Book Blogger Hop: Books into Movies

It's been ages since I've participated in the Book Blogger Hop, the blogosphere's biggest and brightest BOOK   PARTY!  The Book Blogger Hop is a weekly event for bloggers and readers, an opportunity to connect with other book lovers, make new friends and followers, and share a genuine appreciation of books. Hosted by Jennifer from  Crazy-for-Books, this Hop runs from August 31 - Sept 6.  During the Hop, we're usually asked a question pertaining to books. This week's question is: What is the one book or series you are dying to see turned into a movie or TV series?

That's a tough question!  Some of the books I've read and reviewed within the past few years have been made into movies, such as Shanghai Girls by bestselling author Lisa See, and Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford (now in production or pre-production, I think).  As I read I often imagine the book turned into a movie or TV series. It's hard to choose just one, so I will bend the rules a tad and choose a few books I've read recently that I think would make great movies, and one book series that I believe would be quite entertaining as a TV series.

The Iguana Tree by Michel Stone, The Lotus Eaters by Tatjana Soli, and Dancing with Gravity by Anene Tressler would make remarkable movies.  I read (and reviewed) them recently and they're still quite fresh in my mind; I can definitely picture them as movies.  Another book that comes to mind is Creating an Orange Utopia by Patricia Ortlieb and Peter Economy.  This would make a wonderful historical movie.  As I've mentioned before, I can see Meryl Streep playing the lead, pioneer Eliza Tibbets, and even directing the film.  As for a TV series, I would love to see the four-book series, The Adventures of John and Julia Evans by Linda Weaver Clarke, made into a mini-series for TV.  Her cozy mysteries are exciting, and would translate into an engaging TV series.

Thanks for visiting!  If you'd like to enter my giveaway for The Color of Tea,  please do so by September 3.  If you'd like me to "hop by" your blog,  please leave me a comment.

Saturday Snapshot: Patricia and Meryl Streep

I would be remiss if I didn't follow up my previous post about the book Creating an Orange Utopia: Eliza Lovell Tibbets and the Birth of California's Citrus Industry by Patricia Ortlieb and Peter Economy, published in September 2011.  Patricia, my step mother-in-law, went to Washington, D.C. late last year for the de Pizan Honors event at the National Women's History Museum, and met actress Meryl Streep.  After talking to her, Patricia (resplendent in her orange-colored scarf), presented the actress with a copy of her book.  My imagination went into overdrive as soon as I saw this photo.  I could easily imagine Creating an Orange Utopia as a movie,  in which Meryl Streep would play the woman who first introduced the navel orange tree to Riverside,  spawning Southern California's lucrative citrus industry, Eliza Lovell Tibbets.  Perhaps Meryl Streep--or some other gutsy woman--could also help direct the film.  Eliza Tibbets was also an active abolitionist, spiritualist, and suffragist. We need to hear more stories about women pioneers who made important contributions!  This would be an opportunity for film makers to depict the story of a daring visionary who changed the course of Southern California's history, transforming it into a very wealthy place.  It seems ripe with possibilities to me.

Saturday Snapshot is hosted by Alyce from  At Home With Books. This is the first time I'm posting a photo for this meme.

Really Random Tuesday #36: A Book Winner and a Pretty Dwarf

Please congratulate Diane from Bibliophile By the Sea, the randomly chosen winner of Creating an Orange Utopia by Patricia Ortlieb and Peter Economy. Thanks to all who entered the giveaway, and special thanks to everyone who helped publicize this giveaway. If you didn't win this book, which tells the story of Eliza Lovell Tibbets, please take a look at the others I have listed on the right side of my blog, and stay tuned for more giveaways to be featured in the near future.




In honor of Eliza Tibbets, and in celebration of Patricia's birthday, I recently planted a dwarf navel orange tree on our property. This is our first navel orange tree, and I've named her Eliza in honor of this pioneer, who changed the course of history in Southern California. With any luck, Eliza will bear fruit within a few years.

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In the book department, I've been busy reading lately, instead of posting on my blog. (Some of you book bloggers are incredible; you read an enormous amount of books and manage to post quite frequently!) I've just finished two terrific books, A Small Fortune by Audrey Braun, and Carry Yourself Back to Me by Deborah Reed. I'll be posting an interview with the author (yes, she is one person!) as well as a special giveaway for both books this Friday, September 30. Currently, I'm savoring a little gem of a book, Don'ts for Wives by Blanche Ebbutt, published in 1913, which I learned about on Petty's blog, Pen and Paper. My nightly reading has been a soothing antidote to the stress of my days. The bookmark featured in the photo is a handmade creation from BookQuoter. :)

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Appearing on random Tuesdays, Really Random Tuesday is a way to post odds and ends--announcements, musings, quotes, photos--any blogging and book-related things you can think of. If you're inspired by this idea, feel free to copy the button and use it on your own blog. For other recent Really Random Tuesday posts, please visit Naida's blog, the bookworm, and Avis' blog, she reads and reads. Please leave a link in the comments if you’re participating and I'll add it to this post.

