This week's featured adaptation is "The Smurfs," and the movie reviews have been uneven (though they were all were written by adults). It's a big-screen version of the tale of little blue folks, a group created by the Belgian artist Peyo and made into a TV cartoon in the 1980s.

According to the offical Smurfs site, after Peyo left school in Brussels, he looked at newspaper want ads and considered openings for a dental assistant and an illustrator. He was too late for the job at the dentist's office, so he turned to the city's vibrant cartooning scene. One of the pleasures of walking around the city now is seeing the large cartoon murals scattered about. Next time you're in Brussels, you can get a feel for Peyo's work at the Belgian Comic Strip Center, a fascinating museum.

Some sample movie reviews:

-- Tribune: The slapstick is very small-kid friendly, and even the most adult-friendly jokes are pretty mild stuff. Yeah, the Smurfs are still sickeningly sweet and upbeat. But if you've got kids, it's not nearly as torturous to sit through as you might have feared.

-- Los Angeles Times: To borrow the lingo of the little blue people who populate "The Smurfs" — What the Smurf? If that sort of bad "blue" pun, as opposed to fun, is to your little one's liking, then parents, you are in for a fingernails-on-the-chalkboard, ahem, treat.

-- Washington Post: [P]arents, be warned: Unlike family films produced by Pixar, "The Smurfs" will only appeal to a pre-adolescent audience.

Posted by Dave Rosenthal at 12:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Books to Movies
        

Need some laughs amid all the debt-ceiling sniping in Washington? Then take some time to read the Amazon customer reviews on what may be the most hilariously titled book ever writtern: "How to Avoid Huge Ships." (I can almost picture the Monty Python skit.) And thanks to the Publishers Weekly blog for ponting it out. Some of my favorite comments:

-- I really couldn't be more grateful to this book than I am today! Just this morning, I was tending to the yard when suddenly this huge ship came out of nowhere! Luckily, I knew just what to do thanks to 'How To Avoid Huge Ships.' Not only did I avoid that huge ship, but my azaleas survived the encounter as well!

-- For icebergs like myself, the issue of avoiding huge ships is a delicate one. For centuries, we have been attempting to find a solution to this problem. However, since humans have egregiously labeled us as the bad guys, every attempt made by us to reach out to them and better understand the migration patterns of huge ships has been rejected. For this reason, many angry icebergs have developed a hostile attitude, withdrawing to the isolated regions of the north and south poles, thus becoming even MORE unfamiliar with the characteristics of huge ships, only increasing the danger when they do meet.

-- This book really is one of the best huge ship avoidance references I've come across, not just for the effective methods it teaches as to avoiding huge ships, but also for exploding some of the huge ship avoidance myths that many of us take for granted. For example: Do not charge the huge ship at full speed in an attempt to scare it off. This may work with coyotes, but it is less effective with huge ships.

-- As an airline pilot who flies from the USA to Asia, South America, Africa and Europe, I find this book indispensable. Although I typically cross the oceans at altitudes of 32000 to 38000 feet, the newer ships are pretty large and you never know how high the ship's super structures project into the air.

Enjoy!

Posted by Dave Rosenthal at 1:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
        

The investigation into last week's tragic bombing and shootings in Norway has taken an odd turn, as authorities probe a connection to right-wing radicals called the Knights Templar -- a name familiar to Dan Brown fans. In The Da Vinci Code, Brown's blockbuster novel, the order is crucial to uncovering and guarding a secret that could bring down the Catholic Church.

The Knights were an order that protected pilgrims headed to the Holy Land, and fought to win the land for the Christian faith. (They came to a bad end in the 14th Century -- torture and capital punishment -- after their power grew and threatened the establisment.)

Brown's more intriguing description of the Knights' mission has been "debunked" by many. But hey, it makes a great story. And Brown wasn't writing a textbook, was he?

Posted by Dave Rosenthal at 5:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

Borders' going out of business sale starts today at 399 stores across the nation -- a sad end to a once-promising bookstore chain. Those better days are shown here as the store in Lutherville hosted a 2007 event in preparation for the release of "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows." The company said that more than $700 million of books, magazines, music and other inventory will be sold off -- as well as store fixtures and furnishings.

