Angieville

You guys. I have come across another perfect edition of a book I adore, and I simply have to share. Actually I discovered one lovely edition and that one led me to another, and, well, I need to know which you yourselves would choose. I ran across the whimsical yellow cover and found it charming, particularly in comparison to the edition I own , which I love, but which has determinedly large violet numbers on it. And we all know how I feel about violet anything on the covers of my beloved books. Sigh . But then.  Then.  I found the stamped AirMail envelope cover. My heart, you guys. It is perfect. I do really like the cream one with the actual photo of Marks & Co. on it, naturally. In fact, my heart clenches each time I look at it and remember that when I finally made it to London, that blessed shop had been turned into a Pizza Hut. A Pizza Hut . And so to exorcise the demons (and because I have no lender copy), I plan on ordering one of these lovelies sooner ra...

I love the line in 84, Charing Cross Road where Helene writes to Frank telling him, I require a book of love poems with spring coming on. Do you ever feel that way? You can feel a particular season or time approaching and you start to itch for a certain read you always associate with that time or season. It happens to me regularly and last night I realized I require a holiday read with Christmas coming on. I evaluated my shelves and discovered that I don't have a specific book I read every Christmas season or even every winter. This is clearly Not Okay. And so I'm putting the question out there, asking for your recommendations. What are you favorite holiday reads? Because I'm craving a good one.

When we got to talking about film adaptations yesterday, I knew today's Retro Friday post would have to be about one book, and one book only-- 84, Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff. I owe the discovery of this wonderful book to DH , before he was DH, in fact. He gave the movie to me for my birthday--the first birthday I had after we started dating. Along with the Old Friends Simon & Garfunkel box set and a kiss. At the time we were living in different cities and meeting up somewhere in the middle for our "dates." So I drove home that night and watched the movie all by myself. I cried. Twice. I laughed and laughed and laughed. And I went out and bought the book immediately. I was on my way to London for a study abroad program and so it was a going away gift of sorts. He's particularly good with gifts, as you can tell. It is without a doubt my very favorite memoir and the movie adaptation starring Anne Bancroft and Anthony Hopkins is pretty much my favorite mov...