On "Summer at Tiffany": A Book Review

Title: Summer at Tiffany
Author: Marjorie Hart
Genre: Non-Fiction, Memoir

About the book...
During the summer of 1945 Marjorie Jacobson and her friend Marty Garrett head to New York City to find work as shop girls and live there for a few months before returning to the University of Iowa in the fall. Recounting her experiences, readers get a taste of what it was like to be young and in New York for the first time. 

What I think...
Reading this was like taking a mini vacation to 1945 New York.  The way this book was written, you can tell this time in Hart's life was one that she truly treasures and results in a very sweet autobiography.

I found it fascinating to learn more about Tiffany and how the store functioned at the time. Marjorie and Marty were the first women on the floor as pages putting them in uncharted territory and resulting in some rather amusing mishaps. Hart shares several fun stories about things that happened to her and some of the famous people she encountered, my favorite (and according to the book, a favorite of her family) being about opening a box she was taking to a different department in the elevator, loose pearls going everywhere, and an up and down mad scramble to collect them before they fell through the gap between the door and the floor.

While the book doesn't focus on it being war time, there is a thread running through it with recollections and memories of VJ day being included along with adventures they had going out with the midshipmen, which were interesting and fun to read. 

As a lovely accompaniment to the text, there are glossy page inserts of photos and store sketches!

To sum it all up...
A short biography, that's perfect for history lovers and a nice read for a summer's day!♥

On A Few Wonderland Ornaments: A Photo Post

I bought these about a month ago and decided rather than save them to share in December along with the rest of my Alice ornament collection, today I would go with a Christmas in July themed Photo Post.

I managed to find these three in one bunch. There are a few larger sized (as in about 4 inches versus the little 1 inch wooden ones) wooden Wonderland sets that you see around regularly, but I had never seen these ones before and am actually quite curious to know if there might be more that go with them.

 

I'm very taken with this particular King of Hearts, his mustache, and bright yellow outfit!  

 

 

Then there's this four Christmas Hatter with his teapot, which I thought was awfully cute!   

♥ ♥ ♥

On a Ladybug Named Grenadine

Still only able to do smaller sewing projects and, so, I introduce you to Grenadine. She likes syrup and is awaiting some other tiny friends. 

Like Gunter, my turtle, and the Christmas pudding, Grenadine was a random make and cut entirely free hand. I was initially going for a slightly rounder shape, then ended up tapering the body half circles a little extra making it more canoe shaped, which I actually like better. 

I was also intending to double up the felt on the wings, but as it's more decorative and I'm not going to be doing anything that will pull the felt out of shape, I ended up deciding to just let it go at one layer. All the spots have been stitched on, as have the eyes. 

I am really attempting to get back in the habit of posting more again, so let's hope this will be the start of more than just book review related posts this month! ♥

On "The Willoughbys": A Book Review

Title: The Willoughbys
Author: Lois Lowry ( or as the cover delightfully puts it, "A Novel Nefariously Written & Ignominiously Illustrated by the Author")
Genre: Children's Fiction

About the book...
The Willoughbys are your average happy family, just like all the old-fashioned families you always read about...except the children, Tim, Barnaby A and Barnaby B, and Jane, don't like their parents, the parents don't like the children, and the baby left on their doorstep that they should have been happy to find, they leave on someone else's doorstep. Really, they aren't your average, happy, old-fashioned family, so in an attempt to become orphans the children arrange for their parents to find a brochure from the Reprehensible Travel Agency, which they arrange a trip with, and Mr. and Mrs. Willoughby leave the children with a nanny and try sell the house while they're away. Meanwhile, a billionaire by the name of Commander Melanoff lives nearby and having lost his wife and son in an avalanche, has fallen into a state of depression. A discovery of a baby on his doorstep changes things, though.

What I think...
I read this book when it first came out in 2008 and really liked it, so I was curious to see how well it had aged when I recently thought of it. I am happy to say that it was still just as delightful and quirky!

I feel like Lowry is much better know for her more serious books like The Giver and Number the Stars, but she does comedy really well (I still love her Anastasia Krupnik books, which I first read in elementary school). As I've mentioned before, I like parodies and spoofs and Lowry does a fantastic job getting all the elements from the traditional happy family story packed into this story with all sorts of references to the more traditional stories like Mary Poppins and Anne of Green Gables.

This book definitely falls under the same category as Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events or any number of Roald Dahl books, though I would say it has a slightly lighter tone to it. In comparison, things are presented as being more matter of fact (the children are very practical without it being presented as a character trait) and while the plot does revolve around a mutual dislike, nothing really horrendous happens to anyone.  

One really enjoyable element is that Lowry uses a fair number of large or more old-fashioned sounding words throughout the text and has provided a glossary for them at the end. It in itself is quite funny!

To sum it all up...
A wonderful re-read for me and a book I should really be recommending much more often! I might add, there is also a sequel, The Willoughbys Return. ♥