Top five scenes that made the transition from page to screen well

Top Five Friday

Copy code:

<a href="http://em-and-emm.blogspot.com"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSHmhavO02PqwqlWnt5Nt1DH-QUmXQwDjxN-HDTbEoxlJID4yfgJ1SXMqpzmjfOLdvt5s6De_Llj5m3zLvks9NwWftXWQ3R4Tt-C4LM8ZnVjTsVHRwjPoxFEtvha81AzNBil0wp_qZ9ff8/s400/Top+Five+Friday.jpg" alt="Top Five Friday" height="120" width="120" />

This week: Top five scenes that made the book-to-movie transition well

Do you have a favorite book scene that was adapted for the screen particularly well? If so, share it on your blog with the icon above, or post your favorite in the comments!

Emily's list:
1. The Breaking of the Fellowship, from The Lord of the Rings. Despite the fact that this got shifted from The Two Towers (book) to The Fellowship of the Ring (movie), it really captured the tone of the scene. The dialogue and acting really brought out each character's motives for going in different directions. I was a little disappointed that we didn't get an Aragorn/Legolas duet lamenting Boromir's death, though.
2. Lucy Pevensie stepping through the wardrobe for the first time, The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe. I just thought this scene was really well done, and it looked exactly as I imagined it!
3. Coraline's introduction to Other Mother and Other Father in the parallel world beyond the little door. The filmmakers did a nice job balancing Coraline's wonder and delight at this new world, with the sort of underlying vague creepiness of it all.
4. Lizzy turning down Darcy's first marriage proposal, Pride & Prejudice (BBC). In addition to staying quite loyal to the original dialogue, this scene was well acted. As a crucial turning point in the story, I'm glad it got a good treatment.
5. The Council of Elrond, from The Lord of the Rings. There was a LOT of material to cram into this scene, but Peter Jackson and company managed to do it pretty well without making it feel crammed or rushed. Most of the information presented in this section of the book is too crucial to leave out, and the script nicely included basically everything that you really needed to know. I was a little sad to not have Bilbo there, though.

dishonorable mentions: 5 WORST scenes to make the book to movie transition (because I couldn't resist making this list)
1. Any scene with the ridiculous flying dementors in the Harry Potter movie franchise.
2. The ending of The Golden Compass. Really? We couldn't stick with the original ending? Do all endings have to be happy? Apparently.
3. The entirety of Twilight. Bella and Edward were pretty real, if flawed, characters in the novel. In the movies, I'm pretty sure they're portrayed by dead fish with faces painted on them.
4. All of the crucial scenes in Prisoner of Azkaban and Goblet of Fire that were apparently considered irrelevant to the movies. After all, it's only plot continuity; who worries about THAT in Hollywood?
5. "Go home, Sam", from The Return of the King (movie). This kind of doesn't count because at no point was it a real scene in the book. This scene just about gave me a heart attack in the movie theater.

Top Five Friday: Top Five Scenes Involving Food

Copy code:

<a href="http://em-and-emm.blogspot.com"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSHmhavO02PqwqlWnt5Nt1DH-QUmXQwDjxN-HDTbEoxlJID4yfgJ1SXMqpzmjfOLdvt5s6De_Llj5m3zLvks9NwWftXWQ3R4Tt-C4LM8ZnVjTsVHRwjPoxFEtvha81AzNBil0wp_qZ9ff8/s400/Top+Five+Friday.jpg" alt="Top Five Friday" height="120" width="120" />

Because Emma sounds busy, Emily is taking charge this week! Because it's late at night and I'm in a snack mood, top five scenes involving food! Also, because I had a relevant conversation relating to this topic with my other Emma friend today. Fiction or non-fiction.

Want to play? Post your top five scenes involving food from books in your blog. You can also link back here and comment to get your link posted here.

Top Five Friday: Top Five Scenes Involving Food in Books

Emily's List:
1. Gourmet Island, from The 13 1/2 Lives of Captain Bluebear, by Walter Moers
Easy, easy choice for my #1. This is an island which grows any kind of food you'd ever want. Pods full of chocolate hang over rivers of milk; shake the pods and you end up with chocolate milk. Little plants grow potato-like bulbs... these plants grow along side bubbling ponds of hot oil. When the potatoes grow large enough, the plants dip the potato into the oil and you get potato fritter! The island is not without its perils, though...

