It really doesn't matter whether you read them in order, but I did, just to be sure I didn't miss anything. I loved the series (some were better than others), and can't wait to read the final one. Wanda, is the Jack Reacher series finished? I hope not! I read not too long ago that Lee Child had been quoted as saying he would kill Reacher off when people stopped buying his books. Surely that hasn't happened.....

I understand the avoidance of dark subjects - I read "The Road" the year it came out - it was so disturbing that I skipped the book club discussion, wouldn't watch the movie when my husband found it on the movie channel. I reacted the same way to my book club's selection of B*****d Out Of Carolina - I completely quit going to the book club for about six months, I was worn out. (******** is a child born out of wedlock as the forum wont accept the spelling of the actual word.) Both were so well written, certainly, but so hopeless that I was off any reading subject matter which was of deeply dark subject matters for many years So, I'm surprised I am so attracted to Flynn's books- it must be her writing style or her ability to deal with her subject matter in an unflinching manner. Who knows? She is a formidable talent but were I a writer I would consider myself truly cursed if her's were the stories that I had within me demanding to be given birth. I can't imagine working on those subjects every day for however many years it takes to complete her books. Thus far, Amy Tan is soothing to my savaged eyes. Thank you Amy Tan, thank you! :)

I finished Second Acts, and really liked it. The author obviously has his own opinions about different issues that each president faced, but what I liked the most is how much he concentrated on how the president dealt with life afterwards, and how even the president beset with major scandals or low popularity was treated with kindness and humanity in his writing. He also showed how the ex president saw his time in office, and how he saw the next office holders administration. This is an excellent book for anyone who wants a glimpse of American politics in the last 60 years, and a glimpse of the people who led us in those times. Its certainly a reminder of how our past can't help but influence our future, and a reminder that the more things change, the more things stay the same. BTW - I was esp taken by Herbert Hoovers story. I can still remember my parent's degrading comments about him (they were Depression Era children), and so all I knew were Hoovervilles. But he was an engineer who led the American effort to get food and shelter to the battered countries after WWI (this was before he was president). Truman asked him to help again with the Marshall Plan after WWII. In between that time he was basically ignored. Truman and Hoover ended up being friends, and Hoovers legacy certainly became a more complex and positive one than the one that he is usually known for. Now reading John Connely's Book of Lost Things. Loving it so far.

They are often totally different, which I think is sometimes necessary, to change what is an interior experience to a moving one. Sometimes the essence of the book is retained very well. But sometimes not and sometimes the movie becomes something totally different. One example of a fail, IMHO, was "The Orchid Thief" which was a movie about trying to turn a book into a movie. I hated the distortion by the movie of what that book was about. I hope Susan Orleans got a hefty check for that one! My dislike for the movie, "And Then She Found Me" caused me to get and read the book by Elinor Lipman. Wowza, not even in the ballpark with the plot of the movie vs the book. However, I didn't much care for the book either. My next attempt will be "Republic of Love" which I sort of liked as a movie but it was sorta weird so I'm gonna try the book by Carol Shields. Two books that I love both the movie and the book are "Dr. Zhivago" which benefits some from the 3D fleshing out of the story, and for me, "The Great Gatsby." The one with Robert Redford, not the newer one. Both books are a totally different experience from the movie, but it is cool to have both the exterior setting and real people living out the experiences in front of you, and then also the experience of their interior lives that you get from the book. In that vein, I liked the movie "Cold Mountain" better than the book. The book got a little too much for me and I didn't have much sympathy for the characters but I did in the movie. Oh and I adore both the book "Auntie Mame" and the movie with Rosalind Russell, even though they are quite different. As a side note, when I was a kid, I ended up enjoying Dr. Doolittle and Mary Poppins as books way better than movies, but the movies did get me into the books. And both Willy Wonka movies were kind of let downs, but the Tim Burton one was especially bad IMHO.