Pictures from the Bloomsbury Festival now added!

This has been a long, frustrating week and I’m glad it’s nearly over. Hoping I can just make it to Friday where I will crash and not wake up for a long time. Or until Saturday morning when I hope to finally make it to Portobello Road and the market, which I haven’t been to this trip.

On the upside Mom and Aunt LuAnn will be here in a week, and the tickets for Scotland and to see “Sound of Music” are all booked!

I really don’t have anything else exciting to add. Been trying to get into the shows they have on BBC, but not much luck. They have a cheap knock-off version of ANTM with Rachel Hunter called “Make me a Supermodel” but it’s not half as good. There’s a trashy new soap called “Goldplated” that’s sort of like OC, but not. “Strictly Come Dancing” was alright, Baby Spice is on so that’s interesting to see her. And sadly the only American shows they seem to be playing right now are “CSI”, “The Simpsons”, and “Battlestar Gallatica.” But luckily for me this means I spend less time watching tv. And more time doing things and reading.

Speaking of reading, I have no one here to discuss books with so I’m including my mini-reviews of what I’ve read recently just because I can. Feel free to skip over. Not sure what my weekend plans are as of yet. Need to definitely buy a winter coat. I’ve tried on a ton but haven’t found just the right one. And I am definitely going to at least one museum, though I’ve been saying that the whole time. Happy almost-Friday everyone!

The Year of Magical Thinking – Joan Didion
A beautiful book. The way she writes makes me wants to drop everything and write, and the way she talks about writing is exactly how I feel. It was of course a book tinged with sadness as it deals with her husband’s death and her daughter’s near-death illness, but it was touching without being overly emotional, and there was beauty in how she wrote about herself and her husband. I admire her way of writing because it was very stream of consciousness, a way I can not write, and reminded me a lot of Gloria Vanderbilt’s “A Mother’s Story,” another book about grief I found haunting and beautiful.

Saving Fish from Drowning – Amy Tan
She is a great story-teller, and there were a lot of pieces to her plot but they all came together very well without being confusing or annoying. And best of all it took place in Burma/Myanmar, a place I knew very little of, but know feel like I learned a lot about the culture and want to learn more. A book is good in my mind if I learn about a different culture and want to learn more.

The Third Brother – Nick McDonnell
I judged him too soon, and he is actually deserving of the fact that he’s written two books by 21. Though I haven’t read his first. And while it wouldn’t kill him to learn how to properly transition instead of cheating and making each new scene a new chapter, he writes well and is very creative and different. And while the book is not centered on 9/11, a pivotal scene takes place on the day, and he writes about being in the center of the chaos in New York, in a way I haven’t read before. I don’t know how he knows the details he does, or if they’re even true, but I think they are and it was fascinating to read that portion.

Everyone Worth Knowing – Lauren Weisberger
First, I love chick lit. If it is about rich, elitist New Yorkers, I buy it. If it’s about a small town girl who tries to make it in a big city, I read it. If it takes place in New York, Paris, or London, has anything to do with fashionistas or shopaholics, or has a pink, green, or purple cover, I grab it. But sadly, I think I have reached my chick lit peak. Ten pages into this book I knew who she was going to end up with, when she was going to have her breakdown, and who was going to be the secret villain. And I’m not saying this in a cocky “ooh I’m so smart” way. I’m saying this as someone who has, at least for now, reached the end of the chick lit genre, kind of like that commercial where the guy is surfing the Internet and he reaches the end, he’s seen it all. It is a sad sad day for me indeed.


The Lady and the Unicorn – Tracy Chevalier
This book was only ok. I loved “Girl with a Pearl Earring” and read it in one night, but this one just wasn’t as good. It may be because I had never heard of the art she wrote about, whereas I had always admired the pearl earring painting, I don’t know. It just wasn’t as entrancing. But at least I can say I now know how tapestries are made now.