The Stepford Wives by Ira Levin | Book Review
The Stepford Wives by Ira Levin Genres: Fiction, Horror, American Literature Original Publication Date: 1972 Source: I purchased this book Goodreads Find the Author: Website, Goodreads, Amazon For Joanna, her husband, Walter, and their children, the move to beautiful Stepford seems almost too good to be true. It is. For behind the town’s idyllic facade lies a terrible secret — a secret so shattering that no one who encounters it will ever be the same. At once a masterpiece of psychological suspense and a savage commentary on a media-driven society that values the pursuit of youth and beauty at all costs, The Stepford Wives is a novel so frightening in…
Baby Peggy Turns 100 Years Old!
Happy Birthday, Baby Peggy! Baby Peggy, the last of the silent film stars, turns 100 years old today! She was born Peggy-Jean Montgomery on October 29, 1918. She became one of the biggest child stars of the silent movie era. Peggy was a millionaire by the time she was six. Soon her career crashed and the Depression hit. She was broke and working as an extra by the time she was a teenager. One Of The First Child Stars in Films As Refinery 29 reported: At the age of 5, Diana Serra Cary, better known as child superstar Baby Peggy, was a self-made multimillionaire, the star of nearly 150 shorts…
Sylvia Plath Reading “A Birthday Present”
Today Would Have Been Sylvia Plath’s 86th Birthday This is a video of her reading her poem “A Birthday Present.” This poem was recorded in October 1962. She was married to the famous British poet Ted Hughes. They had separated, and she reacted by writing angry poetry. An Obsession With Death The vast majority of Sylvia Plath’s poems are obsessed with death. Is the “present” a gift of death? I remember being so startled the first time I heard recordings of Plath’s voice. She had acquired a strong British accent. Plath turned 30 during the month this was recorded. She sounds much older. She would not live to see her…
The Summer Book by Tove Jansson | Book Review
The Summer Book by Tove Jansson Genres: Fiction, Scandinavian Literature Original Publication Date: 1972 Source: I purchased this book Goodreads Find the Author: Website, Goodreads, Amazon In The Summer Book, Tove Jansson distills the essence of the summer—its sunlight and storms—into twenty-two crystalline vignettes. This brief novel tells the story of Sophia, a six-year-old girl awakening to existence, and Sophia’s grandmother, nearing the end of hers, as they spend the summer on a tiny unspoiled island in the Gulf of Finland. The grandmother is unsentimental and wise if a little cranky; Sophia is impetuous and volatile, but she tends to her grandmother with the care of a new parent. In The Summer Book,…
How the Good Guys Finally Won: Notes From An Impeachment Summer by Jimmy Breslin | Book Review
How the Good Guys Finally Won: Notes from an Impeachment Summer by Jimmy Breslin Genres: History, Non-Fiction Original Publication Date: 1975 Source: I purchased this book Goodreads Find the Author: Goodreads, Amazon How The Good Guys Finally Won: Not long after burglars were caught raiding the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate Hotel, Congressman Tip O’Neill noticed that Democratic fundraising efforts for the 1972 election had stalled. Major contributors were under IRS investigation, and Republican lackeys were threatening further trouble if those donors didn’t close their checkbooks. O’Neill sensed a conspiracy coming from the Nixon administration, but it wasn’t until the scandal broke that he connected the threatened donors…
