Badgwendel's Blog, page 4

Counting My Chickens

Out of the marvelous Mitford sisters, it’s no big secret my absolute favorite Jessica “Decca”. But Nancy? The baby sister you nicknamed “Nine” for her presumed mental age? She’s closing in on your perch as my second favorite Mitford.

Now just in case you don’t know who the Mitford sisters are (which is okay, I forgive you, not everyone’s personal book collection spans Lovecraft/King/Bloch/Jackson to Louisa May Alcott to Jacqueline Susann/Grace Metalious to the Mitford sisters) these six lovely ladies were the daughters of David Bertram Ogilvy Freeman-Mitford, 2nd Baron Redesdale and the granddaughters of Thomas Gibson Bowles (founder of The Lady and the UK Vanity Fair). Eldest sister Nancy wrote wickedly sharp novels, second sister Pamela took up the country life, third sister and family beauty Diana become a political prisoner in World War II, fourth sister Unity was entranced by Hitler and Nazi Germany, fifth sister Jessica ran away and became the infamous muckraker who made the funeral industry shake in its black boots and sixth sister Deborah aka Debo? She grew up and married a sweet young man named Andrew Cavendish and became the Duchess of Devonshire.

Along with helping turn the family seat Chatsworth House from a financial sinkhole into one of the premier stately homes to visit in the UK (all you Jane Austen fans? Chatsworth House is used as Mr Darcy’s Pemeberly in the 2005 version of Pride and Prejudice), Debo has inherited the literary gene turning out charming books about her beloved Chatsworth House and memoirs. Counting My Chickens and Other Home Thoughts, is a slight book, only a 192 pages of Her Grace’s thoughts and observations of her life, family and being the mistress of Chatsworth House but what a wonderful 192 pages.

You might think a Duchess would be snotty, aloof and beyond writing a book for the masses. Maybe. But Her Grace The Dowager Duchess of Devonshire (her husband, the 11th Duke of Devonshire died in 2004) is a down to earth lady who buys her clothes at agricultural fairs and shows because they’re comfortable and wear well. She’d rather grow a lettuce by the front door than the finest rare orchid. When asked if she’d rather have tea with Elvis or Hitler, she chose Elvis. One of her favorite books of all time is Beatrix Potter’s The Tale of Ginger and Pickles.

How could you not love this lady? Counting My Chickens and Other Home Thoughts makes me want to save up my pennies, go to Chatsworth House and hope I run into Her Grace in the grounds. And you know just how very much I “love” Outside. Closing Counting My Chickens and Other Home Thoughts made me very glad I’m snapped up Wait for Me!… Memoirs of the Youngest Mitford Sister and In Tearing Haste: Letters Between Deborah Devonshire and Patrick Leigh Fermor at the Friends of the Ferguson Library Book Shop to add to my Mitford collection. Now off to see if the Central Connecticut library system has any more of Her Grace’s books!

 

 

 

Filed under: book review, Books I Want, Buy or Check It Out, Counting My Chickens, Deborah Mitford, Duchess of Devonshire, From The Library Stacks, Library Raid, Mitford sisters Tagged: book review, Buy This Book Already, Chatsworth House, Counting My Chickens, country life, Debo, Deborah Mitford, Dowager Duchess of Devonshire, Duchess of Devonshire, Library Raid, memoir, Mitford sisters, Nancy Mitford

Inside Peyton Place

Sometimes when you read a book, you want to fire up the old Literary Time Machine (Blacklight: “Lemme guess, you want to make out with H.P. Lovecraft” Me: “No…”) I want to go back to the 1956 and smack away every glass of Canadian Club and 7 UP that Grace Metalious even gave the slightest longing look at. And I also want to fr0g-march her directly to a competent agent and financial manager and not let her sneak back to The Plaza until every last paper was signed. I wonder if Emily Toth ever had the same crazy thoughts while she was working on Inside Peyton Place: The Life of Grace Metalious. Because let me tell you, out of the Shirley Jackson/Grace Metalious/Jacqueline Susann trio? Grace was the clear winner of the shouldn’t be coveted Most Bleeped Up Her Life title. And we’re talking about some stiff competition because Shirley Jackson and Jacqueline Susann? Lots of Bad Life Choice Theater.

Blacklight: “Who the heck is Grace Metalious again?”

In case you haven’t visited the Grace Metalious page or are my beloved Minecraft addicted spouse Blacklight, Grace Metalious is an author who wrote the mega best seller Peyton Place about the secrets of a small New England. This novel spawned an Oscar nominated movie, several television shows and sequels. If you’re under 40 years old? Your parents or grandparents read Peyton Place in secret, clucking over all the s-e-x. Unless of course you’re my parents. Neither of them read the darn book, even though my mother remembers watching the 1964-1969 prime-time soap opera and “not liking that Allison girl at all”.

