So my unabashed love of V.C. Andrews is no secret, and I read online somewhere that Helen Dunmore's "A Spell of Winter" was inspired by or similar to "Flowers in the Attic", so I immediately put it on my to read list and finally got around to it (unrelated note: I weeded my own personal book collection this weekend, getting rid of over 100 books I'd either read and didn't care for or ones I knew I'd never touch, so now all the ones I *really* want to read are glaringly obvious). Catherine and Rob are siblings growing up rather isolated in a fading English country estate before World War I. Their father is dead, their mother abandoned them, and they only have their trusty maid Kate and their grandfather, so they form a bond and are...unnaturally...close. Catherine gets pregnant (oops) but Kate is able to help her take care of things, and Rob never even knows. He and Kate run off to Canada, leaving Cathy to shift for herself with her aging grandfather. It was interesting, but the prose was a bit too flowery for my taste.
It's amazing to me that there's anything left to write about Elizabeth I, but books keep coming out and I keep reading them. It was an interesting take: Hilton discusses Elizabeth in terms of her feminine versus her masculine (princely) side. How in order to be queen and a diplomat she had to think of herself as a man, almost, and how that affected her relationships with other women and with men like Dudley. She also discusses the symbolism and meaning behind some of her portraits, clothes, and jewelry. All in all interesting.
I am a big Sherlock Holmes fan from way back. As a kid, my grandparents got me (and my sister, who didn't read, so technically just me :) ) a set of leatherbound classics, and among them were "Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes" and "Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" by Doyle, along with "Study in Scarlet" and "Hound of the Baskervilles". I read those books over and over as a young teen, enamored of the intelligent Mr. Holmes. I literally cried the first time I read "The Final Problem". The internet wasn't prevalent back then (or at least we couldn't afford it) so I had no idea that Doyle brought him back until I went to the bookstore one day and saw a book titled something like "The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" and opened it up to discover he wasn't dead! I have several books that I've danced with glee upon acquiring, and this was one of them. I'm a big fan of the BBC version of the show (and I actually like "Elementary" on CBS, I was originally skeptical of a female Dr. Watson but it's really a good show and Lucy Liu does an amazing job. Plus I want her entire wardrobe). I enjoy the homage they pay to the original Doyle stories and how cleverly they work everything in. This book was a wonderful behind the scenes look, full of tidbits and pictures. I spent all day Saturday rewatching the show :)
For the few brief years I watched Saturday Night Live (we didn't get cable until 1994, so I didn't have the option of watching something better) David Spade was one of my favorite cast members. His Hollywood Minute never failed to crack me up. I enjoyed his memoir, which was quick and funny. He doesn't take himself seriously and he has lots of fun stories about his days at SNL and how the got there and Chris Farley. Ironically enough, I don't think I've seen a single movie he's been in.
No comments:
Post a Comment