New shiny!

sabaceanbabe thank you so much! I am finally reading "Once in a Blue Moon" by Penelope Williamson that you've recommended and it's excellent. Just what I wanted! Gracias!

For anyone who's wondering, it's set during the Napoleonic Wars and involves star-crossed lovers in Cornwall angsting and going to war and etc etc. It's actually a romance which is not something I read often, but this one is excellent. So far there haven't been any "heaving bosoms" or "spears of manhood" :D

New shiny!

sabaceanbabe thank you so much! I am finally reading "Once in a Blue Moon" by Penelope Williamson that you've recommended and it's excellent. Just what I wanted! Gracias!

For anyone who's wondering, it's set during the Napoleonic Wars and involves star-crossed lovers in Cornwall angsting and going to war and etc etc. It's actually a romance which is not something I read often, but this one is excellent. So far there haven't been any "heaving bosoms" or "spears of manhood" :D

New shiny!

sabaceanbabe thank you so much! I am finally reading "Once in a Blue Moon" by Penelope Williamson that you've recommended and it's excellent. Just what I wanted! Gracias!

For anyone who's wondering, it's set during the Napoleonic Wars and involves star-crossed lovers in Cornwall angsting and going to war and etc etc. It's actually a romance which is not something I read often, but this one is excellent. So far there haven't been any "heaving bosoms" or "spears of manhood" :D

Gothic Classic: Rebecca

One of my all-time favorite books is a rather cliche choice: it's Daphne du Maurier's Gothic classic Rebecca. Now, I am not a big Gothic fan. In fact, the only two I've managed to finish and enjoy are "Rebecca" and the mother of them all: Ann Radcliffe's "The Mysteries of Udolpho" (though the latter was more for the atmospherics and the gorgeous 18th-centuriness of it all). But somehow, "Rebecca" captivated me.

I first found it through an abridged audiobook. I was still in high school and working during the summer. The work was dull but the place I worked allowed us to use headphones. So I kept borrowing books on tape from the public library. One such was "Rebecca" and I was immadiately hooked. Then, I had to find the proper version to read, of course...

The plot (for those who don't know) involves the nameless narrator (abbreviated here as NN because I am lazy). She is a young timid paid companion to a vulgar, horrible rich woman in Montecarlo. There she meets and falls in love with the older, haunted widower Maxim de Winter, who is still recovering (they say) from his adored wife's Rebecca's death. NN never thinks to have her feelings reciprocated and is shocked when she finds herself married to Maxim and going back to Mandeley, his English estate, with him. But how can she ever compete with the dead Rebecca? Rebecca who was beautiful and accomplished, and poised and polished and witty and beloved and most of all dead, so impossible to shake from her pedestal. How will the country genry accept her? How will she learn to run the huge house? How will she be able to deal with Mrs Danvers, the old housekeeper who is fanatically devoted to the dead woman? And most importantly of all, how will she ever eclipse Rebecca in Maxim's eyes?

To say any more will be to ruin it, so I will instead talk about the wonderful movie version of the book. It's made by Hitchcock and won him his only Best Picture. It's a perfect adaptation, and the casting is impeccable. Laurence Olivier plays Maxim, every bit as charming and wounded as Maxim is in the book. Joan Fontaine plays NN, and she is wonderful as the lost young woman. Judith Anderson freaked me out as Mrs. Danvers. *shudder* And George Sanders is all untrustworthy charm as Rebecca's cousin.

I really want to discuss gender roles and reversals and how the very qualities that made NN uncomfortable at Manderley are what made NN attractive to Maxim but that would be making a long post even longer.

( Pictures from the 1940 adaptation )

Gothic Classic: Rebecca

One of my all-time favorite books is a rather cliche choice: it's Daphne du Maurier's Gothic classic Rebecca. Now, I am not a big Gothic fan. In fact, the only two I've managed to finish and enjoy are "Rebecca" and the mother of them all: Ann Radcliffe's "The Mysteries of Udolpho" (though the latter was more for the atmospherics and the gorgeous 18th-centuriness of it all). But somehow, "Rebecca" captivated me.

I first found it through an abridged audiobook. I was still in high school and working during the summer. The work was dull but the place I worked allowed us to use headphones. So I kept borrowing books on tape from the public library. One such was "Rebecca" and I was immadiately hooked. Then, I had to find the proper version to read, of course...

The plot (for those who don't know) involves the nameless narrator (abbreviated here as NN because I am lazy). She is a young timid paid companion to a vulgar, horrible rich woman in Montecarlo. There she meets and falls in love with the older, haunted widower Maxim de Winter, who is still recovering (they say) from his adored wife's Rebecca's death. NN never thinks to have her feelings reciprocated and is shocked when she finds herself married to Maxim and going back to Mandeley, his English estate, with him. But how can she ever compete with the dead Rebecca? Rebecca who was beautiful and accomplished, and poised and polished and witty and beloved and most of all dead, so impossible to shake from her pedestal. How will the country genry accept her? How will she learn to run the huge house? How will she be able to deal with Mrs Danvers, the old housekeeper who is fanatically devoted to the dead woman? And most importantly of all, how will she ever eclipse Rebecca in Maxim's eyes?

