Watched the movie adaptation of The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants the other day. A movie will NEVER be as good as the novel. Well, the only exception I can think of would be the Lord of the Rings trilogy, but otherwise… nope.

This movie got some good reviews. I looked forward to seeing it. And then I walked away from it disappointed. Of the 4 central storylines (one for each girl: Tibby, Lena, Bridget and Carmen), only Tibby’s and Carmen’s stories were true to the novel. Lena’s and Bridget’s stories were based on the novel, but they veered way too off course for me to be happy with it. Bridget’s had potential to be okay, but then the screenwriter and director decided to go and wrap it up with a happier ending. BAH! What?! No! There are 2 sequels to this story, with another on the way but they had to make it all good and well because what’s a teen movie without the happy endings? BAH! I was soooo disappointed with it. (more…)

The third installment of The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants is just as fun and charming as the first two. This one isn’t as solemn as the second one was. In fact, I’d say this one is more hopeful. The girls graduate from high school and are facing their last summer together before splitting up and heading off to separate colleges. In the year since the lastbook , Carmen’s mom has married her boyfriend and they are now, much to Carmen’s dismay, expecting a baby together. While Lena has given up on ever being with Kostos, she can’t stop thinking about him. Bridget (Bee) has returned to soccer and is now heading off to coach at a summer camp where she is thrown right back into the situation she thought she’d left behind two years ago. And Tibby is suffering from what can only be described as a mild case of post-traumatic stress syndrome, having suffered losses and being afraid to let herself care enough about anything or anyone enough that she’d be hurt again if she were to lose them too. (more…)

Not to me, mind you. If you visit Maeve Binchy’s site, you’ll find a message from Maeve saying that if you write to her, she’d be happy to write you back. I was a little skeptical about it. Since Maeve is my favorite writer, I sent her a letter telling her I enjoyed her books and that I owned most of them, which is a big deal considering I work at the library and decided not to buy books anymore unless I love them or really want them. If I were a successful writer, I’d probably appreciate fan mail too, you know?

Anyway… I wrote this letter back in March. Then, with my wedding and honeymoon and house stuff to do, I forgot about it. Mostly. Every once in a while I’d think about it and wonder if she actually got it. Then yesterday, I get a postcard in the mail depicting a scene from the front cover of her latest book, Nights of Rain and Stars. It’s addressed to me (on a typed label) with the handwritten message: “Dear Kristina, Thank you for writing authors low a little praise. Maeve Binchy”. Or something like that. For an author, she has some indecipherable writing. But yay! I’m not entirely sure how to interpret the phrase (the Irish, pffft!– just kidding), though I’m sure it’s just modesty and gratitude.

A simple message, but nice to get all the same :) She even spelled my name properly, which I consider a big deal (most people seem to see my name, and then forget or revert to the CH spelling right away, and/or spell it with an -e at the end rather than an -a).

I was happy anyway.

This is a story about sisters who couldn’t be more different from each other. Rose, the older sister, is responsible, highly educated, successful, and the only real interesting thing about her is the fabulous shoe collection she has even though the rest of her wardrobe is drab. Her sister, Maggie, is gorgeous, wildly promiscuous, and unable to hold down a job for longer than a month at a time due to her severe learning disabilities.

Maggie is always getting into financial troubles, but thanks to her sister’s generousity, she always lands on her feet (usually wearing a pilfered pair of her sister’s most expensive shoes) and usually ends up over-staying her welcome at her sister’s home whenever she’s been evicted from her own apartments.

Hard to believe, but they’re jealous of each other for different reasons. I can understand why Maggie envies her sister’s success and intellect, and I know she really envies the fact that when she opens Rose’s wallet, there’s always cash in there to take. But why Rose envies Maggie’s carefree ways and ability to look good all the time is lost on me. It doesn’t seem like Rose has low self-esteem, but apparently she does. (more…)