Carol's Comments November 2025

 

Carol’s Comments November 2025

Hello Everyone! Welcome to another issue of Carol’s Comments. Over the last few months, I decided to revisit my favorite literary genres in recently published books along with reading an old favorite from a new perspective.

 

I love historical fiction especially novels set in 20^th century England between World War I and World War II. After discovering a very positive review in The New York Times about Johanna Miller’s new novel The Eights, I knew I found the perfect book for me. Unfortunately, the library had ordered only six copies and all were checked out. So meanwhile I had to read Miller’s novel as a Kindle e-book instead until the hardcover became available.

Set in 1920 at Oxford University, Miller’s book centers on four young women students; the first women to ever enroll at the University in 1,000 years. These four women all move into Corridor Room 8 and soon become good friends. Marianne, Ottoline (aka Otto), Beatrice and Dora each want to excel at Oxford but each harbor hidden secrets from their personal experiences during The Great War.

For instance, Dora lost both her brother and fiancé in World War I and now wants to take their place at Oxford and earn a degree. Ottoline hopes to erase the graphic and horrible memories she witnessed while serving as an ambulance driver and nurse in London and longs to return to her former carefree socialite lifestyle while living at Oxford. Marianne, a vicar’s daughter wants to hide a terrible wartime experience by beginning a new life at the university. Finally Beatrice, the daughter of a famous suffragist yearns to create her own identity and purpose at Oxford.

Miller’s novel also features many real historical figures in the storyline including peace activist Vera Brittain which makes the book more realistic and relatable. Miller also includes a glossary, key dates section and bibliography that helps the reader understand Oxford’s and Great Britain’s transition into the modern world. Ultimately, The Eights is an excellent and well researched fiction companion to Vera Brittain’s Testament of Youth. I highly recommend it to all readers especially those who love modern historical fiction.

 

I’ve loved artist Maira Kalman ever since I saw one of her fanciful illustrations on the March 18, 2018 cover of The New Yorker. I usually don’t buy many hardcover books for my personal library but I couldn’t resist purchasing the charming little cookbook Cake and The Autobiography of Alice B Toklas which both featured her delightful drawings. I later reviewed both books for my blog in 2018 and 2020 respectively.

While browsing my Kindle app a few months ago, I spotted Maira Kalman’s newest book Women Holding Things. Since the St Joseph County Public Library only owned a copy in e-book, I quickly bought a hardcover edition on Amazon.

Kalman’s eclectic book features a collection of 80 imaginative drawings that depict women holding simple everyday objects with a short caption underneath or near it. I especially liked that the artist included famous people like Gertrude Stein, Virginia Woolf, Hortense Cezanne and Sally Hemmings because their captions had a very ironic and clever tone.

Kalman also prominently features whimsical illustrations of her own immediate and extended family especially her grandmother, parents, husband, children along with her aunts, uncles and cousins. Her detailed descriptions of their relationship to her and to themselves can be quite loving and comical yet brutally honest and sarcastic at times.

I highly recommend Women Holding Things to all modern art lovers and readers interested in women’s studies.

 

While watching CBS Sunday Morning on October 12, the program announced that Diane Keaton had died the day before on October 11 at age 79. Keaton’s untimely death shocked and saddened me very much. I admired her unconventional style and independent spirit the first time I watched her Oscar winning performance in 1977’s Annie Hall. She has been my role model for almost 50 years.

I knew immediately that I wanted to honor Diane Keaton cinematically by watching as many of her movies for free on my current streaming subscription services.  After quite an exhaustive search, I found four of her classic comedies- three with Woody Allen- on a seven-day free trial through MGM+ on Prime Video. I decided to watch them in chronological order starting first with 1975’s Love and Death, 1977’s Annie Hall, 1979’s Manhattan and ending with Baby Boom directed by Nancy Meyers in 1987. These films especially Annie Hall brought back many happy memories of seeing the movies for the first time at the movie theater with my friends. They truly captured Keaton’s quirky and offbeat humor.