"This marks the end of an era and we thank our customers for their patronage over our 40-year history," Mike Edwards, President of Borders Group, said in a prepared statement.

The fine print on the liquidation sale: Borders gift cards will be honored throughout the sale. Initially, Borders Rewards PLUS members will continue to receive additional discounts on qualifying purchases. All existing Borders Bucks can be redeemed until they expire on July 31, 2011. All sales made on or after July 22, 2011 are final.

Posted by Dave Rosenthal at 12:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)
        

News about the deaths of three tourists at Yosemite National Park -- they reportedly were swept over Vernal Fall -- should be enough to prevent similar incidents. But as someone who has visited a number of national parks, I'm always amazed at the number of people who don't recognize the true meaning of the wild.

Around the time my family was out west last summer, a tourist in Yellowstone was tossed by a bison after getting too close for a video. The Yosemite tourists, three college students, reportedly climbed over a guard rail to have their photo taken on a rock in the Merced River, but were caught in the powerful waters.

Maybe tourists have become so used to the faux wilderness of places like Disneyworld -- or the comfortable lodges of the parks themselves -- that they fail to recognize the dangers nearby. But these parks are truly wild, and the dangers -- wildlife, lightning, raging rivers -- are real. Books such as "Into Thin Air," "The Perfect Storm" or "Into the Wild" are sobering reminders of nature's power. They should be required reading for any tourist who plans to stray past the tour bus.

Posted by Dave Rosenthal at 1:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (10)
        

LIke most Americans, I watched the historic event from home, in our den in New Britain, Conn. If you weren't around then, it may be hard to comprehend the drama  that surrounded the space race and moon landing. It was a seminal event, much as the 9-11 bombings would be to a later generation.

Today, there's a lot of good reading about Neil Armstong, the first person to set foot on the moon, and fellow astronauts Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin, who battled depression after the flight, and Michael Collins. Some suggesions:

-- "First Man: The Life of Neil A. Armstrong" by James R. Hansen

-- "Magnificent Desolation: The Long Journey Home from the Moon" by Aldrin with Ken Abraham.

-- "Carrying the Fire" by Collins.

-- "A Man on the Moon: The Voyages of the Apollo Astronauts" by Andrew Chaikin.

Posted by Dave Rosenthal at 4:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

With the end of the Harry Potter movies coming last week, the timing is right for "The Hunger Games" movie to capture that audience's imagination, and the new, fiery poster is sure to whet appetites.

The movie is scheduled for release on March 23, 2012, so it will be a while before we can see how Suzanne Collins' dystopian trilogy is being adapted. If the motion poster provides a hint, it's going well.

I can only hope it will be better than "Dune," a sci-fi masterpiece that was ruined on the big screen, and more like the HP movies, which were universally acclaimed.

Posted by Dave Rosenthal at 4:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

The "Winnie the Pooh" movie has rekindled interest in A.A. Milne's classic tale, and The George Peabody Library -- one of my favorite spaces in Baltimore -- offers a charming literary take on the animals in the Hundred Acre Wood.

This fore-edge painting, part of the Dorothy McIlvain Scott collection, is featured on the library's Wunderkammer blog.

Check it out for a peek of the library's amazing collection.

Posted by Dave Rosenthal at 11:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
        

I hate to write an obit for a bookstore (as I did recently for Daedalus), and it's even more painful for an entire chain such as Borders, which announced today that it is headed for a liquidation sale. The chain said it has 399 stores and employs approximately 10,700 employees.

"Following the best efforts of all parties, we are saddened by this development," Borders Group President Mike Edwards said in a prepared statement. "We were all working hard towards a different outcome, but the headwinds we have been facing for quite some time, including the rapidly changing book industry, eReader revolution, and turbulent economy, have brought us to where we are now."

Borders said that subject to the bankruptcy court's approval, liquidation is expected to start for some stores as soon as July 22, and conclude by the end of September.

