May 2010
15 posts
Summer of Love Part 5
If there is anyone out there who has not read my number one Summer Reading pick, consider yourself crossed off my friends list, deleted from facebook, and shunned if I see you on the street. The author has appeared on my countdown earlier in the week and in my humble opinion, she is the Godmother of glamour fiction. I can only be talking about Jacqueline Susann and her 1966 classic “Valley...
Summer of Love Part 4
Are you feeling lucky? Gino Santangelo’s rebellious daughter certainly is. Maybe some of her feisty Italian spirit will rub off on you if you pick up Jackie Collins’s 1985 smash best-seller “Lucky.”
The Plot: Lucky Santangelo is the twenty-eight year old daughter of former mafia boss Gino “The Ram” Santangelo, but make no mistake about it, she is no spoiled...
Summer of Love Part 3
Do you have any scruples? The characters in Judith Krantz’s 1978 debut novel certainly don’t. They’re a hedonistic, unapologetic, glamorously-clad bunch and for this reason, “Scruples” clocks in at number three on my Summer Reading Countdown.
The Plot: Wilhelmina “Honey” Hunnewell Winthrop (that’s a mouthful isn’t it?) is the overweight,...
Summer of Love Part 2
Number 4 on my Top 5 Summer Reads: “Once Is Not Enough” by Jacqueline Susann, published in 1973.
The Plot: January Wayne has a problem. She loves Daddy. No, I mean she loves Daddy. And Daddy loves her, but only as a distant Hollywood father can. Since this is the mid-60’s and Mike Wayne is a big star, he ships her off to boarding school where he can shower her with gifts and...
Summer of Love Part 1
After what seemed to be the longest winter Mother Nature had ever unleashed upon us, summer weather has finally been bestowed upon us. Now is the time for the most miniscule swimsuits, tropical drinks at sunset…and a good book. You all know the type I’m talking about: Beach reads. Trashy novels. Bodice-Rippers. Sex and Shopping. You don’t want to be lugging a copy of “War...
There comes a point in all of our lives where we look at ourselves in the mirror and wonder: “How did I stray so far off course? When did this happen? This isn’t how I envisioned my life at all.”
For some of us, this could be exchanging sex for money (or exchanging money for sex, depending on which side of the bed you’re on). For others, waking up after yet another...
The Red-Headed Stepchild of Nighttime Soaps
I tend to view the nighttime soaps of the 80’s as a sort of big, dysfunctional family (I’m weird, I know). You have the mother and father (“Dynasty” and “Dallas,” respectively), one of which was low on plot and big and wardrobe while the other was much more male-centric in its business-driven plotlines. Behind them were the estranged family members who lived a...
In this week’s UK-based “Red” magazine, Kristin Davis makes a comment that I find particularly interesting and timely, since I am indeed in my 20’s and trying to “make it.”
“Remember when we were young, the actresses that we liked? They were young, even though they seemed older to us. And you thought that you had to make it in your 20s, like if you...
