Halloween Pirates

Just thought you might want to see my 5 year old
Pirate of the Caribbean.

This is the daytime version that he wore to school - complete with bandana and braids.










This is the night time version - he changed to the hat and added an earring and a sword.

Possession A Romance - Book Review

Possession A Romance
By A.S. (Antonia Susan) Byatt
Originally Published Chatto & Windus 1990
This cover version published Vintage 2001
Movie

This book is my third and final book for the Book to Movie Challenge. I love reading literary detective novels, although I do not particularly like poetry. However this is a search for what really happened between two (fictional) Victorian poets in England in the 1860s. A.S. Byatt made up poems, stories, diary entries and letters from both poets, and other family members and friends. These were woven throughout an excellent story of two present day academics looking for more details of the poets lives.

The two poets are Christabel LaMotte and Randolph Henry Ash. Christabel is actually a lesbian - but in Victorian times, this of course was a horrible sin - so she lived quietly with her companion Blanche Glover. Ash was married to Ellen, but they did not have any children. Ash and Christabel met at a dinner party given by a colleague in 1859, where they found a common area of passion (literature and poetry) to talk about.

Roland Michell is an American scholar of the poet Randolph Henry Ash. He is in England doing a fellowship (similar to an internship) on Ash. One day in the London Library, he is looking through an old Book that used to belong to Randolph Ash. Inside this book, he finds 2 drafts of a letter written by Ash to an unknown lady. The letters begin..."Dear Madam". It's obvious that Ash is not writing to his wife. The letters mention the name of the colleague who gave the party, so Roland does more digging and eventually discovers that there were 3 women at that party. Two of them were known, and one was not. The unknown woman was a Christabel LaMotte. Ash asks a colleague for advice on who to consult regarding LaMotte and is referred to Dr Maud Bailey in Lincoln University.

Roland goes to Lincoln to visit Dr Bailey and discovers that she is Lamotte's great great neice, being descended from Christabel's sister Sophia. Sophia's daughter May Bailey, married a Bailey cousin. Maud takes Roland on a small tour, visiting the home where Christabel lived. and died. There they discover some letters, previously unknown. These letters indicate an ongoing affair with Randolph Ash - something that noone else was aware of.

The letters take Roland and Maud on a trip to Whitby, and from there to France, where eventually they discover a secret, something that will change Maud's entire life.

At the same time as I was reading the novel, I also watched the movie. Beautiful. Not having seen it before, I loved it. I think its stayed pretty true to the novel, except that it cut out a lot of the other academics. In the novel there are other academics chasing Roland and Maud, because they too want to be the first to discover something new about Randolph Ash. Its the old adage - Publish or perish. They featured quite heavily in the book, and not so much in the movie.

My DH really liked the movie. He usually prefers actions and thrillers. He says this was a great story because of the search and the mystery, and he wanted to know the answers just as much as Roland and Maud did.

If I was to write a novel, I would want to write a novel just like this - a Literary Detective novel.

Old Books in the Old World - by Rostenberg & Stern

Old Books in the Old World
By Leona Rostenberg and Madeleine Stern.
Oak Knoll Press 1996

This is a diary of Rostenberg and Stern's buying trips to England and Europe in the decade immediately following World War 2. It's not written in narrative, but as a diary. The ladies kept journals for those years (1947 - 1957), and excerpts of their diaries are printed, along with updates (or Retrospects as they are called).


In 1947 the first year they went to Europe, the ladies sailed to England by boat. The trip took 7 days from Hoboken (Across the Hudson River from NYC - in New Jersey I think) to Southampton, England. I'm not familiar with any of the English Antiquarian Bookshops - except one. Marks and Co at 84 Charing Cross Road. But there was no mention of Frank Doel. The ladies also took another boat to Calais, and then to Paris where they purchased more books. Later on the same trip, they also went to Strasbourg, Basle and The Hague.

In later years Misses Rostenberg & Stern visited London regularly, also Oxford, Cambridge, Vienna, Milan, Zurich, Florence, Geneva and Brussels. In 1954 the ladies FLEW to London for the first time. That trip took just seventeen hours rather than seven days. But then they went back to taking the boat.

