This photo is from last year, close to this time, when I was out on Block Island. I had arrived on the Island in the teeth of a bitter snowstorm (snow accumulating is rare out there), and was housebound for the first couple of days. Eventually, the clouds cleared, the sun came out, and I drove up to the North Light. Sachem Pond (behind the lighthouse) was frozen over, covered in snow, and you could see the lighthouse across the way, facing north, which means the Mainland.
It is wild up there at the north point of the Island, with winds buffeting you from all sides, and the sound of the pounding surf omnipresent, which was in direct contrast to the stillness and whiteness of that frozen snow-covered pond.
Beautiful. I love the creeping blue shadows. Makes me think of “Lighthousekeeping” which I’m reading right now.
Well, that, and my latest YA fixation — following on the heels of Harry Potter and the basically ridiculous Twilight — The Hunger Games trilogy. I’m torn now. I bought book 1 as a paperback, cheap, and books 2 and 3 are not out in paperback yet. So I either have to wait, which I’m not good at doing when I’m in the throes of a book fixation, or buy now and have a mismatched set, which I hate.
But I NEED a book for the deep dark middle of nowhere otherwise I will slit my wrists from too much socializing.
Mismatched set, here I come.
But I’m loving “Lighthousekeeping.”
Have they ever made any of her novels into movies? Do you know? Would it be too hard to mesh everything she uses into a cohesive movie?
Who would be the director with the right sensibilities to make that into a movie, I wonder?
Oops. When I say “make that into a movie,” I was actually talking about “The Passion.” Somehow the part in that comment where I mentioned it got deleted. How did I do that??
Tracey – Oh, I love Lighthousekeeping. Hey, and Cashel loves The Hunger games – we got him the whole trilogy for his birthday!
I think I told you that back when I first read The Passion I made desultory inquiries as the acquiring the rights. Who did I think I was? I was 26 years old, but I had red hair, and wanted – NEEDED to play Villanelle. And Mitchell was all set to play Henri, in our fantasies. But she (so far, I believe) has NOT released the rights. Amazing – because it would make an incredible movie. Her other books I’m not so sure – although Lighthousekeeping is more along the lines of a regular novel (she could never be regular!!)
Are you into crime novels? There is a new trilogy out by Tana French about a homicide squad in modern-day Dublin that is amaaaazing and addictive. The first one is called In the Woods, the second is called The Likeness, and the last title is escaping me. Great stories, great characters, and then there’s the whole Irish thing. I ate them up.
Oh, that’s right. You did tell me that.
I’m kind of laughing that I liked The Hunger Games so much since a family member whose literary tastes I do NOT share — Christian fiction, The Left Behind series, which I started to read until I threw the first book against the wall to punish it for sucking so so hard — recommended it to me. I was kind of in the mood for something not too taxing, so it’s working for me.
But yes, I do like crime novels. Those sound intriguing to me. (I’m cheap. Are they out in paperback??)
On a random note: I don’t know why but I don’t like the cover to “Lighthousekeeping.” I’m not that far into the book, actually, but it just seems so obvious a choice. Oh, a lighthouse. I really liked the cover to “The Passion,” so I’m disappointed on that front. It’s kind of ridiculous, but those things do make a difference for me. I don’t like the covers to The Hunger Games series, either. They make me think of cheesy airport bookstore thrillers.
Oh, covers are VERY important!!
I love the Passion cover. It’s really a work of art, completely evocative of the book inside.
The first two Tana French books are out in paperback. I bought them wicked cheap on Amazon.
Ooh, okay. Maybe I’ll go that direction in terms of my literary Christmas shield.
I need protection, man.
They are all-engrossing. So they’ve got THAT going for them. You can totally tune out the world with them!
I liked them too! Haven’t read the 3rd one yet, though.