As always, thanks for reading!

Creating an Orange Utopia: Review and Giveaway

If you savor the sweetness of California navel oranges (look Ma, no seeds!), you have Eliza Lovell Tibbets to thank.

Eliza who?

A casual conversation with her granddaughter, Eleanor, led Patricia Ortlieb (my lovely stepmother-in-law) on a quest that would change her life in a profound way, and which should also change the presentation of California history. While working on a fourth-grade project, Eleanor asked Patricia about Eliza Lovell Tibbets' role in CA history, and Patricia started researching the life of her great-great grandmother with a new zeal and purpose. Eleanor's inquiry led to this highly-readable, informative book, and with the help of writer Peter Economy, Patricia became the author of Creating an Orange Utopia: Eliza Lovell Tibbets and the Birth of California's Citrus Industry, published in September of 2011.

Well-written and thoroughly researched (Patricia visited many of the places where Eliza had lived, and uncovered numerous official records and documents, as well as personal correspondence), this is a wonderful book for students and others interested in learning about the beginnings of the citrus industry in Riverside, CA, and about a great woman who was an ardent American Spiritualist and abolitionist. Creating an Orange Utopia pays tribute to a very important person in California history, especially with regard to Riverside and surrounding areas, Eliza Tibbets (1825 - 1898).

In 1873, Eliza Tibbets brought the first seedless navel orange trees, originally from Bahia, Brazil to Riverside, CA, and fostered the beginning of California's citrus industry. Given two young saplings from a friend at the United States Department of Agriculture, Eliza cared for the trees, watering them with leftover dishwater, as irrigation was not yet available. From this very humble, uncertain beginning, the trees flourished, the citrus industry grew tremendously, and soon Eliza became known as "the mother" of this industry.

"Once the navel orange was introduced to Riverside, the acreage devoted to the fruit expanded rapidly. In 1880, Tom Cover alone reported having budded seven hundred trees to the navel orange. Between 1880 and 1893, California's acreage devoted to navel orange production exploded from three thousand to more than forty thousand acres. "
~Creating an Orange Utopia, Patricia Ortlieb and Peter Economy

Patricia took on the task of researching Eliza's life in depth--I appreciate all the years of hard work and research that went into Creating and Orange Utopia--and the result is a book that's educational and a pleasure to read. What makes the book especially involving and intelligent are the bits of personal correspondence woven seamlessly into the book. It's difficult to ascertain events from the past, but through the use of letters and records the authors do a terrific job, and I was able to get a good sense of this pioneer. (I'd love to see a movie made about her life, using this book as a basis.) The book also includes some black and white photos of Eliza and family members.

It's time that Eliza Tibbets is recognized for her great contribution to CA history (women are so often overlooked or ignored altogether in history; we are not seen as contributing in any real sense; we are not explorers nor inventors nor conquerors nor kings). But, in the case of Eliza Tibbets, due to her desire to find a marketable crop for her family and Riverside, due to her vision and diligence, and due also to her "feminine" ability to nurture living things--in this case little tree saplings--she altered the course of history in a positive and lucrative manner. Navel oranges brought great wealth to Riverside, and the citrus industry expanded into new towns such as Redlands, Tustin, Corona, and Pomona, dramatically changing the landscape and the course of CA history. Creating an Orange Utopia is the first book I know of about the life of Eliza Tibbets, and I'm thrilled to offer a copy of this book as a giveaway at the conclusion of this post.

In addition to writing this book, Patricia has also highlighted the contribution of Eliza Tibbets in other ways.

Patricia is a talented artist. Here, she's pictured with the giant orange she painted to commemorate her great-great grandmother, called Eliza's Journey. This brilliantly-colored orange was part of a larger exhibition in 2006 of 32 oranges painted by various artists, and is on permanent display outside of the Riverside Metropolitan Museum in Southern CA.

Patricia helped bring an 11-foot bronze statue of Eliza Tibbets, Sower's Dream by artist Guy Angelo Wilson, to downtown Riverside, near to the elegant and historic Mission Inn in August 2011, the first public sculpture honoring a woman in Riverside.

In celebration of Eliza Tibbets and the publication of Creating an Orange Utopia, I'm having a giveaway for a copy of this book to a reader (U.S./Canada only).

• To enter this giveaway, simply leave a comment.
• For another chance at winning, become a follower of this blog, or let me know that you're already a follower, or that you subscribe in Google Reader.
• For an additional chance, post about this contest on your blog, Facebook, or Twitter.

Enter by 5PM PDT on Monday, September 26. One winner will be randomly chosen and announced on Tuesday, September 27. Good luck, and thanks for reading!