Even after 1957, they still made the trip every summer, but they no longer recorded the shops they visited or the books they purchased. By then they were so well known, they were being welcomed everywhere they went. Prices were also rising as well.

This book is not for reading like a novel, since it's not a narrative. You have to be a real Bibliographic fan to read all the book titles and various phrases in French and German. It would have been helpful to have a small language glossary at the back. Otherwise it was a good book.

Oh yes, and this is my third and last book for the Bibliography Challenge. I will continue reading other books about books (I have quite a few), but I need to work on the Canadian Challenge before the New Year and all the New Challenges start LOL.

Miss O - by Betty Oliphant - Book Review

Miss O, My Life In Dance
By Betty Oliphant
Turnstone Press 1996

I stayed up until 2 am reading this book. I LOVE Ballet, and this is the story of Betty Oliphant who helped to start Canada's National Ballet Company in Toronto, and she also started the National Ballet School. I read this book for the Canadian Challenge.


Betty Oliphant was born in England in 1918. She started Ballet lessons at age 5, and continued with Ballet up until her teenage years. Thats when she started teaching Ballet. She did not have the easiest life growing up. Betty's father died within weeks of her birth, so her mother was a single mother raising 2 children (Betty had one older sister Mary)in post World War society. In 1942, (during WW2) Betty married a Canadian and gave birth to two daughters - Gail and Carol. After the war, the whole family emigrated to Canada where Betty tried to start her own Ballet school. After 3 years her school was integrated into the newly formed National Ballet of Canada. Betty was the BAllet Mistress at the Company for eight years, and later became the Artistic Director. In 1959, Betty found the National Ballet School and was the Principal of the School from the start until her retirement in 1991.

Betty did not have an easy life. She suffered through with 2 bad marriages, her second husband sexually abused her daughters. Eventually Betty had to have psychiatric treatment. She was very open about her mental attitude. And she was not shy about stating her views on such famous ballet stars such as Rudolf Nureyev, Mikhail Baryshnikov and Karen Kain. Betty died in 2004.

If you like Ballet, you will love this biography, learning all the unknown stories about how the school and the company work.

I haven't had any time to post this weekend.

Well yesterday (being friday) right after I posted the Devil Wears Prada review, we lost our power, and I could not post a second review. And today (Saturday) my son demanded to go out early. So he has been to his saturday morning dance class (he's doing hip-hop), and to a friends birthday party. With me tagging along behind.

DH is sick (has a very bad cough - sounds like a bark actually) so when we got home, I was sent out to McDonalds for dinner. Haven't had any time to read or post. Haven't done any laundry or dishes either. I will try and post this evening.

Does anyone know where I can find books about how to play the harmonica? My son won a harmonica as a prize today, and he seems to like the music he can make.

I am now moderating my comments again after the SPAM I just got on the last post. I am furious that I CANNOT remove the comment. Any suggestions?

The Devil Wears Prada - Book Review

The Devil Wears Prada
By Lauren Weisberger
Doubleday 2003

This is for the Book to Movie challenge. I'm having a hard time finding books that I like and want to read. I tried The Black Dahlia and The Hoax, but both books were boring. So I borrowed this one from the library and read that. I saw the movie last year like everyone else - might get it out and watch it again actually.


We all know the story. Andrea (Andy) Sachs, finishes college, and hopes to get a job with a magazine as a writer. But after months of looking, the only magazine where she can get a job, at is Runway, a top of the line fashion magazine. So Andy is hired to be the second assistant to the Editor in Chief. Her name is Miranda Priestley. Miranda is a perfectionist - and that's putting it nicely. She expects her assistants to live for her, and be available 24/7 to do anything she demands. Miranda gives all her assistants cell phones, and thus they effectively become slaves on a leash, because everytime that cell phone rings, they cannot say, No. They must say "Yes Miranda" and go do whatever they are told.

In the movie, Miranda may be a b***h, but I feel that maybe she was toned down, just a little. In the book, I think she was a lot worse. I also did not like the fact in the book, that Andy was a smoker. In the movie she's not. Also In the book, Miranda is British, and has an English accent. In the movie, obviously she is American.