After my movie marathon that Sunday, I also decided to re-read and re-review Keaton’s memoir Then Again. I quickly checked the St. Joseph County Public Library’s web site to see if it still owned a copy. Miraculously, the Main library downtown still had one copy. I quickly put a hold on it. Two days later, I received an email that the book was ready for pickup, I rushed immediately to the River Park Branch to check it out.

I first reviewed Then Again for my blog when it was originally published in 2011. Re-reading it fourteen years later, I approached it with an entirely different viewpoint. I realized that the book contained nuances not found in traditional memoirs. Diane Keaton’s memoir does extensively chronicle her remarkable and eclectic acting career and frankly describes her romantic relationships with Woody Allen, Al Pacino and Warren Beatty. More importantly, Then Again is a very loving and poignant tribute to her mother Dorothy Keaton Hall who died of Alzheimer’s disease on September 18, 2008. I highly recommend Then Again to all readers especially Diane Keaton fans.

After considerable thought, I’ve decided to put my blog on indefinite hiatus. I might publish an occasional issue recommending some unique and thought-provoking books and movies that I think my readers might enjoy.

I’m very glad I’ve written Carol’s Comments for 14 years and posted 51 issues mainly due to the continued encouragement and support of my loyal readers. I’m also happy to know that my blog has inspired many of my younger readers to write and create their own online publications and web sites.

The books and movies reviewed in this blog can be found at most local public libraries. My readers in St Joseph County, Indiana can visit the Saint Joseph County Public Library’s web site at sjcpl.org for additional information. Enjoy the upcoming holidays! Thanks for reading! See you all next time.

 

Carol's Comments June 2025

 

Carol’s Comments June 2025

 

Hello Everyone! Welcome to another new issue of Carol’s Comments. My blog has reached a milestone this year. This issue will be its 50^th posting. To celebrate, I've decided to write a film and literary tribute to three of my favorite authors, actors and literary characters, specifically Stanley Tucci, Dame Maggie Smith and Cassandra Austen, Jane Austen’s older sister.

 

I adore Stanley Tucci’s movies, especially the lighthearted ones like The Devil Wears Prada and Julie and Julia. My most favorite is the 1996 independent film Big Night. Co-produced, directed and written by Tucci, he also co-stars with Tony Shalhoub as Italian brothers Secondo and Primo who own a small struggling restaurant in 1950s New Jersey. Facing bankruptcy and imminent closure, the brothers hope a special dinner for singer Louis Prima will save their business. Unfortunately, the singer never arrives. Fortunately for the viewer, what makes this fun movie memorable is the special multi-course traditional Italian feast the brothers for their friends. Also starring Allison Janney, Minnie Driver and Isabella Rossellini as Tucci’s and Shalhoub’s girlfriends and love interests, Big Night ranks as one of the best food -oriented films of all time. I highly recommend it.

After watching CNN’s 2021 documentary travelogue series Stanley Tucci; Searching For Italy for the third time with a Max trial subscription on Amazon Prime last winter, I realized I had never read Taste, Tucci’s bestselling memoir also published in 2021.

Subtitled My Life Through Food, Tucci’s engaging and detailed memoir extensively chronicles how food and cooking played a pivotal role in his life from childhood to the present day.

The book contains many scrumptious recipes especially those lovingly prepared by his mother in the family’s Westchester. New York home. For instance, the recipes range from simple dishes like Pasta Aglio e Olio (Pasta with Garlic Oil) to more elaborate fare like Timpano only served at Christmas and also prominently featured in the movie Big Night. These recipes and many more are scattered each chapter for the reader to savor and make for themselves.

More importantly, Tucci’s memoir vividly recounts his successful battle with oral cancer which could have robbed him not only of his life but his sense of taste and smell forever. I highly recommend this clever and poignant book to food enthusiasts and movie lovers alike. Bon Appetit!

 

Late last fall while browsing through The New York Times Book Review, I spotted a positive review announcing that Stanley Tucci would be publishing a follow-up memoir to Taste entitled What I Ate In One Year.

