The strange power of Emma Watson

When The Circle by Dave Eggers was first released I was mildly intrigued by the hype and glowing reviews but opted not to read it for a couple of reasons. I thought A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, his Pulitzer Prize finalist debut, was staggeringly overrated. And frankly, the subject matter of The Circle totally freaks me out. What I gather from the blurb and reviews is that the book is about a young woman who lands her dream job at a google-like company where sharing on social media is a requirement and then things get all out of hand and scary. Or something like that. I happen to find social media more than a little alarming so I decided not to read The Circle because I was afraid it would scare the bejesus out of me way more than any book in the actual horror genre could. (Yes, I am well aware that I am sharing my fear of internet sharing through a blog on the internet for the entire world to see, but I figure my only readers at this point are my husband and some lady in Delaware who stumbled across this while looking for gardening sites. And for the record, I am not on twitter, instagram or snap chat--whatever that is--and I pretty much only use Facebook to post pictures of my baby. BECAUSE HE'S ADORABLE. Incidentally, Ray Bradbury totally nailed society's current obsession with social media and pacifier technology in his short story "The Murderer." In 1953. The man was a prophet! Well, maybe not about that robot grandmother thing.)

So, yes, all that. But now I have to read The Circle because I just found out that Emma Watson has been cast in the lead role. And in Emma I trust (The Bling Ring notwithstanding). After all, Emma Watson was Hermione freaking Granger. And she was in one of my four favorite movies of the past three years, The Perks of Being a Wallflower (the other three being Pitch Perfect, About Time and The Way, Way Back). She was the best thing about This Is the End. I am peeing my pants excited for her turn as Belle in the upcoming live action Beauty and the Beast, my favorite Disney movie, though I have to admit that Stitch takes favorite character honors. (My husband is excited to see Luke Evans as his hero Gaston*, but I'm not quite convinced there's no one as burly or brawny. And there may actually be bits of him that are scraggly and scrawny. I'll reserve judgment until I see the movie. That whole cast is pretty incredible, actually. Ian McKellen as Cogsworth! Emma Thompson--another amazing Emma--as Mrs. Potts!)  In my eyes, Hermione Emma Watson can do no wrong. Well, not even Emma Watson could make me sit through Noah, but I'm sure she was fantastic in it. And she can rock a pixie cut in ways I can only dream about.

If The Circle is good enough for Emma Watson, then it's good enough for me. Onto the To Read list it goes. I've also been meaning to read the Queen of the Tearling books by Erika Johansen which Emma's not only supposed to star in, but produce as well. This hasn't popped up on her IMDb page yet so who knows if the movies will actually get made. Iffy reviews on amazon had slackened my Queen of the Tearling interest, but my sister just read the first one and liked it so I'll probably get around to it one of these days. And I should never have let amazon trolls make me doubt Emma Watson.

I could mention that two people, an old boss and my niece, have told me that I look like Emma Watson but that would turn this nice post from a genuine, well-balanced fan into something creepy and weird, if for no other reason than I'm way older than her (not helping my case). Besides, I don't see the resemblance. Nor do I see a resemblance between myself and Claire Danes, but I used to get that ALL THE TIME.

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