Wishful Drinking by Carrie Fisher

Wishful Drinking is adapted from Carrie Fisher’s one woman show and is a humorous look at her fantastical life growing up the daughter of celebrities and then becoming one herself.  This was a great book to read right after Christmas.  I laughed a lot while I read this book, it had a lot of great one liners.

 

Fisher tackles a lot of subjects including Hollywood inbreeding, what her life was like growing up, becoming an action figure as Princess Leia, and finding out she was bi-polar.  It was an interesting look at her life and I appreciated how she tackled tough subjects.  

This is a hard book to describe as it is so unique.  I love old Hollywood and Star Wars so it was interesting to see these items from behind the scenes.  It was also fascinating to read about Carrie’s personal struggles and how she kept battling her way through life trying to get better, especially for her daughter.  

One surreal story that made me laugh was when her mother got Cary Grant to give her a call about drugs . . . and then her father did as well.  Although Carrie Fisher is the daughter of celebrities and a celebrity herself, Cary Grant was someone she was in awe of.  So, she had a couple of one hour talks with Cary Grant about her drug problems which was a very unreal experience for her.

I also liked her frank discussion about her marriage and their unraveling.  She talked about her daughter and her love for her and I really liked that.  Although Carrie Fisher had a bizarre family experience growing up, you could tell that family was very important to her. But that she also wouldn’t mince words if she thought her family members were being odd or hilarious.

Favorite Quotes:

There are so many it’s hard to pick from – but here is just one about her parents’ marriage break-up when her Dad cheated on her Mom with Elizabeth Taylor (cover your sensitive eyes – this is a ribald comment which were there a few of in this book, but it was hilarious):

“Because about a year later, Mike Todd took off in a private plane in a rainstorm, and the following morning Elizabeth was a widow.  Well naturally, my father flew to Elizabeth’s side, gradually making his way slowly to her front.  He first dried her eyes with a handkerchief, then he consoled her with flowers, and he ultimately consoled he with his penis.”

Overall, Wishful Drinking is a humorous look at the surreal life of Carrie Fisher.  It made me understand her struggles better, while also causing me to chuckle at the absurdities of celebrity life.  I highly recommend it with a word of caution that sometimes things get crass – but in a hilarious kind of way.

Book Source:  Christmas Present from my Best Friend Jenn

Lexicon by Max Berry

Lexicon was the January pick for the FLICKS Book and Movie Club (aka Rogue Book Club).    Lexicon is a thriller about a group that is trained at an exclusive school to use language to persuade people to do what they want.  They learn to identify what “group” a person belongs to and therefore what key words they need to do the persuaders bidding.  The graduates of this program become “poets” and adopt the names of famous poets.  What does this organization do exactly?  What is their purpose?

Wil Parke is ambushed by two men in an airport bathroom and is kidnapped by them.  He is not sure what the heck is going on as various people pursue them and try to kill them including his girlfriend. What is Wil’s importance?

Emily Ruff is a runaway making it as a card magician on the streets of San Francisco when she is recruited to attend the exclusive school.  She wants to know more about how it all works then the school wants to tell her. She quickly finds herself not only one of the best students, but the most troublesome one.  What is Emily’s role in the story?

Everything circles around a town named Broken Hill in Australia where an “environmental disaster” killed all in habitants. What exactly does Emily, Wil, and the organization have to do with this event?

I’ll admit I had a hard time getting into this book.  The author wants you to feel like the characters with not knowing what is going on, but after 80 or so pages of not knowing, I was annoyed.  Luckily, I chugged on as it was a book club book and got over the hump and enjoyed the story.  You couldn’t think too deeply about some items, but it was an enjoyable thriller.  It also led to some good discussion points, such as, just how much words are used to persuade people to do what you want them too.  We seem to see this each election cycle.  I also didn’t really enjoy the overuse of the F-word throughout the text, especially at the beginning.  It’s just a personal preference, I know some people don’t care, but I really don’t like excessive swearing.

