Between the flights and pool-side lounging, I had a lot of reading time crammed into my 4-day vacation to Scottsdale – which was good and timely, considering how large my TBR pile had grown. I ended up bringing 4 books with me, and that number wasn’t greater only because I wanted to leave room in my suitcase for vacation shopping loot. In no particular order …

The Rise of the Unruly Woman by Anne Helen Petersen

I “treated” myself to this, brand new, on Amazon because I love Petersen’s writing. I hesitated between this and her book on classic Hollywood scandals; the latter is my reading catnip, but also well-known territory for me at this point. I was intrigued to read Petersen’s take on some of the “unruly” women profiled in this book, and I’m glad it was my ultimate choice.

Each chapter is devoted to a famous woman who personifies some aspect of “unruliness” that’s challenging current social/cultural norms. I strongly identified with Petersen’s intro where she talks about herself and how she **. I enjoyed every single chapter but my faves where probably the ones on Serena Williams (too strong), Melissa McCarthy (too fat), and Lena Dunham (too naked) – though Lena is problematic in other ways, which I wish Petersen had a chance to address.

Heavier than Heaven by Charles R. Cross

Although I am on the cusp of being a Millenial, I have always considered myself a Gen-Xer. (Growing up in a Communist country, we were about 10 years behind on pop culture stuff until the early 90s, so this actually tracks; I remember watching Dallas one year, and then Twin Peaks the next.) By the time I had moved to the West, I missed the peak of the grunge movement, but still got to experience its tailwinds. Which is by way of saying that I feel oddly nostalgic about a decade that straddles my least favourite time of life: my early to mid teenage years.

I was super into Pearl Jam back in the day, and am still not a big fan of Nirvana; nevertheless, I enjoyed a documentary on Kurt Cobain that I happened to catch on TV a few months ago, so I thought this book would be an interesting follow-up. Actually, I was more interested in reading about Courtney Love than Cobain, to be honest, but I figured the book would have something to say about her as well. It does, but it left me wanting to read more about her specifically. As far as Cobain, my takeaway is that in addition to being a talented artist (still not a fan of the music but I can appreciate its significance), he was also a deeply troubled person. Also kinda weird. I am deeply interested in people’s weirdness – I think as an antidote to the hyper-sanitized version of reality presented by IG – so I found the book engrossing as a window into that.

The Loves of Charles II by Jean Plaidy

I’m pretty sure I’ve written about Plaidy before, but she is one of my favourite old-school historical (romance) novelists. I put the “romance” in brackets because while her books inevitably feature romantic plots, they are definitely of the PG-13 variety; also, the stories are centered around various historical figures – with varying degrees of artistic license being called upon in service of the narrative – so they generally don’t fall into the happy-ever-after category. I grew up with Plaidy’s books, so I find them comforting to read. For what it’s worth, I think she is a better (and more historically accurate) writer than, say, Phillipa Gregory – but we are talking the same genre here.

Anyway, this was a collection of several 3 separate novels, all of them about Charles II and his various paramours. Charles II is one of my favourite English monarchs because, though he doesn’t have a reputation as a strong kind, he knew how to have fun and wasn’t a massive prig (relatively speaking). Plaidy writes him as a very sympathetic character, but approaches the women in his life – even the controversial Barbara Palmer – with equal sympathy. The book has made me want to dig up Plaidy’s other novels, particular on the Stuart monarchs. Mary and Anne are often overlooked queens, and I want to read more about them. I did re-read Antonia Fraser’s biography of Charles, which I recommend if you want a more scholarly view of his reign.

What have you been reading lately?

If you’re following my IG Stories, you’ll know that I have been thrifting a ton of books lately. I sometimes go through phases in terms of the focus of my thrifting, and I am now in an accessories-and-books phase. It probably has to do with the fact that I’m much more picky about my clothes that I used to be; books, on the other hand? You can never have too many!

When I was growing up, back in the Old Country, my grandparents lived in an apartment on a floor of a house which had once belonged to a famous writer or some other well-off member of the bourgeoisie. Compared to the Communist apartment block where I lived with my parents, this place might as well have been Versailles. It even had what, at one time, had been a servants’ stairs/entrance separate from the main one; after the house had been chopped up into smaller apartments, the latter was essentially closed up, and everyone used the former – which, come to think of it, was a kind of metaphor for communism. Anyway, in my eyes, my grandparents’ apartment was everything I wanted to have/be when I grew up. One of the things it had was a small home library; a couple of large, floor-to-ceiling bookcases, jam-packed with all sorts of books – fiction, non-fiction, poetry, plays. As an only child (and grandchild), I spent much of my time reading through that entire library, even though most of it was probably too “adult” for my age, and those are some of my best childhood memories. All of which is to say – I have always wanted my own home library, and to be able to give my kids access to the same experiences I had. It’s too long of an explanation to give every time someone asks me why I don’t just get ebooks (or visit the public library), but I figured this was as good a place as any to write it all out.

