strange and random happenstance

January 19 15, 1887-January 23, 1943

Bio:
Drama critic for the New York Times and New York World and commentator for The New Yorker magazine, CBS radio star as the Town Crier, model for the character of Sheridan Whiteside in Kaufman and Hart’s "The Man Who Came to Dinner" and for the far less likable character Waldo Lydecker in the 1944 film Laura. He claimed to be the inspiration for Rex Stout's brilliant detective Nero Wolfe, but Stout, although he was friendly to Woollcott, said there was nothing to that idea.

November 23, 1888-September 28, 1964

Bio:
An American comedian, musician, card player and film star. He was the second oldest of the Marx Brothers. His comic style was influenced by clown and pantomime traditions. He wore a curly reddish wig, and never spoke during performances (he blew a horn or whistled to communicate). Marx frequently used props such as a walking stick with a built-in bulb horn, and he played the harp in most of his films.

November 15, 1881-March 23, 1960

Bio:
Columnist at the New York Tribune, the New York World, and the New York Evening Post; wrote the "Always in Good Humor" and "The Conning Tower" columns. Always known by his initials FPA and his wit. A prolific writer of light verse.

December 7, 1888-December 18, 1939

Bio:
American journalist. He worked as a sportswriter, newspaper columnist, and editor in New York City for such papers and the New York Tribune and New York World. He founded the American Newspaper Guild, now known as The Newspaper Guild. He is best remembered for his writing on social issues and his championing of the underdog. He believed that journalists could help right wrongs, especially social ills.

December 13, 1890-December 21, 1980

Bio:
Newspaperman turned playwright, director, producer, performer, and lyricist; co wrote plays with George S. Kaufman. Won Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1930 for the play The Green Pastures.

1887-September 18, 1934

Bio:
Broadway press agent and  a freelance writer who worked for women's rights in New York City, USA, during the era before and after World War I and helped pass Nineteenth Amendment for women’s rights, married Heywood Broun. Hale's cause led her to fight for women to be able to legally preserve their maiden name after marriage. She challenged in the courts any government edict that would not recognize a married woman by the name she chose to use.

November 16, 1889-June 2, 1961

Bio:
Playwright, New York Times drama editor, drama critic, producer, director, actor and humorist. In addition to comedies and political satire, he wrote several musicals, notably for the Marx Brothers. One play and one musical that he wrote won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama: You Can't Take It With You (1937, with Moss Hart), and Of Thee I Sing (1932, with Morrie Ryskind and Ira Gershwin). He also won the Tony Award as a Director, for the musical Guys and Dolls. Wrote forty-five plays (twenty-six hits).

November 6, 1892-December 6, 1951

Bio:
Founded The New Yorker with his wife, Jane Grant, which he edited from the magazine's inception in 1925 to his death. In World War I, he enlisted in the U.S. Army Eighteenth Engineers Railway Regiment. In France, he edited the regimental journal and went to Paris to work for the Stars and Stripes, serving from February 1918 to April 1919. On the Stars and Stripes, he met Alexander Woollcott, Cyrus Baldridge, Franklin Pierce Adams, and Jane Grant.

April 4, 1896-November 4, 1955

Bio:
Vanity Fair drama editor, Life editor, author, playwright who won four Pulitzer Prizes. Won Oscar for writing The Best Years of Our Lives.

August 15, 1885-April 16, 1968

Bio:
An American novelist, short story writer and playwright. Her novels were especially popular and included the Pulitzer Prize-winning So Big (1924), Show Boat (1926; made into the celebrated 1927 musical), and Giant (1952; made into the 1956 Hollywood movie). Cowrote plays with George S. Kaufman, including Dinner at Eight. Ferber and another member of the Round Table, Alexander Woollcott, were long-time enemies, their antipathy lasting until Woollcott's death in 1943. In July 1904, Edna Ferber encountered Harry Houdini in a drugstore on College Avenue. Ferber, just 19 years old, was the first female reporter for the Appleton Crescent. She took the occasion to interview the famous entertainer, and her account of the meeting was published in the Crescent on July 23, 1904.

Side note, people from Wisconsin rock, not that I'm biased or anything...