Now of course as a wee lass reading Peyton Place, Return to Peyton Place, The Tight White Collar and No Adam in Eden, I had no idea that the lady behind these crumbling paperbacks I found at tag sales died young and broke. Or that we shared a French-Canadian heritage. Grace Metalious just seemed so young and innocent and sad in the iconic “Pandora in Blue Jeans” picture. Nothing like the glamorous leopard clad Jackie Collins whose books I was devouring as fast as Her Collins could produce them. Then one day, after I had a license and realized my library card could be used at any public library in the state, I found Emily Toth’s Inside Peyton Place: The Life of Grace Metalious. And boy oh boy was my image of Grace Metalious shattered.

Grace Metalious’ rise from child of blue collar workers in a New Hampshire mill town to marrying young to living a shack of a rented house  with a dry well to writing the bestseller Peyton Place was like something out of a Hollywood movie. One with Joan Crawford in Adrian gowns at the end. And what happened after the fame and fortune from Peyton Place? Something John Waters and his stable of stars would film with Divine in a sloppy housecoat with booze stains down the front as Grace. How do you just sign over all the film rights to a movie studio without protecting yourself? Or blaze through all your royalties and that sweet $250,000 studio check in less than eight years?

Would you still want to read Peyton Place, Return to Peyton Place, The Tight White Collar and No Adam in Eden after encountering Inside Peyton Place: The Life of Grace Metalious? YES! It’s worth the trouble of tracking them down. Inside Peyton Place: The Life of Grace Metalious adds annotations to the experience. Who knew Grace could have avoid certain legal troubles if she just changed certain character names? Or just how much of her own life was being woven into her books. The quick end coming out of nowhere in No Adam in Eden is easier to understand once you know the circumstances in which the book was written. And after reading Grace’s notes for a third Peyton Place novel, you wonder what could have been if Grace Metalious was able to stay away from the bottle long enough to plop her butt in that lovely office in her dream house and write. A lesser writer than Emily Toth would have sneered at the wreck of Grace Metalious’ life  with all it’s scandals but Emily Toth has the skill make you care as deeply about her subject as she did.

Filed under: authors, biography, book review, Books I Loved Back in the Day, Emily Toth, Grace Metalious, Inside Peyton Place, Library Raid, literary biographies, Peyton Place, scandal! Tagged: authors, bestsellers, book review, Emily Toth, Grace Metalious, Inside Peyton Place, Library Raid, literary biography, Peyton Place, read it!, scandal, the 1950s

Thank You Carolyn Keene

Somehow I have managed to tear myself from the loving arms of Mr Couch and a good book to write almost 149 posts for the Book Slut Gwen blog over the years. Now what to write about for milestone post Number 150?

I don’t come from a family of readers. We did have books in the house, almost of all them my father’s (a handful of textbooks from his college days, some books on aviation and running off to Alaska and starting a life in the wilderness). But my parents never considered going to the bookstore or library as necessary as breathing. (Blacklight: “Are you sure you and Andy aren’t adopted?” Me: “Dude, I look just like Grandma Lucille! Andy looks just like Grandpa Philippe!” Blacklight: “So you’re both changelings?” Me: )

But my parents took turns reading to me every night. The books I remember aren’t the usual things you read a very small child. No Clifford the Big Red Dog, no Velveteen Rabbit or Mother Goose or Dr. Seuss. I’m not sure how they came across the books they picked. Maybe the garage sales my mother haunted every weekend? They went through the Little House series one by one and then turned to the Nancy Drew series.

One day, when I was clamoring for my mother to read to me, and overwhelmed with house work and my little brother, my mother told me to read the book (Nancy Drew #16 The Clue of the Tapping Heels) out loud myself. Between her and Sesame Street, I could see and understand very basic words. I stumbled and sounded out a page or two. And then my poor mother told me to read to myself. So I did. Did I understand every word? Of course not! I was four years old. But doing something the grownups could do with ease was magical. And there was CATS!

Was my mother being clever or just trying to get a moment’s peace? Who knows? Those three words unleashed a monster and opened a whole new world to me. You could have read to me for hours and I would demand “more!” and get upset about how very slow the whole process was. Maybe things haven’t changed that much because there are certain audiobooks I can start listening to at work and then get annoyed over how very long it’s taking to get through them when I can read them so much faster. One prime example? Back around 2001/2002 Marian Keyes’ Sushi for Beginners hadn’t been released in the US yet but somehow one of the local libraries had the unabridged audiobook. I would listen and by tape 4 be wondering just how expensive it would be to order the darn book from Amazon UK.

