Updike by Adam Begley

I will admit I have only read one Updike novel, Rabbitt Run, many years ago.
But that never puts me off reading a good biography. And Begley has written a good biography.
John Updike was both talented and ordinary. Talented because he had an artist's eye ( he really wanted to be a cartoonist) and ordinary because he was an upper middle class, suburban married man..cocktail parties, get togethers with his neighbors and yes, affairs with his neighbor's wives.
He was also a talented & prolific writer, writing novels, book reviews, art reviews, short stories, essays..all loosely and sometimes not so loosely based on the life he was living.
Author Begley wrote about all this and more. We get a look into his childhood, his college years, his married life through Begley's interviews with Updike family & friends. He wrote novels while he wrote essays, while he wrote reviews…this man Updike was a writer as no other author before or since. And he wrote about life as he knew it and then extended the reach for a more interesting existence. All captured by Begley in the this book.
So what  happens now..I will go back and read about Harry Angstrom's  further adventures in Rabbitt Redux, Rabbitt is Rich & Rabbitt at Rest. Thank you Adam Begley for showing me the error of my ways :)

Loving Mia Beauty Products

After such a long winter, and in some places it is still iffy whether spring has sprung….regardless of what the calendar says…..it is lots of fun to try new things. Makeup , perfume, hair styles, there are so many things that you can spruce up for the sun-season. I am loving the Mia Beauty products that I have tested.
My Memorial Day was brightened, even though there were dark clouds over head, because I was wearing a Mia Beauty Flower Halo. Loved it..it was comfortable, so comfortable in fact that at our MD parade, someone said "love your hair" and I totally forgot I had the Flower Halo on. It is so cute, it works for me, and my  4 year old granddaughter who decided she would have to wear it after I did.
Go to their website and have a look at all the colors and types of flowers. And while you are at it check out all their other products. All reasonably priced, too.
Live a little this summer and visit miabeauty.com

Lovers at the Chameleon Club, Paris 1932 by Francine Prose

Since I read Hemingway, I have always been fascinated with Paris in the 20's & 30's. Teaming with great artists and writers, expats mostly writing about their new home..life in Paris..oh it was decadent.
Author Francine Prose has captured it perfectly in her new book Lovers at the Chameleon Club. I love to read books that have been written with each chapter an entry by a different character. I think it gives a book a kind of excitement, a "don't want to put  it down, what is happening now" feel.
Prose has chosen to write about several characters, their lives all entwined, each one with their own problems and each one on their own paths. The French Resistance has begun and Hitler has started to rear his ugly head and all of France will be affected.
Lou Villars would be the central character..a young girl, who is mentored to become a famous woman athlete, who is attacked by her mentor and then she flees to the Chameleon Club where she cross dresses and becomes part of the burlesque show.
Gabor Tsenyi, a fledgling photographer, captures a photo of Villars and her lover that makes both subject and photog famous. We learn about his character in letters sent home to his parents.
Lionel Maine is  a struggling writer who writes about Paris in ways that get him banned. Prose reveals his character in his articles that are published.
 Lilly de Rotheschild, married to a gay Baron, falls in love with Tenysi and does everything she can to support his career. She is revealed in a memoir that she writes.
There are others just as interesting: Yvonne who owns the Chameleon Club, Suzanne who becomes the wife of Gabor Tsenyi and  Nathalie Dunois, great niece of Lou Villars, who is writing a novel based on the tragic life of her great- aunt.
So many characters usually make my head spin but the way this novel is put together by Prose, it all makes perfect sense and flows from one character to the next.
All is very loosely based on real lives and you can actually go on line and find the famous photo!
Very well written and a great choice for book clubs.
Harper Collins Publisher

Some Fun with Mia Beauty Products

Oh, I love spring..time to have fun, get outside, wear colorful clothes! I was invited to a friend's official spring fling cocktail party recently and decided to try Mia Beauty's Clip-n-Bangs. After having four kids my hair has thinned from that thick, younger mane that I used to have. I have an angled bob haircut and I have a very thin spray of bangs. I clipped the Mia Bangs into the crown of my own hair..it just so happens the match was perfect…..and what a lush bang I now had..Off to the party and the best thing of all? The compliments I received,or I should say my stylist received, on how great my cut was. I just kept my secret weapon to myself..until now…loved it.
You can bring it with you to your stylist and have them cut to fit, or you can do it yourself. These Mia Beauty products are so much fun!

The past Saturday was a beautiful Spring day. Sunny, warm.. everyone was outside enjoying the day. I was meeting friends for lunch at our favorite spot and I decided to add some cuteness to my 'do.
I snapped a Mia Beauty's Clip-n-Dipped Ends into my hair, and instantly I was feeling the fun.  I generally make my bob smooth, but this day since my Dipped Ends had a little springy curl to it, I just scrunched my bob and went wavy. Got all kinds of ooh's and aah's from my friends.

If you are looking for some summer fun for your hair, go to miabeauty.com