Fabulous Fridays: #52lists Project

This week’s list: List your favorite characters from books, movies, television, etc…

• Scarlett O’Hara from Gone With the Wind
• Rose DuWitt Bukater from Titanic
• Darcy Rhone of Something Borrowed/Something Blue
• Margaret Simon from Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret
• Farley Drexel Hatcher (aka “Fudge”) from Tales of A Fourth Grade Nothing, Superfudge, Fudge-a-mania, and Double Fudge.
• Jo Polniaczek from The Facts of Life
• Blair Warner from The Facts of Life
• Laura Ingalls Wilder (Specifically Melissa Gilbert’s version) from Little House on the Prairie.

Take Action: Find a common personality trait between all of your favorite characters. What is one character trait you admire?

I’d never really thought about it before until now because they sort of seem like a diverse group in my head. Still, when it comes right down to it all of them (except for maybe Fudge) are more than what they appear to be. At first glance, they seem stereotypical, but when you really get to know the characters, they are a lot deeper, stronger, and opinionated when you first meet them. They may be debutantes, superficial or classic tomboys, but there is always more to them than meets the eye and there is a part of me that has something in common with each one of them.

Buy It, Borrow It or Bag It- Chronicles of Downton Abbey

    Yes, I admit it… I am a Downton Abbey fan. It’s not really surprising considering that I have been wacky about the Edwardian era every since I read Danielle Steele’s “No Greater Love” which centered on the sinking of the Titanic and how a group of orphaned American Edwardian children cope after the disaster that took their parents’ lives. Not quite the same thing as Downton to be sure, but it explains why I watch it. In an effort to gear up for last night’s Season 4 premier, I re-watched Season 3 (and Seasons 1-2) and read through the new companion book by Jessica Fellows & Matthew Sturgis.

I really liked it, but it’s not for everyone. I liked the fact that the actors playing the roles offer their “vision” for who these characters are and that the text offers and in depth look at the psychology of the character now that three seasons have gone by and that they have been developed in such a way that there is a more established backstory for many of them. The book includes a look into Shirley McClain’s role as the American grandmother attending Lady Mary’s Wedding. (a bit of brilliant casting if you ask me!) and I was excited to read Maggie Smith’s take on the Dowager Countess. If you bought the previous companion piece from Seasons1-2 and promise this is a new book and not merely a rehash of the other one. If you do not have the first, you won’t feel as though you have missed anything.

Buy it if you are a fan of the show…but use a coupon or pick it up at a second hand store as it’s price is a whopping $29.99.

Buy It, Borrow It or Bag It: The Real Life Downton Abbey by Jacky Hyams

      This historical “niche” book (I don’t know if that is a real term or not, but I am going to go with it) is a great read for anyone who is a fan of Downton Abbey or has a passion for the Edwardian period. In theory, I really liked it, but in the end-I felt like I did’t learn anything new. Allow me to explain…several years ago, I snapped up every book I could get my hands on about the Titanic. I could rattle off facts about that ship as though I worked at Harland and Wolf in a previous life…but after a while, there is nothing new to learn. I’ve seen the movies, watched documentaries, read transcripts from the formal inquiry, etc…eventually there comes a point where you say “I’ve got it.”

Don’t misunderstand, I am sure we don’t know everything there is to know about the upstairs/downstairs world that inspired the famed BBC show, but the research is beginning to get repetitive. The working conditions sucked. There was little pay. There was a strict hierarchy and a wide gap between the “haves” and the “have nots” and I think that after reading this title, I’m done. Heck, I think even the author was done because 300 pages or so in, the narrative kind of fell apart and the remainder of the book were small insights in to that era. I felt like we went from full length chapters to “I’m out of things to write so I’ll piece meal it together to make the word count.” Then again, because I read the book on Overdrive, versus holding in my hand-perhaps the formatting is a little different in hard copy and would have made more sense to me.

At any rate…it was an easy read, plenty to take in but a Borrow It at best.

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