Category Archives: Project 366

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

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  • 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

A Year in Books/Day 79: Royal Panoply

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  • 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

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  • 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

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  • 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

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  • 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)

     

A Year in Books/Day 75: Madame Tussaud A Life in Wax

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  • Title: Madame Tussaud A Life in Wax
  • Author: Kate Berridge
  • Year Published: 2006 (HarperCollins Publishers Ltd)
  • Year Purchased: 2010
  • Source: A gift from my lovely Momma.
  • About: Even though an autobiography exists under her name, there is so much about Madame Tussaud’s life that has been lost to time. A lot of the information that remains is untrustworthy or muddled. This only adds to the burden carried by any biographer. Kate Berridge’s account is better than expected yet still suffers in spots from lack of original source material. Fortunately, she almost makes up for that deficiency by her unusual approach of treating her subject as a historian, instead of merely as an artisan-impresario. By the end of the book, she succeeds in making Madame Tussaud at least as life-like as her statues-not a small feat given the circumstances.
  • Motivation: History + Biography + Unusual Female Subject= an irresistible trio for me. My Mother knows this!
  • Times Read: 1
  • Random Excerpt/Page 21: “The waxworks were the ideal forum to cater for a phenomenal human interest in public figures that was distinct from respect for their work. In fact cultural achievement was not necessary at all to appear there: the admission requirement was to have attained sufficient public interest to guarantee a crowd; notoriety was as compelling as admiration. From the recently executed criminal to society beauties, Curtius guaranteed a close-up view of the most talked-about people of the day. As each person had their time in the spotlight of public interest, they would take their turn in his pantheon.”
  • Happiness Scale: 7 1/2
    English: The wax statue of the creator of &quo...

     

A Year in Books/Day 74: ‘Tis Herself

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  • Title: ‘Tis Herself An Autobiography
  • Authors: Maureen O’Hara with John Nicoletti
  • Year Published: 2004 /This Edition: 2005 (Simon & Schuster Paperbacks)
  • Year Purchased: 2005
  • Source: Barnes & Noble
  • About: The autobiography of Hollywood’s most famous Irishwoman was a long time coming. She was 84 at publication. Tucked inside amongst the expected (but interesting) stories of living and working with lots of larger-than-life stars are some stellar, little-known accomplishments that help to flesh out her legacy, leaping from legend to true trailblazer between covers. It’s worth a read for that alone (and the stunning photographs).
  • Motivation: Maureen O’Hara is one of my favourite actresses (and co-redhead). Her talent and ridiculously unattainable beauty graced so many of the movies I loved as a kid (and still do). I obsessively watched them over and over whenever they were on television (and still do). She injected her characters with intelligence, strength, spirit and wit-making her one of the best role models a girl (or grown woman, ahem) could ask for. I loved her then (and still do). Now go watch ‘The Quiet Man’.
  • Times Read: 2
  • Random Excerpt/Page 83: “I went downstairs and asked Wilmon to go get Will. He found him in a drunken stupor right where the lady had said he would be, at a whorehouse in a seedy part of the city. He’d apparently been there for days, bragging and shooting his mouth off. We had been married less than sixty days.”

    Maureen O'Hara in a screenshot from the traile...

    Maureen O'Hara-Image via Wikipediawhorehouse in a seedy part of the city. He'd apparently been there for days, bragging and shooting his mouth off. We had been married less than sixty days."

  • Happiness Scale: 10

A Year in Books/Day 73: The Wit and Wisdom of Jane Austen

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  • Title: The Wit and Wisdom of Jane Austen
  • Compiled by: Dominique Enright
  • Year Published: 2002 (Barnes & Noble, Inc. by arrangement with Michael O’Mara Books Limited)
  • Year Purchased: 2002-2004
  • Source: Barnes & Noble clearance rack
  • About: Excerpts from her fiction and personal letters are featured in this slim but potent volume.
  • Motivation: Jane Austen! Quotes!
  • Times Read: 2
  • Random Excerpt/Page 63: “Walter Scott has no business to write novels, especially good ones. It is not fair. He has fame and profit enough as a poet, and should not be taking the bread out of the mouths of other people.” (Letter to Anna Austen, 28 September 1814)
  • Happiness Scale: 10
    Jane Austen, Watercolour and pencil portrait b...

    One Witty Brit-Image via Wikipedia

     

A Year in Books/Day 72: 1001 Pearls of Wisdom

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  • Title: 1001 Pearls of Wisdom Wisdom, wit and insight to enlighten and inspire
  • Author: David Ross
  • Year Published: 2006 (Duncan Baird Publishers Ltd)
  • Year Purchased: 2006
  • Source: Unknown
  • About:  This is a thick little volume full of colourful illustrations and inspirational quotes that are divided into traditional self-help categories (the good life, finding fulfilment, lighting the dark).
  • Motivation: Quotes, quotes, quotes! Reading, compiling and dispensing quotes is one of my favourite pastimes (I know, I’m a bit obsessive). Although I have an extremely curious and roving mind, I love anything that gives me, however fleetingly, a sense of order.
  • Times Read: 1
  • Random Excerpt/Page 285: “Do not anticipate trouble, or worry about what may never happen. Keep in the sunlight.” (Benjamin Franklin)
  • Happiness Scale: 9 1/2

A Year in Books/Day 71: Passionate Pilgrim

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  • Title: Passionate Pilgrim The Extraordinary Life of Alma Reed
  • Author: Antoinette May
  • Year Published: 1993/First paperback edition,1994 (Marlowe & Company)
  • Year Purchased: 2000/2001
  • Source: Barnes & Noble clearance rack
  • About: This is one of those books whose front cover tag line lets you know exactly what you are in for: Heroine of Mexico, Pioneer Archaeologist, and Acclaimed Journalist. She certainly had one of those rollicking, magically adventurous lives that makes even the highest of achievers look like dull, stay-at-home types.
  • Motivation: See above. I was also sucked in by the fabulous photographs of her no-less fabulous exploits. I adore kick-ass ladies!
  • Times Read: 1
  • Random Excerpt/Page 82: “It took nearly ten minutes of spirited cranking before Alma’s car was galvanized into action. As it jolted down the road, the jungle closed in around them. Distance ceased to exist, as strangely contorted trees, towering plants, feathery ferns, and spongy fungus all crowded together. Then, the last corner turned and instead of another vista of unchanging forest, a clear straight road led for another mile or so to a sight of breathtaking grandeur. A great white pyramid towered high above the forest, capped by a temple. There was a moment of stunned silence, followed by excited gasps, and then the crew were pummeling one another deliriously.”
  • Happiness Scale: 7