Review: Jackie After O by Tina Cassidy

I, like everyone else on that fateful day, remember where I was when President Kennedy got shot. I was home sick from school, my mom had gone to tea next door with our neighbor Arlene. I was sitting there watching TV, when the news bulletin came on. I went running next door to tell my mom.  Camelot was no more.

I was very interested to see if this author could add anything new to what we already knew about Jackie O. As I understood the book to be about one year in the life, I was pretty confused when the first half of the book  was jumping back and forth. I could not figure out what year the author, Cassidy, was writing about. When she finally started telling us about Ari Onassis, I figured it out, 1975. The year Jackie took on the City of NY over the proposed demolition of Grand Central Station. The year Jackie became a book editor for Viking. The year Aristotle Onassis died, and left her a widow once again.

I am not sure that this book gave me a whole lot more insight then I already had by reading newspaper & magazine articles. There were plenty of news stories on TV, telling us all about the fight over Onassis' millions.

Unfortunately for Cassidy, Jackie O's life played out in the press. I kept reading, wanting to read something that was new and unpublished. I didn't get what I wanted. What I did get was a reminder of how Jackie could twist people around her finger, and got what she wanted. How powerful she was in that regard ! She did have some fine victories in the fight to save historical buildings. She had great success at Viking and then again at Double Day. She did finally come into her own. But I am sad to say, that the mystery that was Jackie Kennedy Onassis, went to the grave with her.

I recommend this book if you would like to refresh your memory about the sometimes glamorous, but mostly tragic life of Jackie O. 

 

 

Book Review: Postcards by E. Annie Proulx

I happen to think Proulx is a great writer. Just read the short story, Brokeback Mountain and you will have to agree. Postcards, Proulx's first novel, is a very rambling story..much like it's main character, Loyal Blood.
This is the story about the Blood family and life on a farm in Vermont. Although, most of the story is played out far from Vermont, the reason for the story is buried quite close to the farm.
Loyal Blood had to run from the family and the farm, when he  killed his lover, a woman named Billy. Billy had asked Loyal over & over to leave Vermont and find a more exciting life elsewhere. He loved his farm and he was the glue that held the farm & the family together. He did not want a different life.
Once Billy was buried in a cave near his family's farm, he took off and never returned. Hmmm....
He travels all over the western part of the country, picking up odd jobs, working in the mines, working with an archeologist and trapping for fur. Along the way he finds a stash of postcards. One by one, he mails the cards home, never leaving a forwarding address. Never staying long enough in one place to let anybody know where he was. The mailing of postcards, by all sorts of people,  plays a big role in this book.
The rest of his family moves on with their lives. They lose the farm, the father, Mink, hangs himself in jail. The one armed brother, nicknamed Dub, moves to Florida and gets rich. The sister, Mernelle, marries a man that she meets through a want ad and lives a perfectly normal life. Until her mother, Jewell, dies in a weird car accident and her beloved husband leaves her a widow.
All the while, Loyal is moving from one town to another for years, sending these postcards back to the family as if nothing had changed on the farm. Oblivious to all that has happened.
Although this book gets a little slow at times, and sometimes I was waiting for the scene where Billy was killed and why (which never really came), I liked it. It was Proulx's first attempt at being a great writer.
She succeeded.

This Will Make You Smarter edited by John Brockman

Each year, the Edge Foundation poses a question to the world's scientists; people that lead the world in various fields. The answers get edited and then printed and bound as a book. A very interesting book I might add. When I first chose to read this book, I wondered if I would understand the question , let alone the answers. I think that scientists talk amongst themselves and are understood, but talking to a layman is another thing completely!

The questions for 2011 was: What scientific concept would improve everybody's cognitive toolkit?  (So I understood this as a concept that would improve our powers of reasoning)

The thing I liked about this book was that you didn't have to jump in and read uninterrupted the many different answers. Each answer is given it's own chapter and title, each is a short essay. Some answers will be useful in your everyday life, some may be useful with something you are struggling with but all will provoke thought. Isn't that what a good book does?

I found some insight into fear/risk with two essays on uncertainty. Another essay , "Each of us is ordinary, yet one of a kind"  by Samuel Barondes is particularly interesting. By being ordinary, we find compassion for others. By being one a kind, we find creativity and pride. 

So, I can easily recommend this book, it will definitely make you smarter. 

Review: Between a Rock & a Hot Place by Tracey Jackson

....or ...Why Fifty is the New Fifty.  Oh, come on, not the new thirty? I am so guilty of saying this. I think I say it so often as to convince myself !! Tracey Jackson tells it like it is and I don't really want to hear it, but I am listening. She is right, though. No matter how great my hair, skin & makeup look for "someone my age", there is no way I could keep up with a thirty year old today. Some days I can't even get out of my own way ! 

Turning fifty was a life altering experience, as will be turning sixty. Forty didn't bother me in the least. I wasn't ready to change my life back when I was forty. I was just barely ready at fifty proper. Jackson tells us to get ready for the change, but not our mother or grandmother's "change" ! At fifty it is time to change the way we think , more than anything else. 

Jackson tells us about her experience with hormone replacement, do I or don't I? Eye lifts..what if I end up looking like a cat?  Most of it is hilarious , some of it is poignant but mostly it is honest. 

I whole-heartily recommend this book for woman who are approaching fifty and those of us that have gone beyond. It is time to enjoy life and to have a few laughs. 

