All The Reads: Lenora Bell
The romance novel gets a modern spin set in the time on “the ton” but the themes and characters feel modern and relatable…with plenty of rakes and delectable Dukes. Marriage-minded mamas have their claws out but no one is bossing the heroes and heroines of Bell’s books around. Reading Bell’s oeuvre was a full-blown spring binge…and a very enjoyable one. Here are our Bell favorites.
“How the Duke Was Won” - Our heroine here is masquerading as her half-sister Dorothea (who receives her own book-length story in Bell’s “If I Only Had a Duke”) and is being paid a rather high amount of money to win over our Duke. One high and mighty marriage-minded mama, one French maid named Manon, and one adorable little girl named Flor all come together around the love story to spin out a tale that will have you drinking your hot cocoa along with Charlene and James as they fall for each other.
Lady Dorothea is back, for real this time, no half-sister pretending to be her, in her own story that kicks off with a yearning to authenticate artwork. Specifically, a lost piece by Artemisia Gentileschi, the female Italian Renaissance artist who famously painted Judith beheading Holofernes on not one but two inflammatory canvases. (More here just on the “big, blood-drenched paintings” by Gentileschi.) But Artemisia is the excuse to kick off the second in Bell’s series on “Disgraceful Dukes” as our lead character is inspired by the artist proclaiming her Judith canvas one that says women’s “fingers are no less skillful, our minds no less sharp and our sensibilities, the way we view the world, no less unique.” The story of Thea and Dalton the Duke, a good romping read and a reminder to go beyond the pages for a little art history as well.
The Books of Ted Lasso
Season two is (thankfully) upon us. And just a quick few frames of Coach Beard’s latest read near the end of episode one sent us to hit rewind curious to see what he’s reading versus what Coach Lasso recommended for the players in season one. Here we go - it’s time to build your Lasso Library!
It’s in episode three of the first season that Ted Lasso gives each of his players a gift-wrapped book. Pivotal to the episode, and perhaps more episodes to come, is Roy Kent being given Madeleine L’Engle’s “A Wrinkle in Time.”
Roy doesn’t take it so well, spouting off to Trent-Crimm-The-Independent “what even is ‘A Wrinkle in Time?’”
Trent: “It’s a lovely novel. It’s the story of a young girl’s struggle with the burden of leadership as she journey’s through space.”
Coach Lasso: “Yeah, that’s it!”
Roy: “Am I supposed to be the little girl?”
Coach Lasso: '“I’d like you to be.”
Over on the official Madeleine L’Engle site, Jaime Green has a wonderful guest blog post on what the novel is doing in Ted Lasso - how Meg accepts responsibility and how her anger faults can also be a gift. Just as Roy’s anger eventual is later in the narrative.
Other books vital to the series include F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “The Beautiful and the Damned” and Orson Scott Card’s “Ender’s Game.”
In season two, episode one, Coach Beard is reading what looks like Matthew Syed’s “The Greatest: The Quest for Sporting Perfection.”
All the Reads: Julia Quinn
If you watched Netflix’s “Bridgerton,” you already know how much Daphne “burned” for Simon…though we all tend to get it wrong and only remember Simon saying it. Once Quinn’s saga about the Bridgerton family gets its hooks in you, you’ll want to know what happens to ALL the siblings AND to the “mallet of death.”
Book 2, focused on Anthony Bridgerton, the eldest of the siblings is currently being made into season 2 of the Netflix hit. But…why wait. He’s decided to marry but obstinately determined it will not be for love, just for image. So he sets his sights on young Edwina Sheffield. And it doesn’t quite turn out the way he thinks. You know where the story is headed - but it’s not about the ending - it all’s about how you get there. Anthony’s journey is just as fun and unexpected at times as Simon and Daphne’s road to love.
The third book from Julia Quinn in her beloved Bridgerton series has a Cinderella spin - a young woman who has been forced into service as the poor relation ends up waltzing through the ballroom for a few enchanted hours in the arms of Benedict Bridgerton. But when the hour get late, she flees and the narrative takes a few twists and turns to bring her back into the second Bridgerton son’s life.