To say any more will be to ruin it, so I will instead talk about the wonderful movie version of the book. It's made by Hitchcock and won him his only Best Picture. It's a perfect adaptation, and the casting is impeccable. Laurence Olivier plays Maxim, every bit as charming and wounded as Maxim is in the book. Joan Fontaine plays NN, and she is wonderful as the lost young woman. Judith Anderson freaked me out as Mrs. Danvers. *shudder* And George Sanders is all untrustworthy charm as Rebecca's cousin.

I really want to discuss gender roles and reversals and how the very qualities that made NN uncomfortable at Manderley are what made NN attractive to Maxim but that would be making a long post even longer.

( Pictures from the 1940 adaptation )

Gothic Classic: Rebecca

One of my all-time favorite books is a rather cliche choice: it's Daphne du Maurier's Gothic classic Rebecca. Now, I am not a big Gothic fan. In fact, the only two I've managed to finish and enjoy are "Rebecca" and the mother of them all: Ann Radcliffe's "The Mysteries of Udolpho" (though the latter was more for the atmospherics and the gorgeous 18th-centuriness of it all). But somehow, "Rebecca" captivated me.

I first found it through an abridged audiobook. I was still in high school and working during the summer. The work was dull but the place I worked allowed us to use headphones. So I kept borrowing books on tape from the public library. One such was "Rebecca" and I was immadiately hooked. Then, I had to find the proper version to read, of course...

The plot (for those who don't know) involves the nameless narrator (abbreviated here as NN because I am lazy). She is a young timid paid companion to a vulgar, horrible rich woman in Montecarlo. There she meets and falls in love with the older, haunted widower Maxim de Winter, who is still recovering (they say) from his adored wife's Rebecca's death. NN never thinks to have her feelings reciprocated and is shocked when she finds herself married to Maxim and going back to Mandeley, his English estate, with him. But how can she ever compete with the dead Rebecca? Rebecca who was beautiful and accomplished, and poised and polished and witty and beloved and most of all dead, so impossible to shake from her pedestal. How will the country genry accept her? How will she learn to run the huge house? How will she be able to deal with Mrs Danvers, the old housekeeper who is fanatically devoted to the dead woman? And most importantly of all, how will she ever eclipse Rebecca in Maxim's eyes?

To say any more will be to ruin it, so I will instead talk about the wonderful movie version of the book. It's made by Hitchcock and won him his only Best Picture. It's a perfect adaptation, and the casting is impeccable. Laurence Olivier plays Maxim, every bit as charming and wounded as Maxim is in the book. Joan Fontaine plays NN, and she is wonderful as the lost young woman. Judith Anderson freaked me out as Mrs. Danvers. *shudder* And George Sanders is all untrustworthy charm as Rebecca's cousin.

I really want to discuss gender roles and reversals and how the very qualities that made NN uncomfortable at Manderley are what made NN attractive to Maxim but that would be making a long post even longer.

( Pictures from the 1940 adaptation )

"What do you say to a naked Elf?"

Unfortuntely, I'd have to say "sorry, I am married." :D

I think I have just stumbled over the most bizarre book ever. It is so bizarre that I MUST check it out. It's written by "Sterling, Cheryl" and I offer as my proof the title: "What Do You Say to a Naked Elf?"

*dies*
*
*
*
*
*dies again*

This is the summary:

Apart from her being a TV-and-movie junkie and a saleswoman extraordinaire of adult lotions, potions and playthings, plain Jane Drysdale's life was nothing unusual. That was, until a moment of reckless driving catapulted her into a fairytale world like a J.R.R. Tolkien book on crack. From Walker, Michigan, to a place of wacko wizards, sexually repressed elves and dangerous dwarves, Jane was suddenly fulfilling an epic destiny that held certain death -- and even more certain love. Even the newly legible tattoo on her shoulder seemed to proclaim the rightness of her transport: "Forever joined, heart upon heart, world upon world." Everything started with Jane on trial for her life and her Legolas-lookalike lawyer taking his shirt off, and the first thing she needed to know was -- What Do You Say to a Naked Elf?

Alas, I don't think Legolas in the movie looked old enough to be a lawyer but what a yummy, hilarious thought!

"What do you say to a naked Elf?"

Unfortuntely, I'd have to say "sorry, I am married." :D

I think I have just stumbled over the most bizarre book ever. It is so bizarre that I MUST check it out. It's written by "Sterling, Cheryl" and I offer as my proof the title: "What Do You Say to a Naked Elf?"