The wonderful and grownup magic of reading was mine. I didn’t have to wait for a grownup to make time to read to me. I could take a book, go into a quiet place and just read myself. If I wasn’t reading, I was thinking of how to get more books. (Blacklight: “And you’ve changed HOW?”) The back pages of the Nancy Drew  series had this wonderful promotion about getting the new titles as they were released for a low low price with a whole 50 cents shipping and handling. I would count through my piggy bank and wish I was a grownup who could just buy all the books they wanted. (Blacklight: “Wait, you still wish you could buy all the books you wanted…”) Sure there was the Scholastic catalog and book fairs at school but you can’t get very many books on a $1.00 a week allowance.

And now, here I am at 41. I still adore books (Blacklight: “Do you love books more than me?” Me: “Hmm…that depends…”). When my father called earlier today to see how I enjoyed my vacation he asked “So what books did you get with your birthday money?”. And didn’t seem at all surprised as I told him about my adventures in used books including finding the Folio Society edition of Jessica Mitford’s Hons and Rebels for $15.00 at Book Barn. But as thrilling and delightful as my birthday books are? Nothing is as awesome as the gift my mother and Carolyn Keene gave me that afternoon so long ago.

 

Filed under: Awesome Gift, book addiction, books, How I Became A Reader, I Heart Books, the best addiction of all Tagged: book addiction, books, books books books, Carolyn Keene, how I learned to read, I Heart Books, Nancy Drew

She Didn’t Write That…

I’m on vacation and when I’m not zipping along the highway headed to used bookstores (do I dare make a third trip to Book Barn this week?), I’ve been curled up on Mr Couch with books trying to savor them like the pound of Lindt almond truffles I bought at the Clinton Crossing Premium Outlets vs inhaling them whole like the box of Junior Mints on my nightstand. And as I re-read Barbara Seaman’s Lovely Me: The Life of Jacqueline Susann, Judy Oppenheimer’s Private Demons: The Life of Shirley Jackson and Emily Toth’s Inside Peyton Place: The Life of Grace Metalious, all three controversial authors had something in common besides stirring up hornets nest of discontent and scandal. There was always a vicious rumor “She didn’t write that book/story…so and so did”.

Think this is one of my Crazy Literary Theories (TM)? Sadly, no. Even when Valley of the Dolls was selling so many copies an entire edition was printed with whatever paper was lying around the printing plant (believe it’s unofficially called the layer cake edition by collectors) people swore up and down her editor wrote the whole darn thing. Grace Metalious spent hours sitting at her typewriter, weaving bits of her own life and stories from small town New Hampshire to create Peyton Place (working title The Tree and the Blossom) but rumor had it her husband George or George and Grace’s dear friend Laurie Wilkins actually wrote the book. Some gossips claim Stanley Edgar Hyman wrote his wife Shirley Jackson’s chilling story The Lottery.

Now why were people so reluctant to give these three ladies credit for their creations? Was it the nature of the work itself? A look at humanity (The Lottery), pulling back the facade of a small town (Peyton Place), the raw gossip and sex (Valley of the Dolls)? The fact all three authors, married mothers, could shuck the bonds of house and home and devote themselves to writing..like a man? None of the three were known for their housekeeping and Jacqueline Susann adored living in a residential hotel and not having to cook or clean. There is one point in Lovely Me where the Susann refrigerator is pretty much bare beyond some bitters and suppositories. And Jacqueline’s main concern? That hubby Irving used one of her suppositories vs the almost empty refrigerator. Who needs to whip up a meal when there’s Room Service and amazing restaurants all around you? And at their primes Shirley, Grace and Jacqueline could most likely drink any man under the table. The then perception women just aren’t smart or clever enough t0 do anything besides cooking and cleaning and having babies? Granted only Shirley Jackson achieved a higher level of education and even that was a struggle but Jackson, Metalious and Susann, for all the challenges education brought were not dummies. And yes, you could argue Peyton Place and Valley of the Dolls needed heavy editing but you know what? Stephen King needs heavy editing and no one says anyone but him wrote his books.

