Books – Page 22 – …on the B.L.

Torch Song Trilogy by Harvey Fierstein

February 5, 2019 RaeAnna

Read Yes
Length 320
Quick Review The original. The revised. Every once in a while, a book comes a long that is truly memorable. This is one of those books.

I have loved Harvey Fierstein since Mrs. Doubtfire. I’ve actually loved a ton of his movies, but I never realized it until reading Torch Song Trilogy because I didn’t really know who he was other than the guy in a bunch of movies I like. More than just an actor, he is an author and award winning playwright.

In the anniversary edition of Torch Song Trilogy, the original is featured along with the revised version. A forward by Fierstein starts the book off with a bang. It started off Broadway but eventually moved onto Broadway. There, Fierstein won a Tony for best play in 1983 and Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play. It was a sensation. After reading it, I can see why.

Fierstein combined three one-act plays into one three-act play for the amazing Torch Song Trilogy: International Stud, Fugue in a Nursery, and Widows and Children First! Each act centers on a different phase in Arnold’s life. Starting in the 1970’s, he is a gay, torch singer, drag queen, who is also a Jewish man living in New York City. The play runs about four hours long.

It starts with a moving and completely cynical soliloquy about the disillusionment of love. Shortly after, Arnold meets Ed, who is not secure in his bisexual skin. The second act surrounds domestic bliss with Alan a year later. The third act finds Arnold alone dealing with his mommy issues while raising a gay teenage son, David.

Almost forty years after it first debuted, Torch Song Trilogy was incredibly important at the time as it collided with the after affects of the Stonewall age. The U.S. has come a long way in triumphing gay rights, but so many of the issues Fierstein battles are still prevalent today as the LGBTQ community is under attack. The play is stunning in its own right, but held up against the backdrop of social justice it is ever more important.

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Title: Torch Song Trilogy
Author: Harvey Fierstein
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Copyright: 2017
ISBN: 9780525618645

Books, Fiction

Last Christmas in Paris by Hazel Gaynor and Heather Webb

January 29, 2019 RaeAnna

This was my Christmas dress from Pippa and Pearl. I adore it!!! | These red heels have a gold heel! | *Last Christmas in Paris* | I love this red clutch

Worth a Read Meh
Length 368
Quick Review An old man looks back at letters written during WWI. The narrative is 98% letters. It’s a sweet wartime love story.

Last Christmas in Paris by Hazel Gaynor and Heather Webb is my last holiday read of the season… a month late. I actually finished it a few weeks ago, but I have been so busy I didn’t get around to writing this review. Oops. Oh well, that’s life.

The most interesting part about Last Christmas in Paris is the narrative style. It’s told mostly through letters from the past between several people during WWI. An old man tells a story in the “present,” which is the 1960’s. There wasn’t anything remarkable about the style or plot. It was a good historical fiction piece. It’s not terribly Christmas oriented, so it works for any time of the year. I liked the characters just fine. It was a fairly bland story. The fact that the narrative was driven by letters made the reading process go really quickly.

My favorite relationship in the book was not the romantic one. That one was very boring. Sweet but boring. I liked the friendship between the two female characters. They were supportive, kind, blunt, and had fun banter.

There was a lot of talk about “war neurosis” in Last Christmas in Paris, which is old timey speak for PTSD. I’m glad this was a part of the book, but it was a fairly minor part of the book.

Overall, it’s a really good mindless read to take your mind off life. It’s pretty forgettable, though.

Memorable Quotes
“I know you are convinced that my heart was stolen by Tom Harding years ago while I wasn’t paying any attention, and I’m beginning to think you may be right, darling.”

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Title: Last Christmas in Paris
Author: Hazel Gaynor and Heather Webb
Publisher: William Morrow (HarperCollins Publishers)
Copyright: 2017
ISBN: 9780062562685

Books, Fiction

The Adults by Caroline Hulse

January 18, 2019 RaeAnna

Worth a Read Meh
Length 368
Quick Review The holidays can be full of drama but nothing compared to the drama of The Adults. A novel about exes coming together for a child with a bit of an oopsies.

So I fell behind with my reading over the holidays, so this is the second to the last book before my holiday reading list is done. The Adults by Caroline Hulse is kind of a holiday nightmare come to life. It is vastly different from the other Christmas-themed novels I read all last month. It was breath of fresh air. I’m not sure if I totally love it, but it definitely made an impression and had me turning the pages.

