July 2019 Books

* Carrie by Stephen King - Sissy Spacek read this beautifully and I was in awe at how well Stephen King writes the voice of an awkward young woman. Just brilliant.
♥ One From the Hart by Stefanie Powers - I absolutely loved listening to Stefanie Powers read her autobiography and once it was done I ordered a real copy to add to my bookshelf.

* Girl in a Band by Kim Gordon - I've never been a fan of Sonic Youth and I only knew of Kim Gordon from her line of X-Girl clothing in the 90s (I dropped fifty bucks at Zipperhead on South Street in Philly back in the mid 90s for a navy striped crop top. I still have it!), but her life was super interesting with a revolving door of fascinating famous faces that came in and out of her life. Definitely worth reading if you are a fan of Sonic Youth, powerful females, or the underground music/art scene of the 80s and 90s.

* The Witches by Roald Dahl - Miranda Richardson was so good as the narrator! She gave me the chills a couple times with her spooky, witchy voice.

* A Mother's Story by Gloria Vanderbilt - I was following up The Rainbow Comes and Goes with another of Ms. Vanderbilt's books, A Mother's Story, about the death of her son, Carter. I was four pages from the end when I realised that whoever checked out that book before me had torn out the last few pages. I was livid. What kind of a MONSTER gets out an x-acto knife and cuts out the last pages of essentially a self-help book for mothers who have lost their child to a suicide?! It was disgusting. I spewed my rant to the librarian who was equally horrified. Luckily she was able to obtain a copy as an inter-library loan, but I was still mighty pissed off. Regardless, it was a great book, heart-breaking, but would definitely help someone in a similar situation to see that it's okay to keep on living and most importantly, to keep the memory of the child that is gone, alive and in the present as much as possible. Gloria Vanderbilt seems like she was one helluva a woman.

♥ I Got a "D" in Salami by Henry Winkler and Lin Oliver

♥♥ Dropped Names by Frank Langella

* The World According to Mr. Rogers by Fred Rogers
* Above the Line: My Wild Oats Adventure by Shirley MacLaine
* The Gabriel Method by Jon Gabriel
* Rivals: Frenemies Who Changed the World ¹ by Scott McCormick
* Polka Dot Parade by Deborah Blumenthal - A children's book that tells a new generation about the marvelously brilliant Bill Cunningham? You're damn right I ordered up a copy and have absolutely been reading it to my nieces and nephews!
* George Brown, Class Clown: Super Burp by Nancy Krulik - Fun. Just plain ole fun to read. I saw this at one of those Little Free Library stands and it was really cute. I'll be passing it along to Jackson so we can giggle over the giant burp-heard-round-the-world at the ice cream place.

♥ The Green Mile by Stephen King

Winnie the Pooh (Dramatized): In Which Piglet Meets a Heffalump, In Which Eeyore has a Birthday, In Which Kanga and Baby Roo Come to the Forest and Piglet has a Bath, In Which Christopher Robin Leads an Exposition to the North Pole ¹ by A.A. Milne 
* Goosebumps: Welcome to Dead House ¹ by R.L. Stine

* Tippi by Tippi Hendren - I really liked Tippi and was glad to hear her clear up some old rumours I'd heard over the years. I was really disgusted that Hitchcock was such a scumbag to her and a little disappointed that none of the people on the sets (ahem, I'm talking about her leading men) stepped up to Hitch or to complain that his actions were out of line. I love her passion for animals, even though I don't always agree with her methods, and tore through her audiobook in just a couple days.

* Feminism Is for Everybody by bell hooks - A good book for people interested in feminism, but a lot of it I already knew. ¹

¹ - audiobook
² - abridged version
* - liked
♥ - loved
Any unmarked titles were, in my opinion, so-so.