I have fond memories of the Towson Borders, which played a big part in helping to revive the town. My kids spent a lot of time there -- before it moved a few miles north, ceding Towson to Barnes & Noble. Even in its new location in Lutherville, the store provided a welcoming spot for readers, and was the place I bought my first (and last) book from Stephenie Meyer's Twilight series. I guess I could go back for the liquidation sale to get some bargains, but those events depress me, so I'm likely to pass.

Bye-bye, Borders.

Posted by Dave Rosenthal at 7:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (15)
        

If you're a parent, you know that one of the most trying times can be putting your kids to bed. You're tired, they're tired. And every little request -- another drink of water, another book, another light left on -- becomes more and more frustrating.

"Go the F**k to Sleep," a new book by Adam Mansbach recalls those frustrations in a hilarious way. It's guaranteed to make you laugh -- unless you object to profanity. Be forewarned, but get ready for some laughs in this reading by Samuel L. Jackson.

Mansbach will do a reading from 6 to 8 p.m. at P.J. Clarke's, 16000 K Street in Washington, on July 27.

Posted by Dave Rosenthal at 1:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)
        

With the big premier scheduled for tonight at midnight, the reviews for "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows -- Part 2" portend an exciting event for movie-goers. Of course, with the huge media build-up, it would be hard for HP fans to be disappointed by the last big screen installment of J.K. Rowling's series. Even those who might have scoffed at breaking the Deathly Hallows book into two parts are likely to be caught up in the LAST HARRY POTTER frenzy. Here are excerpts from reviews:

-- Tribune: Here in "Deathly Hallows — Part 2" it's virtually non-stop action, though director David Yates, who has taken good care of these final four, ever-meaner Potter adventures, does a very crafty thing, following adapter Steve Kloves' screenplay. "Deathly Hallows — Part 2" doesn't come flying out of the gate, throwing computer-generated Death Eaters at your face. ... Part 2 begins, gravely, with Radcliffe's tense encounters with John Hurt (as Ollivander, the wandmaker) and Warwick Davis (as the sphinxlike goblin Griphook, with wee pointy teeth). These are conversations, not just exposition chunks, and they instantly remind audiences that while "Deathly Hallows — Part 2" will kill off various characters, some of them in startling and violent ways, it will also require a bit of actual, old-school listening.

-- Los Angeles Times: One of the pleasures of "Hallows — Part 2" is to see how the film's production team has expanded on relatively brief passages in the book and turned them into satisfying visual splendors. One of the best comes almost at once, with Potter and friends penetrating deep below the earth on a twisting and turning journey to see what's inside the Gringotts' vault belonging to Bellatrix Lestrange (Helena Bonham Carter). Just as good is a wild and crazy magical blaze that engulfs that Room of Requirement when a Fiendfyre spell gets out of hand.

-- Roger Ebert: This movie is impressively staged, the dialogue is given proper weight and not hurried through, there are surprises which, in hindsight, seem fair enough, and "Harry Potter" now possesses an end that befits the most profitable series in movie history.

-- Washington Post: Feeling at once like an anti-climax and a spot-on send-off, the ultimate Harry Potter movie embodies all the elements that have made the franchise such a sturdy enterprise, from its cream-of-the-crop British cast to its lavish but unfussy illustration of a story that will always be captured best in readers' imaginations.

Posted by Dave Rosenthal at 12:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (7)
        

As a fan of Google Doodles, the changing logos used periodically to enhance the usually dull search page, I was happy to see a drawing that marks the 450th anniversary of St. Basil's Cathedral along Red Square in Moscow.

According to a brief history in Fodor's, the church was commissioned by Ivan the Terrible to celebrate his conquest of the Tatar city of Kazan, and each chapel is topped by an onion dome carved with its own distinct pattern and dedicated to a saint on whose day the Russian army won battles against the Tatars. The cathedral was built between 1555 and 1560 on the site of the earlier Trinity Church, where the Holy Fool Vasily (Basil) had been buried in 1552.

It's a stunning sight from Red Square, though I recall from a visit years ago that the interior was rather dull -- and had nothing like the colors and patterns on the domes. (If you're into kitsch, you can own a mini version with these SBC bookends.)