January 24, 1888-May 12th, 1949

Bio:
Popular magazine cover illustrator, painter. From 1923 through 1937, McMein created all of McCall's covers. She also supplied work to McClure's, Liberty, Woman's Home Companion, Collier's, Photoplay, and other magazines. She created advertising graphics for such accounts as Palmolive soap and Lucky Strike cigarettes. General Mills's Marjorie C. Husted commissioned her to create the image of "Betty Crocker", a fictional housewife whose brand name was intended to be a seal of solid middle-class domestic values.

In each of J.J. Murphy's Algonquin Round Table Mysteries we have had a literary icon or popular culture icon of the day stop by to either help with the sleuthing, or be a suspect in the crime. Here's who's popped by so far... who knows which literary lion will be next?

September 25, 1897-July 6, 1962

Bio:
An American writer from Oxford, Mississippi. Faulkner worked in a variety of media; he wrote novels, short stories, a play, poetry, essays and screenplays during his career. He is primarily known and acclaimed for his novels and short stories, many of which are set in the fictional Yoknapatawpha County, a setting Faulkner created based on Lafayette County, where he spent most of his childhood.

Faulkner is considered one of the most important writers of the Southern literature of the United States. Though his work was published as early as 1919, and largely during the 1920s and 1930s, Faulkner was relatively unknown until receiving the 1949 Nobel Prize in Literature.Two of his works, A Fable (1954) and his last novel The Reivers (1962), both won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.

In Murder Your Darlings:
William Faulkner visits New York City as an unknown writer to stumble upon a murder and the Vicious Circle, becoming a suspect, whom Dorothy just wants to protect. Interestingly, "Billy" did indeed visit New York City as an unknown writer in the early 1920s- although there is no reason to believe he met anyone from the Round Table at this time, or that he was a suspect in a murder. He finally met Dorothy and the other member of the Round Table in 1930 when the table was coming to an end and he was a great literary success... and Dottie did feel a need to mother him.

March 24, 1874-October 31, 1926

Bio:
Born Erik Weisz, later Ehrich Weiss, a.k.a. Harry Weiss was a Hungarian-born American magician and escapologist, stunt performer, actor and film producer noted for his sensational escape acts. He was also a skeptic who set out to expose frauds purporting to be supernatural phenomena which led to a falling out with Arthur Conan Doyle.

In You Might as Well Die: Houdini's show at the Hippodrome is reviewed by Dorothy for Vanity Fair, but she also lures Houdini into the mystery of Ernie MacGuffin's death with the promise to expose some fraudulent spiritualists. While it's unknown if they actually met, he did have a long run of shows opposite the Algonquin when Dorothy was living there, as for the spiritualists, he'd take ever chance he could to catch them in fraudulent activity.

May 22, 1859-July 7, 1930

Bio:
A Scottish physician and writer, most noted for his stories about the detective Sherlock Holmes, generally considered a milestone in the field of crime fiction, and for the adventures of Professor Challenger. He was a prolific writer whose other works include science fiction stories, plays, romances, poetry, non-fiction, historical novels and humours.

Following the death of his wife Louisa in 1906, the death of his son Kingsley just before the end of World War I,  Conan Doyle sank into depression. He found solace supporting spiritualism and its attempts to find proof of existence beyond the grave. Doyle's book The Coming of the Fairies (1921) shows he was apparently convinced of the veracity of the five Cottingley Fairies photographs (which decades later were exposed as a hoax). He reproduced them in the book, together with theories about the nature and existence of fairies and spirits.

Conan Doyle was friends for a time with Harry Houdini, the American magician who himself became a prominent opponent of the Spiritualist movement in the 1920s following the death of his beloved mother. Although Houdini insisted that Spiritualist mediums employed trickery (and consistently exposed them as frauds), Conan Doyle became convinced that Houdini himself possessed supernatural powers—a view expressed in Conan Doyle's The Edge of the Unknown. Houdini was apparently unable to convince Conan Doyle that his feats were simply illusions, leading to a bitter public falling out between the two.

In A Friendly Game of Murder:
We'll just have to wait and see!

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 2 comments  

Labels: Alexander Woollcott, Arthur Conan Doyle, Edna Ferber, Harpo Marx, Harry Houdini, Heywood Broun, Neysa McMein, Sherlock Holmes, Vicious Circle, William Faulkner

August 22, 1893-June 7, 1967

Short Bio:
Vanity Fair drama critic, New Yorker critic. Celebrated poet, short-story writer, playwright. Wrote Hollywood screenplays. Champion for social justice.

