Phen A.D.

(left) WAY better than the last Picoult I read, what an enormous relief!  Still didn't love it, but it was good enough and I have done a WHOLE lot of thinking on/having nightmares about kidnapping now, thanks.

(right) My sister will surely remember the awesomeness of Adrian Mole and his diaries, and a few years ago, I read The Queen and I, which I loved, so when I finally got this similar-but-not-quite-the-same treatment of the Prime Minister by Sue Townsend, I was very excited.  now, it wasn't as amusing and witty as The Queen and I, but still quite a good funny-at-times novel.  Thinking back on it, now I realize that Townsend is big on these ridiculously funny situations thinly veiling the realities of social problems.  Anyhow, I liked this, but it wasn't my fave Sue Townsend.  Meg, would you like me to send this to you or shall I put it back up on PBS?  (actually, I have the paperback, although I've linked it to the hardback edition above, which I did because the hardback's cover illustration of a cross-dressing Tony Blair is way too amusing to pass up.)

(right) Wow.  Really great.  Can't say much more than that.  It was just really really fascinating and well-written and I enjoyed it very much -- way more than I expected I could ever enjoy a novel about a woman living through the Plague.

(left) First off, while I am grateful to my sister for introducing me to this author, I am on the brink of insanity trying to figure out how to pronounce her name.  Okay, that said, I really like her stuff.  However, this one was not as witty and funny as the first Medwed book I read (Mail).  Although the bit about To Kill a Mockingbird, on the plane? Killed me. Hee.

(right)  I've always been utterly and completely fascinated by Princess Diana. I

remember The Wedding, I remember all her amazing dresses and hats, and I vividly recall that horrible night in August when she died.  I've really only read a few articles about her, here and there, but never anything more substantive.  I didn't read those "In Her Own Words" books or the tell-all books by her lovers or butlers -- I don't think I even watched those TV interviews that pretty well led directly to the divorce.  It's not that I was opposed to reading more about her as a person -- more like I needed some time and distance before I replaced those photographic images of her that I've had for more than half of my life with the realities of the woman.

In reading the pre-publication talk about Tina Brown's book, it seemed like a lot of people wanted to imagine that this is just a bunch of made-up sensationist stuff.  I don't think it is; I think it's probably some of the most accurate and on-target assessments of Diana as a person in print.  I devoured this book.  I hated that it ended, partly because it was so fascinating and partly because of course we know how it ended in that Paris tunnel. 

It's really a shame that we didn't get to see more of Diana's "second act" (life as an ex-Princess of Wales), she was coming into her own.  I don't know how she would've found that perfect balance of someone to love her as much as she needed to be loved and yet stay safe and non-threatening to the Royal Family, but eventually she would have found him.  I expected to detest Camilla, and I still don't think very much of her, honestly, but I do feel bad that it seems like she's being frozen out by the Family just as Diana was.  All that fighting for "her side" they did for her and they can't be nice to her even now.  Mostly, I feel sorry for everyone involved...yet at the same time, I am struck by how, well, human the Royal family seems (Sense of Duty aside).

and, it's funny, I once read a novel called The Queen and I, in which there is a political revolution in England that obsoletes the monarchy overnight and the Queen, Philip, Queen Mother, Diana and Charles (still together at the writing of the novel), all of them are thrown into life in the suburbs.  In the novel's version of the suburban Queen, Elizabeth is practical, calm, and level-headed  In a lot of ways, I think the Queen of this novel had a lot in common with the Queen in Tina Brown's book.

(left) then, because why change topics?, I read another historical novel, this one about Margaret Tudor (Henry VIII's older sister), who was the Queen of Scotland.  Poor woman was just as star-crossed in love as her brother.

Got derailed a few times, by bustin' out HP7 for a while, by re-reading half of The Cider House Rules for a while, and the excerpt of Eric Clapton's autobiography in the new issue of Vanity Fair (btw, I'm super sad all over again about poor little Conor), but I did finish one book.

(left)  Found this book at the flippin' dollar store and couldn't have been more excited, what with being cuckoo crazy for John Irving books.  It was mostly about getting the movie of The Cider House Rules made (he wrote countless versions of screenplays before the final one), but I particularly enjoyed the parts about his grandfather, and (odd as it sounds) the mini history of abortion in America, too.   HOWEVER, don't read this if you haven't already read TCHR.  I'm kind of disappointed that it didn't include Irving winning the Oscar for the screenplay, though.

And, funny thing, I realized that the authors of my three favorite books have all won (indirectlly or directly) an Oscar for screenwriting:  John Irving, Larry McMurtry, and Jane Austen (through Emma Thompson).

(right)  Y'all, I think I'm just about ready to call it.  Stephen King post-car accident is not as good as Stephen King pre-car accident.  There's something missing.  You can see a few little hints of his brilliance now and then but overall, it's muddled and confusing and maddening.  I lost interest in this book over and over and kept hoping that it would get better but it never did.  Sad.

(left)  Fun enough read, but I hope readers new to Larry McMurtry won't pick this up and assume this is the best he can write.  This wasn't bad, but it felt like a writing exercise in some ways -- like he set out to write in the first person as a woman, and tried to fit in every possible famous Old West character ever.  Quick read, though.