I also was confused about a couple of items.  SPOILER ALERT:  Why did Eliot care so much about Emily?  Was Emily Eliot and Charlotte’s daughter?  Or was she a daughter like figure to replace the child that they lost?  Some things were implied but we weren’t given enough background to know what was really going on.  I still want to know what exactly the organization’s goal was.  SPOILER END

Favorite Quotes:

“I still don’t understand how it’s a word.  Words can’t kill people.”

“Sure, they can.  Words kill people all of the time.”

Overall, Lexicon is a unique thriller that brings up some interesting points, but it does take a while to get into the book (all seemed to agree on this at book club as well.)

Book Source:  The Kewaunee Public Library

Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery

Title: Anne of Green Gables
Author: L.M. Montgomery

Read by: Laurel Schroeder

Publisher: Spoken Realms

Length: Approximately 9 hours and 48 minutes
Source: Review Copy from Audiobook Jukebox – Thank-you!

Anne of Green Gables is one of my favorite novels of all time, and the 1980’s mini-series is one of my favorite shows of all time.  L.M. Montgomery also ranks as one of my all-time favorite authors.  I trolled bookstores for years looking for any books of hers that I did not own.  Throughout the 90’s they slowly released short story collections.  I believe I have the entire L.M. Montgomery collection in paperback now waiting for Penelope to read and for me to re-read.  I wish they were in hard cover!

Although I’ve read the entire L.M. Montgomery collection, I have never listened to any L.M. Montgomery audiobooks.  I was happy to be able to review this audiobook of Anne of Green Gables.  It’s been quite a few years since I’ve read the novel so it was wonderful to immerse myself back into the world of Anne.

Anne Shirley is a 12-year old orphan.  Matthew and Marilla Cuthbert are siblings looking to adopt a boy to help Matthew out with the farm work.   Anne is sent by mistake, but they find themselves unwilling to send her back, a decision they never regret.  Anne is full of imagination and soon becomes bosom friends with neighbor Diana Berry and rivals with Gilbert Blythe.  Anne often gets herself into scrapes and she is very dramatic which is highly amusing.  She’s also a hard worker and moves from being a 12 year old to going on to Queen’s Academy for high school.

Listening to this tale, I remembered again why I love this book so much.  Montgomery has vividly drawn the characters and the entire community of Avonlea very lovingly.  The characters are three dimensional and I could relate with them or think of people I know like them.  I love that there is a lot of humor in the tale to make me laugh. 

This was a good audiobook to get me occupied on my long drive to Milwaukee for work.  I must admit though that I had a hard time getting into this narrator’s version.  She had a strange lilt at the end of each sentence that drove me silently insane for a while.  Then I slowly grew used to it and to her acting of each character and I had a fine time listening to it. 

One part of the story I found kind of strange now as an adult is when Anne first starts school and her teacher, Mr. Phillips, is always flirting over the top with a student, Prissy. Marilla tells Anne not to question the teacher, but this seemed really inappropriate to me.  How times change!

Favorite Quotes:

“I'm so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers.”

“Life is worth living as long as there's a laugh in it.”

“True friends are always together in spirit.”

“Oh, it's delightful to have ambitions. I'm so glad I have such a lot. And there never seems to be any end to them-- that's the best of it. Just as soon as you attain to one ambition you see another one glittering higher up still. It does make life so interesting.”

Overall, Anne of Green Gables is as much of a delight to read as an adult as it was when I was a child. I loved it and it is an intriguing story to listen to on audio.

Last Christmas in Paris by Hazel Gaynor and Heather Webb

At the start of WWI, there was a general feeling in Great Britain that it was a lark that would soon be over.  As men headed overseas to France and started battling in the trenches, the feelings soon changed to hopelessness.  Will they ever be able to return home?  Will they ever be able to have a Last Christmas in Paris?