Longer Bio:
Dorothy Parker—one of the 20th century's most clever, caustic, witty writers—held her own as one of the few women at a table of (almost) equally smart and wisecracking men.

She married stockbroker Edwin Parker when she was in her early 20s. But he was sent immediately to Europe in World War I. By the time he came back, they had grown apart, and Dorothy's career had taken off. As a member of the Algonquin Round Table, she became famous as much for her biting remarks as for her brilliant writing.

A prolific poet and critic, Dorothy published more than 300 poems in the 1920s. The collection of her writing, The Portable Dorothy Parker, has never gone out of print.

In the 1920s and afterward, Dorothy Parker contributed to The New Yorker and Esquire, and even earned two Academy Award screenplay nominations. She took up pet political causes—and numerous pets—and eventually bequeathed her literary estate to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. After his assassination, her estate passed to the NAACP. For her tombstone epitaph, she suggested “Excuse My Dust.”

September 15, 1889-November 21, 1945

Short Bio:Vanity Fair managing editor, Life drama editor, humorist and actor in short films.

Longer Bio:
Robert Charles Benchley was an American humorist best known for his work as a newspaper columnist and film actor. From his beginnings at the Harvard Lampoon while attending Harvard University, through his many years writing essays and articles for Vanity Fair and The New Yorker, and his acclaimed short films, Benchley's style of humor brought him respect and success during his life, from New York City and his peers at the Algonquin Round Table to contemporaries in the burgeoning film industry.

Benchley is best remembered for his contributions to The New Yorker, where his essays, whether topical or absurdist, influenced many modern humorists. He also made a name for himself in Hollywood, when his short film How to Sleep was a popular success and won Best Short Subject at the 1935 Academy Awards, and his many memorable appearances in films such as Alfred Hitchcock's Foreign Correspondent and a dramatic turn in Nice Girl?. His legacy includes written work and numerous short film appearances.


Where they ever really an item? Parker was unhappily married, while Benchley was married, whether unhappily or not is unknown. While J.J. Murphy hints at Parker's feelings for Benchley, and rumors have run for years that they had an affair that might have resulted in one of Parker's pregnancies, nothing can be said for sure. As J.J. says in the afterward of Murder Your Darlings: "Although much is known about these famous figures in the public eye, we can only speculate about some aspects of their private lives. Nevertheless, by all accounts, Robert Benchley and Dorothy Parker did not have a romantic relationship, though their close friendship is legendary." So why have an unrequited love story? The feeling of Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell in His Girl Friday? Because it's fiction and we love it! As Parker herself said: " I don’t care what is written about me so long as it isn’t true."

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 1 comments  

Labels: Cary Grant, Dorothy Parker, Foreign Correspondent, His Girl Friday, Hitchcock, Robert Benchley, The New Yorker, Vanity Fair

The Leopard by Jo Nesbo
Published by: Knopf
Publication Date: December 13th, 2011
Format: Hardcover, 528 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
" “With Henning Mankell having written his last Wallander novel and Stieg Larsson no longer with us, I have had to make the decision on whom to confer the title of best current Nordic writer of crime fiction . . . Jo Nesbø wins.”
Two young women are found murdered in Oslo, both drowned in their own blood. Media coverage quickly reaches fever pitch: Could this be the work of a serial killer?

The crime scenes offer no coherent clues, the police investigation is stalled, and the one man who might be able to help doesn’t want to be found. Traumatized by his last case, Inspector Harry Hole has lost himself in the squalor of Hong Kong’s opium dens. Yet when he is compelled, at last, to return to Norway—his father is dying—Harry’s buried instincts begin to take over. After a female MP is discovered brutally murdered, nothing can keep him from the investigation.

There is little to go on: a piece of rope, a scrap of wool, a bit of gravel, an unexpected connection between the victims. And Harry will soon come to understand that he is dealing with a psychopath for whom “insanity is a vital retreat,” someone who will put him to the test—in both his professional and personal lives—as never before.