Andy found herself losing her boyfriend (Nate in the movie, Alex in the book), because she could not commit to keeping any date they tried to arrange. Even in the middle of a date, if that cell phone rang, Andy had to do what she was told.

Andy had no choice, but to change her style. Everything she wore was criticised, and frowned on. There were clothes available for the taking, this is a fashion magazine after all. Andy lasted 4 months wearing her own style (mostly second hand clothes) before she caved in and started wearing the required fashions, including high heeled shoes and fashionable boots. Actually Andy had a choice, but she chose to stay there and put up with being treated like sh*t.

"A Million girls would kill for this job".
This is why Andy hung on for so long. This line is repeated a number of times in the book. One thing that Miranda asks for is 2 copies of the latest Harry Potter book that (at the time) was not yet released. Andy manages to accomplish this task. Running out for coffee, getting Miranda's lunch and snacks, and generally being the gofer girl, is Andy's job. She does no writing at all, except for letters and other correspondence.

At the end of the book, Emily (the first assistant) falls ill and is unable to attend the latest fashion shows in Paris. Andy gets to go instead, but while she is there, her best friend Lily, has a DUI accident back in New York. She ends up in hospital in a coma, and when Andy gets the message, she chooses not to drop everything to return home to help Lily get batter. No, she chooses to stay in Paris.

Until Miranda asks the impossible. Her daughters passports have expired, and Andy must get them renewed in just a few hours, so that the daughters can fly to Paris. Andy knows that while she has learnt to many things, demanding that the federal government renew two passports in 3 hours is not one of them. Andy finally realises that Miranda is asking the impossible, and she makes her choice. She swears at Miranda, and yes, she used the F word.

I felt that the book was a whinefest. Yes parts of it were funny, but most of it was Andrea being a slave to her cell phone. All Andrea did was whine, whine, whine about how bad the boss was. If I was in that same situation, I certainly would not have made it a test to see how long I could stay.

If I were in that situation, I would not have lasted one week before leaving. I prefer to wear clothes that are comfortable. Ironically enough, when I went to enroll at college recently, I had to do an English assessment, since I did not graduate from an Ontario High School. This assessment included grammar and spelling tests, and writing an essay. I chose to write a short essay on whether or not cellphones were a good thing or a bad thing. I wrote the cell phones were bad because they are so intrusive, and noone observes the proper etiquette when using them. The last line I wrote was "And that is why I do not own a cell phone". I don't have a Blackberry either - for the same reason.

Personally, I actually preferred the movie to the book. The movie had its really funny moments.

My New Bibliography Career

For those of you who remember that I said a few months ago, that I wanted to be a Bibliographer. I have slowly been investigating how to do this. I have enrolled at my local college to do an Archives and Records Management Certificate, part time, starting in January. I know it's not a Library degree, but at my age, I just don't have the time to spend 6 years doing an undergraduate degree and then an MLS. So I have settled for an Archives and Records Management Certificate instead. Hopefully I can do all the coursework for this certificate in one year. I have also finally joined the ExLibris mailing list.

Actually I am getting quite excited now, and am also wondering WHY I didn't think of doing this back in New Zealand. That's easy. Because I didn't ask the right questions. I just knew I didn't want to be a public librarian, dealing with students and the public all day long. I had no idea there were any other areas away from the customer service that I could do. Archives, Records Management, Reference, Bibliography, Cataloging, Indexing (which is another area I am interested in. I'm thinking I might like to do the USAD Indexing course - but that can wait).

Now I hear you asking. What brought this on, and why am I reading all this today? Because yesterday in the mail, I finally received my copy of Old Books in the Old World, by Rostenberg and Stern. I dropped everything else and have spent the last 24 hours reading this book. I'll post again when I review it.

I did apply to work in the Toronto Public Library some years ago, but when they called me and asked if I was interested in working as a page, and I was told that a page shelves the book, I was silly enough to say NO. I was more interested in working in the administrative area, and surely I didnt need to shelve books to do that? It turns out that I did NOT do my research very well, and have since discovered that ALL jobs in the Library system, start as a page at the entry level and that is more or less the only way (except for those with an MLS probably) to get into the system. At my local library, NOONE has an MLS. They ALL started as pages, and have worked their way up.