the most well-known of Dickens' works, and it is definitely my favorite.
I feel very protective of the story. Although I'm not a traditionalist in most things, for some reason I want the story of Ebenezer Scrooge told in all its Victorian glory. Don't change a holly twig or a "Bah, humbug," or I'll become the spirit of Christmas crackdown.
I don't feel that way about other classic literature. I'm a big fan of Clueless (based on Jane Austen's Emma), O Brother, Where Art Thou? (based on The Odyssey), or even West Side Story (Romeo & Juliet). But don't touch A Christmas Carol. I'm talking to you Bill Murray.
There is a production of the story playing locally, with a Jamaican woman narrating the play. Sigh. And why? A viewer is jarringly taken out of the dark and spooky Victorian era every time the poor woman speaks. It isn't her fault, it's just the high (or dare I say great) expectations of the story.
I'm not the only one who can find herself in a high dudgeon over Dickens. New productions of his books are in the works, all in preparation for the upcoming 200th anniversary of Charles Dickens' birth in February. Evidently, the BBC has decided to change the ending of Great Expectations and has written an ending for the previously-unfinished The Mystery of Edwin Drood (click here for the article).
I'll reserve my judgement of those two until after I see them. Meanwhile, I'll finish reading A Christmas Carol for probably the 100th time. And I'll say of Dickens, as Scrooge did of old Fezziwig, "The happiness he gives is quite as great as if it cost a fortune."

The Author Known as Cusack

Anyone who knows me knows I have a little crush on John Cusack. From Better Off Dead to Grosse Pointe Blank to Being John Malkovich, he has not only shown he's a terrific actor, but he looked cute doing it, too. It almost, but only almost, makes me forgive him for America's Sweethearts and Hot Tub Time Machine. Ugh.

So what does this have to do with books? Well, Mr. Cusack is about to meet Mr. Poe in the upcoming film The Raven. As Edgar Allan Poe in his last days, Cusack investigates a series of murders that appear to be based on the plot points of each of Poe's books. The Pit and the Pendulum ought to give you an idea of how that could play out. I still remember the nightmare I had after reading The Cask of Amontillado.
Poe was an amazingly prolific writer, producing dozens of short stories, poems, and even a play, all while supposedly drug-addled. All that material would give a killer a lot of scenarios to deal with when planning nefarious deeds.
The movie appears to have the same steam-punk, darkly dramatic look that we saw in the recent Sherlock movies. So I'm marking my calendar for March 9, ready to see Cusack at the top of his game again (hopefully).
Click here to see the trailer for The Raven.

That's Entertainment

I'm almost on glamour overload, between Fashion Week in New York last week and the Emmy Awards last night. It's the perfect time to take a look at three entertaining books about Hollywood and the business that is show.

Upper Cut

by Carrie White
In the '60s, styling hair was a man's job in Hollywood, and it always had been. But then along came Carrie White, who styled her way to the most elite clients in music and film. She clipped hair for Elvis and Jimi Hendrix, coiffed Elizabeth Taylor and Goldie Hawn, and even did Sharon Tate's hair for her wedding to director Roman Polanski.
As she started to hit the pinnacle of her career, though, White also found herself enmeshed in another side of Hollywood, one of pills, alcohol, and late-night parties. She hit rock bottom in the '80s, and then began a long climb back.
Although this book is as much about White's life as it is about her career, it is full of the crazy lifestyles and gossipy tales that still make LaLa Land what it is today. (2011 - Atria Books)

Fifth Avenue, 5 a.m.
by Sam Wasson
Breakfast at Tiffany's has rabid fans. I'm not necessarily one of them, but I have always been fascinated by Audrey Hepburn's sophistication and charisma.
Fan or not, this book is an amazing look at the making of a movie, with the author pulling back the curtain on the politics and impact of Breakfast at Tiffany's.
When Truman Capote wrote the book, he already had a specific actress in mind to portray Holly Golightly. He wanted the up-front sexuality of Marilyn Monroe, not the seemingly uptight and prissy Audrey Hepburn. But the woman who made the role her own proved him wrong in every way, shocking her fans by agreeing to portray a prostitute who has no qualms about her life.
Wasson looks at the movie from every angle, from the strange casting of Mickey Rooney, to the birth of the iconic little black dress, to the selection of "Moon River" in this groundbreaking film. (2010 - HarperCollins)

The Big Show
by Steve Pond
I am crazy about the Oscars. I like the glitz, the gaffes, the tears, and every unexpected moment.
The Big Show is frothy fun, giving the reader an insider's look backstage with all the backstabbing, dress malfunctions, and strung-out presenters.
Steve Pond, formerly with Premiere magazine, looks at 15 years of the Academy Awards, starting with the 1989 show that infamously kicked off with Rob Lowe's duet with Snow White, and then went completely downhill from there.
Careers are made and broken at the awards, from the most low-key host who won legions of fans among the show staffers (Steve Martin) to the host that no one ever wants backstage again (David Letterman).
Then there are the nominees, those high-strung and nervous stars who refuse to be seated next to each other, who fight over precedence on the show, and who hide from their many exes in the wings. (2007 - Faber and Faber)