Yours 'til Niagara Falls

A Rave Review for Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day (the Novel)

Tonight I finished reading Winifred Watson's Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day.  I had seen the film starring Frances McDormand just a few weeks ago.  I loved the movie, but I'm so glad I read the book after seeing the movie.  The story was really modified for the screen, but very pleasing in its own way.  But the book is head-and-shoulders above the movie.  I polished it off in a couple of days, rationing the chapters so it wouldn't end too quickly.  The main character could be described as Mary Poppin's adventure-seeking sister.  Liquored up.  And feeling frisky. This novel makes me very curious about the other titles offered by this publisher, Persephone Classics.

Sweet Golden Books

I happened on a sale today and bought 15 Little Golden Books.  None are vintage, but the copyright dates range fron the early 50's to the 80's.  They published a pretty good variety of authors and illustrators.  Eloise Wilkin, Richard Scarry anf Garth Williams are among my favorites.  My intent was to take one or two of them to create a spiral-bound notebook with a variety of found papers.  I have all the ingredients.  Which book must fall under the cruel blades of the scissors?  Stay tuned.

Julie & Julia

I finished reading this book today.  The author is Julie Powell whose current blog is called What Could Happen?.  The link is: http://juliepowell.blogspot.com/  (Typepad's posting editor continues to taunt me and I am unable to properly link the way the old system let me)  I liked the book on a lot of different levels; as a food lover, as a Julia Child love, as a blogger, etc.  The premise of the book is that a woman is looking at turning 30 and feels as though she needs to expand her life.  She decides to go through Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking.  She documented the year-long project on her blog.  The experience was then put between the covers of a book and, to top it off, it is currently being made into a movie.  In addition, Julie went from a job she didn't particularly enjoy to being a full-time author.  All of this has taken place in the past five years. P.S. Please ignore the "search inside" logo - I swiped the picture from Amazon.

What Would You Bring?

A new meme courtesy Mags of Smartymags.  In the unlikely event that you were stranded on a desert island for an undetermined length of time, what five books would you take along with you?  Think Robinson Crusoe.  Think Gilligan. I took a while to make my list.  The criterion I kept coming up with involved having something which would take a considerable amount of time to read and material which would help me survive on the island.  So here goes:

1.  Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery.  My favorite of all-time,  I've re-read it almost every summer that I can remember.

2.  The Bible.  I'm not a daily reader of the Word, but it is endlessly fascinating and inspiring.

3.  Babette's Feast by Isaac Dinisen, aka Karen Blixen.  I love the story.  The one problem with this is that the description of the dinner served might make me wild with hunger.

4.  The Foxfire Book - whichever one gives the most salient information regarding survival on a desert island.  It has always baffled me that none of those charming people who are on those "survival" type television shows read up on this sort of thing.

5.  The best poetry collection I can get my hands on.  (I'd love suggestions)  I subscribe to the Writer's Almanac so I get a daily poetry fix.  The thing about poems for me is that they can stick in your mind and give you a chance to analyze them.

I want to tag some folks:

1. Anyone who is in the mood to make a list.

2. Mags of Smartymags

3. Becky of Green Eyed Knitter

4. Tracy of Twisted Blossom

5. Laura of Little Orange Kitchen

6. Leigh of Love Leigh Things