Agatha Christie

Agatha Christie is one of my favorite authors, right up there with Hemingway and Irving and Fitzgerald and though I hate to admit it, Anita Shreve. I remember the first Agatha Christie book I ever bought, Hallowe'en Party, at a garage sale. I don't remember exactly the story line, although I know that someone dies from cyanide, which I learned is extracted from apple seeds. 

(I was in fifth grade when I read this book, and I can tell you that each and every time I have eaten an apple since, I think about how the seeds [though it would take literally hundreds eaten in one sitting] can be used to create cyanide). 

Anyway, Christie was a prolific writer and I've decided to read her novels in order. From the beginning, which happens to be the very mysterious, The Mysterious Affair at Styles. I'm about eight books in, and I'm rediscovering some books I've read and some that I haven't. In between I'm reading others, like The American Heiress, which is pretty good. If you're a Downton Abbey fan, you'll enjoy The American Heiress. 

Washington and Thatcher

Happy Presidents Day!  Hopefully you aren't at work today, though I know quite a few people who are.  It's interesting to read about the history of Presidents Day and the different titles the holiday has in different states. For example, the actual name of the holiday is "Washington's Birthday," originally a holiday observed only by government workers in the District of Columbia.  In the great state of Alabama, the holiday is officially called "Washington and Jefferson Day," although Jefferson's birthday is actually in April.  Who knew?  (Most of all, Presidents Day reminds me of the fantastic movie, Holiday Inn, starring Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire. It's a must-watch if you have never seen it!)

Yesterday I spent the day with a friend, and among our adventures was a viewing of The Iron Lady, promoted as a biopic of Margaret Thatcher.  Thatcher was not only the first, and only, female Prime Minister of Great Britain, but she was also the longest-serving Prime Minister.  

While the movie did show us many of the accomplishments and failures of Thatcher's life, it also focused much on her dementia in later life; it seems more like a snapshot of Thatcher's life rather than a full-fledged biopic.  I will say that Meryl Streep was excellent in this role; she was perfectly cast, and she truly transformed herself into Thatcher.  She has already won a Golden Globe for her performance, and I would be shocked if she didn't win the Academy Award for which she's also nominated.  The film is also nominated for the Academy Award for best makeup, which was so realistic it was hard to believe it was simply makeup.  I did like the movie, and it's rekindled my interest in reading more biographies, though we'll see if I stick to that.

Sinking Cruise Ships and Anglophilia

When I was in Mississippi for Christmas, my family and I went to go see a movie (Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows.  It won't win an Oscar, but I really, really enjoy Robert Downey, Jr. and Jude Law, not to mention Rachel McAdams is in it, although I'd call her role a very long cameo.  I'd recommend it for a rental, it was very entertaining and included lots of witty banter.).

Previews shown before the movie included a trailer for the release of Titanic in 3-D.  (Yes, we can see Jack sketch Rose nekkid all over again, but in 3-D!  I will obviously be seeing this in the theaters.)  At first I wondered why the studio would re-release this movie, and in 3-D no less, but I realized that April 2012 will mark the 100-year anniversary of the sinking of the unsinkable Titanic.  I found this interesting and gave it no further thought.

Prior to Christmas and hence, I've noticed several bloggers and tweeters talking about some PBS show called Downton Abbey.  Apparently it won like four Emmys in 2011, and while originally conceived as a miniseries, its popularity has ensured that it will be come a full-season drama.  It's a family-centric drama set in Edwardian England--who watches that stuff, right?  Right.  Well, I was home sick earlier this week and since daytime television is absolutely atrocious, I thought, "Hey, maybe I'll watch that PBS show that everyone is talking about."  Since it's a PBS show, you can watch past episodes for free online.  Y'all, this show is good.  Not only does it have all sorts of intrigue, sex, death, and Maggie Smith, but it's different than anything else on TV right now.  I highly recommend you watch it, as I'm hooked.  The first episode starts with the sinking of the Titanic, effectively eliminating the heir to the wealthy Grantham family's estate, Downton Abbey.  Anyway, watch it, it's good.  The second season is just starting on PBS, so if you hurry, you won't be relegated to watching the entire series on your computer.

Lastly, did you hear about the cruise ship that ran aground off the Italian coast?  The rest of this post is light-hearted, but I don't mention this lightly, it just fit the theme.  ABC reports:

The first course had just been served in the Costa Concordia's dining room when the wine glasses, forks and plates of cuttlefish and mushrooms smashed to the ground. At the magic show in the theater, the trash cans tipped over and the theater curtains turned on their side. Then the hallways turned upside down, and passengers crawled on bruised knees through the dark. Others jumped alone into the cold Mediterranean Sea.   

The terrifying, chaotic escape from the luxury liner was straight out of a scene from "Titanic" for many of the 4,000-plus passengers and crew on the cruise ship, which ran aground off the Italian coast late Friday and flipped on its side with a 160-foot (50-meter) gash in its hull.

It appears that most of the over 4,000 passengers have been rescued, although three deaths have been confirmed.  Naively, I thought that there wouldn't be stories of sinking cruise ships in the year 2012.

via

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge

A Stitch in Time

Late this year (October, to be exact), Penguin will reissue a selection of its classics with playful, stitched covers by Jillian Tamaki.  The Hardcover Classics Deluxe editions sold very well, and hopefully introduced new readers to classic works of literature.  Penguin's website says of the Coralie Bickford-Smith collection, "Featuring gorgeous patterns stamped on linen cases, colored endpapers, and ribbon markers, these are rich and sumptuous volumes that continue what will be one of the most coveted sets of books ever produced."  I'm curious to see if the demand is similar for these whimsical editions.