Ruthlessly intelligent and suspenseful, The Leopard is Jo Nesbø’s most electrifying novel yet—absolutely gripping from first to last."

Need for some Scandinavian mystery? Look no further. My mom loves these, and she's a mystery guru.

Angel The End
Published by: IDW
Publication Date: December 13th, 2011
Format: Hardcover, 464 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"This is the end, beautiful friend! After years of fighting to protect his friends and the citizens of Los Angeles from the demonic hordes which populate this and other dimensions, Angel must say goodbye. Elaborate plans and selfless acts have come and gone, and now IDW presents the hardcover collection of Angel''s final three volumes: Immortality for Dummies, The Crown Prince Syndrom, and The Wolf, The Ram, and The Heart into one glorious collection, including the never-before-collected Angel Yearbook."

Kind of sad that this is the end of IDW's Angel. Yeah, I know Angel is going over to Dark Horse, but IDW did such a wonderful job with Angel season 6, while Dark Horse did such a shit job with Buffy season 8... at least the new Faith and Angel series is off to a good start, I don't want them destroying any more of my favorite shows!

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Angel, Comics, Jo Nesbo, The Leopard

"The price of admission is a serpent's tongue and a half-concealed stiletto."

The Algonquin Round Table was a celebrated group of New York City writers, critics, actors and wits. Gathering initially as part of a practical joke aimed at ribbing Alexander Woollcott, his enjoyment of the joke and the success of the event prompted the group in attendance to meet at the Algonquin each day for lunch. The members of "The Vicious Circle", as they dubbed themselves, met for lunch each day at the Algonquin Hotel from 1919 until roughly 1929. At these luncheons they engaged in wisecracks, wordplay and witticisms that, through the newspaper columns of Round Table members, were disseminated across the country.

In its ten years of association, the Round Table and a number of its members acquired national reputations both for their contributions to literature and for their sparkling wit. Although some of their contemporaries, and later in life even some of its members, disparaged the group, its reputation has endured long after its dissolution.


The group first gathered in the Algonquin's Pergola Room (now called The Oak Room) at a long rectangular table. As they increased in number, Algonquin manager Frank Case moved them to the Rose Room and a round table. Initially the group called itself "The Board" and the luncheons "Board meetings." After being assigned a waiter named Luigi, the group re-christened itself "Luigi Board." Finally they became "The Vicious Circle" although "The Round Table" gained wide currency after cartoonist Edmund Duffy of the Brooklyn Eagle caricatured the group sitting at a round table and wearing armor.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 1 comments  

Labels: Dorothy Parker, Frank Case, New York, The Algonquin Round Table, The Round Table, The Vicious Circle

It seems like I’ve known Dorothy Parker all my life, much the same way you seem to have always known, say, the taste of lemonade. You don’t remember when you first tried that bittersweet drink, you’ve just always known what it tastes like.

Dorothy Parker, as you may know, was equally bittersweet. A writer and poet who came to fame in the Roaring 20s in New York, she was as well known for her clever wisecracks as for her writing. Mrs. Parker was a charter member of the Algonquin Round Table, which was a group of like-minded writers, editors and critics who met daily for lunch at the Algonquin Hotel. The group became famous for their funny quips and insults, so much so that the hotel manager installed a round table placed at “center stage” of the hotel’s restaurant, as a draw for more patrons.

Okay, so I’ve never met Dorothy Parker in person—she died shortly before I was born—but I got to know her and her witty sayings when I was a child. And I’ve been bumping into her ever since.

I first heard Mrs. Parker’s most famous line when I was in elementary school. A teacher said to a bespectacled schoolgirl, “Men seldom make passes at girls who wear glasses.” The teacher was speaking in an ironic and empowering way (at least I certainly hope so). But then again, I don’t recall any boy making a pass at her.

As I got older, my uncle from New York introduced me to the other members of the Algonquin Round Table, with such phrases as Robert Benchley’s line, “Let’s get you out of those wet clothes and into a dry martini.”

It wasn’t until college that I was officially initiated into Mrs. Parker’s poetry and short stories. You may be familiar with “Big Blonde,” an award-winning short story that shows Mrs. Parker’s talents extended beyond clever quips. Later, I got to know her drama and book criticism: “This is not a book to be tossed aside lightly; it should be thrown with great force,” and “Dashiell Hammett is as American as a sawed-off shotgun.”

