Calendar Girls: June 2020

Hey all, Dani here.

It’s the first of June and I’m already running behind on my blog. I got this post all prepped up yesterday, and just needed to add in my runners up and my winner/pick for the month. Instead I got distracted by watching anime, and when I woke up this morning I realized that I had never finished and scheduled this post. Whoops.

Anyway, it is the first Monday of the Month and that means it is once again time for a Calendar Girls post.

Calendar Girls is a monthly blog event that was started by Flavia and Melanie, but is now being hosted by Katie and Adrienne. They are all wonderful ladies, and you should check out their lovely blogs. Okay, so Katie is still on a brief hiatus for a few months, so for right now Adrienne and myself are all hosting Calendar Girls together.

So if you link back to Adrienne, and me, we can keep track of all the book picks and posts each month. Thanks, everyone!

First, more about the Calendar Girls. It is designed to ignite bookish discussions among readers, and was inspired by the 1961 Neil Sedaka song, Calendar Girl.

Just like the song, each month has a different theme. Each blogger picks their favorite book from the theme, and on the first Monday of the month reveals their pick in a Calendar Girls post. Make sure to post back to the hostess’s post, and both Katie and Adrienne will make a master list for the month. The master lists allow everyone to see the other Calendar Girls’ picks and to pop on over to their blogs. Thus, we all get to chat about books and even make some new friends!

Oh, and you don’t have to identify as female to join the Calendar Girls. We welcome readers of all types. So if this sounds like fun for you, join us in all of the fun bookish conversations.

Finally, Annie Woods, the first participant in the Calendar Girls Springtime Whirl to achieve a bingo, has selected our June theme. You can find all of Annie’s social media details at these links: Instagram,  Goodreads, Twitter, Website

The June theme is…

Drive-In Movie Day

Favorite Book Adaptation

I’m really excited about this one.

Because the thing is, this is about your favorite adaptation, not necessarily the best or the most faithful…for the record, my opinion is that the best adaptation is for The Perks of Being a Wallflower because the author wrote the screenplay and directed the film. It does not get much more faithful than that, and I will excuse any and all changes because the author himself made those extremely minor changes.

Anyway, here’s where I’m torn for this prompt: which adaption form do I choose? Because there are many ways to adapt a work. Do I go with a film version, a TV version, a stage production? That makes it so much more difficult to narrow down the possibilities.

And I guess I should point out that I’m going with my favorite adaptations in an entertainment factor, not in faithfulness to the source material. Because there are always changes, and I’ve already announced the best/most faithful adaptation. So my book/adaptation pick is going to be one where I found both the book and the adaptation to be incredibly enjoyable, personally. Feel free to disagree with me down in the comments, but let’s keep from being rude about it. We can all like different things and that’s totally fine. (And you know, I say this just because; I haven’t really had any rudeness in my comments. Thanks for being awesome everybody.)

TV: Shadowhunters, The Expanse, Outlander, Game of Thrones (the early seasons), Dresden Files, The Magicians, Vampire Diaries, Secret Circle, The Witcher, Legend of the Seeker

Movies: Timeline, To Kill a Mockingbird, Harry Potter, Ready Player One, Vampire Academy, Divergent, Lord of the Rings, Hunger Games trilogy/quartet

Anything Jane Austen/Charlotte Bronte (TV mini series/movie)

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Okay, so obviously I haven’t included Marvel or DC movie or TV on here, though I do also really enjoy those.

Oh, and I didn’t include any of the manga/anime either. Wow, this just made my list kind of ridiculous. Umm…I think I’ll do another post at some point about manga and anime adaptations that I love.

And I know there’s some I’ve probably missed here.

And there’s also some that I haven’t read/watched yet.

But you guys, this is actually a harder decision than I thought it was going to be. Oh man. Okay, okay, I just need to say that I’m done adding in contenders, and I’ll pick from what I have above. But if you want me to go even deeper into movie adaptations, TV adaptations, and more, then let me know, and I’ll set up a series of posts in the future.

All right, so rather than sit here agonizing for too long, I’m going to choose one TV adaptation and one movie adaptation. I hope that’s okay with all of you. Let’s do this.

The Last Wish by Andrzej Sapkowski AND Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

There, I picked two. Wow, that was not an easy choice. Okay, so RPO is not really a faithful adaptation at all, but the movie has the same geeky 80s pop culture heart as the book, which is great. And they are both excellent on their own. Just don’t try and compare them because then the movie will disappoint you. Regardless I love them both, and I understand that licensing issues made it difficult to faithfully adapt the book into a movie. And then there’s Geralt of Rivia. Honestly they did a pretty decent job adapting the book into a show, and I’ve watched the show twice now because the effects and the action are excellent. I’m really looking forward to season 2.

Oh, and if you really want to start planning ahead, the July Calendar Girls theme was also already announced, so you can check out that post here. The July posts will be up on Monday, July 6th, so we’ll see you then.

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Other Calendar Girls posts to check out:

Adrienne @ Darque Dreamer Reads – Dumplin’ by Julie Murphy

Deanna @ Deanna Writes About – Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption by Stephen King

Ashley @ Inside My Minds – The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas

Katie @ Never Not Reading – The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien

More coming soon