Written in diary format, the book begins on January 2, 2023 and not only notes the food that Tucci ate throughout the year but also focuses on making the Oscar winning film Conclave where he played Cardinal Bellini.

I especially enjoyed reading about the culinary adventures he shared with his fellow castmates while shooting the movie. For instance, I thought the most unusual meal he ate with Isabella Rossellini and John Lithgow was eating Duck a la l’orange prepared by singing Carmelite nuns at a convent-turned restaurant regularly frequented by Ingrid Bergman, Rossellini’s mother.

Filled with many fascinating film and food anecdotes along with mouthwatering family recipes, What I Ate in One Year is the perfect companion to Taste. I loved it so much I read it in six days!

 

Late last September, I read in the New York Times that Dame Maggie Smith had died on September 27, 2024 at age 89. I wanted to honor her with a film tribute because her role as Dowager Countess Violet Crawley in Downton Abbey had brought much joy and happiness to my life. Using streaming services I subscribed to (mainly Amazon Prime Video and Netflix) and Turner Classic Movies, I watched seven of her most notable movies: Downton Abbey, Downton Abbey: A New Era, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, A Room With a View, Gosford Park, Young Cassidy and my favorite, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie which won her a Best Actress Oscar award in 1970.

The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie was the most difficult film to find. I didn’t get to see it until Turner Classic Movies aired it during their Maggie Smith movie salute two months after her death. I didn’t know if it would be available later on Xfinity On Demand due to film broadcast restriction rights so I set my alarm clock early and enjoyed a 6 a.m. breakfast viewing of one of Maggie Smith’s brilliant film performances.

After watching The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, I realized I had never read Muriel Spark’s original novel published in 1962. Fortunately, the St. Joseph County Public Library owned a copy, so I quickly checked it out.

Spark’s short novel set at the Marcia Blaine School for Girls in 1930s Edinburgh, Scotland gives a more impressionistic look at how Miss Brodie’s free-thinking and unorthodox ideas profoundly influenced the young girls in the “Brodie Set.”

I think the 1969 film’s adapted screenplay written Jay Presson Allen better depicts how Miss Brodie’s unconventional views strongly controlled her students’ behavior in a very provocative and tragically sensational and destructive way. Allen’s screenplay achieves this by dramatically changing the fates of three of Miss Brodie’s favorite students:  Sandy, Jenny and especially Mary McGregor. I recommend that readers skip Spark’s novel and watch the classic 1969 film whenever it becomes available. 

 

After waiting nearly 18 months, the Miss Austen miniseries finally premiered on PBS Masterpiece May 4. Set in 1840, Keeley Hawes stars as Cassandra Austen who travels to Kintbury not only to help young Isabella Fowle transition to a new life after her father’s death but also to locate incriminating letters that her younger sister Jane Austen wrote to friends and relatives and destroy them to protect her beloved sister’s literary legacy.

Andrea Gibbs’ marvelous screenplay seamlessly blends Cassandra’s current present with her past while reading Jane’s letters. This cinematic flashback technique makes the plot less confusing and complicated than it was in Gill Hornby’s novel.

In the flashback sequences, I especially enjoyed Symnove Karlson’s energetic and feisty portrayal of young Cassie Austen. For instance, after tragically losing her fiancé Tom Fowle in an ill-fated accident, she vows never to marry anyone else. Despite her obviously strong attraction to Henry Hobday, played by Max Irons, actor Jeremy Irons’ son, Cassie vehemently rejects his marriage proposal and devotes her life entirely to her younger sister Jane even after her untimely death in 1817.

I highly recommend the Miss Austen miniseries to all Jane Austen fans as well as incurable romantics like me.

The books and movies reviewed in this blog can be found at most local public libraries. My readers in St. Joseph County, Indiana can visit the St. Joseph County Public Library’s website at https://sjcpl.org/ for additional information. Thanks for reading! Enjoy summer! See you all next time.