But her one piece that has stuck with me was just a short little thing, like the lady herself, but with a powerful kick. It’s “Résumé,” which is a brief list of ways to commit suicide and how they all come up short: “...Gas smells awful / Nooses give / Guns aren’t lawful / You might as well live.”

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 1 comments  

Labels: Algonquin Round Table, Big Blonde, Dashiell Hammett, Dorothy Parker, Mrs. Parker, Robert Benchley, Suicide, The Vicious Circle

Death Comes to Pemberly by P.D. James
Published by: Knopf
Publication Date: December 6th, 2011
Format: Hardcover, 304 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A rare meeting of literary genius: P. D. James, long among the most admired mystery writers of our time, draws the characters of Jane Austen’s beloved novel Pride and Prejudice into a tale of murder and emotional mayhem.

It is 1803, six years since Elizabeth and Darcy embarked on their life together at Pemberley, Darcy’s magnificent estate. Their peaceful, orderly world seems almost unassailable. Elizabeth has found her footing as the chatelaine of the great house. They have two fine sons, Fitzwilliam and Charles. Elizabeth’s sister Jane and her husband, Bingley, live nearby; her father visits often; there is optimistic talk about the prospects of marriage for Darcy’s sister Georgiana. And preparations are under way for their much-anticipated annual autumn ball.

Then, on the eve of the ball, the patrician idyll is shattered. A coach careens up the drive carrying Lydia, Elizabeth’s disgraced sister, who with her husband, the very dubious Wickham, has been banned from Pemberley. She stumbles out of the carriage, hysterical, shrieking that Wickham has been murdered. With shocking suddenness, Pemberley is plunged into a frightening mystery.

Inspired by a lifelong passion for Austen, P. D. James masterfully re-creates the world of Pride and Prejudice, electrifying it with the excitement and suspense of a brilliantly crafted crime story, as only she can write it."

The queen of crime writing a Jane Austen murder, I bet everyone is over the freakin' moon about this one!

The Forgotten Affairs of Youth by Alexander McCall Smith
Published by: Pantheon
Publication Date: December 6th, 2011
Format: Hardcover, 272 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"In this latest installment of the beloved Isabel Dalhousie series, our inquisitive heroine helps a new friend discover the identity of her father.

Isabel and her fiancé know who they are and where they come from. But not everybody is so fortunate. Jane Cooper, a visiting Australian philosopher on sabbatical in Edinburgh, has more questions than answers. Adopted at birth, Jane is trying to find her biological father, but all she knows about him is that he was a student in Edinburgh years ago. When she asks for Isabel’s help in this seemingly impossible search . . . well, of course Isabel obliges.

But Isabel also manages to find time for her own concerns: her young son, Charlie, already walking and talking; her housekeeper, Grace, whose spiritualist has lately been doubling as a financial advisor; her niece Cat’s latest relationship; and the pressing question of when and how Isabel and Jamie should finally get married.

Should the forgotten affairs of youth be left in the past, or can the memories help us understand the present? In her inimitable way, Isabel leads us to a new understanding of the meaning of family."

Yeah for new Alexander McCall Smith... though one must wonder, how does one man write so much and of such a high quality?

The Villa of Death by Joanna Challis
Published by: Minotaur
Publication Date: December 6th, 2011
Format: Hardcover, 304 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Young Daphne du Maurier must defend of a friend who has been accused of murder in this next installment in the beguiling mystery series that readers of Rebecca will love.

t's the summer of 1927, and young Daphne du Maurier has traveled to Thornleigh Manor to attend the wedding of her good friend, Ellen, who is set to marry her beau, Teddy. Having met in the midst of the chaos and calamity of wartime, the lovers were brutally separated years before by family objections, but have since reunited. But when Teddy is found murdered just after the wedding, and Ellen is accused of the crime, Daphne and the dashing Major Browning must uncover the truth before all is lost."

The newest in Challis' series about a young Daphne Du Maurier. Also, the newest in the trend to have real life mystery writers be involved in murders, which is an interesting sub-genre. Look at the Upson Tey books.