2. Harry's first feast at Hogwarts, from Harry Potter and the Sorceror's (Philosopher's) Stone, by J.K. Rowling
I really enjoyed reading about the varied and unusual combination of foods available at the Hogwarts welcoming feast during Harry's first year. Why were there peppermint humbugs at the table? What is a humbug, anyway?

3. Book IV, Chapter 4: Of Herbs and Stewed Rabbit, from The Two Towers, by J.R.R. Tolkien
" 'Stew the rabbits!' squealed Gollum in dismay. 'Spoil beautiful meat Smeagol saved for you, poor hungry Smeagol! What for? What for, silly hobbit? They are young, they are tender, they are nice. Eat them, eat them!' "

4. The marzipan story, as recounted by Mary Malone, followed by Lyra and Will's picnic scene, from The Amber Spyglass, by Philip Pullman. One of the lovelier, more hauntingly beautiful scenes in a trilogy of thoroughly lovely and hauntingly beautiful books. At once a convergence of faith and spirituality, love and fate, these two scenes are really crucial to the storyline and to the main thesis of the His Dark Materials trilogy. See Emma's #1 pick for last week's Top 5.

5. Lucy's first tea with Mr. Tumnus, from The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe, by C.S. Lewis.
I don't know why, but I just really enjoyed reading about Lucy and Tumnus. A close second is the scene where Edmund gets Turkish Delight from the Queen. Also an entertaining scene.

Emma's List:

Top Five Friday: Top Five Couples in Books

Copy code:

<a href="http://em-and-emm.blogspot.com"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSHmhavO02PqwqlWnt5Nt1DH-QUmXQwDjxN-HDTbEoxlJID4yfgJ1SXMqpzmjfOLdvt5s6De_Llj5m3zLvks9NwWftXWQ3R4Tt-C4LM8ZnVjTsVHRwjPoxFEtvha81AzNBil0wp_qZ9ff8/s400/Top+Five+Friday.jpg" alt="Top Five Friday" height="120" width="120" />

Because both Emily and Emma have gotten engaged this summer, we thought we would list our top five favorite couples in books!

Want to play? Post your top five couples from books in your blog. You can also link back here and comment to get your link posted here.

Top Five Friday: Top Five Couples in Books.
Warning: Prepare for minor spoilers!

Emma's List
1. Lyra and Will from Phillip Pullman's Dark Materials. Really romantic, really tragic. I cried a lot. I don't want to spoil everything though!

2. Roland and Susan from Stephen King's Dark Tower. This series began and ended with the Susan storyline for me. Again, really freaking romantic and sad. The books after Wizard and Glass in the series are totally not worth reading, but that book was sort of amazing.

3. Jon and Ygritte from George RR Martin's Song of Ice and Fire. Ygritte was sort of an aggravating character, but Jon's love for her and how he handled the relationship was really compelling.

4. Sarene and Raoden from Brandon Sanderson's Elantris. The way these characters' relationship progressed was really great. I thought these two were some of Sanderson's stronger characters across any of his books thus far.

5. Irulan and Paul in Frank Herbert's Dune Series. OK, mostly just Irulan. She was really cool and her caring for Paul despite his actions was really powerful.

Emily's List
1. Beren and Luthien from various and sundry works by J.R.R. Tolkien. After Frodo, quite possibly the most significant characters in all of Tolkien's work. Not only is it a classic, tragic love story, it affects the history of all of Middle Earth thereafter.

2. Elizabeth and Darcy, from Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. Because no list of famous literary couples would be complete without them.

3. Lune and Michael Deven, from Marie Brennan's Midnight Never Come. Similar to Beren and Luthien, this is a love affair between an immortal woman and a mortal man. Unlike Luthien, Lune does not have the option of choosing death over an eternity without the man she loved. She has to go on living, with the hurt of her lover's death never really fading away.