I don’t like to pick favorites among the Quinn characters but…if I were to pick one, Penelope tops the list. Book 4 contains a big reveal that was much awaited reading the series…one that’s disclosed in the first season of the Netflix show. And I won’t ruin it here. If you know, you know. Let’s just say Lady Whistledown has more of an, ahem, starring role in this novel. And it’s all got to do with the will they, won’t they of long-time friends Colin and Penelope. He headed abroad, she stayed behind and yearned for him to return…this book is, what happened next. It does not disappoint and might be my favorite of all seven novels.
“To Sir Phillip, With Love” is the unexpectedly charming story of the unexpected Eloise who charges headfirst into an ill-advised correspondence and courtship following only her own heart and wishes…and how it will turn out, it’s hard to tell. But it’s an enchanting journey with a pair of prickly characters who may be destined to be together…or are they? Quinn delights in turning the tropes of Regency romances inside out and this is a fun journey with the most vivid of the Bridgerton sisters.
Francesca is away for many of the earlier Bridgerton books but comes racing full-tilt into the heart of one of London’s most infamous rakes as our story begins. Only it’s not to be. She marries someone else, he’s pining for her without saying anything - and just like that, you’re up way past your bedtime waiting to see what happens with Francesca and Michael.
The youngest of the Bridgertons are all grown up in our last two novels. Hyacinth - the youngest sister - is finally ready to come out in society and she meets Gareth at the annual (and running Quinn joke through many novels) Smythe-Smith musicale…an event that’s a crime against music and Mozart. One diary, one translation, at least one kiss and a number misunderstandings later…a happy ending…or is it?
Gregory - Hyacinth’s sibling companion running around in the first few books - is now all grown up and with his own story to end the series. Gregory, Hermione, and Lucy…all in a story with a few echoes of “The Graduate” (but no “plastics”) and some good quotes. Lucy in particular is a heroine worthy of the Bridgerton women weighing in with Gregory on her upcoming marriage to…someone else.
“‘I make the best of things,’ she said. ‘Always.’”
“‘It’s a commendable trait,’ he said softly.”
“And at that, somehow, she was angry. Really, truly, beastly angry. She didn’t want to be commended for knowing how to settle for second-best. That was like winning a prize for the prettiest shoes in a footrace. Irrelevant and not the point.”
Gregory, Hermione, Lucy…and one very wise mother. (I love when Violet Bridgerton makes an appearance.)
I Want to Decorate My Place...Without Hiring a Decorator...Where Do I Start?
I love interiors…and all that comes with them. I love turning a blank space into one that I can’t wait to come home to…and welcome people over for dinner, parties and hanging out to watch Ted Lasso. And I didn’t hire a decorator but I did read and page through a lot of books to find inspiration, color ideas, teach me how to get the right rug for the living room and how to brighten up the backs of the bookshelves.
A brief list of the best books to get you started…
DOMINO: The Book of Decorating
ELLE DECOR - Style and Substance
Domino has a second book on how to style your home.
Hunkering for Hygge
“Tis the season…after the season…when the Christmas trees have been consigned to the curb, it’s getting colder and we all have to bundle up until the moment we actually want Winter to Be Coming…in April when Game of Thrones returns for it’s final blockbuster season. But here’s how we’re making over our apartments with a few tricks borrowed from the Danes and the Finns - the techniques behind “hygge” which basically seems to mean staying cozy and comfortable and warm inside.
First…the right candles - especially the ones that won’t knock over and set your cozy apartment ablaze. I love the Diptypque “Pomander” - a bit of citrus, a warm orange-y smell that reminds me of both Christmas and the new year smacking me in the face at the same time.
The “Hygge” decoder…nifty little book that breaks down the origins etc.
The Home Edit…edit!