Foul Play at Four by Steve Heller and Louise Fili
Published by: Berkley
Publication Date: December 6th, 2011
Format: Hardcover, 320 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
" "New in the series that's "a must for British cozy fans"
Lois Meade has worked through all the days of the week, turning up clues and scrubbing up messes and murderers in the village of Long Farnden. But sleuthing is rarely a spotless endeavor...

A series of robberies have begun to plague Long Farnden, and Lois's own daughter, Josie, is shaken when a thief makes off with a hundred pounds from the till in her grocery shop. But before her policeman fiancé can crack the case, someone cracks Lois's husband on the head when he interrupts a burglary in progress. Now Lois-and the besotted Inspector Cowgill-must determine who's cleaning out Long Farnden, and clean up after an increasingly violent crime spree..."

The newest in one of my mom's favorite series, that I should say isn't written by M.C. Beaton. She love sher M.C. Beaton.

Clockwork Prince by Cassandra Clare
Published by: Margaret K. McElderry Books
Publication Date: December 6th, 2011
Format: Hardcover, 528 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"In the magical underworld of Victorian London, Tessa Gray has at last found safety with the Shadowhunters. But that safety proves fleeting when rogue forces in the Clave plot to see her protector, Charlotte, replaced as head of the Institute. If Charlotte loses her position, Tessa will be out on the street—and easy prey for the mysterious Magister, who wants to use Tessa’s powers for his own dark ends.

With the help of the handsome, self-destructive Will and the fiercely devoted Jem, Tessa discovers that the Magister’s war on the Shadowhunters is deeply personal. He blames them for a long-ago tragedy that shattered his life. To unravel the secrets of the past, the trio journeys from mist-shrouded Yorkshire to a manor house that holds untold horrors, from the slums of London to an enchanted ballroom where Tessa discovers that the truth of her parentage is more sinister than she had imagined. When they encounter a clockwork demon bearing a warning for Will, they realize that the Magister himself knows their every move—and that one of their own has betrayed them.

Tessa finds her heart drawn more and more to Jem, though her longing for Will, despite his dark moods, continues to unsettle her. But something is changing in Will—the wall he has built around himself is crumbling. Could finding the Magister free Will from his secrets and give Tessa the answers about who she is and what she was born to do?

As their dangerous search for the Magister and the truth leads the friends into peril, Tessa learns that when love and lies are mixed, they can corrupt even the purest heart."

More Clare, more steampunk, go enjoy!

You Might As Well Die by J.J. Murphy
Published by: Allworth Press
Publication Date: December 6th, 2011
Format: Paperback, 212 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"When second-rate illustrator Ernie MacGuffin's artistic works triple in value following his apparent suicide off the Brooklyn Bridge, Dorothy Parker smells something fishy. Enlisting the help of magician and skeptic Harry Houdini, she goes to a séance held by MacGuffin's mistress, where Ernie's ghostly voice seems hauntingly real..."

I've really been looking forward to this book. I mean really really! Plus, it's kind of what this month is about....

His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman
Published by: Everyman's Library
Publication Date: December 6th, 2011
Format: Hardcover, 1144 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"The only hardcover omnibus of the best-selling and award-winning fantasy trilogy, in a Contemporary Classics edition.

Philip Pullman's trilogy is a masterpiece that transcends genre and appeals to readers of all ages. His heroine, Lyra, is an orphan living in a parallel universe in which science, theology, and magic are entwined. The epic story that takes us through the three novels is not only a spellbinding adventure featuring armored polar bears, magical devices, witches, and daemons, it is also an audacious and profound reimagining of Milton's Paradise Lost that has already inspired a number of serious books of literary criticism. Like J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis before him, Pullman has invented a richly detailed and marvelously imagined world, complex and thought-provoking enough to enthrall adults as well as younger readers. An utterly entrancing blend of metaphysical speculation and bravura storytelling, His Dark Materials is a monumental and enduring achievement."

Beautiful new omnibus, which I don't really need... who am I kidding, I'll be getting it anyway.

The World of Downton Abbey by Jessica Fellowes
Published by: St. Martin's Press
Publication Date: December 6th, 2011
Format: Hardcover, 304 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A lavish look at the real world--both the secret history and the behind-the-scenes drama--of the spellbinding Emmy Award-winning Masterpiece TV series Downton Abbey

April 1912. The sun is rising behind Downton Abbey, a great and splendid house in a great and splendid park. So secure does it appear that it seems as if the way it represents will last for another thousand years. It won't.