How often does this “She didn’t write that book/story…so and so did” still occur today? Has anyone looked at a Tabitha King novel (she’s a terrific author who just happens to have passed her talent along to her son Joe Hill) and think “Oh Stephen/Joe/Owen must have written it?”. Does…ugghh and it hurts me to type this given how much I loathe this particular author…does J.K. Rowling have people thinking her husbands were responsible for the Harry Potter juggernaut? Then again it wasn’t just Shirley Jackson, Grace Metalious and Jacqueline Susann who had their authorship disputed. There are people out there today who firmly believe Branwell Bronte was the real author behind his three sisters masterpieces…

 

Filed under: authors, authorship, Grace Metalious, Jacqueline Susann, Peyton Place, rumors, Shirley Jackson, The Lottery, Valley of the Dolls, Why Tagged: authors, authorship, Grace Metalious, Jacqueline Susann, JK Rowling, Peyton Place, rumors, Shirley Jackson, Stephen King, Tabitha King, The Lottery, Valley of the Dolls

Private Demons

There are biographies that make Blacklight scream in terror when he stumbles in the living room and finds me curled up on Mr Couch reading (i.e. Eric Myers’ Uncle Mame: The Life Of Patrick Dennis but I think it’s because Blacklight is terrified of the Patrick Dennis in the tub picture on the back cover). And then there are biographies I’ve checked out of the local library so many times that the darn book spends more time at my house then on the library shelf, the ones I would own if only they weren’t out of print and didn’t cost more than a tank of gas or a month’s groceries or even the electric bill. Private Demons: The Life of Shirley Jackson by Judy Oppenheimer is firmly in the second category.

So what makes Private Demons: The Life of Shirley Jackson something that has me seriously wondering if Blacklight would object to me feeding him spaghetti and baked ziti for dinner for a month vs his usual boneless loin pork chops so I can buy the like new hardcover copy from Amazon? Judy Oppenheimer has done the hardest trick in the biographer’s tasks, she not only makes Shirley Jackson come to life but makes you want to visit the house with the pillars and spend an evening with the Hymans circa 1954. Anything could and did happen with Shirley. Imagine being at the Hyman’s on a night when Shirley got up from the table, went into the study, pounded out a story and then read it to the group, took the editing suggestions and had said story ready for submission by morning?

But Shirley Jackson was more than a machine for cranking out perfect tales to chill your soul or warm your heart. Oppenheimer draws back the facade that Shirley Jackson constructed through her writing to the public, friends and family to reveal the different facets making up such a creative soul. There’s the ungainly girl who never could win her mother’s approval even to her dying day. A devoted mother. A wife who almost waited on her literary critic/professor spouse hand and foot while supporting the household on her writing fees. A women who didn’t seem to care about her appearance but spends oodles of time tracking down a pair of elegant shoes. A mother who fiercely loved her children but didn’t seem to notice when they needed bath time and a good long shampoo.

Some of the very best parts of Private Demons: The Life of Shirley Jackson are when Oppenheimer steps back and allows Jackson’s children to speak about their mother. It’s interesting and very heartbreaking to know how Jackson’s older daughter felt like she was an offering to her grandmother and how the younger daughter felt pressured into being her mother’s shadow/double. Did the pressure of being Jackson’s daughter rob us of another literary light? Do Jackson’s sons feel like their mother loved them less or more than their sisters?

So if you hear Blacklight wondering why baked ziti or pancakes or scrambled eggs are on the menu every night, be assured I’ve broken down and ordered Private Demons: The Life of Shirley Jackson from Amazon or Thriftbooks. Track down Private Demons: The Life of Shirley Jackson from your library, spend some time curled up on the couch reading and you might find yourself doing the same.

 

 

 

Filed under: book review, Books I Loved Back in the Day, Books I Want, Books That Haunt You, Books That Need To Be Republished, Buy or Check It Out, Judy Oppenheimer, Library Raid, literary biographies, Private Demons, Shirley Jackson Tagged: book review, Books That Need To Be Republished, Buy This Book Already, Judy Oppenheimer, literary biographies, Private Demons, Shirley Jackson

God Bless America

Let’s set the scene.

It’s about 4:30pm in mid-October. I’m on the couch checking my e-mail and IM’ing friends. Blacklight has finally lurched out of the bedroom and into the living room so I don’t even have to ask if it’s a high pain day. Every day is a high pain day for Blacklight. Reaching for his sweatshirt, which is flung over a chair, he notices a stack of library books on the dining room table and starts poking around to see what I checked out. Then he holds up one book, looking puzzled.

“God Bless America?  Is this about crazy Tea Party Republicans or something?”

“What? No. It’s the book Dr Karen from Monster Talk wrote about different religions in America. Do you want me to make your nasty eggy sandwich now or after you’ve gotten pretty?”

