Do you want my opinion or not?

Well, I just finished reading a couple of books and watching a movie or two. Thankfully, I am on the treadmill when I watch so it makes the time go by faster. But at 30-35 minutes a workout, it takes me 4 days to watch a movie.

Anyway, I just sent back "Becoming Jane". It was a pleasant diversion and the actors were good, but I'm not sure the people who write these modern Jane Austen books/scripts have ever actually read Jane Austen. They may have read Pride & Prejudice or just seen one of the modern movie adaptations, but have never read her entire body of work or been familiar with her life or with the society of the time. Becoming Jane is highly fictionalized because Jane never left anything behind that would really indicate how well she knew the young man in the story. He is mentioned in a couple of her remaining letters. Her sister burned most of her correspondence after Jane's death. We can only speculate as to what actually happened. Unfortunately, modern novelists have their characters act as 21st century people would, leaving me just a little uncomfortable with the story line. My favorite part in the movie though was Jane talking to her deaf brother in sign language. I am not even sure that signing was widely available in the 18th century. However, this was a pleasant diversion while treading away.

My favorite movie this week has been Roman Holiday with Gregory Peck and Audry Hepburn. Why don't they make movies like this anymore. It was so delightful. It made me laugh and cry just a little bit.

On to Books -- 7th Heaven wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. It is better than some of the more recent James Patterson books. I think he just thinks up an outline and then hands it over to Maxine Somebody-or-other to write it up. He collects the big bucks and gets to put his picture on the back cover. Anyway, I was not dissapointed by this latest book. I have hopes for the future.

No Graves as Yet is Anne Perry's first WWI novel. It is part crime novel, part history lesson. It wasn't bad, but I didn't really love it. And then it wrapped up to quickly with an obvious set up for a sequel -- which I have but only because I bought 3 for the price of 2 at Barnes and Nobel. I am looking forward to her next Thomas & Charlotte Pitt or William and Hester Monk series. those are better.