The Adults starts off with a 999 (911 equivalent) call about an accident on Christmas Eve. The story jumps to a little bit before Christmas. Alex and Matt are together. Matt is the father of Scarlett a little girl whose mother is Claire. Scarlett has an imaginary purple bunny named Posey. Claire is with Patrick – he has his own minor family drama in the background. Other than divorced Claire and Matt, they don’t really know each other very well. They all want to spend Christmas with Scarlett, so they decide to go to Happy Forest, a resort, for Christmas as blended family. Also someone gets shot with a bow and arrow.

The only characters I like are Scarlett and Claire. Alex is judgy and a pain in the ass. Patrick is super judgy and thinks he is better than everyone else. Matt is irresponsible. They all have an honesty issue. None of them seem to be trying to enjoy the time very much. It’s kind of a strange family dynamic, but they all harp on it instead of working on getting along. In a world where divorce is common, I think families celebrating holidays together should become common as well. So in one vain, I like it. But I don’t like how the people are portrayed. They’re irritating. Claire is my favorite. She’s fun and responsible and truly means well. Scarlett is a little kid; you can’t blame her for anything she does because it is all beyond reasonable. It’s title The Adults, but they don’t really act like adults.

I don’t know if I love how the book was narrated, but it was an interesting take. It may be a little confusing at first. The book is told from three perspectives: Alex, Patrick, and Scarlett. It doesn’t follow a pattern of perspectives shifting every chapter; sometimes, it does, but sometimes, the same character will narrate for several chapters in a row. The book is also split up by days. So every new day there is a new section with a little excerpt from the Happy Forest brochure. Throughout, there are also interviews with various characters by the police giving a little more information about the bow and arrow incident.

As far as a Christmas book, I think The Adults is fun. The holidays can be chock full of weird family relationships and dynamics, so it’s fun to dive into another family’s drama. Like the vast majority of Christmas books, this does have a happy ending. I was pleased with it.

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Memorable Quotes
“All men want to be dads, really, Ruby had once said to her. None of them would want to be a mum. But everyone wants to be a dad. It’s parenthood, but semi-skimmed and pasteurized.”

Title: The Adults
Author: Caroline Hulse
Publisher: Random House
Copyright: 2018
ISBN: 9780525511748

Books, Fiction

Christmas Camp by Karen Schaler

December 29, 2018 RaeAnna

Worth A Read Meh
Length 354
Quick Review Haley’s Christmas spirit is less than jolly when her boss sends her to Christmas camp in order to do research for a project. The owner’s attractive son makes it easier and harder to concentrate on her job.

Christmas Camp by Karen Schaler hits all the Hallmark moments we have come to expect from feel-good Christmas stories. If you have a Netflix account, you’re probably familiar with her script from The Christmas Prince, which was a huge hit last year.

Haley is a marketing executive. Her company needs to make a pitch for a Christmas loving toy company. Haley wants to make the pitch more than anything to make partner, but she doesn’t have much of the Christmas spirit. Her boss sends her to Christmas Camp to find her own spirit to help her company. She joins a group of people who are there for many different reasons. The owner’s son is attractive and distracts Haley from completely her job.

To be completely honest, I really did not like Haley. Not for the reason we’re supposed to not like her. I didn’t like her because she just wasn’t terribly likable. Her ambition was about the only thing I could actually relate to.

I didn’t hate the storyline in Christmas Camp. I definitely did not love the storytelling. It reads a lot more like a script than a novel. It makes sense consider Schaler’s background as a screenwriter. There is a lot of telling who there characters are without showing. It’s almost like a “Hi. I’m Haley. I’m a workaholic, but I’m also very nice.” The dialogue is clunky and feels a little bit like I’m being spoon fed the novel. It over simplifies everything.

I think Christmas Camp is a nice novel for the season. If you’re looking for a complex look into human interaction, this is not that. It is all the things a Hallmark movie is but in novel form.

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Memorable Quotes
“”There’s always something about Christmas that makes you feel like a kid again.””