Moving on, I have been on a House of Windsor kick lately, and it’s got nothing to do with the Prince Harry-Meghan Markle wedding. Nothing against those two; I wish them all the best, but I’m not as invested in the hoopla as tabloids and the media seem to think I ought to be. I caught a documentary about the Royal family on Netflix a while ago, and it made me want to read up on the post-Victoria era. Previously, I had read biographies of Edward VII, Elizabeth II, Lord Snowdon, and the Duchess of Windsor. Thanks to Goodwill, I got my hands on a biography of George VII by Sarah Bradford, as well as Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother by Ingrid Seward.

Both are very good, though different in tone/approach. Bradford’s book is a very typical biography – well researched and written, not too scholarly in tone, but also not very gossipy. It is, perhaps not surprisingly, sympathetic to Bertie/George. Some historians seem to take the view that he wasn’t very promising king material, or a particularly strong or inspiring monarch, while others take the view that he did as well as anyone could have expected, given the difficult circumstances that were largely thrust upon him. This books falls in the second camp.

The Last Edwardian Lady was written while the Queen Mother was still alive, and it’s not a traditional biography. Narrated in a non-linear fashion, it focuses on various key periods of Elizabeth’s life; the tone is light and gossipy, but in a respectful way – not unlike that of, say, Hello magazine. The most scandalous detail might be that she enjoyed a strong tipple every day, which I feel is the sort of thing that was always part of her public persona as the Queen Mother – fun, jolly, no-nonsense. She was those things, but also more – the proverbial iron fist wrapped in a velvet glove. Contrary to the public perception from her latter years, she had been a very popular, much sought after, debutante; I thought this was interesting given the fact that she and Wallis Simpson are often juxtaposed as different archetypes – in truth, Elizabeth had a bit of the femme fatale in her as well.

Leaving aside the Windsors, I also read Spinster by Katie Bolick. It’s a somewhat difficult book to describe, but I would say that it’s about Bolick’s decision not to marry (and the women who influenced her in making that choice) and the place and role of spinsters in our society. While I have obviously made a different choice in my own life, I found the book very interesting – I can certainly understand why someone would choose differently, and Bolick’s writing is very enjoyable regardless. Her “influencers” include Edna St. Vincent Millay, with whom I was similarly obsessed in my 20s, and Edith Wharton, who is one of my favourite authors, along with other women who were not familiar names for me, but whom I am happy to have discovered through this book. I am not sure if this classifies as a “feminist” book necessarily, but I would definitely recommend it if you are interested in reading about strong women who did not comply with society’s expectations. FWIW, I recently saw it on sale at Chapters for $8.

And that concludes another round-up of my recent reads. Your turn: tell me what you’ve been reading lately.

Since being back from vacation, I’ve made a concerted effort to carve some reading time out of my busy crafting schedule. Having a bunch of personal projects on the go is one of my favourite ways to self-care (I like to relax by keeping my hands busy), but I am definitely in the position now of having too many projects and too little (me) time. It’s a good problem to have, though, because it means that I constantly have something fun lined up – even if it’s only for half an hour, here and there. That, right there, is the definition of contentment. But I digress. I have been trying to keep up with my ever-growing To Be Read pile, but I haven’t made a huge dent in it.

I did read Greek Fire: The Story of Maria Callas and Aristotle Onassis by Nicholas Gage, a recent thrift find. (Side note: if you are interested in seeing my thrift hauls, including books, follow me on Instagram; I have started posting those regularly in my Stories.) Needless to say, it was the kind of light, gossipy, celebrity biography that I would call my “reading candy”; fun to read, light on substance. This one delivered all kinds of gossip, including stuff that veered into TMI territory (like the story about Maria and her figure-transforming tapeworm – don’t read that part if you’re eating, you have been warned). If you like to read Vanity Fair articles about the rich and famous, as I do, you would probably enjoy this book.

I also read Iris Apfel: Accidental Icon. “Read” may be the wrong word. Iris is best approached as a coffee table book with words. It gives you a taste of Iris’ personality and her aesthetic, with short nuggets of personal history interspersed through the photos. Given the glimpses of her life we get in those brief interludes, I would have enjoyed a proper memoir; Iris is clearly an interesting woman, who has lived an interesting life. I don’t think the book does her justice in that sense. I would say it serves more as a companion piece to the Iris documentary and her “Rara Avis” museum exhibition. With that said, from that perspective, there should have been more photos and fewer stories included. Some of the writing certainly read as filler to me; at the same time, there were some bon mots that I really appreciated. I paid full cover price for the book, and I’m not sure if it was really worth it. The book quality is great, but it will eventually hit the discount table so … YMMV.