Now even though I’m a well-read adult (Blacklight: “But you refuse to read Richard Dawkins…” Me: ), there are gaps in my knowledge of the religious world. I did get baptized, made my First Communion and was confirmed in the Catholic Church but was because it was my parents choice and even then I grew up in the laxest of Catholic households. I have picked up things here and there but there are still things I can’t wrap my head around when it comes to the different religions and their beliefs. But religion doesn’t interest me enough to make a deep study of it like my father-in-law. What I need? Something to give me the basic facts so I don’t ask my Mennonites, New Age and Christian friends ignorant questions.

Luckily a person like me can turn to Karen Stollznow’s God Bless America: Strange and Unusual Religious Beliefs and Practices in the United States.  Yes, that title is certainly a mouthful. But the book itself is easily digestible with chapters covering everything from Fundamentalist Mormons, Amish and Mennonites, New Agers, Satanists, Quakers and more. Each chapter blends a history/breakdown of said religion’s beliefs and experiences Karen Stollznow and her husband Matthew had in interactions with the believers. There is a part in Signs, Wonders and Miracles chapter (about Charismatics and Pentecostals) that had me darting into the living room and re-enacting Matthew’s session with the Charismatic “healers” complete with a stuffed cat filling in for Matthew.

Thanks to God Bless America: Strange and Unusual Religious Beliefs and Practices in the United States, I now know what an Anabaptist is and sorry Conradin from Saki’s excellent and chilling short story “Sredni Vashtar”, an Anabaptist isn’t as thrilling and wicked as it sounds. I’ve also found out the differences between Amish and Mennonites. No stupid questions about why some Mennonites use computers and others doesn’t from me! >

Would I recommend God Bless America: Strange and Unusual Religious Beliefs and Practices in the United States? Certainly! God Bless America: Strange and Unusual Religious Beliefs and Practices in the United States isn’t Religions for Dummies. And it’s not a skeptic and her fellow skeptic spouse bashing every religion they encounter. The author’s willingness to explore the different religions even if she might find them or some of their practices silly or foolish or unbelievable is admirable. What God Bless America: Strange and Unusual Religious Beliefs and Practices in the United States is a concise and well research look at various religions and beliefs that many people might not know about or only think the wildest and most crazy ideas about. It doesn’t talk down to the reader. You might not agree with each religion or it’s beliefs after learning more about them but you will come away with a better understanding of each religion and be more informed when you encounter it in the future.

Would I recommend God Bless America: Strange and Unusual Religious Beliefs and Practices in the United States? Certainly!

Filed under: book review, Books I Want, God Bless America, Karen Stollznow, Religion Tagged: book review, God Bless America, Karen Stollznow, religion

Elsa Lanchester Herself

Sometimes I swear my favorite podcasts just know what I’m reading or watching. Last month, I was doing my usual Films I Love To Watch In October thing, checking Creepshow out of the library so many times that Blacklight is certain it’s because I have a movie boyfriend in it, laughing at the clothes and hair and Karswell in Casting the Runes and sprawling out on Mr Couch watching Frankenstein and Bride of Frankenstein on the weekends until Blacklight comes lurching out of the bedroom and into the living like an Advil popping zombie. And then one day at Company X, I pop on the headphones and turn to the latest episode of Stuff You Missed in History Class to drown out Coworker 123 and find Holly and Tracy talking about the Bride herself, Miss Elsa Lanchester.

Now if you’ve read this blog before, the next part should not come as a surprise. The second my morning break rolled around?  I was logging into the Central Connecticut library system and placing an inter-library loan request for Elsa Lanchester’s autobiography Elsa Lanchester Herself and then heading to the cafeteria for tea.

Once Elsa Lanchester Herself arrived at my local library, I could not wait to get my hands on it. After all, Holly had been in ecstasies in the podcast. But would it be as awesome as I remembered when I found Elsa Lanchester Herself at a tag sale as a teenager and read it? Had I made a mistake getting rid of it in the Great Book Purge of 1998 when I got scared the wooden shelves in my closet had reached the breaking point?

But the book was in my hands and I started reading as I made Blacklight’s breakfast. And then put it down, and then read some more and put it down again. And this cycle of reading a bit and then put it down continued over a few weeks. Normally an inter-library loan that has me racing from work to the library to snap it gets consumed faster than Lay’s Honey BBQ chips on a buy one get one free special. Elsa Lanchester Herself was getting consumed like a bar of Cadbury Dark Chocolate, a bite here, a bite there, wrap it up and “Oh I have chocolate. Maybe I should eat a piece…”

I couldn’t figure out why I wasn’t barreling through the book like I had at seventeen, cramming Elsa into my maw so fast I wasn’t getting everything there was to consume. I mean who wouldn’t devour a book about someone who was born to unmarried parents, raised in a loose fashion at odds with Edwardian society, studied dance in Paris under the doomed Isadora Duncan, had her own nightclub, moonlighted as a professional correspondent, met and married one of the great actors of all time and started in one of James Whale’s finest films? My teenage self loved reading Elsa Lanchester Herself. She was a Creative. A Bohemian. A rule breaker. So awesome. So very awesome.

