Just starting to read this one.

Release planned for Thursday, August 26, 2004 at The Post Office in Sunnyvale, California USA.

Sending to fellow bookcrosser, book accepted off of bookrelay.com.

I'm looking forward to reading this one. Thank you!!!

I have finally finished this book! It started off pretty slow but I really began to care about the characters, imperfect though they were, about midway through the book.

I am making this book available for release or trade.

I've decided to make this book available in a bookring, combined with the Academy Award-nominated DVD. PM me if interested.

This book is now in a bookring
A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley
This book will ship out with the DVD, so participants can read the book and then watch the movie.
Here's who we have so far:
brooklinbrat
Bestaunt (US only) **skipped -- did not respond to PMs**
MollyGrue <--received 8-13-05
Antof9
PM me if you'd like to be included! Please include your shipping preference.

Came late last week - sorry for the delay in journalling its arrival..It's been a bit crazy 'round here lately. I'll get to this one as soon as possible - I noticed that you'd like to keep it moving within two weeks, so I may end up passing it on unread, the way things are shaping up! But I'll do my best.

Good gravy! I have had this book for ages, and read it a while ago, then watched the DVD. Can't believe I didn't journal my opinion, since I loved them both! The book was well-written, and the movie stayed very true to the book, which you don't often see.

I've been waiting for bestaunt's address for a while now - if I should skip her and ask for Mollygrue's, please let me know. I've got it in reserved status till I find out where it should go next.

Thanks for including me in this bookring!

Feeling guilty about having this so long, I PMd MollyGrue for her address, and will mail it at the beginning of the week. I also emailed beckerbuns to have her move bestaunt down the list. Perhaps by the time a couple more people have had this, bestaunt will be back in touch. I'd hate for her to miss this. It's SUCH a good book!

Mailed to MollyGrue 08/04/05

Received this today. I feel a bit weird about this ring as I had released another copy of this book because I didn't think I would ever read it. Just goes to show, right? ;)

Will try to get this watched & read & off to Ant in a couple weeks. Thanks!

I read this a while ago, but didn't watch the movie until recently. My husband helped me watch the movie ;) and agreed that while Colin Firth was very cute and Michelle Pfiffer was still talented, you really didn't get what was going on in the movie without having read the book.

The book was for me very slow and I thought Ginny was far too passive. It just took too long to get going for me. I think I was right to bookcross this originally.

Arrived today! WOO HOO! I'd actually forgotten about this one, and am so excited to read and watch it. I remember seeing the previews of the movie, thinking it was one I had to see. I added it to my "list", but still haven't seen it. Now I get the best of both worlds :)

Thanks, Beck (and Molly too)! I'll do my best to get this done in 2 weeks. But I have to warn you -- I've been collecting books for an m-bag for New Zealand, and I keep finding books I want to read before sending to NZ! My cutoff is November 12, so any of the 6 that are currently in the pile and unread by then have to go, but I'm really trying to read them all!

I'll hurry, though :)

(pictured is "Aspen turning" -- this is how it looks here this time of year!)

finished tonight, and then watched on TiVo: Alias, Joey and The Apprentice finale. Real journal entry later :)

Update Jan 7, 2006:

Well, I've processed the book a bit, and I also watched the DVD on Wednesday when Unk was out of town. I'm still trying to decide if I'd say I "liked" it or not. I guess I did like it, but I didn't love it. It was interesting to me that while reading the book, I could kind of picture some of the beautiful cinematography that the movie captured. That doesn't usually happen for me :) I was also somewhat distracted by the fact that I knew the two women who were in the movie. So although I didn't know which was played by whom, I kept picturing one or the other of their faces while I was reading.

I think the reason I don't love this book is that there's not a lot of hope in it. It's incredibly well-written, mostly believable and wholly authentic, but it's also very sad. I felt sorry, really, for almost all of the characters by the end.

One passage I enjoyed was about "being an aunt" -- surprise, surprise!

Pammy came up to the table next to me, and I put my arm around her waist. She said, "Can I make some popcorn?"

I said, "Sure."

She said, "Will you help me?" She knew one of the great family truths, that aunts always help, while moms always think it would be good for you if you did it yourself.

I did like her relationship with Pammy and Linda, but I was also sad about Rose's relationship with them. The whole thing was very odd, and of course Jess asking about the well water just compounded how I felt about it.

Re: the movie -- I remember thinking while I was reading the book that there was no way the movie could accurately represent it all -- there was too much! And I think I was right. While I was watching it, I was thinking that I wouldn't understand it at all if I hadn't read the book.

Two things of note from the movie -- that I don't remember from the book but may have been in it -- at one point, the narrator says "the death of a parent is the one misfortune for which there is no compensation". As someone who lost a parent, I couldn't agree more. I thought that was so profound. And then at the very end, the thing that (I think) made me like the movie more than the book, she said this about Rose's girls -- "they have something Rose and I never had -- hope."

Thanks for sharing the book and the movie! It's a movie I wanted to see ever since I saw the first preview and didn't know it was a book first :) I'll think about where I'm releasing the book -- let's hope it travels far!

Edited to add that the picture I've used is one of my dad, a man loved by all children. He died in December of 1998, and I still miss him.