Kate and Will engagement

Friday, April 29, 2011

End the week with bookish chat. I share what I'm reading, you share what you're reading. If you've written a bookish post yourself in the last week or so, slap the above book club button on it and link up below!

I couldn't resist using the Royal Wedding as an excuse to talk British children's literature. Make yourself cozy and please, won't you have a cup of tea?

But before we go any further . . . Kate Middleton's wedding dress? Yay or nay?

Big, BIG "YAY" in my opinion. Dare I say, it's a little ala Princess Margaret? Nice work Princess Catherine!

Now then . . .

I've been trying to figure out just when I got to be such an Anglophile and while I'm not exactly sure what happened, I'd like to blame books nonetheless.

Specifically, these guys . . .

Actually, now that I think of it, although Pooh and Piglet and the rest of the original A.A. Milne gang (aka not the Disney Pooh . . . what the heck was with Pooh's red shirt anyway?!) were a huge part of my childhood, I think I probably got my first dose of English literature from a Ms. Beatrix Potter. Because of my springtime birthday (aka, the stores were stocked with Easter stuff), I always seemed to receive a lot of bunny stuff for my birthdays and for all the stuffed bunnies and little bunny knick-knacks I once owned, the bunnies who had the most impact on me were Potter's little rabbits.

I grew out of bunnies, eventually, and moved onto other British children's literature, the kind without sweet little illustrations. I read my copy of Robert Louis Stevenson's A Child's Garden of Verses until the book jacket wore out. I got lost in the worlds of The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett and the Borrower books by Mary Norton.Who can resist tales about little people living under the floor boards?!

In my teenage years, I discovered Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy. The books, with their complicated discussions about freewill, sexuality, and religion, have already proven themselves far too complex to work in movie form. They're best reread over and over again to get everything packed into these books. I think I could reread them every year if I didn't think there were a lot of other books out in the world that also deserved my attention.

I Capture the Castle, by Dodie Smith (who also wrote 101 Dalmations . . .wait, another culprit in making me a nutty Anglophile!), is another British young adult classic. The story is charming, sweet and very British. What more could you want?

I'm missing a ton of other British classics that entertained and help shape both my childhood and my decisions as an adult, but these are the books that came to mind as I pondered childhood favorites by British authors.

What were some of your favorite childhood books? Any favorite British authors? Happy Friday all!

Friday, November 19, 2010

I never wanted to be a princess. But that doesn't mean I didn't want a crack at being queen.

This week, a world full of young ladies heaved a sad sigh as Prince William verified that he had indeed proposed to longtime girlfriend Kate Middleton and that she accepted.

Will and Kate (Photo courtesy of Google Images)

I think every girl born in the Western World in 1980s had some wild hopes of a chance meeting with Prince William and ending up Queen of England. Julia Stiles' 2004 film The Prince and Me (which involves a Wisconsin girl marrying the Prince of Denmark) did little to expel these delusional daydreams. It could happen, we thought. It really could. I mean what does Kate Middleton have that I don't have?

Okay, so maybe the fact that Kate and I are both commoners is the only thing we have in common. . . .

Upon hearing the disheartening news, I proposed to my friend Donna that we go storm Buckingham Palace. (This is the only kind of proposal the two of us have been getting lately.) "I'm in!" she responded quickly. That's about where the scheming stopped. Which is good because that plan really hinged on Donna and I presenting ourselves as two crazy Minnesota girls who the royal family and the entire U.K. population would look down upon in disdain.

Andy asked what the appeal was with Prince William anyway. I'm not sure anymore. He was so cute a decade ago, but now he's balding and looks chronically tired. Being prince is a lot of work. And I'm sure Kate's not in for a cakewalk either.

(Notice how Prince Harry, who is actually closer in age to me, handily escaped the whole "heartthrob" thing. Sorry Harry. We still seem to have some societal prejudices against the ginger-haired.)

But I can tell you one thing that's part of the appeal: it's big and blue and has diamonds all around it.

Princess Di's engagement ring (Photo courtesy of Google Images)

Now normally, I prefer emerald, but there are circumstances where I would compromise on sapphire.

I can also tell you that I lived in London for six months and my path never once crossed with royalty. If that's not a sign that I wasn't meant to be a princess, I don't know what is.

But I did come back from the U.K. with an amazing toaster which has a U.K. plug and therefore is basically useless on this side of the pond. (If you've ever go to London, the Octopus stores -- they have one in Covent Garden -- have a great selection of perfectly whimsical household wares.) I knew the toaster would be no good for my life in the States. However I planned to display it as a focal point in my kitchen. But I've had the toaster for nearly three years now and I have yet to have a kitchen to display it in.

Ladies, it's time to hang up the princess dreams. We all know we were delusional all along. It's time to focus on more realistic dreams and problems. Like the day my toaster gets to be displayed on a shelf in my very own kitchen.

Pages

Book Club Friday Goes British!

Good-bye Princess Dreams OR: "I went to England and all I got was a toaster."