Brideshead Revisited

This book was not bad; easy-to-read, decent plotline, strong characters. I understood it was about religion, and Catholicism, though I was not quite sure what it was trying to say. I was surprised I liked the movie as much as I did. It didn't hurt that Charles was hot-hot-hot. The basic idea and plot points were written in to the movie. But there were several large changes. The implied homosexuality in the book was blatant in the movie, in particular when it came to Sebastian. The scene where Charles "buys" Julia is completely fabricated. Charles was interested in Julia the moment he saw her, where in the book, the attraction comes years later. Charles walking into the "light" at the end was also added, but it was a nice touch. I suppose he finally found God.

The Wind In The Willows

I read this book aloud to Megan. It was way over her head; some of the words and descriptions were over my head. But we got the general idea, even if some fo the details were lost to us. Maybe it's because the book was written so long ago.

We watched a 25-min Disney interpretation. It focussed on Toad as the main character, and showed most of his exploits without much modification. The actual plot of the book was easy to narrow down to 25 minutes. They even added in an action scene where the weasels and the main characters were chasing around the deed to Toad Hall.

Atonement

This book was only so-so. The movie was slightly better. The movie was a faithful adaptation until the very end. The book's effective Afterword has the author telling us that "maybe" she changed some details in order to give the lovers a happy ending.

In the movie, the author flat-out informs us that both her sister and Robbie did, in fact, die during the war, and were never able to enjoy their love.

While much sadder, this makes for a more fulfilling ending - no ambiguity.