4. Tag and Cy, from Gabriel King's The Wild Road. I love cats, and I love Tag and Cy. I guess it was never really explicitly stated that they were a couple, but it was sort of implied. Either way, I love these two cats individually and together! (I write this with a cat in my lap)

5. Edward Cullen and Bella Swan, from Stephenie Meyer's Twilight. Hahahaha you thought I was serious.

5. Remus Lupin and Nymphadora Tonks, from JK Rowling's Harry Potter series. Despite some questionable character behavior on Remus' part in HP7, I love Remus and Tonks together.

Top Five Friday: Books You Wish You Never Read

Copy code:

<a href="http://em-and-emm.blogspot.com"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSHmhavO02PqwqlWnt5Nt1DH-QUmXQwDjxN-HDTbEoxlJID4yfgJ1SXMqpzmjfOLdvt5s6De_Llj5m3zLvks9NwWftXWQ3R4Tt-C4LM8ZnVjTsVHRwjPoxFEtvha81AzNBil0wp_qZ9ff8/s400/Top+Five+Friday.jpg" alt="Top Five Friday" height="120" width="120" />

Some books have no redeeming qualities and are an utter waste of time. Others put ideas and images in your brain that you wish were not there. This week we are listing five books we wish we'd never read! Want to play? Post your top five books you wish you never read list in your blog! You can also link back here and comment to get your link posted here.

Top Five Friday: Top Five Books You Wish You Never Read

Emma's List:
1. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson. See review.

2. The Wizard's First Rule by Terry Goodkind. This book and its sequels are full of rip-offs of better stories, terrible writing, inane characters and way too much sexual violence. They are both a waste of time, and contain can't-unsee imagery.

3. Hitch 22 by Christopher Hitchens. I liked Hitchens just fine when I read his other books, now I sort of dislike him. This autobiography is boring, full of name dropping, and makes Hitchens appear to be an pompous asshole.

4. Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. See review.

5. Parable of the Talents by Octavia Butler. This book was recommended to me when I was complaining that I couldn't find fantasy or science fiction novels without egregious amounts of rape in them. Other than my friend who recommended it apparently, anyone who knows this series understands that the setting is all about egregious amounts of rape. I mostly didn't enjoy this book because of the brutality and sexual violence, but I also couldn't really get excited about the story in general. It didn't help that for whatever reason I accidentally started reading the second book of the series before the first. Meh. This book sticks in my brain like a virus and I wish it would go away.

Emily's List
1. Into the Wild, by Jon Krakauer. I don't care if some people think the book/movie were the BEST THING EVER, the fact remains that it's the true story of a kid who died because he was a dumb-ass. And since he died alone in the Alaskan wilderness because he knew absolutely nothing about wilderness survival, what do we do? We come up with a book and movie talking about how great this kid is. I have never seen the movie, but the whole time I read the book, I was mostly wanting to reach into the page and punch the kid for being stupid.

2. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. All those years and years and years of waiting, and that's the best JK Rowling could come up with?

3. Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston. Not that I had a choice about reading this, as it was assigned reading for my 10th grade accelerated English class. I just profoundly did not enjoy it, and having to do all of the related writing assignments didn't help.

4. Solitude, by Robert Kull. See review.

5. Empress, by Karen Miller. I'd heard good things about this author and series from authors I respect in the fantasy genre. Unfortunately, the plot is boring, and none of the characters are particularly people you want to care for. Just because you had an awful, awful childhood doesn't mean you can storm around and make everyone else suffer in terrible ways.

Top Five Friday: Underutilized Characters

Copy code:

<a href="http://em-and-emm.blogspot.com"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSHmhavO02PqwqlWnt5Nt1DH-QUmXQwDjxN-HDTbEoxlJID4yfgJ1SXMqpzmjfOLdvt5s6De_Llj5m3zLvks9NwWftXWQ3R4Tt-C4LM8ZnVjTsVHRwjPoxFEtvha81AzNBil0wp_qZ9ff8/s400/Top+Five+Friday.jpg" alt="Top Five Friday" height="120" width="120" />

Some authors write an amazing character and then completely neglect them. It's very upsetting. This week we are focusing on the top five characters underutilized by their authors. Want to play? Post your top five underutilized character list in your blog! You can also link back here and comment to get your link posted here.