Reading Elsa Lanchester Herself as an adult, I can see why it upset so many people and her late husband’s friends. Elsa Lanchester comes across as cuddly as a patch of nettles. Sometimes I wondered if she truly loved or cared about anything beyond living her life the exact opposite of her parents. Mom an anti-marriage, vegetarian with two children? Then marry, eat meat and don’t have children. And if that is true, is staying married to a person who seems to resent you and the marriage why Elsa Lanchester didn’t leave Charles Laughton. Because the love and bonds Elsa claims exist between herself and Charles? I can’t see them in their later years. What I do see is sadistic and sad. What kind of life is it being married to someone who can’t give you love and gets rid of everything you express fondness for? When Elsa talks about Charles selling a mask she treasured that turns out to be a very valuable and rare piece, I wanted to smack Charles and shake Elsa for not standing up for herself. And that’s just one of the many times I felt that urge.

I do agree with Stuff You Missed in History Class‘ Holly Frey that Elsa Lanchester Herself needs to be republished. Heck, I even liked the Facebook group. But maybe not for the same reasons. Elsa Lanchester Herself is a portrait of a very unique and interesting performer that no longer exists in our modern world. It’s also a look into a time where every choice both Elsa and her mother Biddy made was unusual and shocking. It gives a peek into making of one of the best horror movies of all time. And it makes me wish that someone would write a biography of Edith “Biddy” Lanchester who was just as fascinating as her daughter.

Filed under: book review, Books I Loved Back in the Day, Elsa Lanchester, Elsa Lanchester Herself, Library Raid, This NEEDS To Be RePublished Tagged: book review, Books I Loved Back in the Day, Books That Need To Be Republished, Charles Laughton, Elsa Lanchester, Elsa Lanchester Herself, Library Raid

Books & Boos

It’s Friday and one of my Company X coworkers is doubling checking the procedures for the work he’ll be covering while I’m out on vacation. Then he asks the question. “So whatcha ya gonna do? Going anywhere?” My response: “I’m going to Book Barn on my birthday and then I have to find out where the heck Colchester is because there’s a bookstore called Books & Boos that has new and used books and all kinds of cool stuff…” Cue co-worker shaking his head. Whatever dude…

So clutching directions to Colchester (which turns out is a few towns over from my in-laws), I hopped in Mr Honda yesterday and sent out on an adventure.  Books & Boos is nestled in a small New England town and the trip there takes you on winding country roads. Would I get lost on the way? But I DID have directions, a full tank of gas and a Stephen King audiobook playing. Before I knew it, I had crossed the Colchester town line, saw the yellow building Books & Boos is in and pulled into the parking lot.

I had gotten about three feet into Books & Boos when I was knew I was going to find some treasures. A vintage Better Homes & Gardens gardening guide? (I have a collection of those binder Better Homes & Gardens guides) Hello there! And then turning and seeing a cool Zombie Poe t-shirt? My kind of place.  Books & Boos is also a shop that is proud of the local creative community and supports them wholeheartedly. Display cases flanking the horror section have handcrafted wooden items and stuffed collectibles (my favorite? the stuffed blood stains). On the walls are hung with framed artwork by local artists available for purchase. And there are two large racks of local authors. One of my favorite things on the local writers racks? A little sign over Stacey Longo’s Secret Things: Twelve Tales to Terrify saying there’s a 50% chance the author is in the store. How many bookstores can make that claim?

Not interested in local authors and want a good used book? No shame in that. Books & Boos will have something for you. There’s everything from fiction, biographies, religion, history, kids books (they have Nancy Drew!), cookbooks and more. There’s a locked case full of amazing movie tie-in books from all genres including Imitation of Life. If I was still collecting vintage cookbooks from the 1950s onward I would have found quite a few titles to add to the kitchen bookcase. I ended up with three books in great shape for very reasonable prices including the Joyce Carol Oates edited H.P. Lovecraft collection (Blacklight: “Of course you bought Lovecraft…” Me: “Hey, I also bought a Richard Matheson paperback too!”). I bet even Mr Picky Pants Blacklight could find something nifty in Books & Boos stacks. (Blacklight: “What’s wrong with my books?” Me: “Stephen R. Donaldson, Tom Clancy, Larry Bond…” Blacklight: “You know there are books that aren’t H.P. Lovecraft or Stephen King or Shirley Jackson or that Grace Malicious right?”)

