On “Five Came Back: A Story of Hollywood and the Second World War”: A Book Review

Presenting last month's book review that never made it up...

Title: Five Came Back: A Story of Hollywood and the Second World War 

Author: Mark Harris

Genre: Non-fiction 

About the book….

A fascinating look at five of the big directors of the Golden Age of Hollywood: John Ford, George Stevens, John Huston, William Wyler, and Frank Capra and the part they played during WWII. 

What I think… 

I was only intending to skim through parts of this, but ended up reading the whole thing because it was so interesting and while I was expecting this to be more about Hollywood and the movies made during the 40’s, I’m really glad that it wasn’t.

This was an incredibly informative book when it comes to WWII and part that these marvelous directors played in it when it came to capturing what was going on around the world and making an effort to boost morale. Each of these men put their careers on hold, so they could serve their country and I think Harris did an excellent job showing how it affected them both for better and worse.

There were three sections to this book with chapters broken down by location and a specific time span. Because I wasn’t overly familiar with any of the directors, minus having knowledge of a small handful of their movies, I found this made it easy to follow and keep track of what was going on as Harris went back and forth between the five men.

As an aside, some of the shorts mentioned in the book you can find online, which I really liked because I could see exactly what was being referred to. 

To sum it all up…

This is great book for those who are interested in WWII and learning about the impact that some of the big directors in Hollywood had on it.  Not something I would refer to as a quick read, but definitely an enjoyable one! ♥

On a Decision to Sew a Giraffe

Lately I've felt pretty burned out when it comes to sewing clothes. It's not that I don't love sewing my own vintage style clothing, it's just that I get frustrated with following patterns, things don't fit right, there are issues matching fabrics/buttons/zippers...you get the picture and basically it come down to the fact that I've always had difficulty when it comes to being told exactly what to do when it comes to creative projects. This isn't to say you don't have some freedom when it comes to sewing clothes, but it's more centered in the what are you going to use to make this uniquely yours vein than it being yours entirely. 

When I first started sewing, I didn't use patterns. For the stuffed animals I made, I just sketched out what I wanted them to look like (sometimes directly on the fabric, such as with my White Rabbit), took scissors to fabric, and hoped that whatever I was making would turn out as I imagined. This is part of what made me like sewing so much and what I still enjoy about making my own stuffed animals, with few exceptions.

With this in mind, at the end of last month I decided to take a break from clothes and sew some sort of stuffed animal. While initially I had a set of hippos in mind, I went to the craft store and in the remnants section found 3/4 of giraffe print, which was so appealing to me I decided I was, instead, going to make a giraffe.

Macrame cord is great for stuffed animal and doll hair!

I named my giraffe Gabby after Audrey Hepburn's character in the movie within the movie Paris When it Sizzles. One of my favorite quotes from this movie (right after William Holden's description of plot) is the giraffe quote, which is of course said in a delightfully affected way:

Gabby: When I was a little girl, on Sunday mornings, if I'd been good, I was allowed to feed the giraffes.
Rick: Giraffes! Don't tell me that you had giraffes too?
Gabby: You mean you...
Rick: But of course we did.
Gabby: Oh what fun! Both of us having had giraffes as children!

Silly, I know, but I've loved that quote since the first time I saw the movie and it popped into my head as I started making this, so my giraffe is named Gabby.

"Did you eat my treat? What sort of dog are you?"

While I’m not planning to stop sewing clothes anytime soon (in fact, I have stuff prepped for a sundress, which I hope to start this weekend and with the remaining fabric from this I'm hoping to make an applique skirt with a giraffe), I do think that every once in a while I need to go back to doing things like this because I love doing them and, overall, they remind me why I enjoy sewing!

 ♥ ♥ ♥