Tuesday, March 4, 2014

Books and fashion


March came in like a polar bear here on the prairie with record cold temps it can't last too many more weeks.
Latest reading list and a fashion show circa 1972
  1. Major Pettigrew's Last Stand by Helen Simonson  for book club
  2. Christmas Letter by Debbie Macomber 
  3. The Old Christmas Magic by Linda Raedisch                      Daughter and I went to Saving Mr Banks back in December which prompted me to read:
  4. Mary Poppins by P. L. Travers
  5. Mary Poppins She Wrote by Valerie Lawson   P.L. Travers had a lot of issues to deal with and had very definite ideas about how the story line and movie should be  made. The book Mary Poppins is a series of short adventures not a story with a beginning, middle and end. The movie follows some of the adventures very closely and others not so much. The Disney creation will always be my favorite.
  6. The Dressmaker by Kate Alcott  This is a Titanic story and we all know how that ends but do we? The main characters are a dress designer, her husband and secretary, who were all real people and survived. The story is told through the secretary who is trying to escape her station in life as a servant in England. She is an accomplished seamstress and wants to be a dress designer. What luck to meet the designer on the wharf and agree to be her maid on the journey.   There are conflicts of loyalty, romance, the vote for women, betrayal, the hookless fastener, shorter skirts and Margaret Brown, then there were Senate Hearings in the US and Britain.                                                       A fun book to read.                                                      In that vein a peek at this seamstress of a lifetime ago.  All polyester double knits and short skirts! They were fun to wear and easy care. I could make a dress with a little over a yard of fabric!!--Ann--

1 comment:

Judy S. said...

Have you finished Major Pettigrew? I loved it. It was fun to see those dresses as they brought back memories, lots of them.