Thomas Harding is spending one last Christmas in Paris in 1968.  With him is a collection of letters from World War I between Evie Elliot, her brother Will, Will’s best friend Thomas Harding, and other friends and family.  As Thomas reads through the letters, he revisits the past, the heartache and loss of the war, and also the great love.

I love, love, loved Last Christmas in Paris.  I think epistolary novels are fun to read, it’s like discovering the story of your Grandparents told through their letters.  I loved the characters, especially Evie.  She lives a privileged youth growing up with Will and Thomas near London.  It all seems a lark when they first go off to war, but as the war progresses, Ellie longs to both become more involved and scared that she may never see Will and Thomas again. 

When going off to war, Thomas feels like it will be over soon, but also doesn’t want to settle into the family business of running a newspaper.  Only when he is overseas does he realize the importance of the paper and his father, and also the importance of his friend Will’s little sister.

I also appreciated that the novel faced a serious problem, PTSD or shell shock as they called it then, squarely on and talked about it as a major part of the story.  

Favorite Quotes:

“Life is forever changed without her without the sense of her somewhere near.  Empty hours wander by as I listen for the soft tread of her football on the stair and wait for her laugher to cheer these lifeless rooms.  When I close my eyes I can conjure her; the scent of her perfume, the feather-touch of her fingertips against my cheek, those intense blue eyes looking back at me.  But it is all illusion.  Smoke and mirrors that conceal the truth of her absence.”

“A new year lies ahead.  Though I am losing hope every day that I will ever return to England in one piece – or at all – at least time marches forward, paying no heed to the follies of men.”

Overall, The Last Christmas in Paris is a wonderful novel of love, life, and war.  I highly recommend it!

Book Source:  Review Copy from William Morrow. Thank-you!

Murder for Christmas by Francis Duncan

Mordecai Tremaine is an amateur detective and he has been invited by Benedict Grame to his estate in the country for a Christmas house party.  As often seems to happen to amateur detectives, murder seems to follow in Tremaine’s wake.  The house party is shocked to discover one of its members murdered at the foot of the Christmas tree dressed as Father Christmas.  Knowing a murdered is amongst their midst, the party is on edge and Mordecai Tremaine is on the case.

I enjoyed this mystery and it was my book for Christmas day reading this year.  I LOVED the setting, a 1930’s English Christmas house party.  Mordecai Tremaine is an eccentric detective and it reminded me of one of my other favorite eccentric detectives Hercule Poirot by Agatha Christie.  I loved all of the side characters and how Tremaine unraveled their histories and hidden secrets.  It was an intriguing mystery.

I was also intrigued about the author Francis Duncan.  I read in the back of the book that he published more than twenty crime novels between 1937 and 1959.  I really enjoyed his writing style.  He has beautiful almost lyrical passages.  I would love to read more of his work.  I also found this interesting article about the mystery of who exactly Francis Duncan is online.  I think it is interesting that this book became a bestseller in England last year, sixty-six years after its publication.  I hope that means more of his work will be published!

Favorite Quotes:

“But no human plan, however devilish its ingenuity, can be depended upon to follow in practice the exact lines of its own theory.”

“He was romantic enough to believe firmly in the sanctity of marriage.”

“It was as though Tremaine was not looking out upon a real scene but gazing at a Christmas picture in a shop window, a picture that possessed a stereoscopic quality that gave it the illusion of life, but which must remain eternally unchanged.”

“Of course!  Without power, what purpose is there in life?  Fame?  Money?  Of what real value are they except for the power they bring with them?  It’s the sense of mastery that lifts a man and makes him forget that he came from dust!”

“It was all wrong that the cold winter beauty upon which he was gazing should be marred by man’s inability to live in charity with his neighbors and that murder should lie like an evil smudge across perfection.”

Overall, Murder for Christmas was an intriguing mystery with fascinating characters and setting.

Book Source:  Review Copy from Sourcebooks.  Thank-you!