September Book Recommendations

It's a new month, and I have more book recommendations for ya'll. I'm also very tired because I ended up having to write half of Saving Grace on TNT last night at work (check out Reward TV.com if you want to see what I wrote) since the assigned writer went home sick, meaning that for the third night in a row I didn't get home until after 1 in the morning. So I'm less than coherent today. Staying up that late you tend to get punch drunk after awhile. It's like you enter a fugue state. Plus I spent the weekend watching programs on Princess Diana. And I have three dance classes tonight. But don't cry for me Argentina, I will hopefully be more awake tomorrow.


My first book recommendation is Janet Mullany's Rules of Gentility. What a gorgeous cover and what a delightful book. I must confess I wasn't sure if I was going to like this book when I heard it described as Jane Austen meets Bridget Jones. And it was told in alternating first person POV's, but once I plunged in, I couldn't stop reading. Both the hero and the heroine are absolutely delightful and I didn't want to leave the world that Janet Mullany had created. I just wanted to live there reading about more delightful adventures of Inigo and Philomena. What wonderful Regency names! I totally pictures James McAvoy as Inigo while I was reading it, shades of Becoming Jane.



In the same vein, Lost in Austen, was a total treat. Written by Emma Campbell Webster, who only graduated from Oxford University a mere four years ago, Lost in Austen is a Jane Austen adventure that you create for yourself. The reader plays Elizabeth Bennett, and like other create your own adventure books, you can go in many different directions if you make the right or wrong choices. Even though I've read Pride and Prejudice numerous times (and watched the Colin Firth version even more times), I still made a few wrong choices that ended up getting me killed, and/or destitute. A fun way to spend a rainy afternoon with a cup of tea.

Now for something completey different, Bright Lights, Big Ass by Jen Lancaster. I read about this book on Cara Lockwood's blog, but I'd seen the book in the bookstore for awhile. If you're a fan of MTV's Daria, and like snarky, sarcastic, bitter humor, you will love this book. I read her first book, Bitter is the New Black, about what happened to her when she lost her high-powered corporate job and spent two years unemployed during which she auditioned for NBC's The Biggest Loser, and gained Bill Rancic from The Apprentice as a landlord. Maybe it's just me, but I just love the idea that she all of a sudden decided to get married solely in the hopes of getting great presents that she and her boyfriend could use like money. Reading this book was like finding my soul sister from another mother (and not just because we're both Scorpios!). Finally someone who is even more of a sarcastic bitch than I am.

This last book, Primo Time is by the renowned English actor Sir Antony Sher. Unlike Ian McKellan or Patrick Stewart, he's not as well known on these shores apart from his roles in Mrs. Brown (he played Disraeli) and Shakespeare in Love. But in England, he's performed with the Royal Shakespeare Company for over twenty years. I had the good fortune of seeing him play Richard III when I was in college, a performance I still remember because of the vividness and uniqueness of his portrayal. Primo Time is a book about the journey he took adapting Primo Levi's autobiography about his time in Auschwitz during WWII. The book is not just about the creative process that he went through adapting a book that seemed to defy adaptation, but also his own insecurities as an actor. During this time, he was suffering from incredible stage fright after being an actor for over 35 years. Anyone who has ever performed on stage can identify. Stage fright doesn't go away no matter how many years you perform, and it can get worse. Laurence Olivier suffered from severe stage fright in his later years as did Ian Holm. How he deals with it, as well as personal issues with his mother and dealing with living Primo's life on stage, make this book compelling reading.

Thanks for reading,

EKM