Millions of American viewers were enthralled by the world of Downton Abbey, the mesmerizing TV drama of the aristocratic Crawley family--and their servants--on the verge of dramatic change. On the eve of Season 2 of the TV presentation, this gorgeous book--illustrated with sketches and research from the production team, as well as on-set photographs from both seasons--takes us even deeper into that world, with fresh insights into the story and characters as well as the social history."

Downton! I must know all there is to know! I want to live there and meet the people, yes I know they're not real.... oh my, I think I'm in Downton withdrawl. Do they have drugs to help this, or do I just need to watch it over and over again?

The Tiny Book fo Tiny Stories by Joseph Gordon-Levitt
Published by: It Books
Publication Date: December 6th, 2011
Format: Hardcover, 88 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"HitRECord’s collaborative coalition of artists and writers are making history with The Tiny Book of Tiny Stories: Volume 1, a collection of innovative crowd-sourced creative projects that pushes the limits of originality, cooperation, imagination, and inspiration. HitRECord, a grassroots creative collective founded by actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt, known worldwide for his performances in (500) Days of Summer and Inception, is a forum where thousands of artists worldwide share work and contribute to their peers’ projects in writing, music, videos, illustration, and beyond. Alongside Dean Haspiel’s ACT-I-VATE, a groundbreaking comics collective, and the photographer JR’s Inside Out Project, hitRECord is a haven for budding creatives. Now, the collective has edited together its most promising stories and illustrations to serve as its face in introducing the world to a new generation of talent, in The Tiny Book of Tiny Stories."

Don't care what it is, Tommy from 3rd Rock has written a book! Yes, he will always be Tommy to me.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Alexander McCall Smith, Ann Purser, Cassandra Clare, Daphne Du Maurier, Dorothy Parker, Downton Abbey, J.J. Murphy, Jane Austen, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, P.D. James, Philip Pullman

My first introduction to Dorothy Parker might not be what you expect. You probably picture my house growing up as jammed with books and me one day stumbling upon The Portable Dorothy Parker and that, as they say, was history. That would be an entirely fictitious history, one that Dorothy herself would probably like, she did after all say "I don't care what is written about me so long as it isn't true." The "truth" of it was, there where shelves and shelves of books, though Dorothy wasn't on them, and I viewed the shelves mainly as the stuff that was behind the tv. Yes that's right, I was not a bookworm as a child. I had a few books I loved and didn't really branch out till after high school, otherwise known as, the time when I got to pick what I wanted to read and wasn't assigned horrid and asinine books, My Brother Sam is Dead anyone?

One of my favorite shows was The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles. Ah, Sean Patrick Flannery, you are a god, and will always have a special place in my heart. I squealed like a little fangirl when I got to meet you this summer (luckily not to your face) and had so much fun talking about the show, I did after all bring my original Young Indiana Jones Chronicles fanclub magazine that I ordered through Scholastic, yes I am that dorky. Ironically this show, without me knowing it I might add, did what George Lucas set out to do, teach kids about history through the life of Indiana Jones. While I was more into the romantic travails of Indy fending off a young Ernest Hemingway, the Spanish Civil War wormed it's way into my brain. Pancho Villa worked his way in while I was admiring Indy's horsemanship. Damn that boy can ride! It was a silly episode though about Indy trying to balance three very different women, for the sake of humor, one a blond, one a brunette, and one a redhead, that caught my eye. It wasn't the goofy storyline, obviously he should be with the brunette, she was smart and streetwise and surprisingly Anne Heche, it was the literary world that caught me. Of course the members of the Algonquin Round Table did straddle different worlds and often had people in the arts and theatre other than just writers, it was the writers that Indy meets one day that transfixed me.

