A Year in Books/Day 171: Walking with Garbo

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  • Title: Walking with Garbo Conversations and Recollections
  • Author: Raymond Daum
  • Editor and Annotator: Vance Muse
  • Year Published: 1991 (HarperCollinsPublishers)
  • Year Purchased: 1993
  • Source: Unknown
  • About: Greta Garbo. The Swedish Sphinx. She of eternal mystery. One half of the most famous screen (and real-life, but that’s another story) couple of the 1920s. The great actress may have valued her privacy, both before and after retirement, but she was no shut-in. Continue reading →

Daily Diversion #26: Beware of the Person of One Book*

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I’m good, then.

Book Pile

Book Pile (a.k.a.-the contents of a few of my book cases)

This, my friends, was the state of my studio floor a few hours ago. It looks better now, but still has a long way to go.

*Thomas Aquinas.

Shopping for the Bookworm: NovelPoster Mini-Edition

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You’ve probably seen text-based artwork by now. Although my favourite site, Etsy, has some lovely examples, today I am spotlighting a couple of images from NovelPoster. In addition to the artwork shown below, they also offer posters of Pride & Prejudice, the Odyssey, Alice in Wonderland, Huckleberry Finn and The Wizard of Oz. Enjoy!

The Great Gatsby by NovelPoster

The Great Gatsby by NovelPoster. $40.

The grey-ish background is actually comprised of the full text of the books.

20,000 Leagues by NovelPoster

20,000 Leagues by NovelPoster. $40.

Images courtesy of novelposter.com.

Daily Diversion #25: Birthday Excuses

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I’ve been celebrating my birthday since Tuesday. Although I will continue to do so for the rest of July (hey, that’s normal! Right?), I plan on reining myself back in tomorrow and return to cleaning the studio and write a little. I estimate that this project still has a week to go. Feel for me, lovely readers. It is truly a daunting chore and, so far, I have hated every moment of the project. Every. Moment. I promise to post a few reviews tomorrow. Until then, enjoy this slideshow of some of my little birthday adventures.

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*All of these images were taken on my Blackberry, which had a swiftly dying battery. This means that I did not stop to compose scenes, I just snapped away while I could.

A Year in Books/Day 170: Sophia Style

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  • Title: Sophia Style
  • Author: Deirdre Donohue
  • Year Published: 2001 (Barnes & Noble Books)
  • Year Purchased: 2004
  • Source: Barnes & Noble clearance rack
  • About: In the physical sphere, Sophia Loren is everything I am not: tall, leggy, busty. Sure, we have a tiny waist in common but, on her, because of her height, it is more of a thing. Her style, on camera but especially in life, matches her features: striking, angular, and beautiful. Of course, even if she wore a potato sack (like Marilyn in that famous early cheese-cake photo) she would out-shine us all. Sophia Style examines and connects her characters’ wardrobes with her personal clothing choices, resulting in a book that is a melange of fashion, film, and personal history: it is really more interesting than it probably sounds.  Whether you love film or fashion, or are just looking to shade your brain from the reality of an ugly word for a couple of hours, it is a quick and fun read. It’s full of gorgeous photos from her first five decades in the spotlight.
  • Motivation: Sometimes I just like to look at pretty people in pretty clothes. It’s a nice break from thinking too much, which is how I usually spend approximately 95% of my waking hours.
  • Times Read: 2
  • Random Excerpt/Page 81: “(Marc) Bohan’s white slip gown in A Countess from Hong Kong is a unique creation, having an exceptional relationship to both Loren’s body and the character she portrays. This quality was requested by the director, Charlie Chaplin, as well as by Loren. Chaplin was very earnest and exacting about the countess’s look, and Loren, awed by this iconic film figure, uncharacteristically deferred wholly to his authority.”
  • Happiness Scale: 10+++
    Cropped screenshot of Sophia Loren from the fi...

    Cropped screenshot of Sophia Loren from the film Five Miles to Midnight (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

     

I’m Sensing a Trend

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I’m lucky enough to share a birthday with one of my favourite actors (John Gilbert), one of my favourite writers (Marcel Proust) and the possessor of one of the most brilliant (recorded) minds in history (Nikola Tesla). What else do they have in common? Hmmm, let’s see.

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I’ve found that frivolous observations are best made on serious days. I’m off to celebrate with the husband at the newest contemporary Indian restaurant/bar in town. Toodles.

Daily Diversion #24: Birthday Wishes

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“Give me silence, water, hope

Give me struggle, iron, volcanoes.”-Pablo Neruda

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“I don’t want to go on being a root in the dark,

vacillating, stretched out, shivering with sleep,

downward, in the soaked guts of the earth,

absorbing and thinking, eating each day.”-Pablo Neruda

 

Voices from the Grave #27: Cornelia Otis Skinner on What’s My Line?

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This one’s a bit different. It features Cornelia Otis Skinner, co-writer (along with Emily Kimbrough) of Our Hearts Were Young and Gay, as the mystery celebrity on What’s My Line? in 1959.

If you have never read the book Our Hearts Were Young and Gay (or watched the charming film adaptation), you should go rectify that now.

 

 

 

Things Your Autopsy Report Should Not Say

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And now, in the interest of public service, we present:

  • Thought “Cape does not enable wearer to fly” warning only applicable to those who didn’t BELIEVE!
  • Accidentally kept parents from meeting
  • Thought cost-prohibitive Sealy Posturpedic mattress could be easily substituted by considerably less expensive pile of burning debris
  • Completely misinterpreted dog’s orders on who to shoot
  • Beheaded by peasants
  • Forgot which order deathtraps in pyramid were placed
  • Too much fun
  • Told Bond entire plan
  • Showed Buddha flaws in his philosophy; subsequently beaten to death by livid Buddha
  • Tried to prove lions were ticklish
  • Superstitious cops used silver bullets