Review: Voyagers of the Titanic by Richard Davenport-Hines

With the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic, I jumped at the chance to learn more about the people whose lives were forever changed by it. I began the book eager to get information and believe me that it what you  get. At times, too much information and a lot of skimming through some chapters. Describing the first class passengers actually got a bit boring, as they were essentially the same. Most of the men who traveled were interested in the speed of the ship; most of the women were interested in the monied guests and gossip aboard the ship. The second class passengers were more interesting, with most of them being fairly well off financially, just not willing to spend the extra for first class. From all accounts, whether you were first, second or third class, the accommodations aboard the Titanic were the best that any ship to date had to offer. The most interesting of all passengers were t hose traveling third class. From all over Europe they came to sail to America and better lives (or they had hoped). Most had family in America who had scrimped and saved to get the rest of the family over the Atlantic and into the land of hope. As the author starts describing the lives of the third class, he also begins to tell the reader that most of these people, did not make it. After I read a particularly sad story of a young girl, only five and  a survivor, that remembered being lowered into the lifeboat with her mother and younger sisters, while her father and two brothers stood bravely on deck saying their goodbyes..I had to close the book. I have not picked it up since. I did not even skip to the end to see how the book turned out, we all know how it turned out. I do recommend this book to anyone who wants to know who was aboard the ship and why. It was all very interesting and all very tragic. 

"You have great eyebrows"

I haven't done a "beauty" blog for a few months so after I got a compliment on my eyebrows Friday, I thought I would share my technique. Let me start by saying, when this woman in the little shop told me I had great eyebrows, I was so shocked that I started to laugh. She asked me to share what was so funny and when I told her I had terrible eyebrows, she wanted to know what I use. Don't I love it when another woman compliments me... women notice when other women look good !
 To start, I use TweezerMan tweezers to pluck the strays. I know they are expensive BUT they stay sharp longer and you can send them back to the factory to be re-sharpened ! I also use Philosophy eye cream to keep the skin around my eye as nourished as possible. Then, I use black eye shadow with an angled brush to fill in the thin spots. And I have some pretty sparse, coarse hair brows. I run the brush through the shadow and then tap the excess off on a tissue and then lightly fill in, making sure to lightly touch even the thicker hairs for an even look. Then I take a light/white matte finish shadow and just dot a bit on the brow bone under the arch. Next I use Maybelline's clear mascara over the brow to smooth and hold down the stray hairs. I think this pulls it all together.
What I think makes this routine even better, is that it is cheap. We all have black shadows that we get in the eye shadow duos and quartets that  we never or rarely use but don't throw away. The shadow I love only comes in a kit, so I always have extra cast offs that I don't use. You can spend more money on brow powders, but why? Target has a great variety of makeup brushes that are very reasonable. I am talking just a few dollars. That's where I got my slanted eyeliner/brow brush. If they don't have the clear mascara, Wal-Mart will for less than $4.  Maybelline makes a gel for eyebrows but it is $15. I get the same results for way less money with the clear mascara. And that's it, great eyebrows.

I would also like to mention that I have been using Nivea Express Hydration Daily Lotion/Sea Minerals, Lotus Flower scent. I am loving this body lotion. I am religious about lotioning up my neck, decollete and shoulders and slathering my elbows, always. The scent is very light and it feels great.
Always look for coupons for these products to get an even bigger bargain !!

Review: The Last Days of Dogtown by Anita Diamant

There was an old colonial settlement on Cape Ann, Massachusetts between Rockport & Gloucester. It was a place that was  filled with huge boulders left from a melting glacier thousands of years before. Not quite good farm land but developed just far enough away from the shore to discourage pirates and invading armies. The little community was filled with people of prominence and prosperity but after the war of 1812, the people of this community felt safe enough to move to the shore ( Gloucester) and left empty homes & buildings. These buildings were were soon inhabited by vagrants, widows, freed slaves & "witches" ! The widows of fishermen and military men kept plenty of dogs around for protection. Hence, the name Dogtown. It is also noted that many upstanding folks from the area felt that the vagrants lived life like dogs. These people of Dogtown scraped by with very little money, barely any food and very little heat in winter.

This novel is the fictional story of the lives of these people of Dogtown. Judy Rhines lived in Dogtown and took in sewing. She also had a little garden to grow veggies so she wouldn't starve . Meat mostly consisted of squirrel and other small creatures and there was always fish to be caught. Judy is maybe what you would call the main character in the book, although there are plenty others in Dogtown. Judy was  good soul and many peole came to her for help.  Judy also had a secret love. Easter Carter ran a pub in Dogtown. She was a good friend of Judy Rhines and another of the good people of Dogtown. There was brothel too, run by Mrs. Stanley.  Stanwood was a guy you didn't really want to mess with. A mean drunk and frequent visitor to Mrs. Stanley.

This book tells the tale of the lives that were lived and the people that died in Dogtown, right down to the very last person to live there , Cornelius Finson.

I must tell you, I lived in Gloucester for a few years and never heard the mention of Dogtown. I understand that many years after the demise of  Dogtown, Roger Babson, whose family owned the land, turned it over to the state so that now there rests a park. He also commissioned out of work stonecutters to engrave inspirational messages on some of the boulders. I understand that the cellars of the houses, which are now called cellar holes are all numbered with engraved boulders so that hikers can get a feel for the history of the area.

I highly recommend this book. I could not put it down . Anita Diamant also wrote another book that I highly recommend called The Red Tent. Excellent reading. I  have just downloaded a sample of another one of her books
called Good Harbor. Good Harbor is a beach in Gloucester, so I am anxious to get reading another great novel.