Recent Readings

Settle in, I've been doing quite a bit of reading lately.

In my last post, I mentioned that I recently finished Let the Great World Spin (by Colum McCann), winner of the 2009 National Book Award for Fiction.  I had high expectations for this book, and while I'd rate this book a 4 out of 5 stars, I didn't like it as much as I wanted to.  The story centers on the intersecting lives of several residents of New York in the 1970s--an Irish immigrant monk and his brother, a heroine-addicted hooker and her daughter (and her daughter's daughters), two young artists playing fast and loose with life, and a group of women who meet each month to discuss the loss of their sons in the Vietnam War.  The novel is extremely well-written and showcases the New York of August of 1974, the same month that French tight-rope walker (funambulist) Philippe Petit danced across a wire strung between the Twin Towers.  While the novel ends on a hopeful note, it takes the reader through some difficult and desperate twists of fate to get to the light at the end of the tunnel.  I honestly believe if I had known less about the book before I began reading it, I would have enjoyed it more; I expected to read more about Petit, and he is merely a minor character in the novel, though his own story has been published as well.

Just prior to Let the Great World Spin, I read Still Alice, by Lisa Genova.  I thought this was such a moving story, told from the first-person perspective of Alice Howland, renowned professor of psychology at Harvard, who slowly succumbs to early-onset Alzheimer's disease.  Alzheimer's frightens the ever-living $@#! out of me, and it runs in my family, but I found this story moving, compelling, and somewhat haunting.  From the outside, the minds of those suffering from dementia seem like such a maze of thoughts and memories, and reading this book somewhat illuminated what that experience is like with the reader.  I appreciated the insight into how Alzheimer's can affect not only the family of the afflicted, but also the (albeit fictional) perspective of the person suffering from the disease, particularly when the sufferer has spent her life being praised and recognized for her brilliance and intellect.  Scary, enlightening, interesting, and a story of family sticking with one another through difficult times.

Before Still Alice, I finished Stieg Larsson's Millennium Trilogy that begins with The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and ends with The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest.  If you've read my previous posts (here and here, respectively) about this trilogy, you know that I had mixed feelings about the first book.  Parts of it were extremely graphic and difficult for me to read, but I remained intrigued by the story of Lisbeth Salander.  I really, really enjoyed the second book, and the final chapter did not disappoint.  The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest picks up where The Girl Who Played with Fire ends, and the action doesn't stop until the final page.  The third book aims to tie up many loose ends, and there seem to be quite a few convenient occurences; however, the mystery surrounding Lisbeth's life keep the story's momentum going throughout.  Instead of merely confronting her enemies, Lisbeth must now either destroy them or face her own destruction; since she's lying in a hospital bed for the majority of novel, she's got a problem on her hands.  I'm glad that I finished the trilogy since I enjoyed the story much more than I initially thought I would, and I'd recommend it to you if you are a) still reading this blog post, and b) like stories that involve espionage, government conspiracies, and lots of action and suspense.

Between The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest and Still Alice, I attemped to read The Corrections, by Joseph Franzen.  I'd read some great reviews and thought the story sounded amusing, smart, and possibly controversial, so I was ready to dig in.  Not even 200 pages in, I put it down and haven't picked it back up since.  This is significant, because I rarely don't finish a book that I begin.  In fact, the only other book that I can immediately recall not finishing was a Janet Evanovich book, and those things are just terrible (unless One for the Money was just a truly amateur effort).

Okay, done.  Still with me?  Bueller?  Bueller?

Book Love

Unless you've been living on Venus (I've always wanted to visit) for the past several months, you have seen the clothbound editions of Penguin Classics.  Being a book-lover and an admirer of great design, I immediately fell in love.  I refrained from posting about these new versions because they were literally everywhere--newspapers, blogs, magazines, and retailers (like my beloved Anthropologie) all gushed over the modern designs.  I'm a classicist; I don't give in much to trends (I am finally, finally, embracing animal print), and my favorite color palette for almost anything is black and white, with gray thrown in for variety; however, I can no longer abstain from showcasing these beauties on this here blog because I think they are really, really pretty.  (Not that I had any averse feelings toward the vintage-y orange-and-black covers!)  PLUS, OneKingsLane is having a sale on some aesthetically-similar-but-completely-different hard-cover books from Random House, and I just couldn't resist sharing.

DC 2010 Tweed Ride

The second annual D.C. Tweed Ride is Sunday, November 14 this year, only a few days away.  If you're asking yourself, "What exactly is a tweed ride?", look no further than the official website of the Dandies and Quaintrelles, organizers of the event.

Dandies & Quaintrelles (est. 2009), a Washington, DC based social group, organizes and hosts vintage-inspired, stylish events in partnership with and in support of noble causes. D&Q is founded on the ideals of refined style and purposeful living. For more information, contact us.

Tweed rides have been gaining popularity in recent years, and while it's no high-heeled drag queen race, it's sure to be a fun time for those participating.  A Washington Post article from last year states, "This costumed lark may be a thread in a broader trend--a cyclical return to old-fashioned cocktails and chandelier lighting and waistcoats--that is nurturing a new brand of masculinity (rugged but elegant and old-world American) from the slick ashes of the European metrosexual."

Click here to see pictures from last year's ride, and here's to hoping that the weather holds up for these stylish cyclists! 

Kate Spade Inspiration

Love LOVE the kate spade "Things We Love" inspiration board.  Clicking on each "thing" links you to more information, and you can even submit your own "things you love."  Do you love it?