The whole table was there, from Benchley and Parker to Woollcott and Ferber. Woollcott and Parker actually go with Anne Heche's character to the Broadway musical Indy has been stage managing wherein Hemingway gets upset that Woollcott won't be quiet. What struck me rewatching the episode (yes, cause I'm that kind of person who won't let the opportunity to rewatch Sean Patrick Flannery pass me by) was that they really did capture the essence of the table. The biting humor along with the camaraderie. Benchley with his arm around Mrs. Parker's chair. The other tablemates telling Indy exactly how the press works. Indy being accepted as one of their own because he makes a biting comment about the scarcity of an Alexander Woollcott first addition saying that a second edition would be even rarer. A book to which they use Dorothy's famous quote, "This is not a book to be tossed aside lightly. It should be thrown aside with great force." Even if that was about another book entirely... I wanted to be in that room! I wanted to be at that table! One can dream...

I leave you with the finale of that episode.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 2 comments  

Labels: Alexander Woollcott, Dorothy Parker, Ernest Hemingway, George Gershwin, George Lucas, Indiana Jones, Robert Benchley, The Algonquin Round Tabel, The Man I Love, The Portable Dorothy Parker

Dorothy Parker is one of the most quotable writers of her day. Her sparkling, and often snarky wit is as fresh today as it was in the 1920s. She is the symbol of her age, the literary "New Yorkers" with intelligence to burn, often burning off many a brain cell at a speakeasy. The literati of the day, when those who wrote the news also made the news. I would give anything to go back to a time when writers where king and not reality television stars and D-list celebrities. When wit and intelligence where prized and not viewed as something odd.

Luckily I found the next best thing to time travel: a new series of books! If there's a better way of getting lost in a time period other than the written word I can't think of it. The world comes alive in your mind. The clothes and the people, long since gone are brought back to us. This of course can be problematic when you then have to face the "real world," but luckily a book will be waiting for you once you're done with the inconvenience of reality. Back in January while perusing the upcoming book lists of new releases, my eye spied a book about Dorothy Parker and the members of the vicious circle, ie, her writing and lunchtime cronies, Murder Your Darlings. This book intrigued me. Dorothy Parker as a kind of lackadaisical and witty crime fighter by accident. With one of those rare instances when I finally read the book it lived up to my expectations. A fun little romp round New York. More of the cosy genre of mysteries, nothing too dark or too gory. A book that makes you feel all warm and content inside, like a cat has taken up residence in you.

Since that day I have been waiting for the follow up book, You Might as Well Die, because the little story, Hair of the Dog,  for my e-reader was not enough to whet my appetite. As the days I had to wait grew shorter and shorter a wonderful thing happened. One day I was checking my email and who should have dropped me a line but J.J. Murphy! The writer! Any time a writer contacts me it's a trill with a frisson of excitement. But here was an author not just asking me if I'd like to read the new book (a few weeks early!) but have a giveaway and a Q and A and guest posts and what have you! I don't think I could be more thrilled, unless of course Dorothy Parker herself somehow wrote a guest post from beyond the grave... so I obviously said to J.J., have my blog! Just take it over for December. And thus, Dorothy December was born. I'll have reviews and a giveaway (cough, look below, cough) and little guides to the members of the round table, the witty one, not the one with swords. I'll hope you'll take some time during this holiday season to sit back and get cozy with me and J.J.

Prize: A signed copy of the new book, You Might as Well Die, direct from the author, and if that alone isn't enough, an Algonquin Round Table Mysteries coffee mug, perfect for those cold December days.

The Rules:
1. Open to EVERYONE, just because you haven't been following me all along doesn't mean you don't matter, you just get more entries if you prove you love me by following.
2. Please make sure I have a way to contact you if your name is drawn, either your blogger profile or a link to your website/blog or you could even include your email address with your comment(s).
3. Contest ends Saturday, December 31st at 11:59PM CST
4. How to enter:

Answer me this: Which round table would you rather visit? Arthur's (as in the King) or Dorothy's?

5. And for those addicted to getting extra entries:

• +1 for answering the question above
• +2 for becoming a follower
• +10 if you are already a follower
• +10 for each time you advertise this contest - blog post, sidebar, twitter (please @MzLizard), etc. (but you only get credit for the first post, so tweet all you like, and I thank you for it, but you'll only get the +10 once). Also please leave a link!
• +25 if you comment on any of the posts this month, with something other than "I hope I win" or a variation thereof.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 11 comments  

Labels: 1920s, Algonquin Round Table, Dorothy December, Dorothy Parker, J.J. Murphy, Murder Your Darlings, You Might as Well Die