Daily Archives: March 21, 2012

A Year in Books/Day 80: An Encyclopedia of British Women Writers

Posted on by
Reply
  • Title: An Encyclopedia of British Women Writers Revised and Expanded Edition
  • Editors: Paul Schlueter and June Schlueter
  • Year Published: First Edition/1988; This Edition/1998 (Rutgers University Press)
  • Year Purchased: Early 2000s
  • Source: Unknown
  • About: From Eliza Acton to E.H. Young, every British woman writer of note, ever, is discussed here; comes complete with important life dates. It’s a rich source for many little-known wordsmiths.
  • Motivation: I write a lot about female writers. I’ve seriously dedicated tens of thousands of words to the ladies who came before me. They remain a huge source of personal inspiration. I bought this book to use as a reference tool.
  • Times Read: Cover-to-cover/1; As reference tool/countless.
  • Random Excerpt/Page 57: “B. (Hester Biddle) published nothing after 1662, although she was still an active speaker. Records show that in 1664 she was seized, punched, and imprisoned at Bridewell. And the following year she was sent to Newgate Prison for speaking in the street. She also had three sons between 1663 and 1668. Few details of her later life remain, although in 1694, only two years before her death, she visited France in order to meet King Louis XIV and plead for peace.”
  • Happiness Scale: 10

Creativity and the Macabre: Forever is Composed of Nows

Posted on by
2

Ideas often come alive for me at strange or inconvenient moments. After the ever-trusty shower, I usually feel the most open to creativity when I am…….

walking amongst graves. My husband and I are lucky to live a few minutes from the second largest cemetery in the United States. Established in 1845, it is equally an arboretum, with 15 lakes, trees, flowers and wildlife set within what, at times, looks like traditional parkland. Continue reading →

A Year in Books/Day 79: Royal Panoply

Posted on by
Reply
  • Title: Royal Panoply Brief Lives of The English Monarchs
  • Author: Carolly Erickson
  • Year Published: 2003 (History Book Club)
  • Year Purchased: 2003-2005
  • Source: History Book Club
  • About: This handsome, heavily illustrated volume covers the English Monarchs from William I to Elizabeth II. Each ruler is given a short biography, usually consisting of a few pages. Although concise, the portraits are rich in detail and the historic context flows perfectly from one subject to the next.
  • Motivation: I actually know English history better than American (which I know pretty damn well, thank you very much). I’m just a gargantuan history nut in a teensy package. Plus, I love the intellectual order provided by such compilations.
  • Times Read: 1
  • Random Excerpt/Page 69: “When the nine-year-old King Henry III was crowned in October of 1216, hastily and with minimal ceremony, in a makeshift ritual at Gloucester Cathedral, the realm was in peril. The oppressive and divisive reign of Henry’s father, King John, had ended in disaster, the crown jewels were lost in the quicksands of the Ouse, and a foreign invader, the French dauphin Louis, had established himself in London.”
  • Happiness Scale: 10
    Henry III of England Česky: Jindřich III. Plan...

    Henry III of England Česky: Jindřich III. Plantagenet (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

     

A Year in Books/Day 78: Hollywood Glamor Portraits

Posted on by
1
  • Title: Hollywood Glamor Portraits 145 Photos of Stars 1926-1949
  • Editor: John Kobal
  • Year Published: 1976 (Dover Publications, Inc., New York)
  • Year Purchased: 1990’s
  • Source: Unknown
  • About: The front cover boasts the timeless beauty of Louise Brooks; the back cover features the lovely, glamorous Carole Lombard. Everything in-between is equally stunning: two decades of Hollywood’s greatest stars as shot by movieland’s best photographers are sumptuously laid out, one per page. It has certainly lived up to the publisher’s promise: A DOVER EDITION DESIGNED FOR YEARS OF USE!
  • Motivation: I’m human-I enjoy looking at beautiful people wearing beautiful clothes whilst striking interesting poses. The work gracing the pages of modern-day ‘Vogue’ and ‘Harper’s BAZAAR’ usually bores me to tears. My solution is to step back in time! The re-touching done by photographers during Hollywood’s Golden Age, although ubiquitous, was much more subtle (if highly glossy and stylized) than the current mania for out-of-control Photoshopping that results in mangled limbs and plastic visages. Also, please see: John Gilbert! Ronald Colman! Buster Keaton! Frances Farmer! Myrna Loy! Rita Hayworth! Gloria Swanson! Clara Bow! Nancy freaking Carroll!
  • Times Read: Multiple
  • Random Excerpt/Page xi: “I was taking pictures at ten on my father’s ranch-from the saddle. In 1916, when I was sixteen, a company came to film ‘The Sunset Princess’ on the ranch and all I did was get in the cameraman’s hair from morning to night. The very next year, I was in Hollywood with Billy Beckay, learning.” -Bob Coburn (RKO; UA; COLUMBIA)
  • Happiness Scale: 10+++
    Publicity photo of Nancy Carroll from Stars of...

    Publicity photo of Nancy Carroll from Stars of the Photoplay (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

     

A Year in Books/Day 77: Holidays on Ice

Posted on by
6
  • Title: Holidays on Ice
  • Author: David Sedaris
  • Year Published: 1997/This Edition: 1998 (First Back Bay paperback edition)
  • Year Purchased: 2007-2008
  • Source: It was a gift from my Mom.
  • About: Only two words are necessary to draw you to this amazing little book: David Sedaris. If you don’t understand what that means, I assign you the following homework: Find one of his stories; even an excerpt will do (see below). Read it. Be converted. Come back here and thank me.
  • Motivation: Hello, it’s David Sedaris. Although I have a mad, fangirl’s love for his sister Amy, I’ll never turn down the chance to read his stories. Neither should you.
  • Times Read: 2
  • Random Excerpt/Page 50: “I recall mistaking her for a Trick-or-Treater! She wore, I remember, a skirt the size of a beer cozy, a short, furry jacket, and, on her face, enough rouge, eye shadow, and lipstick to paint our entire house, inside and out. She’s a very small person and I mistook her for a child. A child masquerading as a prostitute. I handed her a fistful of chocolate nougats, hoping that, like the other children, she would quickly move on to the next house.”
  • Happiness Scale: 9 1/2

A Year in Books/Day 76: The Sayings of Bernard Shaw

Posted on by
Reply
  • Title: The Sayings of Bernard Shaw
  • Year Published: 1993/This Edition: 2000 (Gerald Duckworth & Co. Ltd.)
  • Year Purchased: 2002-2004
  • Source: It was a gift from my Aunt Jane, purchased at Bernard’s Retail Shop in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Canada.
  • About: This thin book contains all of Shaw’s best quotes as well as excerpts from his plays.
  • Motivation: Everyone who knows me knows all about my love affair with George Bernard Shaw. I adore him; I sing his praises every chance I get.
  • Times Read: Many, many, many.
  • Random Excerpt/Page 17: “When a stupid man is doing something he is ashamed of, he always declares that it is his duty.”-‘Caesar and Cleopatra’, Act III
  • Happiness Scale: Off the charts.
    CLipped version of picture of George Bernard S...

    Clipped version of picture of George Bernard Shaw, Irish playwright. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)