*dies*
*
*
*
*
*dies again*

This is the summary:

Apart from her being a TV-and-movie junkie and a saleswoman extraordinaire of adult lotions, potions and playthings, plain Jane Drysdale's life was nothing unusual. That was, until a moment of reckless driving catapulted her into a fairytale world like a J.R.R. Tolkien book on crack. From Walker, Michigan, to a place of wacko wizards, sexually repressed elves and dangerous dwarves, Jane was suddenly fulfilling an epic destiny that held certain death -- and even more certain love. Even the newly legible tattoo on her shoulder seemed to proclaim the rightness of her transport: "Forever joined, heart upon heart, world upon world." Everything started with Jane on trial for her life and her Legolas-lookalike lawyer taking his shirt off, and the first thing she needed to know was -- What Do You Say to a Naked Elf?

Alas, I don't think Legolas in the movie looked old enough to be a lawyer but what a yummy, hilarious thought!

"What do you say to a naked Elf?"

Unfortuntely, I'd have to say "sorry, I am married." :D

I think I have just stumbled over the most bizarre book ever. It is so bizarre that I MUST check it out. It's written by "Sterling, Cheryl" and I offer as my proof the title: "What Do You Say to a Naked Elf?"

*dies*
*
*
*
*
*dies again*

This is the summary:

Apart from her being a TV-and-movie junkie and a saleswoman extraordinaire of adult lotions, potions and playthings, plain Jane Drysdale's life was nothing unusual. That was, until a moment of reckless driving catapulted her into a fairytale world like a J.R.R. Tolkien book on crack. From Walker, Michigan, to a place of wacko wizards, sexually repressed elves and dangerous dwarves, Jane was suddenly fulfilling an epic destiny that held certain death -- and even more certain love. Even the newly legible tattoo on her shoulder seemed to proclaim the rightness of her transport: "Forever joined, heart upon heart, world upon world." Everything started with Jane on trial for her life and her Legolas-lookalike lawyer taking his shirt off, and the first thing she needed to know was -- What Do You Say to a Naked Elf?

Alas, I don't think Legolas in the movie looked old enough to be a lawyer but what a yummy, hilarious thought!

Book frenzy (or as a really old-fashioned author would spell it, phrenzy)

I am in book heaven, suffering from an embarassment of riches. Just finished the book sabaceanbabe recced, and am still reading Pauline Gedge's "Child of the Morning" (novel about Hatshepsut) and Keats' letters. Plus, I finally bought a complete edition of O. Henry and have been "dipping." Of course, I also feel like rereading "Rebecca."

But the best part is that today I got two books I ordered from abebooks: "Dark Star," which is a biography of John Gilbert, one of my favorite silent actors, and "Song of Love: the Letters of Rupert Brooke and Noel Olivier." Cheesy title or not, I came across this collection of letters between the WWI poet and Noel (who despite her name was a woman, and apparently became a doctor, quite a feat in those days) in undergrad and loved it. Especially RB's letters: they are rather like his poems: moody, and obsessive, and very beautiful.

Sample letter:

( Clickitie here to read poets in love )

Book frenzy (or as a really old-fashioned author would spell it, phrenzy)

I am in book heaven, suffering from an embarassment of riches. Just finished the book sabaceanbabe recced, and am still reading Pauline Gedge's "Child of the Morning" (novel about Hatshepsut) and Keats' letters. Plus, I finally bought a complete edition of O. Henry and have been "dipping." Of course, I also feel like rereading "Rebecca."

But the best part is that today I got two books I ordered from abebooks: "Dark Star," which is a biography of John Gilbert, one of my favorite silent actors, and "Song of Love: the Letters of Rupert Brooke and Noel Olivier." Cheesy title or not, I came across this collection of letters between the WWI poet and Noel (who despite her name was a woman, and apparently became a doctor, quite a feat in those days) in undergrad and loved it. Especially RB's letters: they are rather like his poems: moody, and obsessive, and very beautiful.

Sample letter:

( Clickitie here to read poets in love )

Book frenzy (or as a really old-fashioned author would spell it, phrenzy)

I am in book heaven, suffering from an embarassment of riches. Just finished the book sabaceanbabe recced, and am still reading Pauline Gedge's "Child of the Morning" (novel about Hatshepsut) and Keats' letters. Plus, I finally bought a complete edition of O. Henry and have been "dipping." Of course, I also feel like rereading "Rebecca."

But the best part is that today I got two books I ordered from abebooks: "Dark Star," which is a biography of John Gilbert, one of my favorite silent actors, and "Song of Love: the Letters of Rupert Brooke and Noel Olivier." Cheesy title or not, I came across this collection of letters between the WWI poet and Noel (who despite her name was a woman, and apparently became a doctor, quite a feat in those days) in undergrad and loved it. Especially RB's letters: they are rather like his poems: moody, and obsessive, and very beautiful.

Sample letter:

( Clickitie here to read poets in love )