Reel Tales

Are we the only ones disappointed by summer in Chicago this year? Those long sweaty days, temperatures well into the 90's with 100% humidity, we never thought we'd say this, but we want them back! We promise we'll never complain again. Just give two consecutive days of sun and warm weather. Please.

Apart from the weather, another thing we love about summertime (no, not ice cream, but we do love that, too) is the movies! Escaping into the cool darkness of a movie theater to check out the latest from Hollywood and beyond is one of our favorite ways to spend an afternoon or evening: eating the better part of our popcorn before the previews are even over (which of course leads us to steal fistfuls of Junior Mints from our neighbors) as we sit transfixed in front of the silver screen as the stories carry us away to lands both distant and near.

Lately, it seems like more and more of the stories coming up are based on books that we have here at the library. So we thought to ourselves, why not pick some of our favorite books that were made into movies? There are heartwarming (and heartbreakingly beautiful) ones like Jhumpa Lahiri's The Namesake or Sue Monk Kidd's The Secret Life of Bees, but there are also thrillers & darker titles such as Cormac McCarthy's No Country for Old Men and John Grisham's The Pelican Brief. No matter what your taste, we have a book to suit it. Titles that you can enjoy with a bowlful of popcorn from your own microwave or stove top (or air popper, if you're fancy enough to have such a gadget), Junior Mints from Walgreens, and as long as you don't get butter or chocolate stains on the pages, we won't have a problem.

Photo courtesy of Princess Theater's Flickr Page