Top Five Friday: Top Five Underutilized Characters:
Emily's List
1. Remus Lupin, from J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series. I seriously love Remus. I love the dichotomy presented in his character, between his kind, gentle nature and his werewolf nature (I refuse to consider that a spoiler. If you haven't read HP3 yet, you're never going to). After book 3, I thought he'd show up more, since he clearly cared for Harry's well being, but apart from really brief appearances in books 5 and 6, and some very lame appearances in book 7, he sort of vanished from the Harry Potter-verse. Very disappointing.

2. Christabel, from Tad Williams' Otherland quartet. The majority of this series takes place within a virtual world, which the characters have accessed by connecting their brains directly to the internet of the future. Christabel is one of the few important characters that we see only in the real world. We don't really learn much about her, as she's more of a plot device, but I would have liked to learn a bit more about her.

3. Any of the Saecular characters ("Extras") from Neal Stephenson's Anathem. I really, really enjoyed all of the characters who were from the maths in this book, but I would have liked to have known the extramuros characters just as much. It's clear that the mathic world is something of a mystery to the Extras, and most of the story is told from the mathic perspective. Also, I'd have liked to have learned more about Jules Verne Durand, though I can't explain why without giving away hugely important details about the ending.

4. Celeborn, from J.R.R. Tolkien's various writings on Middle Earth, most notably in The Silmarillion, The Fellowship of the Ring and The Return of the King. Poor Celeborn, always relegated to the backseat. His history is unclear... he just sort of popped up in time to marry Artanis, who he soon gave the name Galadriel. His most obvious importance is his role as Celebrian's father, and therefore Arwen's grandfather. Even in the movies, all he does is sort of hover behind his wife, making grim faces and talking realllllly slowly. However, I think it's important to note that he is, in many ways, an important foil to the character of Galadriel (and no one will dispute Galadriel's overall importance!). Especially in the context of his role as Lord of Lothlorien, he represents a very different sect of elvendom than most of the other prominent (Noldor) elves do. Not dependent on the rings, not someone who ever traveled to the Undying Lands and saw the light of the trees, he's very much an elf of Middle Earth, and I feel that deserves some attention, particularly in the events of The Lord of the Rings, when the time of the elves is coming to a close.

5. Death of Rats, from Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels. SQUEAK.

Emma's List
1. TenSoon from Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn series. I don't know what it was about this character, but his chapters were my favorite and I could not get enough of his sections. His entire race was probably the most interesting in the series and wasn't focused on as much as I would have liked. TenSoon particularly had interesting perspective and backstory. His relationship with Vin was my favorite part of the second book. Hey Sanderson, can you please write a Mistborn prequel about TenSoon?

2. Asha Greyjoy from George R.R. Martin's Song of Ice and Fire series. Honestly I could have chosen any number of characters from this series. All the characters are super interesting and complicated. Asha comes to mind because she is a badass and is probably doing all kinds of interesting things in the background while her brothers are being tools.

3. Jahar Narishma from Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series. He seems like a more complicated character than his screen time would suggest. I am holding out hope that he will have a major and awesome part to play in the final books!

4. Ciani from C.S. Friedman's Coldfire series. Ciani was really, really interesting at first. Then she needed to get all rescued and stuff and just got progressively weaker in character as the story went on. It could have been so different!

5. Talaan from Matthew Woodring Stover's Heroes Die. I have a big old soft spot in my heart for female warriors so Talaan naturally appealed to me. She was a fairly simple character, but it was really easy to enjoy her character and perspective. I wish she had gotten more screen time!

Top Five Friday: Top Five Authors Who Should Have Quit While They Were Ahead:

Copy code:

<a href="http://em-and-emm.blogspot.com"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSHmhavO02PqwqlWnt5Nt1DH-QUmXQwDjxN-HDTbEoxlJID4yfgJ1SXMqpzmjfOLdvt5s6De_Llj5m3zLvks9NwWftXWQ3R4Tt-C4LM8ZnVjTsVHRwjPoxFEtvha81AzNBil0wp_qZ9ff8/s400/Top+Five+Friday.jpg" alt="Top Five Friday" height="120" width="120" />

This week we are listing authors who continued to write their series long after they were interesting, or authors who just ran out of original ideas a loooong time ago. If you want to participate, grab the code above, write your top five authors who should have quit while they were ahead in your blog and comment here so I can post a link to your blog!