For more Doodles, check out this compilation -- including the recent Les Paul digital guitar -- from PC magazine.

Posted by Dave Rosenthal at 11:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
        

News that British soccer star David Beckham and wife Victoria have named their new daughter Harper Seven has sparked a round of speculation about their connection to Harper Lee, author of the novel "To Kill a Mockingbird."

There's no word about whether the parents were fans of TKAM, though I doubt the American classic resonates in their native land -- or is a staple of middle- and high-school reading lists there. The Mail quoted a friend as saying: "Harper is an old English name, something Victoria has always liked. Seven is a very lucky happy number and the baby was born just after 7am, in the seventh month." The Mail also noted that other celebrities, including Lisa Marie Presley and Neil Patrick Harris, have children named Harper.

Of course, naming a baby after a favorite author or literary character is a time-honored tradition. I give the Beckhams credit for not following the Harry Potter and Twilight crazes, and naming their daughter the super-popular Emma or Bella. And they seem to be following a literary theme, considering their other children: (A Tree Grows in) Brooklyn, Romeo (and Juliet), and (Martin) Cruz (Smith).

Who knew they were such avid readers?

Posted by Dave Rosenthal at 2:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (7)
        

Today's launch of the Space Shuttle Atlantis, had an other-worldly feel. For those of us old enough to recall the Mercury and Gemini flights, not to mention the Challenger disaster, it's hard to imagine that our manned space program is winding down.

The space race has provided some great reading. My favorite remains "The Right Stuff," Tom Wolfe's account of the Americans who became space pioneers. As you can imagine, they were a daring, colorful bunch, and some of the macho test pilots rebelled at being strapped onto a rocket over which they had little control. It's an entertaining, irreverent look at the beginnings of our space program. May be time to re-read it.

Posted by Dave Rosenthal at 7:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
        

My reading always slows during the summer, and this year is no exception. But "The Year We Left Home" by Jean Thompson was a perfect antidote for the doldrums.

Synopsis: Told in short segments that skip across three decades, the book explores the lives of the members of an Iowa family.

Review: Thompson provides an intimate look at the push-pull of American life. There's the promise of youth set against the disappointment and compromises of adulthood. The yearning to break free from the home place, to embark on a new path, set against the ache of dissolving family ties. All related in simple truths and simple prose, and anchored by cultural markers such as the Viet Nam war and the aftermath of 9-11.

Read this if: You want a very human summer read that is several steps above Candace Bushnell.

Avoid this if: Your only summer reading involves vampires, terrorists or other beach fare.

Posted by Dave Rosenthal at 11:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Reviews
        

"I became so reliant on [alcohol] to enjoy stuff," Radcliffe told GQ. He said the problem was an issue on the set of "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince," but added that he has stopped drinking last fall and has stayed away from the party lifestyle. "There were a few years there when I was just so enamored with the idea of living some sort of famous person's lifestyle that really isn't suited to me," he says.

Can a tell-all memoir be far behind?

Posted by Dave Rosenthal at 11:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

It's the most wonderful time of the year -- not Christmas but the start of the Tour de France, with Stage 1 coming tomorrow. Some of the enjoyment has been drained from the event in recent years by charges of illegal blood doping. The 2006 winner, American Floyd Landis, was stripped of his title for cheating, and accusations have dogged past champions Alberto Contador and Lance Armstrong as well.

Still, what's better than a three-week event that is part sport and part French travelogue. It's like an extended run of Woody Allen's new movie, "Midnight in Paris," except that you also get to see mountains, vineyards and the occasional chateau. I even recall a wild boar in one helicopter shot.

The downside: It starts at an ungodly early hour. Still, you can watch a recap at night.

To get in the mood, I'd suggest reading Armstrong's "It's Not about the Bike," which recounts the seven-time champion's battle with cancer. Other options include: "Inside the Tour de France" by Eric Delanzy, "The Official Treasures: Le Tour de France" by Serge Laget and Luke Edwardes-Evans, and "The Story of the Tour De France" (two volumes) by Bill McGann.

Posted by Dave Rosenthal at 1:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)