“Fiddle-dee-dee!” – Film Fest Friday

June 20, 2014 by Jessi

Gone with the Wind Book Release: 1936 Movie Release: 1939 Where to Watch: Sitting on your porch surrounded by a crowd of suitors so thick, you can hardly wade through in your hoop skirt. The Story War, war, war. Set in the time of the American Civil War, the story follows the iconic characters of Katie Scarlett O’Hara Hamilton Kennedy Butler (good luck fitting that on your driver’s license) and Rhett Butler. Weaved throughout the tale is the story of […]

Categories: Adaptations • Tags: classics, Film Fest Friday, Gone with the Wind

Jack Rose and the Hooch – Literary Happy Hour

June 12, 2014 by Caitlin

What to read: Cannery Row by John Steinbeck What to drink: “Hooch” if you’re daring, a Jack Rose if you’re not There’s this bar in Northern California that I find to be quite the haven for literary nerds. The walls are lined with books and drawn on with quotes from famous literature. There’s even flights of birds made out of the books dangling from the ceiling. To top it off, the bar is called the Jack Rose, which, as they’ll […]

Categories: Happy Hour • Tags: classics, jack rose, john steinbeck, northern california

No Blue or Pink Here – Literary Happy Hour

May 29, 2014 by Caitlin

What to read: The Sleeper and the Spindle by Neil Gaiman (for a new take on an old classic); TheSleeping Beauty by Trina Schart Hyman (for a gorgeously illustrated bedtime story), Anne Rice’s The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty (for erotic and weird), or La Belle au bois dormant by Charles Perault or Little Briar Rose by the Brothers Grimm (for the straight up classics) What to drink: a Stinger Disney has done it again and is releasing yet another live […]

Categories: Happy Hour • Tags: Charles Perault, classics, cocktails, Disney, fairy tales, Neil Gaiman, Sleeping Beauty, Trina Schart Hyman

“My only love sprung from my only hate!” – Film Fest Friday

May 16, 2014 by Caitlin

Romeo + Juliet Movie Release: 1996 Book (play) Release: 1595 Where to watch: Curled up alone on the couch with a blanket, an oversize hoodie and a bunch of tissues. We’re crying through this one. I think it’s been popular to bash it in recent years – heck, maybe always – but at least you’ve heard of it. Maybe you read it in its original glory, or saw a college production of it, or just watched Shakespeare in Love and […]

Categories: Adaptations • Tags: classics, Film Fest Friday, Leonardo DiCaprio, romance, Shakespeare

“Everything Was Beautiful and Nothing Hurt” – Bingo Update

April 10, 2014 by Caitlin

Bingo Square: Read something I’ve been putting off Book: Slaughterhouse-Five, Kurt Vonnegut Embarrassingly, I do not read a lot of literary fiction. If it’s not a graphic novel or an adaptation of a classic fairy tale, my attention span is just pathetic. That does not mean, in my own defense, that I do not appreciate and love the written word. Sure, I’m lazy sometimes, but that doesn’t mean I don’t linger lovingly over a perfect metaphor. Slaughterhouse-Five was put off by […]

Categories: Book Review • Tags: classics, fiction, Kurt Vonnegut, literary bingo, literary fiction

Reread Along: Harriet The Spy

March 11, 2014 by Ladies On The Shelf

Happy birthday, Harriet! The classic children’s novel Harriet The Spy turned 50 this year, and we thought that presented a fantastic opportunity to relive her spy routes and misadventures. We use the word “relive” here in a half-truth, as we’ve discovered our own Erin Cloud has not read this childhood gem! Thus, she gets the wonderful opportunity to read this great piece of fiction for the first time, while Jessi and Caitlin relive the magic of the first time through […]

Categories: Book Review • Tags: children's literature, classics, harriet the spy, rereads