We love Clea and Joanna - their instagram feed a constant source of inspiration, their streaming show is running on a loop here every time we do chores and their book is a complete how-to for using their methods to live a clutter-free, rainbow-involved, streamlined life.
Here’s our edit of… The Home Edit.
Wintering - A Book to Soothe Your Soul
It’s cold, it’s dark, it may even be snowing. A book to soothe your soul right now as we wait for spring…
We love “Wintering” by Katherine May. The NY Times describes May’s book as - “comforting to read … in the midst of the pandemic, especially on the eve of what looks to be a dark and terrible winter that may — with luck — presage better times. Amid so much pain, it’s easy to feel confused about one’s own responses. Is it OK to feel deeply sad even when you still have a home, a job? How can we talk about our fear and loneliness when so many others are suffering even more? ‘Wintering’ does us the great service of reminding us that we are not alone in feeling undone.”
Oh bother, it’s A.A. Milne’s birthday!
"Life is a journey to be experienced, not a problem to be solved.” - Winnie-the-Pooh
Pooh in one in one of the original illustrations by E.H. Shepard.
Alan Alexander Milne is the author behind some of the most beloved characters of all time - Winnie-the-Pooh, Eeyore, Piglet, Tigger, Kanga and Roo.
Born in London in January 1882 - Milne intersected with some of the great writers and writers-to-be of the age - one of this elementary school teachers was H.G. Wells. Later, he played cricket on a school team alongside P.G. Wodehouse, Arthur Conan Doyle, and J.M. Barrie.
After a stint serving in the British Army in World War I, he and his wife Daphne had a son in 1920. They named him Christopher Robin.
Milne, his son Christopher Robin, and the stuffed bear who inspired so many adventures.
Milne did not start his writing career with children’s books or Winnie-the-Pooh. He initially wrote plays and novels and even screenplays for the growing British film industry. The Pooh books about a boy named Christopher Robin were inspired by his son and his stuffed animals (the originals are now at the New York Public Library). Two characters from the mind of A.A. Milne were added to Piglet, Eeyore, Kanga, Roo and Tigger - Rabbit and Owl.
The Hundred Acre Wood was a fictionalized version of a forest in East Sussex where Milne and his family had a farm.
The first publication of Winnie-the-Pooh in The Evening News.
The Pooh stories became a smash hit - becoming Disney cartoons; a collection of the Pooh illustrations sold for more than a million at a London Sotheby’s auction in 2008; and UK polls have voted Winnie-the-Pooh onto lists of “icons of England.”
Penguin - a new character introduced in 2016 - in “The Best Bear in All the World” was inspired by a photo of the author with his son and a toy penguin. (https://www.bbc.com/news/av/entertainment-arts-37401359/listen-to-the-moment-winnie-the-pooh-meets-penguin-friend-in-new-book )
In 2018, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London staged a blockbuster Winnie-the-Pooh exhibition - here’s a look at it through the eyes of the children visiting - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGOpwDOdHp0 And a slightly more grown-up look from the BBC - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tv_-a8pfGHw
A great write-up here about the 90-plus year journey of this bear from pencil sketch to beloved Disney character. https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-winnie-the-poohs-90-year-journey-pencil-sketch-disney-icon
You can read a the complete volume of tales and poems here in The Complete Winnie-the-Pooh.
Thatcher, Unleashed - is this the definitive look at Britain's PM?
Much has been written about British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.
Now Charles Moore brings us his third and final biography in his trilogy assessing her life, based on scores of sources and notes. Benjamin Moore reviewing it in the New York Times calling it “comprehensive” with a perspective that “shifts continually from Thatcher herself (he adeptly captures the force of personality that radiates from her annotations and even from the underlinings in policy papers and memorandums) to her advisers, her colleagues and rivals in the cabinet, her adversaries across the floor in the House of Commons and in Brussels, even her hairdresser. Only this cumulative approach can convey the interplay of Thatcher’s personality and outlook on history and the peculiar way she conducted politics.”