Top Five Friday: Top Five Authors Who Should Have Quit While They Were Ahead:

Emma's List
1. Orson Scott Card. Ender's Game was amazing. It truly is one of the most fascinating, original and important science fiction books ever. Definitely among the very most enjoyable to read. But the series degenerates. Fast and hard. He wrote way, way too many sequels and spin-offs. I am sure they are very profitable but he apparently ceased to have anything interesting to say other than what was in Ender's Game.

2. Frank Herbert. Dune was a very intense book with a fast plot and interesting characters. The same cannot be said for its sequels. Frank Herbert apparently outdid himself with Dune. The rest of the series is pretty... meh. I actually liked his son's prequel books quite a bit but it was a chore to get through the rest of the Dune books, and totally not worth it.

3. Stephen King. Certainly one of the most prolific authors of our time. I have found very few of his books to be worth reading, personally. The ones I enjoyed were the first four books of his Dark Tower series. I got very attached to the characters, the plot was interesting and using the term "lobstrosity" just warmed my heart. The last three books, however, were heinous. Really bad. I wish I had stopped with book four. The story quickly faded into page long descriptions of snot, (no, I did not make that up) self-insertion (not that either) and lack of coherency. Very disappointing.

4. Terry Goodkind. I just wish he had never started writing. His Sword of Truth series is the most violent crap I have ever read in my life. I think he may have missed his true calling as a serial killer and/or rapist based on the themes in his book.

5. Sue Grafton. I don't really mind her writing too much. Like many authors she repeats stuff. A lot. She has a theme, it works, she sticks to it. I read several when I was younger and then stopped at some point. Meh.



Emily's list. Spoilers in #2 and 4.

1. Frank Herbert, for basically the same reasons Emma listed, though I think reading up through God Emperor of Dune is still worthwhile.

2. Robert Jordan. I enjoyed the first four or so. I read up through book 8 or 9 or somewhere around there. I lost track because they all blurred together with hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of pages of people wandering around, Rand marrying way too many people, Perrin having a really awful wife, and Mat doing nothing but flirting with girls. Also, way too many descriptions of men staring at women's ankles. When the books are people wandering around for 600 pages and then there's a big battle and then we start all over again in the next book, I get bored. Now that Brandon Sanderson is writing them, I am slightly more interested but by this point I'd have to go re-read the whole series and get refreshed and caught up, and that just about kills my interest.

3. Douglas Adams. I loved the first two books, liked the third, and kind of wish I hadn't read the rest. Mostly Harmless was not a good read.

4. J.K. Rowling, for a few reasons: a) 7 books later, the biggest twist she could come up with was "Harry has to die"? b) nothing happened in book 7. c) That epilogue was awful. Awfulawfulawful.

5. Charlaine Harris. The last few books in the Southern Vampire series have not been all that good. Lots of random backstory, with the entire plot crammed into the last 50 pages. I still like (most) of the characters a lot, and I still want to know what happens to them, but the last few books have just been really weak on storyline.

Top Five Friday: Animal Characters

Copy code:

<a href="http://em-and-emm.blogspot.com"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSHmhavO02PqwqlWnt5Nt1DH-QUmXQwDjxN-HDTbEoxlJID4yfgJ1SXMqpzmjfOLdvt5s6De_Llj5m3zLvks9NwWftXWQ3R4Tt-C4LM8ZnVjTsVHRwjPoxFEtvha81AzNBil0wp_qZ9ff8/s400/Top+Five+Friday.jpg" alt="Top Five Friday" height="120" width="120" />

Top Five Friday: Top Five Animal Characters:

Emma's List
1. Blood from Harlan Ellison's A Boy and His Dog
Blood was freaking awesome. Sarcastic, moody, definitely the best part of a rather, uh, memorable story. Usually animals in people movies are portrayed as sort of goofy and silly, or at least friendly. This is not the case with Blood.