Books & Boos isn’t a giant used bookstore with what Andy calls “the Wall of King and Koontz” like Book Barn down in Niantic or Andy’s beloved McKay’s Used Books out in Tennessee but it’s totally worth the trip. After all, there’s nothing like a good used bookstore with friendly staff and a welcoming atmosphere. I’ll take that over Barnes & Noble any day even if you waved a $1,000 Barnes & Noble gift card in my face.

Books & Boos Online

http://www.booksandboos.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Filed under: adventure time!, Books & Boos, bookstore, bookstore review, Worth The Trip Tagged: adventure time, Books & Boos, bookstore review, used bookstore, Worth the Trip

Princess Daisy

If there was ever a book that belongs in the “How Did I Get Away With Reading This When I Twelve/Thirteen/Fourteen” files, Judith Krantz’s 1980 best seller Princess Daisy is in the top five. Then again, I didn’t grow up with the most bookish parents and the cover of Princess Daisy is all lovely and soft focus vs the sexy glamor of a Jackie Collins mass market paperback circa 1983.

A few months ago, I was at the S-bury library, checking to see if they still had Anita Loos’ A Mouse Is Born because not even the most awesome library for old books in the Central Connecticut library system (aka the Raymond Library in East Hartford, CT) didn’t have it among it’s endless stacks. Now I can’t remember my left from right, north from south and east from west  so of course I got all mixed up in the fiction stacks and ended up in the K’s vs the L’s. Then as if I was being controlled by an unseen being, I drifted over to the KRA shelf and pulled down Princess Daisy.  And the darned thing stills opens right to the two sections that scandalized all my friends circa 1984*. But Best Sibling EVER Andy was all “Want Cheng Square for lunch?”, so I popped Princess Daisy back on the shelf and off to lunch we went.

But coming back from S-bury, stuffed full of lovely sushi, I had to pass the library on the way to Moderate Income Apartments and well, why not stop and see if they had Princess Daisy? 

Now if you’ve never encountered Princess Daisy, which shocks me, but then again not everyone is me and spends their time reading utter, epic and delicious trash from the 1980s, our heroine is Princess Marguerite “Daisy” Valensky. Dad is walking sex on stick Prince Stash. Mom is a movie star. Of course Our Daisy takes after her gorgeous parents with lovely fresh as a peach skin, dark eyes and white blond hair and an amazing figure. Did you think Daisy would be a troll? Come on! The only ugly Judith Krantz main character ever was Billy from Scruples and she was just fat and poorly dressed.  But back to Daisy. She’s broke . She’s seen way too many things in her young life and has some big secrets including a developmentally disabled but gorgeous twin sister Dani. And she’s agreed to sell her heritage to a cosmetic giant run by a mummy slash stick insect (coughcoughpagingEsteeLaudercoughcough) for a wad of cash big enough to choke a dinosaur. But will she find love? Umm…it’s a Judith Krantz novel, so…YES!

But Princess Daisy isn’t just a sex and shopping novel. It’s educational! Here are some very valuable things I learned from Princess Daisy.

Always take ALL THE JEWELRY when you’re running away from your estranged Russian prince husband-EVERYTHING silly Francesca!
The richest of the richest can get away with the most eccentric things
Jumble (tag/garage) sales are awesome for find vintage treasures
I want a lurcher. Seriously.
Don’t trust guys called Ram

Who needs The Real Housewives of Anything when you have Francesca giving up life as a movie star for life as a Princess for life on the run? Or Daisy mixing among the mega rich? Or Kiki and her glorious outfits? And yes, Anabel is totally Pamela Churchill Harriman! (Blacklight: “Who?” Me: “Shouldn’t you be putting up torches in that mine before a Creeper spawns or something?” Blacklight: “Creeper!??! Where?”) Princess Daisy is a terrific introduction to the world of Judith Krantz and might very well be her best work. Trawl your library stacks, haunt the fiction section at Savers, buy the Kindle e-book already!

