Many members of our book club enjoy movies in addition to books.  We thought the best way to merge the two was to create a new blog feature called "Books on Film".  This Friday (October 31st) three new book related films will opening in theaters.

Opening Friday (10/31) on the Big Screen

•  "Before I Go To Sleep" - based on suspense thriller by S.J. Watson.  
• Stars Nicole Kidman, Colin Firth, and Mark Strong.  After an accident, Christine's (Kidman) brain is injured so her memory resets every night.  At the end of every day, Christine records what happens in a journal that she can read the next morning.  One morning she wakes up to read an entry that leads her on a chase to find out what really happened and who can she really trust.
• "Horns" - based on fantasy/horror novel by Joe Hill
• Stars Danielle Radcliffe and Juno Temple.  Ignatius wakes up one morning after a bender to find that a pair of horns are growing out of his heads.  Suddenly people are admitting their deepest secrets to him.  Can Ignatius use this new gift to help him find out who murdered his girlfriend?
• "Showrunners - The Art of Running a TV Show" - documentary that inspired a companion book by Tara Bennet
• It's a Behind the Scenes look at what it takes to run a show on television today - featuring several of Hollywoods most well-known showrunners , including: JJ Abrams (Felicity, Alias), Damon Lindelof (Lost), Jane Espenson (Caprica, Once Upon a Time), Joss Whedon (Buffy, Angel, Firefly), Hart Hanson (Bones), and so many others.  This film will be released simultaneously in select theaters and digitally on iTunes.

On the Small Screen

• "Death Comes to Pemberely" by P.D. James airing Sunday Nov. 2nd at 9 PM on PBS
• This Sunday PBS' Masterpiece Mystery will be showing the second half of the adaptation of P.D. James spin-off of Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice".  The mini-series stars Matthew Rhys (The Americans) as Darcy, Anna Maxwell Martin (Bleak House) as Elizabeth, Matthew Goode (The Good Wife) as Wickham, and Jenna Coleman (Doctor Who) as Lydia.  If you didn't catch the first half, you can watch it at the Masterpiece website.
• "Olive Kitteridge" by Elizabeth Strout airing Sunday Nov. 2nd at 9 PM and Monday Nov. 3rd at 9 PM on HBO
• HBO has broken up this Bestseller book into 4 hour mini series which will be airing over two nights.  The mini-series stars Academy Award Winner Frances McDormand (Fargo) as titular Olive Kitteridge and  Academy Award nominee Richard Jenkins (Eat, Pray, Love).  The Lit Chicks read Olive Kitteridge a few years ago.  You can see a trailer for the miniseries at HBO.  

Bonus info
 If you are a fan of "The Hunger Games" series by Suzanne Collins, tickets for "Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1" went on sale on Wednesday, October 29th.  

A Brief Summary -  Connie's life is coming apart. Her thesis advisor at Harvard tells her that her thesis won't stand without the discovery of new first person source while her mom is insisting she move out to Salem, MA for the summer and clean up her grandmother's deserted house which is facing foreclosure.    Reluctantly she packs things out and moves out to the little house, determined to sort things out.  While cleaning, she finds a small key with an even smaller piece of paper inside of it which reads "Deliverance Dane".   Suddenly finding the identity of Deliverance Dane and figuring out why she left the key is all that matters to Connie.  

Most members liked the book, the couple of us who enjoy fantasy books enjoyed it a lot. We read this after reading a series of heavy books and I think it was just what we needed to lighten things up without being too fluffy (this is about as chick lit as we get as a group).  This wasn't a scary/spooky book, but it was filled with moments of suspense.  One of the things that the club liked most were the flashback scenes to the past, in fact many members would have liked more of those.  Howe really created an interesting history of magic that felt very real and natural.  I think one of her best choices was setting the book to take place during the summer, when ghosts and monsters are one of the last things on your mind.  It would have been really easy to set it during the fall, when the weather in Massachusetts brings an other-worldliness to everything, especially in a town like Salem, but I think it would have made the story feel a bit cliched.   The success of this book depends on the reader feeling like there is a balance between Connie's real-life problems and the mystery of Deliverance Dane's journal so when they do all merge it makes sense.  If you are a person who enjoys tv shows/movies/books that mash realism with the supernatural and you like female heroes (like in Buffy the Vampire Slayer or the movie Practical Magic), you will probably enjoy this book a lot.  

You can check out Howe's following books "The House of Velvet and Glass" and "Conversion" at Goodreads.  You can also find her on twitter (@katherinebhowe).

According to Amazon.com, these are some of the most popular books being released today.

1. "The World of Ice and Fire: The Untold History of Westoros" by George R.R. Martin
2. "Make it Ahead: A Barefoot Contessa Cookbook" by Ina Garten 
3. "Rush Revere and the American Revolution" by Rush Limbaugh
4. "Yes Please" by Amy Poehler
5. "The Slow Regard of Silent Things" by Patrick Rothfuss
6. "Blood Magick" (a Cousins O'Dwyer book) by Nora Roberts
7. "The Secret History of Wonder Woman" by Jill Lepore (*side note the Smithsonian will be hosting a evening seminar and book signing with Lepore on Nov. 5th)
8. "Prince Lestat" by Anne Rice
9. "Jeter Unfiltered" by Derek Jeter
10. "The Good Son: JFK Jr. and the Mother He Loved" by Christopher Anderson

This meant nothing to Kelly, who left childhood sure that her mom—with her inviolable commandments and proud stoicism—would be nothing more than background chatter for the rest of Kelly’s life, which she was carefully orienting toward adventure. After college, armed with a backpack, her personal mission statement, and a wad of traveler’s checks, she took off for Australia to see things and do things and Become Interesting.
 
But it didn’t turn out the way she pictured it. In a matter of months, her savings shot, she had a choice: get a job or go home. That’s how Kelly met John Tanner, a newly widowed father of two looking for a live-in nanny. They chatted for an hour, discussed timing and pay, and a week later, Kelly moved in. And there, in that house in a suburb north of Sydney, 10,000 miles from the house where she was raised, her mother’s voice was suddenly everywhere, nudging and advising, cautioning and directing, escorting her through a terrain as foreign as any she had ever trekked. Every day she spent with the Tanner kids was a day spent reconsidering her relationship with her mother, turning it over in her hands like a shell, straining to hear whatever messages might be trapped in its spiral.
 
This is a book about the difference between travel and life experience, stepping out and stepping up, fathers and mothers. But mostly it’s about who you admire and why, and how that changes over time.

If you can't tell from the title of this blog, this is the new website for the Northern Virginia (NoVA) Lit Chicks.  Here we will be posting about what we're reading in the Lit Chicks as well as other literary news to hit the Northern Virginia area.  

So a quick tour of the site:

• On the "Home" you will find our latest blog entries, including updates on what we are reading next.  We'll try to update this page once a week.
• On the "Past Reads" page you can keep up with what we have read in the past year and beyond.  The Lit Chicks (as we call ourselves) have been around for almost 10 years so we've read a lot, but for the moment our book list only goes back to about late 2011.
• The "About Us" page tells you all about our club here in Northern Virginia.  While this website is open to all book lovers, we are a club which actually meets once a month. If you live in the Metro DC area and are looking for a book club, we recommend you read this page and get a sense of who we are before submitting a request for membership.
• Finally, the "Contact Us" page is where you will find information on how to contact us.  

Thanks for checking us out.  We hope you enjoy our website.