(right)  Another quick read.  Not what I was expecting, but interesting.  Too short to have really warranted a full-out book, though, IMO.

(left)  Does the cover photo look at all familiar?  Take a closer look.  It's a detail shot of the very edge of the World Trade Center as it was burning, prior to collapsing.   This novel takes place over one 24-hour time period, from early morning on September 11, 2001, to early morning on September 12.  I think I would've enjoyed this more if I had liked the characters more.  There was both too much and too little information about them all at once.  The thought that the husband of the couple was on the phone with his lawyer while his lawyer ate breakfast at Windows on the World was both disturbing and fascinating; the husband's call to the lawyer's home later in the day meant that he, essentially, was telling the lawyer's wife that he had died in the WTC.  However, the surfer's story felt like too much of a reach.  He would drive an hour in the wrong direction to play hooky and go surfing at a private stretch of beach in East Hampton, then spend half the day surfing, totally ignorant of the terrorist attack?  It felt wrong.  But the bit about a fully-saturated Pull-Up being a horrible mess was dead-on.

(right) My sister sent me this book, knowing I would be able to empathize with the author's situation.  Now, I haven't been as broke as this woman (starving student would be an applicable term to use here), but there were still many situations I was laughing at, both because it was funny and because it was all-too-familiar.  however, I have always had enough money for real Ramen. ;)

(left) Started this thinking it would be like every other Oscars history book I've read, kinda unexciting and dry.  But actually, I really enjoyed it.  Rather than be nothing but a History of the Oscars, it was actually more a detailed recounting of the Oscars as a show, as a Hollywood production.  It covered I forget how many Oscars, but it basically started with the year that Rob Lowe sang with Snow White (and the book's explanation of what the original vision and meaning of that particular spectacle was ended up being fascinating) and stretched to the year that Lord of the Rings won best picture.   In that time, there were four different producers of the show (one producer repeated several times and may still, in fact, be the producer, I think) and three different hosts:  Billy Crystal, Whoopi Goldberg, and David Letterman.  the backstory on all of these broadcasts was so fascinating!  It really was the best demonstration I've ever read of David Letterman's off-camera personality:  not so much stand-offish as incredibly seriously very neurotic and lacking in self-confidence.  Actually, it sounds almost as if Letterman is more like Woody Allen's movie characters than Woody Allen himself.  Anyhow, the author (a writer for Premiere magazine) recounted the planning and politics that went into each year's show, plus a semi behind-the-scenes recap of that show.  Also loved it because it spurred me to search out clips of the Billy Crystal opening numbers on youtube.  hee.  (ooh this too)

(Right) Read this because I saw it when I was looking for the first Harry Potter at the library for Sissy (electronic card catalog said it was on the shelf but it MOST DEFINITELY WAS NOT.  Anyhoo, I found my own copy under a pile of towels, because that is apparently just where it belongs), and also because they've started showing a TV version of it on the CW or whatever, which I have set TiVo to record simply on the basis of needing more trash in my TV life now that Big Brother is over.  Okay. May I just say that while I am well-aware of the fact that NYC teenagers are far and away more mature than most of their peers who don't live in the City (i base this on knowledge of friends and relatives who went/go to those private day schools there), it was still quite a huge shock to read about these acting-way-too-old-when-they-can't-even-vote-yet kids.  I seriously felt like an old lady reading this, exclaiming "good Lord!" and "oh my Heavens!" and "oh my sainted Aunt!" before I was even three pages into it.  But of course I finished it, because I have no powers to withstand a good trashy story.

(left) My sister M recommended this author a few weeks (months?) ago and my paperbackswap stuff of hers just started arriving, and YEAH, I like her!  I really really like her!  Did you say, M, that she's like a not-Irish Marian Keyes? Or was that just me?  In any case, it was a very fun story and of course I adored every speck of the Harvard Square/Cambridge/Boston stuff, even though the Red Sox only made an appearance on some bedsheets.

(right) Yes, I was sucked right back into the Gossip Girl Trashfest.  Oops. skipped over #2, but shockingly enough, I was able to pick right back up with the story, despite having skipped an entire book.  Sort of like how you might watch Days of Our Lives for four years (like, say, er, in college) and, er, 14 years later you happen to be in a doctor's office waiting room and they are showing DOOL on the TV and you are all right back into the whole Patch and Kayla maelstrom of emotions (although it is a little bit sad to think that poor Patch still hasn't raised the funds with which to have an artificial eye put in so that he can get rid of the eyepatch), without a moment's hesitation.

(left) Written by the woman at the GTE Air Fone call center who took the call of a guy on Flight 93...the one who said "Let's Roll."  I don't know how they got it as thick as they did.  It really didn't have much more than an article in Vanity Fair.  Anyhow, Mrs. Jefferson has come to believe that God meant for her to answer that particular phone call, and if it gives her (and the man's widow) comfort, then I have no problem with that whatsoever.  This woman gave a little bit of comfort and peace and courage to a man on the plane and right there, she deserves all the happiness in the world, IMO.