*pages 41-49 and pages 242-246 Princess Daisy (1980) Crown Publishers, first edition

Filed under: Blast From The Past, book review, Books I Loved Back in the Day, Judith Krantz, Library Raid, Princess Daisy, Trash Classics Tagged: 1980s, Blast From the Past, book review, Judith Krantz, Library Raid, Princess Daisy, Trash Classics

Friends of the Ferguson Library Book Shop

I’m on vacation from Company X this week and since I don’t have the money to hop into a time machine for Providence in 1918 or to spend the week in 2013 Providence (Blacklight: “You do realize HP Lovecraft is dead and not really your boyfriend, right?”), I decided to not spend the entire week curled up on Mr Couch, eating chips and scones while having a marathon binge on Deadly Women. Which is itself a lovely idea. My grand and glorious plan was to take the birthday dosh and hit some amazing bookstores here in Connecticut. And on the list right after my beloved Book Barn? The Friends of the Ferguson Library Book Shop in Stamford, CT.

What is it about a library book shop that will pry me from the loving arms of Mr Couch and enduring the wonders and joys of Interstate 95? Hmm…good question. I am all for used book stores and people have raved to me about the awesome of the Friends of the Ferguson Library Book Shop but Stamford is quite the haul. And Interstate 95 from Bridgeport to Stamford is a nightmare. What those people didn’t mention? THE FERGUSON LIBRARY HAS A STARBUCKS. A proper Starbucks that opens right onto the Friends Book Shop. It’s like the Universe decide to mash up three of my favorite things (Starbucks, used book stores and libraries) in one glorious bite. So this morning, after fighting the anxiety demons (“Come on Gwen…stay on the couch and eat leftover birthday cake and watch Season 5 of Deadly Women. You know you want to..”), I flung on my shoes, grabbed my iPod and headed down to Stamford.

Bracing myself with Starbucks on the way (hey vacation time! And Starbucks hot chocolate with no whipped cream is so good…) I listened to Stephen King’s UR (oh how very much I want that pink Kindle!) and only freaked out when a tractor trailer started to creep into my lane going through Bridgeport. Not too bad for a Monday drive. By 10:30 am I was in Stamford and deciding to go big and splash out for valet parking vs trying to endure the big creepy parking garage. I’ve handled one too many auto claims involving parking garages to feel 100% confident in them. Then I was on the street, looked to my left and saw a glorious site. A huge, elegant, white columned library and a glass extension with the magic words STARBUCKS COFFEE. I might have gasped in sheer delight (okay I totally did).

Now since I was early (remember my mother programmed me to never ever be late for anything), I grabbed an iced tea from Starbucks and walked around the block to kill some time. And waited for the library proper to open while reading Mr Kindle and wishing I had remembered my gloves (very chilly this morning in New England). And once the magic hour of 11 am came, I was zipping through the doors and into the Friends Book Shop. Now the Ferguson Library is gorgeous and huge and looks like a fancy pants hotel in downtown Providence. I could have spent the whole day in the stacks but my goal was BUY ALL THE BOOKS and good golly Miss Molly I was going to achieve that goal. Two feet into the shop and I found a hardcover of Oryx and Crake for $1.00. And a Richard Matheson trade paperback for $2.00 and then I got overwhelmed.

The book shop itself is one large main room with high ceilings and lovely shelves and cabinets stuffed with goodies. I needed a moment or seventeen to catch my breath and check out all the sections. The volunteer staff is very friendly and greeted their regulars and offered to hold my growing stack of treasure behind the counter. And the selection? According to their website, the Friends of the Ferguson Library’s main bookshop (the one I was in) has about 10,000 titles. There are books, magazines, CDs and DVDs. I found everything from your standard suspects (Steel, Larry Bond, James Patterson, etc) to slipcovered Heritage Press titles to latest Neil Gaiman (The Ocean at the End of the Lane) to a boxed paperback set of Laura Ingalls Wilder and the Twilight series. And the books are clean and didn’t smell musty at all which is a big deal when you’re very sensitive to smells and your husband is allergic to everything. Prices are quite reasonable and if you are a Friend of the Ferguson Library, you get 10% off your purchases. My selections ranged from the $1.00 Margaret Atwood hardcover to a $2.00 Florence King trade paperback and a Mitford letters collection for $6.00. My grand total for two bags of books was a whopping $19.00.

It’s a pity Stamford is so far away because Friends of the Ferguson Library Book Shop lives up to the hype and I would love to add it to my regular round of used book stores to visit every few months. It’s not Book Barn, but honestly I think only McKay Used Books in Tennessee can outrank Book Barn in my heart. But for a library book shop? It’s the one to beat.

http://www.fergusonlibrary.org/friends/book-shops

Filed under: adventure time!, bookstore review, Friends of the Ferguson Library Book Shop Tagged: adventure time, bookstore review, Buy All The Books, Friends of the Ferguson Libary Book Shop, library book stores