2. Mrs. Frisby from Robert C. O'Brien's The Rats of Nimh
Mrs. Frisby was such a badass! I think as a child she must have been one of the great female role models in books my mom read to me. She wasn't flashy or cutesy but she stopped at nothing to protect her family. She was courageous and selfless and everything small children should be reading about!

3. Koko from Lillian Jackson Braun's Cat Who... Series
I could not get enough of these books as a teenager! They were happy, fun mysterious which were generally solved by the cat Koko assisting his amateur detective human. Koko was an adorable spoiled cat. He didn't talk or whatever, but Braun definitely brought across his personality.

4. Pantalaimon from Phillip Pullman's Dark Materials Series
Pantalaimon was adorable. I wanted a daemon so much after reading these books! He had such a cute, fun personality. Very memorable.

5. Saphira in Christopher Paolini's Eragon
Sad but true. I really, really liked the book Eragon. I know I should be embarrassed. Saphira was a great character though. I thought she was really well developed, protective and sweet but with a great attitude.

Emily's List
1. Hazel from Richard Adams' Watership Down. I love Hazel. He's such a great leader, ad navigates his followers through so many potentially terrible situations. It's really easy to forget he's a rabbit!

2. Ishmael, from Daniel Quinn's Ishmael. Few authors can write a novel that consists entirely of conversations between a gorilla and a human. Even fewer authors can pull it off when the conversation material consists mostly of environmental spirituality. And of those authors, probably only Daniel Quinn would end up with a book that is sometimes considered to be one of the most important books of the last century.

3. The Sandworms of Frank Herbert's Dune saga. I love the (earlier) books of the Dune series because it represents what science fiction should be: entertaining stories with a real relevance to the real world underlying the plot. Dune was partially a commentary on environmental management and environmental stewardship: they need the sandworms to make the spice, which is crucial to civilization. At the same time, the type of habitat that the sandworms crave is really inhospitable for humans. How should they manage the planet? The sandworms represent something larger than just worms crawling through sand eating people, and if you read Dune without understanding what it is that they represent, then you missed one of the major points of Dune.

4. Captain Bluebear, from The 13 1/2 Lives of Captain Bluebear, by Walter Moers. Sometimes I really enjoy picking up a novel that feels like it could be a children's tale, but is, in actuality, a book for adults. This is one of those books, and I just love Captain Bluebear. The whole novel is told in first person, from Bluebear's perspective, and he is such a fun character to follow.

5. Hedwig and Pigwidgeon from J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter Series. What can I say, I love the owls. So sad when Hedwig died. (Sorry, was that a spoiler? Too bad. If you haven't read Harry Potter 7 by now, you probably never will)

Honorable Mention: Pantalaimon (and Kirjava) from Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials Series. Like Emma, I considered putting the daemons on my list, but eventually eliminated them because they are not true animals; rather, they are a physical manifestation of a human's soul.

Want to play? Post your list of five animal book characters in your blog, link back here, and comment so that I can add a link to your blog! Check back in a week for a new list.

Top Five Friday: Science Books

<a href="http://em-and-emm.blogspot.com/2010/07/top-five-friday-no-1.html"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSHmhavO02PqwqlWnt5Nt1DH-QUmXQwDjxN-HDTbEoxlJID4yfgJ1SXMqpzmjfOLdvt5s6De_Llj5m3zLvks9NwWftXWQ3R4Tt-C4LM8ZnVjTsVHRwjPoxFEtvha81AzNBil0wp_qZ9ff8/s400/Top+Five+Friday.jpg" alt="Top Five Friday" height="120" width="120" />

Top Five Friday: Top Five Books Related to Science:

Emma's List
1. The Ancestor's Tale by Richard Dawkins
This book is one of my favorites ever. I LOVE reading about evolutionary biology, and this book is fascinating. Dawkins describes anecdotes related to biology and evolution in a remarkably entertaining way. He focuses on the really cool bits and misunderstood aspects. You don't need a foundation in biology to enjoy this book, I sure don't have one!