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Title: Christmas Camp
Author: Karen Schaler
Publisher: William Morrow (HarperCollins)
Copyright: 2018
ISBN: 9780062883698

Books, Fiction

An Irish Country Christmas by Patrick Taylor

December 23, 2018December 23, 2018 RaeAnna

Christmas Tree Hunting! | An Irish Country Christmas | Shirt | Watch

Worth A Read Yes
Length 657
Quick Review An Irish Country Christmas has all the trimmings for a long winter read to escape from the hustle and bustle of the holidays!

An Irish Country Christmas by Patrick Taylor combines Christmas spirit, historic setting, and the Irish countryside to provide a lovely escape from the hustle and bustle of present day yuletide. It’s a long way from my current situation. Another in the “series,” you don’t need to read the others to enjoy this one. Taylor gives enough back story along the way you’ll know who everyone is in the grand scheme of things.

Dr. Barry Laverty is spending his first Christmas in the fictional town of Ballybucklebo with his attending Dr. O’Reilly, the indomitable Mrs. Kinkaid, a flirty dog, and a slew of other familiar characters to the returning reader. Barry is ready for the weather and the holiday until he finds out his sweetheart, Patricia, won’t be coming home from university. A competing doctor is building a practice in one of the neighboring villages with some practices not necessarily supported by science or logic. As always, things are going wrong for the citizens of Ballybucklebo, and they call on their trusted doctors, Laverty and O’Reilly, to save their health and care for their souls.

I wouldn’t call An Irish Country Christmas a quick read because it is a lengthy book, but it is an easy read. The prose is lovely. Taylor is a doctor himself. The medical terms and treatments are accurate to the time and locale, but you don’t drown in ridiculous terminology. It’s a lovely picture of rural life in Ireland several decades ago. The characters are pleasant. With the exception of one, no one is unlikeable. It’s a great read for this time of year. A little action. A lot of heart. An ending you want to read by a cozy fire.

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Memorable Quotes
“The big Labrador still seemed obsessed with a desire to mate with Barry’s trouser leg at the slightest provocation.”

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Title: An Irish Country Christmas
Author: Patrick Taylor
Publisher: Forge
Copyright: 2009
ISBN: 9780765366856

Books, Fiction

The Nutcracker of Nuremberg by Alexandre Dumas

December 16, 2018 RaeAnna

The Nutcracker of Nuremberg | Fossil Watch (a favorite)

Worth A Read Yes
Length 142
Quick Review The Nutcracker of Nuremberg is not the ballet you’re probably familiar with, but it is just as entrancing.

Alexandre Dumas wrote The Nutcracker of Nuremberg; well, he retold it. E.T.A. Hoffman wrote the original Nutcracker, which is very dark and not necessarily the story you want to tell your children at bedtime. Alexandre Dumas reworked the story into something lighter and happier. It evolved and inspired a ballet that has inspired the imaginations of children and adults alike for generations.

Alexandre Dumas is famous for The Count of Monte Cristo and more. He is an exceptional writer. Even writing for younger audiences, he doesn’t abandon his style or pizazz.

The Nutcracker of Nuremberg has many of the elements we’re familiar with from the ballet, but there are many more storylines not included. It is darker than I expected, but that is in accordance with the times. Children’s stories were not completely happy way back when. If you don’t believe me, just read Grimm’s fairy tales.

The story begins when a father falls asleep. He wakes up to discover his children and their friends have tied him down. They refuse to let him up until he convinces them to with the promise of a story. He begins with a nod to E.T.A. Hoffman before diving into his own telling. The story consists of three parts I. The Story of the Nutcracker of Nuremberg II. The Story of the Nut Krakatuk and the Princess Pirlipate III. The story of Marie and the King of Toys. It’s a fun story to read at this time of year because of its impact on the season.

Some of the more interesting things about The Nutcracker of Nuremberg are the names. They all have meanings, which escape most of us who don’t speak German. Drosselmeier is a much stranger character in the story than the ballet. I love the language he uses. It’s beautifully written. There are so many literary and historical allusions. It makes it a little bit of an adventure trying to find and figure out all of them.

At only 142 pages, it’s a small time commitment to read a story that helped inspire an internationally iconic ballet.

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Title: The Nutcracker of Nuremberg
Author: Alexandre Dumas
Publisher: Sterling Publishing Co.
Copyright: 2018
ISBN: 9781435154520