That movie is currently at #11 in my Netflix queue. 
I’m looking forward to it.
In your opinion, does it matter whether I watch the movie first?
That’s a good question. I don’t think so - the screenplay is very good, Penn and Robbins are worthy of their Oscars, etc. The biggest “missing” part is the psychological subtext Lehane goes into at times, but having read the novel first, it’s hard for me to say if someone who hasn’t will be able to appreciate as much about that aspect of the film. I think Robbins especially did exceptionally well with it, but then I knew what he was supposed to be thinking in certain scenes from having read the novel (and I read it just a few days before I saw the film, so it was still fresh in my mind).
Probably the biggest gap in the screenplay adaptation was the loss of some more of the detail in the respective family lives of Jimmy, Dave, and Sean. The wives especially come across much more vividly in the novel (well, Jimmy’s and Dave’s do), although there is a powerful scene with Jimmy and his wife (yet another great perfomrance in this film, this one from Laura Linney) late in the film that is taken almost word-for-word from the novel.
At worst, I’d guess your appreciation of the story will be improved by reading the novel later, but the film does capture the spirit of the novel very well.
I’ve been on a Kurt Vonnegut kick - have read through Palm Sunday: An Autobiographical Collage, Bagombo Snuff Box: Uncollected Short Fictions and Conversations With Kurt Vonnegut - ed William R. Allen. Am trying to decide which of his novels to dive into next. Any suggestions? (I’ve read Cat’s Cradle fairly recently - so that’s out)
Also read:
Only You Can Save Mankind by Terry Pratchett – a bit more serious than I thought it would be.
Fluke: Or, I Know Why the Winged Whale Sings - Christopher Moore – a good companion to Lamb and a fun read!
Currently reading the 35th anniversary edition of Dangerous Visions ed. Harlan Ellison. A remarkable collection of spec-fic that challenged the taboos of the time.
Politzania’s mention of a collection reminded me to recommend The Dark Descent, an anthology wherein “editor David G. Hartwell traces the complex history of horror in literature back to the earliest short stories” (from the book description).
My reading of this collection has been ‘in-progress’ for quite a while, because I keep putting it aside in order to read other books (it’s also kind of big, and cumbersome for reading in bed – where most of my reading gets done). Every now and then, though, I’ll pick it up and read a story or two, and I think I’m about halfway through the anthology. What a great, great collection for horror lovers…even for just horror likers!
Yeah, I’ve got that one. It’s a good one.
Last week I read Savage Girls and Wild Boys: A History of Feral Children by Michael Newton
Over the weekend Every Second Counts by Lance Armstrong.
I just finished Bleachers, by John Grisham. It was terriffic! It’s so masterfully written that it sucked me in from the very beginning, even though I’m not a football fan. Grisham just gets better and better.
I just started Sue Grafton’s ‘A’ Is For Alabi. I’ve never read Grafton before, but I expect I’ll be cruising the alphabet with her now. She has a crisp, straightforward style that carries me right along. Good writer.
I just finished Teachign on Poverty Rock - a very short story of a teacher from Ohio who moves to the Serattle Area to teach elementary school at one of the most affluent suburbs and all of the parents he has to deal with. It was a minor controversey here becayuse he used real situations and real people but changed everyone’s name (but his).
I think at one point the school was going to fire him. Not sure what ended up coming of it.
Now i’m reading Curses, Broiled Again - A collection of various Urban Legends and their debunkings.
Her first books were really good, but the last few just aren’t quite up to snuff.
If you like Grafton, you should also read the Janet Evanovich books - they start with One For The Money, continue with Two For The Dough, Three To Get Deadly and so on. Her latest is Ten Big Ones. Very, very funny. I’m talking laugh-out-loud funny.
I used to think I wanted to be Kinsey Millhone when I grew up, but now I want to be Stephanie Plum. 
The Winter Queen by boris Akunin is the first of a nine volume Russian mystery series to be published in the U.S. It was a good summer read, though it shouldn’t have the ending caught me by surprise.
Then I read The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton. I’d read it years ago but the book group was reading it and I wanted it to be fresh. I had forgotten the sentimental feeling of the ending.
Most recently, In Albert’s Shadow: The Life and Letters of Mileva Maric’, Einstein’s First Wife. edited by Milan Popovic. A collection of 65 letters she sent to her dear friend Helen Savic, with a few notes from Albert included as well. The editor includes a brief biographical essay as well. This is not a terribly thorough biographical work. The letters do provide some insight into their relationship and how happy she was at first and how heartbroken later. However you don’t learn much about what a promising physicist she was. It’s a fairly quick read.
I finished *A Is For Alabi * last night (this morning, actually) and intend to crack B Is For Burglar tonite. I think I’ll stick with Grafton for a while.