2. Freakanomics and SuperFreakanomics by Steven Levitt & Stephen Dubner
Economics: the dismal science! It's not so dismal or boring in these books. Levitt and Dubner strive to eliminate boring graphs and all that and make the application of economic thought really fun and interesting.

3. The Origin of the Species by Charles Darwin
When I finally got around to reading this book I thought it would be sort of boring and dry, but it wasn't! It was actually beautifully written in addition to being one of the most important books ever written.

4. The Demon Haunted World by Carl Sagan
This book is all about how awesome science is in comparison to superstition. Sort of preaching to the choir in my case, but still really thought-provoking and a fun read.

5. Last Chance to See by Douglas Adams
Yes, the man who brought us the Hitchhikers' Guide to the Galaxy provided us with non fiction as well. Which he still manages to write hilariously. The book is short, funny, and illustrated with photographs but is still a very moving account of some of the planet's most endangered species. I especially enjoyed the kakapo section, they sound adorable.

Emily's List (using a loose definition of science, since most of what I read every day is academic science)
1. The Omnivore's Dilemma, by Michael Pollan. If you haven't read this book... seriously, where in the world have you been? If you eat, then you should read this book. By which I mean, everyone should read this book. You're putting it in your body, fueling your life... shouldn't you be able to identify what the food is, where it came from? I cannot emphasize the significance of food consciousness too much.

2. Snowball Earth, by Gabrielle Walker. Everyone loves the story of a maverick scientist! Seriously cool stuff here, a theory about climate feedback cycles leading to an Earth of the past, consisting of ice and snow. Kind of like the movie The Day After Tomorrow, except not preposterous and no Jake Gyllenhaal. I read this right before going into college, and reread it after finishing my Earth and Planetary Sciences degree. Fun read!

3. Arctic Dreams, by Barry Lopez. Considered to be one of the most significant writers in environmentalism, Lopez's book is a blend of biology/ecology, anthropology, and the significance of human interaction with the very fragile ecosystem that is the Arctic. His writing is beautiful. I'm overdue for a reread of this.

4. Hack the Planet, by Eli Kintisch. See review.

5. Krakatoa, by Simon Winchester. An engaging, detailed, written-for-the-general-public history of a significant volcanic eruption, linking the volcanic eruption to tsunamis, climate effects, and the religious politics between Muslims and Christians in the late 19th century.

*Emily's list is subject to change, as she is currently reading some very good science books, including two Pulitzer Prize-winning works.

Want to play? Post your list of five science related books in your blog, link back here, and comment so that I can add a link to your blog! Check back in a week for a new list.

Top Five Friday No. 1

I thought I would start making lists of book-related things because one entry per book Emily and I manage to read is just not creating enough content!

<a href="http://em-and-emm.blogspot.com/2010/07/top-five-friday-no-1.html"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSHmhavO02PqwqlWnt5Nt1DH-QUmXQwDjxN-HDTbEoxlJID4yfgJ1SXMqpzmjfOLdvt5s6De_Llj5m3zLvks9NwWftXWQ3R4Tt-C4LM8ZnVjTsVHRwjPoxFEtvha81AzNBil0wp_qZ9ff8/s400/Top+Five+Friday.jpg" alt="Top Five Friday" height="120" width="120" />

Top Five Friday: Top Five Female Protagonists in Books:

1. Arya from George RR Martin's Song of Ice and Fire
2. Min from Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time
3. Barra from Matthew Woodring Stover's Iron Dawn
4. Ludmila Gorbunova from Harry Turtledove's Worldwar
5. Jamisia from CS Friedman's This Alien Shore

Want to play? Post your list of five female protagonists in your blog, link back here, and comment so that I can add a link to your blog! Check back in a week for a new list.

Book Blogger Hop

RIGHT THIS INSTANT, WHAT BOOK ARE YOU DYING TO GET YOUR HANDS ON (PAST, PRESENT, OR FUTURE)?

Right now I really want The Erciyes Fragments by CS Friedman. She is one of my favorite authors (review to follow soon!) and I cannot find this book anywhere. It's related to a role-playing game and sounds really interesting!