I can't stand the suspense

Lee Child, British thriller
 writer accepting
 Barry Award.
(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

You might think I've been goofing off, since I haven't posted in a while, but you would be wrong.  I turned my paper in on time (even remembered to upload it to Blackboard), but I forgot to post during that time.  Sue me.  Anyway, after my second class I asked the prof if I could write about other things I was reading, and she said that was fine, even though it probably wouldn't help with my other projects.   So that's what I'm doing today, but I'm going to split it up into several posts.  
I've been reading one of Lee Child's Jack Reacher books, Make Me, which is going really fast.  He always makes you wait to find out what's really going on, almost until you can't stand it (when I tell you that I even missed a couple of events on Marvel Puzzle Quest--without noticing!-- because I was reading, you can see how compelling it is), and I haven't been able to stop until now.  In fact, I only stopped because my hand cramped up from holding the Nook; I think I was gripping too hard, most likely from the suspense.
continued in next post

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Say It Ain't So! Not Tom Cruise as Reacher!

Lee Child interview #04 (Photo credit: Fenris Oswin)

When I was in high school, one of my teachers mentioned Lee Child's Jack Reacher books during a class (I forget what he was actually talking about), and he did such a sales job that I went to the library and picked one up.  I was immediately hooked and read all of them over the next couple of months.  All of the covers say that the screen rights of all of the books have been sold, and I've been wondering how they could make a movie of any of them, since so much of them is what goes on in Reacher's head (he doesn't talk much).  And, then too, who could they cast?  He describes himself as "a gorilla," and a lot of what he does is intimidating bad guys just by his appearance as a huge, homely/scary-looking, unsmiling man (who is strangely attractive to women).  I always pictured him as a way-oversized version of Daniel Craig.

So, you can see why I'm so disgusted by Tom Cruise in the role, right?  You have a character who's really big, doesn't smile, doesn't talk, is supremely logical and self-deprecating, AND YOU CAST "Tiny" TOM CRUISE?  A guy who has got to be the smuggest, talkiest, smiliest, most gullible, illogical actor ever -- and that's both in his public persona and his performances.  I can't stand it.  I'll stick to the books, and it looks like I'm not alone (see the articles below).  One more thought:  Nobody ever calls him Jack, just Reacher (even his own mother!).  So why did the filmmakers, instead of using the title of the book, go with Jack Reacher for the title of the film?  Did any of them read the books?

4 more to go (and, yeah, I'm reading the assigned stuff.  It just isn't doing anything for me that I want to write about.  I checked with the prof, and it's okay.  So there.).

Related articles

• 'Jack Reacher' Featurette: Tom Cruise Gets Author Lee Child's Seal of Approval (screencrave.com)
• Character Assassination: Tom Cruise as Jack Reacher. (authorsofmainstreet.wordpress.com)
• Tom Cruise too short and clean-cut for tough guy giant in Jack Reacher, say fans (telegraph.co.uk)